Coffee Break?...Perhaps Finland?

Ever dreamt about what your perfect cafe would feel and look like? I saw this on awhile back on Twig&Thistle, (Kathleen finds the best packaging inspirations!) and all this makes me totally jealous of the Scandinavians and how they're always one step ahead with their coolness. I love everything about this adorable place, SIS. Deli+Cafe in Finland. Not only do they have a well designed cafe that specializes in ecological and organic products, but their branding and packaging is totally perfect. I've always wanted to visit Finland and the surrounding Scandinavian countries. They seem to have such a great sense of warmth and thoughtfulness with their flawless integration of design in their everyday lives.
Just look at it....so simple, so fresh, so clean, so cute and handsome all at the same time!! I just love the use of black & white checkered pattern through out.
In the words of Liz Lemon: "I want to go to there"....and steal their coffee cups, bags, cookies, and even their menu. I bet even their napkins are cool....I'll take a whole pile of them. Okay, fine... I suppose I can pay 1 Euro for a heart-shaped cookie.

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

Cafe (Hella Fun) Weekend

After a fun weekend at Cafe Weekend, I just like to share some lovely photos of the cafe, the successful grand opening, and some fun photos taken with USNAPS! Above is a photo of the owner/super entrepreneur couple, Christa&Nin and their adorable cafe/studio. The cafe has a great mix of simple modern design mix with charming vintage materials and findings.
I'm proud to say that Dylan and I contributed by finding that bright yellow coffee sign. We couldn't possibly fit it in our house, so it was perfec that Christa&Nin can actually use it. Pretty perfect, no?
These shelves are made from salvaged school benches! It's clever, resourceful, and one-of-a-kind. I love their display of vintage science books, jars & candies, and of course our sweetheart patches! Yay!
The grand opening was good fun with a great turn out. The cafe offers Cafe Vita coffee, delicious mini-Trophy cupcakes and delicate handmade Japanese wagashi treats by Tokara, Morning Glory Chai tea, Dry soda , and organic Theo's Chocolate.
And here's some real fun from the awesome USNAPS photobooth.Montage of everyone, and there's Chika and I in the middle.
Here's us. Ha ha. That's what I'm saying in the photos...
Thanks Christa&Nin for their awesomeness!
Hope everyone had a good weekend. And here's to Monday!! Woo Hoo! Let's work!

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

Cafe Weekend Fun

If anyone is around in Seattle this weekend with no special plans what-so-ever like us! We got an idea for you!! Come hang out at this new adorable cafe my friend Christa&Nin had recently opened! It's called Cafe Weekend. They're doing a fun grand opening/cheap date Valentine's day/Presidents day celebration from February 13th-14th.

It's a fun cheap date with friends, loved ones, kids, pets, and whoever and whatever. They're doing lots of special offers and fun activities that's fun for everyone!Also come get some super adorable Chikabird iron-on patches for your shirt, jackets, pants (if you do mind taking it off...) pillow cases, towels...anywhere you like! There will be an ironing station, so you can do your last minute love patch application there, too!
Still don't think it's fun enough? Well, you can also take fun photos using USNAPS photo booth for free!! Doesn't that sound like it's going to be a fun, fun, fun, the number one place for fun? :)

Read below for details of time & location. Don't forget to mark your calender! Hope to see you there!!

café weekend
851 Hiawatha Place South
Seattle, WA 98144
www.cafeweekend.com

Grand Opening Schedule

Date: February 13th, 2009
Time: Friday 8AM-6PM

Date: February 14th, 2009
Time: Saturday 8AM-3PM

Special Weekend Offerings-
• Caffé Vita coffee neighborhood special buy one coffee get second coffee for free.
• Locally handmade treats
• Traditional Japanese sweets- February only menu from Tokara
• Caramels & Confections- Theo Chocolate local organic bean-to-bar chocolate factory
• Little Rae's Bakery/ free Valentine cookies for kids
• Sweetheart Patch Kit- from Chikabird /Ladies & Gentleman vintage
• Photo-booth provided by USNAPS/ free valentine photos to all customers

