Raising Funds to Fight Empty Bowls: Fundraiser for the Columbia Pacific Food Bank

Empty Bowls Fundraiser - photo collage courtesy of the Columbia Pacific Food Bank.

The Columbia Pacific Food Bank, located in St. Helen's Oregon, is the regional food bank that distributes an average of 16 tons of food per week and valuable resources to 38 food pantries, meal programs and produce distribution points throughout Columbia County, Oregon to combat food insecurity. To reduce food waste they participate in a gleaner program that harvests surplus produce from local farmers, gardeners, and orchardists. HOPE (Help Our People Eat) Food Pantry is the one in our hometown of Rainier Oregon that they distribute to. They also provide for Meals on Wheels (MOW) for homebound seniors in our area. Empty Bowls is one of the fundraisers for this wonderful organization.

Empty Bowls Menu

Empty Bowls is the creation of a high school teacher and their students in 1990 in Michigan who came up with an idea to make ceramic bowls to for a fundraising meal to support a food drive. The guests were given a meal of soup and bread and a ceramic bowl to take home to remind them of the hunger in the world. Since then, the Empty Bowls tradition has been held throughout the world to raise awareness and money for hunger.

Some of the yummy soup and the bread that was offered.

The Empty Bowls event in Columbia County was held at McBride Elementary School on April 12th, 2024 from 5-7pm. There is a small ticket fee of $15 per person to get in. It is well worth that because you are donating to a great cause, get fed yummy soup and bread donated by local restaurants and businesses, get to listen to music by The Decades band, and get a lovely keepsake handmade bowl to take home by local artist, Pat Brame. Pat freely makes 300 unique pottery bowls for every Empty Bowls event in Columbia County.

My friend, Erin, and I with our bowls.

This was my third time participating. The first time was during COVID so I didn't get to actually go to the event, but I still got a lovely bowl that I got to pick out online and they gave us a homemade shelf-stable soup mix to go in it instead, which was also wonderful. The second time I went with my husband and the third time was with my husband and my good friend, Erin, and her daughter, Melody. I love participating and giving back to my community and this is the perfect opportunity to do so. I cannot wait to participate next year.

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Nearly Wordless Wednesday $2 Braided Hibiscus Plant

Braided Hibiscus Plant

I purchased an Island Blooms braided hibiscus for $2 at my local Walmart today. It looked healthy and I loved how the trunk was braided. My hummingbirds are gonna love it when it blooms and I have it outside in the summer. I will have it indoors in the winter because I believe this one is of the tropical variety and not a hardy one, but it was still a great deal and I couldn't pass it up!

This is what Walmart says it looks like in bloom.

Braided Hibiscus Care Instructions

Japanese Gardens at Lake Sacajawea Park

Japanese Gardens at Lake Sacajawea Park.

I love discovering new places to see and experience. On March 16th my good friend and I went with her kids to Lake Sacajawea Park in Longview, Washington, just across the river from us. We had all been there before, but this time we went to a part of the park that we hadn't been to, the Japanese Gardens.

The Japanese Garden's Weyerhaeuser Centennial Bridge at Lake Sacajawea Park.

Lake Sacajawea Park is an expansive, well maintained park of 67 acres in the heart of Longview Washington with 3.5 miles of trails that go around the whole lake. There are lovely old growth trees and other plants along with wildlife like ducks, geese, herons, and other water fowl, birds of prey and other birds, frogs, turtles, fish, otters, beavers, weasels, racoons, opossums, squirrels, chipmunks, and deer. You can enjoy biking, walking, and running, jogging, fishing, picnicking, kayaking, canoeing, paddle boating, birding, wildlife viewing, and taking your kids to play on the playgrounds. There are picnic tables, sitting benches, covered picnic areas, playgrounds, 2 spectacular lake fountains, botanical gardens, an arboretum, restroom facilities, trash receptacles, drinking fountains, bridges, and event spaces. Events held there include Summer Concerts at the Lake, Go 4th Festival, Annual Fishing Derby for kids, and Summer Movies at the Lake. You can enjoy the Frank Willis Arboretum, Japanese Gardens, Rhododendron Gardens, and the Solar System Walk while you are there. The park is designed to be accessible, with paved paths suitable for wheelchairs and strollers. Pets are allowed, but need to be leashed. To get there you have easy street parking all around the perimeter of the park. The park is open from dawn until dusk.

A Japanese Garden Lantern in the Japanese Garden at Lake Sacajawea Park.

