Lavender Festival 2011

A few moments from the 2011 lavender festival in Yamhill.

We visited 4 farms - Wild Rain Farm, Willakenzie Lavender, Red Ridge Farms and Mountainside Lavender Farm. And we also spent most of the morning at the Yamhill Festival shopping at the Plein Air Artisan market.

 

 

My goodies:

Olive oil and Passion fruit vinegar from Red Ridge Farms

Late Harvest Riesling from Sokol Blosser winery

Lavender Honey (can be found at all the farms)

Lavender bunches and a dram of lavender essential oil from Mountainside Lavender Farm

I bought the Blue collage art and turtle print from Magda Moor

I bought another sea turtle print and a mini sunflower oil painting by Megan Turner-Baxter (Art By MTB on Etsy).  Not pictured because she had to send them to me.

Hagg's Tree Farm

Yay, we have our tree!

 We followed the signs up to Hagg's Tree Farm, it was kind of hard to miss as the little elves were at every intersection pointing out the way. First we stopped at the petting zoo area with goats and then had to go out back to see the donkeys.  There were also 2 friendly doggies that Hazel was a little unsure of.  She liked seeing them better when we were holding them, than when she was on the ground with them.  We picked out a pre-cut tree this time.  I do like cutting down our own tree, but this year it was easier to just pick one from their lot.  It was a little cold and muddy to have Hazel wandering around the tree farm.  Owen expertly tied it to the roof with his boyscout knots and we headed home.

Hazel is now addicted to watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer ever since she saw the lighted reindeer in our neighbor's yard!

Snow Night

I was hoping it would be a "Snow Day", but the snow didn't even start until 8pm!

All weekend the weather forcasters were predicting snow for this afternoon, and everyone was prepared this time (unlike that last time we had a freak snow storm and 1,000 cars were abandoned on our freeways). And of course, they just proved how they cannot predict the weather.

It'll be interesting to see what happens tomorrow. Will Portland shut down, or will it be rain as usual??


Here I am "skiing" down the driveway on a patch of frozen rain/ice


lines and textures


doh! I didn't get the sweater on our tree fast enough!



Leaf bowl?

Zoo Days

For my birthday this year Hazel bought me a membership to the Oregon Zoo. We try to go at least once a week, weather permitting - I'm not going to take her there when it's raining buckets or freezing cold. So far she LOVES it! She gets to see the real animals that she sees in the books, or that we do baby signs for. She has a look of awwe on her face when she sees each animal, and most of hte pictures I have are her facing the exhibit with her hands on the glass, peering in at the animal. We don't try to do the whole zoo each visit, we just focus on one area and we usually stay around 2 hours, which is enough time for her to be out and running around so that she gets a good nap, and it's enough time for me to be chasing her around. Starting after Thanksgiving is the annual Zoo Lights festival, my favorite holiday tradition. The zoo gets decorated in cute light displays and you can see some of the animals and ride the lighted zoo train. It's just a lot of fun!

Fran Healy Double Feature!

For Owen's birthday this year, I bought him tickets to see Fran Healy and Brandon Flowers at the Roseland Theater. I follow Fran on Twitter and he tweeted that he would be at Music Millennium at 3pm today! I told Owen we were going. So, we packed up Hazel and drove over to the East Side (gasp, hehe inside joke).



We got there right at 3 and there wasn't any place that great to stand. We found a semi-decent place to stand, where Hazy wouldn't bother anyone if she wanted to walk around (or play on the stairs). He played a few songs from his new record (Sing Me To Sleep, As It Comes, Rocking Chair), and 2 Travis songs (Driftwood and Selfish Jean). Then he came downstairs to sign autographs.



I managed to be 3rd in the line, wahoo. I was glad, because Hazel would not have wanted to stay much longer. We didn't want her running around the store and she was getting a little annoyed that we were holding her for so long.



Here he is signing my "Invisible Band" the album cover



Then he graciously took a picture with me and Hazy :)



I made him this pair of fingerless mitts as a present.  I remember last August I would have brought him a present if I had been thinking, so this time I planned ahead and made them while we were on in Tahoe.  I really hope that he likes them and uses them!

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Fast forward to tonight, Owen and I drove downtown, got coffee and maxed to the Roseland, in time to get in a very long line!  Luckily we weren't standing in the misty rain for too long.  Then we got inside and stood for 40mins waiting for Fran.  He started his set at 9pm.



