Lights to put you in a holiday state of mind

December 20, 2013 by Beth Shepherd

To love beauty is to see light.

~Victor Hugo

Armed with my camera and in the company of ‘Mamas with Cameras,’ I went to Olympic Manor and found myself in a world of lights. Bundled up (it was a COLD night), a dozen mamas strolled through an entire neighborhood of magical homes.

If you’re a lover of all things Christmas, including the best light displays in town, look no further than Ballard’s Olympic Manor. The community creates extravagant displays during the month of December, and many Seattleites make it an annual tradition to walk or drive along the streets (I’ve heard it’s not unusual to see hired limos). In fact Olympic Manor community actually encourages holiday decorations as part of their homeowners association rules.

Some of the homes are outrageously decorated in all their light bulb glory (I couldn’t help but wonder what their electricity bills come to), with larger-than-life-sized inflatable Santas, reindeer and penguins. There are homes with themes (read: LOTS of candycanes or tropical palm trees).

You can start your tour at Northwest 85^th Street and 23rd Avenue Northwest and wind your way around the streets, as you pass mid-century homes. Olympic Manor is a great place to go with family or friends this holiday season or, as I did, hang out with an awesome bunch of camera-toting moms and learn a few new photography tricks (check out my “hearts” light drawing below and can you find the photographer–me–in the red ball!).

Peace on Earth

Take the road less traveled, Beth

On Dasher, on Dancer, on Comet…on Curly. The camel?

December 17, 2013 by Beth Shepherd

In The Night Before Christmas, Santa famously calls out to his reindeer:

More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and call’d them by name:
“Now, Dasher! Now, Dancer! Now, Prancer, and Vixen!
“On, Comet! On, Cupid! On, Donder and Blitzen!

“To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
“Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!”

“Where the reinGEAR?” Baby Bird asked as we pulled into the Swanson’s Nursery parking lot. We were there, after all, to meet Dasher and Blitzen, two of Santa’s reindeer. And, Curly. The camel.

Now I’ve been to Swanson’s countless times. I’m a gardener and walking in and amongst the plants–even if I’m not buying–is one of my favorite things to do. But this was my first visit to Swanson’s during the holiday season when there is sorts of holiday entertainment for kids, whether they are taking a gander at the reindeer and camel, checking out the super cool miniature train, or enjoying a steamed milk at the cafe while watching the enormous koi (some near 20 years old!) swim languidly around the cafe’s ponds.

Swanson’s Reindeer Festival last from November 9 through December 24; it’s three parts holiday fun and one part education. Little signs posted by the pens reveal interesting tidbits about the animals within. For example: Did you know that a camel’s top lip is split into two parts that are used, along with the bottom lip, like dexterous fingers? And did you know that reindeers’ new antlers are covered with ‘velvet’ that eventually gets shed?

We climbed up on bales of hay outside the pens and said our hellos to Dasher, Blitzen and Curly. Camels sure are big, I will say that! On two weekends a third reindeer, Jingle, joined the festivities. We didn’t get to meet him, but word on the Santa highway is that Jingle is tame, friendly and very photogenic. Also, adjacent to the animal pens, there are two sleighs for clambering into and taking photos: one family-sized sleigh and a second smaller kids-only sleigh.

Next we headed to Seasons Cafe to quench our thirst and warm our bellies with chai and steamed milk. Seasons offers a wide selection of drinks, along with sandwiches, quiches, salads, and homemade soups that are prepared fresh daily and may include fresh herbs the cafe grows on site. There is also a generous assortment of baked goods, including several gluten-free options.

After sipping our drinks and gawking at the humongous koi (seriously, a couple of them were almost as big as Baby Bird), we moved on to check out Swanson’s Holiday Express, two model trains that wind their way through a fantasy landscape. The trains travel over mountains, through valleys, past waterfalls and snow-covered log cabins in this delightfully detailed Winter Wonderland. We spotted many whimsical surprises like a merry-go-round, totem poles, vintage cars, and a horse-drawn sleigh. My favorites were the spooky Halloween house corner and the two cars “stuck” in the snow. Baby Bird’s loved seeing the miniature camel, riding on one of the open train cars, as he disappeared and reappeared around corners and through tunnels. And Big Papa liked the entire thing—what boy, young or old, wouldn’t?

Dasher, Blitzen and Curly will be at Swanson’s through Christmas Eve. If you have a chance to stop by for a visit, it’s a great outing for kids (and adults too). As you can see in the photo below, the three of us were pretty excited about seeing so much holiday spirit under one roof.

