LOOSE LIPS SINK SHIPS

A Little Fresh Paint

Vanessa — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 00:43:30 +0000

About a year ago we bought this table at Value Village for $15. We painted it once and I repainted it again a couple weekends ago since we’re now using the table as a desk. It’s nice to have a clean white surface to work on. I picked out a black and white paint color and got a small amount of each. I used frog tape to mask off a few areas and came out with this look. It now has the cute terrarium we made last week sitting on it.

Hope you’re having a good Monday!

Tina Hellberg

Vanessa — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 19:40:49 +0000

Prop styling is one of my favorite things. I love a stylist who uses different textures to frame a photo. These images are styled by Swedish stylist, Tina Hellberg. Simply beautiful!

Terrarium Love

Vanessa — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 03:36:32 +0000

Alex was in classes all day on Tuesday so we celebrated our love on Wednesday. Our love ended up manifesting itself into this pretty little terrarium you see below. We stopped at Porch Light on Mississippi to check out their moving sale and then meandered over to Pistils Nursery. The shop has a beautiful front window full of so much green goodness! We checked out their terrarium building set up. We were instantly inspired – their setup includes these small drawers that are each filled with different sands, moss, and rocks to fill your terrarium.

Pistils had chickens in their garden! Pretty, fluffy chickens!

We left Pistils and drove over to Artemisia, a wonderful shop on 28th and East Burnside. They build wonderful terrariums in all sizes, and provide you with the supplies to build your own terrarium! We picked out all of the pieces and the shop manager helped us to put it all together and sent us home with a care sheet. I love how the shop is decorated with vintage typewriters, light bulbs, beautiful books, and jewelry made by local artisans. It’s one of those spaces where you can walk in and you’re instantly inspired to make something beautiful and unique. I already have plans for creating another terrarium!

Visit Artemisia at 110 SE 28th Ave and Pistils at 3811 N. Mississippi Ave in Portland, Oregon.

Happy Valentine’s Day

Vanessa — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 01:12:49 +0000

North Williams: Ink & Peat // Lark Press

Vanessa — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 06:08:00 +0000

One of the shops we visited, Ink & Peat, has the most amazing natural light you could ask for. I couldn’t help but snap away with pictures while we were enjoying everything they had in store. While we were shopping a couple of the employees were busy working on Valentine’s Day floral arrangements and they were ah-may-zing! I might have slipped a hint or two to the mister.

Just across the street from Ink & Peat is a letterpress and retail shop, Lark Press. They make their own line of letterpress paper goods and carry a number of items from other print shops. I spent so much time soaking up all of the amazing talent and design that goes into creating each piece. You know when you go home after window shopping and you can’t stop thinking about the things you saw and SHOULD have purchased? Yeah, these two shops have been on my mind. Lark carried a number of vendors that are after my heart including Quill & Fox, Bookhou, Shanna Murray decals, and of course Egg Press.

I’ve been seriously wanting to find a new place to live in Portland primarily just to be closer to a good neighborhood (like Mississippi, Alberta, or North Williams). We’re a quick drive away from those neighborhoods but I want to be able to walk and explore my neighborhood. I’m realizing that natural lighting is a major requirement for our next move. It makes all the difference when the days are so short. Hope you all have a wonderful Valentine’s Day!

Photos from the Weekend

Vanessa — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 06:44:26 +0000

Our weekend went a little like this. It was fun, productive, eye opening, amazing. We started the fun on Friday night with our friends Andrea and Mike. Dinner at Los Gorditos and our first real comedy show experience – we saw Garfunkel & Oates! The show was pretty awesome, those ladies are so funny.

Saturday we woke up late and decided it would be fun to check out Old Town Pizza in Old Town Portland. It’s located inside the old Merchant Hotel, a 132 year old building. The pizza was really good – we shared a small Dragon Lady pizza and it was really tasty.

We decided to add a little adventuring into our day so we checked out the Mississippi and North Williams neighborhoods.

Porch Light is a really cute and thoughtfully stocked antique boutique currently located on Mississippi Ave but soon moving. I’m going back next week to take advantage of their moving sale.

I really loved these wrapping papers of old typewriters and beautiful hot air balloons. I don’t know if I’ve shared my love of hot air balloons here, but I’m a crazy fan of hot air balloons. It’s serious.

Flutter is an amazing eclectic shop full of amazing oddities in the form of books, home decor, apothecary, clothing, toys, and many things in between. It’s one of my favorite stores in Portland. These Q&A books were hanging out waiting to be picked up.

The lightbulb store. Enough said.

