#4 Babymoon - Oh Seattle Why Didn't Someone Warn Me to Leave My Winter Boots

For some reason I decided of all days while we were on our Babymoon the day we went to Seattle would be the day I wore my winter boots.  Bad plan!  First off it was about 45 degrees and rainy the entire time we were in Seattle.  They say this is normal.  I however found my feet sweating since my boots are fur lined.  In addition they got wet both outside and inside (rain duh).  We also walked up and down hills and while winter boots helpful for walking in snowdrifts they are not so comfortable on hills. The entire time I was thinking barefeet would be better.  

Regardless though we saw ourselves Seattle.  We of course went to the public market and did some shopping at the little stalls.  We had lunch at some seafood oyster bar.  Where I ordered chicken ;). Dust got coffee.  I bought a souvenir Christmas ornament and took random pictures.  We discovered where three of their homeless missions were (accidentally).

We saw the fish throwers.  Sadly the crowds were bigger than the buyers but we saw some throwing.

I wanted to ride the Ferris wheel but I did not want to figure out how to get there from where we were and I most definetly nixed walking in with my sweaty wet boots.

Isn't this menu adorable?  It's on a paper sack.  Love love I almost stole it.

We saw the space needle but refused to pay the $19/pp to go to the top when it was so dreary outside.  

Instead we saw protesters and art in the nearby park.

I found a big thing accidentally when trying to find a gas station.  Who doesn't love a giant paddle ball.  

We went to Archiee McPhee.  It's a ridiculous novelty store.  They have any kind of random ridiculous items.  And my personal favorite a old fashion photobooth where using their props is encouraged.

We ate dinner at some other seafood joint just outside of Seattle on the shore.  I did venture to have clam chowder but Dust had to eat my big clam bits.  Dustin ate like 10 different types of seafood at the request of the people we talked to there and I got the cheeseburger ;)

It was a good day trip.

PS these might be my favorite photobooth snaps of us from the whole trip.

#4 Babymoon Portland

I've wanted to visit the Pacific Northwest for a long while.  Plane tickets however have always been ridiculously high it actually was cheaper for tickets to Europe in recent times than to Portland or Seattle?  I know crazy stupid.  When Dust and I talked about where to go on our Babymoon/Burfday trip we just decided to keep the costs at/or near the amount we had on the Delta Vouchers that were expiring $300/pp.  I figured we'd end up someplace like Detroit or Minneapolis for that price.  But surprisingly tickets to Portland were under the amount with taxes too, even after I procrastinated to like 3 weeks beforehand.  So we went ahead and bought the tickets.   

The trip out was uneventful despite Delta not allowing us to pick seats next to each other because I automatically get upgraded with my status a nice flight attendant fixed us up. We left a 15 degree Indy with threat of new looming snow storm to arrive in a 55 degree blue sky and sunny Portland.  Dust immediately decided that Oregon was perfect and continued to call it that the entire trip. 

We started out our trip eating because A) we were starving (11 am in portland is 2 in Indy and we had breakfast at like 2 am Portland) & B) because there are things to eat in Portland.  Jono immediately commented that it seemed like we were on a Anthony Bourdain Layover and just planned to eat all of Portland (we're saving this adventure to do with you and Lo Jono).

No trip to Portland is complete without a trip to Voodoo Doughnuts.  I must admit the they had many varieties and fun options but I still think that NYC Doughnut Plant's Pistachio is my favorite.  Here are a few we tried - Captain Crunch and Maple Bacon.  

We did the Trail, Tram, Train Trolley tour or at least our modified version of it.  But it gets you around to various parts of the city.  I must say I actually took out my SLR camera for this trip however for the first oh 150 photos I snapped I was taking photos on some weird manual setting and my photos were blurry like these photos from the tram.   When you just snap photos sometimes you don't even notice the blur until like the next day!  DOH.  

This is the only photo I took of Nokita and Josh and look it's blurry.  Dustin I think got a few others so that's good at least. 

We also visited some breweries where Dust shared some samplers with our friends Nokita and Josh.  I actually tried several of the homemade root beers although I have to say I actually sent two of them back they were so horrible.  Portland might be known for a mircobrew but it lacks a little something when it comes to root beer brewing.

We did some shopping and just general wandering around the city.  Which is larger than I initially thought.  They like Indy only have a handful of skyscrapers but they seem to have a much larger downtown urban scape than us.  

Back soon with more from our trip.

WIP Wednesday - Babyburfs Nursery

No progress on quilts while we were out of town but right before we left Kathleen and I started painting in the babies room.  A few before shots.  This room was our guest room with my office/sewing room.  It wasn't really this messy before but when you think you can paint without emptying the room this happens.    

We put up the primer on all the walls (never mind our crappy job of it) and now comes the fun stuff.  I hope to get the paint up in the next week so I can move the guest bed back in and the big shelf from our room too because that's where my new work from home space will be.  Until then I am bouncing from the sofa to the kitchen and back.  I am also super jazzed because we found a friend who can seal the living room floors and the still carpeted bedrooms for a super reasonable price.  SCORE! 

Oh and if anyone has any suggestions for if I should cover the mirrored closet doors, remove them or just leave them let me know?  I was thinking whiteboard or chalkboard paint could be fun, or maybe a stripe of some sort.  

#4 Babymoon in Portland

We are currently in Portland, Oregon finishing up our Babymoon/birthday trip for Dust's birthday (#4 on the list). I have never been to the Pacific Northwest before so it's been a new adventure it kind of reminds me of Maine + Northern California put into a blender with an Ireland weather mix.

Anyhow we'll be back soon with more details.  

(Book we picked up the baby in Seattle).

#6 Add Lo to the Wall

In addition to finishing some quilting goals I also accomplished a simple one #6 Add Lo to the Wall this weekend.  I added my almost sister in law to the wall.  I have been meaning to do it for a while but it was too cold to spray paint frames in the garage and too much snow outside. But I was super excited to get their engagement pics and so I got a few printed as well as one from our pie baking and she's now on the wall.  I can't believe it took this long to add her.

#17/21 Baby & Scrap Vomit Quilt

First quilting finish of 2014 and it feels good.  And it's technically two of the quilts I put on my 2014 List - #17 a quilt for the baby and #21 the Scrap Vomit Quilt.  I love how it turned out and I can't wait to use it for our baby.  It's also fun to see pieces from prior quilts I've made (maybe not necessarily finished in one quilt.   The quilting is not perfect but I think it's fun.