Wallingford Gardens, Coffee + Carmelita

Welcome to Wallyhood--or Wallingford. A Seattle neighborhood just south of Woodland Park Zoo and east of the U-district.

 My parents are avid gardeners. Consequently, they have fostered a thriving appreciation for gardens in me (even if my physical skills at gardening are, frankly, tragically late blooming).  Nevertheless, as a way to celebrate this rare day of sunshine in June, they took me out on a garden tour this Sunday over in Wallingford.  Here is sampling a pictures I took at some of the gardens this morning/afternoon.  Looking at them makes me feel all inspired :)

We could smell these roses from yards away. Now, that is a fragrant flower.

 Onions, aliums and poppies. Oh my!

This kitty, Tux, was lounging about in one of the gardens on the tour. She was so freaking friendly. Thus, a mini cat photo shoot was in order.

 Of course, no sunny day in Seattle is complete without iced coffee. 

 Another awkward photo of my lower region + shoes. Perhaps I should actually attempt to do a proper OOTD? For anyone's reference, the shoes are by Harajuku Lovers (a Japanese style brand) and are covered in animal cracker box print.  No, seriously.  The tongue of the shoes has the "nutrition facts" label embossed down the front.  Reeeeaally old and worn in. But still cute.

After wandering through the Wallingford gardens, we went for a looooooong walk around  Green Lake Park before heading over for a bite to eat at Carmelita in Phinney Ridge. The weather in Seattle was abnormally sunny *shock horror* so we took the golden opportunity to linger over our food on the restaurant's back  patio.  Utterly beautiful.  I loved their use of "windows" and flower boxes ^_^

 A big glass of tamarind-ginger lemonade. Super tangy and crisp.

 A smoked chickpea and sofrito empanada. There was much hoarding of the romesco sauce (far left in the picture) on my part. 

 My mum ordered eggplant agnolotti. 

 My Dad chose the polenta gnocci with 'shrooms.  

 And I went really crazy with my order and ended up deciding on...errrmmm... pizza. But! this pizza was loaded up with arugula, caramelized shallots, hazelnuts and nettle pesto. Yum. Not your godfather's by any means.   

We also indulged in Carmeltia's scrumptious dessert selection, but unfortunately, we plowed through our sweets before I remembered to snap a few photos. *hang head in shame*.  I can only insist that you try anything with lavender on the dessert menu.  It will change your perspective on eating floral flavored drinks/food and such. Once that door is open, no going back. 

Cheers,

kaite ;]

Piroshky Piroshky!

Hello. Long time, no post. I need to either commit to this regular post malarkey or find a new job...

Moving on to the actual point of this post, recently my family and I romped around in downtown Seattle whilst running a few "errands".  (Really, all activities par-taken in where on a to-do list). The highlight for me was a bite to eat at Piroshky Piroshky, a Russian bakery at the far end of Pike Place Market, closely followed by brother modeling a pink tailored blazer at H&M. If only I had taken a picture.  Both the piroshky and pink suit were beyond words. Thankfully for all of you, I took pictures of the piroshky. 

A few things to note about Piroshky Piroshky: 

1) The line at the bakery looks like something you would see in Disneyland. It snakes out the door, around the corner and back behind some specialty shop that sells cocktail olives. Forget the wait and just get in line. The lady making piroshky by the window will keep you entertained for the next 15 to 20 minutes. If It's A Small World was worth it. These piroskhy will be really worth it.

2) Staring at the menu for 15 to 20 minutes in a hypnotic gaze will make the decision of which stuffed bun to choose a sh*tload harder. For someone with decision making issues--not pointing any names or naming fingers here--pick the first item on the menu that strikes your fancy.  It will taste nummy. And now you have an excuse to come back.

3) This could easily become my new--as much as I hate using the phrase--"comfort food."  Move aside Mac and Cheeze, you have temporarily been ousted.

Random photo of my shoes.  Frankly, this must be something I do when I am bored as I have about 5,346,789,721 pictures of my feet + lower body in my photo archives.

A toasty sauerkraut, carrot and cabbage piroshky.  If only I had the technology to publish the smell...  Step it up Microsoft!

My mum selected a salmon piroshky shaped like a fish. Adorable, eh? Just looking at it makes me happy.

Any of you stopped by Piroshky Piroshky before?  What bun was/is your favorite?

Cheers,
kaite ;]

5 Things ⋆

Whew. Let's just pretend I did not write anything for the past four months. ... Yep.


1) This little string of flying pigs I picked up at the Missoula Farmers' Market on birthday.  So sweet. They are currently hanging out in my room and captivating the attention of two furry felines.

2) Spring in my parents' garden.  The flowers (well, the one's the bunnies haven't devoured) are in full bloom everywhere I turn this week: irises, rhododendron, bleeding heart, clematis, fox glove, hydrangea, geranium, alum, marigold and so forth. Despite the floral  carnage from the rabbit wars, I love watching the bees flit about the flowers during the day.

3) Playful outfits suited to warmer weather.  I am particularly head over heals for this blue shift dress and jacket I picked up at a thrift store. Both are sure to make highlights in my daily outfits this summer.

4) Peachy-pink nails. And yes, the varnish really does smell like strawberry fruit chews. Creepy. But awesome all at the same time. Like mint chocolate flavored throat lozenges or chewing gum. I don't want to know what is in the ingredients to make it yummy, it just tastes good.  (Below is Strawberry Cream from Revlon). 

5) Great views of Seattle and the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF).

 Picture taken from the engineering office of Facebook in Seattle.

