Seattle Archives - Page 8 of 20

Foodportunity

March 26, 2010 By Paola 4 Comments

Beautiful ravioli from the Herb Farm

Oh but I’ve been a busy bunny recently.

On Tuesday night I was lucky enough to go to Foodportunity – a networking event for Seattle foodies organised by Keren of FranticFoodie, where chefs, restaurateurs, press, bloggers, bakers and kitchen shops all get together to sample fabulous food from some of the top restaurants in Seattle.

This was the first time I’ve been and I so enjoyed myself. I got to meet fellow Seattle foodies and bloggers such as Seattle Bon Vivant and Carrie of Girl & Coconut (without her coconut on this occasion) whom I’ve been following for years, mirrormirror supplier Bella Cupcake Couture (with whom I’d only exchanged emails before) and loads of new and interesting people such as Lacey from A Greener Kitchen, a new ecofriendly online kitchen store.

The food was really excellent – with my prize for foodie bite of the night going to Alaska Silk Pie’s tiny Creme Brulee Cheesecakes – and best of all, thanks to good offices and generosity of Carrie Coconut, I won dinner for two at the Herb Farm, which is renowned as one of the very best restaurants in the whole of the Pacific Northwest. REALLY excited about that one.

I found out about Foodportunity on Twitter and the Herb Farm competition above was a Twitter competition on the night (which Carrie alerted me to). I’m really finding Twitter a great networking place to be, can’t think why I didn’t get on there earlier. My Twitter handle is @mirrormirrorxx. I’d love to see you there!

REALLY Cool Printed Fabric – ManoAllaMano

February 26, 2010 By Paola Leave a Comment

Or Benetton ads in quilting cotton.

Goodness but you guys are clever sometimes.

A regular commenter round these parts is Designer Mama – ManoAllaMano who lives in Seattle and has a young daughter adopted from Haiti. She is also a very talented photographer and graphic designer.

She couldn’t find any fabric that reflected her particular situation, and so, as you do, decided to design some of her own. It was such a big hit with her daughter, that she has come up with other permutations reflecting other variations of ‘non-typical’ American families – two mommies, two daddies, adoptive families, single parents, multi-racial etc.– and has just launched an Etsy shop, selling both quilting and upholstery weight fabrics.

This fabric seriously makes me want to learn to sew. I’d love to make the Minx something with this. It would also look fabulous framed (which may be the route I decide to go). Isn’t it just too cool?

A Walk Up My Street

February 23, 2010 By Paola 20 Comments

This comes with huge apologies for all those of you struggling with yet more snow in the UK and on the East Coast.

This is what has been happening in that crazy parallel universe we call Seattle, where we’ve been having an unseasonably mild and rainfree winter. This is all happening within a block of my house – you can smell the heady perfume in the streets. Have you ever seen so much insane loveliness in February? More on Flickr.

Today I Am Mostly…

February 7, 2010 By Paola 1 Comment

…walking round the lake

Today I Am Mostly…

January 7, 2010 By Paola 4 Comments

…watching the sunrise

Do you remember a couple of Januarys ago I started a photoblog called Today I Am Mostly? I didn’t have enough time then to keep it going then, but I’ve missed doing it so much.

This year I’m determined to really work on my photography and photo styling, so I thought it might be a good idea to revive TIAM. I’m not going to commit to every day, but I’m hoping to post two or three photos every week throughout the year. I’ll post them on ‘mirrormirror’ and also to www.todayiammostly.com and to my Flickr page f you want some unadulterated eye candy.

I’ve also retrospectively published a picture here.

Oh Tannenbaum

December 13, 2009 By Paola 9 Comments

Just when you thought there was nothing new under the sun in regards to Christmas trees, here is the extremely beautiful and, as far as I know anyway, very original ‘tree’ outside the Space Needle here in Seattle. It’s made of interlocking spherical ‘cages’ wrapped with thousands of tiny white lights.

{I was going to say, please excuse crappy iPhone pics, but actually it’s really rather staggering what you can do with a little mobile phone camera nowadays}

And A Partridge In A Pear Tree

December 11, 2009 By Paola Leave a Comment

I don’t normally like just linking to other people’s posts directly without adding ‘value’ or ‘insights’ of my own, but seriously if you haven’t already seen this incredible stand-up gingerbread partridge in a pear tree on Not Martha then I suggest you rush there straight away, where you’ll find lots of additional pictures and full instructions. Much better than anything you’ll find round these parts anyway.

{picture from Not Martha}

Cupcake Couture

October 13, 2009 By Paola 1 Comment

Our old friends Trophy Cupcakes here in Seattle have been showing off their Halloween cupcake range.

They are fabulous and I’m particularly liking their couture outfits from Bella Cupcake Couture. Truly fashion at its finest.

Bella Cupcake Couture makes textile inspired cupcake wrappers which are fabulous for weddings, parties and other special occasions. Utterly sublime.

Last Drop of Summer

September 29, 2009 By Paola Leave a Comment

or the final chapter for this year I think in ‘If My Daughter Ever Complains About Her Childhood I Will Refer Her To This Blog’.

We spent the weekend at Lake Chelan, about three and a half hours drive from Seattle, high in the Cascade mountains, where the cooler temperate coastal climate of Seattle and its surroundings meets the desert of Eastern Washington. The climate and landscape seemed very Mediterranean and the lake itself reminded me a little of the northern reaches of Lake Garda in Italy, though sadly without the charming jewel-like lakeside towns and delightful Italian restaurants.

Much kayaking and swimming – in crystal-clear lake and pool – was accomplished and a great time was had by all. And a good job too, because we got back to find that autumn has finally arrived with a vengeance in Seattle. The words ‘freaking cold’ came to mind this morning.

We’ve got no more weekend trips planned (at least until the end of the month, when the Minx and I need to go to Canada to renew our visas) and I’m relishing the idea of hunkering down a bit with knitting and house stuff – it’s been a long, long, but utterly fabulous summer.

Hot Date – Seaplanes and Kayaks

September 22, 2009 By Paola 7 Comments

It’s a busy month round here – both the Husband and I have birthdays and it’s also our wedding anniversary – so we decided to both take the day off work and go on ‘hot date’ instead.

Can anyone tell me why we haven’t done this before? It felt so deliciously naughty and decadent and we didn’t even need a babysitter, just friends who were kind enough to pick the Minx up from school.

Despite the fact that we live close to Seattle’s Lake Union and are constantly buzzed by the seaplanes flying overhead, the Husband had never been on one (I did here, but it’s not quite the same in February), so we decided to book a flight out to Roche Harbor on San Juan Island.

I do keep forgetting what a ridiculously beautiful corner of the world I accidentally ended up in.

Ready for takeoff

Bye bye Seattle and Mt Rainier

Past Mt Baker

Lunchtime

Pretty restaurant

Kayaking – we saw seals! (but I wasn’t quick enough with my camera to photograph them)

Autumn is on its way

Iles flottantes

Into the sunset

Back towards Rainier

Approaching Seattle

Buzzing the Space Needle

It’s expensive, but on a beautiful day I can’t recommend this highly enough to anyone living in the Pacific Northwest. It truly was one of the most awesome things I’ve ever done in my life.