Ode to Winter & Family

Time away from the studio is as important for a creative as time spent in the studio. This means that play is a critical. It is necessary. It is important because it protects our energy and fuels our creativity. The inhale that fuels creativity is found in the balance between work and play so we feel alive and inspired.

As the warmer weather slowly melts the snow from the many storms this winter, I’m reminded of the things I love most about our family ski trips. Of course, I love the skiing, it is kind of the key ingredient, after all. I love the exhausted, feel good feeling that comes when you return home after a full day of skiing. Nothing compares to the satisfaction received from energy spent on the mountain. It is the best kind of tired, the kind that makes everything else that day feel 10x better than it does on any ordinary day. Reading a book in the cozy corner chair with the blanket? Heavenly. The chicken parmesan dinner that evening? Devine. Family game night by the fireplace? Magical. Which brings me to something I truly cherish about family ski trips… family game night.

A card game can quickly transport me back to sitting around the round glass table in the dining room of my childhood home where my sister, my mother, and my grandmother would play Kings in the Corner. We shared laughter and stories around that table. It is a quiet, beautiful memory that I welcome with open arms.

I am the mom of boys now, so I would not use the word “quiet” to describe family game nights, but I absolutely love the energy and wouldn’t change it for all the chocolate in the world. An evening filled with tears-in-your-eyes laughter and rip-roaring energy are just as important for a family as those quiet nights watching a movie or roasting marshmallows at the firepit. It’s absolute magic to me. Connecting with each other and embracing the moment when our inner child can meet theirs and creating memories.

I am filled with gratitude for this gift of time with those I love. These are the everyday gifts that are waiting for us to recognize and grab hold of. When you feel genuine gratitude, those gifts are meant to be shared, so I would love to share a card game that our family enjoys.

This game has proven itself as impossible not to laugh at when playing. My hope is that it will find its way to your kitchen table and fill your home with laughter and your heart with love. A new take on the game “Spoons”.

I spent a glorious winter warmed in my studio, like a plant under a cloche, surrounded by blooms with winter looking in at me working. The Cloche Collection is filled with Quiet Blooms and will be available on my website on March 29th.

Number of players: 4+

Skills needed: speed, bluffing, the ability to recognize 4 of a kind, the skill of sticking out your tongue and the self-control not to laugh when someone you love is clueless.

What’s required: One deck of cards…shuffled, of course.

Set up: Choose a dealer however you wish and deal 4 cards face down to each player. The rest of the deck sits face down in front of the dealer.

Goals: To collect 4 of a kind and stick out your tongue. To notice someone has stuck out their tongue and quickly stick out your tongue copying them. To not be the clueless one who sticks out their tongue last and loses.

How to play: Quickly, very quickly, the quicker the better….dealer picks up the top card from the deck, looks at it and decides immediately if they could use it to make 4 of a kind. If not, they put it down to their right so the next person can consider using it and so on. Anyone who wants the card that comes to them must put it in their hand and immediately discard a card to the person to their right. You should only have 4 cards in your hand at any time. The person at the end of the chain creates a trash pile, which the dealer automatically uses (meaning no shuffling) when the original pile has run out.

When someone gets four of a kind, they stick out their tongue, keeping it out while they continue to “play” (that is moving the cards from left to right. This is not a loud event, but a sneaky quiet proclamation of 4 of a kind. Players who notice another player with their tongue out quickly stick out their tongues even if they do not have 4 of a kind. Remember game continues…cards keep passing from left to right until the very last person realizes everyone else has their tongue out and that they are the last person…the clueless one….the one who lost.