Too many great films to see. Drama, comedy, romance, animation, documentary, political, aliens and fantasy. It's all there.  Films I enjoyed this year: Eden (huge thumbs up!), The Eye of the Storm (a thinking drama), and Starbuck (made me smile, they characters are hilarious).

Cheers,

kaite ;]

Five Favorites from the Weekend

Its that time in the semester again: mid-terms round one.  This means much recluse behavior, increased coffee consumption, repetitive drawings of molecules and body systems on my mirror, chipped nail varnish, minimal-to-no-showering and insomniac pacing at 4 in the morning.  Whew.  I am already tired and it is only Tuesday afternnon. Before I hunker down with my spreadsheets of leukocytes, allow me to procrastinate. 


I hope everyone thoroughly enjoyed their long Presidents' Day weekend.  Went to the movies. Baked a cake in honor of John Adams or Teddy Roosevelt.  Explored (erm, maybe just re-explored) a part of where you live. Got caught up on errands.  Or just relaxed. I spent my weekend back in Seattle soaking up the rain, 'cuase that's what we do in the Emerald City. 


Here are a few favorites from the past few days (because I am frankly going to need a little cheer to bolster me through to Friday):


1. Duckboots.  You can go romping through water puddles, traverse ice sheets, wear two layers of socks, snowshoe across glaciers and strut around city streets in these boots.  All hail who ever invented this foot gear.

2. French Toast for breakfast.  Mmmmmm. Until Spring break we shall meet again.  My Mum and I picked up a few loaves of the house bread at  Columbia City Bakery on Sunday morning.  The bread alone is scrumptious--sweet, nutty and chewy. My Mum, Dad and brother will literally devour a single loaf of crusty white in a single dinner.  It tastes even nummier french-toastified.  (Apologies for the poor photo quality of my breakfast! I was testing out my phone camera).

3.  Peach nail varnish.  Over Winter break, I painted my grandmother's nails about once a week.  Each time I visited I would give her the royal hand treatment, complete with cuticle oil and hand massage.  While I was home for the weekend I stopped by to doll up her fingers.  Then, I dolled up my own with a  rather spring-like shade of orange. (Color is "Peach Parfait" from ULTA).  Whether I want it or not, spring is here!

4. Downton Abbey Season 2 Finale.  Of course, this Sunday was bitter-sweet. Downton Abbey was on for 2 whole hours. Yay!  But, after that, no more shinanigens between the Crowley family, their servants and house-guests for another year.  So sad. If you haven't already become obsessed, like the rest of the population, go hunt down the episodes on itunes or Prime.

5. Lotion bars + bath oil.  (No. NOT it that way. Send those raunchy thoughts back where they came from!)  This weekend I began to fully appreciate using oil, straight up cocoa butter and essential oil, as a  moisturizer.  The skin on my back, neck, legs, feet ... everywhere dearly appreciated the the TLC I gave it this weekend. While I may love Winter, Winter has it out for my poor skin.  Below is LUSH's lotion bar in their seasonal "Love Potion" blend for St. Valentine's Day.  Another bath oil I re-hydrated my leathery skin is from Soothing Touch.  Their Muscle Comfort blend makes your skin feel all tingly in that "I just had a massage after a long hike" kind of way.

Cheers, kaite ;]

7 things from this week ⋆

Some events and highlights from the past few days...
1. Paper-whites.  My father planted a bulb of the little white blossoms in a tea-cup on my night stand.  They brighten my morning, afternoon and late night book reading.

{little peak at my  night stand here. teehee}

2. Icy blue (or Caribbean blue?) nail varnish. Its one of those shades that could would not me amiss up on the ski slopes or down in the Caribbean tropics. For the past week I have been wearing Havana Dreams from Sephora for OPI.

3. Collected Memories Mirror from Anthropologie.  Hodge-podge, functional, nostalgic, eye-catching, an art piece all in itself...  

This is my inspiration for my current project:

It is still very much a work in progress  Earlier this week I scoured a few thrift shops for old picture frames.  A few already had mirrors in them, while other frames housed everything from cross stitch work to someone's graduation photos.  Above is the (mostly stripped) frames tentatively arranged.  Next step: cutting my old bathroom mirror into proportional squares and then antiquing the glass with muriatic acid.

4. Window draperies, a desk chair and a bed pillow for my brother.  On Tuesday, my mum and I finished our last creative project(s).  My brother's room was in dire need of window coverings--if not for aesthetic purposes, then just to keep his ice-box-man-cave warm. He also inherited our family's old office chair and a pumpkin orange imperial sized pillow.  Over the weekend we refinished and reupholstered the chair, made a massive pillow-case complete with cording and then put together some beautiful mustard-brown curtains.  Ta-dah!  (Not the most flattering picture of my brother's room, but you can see bits of the end results peeking out around his furniture.  Usually, my brother is painfully neat.  But, I snuck in to take a picture right after he got up for breakfast. Sorry, Eric!!!)

5. Snow.  The weather may be icy and terrifying to drive in, but there is something magical about snow.  It is eerily quiet outside.  The only sounds are birds and the subtle crunch of resettling branches.  

6. Waking up with my kitty. I am going to miss her back in Missoula :) 

7. Lemon-blueberry tea cakes. Mmmmmm.  Tea cake just sounded really good (and we have a bazillion containers of frozen blueberries I picked over the summer at my Granma's house).  So, while snowed in, I made lemon tea cakes filled with blueberry coulis.

 {part way through filling the tea cakes}

 {topped off with sugar crystals and sprinkles}

{fresh out of the oven ^_^ time for tea}

Let me know if you would like me to create a separate post for the recipe.


What has everyone else enjoyed over the past few days?


Cheers, kaite ;]