Pacific Northwest, part 2 day 1

This is our bouquet-nice, huh

Pike Place Market is a favorite-do not miss-place every time I go to Seattle.  I am envious that people can buy gorgeous flowers for a fraction of what we pay in KY.  Those big bouquets are an affordable $10.00. Small ones, $5.00.

Flowers at the PPM are so breath-taking!

How about these?

Or a nice bouquet?

I am so excited that our farmers market will be approaching full swing when I return. I'm looking forward to seeing Anne, Claire, Charles, Brent and my other farmers that I've missed during winter.

These rows and rows of beautiful produce brought back fond memories of summer and my farmers market posts. I hope they do for you, too!

This makes me smile, rows of lusciousness

A trip here accomplishes a lot on my to-do list.  Market Grill for a grilled Halibut sandwich with cole slaw, my very favorite fish sandwich anywhere.  Their clam chowder is voted best in Seattle, but I'm not much of a shellfish girl.

Grilled Halibut sandwich

Their yummy slaw

Yummmm, check another thing off the list

A and R at the Market Grill

 Check that off the list. I also love Three Girls Bakery's Lemon Ginger cookies with currants. Maybe my favorite cookie.  They had moved to a new location so I happened across the Wall of Gum in my search for sweet goodness. It was absolutely fascinating to imagine all of this chewed gum and all of the people who stood there and put theirs on the wall.  There is a piece of A's somewhere on there. The dripping pieces are especially thought provoking.

dripping chewed gum-fascinating

Amazing, really!

Latte at El Diablo

A at El Diablo (Hipstamatic style)

We topped off the day with a trip to Nordstrom Rack, Queen Anne for a coffee at El Diablo and a stop at Kerry Park for a great view of the city. Home for a rest and out for dinner at Senor Moose where the Esquites  is fantastic.  I could have eaten that appetizer and stopped. Delicious!

El Diablo wall decoration

View from Kerry Park

A and me

Pacific Northwest, part 1 day 1

It seems my trips to Seattle revolve around (besides the obvious-A and R) a lot adventures in food and sight-seeing. This trip is no different.

I thought it appropriate to start my day with checking out Not Martha-a Seattlite's blog.

Yippee-food. She was baking for a bake sale to benefit Japan to be held-TODAY at Cakespy. You may also want to check out the cakespy.com site, artist, entrepreneur, author-very talented woman.

What is not to like about baked goods, especially ones that benefit Japan and are at a shop with the words "cake" and "spy" in the name?

First stop? Cakespy of course!

Not Martha baked Jars of Stars. Cute cookies in a wide variety star sizes. There were cupcakes, cake pops, cookies packaged with origami cranes (had to have) cute iced flower ones (sure, why not?), Hawaiian cornbread (bought that one), meringues (check), and so much more.  The woman who made the cornbread and treats adorned with paper cranes has friends in Japan. That's her next to A in the top photo.

I love having a good cause to get fat for-why didn't I think of that sooner?

Not Martha's Jars of Stars, aren't they cute?

This is the donation haul

Isn't this a sweet package?

This is tomorrow's breakfast-love the paper crane

Amy wanted a paper crane, too

Hawaiian Cornbread! New to me-see the tiny paper crane?

This was one of A's choices, a chocolate cupcake with salted caramel icing which was  extraordinary

meringues - well, what's left really

Feeling a bit hungry, gotta go! More soon on Pike Place Market, weather, coffee, a newly discovered park with a great view, and a return trip to Senor Moose (and that is only day one)....

New shrink art (or who knew a plastic cup could be so fun?)

Need another good idea for a party favor or gift?

I can always depend on my friend, Sue, for stimulating, fun ideas. This week was no different and even though I just got back from Texas and should be getting ready for the work week I spent time today repurposing #6 recyclable plastic cups into fun pendants with the help of a tutorial at Dollar Store Crafts.

These are just too fun for words. Can't you see a party where you use these plastic cups- I've seen them in yellow, red and blue-and as you move to coffee after dinner, you hand folks back their rinsed out cup to decorate with sharpie pen and melt it for them while they sip coffee and chat? You could put their names on the bottom in the circle to keep them straight, that part gets cut out anyway.

