Just Like Heaven

One word for Healing Waters & Sacred Spaces—utopia. We met our masseuse, Brenda, downstairs in the gift shop (next to the gallery) and she led us upstairs to a very serene, warm, welcoming spa space. We felt relaxed before we even received the treatment. Brenda made us feel like an old friend, as if we’d just popped in for a cup of tea.

We treated ourselves to the 90-minute Intuitive Massage & Energy Infusion. Ninety fabulous minutes of lying there in pure rapture as Brenda guided us to a place of serene tranquility. Each massage is unique, depending on what state you’re in, so it’s not a cookie-cutter rubdown. Brenda applied hot stones, essential oils, and even used a tuning fork at the end to deepen our state of relaxation and soothe our overtaxed nervous systems. This should be mandatory for all of us.

She described Healing Waters & Sacred Spaces as a “collective of people who do healing work.” Try a session of Gemstone Healing, Reiki, Sound Therapy, Aromatherapy, or a Soul-Card Reading. They have specialists in all of them! (Our ideal day would be to come in and have a treatment from everyone on staff, pure research and pure heaven.)

Release all that negative energy and find your center. You deserve to unwind and feel divine. You owe this to yourself. And tell them Portland Picks sent you – you’ll get 10% off your first massage!

Healing Waters & Sacred Spaces
2426 NE Broadway
503.528.1430

You Are Such a Baddoll

There are few things cuter on this planet than baby-size shoes. We want to bronze all of the baby shoes - not just the customary one! And though Baddoll Shoes is really a place for grownups, the itty-bitty Converse and Chuck Taylors (in crayon colors, no less) completely captured our hearts.

We also loved the funky selection of Faryl Robin and Fornarina shoes – we have a super-duper big soft-spot in our hearts for Fornarinas – along with brands like Puma and Diesel, for women and men. From what they tell us, the sportier shoes are flying out of the store, as are the Reef flip flops – after all, it is summer. Oh, and they have Puma flip flops for just $15! Inexpensive enough to buy a couple pairs and keep them in the car for impromptu afternoons at the beach!

Baddoll Shoes
808 NW 23rd
503.525.2202

We’ll be in the Powder Room

Want to have fun shopping for sparkly glam hippie clothes that won’t break your budget?

The Powder Room is “that place.” We loved their mad selection of platform sandals and inexpensive bags and baubles. Big gaudy rings on the cheap? We love it! Camis in every color, with or without beading? We love it! It’s like your hippest hippie girlfriend crashed into a glam-rock video. Totally awesome! (And from what we hear, the biggest seller is the Paradigm dress with delish candy stripes, a halter neck and a leather tie…for only $44.95.)

Don’t tell everyone about it; just go get one for yourself! Watch as others glance at you in envy and then do the kind thing—send them to the Powder Room!

The Powder Room
814 NW 23rd
503.248.9160

Get Tangled

Because we are, let’s just say, frenetic, the act of sitting down and actually relaxing or even watching TV is a challenge. We never thought of ourselves as the scrapbooking, berry picking, jam making, knitting type, though we’ve always admired those that could do such things.

Knitting in particular has taken on a very cool, glamorous, Zen-like reputation. With all the gorgeous accessories and luxurious yarns to choose from, it’s become so fashionable. And it isn’t just Grandma who’s doing it. All the models, celebs, and even college students are curling up and creating. It’s a whole new fantabulous trend. And we think it’s about time to try our hand at knitting. (Who’d a thought?) Just a quick private class and poof, we’re making a scarf ! (Cross your fingers for us.) We’ve always held romantic visions of ourselves knitting feverishly next to the big fireplace up at Timberline. The trick is that knitting is a communal habit. It is about making time with a beloved pal to sit and knit.

And our new hangout, Tangle Knitting, also has group classes and events. Our favorite: Stitch and Bitch. And if that’s not enough to get you knitting, check out their amazing knitting handbags (they look like carpet bags...gorgeous!) We’re sold.