Take the road less traveled, Beth

Who’s afraid of the big bad…Nutcracker

December 13, 2013 by Beth Shepherd

Who’s afraid of the big, bad…Nutcracker? My daughter, that’s who. But, after a bit of cajoling, she decided to give him a chance.

“The nutcracker sits under the holiday tree, a guardian of childhood stories. Feed him walnuts and he will crack open a tale…”

~Vera Nazarian, The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

Take the road less traveled, Beth

Nutcracker for kids: It’s all about the bed

December 11, 2013 by Beth Shepherd

“Where the bed go?”

“I want to see bed.”

“What happened to bed?”

I’ve seen the Nutcracker countless times, and I must confess that the whereabouts of the bed never crossed my mind. But this was my little sugar plum’s primary concern at the Evergreen City Ballet’s performance. It was her very first Nutcracker experience, and she was enthralled with every little detail. Especially, the bed.

The Evergreen City Ballet’s Nutcracker couldn’t be more kid-friendly. Not only have they created a masterful abbreviated version of the original (read: one hour in length including a brief intermission), they allow the audience entré into the secret world of theater. Before the intermission we find out “How’d they do that?” for a few key stage “tricks,” such as how the snow falls (a folded curtain with slits, filled with faux snow, is shaken back and forth), how the sets are changed for Act II, and how the bed magically moves across the stage (a “bed boy” maneuvers from underneath). Oh, that clever bed!

But wait. There’s more! Evergreen’s show was filled with many delights: portly mice running through the audience, hefting their bellies this way and that, the ethereal sugar plum fairy and her snowflake entourage, mysterious Uncle Drosselmeyer, a gaggle of children and–of course–the handsome Nutcracker and lovely Clara.

“Those crazy boys,” my little one exclaimed with a chuckle.

We are very fortunate in the Pacific Northwest to have a rich Nutcracker history, as anyone who has attended Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Nutcracker will attest (sets designed by Maurice Sendak, aka Where the Wild Things Are). Whenever I’ve been able to go, PNB’s Nutcracker is an absolute delight.

So I was wondering if Evergreen City Ballet would be able to adapt E.T.A. Hoffman’s story and Tchaikovsky’s musical score, and make the story believable without feeling clipped during the one-hour performance. And they did! The essence of Nutcracker was all there: the wonder, the music, the dancing, and the magic.

After the performance, some of the dancers come out into the lobby in costume. Little ones posed with real ballerinas, but my little one shied away when Uncle Drosselmeyer came near. However she loved touching the tulle skirts and bejeweled leotards.

Although the shortened version is over, there are still shows in Auburn and Renton with tickets available! Visit their website at: http://evergreencityballet.org. Evergreen Ballet’s Nutcracker is the perfect introduction for little sugar plums.

Take the road less traveled, Beth

And a heartfelt thank you to Wendy and James Kirchner (“Aunt Wendy” and “Uncle Jamie”) for sharing Evergreen City Ballet with Baby Bird and with us. The evening was a huge treat for all.

An Orphan’s Thanksgiving

November 28, 2013 by Beth Shepherd

For many years I spent Thanksgiving solo. After I graduated from high school, I left home, went to college, and then moved 3,000 miles away from my family. I spent many-a-Thanksgiving as an “orphan,” wandering from household to household. Here are a few glimpses from some of my more memorable orphan Thanksgivings:

“Kentucky-themed” Thanksgiving: Suffice it to say that most of the dishes contained bourbon. But the turkey—oh that mouth-watering turkey—the best I’d ever had. I talked about that turkey, dreamt about that turkey, for years, until I met Big Papa and we made it ourselves: brined turkey smoked on wood chips and glazed with maple syrup. In my (very biased) opinion, there is no finer way to cook your bird.

Gourmand Thanksgiving: How can you go wrong when your two hosts are chefs? Hand-made knotted dinner rolls that melt in your mouth, every dish cooked to perfection, each course perfectly paired with something to imbibe. It was like I had died and gone to Thanksgiving heaven.

Vegetarian Potluck Thanksgiving: My hosts did not eat meat. Nor did they want meat cooking in their oven. One of the guests—who could not envision Thanksgiving without turkey—cooked and carved a turkey, and brought it over for dinner. I believe I remember some discussion about whether it could be reheated in the oven, and I do not recall how that debated ended. But in the end, those of us who ate meat had our bird.

