Tis the reason to be jolly, Spa La La la la la la la laaaaaaa

And we have reason to be very, very jolly. We have just discovered a brand spankin’ new spa on up and coming NE 28th Street, off Burnside. It’s Spa La La and we are in love! You will be too, trust in us and find a slice of heaven that you will return to again and again.

Good minds think alike apparently, and we have met our long lost soul sister, Kamberly, the spa’s owner from San Francisco. They are already selling our favorite belts (the ones we featured a few weeks ago and the Omondieu flower rings that we featured last week!) As far as we are concerned, ‘nuf said.

The large open modern space is decorated like candy, really good feng shui, and we want to eat the place up. High ceilings, Life Saver colored drapes, bright long ‘family style’ tables for manicures, a clean well lit space, fabulous shopping-every item a must-have, a menu of decadent services and treatments. Very modern. Totally fun and hip.

They have stocked the chic space with hot tanks and tees, handbags, the cutest hats in the world, whimsical skirts made by a local designer, oodles of lotions & potions all dressed up in cute packaging.

Spa La La offers salon services such as manicures, pedicures, waxing, facials & tinting. They have an a la carte menu and offer all their treatments with an express option, as well as their deluxe and luxe, because much to our chagrin, sometimes we just need to get it done quickly before camp gets out.

Our Spa Spy, Kristine, a model turned mom, loved her luxury pedicure which included a 15 minute massage, plus champagne.... Just what our spy mom needed to break the routine of stay at home mom-hood.

We are so jolly they have arrived; we want to sing about it! Spa La La la la la la la laaaaaaaaaa (Darn, now you’ll be humming this carol all day long in that pretty head of yours. Sorry….)

Spa La La
234 NE 28th Ave, Portland,
503.233.2107

Christmas in July

The holidays are coming, the holidays are coming! No, not that holiday. Christmas, Hanukkah, those guys. Have you given much thought to what your holiday card might look like? You can bet we have. We obsess about it, can’t sleep, can’t cook dinner (oh yeah, we could never do that), can’t get on with our lives come each January 1st until we know exactly what we’ll do for our next holiday card.

Never underestimate how important this is. After all, you’re “branding” yourself…think of it as a business logo, a certain image you want to portray to the few you’ve seen in a long while. Oh, like, how adorable and together you and your family are (even if they aren’t, but who will really know anyway. It’s image, baby. And as we all know, image is everything. Anything that you can conceive of, you can be. Simple as that.) And there are so many things to think about for just the right image: For example, should you be in the picture too, looking Pageant Perfect, just in case his old girlfriend sees it on someone’s refrigerator? It could happen. You need to think about the myriad of possibilities that exist.

Should you include a dozen or so pages on how fabulous you all are getting on? How Johnny was accepted to Stanford and you just returned from the South of France and Bob just made a million dollars in the stock market and Suzi, well, not much to say about Suzi, but…Okay, let’s see, hmmmm…NO-NO-NO Absolutement Non! Just a simple photo will due. A picture speaks a thousand words, a subtle, humble, unselfish, happy message from you to them wishing them a happy holiday, not telling them about you, because they only really care about their own card anyway which is why they have obsessed about it for 11.5 months.

Other Important Holiday Card Etiquette to Remember:

• Another very basic thing rule about Holiday Card etiquette, you need to send them. Don’t skip even one year or you’re toast. You’re on the outs, on the board of LIFE-you go back to START. You’ll be removed from the database and the number of cards you receive the following year will significantly diminish. And lets face it, you secretly gauge your popularity on the number of cards I, I mean you, receive and can fit up on your fridge or dangle off those dainty wee clothes pins.
• Secondly: to make it onto Fridge Level, the premium real estate, the A List, you need to send a card with a photograph, duh. Otherwise you’re banished to the little basket in the corner on the floor that no one ever looks at until it’s time to recycle.
• Finally: Timing is crucial for the perfect holiday card impression. Just like you wouldn’t want to be the first one at the party, you don’t want to be the first holiday card to arrive. Same holds true for being late to the party. If you are too late, you might as well not go. If your card is one of the last to arrive, you might as well forget sending it. People are sick of the holidays by the time the holidays actually arrive and they won’t give your card the adoring attention it deserves. Plus, the fridge is full by then and it’ll end up in the notorious little basket in the corner. So wait until you’ve received a handful of cards at least, and then you are free to mail. (And rid yourself of that monkey on your back.)

