Emmakat

Veganized Molasses Cookies

2012-01-24T17:30:00.000-08:00

Although I am about to make Chuck a birthday cake this week, we still have these cookies he randomly made over the weekend. We actually happened to have all the ingredients on hand, including the spices. Yay! They are incredibly hard to resist. It's a simple veganized adaptation of a googled recipe. The link & notes about our substitutions are below. I especially like how the large grain sucanat adds a sparkly decorative element. I'm a sucker for sparkles!

The original recipe is here.

Ingredients substitutions:
~~3/4 cup margarine, melted~~ 3/4 cup Earth Balance Spread

~~1 cup white sugar~~ 1 cup Brown Sugar
~~1 egg~~ Ener-G Egg Replacer equivalent to one egg plus 1/2 tsp
1/4 cup molasses
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
~~1/2 cup white sugar~~ 1/2 cup Sucanat

Finished Knit: Date Night Sweater

2012-01-19T17:41:00.000-08:00

Pattern: Date Night by Nikol Lohr on Knitty

Yarn: Louisa Harding Merletto in Coral from CloseKnit on Alberta

Although I finished this last week, the majority of the work for on this project had been finished for something like two months. It hung out in around our apartment in various looking like the picture on the right during that time. The only thing left to do was weave in the ends and re-do the bind-off edges. But through the holidays I had Crafty Wonderland & holiday travel keeping me from wrapping this up. Finally last week I found the time to make the last efforts required on this project!

It's a top-down seamless knit, which is such a great project type. You can try it on as you go & don't have as much finishing work to worry about at the end. I was good on this project. I stashed 5 balls of the yarn because it was on sale (and because it's shiny!), knit up a swatch and then looked through raverly for patterns that would work for the amount of yarn and the gauge I had with my swatch. I'm getting better at being responsible about gauge...at least for some of the bigger projects.

So I'm happy with how this turned out & the lace pattern was a fun one, just repetitive enough but not too boring. I especially like the collar. I don't know if you can see it all that well in my pictures, but the lace makes for a scalloped edge. I still love how shiny this yarn is, although it did have a tendancy to be a little too splitty and fuzz up while I was working on it...but hopefully now that I am done that won't be as much of an issue. Of course I plan on hand-washing it just in case! And also probably wearing it on Valentine's day, since it seem appropriate.

Chicago Visit: Museum of Contemporary Art

2012-01-16T22:16:00.000-08:00

While I was in Chicago I had the chance to visit the Museum of Contemporary Art. One of the main reasons I wanted to visit was to see Andrew Bird and Ian Schneller's Sonic Arboretum, on display during December. Tickets for the actual performance I'm sure were sold out long before I even knew about this exhibit, but I'm glad I got to see the hall of "specimen horn speakers." They filled the atrium space on three long plinths, and played violins & whistles. It was neat how hard it was to identify where specific sounds were coming from, it had a kind of choral effect. Well, there was one time we co identify the source, when I posed for this picture it happened to be very noisy...but that was the exception.

The other major exhibit was The Language of Less (Then and Now) which is still on display in its entirety until March 25th. It's a really great collection of work from major minimalist artists, like Richard Serra, Donald Judd, Christo and Gordon Matta Clark, and new works from contemporary artists. One of my favorites from the "Then" portion of the exhibit is pictured above on the left, a carefully arranged collection of core samples from around Chicago by Alan Sonfist. My favorite from the "Now" section of the is above on the right, works by Carol Bove. Much of the work in that room was a bit difficult to photograph, like the beaded curtain here. If you look closely at the picture in that link you can make out the triangles which were much more visible in person.

We managed to get through the rest of the museum, but it was at a quicker pace. I've already posted a favorite image from the Ron Terada Exhibit (which ended yesterday) in my new years' eve post. Another favorite work was the colorful light box by Spencer Finch, with the title "Shade (on the grave of Walt Whitman October 19, 2006 10:15am)" Great title for a piece I would've liked anyway, but the title makes it even better.

Chicago Visit: The Rookery

2012-01-14T10:27:00.000-08:00

It was pretty ridiculous that I lived in Chicago for two years and never made it over to The Rookery. It wasn't even that far from where we lived! (Chuck did get to see it once without me however.) I don't know why I never made it there but I was determined to make up for that this year on one of my holiday trips back to Chicago. I'm glad I did it at the holidays too because the space was so nicely decorated for Christmas:

It's a notable work of architecture designed initially by Burnham & Root, later remodeled by Frank Lloyd Wright. It's got several obviously Wright designed additions, his large urns and the light fixtures to name a few, but I was surprised by all the marble with golden patterning throughout the space. Even the underside of those urns were covered with gold! Some of that actually covers the original wrought iron, which is itself elaborately decorated. It's hard to imagine the original appearance of the space pre-Wright, but it seems like it would be equally impressive. The stairs, and one exposed column start to give you an idea:

Shortly after I moved away from from Chicago the FLW Preservation Trust, who I used to volunteer with giving tour of the Robie House, started offering tours and opened a gift shop in the light court. Unfortunately we manage to just miss the tour for the day I was there, but next visit I think I plan on making the longer tour Wednesdays at noon.

I think my favorite part of the space was the filigreed structure in the ceiling of the light court:

Snowy Owls Invade Chicago! (& Other places)

2012-01-13T17:19:00.000-08:00

I felt so lucky to get to see this guy right before I left Chicago. It was a nice way to end 2011 too. My parents mentioned that they had read one was hanging out in Montrose Harbor, so I knew we'd have to try to see it. Either it wasn't very hard to find or I just got really lucky, either way I'm very happy I did see it. This is the first time I've actually seen a wild owl, and I'm still amazed that it was a snowy owl in particular.

For some reason they have started coming further south. This article sites possible lack of food, &/or a population increase. Most of the owls this far south are juveniles.

The Tribune has a lovely set of photos, better than I was able to get with my point and shoot camera. (Nature photography is one thing that really makes a person want to spend a lot of money on cameras and equipment.)

We tried to find him twice and suceeded on both trips. The first time it was so very cold. He was trying to stay warm in the harbor. (He's that white spot on top of that white thing in the picture above on the left.) We also saw a pair of (I think) Goldeneye, black & white ducks. I would've been completely content with that sighting even though we couldn't really get all that close. Fortunately, we had some extra time for my last day in town & it was really nice out, so we gave it a second try.

I saw a huge white wing as I approached the beach house and a group of people with cameras started running. That had to be the owl. It took me a while to spot it behind a large pole on the beach, but it wasn't very long before it moved back to the beach house. I got to see it in flight!

Chuck wasn't with me for this visit, so I started researching sightings for snowy owls here in the Pacific Northwest. Apparently a few have been spotted in Discovery Park in Seattle, and Damon Point in Grays Harbor. I hope they'll be back next year & we get a chance to check it out. I found some great photos on flickr from Damon Point by Roland Kilcher. I particularly like this one. All of his photos make me want to head up there for some birding!

Music of 2011

2012-01-12T18:30:00.000-08:00

One last recap of 2011 before I am ready for the new year. (Yeah, that always takes me several weeks!) Music! I always enjoy putting together posts about music I listened to over the last year, but it is a big task to pull together, so I've been procrastinating a little. (Once I wrap this up I can recap my Christmas trip to Chicago and the last few knitting projects I've finished!) This year I thought I'd do it by selecting a few categories: Portland - so much good stuff here; My Usual Favorites - their new albums are so good; New Favorites - More in this category than the others; To Check Out - Stuff that's high up on my list that I haven't really listened to the full album yet; and lastly Spillover - albums that didn't come out last year, but I started listening to, and stuff I'm still listening to from last year.

Portland

AgesandAges - Alright you Restless
This is just one of those albums that I have to put on when I need cheering up. So many people singing together I think is what has that effect on me, but also I like the lyrics. I knew I'd have to check them out when I heard Kevin Robinson from Viva Voce produced the album.

Viva Voce - The Future Will Kill Us
I'm sad I haven't actually since them live again since we've been back in the northwest! They are so much fun to see play, I highly recommend it. The Analog Woodland Song is so good.

Wild Flag - Wild Flag
Very cool to see this on a lot of the best of 2011 lists for the year. I got to see them play a free in-store show, but unfortunately didn't act quick enough to get tickets for a real show. Ah well, hopefully since they are Portland based I'll have more opportunities this year.

My Usual Favorites

PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
Tom Waits - Bad As Me
Both of these are so good. I think they'll take me a while longer to fully absorb.

New Favorites

tUnE-yArDs - w h o k i l l
Fascinating to listen, seems like she has such a diverse range of influences. I just found they did a Tiny Desk concert, which I will be checking out right after I finish this post.

Eleanor Friedberger - Last Summer
Both Eleanor & Matthew Friedberger of The Fiery Furnaces came out with solo albums this year. We saw her open for The Kills at a MusicFestNW show and several songs stuck out and convinced me I needed to get the album.

Say Hi - Um, Uh Oh
Another album to put on to make me happy. I love the video above because it's filmed in Seattle and many of the shots are outside a school-turned-condo building very close to where we used to live.

Jessica Lea Mayfield - Tell Me
She's from Ohio! And not all that old and very impressive. I first heard her on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic.

Thao & Mirah - Thao & Mirah
I already liked them both quite a bit, so this is such a good pairing. Here they are covering Salt'n'Peppa with Carrie & Fred on the Portlandia tour. Too fun!

To Check Out

Beyonce - 4
Seems to be getting especially good reviews this year, and I've been mildly obsessed with the videos for Countdown and Run the World (Girls)

TV on the Radio - Nine Types of Light
I've been meaning to check them out more intently for a while. I enjoyed their performance with Tinariwen on the Colbert Report. Also I think there's a song about caffeine? I actually got this album off of emusic, we just need to get the files moved off my computer and into the right place for listening...

Charles Bradley - No Time for Dreaming
Same deal with this one, it's time to start listening! We saw him this year as part of MusicFestNW, and he was just so good. It felt perhaps like the closest you can get to seeing James Brown.

Spillover

Y La Bamba - Lupon
We have seen them live a bunch of times since we moved here and bought their album last time we saw them, so even though it was released in 2010, we listened to it a lot in 2011. In addtion to the video above I highly recommend their Tiny Desk Concert on NPR.

Bhi Bhiman - The Cookbook
Introduced to his music when we saw him open for Joan As Police Woman at Mississippi Studios mid-year. We were impressed. The video for a song from his new album (coming in 2012) is pretty cool, using stop motion to create a moving collage.

Breathe Owl Breathe - Magic Central
This made my list for 2010, but I've still been listening to it a lot in 2011. We saw them at the workshop barn stage at Pickathon this year, where they talked about their songwriting, and played some songs of course.

I'm feeling like it was an especially good music year this year, so I maybe adding quite a few things to my "to check out" list in the near future. Here's a few best of lists I'll be referencing:

Pitchfork's Best Albums of 2011
KEXP DJ's top 10 lists for 2011
KCRW DJ's top 10 lists for 2011
Willamette Weeks's Best New PDX Band 2011

2011 Knitting Project Recap

2012-01-04T17:45:00.000-08:00

Sweaters

Whisper Cardigan - The construction of this was so neat, making knitting with tiny yarn pretty fun. And it's a really satisfying light sweater, which is sparkly, my favorite!

Lotus Blossom Tank - Accomplishments in Lace knitting! Yay!

Leaf Yoke Top - Two similar color & types of sweaters in a row, but this one was much easier...and sparkly again, yay!

In 2012 I might have to make a point of making myself full sleeve sweaters. I made Chuck one once but somehow I'm always drawn to 3/4 length of sleeveless projects for myself. They do use less yarn, which is handy, but full long sleeve is probably something I could use...

Socks

No Sweat Socks & Lindsay Socks and Freshman Cable Socks for Chuck.

Chuck bought me a whole bunch of sock yarn earlier this year and I'm still working through it. And so far all it's gotten him is one pair of socks! I'm working on it, his birthday is coming up soon and I'm a good chunk of the way through a nice pair of brown cabled socks.

Little Things

Magic Slippers
Ribbed Baby Jacket (aka Zoe's Smoking Jacket)
Knot Necklace

Babies to knit for means smaller projects, but I also got interested in some very small quick necklaces this year. Quick & satisfying finished objects for when things are busy.

For the Shop

Triangle Cats, Gadget Cozies, Two-tone fingerless mitts, Knit-o necklaces & more! I finally started knitting up some stuff for the shop and craft shows, and it all went over really well. I'm still recovering from my last bout of knitting for the holiday craft show...but it won't be long before I'm knitting more and hopefully coming up with some cool new designs for the shop too. Meanwhile, I missed knitting for myself so much I've got 3 or so personal projects going on at the moment, but the are all pretty small....so I'll be back on this soon!

Stashed

Or maybe not! I did stash a lot of yarn this year, thanks to really great deals at a Knit Picks warehouse sale,and the sock yarn mentioned above. And I've pretty much figured out all kinds of fun stuff to knit up for myself with this stash. That could keep me busy for months! There are at least 3 or 4 sweaters worth of yarn there, plus all the socks. Okay, so I'll have to find a way to balance personal and Etsy shop projects this year, but that's a good problem to have!