What a grudgey park name

North Williams! One of my favorite cocktails at one of my favorite bars and a fun street with a few addictingly beautiful shops and lovely homes. I loved the simple design for this restaurant sign.

Ink & Peat is an amazing store – I’ll have to share more about this place later. It deserves a post of its own.

Alex and I both enjoyed the color scheme of this house. I especially like their little globe sitting on their front stoop, perhaps by accident? There’s a cute, surprised Alex.

Purchased from Flutter, now living on our walls.

I’ve already dove into the Handmade Marketplace book I bought at Ink & Peat. So many great ideas that I’m already putting to use. My moleskine that I ordered in December finally arrived and is now full of ideas, lists, plans, and sketches. One plan now recorded is a letterpress class that I registered as soon as we came home. I’m so excited! I’ll let you know how it goes… Hope you have a good week!

Good Mail Days

Vanessa — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 01:42:28 +0000

I love good mail days. A few days this last week I would look at the clock anxiously waiting for the mail man. I’m hoping for another piece of mail that should be coming my way soon; an acceptance letter. Over the last few weeks I’ve been doing a lot of inspirational searching of the internet and have become increasingly THRILLED about going back to school. This kind of lead to my recent purchases.

This Bookhou calendar is now hanging near our desk.

The triangle tote bag, also made by Bookhou, is great for “toting” around my camera notebooks. I tried out one of those camera purses that have been hot around the interwebs, but I just wasn’t thrilled with the quality for the cost. Instead I bought a neoprene sleeve for my camera so it will be safe inside my new tote.

These beautiful cards! I love paper goods and obviously I love receiving mail. It’s so exciting to receive beautiful tangible things in the mail.

This lovely catalog came in the mail; I think it’s from my dwell studio subscription

Yesterday I picked up a sheet of the 2012 Love Stamps which features lettering by Jessica Hische. Her work is so beautiful! I can’t wait to send some mail and adorn it with one of her beautiful designs. If you live in the US you should make it a point to pick up a sheet or 5!

We eat food

Vanessa — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 17:00:50 +0000

Lately I’ve been tricking my body and feeding it some pretty healthy goods. Some parts of my body seem to like it and other parts seem to still be making up their mind. In the morning I usually wait till almost lunch time to have breakfast and I end up being super hungry by that time. I make my smoothie and probably drink it too fast. Once I’m done there’s this weird feeling in my stomach like – “I’m hungry, but I think I just ate so I’m not quite surrrrre and this is weird.” Maybe it’s just a misplaced feeling like being full of liquid. Also, I like to personify parts of my body – and almost everything else in life. Where is this going? I’m not too sure but it’s about food and lately I like to make food! Last night I tried this recipe from the Whole Foods website, Tempeh Curry. As our friend Matt would say, “it’s the TITS!” It has quite a few of my favorite things: curry, coconut milk, onions, ginger, and sweet potatoes. I didn’t take a picture of the end result because I didn’t present it pretty, but here’s a picture in progress!

Just stirrin up some onion and tempeh

Stuffed butternut squash modified from Vegan Yack Attack

Delicious Saturday morning pancakes.

Big salad for lunch: baby spring mix, baby carrots, avocado, sunflower seeds, boca chik’n, cucumber, poppyseed dressing

Vegan meatball sub from Bye & Bye (one of our favorite bar/restaurants near our house).

While writing this I watched Rory (boston terrier) pull Gus (mini poodle) around by their “tuggy pull” (an old pair of leggings that I tied up and turned into a dog toy – ha!). It’s like Rory is taking Gus for a walk and Gus just slides around as they walk around the living room in circles. Ohhhh I love working from home.

Plenty of Textures

Vanessa — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 20:00:20 +0000

I’m realizing with my photo a day project that one of my most frequently photographed subjects are textures. Magnifying the details in common surroundings seems to catch my eye. These photos were all taken in the last week.

On our drive home from a night with friends we pulled over at a park near our house to take pictures of the frost & fog.

Parking the car on NW 23rd.

Checking the mailbox, a neighbor has an interesting home made fence. They also have a pretty cool mailbox with the name “Luzader” written like it’s from the cover of an 80′s metal record.”

The details of my favorite scarf that is draped on my mirror. One day I’ll learn to knit so I can make this beautiful stitch.

Winter Light & Moss

Vanessa — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 04:11:29 +0000

We’re in the middle of the Portland winter season. Limited light and lots of moss growing outside of our home. I’m looking forward to the next few days of warmer temperatures and more sunlight. Hopefully I can take advantage and spend some time outside. I’m hoping to take advantage of our location in the Pacific Northwest and do more exploring. On top of my list is a visit to Mt. Saint Helens.