To make the supreme impact, you need the right image, the right photograph, and there’s really only one Game in town. Kelly Dulcich. Her name alone brings to mind a basket of delicious holiday striped hard candy!

She’s absolutely amazing and you will not only have a holiday card, but priceless, timeless keepsakes to hang on your walls and that you will treasure forever.

But it isn’t cheap, especially because you can’t pick just one. You want that one and that one and that one and….Cha-Ching. Then of course you will need to frame them, perfectly, Cha-Ching-Ching (especially if you use our favorite framer, Katayama but that’s another story). But they are for forever and it’s important you keenly capture the essence of your sweet children just the way they are, even if you can’t get them to sit still for a second, and you are sweating, swearing under your breath, and you desperately want to spank them if only you believed in that (Oh Merry Merry Christmas!!!). But just remember when it’s over, sigh, it’ll be the best investment you’ll ever make.

So in not-so-much of a nutshell – Kelly Dulcich Photography for the perfect Holiday cards and treasured timeless photographs. You better call now and get in line. 503.227.8266

Bling Bling for Cha-Ching

Speaking of those pricey holiday cards, to pay for them, just take a load of your old Prada, Lilly and cashmere cardigans down to Bid Brothers and they’ll sell it for you on e-bay! How efficient is that?! It would probably take us for forever if we tried to do it ourselves anyway. All that valuable time spent trying to figure out how to do it, when we could be shopping, it would work out to approximately negative $27 dollars an hour. We might as well pay ebay to take our things. On the other hand, with Bid Brothers, when your things have sold, they just send you the check. No pain, nice gain.

Take your ‘stuff’ worth at least $50 to Bid Brothers and they will do everything turnkey and send you a check within a few weeks. It's typically faster and more lucrative than selling on consignment. This is your chance to say farewell to all that old crap gathering dust under your sofa, or why not the sofa too!

One girl's junk is another girl's treasure.

Bid Brothers
1116 NW 17th Ave
Portland, OR 97209
(503) 222-9243

Drop-Off Hours
Mon-Fri 10-6
Saturday 10-5

No Princess is complete without her own personal trainer.

Everyone today needs a personal trainer, even if they go just once a week, so they can legitimately let it slide from time to time they “have an appointment with their trainer.” That is value in itself. Plus, as an added plus, you can get very fit. Why, imagine?

Our Portland Pick for Personal Trainer is Michele Bell. Michelle has a studio in Northwest Portland, off NW 23rd. Michelle is a very fun person to chat with while you’re working out and her body is something to aspire to!

She has taught spinning and yoga at many of the studios around town and has now created her own studio to work with her clients. She has 4 group sessions a week, where you need to make a reservation. Michelle’s workouts weave an interval-training pace with yoga, Pilate’s and resistance work. Each session has a strong emphasis on core strength, alignment and posture, and it kicks your butt!

Michelle also does yoga classes on Saturdays, and one-on-one sessions or small groups. It's great to get a few girlfriends together for a customized once/twice a week session. Michelle and the women who work out with her are hip and cool and intelligent just like you! So what are you waiting for? See you there!

Michelle Bell
503-997-4734

Believe, Faith, Heal charm necklace from Dogeared, available at Twist.

Dogeared jewelry includes small silver charms stamped with words that are significant to women of any age. Words like "imagine," "best friends," and "sisters forever." These charms hang from pendants, earrings, and bracelets. Wearing Dogeared jewelry is a comfortable, simple, and natural way to stay connected to the important people in your life. And we eat this stuff up, if you haven’t noticed.

