Golden Hour

I've been an acupuncture enthusiast for many years now; often going on a weekly basis. It's one of the only times when I am completely still and can reach a state of total relaxation. It's about as close to a meditative state as I've never gotten and it seems to help with a number of my chronic muscular/joint problems.

While I loved having regular acupuncture, the cost adds up. About a month ago my friend AM and I planned a "mom date" that started with smoothies at Kure and then we went to check out Golden Hour.

In their words..."Golden Hour is unlike anything you have ever experienced.  They are a wellness studio that believes in the power of continuous care.  They are anything but a traditional clinic.

Their unique sessions include acupuncture, massage, aromatherapy and other modalities. They will help you celebrate in mind, body and soul, the daily ceremony of health, beauty and balance."

We went in for the 45 minute chair treatment ($35) during which you receive a head/neck massage, acupuncture (knee and wrist down) and an arm/hand massage at the end.

It's 45 minutes of pure bliss. Despite there being 6 chairs in the space, it's still peaceful and relaxing. Janet, the owner, and her team are warm, inviting and radiate a sense of calm. Liz, the practitioner I've seen on both my visits has been lovely. I bought a 5 pack of the chair treatments which came with a $30 discount from buying them one at a time. Next I'm going to try the 60 minute Stress Relief that includes massage, acupuncture and cupping.

I love that Golden Hour offers a quick and affordable way to get the benefits of acupuncture, R&R and self care. Their approach is not focused on treating a specific ailment but about the overall benefits of the treatments on health and wellness.

I highly recommend that everyone in Portland tries it.

Ask C&C: Keeping Dry

20 years ago I moved to the Pacific Northwest (PNW) and at that time I purchased my first Goretex rain coat.  Living in the PNW requires proper waterproof "gear" and participating in snow sports in the PNW demands maximum performance.

In my recent social media request for "Ask C&C" questions, one of our readers asked how we keep our winter gear '"dry" during our winter activities. Ask and you shall receive.

What do we use to keep our wet weather gear as dry as possible during wet weather? Nikwax!

I highly recommend it to anyone looking to weatherproof your gear!

Shop Local

While I will admit to doing a very large amount of online shopping, I also try to support small and local businesses. This Christmas I will be buying gifts from a fantastic Portland maker called Non-perishable Goods.

All Non-perishable Goods products are entirely hand-crafted using only natural fiber materials including linen, wool felt, vintage wool, vintage textiles, recycled cotton/hemp, repurposed denim, leather, cotton and paper. npg's linen napkins are sewn locally in portland, Oregon.

The teal with navy are my favorite! I plan to pick-up a set for myself while I am buying for others.

Les Petites PDX

C&C readers, let me introduce you to my latest venture, Les Petites PDX, a children's resale shop on Instagram.

I've teamed up with my two friends Jenny and Jennifer. 

Here's a little more about us....

We are three moms.
We each have one child.
They all attend a French School in Portland, OR.
We like our children to be well dressed.
We have expensive taste, but we're practical.
We are entrepreneurs.
We make life easier for moms.
We help you clear your closet clutter.
We make shopping easier.
We make high-end children's clothing accessible.

We've created two Instagram accounts Les Petites PDX Girl and Les Petites PDX Boy  where we will be selling.

Les Petites PDX is essentially a consignment store, but through Instagram. Here’s how it works.

- We will announce weekly sales on our FB and Instagram accounts
- At the time of the sale, we will post gently used clothing and footwear for you to buy.
- You purchase the item by being the first to comment “it’s mine” or something similar
- You private message us your email (if we don’t already have it)
- We invoice you through Paypal and ship you the item (discounted shipping offered on multiple items).
- Shipping costs are included in the list price of every item.
- We will ship anywhere in the USA.

Our launch is planned for around the first week of December, and here’s how you can be involved.

1. Follow us on Instagram (one or both accounts) and Facebook. We are hoping to get a couple hundred followers on each account by the time we have our first sale.

2. Spread the word about Les Petites PDX. Tell all your mom friends who are on Instagram to follow us! Sales and purchases are not limited to Portland, so share with moms everywhere!

If you are interested in being a seller, email us at lespetitespdx@gmail.com to learn more.

Life Lately

In watching the blog traffic, it's very clear that you, the readers, are most interested in the more personal posts, so I thought I would try out a new post topic called "Life Lately." In these posts I will be sharing tid bits from my daily life. 

As you may know, last week Katie and I celebrated a birthday. My +1, the Mini and I used it as an opportunity to try out a new restaurant here in Portland called Tusk. They have an awesome outdoor patio, cool decor, a full bar and delicious food. 

We ate outside on the patio, and here is a photo of just a few of the dishes we enjoyed. The tomato salad was so fresh and so tasty! 

As a bit of a birthday celebration I had some girlfriends over for dinner, and the Mini helped me make an apple crisp. I pretty much make up my own recipe, but this recipe from friend and blogger Robyn of Real Food Whole Life is pretty close.