2011 I'm not done with you just yet!

2012-01-03T18:10:00.000-08:00

Here's a recap! I liked the recap Sarah from Petite Cabbage Press did on her blog so much I'm going to use her idea. This is a picture heavy post! My year by month in photos:

January

North Pearl District, Portland, OR

February

Ross Island, Portland, OR

March

Squirrel Graffiti in Ladd's Addition, Portland, OR

April

Cherry Blossoms on the Waterfront, Portland, OR

May

Boy & Bean (that link plays music) at Atlantis Lounge/Mississippi Pizza Pub in Portland, OR

June

Rose Festival CityFair on the Waterfront, Portland, OR

July

Starfish at Haystack Rock, Cannon Beach, OR

August

Pickathon Music Festival, Pendarvis Farm near Portland, OR

September

Crowd waiting for Vaux's Swifts at Chapman Elementary School, Portland, OR

October

Migrating Cranes fly over as we walk up to the Pittock Mansion, Portland, OR

November

Miniature Room at the Art Institute, decorated for Christmas, Chicago, IL

December

Snowy Owl in Montrose Harbor, Chicago, IL (more on this in a future post!)

I can't complain too much about the last year. It's been filled with nature, live music, lots of great walks and a couple of great visits with my family in Chicago at the end end of the year. Last year one of my resolutions (though I try not to make those typically) was to walk 500 miles. I stopped counting several months into the year when we reached something like 300 miles, and we kept on walking a lot so I'm sure I accomplished my goal. This year we climbed up to Washington Park without much effort, which I'm sure was not the case when we first moved here. The only similar goal we have for this year is to keep it up and to finally make it over to Forest Park (somehow we haven't been yet) and spend lots of time hiking through it.

More pictures from my year are in the 2011 Highlights set on flickr, which I'm still working on wrapping up...once I get the last pictures uploaded from my Chicago visit, I should be close. Then it's on to filling up a new 2012 set! I have a feeling it's going to be a very good year.

Happy New Year's Eve!

2011-12-31T15:40:00.000-08:00

This picture I took at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago last week seems appropriate for this holiday. It's from the exhibit of Ron Terada's work called Being There. I'll have to do a better recap of my trip in the next few days, but for now: Happy New Year!

I thought I'd have some fun in the shop and do a coupon code for 15% off for the new year! The code is: HAPPY2012 and it's good on everything including custom orders! It will be good through the end of the day Jan. 6th, so enjoy!

Road Trip! Chicago to Ohio

2011-12-24T08:14:00.001-08:00

Usually the highlight of the trip between my parents' house and my grandma's is the wind farm in Indiana. But this time we were traveling at night. I slept most of the way, but we stopped in Lafayette for diner. They have a brand new Chipotle! I used to work for an architecture firm that designed the stores so I tend to geek out a little overtime I eat there. This store was a very different design so there may have been some extra geeking. Cleaner, more modern and simple, there was no art in this one! Not even the burrito king, and there's one of those in every store. But I have to say it was pretty nice to see them move on from so much corrugated metal and simplified light fixtures.
Another highlight of the trip was a very lovely sunset!

Calendar Giveaway Winner

2011-12-17T10:04:00.000-08:00

And the winner of the 2012 PDX Architecture Calendar selected using random.org's number generator is...

Congrats to jhitomi! I will be emailing you shortly to get your shipping info. And thank you so much everyone who entered!

Thanks Crafty Wonderland!

2011-12-15T17:15:00.000-08:00

I had so much fun, sold well and learned a lot! Can we do it again next weekend? Well, that might be a bit much. It took me a few days to recover (hence the lack of posts the last few days, sorry about that!) and I've still got a few small bruises. Carrying all this stuff via transit can do that to ya.

I'm happy with our booth layout too. We decided to set it back so people could come in, do their shopping, and we wouldn't be staring them down from the other side of the table. We were a bit cramped off to the side, but I think it was worth it. The day went so well, I sold out of mitts and scarflettes! Right now I just have a custom listing up in the shop until I can get some more mitts knit up. That should be soon, though I might take a few more days to recover and prepare for Christmas!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway, only one more day to enter!

2012 Calendar Giveaway!

2011-12-09T10:03:00.001-08:00

The Giveaway is now closed, thanks to everyone who entered!

This year I thought I'd do a calendar giveaway that will ship out in time for Christmas!

The winner will get, as pictured above:

Portland, OR 2012 Architecture Calendar including hanger for wall mounting, and easel for desk display.

This giveaway is open to both U.S. and International people and will include shipping.

Two ways to Enter:

Become a fan of my shop on facebook, or if you prefer Google+, and leave a comment below letting me know you're a new fan,

Visit my etsy shop and leave a comment below indicating your favorite item.
(Also please make sure I can find a way to contact you! If I can't track something down I will unfortunately have to skip your entry and you won't be entered to win!)

I will announce the winner on December 16th, 2011!!! Thanks for entering & Good Luck!

The Giveaway is now closed, thanks to everyone who entered!

Crafty Wonderland is this weekend!

2011-12-08T19:51:00.001-08:00

The illustration for this show is my favorite yet! I'll be there, in Booth 183, next to the I Heart Art booth. I'm so excited! Come and see me, and get there early to try to get one of the Goodie bags! Oh, also you could RSVP on facebook if you plan on going. Yay!

2012 Architecture Calendar Update

2011-12-07T08:32:00.001-08:00

I recently added a second listing of my 2012 Portland Architecture Calendar to my shop. We took some time over the weekend to make some black paperboard easels for desk display. So now all the calendars will come with this easel, a hanger, and a ribbon, all great calendar display options. The idea is that between the two listings you can get a very good idea of the display options and the contents of the calendar, more than you would have with just 5 images. Of course there's also the PDF version, for last minute gifts. You'll have to come up with your own display for that one, but I've found the binder clip works pretty well!

Speaking of Wreaths

2011-12-05T21:37:00.001-08:00

I wanted to have some Christmas-y-ness for Crafty Wonderland this weekend, so I made up a bunch of these knit wreaths. My grandma has been suggesting for a month or so now that I make some ornaments to sell, even going to the trouble of sending me a few really cool crocheted snowflakes my aunt made a while back. At thanksgiving I noticed a cute crocheted wreath on her tree too, and decided to do my knit version of the idea. Maybe next year I'll try to make some snowflakes if I can figure something out. For now these fit with my current enthusiasm for wreaths. I made a dozen or so, and perhaps I'll make more if time allows!

Christmas Decorations!

2011-12-04T16:07:00.001-08:00

I had a few reasons I wanted to get the tree up right away this year. First I was very excited to try out the tree topper I got at the Chriskindlmarket in Chicago, and second, I'll be out of town again soon. So all the decorating happened almost as soon as I got home. We have a little tree so it is easy for me to deal with on my own. I'm also excited to have an advent calendar this year for the first time in a while (thanks Dad!) also from the Chriskindlmarket. It's of Rothenberg, Germany, which is a Medieval town between Frankfurt and Munich. I had to look that up, I've never been...maybe someday.

Yesterday we walked through the PSU market and picked up a wreath. It was very hard to choose. I still had a tough time once we decided which booth we wanted one from. This booth had peppers in a lot of the wreaths, and several wreaths had moss-covered twigs which I seriously considered. I really liked the one that was just moss-covered twigs, it just seemed perfectly Pacific Northwest. However we decided to go with a bit more variety. I really like the purples and reds in the one we came home with!

Crafty Wonderland Preparation: Small Preview!

2011-12-03T17:59:00.001-08:00

Crafty Wonderland is next weekend! I have so much to do. One task I finished last week was making some pom-pom pins to sell, and packing up a few to drop off at the Crafty Wonderland Pop-up shop. These will be in about 16.7% of the 150 goodie bags that will be given away to the early birds at the door next weekend. They were packed up with some fun magnets with my shop info that I had made up recently using a coupon I had for Vistaprint.

I'm so busy, but I'm having fun. Tonight I'm working on some wreath ornaments inspired by Grandma's Christmas tree, and using some cool ribbon I brought home from her collection. I'll try to take pictures if time allows. I can't believe how soon the show is, and I should really get back to work right this instant!

Chicago Walk: Last hours on State St. & Wabash

2011-12-02T13:56:00.001-08:00

I am back in Portland now after a nice long thanksgiving visit with my parents in Chicago, and other family in Ohio. The Midwest is alright, but it's just too cold. It was so nice to take a walk here last night. It was chilly, but not nearly as troublesome as Chicago winter. That being said my last day in town (Wednesday) was pretty perfect, with clear skies...and I don't need to reflect too much on the weather the day before which involved so much wind there were 20 foot waves on the lake. Yeesh.

We met my Mom for a lunch downtown and some shopping at the Christkindlmarket in Daley Plaza. Dad and I also did some walking along State St. and Wacker, and could check out the progress on the Sullivan Center (formerly the Carson, Pirie, Scott Building,) the new LEED certified dorms for Roosevelt University, and the "Lightscapes" Street decoration for Christmas (pictured above. You can almost make out the purple, green, and red lights here.) I was happy to find a way to sneak in a few purchases from the market in my already packed suitcases, including snowflake ornaments, an advent calendar, and (at long last) a tree topper that fits my medium/apartment-sized Christmas tree!

And lastly, of course, we had to drop in Macy's to see the holiday decor. The trees in the Walnut Room were my favorite. I also noticed for the first time that there seems to be a Christmas fairy that goes around the restaurant granting wishes. The decor elsewhere in the building was just as I remember. I'm not a big fan of the ornaments hanging below the Tiffany Ceiling, since that's pretty enough on its own!

I'll be headed back for another shorter trip right at Christmas time. Between preparing for that, Crafty Wonderland, and the holiday season, I should be pretty busy through the end of the year!

Architecture: Mansueto Library

2011-11-30T08:02:00.001-08:00

This project was under construction while we lived here in Chicago, and I hadn't had a chance to see it complete. At one point Chuck toured it under construction during Grad School, and got a few nice pictures of the underground work in progress. It's an addition by Helmut Jahn to the existing 1970 brutalist building by Skidmore, Owings and Merril (SOM). The addition includes a reading room, offices, and 50 feet of below ground book storage with an automated retrieval system. (That last link is a video that explains the system)

Although I was able to get in for a visit I had to leave my Dad outside. Apparently they will only allow visitors from more than 60 miles away to come in with a day pass. (Glad I finally got my Oregon ID not too long ago.) The interior seems like an attractive study space and it was certainly packed. I couldn't help but he reminded of the Seattle Public Library, although the scale of this space is much smaller. A connecting hallway was also part of the new construction and features a nice collection of lead reproductions of printer's marks including William Morris and others, by artist and architect Edgar Miller. I tried not to keep my Dad waiting too long, but I think he was entertained by taking some pictures of the elaborate collegiate Gothic architecture on the University of Chicago campus, which even includes some great gargoyles.

Museums: Shedd Aquarium

2011-11-29T10:28:00.001-08:00

I think the last time I visited an aquarium was in the 90s, when the Newport Aquarium near Cincinnati was brand new. When we lived here in Chicago we visited the Field Museum frequently and the Planetarium a few times on the community days for locals, but never made it to the Shedd Aquarium. The special exhibit right now is all about Jellyfish. I was particularly interested in seeing this exhibit after seeing a few types of jellies beached on the Oregon Coast this year.

My favorite jellyfish of the exhibit were the blue blubbers from Australia, but they were very fast moving and difficult to photography. The Shedd has a video of them in action, which gives you an idea of the great colors they come in, dark and light blue, tan, white, and brown. Much more camera friendly were the white spotted jellyfish, pictured above.

Other fascinating creatures in the permanent exhibits included the Crown of Thorns Starfish, which have been known to destroy reefs with their stomach acid. I really thought the Garden Eels were cute, but when I brought my mom over to look at them she found them creepy. I have to admit they do remind me of the "Poor Unfortunate Souls" from the Little Mermaid. Of course there were lots of types of sting ray and the large, "living fossil" fish were interesting. The Arapaima was the largest. The varied textures, particularly its face, were very unusual.

The aquatic theme pervades all of the detailing of the 1929 building. This includes waves and fish on the exterior, light fixtures throughout the building, and fish squares on the doors and ceiling. It's a late beaux arts style building executed by a post-Burnham Graham, Anderson, Probst & White. It's very similar to the other buildings on the museum campus, like the Field, which was designed by Daniel Burnham. The museum campus is a great place to go for some of the best views of the city, but only if you can stand to be in one of the windiest and coldest parts of town, right out on Lake Michigan. I only got a few shots, one looking north and one looking south, before I had to keep moving toward the museum to stay warm. The waves are getting very high right now, and it looks way too cold out there, but Chicago is a gorgeous city.

Belated Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-28T10:07:00.001-08:00

Hope everyone had an excellent holiday! We spent it visiting with my Grandma, Aunt and Cousins in Ohio. My family did a great job accommodating the vegans (I'll make it plural even though I was the only one. Chuck stayed in Portland, celebrating with Lucy.) this year. Look how packed my plate was!

The meal included the Hazelnut Cranberry Roast En Croute, which was really good. We picked up two bags of vegan stuffing from Whole Foods (the first year I'd seen that available) and my Mom used the mix for her recipe, throwing in celery and spices. My Aunt brought spinach and brussel sprouts, which I was happy to have. Dad made two kinds of scalloped potatoes one cheesy for the cheese fans, and a vegan recipe from the Native foods blog that used cashew cheese and fennel. There was also a parsnip and apple dish, an improvised green bean dish that turned out just right, cranberries served in one of Grandma's beautiful dishes, and sweet potatoes cooked from a recipe from Vegan Yum Yum. The meat and cheese eaters also had yeast rolls, turkey, and apple pie, but those were the only non-vegan items of the day. There were also vegan pumpkin pies just to make us extra full. Us kids all decided to have sparkling apple cider in fancy glasses too.

We had a lot of fun other that eating too. Watching the Macy's Day parade and the dog show (why so many breeds though...ugh) but added Lady Gaga's special to this years viewing. It was better than I was expecting and I notice Grandma clapping along and enjoying "Bad Romance." This also lead to a lot of silliness over the next few days with the family trying to recreate various dance moves. We did just a little Black Friday shopping, and I made out at the Thrift Store's half-off sale. I nabbed 7 articles of clothing and a belt for under $10. We also headed to big lots where I got lots of decent yarn for very cheap. But that was enough shopping for us, mostly we just enjoyed visiting and hanging out!