The family-who-were-thankfully-not-my-family Thanksgiving: I had Thanksgiving at a friend’s house. She was married. They were well off, and their home had an amazing view. Her tony and well-coiffed mother was visiting from California. Our meal was elegant and delicious. There may have been other guests. I do not recall. What I do remember were the heated arguments between my host and her husband…all evening long. They are no longer married.

Hollywood Thanksgiving: One year, I was dating a guy who worked in the film industry. He was filming a major movie in California, and I flew to visit him on several occasions. One of those occasions was Thanksgiving. We headed to a remote mountaintop near Santa Cruz to have dinner with the family of one of his film-industry friends. If I remember correctly, our host was the friend’s uncle and a movie producer. Both the friend’s mother and grandmother attended. When we arrived the air was filled with a haze of pot-smoke. The hosts were all stoned, and the friend’s mom forgot to put the turkey in the oven. We sat around a large table and people passed a pipe around. Everyone took a hit, except me. Everyone. Including grandma. Grandma regaled us with stories of the days when she lived in San Jose and took her pet Wallabies for walks in the neighborhood. Neither apple nor pumpkin pie was served for dessert. However, pot brownies were.

Wine Country Thanksgiving: Okay, I wasn’t an orphan, but Big Papa and I spent two non-traditional Thanksgivings in the Willamette Valley, wine country. We stayed at a B&B, ate Thanksgiving dinner out a restaurant, and spent the rest of the weekend tasting wine at dozens of regional wineries, many who only open over Thanksgiving weekend. No fuss, no muss and a few caseloads of wine made for a relaxing holiday.

These days, my Thanksgivings look a tad more traditional. Big Papa has cousins who live thirty-minutes south of us. They like us and we like them. For the past two years, we’ve converged for Thanksgiving dinner. Everyone makes a few dishes (I bring Cinnamon-clove ice cream, herbed goat cheese, and a bottle of wine). We sit around, chat, laugh, eat, drink and fawn over Baby Bird, and I feel thankful—so very, very thankful.

Wherever you are spending your holiday, whatever might be on your table, and whoever may be by your side, may you enjoy a day of thankfulness: Happy Thanksgiving!

Take the road less traveled,

Beth

Halloween gets real

November 6, 2013 by Beth Shepherd

Herein lies the true story of what happened last Thursday, on Halloween.

Most kids go trick or treating on Halloween. Our cowgal? Let’s just say she strayed a bit from the proverbial trail.

Our afternoon started out with a trip to Dada’s office.

Halloween festivities were underway.

Our cowgal and Mr. Potato Head checked out the fish in the lobby.

Then we rode the elevator up to the 12th floor to pick up our visitor badges.

After sampling a few M&Ms, Mama Cat and Cowgal were hot to trot.

We passed an alligator. “He wasn’t scarey, was he Mama?”

There were a lot of hallways to explore. “My run away,” exclaimed Cowgal as she took off at a full gallop.

One of the hallways led to the break room, where Cowgal took a break to play games.

Then we passed by some interesting books to read. Caution: future hacker in training.

And wrote some code. Sorry about the permanent marker on your whiteboard, Dada 🙁

After a few rounds of hide ‘n seek.

It was time to walk down the stairs.

And up the stairs.

All good things finally came to an end (following multiple attempts at running through the security scanner).

After all, what would Halloween be without the classic meltdown?

Hold your horses and hand over your candy

October 31, 2013 by Beth Shepherd

It ain’t the clothes that make the cowgirl, it’s the attitude and heart.

~Anonymous

Happy Halloween!

It’s all about the puppets!

October 29, 2013 by Beth Shepherd

CHINGO: Well isn’t that nice…

BILLY: Do you believe it…forget my birthday…and see what I’ll do! Last night I heard them talking and I heard them say they were going to “pretend” to forget my birthday, leave the house, and come back in a few minutes later a yell… SURPRISE!

CHINGO: Oh you’ll never fall for that!

BILLY: I’d never fall for that.

CHINGO: That’s what I said.

BILLY: I bet they are downstairs preparing their plan right now!

CHINGO: Well, let me go see if the Lady is awake.

BILLY: So I’m going to just go along with it and see what happens…

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Halloween is just days away, and I’ve got fantastical costumes on my brain. So when I saw a Facebook post, with a photograph of the wondrous dragon costume made by my friend and puppeteer, Mark Saltzman, I decided to give him a call and chat about all things puppets.

