Tuesday Lovin': Portland, Oregon

T and I went on a girls' only road trip to Portland, Oregon this weekend.  On a good day it's an easy 3 hour drive along I-5.  On Friday afternoon, we hit rush hour in Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia, so it took us 5.5 hours.  Sigh.

I've found that since having a kid, vacations are hit or miss.  They usually end up being MORE work because the place we're staying isn't set up the way we've got things at home.  I don't get to sleep in or lounge around by the pool with a fruity beverage anymore.  My friend J calls it "same shit, different place".

So I had low expectations but was still excited.  And man, was it ever amazing.  It was a dream vacation (except for the traffic).  Seriously.  We did not have a SINGLE meltdown by either one of us, despite our schedule being all out of whack.  We had FUN.  T wants to go back already.

A lot of the awesomeness was provided by our fine host city.  I worked in Portland for a month or so back in my consulting days, and have been there maybe once or twice since, but we really haven't spent much time exploring the city.

It is a city after my own heart, a cleaner, yummier, friendlier version of Seattle.  T and I ate our way through Portland last weekend:  Slappy Cakes. Afternoon tea at The Heathman.  Old Spaghetti Factory. VooDoo Doughnut.

Every single place was friendly and gracious.  No evil eye for bringing a toddler to fancy afternoon tea.  Not even from our fellow patrons.  Amazing. 

No problem showing up at the Old Spaghetti Factory on a Saturday night at 6:45pm without a reservation - we were seated right away, and served promptly. 

Not a single issue with T's allergy - soy milk was available everywhere including in the hot chocolate at afternoon tea, VooDoo doughnuts had an incredible selection of vegan donuts, and Slappy Cakes had Earth Balance soy margarine instead of butter.  I think I'm in love.

Scratch that, I KNOW I'm in love.  People were super nice to us.  They gave up their seats on the  crowded street car so T and I could sit.  This rarely happens on the bus in Seattle. 

Some very nice ladies (who happened to be teachers) at the streetcar stop were talking to us and telling me how T is well on her way to reading because she noticed two of them were carrying Whole Foods bags.  (Yes, I know, we're raising a yuppie hipster.  She also recognizes Target and Starbucks logos...)

Even at the Crafty Wonderland store, the staff was friendly despite T's desire to touch everything and her need to be reminded to "look with your eyes, not with your hands" every 30 seconds.

The high point of our trip was the two round trips we took on the Portland Aerial Tram, which we nicknamed the Vamoosh since it looks just like Pocoyo's spaceship/undersea vehicle.  I accidentally paid for her, not knowing kids under 7 are free, so they just let us ride it twice, offered to take a photo of us together, and even gave us both stickers.

I've been a lot of places which *tolerated* kids, but nowhere as kid-friendly as Portland. We'll totally go back.

Project Life: The Fabulous Month of June and a Giveaway!

I've actually been done with June's Project Life for a few weeks since I never got behind on those.  I didn't want to post those pages before I posted May's because I have this thing about being in order.  June was pretty mellow but full of fun things like a Caspar Babypants show, the awesome birthday crown T and TJ made for me, and T's first summer treats like ice cream (non-dairy of course) and a popsicle.  Also, more cupcakes.  The 3x4 cute hexagon card and the "every day" and "father's day" cards are FREE printables from Smitha Katti's blog.

Click on each photo to see a bigger version.

May 28- Jun 3: Caspar Babypants show, my new craft room, and grandparents!

 

Jun 4-10: Picking a color and sticking with it, not an exciting week :)

Jun 11-17: Cupcakes and friends, Father's Day @ The Keg, Baby X' ultrasound

Jun 18-24: T's first school concert, first ice cream cone, work photo shoot

Jun 25- Jul 1: my birthday, first mini album made, T's first popsicle

And now for the fun part!  I've never done a giveaway on my blog before, so I'm excited about this :)  While organizing my extensive collection of washi and "washi-like" tape, I found a few duplicates and ones I'm just not going to use.  One lucky winner will get 3 new rolls of paper tape: light purple washi tape from Japan, a roll of red solid tape, and a roll of checkered tape from the Todd Oldham line at Target.