Hope everyone had as great a holiday as I did this year!

Home for the Holiday

2011-11-22T18:24:00.001-08:00

We've been hanging out at my parents' place most of today and yesterday. Thanksgiving food prep is well underway, ready for transport to my grandma's in Ohio. Here are my parents, working hard & chopping things:

And Slick, our cat who is about 23, found a spot in the hall, at the edge of the kitchen, to watch it all from a safe distance. Or sleep, mostly, he's an old cat.

Art Institute: Thorne Miniatures & Modern Wing

2011-11-21T16:49:00.001-08:00

I love the Thorne Miniature Room, in the basement of the Art Institute. It's a collection of miniature, dollhouse style, rooms from all over the world, and across time periods. I remember reading director Wes Anderson is also a fan. For the holidays they are decorated with tiny items appropriate to Christmas in each time and region:

The only room with a Christmas Tree was the English Drawing Room (on the right) while others, like the Louisiana Bedroom (on the left), had other types of accessories. This is a Christmas ballgown. There was also a New Mexican Feast, and a pair of clogs left in front of the fireplace in the French Provencial Bedroom.

There was also an extremely comprehensive exhibit on the works of Bertrand Goldberg in the Modern Wing. most famous for the Marina City Towers and several similar buildings here in Chicago. I wasn't able to take pictures in the exhibit, but a lot of them are available on the exhibition website, under selected works. It's was fascinating to learn of his early interest in mobile, prefabricated structures, and very early use of computer modeling. It was mentioned as being used on a project completed in 1975. The exhibit even included some of his student work from his time at the Bauhaus. Lastly, there was also an exciting exhibit in the neighboring hall of photography taken of Marina City Residents in their homes; a few from that are also viewable online.

There's currently a 12 foot bronze sculpture in the main hall of the Modern Wing. It's called "Vatter Staat" by German artist Thomas Schutte. The title translates as "Father State." We also hung out a bit in the member's lounge and cafe, spent some time enjoying the recently re-installed Chagall "America Windows" and the Paperweight Collection, and quickly walked through the Alsdorf Galleries (with Indian, Asian and Himalayan Art.) We saw a lot, but there's still tons more there to see could have spent another day there!

Eating Out: Native foods Chicago

2011-11-20T10:46:00.001-08:00

Yesterday my parents and I ate out for lunch at the new Native Foods Cafe on Belmont. Too much very good vegan foods. We shared the nacho appetizer, which was my favorite dish. I love nacho plates. This dish had fresh guacamole and what I think must have been cashew cheese.

I also had the Chicken Run Ranch Sandwich, billed as what chickens would serve if the were in charge of the ranch. I also picked it because it was marked as a great dish for first time visitors. It was really good, just enough ranch dressing without going overboard. Sweet potato fries on the side come with a green spice sprinkled on top. It suited the potatoes so well I didn't even bother with ketchup. We were too full for deserts, but they looked great. I am sure we will sample those often when they open the location in downtown Portland next spring. (One just opened in Tigard, outside of Portland, but that's a bit far for us to go....although now that I know how good it is, it might be worth the trip.)

Our other activities yesterday included going to the DIY trunk show. Tons of great vendors, and I'll admit to checking out their booth setups for inspiration too. On the way there we saw a black squirrel! And we ended up ending our day watching Shutter Island. It was so good I think I'll make Chuck watch it with me again when I get home.

Birthday Cheesecake!

2011-11-18T10:53:00.001-08:00

Wednesday was my second sixteenth birthday (okay, I'll just say it, I'm 32. I think it's going to be pretty good year.) Chuck made me this awesome vegan chocolate cheesecake from the book Sinfully Vegan. In the past few years I've been all about birthday cupcakes, but after some discussion we decide we were a little tired of birthday cupcakes. Though I still want cupcakes randomly all year for no good reason.

It was a very good birthday involving dinner at Portobello and some very good gifts. One was a nice new cellphone which I'm attempting to use to blog for the very first time right now...I'll have to check if this turns out all wonky.

And now I'm in Chicago hanging out with my family through the holiday! I'm hopeful this phone works out okay for blogging so I can post some pictures and updates of my visit while I'm here!

Update: Okay it turned out a bit wonky with the images, but I updated it by hoping on my parents computer for a few moments. I was just using blogger app for android, if anyone knows of a more awesome app (free preferably) for android that deals with pictures better please let me know!

Shop Update: 2012 Portland Architecture Calendar

2011-11-08T17:45:00.000-08:00

It's finally done! It seemed like the calendar this year took me a lot of time, but we were very carefully and thoroughly checking to make sure everything was right.

I'm excited about some of the new features this year. Most noticably, this year it's bound with a nice black wire binding! I'm also pleased with how the font choice this year turned out, it looks cleaner and more modern. After some discussion and consideration I've also added lines to help make the dates clear. And lastly, I'm very happy that I was able to pick out all new photos this year, so it's completely different from the 2011 calendar. Here are a few of the images that were included, and info about the designers with dates are included below each image in the calendar:

The calendar is available in print form for $18/each (plus shipping) or you can purchase a PDF version for printing at home for $5. I'm also seriously considering doing a giveaway of one of the calendars sometime soon here on the blog, I just need to decide on timing. Stay tuned!

Portland Walks: Washington Park Flowers & Leaves

2011-11-02T18:59:00.000-07:00

We took such a pretty walk in Washington Park over the weekend, and I managed to get some very nice pictures (if I do say so myself!) of flowers and autumn leaves. A walk up in Washington Park is always satisfying and we should really do it more often.

Oh and the new Tom Waits Album, Bad As Me, is out and it's so good. The track that features Keith Richards is called The Last Leaf. I listened to the fresh air interview with Tom Waits this week, and I loved hearing him talk about the inspiration for the song, one last leaf that if it hangs on can maybe make it through the season. I was thinking the same thing when I saw the leaf above!

We also strolled through the Rose Garden again, and there are still many roses in bloom. More pictures here. I wish I could remember some the names of the varieties so I could label the rosesbetter, but there are so many. I know at least one of the ones I photographed was the Julia Child hybrid.

And I don't know what these berries are, but they are pretty. Most of them were mostly white, but I really liked the gradient on several of the larger bundles. And another Hydrangea picture, at one time they were my favorite flower. But now I have many favorites!

Vegan Mofo Wrap Up

2011-10-31T19:28:00.000-07:00

I was hoping to get in a few more Vegan Mofo posts this past week, unfortunately Chuck & I caught a nasty cold. We got about halfway through a task I was going to post about, making pumpkin pie from a pie pumpkin, before coming down with the Halloween Cough of 2011. So there is currently a bunch of fresh pumpkin puree in our fridge. Kitty is happy! We usually buy her canned pumpkin on a veterinarian's recommendation to help her digestive system. It's definitely the first time she's had it fresh. Anyway, there will probably be a pumpkin pie post coming up soon even though Vegan Mofo is over. November is another great month for cooking!

I really enjoyed following all of the new blogs posting about vegan food this month. As I was reading them, I also kept track of some of my favorites using Pinterest, a great site for making visual lists. I'm sure I will be coming back to this list for inspiration for a long time.

Also, I won bowls from VeganDish! There were lots of great giveaways all month on the VeganMofo blog, but this was probably my favorite one and I still can't believe I won them. We actually have one large serving bowl I bough Chuck for Christmas one year a few years back, and it matches this set nicely. Even more inspiration to keep cooking great vegan dishes!

Also, Happy Halloween! I hope no one else is sick this year like we are!

Vegan Mofo: Spider Chocolate Hazelnut Cupcakes w/Cream Cheese Frosting

2011-10-29T10:43:00.000-07:00

With Halloween Bat wrappers too! These were made using the standard chocolate cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, and half of the Cream Cheese Icing recipe, since I didn't want piles of it on top of the cupcakes this time. Tofutti cream cheese was marked down a bit on our last trip to Whole Foods, a fact which makes me very tempted to buy several more containers and make cheesecakes, more cupcakes, and whatever other kinds of treats I can come up with. Vegan cream cheese is one of my favorite things.

I picked up the bat wrappers at our Safeway, too cute to pass up. And I was thrilled to get the Martha Stewart Cupcake Stencils on discount from Joann Fabrics last week. Unfortunately most of the faces were too big for my little cupcakes, but the spider worked out alright. I will have to start making huge, Martha Stewart sized cupcakes from here on out. I am excited about these stencils, so I may not stop playing with them even after Halloween is over. We could also use a finer sifter for these, the one we had on hand was just a little too course, allowing a bit more cocoa through than I would like. I already have plans to play with this more for Chuck's birthday, which is all the way off in January! He'll get the ravens and the skull and crossbones, though possibly on a larger cake.

The hazelnut flavor came from the cocoa used, Ghirardelli Chocolate Hazelnut Cocoa. Yummy!

Vegan Mofo: Field Roast, Garlic Spread & Fanged Pumpkins

2011-10-24T19:48:00.000-07:00

Field Roast has been a favorite of ours for a long time. We first started eating it in Seattle, which is where it originates from. It was a bit more expensive when we lived in Chicago. This is the celebration loaf stuffed with "a sausage style stuffing made from butternut squash, apples and mushrooms." The stuffing is my favorite part!

We also picked up some more rolls from the Pearl Bakery this weekend. It's covered here in a simple garlic spread made from roasted garlic, blended with olive oil in a food processor.

And then we made some new friends. Based on this great idea from Martha Stewart's site. We even used the templates for mouths she provided. Our fangs aren't plain white like Martha's, but I think they are a little more fun, since they glow in the dark!

Saturday Market: Perfect Fall Day

2011-10-23T09:51:00.000-07:00

There's so much stuff at the PSU Saturday Market right now. And yesterday was the perfect fall weather. Leaves in the trees, falling from the trees, all over the ground and kids throwing them at their parents. Pretty and entertaining!

I was so excited to start seeing some seasonal decor items like the Indian corn and the pepper wreaths! I love when the wreaths come out at the market. The arrangements are amazing, and the prices are pretty low. Of course then you have to pick out your favorite... I also really love that the price tags were on doilies!

Those cipollini onions were a really fun, flat shape extremely satisfying to hold in your palm.

We've been really fascinated by the wide variety of squash, and especially like one vendor who does a very through job labeling and describing each type. This week we took home the "cream of the crop" a variant on the acorn squash, but with a sweeter flavor.

There is also always such a great selection of really beautiful mushrooms. On the left, Nameko mushrooms, which I thought were so pretty. Of course fancy mushrooms are a little pricey, but it's facinating to see all the variety that can be cultivated out here where it's moist.

More pictures of various trips to the PSU Market in this set on flickr! I'm pretty excited, although the Wednesday market near our place ends this week, it's coming back in the winter next year! We'll only end up with two weeks out of the year, in March, when there are no markets around us. Pretty cool, but I think we'll still miss the markets for those weeks!

Vegan Mofo: Stuffed Acorn Squash

2011-10-21T20:27:00.000-07:00

Okay, first off I could not eat all of that in one setting! So I stuffed some of the spill over back in the squash, wrapped in foil for the next day's lunch. Re-heating in the microwave was not hard at all, and it was just as tasty. The stuffing here was actually a leftover rice dish we'd had for dinner the night before. It had some soy curls, various veggies, and well, rice. For the squash dish bread crumbs/panko and carrots were added, plus my favorite part - Maple Syrup. It brought out the acorn squash-y flavor perfectly. Also, is it just me, or are acorn squashes just really cute? I'm not so sure we won't be bringing another one home from the market tomorrow morning!

Portland Walk: Pittock Mansion

2011-10-19T21:21:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year we walked up to the Pittock Mansion but didn't take the tour. Shortly thereafter there was a deal on LivingSocial for admission, which I quickly snapped up...but I either seem to use those right away or right before they expire. These tickets were about to expire November 1st. So we got some exercise & hiked up there again and this time we got to see the inside!

The main lobby is covered in marble, including frames around the entries to the study, elevator (century old elevator, completed in 1914) and halls off of the lobby. Light fixtures throughout the house were designed by Fred Baker "the foremost lighting designer in Portland" of the time, having also designed fixtures for the Portland Art Museum, the Timberline Lodge, The Ambassador Apartments and many other notable buildings.

The kitchen was actually pretty large. We speculated that the butlers pantry (a room between the kitchen and dinning room where the serving staff would set hot dishes down before serving them) was actually larger than our current kitchen. I was impressed by the restored linoleum flooring pattern's interlocking pattern.

The wallpaper in the bedrooms, look at it! Especially the green, I keep looking at that picture, it's lovely. Overall the house has been well restored and is just packed with information. While we were we visiting there were boards up about the anniversary of the Columbus Day storm and it's impact on the mansion. Also neat exhibit in the basement about Henry Pittock and his daughters (Lucy and Kate) interested in hiking and mountaineering. He was in one of the first Mt. Hood climbing parties, before they had proper protection for snowblindness.

Since we did walk up to the house we had time again to take in some of the houses in the area, and also nature! A flock of migrating cranes flew over us as we were heading up the hill. I heard them a few times before they were right above us, and I had been trying to sort out the odd sound. It was not very geese like, plus they seemed pretty big. Some inspection of our pictures and internet research and apparently Portland is right under the migration path and there have been many recent sightings. As a bonus, we saw two great big banana slugs on a mossy wall at the bottom of the hill. I prefer them greatly to the humongous spiders (almost the size of the fake spider Halloween decorations, I swear) I was trying to avoid.

