I finally did it. I finally replaced my old sewing machine. It’s been something that’s been bothering me for years. I didn’t even want to look at new machines because I would want one so bad. So after enough research to feel confident about a brand… I decided I probably wanted a Husqvarna Viking… I went to the Montavilla Sewing Center in SE Portland all ready to be loved up by a sewing machine salesperson. I walked in, pronounced what brand I was interested in, told her what I mostly use my machine for, and told her I was open to other options. She happened to be a Husqvarna woman herself so I came to the right woman. These machines are just so effing cool I can’t stand it. I’d done a little research online and read a lot of reviews from faithful and adoring Husqvarna owners (I didn’t find any other kind) as a matter of fact, many of the reviews I read were from people who own multiple Husqvarnas. It seems once you go Husqvarna, you never look back. It felt great getting a demo from a Husqvarna Viking lover. She knew her machine. She was honest and frank about features she liked or didn’t like and watching her use the machine so freely and easily, showed me how simple it will be for me to use, once I get acquainted to it.
I bought a Husqvarna Viking Sapphire 870. It is the Mercedes of quilting sewing machines. It purs like a kitten and it does the most amazing things… things I didn’t even know sewing machines could do. It makes lace! It not only sews button holes, it sews the buttons on too. It can do a blind hem (I thought home sewers always had to do this by hand). Financially speaking, I’m glad I waited for my new machine. But at the same time, after seeing what this baby can do, I can’t believe I lived with my former machine as long as I did. My old machine was a work horse, but I spend so much time untangling bobbin thread. I wasted money trying to get it tuned up and had so many frustrating days trying to get it to do what I needed. They took my old faithful New Home machine in as a trade for $300. I feel very good about the price I paid and I feel great about the Sewing Center. I get free classes for life and 20% off anything in the store.
I can’t believe I sewed my wedding dress on my old machine. I now look at my dress with new found respect. Compared to my new machine, it seems like I practically sewed it by hand.
Goodbye lovely old machine. Hello dreamboat!
Tonight I am going through the CD ROM and manuals so I have a solid understanding of her before I take her for her first spin. I must think of a name for her. Since she is Swedish, maybe I will name her after my friend Ada.
I’ve moved my office into the bedroom because of the heat. In SF, I freelanced out of our bedroom, I thought those days were behind me. But with one air conditioner and 100+ heat, I guess I still had some bedroom office time still left in me. I actually tried to buy a little $100 air conditioner for the office on my lunch break today but they are all sold out. Shoulda just bought one saturday. Apple 207 was eaten in my bedroom/office.
It is super hot in Portland this week. We broke down and bought an air conditioner. I’ve moved our small dining table into our bedroom and am hiding out from the heat in here. Apple 206 was eaten while enjoying the cool air.
Apple 204 and 205 were chopped up and made into a salad with celery, almonds, chicken, and mayo. It’s like a chicken waldorf salad… sort of.
I ate apple 203 as I waited for my chicken pt pie to cook. I used my chicken egg timer and I thought about eggs and time.
Apple 202 was an apple cider at La Superior. I know I had a rule about juice not counting as a whole apple but I make an exception in this case because I bought this before I realized it was apple soda. That made me happy to know I’m so attracted to apples, I gravitate towards all products apple without even knowing it.
Apple 201 was a whimpy portion of apple slices in my waldorf salad at The Original. I won’t be ordering this again. How can you make a waldorf salad with hardly any apples in it?
I feel embarrassed that I didn’t take a more exciting picture of apple 200. Should have been a more momentous occasion hitting the big number 200.
Apple 199 was homemade apple sauce. Mmmmm, delicious and cold on a very hot day.
Apple 198 and decaf Americanos are my best friend.
Yesterday Mississippi experienced a large body of water for probably the first time in her life. We went to George Rogers Park in Lake Oswego where dogs are welcome to swim and play in the water. This park totally rocks! There is a cute beach and lots of sandy areas to hang out on. There are even a few shady spots under trees. The river is absolutely gorgeous and the water feels so great. Not too cold but still very refreshing. Mississippi was afraid at first but was very soon splashing around like a pro. She’s not a very good swimmer and she spent most her time trying to leap through the water. If I threw her stick out too far, she’d panic a little by the deep water and come back to shore. But she was picking up on the swimming concept pretty fast. She loved it. She went nuts in the water.
