Mr Poopers Day Out

The Lighthouse Inn – WE BOUGHT A BAR!

preita — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 17:08:42 +0000

The story of how the Mr and I came to own a bar is a long and twisted path. It’s been a year long twisted painful path that has finally brought us to – I believe – what we are meant to be doing. I won’t get into the specifics of the last year because it’s filled with a lot of pain, anger, and bitterness that honestly, I’m just not ready to air publically. Partially because it would make me seem like a jerk to say what has happened publically and the people involved in it that basically ruined our life for a good 9 months. We are stronger than most though, and have prevailed in a way that even surprises me.

It all started almost a year ago, on March 15^th – yes, the ides of March, how prophetic is that? – when the Mr was forced out of the company he built, the company he started and grew and cultivated into a profitable venture. Forced out by greed, blind ambition, and selfishness. It tore our world apart and left us floundering. What went wrong? Who can we trust anymore? What the hell am I supposed to do?

You know that scene in action movies where the star s are dumped into a coal mining cart and sent rushing along an abandoned ruined track till they hit a patch where the track is suddenly missing and they are sent flying over empty open space? That was us. We were floundering mid-air struggling to catch that one single hanging chain. And we did.

A few months after the Ides of March I asked the Mr what he wanted to do. It was clear he didn’t want to stay in finance, he wanted out.

“I’ve always wanted to own a bar,” he says with a shrug.

If you’ve been married for any length of time there are times when your partner says something so outrageous that it just stalls your brain…this was one of those times. But, also at these times you calculate how likely that thing is to happen and if you are like me you decide that it probably won’t so it won’t hurt a thing to encourage them. So I did.

Little did I know that moment would be when our life changed direction forever. The Mr found a bar broker and we started looking at bars. We looked at hip downtown bars where the crowd was a million times more awesome and current than we were, we looked at dives that were neat but made no money, we looked at modern Scandinavian bars with lots of glass and blond wood and patio space but couldn’t make heads or tails of where the money actually was coming from. None of them felt right, none of them were us. None of them were bars the Mr and I would go to for a beer and a burger.

Then the broker came back and said “I think I’ve found your bar, I think this is it.”

He was right.

The first time we ever entered The Lighthouse Inn everything felt right. It was a blue collar bar filled with history, amazing woodwork, and everything we love. The price was right, it was more than right,
it was ½ the price of other bars we’d looked at. It was a mess of who owned the bar, who owned the building and all that jazz but in the end, it was perfect. We signed the final papers on December 6^th, 2012 and we were bar owners.

It’s hard work, I mean HARD work, but like anything you love, it’s worth it. We have had a crash course in bartending, bartenders, cooks, and venders. Sometimes it’s been awesome, sometimes it’s been batshit crazy, sometimes it’s just been laugh out loud ridiculous but we love it. We have gotten to know our regulars – some who’ve been coming to The Lighthouse Inn for 35 years – we’ve made amazing friends, we’ve been welcomed so warmly that it blows my mind. And as long as we “don’t change anything,” per our regulars we are fine. Course we have changed things and they haven’t noticed till they’ve commented on how good it is. Like our hand cut, hand battered onion rings, or hand cut steak fries, or fresh calamari.

It’s been a whirlwind trip and it’s not over yet, it’s only the beginning, but it’s going to be the ride of our lives.

Pattern Promo & Some Other Stuff

preita — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 16:30:07 +0000

II’ve kinda been a terrible blogger but life finally seems to have gotten back to normal. Well, normal for us at least. This has been an insane year for the Mr and I. It’s like someone took our life, turned it upside down, shook out all the contents, and left them out in the rain. It hurt, things were uncertain, but I could only have gotten through it because the Mr is my best friend, I have an amazing family, and I am to damn stubborn to stay down for long.

1. I have published the Pix Wrap and it turned out quite wonderfully. To celebrate I’m running a buy one get one free promotion on all my patterns. use promo code YayLife to redeem.

2. Probably the most important thing ever…the Mr and I bought a bar!

The Lighthouse Inn, located in Portland, Oregon, has been around for the last 54 years, before that the building was a bank (it’s old vault is our liquor stock cabinet), and a post office. Honestly, I really believe that this was the Mr’s life calling. He loves it (though it is SO MUCH WORK), the customers are freaking awesome, we have a great staff, and there is an amazing sense of accomplishment when someone compliments you on the bar.

If you are in Portland please come down! We are located off the 30, just over the St. John’s Bridge (tht green one you always see in Grimm) heading to the coast. You can expect good drinks, amazing burgers, and a laid back attitude where everyone is friendly.

3. I realize you all have’t seen pictures of goats or anything for a while, so here you go.

Pix Wrap

preita — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 16:22:24 +0000

Continuing on my theme from the Rough Sea Shawl I knit the Pix Shawl as a wrap. It turned out really lovely. Just needs to be tested.

Strigose Shawl #3

preita — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 16:15:38 +0000

I finally finished my 3rd Strigose Shawl and totally love it.

Finished Knit!

preita — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 05:06:02 +0000

I have been knitting lately even if I haven’t really been up on posting. I just finished this the other day and I wish I could keep it. Unfortunately for me it’s my dad’s sweater and will be mailed off to him soon. I like it so much I’m going to make a pattern for it.

Specs: 3 skeins Cascade Eco Wool

The ribbing makes it stretchy so one size fits lots of bodies.

The shawl collar is nuts and I love it. It’s almost big enough to be a hood and is super cozy!

So Time Got Away From Me

preita — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 03:39:22 +0000

Honestly, I haven’t really had time to keep up with what’s been going on. Things have been changing at such a rapid pace I can’t even begin to explain it. There are super new exciting things on the horizon I can’t wait to talk about, and of course, there are goats…there are always goats. So instead of endless words – I’ll get to those later – here are some pictures and we’ll get caught up on all the other stuff soon.

We had a surprise nest of chicks hatch.

There has been cuddly goats…

I spun a bunch of yarn….

We had a ton of plums I turned into jam…

I knit the magnamity cardi which I love.

These pockets are amazing!

And then there is this…which is super duper exciting. I’ll post full pictures asap and the full story but right now…just a hint of what’s to come.

preita — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 02:16:33 +0000

The Rough Sea Wrap is now live! I’m pretty pleased with houw it turned out. I had such amazing testers who picked apart everything to make it easy to knit and a pleasure to follow.

Goat Bless America!

preita — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 22:44:54 +0000

Happy 4th of July everyone!

Hello 30

preita — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 13:13:50 +0000

Hey! It’s my birthday and at 10:59am CST I turn 30. Pretty crazy right? I won’t lie, I’ve been waiting for 30 for a long time. If you know me I’m a fogy in training and getting older is honestly right up my alley. I’m still waiting to be old enough to complain about “those damn kids” lol.

Tailored Circle Sweater

preita — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 20:11:18 +0000

If you are interested the Tailored Circle Sweater is up for testing. I’ve tried a new format for this sweater pattern. Instead of writing out long paragraphs of numbers I’ve put them in to neat tables so that you can pick your size and follow it all the way across to the correct numbers you are supposed to be using. Frankly, I’m kind of in love with it. If you are interested in testing please go to this thread, comment, and PM me your email address. I will not be using any testers that don’t comment on the thread as I think this is the best format for discovering changes, exchanging ideas, and explaining issues.