Portland: You’re Just My Type

We are spending the holiday weekend bumming around Portland and the Oregon coast. Portlandia jokes aside, there are some pretty awesome things about this town, not the least of which are the vintage signs of current and defunct businesses. So I snagged a few shots to share. Oh, and I had to put one bird on it.
Enjoy.

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Inspiration Thursday I: Beijing, China

In 2008, just following the Olympics, I spent 11 days in Beijing.

While I won’t say it was my favorite trip (I will list why below), I did come across some surprises that I still find visually inspiring. Continue reading

Stomp the Yard

I go crazy for projects. I love them so much, that I tend to do them over and over, or just never finish.

This is a project I can finally say is FINISHED. (For now…ha ha ha.)

We bought our tiny townhouse in 2007, and the yard was pretty useless. It’s 11.5 feet wide by 13 feet deep. (I did say it was tiny.) Did I mention that there’s a sewer grate in the middle? And that the street level is about 6″ above the house level? And that there’s no gate? And the original patio couldn’t fit a table with chairs? All of these things challenged my engineering and design brain, and it’s taken 5 years of trial and error to get it right. Continue reading

Goldilocks and the Three Bowls

One of the constant battles in our marriage is how to fit dishes into the dishwasher.

Seriously, this is a topic of discussion nearly every other day. Do we need to get a life? Maybe.

Continue reading

Buy Buy Baby

I was warned when I was pregnant to keep the toys to a minimum or the house would quickly become a flowing river of crap. With a dearth of space and a single income for a few months, we kept the toy collection at bay.
Continue reading

Happy Caturday

I’m hoping to make my cat BooBoo a regular feature.

So here goes.

Meet BooBoo the Cat. He’s approximately 8 years old and he’s pretty awesome.

He also has a bit of a drinking problem.

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Happy Caturday, y’all!

Toc-Tic Toc-Tic: A Backward Timer Would Do the Trick

I thought I had a million dollar idea, but with a quick little search, I found it already exists (dang!): a kitchen timer that COUNTS UP after the timer goes off.

Kitchen timer that counts up

A timer that reassures you that your cookies aren’t little carbon nuggets.

Continue reading

So Right, and Yet, Sarong. (A Packing Light Tip)

I recently went to Hawaii with my husband, daughter, in-laws and my sister. My sister is an awesome gal and has spent the last several years traveling the world. She basically lives out of a backpack, which is really impressive! Needless to say, she’s picked up some habits along the way that make this lifestyle easier.

Continue reading