penny carnival

To grandmother's house we go

We’re wrapping up a simple weekend that included a couple of fun outings: a housewarming party for friends and a polo match. Spokane has one of the oldest polo clubs in the U.S. It’s great fun to pack a picnic and go watch a match, but hardly anyone around here does. Maybe I’ll start a new trend.

Anyone else have the book "10 Apples Up on Top"?

Mostly, though, we’ve been packing for our two-week trip to Bellingham, Wash.--my hometown—to see family.

I took a more-is-more approach to packing this time, sort of throwing everything but the garden hose into the suitcase. I’m sure I’ll regret it in a few days.

Bo caught on and decided to remove every single pair of shoes I own from the closet and attempt to cram them into my already-stuff suitcase. Thankfully, I’m not a shoe whore, but there were still some ridiculously inappropriate ones on display tonight (can someone please slap me for buying a pair of platform shoes covered in sequins?).

Speaking of gardens, I'm going to miss our little patch while I'm gone. The sungold tomatoes are just starting to ripen and they are delish. Bo likes them enough to just suck out the juice (and then leave the flesh on the ground), sort of like a vampire. 

Check out the scarecrow she made a few weeks ago (the garden has grown considerably since then):

I managed to sew an Emmeline apron for my sister, who’s letting us crash at her house for one of the two weeks we’ll be there (my parents’ house will be occupied by our Rhode Island relatives, making my headline here somewhat deceptive; we got a smokin’ deal on a nice hotel for the other week).

I think this is the fourth Emmeline I’ve made now, and every time I do there’s always such a strong response to it, as in “I will pay you whatever you want to make me one of those!!!” Kudos to Meg over at Sew Liberated for designing such a successful pattern.

Because of that, I’m thinking of taking part in her cottage license program, which allows you to pay for the right to sell the items you make from her patterns. The cost is $75/year, which seems reasonable to me, and you have to be approved by Meg (understandably, she wants to make sure you know how to sew). What do you guys think? Is it worth pursuing and applying for? I'm always trying to reinvent the wheel, but maybe I should just do this since it's already such a hit with people.

Other thoughts …

Can someone please tell me how I can run 30-40 miles a week and not lose a single pound? I’m trying to burn off these last 10 baby pounds, but apparently my body is on strike. I know you’re not supposed to get on the scale every day, but I swear to you I stepped on yesterday morning, ran seven miles and ate healthfully all day (minus one smallish cupcake), got on the scale today and had gained two pounds. Seriously. 7 miles. Gained 2 pounds. And no, I'm not pregnant. 

I had hoped this was going to be the summer I didn’t have to wear a skirted swimsuit but it’s mid-July and I’m losing hope. Grrr …

A few things I’m loving right now …

-This house tour.

-Amy Butler organic bedding now available here. (Scratch one more project off my sewing to-do list, I guess.)

-The before-and-after gallery on Design Sponge. If I only had 1,392,022 hours to kill:

-Daydreaming of building a modern playhouse for the girls in the backyard. This one is awesome, but it’d pretty much be nicer than our actual house.

This one is adorable, in a different way.

I’m thinking we’ll start collecting supplies from the secondhand building-supply store, come up with a plan over the winter, and attempt carpentry next summer. Stay tuned.

 

Since we’ll be out of town, I’ll probably have a craft hiatus for a couple of weeks (God help me). You never know, though. My sister and I grew up in the same house. She must have a glue gun stashed away somewhere. If nothing else, I’ll have to share photos of her always-incredible cooking. 

Ace, Ace, baby

I've been meaning to post some photos of a great hotel we stayed in last weekend in Portland, Oregon. The Ace Hotel is a small chain that started in Seattle about a decade ago. They have hotels in NYC and Palm Springs now, too.

I don't normally go around taking photos of hotel lobbies and bathrooms. This place is different, though. There was inspiration around every corner.

