Snow Days

I know everyone hear talks about the snow like it's the end of the universe. Everyone who isn't originally from Portland complains about how Portland drivers forget how to drive as soon as the first flakes start falling. But let me tell you something. THEY DO NOT SALT THE ROADS. At all. And they barely plow, sprinkling light gravel on the major arteries when they get around to it. A day after the entire city is covered in hard-packed ice and half the drivers are stranded on the side of the road or partway across one of the many bridges. Good times!

I have never driven with snow tires on my car, even in blizzards in Massachusetts. It probably would have helped, but I've gotten through some tough, slippery days by driving slowly behind a plow or sand truck. People here have been driving with chains on their tires for about a week now, even after the snow had melted!

They either drive at 5mph, or fly around corners at 35, both with bad results. I know it only snows here about twice a year (we've gotten two light snowfalls already, and it brought the city to a screeching halt both times), but this is ridiculous! If they'd just put a little salt down, we'd all be able to get on with our lives!

Some of us had to brave the weather last weekend to vend at Crafty Wonderland, which was supposed to be the biggest craft event of the year. Somehow, Sean and I got a little lost finding the convention center in the morning, and accidentally had to cross two bridges over the river while everything was covered in an inch of slick ice. Our little Scion made it just fine, but it was scary to see 50% of the other drivers (which, admittedly, was only about 4 people) spinning out or sitting with their hazards flashing.

I can't even believe that 3,000 customers came by the show that day, which was totally sweet! It would have been at least 4 times that, if the weather had been nicer. We made a little money, got some shopping done, and got to hang out with some crafty friends. So it was a pretty good day, despite having to lug our heavy glassware around so much. I hope next year we can use a rolling cart for our stuff, since the parking lot felt like miles away from the exhibition hall, and we had to carry it all ourselves.

[I'll try to post some pictures soon! It's snowing again right now, but it's too dark to take photos.]

Busy Busy

In case you're wondering how busy things really are at Chez Badger, I'll try to paint you a picture. I should first point out that over the weekend, we sold 96 pint glasses (plus a lot of other stuff) at Urban Craft Uprising in Seattle. Normally, I don't even bring more than 24 glasses to an event, and they never sell out. I can confidently say that we could have sold more if we'd brought them to UCU, but our tiny car just didn't have any more room.

Today, Sean and I sandblasted over 200 items--mostly pint glasses, but also spice jars, soap pumps and small tumblers. It took us two days to mask them all, and we weren't able to ship anything out today because we were so busy.

You want to know the real kicker though? Almost everything we made today has been pre-sold online. And that doesn't even count the 40 or so orders I received today and haven't even had time to look at.

So, we're a little bit busy, you could say. ;)

Tomorrow is a ship-only day, where we'll pack up everything we can and take as many trips to the post office as we need to. Everything ordered before the 12th will get to its destination by Christmas, though our shipping schedule is a little out of whack from where I'd like it. And we'll be bustin' ass to make sure we have at least another 96 pint glasses for Crafty Wonderland this Sunday. At least our 13 hr. work days will pay off when we can pay all our bills next month! :D

On a totally random note, I somehow managed to stop by Queen Bee Creation's studio/shop today to work out a trade. I ended up with a fantastic new purse, in the design shown above, only I think the colors are reversed. It's a big "truckette" satchel, which I will love and cherish for always. Or until I get another of her bags, since deciding between them was so hard!!

Inquiring Minds Want to Know

The turkey was fantastic! It was the juiciest turkey I've ever had. When I removed the thermometer from measuring the breast, a stream of juice shot out of the hole about a foot in the air! Kinda gross-sounding, but it proves how moist it was.

I only had to flip the bird 3 times, and it only cooked for 2 hours. It was tricky to get it to stay thigh-side-up both times, but I leaned it against the side of the rack inside the pan. I learned that I absolutely hate my roasting pan though, since the handles are on hinges, and they lay completely flat against the pan so it's impossible to grab them with potholders. If the handles were easier to grab, this would have been a really low-stress recipe.

Another thing to note is the giblet gravy I made (also a recipe from the 1,000 Best Recipes cookbook). You're supposed to start it the night before, while the turkey is brining, but I forgot and did it all at once. It took all day to make! I started it as soon as I got up in the morning (which, admittedly was around 11), and finished it just as the turkey came out. I threw away the turkey's tale the night before, since it was hanging by some loose skin to the bird, but apparently that was supposed to go in the gravy. Whoops! I'll know for next time. The gravy was good anyway, though pretty thin until it was leftover.

