Photo by Elizabeth Halt
Photo by Elizabeth Halt

Entries organized under daily life

a sunny saturday at the farmers’ market

June 23, 2012

a friend and i spent a sunny saturday afternoon at the portland farmers’ market, eating lunch and people-watching and wandering around the booths. (if you happen to live in portland, you know this was not today, as evidenced by the rain falling on my window. it was last saturday, which was glorious.)

i was missing my camera – i do so love farmers’ market photos – but then i remembered that i had my iphone.

is that not the best dog sighting ever?! when his person saw that i was trying to take a picture of him, she turned him around so i could see his face. i cannot stop looking at him and smiling. (as a side note, i wonder why i assume the dog is a him. it seems like assuming he’s a her is a much better assumption.) i so wish i could show atlas this picture. i can just imagine his response.

profile of a portland pup

June 20, 2012

i just got home from a hike in forest park. atlas got his exercise and we were done before the day got too warm. (i think it’s supposed to be 80 today.)

i am not sure atlas would agree with the “before the day got too warm” part. by the end of the hike, his tongue was long and droopy and he kept trying to drink from muddy puddles. to be fair, he likes to drink from muddy puddles no matter the temperature, but when it’s warmer, he’s more insistent.

now, atlas is napping in his crate and i am eating honey roasted peanuts and dried mango. it is a good day.

how is your wednesday treating you?

it’s a happy atlas day

June 13, 2012

check this out!

i’ve done something like this to photos in the past using photoshop, and my broken camera did this all on its own. it’s not consistent – mostly the photos just turn out white – but it gave me a few cute photos of atlas when i was playing with it so i am a very happy camper.

speaking of atlas, i want to remember to tell you the story of atlas and the pond. next week, i think. i took him for an adjustment on tuesday and while we were waiting for the vet to come in, i told him a story; this was the story i picked. it reminded me that i should tell you. you might enjoy the story more than atlas does, because it is the reason he doesn’t like water.

atlas met a kitty this past weekend! we went for a walk on a nearby trail that we hadn’t visited in a while. as we walked down the path, we ran into a white cat sitting by the side of the path. naturally, atlas stopped and gazed happily at his potential new friend. after a few minutes of this, i happened to glance behind me, only to see a black and white cat standing right behind us! it stood there for a while and then turned around and went into the trees and came out by the white cat. it then walked right up to atlas and me, sniffed atlas’ feet, and eventually wandered off down the path in front of us. atlas abandoned the potential friend in favor of a confirmed friend and we followed it down the path until it veered off into the bushes on an adventure. (well, that was my doing. atlas wanted to follow it into the bushes.)

i am going to pick up my camera!

June 4, 2012

hurrah, hurrah, hurrah!

soon, lila and i will be together again.

oh. did i mention that i named my camera lila (the sanskrit word for divine play)? i am pretty sure that i named her when i bought her but i could not remember that name so i decided that she needed to be christened again.

want to hear a story, though?

when the woman at the camera shop called to say that i could pick up my camera, she mentioned that it started working when the technician started fiddling with it. after all the fiddling i did, that seemed weird, but whatever.

only.

last week, my iphone stopped working. it turned off in an instance when i was holding it and i could not get it to turn on again. i was sad and thought it was broken but i brought it to the apple store and they reset it and it worked perfectly.

that is two times where i thought something i loved and needed had broken and needed to be replaced and all it took was an expert’s touch.

this seems like a message from the universe, only i haven’t the faintest idea what it is telling me. if you have any suggestions, do let me know.

in this moment, atlas is snoring

May 29, 2012

in this moment, atlas is stretched across my bed lengthwise. he is taking up half of the bed and both of the pillows. he is also snoring.

i have a habit of saying, “he’s so cute when he ..” we are trying to decide on the silliest thing i’ve said thus far. if i remember correctly, the current winner is, “he’s so cute when he breathes.”

the person in the apartment next door has a tiny kitten. atlas saw the kitten peering out through the screen door on the patio yesterday and he could not have been happier. who knows, maybe this kitten will someday be his friend, just like the last neighbor kitten that he managed to win over!

