"...at the red & black" {personal}

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and so continues my excursion with family in the beautiful rose city. after the zoo, we headed over to the national college of naturopathic medicine to read and wait for my mom to be finished with her conference.

we went to a delicious thai restaurant in NE for dinner - the name of which i have now promptly forgotten. maybe chai yo? something like that. then it was back to the hotel for an early bedtime (a treat for me!).

that is talya's little pup named mochi on the right.

such a sweet face.

and then it was morning! oh hey, foggy portland.

view from the 15th floor..

we get to be serenaded in the morning. very peaceful.

then it was time to get voodoo dougnuts before mom's 2nd day of the conference. we cheated and went to the NE location because the line at the downtown one sucks at all hours of the day and night.

oh deliciousness. we saved our doughnuts for the red & black, a coffee shop in SE that is all vegan and unionized. my favorite coffee mocha tastes great with soy milk, i discovered. :)

my dad wrote a song called "red & black" which mentions this specific coffee shop (and no, it's not about coffee, it's quite political). you can hear it here along with some other songs he's written. my favorite is "garden of children".

in case you can't tell, that is a little crochet bird's nest and eggs on the pipe.

across the street from red & black is st. francis park - the paving reminded me of legos. and it's got this cool wooden pirate-ship play structure.

our last stop before i had to take them to the train station to go back to bellingham was the audubon society where we saw some very handsome birds (except the turkey vulture, he was pretty ugly. but cute).

since i'm not from portland, and actually only spend my time in NW and in beaverton most times i visit, i don't know my way around very well. it was interesting and fun to navigate the city with my family. since i'll be moving there soon, i think it was good practice, especially because we literally went to almost every corner of the city.

thanks for reading! <3

books + bats + lorikeets oh my! {personal}

in , ,

my mom had an herbal conference in portland this past weekend, and i came to entertain my dad & sister. and i took way too many pictures. i'm pretty good at ruthlessly culling what i show of my own work - except when it comes to my family. so bear with me... we began at powells after the line at voodoo was too long, as usual.

i love books. i've been known to read a book because of how cool the jacket or title is... and i'm usually not disappointed. my dad replaced my ancient copy of harry potter and the goblet of fire, and talya got a new jean craighead george book.

we got some lunch and decided that the zoo was our best bet on an uncharacteristically sunny portland day. (obviously, the entire city agreed with us, because the zoo parking was full and we had to be shuttled on a school bus.)

i like that even if you've been to a zoo before, you usually haven't seen everything. i had never been to the lorikeet exhibit - where you can hold nectar to tempt the birds into hanging out with you. it was pretty awesome! one decided my hair was a pleasant nest, but luckily there are no pictures of that. haha.

talya is a sun bear. :)

<3

the naked mole rats were sooo gruesome.

the bats were my favorite animal of the day. the elephants would have beaten them out of the running but we didn't get to see any.

and then we were off for more adventures! but those will have to wait for another post. hope you are all having a happy weekend!

sunshine in winter {cooking}

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i get depressed in winter. and baking makes me happy. :) AND i'm still obsessed with cupcakes. AND i'm reading 'the particular sadness of lemon cake' which happens to have a huge picture of lemon cake with chocolate icing. can't look at that every day and not be tempted. so i tried out this recipe, but made one smaller cake and 24 mini cupcakes. it turned out pretty well! i think i'd add more lemon juice next time, however.

the recipe suggests a thin lemon glaze, which admittedly is healthier than the buttercream frosting that i chose to add. for half of the frosting i added cocoa and vanilla to make my own chocolate buttercream. mmm.

happy weekend!

dark come soon {oregon portrait photography}

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a few more from a very short shoot with my friend brie - not only was it raining but it was also sundown. but underexposures, although difficult to work with, convey a specific mood that works for me in this instance. teaches me not to be slavish to perfection. photograph anyway, even if the conditions aren't ideal. this graveyard is one that we will have to revisit on a more picture-taking-y type day. and there will *hopefully* be some film from this day as well.

holiday in bellingham {personal}

in ,

i spent thanksgiving and the first part of chanukah in bellingham with my family. as chaotic as it is to have all of us together, i wouldn't have missed this trip for the world. it took us 9 hours to drive there from corvallis because of the weather - reason #1,000,000,000 why i am not a snow person. but at least we had a day to play in it before it melted away like it had never been there at all!

i was the lame one who took pictures while my sisters and the pups raced about. they tried to get me to have a snowball fight and i ran away squealing like the grinch i truly am.

i have some beautiful sisters!

[caption id="attachment_812" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="my parents"][/caption]

one of the nicest parts of the trip were the walks my little sister and i would take with our dogs.

i'll end the post with a cute chalk drawing from a bookstore in fairhaven - it pretty much sums up what the holidays are about for me. even if you've got family drama (show me someone who has a perfect drama-free holiday - i don't believe it exists!), move past it. spend time with the ones you love. don't get too hung up on what things are "supposed" to be like - just remember what matters.

i hope everyone has a wonderful, wonderful holiday and many blessings in the new year.

i <3 cupcakes {cooking}

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let me preface this by saying i am by no means a baking expert. i love unique cupcakes, and i love cooking, so i wanted to try a few recipes and see how i did! my friend kate and i made 4 different kinds of cupcakes, and even though they aren't as good as my favorite (rocket queen - if you are in the corvallis/albany area, try them immediately, they are addictive), they'll make nice chanukah presents for my dear family. [caption id="attachment_780" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption=""red" velvet with buttercream frosting // flourless chocolate with cream cheese frosting"][/caption]

the first recipe was for red velvet cupcakes with buttercream frosting (modified from ming makes cupcakes). My dad hates red food coloring, so I used beet juice, which turned the cupcakes into "purple velvet". still pretty!

the flourless chocolate cupcakes (recipe from ming makes cupcakes) were amazing! the batter was so good that i barely even wanted to bake them. if i use this recipe again, i will fill the cups more - they are a bit flat. the recipe calls for fresh whipped cream to serve - but i'm waiting to try that until i get them to my parents' house in bellingham on wednesday.

[caption id="attachment_781" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="pumpkin's pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting"][/caption]

i can't remember where i found the pumpkin cupcakes recipe - but it sure is delicious. i would add a lot less honey, however - they are almost too sweet for me. the frosting also calls for powdered cactus honey (which i have never heard of, and decided not to bother with). i also used rice flour for this recipe instead of wheat flour.

i used the same cream cheese frosting recipe for the pumpkin cakes as for the carrot cupcake recipe (also from ming makes cupcakes, and might i add, the very best cream cheese frosting ever). i am shamelessly plugging ming's site because a) the recipes are delicious and b) there are very few ingredients, which i always appreciate.

[caption id="attachment_782" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="carrot cupcakes, unfrosted"][/caption]

i used rice flour instead of regular flour for the carrot cupcakes as well.

[caption id="attachment_783" align="aligncenter" width="510" caption="carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting"][/caption]

i am a big fan of homemade presents. fun to make, fun to give, and from the heart. i'm heading to my parents' house on wednesday for a much-anticipated mini-vacation during thanksgiving and the first night of chanukah. happy holidays, everyone! <3