Here's the recipe I used, so ya'll can brine your turkeys next time. You should really just buy the Best Recipes cookbooks though (at least some of them). :) Then you can have the gravy recipe too.

Classic Roast Turkey

2 cups table salt

1 turkey (12-14 lbs. - larger birds don't cook as evenly), rinsed thoroughly; giblets, neck and tailpiece removed and reserved for gravy

3 medium onions, chopped coarse

1 1/2 medium carrots, chopped coarse

1 1/2 celery ribs, chopped coarse

6 sprigs fresh thyme

3 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted

1. Dissolve the salt in 2 gallons cold water in a large stockpot or clean bucket. [I used a 7 gallon stock pot and needed more water and salt to cover the turkey. Adjust accordingly, and make sure in advance that you have a large enough pot.] Add the turkey and refrigerate for 4 hours.

2. Remove turkey, rinse thoroughly, and pat dry inside and out with paper towels. Put on a flat rack over a rimmed baking sheet, uncovered, in the fridge for at least 8 hours to air-dry.

3. Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat to 400 degrees. Toss 1/3 of the veggies and thyme with 1 Tbsp of the melted butter and place inside the body cavity. Bring the legs together and perform a simple truss (wrapping twine around the legs to close them, and bringing it around to the front, under the wings, and tying over the flap of skin covering the neck hole).

4. Scatter the remaining veggies and thyme over a shallow roasting pan. Pour 1 Cup water over the veggies. Set V-rack in the pan. Brush the entire breast side of the turkey with half the remaining butter, then place in breast-side down on the V-rack. Brush the entire back-side with the remaining butter.

5. Roast for 45 minutes. Remove pan from the oven (close the oven door); baste; with a wad of paper towels in each hand, turn the turkey leg/thigh side up (not wing up). If the liquid in the pan has totally evaporated, add another 1/2 cup water. Return to the oven and roast 15 minutes. Remove again, baste, and rotate the other thigh side up. Roast for another 15 minutes. Remove one last time, baste, and turn it breast side up; roast until the breast registers about 165 and the thigh registers 170 to 175 on an instant-read thermometer, 30-45 minutes. Remove turkey from the pan to a carving board and let rest until ready to carve, at least 20 minutes.

Thankful

I'm thankful for all my amazing friends and family who have encouraged me to take risks and stick to it when things were tough.

I'm thankful for Tea Time with the PDX Etsy crew, since nothing is better than getting out of the house once in a while to chat and snack with friends. Tea Time has helped keep me sane when life was really stressful!

I'm thankful for my cat, Rupert, who is such an awesome guy to have around. Even when he's knocking things on the floor or head-butting me at 3am because he felt like snuggling. I love spending time with him, and letting him distract me from work once in a while.

I'm thankful to anyone who's ever shared food with us, whether it was dinner at our house or theirs. What is life without good people to eat with?

I'm thankful for my husband, Sean, who not only puts up with my crazy ideas and lofty goals, but he also helps me achieve them.

I'm thankful for our great home and friendly neighbors.

I'm thankful for all the opportunities we've had in the past year, business-wise and personally.

I'm thankful for Cooks Illustrated for putting out amazing cookbooks that have taught me how to cook better food. And for our 7-gallon stock pot that we use for brewing beer and brining turkeys.

Oregon Coast

I forgot to post something about my parents visit here at the end of last month! We had a great time wandering around the city, eating great food and seeing the sites at the coast and the gorge.

I posted my pics on Flickr, if you want to check them out. I have one of the foggy beach photos as my desktop image right now, and I love it!

We were all lucky that the weather was really nice while Mom and Dad visited, even though it was a little hazy for viewing the mountains. I think there was only one day where it rained, and it was gentle. It's rained pretty heavily (for Oregon) almost every day since they left, and the temperature dropped dramatically. The first frost is coming tonight, so I'm cutting all the basil in our garden to make pesto and curry with.

The next good visiting time will probably be late spring, so if anyone would like to drop by, make your plans now! :)

Ninja Cat Video

OMG. I just watched this video on Laughing Squid and had to share. It is hi-larious. Just can't get enough silly cat stuff.

