Flexibility

found

Goal by the new year: middle splits and basically perfect backbend

and yes, this is how I read

xoxo

Portland Love: Pine State

Portland Love is a series in which I take to the streets of Portland, eating at new places, shopping at new shops, smelling old books and doing my best to not get too wet without the use of an umbrella. It's my way of falling in love with this city over and over again while sharing it with you. Enjoy! 

A few mornings before I moved back home, Nicole and I went to Pine State Biscuits. 

I had never been in the time I had lived in Portland and it was definitely on my list of places to try. The real reasons I never made it that way before was 1) I wanted someone to go with and 2) I knew it was a small place and I was sort of intimidated by the close proximity 3) It closes at 2 and during my second time living in Portland I was rarely up and ready to go anywhere by 2pm. Sad, I know.

I don't remember what day we went on, I know it was a weekday though. Going on a weekend will make you cry. I tried once before when I went on a date and the line was really long so we went down the street instead. Nicole and I went on a weekday though, but we managed to find the lunchtime rush. It wasn't tooooo bad, but we did stand outside to wait for a couple of minutes. A couple of cold minutes.

When we made it across the threshold I was stoked to see the way the place we decorated. So cute. So Portland.

We stood in line, glaring at the guy that was sitting by himself at the table for two when there were places for him at the little bar area. We're really cool...

I ordered the same thing Nicole did, but vegetarian style, (mushroom gravy) and we stood to wait. A minute into standing and shuffling around as other people needed things (seriously this place is tiny) a couple offered the other two seats on their table. I thought that was awesome and we accepted. 

We both ordered The Moneyball, a biscuit with an egg over easy on top. I was a tad hesitant because I really didn't know how I would feel about the over easy egg, never had them that way before. 

For the most part it was delicious. If I ever went back I would probably not get the one with the egg on top. I'm still not ready for liquid egg. But it was good none the less and filling.

I saw later that the couple offered the other half of the table because that is requested of them. I'm not sure I really know of another place like that. Maybe Pizza Port in San Diego, but that's more of a sitting on long long benches kind of thing where this is actually about sharing small tables. I didn't mind it. 

We gave half our table (once the couple left) to a group of four and quickly moved our plates to let the rest sit down after.

I have to say, if you eat here don't plan on doing anything but napping or lazing around for a while. Like hours. Nicole and I went home and took a long, long nap after we ate that. We were useless.

Pine State Biscuits

3640 SE Belmont Street

Portland, OR

&

2204 NE Alberta

Portland, OR

xoxo

New Pet

I never wanted a bird... until this video. I want the owl that the person is petting. SO CUTE!!!

Portland Love: The Waffle Window

Portland Love is a series in which I take to the streets of Portland, eating at new places, shopping at new shops, smelling old books and doing my best to not get too wet without the use of an umbrella. It's my way of falling in love with this city over and over again while sharing it with you. Enjoy! 

Oh let me count the ways and reasons I love, love, love the waffle window. 

- they use in season fruits for the dessert waffles...

- there are dessert waffles and savory waffles

- there are tables to sit at outside AND inside

- so delicious

they took this away after a problem with bees during the warmer months...

The Waffle Window is connected to Bread and Ink cafe, somewhere I have not eaten but looks cute (the inside tables are actually Bread and Ink's tables). You walk up to the little window, look at the current menu (they change with what is in season food wise) and order away.

The first time I went to the waffle window I decided on something with raspberry and I think lemon curd. Not 100% sure anymore but oh my gosh it was heavenly. It has the perfect mix of tart and sweet which is a weakness of mine.

The second time I got another berry waffle, this time with blueberries and lemon curd I think and the last time I really don't remember... oh yes I do... it was the Blueberry Cheesecake. So rich, so delicious. Every time was delicious and I HIGHLY recommend it if you are ever on Hawthorne. So good.

Make me miss Portland.

(But it's sunny and warmer here so I'm going to figure out how to make my own waffles like this and be happy where I am!)

The Waffle Window

3610 SE Hawthorne Blvd

Portland, OR 97214

off the corner of 36th (south side of 36th)

xoxo

If you have a place you want me to check out feel free to leave me a comment or email me! 

Holidays

Well, this year I did it, I started feeling the Holiday spirit. For the past several years it has been a bit hard to find the feeling until like, the day before Christmas or New Years. This year, I took matters into my own hands and attempted some holiday cheer.

First I took my siblings to go get a tree for my mom as a surprise. We set up a place in the living room and went to home depot. We picked the tree, loaded it inside the expedition (so much room) and then drove back home. We realized when we got there that mom was home so we TRIED to play it cool and hoped she didn't see the cleared space in the living room. She went to dinner with a friend and we started bringing the tree in... little bro thought he saw her coming back toward the house so we ran as fast as we could to hide the tree in the office. A lot of laughs and shrieks were had.

