Spring Cleaning

Spring is finally here! Along with the arrival of blossoming flowers, I thought that my blog needed a change as well. Hopefully this will streamline everything that I eventually have planned for this page. One of my goals is to streamline my closet and post some of my pieces in a shop later, which I am pretty sure Z will appreciate since he won't have to look at my exploding closet. 

These last set of Portland photos are from a trip to the Portland Japanese Garden that Z and I trekked all the way from our hotel in Downtown to see it.  I thought this would be a great opportunity to take some photos to share with my mom, whom is a huge fan of Japanese gardening, art, and just anything Japanese in general.  The garden itself is sprawled across 5.5 acres and is composed of five different Japanese gardening styles: Flat Garden, Strolling Pond Garden, Tea Garden, Natural Garden, and the Sand and Stone Garden.  

The Sakura blossoms were my favorite part of the gardens as they were in bloom during our visit. I never used to be a fan of the color pink when I was younger, but the color is growing on me now. The blush pink flower with its hot pink--almost red center is simply a breath taking sight.  If you are ever in Portland, make sure to check out this lovely garden.

They Build Buildings

I finished my midterms this week and I am still recovering from when my sister and her boyfriend were up here in San Francisco visiting. I have to say it is quite tiring being a tourist in your own city, discovering things that you never really took the time to view and appreciate. More on their visit later. Well actually, it will probably take me months and months to develop the film I shot this past week (Argh! I really need to get better at being more timely with the blog posts or invest in a nice digital camera so that I can post easily!). 
Here is the next batch of photos from when Z and I visited Portland. I really enjoyed the brick buildings since we don't really see much of the brick and mortar here in San Francisco. There's something really charming in seeing that these bricks have stood the test of time and are still standing. Am I being wishy-washy? Probably.   On this day, we walked around the Pearl District and stopped by Powell's Books. It is supposed to be the largest bookstore around with so many used and new books. Z could have probably stayed the whole day perousing the endless aisles. We wanted to buy some books, but did not want to lug them around in our already full luggage.  Whenever Z and I are visiting a new place, we are most content in walking around and wandering into random shops and parks. We seem to find the most interesting things that way, which is completely fine with me. More to come!

In The Neighborhood

I finally developed some film that I took on a trip to Portland with Z. We got a terrific flight and hotel deal to stay in the downtown area within close proximity to the light rail and buses. We spent each day walking around exploring the different neighborhoods. Cherry blossom trees were everywhere and lined the streets to cute character homes. All the houses are so lovely and unique. After the rising prices to just rent here in San Francisco, the amount of space you can get up in the Pac NW made it seem like Disneyland. I know that a certain little spoiled pug would definitely love a backyard to run around in. Portland seems like a lovely place that I can definitely see myself living, but I know that I would start to get homesick after a while since I'm such a baby when it comes to those things. The following are some photos of the various neighborhoods that we explored. I'll post more pictures that we took on our trip soon!