Put a Bird on It!

I laughed most during that Portlandia sketch because I'm totally in a bird-loving-phase right now.  Ever since I saw that episode, I've been noticing birds all over the place in Stumptown.  My friend Nike and I have sent several texts back and forth sharing joy in the fact that Portland puts birds on everything! 
All this is leading to the fact that I started (and finished) this quilt top today:

(Please pardon the terrible picture, my camera and I aren't on good terms right now)

and didn't notice until I was about halfway done that I definitely was putting a bird on it!

I love it!  And that blue fabric that is the border for this quilt?  I have so much of it that it's made its third quilt-appearance today, and last year I made myself a dress and belt entirely from it as well.

I finished something!

No, that something is not either of the quilts I've blogged lately.  Mom and Dad went to China and that means I don't have access to the giant conference tables at Tektronix which are the best surfaces for pinning big quilts.  I did, however, start and finish our niece's 4th birthday present on Friday.  She likes to cook with her mom, so I made her this apron:

I hope its bright colors appeal to her fashionable taste.  This kid is 4 going on 15; she has very definite fashion opinions and a new crush on Orlando Bloom.  "Do you think he looks better with blonde hair in Lord of the Rings or brown hair in Pirates of the Caribbean?" she asked Josh a couple weeks ago.  Seriously.  Just turned four.  She's awesome.

Another Europe Post

I know it's a little ridiculous.  It's been almost a year since our trip and I've posted only 2 or 3 of our European adventures.  But I've been thinking about how great Hallstatt was lately, and thought, "I should blog about that!"

Hallstatt, Austria was the second stop on our trip, and just might be my favorite place we went.  This place is Alpine perfection:

We stayed in a house where we had our own kitchen.  So Hallstatt became the home of our first international grocery shopping experience.  We bought some things we recognized and some things that we thought looked good even though we weren't quite sure what they were.  We ended up with some pretty tasty stew!  We also ate at some lakeside restaurants (because the whole town is lakeside) and had some fresh Hallstatter-See fish.  We hiked up to the world's oldest salt mine and then all through the woods.  We saw an authentic May Day celebration complete with liederhosen and accordions.  We explored an abandoned hotel in the next town over.  And we drank a lot of coffee on our balcony while admiring the once-in-a-lifetime view.  The lady we rented our rooms from said that the town doctor was getting ready to retire, and we really wished that Josh could speak German so he could take over!  Here are some pictures to help explain why:

The view from the salt mine above the town

 Some from our hike

The town's main street.  I love how everything is terraced up the hillside.

 Our future homestead in a clearing outside of town

 The waterfall by our future homestead.  Yes, this is about as close to perfection as you can get in this life.

I convinced Josh that this empty hotel was unlocked because they wanted us to explore it 

Our view

Wow.  This makes me want to go back.