I've been taking picture of trees all over town like crazy for a month. They have been so pretty here this year. But, most of them just don't translate. The sky is grey, often it's late in the afternoon and well, I'm no professional photographer.
But, since Friday marks the beginning of the Christmas season, I figured I need to get these posted now. It kind of irks me that autumn is just dropped the day after Thanksgiving. I mean, there are 3-4 weeks left - one third of the season.
Oh, well, I'm sure I'll get all Christmassy on you soon. Here are some random autumny fall type pics I took over the last month (Oh, yeah, I had a birthday in there, too). Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving, everyone!
I have a few blog posts piling up in my head. I've been pretty busy working on The Cedar Chest blog and updates. I've added a lot of new postcards and photos in the shop recently (including some Christmas postcards) and started a Facebook page. I hope you will want to check them out.
I would love it if you "like" one or both of my new pages.
So, because of these things (and others) this blog has been a little ignored. But, I have posts and I need to get them out of my head and onto the computer. Here is a belated one.
At the beginning of November the mister and I went on a trip up near Mt Hood. There is a cabin we like there and we've gone to it a few times (if you're looking to go I highly recommend Mt Hood Rentals).
Here are some pics from a day that we went out for a drive. It was pretty clear weather when we were there, which was a different experience for us. It was neat to see it like that, but I kind of missed the snow.
Sometimes the Mountain would suddenly just show up as you turned in the road and it just took my breath away. So close and big. It was neat to see it so bare. We hadn't had much snow yet.
We came across this meadow as we were on our way to find a lake we never found. It was just so pretty. All golden and secret the way it just showed up. The whole time we were there no one even drove by.
There was this little cabin that just made the whole picture perfect. Just like a Bob Ross painting.
And more views of old Mt Hood on the way home. Nice.
This whole mountain is covered in snow now. There's been about 40 inches since we were there.
I have always been intimidated to make pie crust. If I make a pie I usually buy the pre-made pie crusts. But, the other night I made two mini apple pies for me and the mister. I didn't even think about the fact that I had made pie crust until it was done. I think the fact that they were little and I could just patch it together made it a lot less intimidating.
I used this recipe. But, instead of making them in muffin tins I used ramekins, which are bigger. I then halved the recipe (because I was only using 2 ramekins). It turned out real good, but I needed to pack more apples in. They cooked down and we definitely needed more ( I used 2 medium and one small). The baking time was a bit longer in the ramekins.
I had a hard time getting the pie crust to not break up. Let me know if you have any tips on that. In general this was a really easy recipe and pretty fast - and no pie crust pressure!
There are so many apple recipes on Pinterest right now! If you are wondering what to make this weekend or for Thanksgiving, check them out. You can start on my Food and Drink Board, which has a lot of them listed, including the one I used here.
I visited the Chinese Gardens here in Portland last weekend. It is one of my favorite places in Portland. I really need to go there more often. I think people talk about the Japanese Garden more in regards for tourists in Portland, and the Japanese Gardens are nice. But, the Lan Su Chinese Garden is such a more unique experience. I think I especially like all the open interiors - walkways, hallways, little buildings - all with pretty intricate woodwork.
There are lots of places that you can sort of hide or get out of the way.
Weekends can be kind of crowded. Weekdays off season are the best for taking some quiet time in the garden.
Today I have not been walking along pretty garden walkways like last Sunday. I've been on the computer way too long. But before I go I want you to know that I'm having a Free Shipping Sale at The Cedar Chest through Sunday the 6th.
I also just created a facebook page for The Cedar Chest. So, please check it out and "like" it if you do. I just posted a bunch on new stuff at the Etsy shop.
I love carnations. I think they are a highly under-appreciated flower. They have a lovely spicy scent and they look real friendly and pretty.
The mister and I celebrated our 8 year anniversary last week and he brought me these carnations. He has brought me many amazing beautiful flower arrangements over the years and I have loved them all. These sweet carnations are loved as much and look great in the vases I have.
Next time your at the florist or even the grocery store take a whiff of some carnations and bring them home.
October brings our anniversary and a mountain vacation. I am finally starting to feel better from my back injury. I hope your October is wonderful!
I'm kind of obsessed with the movie Bridesmaids right now. I never caught it in the theaters, so I bought it as soon as it came out., I knew I would like it and I'm already a big fan of Melissa McCarthy. I have had it for about two weeks and I've watched it 4 times since then. It is a very funny, well rounded and well done film. I love the friendship of the main characters in the movie and all the bridesmaids are just perfection.
If I had seen it earlier I would have written a big entry like this one. Melissa McCarthy almost steals that movie and you're so happy whenever she is on screen. She's the hero of the film, really. She's the one that comes through and wakes up the heroine. She is kick ass in every way. And I have totally known women kind of like her.
I think the main thing that needs to be said over and over again is that Bridesmaids is a movie with three fat characters (two are smaller rolls - the roommate and a stewardess - yes, a fat stewardess!) and there are virtually no fat jokes in the script - AND it was the blockbuster of the summer!!
Do you hear that Hollywood? Fat people were cast, were hilarious and were not used for cheap fat hating jokes - and the film was the biggest film of the summer! Please, please learn from this.
Some people might think there were some fat jokes in Bridesmaids, but they were small and subtle and and were in line with the characters. They weren't something I found offensive.
And then last week Melissa McCarthy does Saturday Night Live and kills it! I am so happy for her and her success.
