Welcome to Port-o-land!

Pen on left (always a challenge for me, all my mistakes get to hang around! eek!) Pencil on right

This summer I took a weekend to go visit the love of my life in Portland, Oregon, where he was doing an internship with Periscope Studios.  Portland is...eerily perfect.  My favorite thing was the blackberry bushes growing literally all over the city, up the buildings, down the hills, next to the roads.  Also there were crab apples donated to me by neighborhood trees on our morning walk to the trolley (the Portland trolley is like what the NYC subway systems are when they go to heaven).  

The beavers were a joke for Ginny, gnawing away at her desk.

This is really what the streets in Portland look like.  I mean, really and honestly, this is a major road in Portland.  What?!?  Where is the traffic?  Where is the trash?

There are lots of bridges in Portland, like New York.  

But they are all so...not quite quaint, but not intimidating and huge.

granola-grunge

The most relaxed and contented I can remember ever feeling:

lying on the cool grass in the shade of a maple tree in the state park,

next to my boy,

making a clover chain.

ahhhh....

Japanese gardens, so peaceful.

I was sitting on the bench drawing the waterfall when I was 

overcome by how green everything was.  There was so much green.

Oh, also, I found my new home.  

Moss covered shingles, covered in flowering plants, I'm there.

california, here i come!

This summer I took a short vacation to San Diego to meet my new niece, Syerra. Dad took the twins and me out for lunch and to poke around the Point Loma lighthouse, one of my favorite childhood pastimes. I have detailed memories of organzing hermit crab races on the rocks with my older sister and cousin, discovering sea cucumbers, and flustering thousands of anemones by sticking my finger into their soft tentacles.

*

Wouldn't you know that southern California has a blue and white color scheme?

Tide pools! They are such beautiful, magical little lagoons of sea creatures, little miniature oceans.

enter the Little Mermaid

This is where the pirates hid the treasure...
...and we are going to find it!
well, maybe they dropped it down here by accident.
I found my treasure! I love sea rocks and seaweed. I discovered pretty early on that you can't take seaweed home...it starts to stink. So I have to just admire it in its habitat.
Point Loma lighthouse. I harbored many fantasies about living in this house, making sea grass dolls, chasing Victorian ghosts, collecting sea shells to cover mirrors and boxes, cooking earthy stews with wooden spoons and iron kettles. (and you know what, I still harbor those fantasies!)



Look at their banjo!
Oh, please let me live here!

Okay, well, to be practical, I probably wouldn't enjoy having to feed the fire to cook. But I would love to have a gas stove next to it that I could cook on, and the wood stove to boil water for tea!

Dear Grandma Jean,

I'm not even really sure how to begin writing this, but I just wanted you to know that I think you were an amazing woman, all the way from your Kansas farm girl roots to your California teacher career, to your adventures as a world-traveling photographer, to your quiet and constant life as an ever-loving, ever supportive, ever happy grandma.  I guess everybody always regrets something when they lose someone, and what I regret most is not making a point to make you feel special all the time, and I hope that you always felt special.  I took for granted that you would always be there, in a good mood, and never really stopped to do anything showy for or about you.  I hope that when you see this silly little gesture of me blogging about you it makes you feel special.  Thank you for the birthday present check for my bedroom.  I bought not only a bed but new sheets, a cozy reading chair, a wardrobe for my clothes, and a shelf for my books.  So yes, it was plenty enough to cover the price of a bed!  We will miss you so much, from all over America and all over the world.

I love you,

Chelsea

raspberry picking

Hey guys, sorry about the long blogging delay (again).  Now that I have my *sweet* new iMac, I can hopefully post all the updates I've been working on that my tiny old MacMini couldn't handle uploading, lord bless it.

Frances turned to me at work one day and sprung this delightful question, "Hey, do you want to go the New Jersey with me this weekend and pick raspberries at my parent's house?"  Well, who would say no to that?

Obviously, I accepted.

(before) Look at this perfect little grouping of raspberries! 

(after!)

France's bucket filled up much quicker than mine.  I kept sampling.

Look at how magical New Jersey is!  Who knew?  I kept waiting for a hobbit or elf princess to pop out of the ferns, but I guess they were all in their cozy burrows and tree houses, eating raspberries as quickly as me.

Aren't they just so beautiful and strange? They look like little glass beads, and their casings look like fuzzy stars.  I want to wear raspberries.

One at a time...

...oh who am I kidding? This is more like it.

