PDX has my Heart!

I love Portland. Today I came across this amazing video from the Discovery Channel. Their website states that the video is:

“Comprised of 308,829 photographs taken from over 50 unique locations, it took an average of 3.8 hours to make each second of this film. The intent of the project was to place our cameras in unique locations across the city, achieve significant ranges of dynamic camera motion, and pursue cutting edge time-lapse techniques.”

I am in awe of the work that went into this short video. Ah, the bridges, Mount Hood, Portland at night, during the day, the waterfront, Powells, Voodoo doughnuts, food carts…

Now do you see why I love Portland? This is the perfect “Visit Portland” ad.

Enjoy and have an amazing, adventurous, relaxing, and playful weekend!

A weekend of favorite things…

Happy Friday! So it is ALMOST the weekend. What do you have planned? I am looking forward to the weekend, to relaxing, spending time with my hubby, sleeping, some good food, and getting caught up on a few things. I recently blogged about the book: “All the Money in the World: What the Happiest People Know About Getting and Spending” by Laura Vanderkam. She talks about how we can have better weekends with just a bit of planning. Some weekends could be on the frugal side and some weekends we could splurge a bit. What would your ideal weekend look like? Here is an excerpt on this topic in her book:

“What would it be like to fill a day, or even better, a whole weekend, with one’s favorite things? How would one do that? What are those favorite things? And most important for the sake of this book, what would that cost?” page 109-110

So my ideal “frugal” weekend with my favorite things: It would start with sleeping in, then getting my run in, showering and heading into Portland for a yummy breakfast. If I were to pick my favorite place in Portland for breakfast it would be VQ (Veritable Quandary). Afterwards, going with my hubby to explore new boutiques in town. Exploring new boutiques gets my creative juices flowing and inspires and encourages me to look at design, patterns, colors, and then when I come home I want to paint, write, and explore what has interested me on our boutique adventures. In the evening, I would want to snuggle on the couch and watch a movie. Just a top of mind ideal weekend.

I thought I would also share a few photos that we found while out exploring recently. This we found in Santa Barbara, California. It is a fun way to grow plants, using an old or used wine rack.

planter idea in Santa Barbara

This chair (I cannot imagine how much it weighs) we found at Anthropologie. I love it. Not at all comfortable, but just a clever design using old radiators!

chair in Anthropologie

What would your ideal weekend look like?

Happy weekend to you – hope you have some sun!

I’ll have Fries with that!

So it has been years and years since I have been to a fast food restaurant (In-and-Out Burger does not count). Ever since I was not feeling well about a week ago, I have been having strange cravings and adverseness to certain foods that I love. It has been a funky food week for me. I mostly eat a raw diet before 5 p.m. A green smoothie in the morning, a salad for lunch, and then protein, veggie, fruit for dinner. This is all when we eat at home. When we go out, I still try to eat vegetables, but I also go with what sounds best, or with what would be to complicated or involved to make at home. I also have a weakness for french fries, most likely due to the salt. I can also easily be coerced into ordering a burger with that. However, that would be at a good restaurant. (For Portlanders, my current favorite place for a burger and fries is Noble Rot).

Yesterday, Chris and I were running a few errands, and I had eaten lunch earlier than normal. I was needing a snack and the cashews I brought with me were not cutting it. Every drive thru we drove past I would say: “Oh, salt and fries, yum.” I would not usually say that and crave fast food. This past week I have had cravings for the strangest things (no I am not pregnant!). So because I could not stop talking about french fries, and we were not near our normal favorite restaurants, I suggested we go to Burgerville for some fries on our way home. They use all local ingredients, so how bad could they be? They were fine, nothing too exciting, but they met my imperative need for salt.

What I loved most about this fast food adventure, was the receipt. I have included it below. You will see my fries and Chris’ cheeseburger, and all the facts about each (calories, protein, etc). I do not count calories (way too much work), but I was fascinated! I have never seen that before on any receipt. It also compares your purchase to your daily calorie totals, and gives you percentages too. It is like the newly designed credit card bills that tell you how many months or years it will take to pay off your debt. This shows you how good or bad your meal truly is in relation to calories.

No offense to Burgerville, I am just not a fast foodie, so I will not be back too soon, but I applaud you for providing food from local businesses, and I think your receipt is brilliant.

my burgerville receipt

Dance Naked!!

Happy Monday to everyone! How was your weekend? There is sun here in Portland which is making me a bit giddy, maybe because my iPhone says rain for the rest of the week. I had a full weekend. We spent much of Saturday running errands around town and Sunday cleaning. Yes, cleaning again. Due to the rain and slightly warmer temperatures, our house became the home of ants in many of our rooms. We are used to it, we have lived here a few years, and they always come out in armies this time of year. It always gets old chasing them down. Ants are ants, I do not mind them, what I do mind is when they are crawling on my counters, or get anywhere near my bed. So after chasing them around the house, we usually always clean a ton, in hopes that they will not come back, and maybe just to clear our head of all the ants we have seen.

In honor of giddiness, sun, and that it is now April, I wanted to encourage you to: DANCE NAKED this week!

framed print on our wall

I love this print. I purchased it at the Lake Oswego Art Festival a few years back and framed it. For a long time it was over my desk and I would look at it while I worked. Now it is in our hallway. It reminds me to not work so hard, to get up and dance to music, to play, be free and have fun!  On occasion, I get right to the point and dance naked!

Go enjoy your day, be playful, and if you feel so inspired – then DANCE NAKED!

Are you a waker?

Gosh, I feel like I know what it must have been like on Noah’s Ark. It will not stop raining in Portland! Yes, I have lived here a long time and I am used to it, but usually it rains, then is gloomy the next day, then it rains, you get the picture. These last few weeks it has been raining non-stop, and my iPhone shows rain for the next week straight. I am starting to think that this year the saying should be March showers bring…sun and flip flops in April? For those of you that have sunshine send some my way!

Yesterday I read the book: “Evil Plans: Having Fun on the Road to World Domination” by Hugh MacLeod. It is a quick read, with short, quick chapters and even has cartoons throughout that break it up a bit. I read it all during yesterday’s run, so you will only need about an hour. I definitely recommend it if you are wanting to get out of your current job and you are needing inspiration and a little kick in the butt to do so, OR if you left your job and are breaking out on your own and need a reminder for why you broke free. Hugh starts the book with this idea:

“Sigmund Freud once said that in order to be truly happy in life, a human being needed to acquire two things: the capacity to work, and the capacity to love.” [His premise of an “Evil Plan” is to be able to do both at the same time]. page 2

He also has a cartoon that says: “the best way to get approval is not to need it.” I love that idea. (I apologize I forgot to note the page number). At the very end of the book he has a chapter called: “Are you a Waker?”

“A waker is someone who is very good at waking other people up from their metaphorical slumber, temporary or otherwise. Some people just have the gift. Being around them or their work just makes you feel more alive, more inspired, more motivated, more awake. The best wakers will make you do crazy-ass things, like quit your boring job and start your own business, write that song, move to Thailand, forgive that someone who once hurt you, or finally tell that girl that you love her. A waker reminds you on a constant basis just how alive you really are. Just how much human potential you really have inside of you. And there’s something about their influence that makes you utterly unable to go back to “sleep” ever again, despite your best efforts.”  page 168

I love this idea of being a waker and wanted to share it with you! I want to help others feel more alive and more awake! Just as I want others to help me in that endeavor. What if we all attempted to do that for each other?

You can learn more about Hugh MacLeod on his website/blog.

Happy Friday!  Stay dry or enjoy the sunshine…be a waker this weekend for someone else!