weekend update

***You should listen to this as you read this/do homework/do anything, because it is a wonderful playlist.

Just for the record, I am falling in love with Portland more and more each time I explore it.  This weekend was no exception.  It's just ridiculous.  This place is so good!  The food, the shops, the people.  Just.  Lovely. 

One of the best parts is how absurdly weird things are sometimes.  The craziest thing happened.  Siri, Regina, Ted, and I were at Tea Chai Te to get some work done, when we met A BABY SLOTH.  With a PINK BOW in its hair and BABY CLOTHES on its hairy brown body.  I can't even...  What.  Only in Portland, man.  We were dying at this bizarre scene.  Apparently they have a sloth colony.  A sloth colony!!!!  Who even knows.

After Regina and Siri headed back to campus, Ted and I decided to go see if we could find a cooking pan for him to make me delicious food.  On our way to Kitchen Kaboodle, I insisted we stop in Paper Source, which was heavenly crafty.  I wanted everything.  Everything.  Especially the Halloween stuff.

While Ted talked to someone about pans at Kitchen Kaboodle, I reveled in the displays of holiday cookie cutters, cake pans, and decorations.  The holidays are approaching!  I could not be more excited.

Before heading to dinner with our friends Nate and Emily, we went into Moonstruck and bought some chocolates.  They were delightful!  I can't wait to try their hot chocolate, which Ted claims is awesome.

SUSHI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I was unbelievably happy to have some sushi.  So thrilled.  It has been too long.  See below the crazycool Dynamite Roll.  It was pretty great.  Yummmm!

After sushi, Ted and I headed over to the movie theatre.  Ted hadn't seen Midnight in Paris, so we saw that, and it was just as snazzy as I remembered it.  SPOILER--I was especially excited for Ted to see it because when I asked him the other day what era he'd most like to live in, he said the twenties.  I kept looking over at him and he was grinning so big.  He's a keeper.

Sunday was spent sewing in the costume shop, and that night I was sorted into Ravenclaw at Harry Potter club.  Life is good.

On a side note, waking up with fog everywhere is the craziest thing ever.  Although I do enjoy having the creative liberty to write stuff on my window.

Happy Monday!

it's october and getting a little crazy

Disclaimer:  This post may last two years.  A lot has happened!  This is a semi-stressful post, because I have so much to say.  I will try to be concise (but that isn't really my strong point, is it?)...

First off, I would just like to point out that I love our school colors here.  Orange and black=excuse to think about Halloween all year round.  Fortunately, it is actually October now, so I can think about Halloween all I want aaaaand smile really big when I walk past this window display for our bookstore.

Last Wednesday night was the beginning of FALL BREAK!  I am having trouble thinking back that far because it seems like 50 years ago, so I will have to break it down.  

Wednesday-Friday night my friends and I had themed Disney marathon nights.  Wednesday was Pixar, in honor of the late Steve Jobs (Wall-E, Ratatouille), Thursday was Miyazaki (Howl's Moving Castle, Castle in the Sky), and Friday was good ol' Disney (Tangled, Sword in the Stone).  Suffice to say, it was lovely!  

On Thursday, I spent the day helping the costume shop manager with a project.  Upholstered a cushion and some pillows.  Made some $$$.  Awesome.

On Friday, Tara and I explored the magical street Hawthorne.  We were freaking out!  It is so cool.  We passed 23214 cute stores and cafes and whatnot.  Here are a few...

Happy Knits

Really Good Stuff

Lounge Lizard (So in love with this place.)

A real life kitty in the windowsill, just hangin' with a typewriter and plants.  No biggie.

1960

I was so excited when we found this outdoor market.  Pumpkins are necessary for life.  I got two--one for me, and one for my roommate.

Vintage Pink (I got an adorable shift dress and Tara got an adorable dress and rockin' shirt.)

Pumpkins!  I had to take a picture next to the owls.  Funnily enough, I am realizing I have 39423098 owl things.  Apparently that's just another weird collection of mine that I didn't even plan.  This makes me incredibly happy.