The tranquil Japanese Gardens are nestled on an island in the Lake Sacajawea Park. They are gorgeous year-round to view especially in the fall when the leaves of some of the Japanese maples have changed. The Japanese Gardens were meticulously built to mimic the beautiful gardens of Japan. Accessible by the Weyerhaeuser Centennial Bridge, these gardens are a gorgeous haven to Japanese and Asian flora. Within the gardens there are a number of neat structures like pagodas, arbors, statues, and sitting benches. There is also a bubbling brook that I enjoyed listening to while I took in the scenery. It is a lovely, peaceful place to go and get away from it all. I highly recommend visiting if you are ever in the area.

A Pagoda structure in the Japanese Garden at Lake Sacajawea Park.

Location of the Japanese Gardens at Lake Sacajawea Park.

Japanese Gardens at Lake Sacajawea Park

Address: 3223 NE Nichols Blvd, Longview, WA 98632

Phone: (360) 442-5421

Hours:

Monday	7 AM–3 PM
Tuesday	7 AM–3 PM
Wednesday	7 AM–3 PM
Thursday	7 AM–3 PM
Friday	7 AM–1 PM
Saturday	7 AM–1 PM
Sunday	7 AM–3 PM

15th Annual Rose City Yarn Crawl 2024

Rose City Yarn Crawl Theme for 2024

The 15th Annual Rose City Yarn Crawl was held March 7th-10th this year in 2024. The Rose City Yarn Crawl is "an annual Portland experience, the Rose City Yarn Crawl is a four-day event for fiber enthusiasts" - knitters, crocheters, spinners, weavers, and felters. This year the crawl featured eight shops that participated. Within each of these lovely shops they have gorgeous yarn, knitting and crochet notions, needles, handmade wares, books, bags, patterns, and other enchanting things. Once open, visitors use a passport that gets stamped at each of the yarn crawl destinations you visit for a chance to win prizes. With each purchase you make in the shops you will get access to a Ravelry download code for that shop's free pattern. In addition each kit purchased for the patterns gives 10% of the sale to the shop's selected charity.

Image designed by local Portland Tattoo Artist Alice Kendall from Wonderland Tattoo

If you cannot participate in person, you may instead participate in the Rose City Yarn Crawl online and crawl virtually. This is how I participated this year because of time and travel constraints. You can instead download and print the passport and look for the code words on each shop's website then record them on your passport. After you are done shopping and crawling, then you go back to the Rose City Yarn Crawl website and enter them into the virtual passport entry form. After you do this you will be entered to win a prize exclusive to virtual crawlers.

Rose City Yarn Crawl Participating Shops

I bought some things from three of the 8 shops during the crawl: Weird Sisters, Starlight Knitting Society, and Knotty Lamb. I really wanted to buy from more shops, but I unfortunately had a budget that I was following. I received my package from Weird Sisters first on March 15th. I purchased the Wild Witchcraft book by Rebecca Beyer because of all the lovely folk herbalism, gardening, and foraging information in it. It also has recipes for tinctures, teas, salves, etc. Some very pretty full color pages of herbs and plants as well. I love the wood burned stitch markers, too. They have a mushroom 🍄, books 📚, and butterfly 🦋, as well as the St. Johns Bridge 🌉 and their logo. They threw in a pin, sticker of a cool spider in her web knitting, and a bookmark. On March 16th I received both packages from Starlight Knitting Society and Knotty Lamb. From Starlight Knitting Society I purchased the Starlit Owl cross stitch kit by Junebug and Darlin and a lovely enamel pin with bleeding hearts, knitting needles and yarn on it made by Kitty with a Cupcake. The package from Knotty Lamb contained three different sized Crystal Palace Yarns bamboo circular needles and some very cute llama washi tape. They threw in a lovely butterfly button too. All stores I purchased from gave me two awesome downloadable patterns each for free as well (one knitting and one crochet each).

Rose City Yarn Crawl Purchases.

Follow the Rose City Yarn Crawl on Facebook and Instagram and mark your calendar for next year's yarn crawl on March 6-9, 2025. I will be participating in the Rose City Yarn Crawl next year, hopefully in person this time. Maybe I will see you there. Give me a shout if you are also going or just leave a comment on this post telling me what fiber arts you enjoy doing and what projects, if any, you have been working on.

Wordless Wednesday First Day of School

Today was Teela and Zari's first day of school. Teela is in 11th and Zari is in 8th.