For something completely different, did you know that on the longest day of the year, the daylight hours are about half an hour longer here in Portland than in Boston? The sun also tends to set half an hour later here (and rises half an hour later) most of the time. This was really noticeable this summer, when the sun just never seemed to go down. We also have a lot of big hills with great views of the distance, so if you're up higher (like we are) then it can still be light out at 10pm. Check it out!

Waterfalls are Pretty

Sean and I finally left the city of Portland today! It was our first Oregonian excursion since moving here, and really, our first one ever!

We'd gotten a bunch of recommendations to see the waterfalls in the Columbia River Gorge, but we didn't really know where we were going. We headed out on Rt. 84 and took the exit for Historic Columbia River Hwy (or whatever it's called at that point). It was super scenic, with vista points overlooking the huge river ever couple of miles! I've never seen so many beautiful views in one short drive!

We stopped at every single overlook, scenic view, vista point and waterfall we could find. There was lots of stopping. I've gone on a lot of hikes in New England, but nothing compared to these! None of the places we stopped made us walk more than 2/3rds of a mile from our car (round trip) to see amazing views or breath-taking waterfalls. Check out my flickr photos to see pics and videos! Sorry some of them are redundant--Sean and I took the some of the same shots, and I was messing with exposures on some of them.
I'm used to waking up at the crack of dawn, driving a few hours (into another state) to a mountain, then hiking straight up through mosquito-infested stank-smelling forest to see a damp rock that the guide book claims is a "waterfall". Okay, so it was more enjoyable than that! Sometimes we actually saw running water.

There were no insects. It smelled clean. There was tons of water, lush greenery and moss, and the other folks on the trail were friendly (except for the collection of college dolts at Multnomah "Huge Tourist Attraction" Falls). We'd avoided the rain most of the day, but got a bit wet at Bridal Veil and it continued to rain at Multnomah Falls and the whole drive home. It was a great day, however, and some hot tea and dry clothes have brought me back to a peaceful place in the world. Maybe we should do this every weekend!

Buffalo Roast

This weekend, Pat (one of Sean's friends from high school in Germany) came to visit! Pat flies planes for the Navy, and he was lucky enough to schedule a day off in Portland between flights.

We took him to the Farmer's Market where we picked up a buffalo roast and some veggies to grill, plus some venison pate and a baguette. Unfortunately, no one told us that a roast shouldn't be cooked on a grill (even though we asked the meat guy what he'd recommend for grilling). We spent the afternoon hanging in the backyard, drinking beer and eating fancy snacks. The buffalo was a bit tough, but tasty overall. The grilled potatoes and zucchini were awesome, and the pate was excellent. I could get used to all this amazing food...

Our yard has a stray cat and her three kittens as frequent visitors, and the smell of our cooking enticed them over. All the cats seem to be very frightened of us, but that didn't keep them from licking our olive oil-covered plate and meaty tongs.
* * *
I got to hear my first Emergency Broadcast Signal today while in the car! There was a severe weather advisory for the county south of us. While it was hot and sticky for me, they were having a dangerous lightning storm with damaging hail and 60 mph winds! The announcement warned that "lightning is still one of the top killers in the U.S." and "if you can hear thunder, then you're close enough to get struck by lightning". Luckily, it seems to be breaking the hot spell we've had, so I might actually be able to cook some dinner indoors tonight!

My Friends

A couple weeks ago, my friend Eling (from the amazing Traveling Rhinos) came up to Portland after vending at the Renegade Craft Fair in San Fransisco. I had the pleasure of going out for Thai food at Pok Pok with Eling, her husband Dane, and their friend Shots (sorry if I'm spelling her name wrong! Could it be "Schotts"?).

Oh my god. The food was amazing! We were so eager to eat, I forgot to take pictures until we'd already dug in. The food was so light and crisp and refreshing! I even tried the crispy pork over rice and beefy Boat Noodles that Eling had. Plus, I got to try a mulberry drinking-vinegar soda and young coconut juice. Just check out their lunch menu, and I'll take you there when you come visit. ;)

It looks like we actually have a series of visitors on their way to PDX! Sean's friend Pat, Dan Weill, and my parents are all planning trips out here in the next two months. We can't wait to see all you guys!! Hopefully the ants will be gone by then.

If you're not on that list of visitors, you should be. We have outdoor cafes where you can drink alcohol. And there's bound to be a beer festival/parade/giant neighborhood event when you come. If you get here before the rainy season (which allegedly starts in November or so), it's unlikely to rain at all. In fact, it has only drizzled here twice in the past month as far as I can remember.

