Winter’s Farmers Market

Naturally occuring white, brown and pale green farm-fresh eggs

Alex, Marcy, David and I went to check out the Hillsdale Farmers Market yesterday, only 20 minutes away. It runs all year, and twice a month in winter. Despite the weather, there was a good selection of in-season produce and other local goods. We picked up a colorful assortment of organic free-range eggs, leeks, rainbow chard, pear cider, and a bag of nettles. Yep, stinging nettles, with their nasty little thorns. We’ve never tried them, but apparently they are super nutritious. The stinging property goes away with boiling (so I’m told). There is great little video on how to harvest them properly, and I think I’ll try this recipe for nettle pesto.

In other weirdness, David pointed out a robin sitting on the side-view mirror of the car yesterday. She would hop down onto the driver’s side window sill and flap her wings, as if trying to get at something inside. David went out to investigate, and found nothing in the car (we rarely use it so it’s pretty clean). He also taped an X over the spot, hoping to distort the reflection, if that what was making her crazy.

The crazy robin, and the taped X to distort the reflection

Poop trails: Driver’s side door

Poop trails: Passenger’s side door

This morning, we found out the bird was still there. Hopping around, and leaving the biggest poop trails on BOTH of the front doors. So weird! So we went out and moved both the cars into the driveway. Which did the trick, and the Robin is gone. But the question remains, what in the heck was she trying to accomplish?

Corteo

Sweet pink plum blossoms from our neigbor’s tree

Last night we went and saw Cirque du Soliel’s Corteo with our friends Alex and Marcy. I don’t know how Portland ended up on the North American tour, but I am so glad because it was AWESOME. One of the best traveling shows since Allegria. If you have an opportunity to buy tickets – DO IT! You’ll be glad you did.

In other news, spring is really beginning to show her face around here. Our yard has multiple spots of color and blooms – bright pink primroses, purple hyacinths, mixed anemones, pale pink daphne, and even our rhubarb has burst upon the scene. Yesterday we even picked up several pots of primula to fill near the front steps and two gardenias (for where, I have no idea). The thing I can’t figure out is why my spinach seeds haven’t sprouted in the garden yet. Am I just being impatient? Maybe something has eaten them or the seeds were no longer viable? I guess only time will tell.

The most AMAZING buttermilk chocolate cake EVER

This recipe has moved to a new location.

Neighborhood Coyotes

Barkley on a hike at Stub Stewart State Park

As I sit down to work at my computer, I hear a fire truck siren going off in the distance, followed by a clear, harmonious howl. David and I turn to each other and smile because we know the howl is coming from Barkley, who is outside at the moment. I’ve only seen him do this a handful of times, but it is simply adorable to watch and it doesn’t last long. I barely get a glimpse of him through the window (never long enough for me to get my camera, argh!). It’s heartening to see a shelter dog who used to be so shy and quiet, feel free to express himself like that.

This reminds me of that coyote I saw on my street last week. A pretty strange occurrence since I don’t live all that far from the city. And no, I wasn’t just seeing things, and no, it wasn’t just a dog on the loose. I know it was a coyote. I’ve seen the signs by our neighborhood lake, and I’ve heard about them from a neighbor, but I never in a million years expected to see one myself. I was just driving home one evening and turned onto our block to find it right in the street. It took one quick look at the car and then trotted away, out of sight. Wow! It was really cool.

Here are some interesting articles from the Audubon Society of Portland on Living with Urban Coyotes and a story from a neighboring community website.

A Modern Gingerbread House

This is the coolest gingerbread house, ever! Hard to believe that no one has thought of it before (at least that I’ve ever seen). I came across it here while perusing Redenvelope.com – “Every bit as edible as the original, this isn’t your grandma’s gingerbread house. We gave the classic holiday treat a mid-century makeover, complete with garage and rock garden. A unique gift and sure-fire conversation piece, it comes assembled and ready to enjoy.”

