artsy forager

Category: This Artsy Life

Glimpses into the life of Artsy & Mr. Forager

  • This Artsy Life: Weekend 43 [ Dear October, We Love You ]

    This Artsy Life: Weekend 43 [ Dear October, We Love You ]

    This Artsy Life: Weekend 43  I’m so with you, Lucy Maud Montgomery!  Mr. F and I were talking this weekend about how October is just the perfect month.  The crisp air is such a welcome change following summer, the turning leaves are in full glory ( it’s been exceptionally colorful here in Western WA! ), and for us in the Northwest, the winter rains haven’t yet set fully in.

    We took advantage of a clear, crisp day and made a beautiful drive to hike at Mt. St. Helens.  We both hate getting up before the sun, but I love our day trip ritual.  A stop at Urraco Coffee for a latte & croissant for the road, trees barely visible through the morning fog and NPR on the radio as we chat about the week past and future plans.

    October feels to me like that last wonderful hour of a party.. you know, the one where the people who really love hanging out together are just kind of sitting around, chatting and basking in the afterglow of a fun time together.  No one wants to say goodnight.  Because once you break the spell, the magic is gone.

    This Artsy Life: Weekend 43

    [ norway pass hike, mt. adams in distance ]

    But then, there is something equally lovely about that post-party feeling.  Taking off your shoes, climbing into a warm bed and snuggling.  Sometimes we need that recovery day as much as we needed the party.  Following its eruption in 1980 ( I was in the 3rd grade.. 3rd grade was big for me, St. Helens erupted, I won the spelling bee and my little brother was born ), acres around the mountain were devastated.  Within just days, new seeds of life had already been planted.

    This Artsy Life: Weekend 43

    [ old destruction, new growth ]

    We need that, too.  To slow down, sometimes to destroy in order to rebuild.  And although things may not look exactly the same ever again, we emerge, perhaps even more solid and strong.

    This Artsy Life: Weekend 43

    [ mr. forager, mt. st. helens & spirit lake ]

    As we move into this season of hibernation, I’m sad to see October go.  But I’m looking forward to cozying up to November, to entering a quieter season, a season for thinking and planning, for resting and renewing.

    This Artsy Life: Weekend 43

    [ homemade seafood chowder ]

    This Artsy Life: Weekend 43

    [ fall decorations at urraco ]

     How does this change of season make you feel, Artsies?  Do you get as excited as we do?  Or were you bummed to see summer go?

    Want to see more from this artsy life?  Follow me on Instagram!  I’m finishing up the #foliophoto project, too!

  • This Artsy Life: Weekend 42 [ Time Keeps on Slippin’ ]

    This Artsy Life: Weekend 42 [ Time Keeps on Slippin’ ]

    The end is fast approaching, ya’ll.  In less than 4 weeks, we will be setting off again to parts as yet unknown.  While there isn’t much to do in this little town during the week, there is an overwhelming amount of awesome places to see within a day’s drive!  Which means that we’ve been trying to explore and check stuff off our list before our time here is up.  This weekend we decided to hit up our second favorite Northwest city, Portland.  And after seeing it in the Fall, I must admit.. it might just take over the #1 spot.  Sorry, Seattle!

    I don’t know what it is about this time of year that makes me long for big cities.  Maybe its the mix of falling leaves, steel and concrete.  Maybe it’s how very alive cities feel in the Autumn, when there is so much going on.  We ran a few errands then headed to the Pearl District to do a little gallery-hopping.  I’ll be sharing more about some awesome shows and galleries in a separate post.  Gallery-hopping is thirsty business so we went over to Powell’s Books, a must-do whenever we’re in Portland, for a cold beverage and some book browsing, followed by vintage clothing browsing and record store browsing while waiting for Tugboat Brewing to open. ( Beer is always Mr. F’s reward following an afternoon spent in galleries ).  We jammed a lot into those ten hours in Portland.  But anytime we’re in a place we love, it’s never quite enough, is it?  Time just goes by too fast and we’re always a bit nervous that the next destination might not be as lovely.

    This Artsy Life: Weekend 42- Portland

    This Artsy Life: Weekend 42- Portland

    This Artsy Life: Weekend 42- Portland

    This Artsy Life: Weekend 42- Portland

    There is still so much we want to see and do before we leave this area!  I’m not sure we’re going to be able to get to everything on our list.  How did our time here slip away so quickly?  We’re determined to savor what’s left.  A lesson we can take into every day we have, yes?

    All images by Artsy Forager.  To see more of this artsy life, follow Artsy on Instagram.