He played a good mix of songs.  I was really disappointed that the inconsiderate people at the bar were talking, rather loud.  Loud enough that Fran asked them 2 times for them to shut up.  Annoying!  Oh well, he did a great job and I enjoyed listening him, even if I was the only one singing along.



His Setlist:
Sing
Sing me to sleep
Anything
Fly in the Ointment
As it comes
Dear diary
Blue flashing light

At 10pm Brandon came out on stage.



I have to be honest, I don't really know Brandon Flowers.  I am not a huge fan of The Killers and didn't know his name until I found out Fran was touring with him.  The only song I've heard is Crossfire, because it's the one on his website.  I know pretty much everyone there was there to see him, but we were there for Fran.  Despite not knowing his music I had a fun time, I just wished I had listened to his album first so I could get to know the songs better.

After 3 hours of standing, it was nice to take a walk back to the car! As it turned out, I'm really glad we went to the afternoon appearance, because then we didn't have to wait around for them to come out to sign autographs. I was just too tired to stay.

An evening with Debbie Stoller

Tonight I got to meet an important icon in the knitting world - Debbie Stoller, author of the "Stitch & Bitch" series of books.  This is the lady that taught me how to knit.  She made it so easy to understand what I was doing, and how to do it.  I have been wanting to meet her since 2004 when I bought Stitch & Bitch, and that time in 2007 when I *almost* met her doesn't count. (but that's another story)

The book signing tonight was at The Yarn Garden in Portland.  I went with my friend Alyssa.  The traffic going downtown was awful (due to a 5 car pileup), but we made it with a few minutes to spare!  We were pretty much the last ones there though, but that meant that we didn't have to wait long for the evening to get going!

First, Debbie talked about her new book Superstar Knitting, and explained what each of the chapters were about.  I am really excited about the colorwork section.  Yeah, yeah, I've been knitting for almost 7 years and have never done colorwork other than stripes....  During this part she passed around the different samples from the book.  They really look different in person, and there are a few things I would not have considered, but after seeing them in person I actually want to knit them!

The second portion of the evening was a small lesson on knitting lace and what stitches make lace (yo, and a few different decreases).  Even though it was remedial for me, since I have knit many lace projects, the one thing that stood out was reasons for where yarn overs (yos) and decreases go in lace.  She had a sample chart that had yos and decreases in different spots and a knitted sample showing what the chart looked like.  Well, it was clear after seeing that, that there is a reason, that sometimes the yos can look "suck ass" (her words) if they're on the wrong side of the slanted decrease.


This is a sample from the book - I loved this tiger in a dress so much! I'm totally making one for Hazy!


Here's the lady that was at the back of the room who ended up with the stack of samples!

At the end of the evening she signed books.  I brought along my Stitch & Bitch book and when we got there we were given the pre-ordered a copy of the new book.  While she signed my books, I gave her a small token of appreciation, a crochet bracelet that I made from her "Happy Hooker" book.


Me and my new friend Debbie ;)

Hello Kitty in Real Life!

Last week, the Small Gift Pop-Up Tour stopped in Portland's living room (Pioneer Square). They were promoting Sanrio's 50th Anniversary. There were trucks and trailers wrapped with way cute Hello Kitty and Friends pictures, a pop-up trailer that was selling exclusive anniversary HK merchandice and of course Miss Hello Kitty herself!!

I had heard about this event from 3 different friends, who all know I LOVE Hello Kitty! Well, that day happened to be a rainy,depressing, dragging day for Hazel and me, and I really didn't feel up to driving downtown in the rain to see it. Owen checked it out for me on his way to work, and he didn't think it was much to see. But my friend Tami texted me a few times that afternoon to see if I was going, and she talked me into going even though I resisted. I think she knew I would regret not going and I totally would have!

So, I got myself and Hazel all ready to go downtown. She wore her Hello Kitty top and pink pants and a pink jacket (which she didn't need because the rain had already stopped). I met up with my friend Nancy, who is also a Hello Kitty fan.  It was weird, because we had not discussed meeting up, yet we got there at the same time.



At first, Hazel was curious about Hello Kitty, but as Hello Kitty got closer, Hazel got more wary. She didn't want to stand anywhere near her, and I can understand that since, HK was really tall and Hazel is so short. Well, I knew I wanted a picture with her, so I scooped Hazel up and had my friend take our picture.



I went home with a cute Lunch box, a button set and some stickers. The lady at the counter thought Hazel was super cute and gave me a few extra stickers and some bubbles for Hazel! I love that CBD (Cute Baby Discount).

