That thing you didn’t know you needed today? This is it. 🙂
Hugs,
M&M
Tag Archives: hugs
Happy Canada Day!!
Happy Canada Day folks … to all of those born here, and to all those who have found their way to our shores. Remember to hug the ones you love today. Or a stranger. Or, preferably, both!!
Hugs,
M&M
P.S. A shout-out today to our wonderful friend Glennis, who wrote this beautiful poem back in 2019: Free Hugs
P.S. II, the sequel – a reminder that next Saturday (July 6, 2024) is International Free Hugs Day! Let your hugging inhibitions go and embrace the love!!
Happy Father’s Day!!
Hi Folks:
All of Marcia and Mike’s parents are gone now, but we have two sons and a son-in-law and five beautiful grandchildren. We are Grandy and Grandalf! 🧙♀️&🧙♂️
As with those who are moms, Happy Father’s Day today to all of the strong, loving men who are fathers, to those who are chosen dads, surrogate dads, step-dads, adoptive dads, and to the women who are also dads.
Special thanks to all those who love and support them.
Hugs,
M&M
P.S. For anyone who’s interested in knowing how the spherical pattern was made, click here:
Father’s Day Hugs (behind the scenes)
Father’s Day Hugs (behind the scenes)
Hi Folks:
This is a short post that covers a bit of what went into making our latest chalk art drawing, for those who might be interested…
To start with, credit and thanks to @the.world.of._drawing on Instagram for the design! Much appreciated.
Now, if only sidewalks came with grid squares we would have been all set. Unfortunately, they typically don’t. So, in order to create the design in sidewalk chalk, we had to get a little inventive. The first step was to create the pattern in CorelDraw, like this:
The second phase was to take that pattern and cut it into 12 pieces. Each section is contained with an 8″x10″ rectangle so as to fit on a sheet of letter-sized paper. An X-Acto knife was used to cut out the red lines in the paper, leaving gaps at the junctions to hold the template together. 
The next step was to assemble the cut-out pages of the template into three strips of four images, using painter tape to hold them together:
These strips were reassembled on the sidewalk, and a piece of white chalk was used to transfer the cutout lines to the sidewalk. After that, coloured chalk was used to complete the pattern. The final result looks like this:That’s it!
Hug someone you love today. Or a stranger. Or, preferably, both!
Hugs,
M&M
Happy Mother’s Day!!
Happy Mother’s Day to all of the world’s Mothers and to all those who fulfill the role … step-mothers, chosen mothers, adoptive mothers, surrogate mothers, soon-to-be mothers, grandmothers, sisters, aunts, cousins, brothers, uncles, dads and more. And let us not forget the Earth, the great Mother of us all. 🌏
Remember to hug someone you love today. Or a stranger. Or, preferably, both!!
Hugs,
M&M
P.S. As Marcia’s dad used to say, “Remember Father on Mother’s Day“!
Happy Valentine’s Day! 💗
Hi Folks:
Today is Valentine’s Day, an international excuse to be more loving to each other (not that we need one) and a reason to eat good chocolate (not that we need one!) We always think sharing hugs with loved one is a good idea, so we wanted to encourage others to join in the celebration!
NB: While Mike was drawing with chalk, Marcia was scampering around the neighbourhood leaving anonymous valentines in our local Little Library boxes … 🤫
Hugs,
M&M
P.S. We’re in the middle of Random Acts of Kindness week. What are you doing to be kind today? Remember to be kind to yourself as well as others!!
P.S. II, the sequel: Apparently in the 17th century it was customary for young gentlemen to write the name of their betrothed on their shirt cuff for Valentine’s Day – hence wearing one’s heart on one’s sleeve.
The Reindeer Are Coming! The Reindeer Are Coming!!
Mrs. Claus, Krinkles and Twinkles at Hillside Mall
Hi Folks:
On Friday we took Krinkles and Twinkles over to Hillside Mall; a lot of people lose their smiles this time of year and being happy reindeer, they like to help people get their smiles back. So they peek unobtrusively into store windows, skirt around crowds, and wave to pretty much everyone they see. Mostly people smile, sometimes they wave back (and sometimes they don’t and that’s okay too). T&K like to think that maybe they helped pull joy a little closer to the surface.
Yesterday the four of us walked around downtown Victoria and continued spreading cheer. We went through all four levels of the Bay Centre, the Library, Market Square and Centennial Square/City Hall. They got to meet a new friend (a fairy named Joy) and hung out for a bit with old friends at Market Square and the edge of Chinatown. The final stop was Cat’s Coffee and Cakes for a little refreshment. Thirsty work, waving at all those people… 👋
Hugs,
M&M
P.S. It’s quite possible that for at least one person we encountered, a smile and a wave from someone is the best Christmas present they’ll receive this year. For that, we’d like to thank you.
It’s Our Birthday!!
Hi Folks:
Well, it’s now been 14 (!!) years since our blog took its first breath; it continues to be quite the journey! The world is quite different from what it was back at the start of 2020, but we’re slowly finding our way back to each other. As Ram Dass said, “We’re all just walking each other home.”
Our blog has been somewhat quiet this year, but we currently have 697 blog posts and 154 pages on our site. The posts cover poetry, photography tutorials, our hugging adventures (88 countries and counting!) and Free Hugs chalk art (as well as various other musings); our pages include some of Marcia’s stories, some of Mike’s stories and free Adventures of Rainbow Mouse colouring pages to download and enjoy. We’ve shared some wonderful adventures with you through these and are looking forward to sharing more in the future! This blog is our gift to you, our readers, and we very much appreciate having you here with us. Feel free to drop by any time, check out Marcia’s books, download our colouring pages, read our stories, leave a comment or reach out, relax and enjoy yourself. We don’t have any birthday cake that we can share (this is the best we can do: 🎂), but we send you love.
Remember to hug someone you love today, even if it’s just screen to screen. You’ll both feel better for it! 🙅♀️🙅♂️
M&M
P.S. Extra special thanks to our son Nick, who does all of the techie stuff that keeps us afloat!! 🙂
Happy World Postcard Day!!
Hi Folks:
According to the folks at Postcrossing.com, today (October 1, 2023) is World Postcard Day! The theme for this year is, “Sharing Postal Hugs”. We always think sharing hugs with loved one is a good idea, so we wanted to encourage others to join in the celebration!
Send a postcard (and hugs) to those you love today!!
Hugs,
M&M
Penrose Tiling
Hi Folks:
This image shows our most recent Hug Zone chalk art drawing. The idea was independently created by the mathematician Roger Penrose. It’s a form of aperiodic tiling, and the idea has been around for millenia. For more on that, see here: Continue Reading →