destination: portland

my friends ali & mike are getting married next year.

them two are adorable.

from Minnesota.

and both lovely.

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Yeah, say that out loud...Meeee-nehh-ssooodddaaa.

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we made a girls trip to Portland this past weekend with Ali to 

try on some dresses and do girly things.  I'm so happy I went!  I love going dress shopping, 

especially with a friend who's getting married!

 the two dress shops 

we visited were the English Department & Sarah Seven.

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I didn't have my camera with me at the English Department, but managed to take some photos on my iphone- who knows if you'd notice the difference. 

They carry crazy, lovely designers from Jenny Yoo to Ivy & Aster.

The dresses that Ali tried on were all very STUNNING.  she looked STUNNING!

I was reminiscing, for sure.

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Stunning Ali.

 In love with hair pieces.

I would collect them if I could and decorate

my home with them, is that weird?

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my good friend of mine, Blanca and I sitting inside of Sarah Seven's boutique.

(our Ali was inside the fitting room, while I was taking this photo-btw) !

 we got to stay at Hotel Monaco, downtown Portland.  

unbelievable.  I was blown away by the decor - utterly strange, but beautiful nonetheless.  

fancy and entirely unique.  they had a duck-legged lamp!  

cute little bronze waddle feet, I wanted to take him home with me. he'd fit really nice next to my sofa on top of our side table, we need a lamp there-  everytime I want to eat a snack and watch some TV, I get crumbs all over cause we have no available light there!  

okay, on another note- those bed sheets!  gnarly, right?  

I like them so much- I think because they remind me of my sweet VEGAS!   Did I just type, my sweet vegas?  uh, I guess I did.  

Okay!

Right?  The lights and such-  I don't know if I'd actually get them, but they are real-cool.

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And of course, all the shopping in Portland.  

raddddd.  

Brought back all sorts of goodies.  

I wish most of it was from Una.  because.  holy shit, 

I love the stuff they carry in their store.

 Ate at Screen Door for brunch, of course.

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Now, back home in Seattle.

Back at it -  at work and loving every minute.

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This girl was such a cutie- and into it like I've never seen before.

She had all these surprise poses that came with every flash in her 

little jazzercise dance-wear. 

bustin those moves out like it was nothing!  like a pro.

Did I mention she is 4½?  

Yeah.

4 years old. 

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It made my work day- 

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Happy Monday.

j

day trip: poulsbo

 We took the Edmond's Ferry and drove to Poulsbo for the day.

It was a pretty out.

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 Found a frame from Sons of Norway's 'Rummage Sale' $6

Also found an old Mickey shirt for .50 !

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Poulsbo is an old Scandinavian town just west of Seattle out towards Liberty Bay.  It's very cute.  Fun little hokey, but entertaining shops, a small village full of colorful, bright homes.

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It's bakery has been around for well over 100 years.

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ses senare ! 

bariloche

you know those places that you've visited before and when you look back at your pictures from the trip, you can almost taste and smell the good times & even the aroma of the stay...well, design suites in Bariloche, Argentina is just that place. this was one of the few hotels we stayed at during our honeymoon in Argentina in Fall of 2008. it was such a beautiful experience. i'd go back in a heart beat. i've been meaning to put up some more hotels that we've stayed at during our Argentina visit. i did a post a while back ago on Home Hotel in Buenos Aires. both lovely places.

das ist wahr

slowly, but surely.

our home is becoming more like a home.

the morning sunlight is always a magnificent feeling, i think that's probably the same feeling with the others who live in the northwest.
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O.K.REALLY.

How amazing is this hotel?+
"Life in harmony with nature"

Yes. It's a hotel. But not just any hotel...the remarkable Rogner Bad Blumau not only has green roofs, colourful facades, and a dreamy interior. This place is in the middle of the meadows in Austria and really, a work of art. It is definitely getting put on my to-do list.




Lauren Moffatt's Fall 2010 collection is impressive.


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support maiti nepal.


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the very creative, Yvette van Boven. she has a book coming out this month. keep an eye out for it.


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Copenhagen Fashion Week via facehunter. that lime green. .is yum

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*das ist wahr = German for this is true

casita

I missed you.



It was a long, whimsical trip. Adventurus.


And we made it. To our new home. Seattle.

Revealing one story at a time, this has been such a beautiful trip for the both of us. From remembering moments with the ones you love to sharing new moments with the others you love. I saw many things. Many things that I didn't know I was going to see. It was and still is exciting.

