hudson paint has introduced 24 new colors of chalkboard paint!
colors like 'safety orange' and 'genius pink'!
at $24/quart it's not cheap, but that's why we have christmas lists! *wink*wink*
I couldn't leave out all the amazing art we saw while in Seattle!
On our food tour our guide explained that a few years ago the city passed a law stating that all new construction and/or facade renovations may be done with one condition: that a minimum of 1% of the projects total budget go to outdoor art.
It is paying off big-time! The city is awash in art!
Here's Rachel the Pig. She's the world's largest piggy bank.
You can see brass hoof-prints in the cement around her - each of them has the name of someone who donated money to cast the original Rachel.
Did I mention she's a life-size replica of a famous local pig? She is!
The famous Public Market sign with flowers growing on the roof of the Market - it was beautiful!
No where near the Market, but this sign is a piece of Seattle history. It is the original automated drive-thru car wash in the city AND it is the only drive-thru car wash that can truthfully claim it has washed the President's limo. I just loved the vintage style of the sign!
Look closely by the feet of the pink elephant and you'll see her little gray babies!
Last but not least is the most unbelievable street food vendor you've ever seen!
Meet Maximus Minimus! We didn't stop and eat anything because we were zooming by on our food tour, but this thing is over-the-top!
I wish I'd gotten a photo of the back end of it - there's a piggy tail!
Everything in Seattle seemed artsy and everywhere we went was pristine - cars weren't clunkers with black smoke coming out their pipes, dogs didn't bark and yip like usual - the homeless we met on the streets were even clean and polite! Maybe it was all the wonderful food I ate while there and my head was in a carbed-out fog but Seattle just took my breath away!
It's my new favorite city! I can't wait to visit again soon!
Out trip to Seattle was over too soon and before we knew it we were on a plane leaving Washington.
(can you see Mt. Rainier in the distance?)
The memories (and hundreds of pictures we took) will last a lifetime, but the trip wasn't quite over yet. One more post will sum it all up.
Guess where we spent a three hour layover before we flew home to Chicago???
The train trip to Seattle was AMAZING! As we pulled in to the train station in the city early in the morning we instantly spotted the city's most famous landmark - the Space Needle.
The Needle is in the center of a park with a small-town-county-fair type of atmosphere. There's a carousel and food vendors and plenty of street musicians and performers. I think this photo best represents the weather during our stay in Seattle - blue skies and warm sun with not a drop of rain!
Walking is the best way to see Seattle. We marveled at how CLEAN everything was, with recycling bins and trash cans everywhere and people USED THEM! We walked everywhere - only took the city metro when it was absolutely necessary but their public transport system is awesome too. I can't stress enough how great this city is!
The building in the background is the EMP (Experience Music Project). It houses the largest collection of Jimmy Hendrix memorabilia, since he was from Seattle, and the building was designed to look like one of his smashed guitars.
We spent hours in the Seattle Aquarium! Right on the water - literally, it is built on Pier 59 - the exhibits are so interactive and colorful. Live demonstrations with harbor seals and a fish hatchery made it a truly Seattle experience!
One of our favorite stops was Pike Place Market. Just a few flights of stairs from the piers it borders the water and is full of incredible food, flowers, seafood and little shops - bliss! Hubby & I took a food tour and this held a few of our stops including a Swedish bakery, Ethiopian restaurant and an English tea house that sold fresh baked crumpets. We found a way to stop by the Market every day we were in Seattle - THAT'S how great it is!
Another MUST was to take the Duck tour of the city. Poppie bought everyone 'quacker' whistles...just imagine the most obnoxious duck call you've ever heard and THAT is what these sounded like!
I would recommend the Duck tour to anyone visiting the city! The vehicle alone is cool to ride in by the behind-the-scenes things that you learn about the city and get to see are amazing. The tour was over an hour long and YES, we got to drive right into the water!
Seattle is like the San Francisco of the northwest! The steep roads and sidewalks and all the stairs going to and from the piers...it's a workout! The picture above shows us leaving the Market to head to one of the piers and the kids counted the steps one day - over 65 stairs!
Take a close look at the photo above.
Look closer - see anything interesting?
The wall is covered in gum! It's the Gum Wall!
It's in a small alley at the entrance to a small live theatre. Story goes that while people would wait in line for tickets they would stick their gum to the wall - it became a theatre tradition and people started pressing pennies into their gum and sticking it to the wall for "good luck".
Our guide encouraged us to add to the wall if we wanted to (here is Doug contributing to the wall). The city passed an ordinance a few years ago actually allowing and protecting this off-the-beaten-path landmark.
Kinda gross - kinda cool. The kids couldn't believe it and we're glad we took the time to find it!
At the EMP they had a Muppets display going on! We got to see (in glass cases of course) the original puppets of Bert & Ernie, Fraggle Rock, the original Kermit. Did you know his eyes were really made from a ping pong ball cut in half? True.
In the exhibit there was a hands-on part where you could work a puppet for a live camera and experience puppeteering just like they do on the Muppets and Sesame Street. Trevor and Mamie tried it a couple of times and said it was much harder than it looked! If you want to find out if this traveling exhibit is coming to a venue near you click here!
