Happy Thanksgiving!

One of the things I love best about Thanksgiving in the Pacific Northwest is embracing the transition from Autumn to Winter.  This year, we are spending the holiday in Florence, Oregon.  Although we will be away, I wanted to share a few pictures of home during this spectacular time of year.  

These are the golden leaves of our Coral Bark Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum 'Sango-kaku') 

which was one of the first trees I planted when we moved here.

Our front entrance is flanked by two Burning Bushes (Euonymus alatus) that turn bright red when it starts to get chilly.

Looking out across the Columbia River, 

you can see speckles of yellow deciduous trees on the hillside of Oregon.

Our view is always changing.  We really enjoy seeing the river traffic passing by.

Every day I am thankful that we get to live in such a special place and that I get to share this life with my loving husband and darling son.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

xo

Hand-made Good-ness III

Jonah's Great Grandmother (my Nanna) made this lovely receiving blanket for us.  

We picked out a super soft acrylic yarn that washes and dries like a dream....

a very important consideration.

Our little man turns 5 months today.  Everything is going in his mouth these days, 

fingers, toes, and anything within his grasp.

We have several wooden toys made by artist Jake Szramek.  Of course, Dad is partial to the airplane, but we also have a car and tractor.  I love them because Jake makes them knowing that they will likely end up in the mouth of an exploring baby.  They are not stained or painted---the different colors are different types of wood and the toys are finished with a food-grade mineral oil.

Hand-made Good-ness II

Just as the weather started getting chilly, Jonah started being able to fit into his sweaters!  

This lovely green and yellow one was made by my friend Jen.  It's adorable.

The blanket came as a gift from the Bellingham crew 

and the colors are an exact match for the artwork that is hung in the nursery.  

Here's a photo of those paintings so you can see how uncanny it is.

The painting of the trees was given to me by my artist friend Ellen Dittebrandt.  

The other painting "Seeing Eye to Dog" was a gift from artist Janet Essley.  

And while we are celebrating all good things hand-made, I should add that the beautiful crib was a gift from Grandfather and Grandmother and it is made in the USA.  The crib bedding was sewn by my Mom out of an old duvet cover we wanted to recycle.  The walnut dresser, was made by my friend Chris as a gift to Jonah.  I just about died when he offered to build it for us....it's made with special dimensions to fit perfectly in our little room in our little house.

more hand-made goodies coming soon....

Hand-made Good-ness

We have received many wonderful baby gifts, but I have a soft spot for the ones made by hand.  

This was made by the wife of a co-worker.  I love the color and it is so soft!

Originally, I was going to do one post for all the handmade favorites, 

but Jonah's so dang photogenic that I've decided this will be the first post in a series....

Bye-Bye Lake, Hello River

Last week, via live feed, we watched the breaching of Condit Dam.  This released all the water which made Northwestern Lake and ended a century-long barricade of the White Salmon River.  

It's a pretty amazing change for this area.

On Sunday we decided to go check out the empty lake bed.  

You can see where the water level used to be.

The bank of the river is now about 25ft of unstable black sand---it is beautiful and dark.  We watched large chunks of the bank slough off and imagine that the river will continue to erode and dramatically change the landscape through next spring.

It was raining lightly during our walk so Jonah got to try out his cute little yellow slicker.

(Thank you Trina! xo)

View looking back up the "lake" with Dave and Steph.  It was cool to see the landscape at this stage--I'm really glad we made the trip out. 

One more of the cutie pie.