SheSue Experience

So you’ve made a beautiful sweater or top and need the perfect button or trim. I have found just the place for you. On a recent trip downtown Portland I came across the Button Emporium. Upon stepping through the front door, you are surrounded by buttons, lace, appliques, trim, ribbon, thread, fabric, patterns, and books.

They have buttons that are hand painted, made out of shells, wood, metal, porcelain, sterling, pewter,ones that are inlaid with stones or made from stone. There are 150 different buttons made out of pearl. They even have buttons with moving parts. They have ribbons from France, Brazil and Japan, beautiful hand dyed silk ribbon and a sheer 19″ wide ribbon. Braids come in different colors and patterns.

They have an extensive collection of heirloom pieces. There are garments in the shop to inspire and all the materials and patterns needed for you to re-create them. For heirloom sewing they have several different fine batistes, French laces, Swiss embroideries, #80 all cotton thread and fine handsewing needles. And, naturally, they have replicas of vintage buttons.

What started as a mail order business merged to shows and conventions and finally to their own shop in Portland. Owner operated, the store is located at 914 SW 11th; the shop will soon move around the corner. They can also be located online at The Button Emporium and Ribbonry. But take my word for it, you don’t get the full picture until you visit the store.

The next time you need a special button or bow, check out the Button Emporium. Of course, I had a fun time finding some special buttons for myself.

My sister lives in Michigan where it snows by Halloween through March or April. Sounds a little like Alaska, except her snow goes away and comes back. She wrote a few days ago to tell me she had slipped on her icy front steps and fallen. She has concrete steps and she had hit her head. She lives by herself with her 3 cats. What should she do?

The old wives tail came immediately to mind: Is it true you should never let a person with a head injury fall asleep? Does staying awake lower your risk of lapsing into a coma or worse? What if she falls asleep and never wakes up? Should she drive herself to the hospital?

My sister went to see her doctor the following day. She was feeling much better and the knot on her head was down to ¼ of the size of the previous day. He said she did a good job cleaning the wound and that when the swelling went down, so did the need for stitches. Today she is feeling just fine and the knot on her head is completely gone. The general rule of thumb, doctors say, is if someone is knocked out and they cannot be roused into any sort of consciousness, it’s time to seek medical help.

[/caption]One of the things Portland is famous for is it’s bridges. More than 10 span the Willamette River from the St. Johns Bridge at the north end of town to the Sellwood Bridge at the south. 5 bridges in the downtown area are drawbridges allowing barge traffic through. The Hawthorne bridge is the oldest operating vertical lift bridge in the nation while the Steel Bridge is a rare twin deck bridge capable of independent movement. Some bridges are old and beautiful, while some modern and sleek.
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A great way to view these bridges is by walking the esplanade which follows the east and west side of the Willamette River in the downtown core area. I have walked this esplanade many a time, but never at night. So when the opportunity came up in a Meetin.org, I went.

Morrison Bridge

As luck would have it, the night was a calm, dry night. Maybe a bit chilly, but we warmed up fast. Only 7 showed up, but that’s okay. We know who the true adventurers are! We started by crossing the Hawthorne bridge, the oldest in Portland built in 1910. Next we crossed the Morrison Bridge. It was originally built in 1887 and was the largest span west of the Mississippi. But then it was rebuilt in 1905, then again in 1958 as a

Taken from the Burnside Bridge

drawbridge. Next up was the Burnside Bridge which was designed by the same designer as the Golden Gate Bridge. Another drawbridge, it is noted for aesthetic details such as the turrets on the operator’s house. Finally we crossed the Steel Bridge.

Stairs off the Steel Bridge

Built in 1912, it was hailed for its imaginative engineering. The lower deck is used for trains and has a sidewalk for pedestrians and bicycles. Its upper deck is used by bus, car and truck.
We toured more of the waterfront before heading through downtown back to our starting point. I was amazed at how well lit the whole trip was. The waterfront esplanade was lit up with street lamps and of course the downtown area was ablaze and busy even for a Thursday evening. During the walk, we all took turns walking with different people so we had a chance to get to know everyone a little bit. Some fun people and a beautiful night made for a good time.

About 10 years ago my daughter heard about 4-H and wanted to learn about cooking. I couldn’t find a local 4-H cooking club, so decided to start one of my own. I grew up with 4-H being a huge part of my life. I was involved in all sorts of domestic clubs; cooking, sewing, knitting, demonstrations, modeling. My mother was the leader of most of these clubs, now it was my turn.

4-H changed a lot in the years between me being a student and me being a leader. I was dismayed to learn that involvement has decreased dramatically. Guess today’s kids would rather learn how to cook on their computer. Sorry, had to get in my rant about way too much computer time in the average home today for kids.

I didn’t know where to begin with my decision, so I called the county extension office. You can find your local county office at National 4-H Council. The folks who run this office are fabulous. They are very friendly, have lots of advice and answer every question you might have. In order to become a leader, you have to fill out a bunch of paperwork. They do background checks on you and call all your references. You then attend a workshop which goes over the basics for being a leader, rules and regulations of the 4-H organization and lots of advice for running your club.