After a lovely late afternoon browsing the numerous vintage shops, we got food in this area with delicious food carts surrounding wooden tables (which I later found out is called Cartopia) that is near this coffee shop (which I had to take a picture of because my friend Clair calls me Tiny).  I got an XS fries with Rosemary Truffle Ketchup from Potato Champion and a Spinach Mushroom pizza from Pyro Pizza.  I can not begin to describe the immense happiness these two things brought me.  It was rainy, we each had warm 12 inch pizzas to devour, and it was only the second night of break.  Tara and I were in food cart bliss.  So.  Freaking.  Delicious.  Seriously, man.  My stomach is smiling just thinking about it.

Saturday was magical for many reasons.  First off, I woke up and made brownies with Ted (which was pretty cool of him, considering he was fasting for Yom Kippur) for the movies.  After brunch, group of us went downtown and saw 50/50 (which was top-notch) and then headed to NW 23rd, which is just the most adorable street ever.

While Ted got some life-changing PB&J sandwiches (we're talking a thai PB&J and a jalapeno & bacon PB&J...SO GOOD) at a food cart next door, we ventured into this vintage shop brimming with goodies and oddities.

Yep, that's me.  Notice the awesome beaded orange necklace--my grandma sent me THE GREATEST Halloween package OF MY LIFE.  It literally made me so happy to open it after brunch on Saturday.  I love my grandparents!

Claire looking extremely happy at Tea Chai Te, a heavenly tea place.  Literally, when I walked in, the smell was just so LOVELY.  For dinner Ted and I went to Pastini, where I had my favorite thing ever, a tomato and mozzarella panini.  Yum!  I could seriously eat tomato and mozzarella sandwiches every day.  And I have.

Speaking of Ted, his birthday was Sunday!  To celebrate, a few of us watched Submarine and drank tea in one of the small auditoriums (that has theatre-like seats and a projector) which was just so wonderful.  Afterwards I introduced Ted to The IT Crowd (which has the director of Submarine in it) and got some homework done.  Suffice to say, it was a great afternoon.  For dinner, a group of us went to Nicholas', which is this fantastic Lebanese restaurant.  SO MUCH GOOD FOOD.  What a great way to end a break.

As you can probably reason, Fall break was a complete and utter success.  I ate copious amounts of terrific food, watched eight movies, and explored new parts of Portland.  Oh yeah, and Ted is my boyfriend now!  You better believe it was a magical break.  

Reasons why you should like Ted as much as I do:

He spookily adheres exactly to this list I made months ago. (Seriously.  Wow.)

He whistles better than anyone I've ever met.

He understands my many Harry Potter references and encourages them.  Also, he has the same golden snitch replica in his dorm room that I have in mine.  And he's on Pottermore.  And he goes on Mugglenet.  And yeah, we are the same person.

He buys stuff on Etsy.

He is obsessed with Emma Watson.

He loves hats as much as I do.

He watches Glee.

He loves music and musicals.

He is going to make me delicious food and I am going to bake him yummy treats!

Like, you guyz.  I don't even know how this is real life.

WE ARE SO NERDY/AWESOME TOGETHER.  I LOVE IT.  THE END.

first of many rainy days

Today Siri, Regina, and I went downtown to explore and (have the intent to) get some homework done in a cafe.  Well, we explored...and it was wet and cold.

After browsing Nordstrom for a while, we hurried out so that we didn't have to deal with the feelings we were having about every other thing we saw.  Next we went into Cacao, which didn't help much either.  The place was small, but filled with beautifully packaged gourmet chocolates.  I decreed that we come back and buy ourselves fancy chocolates for Valentine's Day.

We had fun looking around the shops in Pioneer Place, like J. Crew, H&M, and KATE SPADE!  Hooray!

Well.  That's me on the sidewalk.  In the rain.  In the cold, wet rain.  This desert dweller is freaking out a little.

Regina understands (she's from CA), but Siri just laughs at us in her one layer of clothes (she's from CO).  Also, she understands the necessity of Chipotle.  Yum!

Being the mature college students we are, we stopped in Finnegan's Toys.

WOO HOO COLLEGE!!!