I'm wearing mine to work tomorrow. Who says the first day back after vacation is a drag?

Can't wait to see pictures of the ones you make!

The Circus is in Town

There is nothing that I like much more than throwing a big party. I'm not a big group person anymore for the most part. But, these occasional gatherings are a treat for me. I like planning them and experiencing them.
When I knew that Amy was coming in for the Dark Side of the Wall concert, (Brian is the lead singer, Pink, in the sold-out show) I wanted to have a party for extended family. Her aunts and uncles from Florida and Cincinnati were coming and it would be fun for her to see everyone at once.
It is a spectacular show and is sold out! There is talk of Whiney Hall next year.
Ezra's 6th birthday was last weekend, mine-yesterday, Shirley's the 22nd and Brian's the 27th, so what else but a birthday blowout?
I can't even remember why the circus came to mind except that I was thinking cupcakes and saw these cute vintage clown cupcake toppers. And it grew from there!
I had the best time ordering fun circus decorations, like hats, color-your-own bracelets, glow in the dark bracelet, circus tattoos, and cardboard cutouts for photo ops.

See their feet? Cute, eh?

The three-headed woman

My sister, Richey, who's opening an etsy store with vintage image magnets and coasters has been doing a lot of photo altering and was my go to person for circus poster images with our faces inserted which then became shrinky dink charms and lollipop decorations.

The Great Flying Ezra

Ezra went to the circus (ironically) last Saturday and he LOVED the guy shooting out of the cannon so it was fun the this was one of the cutouts that I ordered.

Pink in the Pink Cadillac

Sisters

This chalkboard tablecloth gets a lot of use!

Check out O's new Tatt

My cousins from Paducah came for the concert and for the party, too, along with my best friends-Dave and Karen.
Everyone loved the posters, charms, photo ops, circus food, but mostly just the opportunity to be together.
Ain't life grand?
You can see all the photos here, if you want to be bored to death with our family fun.

Queen of Hearts Challenge

I did this atc for the Quietfire Design Queen of Hearts Challenge and will be sending it to a partner in a Queen of Hearts atc swap!  I love this sweet little face and the "Queen of" stamp from Suzanne at Quietfire Design. You can be queen of just about anything with the accompanying stamps in the set.
Happy Valentine's Day! Go love someone :)

And more art

I made these atcs for a swap for Artfest.  You know I love that alcohol ink compressed air background. The theme is Nourishing Creative Growth this year.  I also made these shrinky dink charms to trade while there.

Art, can you believe it?

I told you I was participating in the Sketchbook Project a long time ago and true to my artistic nature, which is not a lot like my everyday self, I am last minute.  It has to be postmarked Saturday. A blank journal on a schedule is a little scary to me. I almost didn't do it.  It was a hectic last few months of 2010.

But, never one to like saying no to something I have committed to, here it is, and I'm pretty happy with it.  I knew that I wanted it to be interactive in some way, to fold or see something through it and so I began experimenting with my circle Nestabilities and decided to make a wishing well at the back that would come through the pages. I also like larger and larger circles so that I could write something around the rings that would show on the left as the pages were turned. I knew I wanted paper I could paint on so first off the bat, I tore all the pages out, so the only original thing is the cover which I covered!

I decided if I was doing a wishing well and my theme was "It's not a sketchbook..." I would do "A pocketful of wishes for Ophelia". It has little hopes and dreams and blessings for her.  Too bad it will never reach her little hands.  It will be archived after the tour. So I have taken these pictures and will make color copies for her.

I'm happy that I finished it, as always, there are things I would do differently next time.

Here it is- I still have to tighten the ties so they are a little long. Need another finger to hold them while I tie....
These are the pages before adding to the book, you can see the book on Flickr here:

Winter Market

Today was the start of the Winter Market for our Bardstown Road Farmers Market. There were more venders than I expected considering it was freezing cold and had snowed hard last night for a brief period but enough to leave side roads and sidewalks covered and icy.

I was pleased to get apples as I ate the last of my stash this week. And, Oh yea! Watermelon radishes and cabbage. Add a couple of packages of chicken breasts and some eggs and I'm good to go this week.

Well worth the effort and cold temps.