After lunch, we went out to the Japanese Gardens, which I hadn't been to before. It was relaxing, and beautiful. Maybe not the best place for actually meditating though, since it was packed full of people (on a weekday, no less) and we could hear the train whistle from the zoo train every few minutes. You'll have to check out my Flickr page for more photos from the garden, since I've run out of room in this post.

Email me to plan your trip now--you won't regret it!

Not my Friends

We have ants. It appears that these tiny sugar monsters are pretty common around here, but
I am quite sick of them. Luckily, our landlady is awesome and sent the exterminator over the day after I called her (to say that his exterminating from a week before had only made things worse). They seem to be migrating from room to room, through the outside windows.

If I can get my hands on some Borax, I'm going to mix up some of this "Uncle Albert's Ant Bait" myself. The post-it notes were total genius on the exterminator's part. I've been shuffling them around the house to put in the paths of the little suckers, and it seems to be working.

Sauvie Island

Today I went berry picking with Leah, Judy and Poe for tea time! Leah drove us out to Kruger's Farm on Sauvie Island to pick blueberries and raspberries, then we went to another farm along the road for cherries. I've never in my life seen such large and beautiful u-pick farms!! Not to mention that Kruger's is a no-spray organic farm.

Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera, so you'll have to check out Poe's blog and Leah's blog for photos. They went last week, so there are already some posts with pics from then. I think they might add more soon as well, since it was a beautiful day with only minimal haze. I still don't know how some people here can complain about the humidity! It's barely perceptible.

That big jar of dark, gorgeous honey is going to become my next batch of mead! I can't believe it was only $32 for 12 lbs, since I've spent about $50 for 15 lbs of bulk honey at Whole Foods! I was tempted to buy another jar, but I thought I'd give this a try first. There is so much local honey here, and I can get really picky about the flavors. This jar is carrot and madras, which I guess is a type of onion. It smells and tastes divine (not very floral at all, unlike the clover honey I got last year for about $6/lb.) and I can't wait to use it. I almost bought a small jar of a lighter type of honey (don't remember the pollen type) to round it out to 15 lbs, but I didn't want to mix them. There could be quite a bit of mead in out future if I can keep getting honey at this price!

In other news, I may be doing three craft fairs this month, which is some kind of record for me! Sean is about done with helping me at events, so I might be doing the next two solo (with my booth-buddies). I'm not making loads of money, but it's a lot better than not selling anything all weekend! And these events are super fun. It's like hanging out with all my best friends outside for a day, plus making some cash. :)

In other, other news, Rupert is doing great. He's settling down a little into adult cat mode, so he's sleeping a lot more during the day and is a little less needy. He still talks and chatters like crazy! He's also learning how to purr and rub when he's happy.

Our crafty cooperative is officially legal, and I'm doing a ton of work to get it running! I'm helping design logos and images for the website, and I'm in charge of the Marketing Committee. So far, the "Marketing Committee" (which is just me) is collecting ideas to implement in the future. There will probably not be an official committee which has meetings, since we just need to brainstorm ideas and then carry them out. I'll be the go-to person for organizing ad campaigns and things, making sure it gets done. Very exciting! We're planning to launch or site next month and do a bunch of advertising for the fall. This is keeping me really busy.

Subterranean fungi

As you may or may not know, Saturday was Amanda and my fifth wedding anniversary.
Congratulation to us.
We celebrated by spending the day peddling Bread and Badger wares in the 100 degree heat at a farmer's market downtown, but honestly, it was a pretty great day.
You see, I thought I knew what a farmer's market was, a small gathering of veggie vendors in a public place. As such, I was completely unprepared for this event.
This was a farmer's market, Portland style. A complete city block was filled with fruits and vegetables, flowers, cheese, wine, prepared foods, seafood and other meats including lamb and buffalo, all of it locally produced and fresh. Oh yeah, and mushrooms...



I have never seen fresh morels, or any sort of truffle before, fresh or otherwise.
If you ever get the chance, which is very unlikely if you are not visiting Portland, trying truffles is definitely recommended.
The smell is simply incredible, much like a morel or a porcini, multiplied by x100.
Which is more or less what they cost as well...

As for other news, I'm currently rocking a 'stache. No worries, I'm not planning on becoming a cop, I still have my goatee as well.



