Oregon Trip Continued

On Saturday of our trip we drove to McMinnville to visit the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum home of Howard Hughes Spruce Goose.

I never realized how large the Spruce Goose is. This thing completely dominated the space in the room. It was amazing to be standing on the floor looking up at it.

Some of my favorite planes at the museum. A Ford Trimotor. They loaded the luggage in to the wings of the plane.

The interior is really cool looking but not as comfortable as current planes I think.

A B17 Flying Fortress.

Yakolev

Oregon Road Trip

Last Saturday my husband and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary. We had been wanting to visit McMenamins for some time and settled on the Grand Lodge in Forest Grove. Our drive down Friday was made even better by the donation of my father's Porsche Boxster. About two hours in to the trip my wish was granted and we put the top down. It pretty much stayed down the entire trip. I came prepared with a scarf. How very Hollywood chic!

We took the scenic route and got off I5 at Longview/Kelso to drive down a winding ribbon of highway 47. Full of logging trucks and plenty of twists and turns the hubs was excited to drive the Porsche around. The car took it VERY well.

Forest Grove is just a 40 minute drive west of Portland. It's a small college town in an agricultural area of the state. This is where our hotel, the Grand Lodge was located. McMenamins is owned by two brothers from Portland, Oregon. Their multiple properties are location in Oregon and Washington states. They brew beer, distill wine and roast coffee beans. We usually like a dark beer, you know the kind you have to chew. All kidding aside, their Terminator porter was the only think we drank all weekend

.
Upon our arrival we found out they were having a Medieval Festival. We wandered around the tents that were being set up and then headed in to get some grub. Perfect timing for 1st happy hour. Yes, they have TWO happy hours a day. We ordered two burgers, fries and a salad for $12 and our beers were half off. After the drive and the food and the wandering I needed a nap (below is the view from our room).

Our room was European style with a sink but the bathrooms were shared. Conveniently the womens bathroom was right next door and had heated tile floors! There is original artwork all over the building.

These little faces popped up everywhere on the property. Amazing marble in the bathrooms and "baseboard moldings" in the hallway. Hand painting on the lights as well.

After our nap we went to 2nd Happy Hour at the outdoor bar. $4 for my meal of hummus, pita bread and a salad of mixed greens, red onion, hazelnuts and bleu cheese (and several Terminators) was perfect! There were several people from the Medieval festival at the bar dressed as pirates and wenches and there was even a belly dancer and drummer or two.

There was a room of the entry with a fireplace and wonderfully cushy couches. I took the opportunity to read a book for a while in there. So cozy! There was great art all over the property like this guy below. Two of them, one by the room off the entry and one in the restaurant.

More to come from the rest of our weekend.

The Forest Grove property of The Grand Lodge originally built in 1922 as a Masonic lodge.

McMinnville is just a 50 minute drive SE of Forest Grove and in the heart of Wine country of the Willamette Valley.

Anniversary

Today is my wedding anniversary. The hubs and I stole away to McMenamins Grand Lodge in Oregon for the weekend. It's been a wonderful trip so far. Tomorrow we go home. I will share photos etc. Here is one from our wedding day six years ago.



As we were coming back on to the property we saw a couple in wedding attire getting their picture taken. Memories.....

Loft of My Dreams

Today is my first day of Holiday and the hubs and I spent it doing a little shopping preparation for our trip tomorrow. While browsing in the magazine section of Borders I saw yummy Gerard Butler on the front of one of my favorite magazines, Architectural Digest. His loft in the Chelsea area of New York is TO DIE FOR!

People, this is EXACTLY how I would do a loft if I was ever lucky enough to find the right space.

Picture exposed beams, 15' ceilings, original wooden floors, palms and large plants, leather and luxurious fabrics covered cushy chairs and couches, textured walls that look like old plaster. And the theater! One of my favorite things about it is the three different chandeliers over the dining table hung at different heights and his kitchen cabinets are made from old flooring.

It took him four years and instead of using an interior designer he teamed up with production designer, Elvis Restaino to create the interiors. They definately have drama that is for certain!

If you get a chance, do check out the May 2010 issue of Architectural Digest. There are articles in there of Trey Parkers Japanese inspired home in Colorado, Sting and wife, Trudies London town house, Robert Zemeckis and his wifes villa in Tuscany. Total eye candy for the decorating enthusiast!

