Bead Simple Event at Powells on April 7th!

Susan is having a Bead Simple book event at Powell’s next Monday, April 7th! She’s going to do a short reading, show some of the projects, introduce the Portland guest designers, and show visitors how to make a cute pair of earrings to take home (like the pair shown above)! She’s even bringing her own stash of vintage beads for people to use. It will be an evening of crafty fun! Don’t miss it!

Bead Simple event at Powell’s (upstairs in the Basil Hayward Gallery)
1005 W. Burnside St., downtown Portland
Monday, April 7 at 7:30 pm

New jewelry at Mink!

A fresh new batch of Spring Totinette jewelry is now available at Mink Boutique’s gorgeous new location! If you haven’t been in their new space yet, you must hurry over there! It’s very elegant and sophisticated girly (think modern day Marie Antoinette) and full of beautiful spring styles.

Mink Boutique
3418 SE Hawthorne Blvd.
Portland, OR 97214

advice on cribs?

Some of my friends tease me because I’ve already spent a bunch of time looking at cribs and modern nursery photos, trying to get some inspiration for our future nursery. It’s amazing how expensive most “modern nursery” stuff is. Luckily for people like me who aren’t made of money, Target, JC Penney and even WalMart have some cute modern nursery furniture and bedding.

So far, my favorites (that we might actually be able to afford) are:
* Dwell Studio for Target Silverlake crib in walnut/white
* Parklane Baby Mod nursery collection at WalMart
* Da Vinci Mercer Crib
* Sweet Pea Modern Crib at JC Penney

What I don’t know is (and feel free to help me out on this one), is it better to get a crib that has a droppable side rail (seems practical) or a crib that converts to a toddler bed (also practical)? For some reason, with the ones I’m looking at it seems like it’s either one or the other, but you can’t have both. Any suggestions?

16 weeks!

I’m finally starting to have a big enough belly that when I show people they don’t laugh and say, “You don’t have a belly! I have a bigger belly than you!” (Seriously, that’s happened a handful of times.) Our next midwife appointment is this week. After that one, I’m going to finally announce the news on my other blog.

Haven’t had any strong cravings lately…oh, except deviled eggs…and homemade guacamole (thanks to Rachel’s yummy recipe)…and toasted bagels with butter. I made some deviled eggs for Easter and scarfed down a bunch of the rejects as I was putting the nice ones on my darling egg plate. They were good! I want more. It’s funny because I couldn’t stomach eggs for a long time and now I’m always wanting them (but not scrambled for some reason).

All this talk about food is making me hungry…

Bead Simple is out today!!!

Susan Beal’s new book Bead Simple is officially released!  It’s full of amazing projects, inspiration, and well explained techniques! Plus, 40 guest designers made their own versions of some of Susan’s projects (and I’m one of them!). This is a really gorgeous book perfect for anyone who likes to make jewelry or has been wanting to try. The book is available at bookstores, Michaels and Amazon. If you’d like a signed copy, you can get one from the Taunton Store or Susan’s etsy shop!

Another Mabel and Zora!

Mabel and Zora just opened their second store! Mark your calendars for their grand opening party on March 29th, but feel free to visit them before that. The new store is located at 748 NW 11th Ave. between Johnson and Irving.  It’s a gorgeous space full of the beautiful, wearable clothing and accessories that Mabel and Zora is known for! (And they have a fresh batch of the newest Totinette jewelry.) www.mabelandzora.com

the joys of grocery shopping

I’m afraid I’m going to be banned from Trader Joe’s soon. A couple weeks ago we went in and the whole store smelled like garlic (see most offensive smell in previous post). I freaked out and was yelling at Q, “Hurry! Grab what you want! We have to get out of here! I can’t handle this smell! Hurry! Hurry!” If you’d only seen me (and not all of the other calm shoppers) you would have thought the place was going up in flames.

Then yesterday we were there again and Q showed me something that he wanted to have for dinner. Apparently I said, in a somewhat panicked and overly-loud tone, “I can’t eat just that! I have to have something else to go with it! I need something else!!” The guy shopping next to us turned around and looked at me. Q was like, “I didn’t say we had to eat just this.” Crazy hormones.

Hello and Welcome!

Hello! I’m about 14.5 weeks pregnant and started this blog to document all of the oddities that are happening to me for the enjoyment of my friends and family (and anyone else out there who wants to know). I named the blog “Strawberry Cravings” because in the beginning of my pregnancy strawberries were the ONLY thing that sounded good. (and unfortunately for me, they’re out of season, not very tasty this time of year, and pretty expensive)

Just to get caught up:

Number of times I’ve thrown up: 2
Number of times I’ve almost thrown up: hundreds
Most offensive smell: garlic / garlic breath
Favorite thing(s) to do: lay on the couch, take naps, eat
Current craving (or should I say obsession?): watermelon
(I sent $3.50 on a small tub of fruit salad on my way to work today because it had 4 pieces of watermelon on top.)

Foods I’ve craved so far: strawberries, cherries, grapes, celery with cream cheese, strawberry sundaes, fudgsicles, pears, popcorn with real butter, salmon the way my dad cooks it, muffins from a certain bakery (at 4:45 am), chicken strips with BBQ sauce…nothing too out of the ordinary so far.

Foods I really enjoy eating: string cheese, cheez-its, taco salads, fruit, ice cream

Crafty Sunday!

Come to Crafty Wonderland tomorrow (Sunday) to shop from 40 talented artists and craft vendors! You can also make a fun Egg Surprise at our free DIY Table. 11am-4pm at Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E. Burnside, Portland.

While you’re out, make a day of the fun craftiness and visit the CRAFT: magazine issue 06 release party at Twisted!

 And don’t forget to set your clocks forward tonight!

gifts! gifts! gifts!

I forgot to tell you that in honor of Totinette’s 5th birthday this month, anyone who orders jewelry from my etsy shop during the month of March gets a free surprise gift!!