Happy Halloween!

Hazel definitely had a good Halloween this year! As soon as I saw the Gnome costume at Target (back in August), I bought it.

She had quite the party schedule this week! First there was the harvest party at Gymboree on Thursday. She had so much fun running around in her costume checking out the fun activities and dancing to songs like Monster Mash and Ghostbusters. On Friday she had two friends over to decorate pumpkins and watch "The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown". On Halloween we took her to the Zoo's Howl-o-ween event. We just went through the whole Great NW Exhibit and to see the penguin's new digs (they moved last week to the Polar Bear's winter habitat). After the zoo we met up with my mom at Bridgeport Village where the stores had trick-or-treating and afterwards we ate at PF Changs. On the way home we stopped at a few friend's houses to trick-or-treat. Phew! And she kept the hat on the whole time!

Past Pumpkin Pickin'

See, we have been going here for 7 years! Check out all these similar pictures:)

I like getting a picture in front of the farm house (except in 07, but I don't know why)


and Owen likes the wheel barrow (except 2005, but it's a long story)

Pumpkin Pickin'

It took me about 2 weeks to accept that fall had arrived. I was just not ready to give up summer, especially since it didn't feel like we had gotten a fair summer. After some Pumpkin Spice Lattes and the leaves changing color, I think I'm ready for it to be fall. Of course, it wouldn't be fall without a trip to the pumpkin patch! We have been going to Lakeview Farms for 7 years. We love it because they have a train that takes you out to the patch and a boat that takes you back to the farmhouse. And now that we have a toddler, we love that they have pony rides and hay mazes!! It will still be a few years before we can appreciate the corn maze though.

Urban Fiber Arts

There is a new yarn store in town folks! Urban Fiber Arts, in the heart of Portland's Pearl District! My friend and fellow PDXKnitblogger, Cindy Abernethy, is the owner! She is fullfilling her lifelong dream of owning a yarn shop - I just think that is so cool! Way to go Cindy!

This shop is easy to get to - it's 2 blocks from Powell's and is in the free zone of the PDX Streetcar. She is on 11th between Flanders and Glisan.

Among the awesome yarns and fibers dyed by local fiber artists, you will find some of my stitch markers, batts and handspun yarn! So go check it out!

No snag stitch markers, with crystals and pearls



Candy colored sock stitch markers, also no-snag


1 oz fiber batts that have everything but the kitchen sink in them, they make fun textured yarns!


For now, it is easier for me to consign my crafts rather than open an etsy store. This way I don't have to list items and mail them out. I don't have time for all that with Hazel running around.

The Oregonian knitting blog did a nice interview with Cindy about her shop, I'm putting the link here so I can reference it later if I need to. I didn't notice until someone pointed it out to me that a photo of my batts was included! Sweet!

Happy Birthday to me!

I had the most wonderful Birthday weekend!

It started on Thursday. My mom came up after work and babysat Hazel for the evening, so Owen and I could go to dinner! We went to the Melting Pot, my most favorite restaurant. When they seated us at our table, the gave me a birthday card and there were roses from Owen already on the table. We had a lovely California salad, Wisonconsin cheese trio fondue and a flaming dark turtle dessert fondue. With dessert they brought out a little plate that had my name written in chocolate, I thought that was a nice touch. I indulged and got a cocktail, it was so yummy, it didn't taste like alcohol (the kind of drink I like), it was a "Love Martini" (Love at first sip! Malibu rum, peach schnapps, cranberry juice and fresh strawberries). After all that we still had a little time before we had to be home, so we went to Voodoo. I ordered my first voodoo doll and it had a unicorn on it! How did they know???? It was delicious for the eyes and tummy!

On Friday the 24th (my real bday) I woke up and had to get over to the chiropracter. Owen and I were in a small car accident that left the front of the car slightly damaged and my back in a little bit of pain from the impact. So after being adjusted I went to my Friday knitting group to knit and chat! Hazel and Owen showed up after an hour or so and we had lunch, then they went back home and I knitted some more! After Hazel's afternoon nap the three of us went out to dinner to La Hacienda (my favorite Mexican restaurant). We next went to the mall to buy Hazel new shoes and we went to build a bear. Hazel picked out the pink bear and I picked out the outfit. It's name is "rainbow bear", yeah, original I know :) They had a balloon guy out front and he made me a turtle :) Hazel spent some time playing in the play area while we watched from the side.