15 Minutes of Fame?

So, in the news....

MY NAME NOW APPEARS ON IMDB!

Sorry for the shouting. Just a little excited over here at chez Paisley Penguin. For those of you new to my little corner of the world, in the summer of 2007 (so long ago) I worked on a local indie film project called The Book of Zombie or TBOZ for short.

Search on my blog to find some of this insiders information or click here and here for a link to the trailer or here for a link to the behind the scenes blog of our fearless DP.

Also, walk on over to Brunette on a Budgette and wish her happy birthday!

Afternoon Indulgence & Patio Photos

I found myself with no one at home this Sunday afternoon. Perfect time to sit down with a favorite indulgent movie full or narcissism and southern eccentricity. Of course I turned on Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood, made some iced tea and panko breaded shrimp to dip in Marmalade and settled down with the laptop to plan our anniversary trip for the coming weekend.

The hubs came home early and poured me a glass of red wine. How decadent is that on a Sunday afternoon?
Yesterday I got to dig in the dirt and planted all of the items I picked up at the nursery. Stopped at my mom's today and came home with a bunch of lilacs and another plant for my patio.

I have quite the green and white theme going on with a dash of purple leaf. My hostas are looking good and in a mtter of a couple weeks this will be overflowing.

Now ont o more weekend trip planning!

Good morning Sunshine - Uh Where Did You Go?

This morning I went with my MIL to one of the happiest places on earth for me, the local plant nursery. I filled my cart with intended items; potato vine (in green and purple leafed varieties), stock, impatiens, snap dragons (or as the hubs calls it - dragon snaps), basil, nasturtiums (chocolate colored flowers!), lobelia & pansies - you get the picture.

It's been raining off and on this morning and I do hope to plant it all today. Off to dig in the dirt!

Summer Camp

I was talking to a co-worker today about summer camp. She was saying she wanted to send her daughter to one this summer. Wow, does that bring back memories.

I have not thought about summer camp in a long time. Remember the Parent Trap - the original without Lindsay Lohan? Summer camp was kind of like that for me. It was Girl Scout camp and I was gone an entire week. I was in the group of oldest kids so we got to be on the complete opposite side of the lake from the main cabin and we were allowed to keep canoes tied up at our dock because it was faster to get across the lake.

We had tons of fun that entire week. We did all sorts of crafts, swam every day, TP'd other campers cabins, put our counselors tent out on the boat dock. Oh yes we did.

The second summer I went to camp I had a broken hand and it was in a cast. That did not stop me from taping a plastic bag around it every day to go swimming.

Did you go to summer camp?

Some day I would love to go here and experience my summer of camp all over again.

Small Accomplishments, Mini Quiche & Roller Derby

What do they all have in common? Not really sure but it's what has been going on in my world lately.

Last weekend the hubs got the rest of our baseboard molding installed in our living room. We still have to patch the holes and paint but all base and crown molding is now installed in the main part of the house (kitchen, living, hallway & dining). We technically still have to install moldings around the bedroom and bathroom doors (three of them) but narrower molding so I am calling this step in the project done!

Last night I made mini quiches with red bell pepper, mushroom, bacon and cheese. I did them in muffin tins. I was NOT pleased with how they turned out. Too small and even though it was cooked through it was too watery. I even cooked the veggies BEFORE I put them in the egg mixture.

The egg mixture probably needs to be increased in order to make enough fuller mini quiches for breakfast for the hubs and I each morning. That is a lot of eggs! I have not figured out the calories yet. Anyone have helpful tips on mini quiches?

Last Saturday the hubs and I went to Roller Derby for the first time. It was a friends birthday and she saved three of the front rows for us all to hang together. That night we even set an attendance record! It took me a while to get the general idea of the rules and I still don't understand everything but it was fun. The medics only had to be called out once and a girl ended up on crutches.

The local league is the Rat City Roller Girls. There are four teams; Derby Liberation Front, Grave Danger, Sockit Wenches & Throttle Rockets. They have the GREATEST names like Yoko Onoudi'nt, Georgia O'Grief, X-Khan & Betty Ford Galaxy.

Oh yeah, and their "cheerleaders" and fans take things seriously! Below Skeletora or Countes De Bodies - not really certain.

A huge Grave Danger fan. He was VERY in to it.