Cast your vote if it should stay or go, because I can't decide if I like it or not.

Going Broke in Style

We finally went down and got our new car today!!! It's pretty awesome. We got a good deal on trading in our Jetta, and we finagled our monthly payments down to a manageable number. It only took 4 1/2 hours! Ugh. Sean and I are totally wiped out, especially considering we woke up early on a Saturday (official sleeping-in-day) to get it all done.

No more broken transmission! No more funny noises, strange smells and poor gas mileage! No more peeling paint and having to see "TJ" marked into our trunk every day!

Hooray for not one, but TWO glove boxes! Seven cup holders! Built-in ipod and aux. plugs! Stereo controls on the steering wheel!

We even got it in our first choice color, which they had to get from another dealership. We were afraid we'd have to wait until Monday, since we were told they were selling out really fast, but I think we got pretty lucky. It was a great experience, even though it was exhausting. I think they really wanted us to understand everything, and it helped that we'd done so much research and planning beforehand.

I didn't take any interior pictures, since you can see better photos of the bizarro dashboard console on their website. It'll take some getting used to, but it's so worth it. :)

Teamwork!

Remember those cool etched discs I posted about a while ago? Well, Leah has turned them into mobiles, and put pictures up on her Flickr page!! We're still working out the details, but I think they're going to be for sale in one of our Etsy shops.

Rose Garden

We went to the Rose Garden yesterday inside Washington Park. It was a gorgeous day, but hardly any roses were blooming. I took some pictures anyway, which you can see on my Flickr page. There were a lot of other people walking around the gardens, picnicking, and lounging in little corners of the park.

One of the weirdest things about the Rose Garden to me is the way we entered. I knew we could get there if we walked west on Burnside long enough, and as we were trekking uphill past a Chico's store and a bank, I spotted a stone wall with a tiny sign marked "Rose Garden". There was a narrow stone stairway that lead up the steep ivy-covered hillside, so we went up.

It was almost a completely vertical climb up staircase after staircase, occasionally turning to follow the slope. Then we were in the woods. Completely in the woods. You'd never know that we'd just been shopping 10 minutes earlier on one of the trendiest streets in a major metropolitan area. I tell ya, this city is like no other I've ever been to!

After we'd had our fill of nature, we headed back down to 23rd Ave and found the Lompoc bar. We were just in time to see the 8th inning of the Red Sox/Orioles game! We had some pub food and some awesome beer and enjoyed the game.

Last night was the Starlight Parade, which we were intending to avoid, but we caught some glimpses of it as we were stuck in traffic on the busride home. I don't think we missed much, but the rest of the city didn't seem to think it could pass it up. They sure do love their parades here!

Rose Festival

Portland is the City of Roses, and one of the things I love about it here! I'd heard about the Rose Festival before we moved here, but I didn't know what it involved. Apparently, there's a lot to it!

Here's a link to the homepage for the festivities. Last night there were fireworks, which we could here from our house, and tonight there's a starlight parade, but I don't know if we'll be staying downtown that long. I just want to see the blooming roses, since we visited the Rose Garden in February last year and it was devoid of rosy goodness.

One of the big things is the crowning of the Rose Queen. This seems like an antiquated tradition that I thought only happened in farmtowns. You know, crowning of the Cheese Queen, and that sort of thing. Apparently it's a big deal here. Or, at least, people want it to be. I read an article a month or two ago about last year's Rose Queen, and how she won the title because she was the only girl who entered. This year, they've broadened the criteria for entering to encourage more girls to try for the title.

I don't know if it's worked (really, what high school girl actually wants to be Rose Queen in a parade?), but I think we saw a lot of Rose Princesses in the St. John's parade. If they weren't Rose Princesses, then I'd like to know why so many girls in crowns and tiaras were waving at us from convertibles and horseback.

One event I'm sort of intrigued by is the Rose Show. They apparently transform the mall's ice skating rink (yes, our mall has an ice skating rink in the middle of it) into "a delightful rose garden with over 2,000 blooms". The photos show elderly folks browsing the rose bouquets, which appear to be slapped down on white tables. Disappointing! I'd go see it if they actually made cool sculptures out of them or something. At least the competition winner will receive a "sparkling trophy", which I couldn't find a photo of.

