Our friends found this little step stool/mini seat for one dollar at a thrift store. One dollar!
They brought it home and with some sandpaper, stencils, masking tape, paint, a good idea and some love, they transformed it into personalized seating for the little miss.
How amazing is it to have such crafty and kind friends?!
Keep your eyes peeled while thrifting or hitting those yard sales.
This is a fun project and makes for a great gift.
I'm going to put together a list of places we like to go around Portland. I thought I would start off with the Portland Nursery. Yesterday I had to go there. Yes, HAD to go. It was needed for my mental health. The rain is starting to get to me. I wanted to surround myself with some life and color and smell not only the sweet springy blossoms but one of my favorite smells...
fresh nutrient rich soil.
I like the smell of spring dirt.
Call me crazy.
Images in red for this dreary friday.
There would have been more but my battery went kaput.
Apparently it was over the rain, too.
If you decide to go to Laurelhurst Market for lunch,
order the #3.
It is perfection in the shape of a sandwich.
I'm not even going to tell you what's in it.
Let it be a non-vegetarian surprise.
I woke up yesterday with a hankering for oatmeal cookies.
We've been battling colds, fevers, ear infections, exhaustion, and bad days at work. I most certainly think a cookie can make it all feel better.
There is one thing that kept me from making such cookies;
they will never be as good as Grandma Lily's.
This is a comment I have heard for every batch of oatmeal cookies I have ever made since I've known my husband.
Until now.
I abandoned the recipe on the box of quaker oats and found a new recipe which I am quite 'smitten' with.
FINALLY!
Oatmeal raisin cookies that are thick, chewy and yummy.
In the past mine always came out so thin and crispy. I never understood why.
Yesterday I learned that this won't happen if you chill your batter before you bake your cookies. Why has it taken me so long to learn this?
Thumbs up from the mister followed by,
"Didn't you make any with chocolate chips? That's how Grandma Lily makes them."
I know it's not a new idea,
but as I was taking the bunch of tulips I purchased for a friend out of the plastic wrapper looking for a quick and not too fussy presentation I remembered-
the brown bag.
I trimmed the stems and placed them in a wax paper sandwich bag to keep the brown bag dry, folded down the sides, placed the bunch in and cinched it with some twine.
It may not be for all occasions but there is something really appealing about it's simplicity.
(not to mention how easy it is to get those flowers into water and toss the wrapping into the recycling!)
yes, it's true.
a carrot from the bunch of rainbow carrots
purchased at the market.
in particular the dark skinned purple carrot.
i believe if the carrot and the beet were to have a torrid affair
this would be their love child.
and it just keeps getting more beautiful as you peel away it's skin,
and slice for a lovely surprise.
When I was pregnant I craved cherry pie.
In the pacific northwest there are some really yummy cherries and people bake all sorts of elaborate pies. The kind of pie that you know exactly which farm the fruit was picked at, organic of course, pure ingredients; you get the picture, cherry pies with hazelnuts, liquors, flavored crusts, and even fried.
That's great and all but I wanted bright red, over processed, too much sugar, high fructose corn syrup cherry pie filling from the can. I couldn't find it anywhere. Until now.
I thought it would be very valentinesy.
My idea was to make a heart shaped cherry hand pie.
It was going to be great.
That is, until I wondered why it smelled like crayons burning in the house and was it getting smoky? Yes. The smoke detectors started to beep and I opened the oven to what I thought was parchment paper but actually was wax paper (which I realized as I glanced over at the box on the counter. Genius.) drying up and smoldering. Fantastic.
So much for my heart shaped hand pie.
But just like life (and love) sometimes better things come from events that seem, at the time, like they are a disaster.
I looked over at the little bit of dough I had left.
What is better than one big heart? Why, two half hearts that make the whole, of course.
How romantic.