This one in particular is our favorite. These are three significant words we can all use sometimes as we find ourselves in the midst of real life, nurturing our loved ones, our children, our parents, and our peers. Give the gift of faith, healing, and believing to someone close to you who may need a little extra right now, or maybe just get it for yourself.“Imagine!”

Believe Faith Heal
16" silver chain necklace with three silver charms "believe faith heal"
$65

Twist, 30 NW 23rd Pl
(503) 224-0334

Mugwaz means: Do It Yourself Flip-Flops

Remember the controlling woman’s mantra, “if you want something done right you have to do it yourself” (especially true for some of us more than others).

Flip Flops are IT this summer, so you might as well get down and dirty and nurture that creative spirit by designing your own ultra hip flip flops that you’ll be proud to wear. www.mugwaz.com

This is Your Life….for a Song

Give your loved one a Hollywood Style documentary of their life from MovingMemoirs.com

For 20 minutes and $10,000, you can get a condensed version of a loved one’s life. A perfect keepsake the whole family will appreciate.

If a picture’s worth a thousand words, a moving picture’s worth at least $10,000 dollars. $10,000 seems like an awful lot for just 20 measly minutes but we figure they cut to the important stuff.

And let’s face it, like someone’s vacation slideshow, unless it’s filled with Hollywood Style scandal, we might get a little bored after awhile anyway.

The Oregon Garden

Stroll or ride the tram through this 80-acre botanical wonder, which showcases thousands of plants in more than 20 colorful specialty gardens. Discover amazing water features, garden art, a unique display of conifers, the 400-year-old Signature Oak tree, wetlands, wildlife, a playful garden just for children and the Gordon House designed by the legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

Hours: November –March – October, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Closed Tuesdays.

The Oregon Garden
879 West Main St, Silverton, OR 97381
Call toll free: 877.674.2733

About 1 hour southeast of Portland. Great for a lazy summer Sunday. Makes a great family field trip.

The Japanese Garden

The Japanese Garden includes five traditional gardens, and an authentic pavilion and teahouse. Proclaimed the most authentic Japanese garden outside Japan, it encompasses 5.5 acres and has a magnificent view of Portland and the surrounding mountains.

Hours: April – September, 10 a.m. – 7 p.m. (except Monday: noon – 7 p.m.):

Admission: Adult: $6.50, Senior (62+): $5.00, Students (6-17): $4.50, College Students (w/ID): $4.50 Children 5 and younger are free.

The Japanese Garden
611 SW Kingston, Portland, OR 97201
503.223.1321

Portland is home to the oldest official continuously operated public rose test gardens in the United States. One of the most popular of Portland’s Parks & Recreation locations, the garden’s spectacular views and more than 8,000 roses make it one of Portland’s most notable signature landmarks.

Hours: Daily 7 a.m. – 10 p.m.

Admission: Free

Portland Parks & Recreation
Washington Park International Rose Test Gardens
400 SW Kingston, Portland, OR 97201
503.823.3636

Portland Classical Chinese Garden

Beautiful year-round, the Portland Classical Chinese Garden is an authentically built Ming Dynasty style garden. It has beautiful bridges and covered walkways, pavilions, richly landscaped grounds surrounding a picturesque lake, and open colonnades making this an urban oasis. A teahouse is located within the Garden as well.

Hours: April – October, 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Admission: General: $7 Seniors: $6 Students: $5.50 Free to children 5 and younger.

Portland Classical Chinese Garden
NW 3rd and Everett, Portland, OR 97209
503.228.8131

When we are in New York or South Hampton, this is one of our favorite shopping destinations.

Their stores are decorated like an old hotel or restaurant pantry, filled with vintage linens, kitschy kitchen wares, and treasures that they have collected from Europe and the Northeast’s romantic past. We love to discover their everyday vintage china and glassware from old hotels, trains, dining halls and ships.

