.I'm publishing my Monday blog on a Tuesday. This is not out of laziness or neglect I assure you. These last few days have been so full I hardly had time to sit down. And to prove this to you I'm including some of my recent adventures. It's been a very exciting few days!
Friday night I performed some acoustic songs for Tacoma Cash Mob event at a children's clothing and accessories store called
Best Loved Baby. Lady Kashmir came along and took some photos of clothing items for a future edition of Fashion Friday (kids edition). I played some of my own songs mixed in with some songs by Jewell, Alanis, Coldplay, REM, Joan Osborn, The Pogues, Regina Spektor and Death Cab for Cutie just to name a few. It was a very relaxed environment and I even got to sit on a couch while I played, which is my favorite way to do it. If I had my way I'd bring a loveseat to every gig. It felt good to play music again. I think I might try to do it more often.
Saturday I got up early to attend a fantastic conference at University of Washington Tacoma Campus called City of Neighborhoods. I was impressed by the turn out and inspired by the talks. The topics were related to neighborhoods working together to make positive changes and how strong neighborhoods can work together with other neighborhoods to make a big difference in our lives. The keynote speaker (
Jim Diers) told lots of stories about neighborhood projects he's been involved with and gave us all a lot of great ideas. I also really valued the side conversations I had with people between workshops. I got to sit down with Justin Mayfield for a few moments, had a nice talk with Jim Diers, Paul Sparks and Eddie Sumlin. In addition to that I reconnected with several other people that I admire in Tacoma. I felt pumped full of positive energy when I left.
After that I walked down to the co-op gallery I'm involved with called
Catwalk and saw my friend
Michaela Eaves who was working on a painting outside. She was painting a picture of the big blue Chihuly sculpture that is on the sky bridge that crosses the freeway between Union Station and the Glass Museum.
There was an incident with a paint brush .... and my shirt bravely sacrificed itself so that I could live. Fortunately we applied first-aid and the shirt survived as well. Since it was wet I decided to buy a cute top by clothing designer
Bo Chambers. Then I went home to collapse and watch TV. So much for that plan, as soon as I got home my daughter arrived and we realized that my iphone was not only dead but not responding to a charge. Panic ensued and we went directly to the Apple Store at the Tacoma Mall. Have you been to this place? I swear it was like stepping into a futuristic movie. The people who worked there were weird too. I think they are all robots. Anyway, after a short wait while we played with a laptop that made our faces look silly, it was our turn to speak with one of the geniuses. He pressed two buttons and my phone came back to life. I celebrated by buying 2 pairs of sunglasses, 3 tank tops and a hat next door at Forever 21. Yes, I know I'm a shop local type of girl but once in a while a little slip won't hurt. Its nearly impossible to spend 100% of your money locally. As long as we try to shop independent local businesses as much as we can, it DOES make a big difference. Did I go home to collapse then? No, I went out to dinner with friends and didn't even remember to take pictures! Shame on me, I know, but it was a long and exciting day full of ups and downs and I think my brain had gone by then.
Sunday, I spent the morning catching up on computer work, email etc, and then went to Urban Art Festival where I snapped some fantastic photos - including the food I ate there.
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| Jewell Day Spa booth with my friend Sonia Jewell and her dogs. |
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| Beer garden. I love how they created a fence out of pallets! |
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| Main Stage |
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| DJ stage |
And finally some FOOD in my food blog! I had a pulled pork sandwich from Miss Bayoo who also happens to be a Tacoma Farmers Market vendor. I was very glad they took credit cards because I wasn't carrying cash.
