Wowza, what a week!!! It’s been a little quiet around these parts because Kat and Gala landed in my fair city Tuesday night and since then, it’s been completely, totally nonstop. We’ve been running around like madwomen from 9 am till 11 pm every day, picking up sponsor items from the post office, spilling coffee, visiting the finest establishments of Portland’s underbelly, revamping our workshop presentation with even more fresh content, shopping our way through Portland’s most eccentric vintage stores and of course, hanging out with my quite entertaining family. Our favorite photographer trio Made U Look arrives from LA today and then we will be in full-on workshop mode all weekend at The Ace. Exciting times around here!

Tuesday was a big day for us. We did a live stream event for The Blogcademy and had a great time answering viewer questions about both business and blogging. I’m not a big fan of video but sometimes you just have to push yourself outside of your comfort zone and go with the flow. We blew bubbles (Gala’s idea, of course!), somehow Gene Simmons came up in the conversation and before we knew it, an hour and a half had passed! Honestly, once you’ve done one live video, it feels a whole lot less intimidating and I can’t wait to do it again.

There’s nothing like showing company around your city — it really forces you to adjust your eyesight and notice all the details you overlook on a daily basis. I spent yesterday taking the girls around S.E. Portland and they loved all the kooky colored houses, adorable independent restaurants and of course, the ridiculously cheap vintage shopping. I told them Portland was good!

I’ve walked past this mural dozens of times and never stopped. Like I said, having visitors helps to open your eyes!

Last night, we joined my family at the Kennedy School. It seemed quite fitting having drinks in the Detention Room of the converted grade school! Kat and Gala got to meet my grandparents, who they immediately fell in love with. The feeling was mutual – my grandparents, who live up in the mountains, loved Kat and Gala’s eccentric accents.

This has been the perfect week to show my friends around down, since Spring has sprung. Everything is in bloom and the weather has been beautiful (you know how rare clear skies are around these parts!)

And with that, I’m out — report cards and graduation certificates have been filled out, goodie bags are packed and our presentation polished. We’re packing our bags now for the fun times that await.

Have a great weekend, everyone! And, if you want to keep up with even more snippets and snapshots, feel free to follow along on Twitter and Instagram.

How was your week? All I can say is…I’m so glad it’s Friday! No matter how hard I’ve pushed through, I’ve felt completely underwater this week. With good things, though! On Tuesday, we launched The Blogcademy world tour and the response has been really strong — Melbourne is one seat away from selling out (that’s at a faster rate than our first class in NY) and I can’t wait to visit Australia later in the year.

Besides that, I got to visit a letterpress place I’ve long admired, KeeganMeegan & Co. to pick up a client project and I hope to have more to share on this soon. The outcome was impeccable and has inspired me to dream up some new self-initiated projects.

To a certain extent, i’ve always loathed flower patterns, in part because growing up in the 80s meant that flowered wallpaper, couches and curtains were standard issue (and not in a good way). Powdery pastels just don’t do it for me! This season though, I’m loving the fresh perspective. Saturated florals over black are something I can get behind and I am a bit obsessed with this ASOS dress.

Everywhere I look, I’m noticing amazingly cool Australian magazines. They’ve got it going on these days and I just love this cover of Peppermint. And there’s something incredibly special about handwritten notes — past Blogcademy attendees have sent me some recently and they’re the sweetest. Emails come and go but I hold onto all these notes.

When it comes to my house, I’m constantly merging the high and low (but let’s be real, mostly the low!) and it ties into my philosophy of making a house a home. When there’s something I really want, I’ve gotten to a point where I bookmark it and leave it. And if I’m still thinking about it a month later, it’s on. In my office, I have a knockoff Ghost chair but as with a lot of my graphic, black and white house, the corner felt very cold. So a few months after having this completely insane Anthropologie pillow bookmarked, I took the plunge. Rocky loves it. 😉

And with that, I’m signing off for the weekend. Kat and Gala arrive in Portland early next week and it will be nonstop around before then, doing a lot of last minute housework and lots of errands. Have a great one! xo