You are given a huge book with paperwork necessary for all your club members, an outline for all the topics they want you to cover in your weekly meetings, an outline for how you can run your weekly meetings, plus tons of resources. The book also covered all aspects of the county and state fairs. The object was to get all your club members eager to compete in the county fair with hopes of moving on to the state fair. I had no idea what my mother had gone through. She ran 4 clubs. It was all a bit daunting.

4-H is not just about domestic trades. There are programs in animal husbandry, horsemanship, woodworking, electricity just to name a few. This is a great way to learn a trade or try out new things. I would recommend the program to everyone. It is a hands-on method of learning which seems to be prevalent today. It is also a great way to get kids to interact with each other and work together.

I’ve always been a big fan of corn, especially sweet white corn. Love it on the cob, corn bread, corn chowder, corn salsa. I came across an article that makes me want to eat corn all the more.
It seems that come of the nutrients in corn have some healthy benefits.

Stress – Pantothenic acid, is a B vitamin that produces glucocorticoids. These are hormones that speed the delivery of oxygen to the heart and brain. Corn also blocks anxiety-inducing stimuli.

Preparation:
Mix all the above well. Refrigerate over night to let flavors blend.

I was born in Fairbanks, Alaska. Ask me what I remember, nothing. I moved when I was a year old. My brothers and sisters tell me some stories from 40+ years ago. They talk of riding their sleds to school or the time someone dared my brother to lick a metal doorknob (his tongue froze to it). My dad talked about skiing on skis so long that they would get stuck when going up a steep hill. My mother remembers all the moose, just ambling right alongside and sometimes down the middle of the highway. She also remembers how bad the roads were.

But that was a long time ago. What’s it like today? Surely it’s changed. I talked to Nichole Sauer, a longtime resident of Fairbanks and pretty new transplant to Vancouver, Washington. So has it changed much? Not really. It’s grown some.

First things first, people do not live in igloos and they do not ride around in dog sleds. People do live in log cabins, some very rustic, but not in town. There are cities just like in the lower states. Fairbanks has a population of around 82,000; Anchorage 261,000 and the capital Juneau around 31,000. People live in normal houses and drive cars and trucks. There are some remote towns that are only accessible by plane, but in southern Alaska, towns are just like in the lower states.

People in Alaska like to go shopping just like you and I. My mother used to talk about ‘Sears chic’ because Sears was the only big chain store at the time. Sears is still around, but they also have Fred Meyers, Safeway and Gottschalks plus the first Wal-Mart recently. They even have malls. Very small strip malls, but they do have malls. The prices may be a little higher then you’re used to. In fact, according to Nichole, prices are about double what she pays in Washington.

Tourism is the biggest industry in Alaska, especially in the summer. But they also do big business in fishing, crabbing and the pipeline. With fishing and crabbing, people can make enough in several months to last them for the remainder of the year. You can make $30-40,000 per month. Crabbing, though lucrative, can be very dangerous since it’s done in the fall. The ice forms on the boats which you have to keep knocking off. If you don’t, the boat sinks. In the winter you will find lots of Asian tourists. Their culture considers is good luck to conceive a child under the aurora borealis.

Speaking of the aurora borealis, Nichole claims that she really misses these light shows. They occur all year, but you can only see them in winter. They come in all colors, but you mostly see blue and green. It is said that they whistle when they move.

There are still moose that wander aimlessly, often right down the middle of town. In Anchorage there have been problems with bears wondering into town. You’ll also see lots of elk, musk ox, wolves, eagles and a plethora of other wildlife further out of town. Some say the wolves are as big as bears. You don’t have to travel far from town to be in the wilderness. Let’s not forget the insect world. Not to be messed with, the mosquitoes are said to be as big as golf balls during August. And the hornets you do not mess around with. On the plus side, they have no poisonous spiders or snakes.

Let’s talk about the snow. No, it doesn’t snow all year long. In fact it only snows from October through December, then it gets too cold. But it snows enough that it stick around until May. The snow actually provides insulation. People get concerned when it doesn’t snow much as they pile the snow up against their house for the insulation. In the winter it can get as cold as 80 below zero. At this point, school is optional. They have blankets for their cars and have heaters for their car engines that you plug in at night. They have an interesting law that says you have to pick up hitch hikers when it gets colder than 20 below. And yes, it does get hot. During the fire season, it can reach 100 degrees.

Does it really stay dark all day during the winter? Pretty much. For about 6-8 weeks from mid December through mid February, there are only 2 hours of real sunlight. During the summer from about mid June through the end of July there are only 2 hours of night. The picture to the left is taken at 4 in the morning. This does cause a lot of Vitamin D related illnesses. SAD (seasonal affective disorder) is highly prevalent. Alaska also has the highest rate of suicide as well as high incidences of rape, drinking, and drug use. On the other hand, Alaska also has the nations highest ice cream consumption, go figure.

The Iditarod dog sled race is a huge event each year as well as the ice festival. During the ice festival, there are ice sculpture contests, slides and rides made of ice. The sculptures are made by teams around the world. Some pretty amazing stuff.

Some day I really am going to get back up to Alaska. I don’t think I have any desire to live there, but I could spend a month or two. How about you?