tonchi tonchi

a sauvie island blueberry pie

as we move into the second half of 2015 and i continue to be freaked out by how time is passing exponentially faster as i get older (dear old dirty bastard i’m getting older), i have made some self improvement promises to myself. 1. to sew more. caftans, kimonos, muumuus, palazzo pants, ponchos, jumpsuits, rompers. a new wardrobe is severely overdue. 2. to form a rad momma & me co-op situation in…

a portland house : fixer upper edition, part 1

a bit back, i posted about turning all my wallpaper fantasies into all my wallpaper realities. the thing about fantasies is, well, they’re just that. they don’t come with a price tag or a budgeting plan or a baby daddy who lives in the real world and has the shitty job of (gently, kindly) shooting down all my whimsical dreams. it’s okay, i still love him. because of his stereotypical jew-like…

diydm (do it your damn self) : toddler pant pattern drafting

heyoooooo!!! i hope it was just the most delicious baby momma day yesterday! my brother just became a baby daddy! they gave birth to their mini me three days ago and it’s been bittersweet talking with him and seeing photos pop up in my inbox because it ursher hurts to be so far from him but amazing that our sibling relationship is solid enough that he shares his life with me. it was a great ma…

pookie play date : mother’s day edition

i saw this listed in the merc this week and was like wow, that’s mega adorable, let’s totally go do that with grandma and we can have a double decker mom day date with seb doing all the heavy lifting (emotionally, not physically although the kid is strong, if his recent baby tantrums are any indicator). how fun though, right?! an event held at adx, portland’s tool-sharing, diy, custom fabrication…

make shit : super duper easy thrift store dress alteration & the story of my life

i am a lifelong community college whore. attending a cc allowed my not so ivy league ass to attend a very ivy league university for the last two years of school and graduate amongst a throng of folks much nerdier than myself. and then, years later, while experiencing a mild quarter life crises, a cc allowed me to take affordable classes that fit my work schedule and discover a brand new life…

the shit shit : fancy!

i don’t love shouting out stuff that isn’t born and bred in this too white, too pretentious, too hipster rad city of ours but this design blog out of New Zealand is fresh. anyone who can combine a gorgeous layout with great posts shouting out great makers and is capable of using phrases like, “all my bag hoes” to discuss backpacks is a friend of mine. plus, they shout-out p-town peeps like Nell…

pookie play date : mo phillips!!!

mo phillips. o-m-g i adore this man. seb and i have booped and bopped all over town to check out the big assortment of kid musicians p-town is currently offering. they are all good. mo is the best. mo is effervescent. mo is energetic. mo is entertaining. mo performs so much original music that he wrote and composed, a lot of which was done in conjunction with his sons and his elementary school…

we eat dirt. hella dirt.

while working on what’s turning into a massive do it your damn self teepee post, i felt the need to showcase my kiddo slopping around in the mud, happy as his little piggy ass could possibly be. we recently swapped my 12-year old chichi for a 1-year old shepherd/fox hound mutt (don’t worry and no judgement on re-homing a senior dog because 1) that heifer was so loved and spoiled her whole damn…

wallpapering all my dreams come true.

so, we have this house. still shell-shocked that we managed to pull off buying something in a city where i swear i can hear the up-ticking of the real estate market every passing minute. it’s incredible and we’re probably in over our heads but hey, grabbing and life and balls. plus it’s a mere 10 blocks from my parents so when Sebe is pissing me offstir-crazy, i can just put him on his mini radio…

i want to be a broad city bitch.

because, in the words of the girls, doiiii. because they are the best thing i’ve ever seen on the boob tube box. because you can’t fake a friendship like theirs. because, aside from all the pot that they do and i don’t, in my own twisted version of reality, i should basically be the third bestie breezy to ilana glazer and abbi jacobson. because i desperately want to roam the streets of manhattan…

yesterday morning, in our new normal of frantic getting out the house haze – you know, the one where the baby has been up since 6am, you dragged yourself out of bed at 6:30am to get him (this is not illegal people, i promise – the crib is a safe, warm space where, if your child is like ours, talks to himself in sometimes legible, sometimes illegible chatter until he finally decides he’s had…

reading material : kid books you (maybe) shouldn’t read to the kids

even before pushing Seb out into the world, i was pretty amped about getting to stock up on a lifetime of kids books. my parents put so much solid effort into reading with my brother and i and now, as a (semi) grownup, i continue cherishing the written word. even if these days, it comes in small dosages of the new york times and not completed novels. we were gifted a good number of books from…

pookie play dates : art a la carte

pookie play dates: open studio / art a la carte

a few mornings ago Sebe and i were faced with the eternal dilemma (or one that only a 19-month old and his stir-crazy mother can have); a city full of mommy and me things to do, which one to take on today?! as with lots of these events, i often see them listed on the pdx kids calendar several times until one day, they seem like the perfect fit…

the miscarriage files: 15 women on their miscarriages

i don’t remember how i found this the other night – sometimes i find myself up way beyond my typical mom hours of operation just thinking about everything. maybe i had just finished looking up my next ovulation cycle on webmd(i like their because it allows you to put in your last three cycles and makes me think their calculated window is somehow superior to the calendars that just ask for your…

I’m not a big birthday whore. Usually, it’s a very non-descript day that ends in dinner out with baby daddy. But, in the last few years, in the cutest sibling gesture ever, my brother started calling the husband, asking him what present would make me go whoah. This year, it was a gift certificate to take a Chinese dumpling class. I had seen flyers around the neighborhood and must’ve mentioned to…

I’m a house plant fanatic. All of my window sills are filled with pots (along with any flat surface that my cat can’t get to or she can but I chase her away daily with a spray bottle muttering something like ‘when will she learn’ or ‘I’mgonnakillyouifyoupeeinthatpot’) I was bringing home a new plant every week UNTIL I learned how to propagate. (It’s not illegal, trust me.) Propagation is when…

The miscarriage files : luteinizing hormone strips

It’s probably worth noting that after having a miscarriage, I kiiind of went off the deep end as far as conscious baby-making research is concerned. I think before experiencing a miscarriage, I knew that some women, a lot of women, have a hella not-fun time conceiving when they are ready and wanting bebes.

I’m a huge nerd reader of the ny times style section and as I get older, modern love and…