Tangle Knitting
440 1st Street
Lake Oswego
503-636-knit

Ellaina Comes to Town

We know what you’re thinking; you love the idea of local designers, but you’re not sure you have the cash or the panache to actually buy those often edgy, expensive styles. Well then, check out Sue Bradbury’s soft, comfy, classic-with-a-twist designs at Ellaina.com.

It’s hard to believe that this San Diego transplant has only been living in Portland for a month. From all corners, we are receiving rave reviews about her stuff, and we’re not surprised. Lightweight soft mint-green shrugs, clingy tees with leaf appliqués and lace cutouts, plush pink curve-hugging cords and flowy floral skirts are just some of the feminine pieces that will surely become our wardrobe essentials for the rest of the summer and into the fall. Oh and lest we forget one of our favorite parts, all of the items are priced within our budget ($60 cords, $25 tanks), so now we really can stock our closet with unique, handmade local designs!

Eventually, Sue plans to open a brick-and-mortar Ellaina boutique just like the one she had in San Diego, but until then, you can pick up her designs at Say Say Boutique and Fix Gallery, as well as online at Ellaina.com.

Although we loved playing dress-up in person, it’s also worth it to check out the website for “pair with” ideas as well as purses, belts and jewelry and Sue’s own personal online journal detailing her inspirations and observations of her new home, “the most beautiful place I’ve ever been.” Well thank you, Sue, we love you, too! When newcomers can’t resist Portland, we can’t resist them!

Sue Bradbury available at: www.Ellaina.com

• Say Say Boutique
  1010 SW Morrison
• Fix Gallery
  811 East Burnside
  

Quilted Memories

We tried to clean our closet this week. We planned to stick with the if-you-haven’t-worn-it-in-a-year-then-toss-it rule, but we didn’t accomplish much. Our old prom dress, skinny jeans, the ex-boyfriend’s college t-shirt and countless other nostalgic wardrobe pieces are still lingering. We don’t know about you, but we’d have lots more room in our closet for cute NEW clothes if we got rid of these blasts from the past, but we can’t bear to part with them.

Cue Lori Mason to the rescue. The former Nike textile designer turned to quilting 6 years ago with Lori Mason Design, and now she creates personal commemorative quilts out of your precious fabrics. Wedding and baby quilts are quite popular to mark those life-changing occasions, but we also like the idea of creating our own personal security blanket out of the garments that have made us happy through the years. We’ll curl up with the soft satin of that first fancy dress, run our fingers over the worn letters on his shirt we used to sleep in, revel in the memories of how hot those jeans made our butt look back in our heyday, and smile.

Lori also creates ready-made quilts with a modern edge, using wool suiting materials or linen. Her designs are clean and simple, making us think more of West Elm than Amish country. Prices range from $400 for a throw to $5000 for an intricate king-sized spread. Prices for commemorative quilts vary depending on size, pattern (Lori uses only her own original patterns) and number of fabrics used. You are investing in an heirloom. These will be the things the kids argue over.

You are One Hot Mama

When I was nursing the twins, I was afraid to leave the house. I was constantly starved, binging on Raisin Bran at 2 a.m. and listening to the neighbors partying next door. My surreal life consisted of alternating between nursing and pumping (sometimes on high speed to just be done with it, which of course wreaked havoc later). But I couldn’t leave my house because my poor starving twins never stopped nursing. And my bra, yuck! Though I must say I had quite a rack (for a fleeting moment anyway). At that time, sexy was not something I was feeling.

Many companies have claimed to have a "sexy" nursing bra, but their idea of sexy is offering one in black. Ho-hum. Now there’s a new local company that really is making the first-ever, sexy and functional nursing bra! De Ma Vie was started by two nursing mothers who thought, "Why must nursing bras be so unflattering?" We’re trussed up like Vikings when our bras are getting the most frequent viewing by the husbands! . One of the women, Heather Chamberlain, is the creative designer behind the De Ma Vie line and the model on the website. The De Ma Vie line was created in a Portland-area suburb where Heather currently lives with her two children.

Times have changed. And see, it isn’t an oxymoron....you can be a sexy mom, especially in De Ma Vie.