When we were turning the corner, a wonderful thing occurred.  There on my left was a window that said CRAFTY WONDERLAND.  I skipped a little and squealed in excitement because I have read about this place (Blogz, you guyz. Read them).  I WAS SO HAPPY!  When I went inside, I was not disappointed in the least.

Everything was handcrafted by local artists.  Wonderland, indeed!  I even purchased two adorable Christmas gifts.  Yeah, you better believe I'm already thinking about Christmas.  In this cold weather, you can't blame me!  Also, SO PSYCHED for their Holiday Sale at the Oregon Convention Center!  YESSSS!!!!!

Not too far away, I spotted a store called Button Emporium and Ribbonry.  I flipped out!  Unfortunately it was closed.  Sad news.  However, I did spot a vintage shop called Living Thread Vintage, which was small, but crammed with goodies.  Most of the pieces weren't really my style, because I tend to prefer brighter colors to darker ones, but perhaps that was just because it was the Fall stock.

For a "study" session, we walked to Coffeehouse Northwest which Regina and I had actually passed a couple weeks ago (geez, time goes so fast here) and took a picture of!  It was a great place to hang out, especially because they played the entire Graceland album.

Siri's cappuccino was beautiful.  She even let me have a spoonful of the foam on top!  Now THAT'S a friend.  While at the cafe, we only finished an article from our Greek tragedy book for Theatre & Society.  Thankfully when we got home tonight we read one of the plays out loud to each other, so yes--today was productive!

Now I am going to get ready for bed, read, and anxiously await Tuesday for GLEEEEEEEE!

sunday goals

This afternoon I went downtown again with three goals:

• Find Regina some shoes.
• Eat macarons.
• Go into the record store and Lulu's.

I am happy to tell you that all three goals were accomplished, and then some. After finding my friend some shoes, three of us went exploring.

First stop: Jackpot Records.  I loved this place!  Usually record stores (although always cool) are a little grimy and grungy, but this one was sweet, colorful, and organized.  Lovely!

Second Stop:  Lulu's.  This is a small vintage shop with so many precious finds!  The only problem is that everything is around $30 or more, and I am pretending to be broke because I have college student guilt.  Of course I fell in love with a pink gingham romper that was probably the most expensive thing there.  C'est la vie.  

Little Bird was closed, so Regina yelped "macarons" and we trekked towards the nearest bakery that had macarons, which was Ken's Artisan Bakery.  (The above photo has no relevance whatsoever, other than it was taken on our walk there.)

Ken's did not disappoint!  Regina and Sarah had their first macaron, and I got my macaron fix for the next couple of weeks or so.  (Watching Marie Antoinette last night probably didn't help this craving.)

Happiness is a macaron.  Or two.

When we were heading out, we noticed they had just put out a batch of salted caramel coffee macarons.  Suffice to say, we will be back.

While walking back to 6th Ave (where the bus stop is) we found a few places of note.  The first was Canoe, which I was drawn to by its admirable use of fontage.  There's something about a good font that says a lot about the aesthetic of a store.

I fell in love with Canoe and its mix of clean, simple, eclectic, and modern ware from around the world.  This is my kind of store.

Passed by a pretty bridal shop and this white shift dress caught my eye.  Reminds me of the 60's and Erin's style.

The most heartbreaking moment of our time downtown was this adorable lingerie store being closed on Sundays.  Must visit Lille soon, especially because I just realized I've been on the website before when looking at a blog!  (I'm such an intense blogger, you guys...it's kind of embarrassing.)

Knit Purl is a cozy knitting shop.  Some of the yarns are so delicate and beautiful, that they are up to $60 or more!  The most beautiful I saw had bits of gold in it.  I wish I could knit! 

This is just hilarious.  Thankfully I'm getting a better sense of direction, or seeing this would probably make me cry.

If you haven't already figured it out, I have found "my city".  Phoenix will always be my home, but Portland is my kindred spirit.  I don't know where life will take me (hopefully lots of places), but I do know that I now have two cities where my soul is very happy.  Portland is officially my home away from home, and I can't wait to share it with my friends and family ASAP!