It’s a little spendy at $78 (for an extra $10 you can add personalization, like in the photo above) and it makes me a little sad that you can’t assemble it yourself. Isn’t that the fun part? Seeing this makes me think about trying to re-create one of my favorite modern houses, maybe Michelle Kaufmann’s Sunset Breezehouse or maybe an iconic Portland-area Rummer home, complete with melted hard candy glass windows (see recipe here). Wouldn’t that be so awesome?!

Cirque du Soliel’s “Corteo”

Yay! We just purchased tickets to see Cirque du Soliel’s Corteo when it comes to Portland in March 2008. It sucks to have to buy tickets so far in advance, but they sell out so quickly! I’ve been lucky to see several Cirque du Soliel performances in my life including Allegria, Quidam, Varekai, Dralion, Mystere, and my absolute favorite show of all time, “O,” which I saw last year at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. The acting, colors, props, costumes, music, stunts… all of it is mind blowing! They create this whole other world, and transport you for a couple hours into an alternate reality of beauty, action and sound. It’s magical – truly the best show on earth.

I can hardly wait!

Drawing on other people’s creativity

“Treehouses” limited edition cards (photo and design from Kirin & Co)

I was thinking today that I should feature other people’s designs more often, especially the ones that really strike me as particularly beautiful, creative, cool or otherwise inspiring. Since I can’t afford to buy anything right now (see this post if you’re wondering why), I thought it would be like “window shopping” using my monitor… or maybe it would be more like curating my own imagined shop? Plus, I’m really hoping to motivate myself to begin at least one of the projects that have been sitting in the back of my mind.

One of my very recent favorite finds is the letterpressed card shown above, a collaboration between Lara Cameron, an Australian designer, and Lynn Russel of Satsuma Press, based right here in Portland. There are a set of three designs: treehouses (above), japanese tree, and birch. According to Lara’s Etsy shop, each card is letterpress printed with a vandercook sp-15 on crane’s 100% cotton lettra paper with hand mixed inks. However, if you live in the US you’d save on postage by purchasing from Lynn’s shop. I love the single use of color, the mixture of thin lines and solid shapes, and especially the little details.

“Japanese Tree” limited edition letterpressed cards (photo and design from Kirin & Co)

“Birch” limited edition letterpressed cards (photo and design from Kirin & Co)

Helvetica, the film

David and I saw a screening of the documentary film Helvetica at the Hollywood Theatre this weekend, complete with a Q&A afterwards with director Gary Hustwit. Pretty darn good. I would recommend it to all type and graphic designers. Even though I’ve attended lectures by design greats like Stefan Sagmiester and David Carson in the past, to see other legends like Massimo Vignelli, Herman Zapf, Michael Bierut and Neville Brody speak on film was pretty interesting.

When we first arrived at the ticket table before the movie to have our hands stamped, we were offered a choice of a white “I love helvetica” button (David) or a black “I hate helvetica” button (me). After the film, I found that I actually didn’t hate it after all. My dislike stemmed from its overuse, not of the typeface itself. I wonder if it’s going to have a revival now (not that it needs one).

A list of upcoming screenings can be found here. Plus you can submit your own opinion at Veer’s (a sponsor of the movie) Helvetica love/hate contest.

At the Portland Art Museum

I met my friend Heather for breakfast yesterday morning, after not seeing her for what felt like ages. She’s been volunteering at the Portland Art Museum at the current Rembrandt exhibition, and offered me a free pass for the day. I almost declined, due to a very late night the day before, but in the end I was happy I didn’t.

The Rembrandt exhibition itself was good. Since I didn’t want to stay too long I just listened to the audio tour during the more important pieces, or whenever I was particularly interested. I would say that, thanks to my art school background, I appreciate Rembrandt for the master he was, but I would likely never buy one of his paintings (assuming I could ever afford one).