This apple peeler made peeling and coring all the apples so easy. Thanks to my friend SC for letting me borrow it. I think we might need one of our own. 

We've been without a rug for a while in the master bedroom as we moved the rug to the living room (thanks to the dog for ruining the one we had there). As a birthday present my mom and dad bought me this fantastic Draftsman Rug from Schoolhouse Electric.

I'm so happy to finally have something cushy in the space. It makes the room feel cozier and makes foam rolling a lot more comfortable. 

I've been having major mountain withdrawal since we got back from our big trip. I've been hiking/jogging a 10+ mile loop in Forest Park called the North Nasty (it has about 3,000ft vertical), but it's just not the same as being in the mountains. I have a really hard time finding friends to go on big adventures with me outside of Portland, so on Friday of last week I decided to go solo. I packed up my bag and went out to the Gorge to do the Ruckel Ridge Loop hike.

It's a 9+ mile hike up a steep ridgeline that ascends nearly 4,000ft. 

The views are beautiful!

I had a great time except I lost my favorite hat. It got caught on a low hanging tree, was pulled off m head and I watched it fall to is death down the side of a cliff. Clearly this was before that happened. 

It was a good week! Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more "Life Lately" posts.

Products We Love

I love supporting friends and local businesses, so when I found out a good friend of ours was launching this Kick Starter campaign, I knew it was something I had to share.


OTTOLOCK is for every cyclist and outdoor enthusiast in your life! We already placed our order, and I can't wait for ours to arrive.

Even if you don't own a bike, how great would this be for a stroller? I've had a few friends have their strollers stolen off their porch, and the OTTOLOCK would totally prevent that!

Farm Spirit

Over the weekend I had one of the most amazing dining experiences in recent memory, maybe one of my top meals ever. 

At the suggestion of a friend, my +! and I went to Farm Spirit, a vegan restaurant that offers a small plates multiple course dinner to 14 diners Wednesday through Saturday night. They also offer a wine pairing and a non-alcoholic beverage pairing. We went with the wine!  

Upon arrival we found our names on the cute wooden placards and this simple place setting. I immediately knew it was going to be a good night.  All of the diners eat at the bar that faces the kitchen/prep-space, which makes for a fun and educational experience.

In total we had 12 courses (13 including the bread), all sourced from local farms and vendors. I won't go into detail about every dish, because there are a lot of little details, and everything is worth mentioning, but that would take up a lot of space. Not only was the food pretty on the plate, but it was DELICIOUS!

Here were the first four courses.

The bottom left was probably our favorite dish of the night. It was Maitake mushrooms, smoked potato (the white), black garlic, soubise, wild spring onion and leek ash. And some tasty "potato" chips. It was incredible!

The top left is a Fennel Vinegar Kiefer that we drank before the "dessert" courses. It was fresh and delicious and unlike anything I've ever had. The sour rye bread with pureed filberts, pickled shallots and dill was also one of my favorites (top right).

Farm Spirit serves delicious, innovative and healthy food, but it's not just about the food. It really is a dining experience. The service is impeccable. If you leave your seat, they immediately replace your napkin with a fresh and clean one. The water glasses were never below half full, and the chefs are attentive, friendly and engaging. 

At the end of the evening we chose from a selection of 2 coffees (pour over) or two fresh made teas. I went with the decaf tea. And, probably my favorite part of the dinner...really the cherry on-top was the amazing "breakfast bread" they sent us home with in this cute package. Mine didn't even make it to the car, let alone to breakfast! 

No doubt my +1 and I will be making another reservation very, very soon. 

If you live in Portland I highly recommend making a reservation. I suggest going as a party of 2 since everyone sits at the bar, which isn't very conducive to group conversation.

Betsy's Best Bar None Giveaway

A few weeks ago I happened upon the most delicious "bar" at my acupuncturists office. The cinnamon cardamom flavor spoke to me at first sight and first bite, so I immediately looked them up.

Betsy’s Best Bar None was founded in here in Portland, Oregon in 2011 with the goal of offering a wholesome, allergen-free product that is, above all, delicious and nutritious. Betsy’s Best bars are 100% organic, vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, nut-free, and grain-free. They are made without isolates, fillers, or preservatives and do not contain any GMO ingredients.

And most importantly, they are super tasty!

Being the "connector" that I am, I couldn't help but want to share these amazing bars with everyone I know, and that includes all of our C&C readers. So, I reached out to Betsy's Best and asked them if they would be interested in doing a giveaway.

And guess what? They said "Yes". So, today is your chance to enter to win one of three boxes of the Betsy's Best Sample Box.

In the box you will receive all seven of their delicious flavors. To enter you MUST comment on the blog (below) which flavor you are most excited to try! We will select three winners (at random) and announce them on Friday. 

Also, Betsy's is currently offering 15% off and FREE shipping for orders over $100! 

