the goose loves st. paddy's, even late

Happy St. Paddy's Day, Friends!

Yes, I'm not dumb. I know I'm an entire week behind. But bear with me. A few weeks ago, I arranged a collection of our green/Irish/Scottish/shamrock things on our two floating shelves, above the kitchen table. These shelves had Christmas stuff awhile ago, then were empty, and will have other stuff in the future, but for awhile, we're going with green.

But there's several reasons why this is okay:

a) green is good for all of March, especially in hippie-ville Portland

b) we're an Irish/Scottish family, so we could keep this stuff up year round if we wanted

c) it snowed on Thursday, and it's supposed to snow on Monday, so it's not going to be spring here anytime soon, so there's no point in replacing it with "springy" decor

d) it'll probably be June by the time I get around to changing it up again anyway.

I love this display because almost all of these pieces have a special meaning or story or origin.

I'll zoom in, so you can see our treasures close up. The large shamrock plate is from my aunt and uncle - Jim and Pat Dempsey of the "Spokane" Dempseys. They gifted us this plate when Billy and I got engaged, and we loved their early display of support and the truly thoughtful gift. 

I made the whisky tasting frame of Billy and three of his groomsmen back in 2009, after they attended an event in CA following Billy's mom's memorial service. Such good buddies.

The (empty) bottle of Balvenie (that's whisky, for you PBR-lovers) and the quiach cup (the little silver thing with handles) are from our wedding - Billy and the boys (dads included, right?) enjoyed the "wedding whisky" in celebration, and we used the quaich cup tradition as part of our celtic-themed rehearsal dinner.

The little white dish was a wedding gift from the Shaugnessys (Pat Dempsey's mom & dad), an Irish family themselves, and has an Irish blessing on top.

Then, to the right: the four-photo frame was displayed at our rehearsal dinner, and includes photos from when Billy and his parents traveled to Scotland in 2005. 

The glass vase with the stones and the candle was lit as a memorial to Billy's mom Barbara, also used at our rehearsal dinner.

The tartan is a sash that Billy's aunts presented to me at the wedding, another Scottish tradition. They pinned it using the little silver sword pin (in the above photo).

The center frame was purchased at HomeGoods, and the print inside was printed from Pinterest. Probably the least-meaninful piece, but I like how it brings everything together.

On the top shelf - a photo of Billy and his parents, which we displayed at the rehearsal dinner. The green pieces of paper are bookmarks that we gave as rehearsal dinner favors, and have a celtic blessing on them.

The candle has the claddagh image and a prayer, and was a Christmas gift from Barbara many years ago, now. We used it at the wedding - Bill lit the candle before the main procession at the beginning, and it stayed lit throughout the ceremony.

Finally, the last "quadrant" includes a photo of Billy from Scotland, and a purple-wood cross my parents gave us for our wedding.

The white frame has another printable found on Pinterest, and the green vase was made by Jackie awhile ago at our house. She hadn't taken it home yet, so I incorporated it into my display!

The black frame has an Irish blessing and photo from our wedding RSVPs - our friend Allison put it together as a gift for our rehearsal dinner, and we love it.

In the back is a mirror from Goodwill that I refinished and spraypainted. It's kinda hidden, but I think the shape and color goes well with the display.

But I couldn't just bore you with all of our special mementos for an entire post, right? Well I could, but I won't. Let's move on to more fun things.

Remember this tutu?

Well after I finished making it, but before I wore it to the race, I let Bentley take a spin with it.

More like I forced him. Can you see the pain in his eyes? I can't, but Billy says it's written all over his face.

 Wouldn't he make the cutest little Ballerina Beagle Bentley?

 This one says, "Hey Mom, let's dance."

Or maybe, "Ugh Mom, you better not show this to any of my friends."

Does that count the internet and all his friends who read this blog? Oops!

Maybe I have to make him a super-dog cape now, just to make up for his embarrassment over these....

the goose loves tuesday's ten (#4)

Happy Tuesday, Faithful Readers! It may be Tuesday's Ten, but there's something like 20 photos for your enjoyment today... and don't forget to check out last week's post too.



1. Monika came to visit us this past weekend. It was great to see her and I'm glad she came. Bentley was happy to have an extra friend too.

2. This coming weekend's plans include building a planter box of some sort. Farmer Billy Joe wants to plant some veggies or berries or something so that we can reap the bounty in summer and have a harvest party in the fall. Or something. I suggest he build something like this beauty:

3. Monika and I celebrated St. Paddy's while Billy was at some March Madness games at the Rose Quarter. I crock-potted some traditional Irish fare, while remembering that the stuff they ate, or supposedly ate, was super boring and fairly bland. Or maybe I did it wrong?

I did make a fresh loaf of soda bread - and no complaints there. Any kind of bread is good for me.

4. I told you the bow tie had a good purpose. And this photo shoot wasn't for nothing, either. Just wait.

5. On Sunday morning, I ran the Shamrock Run 8k, as I mentioned last week. The race is famous for having lots of irish-themed costumes and outfits, and tutus are popular. I decided that being serious was no fun, so I made myself my first tutu. And it was epic. (That's what I was doing with the material in #6). So I ran my first 8K (5 miles) in 50 minutes (10 minute miles, for you math whizzes) and I didn't walk once! And then I was exhausted. This photo is pre-race, when I was barely awake.

6. After the race, I came home, ate some soda bread, and slept for almost an hour. Then I woke up hungry and lazy, so we checked out a new restaurant on N Mississippi called Miss Delta. Delicious Southern-ish food for excellent prices. I went for the Pain Perdu (deep fried french toast), but I'm going back soon for the shrimp po' boy.

Billy went for a "Southern Stack" - breakfasty-things in a biscuit with gravy.