Forget Pottery Barn, Fish’s Eddy is a treasure unto itself. And now, like Martha Stewart (she lives in the Hamptons when she’s not in the pen), you can shop there too, without actually going there, at www.fishseddy.com.

Great funky everyday ware at reasonable prices. We love their American Pressed Glass or Hall China.

Counting Crow’s, “Big Yellow Taxi”
We love this and with the ease of a cd, we can listen to it over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. (Even the little ones can now sing along too.) “Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone”…and it features Vanessa Carlton to boot which adds to the chick music factor which is a bonus.

Maroon 5’s, “This Love”- “This love is taking its toll on me, she said goodbye so many times before…” It’s reminiscent of our high school relationships where we would break up because we were kinda bored, and then weep copious tears as if they’d been sent off to war instead of sulky in their wood paneled basement family room and it was always fun to get back together, until we were bored again.

Wyclef Jean’s, “Your Love” – L.O.V.E Reggae Mix. Again, as with everything else, reminds us of high school. Makes us feel fifteen-back when Bob Marley was still alive.

Dido’s, “See You When You’re 40” - This song is so beautiful. A tune about revisiting old loves, old times, and how it all isn’t what you thought and you can’t go back….so, Girls, let’s forge ahead.

PortlandPicks.com + the Big Bam! Present the guiltless pleasure of Splurging for a Cure! Do good, feel great and help change lives, what more could you ask for?

Come indulge at Portland’s coolest boutiques and restaurants from July 9th to July 15th and 10% of your purchase will be donated to the Big Bam! Foundation to raise awareness of breast cancer in women 35 to 40.* (www.bigbam.com) On July 9th you can print out your Portland Picks newsletter and bring it with you while you splurge for a cure. Shopping has never felt so good!

Participating Boutiques:

Bee & Thistle, Blush Beauty Bar, Cielo Home & Garden, Coco & Toulouse Go Shopping, Emily-Jane, Galore Department Store, Grapevine, Hub Optix, Matisse, Meringue, Physical Element, Retread Threads.

Participating Restaurants:

Carafe, Fife, Fratelli, Giorgio’s, Hurley’s, In Good Taste, Mint and St. Honore’ Boulangerie.

*Breast Cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in young women ages 35-40. Approximately 10,000 women under the age of 40 will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year. Nearly 250,000 women in the U.S. under the age of 40 or currently living with breast cancer.

Don’t forget the music concerts every Wednesday at the Oregon Zoo

Pack a picnic and see artists like The Iguanas, Caribbean R&B and Zydeco, on Wednesday, July 14th, $9; or Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Texas “Big Band” Blues, July 28th, $9; or Big Bad Voodoo Daddy of the West Coast Swing Revival on Wednesday, August 11th, $9.

Or there’s bigger has-been names: David Byrne from the Talking Heads, Friday August 20th, $18. Or Shawn Colvin and the Cowboy Junkies Saturday, August 21st, $22.

Also artists like Robert Cray, EmmyLou Harris, and the Indigo Girls.

It brings back fond memories of the Zoo Jazz Concerts each Wednesday when we were growing up. A fun thing to do in the summer.

Get outside!

Da do run, run, run….

Come out for Nike’s Run Hit Wonder

If you are a runner, this is your opportunity to get outside in the sun with your girlfriends and be entertained while getting some exercise. Enjoy some fabulous has-been one hit wonders along the route.

Check out their line up: Flock of Seagulls, General Public, Tommy Tutone, Devo and other one hit wonders will be playing their one song along the path to spur you on. You can stop and jig, then jog. Starts at 8:30 at the Pioneer Courthouse Square. You get a super cool Nike Run Hit Wonder Dri-Fit Shirt for the cost of registration. Upon completing the race, you’ll also enjoy the performance by Devo and refreshments from Starbucks’s and Rogue Ales. It should be a blast! We’ll see you there!