Turns out it was a false alarm so we put the tree in the stand, watered it and then sat down to watch Mean Girls until mom came home.

She was surprised and happy. Good start to the Christmas season.

We were all a little tuckered that night so we waited until Friday (yesterday) to decorate it. Lil sis and I made dinner and brownies and then after we all ate we put on Elf and started decorating the tree. 

I love Elf. 

Then after they went to bed I watched The Hills and crocheted. No The Hills has no special connection to Christmas but watching shows and crocheting does.

This morning I woke up and made some french toast with a roll of french bread and we listened to a new Christmas cd mom bought.

So far so good.

On my list of holiday/winter adventures this year:

play in the snow

watch Love Actually

Watch the Chrismukkah episodes of The OC

bake chocolate chip cookies

wrap presents

drink hot cocoa

crochet a lot

read a lot

enjoy the pretty lights all around

What makes you excited for winter and the holiday season?

xoxo

Books of November

In case you haven't read or heard... I completed 52 in 52 this month! Well, I completed 52 books in 47 weeks! And I kept going, I mean, how can you not when there are 5 weeks left?

A great book about a hard time and a woman's decision to not suffer through it.

posted about it here

This was the 52nd book. For some reason I thought I had one more to read while I was in this book but I  finished and recounted and found that I had indeed completed my goal... Incredible.

The book definitely bummed me out a bit. Not quite the story I expected but worth reading.

I picked this up thinking it was one big book for a low, low price. Turns out it was two normal young adult books for the price of 7.99, a couple dollars less than they sell the individual books for. Not sure I understand... but I'm glad I picked it up. 

I'm really stoked on this series. I didn't know what I was getting into when I picked it up, like I said, but oh goodness... I think I read the second book in a night. It has zombies and vampires and werewolves but it's not Twilight. It's so much more tough than that. I love the main character, though I guess she can get whiny at some points, but she doesn't let it stop her. So good.

And then I got into THIS series. I stayed away from it for a long time, it sounded too much like Lord of the Flies and Battle Royale meeting up for a death match. But so many bloggers were recommending it and the trailer for the movie came out (don't worry, I didn't see it before I read them... actually, I still haven't seen it...) and I had to jump in.

I read them in 4 days. The last one I read Thanksgiving night, I got into bed with the book and didn't get up to brush my teeth until I was done.

I'm impressed. Really impressed with this series. I was able to guess some things that happened but I am going to chalk that up to being really perceptive, no fault of the writer. 

If you haven't read them and you like reading, READ THEM. Luckily all of the books are out so you won't be waiting months or years to find out what happened. One good thing about coming into a series late.

I picked this book up because of the cover, the title and my interest in Catholic things. The book was interesting enough to want to read through pretty quickly but not so much that I found any excuse to drop what I was doing to read it (like The Hunger Games). 

:)

Total count: 58/52 

New goal: 60 in 52... 5 books a month!

What did you read this month?

xoxo

The Artist's Way: Week 7

Goals of 12 week program: 

1. Learn to be gentle and positive with and about myself

2. Start habit of morning pages that will carry on for life

3. Break down the liver's (like to live, not liver like thing my generation abuses) block

Week 7: Recovering a Sense of Connection 

This week was all about letting yourself connect to your creativity. It's not something that is forced but drawn out. This week was about risk and not having to be perfect at something the first time you try it. This week also had a section on how to use jealousy as a map to what you want to do and who you would like to be instead of a road block.

My Favorite Quotation:

Trust in yourself. Your perceptions are often far more accurate than you are willing to believe.
- Claudia Black

Sometimes this is a good thing, and sometimes it's horrible. Sometimes your perceptions are negative about situations and people you don't want them to be negative about and so you tell yourself you are overanalyzing and nit-picking when really a feeling that strong is nothing but right. I've been through it so many times and each time I still question it. But this time was the last of debating with myself when something hits my gut in such a way.

Favorite Task:

Create one wonderful smell in your house

I recently bought the Taylor Swift perfume, Wonderstruck. It's delicious. The perfume came with this scented thing and so I hung it in my room and it makes me happy every time I walk in the door.

Check In:

1. Morning pages: 6/7

2. Artist Date: 

I took myself to get my current favorite meal at Boudin's then went to Yardage Town and a quilting shop to start asking questions about my quilt project. Afterwards I took my sewing machine out and taught myself how to thread the needle and the bobbin. I also purchased the PDF version of the original manual so I can learn more stuff.

3. Instances of Synchronicity: 

Not that I know of.

4. Other issues:

Personal matters, struggling with gut feelings versus oversensitivity and insecurity... Not enough quality me time because any time I was alone I was worrying about someone that didn't deserve it. Still don't know what is coming out of the morning pages. May switch to pages before bed. They'll get done then. 

xoxo