Hawaii has amazing food. While my brain typically goes straight to the beach or sunshine when I have Hawaii on the mind — this last trip has me missing the food. Food is one of my favorite things about travel. On this trip, I was lucky to have a recent transplant & avid foodie as my host and bff. While we spent most of our time on the…
Portland shines in summer. The city. The people. The music. After months of gloomy weather, the summer months are chock full of outdoor festivals and concerts — from the family-friendly Rose Festival, to indie music at the Oregon Zoo, to beer festivals at Waterfront Park. Here are the best Portland music festivals. If Portland is an indie music lover’s dream, then summer time is prime time to check…
You know what happens when you live/work from Hawaii for a month? You spend all of your free time outside — in sunshine and/or water — instead of blogging. Mixing things up is good for the soul. So without further ado, here’s a long overdue Weekly Love. -NerdPress – In March, I decided to focus my tidbits of evening Internet-ing time on designing a WordPress theme. Ta-da! Fun…
Notice anything different around here? I did a redesign — and I designed it all myself! Whaaat?! Yep! I’m a little giddy. I’ve been blogging around here since the summer of 2006, and while I’ve updated my design a couple of times (by finding a new, free template online), I’ve been saying “someday I’ll design my own WordPress theme” for more than a few years now. So the…
“Aloha” from Hawaii! One of my 2012 goals was to work remotely [ie. not in Portland] for 1+ month. After two months of anticipation of ditching Portland for warmer weather, we have arrived on Oahu. I must say, it feels great to finally make this goal a reality. So here’s a little peak at my first five days of working and playing in paradise via Instagram. First stop:…
New Zealand is one of my favorite places in the world. So when I came across this Kickstarter campaign this week for the American release of the movie BOY, I signed right on up. :) Now if only they were coming to Portland. Foolishness! So Week 8 of the Forkover Friday project is all about New Zealand film. “Inspired by his Oscar-nominated short, Taika Waititi offers a charming,…
Ramen. Macarons. Cheese. French 75. Paneer Roll. Cheese. Thai. IPAs. Cheese. It’s been a lovely winter of eating. It’s also been a few months since I did a ’52 new restaurants’ post. Thanks to our Cook at Home challenge, new restaurant-ing was at a minimum in January, but throw in a few new cities and finally here are all the new lovely places I’ve ventured to eat since…
Two years ago this week, I brought home my kitty from the Oregon Humane Society. I’d been wanting to get a cat for a while and after 3 scouting trips, I finally found a lovely little lady that looked like a fellow, (because she has a mustache!). Pets are such wonderful creature. When I first got her, she was a friendly, but nervous little creature. Now she’s a…
I love learning, so when I saw that one of this week’s deals from Philanthroper was towards educating girls in rural India, I knew this would be my weekly pick. $1 can cover two weeks of material support: the uniforms, shoes, books and pencils – all of the things that if a girl doesn’t have paid for, will prohibit her from going to school. So Week 4 of…
If you have travel in your blood, check out the Indie Travel Manifesto at indietravel.org You can help “define” indie travel by voting statements you agree/disagree with up or down. Please sign/share if it resonates with you. My favs: See yourself in the context of a rich and complex world. Define your values and explore your beliefs; craft your own meaning for life. Pack light and keep things…
The news of Komen’s decision to end funding to Planned Parenthood hit close to home for me this week. It makes me sad to see two organizations that are both known for helping women suddenly pitted against each other… even more so that it was for political reasons. Over the years when I’ve been uninsured or underinsured, Planned Parenthood has been a huge help to me personally. So…
I don’t care if cake pops are the new cupcakes. I despise them. Pie pops I could probably get behind, but cake pops… no. Just no. So I remain convinced that the next best thing since cupcakes is still the French import of macarons. Several weekends ago, I took a “Mastering Macarons” class at Sur La Table. While we may not have totally mastered them (oh, please, we…