Being comfortable is so easy and there is nothing wrong with being at ease, but not knowing what there is out there should be inspiring and is, to me at least. To have a spirit of eagerness is rewarding. So, hi! I'm back, cheers to life !

tip toe

+


on the other side [of beauty]

Small Things.


let's get away, Trancoso awaits.


saison boutique, full of wonders.

on list to do: clean closet, pack up, closer and closer we are getting to you Emerald City.

våffel

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Happy Våffeldagen (Waffle Day) (!)

Waffle? Really?
Yeah, in Sweden there is an official Waffle Day and it is celebrated today along with the celebration of the start of spring, March 25th! Vårfrudagen (Our Lady’s Day) is associated with the day Mary received the message that she would give birth to Jesus. The day is also known as Annunciation Day. any confusion? Well, there were some dialects and people began to pronounce Vårfrudagen as Våffeldagen, which essentially sounds like "våffel" in turn meaning "waffle." Kind of silly, huh?
Ben & I actually celebrated it last night, Våffeldagen-Eve! Since, the holiday landed on a Wednesday, we couldn't really celebrate it in the morning, so we celebrated last night by eating waffles with berries and I thought to myself, "we need something else to go with this, waffles for dinner, that's it?" So, we made a Tortilla Española. We thought, "This makes sense, waffles are that of Scandanavian and Tortilla Española is Spanish! Since, Ben is part Scandinavian and I'm Spanish, this holiday was celebrated with even more charm!! and yes, it was yum.

concepción

My thoughts are with those in Chile.

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i'm back

I'm back home and ready to start this year. I have lots of plans and lots of ideas for the new twenty ten. Let the party begin...
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It was great to get away for a second and visit some friends for New Years weekend. This little gem treated us swell during the holiday, with friends and smiles and much love.


What are your New Years resolutions?

+I have more than a few resolutions, but my top 5 are: 1.) Maintaining a healthy & active lifestyle. (duh, right?) 2.) Apply to graduate school. 3.) Job! = Save $, and keep up with our travel fund, so we are able to travel far, far away to beautiful, magical lit-up places. 4.) Keep writing and keep reading. 5.) The big move, escape from this desert. Please.

+


On the way back home from Reno, we stopped by in Fallon, Nevada to take some pictures.


It was super foggy, snowy...it was a good change to come near to, while escaping home.

Whatever you decide what your resolutions are...think big and go with them, make it happen..

+

quote of the day

“Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises"

-From ancient Greece


"If anyone knows the designer of this kitchen, can you please inform me this second? First of all, I'm in loveee with the slate concrete flooring, it's my favorite segment of the entire kitchen space. The color combination, needless to say is stunning, the white highchair is so convenient with its extended foot stand, and baby food tray, enough said. I think I spot it out at Pottery Barn Kids the other day if I remember correctly.
Los Plátanos (bananas) are vivid green, it provides so much color throughout the entire room. I love how their hung and placed on the floor, what an amazinggg idea. Along with the green, I absolutely loveee the orange on the cord of the propane tank, it just plays right off that orange window shutter, it works so strange, but perfectly!"
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Oh, golly gee.

This is an example of what might a reader that enjoys design, or "thinks" he or she does would say about design in general that are popular in our blog posts today whether it be online, magazines, television...etc. I for one, love design. I always have and always will. I love everything about it. I love visiting different places and noticing things that some people may not notice. I love picking out books by its cover, I'm guilty about it. I love picking out one spot at a park better than the other because of the particular lighting, shade, or surroundings. I like rearranging things to become familiar with it's ability to be liked. I'm visual. I like putting things together and picking out just the right seat at a restaurant by the way it looks. That excites me. All these things do. But what I love most about design is that it is different everywhere, and thats what should be valued in the design world. Not fancy. Not expensive. Not the same. Not attractive. Not unattractive. But...different.

I personally feel that some people including these Pottery Barn enthusiasts (or I'm going to grit my teeth when I type this, but as well as the "Save Money. Live Better." Wal-Mart shoppers). These people might think that they like design, but really it is to an extent for their taste and to put in much simpler terms, lack of knowledge for design. To have an interest of design, one should include the entirety respect of design, but shamefully at time it is rather gravitated only towards one particular style and clearly, does not know how to relate to something outside that certain "design bubble". Yeah, I'm not going to dot - dot - dot, not say it, but yes, America does it.

And, so what exactly is design? It's what you make of it. Lines, shapes, plan, purpose, intention, arrangement, lay out...it's the creation of things.

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Come on kids, we all wash our hands, we all take naps, we all shower, we all eat, we have cellphones, i pods, we all have toasters, we all have refrigerators, we are human...really, what is the difference?



