Bucket List Nation

I had the opportunity to write a little something about Portland for Bucket List Nation.  They are a city guide/travel inspiration site for people who likes to go out and explore new places.  I decided to write about the Mississippi and Williams Neighborhood.  The pictures in this post were featured at my piece about Portland.  Anyways, I get really excited when writing about cool places in Portland and I can't wait till I go out exploring again.  Please support me and Bucket List Nation by checking out the links below.  Thanks.

You can check out the full city guide at City Guide: Portland, OR

Overlook Park

In Portland there are many city parks that you can go to, but for me the Overlook City Park in North Portland is definitely one of the coolest parks I've been to.  I love this park mainly because of the landscape.  The north end of the park actually a pretty steep hill, but still climbable and you can see some parts of the downtown skyline from the top of the hill.  Keila seems to really enjoy this park because she's a nature dog.   

Lick

I love the hill part at the north end of the park.

Keila loves sitting in the sun.

Bird!!!

Random & Saturday

I love it when there are Saturday where we don't have any plans and don't know what to do. So we decided to drive around Portland to random places.  On this particular summer Saturday, we ended up in the Williams area in North Portland.  We took our time and hung out at Ristretto Roasters in the Lincoln building.  Keila randomly wanted to be a turtle.

Next to Ristretto Roasters is a home goods/floral store called Ink&Peat which is another store that I always end up going to because they have so many cool items that I want to buy. Not the floral stuff though, more like their display tables, letters, signs, etc...

 Cool light fixture at Ink&Peat

Mississippi Field Guide

Here are some of my favorite stores that I usually always check out when I'm in the Mississippi Avenue area. I really like unique decor pieces for my house so I usually like to go to many home/decor stores. This store with the live birds above is called Flutter, they are a specialty home goods carrying very random pieces like books, posters, cards, letter blocks, carpet, mirrors, frames, etc.. you get the point.  I like them because they don't carry normal stuff, they have unique items you can't find anywhere else in Portland. The wombat card and the chandelier are also from Flutter.

Manifesto is another cool store that I usually go to, they are one of many collection of worthy independent  shoe store to visit in Portland if you don't like big retail chains. They carry women's and men's shoes, hats, bags, and accessories.  I always want to buy boots when I come here.

Last but not least is Porch Light, a very cool home goods/furnishing/vintage store. They are currently my all time favorite store of any kind to go to in Portland. If you are into cool home pieces or thinking about giving more character to your home, Porch Light is the best place to find items to do so. Some of their items that I always like to look at are old bicycles, window frames and shutters, vintage books, old boxes, ball jars (the blue ones), chairs, crates, tables.  I would live in their store if  possible. That's how much I like the store.

Many cool items like vintage maps.

They also have vintage cameras, you have to be quick though because they sell very well.

Mississippi Flea

Here we are at the first ever Mississippi flea market. I had this picture in my head that the flea market would be awesome because Mississippi is such an awesome area, but in reality it wasn't like what I imagined.  My first impression was, did everyone just came from Urban Outfitters?  Seriously, all the people in this flea were all hipsters.  Anyways, these are my thoughts on the market, first it took only about 5 minutes to go through all the vendors, second, the reason we stayed about 20 minutes in the market was because we were waiting for tacos. At least they were good. I'm not here to bash on the market and it wasn't a total failure either. I will give props though to whoever started this because I see the potential for this flea to grow and really be a stable event in years to come.  There were some items that were pretty cool like the typewriter below.

The tacos were pretty good. Very fresh.

Nice.

Most of the items are good alternative and more affordable pieces compared to Urban Outfitters.

Chambray Studios

Hi everyone it's official, my site is up and it's called Chambray Studios. I had an opportunity to start my photography business and I'm taking advantage of it and pushing to make this work. Many people have mentioned to me that I should take my talent to the next level and that just pushes me to start Chambray Studios. I focus on specialty photography and my try to incorporate a cinematic look in my work.  Check it out and thanks for the support.

Alberta Summer Issue

We got a chance to just walk around the Alberta Street neighborhood. We went to this arts and craft supply store called Collage. This typewriter was one of the displays there. There were so many cool things there that Nana and I wanted to buy, but we tried to restrain ourselves. It was hard though.

Another cool bottle in a book display.

See, there were so many cool things we wanted to buy.

After going out of the store, we had a little on the spot photo shoot.

There were these cool flower balls on these really long stems.

Mississippi Street Fair pt. 2

One of the cool things about the fair was that there were three stages for local bands to play in. This one of the the smaller stages, the main stage was in the middle of the street fair. 

Moustache craft vendor. Nice, plus you get a free plant.

This was a cool thrift/vintage clothing place. It's a vendor, but the Wanderlust is actually located in this small trailer and they go all around Portland.  Nana got a cool looking belt here.

This was the view of the street fair looking down towards downtown Portland. I still can't believe how packed the street were. It's like a zoo.

Craft vendor.

Nana and I took some pictures with Keila around the Mississippi neighborhood. I love this place, I wouldn't mind moving to the area someday.

Musician's Alley

Old car.

Red Owls in Mississippi