I wrote about creative kitchen and bath storage solutions for The Seattle Times. Link to the story here, with specific product recommendations from pro organizers.

We saw the corpse flower today! Complete lucky accident. I booked Amazon Spheres tickets 15 days ago not knowing the corpse flower was about bloom.

The corpse flower blooms only once every 5-10 years, and only for 48 hours. It's called the corpse flower because it smells like rotting flesh. If you've never smelled rotting flesh, it smells like a combination of hot compost, feet and feces. Yum.

Amazon Spheres are open to the public the first and third Saturday of each month. Tickets are released 15 days in advance, in 15-minute increments. Book here.

Parking is FREE in the Day 1 Amazon garage (same block as the Spheres) weekdays after 4 p.m. and all day weekends!

Seattle ranks No. 2 among this summer’s top travel destinations in the United States. Here's the lowdown on where to take your out-of-town guests, with all the insider tips. Full story here on ParentMap.

Shooting in bright sunlight directly overhead is the WORST possible lighting situation. I pulled out all the tricks out of my photo bag for this assignment: long lens, layering, playing with flares, looking for shadows, getting up high. I think I did ok!

The story is about the new inclusive playground at Lynnwood's Meadowdale Playfields, where the theme is blue, blue and more blue.

All the details here at Seattle's Child.

It's blueberry season! The bushes at Larsen Lake Blueberry Farm are dripping with big juicy berries. The season runs NOW through early September-ish. 

@larsenlakeblueberryfarm started in the 1940s, and today covers 14 acres.

• 700 148th Avenue SE, Bellevue
• Hours: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Wednesday to Saturday; 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. • Closed Monday and Tuesday.
• $2.50 a pound, $5 minimum
• Free parking lot, and free neighborhood street parking.
• Restrooms!
• Blueberries contain high levels of disease-fighting antioxidants!

The boys showed me a shortcut through the woods and we walked from our house in Magnolia to Ballard in 15 minutes!

The National Nordic Museum moved to its current home in 2018, and I love love love that building.

I may have gone in just because where else can I sit in a $9,600 Arne Jacobsen egg chair?

Look at this flooring! Gorgeous organic pattern.

Five countries are considered Nordic countries: Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Iceland.

It's salmon season! You can watch three species of Pacific salmon pass through the Ballard Locks during the summer months. They swim 40 to 50 miles upriver to spawn!

Sockeye: June to July

Chinook: August

Coho: September

Admission is free! Open every day, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Water + playground + sun = summer perfection

Plan a road trip to Mount St. Helens this summer! 🗻🚙 What's open, what's closed (there were two landslides in the spring), what's family-friendly.

Here's a link to my story in The Seattle Times.

The most popular route to visiting Mount St. Helens is 504. It’s a dead-end road, so you’ll have to double back the way you came. There are three visitor centers currently open, each of them family-friendly, accessible, with restrooms and large parking lots.

Our favorite is the second one: it has a playground, and the free visitor's center is considerably swankier than the others (there's Weyerhauser money here).

It is entirely worth your while to drive 1.5 hours around to the south side of Mount St. Helens to walk through the lava tube. Ape Cave is named for the scout group that first explored it. Very easy, very cool. You’ll need to reserve a $2 timed ticket on recreation.gov; spots are limited to protect the cave.

I always leave the Seattle Art Museum in Volunteer Park feeling zen times 100 and inspired. Psst, the free admission day here is the LAST FRIDAY of the month — mark it on your calendar!

Here are 7 things I loved at the Seattle Asian Art Museum: 

1. Alvord Board Room

If I ever have another wedding, I want it to be here. I've always loved this room, and I love it even more with the LMN expansion that opened up the room to views of the park.

2. Japanese textiles

I am a total sucker for the patterns in Japanese textiles. This is an early 20th century Okinawan kimono, made of banana fiber cloth and cotton cloth with dye. (It took about 40 banana trees to produce a single kimono!)

3 . Juxtaposition of old and new

Flower Ball, 2002, acrylic on canvas, by Takashi Murakami, seen just beyond a case of antiquities. It works.

4. All the Art Deco details

The Asian Art Museum is an Art Deco jewel box. The air vent grates, the doorknobs, the wall clock, the ceiling trim. Gorgeous, gorgeous details. Look at the original Art Deco handrail (that probably wasn't up to ADA standards) covered by a sleek modern one. Ugh. 

5. Gift shop finds

Museum gift shops have the best stuff! I have a terrible soft spot for stationary. Ramen sticky notes and scented gel pens!!

6. Traditional Chinese furniture

Love, love the lines of this Ming dynasty side table.

7. Wonky modern art

LED neon lights of Kali (I'm a Mess), 2020, by Chila Kumari Singh Burman, reflected on the window overlooking the park. What a fun surprise!