  • This Artsy Life: Weekend 41 [ An Artsy Never Says Never ]

    This Artsy Life: Weekend 41 [ An Artsy Never Says Never ]

    If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my several decades of life, it is never say never.  Now I might say I highly doubt that will ever happen.. but I’ve learned that just when you think never is the only answer, you change, circumstances change and you find yourself thinking.. ok, maybe.

    Mr. F and I are learning to always be open to where the next turn in the path may lead.  What we might think is a step back, may end up being two steps forward in a different direction.  We spent some time this weekend, as we seem to do every weekend, exploring around us and playing a familiar game.. “Could we live here?”.  We were in this area when we first came out to the Northwest together and I was still adjusting to traveling, to married life, to being away from my family and in a completely new setting.  We have some very fond memories of that time, but it definitely wasn’t the easiest for us.  When we left I was close to “nevering” this place, well, that other little town in particular.  But now, after experiencing more places, this rainy, beautiful peninsula does have its draw.

    We explored one of our favorite little towns, Astoria, OR and I remembered thinking how we’d kind of crossed it off our list as just a bit too rainy.. never say never.  Then on Sunday, we drove up Hood Canal and Mr. F took me for a little tour of neighborhoods higher up in the mountains where the air is a bit drier, a bit crisper, the towns much smaller, but the homes way more affordable.. never say never.

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    [ fall day in Astoria ]

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    [ beer..a “never” I broke after Mr. F & got together ]

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    [ taking these paths together ]

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    [ views like this might never get old ]

    We are incredibly blessed to be living a life that is so wide open.  There are friends who say they could never live this way, but to them I say never say never!  Freedom has its advantages.

    Want to see more from this artsy life?  Follow me on Instagram! PS– found a fantastic Frida Kahlo shrine in Astoria!  Head over to Instagram to see. 😉

    All images are by Artsy Forager.

  • This Artsy Life: Weekend 40 [ Atmosphere is Almost Everything ]

    This Artsy Life: Weekend 40 [ Atmosphere is Almost Everything ]

    With every new place, we make out a list of our “must sees” while we are there and this weekend, the sun finally came out, so we took full advantage and happily crossed a few items off our list!  One of our favorite “perfect day” activities is to do a little wine tasting.  So we headed down to the Williamette Valley in Oregon to enjoy some Fall color and hit a few vineyards.  You might remember we did a little wine tasting while we were in Southern California and while a day spent tasting wine is never a bad thing, we did find the SoCal style, with cavernous, crowded tasting rooms and glamorous, perfect people flitting about a bit off putting.  We like a quieter, cozy atmosphere, one where the winemaker himself might proudly take you on a tour of his vineyard, where staff take the time to chat and get to know you.  Maybe we’re a bit biased towards the NW, but there is just something about the wine country atmosphere up here that just feels more inviting.

    So we spent a beautiful, cloudless day exploring the Oregon countryside and finished the day with a quick detour into Portland for dinner at our favorite Thai restaurant, Pok Pok.  I swear, Mr. F fantasizes about the Vietnamese Fish Sauce Wings.  This is one place where, though the atmosphere is definitely NW cool, it is all about the food.  They could serve their yummies out of a brown paper bag on a street corner and we would still line up to eat it.

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    So many of our Sundays these days seem to be spent catching up and running errands, and we got a bit of that in, but took the afternoon to make the drive over to the coast, hoping to catch one of our former landlords at their coffee shop, Tinderbox Coffee Roasters in Westport.  Have you ever run across people who were just instant friends?  Tara & Nick, the owners of Tinderbox, rented their house to us a few years ago, my first time living in the Northwest and being away from Florida.  Friendly, warm, genuine people that we took an instant liking to.  The kind of people who get it.  And it shows in the coffee they brew and the atmosphere they’ve created at Tinderbox.  Unpretentious, cozy and full of life, just like them.  If you find yourself in Westport, or passing through Aberdeen/Hoquiam ( where they have a drive-thru stand ), make sure you stop and get a cup of java.  It will warm you inside and out.

    Want to see more from this artsy life?  Follow me on Instagram!

    All images by Artsy or Mr. Forager. 😉

  • This Artsy Life: Weekend 39 [ Rain-soaked Northwest Days ]

    This Artsy Life: Weekend 39 [ Rain-soaked Northwest Days ]

    There is a strange bright light coming through my window.. I think it might be the sun!  Hello old friend.  Where were you this weekend, huh?  The rain came down hard and often all weekend long.  We braved the weather to make the picturesque drive up along the Hood Canal to one of our favorite spots, the beautiful artsy Victorian seaport town on Port Townsend.  It had been over 2 years since we’d been there last, so we wondered, would we still love it like crazy?  The short answer? Yes yes yes! Even in near nonstop rain and gusting winds.  The conditions meant that we didn’t get to enjoy the PT scenery as much as we would like, hence the lack of outdoor snapshots for you, but it made for a relaxing day darting in out of the rain and then slow, casual browsing and lounging.

