Pacific North Wonderland Day Three: Tattoos and Food in Portland

We woke up on the third day of our vacation in our little farm house on Sauvie Island. It had a tiny kitchen space that we really enjoyed. Travis likes to pretend he would love to live in a place this small. But his love of kitchen gadgets would not work out well here.

I cracked up at his very balanced breakfast. Half of a western veggie burger, a vegan cheese stick, two donuts and half of an apple fritter. (I'm still dreaming about those cheese sticks. How did they do it???)

Mine was a little better. The other half of the fritter, a cream filled donut and some cantaloupe. 

One of the best features of the place we stayed at was their hound dog Ruby! She was so sweet, this day she was across the field when she saw us, so she ran to us baying the whole way! She was rewarded for her greet with butt scritches from Travis. They keep a jar of treats in the guest house, and Ruby comes by several times a day to get one. She just looks in the door, you throw her a treat and she moves on. I loved it!

Our first stop of the day was Powell's Books, a HUGE independent bookstore. This place was super awesome and super overwhelming. We barely scratched the surface.

Travis got lost in the sci-fi section, and ended up with a copy of Ringworld by Larry Niven. I wandered into the YA section and saw the new Rainbow Rowell book was out! I had forgotten about it, so I snatched it up and ended up finishing it before our vacation was done. Guys, it was wonderful! If you loved Fangirl like I did, run, don't walk to get it!

If we lived in the area, we would frequent Powell's for sure. I loved all the employee recs and hand drawn signs, there was even a photo of Spock surrounded by fake flowers in the Sci Fi section. Travis and I both wish there was a place like it near us.

Travis is a very good sport and travel partner for me. He is pretty happy doing whatever, but I made sure to put some Travis-centric stops on my itinerary this trip. We went to several outdoor stores and browsed knives and bags (his favorite things). I only wish I had noticed they have a Timbuk2 store! That is maybe his favorite brand, and we didn't have time. We did have time for Poler, which has the cutest outdoor stuff! I ended up getting one of their Rambler backpacks. They had some really awesome Pendleton beach towels, but we didn't really need them.

We went to Chrome Industries too. I took selfies while he looked at bags and talked to the guys working there about fanny packs.

Next, we went to Scapegoat Tattoo so I could get some work done by Silje Hagland! I've been following her on Instagram forever and was so happy I was able to get an appointment while we were in the area.

I got this kitty off of her Halloween flash sheet. Isn't it sweet? She ended up having some more time later in the day for Travis to get something out of her book, so we said "goodbye for now" and went out to get some lunch. 

The shop assistant (or manager) suggested we try out the Bye and Bye. (His name was Travis Coe! We were freaking out because my Travis is Travis Cole)

This was another place where everything is vegan but it doesn't explicitly say so on the menu. They had pretty recently started offering lunch so it was deserted when we got there. I loved the decor!

I started with their Bye and Bye cocktail and it was delicious! Peach vodka, peach bourbon, lemon, cranberry juice and soda. It was also HUGE and I was a little tipsy for a while after this. For lunch I got the BBQ platter, which included my first taste of collard greens. I am aware that it is crazy for a Tennesseean to have her first greens in Oregon, but no one in my family makes them. They were GOOD! Travis got a vegan frito pie. Mmm, another wonderful restaurant. If we lived in Portland, it would be so hard not to eat out all the dang time!

I wrote postcards while we were sitting there. One card was really slick so my felt tip marker writing ran. I wrote over it with a ball point. It looked crazy, I couldn't believe it when it made it through the mail!

It turned out we were near a cute store I wanted to go to called Darling Distraction so we walked around for a while and browsed in a bunch of different stores. I loved this wallpaper!

I wanted to buy everything they had! I contented myself with a few patches and some gifts for my friends. (I went a little patch crazy on this trip, I think I have enough for two (or three) jackets now!)

We went in the coolest art store called Collage! It was full of so much fun stuff, like tiny woodland things, a Japanese section, fine art supplies, dia de los muertos stuff...