in this moment, i love my little big pup times a million and thirty three four. i need to go give him a kiss and tell him so.

ramblin’ man

May 14, 2012

have i mentioned that i love graffiti? i do. i really do.

a friend of mine is living with me for the moment. over the years, i’ve occasionally worried that i was too old and too set in my ways to enjoy living with someone, but it turns out that i worried for nothing. living with a dear friend is really wonderful and i feel so lucky to have the opportunity. also, i am learning to enjoy the smell of coffee in the morning. i have decided that this bodes well for the future.

on a not entirely unrelated note – since you can live with roommates or significant others – if you happen to be single (and looking), i heartily recommend reading getting naked by harlan cohen. i saw it on a table of books at b&n and the title made me smile so i picked it up. the letters and replies he included (he’s an advice columnist) made me laugh so much that i bought the book. it is seriously the funniest and most useful book on relationships i’ve ever read. plus, i have managed to apply it to friendship and work. fair warning, my conversation is now peppered with, “as harlan says ..” or “i suspect harlan would say ..” yes, we are apparently on a first name basis. he is changing my life, one person at a time.

want to know how to make the best green smoothie? you need kale, a banana, and strawberries. first, slice the banana and eat the slices with a nutella-like spread. (the cocoa almond spread from trader joe’s is really good.) second, add the kale to a salad and top it with lots of thousand island dressing. third, eat the berries with sugar and cake and ice cream or whipped cream. de-licious.

how’s your monday so far?

it’s beginning to look a lot like spring

April 2, 2012

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on the one hand, it's been a very rainy and strangely snow-filled winter.

on the other hand, it's been exceptionally mild, so we've been doing a lot of walking and wandering and exploring of various portland neighborhoods over the past few months. it is one of my favorite things to do.

these days, there are signs of spring everywhere.

coffee and shopping and signs

March 18, 2012

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at the moment, i have two favorite coffee places: the dragonfly coffee house (in the alphabet district, on thurman and 24th) and barista (on alberta, between 17th and 18th).

i was driving to the dragonfly on saturday to meet a friend. traffic was slow around and through the tunnel so, to amuse myself, i decided to look at the license plates to see if they held a sign for me.

the car next to me had the letters DAT. the car in front of that car had the letters BUY. when i read them back to myself, i realized they said BUY DAT.

we were planning to visit anthropologie after coffee, so you can imagine my delight at my sign!

i hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited

March 12, 2012

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happy monday! i do love mondays. they're such a nice fresh clean slate sort of day. even though i have let go of most of my "i'll start on monday" patterns, i still love the newness of monday. i suspect that will never change.

do you remember when i introduced the secret garden? something (or somethings) you love plus a year of happy surprise, delight, and gleeful anticipation? there are still a few spots left and, in case you are thinking about it, i want to remind you that registration will close on march 15th. that's this thursday. (it's also atlas' birthday!) i just got the photos that i am using to make the card set for {the circle of aqua} and i cannot stop looking at them and smiling. they are magical.

this past week was very full of sunshine. on a walk on thursday and a hike on friday, i did not even need to wear a jacket! i am the sort of person who is still wearing a jacket when the rest of portland is wandering about in shorts and a t-shirt, so clearly it was warm. i celebrated with gelato.

i hope your monday includes birdsong and unexpected magic.

(title courtesy of adele)

a story about the invention of organization

February 14, 2012

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it's valentine's day!

this year, i feel like i am overflowing with love, and i have always loved the essence of valentine's day. it is full of love and sweetness and delight and connection.

in honor of the day, i thought i would share a story about one of my favorite things – organization. because clearly nothing says valentine's day like the thought of organizing.

(it's a shame you can't hear me giggling away over here.)

(what can i say. being a professional organizer is on my very long list of things that i think would be oodles of fun. in the meantime, i get to organize my own house every day, which is also fun.)

the invention of organization

happy day to one and all.