Astoria

Our second day we headed North to Astoria which is in the very North West corner of Oregon (about 45 minutes from the beach house)  Astoria is a charming little town with lots of Victorian, gingerbread style houses set up on a hill (alot like San Francisco)  There is a strong Scandinavian population in the area.

One of our first stops was Vintage Hardware.  It was so fun, we had a hard time leaving.  It is a vintage/salvage type store that is housed in the lobby of an old hotel.  The city had never done anything with it so this  man who loves to collect junk and create things out of it moved his store - Vintage Hardware into it and it is magical!

The crumbling remains of the hotel lobby remain and they fit right in with all of his junk!  Doors, windows, moldings, furniture, dishes just about anything you can think of.

 Glad they warned us!

 I so wanted to take this table and chair home with me but I didn't....

 There were lots of amazing doors.

 I loved the old original floor.  It reminded me of the floor we had in our bathroom in our old house.

 Old hotel dishes..

 We checked out a cute little cupcake store in Astoria too and I loved their light fixture.

 We then headed over to the Flavel House.  An old Victorian home in Astoria that was built by Captain Flavel who at one time was the richest man in America.

 We loved all the amazing Victorian features.  Both Tessa and I think we were born in the wrong era.

 Although I'm not sure I would have liked to bath in this tub.  The house had all the modern conveniences - indoor plumbing, electricity and even central heat.

We had a yummy lunch at a fun cafe - The Urban Cafe and then headed back to the house.

And then we get to enjoy this at night....

Spring Break

We didn't have any plans for Spring Break this year so when the beach house opened up for a few days Tessa and I decided to head down.  We packed up lots of projects, books, movies and some food and set out to enjoy some girl time together.

We brought a few sewing projects including a skirt and dress to make for Tessa.  We are using an old 1950s pattern for the dress and it should be so cute!

 We have had a Jane Austen fest - watching Pride & Prejudice, Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park and Emma.  (only two more to go - Persuasion and Sense & Sensibility)  We also watched Wives & Daughters, a BBC miniseries.

We lucked out and had an amazing beach day - 60 degrees, sun and no wind!  A morning walk on the beach into town for a doughnut and steamer was the perfect way to start the day. We are heading north to Astoria tomorrow to explore some vintage and resale shops.

It doesn't get much better than this at the beach - at least the Oregon beach!

Value/Honors Project Accomplished

One of the last things Tessa had to do to finish up her Young Womanhood Recognition was to complete a Good Works Value Project.  She also had to do a service project for her Honor's Diploma so we decided to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.

The project she did for one counted for the other too!

She decided to make blankets for the Linus House Project.  She collected fabric and cash donations to buy fabric.  Her goal was to make 25 blankets.  She had to get other people involved in the project too so Monday, the first day of Spring Break we invited friends from school and church over to help us work on the project.

We had a house full of helpers and were able to make 30 blankets in 2 hours.

The only thing she has left to do is write up a little report and deliver them!

Thanks to everyone who helped Tessa with her project!!!