We had her on a long retractable leash. It went pretty well except for when she tried to take off after a dog. Tom and I got a little rope burned and I discovered you really have to watch where you are in relation to her and the leash because you never really know what she could do next. Tom had a scary near miss. Still it was so great to let her swim out in the river. We’ll definitely be going back there often. Even if the water damages the retractable leash, it’s worth it to see her have such a great time. She whined the whole way home and wanted to keep playing.
I tried to take a video but things were a little hectic and exciting for me to focus on anything other than her. Hopefully next weekend we can get some footage of her.
On Saturday Tom and I took a Portland-wide tour of the city’s backyard chicken coups. The Tour De Coops is an annual event organized by Growing Gardens, a non-profit dedicated to creating and supporting gardens for low income families.
Each year Tour De Coops finds Portland chicken keepers willing to share their backyards and knowledge with the general public. Beautifully designed booklets with maps and details of each coop were just $10 and all profits help Growing Gardens with their community projects. There were somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 coops on the tour, we were only able to get to less than half of that in the 4 hours of the event. So much fun! We saw lots and lots of really great yards and chicken coops. It was exciting to see how creative people got with their outside spaces. I wish we could have visited all the coops on the list. I think my favorite was a cute pink coop with a chicken run that curved around a garden teaming with echinacea and sunflowers.
Saturday night we saw the documentary “Mad City Chickens” at Vendetta bar in North Portland. There was a raffle drawing Saturday night after the movie and I crossed my finders so hard they almost fell off. One of the grand prizes was one of John Wright’s “Modern Trailer Coops.” They are compact, beautiful, and very functional. We could actually visualize having chickens when we saw this design.
I was also so excited to finally get a tour of Zenger Farm. This urban garden is located on the site of an old dairy farm and is a volunteer based community garden. They have great programs that teach kids about gardening. We got to see chickens, turkeys, and bees and got a nice tour of the whole grounds.
Despite the crazy heat, we had such a fun day. It was just more proof that Portland is the greatest city ever. We are so happy to finally be here. I’m so proud to call this town “home”. I can’t wait for next year’s Tour De Coop!
Mississippi impatiently waiting to go to doggy day care.
Mississippi went to the Lucky Labrador on Monday! It’s a great brew pub in SE with lots of dog friendly tables outside. I wasn’t sure if she’d be able to stay for more than 5 minutes but she actually did fantastic. She was calm for Tom’s one and one third beers before she started her restless barking. Before that, as long as I kept her occupied and gave her my undivided attention, she stayed laying down for a good part of the time. She also got a million treats, which of course helped a lot. I’m so proud of her and I’m so excited to make this a regular exercise. For the next few tries, we’ll just stay for one until she gets used to it.
Mississippi is still occasionally picking on other dogs at daycare. I like to refer to her as “the terrorist” now because she can’t keep from terrorizing the other dogs. I don’t know what to do except keep the number of her daycare days no more than 2-3 a week and to try and walk her before I take her in. I think when she goes in there all raring to go, it sets her up for being extra annoying. After she’s had a good walk, she tends to be more calm. What she typically does is she finds a dog that doesn’t want to be messed with. The dog tells her to leave them alone and Mississippi takes it all wrong. She’s not good with rejection. She then tries to rough house with the dog until she gets angrier and angrier warnings from the other dog. It’s not pretty and it scares me that somebody is going to get hurt. She’s hard to call off when she’s like this. I’m practicing recall with her in every single situation. She’s been pretty great at it, even when she gets all crazy barky in the backyard. She’s even come running into the house while still all growley and huffy. I figure if we keep up recall training, she’ll automatically come to us when she gets herself in tough situations.
We had week two of doggy training class “Out on the Town” Through Happy Go Lucky. Class was fun and we were very good at passing other dogs while keeping all her attention focused on me. She has a lot of trouble paying attention rather than sniffing and I find she’s either in class mode, where all eyes are on me, or she’s in park mode where all she can do is follow her nose. It’s hard for her to switch back and forth quickly. Something to work on. We practiced “leave it” by passing tempting objects and treating her when she looks at me instead of at the object. The class is much better than the last one and we’re having a good time. I keep forgetting to ask the teacher if I can use clicker training with Mississippi. I think I’d get a better response.