Vegan Mofo: Bombay Chaat House Food Cart

2011-10-17T21:06:00.000-07:00

So I've gone a few short days without posting for Vegan Mofo because after we made tofu loaf, the lentil & sausage stew and picked up food from the Bombay Chaat House food cart, we had leftovers for many meals. We got 3 large meals out of the dinner we picked up Friday night at the food cart!

Bombay Chaat house is located 12th & Yamhill, which
is conveniently located for us. The cart is 100% vegetarian and they indicate that they can make most of their dishes vegan upon request. Yay!

In the picture above on the right are some appetizers and sauces. The pillowy crisps are Pani Puri which we had never tried before. The instructions were on the side of the cart (pictured on the left.) They are hollow, and came with a spicy potato mixture, which you put inside and then dip the whole thing in spiced water before eating it. It was very flavorful!

We also had another potato appetizer, the great big ball in the picture on the right was a Batata-Vada. Also very spicy! With two of the veggie dishes, and some vegan friendly naan, we had tons of food.

Vegan Mofo: Tofu Loaf with Green Beans

2011-10-12T20:37:00.000-07:00

Somehow in 10 or so years of cooking vegan I've never tried to make tofu loaf. Tempeh Loaf a few times, but never tofu. Last week I was browsing The Chicago Diner Cookbook and it occurred to me it might be interesting to try. I very loosely followed the recipe in there, substituting oats for sesame seeds, based on suggestions in recipes like this one. (Oprah even has a recipe for Tofu Loaf. Lots of ingredients in that one.)

I had a larger pan and less tofu on hand (it was 20oz.) than the recipes called for, so I improvised by adding the last two Tofurky sausages we had left. They were chopped and added after blending the tofu (with oil) in the food processor. They did a nice job of making the whole dish less tofu-flavored, which has perhaps been part of the reason I haven't tried it before. It also added some spices (it was the Italian style) in addition to the thyme I added. Other ingredients were shredded carrots (made it yellow!) and chopped onions.

We also had green beans, fresh from the farmer's market, on the side. Based on the suggestion in the Veganomicon, they were simply roasted with some olive oil, salt and pepper. Also turned a few hoagie rolls, picked up at the Pearl Bakery booth at the Saturday Market, into garlic bread slices. (Not all of their breads are vegan, but they are good about providing ingredient information) Chuck had done that earlier this week. I thought it was clever so I copied it. It made for pretty satisfying garlic bread.

The tofu loaf was good both with the last of our leftover mushroom gravy and without any topping, which we had tonight:

I can see making tofu loaf again, plus it makes about 3 meals worth of food!

Vegan Mofo: Coffee Cake with Prunes

2011-10-11T20:28:00.000-07:00

I have been looking for an interesting use for those gorgeous prunes we picked up at the market since last week. Shortly after we got them I saw this post (from Naked Vegan Lunch) in the Vegan Mofo rss feed about Hungarian Plum Dumplings. I was seriously considering trying those out right away, but I'm not sure how I feel about potato dough. Maybe another time, plenty of plums still showing up at the markets and I think I may still be intrigued. (As a side note, I've been keeping track of my favorite vegan mofo posts over on Pintrest, which you can see here.)

Then I was just googling, trying to decide what to do and streusels came up, which reminded me of the amazing Cafe Flora Coffee Cake that I hadn't tried to cook up for a long time. While we lived in Seattle I think we tried to each as much of their coffee cake as possible. Anyway, used the recipe from the Cafe Flora Cookbook which has several suggestions for variations of fruits. So I went with Italian prunes and a bit of cinnamon. The prunes were chopped into small chunks in the dough, and I sliced a few to put on top as well. Unfortunately, I am not so sure what I was thinking/doing when I made the crumbly topping, because I used too much margarine. But we saved it. It still tastes amazing, even if it's slightly mushier than it was supposed to be. I certainly don't mind having an excuse to make the coffee cake again in the near future, since it was the main recipe that convinced us we had to have this cookbook!

Finished knit: Two pairs of socks

2011-10-10T20:51:00.000-07:00

I got so behind on my blogging, I'm going to go ahead and post about the last two sock projects I did together (and right in the middle of Vegan Mofo...uh, sorry to anyone looking at my feet while trying to sort through food posts in the rss feed.)

On the left is a pair of hot pink (although the colorway was called wine...hm) Lindsay socks from the pattern in Cookie A.'s Sock Innovation. The yarn was Elann Esprit. On the right was a much simpler project, from No Sheep for You by Amy Singer. The pattern was the No Sweat Socks by Kate Atherley, and I knit them up in the pattern yarn, Knit One Crochet Two's Wick.

No surprise, the lacy ones were a bit tougher. I was making it even more challenging by using fewer stitches around and adjusting the pattern at the heel, etc., to accommodate. The lace pattern itself wasn't too bad at all, although I did find the knitting 4 stitches together a bit hard with this yarn/on small needles. I don't think I'd done a heel and toe construction quite like these before (all in garter stitch, and the toes is seamed on the bottom of the foot) so that made it even more tricky. But it seemed to turn out.

The simpler socks were a pattern that had been in my queue since I got that book a few years ago. I mainly just wanted to try out that wick yarn and see how well it works for socks. So when I saw the yarn in this great maizy-yellow at Yarn Garden on sale, I couldn't resist. I've only worn them once so far, but I like them. I actually find that the larger gauge on this pair is nice, kinda like I'm getting a massage from some knit stitches. I don't mind it!

Okay, now I think I'm caught up with my recent finished knits. Most of the rest of the posts this month will be about vegan food!

Vegan Mofo: Lentil & Sausage Soup

2011-10-10T20:34:00.000-07:00

More soup for weekday lunches! This one used dried lentils, Tofurky sausage, spices, and some of the fresh veggies we picked up at the market: zucchini, assorted peppers, and onion. You can see the veggies a little bit better in this picture of the pot. Parsley on the top was also fresh from the market, though there wasn't really any in the dish. I was also having some toast with vegan cream cheese on the side, which you can almost see in this picture. We've been having this for lunches though the weekend, and still have a bunch leftover for this week!

Vegan Mofo: Breaded Tofu & Twice Baked Potatoes

2011-10-09T21:29:00.000-07:00

Breaded tofu with mushroom gravy and twice baked potatoes! Tofu breading was made from wheat germ and flax seed meal and nutritional yeast with spices. The tofu was then baked at about 350 until it browned. the twice baked potatoes were cooked at the same time. Pretty standard preparation for those, using some parsley, garlic and pepper for flavoring.

The mushroom gravy was made from scratch using leftover flax seed meal, nutritional yeast and wheat germ from the tofu breading along with about 1/2 cup chopped mushrooms and soy milk. We actually had plenty of leftover gravy from this that we've been using on various dishes all weekend.

I have to mention, also, that we finally stopped at the vegan bar The Sweet Hereafter. We just stopped in for a quick drink, but I had "The Company Sazerac" which was lovely. Ever since Kim Dickens' character on Treme threw a Sazerac in food critic Alan Richman's face on this seasons Treme, I've really been wanting to try one. (I love that that's now mentioned in the wikipedia article for Sazerac!) So...it was at the top of the menu and there was no way I could order anything else...Chuck had a North Williams, which also seemed pretty nice!

Vegan Mofo Day 6: Fancified Tater Tots

2011-10-08T20:45:00.000-07:00

Loosely inspired by the white truffle fries at Violetta (a food cart which also has a permanent home in Director Park as well) we decided to fancy up some frozen tater tots this week. We happened to have some black truffle oil which does have a somewhat different flavor than the white used at Violetta. After the tots cooked in the oven they were simply sprinkled with the oil, a bit of salt and parsley to dress up a snack!

Vegan Mofo Day 5: Hot Lips Pizza

2011-10-07T19:23:00.000-07:00

Vegan pizza is everywhere in Portland. When we first moved here we'd take walks and Chuck would tell me which vegan or vegan-friendly pizza place we were closest too along with all their various attributes. He still does that actually, there are just so many we still haven't tried. Wednesday night we ate out (disregarding fridge full of farmer's market goodies cause sometimes it's just nice to eat out, especially if you were out doing stuff and it seemed like a good idea to avoid what the locals called a monsoon.) at Hot Lips Pizza, a local chain. They are a pretty great chain, really attempting to use and sell a lot of local items. They have a large and lovely beer and wine selection, as well as several beers on tap (which is usually what we go for!) They also make their own sodas, also available on tap.

For this trip the vegan option was loaded with their pesto sauce and veggies (they have several vegan friendly options, as much as I love pesto, I think their squash sauce is my favorite) and they also use daiya vegan cheese. We like it spicy so we also added some habanero sauce and pepperoncinis. We have three or four of their locations we frequent and it's always a comfortable and friendly environment, as well as having great vegan pizza!

Vegan Mofo Day 4: Soy Curls

2011-10-06T20:19:00.000-07:00

When we moved to Portland last fall I had never heard of Soy Curls. It wasn't long before we became very familiar with them. A lot of the vegan friendly food carts and restaurants use them in all sorts of dishes. They are dehydrated textured soy protein. They are so common here in Portland because they are made fairly locally, in Grande Ronde, OR by Butler Foods. (Use this link however to find out where to buy in other states!) They look like this when you get them:

The name sounded like some kind of snack to me when I first heard it. Out of curiosity, I popped one in my mouth to see how edible they are before you cook with them. It can be done and it's not awful but they are way better cooked. Here's our dinner with rice & leftover biscuits from the night before!:

If it had to be compared to meat, I suppose it's most like chicken in texture, but it's pretty refreshing that none of the packaging tries to make the comparison. As with most vegan protein options, it does its own thing, which is being really yummy!

P.S. Soy Curl became our nickname for our cat Lucy this week due to the picture of her curled up in her snugly cat bed!

Vegan Mofo Day 3: Spaghetti Squash and Dinner Rolls

2011-10-05T21:23:00.000-07:00

Spaghetti Squash is a really neat thing! Basically we made a simple sauce with tomato based sauce (and we threw in some broccoli.) We used the squash in place of the pasta. It makes a good side, or a nice light meal. We tried something a little new to us this week and picked up a Stripetti spaghetti squash, which is a hybrid of a traditional spaghetti squash and and delicata squash. (I guessed as much from the stripey appearance & the delicatas nearby at the market) but this ehow page was handy in confirming that. Turns out there are 3 other spaghetti squashes I would love to try.

Also pictured are Granny's Hurry Up Dinner Rolls (link to the recipe from vegweb) Which turned out really well. They have a just bit of sugar in them, but otherwise tasted a lot like rolls my Mom typically makes at thanksgiving, but vegan.

Above is what the squash & its innards actually looked like, simply cut it in two, baked it, & then remove the innards. When we've had traditional spaghetti squash in the past. That variety seemed to produce longer, more linguine like strands. But both of these taste pretty great and are perfect if you're looking for a lighter alternative to pasta.

Vegan Mofo day 2: Pea Soup with Biscuits

2011-10-04T18:02:00.000-07:00

Well, in retrospect, that was a lot of pepper! Sunday night we made a simple Split Pea soup with biscuits, & dumplings. Also had some leftovers for lunches during the week. The soup was made simply, with spices, carrots, water, and dried peas. We let it simmer for about about an hour and a half.

We sampled some french toast from Mom's Vegan Kitchen at the VegFest NW last month. They are based here in Portland, so it's easy to find mixes at Whole Foods, Food Fight, etc. but they are also available from some online retailers, listed on the website. We tried out the mix for both the dumplings (dropped in the soup) and the biscuits (baked.) Both were quite yummy.

Chuck regularly makes dumplings in the soup, so here he is doing the fun part. About 20 minutes before the soup was done simmering the mixed up biscuit mix got added. They turned out just right, very delicious both ways.

Vegan Mofo Day 1: Trip to the market

2011-10-01T19:12:00.000-07:00

Today is day one of the Vegan month of food (vegan mofo)! I participated once before, in 2008. The last few years I've been more of a casual observer, but I can tell you there are lots of awesome posts including reviews, recipes, and more happening all month long. I'm pretty excited about participating this year, although I signed up on a whim, but I hope it will motivate lots of cooking and experimenting this month. And, hey, if not maybe I can just review lots of great vegan and vegan friendly restaurants here in PDX instead.

Saturday was a pretty great day to start vegan mofo, since the Portland State University farmer's market is on Saturdays almost all year long. It just seems appropriate to have the first post be about stocking up. We got a few things, pictured above. A bag of peppers, Italian prunes, Acorn & Spaghetti Squash, tomatoes, Apple & pear cider, and zucchini. No particular plans just yet, but I'm sure Chuck & will come up with something.

We also treated ourselves to some morning snacks for all of our shopping effort. One of our favorites, Petunia's Pies & Pastries, had a fancy pancake sandwich. I was more in the mood for a muffin, so I picked up a marionberry muffin (the marionberry was developed here in Oregon, FYI, and it's one of my favorites) from Blacksheep Bakery. There's definitely no shortage of vegan options here in Portland.

Finished Knit: Leaf Yoke Top

2011-09-29T09:09:00.000-07:00

The Leaf Yoke Top by Angela Hahn from Knit.1, Spring/Summer 2009 (incidentally the last issue ever made, though I'm still holding out hope that this magazine comes back some day.) Went into my queue on Raverly as soon as I got this issue. It already calls for a vegan yarn, Tahki Nova. On top of that, the yarn has sparkle to it, and I'm a sucker for that. So I'd long ago decided that I would make this, and I would do it in the yarn the pattern calls for. When I found the yarn marked down at elann, I couldn't help myself.

So I just knit two brown lace tank tops, one after the other. That's okay I like brown. I do remember telling myself while I was trying to decide on colors that green might make more sense since I just finished the lotus top. I don't know what happened, I guess I was just more drawn to the brown.