De Ma Vie
503-533-1751

Gelato comes to Old Town

We have dreams of being a flapper in the Roaring 20s. We can picture our hair in a bob while sporting a drop-waist dress and hanging out in the speakeasy with our bootlegger boyfriend. That’s why we love Chumley’s in New York, an old speakeasy in Greenwich Village, complete with a steel peep-slot in the nondescript wood door.

Back home in Portland, we’re always on the lookout for places with the same secret, underground cool, which is why we love love love the new Old Town Gelato. An offshoot of Old Town Pizza on NW Davis between 2nd & 3rd, Old Town Gelato is tucked into a tiny space next to the restaurant, which is only about as big as the gelato freezer itself. When the door is closed, you wouldn’t even know it was there; but when they’re open (11am-8 pm Mon-Thurs, 11am-11pm Fri & Sat) you’ll know where to look.

You’ll be drawn to their welcoming bistro tables lining the sidewalk. In addition to the yummy gelato and sorbet (we gobbled up the fresh, tart, green apple sorbet, while our girlfriend indulged in creamy hazelnut gelato), you can also enjoy take-out sandwiches, Italian sodas and coffee – no password required.

Old Town Pizza
NW Davis between 2nd & 3rd

The sun has arrived and should have staying power for another month or so. But alas it is Oregon. so you can never be too sure. We got caught in a downpour in our flip flops that flipped all kinds of messy water up our backs – and it wasn’t pretty. That wouldn’t have happened if we’d have been wearing these “Rain or Shine” skimmers.

These are the perfect warm-weather alternative and they come in several candy colors. The flats are lined in soft padded cotton so you won't mind going sockless.

Cute enough to eat! Buy them now and wear them all year.

The Limited Edition Skinny Fit Polo: Big Pony

Remember the 80s when you had to have a polo shirt, collar up just so? And remember how no ordinary polo would do? For any sort of real status it had to be a Ralph Lauren Polo shirt or an Izod.

Fast-forward 20 years later; your eyes are going a bit. Those horses are looking awfully small. But no worries, now there’s the Big Pony. It’s like a large-print book for your wardrobe. Flaunt your status to your preppy (albeit aging) pals with this limited-edition shirt.

Big Pony. See? Bigger is better.

This is the ebay of the rich and famous,…a secret website for the traveling elite.

Luxury Link lets you bid on hundreds of glamorous getaways at eye-popping prices. They have an enormous offering of paradise getaways all over the world. It’s a vacation just to get online and browse.

And if you’re rich and impulsive, just click ”buy now” and the world is your oyster.

With all this talk about blogs, we figured we’d wade through some of them and occasionally pick one or two of our favorites that we could relate to:

Here’s a teaser from Stephanie Lessing’s blog: (Which sounds eerily familiar if you switch out New Jersey with our high school):

Do you ever wonder what really smart people are thinking the whole time they’re talking to you? Like that you messed up a word or started a sentence with “like” or that the whole time they’re nodding their head, they’re counting how many times you said, “like”? I do. Obviously. I like to blame my intellectual ineptitude and my pairing of words like intellectual and ineptitude on the fact that I grew up in New Jersey.

We didn’t take regents and therefore we didn’t like bother to learn anything. And by “we,” I’d like to clarify that I’m referring exclusively to myself and everyone I’ve ever met who grew up in my state. The people from New Jersey, whom I haven’t met, are therefore not included and should not feel in any way that they are necessarily inferior as well.

Another friend of mine who grew up in New Jersey recently admitted that she feels equally as uninformed as I do. I whispered to her, “Do you know anything at all about the solar system?”

“Just Earth,” she whispered back.

“Me neither,” I confided. “How come we don’t know anything?” I asked her.

“I know about the food groups -- which surprises people,” she said.

“I don’t,” I admitted.

To be continued.... www.stephanielessing.com

Now you can dress up your ipod mini like you do your little doggy—every day a different outfit. You can even decorate your ipod with your boyfriend’s picture! Or maybe your little doggie’s.