The Ace does a fabulous job repurposing old stuff, like using vintage locker baskets to hold towels and wallpapering its guest rooms with the pages from antique books. (My friend Celeste here in Spokane did something similar in the foyer of her restaurant recently and gave me the following instructions:

Step 1--apply wallpaper paste to wall. Step 2--apply book pages to paste and allow to dry. Step 3--cover with Mod Podge.)

The Ace is green on so many levels. Besides rescuing unwanted crap from the landfills, they offer bicycle rentals and post gentle reminders about conserving energy, like this kitschy stitchery that hangs in the elevator:

Besides, the place is just plain fun. I felt like I was living in my old Portland apartment again, complete with claw-foot tub, ever-so-slightly musty smell in the hallways and a fantastic coffee shop attached. Two other features not to miss: an amazing New York-style deli up the block (I'm still dreaming about the lox I ate there) and an old-school photo booth in the hotel lobby.

I wrote more about the Ace on my other blog if you want more details, but here is a visual of what now is the only place I'll stay when I visit Portland. Is my review too glowing? It might also have to do with the fact that the two junior members of our family were 300 miles away at their Nana and Papa's house. Sort of clouds my judgment. (No, actually, it sort of cleared away the fog that's been hovering over my brain for the last four years.)

Enjoy ...

Bicycle for rent in the lobby:

Pages of a vintage book used as wallpaper behind the bed, with a deer and bird painting on top:

This is the back of a plastic molded chair:

Every detail was thought out, down to the dry-cleaning sack and order slip:

Wool blankets (which are used on the guest-room beds) and bathrobes for sale in the lobby:

Check-in desk. They use real keys, by the way.

Oops. Lobby. I almost wrote "Bobby." I have no idea whether that dude on the left (who is looking at me like, Quit taking pictures, freaky lady!!) is named Bobby or not:

Photo booth (sorry for horrible back lighting):

For your listening pleasure in the lobby:

"A" is for awesome:

Lovely lazy days

As our vacation in Rhode Island winds down, we've spent some quiet days closer to home. Our biggest outing this week has been to the Roger Williams Zoo in Providence where Bo was captivated by the 10 a.m. bath time of Ginny, Katie, and Allison, the zoo's three elephants.

It seemed like we got to stand so close to the animals at this zoo, closer than we can when we visit the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. My Aunt Betty joked that that's because Rhode Island is so small--there's not enough land to put much distance between the people and the critters.

Our "crafting" here has been pretty simple--coloring and building sandcastles, mostly. Today we made seashell birdhouses. I bought the basic houses at a craft store, and we've been collecting shells every time we go to the beach. We're just using Tacky Glue to stick them on. Seems to be working so far. I'm hoping we'll be able to cover the whole house in shells (and pasta--what's a craft project without pasta?) by the time we leave Wednesday.

Let's see, what else have we been up to? Walks and runs on the bike path. An extremely fattening trip to Vienna Bakery in Warren, R.I. An equally fattening plate of seafood linguine. And snapping green beans from the garden with Auntie Peggy on the couch. In short, pure bliss.

More soon on an excellent discussion I heard on craftsanity recently and on an interesting interview I just had with Cherie Killilea about selling crafts on Etsy. I'm writing an article on that topic soon for the new Spokane Metro magazine.

Let them eat cake (and a cannoli)

More food-related ramblings from me tonight. This time a coast-to-coast installment.

We took a day trip to Boston today, giving the girls their first experience on a subway. Magpie was oblivious and Bo loved it. Most of it. Like any real Bostonian (even temporarily) she favored the red line over the green line. Having lived on the green line myself back in the day, I can attest to the squeaky rails and crowded nature of the route. On a weak day, it made me want to cry too, sweet pea. I'm just glad you had a daddy to cling to.

We didn't try to pack too much in--just the Children's Museum and the North End. Boston's Children's Museum is wicked cool, by the way. (When in Rome ... ) It's not a place I visited when I was a swingin' graduate student, but if I lived there now I'd bring the girls there every day.

The museum is on a great list of "things to do with kids in Boston" that I came across last night via Amanda Soule's blog. She was asked to write something similar about Portland, Maine. We're considering heading up there next week, so her timing is spot on.

