domestic goddess

Being back in school really gets my domestic juices flowing. I’d way rather cook/clean/knit than study.

I finally finished a scarf tonight for Ryan that I’ve been working on for weeks. It’s the first pattern I’ve ever followed and the scarf is really snuggly and warm.

You can see my mistakes in this photo. Whoops!

I think he likes it?

snood

Ryan got me a pretty rad Christmas present. It’s a snood.

A snood is a cross between a scarf and a hood. I don’t know why they don’t call it a sood. Where does the N come from?

All I know is that it’s seriously warm. And I love it.

SNOW!

It snowed in Portland! The day after my birthday! Ryan and I have never really been in snow before so it was super exciting!

Ryan was so happy! He ran around like a little kid.

We weren’t sure how much snow there would be, so he hurried to make a snowball.

I had to go meet with a client, which was fine, but driving back from my meeting was really scary and took forever. But the day was still young!

The chickens were not happy.

We just wanted to walk around and crunch our feet in the snow. So fun!

Our front steps

I LOVE snow! Everything was so quiet and peaceful.

We walked around the corner and went to Eat for beer and fried pickles.

Which were delicious.

Then we decided to walk over to Irving Park with our trash can lid to see if we could sled. A trash can lid is not a very good sled, but it was still a good time.

so beautiful

In the morning, we checked on the chickens. They were mostly unhappy that they couldn’t get out to look for worms.

Ryan really wanted all of this snow to fall on my head but I was smart and stood back.

Yay for snow!

lost

NE Portland

book

I think I’d like to blog more about what I’m reading.

As soon as I finished the quarter I needed to read something easy and fun. I picked up The Mysterious Benedict Society at Powell’s at Thanksgiving because it was the fiction bestseller at the time.

This is a young adult novel but seriously it is fantastic! It reminded me of a Roald Dahl novel – where the children are intelligent and the adults are untrustworthy and evil. It’s about four extremely gifted children who are chosen to go on a mission to save the world from subliminal messages. It’s a super quick read and I really enjoyed it.

Happy New Year!

We decided at the last minute to stay in this year. Sometimes the best party is at home <3

I hope everyone has a happy and healthy 2010!

birthday

I’m 27 now. Late twenties. It feels really nice actually. Ryan planned the perfect day for me. He is the sweetest.

He gave me a little camera for my birthday. I am super excited!

We started at the Fresh Pot for a perfect latte and a perfect pepper bagel. Then he took me to Powell’s for two hours of blissful browsing. I ended up with an embarrassingly large stack of books – mostly about urban farming and eating locally and sustainably. I also picked up Mastering the Art of French Cooking, because it’s high time I learned how to make aspic.

We went to the ACE Hotel to admire the terrariums.

And take photos at the photo booth.

Then! To Bread and Ink for a late brunch.

Ryan took this touching photo of the bread and butter basket.

Then we went to one of those crazy junk shops on Hawthorne where I scored some new yellow “glass” grapes.

And Ryan talked me into this righteous piece of furniture, promising to turn the TV case into an aquarium someday.

We napped and then got all dolled up for dinner at Ned Ludd. Actually, Ned Ludd was really busy and the guy was snobby so we decided to go to Farm, which is my favorite place in Portland so far.

Because it was my birthday, we got cheese instead of dessert. Mmm.

We came back and then walked over to Pix. It was Monday movie night and they were playing It’s a Wonderful Life. We split a bottle of champange and some delicious chocolate things (which came with a sparkler!), and stayed until the part where George and Mary get married. After that, it’s all downhill so we took off.

Pretty much the most fabulous birthday ever. I am lucky to have Ryan because he makes it so special. Xoxo.

staredown

Custer really missed us when we were traveling. He’s been all over Ryan ever since we returned.

Ryan doesn’t like it as much as I would.

eating local

This is great.

http://kalman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/26/back-to-the-land/?em

How do we make healthier food more accessible??