  

"Once upon a time, there was an enchanted village where the clover on the ground grew raspberries, and the boys and girls in the village would fill their cheeks with the tangy, fragrant fruits until their lips were red as rubies in the sunlight."

a dream is a wish your heart makes

I'm not even sure how to begin this blogpost really. It starts so long ago. I have had so many people asking delving questions that I guess I'm just going to start from the beginning, so prepare for an essay!

Ginny, Pete and I were all in the same senior collection class at SCAD with Prof. Jackie Kueler, who began teaching at the same time as architecture Prof. Laraine Montgomery. Jackie and Laraine became friends through orientation and eventually decided to work on a collaborative project between the senior fashion students and junior architecture students. So, that's how Laraine came into our lives, by bringing her classes to our class, and Pete, Ginny and I fell in love with this incredibly passionate lady. Laraine approached us and said that her 13-year-old daughter was going to be a fashion designer one day, and would we maybe tutor her during the summer to give her a head start? So, with all enthusiasm, Ginny began tutoring Nikki in drawing/design, and I began tutoring her in sewing. My boyfriend, Joe, now tutors her in drawing. We really are all part of the same family now.

Unfortunately, during this time Nikki was diagnosed with a lymphatic cancer. We thought that it had cleared up over the course of the first treatments, and were hoping that Nikki could come visit us at some point during her summer break (maybe NYC for their school's trip?), but the school went to Atlanta and so Nikki never arrived. Then we heard that Nikki's cancer had come back, and she was going to have to go through a whole new series of surgeries and radiation treatments at the end of summer. Ginny, Pete and I agreed that we would split the cost of a plane ticket to fly Nikki up to New York on her own so that she could have a little get-away before she began all this testing.

So now the challenge: plan a fashiony, fun-filled itinerary with all of New York available. Creative us, all we could come up with was the Met, the garment district, and maybe shopping some stores where we couldn't actually afford to buy any merchandise. A little blue bird heard about our creative predicament and swooped in to take charge. She not only paid for Nikki to fly up, but for Laraine too, and because this little bird is very well-loved, she set up the most heart-stoppingly amazing itinerary for Nikki, better than any Make-A-Wish trip (I know, because I remember being in a very similar situation!) and didn't let anybody else lift a penny. If you'd like to see the full itinerary (which you should, it was amazing), Ginny posted it on her blog.  Pete also posted an in-depth log of the trip.  I know our friends have heard this story over and over again and probably don't want to see the itinerary one more time.

My favorite part of the trip was going to see Hair, oh my. Sweet little 14-year-old Nikki at Hair! If you've ever seen it, then you'll understand why during the second song Ginny and I were laughing so hard that I honestly thought I was going to throw up my gourmet dinner. At the end of the show Pete led the way for us girls to dance on stage with the cast and crowd, how exhilirating! It was so much fun. I've never enjoyed a play that much. Below are pictures from our dinner together the first night Nikki arrived. I can't wait for her to come intern in New York this summer so we can see her and Laraine all the time!

Sisters!

Nikki receives gift certificates for $500 to Lord and Taylor
from each owner of the stores.

So excited! This was another really fun part of the trip,
like a reality TV show:
spend $1000 in Lord and Taylor in 45 minutes before dinner!

Sweet Su'thu'n Belles

Family!

I'd really like to thank Nikki's little fairies at WWD/W (it reminds me of Disney's Sleeping Beauty, with the three fairies flying around helping the princess), and most of all her anonymous fairy godmother at the same company. Thank you to all the designers who gave Nikki your time and attention and dresses and jewelry and bags and perfume and scarves. You have really reminded everyone that the world is full of good people, and are inspiring everyone who hears the story to do something amazing for somebody else.

Nikki's battle against cancer continues. The latest diagnosis from her biopsies after the trip is that her cancer is a particularly malicious one that does not respond to chemotherapy, so they are giving her tiny body as much radiation as it can handle. The cancer is slow-growing, and so can be present and undetected at any time. This may be a chronic, life-long issue for Nikki. Please, everyone, make a little wish for Nikki one more time for continued strength, because this sweet, smart, creative, beautiful young woman still has to become a household fashion name!

thank heaven for little girls!

After ten years of trying to get pregnant and running into problem after medical problem, my sister finally had a little baby girl! This child is a miracle baby, this was the last time they were going to try after several very expensive invetro attempts came to nothing. Her name is Syerra Sanya O'day, and she has the sweetest temperment. My sister's middle name is her mother's first name (Sanya Nipha O'day), so they continued with that. Sanya is half Thai--she was born in a little village way up in the mountains of Thailand, and Syerra is still 1/4 Thai, 3/4 American...which means she's gonna be a cutie!