The Heart Walk and a Huge Thank You!

Two weeks ago, I participated in the Seattle Heart Walk, benefiting the American Heart Association. And thanks to donations and purchases made through the Help a Heart event in addition to my personal donation, we managed to raise a whopping $1,103! Can you believe it? To everyone who participated in any way, whether it was spreading the word, making a purchase/donation, or leaving your lovely notes of encouragement, I want to say thank you so, so much. I definitely would not have surpassed my goal of raising at least $1K this year without you. =)

Before I write more about the Heart Walk, I want to give some specific thanks! Everyone here put time and/or money into Help a Heart and many of the generous ladies listed have blogs (all of which I follow) or super cute shops, so be sure to check them out! THANK YOU to...

The lovely hostesses of the promotional giveaways!
 *Aizzing of Icing and Write
 *Cara of Marvelous Flight of Cara
 *Sammy of The Cookie Button
 *Jessa of Caked Vintage
 *Kate of Scathingly Brilliant
 *Mandy of Miss Indie
Congrats to the lucky winners!

These beautiful bloggers who posted about Help a Heart!
 *Dorien of Bodacious Thought
 *Julie Ann of Julie Ann Art
 *Kaelah of Little Chief Honeybee
 *Susie of Even Sweeter Dreams

All of the generous people who donated and/or purchased pieces from my shops!
 *Pearl and Kelvin my always-supportive parents
 *Peggy, Patty, Valerie, Rosa, and Mona, my generous aunts/relatives
 *Teresa, one of my best friends, who is always incredibly generous with charities!
 *Lisa L, Sharilyn C, and Cathy G, my coworkers
 *Ashley, owner of Raen Clowds, an adorable crochet accessories shop!
 *Gemma F
 *Laura M, blogger at Tutus and Tiny Hats, an inspiring and sequin-filled blog that I am now following!
 *Karen T
 *Junko, my awesome friend who just passed the NY bar exam (go Junko!!!!)
 *Fiona M
 *Courtney M
 *Lauren W, blogger at Old Red Boots, a fun and colorful blog that I am now following!
 *Davina C
 *Lindsie, Jacob's fun and generous friend
 *Ivy F
 *Melissa O

... and to everyone who shared the event via e-mail, social media, etc!

Please let me know if I missed you (maybe you blogged about it and I was unaware) or if you're on the list but have a link to share (shop, blog, etc.) - I'd love to go check it out!

Now on to the actual Heart Walk. =)

This was my third year participating and it was as busy as ever. My pictures of the crowds didn't really turn out, but you can see a small piece of it here. It starts at the Seattle Center, which is the area surrounding the Space Needle. We arrived at 8:10am on Saturday morning and I actually stopped by the Space Needle first to pick up my medal and goodie bag. I had no idea when I set my goal, but apparently if you raise over $1,000 you're considered a "top walker" and get a bag of treats from the sponsors. You also get invited to breakfast at the Space Needle, which would have been cool... but I had breakfast with my friends after the walk instead!

Booths line the perimeter of the lawn area. The booths belong to the Heart Walk sponsors (including my previous and current employers) and many of them offer healthy freebies and/or helpful information.

Caught up with some friends / former coworkers! Some people brought their dogs along for the walk!

Me, Erin, Olivia, Jas (canine)

 Jared, me

 I used to be a part of this picture each year! But since I joined my current employer's team this year, I took a picture of the team photo instead of being in it. I was in mine, of course... but couldn't really take a picture of myself. =D

Then we went to check out the booths before the walk started. I don't like bananas, free or otherwise, but other people snatched them up!

A few booths had silly heart-themed games.

Stopped by to take a picture at my employer's booth.

They had a band play... yup, that's Seahawks gear they're wearing. I'm sure they're related somehow... maybe the team's band? (I know nothing about football.)

And then the walk began a little after 9am! It was a three mile walk - pretty chilly and windy out, but it wasn't raining. That's always a good thing in my mind. Firefighters created an archway for us to walk through.

I stopped to take pictures of cool things along the walk route.

And that was it! Shortly after the walk ended, one of the current team co-captains for my department at work informed us that she was stepping down next year and asked if anyone wanted to take her place. We do events at work to raise money that gets donated to the general fund for our department's team. For example, we had a soup and salad (and dessert) luncheon - various people made and donated dishes (I made a vegetarian vegetable & orzo soup) and then everyone paid $7 to participate. I love that my work encourages charitable events - I also donate to United Way of King County (a local charity) through a payroll deduction each paycheck set up through the company, which makes it really easy and hassle-free!

