Pittock Mansion

One of the highlights of our trip to Oregon was a place called Pittock Mansion. It was Kenna's turn to pick a place to visit so, this happened to be the place she decided on. If you live in or around Portland and you've never been to Pittock Mansion I can tell you that it's a beautiful place to spend an afternoon. It would be fun to pack a lunch and have a picnic while walking around the property. Apparently a lot of wedding pictures are take up at the mansion and I can see why. It's a treasure of a place and I'm happy the city of Portland saved it from disrepair.

While we were there I took over a hundred pictures. It was a really hot day but it was worth the sweat. . . hehehe. Anyway, I thought I would share half of the pictures that I took while taking a tour of the mansion. The gardens are beautiful but because of the heat I didn't explore very much outside. Enjoy.

Pittock Mansion in Portland Oregon - free slideshow maker with music

Dreams Do Come True. . .

Of all my children, Ariel, is the most outgoing and ready to jump at the chance to travel anywhere in this world. I remember last year when Aunt Claudia (my mom's sister) came over from New Zealand for several weeks and it was right then that she decided that she was going to fly to New Zealand and see the country, visit her relatives, and be able to experience, first hand, her Maori Heritage. . . another link

Her DREAM finally came TRUE!!!

We took her to the Salt Lake City Airport this past Friday evening to board a plane to fly to the Los Angeles Airport and from there fly to Auckland, New Zealand. . .

Notice the Double Rainbow!?

The Rainbow was certainly a serendipitous sight as we approached the airport.
(meaning: unexpected and unforseen)

It brought smiles to our faces and warmed my heart.

I was comforted and knew that I could let her go.
I knew also, that she would be in very good hands along the way.

It's hard to say goodbye but with all of the technology that keeps us connected it will be fun to keep in contact with her. It's funny but, we've actually talked more with her in the last 3 days than we have in the last few weeks. She's been really busy finishing up at work, getting ready for school (that she'll be doing online from NZ), buying school books, packing, cleaning, organizing, taking care of last minute doctor appointments, banking details, and saying goodbye to friends, and family.

Here she is saying goodbye and getting ready to go through security. We watched as she walked away from us toward her new adventure!!! Wow! I can't hardly believe she's in another country. We are so excited for her and know she will grow in so many ways and have lots of wonderful experiences.


Nothing like waiting until the very last minute but it was just a few days before Ariel left that she asked me to make her a camera case and a case for her new iPod Touch.

So, here it is. . .

Ariel's Quilted & Zippered Tech Pouch. . .

I found a 4" zipper at JoAnn's and made this Tech Pouch to protect her iPod Touch and her digital camera. If I had taken a picture of the inside of the pouch you would see a quilted divider seperating and protecting both the camera and the iPod Touch.


The smaller pouch you see is a craft fail in the sense that the zipper was too small and prevented the camera fitting in lengthwise. I should have made it a 1/2" wider to accommodate the camera so, now it's a pouch to hold makeup, money, or any other small item you want to carry in your purse.


I also wanted to make an identification tag for her Tech Pouch too, so I used my metal stamps to stamp her name on a metal blank. Then I added the zipper pull clip and a swarovski heart and small bear charm. It was a fun touch to finish it off.

Fabric World

On Monday of last week we drove up to the Portland area hoping to see Jodi of Pleasant Home and to visit a few Universities for my daughter's graduate school. Because of unforseen circumstances we were unable to meet up but she recommended that I go here but they are closed on Mondays so we ended up at Fabric World instead.

Before you scroll down to look at the pictures let me just explain how we found ourselves at Fabric World. I've never been in the Portland area before so I was anxious to find a quilt shop to visit and since I couldn't visit the one Jodi recommended and I couldn't get a hold of Jodi to get another recommendation I turned to our car's fancy GPS system. It had a list of sewing/fabric stores that you could scroll through based on distance. The title of the store and the proximity of the shop to where we were headed helped us decide on FABRIC WORLD.

Sounded good. . .Right? Wrong!!!

It was definitely NOT what I was hoping for. . . but we had fun anyway and found a few treasures while we were there.



I wasn't totally disappointed but with all of the quilt shops I could have visited I had to laugh when I walked in and saw the place. It felt more like a thrift store than a quilt shop. They even had clothing, shoes, notions, and other assorted Knic Knacs.

There was even some VINTAGE clothing there.
I thought these pants might look snazzy on my husband.
Maybe he meant them for me. lol.

My daughters found these matching dresses with added trim on the blue one.

These are the old metal zippers that I bought to make Kenna a few zipper flowers. Click on the picture to see the great price I paid for them.

