Winter Birthday

My birthday was nearly two weeks ago now. I waited to post anything because half of my husband's budget for birthday gifts was being saved for a trip to Ann Arbor (record stores, used book stores, thrifting, and Vault of Midnight). But for the past two weekends the snow has kept us in and we haven't been able to go. Now, it sort of feels like my birthday is over and I'm not sure we'll go before spring for a regular scheduled mini vacation.

Oh well, I did find something I may buy myself to make up for it, and if I do I'll have a whole post dedicated to it!

Here are some pictures from the Birthday-Wintery times!

Frost on the windows

I made some decorations! I didn't have a party or anyone over, so just me and the husband enjoyed the decorations. It really brightened the place up! And, made it festive. Here you can see some paper accordion-flowers and some...I don't know what to call it. I cut up papers and taped it to paper straws!

Here you can see some garlands I made, and also weird vertical garland type things. I was just having fun making festive looking stuff from what I had.

A paper hot air balloon and some colorful origami cranes in the window. I later added papermache light up lanterns, also very colorful.

I opened presents from my husband in the morning while we drank coffee. First up was Abbey Road, Beatles vinyl, which I put on and played for the rest of the morning. And then these set of plates! They match a huge cup and saucer I have. Now I have the whole set. They're so dramatic and bold and wonderful

Delicious, dense, wonderful french toast for my birthday breakfast courtesy of my parents!

After breakfast we went to Barnes and Noble and I got a book that had come out a few days before. It's the last to a series I like (and own). Plus, I had 15% off

Husband got a half day at work and came home with roses and that amazing card you see on the bottom right 'dat ass', and also champagne! 

We went to my parents house. What a lovely display of presents! My dad did the pink and white polka dot one all by himself, including the ribbon. So proud! And, see that framed Japanese doll?

My mom cross stitched her for me! What an adorable birthday keepsake! Her colors are perfect.

Butterflies from the husband

Flowers that were with my presents from my parents. They matched the wrapping and are so springy! 

An amazing coloring book that I can't stop paging through! I also got a huge pack of prismacolor colored pencils, and a special sharpener that sharpens at two different angels.

My big gift from my parents, an pink instax mini8! I love it! 

My brother got me a beautiful bracelet that we saw while shopping for Christmas presents in December. I haven't taken a picture of it. It's marcasite and onyx. After presents, we went to a chinese restaurant we all love but haven't been to in years. We got way too much food and everyone got to take home leftovers. It was amazing, I kind of want some now, actually! When we got back to my parents' house, we had cake, ice cream and played our favorite board game, Cosmic Encounter. I won! It was a goofy game, we were all acting ridiculous. And, I took my first picture with my new camera while playing, it's not a good picture, but it IS, because it's my whole family and it's badly taken. 

On the way home, the night of my birthday, we went to Target and I got this pink PS3 controller as part of my birthday, and the movie bridesmaids (my husband and I love that movie).

The day after my birthday. We were supposed to go to Ann Arbor but we got a huge snow storm. Maybe a foot of snow in a few hours? Husband and I drank the champagne he got me, midday, while watching Bridesmaids then playing a game he got for my birthady. When all of a sudden there were huge fluffy balls of snow falling from the sky outside, the size of a fist, and falling slow. It looked like  a cartoon. so we ran outside. It was too late, just regular snow, but we took a few pictures with my camera.

Sunday's Snowy Day Fun!

I put together the moss terrarium the husband got me for Christmas! It was pretty simple to put together, now if I can keep it alive! I want to get tiny adorable things to put in, like these plastic deer Michael's had over the holidays. I hope to find them again. I also want more terrariums, I'm asking for a book for Christmas!

We got over a foot of snow (and the roads have been just horrendous since Saturday), I got to go for a REAL snowshoe trek! Ugh it was awesome and my heart hurt with the workout only 20 minutes in. Maybe I should go for a walk right now! 

This picture is on a two foot mound by a road, so much float!

The wondrously snowy residential area I walked around in my snowshoes. How I long to be closer to some wooded paths or have a car to take me to the one just a mile away. I would walk but I'm to out of shape to get there in the snow and then snowshoe.

Husband building a camera! I got him a kit for Chrismtas (konstructor), an SLR 35mm camera. Of course I bought film for it, too. But, he hasn't used the camera yet. I think he's waiting for a special time to start using it. It took about 2 hours, I'm so impressed!