Monika went for the gumbo mac n cheese - I alsmost traded her dishes - it was so good. Thanks, Mom & Dad, for sponsoring our brunch!

7. Check out this amazing project from The Junk House. She cut up scrapbook paper to make the pattern on a huge piece of poster board. I think I know what I'll be doing when Billy's building his farmer box...

8. On Saturday, we got a package from Billy's dad! Along with some magazines, he included an awesome Sharks jersey-like shirt for Billy.

Here's his "Go Sharks" pose. But they still lost last night, even though he was proudly wearing his shirt.

9. Taxes are done! Federal taxes e-filed, and we're getting $$ back.

And Oregon tax return sent via snail mail today. Done and done!

10. Along with planter boxes and paper art, I'll be getting my spray paint on... got these on Sunday at Michaels with my giftcard from Billy's dad! Just wait to see what I paint...

So that's it for this Tuesday. Come back soon!

the goose loves tuesday's ten (#3)

Welcome to the third edition of Tuesday's Ten. Check out last week's episode too. 

1. Today's post is actually a bit late, mostly because I was up late last night finishing up these two beauties for my coworker's granddaughter. My coworker is flying out tomorrow to visit the almost-1-year-old, so I had to finish them up!

The giraffe shapes came from a shopping bag that my coworker had - we made a copy of the bag and then I cut out the shapes, traced them onto the fabric, then cut them out and sewed them down! A little time consuming, but I love them.

2. Last weekend we spent three days in Hood River, Oregon (full update coming soon). It was supposed to be an outdoorsy vacation, but it was more like a beer vacation. We went to three breweries and had over a dozen beers between the four of us. This was probably very close to Billy's dream vacay.

3. Although we're several years away from having little McWood babies running around, these Baby Beagle Shoes (by Stride Rite) really tempt me to get going sooner... or maybe I should just buy them now and save them for future little Willy...

4. Speaking of Beagles, I recently made Bentley a sparkly red bowtie. Believe me - it has a good purpose, and you'll find out soon - but for now, he looks like a Vegas Showdog with it on.

5. Dinner on Sunday looked like this. Philly Cheesesteaks. And it was tasty.

6. Along with the two giraffe onesies, I sewed three others for my coworker - two are below (and I still need to finish the last). The white one has lacy-ness around the collar, and the pink one has 3D flowers. Kids' clothes are high tech these days.

7. I spent Monday night screaming at the TV while watching the final episode of The Bachelor. Don't get me wrong - I have never believed in that "true-love-on-TV" stuff. However, I do believe in relieving stress by watching ridiculous girls "fall in love" with a guy who's got an awful haircut (scroll down to the article for a great hair shot, and head to Twitter to follow the haircut (yes, it has its own twitter account) ). Monday's episode was even more fun because we played "Bengo" - Bingo, with a word play on Bachelor Ben's name. Awesome? Yes, except that I didn't win. All I needed in the end was for somebody to say "once in a lifetime" but it never happened.

8. Today (March 13) is exactly 3 months until my 25th Birthday (I'd suggest you start shopping now - email me for my wishlist if you get stuck), which means I have only three months to complete my 25 for 25 list. And there are a decent number of gaps over there still...

Also, I want to go on a camping trip to celebrate the big two-five, and I want it to look exactly like this:

9. On Thursday, before escaping to the Columbia Gorge (Hood River), we stopped by Powells Bookstore, where I spent $20 on three new books. (I'm working on #14!). I've started The 19th Wife so far, which parallels the escape of Brigham Young's 19th Wife in the late 1800s and the murder of a polygamist by his 19th wife in the early 2000s. Bring on the drama and the fascinating polygamists.

10. On Sunday morning, Billy and I are running the 8K (5 mile) race in the Portland Shamrock Run. The furthest I've run since high school when I was skinny my cross country days is 4 miles. And that was tricky. So this will be fun - right? Wish me luck.

Also, for all you avid fans need to know the INSTANT I've posted another blog full of rambles, check out the new RSS feed I've added on the right. You can also put in your email address to be notified of new posts. Don't miss a single goof!

And one last P.S.: This is one of the few beagle-photo-free posts in a long time. Hooray for you dog-haters, my deepest apologies for you Bentley-lovers.

the goose loves corned beef hash

Okay I lied. THIS is my last post related to St. Paddy's. Really! So on Saturday morning (the day after our party), Billy and I woke up, did 3 counter-fulls of dishes, and then looked at our leftovers from the night before. We had a decent-sized tupperware full of our cooked cabbage-carrot-potato-onion mixture, and a slab of corned beef. So what to eat for breakfast? We could have St. Patrick's Day Feast #2... or... corned beef hash! The hash sounded way more appetizing that morning. So I chopped our cooked fingerlings, sliced our corned beef, and mixed the veggies and meat with two scrambled eggs. I topped it off with a little cheese, of course!

And what better to go alongside our hash than black coffee and toasted soda bread? :)

Here's a close-up of our picturesque hash...

And the even-more-picturesque and tasty-looking soda bread.

Yum - I'd eat that again!

the goose loves green cookies

So this is my last St. Paddy's Party-related post until next year (I think!). And such a fun one! I LOVE making cutout cookies, and have quite a collection of cookie cutters to show for it. I haevn't made them in awhile, and figured that it'd be a great day to use my shamrock shape, and while we're at it, why not make them green? I also imagined frosting and decorating them, but we didn't quite get that far...

Creaming the butter & sugar!

Looks like dough...

And a close up... I forgot to add the green food coloring until kinda late.

And then my dirty dishes.

Green cookie dough - going in the fridge to chill!

And yumm... shamrocks! Here's Shane grabbing a few to munch on...

And one poor shamrock with a bite out of it!

They were a hit - if only they lasted longer.