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

Our 4 year anniversary weekend

Dylan and I just had our 4 year anniversary as an unmarried couple. We planned a little getaway last weekend and stayed in an yurt at Cape Disappointment, WA (Formerly known as Fort Canby). The name is deceiving, because it's far from disappointing! It was actually a really beautiful and relaxing state park off the southern west coast of Washington that's close to beaches and couple of small wacky towns. We decided to stay in a cozy and convenient yurt while still got to have our campfire dinner. It was the best of both worlds. It was PERFECT!
Our first stop was at this wacky place called Marsh's Free Museum in Long Beach, WA. Its' a store/museum filled with cheesy beach themed trinkets and novelty toys plus tons of mounted animal heads all over the walls AND some on the ceiling!
After walking around Long Beach, we headed back to our campsite and built a fire while sipping on some wine and cooked ourselves a gourmet dinner. We made garlic dill pork chops with roasted butter asparagus and squash, baked potato, and tossed salad. Food just tastes so much better cooked over the fire....I wonder if it's because of the charcoal....
Then, for dessert...it was homemade roasted coco marshmallow. We tried one of Martha's recipes for marshmallows, and it was surprisingly easy and fun to make....not to mention that it tasted soooo much better than store bought ones! The recipe is just for making plain ones, but we improvised and added 2 tablespoons of unsweetened coco powder in the mix, and then after it was set, we rolled it in 1/2 powder sugar 1/2 coco powder mix. Sitting by the warm fire, drinking wine, roasting and eating homemade marshmallows....we, were in heaven.
The following day, we woke up with the campsite covered in some snow. It was such an unexpected surprise. I was just totally glad that we stayed in a yurt versus a tent, which we saw some people stayed in them. Not sure if they froze to death or not, but I know we would of!
For breakfast, we then cheated and plugged in our toaster oven and baked ourselves Croque Madames for breakfast. Sorry for all the real hardcore campers out there...I know we put camping to shame, but it was too easy! 5 minutes to prep and 15 minuets to bake type of easy. :P
We then went out to the beach and saw some snow still remained after the sun came out. I've never seen a beach with snow on it, it was quite a sight!
We then headed to the North Head Lighthouse close by the park. It was built in 1896 and it's a working lighthouse. We climbed up 90 some steps and got to see the amazing coast line and it was gorgeous..... Now I have this urge to start collecting lighthouses and decorate my entire house with a beach theme...lighthouses, American flags, shells and dolphins....oh! I forgot, and mermaids, too. Gotta have that.
These beautiful sexy mermaids were at Marsh's Free Museum.... I should go back and get them....They'll be perfect for what I'm thinking of in our apartment.
So, in conclusion, Cape Disappointment was anything but disappointing. Not to mention that we saw a mummified half man half alligator named Jack at the museum, the worlds biggest frying pan, a cafe called Scrappaccino, a stuffed cat, AND this!!
We took too many photos, so the rest of the photos of the store and of everything else can be seen here.
ENJOY!
-Jean

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

Weekend reTREATS!

Last Saturday morning Dylan and I went downtown and treated ourselves to some great smooth Italian lattes at Cafe D'arte on the corner of 2nd ave & Pine street. This is one place where the coffee is somewhat comparable to the ones we had in Italy, and one of our favorite cafes in Seattle. This little understated place with outdated 90's decor reminds me even more of the cafes we've been around Rome....only thing missing is all the old Italian guys that hang around by the bar drinking their cappuccino and eating a cornetto. Cafe D'arte is a place with no fancy art displayed, no indie music playing, and no cozy couches what-so-ever for you to lounge and want to spend a whole day working on your laptop. What Cafe D'arte DOES have, is great Italian coffee and amazing baristas that make satisfying lattes with pretty Rosetta, and the most adorable face on the top of the latte! you can see in the top right corner of the photo.....looking at you and smiling oh so enduringly.
I didn't want to drink it since it was smiling at me! But then.......I didn't want to drink a cold latte either, so I took a photo of it and had to say goodbye to the kind face made with steam milk and coffee....goodbye....my sweet love.
Oh it does not end there with this coffee even though it was enough to make my day. So after we got our coffee we walked a couple blocks to one of the Tom Douglas-owned bakeries, Dahlia bakery, on 4th ave and Virginia street. We never come here nearly as much as we should. Everything in the bakery is very affordable, which is atypical of all the other Tom Douglas' restaurants. Don't get me wrong here, I love all the all the Tom Douglas restaurants I've tried, but they're just not usually a casual-walk-in-and-out-and-can-get-some-small-bites-under -$40-per-person kind of a place. So the bakery was perfect for a Saturday morning. and we got a select variety of pastries and all for under $15. The bakery makes everything from pastries, desserts, pies, cakes to bread, soup and sandwiches. Looking at their menu makes me wish that I can try a bite of everything since everything sounds so amazing.
Did I mention that I'm a sucker for pastries!? or for food in general??? well...I am! as you can see, we got a savory leek and gruyere pastry, a big juicy pear pastry, and TWO mini carrot cake cupcakes. I don't usually eat cupcakes for breakfast, but I couldn't afford NOT to! Just look at all these things....golden flaky buttery goodness, and the smooth thick cream cheese frosting topped with walnuts....HEAVEN!! I wish it was closer to us so I could try everything....but maybe it's better this way, because it'll feel so special the next time we go that I'll write a whole 10 page paper about it.
-Jean

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious