Sellwood Flower Co. Tour

Boy, do I have a treat for you today! There's a fairly new flower shop in my neighborhood and I went over on a rare, non-rainy, day to snap a few photos for you. Introducing Sellwood Flower Co.! "We love flowers. And we love people who love flowers." Umm, sign me up.

Owner LauraLee has created a truly darling, inviting space for your floral and garden needs. You will feel like you've stepped into another world when you step into her world. Check out the delivery car! Perfection and totally on brand too.

Right now, the Sellwood Flower Co. website says poppies, anemones and peonies are in! Guess where I'll be visiting soon! Hopefully you're following me on Instagram so you'll see a sneak peek when I pop in.

Having fresh flowers is a wonderful way to treat yourself, cheer yourself up or celebrate something. Having a photo of beautiful flowers is the next best thing and it lasts forever (well, at least 100 years with my lab).

Snow Days in Portland

It all started Thursday when we knew snow was on the way, and we were all hoping for a snow day. Alas, school still opened as usual. I checked the #pdxtst tag on Twitter obsessively and finally the district called for an early release. Seeing how I'd been knocked out by a virus since the previous Friday (!), a kind friend offered to bring the Noodle home for us since she had to drive out anyway. And then, the forecast was right for a change and the snow arrived. It was so enjoyable because everyone I knew was home safe and sound. By dinner, we knew a second storm was on its way and more snow would come on Friday. The district officially cancelled school and all the kids all went to sleep happy.

Since we are not accustomed to snow levels like this, our neighborhood roads are not plowed and a snow day becomes a big sledfest. After another fruitless trip to the doctor for me, we stopped for proper snow boots and sleds for the boys. On the way home, I snapped those two photos to share on Instagram. You can see many more beautiful images from the city under the #snowlandia and #pdxtst tags on Instagram. We know 5.5 inches is a joke to other parts of the country, but so far Portland has handled it better than Atlanta. It's the most snow in February since 1993 according to this report.

No matter what the records or totals end up being, for my family it has been a totally new experience to have snow like this right outside our front door!

Pinterest + Map Pins + My New Hometown

Recently, I was invited by Pinterest to create a new board about my hometown and try out their new map pins. I'm truly enjoying pinning all the places I have discovered since moving to my new hometown of Portland 2+ years ago!

A big fun thank you to Pinterest for including my Scene Around Portland board in their email newsletter this morning and hello to all my new followers! I'm looking forward to pinning with you all!

Scene Around Portland: Cathedral Park and the St. Johns Bridge

After living here for over two years, and seeing countless pictures of the year taken there, I finally made it to Cathedral Park and got my own photo of the iconic St. Johns Bridge.

You can purchase this photograph for $95.

From the city of Portland's website, I learned more about this location and bridge.

"The site which now bears the name Cathedral Park is steeped in history. It is believed to be one of the 14 Lewis and Clark landing sites in the Vancouver-Portland area: William Clark and eight men camped there on April 2, 1806. This spot had been a fishing and camping site for many area Indian tribes. In 1847, the founder of St Johns, James John, settled on the site and operated a ferry to Linnton across the Willamette River. In 1931, the St Johns Bridge was built on the site with 400-ft towers and a main span of 1,207 feet. It is the only steel suspension bridge in Portland."

Tidbit about me: I am one of those people who is really afraid of heights. I'm fine on most of the bridges in Portland because they are fairly low and short distances. I avoid driving on this bridge as much as possible. I think I've only driven over it three times in over two years.

Scene Around Portland: Art and Gelato

This weekend, I toodled around Alberta Street, the Pearl and NW 23rd Street. I fell in love with Manor, a home furnishings store that is 100 percent in my taste and out of my budget. After drooling all over their goods, I drooled over a cup of the best gelato I've found so far in this town. I brought my camera so you could enjoy some of the sights too.

a new-to-me artist, Holly Cappello

eye-catching store signage

seen at the ever-colorful Cargo in the Pearl

my fabulous cup of canteloupe and banana gelato

This week is full of school preparations, we have a supply list to deal with for the first time. Our backpack that is still in great shape since kindergarten is too big for the shared lockers here, so sadly we must find a new one. The Noodle found out yesterday he is in the same classroom as his penpal-now-local-friend so that is great news. The boys will be happy to have one friendly face on their first day. 

I love Portland and I'm tickled to be living in a city I love now, but all of the school prep has made me quite homesick to be honest. I miss the trust and comfort of the school community we built there over the past three years. This is the hardest part of the relocation for me so far.

Scene Around Portland: Scooters

Portland loves two-wheeled things, this is well documented.

And now, this darling Vespa has been documented by my camera, as seen on my recent walk around the neighborhood. Wishing you a wonderful weekend friends, we will be taking a tour of the Noodle's new school and working on the campus cleanup and hosting our family for Sunday dinner.

Also, I'll be sending safe thoughts for those of you on the East Coast all weekend long.

xo,
Jess

Scene Around Portland: Help Me Grow

Everywhere you go in Portland, you'll see newly planted trees with little blue signs begging you to "Help Me Grow." I love all these little trees dearly and want to get one of my own someday, when we become homeowners again.

Friends of Trees

I took the daisies shot from the ground looking up, with Jackson sitting nearby. I love daisies but wanted to look at them from a different angle for a change. It was getting to be eventide so the sky was casting a lovely shade of blue, but I processed it to bring it out even more for the purposes of this diptych.

I thought I would try sharing a little more information about how I work on my images, based on some fun feedback on a Facebook discussion yesterday. 

Scene Around Portland: My Neighborhood

Good Monday Morning! We had glorious summer weather in Portland this weekend, it was much welcomed by me. We did a lot of toodling on our bikes, we went swimming, we went out to dinner on Friday night (our new routine and a reward for me cooking consistently M-Th). :)

Last night, it was quite warm in the house around 8 p.m. so I took Jackson for a little photo walking around the block. He was a very good boy when I told him to sit still so I could focus my camera! 

When I downloaded my images, these two jumped out at me as wanting to be side-by-side. I love the colors and believe it or not, I finally learned how to make a diptych in Photoshop so they could be together. I know, I know, Photography 101, right?!

There will be lots more images this week*, I had good luck in my neighborhood last night. How was your weekend?

* I am also planning to fuss with the blog template a bit this week too so the photos I post can be larger. Please be patient if you happen to tune in during the adjustments.

Scene Around Portland

I can't resist a weekend post right now. I guess I promised too soon about regular posting. I lost my iPhone last weekend in the river, but the upside to that is I am grabbing my real camera when I leave the house again. I've started a new Flickr set dedicated to my new city too.

NE Portland, Friday evening

I'll say this about Portland, it may be grey in the sky a lot here and it is anything but grey down on the ground.