Ever seen a fish hatchery or a salmon ladder? We did!
Who would have guessed that you have to go to Seattle to order the biggest meatball ever?!
Such great restaurants - so much variety and obviously the freshest seafood ever!
This pig was a sculpture in our hotel lobby. Seattle has pigs everywhere.
It's all because of one pig named Rachel - she's the world's largest piggy bank and she sits at the Pike Place Market. Each year she collects more than $11,000 in change and it all goes to fund a local health care clinic for the homeless in the city.
Who knew that men in orange slickers throwing smelly dead fish around could be so interesting!
The flowers in the Market were breathtaking! Everywhere you turned there was another flower vendor with MORE amazing flowers and even LOWER prices! If I lived in Seattle I'd come here every day for fresh flowers!
On our Duck tour we splashed into Lake Union (a nice sized lake in the center of the city) right near our hotel. While we were floating around our driver pointed this house out to us...do you recognize it?
It's THE house used in the movie 'Sleepless In Seattle'!
And guess what? I'd been running by it every morning and didn't even know it!
My morning run every day took me over this neat little drawbridge. Two different days I actually had to stop and wait for the bridge to go back down - it's a busy boat area.
My run always lead me to this statue.
On the same block as the headquarters of Getty Images (for all you digital art geeks out here - like my husband) this statue stands and is outfitted daily by the residents of Seattle. You never know what they people will be wearing from one day to the next. And the dog in the middle....well, he has the face of a local politician that the sculptor didn't like.
Don't get me started on the sculpture and art found in this great city.....
We went to the zoo on a grey day.
The animals were grey, the sky was grey. Not much color around besides THESE guys....
I LOVED these guys - they were so vivid!
It got me thinking about the rest of our zoo visit. What if.....
I like the animals the way they are but going to a zoo like this would be fun for a day!!!
Thanks to one of my favorite bloggers, we found out about The Flying Cupcake!
What a treat! Thanks Meg!!!
We chose some yummy ones - they put our selections on a vintage kitchen tray and then boxed them up to go in a pink cotton candy colored box! Perfection!
The Flying Cupcake is SO MUCH MORE than just cupcakes!
The atmosphere is an experience - it's well worth the trip.
My sweet hubby saw how I went gaga for these numbered mugs so he bought me my very own set!
You know the place is a hit when the whole family enjoys the trip.....
...my husband was a happy cupcake customer!
Take a roadtrip and visit The Flying Cupcake!
The sun is shining.
Birds are chirping and bees are buzzing.
Caterpillars are inching along and the grass couldn't be more green.
Happiness.
Super-bright, super-colorful chalk!
Comes in real handy when you have a wall you can draw on!
I consider chalkboard paint to be in the Top 10 Best Things Ever!
So do the kids!
(the feet in the pic belong to me - I was reclining on the couch and taking in the sun)
The fort is so relaxing...
I think I might just have to claim it as mine. :)
I have an Art-O-Mat in my shop.
A WHAT you say? Well take a look at the website and educate yourself.
You'll thank me later.
They're very cool and are all about getting exposure to the arts and artists from around the world.
I wanted to map out where the machines were so I thought globally.
You can find these fantastic machines as far away as Vienna, Austria and Canada!
I really just love the gallery-in-a-box concept.
I plan on placing pins into the globe at the site of each machine,
but for now it hangs in my front window above a display of the miniature pieces of art.
And that's my Art-O-Mat there in the background.
They're refurbished cigarette machines that dispense ART instead of CANCER STICKS.
Yeah, mini-soapbox for ya. Sorry, but I don't like smoking.
To make the globe we used a $3 beach ball as a mold for our paper mache.
Used a flour/water mixture, a little newspaper and we were cookin'!
Mamie was a big help with the project but couldn't believe how it dried out our hands!
And I have to credit hubby and Trev for the wonderful faux ocean paint job.
I credit the idea for this design to Kiki magazine.
It's a great one for young girls - positive and encouraging.
Couldn't find it at the library or my local mom-n-pop bookstore, but it's worth the trip to Borders or B&N!
When's the last time you took on a messy project?
Try one - it's just so much fun!
Dear sweet Linda sent me these vintage bottlecaps!
She makes the most AMAZING collages and her collections will blow your mind.
My kiddos think her kitchen is a candy store (from the pics they've seen) and, well, she throws parties for her daughter that rival something reserved for royalty!
Thank you Linda!
I'll have pics soon from this project...
Love well. Dream big.
Guilt is a wasted emotion.
Being a mother now doesn't mean abandoning the woman you were before.
Smile at a stranger, and mean it.
Pretty flowers wilt and fade.
Warm hearts last forever.
Do something outside your comfort zone - and do it with abandon.
Talk to your kids like you would want them to talk to you.
Be real and in the moment.
Having it all does not necessarily mean all at once.
The best day of your life hasn't necessarily aready happened.
photo by whimsical rubbish
We found out last week that my mom is STILL in remission! Her hair is growing back and she has more energy than ever! Truly one more reason to give praise!