I’m trying to train myself to keep the right side of my desk clean so that I always have space to draw. Apple 197 was enjoyed while reminding myself to clear the clutter.
apple 196 was eaten as an apple sauce that I made in my crock pot. I had it with corn on the cob and an Italian Sausage.
apple 195 was eaten after I got back from a two day drawing workshop at OCAC with Nicole Gibbs. It is sitting on the pile of drawings I did over the weekend.
apple 194 was eaten in the morning before class. Mississippi had found both of these bottles that morning and used them as her ‘keep away’ items. She finds things that she knows she isn’t supposed to have and then makes us chace her for them. I had been wondering where these two bottles of ink had gone.
apple 193 was eaten with my daily glass of vegetable juice. I couldn’t really stand vegetable or tomatoe juice without vodka in it until I started this South Beach Diet. I don’t mind it anymore.
apple 192 was eaten after planting a bunch more flowers in the garden in the front of our house. This area used to be dead grass.
I made some apple sauce in my crock pot. Apple 191 is the first of the batch.
apple 190 was sauteed with chard and shallots, and served with an italian sausage, kraut, and mustard.
apple 189 was eaten after I finished cutting up more treats for Mississippi. She’s in a new class now and I need to make sure she’s got enticing treats. All of our classes are held outside in parks.
apple 188 was sliced up and eaten with an italian sausage.
apple 187 was eaten after I put up latice to protect my beautiful garden from my vegetable loving dog.
apple 186 was eaten after spending some time trying to unpack my office and organize it to make it look intentionally organized instead of looking unpacked.
apple 185 was eaten along with a glass of water and apple cider vinegar which is suppose to be a wonder cure-all.
apple 184 was eaten after finally replanting Tom’s bonsai.
apple 183 was eaten with my daily South Beach Diet veggie juice.
We’re heading up to Seattle in a couple weeks so I made a Google map of all the galleries I could find. Enjoy! If you know of any more, please let me know.
I took a two day intensive workshop from Nicole Gibbs through OCAC this weekend. We drew like crazy. By Sunday afternoon I had amassed a large stack of drawings. Our goal was to fill all the walls and we definitely did it. We even filled the walls in the hallway outside.
The goal of the workshop and my goals were to practice to art of “letting it flow” — just allowing yourself the freedom to create whatever decides to come out at that moment. We practiced some journal writing, drawing using a set of constraints such as limited time, materials, shapes, and number of elements. We were to leave judgment at the door and generate a large amount of work very quickly.
The workshop was great fun. There were just 7 of us and we got to play with a variety of mediums and drawing parameters. I’d like to continue the exercises we worked on in class while in my own studio. It really helps to just let some marks come out, without focusing too much attention on meaning or intent. Now that I am out of art school, I put a great deal of pressure on myself to produce something spectacular every time I sit down to draw or paint. This isn’t getting me far and it’s really frustrating. I might just give myself a goal or 30 drawings a month and the drawings can be anything. They can be a single mark on a piece of paper, to a collage, to a sculpted object. I may spend the rest of July revving my engines and see what I can do with this in August.
I loved the workshop and I am so very glad I took it. Nicole is great and the whole class was energized. We were all able to just slip right into the groove she’d tried to set for the class. I loved making a big mess and piling up papers. I wish I had better wall space in the garage so I could just fill the walls. Might be time for some studio rearranging. Maybe I need to create a little art cove for myself so I have lots of wall to work with.
Thomas Doyle makes miniatures of odd, dreamlike scenes, displayed under glass domes. The materials used are what you’d expect to find in a devoted model train hobbyists studio.
Thomas Doyle: Acceptable Loses
In each piece, Doyle has frozen a moment in time — captured it like a specimen, shrunk it in size and offer it up for us to view through display glass. The moments are eerily quiet and have the sensation that time itself has stopped. The scale of the works compared to the viewer’s human scale makes us look at each scene as a precious object to be studied. We are outside looking in, voyers in foggy narratives with nonsensical, dreamlike plots. When I look at his work, I feel like I can almost hear the dead air inside the glass. They have a slient, spooky quality to them. There is a strange quality about his work that leaves me wanting more. I want to know what happened before and after.
