Introducing "Miss Bunny, Mrs Mouse & Me"

The book my Momma illustrated is all done being printed! We received the first 10 copies via FedEx today.

Here it is, folks. It will still be a few weeks before it is available on Amazon.

This is Miss Bunny.

This is Mrs. Mouse.

And this is Mr. Man. To see more of the illustrations, you'll just have to read the book.

PS: there WILL be pictures of me (Mark) in the next blog post, I promise!

How to make custom Cookie cutters out of a tin can

We made custom cookie cutters today!

This is a great project that uses recycled materials.
Since it was a ton of fun, here are directions so you can, too.
You will need:

- A tin can (we like the large peach cans, since they don't stink like tuna cans do, and they are nice and big...)
- A small hack saw or other very sharp saw
- A small, rough rock (or a file)
- Needle nose plyers
- A pen
- an idea, or a picture of something you want to shape a cookie cutter after



Step 1: Open the can; take out the contents (eat them); open the bottom, too; wash the can; peel off the label.

Step 2: Use the saw to cut the can all the way 'round, using the first groove of the ridged part of the can as a guide. You might as well cut off the other end, too, while you're at it. Each can will yield two cookie cutters. Each cutter will have one dull/rounded edge (from the end) and one sharp edge (where you just cut). The little saw you see in the picture worked just fine. Make sure you clean up the metal dust, as it can scratch your countertop, and hurts if it gets in your eye. Be careful: the freshly cut edge is VERY sharp!



Step 3: Use a small, rough stone to file down the jagged edges of the sharp side of your cutter (this is a lot easier BEFORE you shape it). Be careful not to cut yourself in the process. Remember, you are not trying to SHARPEN the edge, but rather, to dull it a little.



Step 4: Choose an image of which you want to shape the outline with the cookie cutter. Trace the edge, if you want to. I actually just pull it up on the computer screen, then close one eye, and hold the soon-to-be-cookie-cutter in front of it, and start shaping it. It takes a little bit of practise to get the size right.
I read that some people use a string to measure around the traced edge, and resize the image until the circumference of the edge of the image is the same as the circumference of the can. I prefer trial and error, but hey. Whichever you prefer. By request, I made two chinchilla-cookie cutters today.



Step 5: Using the needle nose plyers, carefully bend the can to the shape you want. You may want to start with simple shapes such as hearts, flowers, or cars... making a chinchilla, like we did, takes a little bit of practise.
Tip: first bend the "dull" edge, then the "sharp" edge, since the dull edge is harder to bend. Avoid sharp turns, since this sometimes breaks the dull edge. Also, if you make too small appendages in your shape, the cookie will often break there. Remember, you don't have to make the shape too detailed, since it is, afterall, a cookie cutter... you can always paint more detail in with frosting after baking!



Step 6: Wash the finished cookie cutter in warm soapy water.

Step 7: Make cookies! Paint them, and enjoy! If you are giving the cookie cutters as a gift, you might consider either baking a few "sample" cookies to include with the cutter, or to trace the outline of the cutter as seen here, and then coloring it in. That way the recipient can see how you envisioned the different shapes to "belong"...





Feel free to contact me with questions, or if you would like me to make you a custom cookie cutter... that can definitely be negotiated!

Our shade garden

My Momma and I have been working hard in the garden the last few days, weeding and mulching the flower beds, weeding the freshly grown lawn (by hand, to keep it organic), and of course digging lots of little holes to catch worms and bug friends. Well, to be more specific, I did most of the digging and catching of bugs. There is a hole under the tree that at some point must have been inhabited by a little mouse or something... now it is the perfect hiding spot for potato bugs (pill bugs, the kind that roll into a little ball when you touch them? also called Kellerasseln in German). I like to catch them and put them into my bucket to watch them crawl around.