Why puppets?

It all started when I was an actor looking for work. I landed a job working for Disney and Sesame Street where I played “Hugh Mann,” in the live version of Bear in the Big Blue House. Working at Sesame Street, I became fascinated with how puppets were brought to life.

Then someone made me a puppet and that’s where my puppet-making skills started. One day my puppet was damaged, and I got a book to learn how to fix my puppet. After that, I began to make more puppets myself. I had already learned to sew when I was serving in the military as a parachute rigger. If a parachute was damaged, I had to repair it.

Being a puppeteer is like being an actor in that you are bringing something to life, but—unlike acting where the actor does this with his face—the puppeteer relies on his hands. It is amazing to watch a piece of fur come to life complete with emotions. Most puppeteers don’t think of themselves as actors, but they are, because they transfer their emotions with their hands.

Where did the name of your business, Kiwuppet Studios, come from?

My former partner is a native New Zealander so Kiwuppet is a blend of Kiwi and puppet. I lived in New Zealand myself for a couple years and traveled back and forth for about nine years.

What are some of your favorite aspects of making puppets and being a puppeteer?

I call myself a puppet designer, puppeteer, and performer. Being able to look at something and turn it into a puppet is thrilling. People have sent me photographs of a family member, and asked me to make a puppet. They’re not an exact likeness, but they are a pretty good representation.

Who is your favorite puppet and why?

Chingo, a dog I made. Chingo means friend in Korean, which is a nod to my stint in Korea during my military service. I was inspired to make him when I entered an art contest where I had to take something that already existed and turn it into something different. It took seven Costco stuffed white dogs to make Chingo, who is 7-1/2 feet tall if I wear him standing up! He has beautiful eyes and immaculate fur and, for his size, he moves really well. Usually I’m not standing though. I crouch or sit so Chingo looks like he’s sitting pretty or begging.

Aside from puppets you write scripts?

I had ideas in my head when I performed with my puppets. I kept looking for stories to perform with and couldn’t find what I liked, so I wrote a story about a boy and an alien.

Then, when I was living in New Zealand, I wrote one another script about a mermaid. In this story the mermaid is scared of a witch. I try to incorporate a deeper message in the theme of my scripts. The message in the mermaid script is: Don’t judge someone by the way they look– you might imagine someone is a certain way, but it may not be true. I want my scripts to teach the audience something–and–make kids laugh (mom and dad too!).

You also created a portable stage?

Yes. A friend in Seattle, who is an engineer, helped me design it. I wanted something more elaborate than the typical child-sized puppet box with a curtain, so we build an 8x8x8-foot stage complete with lights, a smoke machine, and a sound system. It has an upper and lower level. We took it for a test run and filmed the reaction of the kids and parents, which helped me edit my first script. PVC parts and black velvet fabric are the materials we used, and it all folds up. Home ceilings are are generally around eight feet tall, and I can lower the stage to fit.

Most people have no idea what happens behind the stage. There is so much going on! We are usually running around, and most puppet shows have two of every puppet. If you were behind the stage, you would see puppets being tossed all over the place.

What is the future for Kiwuppet Studios—where would you like to see your business go?

I believe you have to follow your passion in life, and share the skills and gifts you have with other people. For me, that’s the meaning of life. Puppetry is dying art and building puppets is really a dying art. I’d like more people to have an opportunity to experience puppetry.

Every year there is a National Puppetry Conference at Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut. O’Neill donated his home for the betterment of the arts, and puppeteers come from all over the world to teach and attend courses. There are amazing shows for the public. In fact Avenue Q was created at this theater. I just love seeing so many people coming together to say: I have this idea and I want to share my experience. The age range of attendees in huge and they represent a wide range of styles from traditional puppets to marionettes, even Bunraku (Japanese-style puppets). I feel lucky to be able to be a part of this.

Down the road I can see myself making more music videos, like the video I made with Jason Eli. I’d like to do more puppet shows, make more puppets and costumes too. I’ve made some fun Halloween costumes, like the dragon you saw on Facebook. Anything I can manipulate with my hands I’ll make!

Note: Mark Saltzman currently lives in the Grand Rapids area. If you are lucky enough to be in his geographic vicinity, have him perform a puppet show at your next party! He also has connections to Seattle and is still a resident of New Zealand.

Check out Kiwuppet Studios! And to see the puppet Mark made for DJ, producer and mixer, Jason Eli– in action– take a look at this awesome video: