Top 3 Artsy Reasons To Visit Portland

Hello Lovely Peoples,

This weekend I made the road trip from Seattle to Portland, OR. I hate to admit it, but sometimes I have to FORCE myself to go out and have fun!

Not because I’m a work-a-holic (HA!). Not because I have a demanding career (my current job is great work/life balance). Not because I don’t LIKE to go out.

It’s because sometimes I’m scared to try new things. Crazy, huh? You’d think the excitement alone of a new experiences would outbalance my fears but…not always! Have you ever felt like this? Fortunately, I’ve been working on trying new things and doing stuff simply because I feel like it. 😉

But back to the title of this post!

 

Top 3 Artsy Reasons to Visit Portland…

1. Powell’s City of Books; it’s supposed to be the largest independent new and used bookstore in the world! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This bookstore takes up an entire block! Three stories of row after row of books!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.  Art; Seriously. It’s everywhere!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.  The HUGE kaleidoscope at the The Freakybuttrue Peculiarium. An oddities museum that’s haunted. Or so the locals claim. Also, art gallery and an ice cream parlor inside!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is my favorite one. 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And I leave you with this picture of my mint green vans. They served me well for all the walking done in this trip! 😀

 

My Interior Design Exploits

Hello lovely peoples!

It’s been a while! I don’t suppose disappeared bloggers ever have a truly convincing reason for…ahem…”disappearing.” So we shall skip the particulars behind the “why” of my blogging disappearance, and merely sit down to business. 🙂

One of the things that I discovered as of late is my interest in interior design. I never realized that decorating could be so much fun! And since I finally got my very own apartment some months ago, I decided to go all out! I painted several accent walls a light blue, refurbished several cheap pieces of furniture I found on Craigslist, and went thrift shopping for decor accents with great gusto.

I was so thrilled about how cute my place was starting to look, that I couldn’t stop posting pictures on Facebook. Suddenly, I was inundated with a multitude of ‘likes,’ and my friends began to encourage me to blog about my interior design exploits.

But I’m not THAT good, I thought. Plus the gods alone know how many interior design blogs already exist. 

 

“Pinterest it!” one awesome gal kept insisting.

So finally, I did. 😉  Thanks to her, you can check out my interior design exploits via Pinterest too. I will be adding more pictures as time goes by.

For this first post, I wanted to give you a quick tour of my room. There are still several things I’d like to add to it, but for now it gives you a fair idea of my love of color and pastels! 😉 Future posts will detail before/after shots of how I painted my furniture. Because with the sole exception of my sofa, I can assure you that all my furniture was painted. haha

 

This is a little corner view of my daybed and side table. I LOVE this side table because it basically allows me to have 4 levels of awesomeness…

 

You can see how the bottom level is convenient for storing shoes. haha I never seem to have enough space for mine! The middle levels are perfect for storing magazines and books that I’m halfway done with. (I have a bad habit of reading 4+ books at a time! >_< )

The top level is great for resting my pretty sunglasses and my jewelry box. *Sigh*…

Now, this is the newest addition to my room. I’ve been wanting to get more into sewing lately, so I finally found the perfect sewing basket! 🙂 For now, I’ll be keeping it in my room. Isn’t it the cutest sewing basket, ever?!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The inside is sooo roomy, too! 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then of course…pastel purses!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We all know that accent chairs are for throwing clothes on top! 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today, my bed had a lazy look to it! Mostly because my usual white quilt was in the wash today! 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not sure I have enough color in my closet…what do you think? 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you enjoyed the tour of my room!  Till the next time… 😉 

Pearls are a Girl’s Best Friend

I don’t like diamonds.

I know, I know. *GASP!*  Not really sure why. But I do love pearls. 😀

 

What type of pearls do you like best? I’m in love with ivory toned watercolor pearls.

 

 

 

Disclaimer:  These photos are not my property, they have been collected from different public sources including different websites, considering to be in public domain.

Van Gogh Would Approve…

Guess what ?