Thomas Doyle: Bathing in the last light of Polaris
I got an unhappy report from doggy daycare. Mississippi does not play nice. She’ll be just fine, playing well with the other dogs and then all of a sudden, she gets her sights set on one of the dogs and won’t leave them alone. She plays too rough and tries to boss them around. I’ve seen it a few times at the dog park. The other very bad side to this is that when she gets like this, it is virtually impossible to snap her out of it without having to grab her collar and physically remove her from the scene. Her weak recall skills absolutely fail her in these scenarios. She can’t loose her daycare privileges. I think without daycare she’ll be even more bored and frustrated. She’s such a good dog, she just has more energy than she knows what to do with. She doesn’t know how to back down sometimes.
Another big fat D on her report card is staying quiet at night. I think she feels the need to protect us from all the cats and other animals around the house. There are tons of them too, and they set off the neighbor’s motion sensor light in the driveway. She barks and barks like crazy all night long. I didn’t get any sleep last night. I think I’m going to have to move her bed, put our very noisy air filter by the window, and close her in our room with us at night. Tom has been trying to just close her out of our room and make her stay in the living room but she just continues her barking out there.
All the bad barking habits came back full force pretty much after she discovered a cat in our backyard. Now every time she goes in the backyard, she does a frantic cat check. Even if she has to go to the bathroom really bad, she has to check all the corners of the yard first. She does sometimes react to cats out on walks but mostly it’s when they are in her territory. She barks much more in the backyard now, making it hard to give her potty breaks at night and in the early morning. I have gotten better at luring her back inside with a treat. Even if she’s riled up, she tends to come back inside for me as long as she sees the treat. If she thinks I might be pulling the wool over her eyes, she sits at the door until she sees me produce the treat container. The barking isn’t limited to territory marking, she also started barking for attention. I’ve found her sitting under the coffee table just barking away. It seems the flood gates have reopened.
Our regular training times have sort of fallen apart. She doesn’t get walks every day, and we don’t practice structured walks very well anymore. My regular recall and sit stay practice in the morning has sort of fallen by the wayside and just happens sporadically now. I don’t work on her fun agility stuff in the backyard very often. We need to spend more time with structured training. Even if we are going to watch a movie at night, we need to run through some commands first, every night. Food and belly rubs aren’t the only things that should occur on a daily basis around here. She needs to learn to come to us even in the midst of heavy playtime with other dogs. She could get herself in a very dangerous situation at the dog park that we won’t be able to get her out of. I’m giving us a D too. Well, maybe a C-.
On a much happier note, we started her new doggy class through Happy Go Lucky. She did great in class, better than I did actually. She was so patient and would sit for me while the teacher talked. We had a great time practicing walks and sits, and short distance recalls. It’s a big relief being in a class that is all about happy training. Mississippi had a great time and so did I. We got a homework sheet too, which I love. Lots to do this week at home.
I’m so mad at myself for getting her off track with non-reward training. I should have walked out of that class the minute I realized it was not reward based. I need my good training habits reinforced with proper, happy training. We need more fun and less struggle in our lives.
I started running again. My legs are still rebelling but they are slowly coming around. I’m training for a 10k in September with a friend. I’m using the Jeff Galloway training program. It’s been great to have a training schedule, especially one that’s pretty easy. My longest training run is 7 miles and my daily workouts are just 30-45 a day once I get ramped up. I had my first “long run” of a whopping 2 miles this weekend. My running muscles have been in serious hibernation for a long time so I’m having to take a lot of walk breaks. The eliptical machine helps with endurance and cardio but there is nothing that can prepare your muscle for pounding the pavement. By the end of the run I was doing more running than walking and I felt really good afterward.
We live in a great running neighborhood. Sunday’s run was nothing short of delightful running through the Eastmoreland neighborhood just over the freeway from our house. It’s full of big fancy houses which means beautiful gardens and nice trees. There are just enough hills to make for a great training run. I’m looking forward to more long runs through the neighborhoods near us. It’ll be a good chance to see parts of Portland I wouldn’t otherwise have a need to venture into.