I am not quite as thrilled with how this turned out, but I knit it up very quickly. It turned out a bit big, for some reason, even though I had gauge. The arm holes, especially, turned out large, which makes it too awkward to wear on its own. That's okay, I suppose, since I intend to mostly wear it over a shirt, like the one pictured above. But it does make me tempted to try this pattern again one day to get the right fit. The more I knit, the more I understand about gauge, sizing, ease, and all that good stuff.

The lace yoke is really fun to knit up. After that it's just plain stockinette, which is a bit boring, but I always get really focused on it, trying to plow my way through to the end.

Anyway, I've got two more projects to post about, socks, and a work in progress that should be finished soon, before I'm caught up with blogging about my latest projects. I also signed up to do the Vegan Mofo again this year, which means there should be lots of blogging in the month of October! Which starts this weekend? Yeesh, how did October get here so soon!

Wildllife: Vaux's Swifts

2011-09-25T13:35:00.000-07:00

I agree that bird watching is exciting, however, we were not expecting a crowd this large:

Of course, it was a really lovely evening, with a very pretty sunset and a view of Mt. St. Helen's. And what a pleasant thing to do with your evening. This turns out to be a pretty significant bird watching event. Every September Vaux's Swifts come by the thousands to roost in the chimney of Chapman Elementary School before they migrate for the winter.

It was impressive and neat to watch. Apparently a few years ago some predatory birds figured out this would be a nice place to grab a snack. While we watched, a falcon picked off at least two of the swifts. It happened a little too quickly to catch with my camera, but it definitely added to the excitement. The swifts will continue to perform at dusk through roughly the end of September before moving on for the winter.

Additional Reading:

West Coast Swifts
Audubon Portland Swift Watch 2011
Oregon Live: Migrating Swifts Draw a Crowd

Favorite Episodes: Fraggle Rock

2011-09-24T18:56:00.000-07:00

It would have been Jim Henson's 75th birthday today, which you might already know because of the google doodle. I am a big fan of pretty much everything he did, but especially The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, The Storyteller, & Fraggle Rock. I found out two things last year that lead to re-watching the whole Fraggle rock series with Chuck: Chuck had not watched much of it (he didn't have cable. I think I watched it in obessively re-runs on TNT since we didn't have HBO, which is where it first aired.) And it was all available streaming on Netflix (still is, if you haven't abandoned ship due to their recent changes.) Even as an adult with no kids I still love the show to pieces. I even remember the lyrics to most of the songs, although I hadn't watched it for years. Here are a few of my favorite episodes, although I'm sure if I watched again this list might change. There were many great episodes!:

Season 1 Episode 18 - The Minstrels

I basically think Jim Henson is Cantus, the wandering minstrel. He does do the voice. In this episode he helps Red, who is more athletically inclined, find her song.

Season 1 Episode 19 - The Great Radish Famine

For the Knitting Song, in the video above, mainly. The Doozers are just so neat. In later episodes a girl doozer, Cotterpin, wants to be an architect. That plays out over several episodes in season 3.

Season 3 Episode 8 - Believe it or Not
I was so impressed with the ambition of this episode, there's a character that required four or five different, very large puppets in a flooded basement. We watched some extras and the writer of this episode talked about how she thought the script asked too much and they wouldn't be able to do it, but it was a good story so they did it.

Season 5 Episode 6 - Beyond the Pond

Red, trying to kill off some weeds in her pond, ends up following the roots to find a new kind of fraggle who are dependent on the roots for survival.

Season 5 Episode 13 - Change of Address
The last episode. Everything the last episode of the show needed to be. I didn't really remember it from my childhood viewing so it caught me off guard.

Happy Birthday Jim!

Non-Specific Dates & Hats

2011-09-19T18:27:00.000-07:00

Sometime around early June marked our tenth anniversary together. (We've never kept track of the specific day.) And sometime mid-August marked the one year anniversary of moving to Portland. So we have some new hats. Everyone in Portland has a hat.

Finished Knit: Lotus Blossom Tank

2011-09-14T17:38:00.000-07:00

Okay, okay, I've heard that there have been some complaints about the fact that I haven't been blogging at all for a few months now...which is something that I never really intended to happen. It was hot, lots was happening and I got a bit overwhelmed with where to start once I fell behind.

Knitting seems like the most natural place to start since I'm now at least 3 finished objects (F.O.s) behind in posting about it here. Starting chronologically with my Lotus Blossom Tank, which I'm thrilled about:

The pattern is the Lotus Blosson Tank by Sharon Shoji from The Best of Interweave Knits. The yarn is what the pattern called for: Southwest Trading Company Bamboo, in Chocolate. I picked it up years ago at a sale at the Fiber Gallery in Seattle, with this project in mind. However it took me a few years, and a few false starts, before I actually felt up to a lace this fancy. I am really happy with the yarn/pattern combination too. With that much effort in lace, it turns in to something with a really lovely drape, that feels fancy to wear. Plus, for some reason, it smells amazing. It was always my favorite yarn in my stash for that reason, and I'm glad it still smells as good now that it's a garment!

I added repeats of the lace pattern because I didn't really want something cropped. The pattern only calls for 4, and I knit 6. This was no problem; once I was used to the lace pattern it wasn't hard at all. My main issues in previous attempts involved it being my first in-the-round lace work and the fact that that lace pattern was a full ten rows before a repeat. But that seems like nothing now! Bring on more lace!

Anyway, I will be posting more often again, though I'm not sure how often yet...I've got at 3 more posts about knitting, and I may do some about what we've been up to over the blogging break.

To quickly name a few of the major things we've been doing: Rose Festival,Vegan Iron Chef, Ecotrust concerts, Parents visited, Cannon Beach, Pickathon, Seaside, OR, Knit Picks Warehouse Sale, and MusicFestNW.

Oh and Portlandia was filming right down the street from where we live! I came pretty close to Fred & Carrie in matching red vests heading toward their trailers while I was coming back from a Farmer's Market...but I just smiled at them like a fool. Should I have yelled "Put a bird on it" ? (I'm sure they get that too much.) As I recall I was wearing something handmade (probably knit) that did not have a bird on it...maybe I should have pointed that out. Next time...I will probably react the same way.

Lucy: Mostly healthy, YAY!

2011-06-28T18:56:00.000-07:00

Lucy went into the vet today. Unlike last time,we just wanted to get her in for a routine check up and teeth cleaning. After seeing all the crystals that came out of her bladder last year, it was a relief to find out that her urinalysis was clean. Unfortunately, she's on prescription wet food to help with that, and wet food doesn't offer the same teeth cleaning benefits as dry food. She had to have two teeth extracted and is now one antibiotics and pain medication for a little while. Fortunately this time neither are bubble gum flavored (cats don't like that...) and we're just relieved she didn't have any bigger problems. I'm also hoping, for her sake, that we have several more sunny afternoons so she can enjoy rolling around in the sun while she gets better! Please cooperate Portland?

Finished Knit: Thank You Socks for Chuck

2011-06-27T19:21:00.000-07:00

Pattern: Freshman Cable Socks by Star Athena from Interweave Knits, Fall 2009

Yarn: Elann Esprit, in Charcoal

This is my first pair with the oodles of Elann Espirt yarn Chuck bought me a while back. I made these as a thank you for the yarn, and also for helping with my booth at Crafty Wonderland! It's harder than I would've thought to find a nice simple sock pattern for a guy. Lace socks are fun, but that's definitely not okay. And Chuck was skeptical of cables but this pattern was nice and simple.

I did the foot a little incorrectly (I wasn't in the mood to be careful about following the pattern when I did the first half of the pair, I guess) but it still works. I'm sure chuck won't mind. And these were knit on US1 needles...which makes for a very cozy pair of socks. The next pairs I knit will be on bigger needles...that small was rough on my hands and my new needles. So I didn't swatch and found this out the hard way, but the socks still fit fine, and they are finally done! Maybe the next pair will go faster.

Saturday Market Photo

2011-06-11T15:21:00.000-07:00

From a plant vendor at last Saturday's PSU Market in the South Park Blocks.

Wildlife: Osprey at Tanner Springs

2011-06-08T06:52:00.000-07:00

A few weekends ago we watched an Osprey catch a fish. Of course at first we thought maybe it was a peregrine falcon. It took a passerby asking if we'd caught a picture of the Osprey, then some review of our photos and googling to determine that was correct. Very cool, since we've never seen an Osprey before! This article talks about the birds. We walked into the park thinking "hmm...I could've sworn there were more koi last time we were here." And now we know why. We watched him hang out on several balconies, and the metal awning of the building pictured above, much to the dismay of smaller birds in the area who made a few futile attempts to get him to leave. He swooped down a few times with no luck until finally he swooped down right above a couple of kids, grabbed a koi and flew off, around the corner to enjoy his feast. I felt very satisfied for him, even though it was just a captive pool of fish.

Tanner Springs is one of my favorite small parks in Portland, and one of the main reasons for that is the attempt to reintroduce native plant life and tanner creek (a creek that used to flow on the surface of the area, but was rerouted to flow below ground through pipes.) It's very cool that the park has brought back some wildlife as well, even if they're coming for captive fish who weren't really supposed to be in the park in the first place (according to the article linked above, people in the area started dumping them in the park at night, much to the dismay of park officials.)

Kenton Street Fair

2011-06-06T20:15:00.000-07:00

I've been falling way behind in my posts! A few weekends ago we headed over to the Kenton Street Fair on Sunday afternoon. I didn't really know much about the neighborhood or fair beforehand, which seemed like a really good reason to make our way out there.

The Kenton neighborhood is home to a big Paul Bunyan Statue, pictured above. He greeted us right when we got off the train. It was built in 1959 as part of the Oregon Centennial celebrations, and added to the National Register of Historic Places recently, in 2009. Amusingly, he's facing this sign. We spotted a crowd of paul bunyans at the Salvage Works & I later found out that was all part of the festivities.

Music, crafts and fancy cars. Of course my favorite was the Yarn car, a car carefully covered in strands of yarn. It was a nice set of blue colors too, and the vanity plate even said "yarncar." Of course I was there for the crafts, and I was smitten with a bag right when we walked in to the fair. After perusing the whole event, I decided it was my favorite thing there and I had to have it. (Even though we strolled through the fair twice, that's still pretty impulsive compared to my usual shopping style.) It was from Zig & Hersh, & looks much like this one except it's a mossy Portland green. I've been carrying it ever since!

Live Music: Mississippi Ave.

2011-05-26T19:23:00.000-07:00

Last week I fairly spontaneously purchased tickets to see Joan as Policewoman at Mississippi Studios for last Saturday night. Chuck pretty quickly agreed we should go since it had been too long since our last show and he declared we could check out a place with vegan pizza over there that he's been wanted to visit for a while, Mississippi Pizza Pub. We great pizza and beer there, the place was crowded but laid back, and about half way through our meal there was entertainment. Local swing jazz trio Boy & Bean (note that their site plays music upon opening), pictured above, made us want to spend all of our weekends on Mississippi Ave.

Mississippi Studios is a recently renovated venue; work was completed in 2009. Local architects Sum Design Studio designed the space which features steel and glulam beams, red walls & old theater seats. It's also decorated with re-purposed drums as lights behind the stage, and old light fixtures, a reminder that the rebuilding center is right down the street. You can just barely make them out in this picture, on the left, but I really liked the chipboard guitars hanging on the wall...after years in architecture school it almost seems like something I'd enjoy making, but on second thought they look like a heck of a lot of hard work, involving intense cutting and gluing. Very impressive

I suppose because I've seen that so many musicians I like have played there since we moved here, it fell pretty high up on my list of Portland music venues to check out. (We definitely need to check out the Doug Fir soon though.) It was smaller than I was expecting, which was great. The first opening band (local group Themes) played on a nice rug on the floor in front of the stage. This made for a very quick transition time between acts, and a night filled with lots of music. The second opening act was Bhi Bhiman from San Francisco, who took the stage alone with his guitar, almost crowded out by Joan's equipment. His guitar skills and songwriting impressed us.

And then Joan Wasser is just very cool. Her outfit was all black, with open strips in the back. It seemed like she was having a great time. She even mentioned that Mississippi Ave was "dangerous" because of all of the cute shops and she was glad she didn't have more time to spend on it. I think the highlight of the show, for me was the performance of their song "Save Me" which was dedicated to the rapture.

We had a weekend full of music! There's always live music at the PSU farmer's markets. And friday night we went to Al's Den at the newly completed Crystal Hotel to check out more free music, Brian Bonz. That's also a really cool space with really good music. A little closer to where we live too, but Mississippi Ave. is too cool not to go back often.

Finally!: The Portland Aerial Tram

2011-05-25T19:08:00.000-07:00

We've just been waiting for a perfectly clear day to go up in the aerial tram. Last week had several, so last Thursday night we walked over to the South Waterfront and took a Tram ride. It's only $4 to go up, and then free to come back down. It's also covered by monthly bus passes and is used by commuters going to and from the Oregon Health and Sciences University, which is located at the top of Marquam Hill.

It was the clear day we'd been waiting for, with amazing views of Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens. I'm kind of glad the ride only lasted about 3 minutes, otherwise I would've completely embarrassed Chuck by singing the Portland theme song from Portlandia, as inspired by this video.

Vegan Treats: Petunia's Has Punch Cards!

2011-05-24T18:59:00.000-07:00

Smart move! I think, as you might be able to tell from my various posts on the subject, we were pretty likely to keep eating vegan treats from Petunia's Pies & Pastries every weekend without the punch card. Her stuff is all over, and it's always reliably yummy. Since the Farmer's Market started she has had something exciting and new every week. And I follow her on facebook, so last week I had my order figured out mid-week. All that was left was the matter of making it there early, before she sold out! Mmmm...Chocolate Hazelnut Carmel Cream Filled Cupcake, Just look:

And Chuck always loves a good doughnut, his was apple cinnamon. Anyway...so she has punch cards now and we've already got 4 out of 12 checked off. At the rate we're going we will get our free treat by June 25th!

