i love the city of roses

this weekend we went to portland! i love portland so much - and luckily it's only a 2.5 hour drive from seattle, so we can go often (though we usually don't...but we should!). we planned to visit with some friends on friday and saturday evening, and drive back up on sunday afternoon. however, my hubby made it clear to me that during the day on saturday, i was on my own, as he had plans to hit up ALL of the city's record stores. fine with me!

after breakfast at the tin shed, we parted ways and my day of fun-ness began. first up was bolt, a fabric store i'd heard of but hadn't gotten to try yet. i went a little nuts in there but it was fun! things i'd only seen online before were right there in person. i love this paper crane fabric:



and also this:



then i went to the yarn store next door (i'm sorry - i can't remember its name!), and it was great, but i didn't buy anything. they had some pretty fancy yarn - the jade sapphire cashmere, in particular, caught my eye. but i wasn't in a yarn-buying mood, so off i went to the pearl district and checked out powell's. i bought last minute knitted gifts (am i the last knitter in the world to own this book?) and a few used novels, and then just wandered around the area for a while. i went to saint cupcake for an afternoon treat and had these three mini cupcakes:



that's red velvet, carrot and coconut cream. yum!

i saw this little bunny graffiti:



then i headed over to hawthorne and rummaged through the red light and buffalo exchange. i was on the lookout for the perfect pair of vintage sandals, which of course i didn't find, but i did come away with a weird little bead necklace and a pretty bag:



that was about it for the day...we met up with one of my friends and we went to hotlips pizza for pizza and on-tap blackberry soda.

it was a good weekend (we also went here for breakfast on sunday...the chocolate chip banana pancakes were SO good), and we got home exhausted sunday evening. but now i can't wait to go back!