No trip to Boston is complete without a stop in the North End for Italian pastries. Enjoy the visual feast below. I'm about to go downstairs for pistachio cookie No. 3. Don't be jealous. You won't regret it in the morning like I will.

Meanwhile, back in Spokane, an article I wrote about making elaborate children's birthday cakes ran in the Spokesman-Review today. You might remember my post about birthday cakes a while back. I guess I had cake on the brain (who am I kidding? When do I not have cake on the brain?).

We had readers send in photos of cakes they made, and my editor posted the ones that didn't make it into print on her blog. My fav is the skateboard. You?

Besides the food and museum shots below, the last one is of Bo having a Mary Tyler Moore moment in the big city (sans hat).

The biggest little state in the union

I'm writing this from the deck at my aunt's house, overlooking the fireworks as partygoers at a neighbor's house bellow "This Land is Your Land" below. We're finishing up our first day in Rhode Island--a hot, humid, lovely day spent with friends and family.

Our family's never-ending quest to find a pizza shop that makes it "just like Nana" did continues, with the slices from Sam's in Bristol below. Very close, I told J, but the dough didn't have the pillowy goodness of Nana's. J replied, "Why do you guys spend so much time trying to find a restaurant that makes pizza like Nana's instead of just following her recipe?" Hmmm ... good point.

The Italian cookies in the second photo were a staple in Nana's basement freezer when we were kids. My mom has taken on the responsibility now of always keeping several dozen on hand (and on my hips).

The last two shots are of Magpie finally meeting her "uncles" Brian, Gil, John and Dominic. We cannot go this long between visits again, guys.

The fireworks are hitting their grand finale now (the lights on Magpie's baby monitor are going nuts), the neighbors are singing "It's a Grand Old Flag" and I am ready for bed.

I've got baggage

We're leaving on a jet plane tomorrow (Wednesday), heading to lovely Rhode Island for some Fourth of July fun and good times with the crazy Italian side of the famdamily.

We'll be in R.I. for three weeks, and I'll definitely be blogging from there. But I'm signing off for a couple of days so we can get settled. Don't rob our house while we're gone. Thanks.

Packing is rough with two kids. Below are the contents (are the contents? is the contents? It's late. Help me, grammar gods) of Bo's carryon, including her embroidery, a Melissa and Doug lacing activity and her roll-up clothespin doll bed.

The DVD player is on the table somewhere, too. We bought her the 1977 movie "Pete's Dragon" today--something new to hold her interest for 3,000 miles. She keeps calling it "Dragon Pizza," which is just killing me.

Is "I'll be your candle on the water" stuck in your head now, too? Ha, ha. Gotchya.

10 lessons from Memorial Day weekend '08

-Putting five cousins, all under age 5, together in a small cabin and expecting them to go to sleep easily on the first night is like strapping a slab of raw meat to a dog and telling him to play dead.
-Once the thrill of being in a small cabin with five cousins wears off, kids sleep like logs if they’ve spent the day exploring “bear forest.”
-That “bugs are our friends” line you keep feeding your kid is only believable if you accept it in your own heart.
-Remembering to use the potty is really, really, really, really hard to do when you’re having fun. (That’s four “reallys” to match the number of pairs of underwear drying above the fireplace at all times.)
-Lake water is cold in May. Just ask the 16-month-old niece who’s still a little wobbly on her feet.
-Food tastes better when it’s cooked outside.
-If you happen to be within 200 miles of a small-town parade, by all means get yourself there. Be sure to tell your young daughter to look for the Huckleberry Queen. If said queen looks to be about 83 years old, all the better.
-Forgetting to pack a few things is normal. Forgetting to pack more than 20 things means you need to either start making lists or stop having children.
-Just because a place has the word “resort” in its name, doesn't guarantee anything. But if the major amenities include a gorgeous view and quality time with the fam, they can call it whatever they want. (Note the use of the word “quality” versus “quiet.” Please see “five cousins all under age 5” above.)
-That persistent twitch can only mean one thing: you are addicted to the Internet and withdrawal hurts.