sock it to me

way back in February i blogged about Sock Dreams, an online shop that sells the coolest socks. Sock Dreams features a whole bunch of awesome brands, but i wanted to talk a bit about Sock It To Me. Sock It To Me is a female run company based in Portland, OR (yes, i see their awesome socks everywhere here). the label started with one woman's dream to bring the type of funky socks that she saw all over Korea to the States. i, for one, am super glad she did. you would be hard pressed to find socks any cuter than the ones from Sock It To Me.

farmer's market

oh how i love farmer's markets (one of the many perks of living in Portland...there are farmer's markets everywhere). not only can you buy locally grown and organic food at them, but the people watching is amazing! my mother and i stumbled across one the other day while we were downtown. she grabbed her little wicker shopping basket from the car and i grabbed my camera and we had a great time exploring the various vendors' booths.

ps- those are quail eggs in the fourth picture, and in the fifth photo my mum is holding my homemade raspberry lemon soda (and drinking hers).

to lulu

this lovely postcard came in the mail a few days ago. i love my bestie so very very much. i hope she doesn't get mad at me for you guys finding out that her real name is Lauren, although i don't know why she signed it that way since all i ever call her is Lou. this really made my week. maybe one of these days i'll go to Ireland with her and open a bookshop there. but for now she is quite right, Portland fits me so well. oh Lou, how i love you. =]

ps- like my shoddy "trying to figure out how to erase my last name/address" skills? also, i have no idea why my scanner freaked out and scanned this all wonky. oh well.

pps- as you read this i will actually be camping (hopefully pictures to come). i won't be back for a few days, so i hope everybody's weekend goes oh so well! leave me some comments telling me what you did! i would love to hear about it. =]

pdx at night

Portland is a city with lots and lots of bridges. i recently stayed at a hotel (who says you can't be a tourist in your own city?) that overlooked both the Hawthorne Bridge (that really pretty one on the left) and an interstate bridge. the interstate bridge is not very pretty...but at night everything looks so magical, don't you think?

big blue sky

destination: nashville

today i'm heading off to Nashville, TN to visit my lovely Lou and some of the other friends i left behind when my family and i moved to Portland. i'm probably going to be forced to model for Lou in some mildly illegal location (scaffolds and dumpsters, anyone?) at least once, and i'll definitely be indulging in some sweet iced tea. i'm super stoked as this is my first "official" vacation of the year and i love to travel (although i always manage to get sick before/during any trip i take). i don't necessarily love flying, but here are some of favorite things about it.

1. nothing beats the view from a tiny airplane window.

2. those little bags of airplane peanuts (and pretzels, but mainly peanuts).

3. getting to watch all the different types of people going to the same location.

4. can you say vintage suitcases?

photos from: 1. 2. 3. 4.

anyhoodles, since i'll be in Nashville chillin' like a villain, my blog posts will probably be sporadic. who knows, maybe i'll have a whole bunch of downtime...but knowing Lou, she will probably be whisking me off to buy wigs and masks and make strawberry tarts. i'll try and document as many of our adventures as i can. except for the super secret ones. if i told you about those i'd have to kill you. standard procedure. ;]

(update: i wrote this post ahead of time [you never know what you’ll have time for when you travel!] and just wanted to do an update. did you know that airplanes apparently have wi-fi? what?! maybe most of you did, but i thought it was kind of cool. until i saw that it was 13 bucks for a three and a half hour flight. i totally should’ve gotten it though, because this is what i’m resorting to, typing out my update in Word because now i’m on the plane that doesn’t have internet. haha. ah well. i’m up in the air and about an hour out of Nashville, getting in the mood by listening to Nashvillian [okay so i made up that word…] Ke$ha and typing way too much about nothing. anyhoo, my ears are popping and the drink cart is coming around, so bye for now dears!)

ps-i made it to Lou's!

todbott's triangles

i love love love Alberta Street. my mum and i were taking a stroll last Friday and we happened to find this adorable little place called Todbott's Triangles. we ventured in and absolutely loved it! the food (click the triangles link for the menu) was marvelous. i'm a big fan of Japanese food and Tod has definitely mastered (in my humble opinion) the art of making onigiri and nukazuke. if you live in Portland i highly suggest you check this place out. Tod is the sweetest guy and he just recently turned his food carts (i think he had two of them) into a cozy little spot behind a house on Alberta St. there's a pathway up to his shop and everything. it's simply delightful. i've already been twice in the past week and i plan on going rather regularly. it's quite impossible to leave Todbott's Triangles without a smile on your face. =]

townshend's teahouse

it was rainy today. i don't mind, that's one of the reasons i love Portland. plus, i had my silver Doc Martens on so the puddles weren't at all an obstacle.

it's on these rainy days that i love going into tea shops. tea is the cure-all for any kind of weather blues. or any kind of blues for that matter. i'm not saying it will snap you out of a deep depression, but drinking tea is the one thing i know will cheer me up. even if it's just a little bit. so, naturally, i'm a sucker for tea houses. living down the street from one gives a girl meaning to her life. and Townshend's Teahouse is a godsend. it really is. the art they have in there is amazing. there are people knitting and studying, furiously debating, and canoodling on the couches. sometimes i go in there and knit or read...but people watching is almost the most enjoyable thing to do there. besides sipping on a nice, fresh cup of tea. of course.

pics from here.