I’m started to remember the rush you get from running more than a couple miles. I feel a heightened sense of well being. Every time I find myself in this position, coming off of a few months of feeling sad and crappy, then finding running again, I tell myself, never again will I stop running, it’s too important. But it always seems to happen. All I can do is try and remind myself how euphoric I feel when I’m running regularly. It cures my depression like nothing else can.
This diet thing is working out pretty good too. I had two really hungry days in the beginning but that’s about it. I feel like I’m in a groove now and I’m enjoying what I’m eating. I am starting to like cooking again. I do miss feeling full and I crave sweets but since I decided to forgo the phase 1 fruit ban, I get my sweets anyway. I’m eating plenty and I’ve even learned to love decaf Americanos and stevia. By Saturday I had lost 2 pounds, I might be at around a 3 pound loss for the first week. I am feeling better, I have more energy, and my back is starting to hurt less. I still have a long way to go before my pants start to fit again but I’m good on this diet for the long haul. I never thought I’d try to South Beach diet. I guess I didn’t know much about it. I basically try to eat like this when I’m trying to be “healthy” anyway so it’s been an easy adjustment. I just needed some structure and motivation to get me to take my health seriously. The scary wake-up call when I stepped on the scale a week ago was a good motivator too.
I hope my knees hold up while I shed these pounds. I can really feel it when I’m running. I feel a little bit like Frankenstein’s monster at the moment. I’ve got lead feet. I am glad I had all that Marathon training with Team in Training. I know how to stretch out my shins and t-bands and it feels good to be stretching again. Mississippi likes to stretch with me. I have to try and get it on video. I hope I can train her to run with me. Some days she’s great at running by my side, other days she wants to chase squirrels. She’ll get it eventually.
I am ga-ga over Amy Stein’s photo series: Domesticated. There are few shows that I see that get my heart pumping like this one does. The work is both beautiful and sad. She has taken the humble snapshot and turned it into a group of powerful photos that serve as a spotlight on our relationship with nature and the costs involved in suburban development. Her photos are poetic snapshots of the awkward merging of man and nature in America’s suburbs.
One side of the photo series is of animals that often roam suburban borders; coyotes scavenging trash cans, bears with garbage bags over their heads, bears near swimming pools, and cougars in subdivisions under construction. The other is of man-made nature; bird houses, liberty gardens, and green houses. All of the photos are an empathetic look at these animal’s life on the edge of oblivion.
In this shot of a greenhouse with a deer, I love the ridiculous orderliness of the plants. Wild nature seemingly tamed into rectangles is still nature no matter what order you impose on it. I like this photo especially because it manages to be “cute” while at the same time feeling kind of sad and even a bit lonely.
This series speaks to so much about what I’m interested in with my own work and it was an incredibly inspiring show. I got myself a copy of the catalog for the show and I can’t wait to pour over the pages.
My photographs serve as modern dioramas of our new natural history. Within these scenes I explore our paradoxical relationship with the “wild” and how our conflicting impulses continue to evolve and alter the behavior of both humans and animals. We at once seek connection with the mystery and freedom of the natural world, yet we continually strive to tame the wild around us and compulsively control the wild within our own nature. Within my work I examine the primal issues of comfort and fear, dependence and determination, submission and dominance that play out in the physical and psychological encounters between man and the natural world. Increasingly, these encounters take place within the artificial ecotones we have constructed that act as both passage and barrier between domestic space and the wild.
The photographs in this series are constructed based on real stories from local newspapers and oral histories of intentional and random interactions between humans and animals. The narratives are set in and around Matamoras, a small town in Northeast Pennsylvania that borders a state forest.
Amy Stein’s latest series: Domesticated is on view at the Blue Sky Gallery in Portland, Oregon Through the month of July. She will be giving a lecture and signing books on August 1st. Check with Blue Sky for details and time.
Much better photos of her work can be found on her website.