C&C in Portland:Verde Cocina

It's no secret that I enjoy eating healthy food and so does the Mini Fashionista, and my +1 for that matter. Lucky for us, Portland has a wide variety of healthy restaurants to choose from. Some of our favorites include Laughing Planet, Prasad, Porque No and Green Leaf Juicing Company. 

One of our newest favorite places is called Verde Cocina. They've had two locations in the city for a while now, but just recently opened a new location only three miles from our house. We've eaten there three times since they opened just about a month ago, and we are sure to go again soon.

Verde Cocina serves Northwest farm-to-fork ingredients with Mexican flair, and it's healthy and delicious. One of my MOST favorite things is the quality of the kids' menu. If only every restaurant was this healthy, fresh and balanced. No french fries and chicken fingers in sight.

Here's a look at the Mini Fashionista's dinner last week:fresh veggies, corn tortilla quesadilla, fruit, and white bean garbanzo mash. 

They serve beer and wine, have an outdoor patio and the food is great. If you are in Portland and haven't eaten at Verde Cocina yet, I highly recommend it.

Products We Love

The Mini Fashionista has a birthday coming up in just over a week. For her birthday we decided to get her a new bike. 

While she already has a bike that she got over two years ago for Christmas, it's too big and heavy for her. We've discovered in the past few months that it was going to be an uphill challenge to riding without training wheels on a big and cumbersome bike. 

So I did some research, and I found this article (and this one). When I read the quote below, I knew that our assessment of the current bike was spot on. 

"Weight can be a huge issue in terms of kids' bikes. Most adult ride bikes which are about 20% of their total weight, while kids bikes are usually around 50% of a child’s weight. Imagine learning to balance on a bike that weights half of your body weight! The heavy weights of pedal bikes are also known to delay a child’s ability to balance, especially when compared to a lightweight balance bike." 

We have witnessed this first hand in watching the Mini try to ride her current pedal bike. I have no doubt that she has the balance necessary to ride, as we have seen her scoot around on her balance bike. But, it was clear that she would not have the same balance and ability on the pedal bike. 

So after some initial interest in the Early Rider, we decided to go with Isla Bikes, a bike we could purchase here locally (saving lots of $$ on shipping). 

Isla Bikes are made of light-weight aluminum frames, easy-reach light action brakes, wide-ratio simple gearing and they pay meticulous attention to detail. Here is a photo of their entire line of bikes in the Portland showroom.

We decided on the CNOC 16" in pink, of course. 

While the bikes are expensive, I think it will hold its value in resale and will provide the Mini with a great "first pedal bike" experience.

Write On

Over the weekend we popped into one of our favorite Portland places, Schoolhouse Electric. It's one of our favorite weekend activities to get a coffee at Ristretto Roasters and to browse Schoolhouse and all of their amazing things. 

Well this wasn't an ordinary visit. While in the store, we were invited to take part in their "Write_On" campaign. 

What is Write_On?

Through this campaign, they are encouraging people to take time to savor the simple pleasures in life, like sitting down and putting pen to paper to write a good ol' fashioned letter. During our visit they encouraged us to join us in the letter writing fun as they mark the official kick off of Egg Press’s National Write_On Campaign, a 30-day challenge to write 30 letters in 30 days over the month of April, which also happens to be National Letter-Writing Month.

I think writing letters is a lost art, and something that I used to do with great frequency, so the Mini Fashionista (and Pete the Cat) are joining the movement! 

I can't wait to see what comes of it. Maybe we will even get some letters back. As a part of the campaign, Schoolhouse will even pay postage and mail your letters if we bring them back to the store! 

Who wants to join in? 30 letters in 30 days! You can do it. 

Products We Love

For those of you that don't live in Portland, let me apologize ahead of time because you are not going to like me very much after this post. 

Today's post is about a product I don't just love, I'm crazy for them ! 

Let me introduce you to Pixie Retreat Raw'r L'il Pudding Cups. I was turned on to these $7 cups of pure magic by my friends Kait and Candace from barre3. Thanks to you ladies I now have a serious addiction. 

These little cups of magic come from Pixie Retreat Raw'r "makery" that makes all raw vegan organic gluten free soy free dairy free refinedsugarfree plantbased whole foods, REAL FOOD. 

Everything they make is crazy good. You can find their products at their SE storefront and also at a variety of grocery stores throughout the city including Food Front, New Seasons, and Whole Foods. And, if you want to be sure you can get your hands on one of these little cups of magic, they re-stock on Thursdays!

The Mini Fashionista was pretty excited about our most recent visit. And trust me, you'll be as giddy as a three year old too when you get your hands on one!

Spotted Stills

Last month at the Junior League of Portland's fund raiser, I purchased a photography session in the silent auction. We've never had professional photos taken before (excluding our wedding), and I have always wanted to. Much to the reluctance of my husband, we bundled up on a chilly day and ventured out with the amazing Jenn of Spotted:Stills Photography.

Here are some of my favorites. We started at the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Gardens and then moved on to the Reed College Campus.