Check out these Bespoke Covers. You send an image of yourself or whomever you desire to clothe your precious ipod and they send you a case in its likeness made out of a cool stitch pattern. Too cool for school (and eek, that is coming soon!)

Okay, you have a shuffle, not a mini. How about a Paris Baby Blue ”Wrapper” (as worn by who else, Paris Hilton!)? These are sooooo cute in fun, dotty “Baby” and “True Blue.”

Now you really rock.

We here at Portland Picks love celebrity gossip, almost as much as we love dining out and saucy shoes! Nothing is more fun than gossiping about the super-rich and famous with well-shod girlfriends over a plate of pasta, as we all know.

So check out Life & Style at your local grocery store or newsstand - it's so much fun and completely decadent. Like ice cream for your brain!

What's up with Brad & Angelina? Life & Style knows! Where can you get the latest fashion finds? Life & Style, baby! And of course, your favorite weekly email, Portland Picks.

We are not really “pet people.” We love pets, they just don’t love us so much. Really, we can hardly take care of the kids. Yet there’s the relentless pleading from the boys for a dog. Sigh.

When it comes to pets, we caved once. We got a Beta Fish, since we heard they were sturdy, and named it Lightning. We bought Lightning quite an elaborate aquarium (nothing but the finest for our first pet). We wanted to buy him some friends too, but let’s just say Lightning and his ilk haven’t proved very sociable.

Almost from the get-go Lightning was anything but Lightning. He was more like…dead. We found him floating at the top of the water. My son screamed and became hysterical and then began a long prayer vigil over Lightning’s bowl. And golly, it worked! It was a miracle. Lightning came alive again and started swimming, albeit at a bit of a slant, and lived just that way for 6 months. Finally he died, for real this time, and we had a very fancy formal service, everyone taking turns speaking a few words about what Lightning meant to them. (I had to really rack my brain on that one.)

Now the mere word “fish” sends my son into hysterics. His brothers know this of course and taunt him, slipping it into their dialogue whenever possible. “Hey, they have tuna FISH,” they enjoy pointing out perusing a menu, or even, “I FISH you wouldn’t do that!”

So a dog, hmmm, not sure we can deal with it. Maybe if we start with just a wee little one.

Recently we discovered Toy Chihuahuas. They’re super-mini and adorable. The dog of our dreams. Plus you can shop for them and dress them like Barbie. And they love you, always, adoringly.

Though, on second thought, they might be a tad fragile for little boys. So for a while anyway, we may have to stick with the real toys, like Neopets, and see how that goes first. But as for the Toy Chihuahuas, you should get one. We know you’ll love it up right!

Check out these precious little Toy Chihuahuas at www.divapups.com.

DivaPups.com — for all your diva pup needs.

YOU CAN DO IT!
By Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas

Do you remember your favorite Girl Scout badge? We do…it was the Writing Badge, and it was a dream come true when we earned it, and got to sew it on our forest-green sash. (We were much better with the pen than with the needle-and-thread, and therefore we never earned the Sewing Badge.)

Anyway…whatever you dream of…you can find a way to make it come true. A brand new Merit Badge Handbook is out, and it’s for grown-up girls, like us. The amazing irony about “YOU CAN DO IT!” is that the author who dreamed up this book -- Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas -- perished, a hero, on Flight 93 during the 9-11 tragedy. And, her family, so taken by Lauren’s exuberance with life, carried out Lauren’s unfinished dream, and with this book, created a legacy in her name. So, we can’t let Lauren down now with our silly excuses of being too old or too busy, now, can we?

When we open “YOU CAN DO IT!”, we notice that every page seems to leap with joy! Absolutely infectious! We want to fly solo, fire-walk, play the piano, pop the hood on the Mustang and know why the engine won’t turn over, go camping (even though our ex says our idea of camping is when there is no mint on the pillow at night)…and, we need to learn how to budget. All the steps are there…just like in our old Girl Scout Guidebook. And, there are encouraging quotes (“To accomplish great things, one must not only act, but dream”)…websites to visit…and wise words from happy women already doing what we want to do.