Umbrella Saga

2011-05-23T18:58:00.000-07:00

I bought a bunch of new umbrellas the weekend before last, including the two pictured and one (boring black) one for Chuck too. It had been really rainy, but ever since I made the umbrella purchase it's been mostly sunny and much more spring like. So I might as well blog about the umbrellas too, in the hopes of keeping up the trend.

Anyway a while ago, shortly before we moved out to Portland, I had decided I needed this umbrella for this city. It's been sold out on modcloth since I first saw it, but still I needed it. Then recently I decided I was going to get it if at all possible and even sent Chuck to scour the internet along with me to find out who made it, where else it was available, and if I could buy it. We didn't really have any luck with that.

Then over the weekend I decided we should check out Nordstrom Rack for some new sheets, and I figured I would settle for whatever the best second option - some kind of plain bubble-type umbrella - they had available. And they had the umbrella I'd been looking for. Not in the Gold, but still in a metallic silver (and also black) after a few weeks of using it (only a little bit for sprinkles here and there) I think I've decided I like the silver better. I wear a lot of gray stuff and it goes nicely. Plus it was Nordstrom Rack so it was cheaper!

I also bought myself a purse umbrella, the colorful striped one above. I'm finally prepared for Portland...now I hope it doesn't rain too much.

Thank you Crafty Wonderland!

2011-05-16T19:35:00.000-07:00

Yeah, it's been over a week since Crafty Wonderland and I haven't blogged about it yet....gave myself a little break from blogging for the week after. We had fun, sold some things, & made many people smile at the triangle cats. Even sold a few, the large white kitty and a little kitty went home as a mother's day gift, very cute. It a was pretty fun day. Oh, and I got rid of something like 3/4 of the box of business cards I just bought & that's pretty cool.

We sat next to cool people too: Rachel Blumberg, Hoot Hoot PDX!, and olbapi! And across Gadget Cozies, of which I had some of my own to sell. But that's okay, Gadget Cozies was friendly and leaned more toward the larger scale devices: laptops, etc., whereas my knit cozies focus on the little (easier to knit) e-readers. We used the square device to take credit cards on my phone. It was my first time with it and it was pretty cool, and kind of fun to use too! We also managed to get ourselves to the show and back by lugging all our stuff via public transit. Here's a funny picture of me right before the show, looking slightly frazzled:

And here are some more pics of my displays:

We managed to find time to make pom-poms for the banner too (see the first pic above)...well actually Chuck should get credit for almost all of them after getting some minimal instruction from me. He was helpful with so many things during and in the weeks before the show! I think he even had fun too. Yay! After a short, week long break from knitting too, I just started a pair of hand-knit socks for him as a thank you. It only seems fair.

Crafty Wonderland is Next Weekend!

2011-04-30T09:57:00.000-07:00

One week from today! I'm really excited, but I have so much left to do! I haven't put my Etsy Shop on vacation mode yet, but that will probably happen later this week! I've been knitting up a bunch of e-reader, I-pad and cell phone cozies, I've got a big pile of triangle cats in the apartment, and we will be working on some new card designs this weekend. If you're in Portland, come to the convention center next weekend to check it all out in person. And get there very early for the free goodie bags, which I'm sure will be packed with awesome but will be gone very quickly!

Vegan Treats: More Petunia's!!

2011-04-27T21:34:00.001-07:00

Over the weekend we once again had amazing treats from Petunia's Pies & Pastries at the PSU Farmer's Market. It's too hard to resist! This time I had a lemon tart, with strawberries, soo good, and Chuck had a Gooey Pecan Roll. According to facebook, there will be more of these at the market this weekend if you can get there early enough!

Here are some other pretty things from the market. Had to have tulips for Easter, and Chuck with a bag of potatoes. Potatoes are always good. It was such a bright sunny day last Saturday, I hope we have the same kind of weather this Saturday!

Roller Derby! Rat City vs. Rose City

2011-04-26T20:38:00.000-07:00

We went to roller derby over the weekend, to see the Rat City Rollers (Seattle) play the Rose City Rollers (Portland.) We went to Roller Derby quite a bit in Seattle after seeing them play Key Arena at Bumbershoot one year. Roller Derby is pretty much the only sport that either the boyfriend (Chuck) or I enjoy watching. This was an exhibition bout, and all of Seattle's teams played all of Portland's in 30 min long games. So we went not sure who to root for. Seattle, after all, had a really good documentary made about them, Blood on the Flat Track and we are most familiar with their teams. Still, we were anxious to learn more about our current hometeams!

Okay, so I was rooting for my favorite team from Seattle, the Derby Liberation Front, to win the first bout. Burnett Down was our favorite roller girl, but I guess she retired in 2009. And DLF lost to the Portland Team, Break Neck Betties! Other than that I hadn't decided who to root for. Guns'n'Rollers (pictured above) made a pretty great entrance, and the hot pink zebra print is great. But, they played the Throttle Rockets and lost. Grave Danger, from Seattle, beat the Heartless Heathers by quite a bit.

The High Rollers (from Portland, pictured above) played the best game of the night against the Sockit Wenches. Hurricane Skatrina & Honey Hellfire were great jammers for the Portland team. All in all it was a fun evening, and it had us wishing we'd managed to check out the Windy City Rollers when we lived in Chicago! Maybe we can take my parents some time when I make it back for a visit?

Music on Monday: PJ Harvey is Awesome

2011-04-25T20:24:00.000-07:00

I am currently obsessing over the video (and of course the song) for PJ Harvey's The Words that Maketh Murder from her new album Let England Shake. I love the way it drops in and out of the produced version of the song to give you a feel of being there with PJ Harvey when she's writing the song. It gives me chills.

The video for Let England shake has a similar mood:

PJ Harvey is at the top of my list of people I must see live and has been for a while now...

Happy Easter/Earth Day Weekend!

2011-04-24T14:54:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I'm not making bunnies, but kitties + tulips is Spring-y and Easter-y right? Plus we picked up a bunch of vegan treats at the vegan bake sale at Food Fight's Warehouse. There was also a pretty big Earth Day festival going on across the street. Not to mention all the intense sunshine we had yesterday. It was nice for a change, but I'm glad we're back to the normal overcast weather (with occasional sunshine!) today because I was getting tired of squinting/kicking myself for forgetting my sunglasses all day long.

Anyway, hope everyone is having a happy Easter today, with lots of bunnies and spring flowers! And Sunshine if you're into that sort of thing.

Links: Easter & Spring Craft Projects

2011-04-23T11:48:00.000-07:00

Easter is tomorrow, and I've been so busy, so I doubt I'll find the time to do any of these crafts this time. That doesn't mean I'm not excited about all the great tutorials for spring and Easter, and the least I can do is share some of my favorites!

Bunnies are required!

If I make anything it will probably be this origami bunny, because I find origami quick fun and satisfying. If I had much more time to spend though, the free project from lark books and Sleepy King on Etsy is really cute. Lastly I have a feeling the tiny bunnies from mochimochiland wouldn't take very long if my knitting needles weren't currently so occupied.

I've been looking at a lot of paper flower projects lately, before I got into Crafty Wonderland I was planning on making a spring wreath. I even picked up a straw wreath from the dollar store with a plan to cover in paper flowers. This tutorial from A Little Hut was my favorite by far. Maybe the spring wreath will happen after the show is over.

As for spring fashion, I think crafting for that could really happen whenever. A cable braided bag from the Purl Bee, and I must make this hex nut bracelet because I love re-purposing things found in a hardware store:

(though I guess if this is my idea of spring fashion, it's a little gray. But the hex nuts are shiny and they will catch the sun!) Anyway, if I manage to find time for any of these crafts I will be sure to post about it here!

Note: Many these are on my Pintrest profile, which I just started recently if you are interested in following me do so here!

Vegan Treats : Cloud 7 Cafe

2011-04-21T18:43:00.000-07:00

Bare light bulbs everywhere we went this weekend in Portland! This is above the counter at Cloud 7. They have fantastic coffee, they really know what they are doing. They brew Intelligentsia coffee (which was founded in Chicago) with a pour-over technique. They also use Intelligentsia cups, mine was the large latte cup with a cute red star at the bottom that made smile, while Chuck's looked similar but slightly more masculine (and no red star.) He also wants one of these Coffee Kettles of which I saw three. So they scored a lot of pints with use design-wise, plus it was a cozy place to be. It's located right next to Jamison Square in the Pearl District for fun people (lots of families and dogs!) watching.

Petunia's Pies & Pastries are also everywhere, which is great because they are vegan and so good. We went to Cloud 7 on Saturday, having missed her at the market earlier, so we managed to still get our treats. Chuck had the crispy bar, which was already a favorite. I had a chocolate banana peanut butter cupcake and that was just the best that peanut butter icing can be done, I think.

Portland Walks: Checking out the Gerding Theater

2011-04-20T19:25:00.000-07:00

Since we've been very busy lately, this past weekend we just took a simple, but long, walk over to the Pearl District. Stopping in a few places, Storables, Cargo, and Cloud 7 Cafe for treats. But we also stopped in the Gerding Theater to check out the lobby space. Since it's a neat old armory building I figured it would be pretty interesting inside, but it was even cooler than I expected. It's a LEED Platinum Building (the highest rating a building can get, so green it's the type of project they want to encourage so they waive the fees for projects that achieve platinum.) by GBD Architects based here in Portland.

Really great details old & new. A wall of red glass light fixtures behind the main stair. The original wood structure (painted white) is impressive, curved, lapped, bolted together. Metal ties span the space, supporting the original walls (visible in the upper left of the picture on the right above.) And light bulbs supported on oval shaped struts, which echo the oval shaped two story space. It's an appealing space to be in, and seeing a show here is now on my list of things to do in the very near future!

Etsy Treasuries: Playing with Type

2011-04-17T19:43:00.000-07:00

I created two new treasuries this weekend on the theme of letters and typography. the first was inspired by finding fluxglass via my suggested shops. After seeing the Ampersand mirror, I couldn't resist finding out what other great ampersand items there might be on etsy, and a treasury was born:

But then this is what Chuck thought I was doing, spelling out my name. 4 letters across, four spaces in each treasury row. After he pointed that out I couldn't resist!:

Just a little etsy treasury/typography fun this weekend as a quick distraction from preparations for Crafty Wonderland!

Pittock Mansion Deal

2011-04-14T19:39:00.000-07:00

If you're in Portland, and you read my blog, you might be interested in today's deal from LivingSocial. Back in February we climbed up to the mansion but didn't go for a tour. Ever since I've been wanting to go back! I signed up for Living Social a few months ago when they had a deal on Amazon gift certificates, and I haven't really seen anything I'm interested in for a while, but today was an exception. And they have a referal program, so if three people use my link (by clicking on the photo above) to buy the deal, I guess I get it free! The deal expires soon, so don't put it off if this appeals to you! It's a good deal free or not, and I can't wait to see the mansion's interiors.

Family Photos

2011-04-13T19:30:00.000-07:00

My Grandma recently sent me a bunch of old photos of myself. Chuck scanned them and adjusted the faded colors somewhat and I just thought I'd share a few:

That's me on the tire swing. I like my hot pink corduroys. Can you buy those now, haven't they come back in style? I will totally buy a pair if I see them. And then that's me and my grandpa ("papaw") on a beach.

Me in a hat (strikes me as a little clockwork orange looking, but I didn't see that until I was much older.) And my Mom in some neat purple and white big sunglasses.

Work In Progess: Clowder of Cats

2011-04-10T17:47:00.000-07:00

Apparently I have choices for how I refer to a group of cats: clowder, cludder, clutter, kendle or kindle of cats. All very cute. Anyway, I thought since I have Kat in my shop name, it was finally time to try to get some cats made for selling. So today we went to pick up some yarn for this (and other) purpose(s). I've finished my first larger cat in gray, well except for the face and other finishing. I'm hoping I can make up a few more larger kitties and some smaller kitties the size of my previous triangle cats. Okay, enough blogging, off to furiously knit up a kindle of cats and a bunch of kindle cozies!

Also note, in anticipation of the show my shop has had some of my usual selection deactivated for the month. It will be back to normal some time after the show! (Mid to late May, or early June? We shall see how it goes!)

Crafty Wonderland!

2011-04-09T19:26:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons I'm very busy is because I was accepted to Crafty Wonderland's Super Colossal Spring Sale on May 7th! Not very far off, so while I'm trying to keep up with blogging, I may not be able to maintain a post a day. Or if I do they may be picture heavy. I'll try to keep checking in a few times a week though, and hopefully post pictures of our preparations for the sale. Above is a picture of a banner we just made for the table! But there's so much more to do....

Public Art: A New Sculpture in Millennium Park

2011-04-08T21:08:00.001-07:00

New Sculpture Millennium Park
Originally uploaded by Straw Man

This photo is by my Dad, from his photostream on flickr. It's of some really cool new art in Millennium Park The artist is Yvonne Domange. Her portfolio is very cool, and as architects, we are especially impressed with her stairs.This and my Dad's other recent pictures of the fogginess are really making me wish I could fly down to Chicago this weekend for a visit, and to check out this piece in person!

Lucy is Adjusting

2011-04-07T21:07:00.000-07:00

Chuck and I have suddenly both become very busy and Lucy is having to adjust. She gets so excited when we get home and just wants to sit on us to make sure we stay put. The poor sweetie.

Isn't she so cute? We wish we could spend our days with you cute kitty. You are so sweet.

