She goes by so many names and has an impressive resume of skills bordering on magic powers, but the most common title she's known as, is simply: Mom.

She could make bad days go away with cookies and milk. She always knew to cut off the sandwich crusts without us having to ask. She could heal a skinned knee with as much kindness as mending a broken heart. There are a million and one ways she managed to make the day a little better, and she asked for nothing in return.

Even in our selfish times, when we would get angry and say things we didn't mean but would forever regret -- she always held her ground, and never held those regrettable things against us. Because she knew. She was there at one point of her life, and she understood. She taught us what it meant to take the high ground and pick one's battles. She knew the most important lessons we would have to learn for ourselves, and she would always be waiting with a tissue and a hug when the hard lessons were learned. 

Whether we were mighty kings and queens or feeling the weight of the world pressing down on us, she always looked at us the same, always proud. The love of a mother is a profound thing, and we are incredibly blessed to have experienced it in our own unique ways. With any luck, we will pass along this nurturing love to someone else. So this weekend, make sure to celebrate Mom for all the things she's done and the sacrifices she's made. And don't wait for just one part of the year, tell her as many times as you can how amazing she is, and how much you love her. Happy Mother's Day, Mom.   

Jaunty Fine Print: Illustration by Denise Sakaki

Another year older, but none the wiser this old Bird always says come the end of April. I've added yet another candle that gets added to the birthday cake -- no need to get into the gory details, suffice it to say if I actually lit all those candles on a cake, it would be a blazing inferno of doom!

The best gift was one enjoyed over a week ago, when this Bird's family was in town -- a Jaunty mom and her two equally Jaunty sisters. They stayed for a too-short visit that I wish was multiplied many times over, as this Old Bird is also an Odd Bird in the way that I actually enjoy spending time with my family. I don't get to see them as much as I'd like, so having them here is an absolute treat. They've all seen the area several times before, so it was less about being a tourist and more about doing the one thing we all forget to do, even when we are on vacation, which is to truly relax. Do nothing. Seriously -- just do nothing. It's harder than it sounds, but it's sublime when you transition from the nonstop schedule of deadlines and to-do's and just sit for a whole day with your loved ones, drinking coffee, eating baked treats and talking about old stories and the people who inhabit them. You start to feel like you're living in your own life again, and not just observing.

And so this was the birthday gift I doff my J'adore cap to -- just getting away for a few days, even if it was under my own roof. A reminder that you don't need to run away to truly get away. It helps when you have people who will come to you and keep you from slipping back into workaday habits. The best advice I've heard was to never work on your birthday, and while I sadly had to break that rule this year (mine was on a Monday, boo), I feel like I made up for it earlier by unplugging for a few days with loved ones. 


Jaunty Fine Print:  photos by Denise Sakaki

 

Who says Valentine's Day is only for sweethearts? Not this Birdy. The Magpie believes one should celebrate any special person you love with all your heart! Can't a best friend or beloved family member be as much the apple of one's eye? It's only a few days until the big V-Day, which is unfortunately falling on the most un-loved day of the week: Monday. Really, now -- way to break the Mood, Monday.

But there's still time to pick something out for your special someone! I found some Jaunty Valentine gift ideas specifically for friends and family, including one from a very Jaunty Bird, the crafty and sweet Alexandra Hedin - a local lifestyle expert who has an adorable book full of sweet ideas. I used her recipe for peanut butter chocolate squares and made my own Valentine sweets for friends this year. Sometimes the sweetest gifts are the ones made by hand.

Here's the skinny on the Valentine goods: {1} Octopus, 8.5" x 11" limited edition print by Juri Romanov from Green Optimist, {2} Rose dial pink leather strap watch by GUESS from Macys, {3} Gravity's Grasp treasure box from Anthropologie, {4} Double finger sparrow ring by Juicy Couture from Piperlime, {5} Mustache Valentine card kit from Paper Source, {6} Poppy red cashmere rosette scarf by Magaschoni from Bluefly, {7} Entertaining at Home by Alexandra Hedin, {8} Heart lock diary from Tiffany and Co. 


Jaunty Fine Print:  images from shops listed, candy photo by Denise Sakaki

 

I'll be home for Christmas / You can count on me / Please have snow and mistle toe / And presents under the tree / Christmas Eve will find me / Where the lovelight gleams / I'll be home for Christmas / If only in my dreams

It's such a bittersweet song, no? This Bird happily preens her feathers for holiday festivities, but at the heart of things, Christmas has always been about home, and the yearning to return to that imaginary place of romanticized simpler times. I always feel a touch of sadness during the holidays; it's easy to become emotional thinking of the ones you love, and even moreso now that I don't go back to spend it with my family (have you seen the airfare prices? oy!). Even when I was decking the halls with Mom and Dad, I'd get that twinge of nostalgia, start flipping through family albums and remember so many holidays come and gone. It's hard not to get misty-eyed, seeing old childhood memories and times spent with loved ones, trapped in the amber of a Kodak moment.

Recently, my mother mailed me our old tree skirt and multi-pocketed stocking she had sewn many moons ago when I was still leaving cookies and milk out for the sugar-addled Jolly Old Elf. Mom has always been a crafty bird at heart and has been the inspiration for being creative and keeping busy. These projects were two of her most accomplished creations. It was both comforting and a little sad to have these in our Washington home for Christmas. They always symbolized the home of family, of time spent with my parents and a childhood I've always been a little reluctant to fully step away from. To have them in my own home now, as an adult, felt like the official passing of the baton, that it was time to start making new Christmas memories and think about how to build traditions of my own. No pressure, right?? 

Maybe that was why I was a little slow to decorate the house this year. I even dared to consider not putting up the tree (gasp!). Somehow, by putting these items out with the things my mother sent, it would seal the deal of my truly "owning" Christmas from now on. Which is silly, as I've been decorating my home with tons of sparkly tinsel madness for years, but it did feel especially meaningful when I hung that stocking that still has my grade school photo in the frame pocket upon our own fireplace. I wrapped the tree with my mother's tree skirt, little patchwork teddy bears and Christmas trees encircling the design. These items that had always been in my mother's care had been finally passed on, a needleworked destiny fulfilled.

When I looked at the fully decorated house, I realized I had the support group of many years of memories to surround us. Ornaments I can name from childhood on through adulthood, remembering the people who gave them, all hung on the tree. Handmade decorations given to our family that my mom has been steadily mailing to me, one Priority Mailbox at a time like a mobile Hoarders service, finding new corners of our house to adorn. The holiday cards have been steadily flowing in, with printed cards giving way to picture cards of new babies and growing families. I step back to look at everything around me, and I realize, this is it. I am home. The hanging of a favorite ornament, putting up the latest Christmas card that came in the mail, even the smell of baked goods fresh from the oven --  it's all been slowly collecting and building up to a home-spun pastoral of the holiday firmly resided in the mind's eye. It took the process of time and a patchwork stocking from my past to generate all that's best of the Christmas spirit, a surrounding of familiarity and tradition. I really will be home for Christmas this year, returning to the dreams decked in ornaments of the past, with room for more memories to come.

A Jaunty Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.


Jaunty Fine Print:  photo by Denise Sakaki