We are always curious of Mississippi’s origins. Sometimes I really see the Border Collie in her but sometimes I don’t. She a similar size and shape to a border collie but has much more prominent clavicles, she’s a little longer, and her frame just feels a little heavier. There is one border collie I see at the Brentwood park that really looks like her and they play and act the same, but we always wonder.
I came across this breed today. Could she be a Welsh Sheepdog? Who knows for sure, it’s fun to always be on the look out. We met someone last week with a dog uncannily similar to Mississippi and people had told him that maybe his dog was a Carolina dog. I don’t really see that as much. She does have silly ears but they are a bit floppier than a Carolina’s.
I’m going to keep on thinking she’s a Border Collie/Labrador mix, but it’s fun to wonder. One thing is for sure, she’s a herding breed as exhibited by yesterday’s herding of other dogs at the dog park. Bad girl.
I love these cups and I want one. They don’t offer much more than a regular coffee mug, except for the fantastic silicone lid which would help prevent my frequent spills. They aren’t travel mugs because they don’t close completely, but they are so wonderful to hold and I love the clean look. Tom says he’ll get one of these for my birthday but I’m not sure I can hold out that long. It’s a lot of money to spend on a coffee mug ($20) when I should just find a cool one from Goodwill, but I am so drawn to this object. Every time I go to New Seasons, I pick one up and oggle over it. If I worked in an office every day, I would definitely get one. But I don’t, so I really can’t justify the purchase other than just wanting it.
Apple 182
I’m on the South Beach diet which has a fruit ban for the first couple of weeks or “phase one.” Because of my resolution to eat 365 apples, I have to make an exception. I ate this apple with some fat free laughing cow soft cheese.
Apples 178, 179, 180, and 181
The reddish ones are Jazz apples, very sweet and always a little funny looking, which I like. Mississippi head-butted me in the face during this bunch of apples and it was very hard to eat them. My front tooth is still sore a week later. Bad dog!
I almost forgot to take a photo of apple 177. I had to pull it out of the trash. It was a Jazz from Whole Foods and it was delicious. I ate it at Flickerbox, Portland where I enjoy an occasional work day out of the home. Their offices are in downtown Portland very near Powell’s so it’s a nice break from working out of our spare bedroom.
Even though it was very irresponsible of us to buy fireworks with a fresh-out-of-the-pound pup, I bought them non-the-less form a tent fireworks place in a parking lot. I ate apple 176 feeling very proud of my purchase. Is ends up that Mississippi doesn’t mind fireworks anyway.
Apple 175 was eaten as I busily printed out photos to use as reference for a new small painting series.
Apples 171, 172, 173, and 174 were eaten as I got caught up with all the things that piled up when we were on vacation in Cape May for the week.
Apple 170 was stuffed inside a pork tenderloin that we made for Tom’s (and my) family in Cape May. Pork loin, potatoes, couscous salad (by Marita), sausage and honeydew melon, yum.
Apple 169 was probably my most favorite apple yet. I got it at a bakery in Cape May. I think it was technically called a turnover. It took several sessions to eat the whole thing and I shared a little too.
Apple 168 was eaten on the porch of the large house we stayed at in Cape May.
Tom and I had a lovely day on a North Cape May Beach. That’s where I ate apple 167.
Apple 166 was eaten at the Cape May Lighthouse and wildlife refuge where I paid a quarter to look at some swans and get eaten by mosquitoes.
Apple 165 was also eaten on the Cape May porch. I thought I would get a lot of reading in Cape May but I ended up just carrying the Botany of Desire around with me everywhere. Only got halfway through. I did finish the first chapter on apples however!
Apple 164 was eaten on the way to Beach Haven New Jersey to see some friends of ours.
I ate apple 163 the first morning we woke up after arriving in Cape May. I told the whole family about my apple resolution and they were rooting for me all week.
Apple 162 was eaten while packing up Mississippi’s things for her week long boarding “sleepover” at Rockin’ Roxy’s. I cried when I dropped her off.
Apple 161 was eaten while packing for our trip to Cape May to see the whole family. Tom has 8 brothers and sisters and almost all of them have paired up and/or procreated. That makes a whole lotta family.
Apple 160 was eaten while I marvelled at how much less trouble Mississippi gets in if we just let her destroy some sticks in the living room. TGFS – thank goodness for sticks.
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