Vegan Dining: Blossoming Lotus

2011-04-06T22:04:00.000-07:00

Yeah, we ate out twice last weekend just because it had been a while and we really need to explore all the vegan places Portland has to offer. Blossoming Lotus has been on the agenda for a while but we finally went for the first time Saturday afternoon (after sleet/hail, of which there was more of for just a few moments today. Spring in the Northwest is full of fun unpredictability in the form of freezing rain!)

Chuck had the Smoked Maple Tempeh and I couldn't resist the Spicy Butternut & Black Bean Chili Quesadilla. Quesadillas are always tricky to get or make vegan though. Without the cheese things do fall apart, usually. I thought the beans were going to help keep everything in place, but they didn't quite do that, so eating it was a bit of a struggle. However, it was really yummy. Chuck's wrap was really good (and stayed together a bit better.) I just had coffee, but Chuck ordered the strawberry banana milkshake....I was very sorry that I only got a few sips.

Their space is very cute, in a neat older storefront space on Broadway. Filled with art featuring birds and other animals. There were a pair of matching circular paintings of white barn owls (like in Labyrinth, yay!) that I particularly liked. Oh, and a very tempting cake from petunia's was on display. We'd just had some doughnuts from petunia's at the market that morning, but otherwise, very tempting...

Hmm...this has been a very food heavy week of blogging. Surprisingly our walks this weekend didn't involve stairs, but perhaps they are called for after having so much yummy food lately...

Market Meals

2011-04-05T23:13:00.000-07:00

The PSU Market has been going on for a few weeks now & we've been trying to make famer's market based meals. First yummy, yet simple, potato leek soup from a recipe from the Vegan Yum Yum cookbook. We had the soup with some crackers and Wayfare Hickory Smoked Vegan Cheese picked up at Food Fight! over the weekend. And more recently a stir fry with the bok choy and cabbage from the market.

And the easter bunnies I made last year are now out for display for the season, with a new daffodil (white-ish with pink-ish trim, so pretty) and tulip bouquet picked up at the last market! (that's the bunny nugget pattern found on Rebecca Danger's blog.) We are ready for easter and ready for more fresh market veggies!

Lloyd Center Mall

2011-04-04T20:52:00.000-07:00

Lloyd Center Mall is really easy to get to from downtown Portland. It's right off of one of the MAX stations, the last stop in the ride free area. We weren't out specifically to shop, however after the market, cherry blossoms, brief sleet on Saturday and a lunch out, we found ourselves in that area. Before we hopped on a train to get home I said "Lets go check out what this big mall is like."

Not too long ago I overheard some people talking about an ice skating rink inside a mall, but I didn't know where it was. Apparently it's right there. There were lots of kids out (I can't remember the last time I was in a shopping mall this crowded) and the ice looked pretty rough. A girl on the rink grabbed onto the rail near us and complained her feet hurt. I don't know if this would be the best place to ice skate, but I really like skating & this is closer to us than the roller rink...I might give it a try if I can figure out when it is less busy. According to wikipedia, this is where the infamous Tanya Harding first started to skate.

I was surprised to learn that Lloyd Center has been there, in one form or another, since 1960. We left the place saying "the dream of the 90s is alive in Portland" because it reminded both of us ohio natives of some of the shopping malls that came and went in that decade. Who knew there were still suncoast video stores, for example. According to this article, the mall was enclosed in 1990 and a food court and theaters were added. The place is huge, but has a lot more natural light than many shopping malls.

I've heard tales of people being stopped by mall security for taking photos, since it is a private building. (also interesting to note, Lloyd Center has been involved in supreme court cases on that subject) but I noticed parents taking pictures of the kids on the ice, so I thought I could get away with it. Hopefully that gives you a better idea of the natural light and the scale. With something like 200 shops, this place is pretty huge!

Vegan Dining: Sizzle Pie

2011-04-03T20:43:00.000-07:00

Sizzle Pie is a fairly new pizza place on Burnside, which just opened at the start of 2011. Chuck has something of a mental cell phone app that knows our proximity to vegan pizzas. I wanted to walk over the Burnside bridge to get yet another view of the Cherry Blossoms, which meant that Sizzle Pie wasn't out of the way for lunch.

This was essentially our breakfast and lunch. We ordered 2 slices each of the two vegan pizzas (which are in the top of the case in the photo on the left.) The brunch pizza (in the middle) is called Drugs Benedict and has tofu scramble, hash browns, vegan bacon bits and a really tasty bean sauce. We followed that immediately with our lunch, the Spiral Tap. Alternating stripes of caramelized onions and marinara sauce so it was pretty as well as really tasty. And of course we ordered beers.

Giving their menu a glance, I am really eager to try anything with their Basil Cashew Spread. And I'm highly amused with the Caligula salad with vegan ranch dressing. One morning when we're not quite as hungry we definitely have to go for the brunch special.

There's a nice set of photos of the interior here, and it's a nice clean, modern design: very comfortable. They have a jukebox and while we were there there was metal playing. Not usually my kind of music, but for a restaurant with the slogan "death to false pizza" it just felt right.

Just a few more pictures of Cherry Blossoms

2011-04-02T21:14:00.000-07:00

Okay I can't help myself I need to post a few more pictures of cherry blossoms. Of course we went back to the waterfront today to look at them more. It's too pretty to miss. Yesterday's post was mostly close ups, maybe I can change things up a bit by focusing on the trees and their context. I took tons of pictures, I know some of them should be like that. It probably helps that we did cross the river to take a look at the view today.

Even more in my waterfront set on flickr, and even more than that on my hard drive. By the way, it wasn't so sunny when these pictures were taken. Shortly after this we were hanging out in a stoop to avoid a bit of sleet. But it was sunny in the morning (for the market) and this passed quickly. It returned to a nice sunny afternoon, if just a little chilly.

Peak Cherry Blossom Day!

2011-04-01T18:57:00.000-07:00

Some of my family members were going to be in D.C. this past Tuesday for the peak of the cherry blossoms. When I heard that I thought, well Portland has cherry blossoms, I should go out Tuesday and see if that's the peak. I didn't manage to get out there Tuesday, but via timberpress on twitter I saw today was close to the peak for the blossoms on the river. Yay! I've been excited about those trees blooming since I saw they lined the river on our apartment hunting trip. Anyway, I had to get over there for pictures today & will probably go back over the weekend. It even ended up being a perfectly clear, warm & sunny afternoon. I've typed enough. This post really needs to be about the pictures of the gorgeous cherry blossoms!

And then some, and we might, possibly, go back over there over the weekend if it's sunny again. Many Portlanders were out taking pictures, also saw a picnicking family, and a bride & groom having their photos done. Spring is here!

Book: The Portland Stairs Book

2011-03-31T21:08:00.000-07:00

I really only meant to pick up a few knitting magazines today, but I picked up The Portland Stairs Book while I was in checkout. I couldn't bring myself to put it down. I was in love with it from the title alone. Then I saw the photos of stairs all over the city, so many I still need to explore. Also convincing: two pictures of cats and a chart with the location and exact number of steps to climb. This is perfect for me. Now I can see if my counts are correct!

I can definitely see this as a useful tool in planning our weekly walks. No more aimless wandering (well, we weren't completely aimless) we can now reference this book and pick the oldest/tallest/most refined/steepest. Stairs are also grouped nicely into different types: stairs with a story, stairs for sitting, etc. I especially like the stairs in public spaces section which features grand staircases in theater and government buildings. The author has put a lot of thought into all the different ways in which the stairs of Portland can be used.

There's a section on stair vocabulary, nice for those unfamiliar. For me, this was pretty completely covered in my architectural education so I like that that's towards the back and only a few pages in length. (For more extensive information on the subject, spend time with books by Frank Ching.) The book also features 5 treks with maps. I have a couple of books with this kind of map, and I always wonder if I'll ever actually do one of the routes per the book. Even if I piece it together over time, there is still a lot of handy information in there. You can't ever go wrong with maps.

In case you can't tell I'm pretty excited about finding this book! Even more so since she mentioned the view of the March & October skies as part of the payoff for getting to the tops of the stairs. We've definitely experienced some of that, but I'm hoping it holds up into April so I can see a little bit more of it. Maybe next time from the tallest set of stairs in town?

One Evening Knit: Cable Braided Necklace

2011-03-30T23:44:00.001-07:00

I enjoyed the Celtic knot necklace I made on St. Patrick's Day so much it got me thinking about other quick, one evening knitting projects that might be lurking in my ravelry queue. This one is a free pattern: the Cable Braided Necklace by Olga Buraya-Kefelian from her blog Olgajazzy. (I also got distracted while looking at the instructions by a link to a video for her infinite loop pattern, pretty neat idea!) It's made using two strips which each have many little holes for weaving them together. I really like the all white she used in her version, but I had some scrap sock yarn around. I thought I'd see what two different colors would look like for my first version of this pattern. Yep, I really like this pattern so I'm thinking it's pretty likely I'll make this again. Weaving the pieces together is the best part! While I was making it I couldn't help but wonder if it would work as a scarf with larger, bulky yarn.

The Yarn is Cascade Fixation, in Blueberry and Fern. I used the very last of the scraps, making me very scrap happy this evening!

Oh yeah! My Aunt sent me this ceramic button sometime last year. I really liked it when I received it, but I have been trying to figure out what to do with it for a while now. I thought it was a really good fit for the texture of this yarn and the colors. I also noticed that the original version used a ceramic button by Jenny Potter, whose stitch markers are lovely.

Etsy Treasuries: For Rain Lovers and Chefs

2011-03-29T21:54:00.000-07:00

I woke up one morning this weekend and found items from my shop featured in several treasuries!

Let it rain by ModMomME (in the widget above) features a pair of great raindrop earrings, and a vintage vinyl umbrella. I'm not surprised that umbrella has already sold; I guess I'm not the only one who has been on the look out for one.

For even more great rain picks, go over to Etsy to check out Blame it on the Rain by VenBead. Both treasuries feature my raincloud notepad, but the take on the color scheme is different in each!

Another theme that's gotten a double treatment lately is cooking! Secrets of a Restaurant Chef by JSTravelPics is above, I love the artichoke print. While the latter features the greens, Le Grande Chef by PeshtemalShop is more black metals and wood. Both feature my recipe cards.

Thanks to all the Etsy lovers who feature my items. I haven't made many treasuries recently, I'm waiting for inspiration to strike. When it does I hope my treasuries look as good as these do!

Also, only a few more days for the 10% discount in my shop for March. See this post for more details!

Portland Walks: Governors Park

2011-03-28T19:12:00.000-07:00

As it turns out there isn't so much of a Governors Park as it is just a natural area, set aside for wildlife and whatnot. Now that I've had time to properly research this, turns out it's just an undeveloped area in the Southwest Hills, set aside in 1894. Our usual Sunday afternoon walk was almost rained out this week, but the sky cleared up in the late afternoon. Not knowing how long this would hold up, I picked something close on google maps that we had yet to see. So our walk was more about houses and views, a perfectly acceptable alternative to a pair of architecture people.

I'm getting so that when I see what looks like over 100 stairs somewhere the urge to climb them is very compelling. This week it was about 178, we counted, and that was just to the mid-height level. As we were making our way up the rest of the slope, through the neighborhood I was caught taking pictures. This resulted in being inviting on a wonderful wrap around porch to take some pictures of the great view of the city. They also had a really cool old wooden birdhouse.

Once we saw the park (which involves nice trees and sign) we were headed downward again. That part of the neighborhood seemed to have quite a few more contemporary homes than other areas; a few of those are pictured above. The one on the right might look much smaller than the one on the left but don't forget it's on a hillside. It was a couple of stories tall to make up for that compact street front appearance. People in this part of town have some fun things too:

A weird little tri-wheeled car, a discoball in a greenhouse, and a sailboat mobile spinning in the wind!

Caturday Market Flowers

2011-03-27T12:58:00.000-07:00

Lucy doesn't really seem to like it when I put a camera in her face and yet somehow whenever I'm taking photos in the apartment she manages to stick her nose in it. Which is okay because she's adorable.

Anyway, I made it through the first market somehow managing to resist purchasing a bouquet but we knew that wouldn't last long. Most likely I was distracted by the vegan treats. Mainly daffodils right now, although I was also tempted by the booth selling bouquets of hellebores, and others with everlasting bouquets and wreaths. I might have been satisfied with a simple bunch of just daffodils, but this bouquet seemed like such an interesting choice of colors, purples and yellows, and for only $7!

We also bought leeks this week, a nice salad mix, and split a vegan treat from Black Sheep Bakery. I saw some lovely cabbage and bok choy, which I am going to think about finding some uses for this week so I can maybe get some of those next weekend! We went later in the day this week, and it looked like they were really selling out of goods. I think that means that Portland is really excited that the market is back!

Tumblr Finds March: Interiors, Sewing & Cats

2011-03-26T14:46:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's been about a month since I did my last post of Tumblr Finds! I noticed a lot of great interior design images this month, and lots of sewing inspiration, which can kind of go hand in hand. But, I thought I'd end this post with what honestly makes up most of my tumblr dashboard: kitties!

Interiors & Decor

Crib posted on kjerstis lykke, posted on the boo and the boy, on tumblr via Elephant on a Wire
Flour and Grain Sack Pillows from the blog The Style Files, on tumblr via The Architecture Blog
Teapot photo by Hillary Walker Melbourne based photographer, via Le Petit Poulailler

Sewing Projects

Stash Baskets found via Knitting, F**k Yeah! from The Purl Bee

Poem Quilt by Berlin Quilter found via Apotospitimou

Vinyl Belt Buckle & Belt Tutorial from A Lemon Squeezy Home, via Stitches and Purls

Cats

Girl Knitting with Cat via Mimisaurus

Cat with Leaf via F**k Yeah Felines!