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    [ impatiently awaiting breakfast at Hudson Point Cafe ]

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    [ rainy day book browsing at William James Bookseller ]

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    [ planning our future over a flight from Port Townsend Brewing Company ]

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    [ inaugural game of Killer Bunnies ]

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    [ coffee with a view at Better Living Through Coffee ]

    It was one of those blissful weekends in which we didn’t spend much time on the laptop or iPad, more time spent talking than typing.  And can I just say that if the rain leads to weekends like this, then keep on fallin’! 😉

    Hope your weekend was just as wonderful, dear Artsies!  If you’d like to see more from This Artsy Life, follow me on Instagram.  Let me know your Instagram handle in the comments so I can follow you, too!

    All images by Artsy Forager.

  • This Artsy Life: Weekend 38 [ when nothing goes as planned ]

    This Artsy Life: Weekend 38 [ when nothing goes as planned ]

    We check the weekend forecast religiously throughout the week.  Here in the Northwest, especially in the Fall, the weather can change on a dime.  All week, the forecast was calling for periodic rain for Saturday.  So no hiking or biking for the Foragers!  We decided instead, to take a road trip down to Astoria, one of our favorite little Northwest towns.  But our MacBook, it seems, had other plans.. internet connectivity issues forced us to forgo a lovely day of traipsing around Astoria in the rain in lieu of a smack-dab-middle-of-the-day Genius Bar appointment in.. wait for it.. Tacoma.  Woo.  No offense to Tacoma, but it just hasn’t been very high on our list of places to see.  Actually I don’t think it’s been on Mr. F’s list at all.  I suspected hidden potential.

    Imagine our surprise when we awoke to sunny skies on Saturday.  We decided to make the most of our Tacoma day, lining up some well reviewed eateries, but deciding to skip the Tacoma Art Museum because the Museum of Glass was closed for a private event.  We’ll go back when we can hit them both.  So it would just be a day for errands, eating, and exploring.

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    After a rocky start– an hour long wait to be served breakfast meant we sped to our Apple appointment sans nourishment in our bellies– we finally explored a bit of the Tacoma Theater District on the unexpectedly sunny day.  Lots of lovely little antique shops ( oh how I wish my sis-in-law & fellow browser had been with me! ) and fantastic architecture, along with a very cool public art installation– The Garages, where it seems the city? owners of the  garages? have given over the walls of the structure as a place for creative expression in the form of street art and graffiti.

    Though we were a bit disappointed in our food choices, we were pleasantly surprised by the part of Tacoma we explored.  We treated ourselves to a movie that evening, not much else to do at night in tiny Shelton and Sunday was spent running more errands and catching up on work.  Do you ever have weekends like that?  Ones that you look forward to all week, only to have them sabotaged a bit by the mundane problems of modern life?  Oh well.  High hopes for next weekend!

    Want to see more from glimpses into This Artsy Life?  Follow me on Instagram!

    All images by Artsy Forager.

  • This Artsy Life: Weekend 37 [ The Rains Come, Fall Begins ]

    This Artsy Life: Weekend 37 [ The Rains Come, Fall Begins ]

    I know it’s not officially Fall yet, but this weekend it finally began to feel as if it is on its way!  the Pacific Northwest has had an utterly gorgeous, yes, but uncharacteristically warm and long summer.  And as a Florida girl who moved to the Northwest hoping to never experience 90+ degrees again, I am more than ready to welcome my favorite season!

    When we were in this area two years ago, we loved being so close to Olympic National Park, but since we were closer to the coast then, we explored more along the West side of the park, never making into the Hood Canal side.  It was a cloudy and foggy morning, but that just added to the beauty of our Saturday hike.  The Olympics, to me, feel the most “Northwest” of all the parks in these states.  You get a little taste of everything– big mountains, crystal clear streams, giant ferns and moss covered trees.

    20130916-081819.jpgThis little hike was so beautiful, I felt like I was grinning the entire time.  While the long, arduous hikes usually reward us with panoramic views, sometimes these quiet woodsy hikes are just as nice.  It’s on these traipsing-through-the-woods hikes that we really talk and connect and check in with each other.  ( I’m usually too out of breath on the more strenuous hikes to do much chatting! )

    20130916-081853.jpgAt one point, we sat quietly on a felled tree along the riverbank, just soaking in the smells and sounds so different from what we’d been experiencing recently.  We agreed that although we both felt some sadness that Seattle didn’t work out for us, our decision was right.  We need quiet.  We crave peace and wildness and beauty.  And while you certainly catch more glimpses of such in Seattle than perhaps other cities, we knew we would long for more than glimpses.