And a huge wall of washi tape! Seriously, everything was better in the PNW.

We walked past this wall and had to take photos. This message seemed very poignant to me at the time. "You are confined only by the walls you build yourself."

We ended up passing another place I kept hearing about, Back to Eden bakery. We enjoyed vegan ice cream and a little Boston cream pie.

Our last stop before we headed back for Travis' tattoo appointment was House of Vintage. The main reason I wanted to stop there was they have a real photo booth. (there were lots of them in Portland! And with credit card machines!)

It turned out to be a HUGE store full of mostly vintage clothes. It was pretty overwhelming!

I was able to ferret out a Dream Pet of course. Look at her beautiful lips!

And there was that beautiful machine!

Travis found this coat and tried to convince me to buy it because it looks like the one Jemaine has. Nice try! It actually would usually be a great argument, but we had bought him a vintage plaid coat just the day before.

He made me take a photo of this rack of jorts too. Hah!

Here is Travis getting tattooed by Silje. It is fun to get work while we're traveling! I'm going to try and get stuff done on our trips from now on (at least in the cooler months. I love swimming to much to get tattoos in the summer)

Here is what he got. Not a great photo, but look at how cute it is! I love it. 

We had a great three days in Portland, and can't wait to go back! I'll be back soon to tell you about the next leg of our trip, Orcas Island!

Ink and Iron Nashville/ 10th Tattoo of the Year

This past weekend I got my first tattoo at a tattoo convention. Most of my work is done by the same two guys but when I saw that one of my favorite artists on instagram was coming to Nashville as part of the Ink and Iron Convention I jumped at the chance to get a piece from him. And I love it! Look at this guy!

I got tattoed by Phil DeAngulo, his instagram is longstreetphil. I've been following him for a while and I love his style and color pallet. Having never gotten tattooed at a convention before I was a little nervous about it but I ended up having a great time. Phil was really nice and the other guys around him were fun too. I hope I'll be able to get tattooed by him again. He is based in Columbus, Ohio which isn't that far away from Nashville.

Travis wasn't planning on getting anything but he ended up with two! The toe was done by Holly Clouse. Her banner has a drawing of Lebowski on it and I suggested that he get a severed toe with green nail polish. It is so gross and so perfect. Travis has been talking about getting a pigeon tattoo and Nate Wilson had one drawn up and sitting out on his table. It was meant to be! Isn't it cute?
When I was talking to Phil I realized I have been tattooed TEN times this year! I think part of it is following so many tattoo artists on instagram. I see so much cool stuff it makes me want to get tattooed all the time!

I've gotten four Friday the 13th tattoos this year, including this precious tiny rabbit's foot and cute Totoro, which is my first below the elbow tattoo. I also got a kewpie face and a monkey paw. If you don't know about Friday the 13th tattoos, some shops offer small tattoos of sheets of flash for $13 dollars. There is one more Friday the 13th this year and I'll probably get at least one more. If you are in Nashville, Monolith on Nolensville usually does it, that is where I have gotten all of mine.

I got this Beyonce inspired piece from Eli Draughn after one of his clients didn't show up for the drawing. We changed the words in it and I LOVE it. One of my favorites.

I finished my kitsune tattoo in the spring with Jason St. Clair. A kitsune is a fox from Japanese folklore, isn't her skull bonnet cute? I still have to get the underside of this arm done. Travis and I have been going to Jason for a long time and he has done most of our tattoos. He did the octopus at the top of my arm about six years ago. I'm going to get him to do a tanuki on my right foot this fall as long as I can get my nerve up. The top of the foot hurts so bad!

A local artist posted a sheet of Valentine's flash and I had to get this little Dirty Dancing tattoo! Almost no one gets it, but I love it. On the right is the TCB tattoo I got, the same as Travis and two of our friends. Jason did all four for us.

And last but certainly not least, Eli started on these Watership Down tattoos for me. I'll be back in the fall to get them colored. I got Hazel on the right and Fiver on the left. The plants around them are from the books. Primrose (mentioned in the first line) then strawberry, blackberry and buckthorn, which are names of rabbits in the book. Watership Down is my favorite book and I've read it more than 20 times. I can't wait to finish these!