Anyway, now that most of the plants are growing, my Momma asked me to share some pictures of our back yard. It is the perfect spot: shaded by the bigleaf maple, we have cool, speckled light even in the hottest time of the day. There is plenty of dirt to play in, and my Momma says that around my birthday the grass will be ready for me to play on it! Until then, if I want to be on the grass I have to play in the side yard.

If you aren't interested in gardening, feel free to just enjoy the pictures. My Momma is really happy with how the garden is turning out - we will enjoy our yard for many years to come!



This picture is actually not from our garden, but rather from the forest nearby. My Momma is using the forest as an inspiration for our back yard - a lot of the plants she has planted are native. We have all of the plants you see in this picture - shamrock, solomon's seal, false solomons seal, false lily of the valley, etc. - they aren't growing as profusely yet, but will hopefully spread all over the lower level of the garden to form a lush green foresty carpet in future years. The shamrock in the forest should be going to seed soon, so my Momma will try to collect some, and will spread them generously around the yard.


Enjoy the cool, dappled sunlight that filters through the trees - most of the yard gets 3 or so hours of sun in the morning or in the evening. The rest of the time it is shady, despite facing the South. We planted a lawn with seeds for "deep shade" a few weeks ago. The grass is growing well, and after several hours of hand-weeding, it is looking very lush and green. You might notice the absence of the rain barrels? It was just too much of a hassle. Spring storms made them overflow within about 10 minutes, and they drained so slowly you couldn't attach a sprinkler... between flooding the area around them and lugging the water to other parts of the garden in a watering can, my Momma decided it wasn't worth the bother. She is going to build a river-rock bed to guide the water to the lower garden level, where she will plant some specimen that "like" to have their feet wet in the Springtime. Someone else bought the rain barrels from us for the same price we paid, so nothing was lost.

My Momma planted ferns, hosta, heuchera, and some other plants along the top and the bottom of the boulders. The ferns will probably stay pretty small this first year, but they should be bigger and more profuse in years to come. She is going to leave the fallen leaves on the lower level of the yard in the fall - to create a natural mulchy forest path.


Not sure what this flower is called, but it definitely looks pretty. My Momma bought the two little tubers it grew out of at Winco for $1.99. Note the tiny shamrock blooming at it's foot. We have plenty of that growing in the back yard, and my Momma actually likes it as a forest-y groundcover.


A close-up of the boulders, ferns, grass etc. to enjoy...


Here is the view from the other side of the yard, looking down the length of the boulders.


More of the plants that are now growing in the "upper" flower bed. Most of the flowers are either done blooming (early Spring) or aren't blooming yet. My Momma needs to do some research and then plant some flowers that will bloom in May! Although "green" is certainly a beautiful look, too...


The view of the still pretty sparsely planted bed along the fenceline. There are seveal red osier dogwoods here, plus some "baby" salal (several of them produced flowers and are growing new twigs, a good sign that they will make it! About half of the salal plants brought from Carol's forest-garden made it... salal is tricky that way). About half of the huckleberry cutlings have rooted, and are growing. Not expecting any berries yet this or next year. A few ferns are growing here, and some other plants are spreading from the neighbor's garden, which is just fine with us. There are lots of bluebells and grape hyacinth in this bed, but they are done blooming for this year. In a few years, the beds along the fenceline will have filled in a lot more, and my Momma plans to transplant parts of the perennials from the upper beds into these as they grow.

The red currants are actually carrying berries, although the birds have already began to eat them, so it is unlikely we will have much of a harvest. In the small sunny area along the fence to Lincoln's dog run my Momma also planted a clematis, and a grapevine, along with some zucchinis, strawberries, and some tiny hazelnut shrubs.

Anyway. Come and visit us, so you can see our garden yourself!