On Saturday I was up early for Oregon Flock and Fiber! That will be a separate post, with pix later (when I get more time to write), but Owen and Hazel showed up in the afternoon and we had a yummy sheep cake (not sheet cake) that Owen and I made so that I could celebrate with my knitting friends!

On Sunday was OFFF again and I had dinner at Red Robin with my friends from college! It was fun seeing them, but it went so fast, so I don't feel like we got to talk too much :( Hazel loved it because my mom was there doting on her. Outside she showed me the flower she would pick for me if I'd let her.

I am pretty tired from that long weekend and all the celebrating! I will post more pix soon :)

An Evening with Alicia Paulson

My friend Kathy and I have been long time readers of Alicia's Blog - Posie Gets Cozy. She just came out with a new book Embroidery Companion! When I noticed on her blog that she was having a book signing, I told Kathy that we had to go! I sadly missed her last book signing when Stitched in Time came out because Owen and I were leaving for Hawaii the next morning at 4am. I am still kicking myself for not going.

Kathy met me at my house and we drove downtown to Powell's. There was hardly any traffic and we made it down there so fast we had about an hour to wait around. We picked out front row seats and then we pulled out our knitting! I helped (or maybe didn't help much) with Kathy's shawl, and then worked on my sweater. I ended up having a slight spaghetti incident with the end of the ball of yarn so I spent some time winding from the end into a ball so that it wouldn't be tangled in my bag, and put the sweater away.

Alicia showed up with most of her book samples and Cupcakes!!! Have you ever been to a book signing where there were cupcakes?? Well, I ate one and it was so delicious - Dark Chocolate cake with an almond frosting and 3 blackberries on top!

After setting up, she did a little introduction and then had questions and answers. Of course, I wasn't prepared and couldn't think of anything to ask. One of the main things that I took away from this was that there are no "embroidery police"! Imagine that! If you pick up a needle and thread and just start, no one is going to criticize what you're doing and the back of your work doesn't have to be perfect, it could even have knots if you chose to make them. Whatever gets you started is all that counts.

The Q&A was about an hour and then she signed books. I really thought it was gracious of her to spend time with each person and talk. She signed a very nice short poem in my book and she even took a photo with me. I also got to tell her about her studio inspiring my own office remodel! Thank goodness my camera had the photo of my new yarn cabinet (which I haven't posted here because my office is a mess and I am working on cleaning it so that one day I can show it off).

We stopped over to the sample table to check out the beautiful things she made. Oh my, they are even prettier in person! We were oohing and ahhing over them when Andy Paulson (Alicia's husband) made a comment about the baby bibs being a little small for us. Hehe. Well, he is a talker and we talked about who knows what for about 15 mins (or more probably). He took photos with us, and I made sure to get Alicia's purse in my photo, because 1) it's cute and she made it herself and 2) he was holding it like a nice husband should when a lady is off doing something else!

Afterwards we went and took pictures with the "Powell's Background", we made our book purchases and went home!

And this is for Alicia - Thanks for inspiring me to pick up a hoop and needle & thread for the first time since I was in 8th grade! I made this kitchen towel as my first project from your new book! I will eventually get all of the days done, but my husband likes pie, so I started here:

An Evening with Fran Healy

Friday was my lucky day - I really should have bought a lotto ticket!

So, Owen and I went out on a date, sans Hazel! Thanks mom :) Well, dinner was with mom and Hazel, but the rest of the night we were out on our own! We went to a concert and then to Voodoo Donuts! It was my kind of evening!

First, we had dinner at Tastebud Farm . It was ok, but kind of expensive for pizza, so probably will not go back there. I much prefer Mississippi Pizza or Hotlips. Anyway, we chose this place because it was across from the Aladdin Theater. I had never been there before either, and I was nervous about getting there early enough to get good seats, since the concert was general admission. I kind of worried for nothing, because we got there 10 mins before the doors opened and were the 3rd in line. I was amazed, we got front row seats! I have never gotten front row to any concert. Luckily I had my knitting, because there was an hour waiting for the concert to start. So I got quite a few rows done on my sweater:) The lady next to me was amazed that I had thought to bring something to do, and then she ignored me the rest of the time, I probably scared her.

Ok, so I'm sitting there knitting away and in walks Fran 20 mins before the show started, and he walked right in front of me to get to the backstage area. Wow, that was pretty cool. I wanted to jump up and squeeee, of course I didn't, I played it cool (which will surprise some of you, I know).

I think some back story is in order.

