keep-calm-o-matic

thanks to mammalingo, i discovered this fun site where you can make your own "keep calm" signs. 
the keep-calm-o-matic rules!

go by bike

at  OHSU there are buh-jillions of bikes parked in this massive bike lot each day, a bike valet service, and a bike mechanic on site (working out of a cute little vintage trailer, obvs).  so rad, and i love the "go by bike" homage.

our city's beautiful old train station has a neon sign

that very famously lights up to read "go by train." 

 

a few years back the "go by streetcar" sign made its debut

visualizing colors

our current colors

 maybe something like this

 i just discovered this fun, helpful "color visualizer" tool on the sherwin williams site, and then i proceeded to waste spend over an hour trying new color schemes on the exterior of my home.  i'm not a fan of the paint that we have now, and we'll probably live with the terracotta-whatever-you-want-to-call-it color for another year or two, but you can bet when the time comes to choose the colors, i'll be visualizing with the help of this program.

 

probably not

chocowine

i love chocolate.  and i love wine.  but this product gets filed in the same drawer as doughnut beer.

dinner, drinks, and death cab!

we got to go on a hot date friday night! dinner at our favorite china town restaurant,  fancy drinks at the heathman, and then death cab for cutie at the schnitz!  the band was accompanied by an eight piece string section- it was amazeballs!

 the schnitz is the shiz-nit!

 we are happy!

fancy, fancy

shock value

this magazine cover is causing quite a commotion this week.  i must admit that the goading question and the way the photographer posed the mother and child shocked my senses a bit!  but by the time i read the article and some of the commentary that it has spawned, i was over the shock, and mostly just felt sad that Time feels the need to challenge family's personal choices in such a way.

long live art in the streets

public art, especially the spontaneous, compulsive kind makes me very happy. 
i was just looking through these photos that my good friend kate kelly took, and i am still so pleased that we shot our family portraits in such an artful, urban location.
i wanted to find out more about my favorite mural, and through the magic of search engines i quickly discovered the artists' names and more about their work.  here is more about her.  and here is more about him. i also found this really great little map of portland murals. 

my walls await

i think my next big painting project will involve a stencil.  i love this look! 
found all of these here.

may day

is there anything more lovely than a bike ride through the city on a morning when the warm sun and blue sky is out? 
nope.

reminder

spotted just off nw 23rd and burnside.  i love shit like this.