How to enter:

Leave me a comment, and include an email address where I can reach you.  One entry per person, plus one extra if you share my link on Twitter or Facebook.  Just leave me the URL to your tweet or status update in your second comment and I'll put your name in the drawing twice.

Entries close by noon Pacific time on Tuesday July 31, 2012. BabyT will help me pick a random winner that evening and I'll notify the winner to get a mailing address, and soon after that one lucky person will be able to stick washi tape on everything his or her heart desires.  Hooray!

Update:  See here for the winner!  Thanks everyone for entering.

Dove Visible Care Creme Body Wash Review, Coupon and Contest

I'm a leisurely shower kind of girl. In fact, I like the shower as a place to think and work out things that are bothering me. It's too bad I'm not one of those people who does that while running - I'd be a lot thinner, for sure...

T, me, and BabyX'

When T was a newborn, aside from the lack of sleep, it was the lack of time to take a leisurely shower that was a hard adjustment to new mama-hood. Invariably, Miss Baby would start wailing for a feeding 5 minutes after I stepped in the shower. Not to mention all the times in the shower I'd hear phantom baby crying, jump out in a hurry, only to find her fast asleep still. Hormones will do that to you, I guess.

Now that we're long past that stage, and haven't embarked on it just yet with Baby X', I jumped at the chance to review a new premium body wash by Dove. I'm not a mass-market bar soap kind of girl. I don't wear perfume, so I like my bath products to smell good, and they also need to keep my dry skin moisturized.

I used to have a *thing* about buying bath products and I still have trouble resisting cute packaging and yummy scents. So when the box from BlogHer showed up, revealing a full size bottle of Dove Visible Care Renewing Creme Body Wash, I was pretty stoked to try it out. (There's something cool about getting free stuff delivered to my door!)

After using it for a week, my skin feels good. I'm huge and pregnant and getting lotion on my swollen legs and feet isn't as easy as it used to be. I can actually skip it and do just fine with this Dove body wash only, so thumbs up for that. The scent is a nice floral that's not overpowering, and I'm super picky about scents. The feel of the body wash is nice and creamy without being weirdly greasy. It rinses off easily and doesn't leave any residue on my skin. There are no parabens listed in the ingredients. I'm a fan.

Thanks to the BlogHer review program, you can get $1 off your next purchase via the coupon below *and* also register to win a $500 SpaFinder gift certificate.

That would be one heck of a spa day, for sure. I'd use part of that to get the usual stuff: haircut, color and eyebrow waxing, but would also try to sneak in a massage and a mani/pedi as well. And maybe a facial.

What would you do with $500 of free spa goodness? Inquiring minds want to know.

Visit Dove^® VisibleCare^® to get a coupon for $1 off!

Enter to win one of two $500 Spafinder gift certificates!
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY
COMMENTS TO THIS POST ARE NOT SWEEPSTAKES ENTRIES. PLEASE SEE BELOW FOR ENTRY METHODS FOR THIS SWEEPSTAKES.
You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:
a) Follow this link, and provide your email address and your response to the Promotion prompt
b) Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: "#SweepstakesEntry"; and then visit this link to provide your email address and the URL to that Tweet.
c) Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and then visit this link to provide your email address and the URL to that post.
This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. Winners will have 72 hours to claim the prize, or an alternative winner will be selected.
The Official Rules are available here.
This sweepstakes runs from 7/18/2012 - 8/22/2012
Be sure to visit the Dove^® VisibleCare™ Crème Body Wash brand page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ reviews and find more chances to win!

Tuesday Lovin': Washi Tape

I spent $20 on tape at Target last week. Yes, tape.  In my defense, it was really cute.  When I told TJ this, he just gave me the "why is my wife so crazy?" look.

Target "washi" tape

Target has adorable little sets of 4 rolls of tape that approximate washi tape.  Each pack is only $4 and I found red/pink, orange/yellow, green, and blue/violet versions.  I'd love to know if there are others!