Damien Hirst, “Superstition”

Outside of the Rembrandt exhibition, I was lucky to encounter another special exhibition a day early called Camouflage, “an exhibition of eight paintings that explores artists’ use of pattern in the post-World War II era.” The piece that really struck me was a massive new work by Damien Hirst called The Kingdom of the Father (2007), on display for the very first time. The museum’s website says this work is “part of Hirst’s ongoing butterfly series, incorporating thousands of naturally-shed butterfly wings to pattern and color a matrix inspired by the structure of Gothic stained-glass windows.” This was quite a stunner, not only in size, but in vivid colors. At first, I didn’t realize they were real until I went back for another, closer look, and saw the countless wings embedded in what looks like thick, shiny black paint (notated on the description as lacquer). I’d be pretty interested in finding out a little more about that “harvesting” process. I hate that I couldn’t take my own photos, especially since I can’t find an image of it anywhere on the internet. The one above for Superstition is similar, and although there is a sense of perspective here, you can’t see the amazing detail naturally inherent in each iridescent wing.

Darren Waterston, “Inside”

I almost missed the new modern and contemporary art wing and I am so glad that I thought to ask on my way out. Modern art is definitely more my taste. One of my favorite works was by Darren Waterston called In-Between which I also can’t find an image of online. At the time, I had the whole floor to myself so I probably could have gotten away with a discreet photo, but oh well. Posted above is another work of his that I really like from his website called Inside (2004, oil on wood, 36″ x 36″). After a little more research I found that the artist has an upcoming exhibition at the Ronna and Eric Hoffman Gallery of Contemporary Art at Lewis & Clark College, beginning September 6, which I hope to attend.

A decent interview with Damien Hirst can be found here at artinfo.com.

Basic Beeswax Collage

Last night I took a 3-hour class called Basic Beeswax Collage with Portland artist Linda Womack. It was held at Collage on NE Alberta, where I had previously taken an encaustic painting workshop.

This was a fun class, and Linda was great at explaining and demonstrating each technique step-by-step. Basically, instead of using glue, we used melted beeswax to embed layers of paper and other matter like feathers, dried organic material and fabrics. We also used mediums like crayons, oil pastels and encaustic paints to add color and tools like screens and stencils for texture. All the materials were provided, but several students brought their own.

The most important step when using wax is to be sure that each layer or added element becomes “fused” with the layer below. This means either melting the paper into the wax with a quilting or tacking iron, or heating the wax with a heat gun.

Working with tangible materials was a treat for me, very different from designing on a computer. The melted beeswax emits a warm, sweet smell and it is much harder to control. Despite my best efforts, the wax often seemed to have a mind of its own, but it some ways it’s fairly forgiving. Because of the built up layers, you can often scrape away mistakes. Even better is to just go with the flow – literally. For my piece, I cut out one colored butterfly and several black-&-white photocopied butterflies, two sheets of thin material for the background and drew the flowers with oil pastels. Not too bad for my first collage, but I’m already looking forward to my next opportunity.

This and other classes at Collage can be found at DIYlounge.com.

Such Good Times

Dear Alan & Sandy,

It was so great having you here for the past few days. I’m glad that we could share with you a little part of our lives here in Portland – from berry picking, to Mt. St. Helen’s, to exploring the markets, to dinner and games with friends – all such good times.

You both are truly an inspiration to us. We are so grateful for your unfailing support and generosity,  your insightful wisdom and your unconditional love. And thank you so much for being the best in-laws anyone could ever ask for.

With all my heart,
Emily

Is there such thing as too many blueberries?

I know, we’re going a little blueberry crazy over here. But, I mean, BLUEBERRIES! How can anyone not love those plump, sweet blue-black pearls of utter sweet (and healthy) goodness?

David, deftly picking only the most succulent berries

Sandy, with her colander of  treasures

Yes, we went blueberry patch again, especially because we had free labor visiting from Colorado (read: In-laws ). In just a short time we collected 10lbs of fruit, enough to gorge ourselves and have plenty leftover to freeze for later  (lay a single layer on a baking sheet until they freeze. Then transfer the frozen blueberries into gallon size ziploc freezer bags). I’m so glad its summer.