early duck and dead things

{photo taken at the barn house harvest celebration}

I grew up in a home where my father was a hunter.  I am now married to a hunter.  There have always been heads on the walls of the homes I live in (some of my sister and my old boyfriends were afraid their own heads would end up there).  So, I find the current trend of antlers, taxidermy, and faux taxidermy rather interesting.

{photos of taxidermy taken at the barn house harvest celebration}

My mom used to call all of my dad’s taxidermy the “early duck and dead things” look.  If you visit my parents home in Colorado you feel like you  just stepped into a hunting lodge…a very tasteful hunting lodge (they live in the foothills west of Denver and can get away with the look).

{photos of some of the taxidermy in my own home}

Recently, I had a conversation with a friend about where to put all of the taxidermy that my husband has (which is very minimal compared to my father’s collection).  I said that I wanted to stick it all in my husbands office, but there isn’t the room to do it. Since that conversation antlers, taxidermy, and faux taxidermy has been popping up everywhere…so, for now I am going to embrace the “early duck and dead things” and leave them out in open.

{more taxidermy from my own home}

Everything except the wild turkey that the dogs destroyed earlier this year…they are “bird dogs” after all!

{photo taken at the barn house harvest celebration}

What is your take on the antler, taxidermy and faux taxidermy trend?  Or, as my mom called it, the “early duck and dead things” look?

the decorations still have not come down

Well, some of them, anyway.  Baby girl’s 1 year birthday party was almost 3 weeks ago and I still have some of the decorations up. In fact, they might be staying for a while.

I made some tissue paper puffs and loved the way they looked once I hung them up in what is our version of a “playroom”.  I think I need to add a red one to the grouping that has the violet and yellow puffs.

What do you think?

PS – Here is a link to Martha Stewart Weddings, where I found the directions for how to make the puffs: Tissue Paper Puff Directions

a saturday morning at the barn house

I spent a delightful Saturday morning in SW Washington with my friend Melissa. We went to the Fall Harvest Celebration at the Barn House for a morning of antiquing and looking for “treasures”…

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It was a beautiful, late September morning spent with a good friend. We both ended up with some good “treasures”, too!

impromptu food adventure…

Today was my husband’s birthday and, despite being an “old man”, he is still pretty cool.

We decided to go on an impromptu food adventure around Portland to celebrate.

First stop, Metro Perc for some Stumptown coffee…

The little guy specifically told me that he wanted to go to the “apple farm” (Oregon Heritage Farm) to buy his Poppa an apple for his birthday.  So, that was our next stop…

The little guy even used his own money to buy the apple for his Poppa…

Recently, Portland was voted to have the best food carts in the world…yes, WORLD!  We decided to check some of them out.  It was a hard choice to make because there are so many to choose from, but we chose Cartopia which is located at SE 12th and Hawthorne…

We ordered the Margherita Pizza from Pyro Pizza

a turkey, cream cheese and avocado crepe from Perierra Creperie

a shrimp Po’Boy from Bubba Bernies

and some fries from Potato Champion

The entire family enjoyed the food and the atmosphere…

My husband called the pizza from Pyro Pizza the best pizza he has had in Portland since we moved here almost 5 years ago.

We also ordered a last minute pie from Whiffies, but it was inhaled before I could take a photo of it!

Since we were in SE, we “needed” to stop by the HUB (Hopworks Urban Brewery…see my earlier post about it) for a growler to bring home for later…

We made it home in time for the kiddos to take naps and still have the rest of the day to celebrate!

Home is…an impromptu food adventure to celebrate the “old man’s” birthday.