I. Heart. Portland.

It's always so hard to go home to Portland for Thanksgiving break. Not because I don't want to leave college town...(by then, i'm ALWAYS ready for a break...)

BUT, it is such a tease to those of us who then have to return to college town on Sunday, after the Holiday. We get four amazing days home, just enough time to get excited about Christmas break, only to remember the reality of returning to school for 2 more weeks of finals.

However while I was spending time at home, in the wonderful city of Portland, I made a list of all my favorite places. I thought I'd share...

1. The Montage. I do love its Famous southern Mac & Cheese. The Restaurant is located on the eastside under the Morrison Bridge.

2. Powell’s bookstore. In my opinion, should have a zip code of it's own...

3. The Vault Martini bar in the pearl district. The menu is about 15 pages long…of JUST martinis!

4. Edgefield in Troutdale. Food, golf. concerts, beer, wine, hotel, movies…Very cool place!

5. Saint Cupcake on 17^th and Flanders. It will leave you speechless!

6. The Portland Art Museum, currently featuring the China Design Now exhibit, but also has a lot of Portland culture.

7. Urban Fondue on NW 21^st. Great place to go with friends!

8. Mississippi Pizza Pub. BEST pizza in the city!

9. Pok Pok. Don't be afraid of the menu, everything is DELICIOUS! It’s Thai food, but worlds away from your basic strip mall Thai. It does Take FOREVER to get into, but totally worth the wait!

10. The Portland Saturday Market. Can get pretty busy, but a GREAT place to people watch.

What are YOUR favorite Portland spots??

Three things distinguish me as an Oregonian:

1. I love Microbrews, which is good because Portland has more breweries and brewpubs per capita than any other city in the United States.

2. I honestly LIKE the 10 months of the year that we see rain...

3. I appreciate the beautiful outdoors; whether it be in the middle of the city, on the river, the mountain, the beach or watching the sun set while driving down I-5.

Little Girl. Big Faith.

I saw this on the 11pm news tonight. I wanted to share because it made my heart feel a little lighter and truly inspired. This amazing 10 year-old little girl competes in triathlons and fights to raise money and awareness about her dad and the thousands of other men this year who will be diagnosed with prostate cancer. Great thanksgiving day story. Enjoy... (for better results double-click video)

Look of the day.

[Image via:this is glamorous]

It's gorgeous, but does it remind you of Turkey feathers?

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
I hope you all get to spend the weekend with those you love.

Here is what I am looking forward to this weekend:

1. playing apples to apples with my family
2. eating the entire platter of deviled eggs
3. celebrating my GF-in-law's 21st birthday
4. showing off my new macbook
5. seeing Angie and Anne (my big sisters)
6. drinking King Estates Merlot

Toast to my better half

Can I just say...

Well, of course I can "say"... It's MY blog :)

But, can i just say... that I originally promised myself that I would keep the content of this blog simple. I would write about design and art and photography and things that evoke emotion worth my intellectual commentary.

Meaning that....for the sake of privacy between him and I, I promised myself that I would not comment about my feelings of this relationship.

However, then I remembered that this is a space about ME and my life.... My ideas and my opinions and my reactions and feelings involving the world around me.

So, for this one time (I promise...)... this post is to the one that I love. He has been the better half of me. Four years later I can still look at you and smile and count my blessings because I am a truly lucky girl. If there was ever a day that I would really need you; your support, advice and love... it was today... and you knew all the right things to say. You made me feel better. You were a really good friend. In the light of blessings this week, I want to say thank you, to you. Thank you for being my best friend. I am so thankful for you and what we have, together.

On a day. like. today.

The countdown till Graduation, for me, began months ago... But, it's days much like today... on a sunny, cold, November morning...on the beautiful Oregon State campus, which is a place that I’ve been proud to call my home for the past 5 years. Today, as I sit at the busy Brew Station coffee house on 23rd and Monroe, with my soy latte and New York Times, I can't help but feel a little regretful by the thought of moving away from this beautiful place, in March. They say that our college years are the best years of our lives; I know they were honestly mine. I am so thankful for experiences I’ve had, the lessons I’ve learned (and not just in a classroom)… and the relationships I have built during my time here. I will miss you Oregon State… Especially in the fall…

[Image via: OSU]

Dear God...