I also bought these cute RED snaps.
I couldn't resist them!

We will all remember Fabric World and the fun we had looking around for something to buy.

The Primitive Thimble

After the Fabric World debacle in Portland (I will post about the experience soon) we headed toward Vancouver, Washington to spend the night with a promise that in the morning we could visit another quilt shop before we drove to Seattle to visit the University at Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington.

Since we had a few computers with us I made sure to investigate a few quilt shops online before we got in the car. Lesson learned...

We stopped at a lovely quilt shop called The Primitive Thimble in Vancouver, Washington.

Notice the front door. . .


Come to find out that their shop was broken into on the weekend. The thieves stole the cash register and a few other random things but the QUILTS were not touched. They must not have known the REAL VALUE of the quilts in the store. Just the hand appliqued quilts behind the counter are worth over a $1000 dollars not to mention several antiques that they had around the shop. Luckily they were clueless!!

Moving on. . . Let me introduce you to Lynn.


What a wonderful lady. I felt like a dear friend that she hadn't seen in a while. She made us feel right at home. Lynn is one of the staff there at The Primitive Thimble. We had such a fun time visiting and learning and talking quilts.

I looked over while we were talking and noticed this curved looking box sitting on the counter and it was covered with a white cloth. I asked her what it was and she revealed this really wonderful lace making pillow. Can you see it? Click on the pictures to have a good look. It's marvelous.

Click on the pictures to look at the detail on the heart lace and the 3 other pieces of lace on the right side of the pillow bed. The lace pattern is on the blue paper and it's attached to the drum in the middle of the lace pillow.

I've done a bit of research on lacemaking and here is a great website to visit. It's a beginner's guide to Bobbin Lacemaking.

Here's a look at the quilt shop. . .

Look at the yummy over dyed wool on the table next to the doll. I wish I could have bought some of it and I'm probably going to regret it but I do have the phone number so, I'm good.








I really fell in love with one of the quilts in the store but, I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of it, I guess I was really excited about it. You can see the store's version of the quilt here on their website. This is the book and the fabric I bought to add to the collection of Civil War Prints that I have in my stash.

Here's a picture of the quilt in the book.

Now this was my kind of Quilt Shop. I Loved it!!!

The Quilted Forest

Saturday morning while the girl's were still sleeping in the hotel and before the Family Reunion in the afternoon my husband and I snuck off to visit The Quilted Forest located in downtown Salem, Oregon.

The Quilted Forest was chosen in 2007 as one of the
Top 20 Quilt Shops in the United States & Canada.

They're also celebrating their 110th year anniversary.

Don't you love the Singer Featherweight in the store window?

We only had a small window of time so I rushed in and started looking around. This antique cash register was the first thing I saw.

I saw great quilts hanging all around me. . .

Here you get a feel for the shop as
you look down the aisle to the cutting area.

Here's the great book & pattern section. . .

Have a look at all of the great Kaffe Fabrics,
I thought of Nedra when I saw them.

Here's what I purchased. . .

These are two Kaffe's that I liked.


These are for Kenna.


I saw these cute scissors as we were leaving the store.

More to come. . .

Oregon Trip- Day 1: Westside Drive-In

Before we left on our trip we decided that it would be fun to visit at least one restaurant that Guy Fieri has featured on his show "Diner's, Drive-In's and Dives" so I looked up the website and looked for places in Boise Idaho since that would be a good stopping spot for lunch. We arrived around 2pm after a bit of a drive through town to find it but it was definitely worth the effort to eat there.

The Drive-In. . .

The Menu. . .

The Decisions. . .

What should we try? . . .

Waiting for the food. . .

The Food arrives. . . YUM!

My husband tried the Meatloaf dinner. . .
and he LOVED it!

Ariel got the Cajun Chicken Sandwich.

I thought we'd try something Westside Drive-in is known for. . .

Any Guesses?

They are . . .

FINGER STEAKS!

I also got a side of Shrimp to go with it.
Yum-Yummy-Yum!

Kenna was happy with her Corn Dog and Curly Fries.

This is another specialty of the Chef. . .

It's their Famous Idaho Baked Potato made out of Ice Cream.
It looked so realistic, too!

Kenna with the Car Hop Waitress.

Cute Pinwheel.

Flowers around the eating area.

Painted Mural on the side of the building with Guy's Picture.

This is Guy Fieri's Stamp on the Refrigerator Door.

If you ever pass by Boise, Idaho make sure and stop in at Westside Drive-In. You won't regret the experience. It was definitely one of the highlights of our trip.

Here's the video clip from Diner's, Drive-in's and Dives. . .