I found the cutest buttons for our site!   😉

 

Grab onto your Parasol !

Grab onto your parasol !

You’ll be noticing a few changes to the blog in the next weeks. I’ll be trying to improve the layout and make it more efficient.  😉

Thanks for your patience. Also, any suggestions and/or input is much appreciated.

Till the next blog post, loves!

Put on your Snazzy Hat

It’s been a bit since the last post.

I’ve been working 50-60 hour weeks what with 2 jobs and trying to keep up with college credits. Burn out was inevitable!

And then, this past week my grandmother passed away. It felt…odd. So lonely, yet unreal. I still cannot fathom the implications of never seeing her again within this lifetime. I shan’t bore you with sentimental descriptions of her beauty or stories of her one true love.

Instead, I want to tell you how she lived a remarkably long life (90 years), and overcame a frightful youth. In her early 20’s she ran away from her family and moved to a new city to start a new life. She was brave. Stubborn. Opinionated.

On the day of her funeral, my grandfather wrote her a letter. I have taken the liberty to quote from it…

 

“…Sweetheart, hon, toots,

I loved,

You loved,

We loved,

And we will always love each other…”

But there is one thing I will always remember of grandma. She was not afraid of bold colors or patterns. Heaven forbid old age stop her from wearing what she pleased!

As is usually the case, I have  turned to artistic expression for a small measure of comfort. Grandma was not one for hats per say, but color, yes. I know she would have enjoyed this showcase as much as I did.

For after all, one is never too old, too young, too tall, too small for a snazzy hat. Enjoy, loves.

Girl on the Run: another Seattle adventure

I’ve had quite an eventful month!

Of all things, I got assaulted on the bus. Yes, you read right. Not having a car, I’ve been commuting on the bus ever since my move here to Seattle.

Apparently I was lucky enough to have a mental case board my bus about a week ago. When he was thrown out the bus (after bothering me and another girl), he broke a bus window. I got off soon after on what was my stop, only to have mental-case-dude start following me out of seemingly nowhere.

 

Talk about freaking out.

 

I began to walk away but he was screaming incoherently, demanding attention. At some point he got upset because I was ignoring him, and reaching toward me, managed to rip a button off my dress.

Thankfully, this little damsel in distress was quick enough to deliver him a swift open palm strike and run fast.

What followed was true movie material. I was in hysterics and called a friend of mine. He came over immediately, and insisted I call the police. So I did.

Before I knew it, an officer arrived at my place and took a written statement. Followed by some paramedics after I started having a panic attack. Once I was back to semi-normalcy, a  sketch artist was called into the adventure. Yes, you read right. A freaking sketch artist. Then they took my dress for DNA evidence.

Two days later, a private detective contacted me, and asked if I felt up to identifying the mental-case-dude from a photo montage she had created. So I did.

 

We met over coffee.

After pointing him out from the other shots, she confirmed the bus driver had pointed out the same guy. Fortunately for us, mental-case-dude was stupid enough to leave perfect finger imprints on the bus window he broke.

Mental-case-dude is on file for over 66 misdemeanors.

Two days later, the private detective called to inform me that mental-case-dude had been apprehended and is currently booked in jail.

 

All of this took place in scarcely 5 days.

I’m suddenly thankful that life was not been a walk in the park for me, because otherwise I’m afraid I would have plummeted under the stress of those 5 days. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Or so the song says.

And now, I have a bizarre story to share on the blog. And maybe for the future grandkids as well.

Just Call Me Della Street

For those of you that follow my blog, you know that I work at Barnes & Noble. I love books, but I realized I needed a different job that was more of a resume builder, if you get my drift.  Well, guess what happened this week?

I got hired to be a bilingual legal secretary! 😀

Now when I was a kid, I always dreamed about being either Lois Lane or Della Street. We all know who Lois Lane is, of course, but how many of us know about the fantabulous Della Street?

