Junk to Funk

On Saturday night our lovely, lovely friends Sam and Audra took us to the most interesting fashion show I've ever been to. It's called Junk to Funk, an annual event to showcase wearable fashion made from, well, junk (think "Derelicte" from Zoolander, but way better). I think "trashion" is the appropriate term. It was amazing. There were 30 contestants who each made an ensemble from random findings - Sam and Audra's friend Emie was in the show wearing her creation, a corset made from wire hangers and bottle caps shaped like a butterfly in the front ("Madame Bottlefly," so cute!). There was an outfit made entirely from old power-suit shoulder pads, a gown made of pages from Vogue, a gown made from couch scraps that looked straight from Marie Antoinette, a cocktail dress made from record albums... you get the idea. It was so fun!

The only bummer of the night was that I forgot to charge my camera battery. Boo! I was only able to take a few blurry shots of the show while my camera was busy dying. The biggest bummer is that I didn't get to take a pic of Audra and I, undoubtedly the hottest things there. I finally got to take my Betsy Johnson dress out for a night on the town, and Audra had this sassy hot pink pill hat with a Russian Tulle blusher-type-thing on it... I mean, damn. But, you'll just have to use your imagination. :)

I cannot quite remember what this was made from, but it was adorable:


This is the gown made from old Vogue pages:

A very unclear shot of the record album dress:

This is Emie, or Madame Bottlefly :)

I can't remember what this gown was made from either...

And a final catwalk by some of the contestants:

(That is our mayor-elect Sam Adams in the background emceeing, with the blue bubble-wrap tux jacket)

I must apologize for the quality of the photos. With the battery clinging to life, my camera wasn't adjusting to lighting and whatnot very well, and also wouldn't let me zoom. We'll have to go next year. :)

I am about to embark on a glorious 3-day weekend, very excited! I wish I had some glamorous plans for my time off, but I can assure you it will consist mostly of cleaning house and riding bike. Oh! Some girls from work and I are going to a hip-hop class tonight, which should be interesting... I have no idea if I can dance like that anymore. Should be awesome.

Wine Country

Just a short post with a few photos! Yesterday we took out my car (for the second time in almost two months - man I love that) and headed to wine country! The Willamette Valley is known for its Pinot Noir growing capabilities, and has more than 200 wineries in the appellation. If you like pinot noir, this is heaven.

We headed out with the intention of just going to Archery Summit, where we are members of the wine club, to pick up a few bottles for our fall allocation. The photos really don't do it justice, but the view was just gorgeous. Autumn here is so pretty.





And of course we brought Buckface. :)


Long story short, our 4-bottle trip to Archery Summit turned into a 10-bottle trip, also hitting Ponzi, Argyle and our fav White Rose (the pic at the top right of this blog is taken from White Roses's 1000 ft. vantage point). Not a bad day. :)

I was serious about Thanksgiving... who wants to visit?? Come on!!

Love,
Jenny

I meant to say earlier... thanks to everyone who responded to my post. I feel better now. :)

So... did everyone celebrate last night?!?! I hope so! I had to work, but it wasn't too bad. We were super slow but had a good bar scene, most of which was glued to the TV. Paul came to visit which made the night even better. There really was a great vibe - a sense of comradery amongst everyone there (in case you didn't know, like 99.9% of Portland backs Obama). I look forward to seeing what next year brings.

While I was at work yesterday I took some shots of our dining room and patio, because I think it looks absolutely beautiful right now. We have not removed any of the fallen leaves, which has created this amazing picturesque background to our glass-walled dining room. I thought I would share. :)




Pretty huh?

Paul and I both had today off, so we decided to bike to another neighborhood we hadn't checked out before, the Belmont District. It's another great distinctive Portland neighborhood, lots of independent small businesses, coffee shops, cafes, shops, etc. We had an amazing breakfast at Pine State Biscuits...

We had already heard of their most famous creation, the Reggie. We both opted to go for the Reggie Deluxe, of course. :) Yowza. This is a sandwich. Fried chicken, cheese, bacon, an egg, and their delicious gravy on one of their famous biscuits. No, it's not a dream... this sandwich actually exists. Probably not something you'd want to eat on a regular basis, given its heart-attack-on-a-plate-ness. But we biked a few miles (mostly uphill) to get there, so I figure we earned it!

(I was so engrossed in my sandwich, I neglected to take a picture. This shot is borrowed from the Portland Mercury).

We also made a stop at the Wunderland arcade in the Avalon theater, also on Belmont. Very cool old-school nickel arcade. We spent 45 minutes or so here, but it could be a very fun place to waste an afternoon! And we now have 75 tickets to burn at their prize counter, but we are going to save them up for a very special piece of blinking neon artwork we spotted. Only 3,920 tickets to go (hey, we did it at Dave & Busters!).

Paul had his ultra-reflective cycling gear on. :)

And I think our parents and siblings will appreciate this...

Big Buck Hunter... Safari Edition!

We wound down the afternoon at the Belmont Stumptown. Paul takes the MPRE (Multi-state Professional Responsibility Exam) on Saturday, so he's been studying up for that. Next up is the bar exam in February!!!

And this might not be that cool, but I think it's cool. They serve Mexican Coke here, because they use cane sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup. It tastes so much better! Not so syrupy, just nice and sweet. Aaaaaahhhh.