    We talked about how much we loved the landscape in this region– this perfect mix of mountains and rainforest, how much good stuff is such an easy distance away– a short drive and we’re at the Pacific, in Seattle, in Oregon wine country, in Portland, at Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens, even the drier, more desert-y Eastern Washington, if the rain ever gets to be too much.  We reflected on how funny it would be if we were to end up settling in the first Northwest place we came to together.  We’re still not sure what the future holds, but the Olympic Peninsula is still on our list of possibilities. 😉

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    The rain held off and gave us a perfect day on Saturday, while Sunday was a more typically Northwest Fall-ish sort of day.  Quiet, sporadic drizzly rain made for the perfect day for a day at home, Mr. F in the kitchen and I on my laptop catching up on blogs and watching a lovely, autumnal movie.

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    We have so much to look forward to, so many trips to take and plans to make and dreams to nurture.  In many ways, it feels like this Fall is a new beginning.  I can’t wait to see what else is in store!

    How was your weekend, Artsies?  Did you enjoy fine weather?  Dream and make plans?  If you’d like to see more from This Artsy Life, follow me on Instagram.

    First three images by Artsy Forager, last image foundhere.

  • This Artsy Life: Weekend 36 [ Salve for My Stir Crazy ]

    This Artsy Life: Weekend 36 [ Salve for My Stir Crazy ]

    I’m a bit of a homebody, I admit.  But am finding I’m a little more stir crazy than normal lately.  I blame working from home.  And the home health job which necessitates Mr. F to always have the car during the week.  So when asked what I wanted to do this weekend, I replied, “Anything, as long as it gets me out of the house!”.

    While we were in Coeur d’Alene last summer, we loved exploring all the Rails to Trails bike trails.  So we were excited to find there were a few decently long trails within an easy driving distance.  Despite the clouds, we set off on Saturday and did a quick little 17 mile ride.  Not nearly as pretty as the trails around CdA, but the fresh air did my heart and mind lots of good.  Still not wanting to be at home, we finally tried what looks like it might be the best place to eat in the tiny town of Shelton.  A little barbecue and some fried green tomatoes are always a good idea for these Southern transplants!  Oh and the awesome beer & drink selection didn’t hurt either.  Shelton has redeemed itself.

    On Sunday we decided to go over to Olympia to grab coffee and try to hunt down some duck for a recipe Mr. F was dying to try out.  I love Olympia’s funky, grungy feel.  It has a fantastic downtown filled with shops, galleries and eateries.  Hope to go back for a day soon and give you a little artsy tour!

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    [ it was beginning to look like fall on the trail ]

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    [ wetting our whistles post ride ]

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    [ downtown Olympia ]

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    All images by Artsy Forager.

  • This Artsy Life: Weekend 35 [ Artsy Say Relax, Part Deux ]

    This Artsy Life: Weekend 35 [ Artsy Say Relax, Part Deux ]

    Normally, when graced with a 3-day weekend, Mr. F and I might take the opportunity to get out of town, maybe do a little camping.  But after a week of not feeling super great, we both decided that another low-key weekend was what we needed.  We did manage to squeeze in a nice little hike at Mt. Rainier in between all our chillin’ out.

    Relax collage

    I know I said back to adventuring next weekend.. but this time I really mean it!  Fall is my favorite time of year and I intend to enjoy it to the fullest.  Hope you had a wonderful restful weekend, Artsies and are ready to conquer the world this week!

    Images by Artsy Forager.  See more of This Artsy Life on Instagram.

  • This Artsy Life: Weekend 34 [Artsy Say Relax]

    This Artsy Life: Weekend 34 [Artsy Say Relax]

    You guys.  It has been soooo long.  So very long since we had a weekend like this one!  Nowhere to be, no one to meet, no chores needing to be checked off.  Absolutely no pressure to do anything.  After the craziness of the last few months, it was just what we needed.  Best thing about a do nothing weekend?  The way it frees your mind to observe, to rest, to think.  Oh and there were divine cinnamon rolls and the worst Chinese food ever.

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    [ saturday morning treat ]

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    [ blue skies above ]

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    [ finally reading Concerning the Spiritual in Art by Kandinsky ]

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    [ horseshoes– Mr. F is really good, I am really not ]

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    [ sunday drive along hood canal ]

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    [ looking up ]

    Weekends like this almost make me want to spend every weekend this way.  But we have hikes to take, places to go and people to see!  More adventures next weekend, promise!

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    All images by Artsy Forager.