“Dear God, let me be something every minute of every hour of my life. Let me be gay; let me be sad. Let me be cold; let me be warm. Let me be hungry...have too much to eat. Let me be ragged or well dressed. Let me be sincere -- be deceitful. Let me be truthful; let me be a liar. Let me be honorable and let me sin. Only let me be something every blessed minute. And when I sleep, let me dream all the time so that not one little piece of living is ever lost.”

--A Tree Grows In Brooklyn

Tis the season...to have a cocktail

To all you fabulous winter cocktail drinkers out there...THIS is my recommendation of the the season: It's called a Bourbon Furnace (I experienced it at a Portland Mcmenamins downtown), BUT you can make it yourself! Here's how:

Recipe

6 oz hot apple cider
3 whole cloves
1 stick cinnamon
1 1/2 oz Bourbon

Preparation Instructions:
Mix all ingredients into a glass with handle and serve immediately.

Additional/Optional Info:

Servings: 1 person

Serve In:
irish coffee mug

[via:cocktails]

Certainly Uncertain

Dear UNcertainty,

Today I need encouragement. Today I need positive delight. I know that it's not your job, but could you please abscond and send someone more...well, me? more qualified ...more...certain? My life is too short and too important to worry and complain and agonize over you...uncertainty. we're not friends. You don't know me and I don't know you... I don't want to know you. I'm friends with control and assure and we do not associate with you. I can't breath when your around or dispute or think, logically. I'm not myself you're around and I get anxious.

[via:elenabazu]

Ready, prepared, "certainty", that feels good. Certainty. I hope it returns soon...

Things that SpArKle

[Via:Bazaar] [Via:Girlwhimsy]

If I could tell you my postsecret...

Somedays I wish I was Brave enough

To fly to another country,

Fall in love with it,

And never return home...

[Via:Hadanae]

...I just wish you were brave enough to fly with me...

Easier to say...

[Via:quiver]

Time to grow up princess

"But then, shall I never get any older than I am now? That'll be a comfort, one way -- never to be an old woman -- but then -- always to have lessons to learn!"

-Alice, Alice in Wonderland

It's Raining...

{Getty Images}
{"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass... but rather it's about learning to dance in the rain"}

Some Red Composition

These are photos from one of my favorite Spanish Artists, Alberto

The Composition is what makes these photographs truely unique and amazing...

7 of my favorite things:

1. The moment during a concert when the crowd figures out what song the band is playing
2. When the phone rings and it’s somebody you were just thinking about
3. The moment on a roller coaster, after you get to the top of the first big hill, and before you go down it
4. Stomping through dry crunchy leaves on the side walk
5. When chopsticks come apart perfectly
6. Turning off the lights during a thunder storm
7. When you get home so late, the morning newspaper is already lying at the front door

1000 awesome things

To brighten your Monday...

Eye Candy
Tropical Escape
Colorful Flowers

In light of the gloom covering the Pacific Northwest today...

My Girlfriend-In-Law

Because I'm such a new blogger I'm still reading and following other blogs that inspire me, mostly people that I know and love.

Candy Jean, my brother's girlfriend has become one of my favorite people to be around. My "Girlfriend-In-Law" as I like to call her... She is currently living with my brother at my parents house, going to school full time and working at Columbia Sportswear in Portland. She is so fun to be around and smart and witty and always up for anything! In her Blog, Dog Days are Over, she shares about her "PLDs" as she likes to call it...(poor life decisions) and "ALDs" (Awesome Life Decisions). It's very funny and interesting.

Check it out! I hope that you will learn to love her as much as I have! :)

Dog Days are Over

Culturing Wisdom

As a little girl I used to parade around in my mother's pearls. They became a symbol of divine beauty to my life. As timeless as a Vera Wang gown or a Coco Chanel Suit; to me, they represent strength, luxury and loveliness. Magnificent in their luminosity and iridescence, pearls are the only gems perfect in themselves. They have perfected a true art form; with natural beauty unaided by cutting, faceting or polishing. The most valued of all gems for centuries, they have been the preferred symbol of wealth, rank and authority or kings, queens and emperors around the world. This is why I studied the history or art in college.

Post Secret of the Week...

Postsecret

(I like to call my little red honda "peanut") because she is cute and VERY reliable...

"Secretly, I don't mind when peanut breaks down...

...Because I get to spend more time with my dad" ...even if it does include 100 lectures. <3 you dad!

Breakable

I am obsessed with Ingrid Michaelson thanks to my good friend Erica! :)

Marilyn

"Give a girl the right shoes, and she can conquer the world." — marilyn monroe