 

Della Street is mostly known as the legal secretary in the long running Perry Mason TV series. The first appearance of Della Street’s fictional character, however, came about in Erle S. Gardner’s unpublished novel Reasonable Doubt.

Gardner’s novel described her this way: “Della Street …Secretary, twenty-seven, quiet, fast as hell on her feet, had been places. Worked in a carnival or side show, knows all the lines, hard-boiled exterior, quietly efficient, puzzled over the lawyer, chestnut hair, trim figure, some lines on her face, a hint of weariness at the corners of her eyes.”

But back to the Perry Mason TV series…

I always felt that her immense loyalty and bravery were what kept her boss, defense attorney Perry Mason, in business. Not to mention all the crazy overtime she put in!

Della Street was one badass secretary.

She always kept a cool head, showed empathy to distressed clients, and got to join Perry Mason and his private detective (Paul Drake) in all sorts of crazy adventures.

 

 

And of course, I just had to put some color shots as well! 😀 Hope you enjoyed reading about one of my childhood heroes. Until the next time…

Art Saved My Life

I am going to do something I have never done before in my life.

I am going to admit publicly within this internet world that I was abused as a child.

The sole thing that saved me was art. I cannot emphasize enough how many times I gained some measure of comfort by escaping from this world through the form of artistic expression.

It helped dull the pain. It helped distract me a little from my hopeless world. It helped me feel that I was capable of adding something beautiful to this world. It helped me feel empowered and magnificent.

My parents exhibited a mixture of destructive mental illness symptoms that I now believe to have been bipolar and/or borderline personality disorder. To say that I grew up acquainted with fear is an vast understatement. I never knew what it was like to stop looking behind my back until a few years ago when I moved as far away as possible.

Perhaps you are wondering why I am choosing to share this now.

It is because it is the truth. The abuse did happen, whether or not my parents would like to pretend it didn’t happen. Just like it happens in homes all over the world.

This post is for those who cannot speak for themselves. Whether it is because they are afraid that no one will believe them, or perhaps because they are not in a safe place yet.

If you are still being abused, you are not alone. I know it seems like you are, and you probably think ending your life is the only way to escape the agony, but you have to believe me. Your life is only just begun. There is time yet to make a new start and experience safety and happiness. Don’t give up hope! I repeat, you are not alone.

If you have suffered from verbal, psychological, mental, physical, or sexual abuse, you are not alone. You do not need to be afraid that no one will believe you. I believe you.

 

 

 

Art by Dina Argov

During my first years of college, three of my friends were majoring in art.

Two were painters and the other a photographer. I remember spending literally hours in the art studios, watching them and others paint. Sitting on the nearest stool, I would ask them billions of questions about brush techniques and color pallets.

Up until then, I had taken rich colors for granted. For the first time in my life, I became aware of concepts such as light, shadow, and depth.  Once I began to observe the world differently, my writing changed drastically.

For those of you new to this site, I am an avid writer.  I now notice infinite details I never captured before, my mind working like a filming camera everywhere I go. It’s almost as if my eyes are taking rapid succession of shots from the scenery and people around me. Shots and snippets that are stored in my memory for future use when developing new story concepts.

It is mentally exhausting at times to process so many details, but once having trained my mind to do so, I would never go back to the old me.

I will always be grateful to my old friends, Grant, Betsy, and Abigail. Because of them, I will always hold a unique respect for artists.

 

One artist I currently admire is  Dina Argov, an illustrator and designer, based in Israel. Her talents include traditional oil painting, watercolor, pen and ink drawing, and computer processed images. She has a surreal and whimsical approach to art, interlaced with bold strokes of color.

The art featured in this post is a short collection of her works. Many of these are available for sale in her Etsy shop or on display in her site, Art by Dina Argov.

Isn’t she amazing? I’d love to have the creativity and patience to do something like that!  But then again, I’m not sure anything can compare to the thrill I get of writing away till the wee hours of the morning finishing a poem or another chapter for my book. 😉

To all the lovely dolls and handsome gents that peruse this blog, happy Sunday! 😀