Elizabeth Taylor with a Black Cat via missworld

And you can always view more of my tumblr favorites by browsing the archives, or checking in at emmakat.tumblr.com!

Finished Knit: Green Magic Slippers

2011-03-25T18:23:00.000-07:00

Pattern: Magic Slippers by Caroline Dlugy-Hegwer

Yarn: A small scrap ball of Berroco Comfort in Rabe left over from making Chuck's waffle hat in 2009.

My first successful baby booties! Well hopefully they are successful, we'll have to see how they fit. I think they should stretch to accommodate various sizes. After attempting the Saartje slippers and not being too happy with all the ends involved, I thought this pattern looked simpler. This is knit flat for the bottom, stitches are picked up for knitting in the round, and then it is just a basic garter stitch with a few decreases. It seemed like a good starting place for booties, and maybe I'll try something fancier for another pair. But I don't have much longer the due date is actually tomorrow, so I need to get my knits shipped off ASAP!

Look how tiny!:

And it's always nice to send off something green and mossy looking from the northwest.

Knit in Progress: Lotus Blossom Tank

2011-03-24T18:37:00.000-07:00

Pattern: Lotus Blossom Tank from The Best of Interweave Knits
Yarn: SouthWest Trading Company Bamboo in Chocolate, purchased at the Fiber Gallery in Seattle circa 2007

This is by no means my first attempt at getting the complicated lace pattern on this project going. I tried in Seattle and Chicago and quickly got lost and frustrated. This time I've got four rows already, within a week of starting it. Once I did the first one I started carrying it around with me not wanting to put it down for much of anything. (it's what I was trying to knit on transit after our walk last weekend.) It takes a lot of attention, but I also think actually getting somewhere with this lace means my knitting skills have been improving!

The pattern technically calls for only 4 repeats but many many people are doing modifications to this project, put together by LicketyKnits. That calls for at least one more repeat. If I feel like I will have enough yarn, I may even go for 6 repeats. Then she doubled the number of decreases called for in the pattern, and increases back up to give the whole thing more shaping. But I haven't gotten to that part just yet, it starts after the lace repeats. I sorta tried to figure out how the sizing was going by trying it on (pictured right) but it's pretty hard to tell at this point.

So this project got started while I was waiting for new metal needles from knit picks, which I just got yesterday. I might take a little break from the lotus tank to play just a little with the new needles and make a few booties, but I think I'm going to try to finish it before starting any of those socks. Sorry Chuck! But I am very anxious to try all that sock yarn, so that should make me knit this faster!

Portland Walks: Mt. Tabor to the top

2011-03-23T21:33:00.000-07:00

Last time we went over to Mt. Tabor Park we didn't actually make it to the top. This time we went up there and back down the other side. On our way down we saw a sign that said "Volcano" with an arrow, so we may have to go back (of course we're going back) to see if that leads to something interesting. But for now I'm satisfied that we've climbed Mt. Tabor, seen the sculpture and the view, and gone back down the other side.

The sculpture is Harvey W. Scott, and he is pointing toward the city. We disobeyed his directions and were headed the other direction for some mundane tasks involving a hardware store.

This time I counted, 94 steps, and that was just one set. (I generally count stairs in any/all stair climbing situations) There was another set of 34, and lots of sloping for a total of about 450ft. I think our walk up to the Pittock Mansion a few weeks back was greater in elevation gain. The view looking toward the city was still pretty hazy; We will have to wait until later in spring for a really good one. The view in the picture above is looking East, toward Mt. Hood, but it wasn't visible either. Still, the snowcapped foothills made me happy.

We walked through the Montavilla neighborhood to get to our destination (and took transit back, I was tired, as evidenced by my unusual level of difficulty with my knitting on the train.) The highlight for me was the cat house pictured above on the left. A pair of lions on the driveway, and a pair of domestic cat sculptures! Plus more lions in the front yard. That was pretty good, but really I'm still enjoying the appearance of spring. I think the yellow flowering bush was a nice big forsythia plant, really lovely. Also saw all shades of heather, and this neatly hanging, purplish flower, which I have no idea what it is, but it looked great blowing in the wind!

Vegan Shooter's Sandwich

2011-03-22T21:10:00.000-07:00

It wasn't long after Chuck saw this Boingboing post about shooter's sandwiches before he had to try out a veganized version. He picked up a Sourdough loaf from Whole Foods and used two roasted portobello mushrooms in place of steaks. A spread was made of almonds, sun dried tomatoes and kalamata olives thrown together in a food processor. He also added Roasted Red Peppers and Heidi Ho Vegan Cheese from the farmer's market.

It all gets bound up and placed under something heavy (like a box of architecture books) and left that way overnight. (This is what it looked like before, for reference) In the morning you have a very conveniently portable and tasty squished sandwich to unwrap, typically sliced in to wedges like a cake:

We should both have plenty of yummy lunches for the next few days. Chuck's first try at the shooter's sandwich turned out really well, and I could see this becoming a regular meal!

Super Moon!

2011-03-21T19:12:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday night was a super full moon, where the moon looks up to 14% bigger because it's closer to the Earth than it's been in 20 years. I thought you could definitely tell and it was very pretty!

My camera is not especially fancy but I try to do with it what I can. I'm actually surprised I got one picture where you can make out just a little of the cool detail visible Saturday night. We were getting clouds on and off; our morning at the market was mostly sunny, but by nightfall the sky seemed to have committed to cloudiness. That made me assume we wouldn't see much, but I was pleasantly surprised. And I really liked the moon breaking through the clouds. A lot more impressive in person. Maybe when the next super moon comes around I'll manage to have a camera that can do it justice, like these people.

We ended up looking at it on the waterfront, where the Portland Spirit and Columbia Gorge (a paddle boat) boats were enjoying the moon as well. It made for a peaceful and lovely evening!

Sock Yarn!

2011-03-20T19:42:00.000-07:00

Chuck: I need socks!
Emma: Buy me sock yarn, I'll make you some.

Repeat that a bunch of times and apparently it gets you sock yarn! I also may have mentioned that elann had some pretty cheap sock yarn that's supposed to be similar to cascade fixation which I've used and liked. I've been wanting to give it try and now I have 8 socks worth of it, so it had better work out. It looks pretty similar so far, down to the excessive plastic wrap even. I'm pretty happy with the colors we got, chuck was nice enough to buy some colors I liked (on the left, mostly) as well as his picks (on the right, blacks, greens grays. Although I think that brown was one of my picks.) The only color that looks a bit different than I was expecting is the wine, which is a bit pinker than I thought it would be...but that's not doing too bad for picking out colors online.

Of course now comes the hard part, picking out patterns and doing the work. I did a search on ravelry for "in my library" &/or "in my queue" &/or "in my favorites" &/or "free" or something like that, and had Chuck look over my shoulder at the results, and these were the ones he was okay with so far:

Freshman Cable Socks from Interweave Knitscene, Fall 2009
Riff Socks from Knitty, Deep Fall 2010
Fargyles from Knitty, Winter 2008
Court Line Socks by Emma Haigh (a free ravelry download)

I think I will be picking out a few Cookie A. projects from Sock Innovation for myself, since many of them were out for Chuck since they had holes or were just a little too girly.

First PSU Market of the Year!

2011-03-19T15:09:00.000-07:00

It's nice that we don't have to go very long between markets here, but I missed it while it was gone! It stopped in December and we got a nice Christmas wreath at the last one.

Lots and lots of nice root vegetables, radishes, parsnips, you could even just smell the carrots as you walked by one booth with stacks of carrots. Daffodils dominated the flower booths, but I was excited about the booth full of hellebores/lenten roses since I just learned about those recently. Also lots of greens, like this Chard, and potted plants including catnip, mojito mint and rubarb starters.

Vegan treats too! Cheesecake and Bundt Cake from Petunia's Pies & Pastries. Her stuff is so irresistible. We picked up brussel sprouts and some Heidi Ho vegan cheeses, which is a new booth at the market this year! The market is the perfect way to spend Saturday mornings and I'm so glad it's already back!

Apartment: Slow Decorating

2011-03-18T19:22:00.000-07:00

Hmm, We might be a little slow in the decorating department. We've lived here about 6 months already and we're still figuring where to hang pictures. Maybe we can argue that we're starting a new "slow decorating" movement, like the one for slow foods. No real reason, other than that it takes time to find just the right spot.

Last week Chuck hung up some antique oil lamps that he's had since before I knew him. It made me really happy since I thought they would look really cute in this space. We haven't put them up in all our apartments; The Chicago Apartment in particular didn't seem very suited to that type of decoration. Yeah, we're still hanging stuff up. And still have plans for additional stuff, including possibly some shelving above the kitchen sink. It takes a while to get settled and make everything just right!

I did a little bit of work myself too. I finally decided and committed to hanging my Roller Girl poster by Leia Bell. The spot is usually not too visible since we keep our bathroom door open, but I feel better that something is there when the door is closed. Plus I think the pink colors are a nice transition between the pastels in the bedroom and the pink tile in the bathroom.

I also positioned one of my Portland Calendars. It only took me 3 months to figure out and commit to the kitchen/dining area as a good spot for a calendar. Now that it's there it seems kind of obvious, my family always kept a calendar in the kitchen when I was a kid. I think it helped me that it was blue this month, it just looked right with the rest of the room. I still haven't really figured out the location for the Chicago calendar. We need a better desk set up than we have now. Give me another 3 to 6 months and maybe I'll even have curtains to boot!

Finished Knit: Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2011-03-17T17:18:00.000-07:00

Pattern via Maddycraft, after signing up for an e-mail newsletter. It's a simple I-cord with a button and crochet chain loop for closure, but I have never tried to do a Celtic knot before. It didn't take very long to make at all. The pattern is very clear, providing step-by-step pictures to go along with the directions. Any scrap yarn will do, I happened to have the perfect amount of olive green Vanna's Choice on hand. Although I didn't have any shamrock charms, I did happen to have a gold leaf, which I thought was a fairly good substitute.

I have to say I'm tempted to make more Celtic knots, especially this trivet tutorial from design*sponge. Unfortunately I don't have any rope around...maybe a trip to the hardware store is in order. If I'm going to, I'd better try it before I drink too much green beer! Tying knots after having a few drinks probably produces, um, interesting results...or, more likely, none at all.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Wildlife: Nutria/Coypu

2011-03-16T18:29:00.000-07:00

This is, apparently a Nutria, also known as a Coypu. I wasn't familiar with this animal at all until this weekend. We initially thought it was just a muskrat, but facebook friends helped me identify it as a Nutria. As you can see in this picture, nutria have orange/red incisors and a long skinny tail. The water in the Willamette was very high this weekend and we found this guy right along the shore when we went for a walk around the river.

I love learning about knew things, so once I found out what this was I read what I could find about it. The Nutria is actually an invasive species. They were brought to the US for their fur, in Oregon the peak of the trade was between 1930 to 1950, topping out at about 600 fur farms. When the market for that fur declined many were just released. They've been seen in 40 states in the U.S. and there are known, established populations in at least 15 states. In Louisiana and Maryland the Nutria populations have done severe damage to wetlands. They feed on plant roots, having a significant impact on above ground biomass. I found one article mentioning a farmer loosing a cow to a pit caused by their eating habits.

I found this site on the subject, from the Center for Lakes and Reservoirs at Portland State University, very interesting. According to their report from 2007 there's currently no management plan for these guys. It also noted that the Pacific Northwest is unusual in that there is a high density of nutria in urban areas, and populations spread in mild winters. There are really no major predators in the northwest, in their native South America they would be eaten by alligators, large dogs, birds of prey. Fortunately they mentioned that there is a lot of awareness of the problem here, and I'm sure sighting one isn't that unusual within Portland.

Portland Walks: Around the Waterfront Again

2011-03-15T19:37:00.000-07:00

This may become one of my favorite walking routes, I really enjoy walking over the lower part of the Steel Bridge and being right on the river on the east shore. It's also pleasant to stroll through the Saturday Market, which started up again last weekend, before crossing the river.

The first time we walked around the waterfront it was a sunnier day. This weekend was wet, and gray, with the water high enough to submerge some trees along the shore. The high water might be the reason we saw this creature, a nutria or coypu, but I will talk about him more in a post tomorrow.

In spite of, or perhaps because of, all the gray skies and rain, it's pretty much already spring here. Cherry blossoms are starting come out, I think there were some blueberries, and the willow tree is looking lovely!

Downtown looked more crisp and clear than usual, with very little mist back in the hills. Well, that is until we got caught in a downpour about 5 blocks from home. Then everything got misty again and we ended up getting very wet. It was sudden and windy, a little unusual for the Northwest & of course it stopped shortly after we got inside our apartment.

Finished Knit: Umbilical Cord Baby Hat

2011-03-14T17:33:00.000-07:00

This is my first Baby hat! It's the Umbilical Cord Hat from one of my first knitting books, Stitch 'N Bitch: The Knitter's Handbook. It's a very straightforward pattern, but I'm still not feeling too sure about baby sizing issues. The book says it should fit a 0 to 6 month old and be about 16" in circumference. I think it's supposed to fit a little loosely, and curl up at the edges. It looked kind of big to Chuck and myself, and I've tried it on a few times. But I think I need to stop that cause I'm stretching it out. Still it made for some fun Saturday morning silliness!

It actually looks like it fits me like it's supposed to in this picture, it's got the curl going on. That wasn't happening all the way around the hat, however. I'm still using Taupe Cotton-Ease to match the baby smoking jacket I finished up last week. I've still got more of it, but I think I may raid my stash for some color for the next baby project. I do like the taupe but the baby could probably use a bit of color!