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| Pulled Pork Sandwich -- It was hot and yummy and I ate it fast! |
Monday morning was our monthly
Shopgirl meeting. It's a group for women who own businesses in the local area. I always like hanging out with these ladies. This time we met at my friend Sonja Silver's new business called
Proctor Frozen Yogurt. I snapped some pictures before I left. Unfortunately I was so excited about the frozen yogurt that I ate mine before taking a photo of it but it was strawberry banana frozen yogurt with fresh organic local strawberries and rasberry's on top! Can you see why I forgot to take a picture? It was so good I wish I had another one right now! I'll definitely be back for more. Luckily I snapped a picture of
Trina Jones's creation, or actually I should say I gave her my phone and let her take it since SHE'S the real photographer! The rest of these I took:
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| Sonja also owns a clothing store which will be upstairs soon. |
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| How delicious do these toppings look! Yum! |
After that I had a quick meeting with my ladies, then I came home to get my grocery shopping done over at Tacoma City Grocer. I didn't take any pictures because I was in a rush. ( I can't document every detail of my life afterall). On the way I stopped in to see Kali at
The Computer Hub. I wanted to check and see if he had run into any trouble with crime (I've been hearing stories about a band of criminals who have been sneaking off with purses, laptops and cell phones from local shops). Kali introduced me to a very interesting character who runs a local barbershop a few doors down. We had a conversation in which he informed me that no one tries anything between 7th and 11th Street on Pacific because all the criminals know this is his territory. I teasingly asked him if he would consider expanding to include all the women owned shops on Broadway and he wasn't amused. It was a strange conversation to say the least ...
After I finished shopping and putting away the food I bought I had to rush out the door again this time for a meeting at Museum of Glass. We are working together on a plan to do an all glass bus tour including the new glass museum in Seattle. I'm really excited about that possibility. The person I met with was
Kelly Miles. Our meeting ran late because she is one of those people who I had so much in common with that we probably could have spanned a few hours before we ran out of conversation. She also donated some Museum of Glass tickets for us to use as prizes for ART BUS. Our prize stash is getting quite impressive!
I ran out the door down the stairs and around the building and hopped in Linda's car for my next adventure, one that I've been anticipating all week: "Jumpstarting Entrepreneurship" a presentation by Harvard Business School professor and leader of the Entrepreneurial Management Unit
Lynda Applegate at the
William M. Factory Small Business Incubator. Here are a few (terrible) photos I took during that event.
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| The Mayor gave our speaker an award shortly after the presentation ended. |
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| The results of a short brainstorming session. |
There were quite a few familiar faces at this event like Shari Hart, Dennis Flannigan, Marguerite Giguere, Grace Pleasants, Marty Campbell and more. The whole presentation was recorded by TV Tacoma. I'm not sure when they plan to air it. It was very interesting.
Lynda Applegate told us case stories about the founders of Starbucks, Amazon and Apple. Very inspiring. The take away I got from it was that its smart to stay small and flexible and to get expert help when the time is right to expand. Stay focused on your mission but be flexible on the details and trust that you'll be able to get the resources you need to take the next steps when the time is right. Too big too fast can be very very risky.
Afterwards we went to dinner with a few of the other attendees at Pacific Grill to decompress and discuss.
Pacific Grill
1502 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, WA.
http://www.PacificGrillTacoma.com
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| City Councilman Marty Campbell ordered the wedge salad. He said it was "Flavorful and tasty." He also said the bacon was exquisite. |
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| Local developer Grace Pleasants ordered the brand new Fried Chicken sandwich. She said it was, "Awesome!" |
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| Local artist Michaela Eaves ordered the wedge salad with shrimp. She said it was the "Perfect delivery of a custom request." |
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| Linda Danforth and I split the fish and chips. Linda loves the garlic fries especially. We've both ordered this before because the fish is delicious, the crust is lightly crunchy and its very filling. |
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We ordered this for the table and shared it: Rockin Roca Blondie Sundae, a
warm blondie bar, white chocolate ice cream, toasted almonds, caramel sauce and Almond Roca butter crunch. Scrumptious! |
Now I'm preparing for Family 4th at Lake Union. I'm the Volunteer Coordinator for One Reel this year so I have to arrive around 8 am and I won't be home until at least midnight. It should be a very fun, very long day - just the kind I like. You can watch the fireworks display on TV. Also, Tacoma's pride and joy, Vicci Martinez, will sing the national anthem.
Happy Independence Day everyone! There will be no Wednesday blog this week.
XOXO,
Duchess of Downtown
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