I'm Vanessa, a graphic designer living in Portland, OR, with a penchant for beautiful things, tea, learning to bake, tattoo collecting, dreaming of far away travels, and capturing life through photos. Here I share bits of my life along with things I find inspiring and delightful.
Category: Adventures
See ya later, 2011! Can’t wait to waste more time on instagram next year.
This morning we got up & going to attend the Alberta Street Fair. Sometimes I’m really thankful for social media because I find out about great events like this one! Sometimes I really hate social media, but that’s a horse of a different color. 
This was our first time attending the Alberta Street Fair and I was very pleased! It didn’t have the overwhelming crowds that Last Thursday (also on Alberta Street) brings, or the number of vendors but I think that made it a bit more relaxing for me. It was kind of like a refined version of Last Thursday and throw in some of the vendors that you see at the Saturday Market in downtown Portland. A few of the vendors that caught my eye were jewelry makers. Portland has a very unique and skilled collection of jewelry artisans, many of whom use vintage jewelry to improve upon. My three favorites were Agnes, Palindrome Circus, and Aunt Adeleine’s Vintage.
Aunt Adeleine’s Vintage used a lot of vintage hardware, found objects, and brooches in interesting ways.
Her presentation/pop up shop was very on point for me. Among the items she used were old suitcases, lovely fabrics, and wine corks.
A few of the pieces that Palindrome Circus was showing were made from the internal mechanics of vintage watches.
I finally had the extreme pleasure of checking out Wanderlust! You may have seen images of their shop floating around, it’s absolutely precious and very well priced!
I guess it was a day of firsts because I also had my first French Macaroon! Oh. My. Alex and I each picked a flavor, I had pistachio and he had chocolate. Before I turned around Alex had consumed his. They just melt in your mouth! I was kind enough to share a bit of the amazing pistachio with him… very kind indeed.
There’s two things, somewhat weird things, I do at street fairs: 1. people watching 2. dog watching. I’m sure it’s a litttttle bit annoying everytime I pull at Alex’s arm to LOOK! at a well dressed lady or LOOK! at a precious puppy. Portland has puppies galore and well-dressed ladies galore. Maybe Portland’s new advertising campaign should be LADIES! and PUPPIES! that’s all.
Oh, hello! What’s that? You want to come home with me so I can twirl your little tail and boop your little nose? Okay… if you say so.
Oh, hello well-dressed lady and your precious Corgis!
I should stop here before I further disclose my weird habits. Happy Weekend everyone!
To celebrate Alex’s birthday we spent our day at Cannon Beach on the Oregon coast.
We spent our 4th of July in Frankenmuth, Michigan with family. Frankenmuth is a “little bavaria” full of small Bavarian themed shops, restaurants, and parks. It’s so rare that our family gathers together in one location that I was meeting a few family members for the first time; it was wonderful getting to know these people and spending time with everyone. My only major regret is not properly styling my hair before all of these photos were taken! Oh, mop head.
Monday night we took our bikes out and found our way to our nearest Max train station. It was around 7pm and the sun was in our faces and it was great! We even caught a glimpse of that little mountain that peers over when there’s a cloudless day. At the max station we were distracted by a big glowing sunset and these silver dangley things.
See that creeper in the background? That’s my precious husband…creepin. Ahhhh do the creep.