Figueira Family

3.21.2010

Bella...Well Just Being Bella

Bella chewing what is left of the an arborviate tree I planted and killed last season....

Bella, well just being Bella...

Bella after working in the yard today "helping" dig and chew sticks...

3.17.2010

Weep No More

A vast dessert beneath a grand sun

A breeze just to know I am there

A subtle existence that hungers for more

Gazing outward I am empty

Seeking life beyond my petals

Born into nothingness

I weep

Sun sets.

Stars fall.

Sun rises.

A breeze just to know I am there.

And I weep.

My petals fall

In the depth of my gathered tears

Below my fading stance

Nothing remains.

Gust of wind emerges

In the distance my gaze follows

Yellow hints of color sway

My stance engaged

Ebs and flows with the vision ahead

Rapidly in view

I move.

I follow.

Reaching.

Hoping.

I rise.

Above me the gust subsides.

To my side your petals grace.

And I weep no more.

3.09.2010

Sylvan Highlands Neighborhood Association won about $3k in grant money towards community development. Part of the funds were used to create a bookmark that advertised our events for the year. I volunteered to create the bookmark, with the help of another volunteer, that we would mail to about 500 households in our neighborhood. Here is the end result of that work. The Racoons name is Waverly and is our logo for the neighborhood. The events on the back range from Tree Planting, to Neighborhood Clean Up, to a Movie Night outside during the summertime. It is because of volunteers and donations that allow these awesome activities to emerge; just one of the many great aspects about living in Portland, and the United States...

And Rafa continues to lead the developments of our website : )

http://www.sylvanhighlands.org/

Never Ending Landscaping

One day, we will be all finished with our landscaping improvements. For now we will keep progressing forward, even if it we are as slow as dirt : ) Here are some of the latest pics in progress...

Here is the back before anything added from when we purchased...

So, 10 Arborviates, 4 Magnolias, 5 Bamboo, 6 leylands, 1 Laurel, 2 retaining walls later and this is where we are at:

Facing North West...

Facing North...

Facing South. At the very end is a monstrous tree/shrub mixed with thorny ivy that we are removing so that we can extend the two retaining walls around the corner to the left (east). The top wall will extend our flat space by probably 6 ft. The lower wall that will extend around to the left will eventually be for planting a vegetable garden on top off. This area gets loads of sun.

Day 1 of removal....

After day 2 and 3 a couple weekends later....

And now to the front before anything has been done. We plan to put in three walls here.

After day 1. This is the beginning of the first wall. We will end up decreasing the height of the wall here, it is too tall as it is now. The plan is to put in two more above it evenly spaced out. From there we can plant like crazy.

Sometimes it feels as if we are making little progress, but then when we review the before and after, we really can see how far we have come along : )

Blazer W+K Seats

One of the best perks about working for Wieden + Kennedy is that every now and again your name gets called for some kick ass seats to a Blazer game. When you can see backs of the players heads, you know you are close : )

Sporting our new and official Blazer Gear. It was just time : )

2.17.2010

Travel Brain.

Profile

Cities

is an explorer that:

occasionally strays off track

likes a bug-free bed and hot showers

flirts with danger

Travel cred: great

I rank in the top...

0.9% most cities visited - Jamaica

1% most cities visited - Monaco

4% most cities visited - Ireland

Get your own widget

GeckoGo

2.15.2010

Sonoma with Friends

Over the first weekend in February, Rafa and I met Becca and Shahin in Sonoma. We rented a cottage right in the heart of Sonoma, and spent the weekend wine tasting, cooking dinners, and hanging out. It was a wonderful and happy weekend : )

Our first stop was in Sonoma Village,a quaint and historic town, where we walked around and stumbled on one winery store that directed us to some of the best wineries on Sonoma. Took a few shots and then headed to our first winery of the trip, Sebastiani, both lovely decor and tasty wines.

End of Mission Trail in Sonoma Village

Historic building walking through Sonoma Village:

Sebastiani Winery

A familiar and beautiful sight, the endless vineyards with rolling green hills as a backdrop. And another familiar site, the countless vineyard signs.

The 5th and last winery of the day, complete with a fire and barrel tasting : )

Day 2, 2nd winery for the day, Roessler, which was more like a tasting room in a cute little house. Here they had Pinot Noir from Oregon...

Buena Vista Winery, in the heart of amazing creeks and a small forest. Here we took some great shots and goofed around : )

Wonderful couple days with friends, the Riff Raffs : )

But, for Rafa and I, we had one more day to tour around, so we decided to head out on a drive. We started with a small visit to Napa , we hit up one more winery, the one on the Bachelor, Castello De Amorosa, and then continued driving through the hills eastward to get scenic perspective...

House in the Napa Village neighborhood, I think this was for sell for about $2mil.