her blog

our friends from chicago, syndy & colleen, are in town. we spent the day in astoria, home of the goonies, where i discovered syndy hasn't seen goonies. its a testament to syndy's awesomeness that this wasn't a deal breaker. i can only assume colleen will correct this situation once they are back in chicago. anyway, it was a really great day, complete with seals. 

i used to make a lot of treasury lists on etsy, back in the day that treausry lists were a fun challenge. i had a group of favorite shops that i regularly picked items from and many of those talented people became my friends in real life. kateri is one of those people. 

so, in early 2007, we began sending each other convos. at first they went like this:

kateri: "thanks for including me in your treasury list!"

me: "no! thank you for making such pretty things and taking such pretty pictures!"

then we started chatting. i liked her a lot. then, thanksgiving weekend of that year, i decided i wanted to learn more about kateri. i went to her blog and read a bit. i then clicked on her profile and it was all over. here's what happened in my head: "how had i not noticed she lives in chicago before now? and wait, wait, there's a mention of columbo! the moviegoer is one of her favorite books?! we need to be friends in real life. NEED." so, i invited her out for coffee. she declined. maybe two or three times. i may or may not be exagerrating. i honestly don't remember. 

but in january of 2008, on a cold, snowy saturday morning, we met at a cafe in lincoln sqaure for coffee. i think it took a month or so for us to hang out again. lucy was dying, i had the flu for what felt like two months and i think kateri was still wary. we both used to be very new people challenged but at least the ice was broken.

fun fact: kateri made it abundantly clear to me early on that she was not a phone person, that she did not like talking on the phone. so, we texted a lot but as lucy's health rapidly declined i needed to talk and she was there. she listened to me cry for hours. we continued to talk on the phone. a lot. even more once shawn & i left for portland. 

eventually, kateri became a shampton. we spent almost every saturday night at our house. shawn would cook a feast, i would bake something, we would watch bad movies and make beautiful things. we would meet for a drink after work if we'd had a bad day. we would go see movies and sometimes spend the entire day at the theater. we would drive to the ends of the earth on occasion in search of old sparkly things. she even braved a garofalo/hampton christmas. that's a real friend - and a true shampton. 

tomorrow is her birthday. i'm really excited for her. she's had a huge year. she's faced a ton of challenges head on, with grace, when most other people would've had tantrums. she's still facing some. in a few months, she's shipping herself and all her belongings to portland. moving to portland because we had an offhand conversation that ended with "what about portland? if you moved to portland i'd follow." its going to be another big year. i can't wait to see what's going to happen.

this is brittany making kind of her signature face. she's a bit of a bad ass and quite the adventurer. she'll be heading to antarctica in about a year and a half. awesome, right? she's smart and funny and excited about almost everything. PLUS, she's a dogsitter extraordinaire - monkey LOVES her. she makes awesome soap and yeah, you should get to know her. i'm leaving to meet her in a few minutes and i'm betting i'll see her make this face at some point while i'm with her. she's rad.

this is donovan. she is one of my most favorite people in the world and this is my favorite picture of her. she just came to portland for crafty wonderland and stayed with us. when i got up in the morning, this is how i found her. when i left the room for a moment and returned this is how i found her. the stack of mail she sent from portland was impressive. it makes sense. she co-founded the letter writers alliance with another friend, kathy. they are passionate about getting people to write more letters. pretty effing great. additionally:

• she really loves halloween. 
• she works at both a comic book store and a stationery store part time, on top of her day job.
• she knows her zombies.
• she was a part of a grandma club for awhile. she still does many grandmotherly activities but doesn't update that blog any longer.
• now she has a blog that, well, causes me clap almost every time she posts. it makes me so happy. she hasn't posted in a bit but she will be back and really, there's a lot in the archive to keep you busy.
• she knows a lot about a lot. i once tweeted a very blurry picture of a bird with a vague description and she figured it out.  
• she and kathy also started 16 sparrows. this is my favorite card they make.
• she is fun to drink with. we had many beers together the day this picture was taken and went to powell's books, the photobooth at the ace hotel and to voodoo donuts. it was a spectacularly good and giggly day.

she's a grown up girl scout turned humble superhero and i love her to bits. 

in her honor, i'm going to pop open a beer and write a letter.

kateri, oh kateri. there's not much i can say about her that i haven't already said. so instead i'll present you with:

exhibit a.

a recent text conversation between kateri & i. she was at a crappy bar to see shawn's old band, the daytonics, play a show while shawn was in chicago.

exhibit b.

a photo booth strip shawn handed me when he arrived home in portland.

 that's all the proof you need. she's awesome. 

i've "known" kerry of bayou salvage fame for a good long while. she bought things from me, i bought things from her. we convoed and communicated via treasury comments... she read my blog and was often my loudest cheerleader. but despite many trips to new orleans over the last 7 years we'd never met. this time i was determined to make it happen.  

you know when you meet someone you've admired forever and they are even more awesome than you imagined? yeah, that. she's smart, funny, bursting with good energy and oh so adorable. she also possesses some magic thrifting mojo wherein everything i touched FIT. we spent an entire day together thrifting, eating and laughing. she brought me to her house and was nice enough to let me snap some pictures.

the next day she met me at the maple leaf, where we braved the crowd to dance the night away to rebirth brass band.  it was valentine's day - my first away from shawn in about 18 years and it could've been a pouty night. far from it - we had so much fun!

i feel very lucky to know her and call her my friend.

i snuck this picture of bettie this morning when we met for coffee. i often sneak pictures of bettie while she's taking pictures. and while bettie has a beautiful face, these pictures are perfectly bettie.

she is one of the many amazing people i've met since i've been in portland. we met on twitter. we met in real life for cocktails last summer. we've been friends since. 

a few things i love about bettie:

she is incredibly smart and incredibly kind. 

she's always wearing something red.

she loves bad tv as much as i do. 

she takes beautiful pictures. really and truly.

she dislikes getting her picture taken as much as i do.

this lady. bettie & i spent the afternoon at plucky maidens junk fest, along with her kids, mara and ruby. we wandered about, looking at old stuff and taking photos. she's pretty great. the more time i spend with her the more i like her. plus, she likes taking pictures of her shoes as much a i do.