the party

For all that I love taking pictures, I'm very bad at documenting those special events in my life because I'm too busy being IN the moment to stick a camera in my face. But sometimes I do try, like yesterday for Anatole's birthday party!




We made some Sculpey beads (I'd forgotten how hard this stuff is, so mostly the adults made things...oops!)


And balsam & sweetgrass party favors for....smelling nice. And hanging on something. To smell nice.

And there were presents, some really, really sweet presents. Thanks, friends!







Too many other sweet things are captured only in my head, but that just means that we had a good time!

a wildly happy birthday!

to my very best four (!) year old boy.

what it's all about

hot cocoa. with whipped cream, mind.




and Thanksgiving feasts! this is actually a picture of our leftovers. i was so full that i didn't make it on to dessert until the next day, but the wait was worth it. pumpkin pie and cranberry apple cobbler....



don't worry, it's all gone now ;-)

audubottom

some weeks ago Scruffy and i went to the Portland Audubon Society.



we like to visit the rescue birds




(this is Anatole's favorite, Julio the female owl. he could stand outside her pen and chat all day.)

and then we go down into the forest for a little walk. oregon is so very, very green.






(Anatole has this strange fear of slugs, though he bravely faces up to them now. i kinda get it; they're weird.)







what are your local adventures when the weather turns a bit sour?

drumroll...

Crank! I don't have to remind you how great this is, or how very definitely you should be there if you're in the Portland area. See you at the party! (poster created by my dad, give him a hand, too!)

The Society of Jacks

Jack Frost!









Jack of All Trades!


(that's my brother! being his own fantastic and talented self on the day of the opening of his bike shop, Crank! I just got a tune-up and custom fitting and now I ride like the wiiiind.)



by the way, the little man took both these pictures.

and of course, Jack Dandy himself:



who was a butterfly for Halloween.



there was much adorableness (and some very lame, hasty pictures) on this inaugural trick-or-treat outing. i finally get Halloween, and why it's so much fun as an adult.

by bike

Most days of the week I take the boy to school on the bike -- not because I'm virtuous, mind, but because we are a very busy family with one car. I enjoy the ride, though, especially on beautiful October mornings. We've been lucky with the weather so far, but that luck is not going to hold and I know that I will be cold and soggy on the slog very very soon. Perhaps even tomorrow. But Anatole will be cozy and dry in his little trailer, at least, packed in with mitties and blankets and a rain cover...



I took the camera along the other day, figuring it would be one of the last good days when I could without risking water damage. So here, some snapshots from the roads of southeast Portland:



among the challenges inherent in photographing by bike is the blur factor, but I couldn't resist at least one passing attempt at the foliage.



Belmont and 34th:





Hawthorne with a misty Mt. Tabor in the background:



And the bike thoroughfare that is Clinton:



That was pretty much all I managed on the ride...I feared for my camera and my life to take it out of my coat too much, but I may try again on some fair-weather day in the future. When I got home, though, our kitty was posing most picturesquely in the fallen leaves.

bubbles!

though the day was dark and stormy, we were not without our whimsy.











cheers!

whoooooey!

how time does fly! i have much to report, too much, it turns out. first and foremost, my new blog, Spindleshanks (the woolier side of my life) is now going to be up and running -- i promise! it has one measly little post at the moment but i intend to remedy that very soon and that's where anyone can go who cares to check out all of my knitting and spinning ventures and misadventures....

we also recently had a very fun photoshoot with my best partner in crime, Alex, and i will have more pictures from that going up somewhere soon, but here's one that Anatole shot of us together, both wearing hats of her own design (and strangely dressed alike, as well...good taste is just so catching, i guess!):



and you can see why i make her do all my modeling...we all have our roles to play on different sides of the camera. stick one in my face and i'm guaranteed to kind of freak out on you, or just freak out in general.

also we are all back in school (well, one teaching, one learning, and me just kind of doing my thing at work and play) which is why i have to go make breakfast now instead of updating more. soon my pretties, very soon.

home again, home again

it's autumn, i don't care what the calendar says. thus, the mittens (early in the morning, but my it was brisk!).



and what else? when we came home from Maine i was gripped by a need to make cobbler. and then another. i can see making a habit out of this because oh my goodness, people, it's like i'd never eaten fruit+dough before. crispy on top, buttery light underneath, and full of powerful fruit sweetness on the bottom.



there have also been potfuls (potsful? why not when we say passersby instead of passerbys?) of soup which never get their pictures taken, and even some pictures for pictures' sake. ahem, fair warning, this falls pretty heavily in the artistic pretensions category. the post-process was negligible, which is all i'll say. otherwise, it was great fun.





and spinning, at long last! i'm creating a whole other fiber arts blog (soon!) to finally vent all those adventures somewhere specific for people who care about such things, but i cannot resist showing off this hefty (400 yards!) skein i named 'Pandora's Box', on sale now at Twisted.



there are most certainly games afoot, to be released soon upon the world. all that and with the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival coming up (psst, anyone who hasn't yet found that perfect something for my birthday, look no further) i am drowning in wooly bliss.

friends

*sigh* it's always the same with these people. i love them so much i just want to wad them up and stick them in my mouth. perhaps people with children understand that sentiment; how completely you want to keep someone near you.





and the people they love, too.




(the hidden one is Joe...who sadly had to leave for rehearsal and so that is the sole photo i have of him)



oh, and the ones i love, always!







thanks, all, for the bestest of all possible worlds. but instead of goodbye, let's have some more New England light goodness from their abode.





and a field full of family (from earlier in the day)!









off to the beach we go! i don't know if we will have the interwebs during our stay, so perhaps i'll see you all when i return.