I also secretly love that she has been smaller in the past, even losing quite a bit of weight at one time and yet when she really breaks through is when she's bigger. In fact, since she is so short, I don't really know if she could have been so good in the Bridesmaids roll is she'd been smaller. The character needed some physical heft to back up her personality.
I also watch her sitcom Mike and Molly where she pays a much more straight character. It's a good show, mostly. Her comic timing and reactions are just so good. Unfortunately, the mother played by Swoosie Kurtz is a mean-spirited fatphobic character and I find myself hating her and not wanting to watch Mike and Molly just for the way the mother character is written. But, my love for McCarthy wins out. She won an Emmy this year over some amazing people for her performance in the sitcom!
It is nice - finally - to have a movie like Bridesmaids prove what many of us have all been saying over the years. Fat jokes are cheap and easy and not needed for a quality film - or even a blockbuster film. Please folks, learn from Bridesmaids.
Today has been somewhat rainy and windy. Fall is now here and as usual I am happy to see it. However, I was not happy to have such early fall-like weather last weekend when the mister and I went to the coast. I was hoping for a little blast of last minute summer. I had visions of laying on the warm sand during the day and staring at the stars at night. Instead I got a grey sky that almost exactly matched the grey ocean and rain all weekend long. You couldn't even sit on the porch without getting wet.
It was still a nice weekend, though. There was lots of relaxing and one day we went into town, walked around in the rain and had some ice cream.
We also stopped by the smoked fish shop. I've driven by a few times and never could stop. We got the most amazingly good and still warm smoked tuna, salmon and black cod. I will stop there now everytime.
Karla's Smokehouse
We stayed in a kooky old run down house that hadn't been redone since the early 80's and is still filled with the owners things. The owners still come and stay there part of the year.
Down in their dark garage there's a little hallway to get to the washer and dryer area (everything else is behind plywood walls and covered in tarps). In this hallway I found a wall covered with clippings and old calendars and posters. I love finding walls like this. This one was especially exciting because the owner had a pin-up calendar from 1981 on Duane Bryers' chubby pin-up creation, Hilda. I have only ever seen these images on the internet. It was cool to see some in real life.
Everyone seems to be pretty excited about fall being here. I am already looking forward to some things. But, I'm gonna try and keep my preconceived ideas to a minimum about my plans. You never know what you'll really get.
I've been meaning to post this for about a month. And now, with the symbolic last day of summer I finally get to it. In my defense this summer, especially the last month and a half has been pretty crazy. Between visits from family, making the zine, doing the zine symposium and then for the last month dealing with a really bad back injury - I've had little time to catch up. I'm looking forward to some cooler weather and stronger days ahead.
I've posted before about my mother and her amazing talents. She has been cranking out amazing quilts for the last couple of years. She never sells her work and it drives me crazy, because her stuff is so beautiful and well done. But, it takes a lot of work to do that and I can understand her not wanting to spend time on that. She'd rather sew!
I spent a couple of weeks at the beginning of summer looking for a good lunch bag for work. I wanted Mexican oilcloth because it's easy to clean and so bright and cheery. I looked and looked on Etsy and there was nothing like what I wanted on there. I finally settled on something that wasn't what I wanted. Then I thought about my mom and how she could probably make one with her mad skills. So, I bought some oilcloth online with contrasting gingham colors. So cute! I took it to her house with a placemat I liked, too. Hoping she could make me some customer round placemats as well (I forgot to take pics of those, but trust me they're awesome).
She was pretty unsure of working with oilcloth, especially since I wanted the liner to be oil cloth, too. I knew she would be able to do it and in fact she did quickly crank out some awesome lunch bags. She made them to my specifications, which were a little bigger than I probably needed. So, I use them more for picnics. And truthfully, they are so beautiful, I've been cautious about using them at all.
In her usual fashion she added lots of sweet little features, including pockets inside and matching placemats and coasters for the bags! She used this stitch for everything and it worked great. The cool, thing about oilcloth is that you can just leave the edges cut. It won't unravel.
She took some cardboard and covered it to make the bottom more sturdy and flat. You can also remove it if you want.
I can't offer you the directions for these bags, but something even better recently came out if you like the look of these totes. A new book called Sewing with Oilcloth is now out. And you can get free patterns for the tote bag and the table runner. This book almost makes me want to sew!
One of my favorite things to buy at zine symposiums or comic shows is drawings that little kids are selling. There's usually at least one kid who's with someone selling and they have a pile of drawings or comics of their own to sell.
Last month at the Portland Zine Sympoisum there was an organization raising money for kids art classes by selling some drawings. I bought this for 2 or 3 dollars.
Here are some other drawings I got in the past, most likely from either the zine symposium or Stumptown Comicsfest. I've been meaning to post some of these for years.
This one above was a full comic series. I bought three issues, all full length and stapled in the corner. This was from at least 5 years ago at PZS.
This one above is my favorite. It looks like this on the page. The drawing takes up about 1/6 of the blank page. Here is a close up below:
Not only is this just a great picture of some kid that I am guessing has some serious braces. But, it always makes me hear a song in my head from a long ago Oakland band called Eskimo that I saw a lot in the late 80's.. They ended a song called Clark's Monkey calling out the name Clark, Clark?
These last two I think I got at Stumptown.
I'm betting I have more around. If I find them I'll post them. When you go to shows like this look for the little kids who has a mess of drawings on a small part of the table. You'll get some cool stuff.
