Hello from Portland! Spring has well and truly sprung in the northwest, and it is beautiful.

I’m writing this from Shauna’s dining room table. There’s a taxidermy bear keeping guard in one corner, Joey is in the kitchen making vegan tacos, and we’re officially 100% in LOVE with Portland!

I can’t tell you how good it was to be reunited with the inimitable Kat Williams at LAX! The first order of business, of course, was to order a gargantuan martini glass full of calamari and potato chips. Geez… Welcome to America!

After a short flight to Portland, we were picked up by Shauna and started making our way to her house. We were only in the city for five minutes when we saw a man in full pirate garb… And it has only gotten weirder since then!

Our live blogging Q&A went swimmingly yesterday (and if you missed it, you can watch it right now!). Afterwards, we celebrated by doing a little shopping, and going on a tour of some of Portland’s less reputable establishments!

Tomorrow, we will once again be face to face with the Made U Look babes, and we can’t WAIT! Then on Saturday, we kick off day one of The Blogcademy: Portland. We’re so excited to meet a whole new class of students and get silly with them!

J’adore… Having an empty seat next to you on the plane (truly, the best) Spooning with Kat on Shauna’s childhood bed (seriously, it is quite intimate) Stopping in at Trader Joe’s to buy sunflowers for our hostess with the mostest Kat’s shock at the lack of English Breakfast tea in local coffeeshops Carrying enormous boxes of goodie bag treasures and struggling under the weight! Stocking up on inexpensive accessories Constantly talking a mile a minute Excellent thrift store shopping in Hawthorne Kat as a bearded man Finding photobooth machines hidden in the back of vintage homewares store Dancin’ Grannies Blossoms everywhere (I keep stopping to stare up at them) Travel adventures (on my flight from NYC, I ended up sitting next to an engineer from New Zealand who was missing a finger; we talked about spirituality and he recommended this blog) Falling in love with little Rocky Being with Kat and Shauna again: every time we see each other, we pick up right where we left off Groove is in the heaaaaaart! This email I got from Jeanie, who is 58 years old and a total badass:

“Whenever I am out and about, I sometimes walk up to an attractive woman- one who is presenting themselves favorably in the world- and I say “You are so gorgeous, if I was the editor of Vogue Magazine you would be on the cover next month!” Then I simply wave and walk away. Keep up the positive reinforcement and strong woman spirit, I will do the same.”

By the way, Bonlook — who sent me these killer glasses! — are offering a $20 discount if you use the code GALA20. (That brings your glasses down to $79! Brill!) They have an awesome Stylist Consultation service, too!

Ready for adventure!