All built! And decorated, it came with an array of faux-leather stickers.

I'm not sure what it's called, but it's the type of camera where you look down at a view finder to see the image you take a picture of. Like the antique camera necklace piece my brother got me for Christmas!

Husband called in yesterday for a personal day so he wouldn't have to drive on roads with a foot of snow on them. He had to go in today, though, and things aren't better! The roads are completely covered in ice. Not the only thing, either. Our pipes are frozen! The kitchen trickles cold, the bathroom sink is hot, and we've got nothing for the toilet or shower! I've been trickling water from the kitchen and bathroom sink in all sorts of vases and pitchers to fill the toilet's tank. Husband will buy gallons of water on his way home. Hope the pipes thaw soon! Don't want to go long like this. At least we have power, heat, and the ability to cook!

A Day of Ice

Peculiar girl would have loved it outside today. She would have loved walking in the woods, the trees and every little bit of twigs and stuff covered in ice, like cystals, always with the impending danger of the weight of the ice causing giant branches and whole trees to snap with the force. At any second she could be crushed. There would be a thrill, for her, amidst the silent white of the icy world. 

The Peculiar Girl and Glass

"What the--"

Stay nearly tripped over a box at her front door. Jumping over it she huffed and threw a glare over her shoulder at the stationary brown box neatly taped without a label, sitting perfectly intact on her porch. What the hell was it doing there? She hadn't ordered anything and nobody ever sent her things. Stay didn't know anyone who would.

Someone placed this box here. Someone walked up her front steps and set it down. The item inside given to her with purpose. The person who left it and left knowing what they wanted her to do with it. The whole moment felt surreal as she stared at the box and her throat swelled with the confusion. Stay walked around the box, going back inside to the safety of her home. Sitting down on her entryway rug she stared at the box with the screen door between them.

Stay lost track of time, as she sometimes did, staring at the box. The sun traveled across the sky, rising up and over the house wrapping its warm light like a hug. Only a hazy deep orange ray crept toward the box while the rest sat in cold shadow. Stay didn't touch the box. She got up from her spot, legs sore and aching at the knees from sitting cross legged - she stretched and cracked her spine. With a final glance at the offender, Stay closed the heavy front door and locked it.

* * *

The box lay open on the old wooden table of the kitchen, each flap pulled over and bent to display the object inside which now sat beside it. A glass crane. Not a crane made of glass that was chipped away and polished smooth. A crane made of folded glass pressed carefully as if it started as paper and turned to glass at the makers command. It was the size of a small bowl and heavy enough that it required both hands to lift.

A note inside read "How high is your sky if you only love it from the sea?" written in careful print with a blue fountain pen on handmade paper dotted with bits of seeds and petals. The crane and note sat on the table for days, untouched. Stay tried not to think about what it meant and who had left it for her.

Yet the crane beckoned her. She stroked the smooth folds and pressed her thumb upon the sharp beak. Her porcelain finger clicked gently against the thick, fragile, gleaming glass. The note now placed on the fridge with an old beaten magnet that showed up in the mail over a decade ago as an advertisement, and she set the crane on the kitchen window sill. It glowed with the light of the setting sun, splaying a rainbow across the floor and wall. Blue and green then purple and red.

Each day Stay went to her porch in hopes of finding another strange gift or cryptic letter. Hoping to find a reason or explanation left for the gift that meant so much to her that only her and her mother knew. Who else could possibly know about the cranes her mother folded? Was it coincidence? Could there be such a coincidence so large and meaningful left on her porch in an unmarked box?

Sitting at the table, tapping her fingers on the old grains staring at the crane glowing orange she wondered endlessly, losing hours and forgetting life. Was the crane pointing left? Didn't she put it up with the face pointing to the right? No, that couldn't be possible.

With a huff Stay sat up and began to pace the room. How dare some stranger give her a stupid letter with a crane she couldn't stop thinking about. The crane kept her up thinking of the dreams she had of it swimming on a frozen lake at night, cracking the ice in its wake until it broke off into a million pieces that reflected the sky. making it look like it was broken and the lake had stars. Then the crane became her mother standing on a slab of ice. She walked to the shore stepping onto the little pieces of frozen water, the dark water creeping and lapping over the white ice onto her mothers naked feet as she made her way to Stay.

© Ash Huntley