I came accross the sketchbook project and thought I’d share. Their tag line is that its like a concert tour but with sketchbooks. Anyone can participate (for $25). You pick a theme and are sent a sketch book to fill! The completed books will then tour the country next year and eventually will enter into the permanent collection of The Brooklyn Art Library, where they will be barcoded and available for the public to view. Fun concept, no?
I’ve had this series running around my head for a year now and have finally started working on it. Here is one of the first in ‘the bathers’ series (just in time for the sun)!
I’m excited to announce I will be part of the Little Winter Handmade market organized by Abby and Chelsea! The market will be held at The Cleaners, the gorgeous and airy event space at Portland’s Ace Hotel. It will be held the first weekend in November and there will be some pretty fabulous vendors, mark your calenders!
this cloth tape I’m using to package prints
So one kiddo is better, and…the other one is now sick. On the up side the sun is out and I am currently having a cup on my front porch as I type this. Downside, we have yet to start working our way down our list of things to do this summer and I’m getting frustrated not having my time to myself to work. I’m hoping once everyone is on the mend, we can find a way to do both. So here’s our list of things we want to do:
-visit our favorite parks in the Pearl (Jamison Square and Tanner Springs)
-go to the Cannon Beach aka Goonies beach (I realized the other day the kids haven’t seen it, so added it to netflix)
-Sunriver (a summer tradition for us)
-camping
-swimming
-jet boat ride down the river
-bike rides to the gelato shop
-sauvie island berry picking
-and lots of horse back riding
I’m hoping if we do something fun every morning, they will be more forgiving in the afternoon when I need to get some work done. They’re actually quite good at entertaining themselves. They’ve spent hours, HOURS, building a ‘fairy village’ off the front porch. So I try and remind myself when I feel guilty that it’s good for them to learn to fill their own time like kids used to do back in the day, right?
We’ve had a very slow non-summer like start to summer. Turns out Ian had/has pneumonia so it was quite the anti-climatic end to the school year. He’s doing much better now, so maybe the sun will get the hint and we can all get on with it! I am trying to get a routine for our days so once he’s 100% we can have some fun while I manage to get some work in there. After a week and a half of not doing a whole lot other than taking his temp I have a ton ideas stored up!
(hols project today: sock cat)
I still have a very sick boy, so I will be taking (hopefully a very short) break in blogging. Poor guy has missed the entire last week of the school year. See ya on flip side!
It was a beautiful weekend, and even with a still sick boy, we were able to enjoy the beautiful weather. Some of the things we did and saw:
-we crossed paths with an urban coyote
-enjoyed a beautiful view of the Columbia River and Mt Hood beyond
-crossed paths with 50 or so naked bike riders
-made delicous grilled pizza (recipe here) and drank a a cocktail from a mason jar
This photo by Timothy James Kelly (via design crush) just says lazy summer afternoon to me. Here’s hoping we get ours now.
Things I’m thinking of doing this sunny weekend (cough I’m looking at you weatherman cough)
check out the new pigeon toe ceramics store
get a gourmet popsicle at the new sol pop store on N Williams, you know to beat the heat
and (this one I’ve been putting off) clean up the back yard for summer
edit: ok, weatherman you’ve redeemed yourself, the clouds are gone, only blue sky out there
My mantel right now is home to a painting in progress and a flower to try and brighten my day. Just out of view, the sick kid on the couch, sigh. (you should hear the commentary from my kids when I put up an in progress piece to look at, ‘he doesn’t have hands,’ ‘what are they doing?!’ and on and on 
Do we dare hope pdxers, that the rain is coming to an end? The forecast says summer will be here on Friday. Fingers crossed.
oh and if you need a smile, go check out this video made by the Icelandic government over at a cup of jo!
I recently saw the work of Angela Fama over at the Jealous Curator and think her work is fascinating. In the first photo she had her subjects face the camera straight on. She then left the room and had them look in a mirror and signal when they thought they looked best (the second photo). They all did the same thing, the same thing I do in that parting last mirror check. Do you do it?
My dog tripped me, leaving me with purple knees and yesterday was crazy rain. That was about it for me. How was your weekend?
grey skies, collecting wine from wine maker friends, letterboxing, peonies from the garden