We are planning to head out to Archery Summit tomorrow to pick up our fall allocation (we are now members of their wine club). Yay!! No other big plans coming up. Still trying to decide what to do for Thanksgiving... cook dinner, or nice dinner out? Hmm. Anyone wanna come visit??

Love,
Jenny

Such a trickster

As you know we have had Buckley in training for the last month or so. It is going pretty well... slowly but surely, we're seeing some changes in his behavior. He does really well when we are actively training him (aka when we have treats in our hand) but still has more energy than he knows what to do with for the rest of the day. Our trainer brought us this book called 101 Dog Tricks so that we could start channeling some of his energy into some great tricks, particularly ones that involve jumping (since he has such a charming natural affinity for it).

So, the first trick I picked out is "jump over my knee." It took Buckley about three days to master this one. :) Check it out:



The video is a little dark since it was last night, but hopefully you can see how awesome he did! Oh, and don't mind my PJ's. We were having a lazy night. Next up: jumping through a hula hoop. As soon as we can find a place to buy a hula hoop. It's only a matter of time until he's jumping through flaming rings of fire...

And yes, that's right, you still see unpacked boxes in the background. We haven't quite completed our furniture collection you see. And one of those pieces of furniture is one that would hold the things in those boxes. We're getting really really sick of seeing those boxes around, but what can ya do.

And just for fun, here is take one of that video. :) When we were about to start, Buckley let out this ridiculous belch that cracked us up.



That's it for now! I miss everyone!

Love,
Jenny

Is anybody out there?

So I'm curious if anyone is still checking this blog, other than my parents. :) I know I slacked for a while so I probably lost some readers. Just wondering if I should continue updates!

If you are reading this, could you pretty please do me a favor and leave me some comment love so I know I am not talking to myself here? I very much appreciate it.

Thanks!

Love,
Jenny

Honest to Blog

Could I have taken any longer to update this blog?? I am so bad. But we've been keeping pretty busy, so that's good.

First things first, since I said I would post them, the pictures from science night at OMSI. It was pretty fun, except there was only one cash bar and a gazillion people in line for drinks. We settled for free 1 oz. samples of some Rogue beers instead. :)


They had a big Van de Graaff generator there which was way fun. You can't see it in the picture, but my hands are on the giant ball component and another guy is turning a crank to generate the electricity. It made my hair stand up, which was totally weird.



Fun in the chemistry lab. :)


So a few nights after that, we had our friends Sam and Audra over for a wine and cheese night. Our first real night of entertaining at our place - it was awesome! We had a delicious spread of cheeses and meats and fruits and PLENTY of wine. Herve Mons camembert, Truffle Tremor (truffle-laced goat cheese) and a blue cheese I forget the name of. Yum.


Probably the biggest news of the last few weeks... I got a bike!! I'd been wanting to get one, and Paul was really wanting me to get one too since he already had one. So last week we headed to 21st Avenue Bicycles to pick one out. This is a really cool little independent bike shop - the people are laid back, no one is trying to sell us the most expensive bike or something we don't need - just cool people. We had visited a few other, bigger bike shops too, and I definitely felt the best about supporting these guys.

I got me a new Kona Dew Plus in a lovely shade of green. :)


So, since getting the bike, we've been busy riding all over town. I was pretty nervous at first, because around here, cyclists share the road with cars (it's illegal to ride on sidewalks). After a few rides with Paul though, I found out it's not that scary. Just look out for parked car doors opening and people turning right.

It's been awesome to be able to hop on a bike and ride out to other neighborhoods that we haven't seen. The Pearl District and Downtown are great, but there are so many other little districts and neighborhoods that a lot people call the "true Portland." A little more character, more independent businesses, and a more laid back vibe. Last week we rode down to the Sellwood neighborhood, back up to the Hawthorne district, then up to 28th and Glisan to get some haircuts from our bud Bethany. We covered about 20 miles on bike that day!


Also last week we rode up to the North Mississippi neighborhood (about a 2 mile ride). I really liked this neighborhood - I want to go back and explore more. When we got there we parked our bikes amongs the tons of other bikes here. It's so cool to see that so many people ride bikes around here. $0.00 a gallon baby.


We walked up and down N. Mississippi which has tons of cool shops and bars and cafes. When we reached the south end of the main drag though, we came to this fenced off corner with a little hut set up. What really caught my eye though, was the sign that said "Waffles Waffles Waffles!" Waffles? I'm in. I freaking love waffles. This little place specializes in the "Dutch Taco" - all sorts of different goodies you can get wrapped up in a hot waffle. It was doesn't look like much from the outside, but it. was. awesome. Behold, the Flavour Spot:


I chose the Sweet Cream n' Jam waffle, which had whipped cream cheese and strawberry jam. It was a pretty amazing experience. Can you tell?


My Dew Plus. :)


This was coming back to our hood on the Broadway Bridge. That's the Fremont Bridge in the background.


Oh, and the leaves turn beautiful colors here too. :) I was worried I would miss that part of autumn in Michigan, but it looks like I don't need to worry!


Sorry for the rapid-fire updates! I had a lot of stuff to put up so I thought I'd just push through it. Other than the stuff pictured, life is pretty good. I am reminded every day how awesome this city is. I must admit though, I am definitely missing MSU tailgating this season...

Science rules!

I'm so excited... we're going to OMSI After Dark tonight! I'll make sure to bring my camera and blog about it tomorrow. Yay for science sans kids!

Nothing else new really. We start our training sessions for Buckley next week, which should be interesting.

Have a wonderful day!

Love,
Jenny