mods, portland and ttv!

the last few weeks have been really crazy with family stuff, everyone's been away, and then back and then away again and back, now they're leaving today for another longer trip, and i've ended up running tons of errands for everyone else who's super busy! in addition to that, i've had several friends come to town that i rarely get to see, so i managed to squeeze in two really lovely meals, dinner with my childhood friend ariel and her boyfriend of several years (who i'd never met!), and her family, who i also adore, and a lunch/dinner thing with my friend liz, who travels the world and inspires me with her combination of creativity and action! they were both so fabulous to see, and it was definitely worth the lack of crafting this week! (the constant errands - not so much worth it!!) there's so much to catch up on, alphabet atcs and non paper atcs, a fabulous gift that came in the mail ages ago, the most amazing wedding invitation and my rsvp, books i've been reading, the ttv pics with the polka dot dress, techniques i've been trying....

but the most urgent thing to update on is my trip to portland and silverton last weekend (most urgent because i never got around to posting pics from my LAST trip to portland in march!)

i went down to attend angie and her hubbie's "BabyQ", aka a baby shower and BBQ all in one (such a cheesy name!!), and also got to spend some time with the amazing kittypam and her mark. it was a super quick trip - leaving very early saturday morning, and arriving back home late monday night, but i'm so glad i went.

the baby shower/BBQ was so much fun, and angie's place is BEAUTIFUL! she's out in the country, surrounded by fields, and the property has chickens, geese, ducks, turkeys and peacocks roaming around everywhere, and goats on an island in the middle of the lake. (did i mention there's a LAKE?) it's so gorgeous, and so peaceful, but still close to lots of stuff. i'm completely jealous.

about to pop!!





on sunday we went for breakfast in silverton, and then wandered around a bit. for a small town, there's a lot of craftiness! there's a bead store, with quite a lot of selection, a yarn store with some really amazing wools, and my favourite, a sewing lounge! it's called snippets, and just opened recently, but how fun! it's actually in the same building as the yarn store, they're open to each other, and there's a coffee shop upstairs. it's a gorgeous old building. i did a bit of shopping, despite my telling myself that this wasn't going to be a "shopping" trip! but really, how could i resist a yard of the most perfect woodgrain cotton at snippets?



angie took a few pictures of me doing the ttv photos, i'm going to post them on the thread on craftster so that people are less confused about what i'm doing!


there were american flags EVERYWHERE though!










after a bit of a lazy afternoon, and looking over angie's inherited serger for her, i headed into portland to see mark and pam. we had a mellow evening, and on monday morning we went for a brunch before pam went to work. angie was able to come at the last minute, and it was fabulous. i so wish i'd had more time to see everyone!

i adore these two. so much.

and angie's so incredible.


after everyone else went off to work and stuff, i started to leave town, but detoured to collage instead.... how could i resist, really? i knew i'd end up there!

i restrained myself, really! not much in the way of ephemera or paper, just supplies and some stamps. i totally scored on the fabric paints - they were all regular $10 and were marked down to $2! i bought a few things that i'd been actively looking for, a stylus for embossing and the tool for batiking, and stocked up on a few things (stazOn remover for $4 instead of the $8 i pay here), and then the stamps. a few were from the clearance, and then i bought three different heidi swapp stamps - i love her stamps, they're totally funky designs, and they're CHEAP! i got the chandelier, the heart and the clocks (because i can't resist clocks!). and i picked up the bam pop number set, to go with the alphabet set i caved and bought from story kits a few months ago.




though short, it was such a good visit! (and i didn't spend too much money!)