And something special happens when our friends and family sense our excitement about going for our dreams. They step out of our way, or they sign on to support us. It’s just like Lauren’s sisters – they just had to make her dreams come true, because Lauren was divinely inspired by her project. Now we really can’t say no!

There’s a quote near the end of the book by William James that reads, “Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.”

Contributed by Diana Jordan

A true Oregonian cocktail
CASCADE MOUNTAIN SNOWBOARDER

Made with Cascade Mountain Gin and Crater Lake Vodka.
Created by the Bendistillery Sampling Room in Bend, Oregon.

1/2 shot Cascade Mountain Gin
1/2 shot Crater Lake Vodka
1 oz Sweet and Sour
3 oz Tonic Water

Mix ingredients over ice in a rocks glass. Garnish with lime. Try not to whistle sexily while sipping. A truly cool cocktail for the summer.

Attire: Summer cocktail

*TICKETS $40 prepaid; $50 at the door

PURCHASE TICKETS ONLINE
or call Portland Monthly at 503-222-5144

Space is limited

Nordstrom and Portland Monthly present
RUNWAY TO ROOFTOP
a benefit for PICA
RUNWAY TO ROOFTOP
SATURDAY, JULY 30
7:30 pm
224 NW 13th Avenue | Portland, OR
Join us for a fantastic evening of cool fall fashions on a hot summer night - a happening that no fashion-lover will want to miss!

The evening begins with cocktails and a high-fashion runway show in the Wieden+Kennedy atrium, where viewers will get the inside line on stellar styles from today's hottest designers from Nordstrom's via C department, including Blumarine, Cacharel, Catherine Malandrino, Chaiken, Milly and Valentino Red, among others.

Following the fashion show, join us on the rooftop lounge for a one-night only special boutique made just for you. Browse all of the runway samples modeled in the show and order BEFORE the merchandise hits the stores - including an expanded collection of emerging designers that are normally only available in the Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles markets.

While you take a break from shopping, relax amidst the starry night on the rooftop lounge with music, cocktails, hors d'ouevres and desserts. From the top, the view is gorgeous.

Tickets are $100 per person ($45 is tax-deductible).
100% of proceeds benefit PICA's artistic programs.

Space is limited - RSVP to PICA today!
(503) 242-1419 x225
jacobs@pica.org

The Heathman Restaurant and Bar is featuring a series of 11 domestic and international rosé wines for the summer by the 2-oz taste, glass or bottle. The ”Think Pink“ series offers guests the chance to taste a variety of rosé wines from vintners in Oregon¹s Willamette Valley , and evenSouthern France and Spain. The Heathman will also donate 20% of rosé sales from July 27-Sept. 18 to the Oregon and SW Washington affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, culminating with a Heathman team running the Race for the Cure on September 18th.

Breast Cancer Survivors Night @ the Heathman is Aug.15, 2005. Local cancer survivors, family and friends are invited to kick-off the Rosé Wine Series fundraiser on Monday, August 15th, from 5-7 pm in the Heathman¹s historic Tea Court. Sommelier Tysan Pierce will offer flights of rosé wines while guests enjoy complimentary hors d¹oeuvres and live music.

The Heathman Restaurant
503-790-7752
www.heathmanhotel.com
1001 SW Broadway

Summer Extravagazna August 31st

It’s a Crave Summer Extravaganza ~
An exclusive, festive, glam-gal gathering of fun, entertainment, personal pampering, specialty shopping, sipping, noshing and just hanging out with the girls. Wear your comfy pajamas or your favorite leisure ensemble and enter the lush world of "everything you crave" under one roof.

Highlights:

• Featuring one-of-kind Indian head massages and the new “sugaring” all-natural waxing technique.
• Marilyn Monroe is your emcee hosting a live fashion show by City Girl and music by JMatter.
• A succulent salmon BBQ on the patio, wine tasting and mouth-watering gelato by Staccato Gelato.
• Fabulous raffle prizes abound, with to-die-for “pamper packages” (all raffle proceeds benefit the American Domestic Violence Hotline)

Space is limited so register today at www.craveportland.com!