Owen and I have known each other for over 12 years. I've been listening to Fran and his band Travis for about as long. I've seen them 3 times before (all in 2000) - 2x they opened for another band (Oasis) and saw them twice on that tour, the 3rd time they played at the Roseland in Portland (this is one of my favorite concerts of all time). They've been to Portland one other time more recently, but we couldn't go to the concert for some reason. So, their music reminds me a lot of when Owen and I were first dating and living together, because we listened to them all the time. Their album "The Invisible Band" came out when we bought our first car and that stayed in the cd player for MONTHS! That music got me through a lot of stuff, including a 1 hour commute to a job I hated, for 4 months. This time Fran was touring by himself to promote a solo album that is coming out in October. I feel so lucky that he came to Portland, because the tour was only 6 shows.

Back to the story.

Promptly at 8 he comes out and we go wild (well as wild as 100 or so people can get). He decided to ditch the mic and amp and just played acoustic. Oh my, that was a treat! So, instead of being behind a mic, he was right in front of us and it was like a private concert - so so so so cool. Really hard to describe too, because these songs mean a lot to me and this night they seemed so honest and real, just a totally different experience. Oh and he went Storytellers on us and told us stories behind all of the songs he played! My favorite was about the song "Side" and he wrote it originally as a rap song (LOL), but that got nixed and the lyric "a circle only has one side" is from one of his physics teachers - he said his mind was blown away by this fact, and I have to admit when I heard this song the first time my mind was blown too). The song "Rocking Chair" got the tears flowing, because it was written from the point of view of a woman with Alzheimers from a TV interview he watched, all I could think of was my grandmother. He played so many songs - 15 that I can remember, but maybe one or two more, including a few from the new album. Oh I can't wait to hear it! For the encore he admitted that he did not have a set list, and asked if we had requests. Poor guy was bombarded with so many. I am pretty sure I was the only one yelling out "Driftwood", and he played it. That was really special, it has to be my favorite song of all time, and apparently it almost wasn't a song. He said that he was washing dishes and watching Cheers on TV and mulling over a dialog between Norm and Clif about being driftwood. Then he had the melody and went to record it, but instead of recording, he just got footsteps of him leaving the room. He reviewed the tape and at the very end there was him singing a bit of it and voila, Driftwood was not lost forever.

After the show, he didn't leave, he just hopped off the stage to sign autographs. Of course, I was NOT prepared AT ALL :( I didn't think to bring a camera or anything to sign, or even a token gift - stupid stupid stupid! I got a couple of grainy shots with the iphone, yup. Oh well, it was just hard to think of something to say that didn't sound dumb. I mean, at home, you can think of so many things to say to someone whose work you admire, and then you become dumbstruck when you actually meet them in person. I mentioned the commute thing and that he should go to Voodoo Doughnuts afterwards, and that was it. If I could have hogged more of his time, I would have also said that his music means a lot to me (more than he could ever know), that even with an accent he speaks so clearly, that I am also a vegetarian and that I really liked how soft his shirt was.

When he sang "Indefinitely" it was about time not really existing and life is just moments and wanting to live in a moment forever. Well, I really wanted this night to go on forever, I could listen to him sing for about that long.

Well, we had to leave and I didn't want to go home right away, so we went to Voodoo (since I had mentioned it, and that's all I could think about eating) and got a couple of donuts to have for breakfast and one to share on the ride home while we listened to the other song I had wanted to hear "We are Monkeys" A little Travis song that makes me laugh.

Lavender Festival

It was that time of year again to trek out to Yamhill for the Lavender Festival. This was Hazel's 2nd Lavender festival (Pix from last year) and she had a blast! She got to ride a pony named Belle. She had practice riding and holding onto a saddle from the carousel for her birthday, and those playground animal things on a spring. She knew to hold on, but when she came around the loop to where my mom and I were standing, she would take one hand off and wave at us, then go back to holding on. Owen was there just in case she fell off, but he really wasn't needed! We visited the two farms we like Willakenzie and Wild Rain. At Willakenzie they have the Alpacas which are always fun to see. In their gift shop they added skeins of alpaca yarn and patterns too. The man I met 2 years ago here was again spinning on his Lendrum, and it was neat to chat with him, now that I have more spinning experience. At Wild Rain farm we picked a bundle of lavender and walked across their farm to the rivers edge and I re-taught my mom and her friend how to make lavender wands. It was so relaxing to sit in the shade and drink lavender lemonade and craft. It would have also been the perfect place to spin if I had brought my wheel.