...And in reference to the quote of the day, I recently had an opportunity and didn't pass it up. I'm glad I didn't pass it up even though I could say this truthfully that I wasn't prepared, not one bit. But like they say, live as if there is no tomorrow. And that's what I decided to do.


Oh, and PS: I sincerely love these two pictures above. And probably more than what I've seen in design/interior sources recently. Both visuals are well taken and done in Colombia, South America.



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girl power

I have my Christmas outfit picked out.

Now, we need a Christmas party. I'm brainstorming. I'm thinking of a Sweedish theme, making Julbok's (straw goats) ornaments, and the food...mmm....well, the Swedish have a tradition of eating smorgasbord of lutefisk, dried fish, Christmas ham (of course, for me...that's a popular dish, we're Spanish), boiled potatoes, pork sausage, herring salad (*vegan, I had to add that in there), spiced breads, and many different kind of sweets including rice pudding where an almond is cooked inside and whoever finds the almond is said to get married in the coming year. So, does this mean only invite couples? No, just invite a date. (!)
Then we got the glögg, its heated, and sweetened spiced wine. Now, that sounds way interesting to pass up. I wish I had some real Swedish friends and then it'd be the real deal. I'm so intrigued by all the different traditions one country has to the other. Here in America, it seems so fast and just too materialized, I mean I walk to my mailbox and I hope to find a holiday card, but what's literally, stuffed inside my mail box instead? Ads. Ads, ads, paper, wasteful paper. All these completely useless Wal-Mart ads, Target, RC Willey, Best Buy, Macy's....dios mio, will you please lay this off....how exactly did they get my address? It's always a mystery.
Can I please have some more peace? In Sweden, Christmas is celebrated always with a sense of wonder and reverence with friends and family gathered. And not only that, it's a 6-week event!! They don't throw out their Christmas tree until Jan.13th... That's the holiday I like to share, I'm pretty grateful to have a family that does just that, but with our strong Spanish/Cuban tradition.


Porridge Girls by Hildur Söderberg

Another vintage Christmas card by Swedish illustrator, Hildur Söderberg


+
Capes aren't just for kids.



...merci, barbara.


Chloe.


I'm currently listening to. Madjo.

+

gee, I enjoyed scallops before I even knew the pattern had a name, scallop! I liked looking at them and visually, it was just pleasing, I guess because it's femininity. It would remind me of baby pink time, my mom dressing me up, going grocery shopping, watching her cook, and putting pigtails in my hair. I guess, you learn as you grow. I mean wow, I didn't even know why there was a name for pigtails until probably middle school, "Oh, because it's p-i-g....tail, a pig's tail mom."

Oink.
It's all just coming back.


Dress from La Casita de Wendy



A new home, a new life.

In San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, a project called "Casita Linda" created by some American architecture students helped design homes to help the poorest of the poor, mainly single mothers and a group of volunteers who helped build it for under $7,000 each.

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A "before" shot. A family of 8 females lived in this before they were waiting for their new home.

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Deborah Llyod on the right, creative director of Kate Spade in Bosnia. Kate Spade has teamed up with Women for Women International, a program dedicated in helping women survivors of war. So, how did Kate Spade play in? They began these job programs in Bosnia and Herzegovina for women to make mittens, hats, and scarves for the holiday season. Deborah Llyod is the main person behind the program, she went on a tour of Bosnia and it grew on her that from the stories she came upon, she needed and felt responsible for giving life again to these women survivors of war who had their family lost, sent to rape camp...etc. While on her trip, some Bosnia knitters would lead Deborah to the river to show her the old-fashioned way of beating, boiling, and hand-drying wool. It is kind of amazing to think about the things you wear, and how they're actually made and handcrafted.
At WfWI, you are able to become pen pals, which a lot of women cherish more than the financial.

On of the many colorful shops on a street in Bašcaršija, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.


+
I know Halloween has passed and all, but I've been wanting to dress like Wonder Woman for some time now! And I can't get over it. If you're a girl and your comic hero isn't Wonder Woman, there is seriously something wrong there... every year I always end up not dressing like her because my ben and I usually dress up together as a couple. That's it. Next year, it's on. He can be some other comic book superhero, how about Superman? Batman?
...oh, that's "so over done." Well, blah.
I have an idea, what about a Superhero/Villain themed party?

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Even Victoire de Castellane's hero (designer for Dior Fine Jewerly) is Wonder Woman!

Speaking of Dior...

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The new Miss Dior Chérie smells so yum. The ad is pretty neat too. By the way, have you seen Up?
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