Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Better Living Show

Friday night's Date Night led David and I to the Better Living Show at the Expo Center. After dinner at Fire on the Mountain we were off to the fun yearly event that is the Better Living Show. We enjoyed meandering though the booths and especially loved seeing the animals that were brought in for the show!

Last year I remember seeing chickens and a rabbit, but this year there was a farmer who even brought two alpaca! I have always loved alpaca and have longed to own some someday. Until seeing these two cuties at the show, I thought the love for alpaca was all on me, but oh was I surprised when David fell in love with them as well!

They were very sweet and docile, even though many hands were reaching in to pet them and we enjoyed talking to the rancher for the better part of a half hour. He answered all of our questions and encouraged us to call him when we are ready to start our own little flock... how fun! While we know that we will not be having a flock of any kind any time soon, it sure was fun to chat with him and see the animals up close!

Of course we also enjoyed seeing the home goods booths and chatting with the ladies from the Master Gardener program, but nothing compared to those alpaca!

Monday, March 29, 2010

Print Making Class

Last week I took a print class at Collage and it was such fun! I studied print making throughout college and always loved the art form. I have often missed my times at the print shop and wished that it was a hobby that I could continue. While in college I used very large printing presses and never knew that there were ways to hand print. The techniques quickly came back to me and I look forward to starting up the printing process again... thank you notes, birthday cards, Christmas cards- oh my!

I attended the class with two of my teacher friends from school. Each of us having printed before, but not in many moons, made for a fun evening! We started off with dinner and drinks and The Bye and Bye, a vegan bar on Alberta (vegan being something I just don't understand). The food was fair, they served local brew and the company was great!

After our dinner we were off to our class, which was held in the back of the Collage store. There were maybe 10-12 students in the class, which was wonderful as it allowed for questions and plenty of time to print. I came away with four cute little prints of a bike and lots of plans to continue printing.

Friday, March 26, 2010

The Story of Stuff



Monday night found my good girlfriend and me at our usual spot, Powells bookstore. We were amidst a crowd of about 150 waiting to hear Annie Leonard speak. She is the creator behind the Story of Stuff and has just come out with a book of the same title. I had seen the video about a year ago and it really got me to thinking about how to better live this simple life I strive towards.


Throughout her talk she kept reiterating the fact that yes, we should all be doing the little, but important, things to save the earth, but what we really need to be doing is collaborating as a community to attack larger items on the agenda. I loved when she said that she longs for a society that does not give out gold stars to people for composting. Rather, composting, bringing your own bag to the grocery store and recycling should be like flossing, something every grown-up is expected to do.


She urged her listeners and readers to be citizens striving to assist with the betterment of society, not just the betterment of ourselves, which often ends up creating more consumers and more consuption. She asked that you pick your cause and contact your government to make it happen. The thing of it is, how does one go about that? Who is it that you contact to get jobs done? And, if you find those people, what do you say that will make them listen?


I left realizing that I am not really doing much for the betterment of society. I have been doing some heaving thinking on what my cause really is and how I can get my voice heard enough to make my cause the norm. She was a great speaker, proven by the fact that days later I am still thinking about it, and I look forward to some change.


P.S. if you haven't seen her video, click the link above. It is a free 20 minute video that Leonard says has been viewed over 8 million times!

Thursday, March 25, 2010

My Sweater

Just a little peak at my sweater so far. I have about 10 inches. Once I get to where I would like the sleeves, I will knit those on a smaller circular needle and join them both on the sweater before I finish the yoke. We'll see how it goes!

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Spring Cleaning

With spring break upon us I have been scurrying around the house doing a serious deep clean, including all those nooks and crannies that sometimes are over looked in the busyness of the school year.

I am a list maker by nature and oh how that list goes on when it comes to spring cleaning! I try to squeeze as many chores into the week as I can.

So far the list goes something like this:
  • Dust under all furniture
  • Vacuum base boards
  • Wash all sheets and towels (a weekly chore, but when I add it to this list it make the list look all the longer!)
  • Clean the chicken coops (another weekly chore)
  • Organize The Drawer (you know which drawer, everyone has a black hole like this don't they?)
  • Dust pantry
  • Mop
  • Make laundry soap
  • Re-organize my craft room
  • Make granola
  • Make a double batch of crackers
I have been whittling away at this list for a few days now and there is light at the end of the tunnel. I do love the way the house feels after a good deep clean, like our little cottage has taken a breath of fresh air.

I will continue on with my list for the next few days, of course supplementing with lunches with friends, guest speakers at Powells, printmaking classes at Collage, and knitting... it should be a great week!



Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Where Did You Have Breakfast on Sunday?