One last shot of this beautiful gator! I love tattoos (obviously) and am happy I've been able to get so much work done this year. I've got lots of plans for the future!

Life Lately

If you follow me on Instagram you know I just got back from a fun nine day trip to Asheville, NC. I have a TON of photos to go through (I think 16GB? or something insane) but I'm not emotionally ready to tackle that. So here are some shots of what has been going on lately. We have been having quite a summer.

First things first, the day after the Fourth of July we found this puppy in our backyard! Or, Travis found her. She had on a collar that was way too big and leash so we assumed someone must have taken her to see some fireworks and she got loose. We put up tons of signs and posted ads and called all the shelters and vets but no one called about her. She was even pretty good on a leash and in the crate, so it seems like someone had to have lost her.

Look at that tiny thing! She was a little too much for our senior pet rest home so my friend Crystal offered to take her in until the owners called. And no one did, so now she is part of the family! Little Veruca. Look at how precious she is with their dog Scurvy. A match made in heaven.

Our little nephew turned two and we went up to Louisville for his Elmo party.

We've been movie crazy as usual. Did you see Jurassic World? I loved it! It is pretty dumb, which is exactly what you want in your dinosaur action movie. We also went to see Jurassic Park in the park here! That is the only outdoor movie we've made it out to so far this year. I'm sad we missed Coal Miner's Daughter at the Belcourt a few weeks ago!

One of the perks of outdoor movies is Retro Sno seems to always be there. These are sweet tea sno balls with lemon! Yum!

Our good friends Aaron and Valerie visited from California and we all got the matching tattoos we've been talking about for YEARS! We tried to get them maybe seven years ago? But couldn't find a shop that could fit us all in. If you aren't familiar with TCB, it was Elvis' personal motto/symbol and we're all crazy Elvis fans.

A new raw vegan restaurant opened in town and we went to the soft opening. It was good, if expensive. The most amazing thing was this avocado margarita! Have you ever heard of such a thing? It was creamy and delicious and I want to have one right now!

A bar called Canvas hosted a Richard Simmons dance party and you know I was ALL over that. (if you haven't seen my post about the time I got to work out with Richard you have to see it here). People wore workout clothes and they showed Richard Simmons work outs over dance music and I LOVED it. I don't know if we've ever danced that much in public. We were all dripping with sweat by the time it was over. I hope they do it again!

Drag Race fans! Check out this beautiful lady! We went to see Miss Fame at Play and she was so weird and so good! I loved her latex outfits! I missed seeing Trixie Mattel because I was sick (ugh!) but Violet is coming next weekend and I can't wait! Also, did you hear they are doing All Stars 2? Yay!

Even with all the great stuff going on I've been under a lot of stress lately. Which is hopefully getting better. I treated myself to my second ever pedicure. The first was at the Aveda school and was less than relaxing, this one was great, even though I felt totally awkward and didn't know where to look. I also treated myself to a couple new dresses. I always send Travis dressing room selfies asking for opinions, even if he always says "That looks great!"

I'm reorganizing and cleaning and trying to get back on the Kon Mari train. Here is a photo of my "jewelry" collection. It's light on fancy, heavy on cute.

Oh man how did I get this far without mentioned this! We got tickets to see Dolly Parton at the Ryman this weekend! If you are in Nashville you know it sold out lightening fast, but Travis was able to get us two great seats because he delivers there. I can't wait! It is going to be all acoustic and I know I'll cry at least once.

I got my summah gum perk from backing Howard Kremer's Gu Cruise video last year. If you don't listen to Who Charted? that sentence probably makes no sense, so please enjoy a picture of my cat and my linoleum.

Of course I've been swimming like crazy. I'm getting tattooed next weekend (at a convention by someone from out of town. I don't usually get work done in the summer) so that will put the kibosh on swimming for a few weeks. Here is a photo of me as a mermaid pretending to drink from a big cup. I love that stupid underwater camera.