Last Sunday Trish hosted a second baby shower for Emma. What a lovely bunch of ladies! Trish made my favourite egg dish and foccacia bread. The smell of roasted garlic and tomatoes is seriously good. Way off in the corner you can see the strawberry buttercream cake that I made. It's probably been a couple of years since I pulled out that recipe. Tasty and pretty!

I must say that going to potluck events these days is so much better than back when I was 20. We used to be quite lazy and end up making a last minute stop at the store to pick up a bag of chips. But now, everyone makes a real effort to bring something homemade and delicious. Check it out! Watermelon, feta cheese & mint skewers, apple custard, bread made with currants from Emma's garden, cookies with lavender, peach crumble. It was quite the spread! Plus Emma received some lovely gifts for when that baby arrives.

Devon and I went out to the New India Buffet before heading over to the art gallery for this month's Critical Mass. We had a great meal on the patio, overlooking the city. But we arrived a bit late for the ride and there were about 12 of us wondering which way the group had headed. Everyone was on their cell phones trying to make contact with someone who was in the know. I finally managed to get in touch with Trish and we headed off toward Main & Broadway to try and catch up. We made it to Main & Terminal just in time to join in at the front of the crowd.

Here are pictures from 3 of the bridges we crossed: Burrard, Lion's Gate, and Granville. In the end, I figure that we were out riding for about four and a half hours. Not a bad way to spend a Friday night.

This week has been all about sewing baby stuff. Here are some bibs and burp pads...

And these little kimonos were made using the tutorial over at Habitual. Trish has requested an adult version of the elephant one but there's no way my sewing skills would be up for figuring that out. The second one came together much faster than the first, which I guess is to be expected. Can't wait to see how they look on an actual baby...

The twins had their first birthday party! Karen made a chocolate cake for Julien and a pink cake for Amelia. And she wasn't kidding when she said it was really pink. I took care of the icing while the other preparations were going on.
 

Karen was concerned about the lack of shade available in the back yard so she had picked up supplies to create some shaded areas. The final result was pretty impressive and quite effective. Last time I was over it was still up but I imagine it's come down by now.

And here are the twins, at one year old. Julien enjoying his cake and Amelia more interested in the toys.

A group of us headed down to Coos Bay, Oregon for a conference last week. We had a stopover on the way down in Portland where we stayed at the Heathman Hotel. It was lovely - my only complaint was the quality of the robes that were provided. Denise and I thought we would lounge around on our beds in our robes but they didn't really live up to that dream. But we loved the L'Occitane soaps and were especially a fan of the valet service. Our time in Portland was rather limited so I'm definitely planning on going back to do it up right. We went to Byways Cafe for breakfast before heading out on the road to the coast. I think Kimberly made the best choice with the amaretto infused brioche french toast - she was kind enough to share a bit with me and Andrea.

We stopped at Woodburn Shopping Mall for a bit and then headed out toward Newport, taking the winding scenic route. It was quite beautiful and then we stopped at this beach for a bit to stretch our legs. The coast turned out to be much chillier than expected and our hands were red from the cold by the time we headed back to the car.

Then we were off to Coos Bay to stay at the student residences at Southwestern Oregon Community College. Needless to say, the accommodations were much less glamourous than what we had in Portland. But we had a good time in our 4 room apartment. The campus is right next to Empire Lake which we went to check out one evening...

And Denise found out where the tree frogs live...cute!

On our last day before heading back up to Canada, we drove down to Bandon where we saw the King of Jordan's entourage leaving town while we had lunch at Tony's Crab Shack. Then we made it over to the beach which was fantastic! Oregon treated us pretty well and some of us are already making plans to go back...