If we need something fun to do on my birthday, we can go downtown for the Rose Parade, which might actually be worth seeing. We've already seen two parades while we were here, so I know how pdx-ers love their parades. Maybe this one will be a little more impressive.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

I've spent the entire day pimping my new blog out. I can't tell if it's been a productive way to spend my day or not, but I've enjoyed myself, anyway! You can check out Badger Sandwich if you'd like, but keep in mind that it's still in the early stages of development. I'm trying to get into the habit of posting regularly, but so far there's only one post up. I'll also probably change the widgets and things around in the next few weeks.

I just added a weather widget to the sidebar here, so you can see if my theory about PDX rain really is a myth. Of course, sometimes the weather says it's raining when it isn't, but, whatever. Also, the widget is kinda ugly.

I did a trade with someone on Etsy last week for a pair of custom shot glasses with the Hunter S. Thompson "Gonzo" logo on them. They were really hard to do, so please don't ask for them! Anyway, in return for the glasses, she made me a custom ring! You can see it if you scroll down to my Etsy Favorites sidebar box. If you click the first picture, it will bring you to a listing with photos of my actual ring. How cool is that?

Oh yeah--if anyone has anything really cool that I should feature on my new blog, please email me!! I'm looking for cool websites, photos, videos, what-have-you that would be inspiring for a creative person. I can't guarantee that I'll write about what you suggest, but I'm always looking for new stuff so I'll be sure to check it out!

Learning and Sharing

Here's a tutorial from Etsy on folding paper boxes. If you make one box 1/4 inch larger than another, you can use it as a lid!

This was easier to learn when Danielle showed me in person, but I figured it out again from the how-to.

I've been making these boxes throughout the day from some leftover Art Hop programs and some fancy paper I got from a craft swap. I might take pictures and post them tomorrow.

Oh yeah, I upgraded my Flickr account this morning, so you can now see tons and tons of pictures of the same stuff I've already posted on here. ;) Haha! I'm still working on uploading more stuff, and organizing it better, but you're welcome to poke through if you'd like to see what I've got. There are more pics of Rupert, flowers, and some older Portland scenes around our neighborhood. I might actually be inspired to take more photos now, which would be really fun!

I hate migraines

This'll probably be a short post, since I have a killer headache right now. I'm actually trying to remember what it was that I wanted to write about, besides just having an excuse to post more pretty pictures.

I'm trying to set up Wordpress on my website, so I can host my own blog (it's going to be called "Badger Sandwich"), but I'm not techie enough to figure it out. If anyone out there knows how to set up a MySQL database, please give me some tips! It appears to be the kind of thing that's so easy, there's no reason to document how to do it. Which means that me and my Mac are stuck staring at error messages all day and being sad.

This blog, by the way, is going to be *awesome* when I get it going. It better be, with all the hassle I'm going through just to have a fully customizable commercial blog. :)

I swear there was more interesting stuff I was going to write about... Hmmm.

These flowers just above are some of my favorites on our block. I just love the color combo! There's another one (to the left) with purple flowers that are darker blossoms at the bottom, and they gradually get lighter at the top of the plant. They look prettier in person than they do in my photos, since the intense sunlight sort of changed the effect a little.

There's a dogwood tree up the street that has both pink and white flowers. I think the pink ones are coming from a separate trunk that has just wound its way into the branches of the white tree. I'm into those kinds of things.

In biz news, Sean and I had a good time at the Alberta Art Hop, even though it was about 90 degrees all day, and most people were too hot to shop. We had tequila-flavored popsicles and lots of Gatorade to get us through the day, but somehow I think we had a good time anyway. I traded with Gretchen of Salmon Street Studio for a Portland Coat of Arms t-shirt, but I'm still waiting to get my size. I can't wait! She has so many awesome designs, it was a little tough to decide! I bought an Oregon carved wood pendant from Phoebe at Crafty Wonderland last week, so I'm going to be able to fully represent my new home soon.

Busy Bee

It's hot today. Really, seriously HOTT. Supposedly, it was going up to 97 degrees. I had to walk to the store to get ant traps (which is a whole other story), and I gotta say: It was nice out.

Not nice out like, "I want to sit outside and read a book all afternoon in the sun," kind of nice out, but it was much nicer than 97 degrees of humid stickiness from New England. The breeze is cool. My skin isn't clammy. It's nice out! Of course, I'm also sealed inside the house (which doesn't get a touch of sun on it because of trees and other buildings) for the day. But I haven't even broken out the fan yet! Nice. Out.

