How was your holiday?

We just got back from Portland this afternoon. Our thanksgiving dinner was a demonstration in excess. We also managed to work bacon into almost every single dish which is both deplorable and magnificent, no? Portland is such a great city, I can really see us living there.

So we brought the dogs down and they had a good time too though Noodle managed to o.d. on wild mushrooms and got violently ill in the house. That was disgusting, sad and funny all at the same time. On Friday we went down to the Pearl to do some shopping. I had high hopes to buy some cute clothes or housewares but everything I loved was too expensive (what a surprise :-/). We ended Friday night with drinks and several rounds of pool at a new lounge in Alberta called Soi Cowboy - the space is cute, the bartender is friendly and the food is very delicious.

That about sums up our holiday. I hope yours was full of good food and good times.
In parting I leave you with a pictorial review of the weekend:

noodle wearing rudi's wig:

on a nature walk:

fenix, ready to put away some turkey:

hand made, mcg made

photo: me knitting a baby hat whilst still pregnant, august 2007

So apparently handmade gifts are super trendy this year. I'm feeling kinda good about this because it's always been really important for us to put a personal touch on the gifts that we give to our loved ones.

My friends are very creative people and I feel lucky to have received handmade gifts from them. But the good news is that you don't have to be creative to make nice handmade gifts. They can be really easy and in most cases none of it requires a lot of work or money to execute.

Last year we gave away homemade vanilla extract, pregnant belly salve, lip balm, infused whiskey, rosemary limoncello, change purses made from upcycled leather, mulling spices (for wine or cider), and things knit by me

This year we plan to give away more whiskey and mulling spices to folks that didn't get any last year as well as more hand knit and home sewn items.

What are you making this year?

Happy Halloween!

from an extremely uncooperative gnome named Fenix...

First Father's Day

Yesterday was J's first official Father's day. As a gift I made him an appointment for an old skool straight razor shave which is actually just a facial for a man but instead of massaging your face, you get a super close shave and he loved every minute of it -- but I'll let him tell you all about that.

So the straight razor shave thingie was actually on Saturday. On Sunday (the actual holiday) we went to Salty's on Alki for brunch. Have you done this? If you live in Seattle or it's surrounding areas, you must. The amount of food is ridiculous. Do you like seafood? There were mountains of crab legs, oysters, clams and mussels. Smoked salmon as far the eye could see. And the normal breakfast fare of course... waffles, pancakes, eggs, biscuits, bacon, potatoes, bagels, yada yada yada. Oh and my favorite thing... the dark chocolate fountain with marshmallows, rice krispy treats, strawberries and fresh pineapple for dipping. I am pretty sure that I ate 10 strawberries. Gluttonous!

Anyway after brunch we walked on the waterfront and talked about life. And after that we went to the Edmonds art festival and met up with J's parents for a coffee. It was a really nice weekend and we are feeling especially happy about life and our good fortune and thankful for all of it.

fenix says: happy easter everyone!