Real washi tape is from Japan, made of rice paper, and is quite expensive - it's hard to find it for less than $3 a roll.  If you order it from Japan, you also have to pay A LOT for shipping.  But the real stuff from Japan is dreamy.

What's the big deal about this tape?  Well, for one thing, it's made of paper, either in solid colors or nifty patterns.  It can be a bit translucent so if you stick it on patterned paper, some of the design underneath shows through.  Since it's paper, it tears easily, or can be cut more precisely with scissors.  You can write on it with most pens, though some washi-like tapes have coatings on them that make this more challenging.  It is great for wrapping gifts, because you don't have to worry about hiding the tape, since it's cute and decorative.

The adhesive is removable, so the tape can be repositioned, though some of the more delicate ones need to be handled carefully to avoid tearing it.  It doesn't leave a sticky residue on things.  What's not to love?

Even better, washi tape reminds me of the Fisher Scientific tape we'd use in lab to label, well, everything.  Reagent bottles.  Our belongings.  Lab notebooks.  If you used a Sharpie to write on the label, the stuff was resistant to most chemicals.  Unless you were having misadventures with alcohol or something really caustic.  In which case you probably had more important things to worry about than your labels becoming unreadable.


My tape collection is somewhat out of control - I bought a new tray to hold it and I have about 50 different rolls.  I'm not allowed to buy any more.


Washi tape is super-trendy in scrapbooking and card making these days. A friend of mine makes really cool flowers out of washi tape as scrapbook embellishments, and has promised to show me how over Skype. How cool is that?

Enjoying maternity clothes?!

I've been wearing maternity clothes for about 3 months now and it was a gradual transition from mostly my regular clothes and a few maternity pieces to nearly all maternity stuff now.  Last time I was disappointed by my shrinking wardrobe options, but I'm seeing some definite benefits right now.

Luckily I got pregnant at the exact same time this year as I did a few years ago, so my clothes are all in the right season.  Well, to be honest, this summer is a lot cooler than that last one so I haven't busted out the summer pieces as much.  There's still hope, right?

What I did this time, though, was weed out everything that didn't fit right or I just plain didn't like.  I had a momentary pang of "oh, it's only for a few months, so I should just deal with it" but I realized that when I already feel like I'm inhabiting someone else's swelling body, I should at least *like* what I'm wearing.  So out went the horrible synthetic fabric dress pants, the misshapen tunics and the one pair of jeans that was tight in all the wrong places.

Though this is likely the last time I'll be pregnant, I allowed myself to buy a couple of new things, and kept away from Old Navy and Target, which are cheap and have lots of sizes, but whose stuff never quite fits right or wears well over time.  As a reformed cheapie clothes shopper (volume over quality) this is a big step for me.

I bit the bullet and upgraded to Gap's maternity options, which are fewer but much better quality.  I got a pair of jeans which will work for at least a couple more weeks, and post-partum, but likely will get too uncomfortable for the last month or so.  I can feel the pinch already, sadly. 

I am in absolute and total love with their Pure Body T-shirts and tanks and bought 3 of those, even though I have plenty of other shirts (both maternity and not) I can still wear.  They are nice cotton shirts with a lot of stretch in vibrant colors.  They fit snugly, which I like in a T-shirt and are super soft and keep their shape after multiple washes.  I wish I had discovered them last time!

So my entire wardrobe right now is fairly limited - 5 tank tops, 10 t-shirts (short and long sleeved), 2 pairs of jeans, 2 pairs of yoga pants/sweats, 1 hoodie, 1 pair of shorts and 1 pair of capris barely hanging in there.

Photo by Elvira-Ciboulette

Oddly, I love it.  It's easy to find something to wear, because it all fits right and I like it.  I've removed everything from my closet that doesn't fit right now to a couple of bins so I don't have to look at them or play the trying-on game every morning.

I'm looking forward to the time when I can go back to my regular clothes after we're done nursing 100x a day and I've regained some semblance of my pre-baby body.  I have a much better idea of what I really *need* and can spend the cash to buy nicer options that I *want* to wear.

In the meantime, I'm going to revel in the brilliance behind pants with an elastic waist.  And maybe eat some more pie.