October 15, 2011 The Portland Nursery Apple Festival

My husband and I made a trip to the Portland Nursery for their apple festival last month which I recommend to anyone! I make apple pie filling each year and can it for Thanksgiving and Christmas pies plus a few crisps along the way.

Project 365: October 7th through October 13th

October 7th: Neighborhood Association Meeting for the month...


October 8th: Making dinner which was cod with tomato caper salsa, salad and bake broccoli and zucchini with pine nuts and parmessan.


October 9th: Grocery shopping - Canning jars, lettuce, lemons, bell pepper, green onion, tomatoes and French Vinaigrette by Brianna's.


October 10th: Making Lemon Ginger Marmalade - isn't it pretty!!??


October 11th: Evil Dead the Musical in Seattle with Ben, Rachel, Alexis, Nick, Kevin, Kandice, Patrick, Heidi and Robert (the birthday boy!).


October 12th: Walking to dinner with Heidi and Rachel to the Pink Door.


October 24th: I came across this ivy in my Halloween decorations which I bought for a particular party at Joe's several years ago.

Project 365: October 31st through November 6th

October 31st: I was amazed that on Halloween I discovered a new nasturtium bloom. Apparently my garden still thinks it is summer.


November 1st: The Sauve Island Bridge - Jenna Guziak and I went to the Pumpkin Patch to stock up on clearance produce as the farms prepare to shut down for the winter. $20 filled the back of the SUV!


November 2nd: And then the rain starts....and the chickens stay dry under the house eves as you can clearly see the dry section versus the wet here. You can also see that the gate is still the chain link since we have not gotten enough dry days in a row to do the concrete and post hole. So the gap is sealed with scrap wood and duct tape...classy, I know....


November 3rd: Dias de los Muertos gathering at our house. For the occasion I made red beans and rice from a recipe I got many years ago from a Cajun coworker. We also made corn bread with corn kernels and peppers. The beans were completely gone in a very short amount of time.


November 4th: Heading into SE I see a lovely bumper sticker to counter the slogan "Keep Portland Weird" lol...


November 4th: Launch Pad Gallery for Travis Wade's opening.


Mikhail Hamilton
November 4th: The artist himself...


November 4th: My beautiful friends Melissa and Travis... Isn't her coat divine??!!


November 5th: My friend Caren had a party for everyone to judge the five different pickling recipes she and her husband tested out this year. Though the jar closest to me in the photo were her garlic dills....those were simply amazing!


November 5th: After getting our fill on amazing food at Caren and Tom's, me and Jenna headed to party number 2 at Amanda and Christin's house. As you can see, backup had already been called.


November 5th: I always adore the jet engine of a outdoor heater designed and made by Christin. It runs on diesel and keeps a good sized area VERY warm. I was super grateful for great seating since at this point my broken toe was realizing I had stuffed it into high heels.


November 6th: CLAWS! I always know when the summer months have left since the second I stop wearing gardening gloves my nails shoot out! They are always long but at this length I would stab right through the fingertips of my gloves!

Project 365: October 24th through October 30th

October 24th: I came across this ivy in my Halloween decorations which I bought for a particular party at Joe's several years ago.


October 25th: One side of the porch pumpkins - our "Halloween" theme - mine is this bleeder with my chef's knife which everyone lovingly calls my Mike Meyer's knife. The classic redux of the Halloween movie pumpkin was done by my husband.


October 26th: City Hall - meeting with the mayor's office folks.


October 27th: Lunch with Julia at Papa Hayden - we made sure to save room for desert. This was mine - the peanut butter torte.


October 27th: Lunch with Julia at Papa Hayden - we made sure to save room for desert. This was hers - the hazelnut cheesecake.


October 28th: Shopping with Melissa with a quick break for sushi at Benihana...


October 29th: Shopping with Melissa and we bought twin shoes since they were super warm and comfy.


October 30th: And back to the ivy - the espresso spray paint obviously only did so much. So I used up walnut and gold acrylic paint dry brushed.

October 2, 2011

I had the honor of attending my friend Marissa's beautiful wedding at the Gray Gables Estate in Portland which is just an amazing place. I have known the bride since she was a young teenager so seeing her gorgeous smile and knowing how happy she is with this great guy and his lovely daughter is truly something special.

As I said the grounds really were pretty amazing.





The inside was decorated fabulously as well...