Anyway, I digress. So... I signed up to be co-captain for next year. It will take some effort but I think it's worthwhile. I actually thought of Help a Heart fairly last minute this year and it ended up being incredibly stressful - I wouldn't change a thing except that I would start earlier! I loved the result, but it did contribute to my recent burnout. So next year I'll start way earlier and hopefully make this event even more epic and appealing to everyone!

Thanks again to my lovely readers and participants!

Happy Halloween!

To all the east coasters / anyone affected by Hurricane Sandy... I hope you're okay! Stay safe, please!

Here on the west coast, we have a much more normal Halloween this year. Got a few trick or treaters so far tonight, which just reminds me that I am one of the most awkward people on the planet. I actually opened the door to the first group of trick or treaters, but I was too nervous to speak... except to mumble "take a few." They were all very polite and thanked me... hah. I'm such a spaz sometimes.

Anyway, I wanted to share some of the beautiful Halloween decorations I've seen businesses put up this month!

I loved the cute pumpkins and lights put up by the little coffee stand near my work!

Remember Impress? They added these cute Halloween cutouts to their window display!

And... my favorite cupcake shop went all out! I'll be doing a more extensive post about it soon.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Plush You Opening and That Time I Met Twinkie Chan!

Friday was the opening night for Plush You, an annual toy show at Schmancy Toys in downtown Seattle. Twinkie Chan wrote that she was going to be there... so Jacob and I went to meet her and check out the toy show!

I've actually never been to Schmancy before, though I've heard of it. It's not a huge store, but it was packed full of awesome and diverse, handmade toys for the show! Definitely a shop I'd stop by if I were in the area.

The jellybean jar was Jacob's favorite! Little plush jellybeans with all sorts of funny expressions... stuffed into a jar. So cute!

I posed (awkwardly) with a the two-headed deer and a tiny little fox. =)

Jacob chose a super fuzzy monster with too many eyes and a beard... hehe.

And... Twinkie's super cute crocheted tissue cozies were on display! Jacob decided to be super sweet and told me he'd buy me a gift of choice at the show. Can you guess which cozy I went home with?

Oh, and Twinkie herself! The way she's built up her cute, bright, and colorful brand totally inspires me. I'm a total idiot and planned my entire outfit colors to match the crocheted cupcake scarf I bought from Twinkie's shop... and then I forgot to grab it on the way out. Argh!!! Anyway, thanks, Twinkie, for taking pictures with my super-awkward (and forgetful) self! =D

My outfit: hair bow - CRSparkleGalaxy;  jewelry - Kelsea Echo, unreleased collection;

tank top - Jessica Louise; tote bag - Callowlily

No toy show opening night is complete without drinks and circus animal cookies. Right?

It was a fun visit and I would definitely recommend stopping by Schmancy to see Plush You if you're in the Seattle area anytime soon!

Farmers' Market

Here in Seattle, we (sorta) almost broke the dry spell streak with 48 days of no rain. Alas, broken with fourteen minutes of rain overnight. Ah well! Forecast calls for sunny skies the rest of the week - I'll be grateful for that. Along with a bunch of other sad things, the end of summer means the end of farmers' markets for a while.

Last year, Jacob and I were excited to see signs for a new farmers' market held just blocks away from our house. We just moved last week and I'm already sad we'll be missing out on our little market in the future! I'm sure we'll find one next year in our new neighborhood, though. Fingers crossed! =)

I am embarassed to say that I actually did buy some delicious-looking fresh okra, fully intending to cook it as one of my birthday goals... only to have it go bad in my refrigerator. Oops. Next year?

We have had so many of these delicious peaches over the summer! Still have a few left at home, but not for long, I'm sure. =)

 And... my absolute favorite bakery ever, Forest Fairy Bakery. THE CINNAMON BREAD. It is so, so good! And the pumpkin bread too. The owners are super sweet, to boot!

Don't those look good? Last time we went, we picked up one of those giant cinnamon rolls (pictured in the round tin foil pan above), which is really four rolls combined.

Oh, and the berries. Sweet summer berries galore!

Last year we discovered this incredible pasta vendor, 18th Ave Pasta, at the market. We were heartbroken to find that they weren't at our little market this year. However, we ended up finding them online and stalking them at another market. Yes, I sent Jacob, and yes, he bought $20 worth of pasta (below). We also went back a few weeks later and bought another $20 worth. Hehe. Gotta stock up for the year! It really is the best pasta ever. I will share more pictures of their booth in another post!

And... when Jacob was at the bigger farmers' market (where the pasta vendor was), he also brought me back a bouquet of gorgeous flowers. Good boyfriend points awarded!