Mackworth Island Fun

I have wanted to go to Mackworth Island for a while. This Saturday was the day that I finally made the trip over the three bridges that took me to the island. It takes maybe ten minutes of driving to get there from my apartment and there is limited parking on the island, which makes it a relatively tourist free location. I wanted to go swimming, but the water was much too cold for me to venture in further than my ankles. I am a sally. I love that from some of the beaches you can see Portland.

Fairy houses in the community village. Not as many good ones as I had hoped for, but there were definitely three or four that blew my mind. I want to go back and make my own.

There were so many interesting little places for photo ops on the island. A lot of trees that were uprooted that I could then pose in front of/under and make funny faces.

I can't wait to go back. It's the perfect picnic spot. I'm hoping that the water will continue to warm up over the next few weeks and that I can maybe go swimming next time.

Space Dance Party

Smith Street 4th of July

Eastern Prom

This year was the first year I have ever been in Portland for the Fourth of July. I loved it. I love how the symphony plays along with the fireworks and how many people are on the prom.

Ice Cream Social

Summerz

First Friday

Sooooo many people were out and about last night for first Friday. It kind of always amazes me how many people turn out for first Friday and this time was no exception. There were often times that I took to the street to walk, because the sidewalk was much too full to get through in a quick manner. My art walk favs the Portland Slow Riders were out in full force.

I took over 200 photos last night, so expect some more art walk pictures to come. For now though, it is off to bed after writing a cupcake blog post that took much longer than I expected. I am babysitting my niece and nephew tomorrow morning quite early, which I am very much looking forward to. They are the most adorable little kids ever (at least in my very biased mind).

Eric Hou is one of my favorite artists in Portland. I have a few of his postcards that I put into a mobile that I bought in Oregon when I was out there. It makes me so happy to look up and see so many of his pictures just hanging down from my ceiling, turning slightly ever so often. I have a few larger format prints of his as well, that I still need to frame, in addition to some smaller prints that I already have framed and are hanging on my wall in my bedroom. They are so adorable. I also love that every year he does a different Read poster. I have the 2009 edition and the 2010 I think is my favorite so far, so I should probably get one of those as well. I think that I will honestly need a house in the near future so I can hang up all of my artwork in a non-cluttered manner. There are so many local talented artists and it is just so hard to not want to purchase their work and support them.