Olympic Peninsula vacation

Wow, it HAS been a while since the last blog post! In the meantime, my Momma and Dad's friends Jasmin and Timon visited for 3 weeks, and we had a TON of fun with them! We hiked up to the top of Multnomah falls (sorry, no pictures of that, we were too busy hiking... and my Momma was VERY busy answering all the "why" questions Holden and I could come up with as we hiked! The trip to the top and back down was just shy of 3 miles. We didn't even complain. We had a picnic half-way, and there was LOTS of cool cool stuff to see... We did a lot of other fun stuff with Jasmin and Timon, such as go to the park, go swimming... and for one week my Dad didn't have to work, so we went on a vacation to the Olympic peninsula! My Griffing great-Grandparents live in Sequim, and my Great-Aunty Linda lives there, too. We got to stay with her several days, and enjoyed sunshine and rain, beaches, animals, rain forest, and plenty of good food. We had a special treat right at the beginning of our vacation: Grandma and Grampa Griffing came to Sequim with Uncle Brian to see us! Anyway, enjoy the pictures.


We took an evening walk along the cliffs above the Dungeoness Spit, to see the sunset. The adults were busy talking and ooohing at the beautiful sky... I was happy walking with some of my favorite people, picking up the occasional rock or stick.


I sure like my Uncle Brian...


The next day, after having a delicious breakfast at the 101 Diner with the Griffing Grands, we went on a LONG LONG hike to the lighthouse at the tip of the Dungeoness Spit. The hike from the parking lot to the lighthouse is between 6.5 and 7 miles long. We walked and walked...


...and took a break...


...and walked and walked some more...


...my feet started to get pretty tired, so my Dad showed me on his GPS how far I had already walked all by myself...


...we walked on...


...by now I needed quite a bit of encouragement to keep going. My Dad said he would carry me once I got to 3.5 miles away from the car. We could see the lighthouse in the distance by now.



...and we had a little victory party when I really and truly made it to that distance on my own feet!


...aaaaah.... the delight of a boy who has walked a long long ways, and is about to be carried...
The lighthouse itself was nice, but a little anti-climactic. A couple of whitewashed buildings, with driftwood all around. We had a picnic, and then hiked back up to the car. The way home really wore hard on my Dad... he hadn't carried 40lbs on his back for miles and miles since he was in the Army!

The next day we left Sequim to drive to Forks, WA, to see several of the beaches in that area, and to visit the Hoh rainforest. My Momma had found what looked like a quaint Bed & Breakfast online, called Hoh Humm Ranch. As it turned out, it was more "humm" than anything, and should really more be called "breakfast"... It was a VERY old farm house RIGHT next to the highway, although it did have a beautiful view out the back, of acres of grazing land and the Hoh river. They had Llamas, and cows, and sheep, and goats, and a few domesticated deer, and many many dogs, ALL of which begged incessantly at the breakfast table. The rooms were neither very clean, nor cute or comfortable... but the breakfast really was good. Anyways, once my Momma and Jasmin got past the shock of how different the place was from how it had been described online, we had a good time. When we arrived in Forks, it was raining (as it does most of the year), so we decided to take a walk in the rain forest, saving the beaches for another (hopefully sunny) day.

I had some quality father-son time with my Dad walking through the rainforest. It was FUN! The trees were REALLY HUGE, and there were LOTS of good fishing sticks to choose from.

Oh! And there is Jasmin! She hopped out from behind a tree and scared me!


This, in case you are wondering, is a goblin tree. Do you think I can hop out of my shoes just like the goblin in the Little Bear story?


After about 2.5 miles of walking my feet got pretty tired, so my Dad agreed to carry me for a little bit. He sure is a nice Dada... (on a side note, the other day when my Momma was reading me a story about different jobs people can have when they grow up, and she asked me what I want to be when I'm big. Without hesitation I said "A Dada, just like MY Dada!")

Jasmin and Timon got to hug a few really really big trees! My Momma wishes she had taken more pictures of them.

Dad and I hid behind a tree and then JUMPED out yelling "Rah rah rah rah!" to scare Momma! The second time around, she must have suspected what we were up to, because she caught this great action shot on her camera.

There were many bridges in the rain forest from which I got to fish off of. This is how you fish with a stick: You dangle it into the water, and then call the fish over to you with low "Here, fish, fish, fish!" sounds.