Well, we went to Pine State Biscuits, and oh was it amazing! David and I have frequented their booth at the Portland Farmers Market on the PSU campus and have always thought it would be fun to visit the store front. We had prepared ourselves for a bit of a line and when we pulled up to the restaurant the line was half way down the block! We quickly decided that this place must be like Disneyland in that waiting in line is half the fun, and it was. Of course we enjoyed the people watching, one of our favorite pass times, and the front of the restaurant is all windows so you have the luxury of drooling over others food while you wait. The little place only has three tables and a counter that seats about five. For such limited seating the line went rather quickly, many patrons chose to take their order to go.

Once inside we were overwhelmed with the smell of biscuits and fried chicken! I ordered the Reggie Deluxe, above, and David ordered the Double Down Moneyball. Our breakfasts were accompanied by two cups of Stumptown Coffee, our favorite! We also ordered two biscuits to-go, one with honey and butter, the other with pimento cheese... for an afternoon snack of course.

It was definitely worth the wait and we will be heading back soon for sure!



P.S. since we were in that neck of the woods, we stopped by Urban Farm Store on our way home. We love this place, the owner is always so kind and full of knowledge. Of course I was smitten looking at their new chicks, remembering how I used to sit for hours watching ours when they lived in their little brooder by our back door.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Chickens!



Harvey, our only brown egg layer and the one who waits to leave the coop until I have pet her.


Ethel, who greets me at the door of the coop with an earful of clucks every day.


Marty, the glutton. She follows me wherever I go, waiting for me to unearth a worm or sprinkle some cracked corn from my pocket.
And who is that cream little one in the back? You can barely see her, but that is Gretchen's little rump up in the to right hand corner. The fact that she would not let me take her picture is so very Gretchen. All our chickens love to be held and have their feathers stroked, but not Gretchen, she fluffs up and tries to peck at my toes!

Just about a year ago one of my dreams came true. For years I told David that we would some day own chickens, I know he was thinking, "Yeah, right... someday..." and hoping that I would drop it. Well, I never did and after lots of research, a chicken keeping class at Pistils Nursery, and two long weekends designing and building our own coop, we had our very own little flock, and we have never looked back.

The girls offer us endless entertainment, weather we are climbing on the roof to rescue Harvey or laying on the hammock watching what I call farm television as they prance around the yard. And the eggs, oh the eggs. Once you go fresh, from free roaming hens, you will never go back. Because we have banties, which lay super small eggs, it takes us 12 eggs to make a scramble for the two of us on Saturday mornings (12 eggs! that is something I think we will always find funny). They say that three banty eggs equal one large egg and I have found great success using that ratio in a great many recipes.

So with spring right upon us, I would suggest you build yourself up a little coop and settle in for some farm television!

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

After School Snacks

David and I spent our Sunday morning at our usual spot, the Hillsdale Farmers Market. We came home with our basket overflowing with the wonderful bounty that is late winter! Some of our favorite things to nosh on throughout the winter are greens. We love to braise them and mix them into a quinoa salad, steam them along with brown rice or make juice!

So, what do I have hiding in those jars? The back jar is black russian kale and the front is spinach. I try my hardest to avoid storing any of our food in plastic, so into the huge glass jars it is! Upon coming home from the market I make sure to wash and trim all our greens, and any vegetable for that matter. I find that if everything is washed and at the ready we are all the more inclined to eat it up. After a quick spin in the salad spinner, the greens are stored in these glass jars. I also place a little piece of flour sack towel atop the greens before I screw on the lid, to absorb any excess water that may linger. Stored this way, these greens will last the two of us through to the next market, which runs every other Sunday.

As mentioned, we love to juice our greens, it serves as the perfect after school, or after work, snack. We have this juicer and we love it! Our very favorite combination is an apple, a pear, a carrot or two, a handful of spinach and a handful of kale. And what do we do with all that pulp when we are finished juicing? Well, it goes to the chickens of course!

Sunday, March 7, 2010

The Hat


It is soon to be our little nephew's second birthday and to mark the occasion I have been doing some knitting! David and I thought that a little hat would be the perfect thing to keep his little head warm throughout the rest of that cold weather those east coasters have been having! To accompany this quick knit we also found a board book version the The Hat by Jan Brett... I know, perfect right! I hope he likes it!

As I mentioned, the hat was a very quick knit, children's hats do not take much time at all. I used an old pattern that I had purchased to make my very first hat, but I changed it up a little for this hat. I made a wider rib on the bottom, changed the decrease to slip, slip knit rather that the called for knit two together and added the white detailing.

Lately I have been pouring over my newly acquired EZ books, oh that Elizabeth Zimmermann makes me laugh! She has a wonderful way of giving you confidence in your knitting and encouraging you to make up your own designs... which is just what I did for the birthday hat. Yes, I made up the white detailing!

So, what else is on those knitting needles? Well, David has picked out yarn for his own hat, I have been working on a little grey lap blanket and will soon be embarking upon a sweater! I will of course be guided by Elizabeth's words, I plan to make her seamless yoke. I hope to make it into a cardigan... which she has you cut up the front! I will be sure to keep you posted on the goings on of my first sweater.