Author: Alba Betancourt

SECRET SUPPER: WINTER TIDE

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Hello all, This is my letter no. 2 from 2017. Many things have happened in the last few weeks, this Secret Supper was one of them. We had the most amazing time  shoveling snow by day (that´s right, shoveling snow) and sipping cocktails by night,  The Suttle Lodge in Sisters, Oregon hosted us so graciously for a weekend of hard work and good fun. Have a look at the photos below, and go to Our Secret Supper to check out past events and check regularly for the official photos from Winter Tide Secret Supper, I promise you will love it and it will get you thinking of coming to Portland, if you haven´t already. Also, stay tuned for something new coming, I´ve read a ton about self care and my Instagram feed and blog posts are taking a spin soon!

EXPECTATIONS

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Hello loves, Unlike past years, my transition into 2017 did not include deep thoughts or analysis of what I had accomplished during the last year. I do not have a 2017 agenda in hopes it gets filled with hopes and dream for this year -that has already seen 3 weeks pass. Neat! I guess since we moved to Portland, things have changed a little, and a lot. We are no longer desperate to leave the Midwest. I am on an ongoing discovery of my passion and I am seriously enjoying it. I’m telling you, it feels good. Sitting at my table with the computer in front of me and a cup of tea next to me, switching between reading my favorite blogs and just staring out the window, it feels good. So, this year I will not set a crazy goal of posting twice a week, or even every other week, because we all know, I will not. This year I will do my best to post once a month, and I will share the deets …

CHRISTMAS BY THE TREE

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Hey loves, How was your holiday weekend? Today I am back to work for a very short week and Friday at midnight we are heading down to Mexico to visit my parents and work on a project for a week, as exciting as that is, I am so very thankful for the long Christmas weekend that we got to spend slowly at our apartment. On Thursday Brian and I met for lunch at our favorite bakery in Portland (amazing grilled cheese!), then after work we finished our grocery shopping for Christmas Eve dinner and he headed home to nestle for the rest of the weekend. Christmas Eve we eased our way into preparing dinner: roasted duck, fingerling potatoes, pomegranate salad, rosemary rolls… Fine, I also baked a pear-ginger bread, it looked so gorgeous in the photos on Pinterest, that I saved my amazing pears from the farmers market to make it. I poached the pears, the apartment smelled wonderful, made the batter, poured too much batter into my loaf bread pan and ruined the baking …

HOLIDAYING

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You blog readers, it’s almost Christmas! I could not believe accept it, until I got my holiday spirit in full swing last night, unwrapping and re-wrapping Christmas lights did it for me. We had the most amazing time at the Pop Up Happy Hour, hosted by Table Culture at the Nob Hill Christmas Trees warehouse. It was so nice to see all the creative vendors showing their products to guests walking around with a cup of mulled wine in their hand. I may be biased, but Via Raiz killed it last night, I fought myself real hard not to buy all the beautiful bags. I did purchase the most beautiful garland for our table, Gwen did an amazing job, on the spot! I will show you all more photos of it on my Instagram feed, so if you’re an IG enthusiast like us, check us out! For now, I’m off to wrap presents. Have a look at the nice moments from last night and stay warm! Christmas love from Portland xoxo

THANKSGIVING

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Hello friends, Time is flying here, I am sure it’s also going fast for you. I attended a Secret Supper as a volunteer two weeks ago, and I want to share some beautiful moments spent with super talented ladies that put it together, but as I just said, time is flying and we’re already past Thanksgiving. So first things first… This was my second Thanksgiving, before 2015, Thanksgiving was not a holiday for me. And this year, was our first one making our own Thanksgiving dinner. B and I decided to do everything from scratch. So we went to the market last Saturday and stuck up on beautiful cranberries, honey, apple cider, greens and a pumpkin! Then I searched the web until I found what turned out to be seriously amazing recipes, thank goodness for food bloggers and social media! I still can’t pick my favorite dish. That cranberry sauce was delish… but that orange peel-rosemary butter made our turkey delicious… Thought I would share some pictures from our table. I am so grateful for everything …

SO FAR SO GOOD: PORTLAND, OR

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Hi all, I honestly can´t believe it´s been over two months I wrote my last post! A lot has happened, the city is looking gorgeous, yellow orange and red leaves are all around, we even made it to Cannon Beach again about 3 weeks ago. The adaptation to a new city, a new pace, a new life is an art on itself. We are loving the Pacific Northwest. Still excited about new connections, new relationships. Still finding new coffee shops (I believe that will never stop). I am still trying to find the perfect raincoat, something stylish yet functional, believe me, it´s NOT easy. Anyway, these are the thoughts for now, I am sharing a few pictures taken on our outings to the PSU Farmers Market, we love it, it is our Saturday morning ritual! Stay tuned for more slow living, easy loving, day to day stories and pleeeease, share your fall/winter joys and Pacific Northwest discoveries (instagram accounts and blogs included!).