Anyway, I went out yesterday and took tons of pictures of all the blooming flowers. I've seriously never seen this many flowers before! We had a few weeks of tulip explosion, and they're pretty much completely gone now. I think I'm going to break down and pay for the Flickr upgrade so I can upload all my photos and show them all off at once. I'll let you know when I do that.

In other news, I'm finally starting a blog for my business! I reserved the Bread and Badger name at Blogger and Wordpress, since I couldn't decide which I preferred. Also, now no one else can steal my name! There is no actual content up yet, since I'm still perfecting the layouts, but I'm trying to publish my first post by the end of the day.

I think I'm going to go with the Wordpress blog since they offer a 3-column layout which I like, and some awesome customization upgrades I can pay for later. I'm still trying to make the layout bend to my will, and it's resisting heavily. Blogger is just a little too simplified for what I want. I'd like the ability for my blog to grow and expand. I'm think' big.

If anyone reading this has any experience with Wordpress, or has any advice for me, please share! Since I'm not committed to one site yet, I could always change my mind.

In other, other news, I'm doing the Alberta Art Hop tomorrow, which should be awesome! I'm so busy with craft fairs, I don't even know what to do with myself! I'm forcing myself to relax today since I haven't really taken a day off for over two weeks. The good news is that I'm expecting to make twice as much money this month as last month, which is HUGE. Especially since most of that has been wholesale orders. I'd better take a day off now, since I might not have another opportunity for two more weeks!

Rupert vs. Poang

So, I was going to write about how awesome the weather has been the past two days, and about the amazing pink, purple and blue flowers I've seen in the neighborhood. I discovered Reed College, just two blocks away from our house, and the gravel trail they have for me to exercise on. I was going to take pictures of the flowers, and the breathtaking view of the hills from Reed, but none of that happened.

Instead, I thought you might like to see this video I just took of Rupert. I didn't even know my camera HAD video! This has opened up a world of possibilities to me, and I promise the video quality can only go up from here.

(Don't worry about him clawing the furniture--not only does he refuse to play with his claws out, I also have been clipping them religiously so he couldn't scratch anything if he tried.)

Putting a price on health

Today is a gorgeous day for riding bikes, smelling the flowers, and going to coffeehouse meetings with the PDX Etsy Team's website committee. I'm currently eating a popsicle (thanks, Susie!), which is making typing very slow, but oh so worth it.

I went to a blogging workshop the other night hosted by Trillium Artisans, and taught by Diane Gilleland of Craftypod, DIY Alert and Church of Craft fame. She has the craftiness goin' on. I learned a lot about blogging to promote your business, and it looks like I'll be starting a new blog for that soon! I haven't settled on a theme for the blog yet, but I'll be keeping it separate from this one so I don't bore my potential customers with the nitty gritty of my life.

I need to come up with something cohesive, since my interests are so varied. I mean, there can't be that many people out there who want to read about cooking, cats, running a home business, technology, geek fashion, knitting, music and crafts all in the same place, right? Well, maybe. I'm one of them, anyway, but that doesn't count. I'm also trying to write about topics that not a million other people are writing about, and that's hard too. Maybe I'm trying too hard to be unique, when it's really my perspective that will be unique to all these topics. Still a work in progress.

Aside from blogging and working with the PDX Etsy team on promoting our shops, I'm also trying to get health care for Sean and myself. Sean's job doesn't offer insurance, so we're both on our own for this. I was really hoping he'd be able to sign up for a family plan at his next job so I wouldn't have to worry about it, but this place is just too small for that.

It appears that Oregon has a number of options for low-income families, but we just barely over-qualify for that. I can't even believe it! We don't qualify as "low-income" because we have too much money in our bank account, which has nothing to do with our income! Also, one plan requires that you be uninsured for the past 6 months before you can apply. Yikes!



I talked to one man on the phone about a plan for self-employed people, and he warned me that even if I enroll in their plan (and, I think, any other plan in Oregon), I wouldn't be covered for medical care for childbirth until after 9 months. Now, I'm used to a waiting period for coverage to kick in, which is usually 3 months, but NINE MONTHS? That's a long time, and it means that if I got pregnant and rushed out to get insurance, I would still get screwed.

The "affordable" plans I'm seeing here are all about $300/month for a couple. With Sean's income, he could be paying for rent and health insurance, with pretty much no money left over afterwards. That means we'd be relying on my business income to cover all of our food and utilities, which may not work out. That doesn't even account for an emergency, (like if we actually needed to use the insurance,) and had to pay deductibles and things, or for the cat or car repairs.