My SD and her friend with a member of the Throttle Rockets.

Her friend (in the hat) is in Jr. Roller Derby. I think my favorite was the Sockit Wenches. Probably because I liked their uniforms the best and they kicked some serious but in their match.

I've Been a Bad Blogger

I have been a bad blogger of late. I do have a few blog posts that I need to get out there. Here is some link love for today.

Small Notebook is posting about selling items on Craigslist she no longer needs. I thought her list of items you can find readily avaiable on CL was interesting and might help people out there to take the plunge and sell or donate items they think they "might" need in the future. I know I am one of those people who "might" have use for a perfectly good item I don't need now. Or something I can repurpose in to something else.

I found this article from Brunette on a Budget about the idea of working from home. I had wanted to try this for a time. A few months ago my office moved and I was relegated to working from home for two days. I thought how cool and it about drove me nuts. Along with my dog who thought I was home to hang out with him.

Junk Gypsy wrote about the airstream makeover. A friend of mine and I go camping with our families every year and she has an airstream. We are always thinking up ways to funk up hers. One day the hubs and I will own an airstream and I want the inside to be as wacky as possible and just as cool as this! To get an idea check out our camping survival guide.

Finally, Brooklyn Limestone installed FLOR carpeting in her "box room". This is something I have been thinking about doing in my dining room. Something just large enough to acomodate the chairs when pulled out while someone is sitting in them.

Updates to come soon with Roller Derby and our cleaned off patio.

Storage Unit - Completed

After 9 years and 2 carloads of donate over the last two weekends our storage unit has been completely decluttered. We even have open space on some of the shelves.

We used to keep all our holiday decorations in 30 gallon tubs. A real pain in the but to bring in to the house, unload and decorate. Then repack and schlep back out to storage in crappy weather.

The hubs final trip to donate saw three 30 gallon and one 25 gallon tub go bye bye forever. We still have four 20 gallon tubs left but they fit neatly on top of our shelving at the back of the unit. You can't see in the photo below but just above the top shelf where the boxes with yellow lids are sit those tubs.

The only thing sitting on the floor is a huge R2D2 beverage cooler (you can sort of see the arm peeking out towards the left bottom of the photo) that the hubs is going to turn into something Steampunk, our orange moving dolly and a spare wheel for our small trailer we hook up to our car for camping.

This storage unit used to be packed from floor to almost ceiling and from back to door with moving boxes. The door is just in front of the extra wheel.

It feels so good to have this space cleared out so we can pop down quickly and get what we need. Everything is labeled and like items sit together. All we have is camping equipment, holiday decorations, beer making stuff and large tools - oh yeah and R2.

This unit is not something we pay for seperately but at the bottom of one of the condo buidings in our complex. I'm going to call this completed and checked off my list. As time goes on we will try to replace the cardboard paper boxes with plastic tubs to better protect the contents but for now - we are done!

Are You A Tightwad?

I am not certain if I am or not. I have caviar dreams on a peanut butter budget. I am always striving towards living a greener, calmer, simpler life and sometimes I trip up. But I keep going.

I serve on a green team at my company and learn new things all the time to help out the environment and not to leave such a permanent mark. In fact, next week we are hosting a backpacking/hiking clinic after hours. All about enjoying nature, being prepared and keeping it the way we found it.

I am super busy at my job and sometimes that leaves little time for doing the responsible thing like using greener products or creating less garbage. I read an article once on how one couple vowed to throw away one small bag of garbage for the entire year. Can you imagine? Practically everything I buy at the grocery store is packaged and creates garbage.

I took a bit of time on my lunch today to pop by and read someone who was kind enough to email me she enjoyed my blog and would like it if I would check hers out. I like what I saw. If you are curious just pop on over and check out Tightwad.

One of my 2010 resolutions was to clean up my blog and old PC from virtual clutter. We got rid of the old PC and now only have a laptop and a lot of what I thought I needed from the old computer I did not save. I still need to revamp my blog which is also somewhat cluttered.

I do want to mak a better effort in my blogging and writing about things that interest me. I don't think I fall in to any one category as I don't write about one particular thing. My interests vary but here is what you can see more of in the coming months.

• Living Green
• Living Simple
• Decluttering
• Personal Finance
• Steampunk
• Home Crafts (sewing & knitting)
• Junking

Whatever else happens to have me interested at the time.