Dahlias and craft beer

 I just want to reach out and give each and everyone of you a dahlia, my favorite flower.

Go on take it, you are lovely and you deserve it:)  Your comments about my special encounter with that adorable poppet (I love that term) were so sweet.  It's wonderful knowing that we can still show love to strangers (and this includes kids) in a world that sometimes makes us think otherwise.

 This week is going by fast and maybe its because Chris and I snuck out for beers with some friends.

Finally a taphouse opened up on our side of town (the boring burbs). Orenco Taphouse  has 20 rotating beers that they list on a big screen, pretty cool huh!

They don't serve food so it's bring your own, I brought chocolate covered salted carmel:) Can't wait to show up with tacos!

Now here is one of three yellow dresses I own.  This is by Jam's World and it's bright and comfy and was all of $5.  I still have yet to get that nice summer tan.

 but with everything else I have going on, do you think anyone notices how pale I am?

  My sneaks I've had for about 5 years now and they were $19 at Ross.

Farmers market is full of dahlias right now and I love that they have no smell so Chris isn't bothered by them.

 This necklace was made by my friend Cathy (Sunny's Mom) and looks so perfect with this dress.

 Peetee and I will go visit with Sunny this weekend, we are both looking forward to that.

Here he is soaking up all the vitamin D he can get because he knows this sunshine won't last forever.

 I feel the same

 but the Mermaid in me will love the rain when it comes back

 because that's just what you do when you live in Portland.

Pink bearded lady

Things settled right back down after my niece left and I am still missing her presence in the house.  There is something very special about sharing your home with people, don't you think?  I love it! This weekend has been a combination of work and play, ok mostly play:)  Chris and I headed over to Cristi and G's to walk to a yummy spot for lunch on Sunday.  As usual it was filled with all sorts of amazing things!

 This is what our hubby's have to put up with.

So I have to tell you a story that still has me floating in a starry sky.  We went to lunch and as we were walking up to the restaurant.......me with my Mermaid hair

  This little girl said, "Excuse me but are you a Mermaid?"  She was smitten with me!  She asked if we would eat lunch with her!!!!!!  How could I say no????

 Meet Bettylou everyone, she made my heart soar with her sweetness.  Her Mom told me a story of another girl her daughter saw with rainbow mermaid hair and when she asked if she was a mermaid the girl barked back does it look like it, I have two legs, broke that little girls heart with that nasty response.

Guess what ladies?  If you have pretty mermaid hair YOU HAVE TO BE NICE TO ALL THE LITTLE GIRLS ALL THE TIME NO MATTER HOW SHITTY YOUR DAY!  Get over it!

 Her Mom was so happy because I just loved her daughter, who wouldn't? I could not believe it when her Mom  bought us these bacon maple peanut butter and chocolate cupcakes!  I hope we get to see this family again in Aug at the Hawthorne street fair, I think Cristi might even make her a little skirt.  Moments like this make up for so much blah.  I will remember this FOREVER!

Some sights on our walk home.

Our dudes :)

 I think I would misspell this one too, but we get the point.

 Beautiful old wood homes.

 They don't call us the City of Roses for nothing.

 I had to show off Cristi's latest sewing creation, the sexy Kiss Me Kitty catsuit!

 My dress is from Old Navy by way of the Goodwill for $6:)

  I love living in Portland.

 and I love summertime

Class dismissed.

Burn out but don't fade away

Summertime is rolling along and with my calendar quickly filling up into September I am trying not to see the end of all this glorious sunshine.  I checked on my MINI yesterday and it's finally on a boat on it's way to mama :)  I miss having a car!

Today I wanted to share some images with you that make me feel happy and think positive thoughts!

I think I could happily live out the rest of my days in a little piece of paradise like this.

I really need to get here one day, just cause!

 Sometimes I think it would have been better to have been born an animal.  I quite fancy the idea of being an owl.

If the trees could talk think of the secrets they hold.

My kind of field:)

This is the face of freedom, this 10 year old Yemen girl was granted a divorce from her abusive husband.   ABUSIVE? Is there any other kind of man that would have no problem marrying a 10 year old girl?

Here is Peetee with his favorite girl Sunny who is 16, she was just diagnosed with cancer :(  We want to spend as much time with her as we can.  Life may be short but LOVE is endless.

Have a wonderful weekend my peeps!

Age considers, youth ventures:)

Last weekend was my much anticipated visit from my niece in San Diego.  We had an absolute blast getting to know each other a bit more, she is a really cool kid and gives me hope about the younger generation.  First stop was Cristi's where she got to pick out two pair of KMK leggings.

 Cristi was so sweet to Kendra and I was happy they had a chance to meet.

 We had to get some waffles too.

 Because shopping requires energy:)

 We took her to some funky thrift shops.

 Where she happily tried on tons of clothes!

  She saw a bit of what I love about the Portland art scene.

 This gal's stuff was amazing and I picked up this Alice in Wonderland print.

Kendra even had a chance to meet Brianna, which was pretty cool.

 The girls tried on clothes while Kathi and I chillaxed.

 Uncle Chris joined us for dinner.

 and the next day his niece Haylen joined us for a crazy ass jet boat ride on the Willamette river.  The outfit I'm wearing was made by Cristi at KMK and was perfect for a little water fun.

 You won't see too many pictures of that since we knew we would get soaked all of our phones were in plastic baggies

 These are two pretty cool girls.

 Chris was caught smiling several times and that amused all of us girls.

 

 We clocked speeds of 50 mph and did 360 spin outs, we screamed, cursed and laughed our asses off.

 After we hit up the food carts, another quintessential part of the Portland experience.

  Hung out in trees.

We did some shopping at the mall.

 Typical white girl:) Apparently all the kids call a typical white girl anyone who shops, wears Uggs and drinks Starbuck.  Sounds about right:)

Probably one of the coolest parts of the visit was when Kendra suggested we try a wand on my hair.

 20 minutes later I had beautiful Mermaid hair!

 I love it when the young teach the old because we do not know everything.

 She is as beautiful outside as she is inside.

Being an Auntie rules and I hope she comes back again soon.

I'm looking forward to a real catch up on blogs later, it's kinda nice when you take a week off to come back and see what you've missed.  I hope everyone is doing well!