I'm a little freaked out by all this, and it makes me worried about my business. I could try to get a job that offered insurance, but that might not be easy to find. I also don't know how much time I can spare at a second job, since my business takes up about 50 hours a week already. I guess it's extra motivation to keep at it, hardcore. I'm still looking for new options too, so maybe I'll come up with something.

In the mean time, if you know anyone who would like to donate to my health care fund, please send them along to purchase something from my Etsy shop. :) Business has been quite busy recently, so maybe $300 a month will start to seem like a piddly amount soon enough. The images, by the way, are some custom pieces I made for mobiles which Leah Pellegrini will be making. I think they're cool!

Food heals all wounds

Yesterday was a bit of a rough day. We started out the day with Rupert attacking Sean's face while he was still sleeping, and it came to a close with Rupert charging around the house and leaping until his head hit a solid object, most notably my printer. It was a long day.

We were craving yummy hot subs for dinner, and decided to find a sub shop to fill our bellies. We tried Michael's on SE Sandy and 11th, since it got great online reviews for it's cheap eats and greasy goodness.

Unfortuntately, Michael's is some sort of "Chicago style" place, and they didn't have a grilled veggie sub on the menu (which is all I wanted in the world at that moment). I will warn you all now, if you go into a sub shop that doesn't have a grilled veggie sub on the menu, just turn around. I asked if they could make me one anyway, since I just wanted onions, peppers and mushrooms, with some melted cheese, but they said no. They didn't have any mushrooms. I should have known it would be bad news since they didn't serve pizza, but they kept mentioning their "pizza style" subs, or some such nonsense.

I ended up getting a sub that involved cold bread, with hot marinara sauce (which was actually good), half an inch of cold American and Provolone cheese, grilled tomatoes and one slice of grilled pepper. Too bad I don't like tomatoes.

They didn't even have eggplant parm available! This is the first time I've been really homesick for something in Massachusetts. If anyone reading this has an Italian sub/pizza shop near them, please go out there and eat a good hot sub for me. I'll be thinking of you...

Tonight, Sean was craving fruits and veggies, and we just happened to inherit a couple freezer bags full of frozen strawberries that Suzie had picked last year. They were a little freezer burned, but if you add enough juice and vodka, that isn't a problem at all.

We decided to make grilled veggie burritos, a la Anna's Taqueria from back east, since it was a gorgeously warm day, and the smell of freshly-mowed lawn made us itch to bust out the grill.

We picked up all the ingredients we needed at Trader Joe's and Limbo's (the organic market) up the block. It wasn't a cheap meal, but I'm still impressed at the amazingly cheap prices on produce at Limbo's.

We made guacamole and salsa, fired up our little grill out front and grilled up everything else you see in the photo. We added black beans, cheddar cheese and sour cream.

Let me tell you, if you've had a bad food experience, the only thing to do is massively out-cook that disappointment away. And a couple strawberry daiquiris certainly don't hurt, either.

Highlight of the week

Just another reason to live here instead of any other state that isn't Massachusetts. Visit us here during the summer.

Perhaps I've Misjudged

This may have not been the smartest decision on my part.

But he loves his toys! And my socks! How great is that? He hasn't attacked my feet while wearing the socks, but he likes to find the socks balled up and carry them around the house to play with.

I haven't had any time for knitting recently. Rupert demands attention, and it's very difficult to resist. Seriously, how do you ignore a kitten who's meowing his heart out in front of you because you're too mean to play with him?

Also, he loves playing with the yarn while I'm knitting, and I'm still trying to teach him the difference between yarn that is a toy, and yarn that isn't. He's not the smartest kitty, so this may take a while.

We' brought him to the vet on Saturday, and they confirmed that he is, in fact, a cat.

I've just updated my Ravelry projects, in case anyone is interested. I'll be posting an updated hat pattern for the Trinity Stitch hat soon! My username is HoneyBadger, if you'd like to find me on there.

If you're a knitter or crocheter, and don't know what Ravelry is, then you should head on over right away and get your name on the list to be a beta-tester! It may take a few weeks to get a free account, but it's so much fun! You won't regret it. It's social networking for fiber artists, and there are tons of fun ways to organize your projects, your stash, and your patterns. Plus, there are fun discussion groups to join, and so many other features!