After our walk through the rain forest I was truly exhausted, and I took a good, long nap. My Mah kept me company.


The next day we went to Rialto beach, which is one of my Momma's favorite beaches. That day the waves weren't super big, which was a little disappointing (they still were probably 5-7 feet tall), but the flat, round rocks were fun to roll down the beach like wheels, and to build towers out of. And there was plenty of driftwood for me to climb around on! My Momma took lots of pictures of me in this little hole. This picture is one of my Momma's new favorite pictures of me.


M-A-R-K. That's me.


Dad climbed with me onto the TOP of this huge log! We sat up there for a while, eating pretend hamburgers (consisting of three flat round stones stacked on top of each other).

That afternoon my Dad and I stayed at the Hoh Humm Ranch and napped, while Timon, Jasmin and Katie went to Ruby beach. Supposedly you can find garnets there, but the only part that was "ruby" about that beach was the name. My Momma thought it was stunningly beautiful, nonetheless, with tall sea-stacks and jutting boulders, rolling waves, and emense amounts of driftwood everywhere. She took a lot of really nice pictures, but you'll have to ask her to show you yourself. Since I wasn't there, I decided they don't belong in this blog.

That evening I got to feed the Llamas and the sheep at the ranch. It appears that Llamas do not like carrots. The sheep did, though.

The next day it was time to drive back to Sequim. We spent some more time visiting with my great-grandparents, and with Linda. One of the days we went to the Olympic game farm. This is a safari-style drive-through experience, with MANY animals: llamas, yaks, zebras, prairy dogs, a rhino, many begging sea gulls, bears, lions, wild cats, wolves, bison, various kinds of deer and elk, and a petting zoo.


This bear was fun. He liked to wave at people, and begged for some of the bread we got to toss over to him.


The bison (or buffalo?) were a little more intimidating, since there was no fence between us (in the car) and them. We didn't stop to feed them, but rather kept going at a slow, steady roll. There were quite a few buffalo calves, and the mothers acted protective. With the buffalo were also some deer, quite a few of which were albino.

This handsome elk was lazing in the grass with about 30 females and young bucks. They looked at us as if we were the most boring things in the world, and just kept on munching and snoozing.

Although it was fun to feed the zebras and to see the BIG animals, my favorite part was probably the petting zoo. Right around the time we went into the petting zoo fence, one of the lions started to roar really loudly!


Although the goat didn't seem overly worried, I made sure to tell the goat that everything was ok, that I'd keep him safe from the lion.


I proceeded to explain to him that the lion can't get to him, that he's just being noisy.


Ok? So don't worry, ok?


That evening we went to Sequim Bay to look for some bird bath stones (also known as mud concretions). Some of these stone "bubbles" erode out of the cliff, burst open upon impact, and as long as not too many shells and barnacles have grown on them yet, make wonderful bird baths. My Momma found 3 that will work, but will go back next time to try to find another few that are "just right"... MY highlight from this little outing was turning over rocks to find (and catch!) little crabs! I got pinched a few times, but after the initial fright I thought it was great fun. I caught many many many crabs, which I kept in a clamshell, and then tossed into the water when the shell was full... only to refill it.

The grown-ups all got really excited about the Orca Mother and Baby that were swimming in the bay waters. For nearly 45 minutes the two of them swam and played, disappearing and re-appearing. Jasmin took lots of pictures of them. The rangers (who were doing a routine check) got excited when we pointed the Orcas out to them. They hadn't seen Orcas there in more than 7 years!


Oh, and speaking of sea animals, we also saw a few seals, my Momma can't remember which of the many beaches this was taken at, but here is a picture.

Anyway, we had a wonderful vacation, and a really really good time with Jasmin and Timon... and we miss them and look forward to seeing them again!


Oh! And yesterday my Momma gave me an "Army man" haircut! I think it looks "nicy-nice!"

PS: Thank you Jasmin for letting me use some of the pictures you took!