Portland Paradise

My five days in Portland during the Fourth of July was perfect. I honestly couldn't have picked a better week to visit, there wasn't a drop of rain and the weather was simply put: incredible.

I'm convinced that Portland is the Holy Grail of vegan food. I ate at so many wonderful places, almost all of which happened to be 100% vegan.




celebrated America's birthday


Dick's Kitchen. Portobello Burger.
The view at Pittock Mansion with Madeline, Ryan and Anthony.


Brunch at Gravy.


Biscuits and veggie gravy, hash browns and tofu scramble.


Sizzle Pie. Spiral Tap and Bad Reputation slices.
Fell in love with this little one, Lilly.




Brunch at Paradox Cafe. Green Benedict.
...with this lovely lady, Melanie.



Took a stroll over to OMSI and saw some amazing exhibits,
including my favorite, the fetus room, displaying over 30 stages
of the fetus and tissue samples during pregnancy. Pretty miraculous.


Acai bowls from somewhere not worth mentioning.
Dinner with Katherine at Casa Naranja. Yes, you eat on swings.

Alotto Gelato for dessert.


Salted Caramel and pineapple sorbetto (also at one point tried the
cheesecake and stracciatella aka "stretchy vanilla" gelato) Woke up at 4am to watch the most breathtakingly beautiful sunrise
I've seen to date at Multnomah Falls.











The tastiests of brunches at Portobello. ALL VEGAN.
[tofu "eggies", vegan ham and added tomatoes on a toasted
english muffin and topped with cashew hollandaise sauce]







Thai food cart heaven.
We made a vegan BBQ pizza: seasoned soy curls, onions, olives,
pepper jack daiya and Annie's natural BBQ sauce.






The last supper. Anthony and I made garlic sauteed asparagus,
field roast seitan, roasted rosemary red potatoes, corn on the
cob and vine ripe tomatoes with homemade herb salt seasoning.


Thanks for the hospitality, my friend.

[all photos were taken by Anthony or myself]

link love v.20

I absolutely need this vintage steamer in my life.

Whoa, cool technique for chopping onions.

Cute lace leggings.

A good little reminder of 30 things to stop doing to yourself. Take note, Ainsley.

An outfit that was made for me.

Tiny houses = ♥

These mini block polaroid albums are awesome.

DIY red velvet cupcakes in a jar.

So odd, but I love it, the invisible mother.

DIY - frame for polaroids

After stumbling upon Meredith's DIY frame + 52 weeks of instax project I thought this would be an excellent idea for one of Jon's birthday gifts. I had a lot of fun making it, with the help of a friend, and very happy with the turnout!



What you will need:

wood frame, wire or some sort of string, frame hanging eyelets, mini or regular size clothespins, ruler or measuring tape, pencil and possibly a hammer.



I originally wanted to buy a frame, sand it a bit and paint it orange, but I came across this lovely, already rustic-esque blue frame that works well with the colors in our living room.



You'll want to measure and mark the distance between eyelets to match on each side so the string or wire will hang straight. This is where a hammer came in handy, lightly hammer the eyelet in where you marked until you can grasp it and twist them tightly in.









Now feed your string between eyelets, tying tight knots!





You can clip the string to not show or leave it long, whatever your preference. If you use wire, twist the wire to make sure it isn't poking out.



Lastly, hang the frame and clip all your photos on with clothespins.

Dirty Polaroids

I'm doing a fun little "picture a day" polaroid project on Instagram (username: mylittleartichoke) for those who want to follow. Leave a comment here with your Instagram username for me to check out, too!



Speaking of polaroids, does anyone have the new and beautiful Black Piano Instax Mini 50S? I'm drooling over it.