Yippee!!!

6 of us at Mint to start with cocktails. Now it is off to Lincoln for din din!!!

WHAT A GREAT YEAR!!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!

I am soooooooooo incredibly grateful for this last year!!!!!!!!!  It has been amazing both personally and professionally!  I am grateful for my amazing and supportive husband.  I am grateful for the talented, wonderful and crazy hard-working staff at my shop. I am grateful for my loving friends and family - I cannot do without anyone on this list!  Thank you for being you and for making a most awesome 2012.  Here is to an even better 2013!!!!!!

All hands on deck.....

Look at what we just got at the shop. Mini ceramic glove molds. Super cute!

Turkey

I found this photo I took last month in Ephesus, turkey. I thought it was pretty cool. Had to share.

A day off.

The slightly eerie looking Xmas tree at Bridgeport Village and an amazing Bouche de Noel at Jamison to celebrate Miss Sue's bday. T- minus 6 days till Xmas. Oh..... Did I mention that it snowed in PDX this morning? Nice!

Hilarious!

I saw this friendly holiday sign in the window of Escape From New York Pizza on NW 23rd. Hungry?

....gifts for the hostess.......

I need a beer.

Luckily I found a gnome beer. Perfect.

Let the games begin!

Waiting for Costco to open. Me and 20,000 other people. The week of Thanksgiving. What is wrong with me?

Safe and sound.....

Layover in NYC

So we flew onto NYC yesterday afternoon from Istanbul for a 24 hour layover. Checked into our hotel. Layed around like slugs for the rest of the day, got pastrami sandwiches from Junior's and hummingbird cake from Magnolia Bakery downstairs at Grand Central - we stayed at the Grand Hyatt at the station - and got up this morning with a jump start! We walked the Highline Gardens, strolled through Chelsea Market and had brunch outside at The Standard. What a beautiful day.....

Then it's off to midtown for a little shopping and off to the airport......

A perfect end to a perfect vacation!

I have waaaaaay more to post about Turkey, but it just had to wait!

Too funny..,,

There are exactly 5 camels in Turkey -as they are not indigenous, but tourists expect to see them, so there they are - and we found one.....

Pigeon holes.

First off, this Viagra market was too damned funny. We made a stop to
Look into the valley of pigeon holes - limestone caves made for pigeons by the locals to make it easy to collect pigeon droppings to use as fertilizer as the soil in that area was not great for planting crops. We were on our way to the outside museum of goreme where early Christians built homes and churches into the limestone to hide the practice of their religion while it was still illegal. But more on those structured later. Here we found a tree loaded with the Turkish good luck charm of the blue eye. It was beautiful in the light....,

Here are some of the rugs we saw ,,,,,,

Rug making.......

We visited a rug factory in Cappadoccia last week. The workmanship was amazing. They worked in wool and silk and produced some stunning pieces. I was looking for a tulu rug so I did not
purchase one here, but it was really hard not to!!!

Last night in turkey

So many photos. So little time. We have a shuttle to the airport in 5 hours and I'm beat. I have so much to share but it is just going to have to wait. I'll leave you with this...... A cave painting from the Ankara region of Turkey from around 8000 b.c. Crazy!

Alrighty then..... Off to bed and then home!

What a beautiful day!

We stayed last night in Cannakale and our hotel was right on the waterfront. So lovely! It was a gorgeous morning only made better by my new little gnome friends. How funny. Them I made new little dog friend at Pergamon. Look at that face!!!! The street dogs here are all so sweet. I just to bring them all home!

Turkey rocks!

Took a ferry across the Dardanelles today onto the Asia side of Turkey. What a beautiful day. Then we visited the city of Troy. The Trojan Horse is hilarious. Tomorrow.....Pergamon!

Time to shop!

We did a little shopping in Sultanahmet and found Frenchy a lovely new hat. Ok, so he didn't really like the hat. I'm so excited to bring back all of the great stuff I found to the shop!

First full day in Turkey

What a great day! Obama gets reelected AND we get to visit the Blue Mosque!