I'm a consumate button pusher. I'm on the verge of getting myself in trouble - since I didn't build this new shopping cart myself, I know just enough to break it really good. I'll have to smack my hand each time I reach and think..."I wonder what would happen if..." I still like this purple.
Looks a little different here, huh? This new color change was the result of a "Well, what do you think that button does?" Pardon the blue for a couple of days - I'll turn it back to purple shortly. Dave just asked what the big sigh was. The good news is that there's now a new shopping cart on my site with all kinds of cool new bells and whistles. Super exciting, and it's going to save me a ton of time. Bad news is that I broke a bunch of other things while I fixed the cart. I guess that's where all the saved time's going to go. Oh well - hey if you see any funkiness on my site, will you let me know?
And even bigger yippee - I'm only visiting instead of participating. So, Portland's Open Studio Tour went on this weekend - and it's going on next weekend too - if you have some free time. It's nice not to be a nervous wreck for a weekend, like I've done in years past. It's fun to go see the artists in their natural habitat (picture buffalo grazing on an open plain). We were able to make it to 2 of my favorite aritsts this weekend...
And Pam Greene:
Her studio is BEYOND cool!
Devera was a true patron of the arts...she was very good at pointing at the pictures instead of mauling them (although I think we gave a weaver a heart attack in her studio). Good old kermit the frog came along on the tour too, and he enjoyed pointing at all the works of art as well. I wonder if Devera will be into arts when she gets older (I wonder if Kermit will too).
Anyway, if you're in town and you're looking for something to do next weekend - grab a tour guide from New Seasons markets and go take a tour. It's a lot of fun.
I've been working behind the scenes for the past couple of weeks putting together my new site...which looks remarkably (exactly) like my old site, but on steroids. And I'm soooooo close to having it finished. I hate going though and making sure my i's are dotted and my t's are crossed - but the devil is in the details. So if you don't see anything witty being posted here, it's because I'm saving my wit for the bigger site (and there's not that much wit to work with in the first place!) When I do taste it - I hope it tastes like chocolate (and not the child labor kind).
How sad is this? I just go this in one of my little tree hugger emails: The scariest thing about Halloween this year won't be the costumes... it's the chocolate. Almost half of the world's cocoa is being produced on West African plantations where, according to the UN's International Labor Organization, 284,000 child laborers "are either involved in hazardous work, unprotected, or have been trafficked." Say no to the chocolate industry's ghoulish links to child slavery by buying Fair Trade and organic chocolate. Say it ain't so!
Certainly not the clean one. It's pretty funny scrolling through the photos of her birthday party. She starts of with a tidy little blue goatee and pencil thin mustache, and as the photos keep going she ends up with a good santa beard.
Just like her mom. Give me a good cupcake and I'll show you how to make a mess.
Yep, it was a large collection of rock dorks all together at the expo center this weekend. It was pretty funny, the expo center the event was held at was also having girlfest and the roller derby going on at the same time. So door A had a bunch of girl scouts streaming through it, door B had a bunch of hipsters dressed in black, door C, though, had a couple people sitting on their walkers out front, so we knew we were in the right spot. Yep, lots of walkers and rascals at that event. And yeah, I spent waaaaay too much money. But I got a lot of good stuff I can't wait to share.
This weekend is the Portland Gem & Mineral show - and I'm all over it! It'll be me and a bunch of 85 year old rock hounds in their walkers and rascals. It's kind of sad...lapidary is really a dying (or at least shrinking) hobby. I guess it doesn't hold a candle to xboxes and myspace. Anyway, my primo primo rock guy's going to be there - so hopefully I'll excercise just a little bit of restraint with the credit card. I'll post photos of the goodies I come back with. Rock dorks unite!
Now that you're four, life is really starting to force responsibility on you, making you begin to work through some tough decisions like "toilet or my pants?," "pet the kitty or bite the kitty?," "Cheerio in my mouth or up my nose?" Thankfully, not all choices are that difficult - take these lovely sky blue Snap Tees for example -all you have to focus on is, "Do I feel like a kitty or a monkey today?" Easy, right?
These shirts are really cute And the site's really well written. There...I've fueled your random surfing for today. Oh, and I go for the cheerio up the nose any day!
So, I was reading my favorite site today, and I feel better dishing out that awful lot of money for organic milk. It's has finally been proven--organic milk really is healthier. It looks like the cows that are able to munch on grass have 68% more omega 3 fatty acids in their milk - I guess that makes sense. That's a good consolation for a milk junkie kid and a milk junkie husband.
How'd you like to wake up to this every morning? It's wonderful, let me tell you! We just got back from our week long vacation to Orcas Island and Vancouver. They're a pretty short (4-6 hour) drive from Portland, so it makes for an easy trip with the Munchkin.
I really like Orcas Island - I've been to San Juan Island before, and it was a bit touristy for my taste. Orcas is smaller and more off the beaten path. And, holy cow - they know how to cook there! Great place to unwind.
We also ditched the kid at grandma's house for a couple of days and went up to Vancouver by ourselves. First time we'd spent that long away from her (we'd gone overnight once before, but had such terrible food poisoning that we could barely drag ourselves out of bed!). It was lovely. My mom looked so tired when we picked Devera up. She's definitely a handful! Anyway, back to the grind. At least the little stress muscles in my are all unwound now.
Mmmm...I've been thinking about this line I heard on NPR all day... A dessert so delicious it confirms the existence of God. You can listen too, and giggle with me >>
Fitting...they used to call me "one of those earth babies" in college. So I guess it makes sense that the site I've ended up surfing a lot these days is called www.treehugger.com Anyway, the real story I want to share is a cool one about organic farming in Cuba. So I guess after the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuba was cut of from exporting it's main cash crop, sugar cane. That really spread poverty and was causing a lot of famine. So, Castro decided that he wanted his peeps to be self sufficient and created a bunch of small scale organic farms. The results were really impressive. Read the rest of the story here >>
Want to know the ingredients for a perfect Portland afternoon?
Meander your way to the Pearl District. Hop on the streetcar, also known as the choo choo train, to the munchkin in my entourage. The drivers are so nice - they all waved to her and rang their little bell - she couldn't have been happier.
