Come celebrate BlogsGiving, meet us, and help Northwest Harvest

Hey, neighbor and/or reader! We’d love to meet you. And we’d also love to help out those in need this holiday season.

Why not do BOTH?!

BlogsGiving is a benefit for Northwest Harvest AND a multi-blog meet-up. The event was conceived by the good folks at The SunBreak, the online magazine of news and culture for Seattle.

For this fourth annual BlogsGiving, Roosiehood, My Green Lake, and yours truly badgered talked the SunBreak gang into bringing the fun and fundraising north of the Montlake Cut and into Northeast Seattle*. All in the hopes of meeting you! And helping hunger programs in Washington state, too.

HERE’S HOW IT WORKS: YOU stop by Pies and Pints (1215 NE 65th St) between 4 and 7 PM on Saturday, November 19, to meet your local neighborhood internet newsies and/or bloggers, and bring with five bucks or two cans of food for Northwest Harvest (suggested minimum donations). Here’s a list of what Northwest Harvest needs the most.

In return, WE will thank you kindly for your generosity by buying you a drink (alcohol or otherwise). There will also be art supplies for making hand turkey drawings!

Furthermore, if you yourself are a blogger, or have similar internet-type weight to throw around, we invite you to join us on the planning side of the event — which really just involves donating some money for the drinks and meeting your adoring fans. Contact SunBreak editor, Michael van Baker, for details.

If you like, you can let us know you’re attending by RSVPing on the BlogsGiving Facebook page.

Hope to see you there! *gobble, gobble*

* Wallyhood will also be joining us, from the other side of I-5.

Area holiday arts and crafts fairs coming up (continually updated list)

Here’s a list of holiday arts and crafts bazaars that are either local or have local connections.

If you know of any we’re missing, let us know — we’ll be updating this list through the holiday season.

*** = Newest

Holiday Bazaar at Ida Culver House Ravenna (2315 NE 65th Street)
Sunday, November 20, 11AM-4PM

Third Annual EtsyRAIN Handmade Holiday Show, Intiman Theatre at Seattle Center (201 Mercer Street)
Saturday and Sunday, November 26 and 27, 11AM-5PM

“Instead of the standard stocking stuffers like Christmas-themed socks, candy canes and dollar store finds (…BORING!), shoppers will be dazzled by a selection of waterproof shower art, mermaid tails, knit wizard beards, fraidy cat earrings, business monkey belt buckles, crocheted golden snitch ornaments, garden bon bons, boodle bags, peacock pendants and so much more.”

Roosevelt neighborhood resident Laura (LASdesigns) will be selling her ceramics at this show. Here’s a preview of her work:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4yyuEdt4Do&

Holiday Shopping Extravaganza, Derby Salon, 6315 Roosevelt Way NE
Thursday, December 1, 6-9 PM

“Celebrate the holidays Derby style with friends, fun, and of course HAIR+ MAKEUP! We will have local vendors at derby showcasing jewelry, pottery, kid’s toys and apparel, crafts and more. These make great gift ideas, and supports our local community. AND we will be playing with makeup- doing touch ups, and offering 15% off any appointments booked that night for future services!”

Lifetime Learning Center‘s Holiday Faire and Book Sale, John Marshall School Building (520 Northeast Ravenna Blvd)
Saturday, December 3, 10AM-2PM

“The Faire includes one of the biggest and best book sales around–an unusually large selection of good quality, interesting books at bargain prices. It also includes swags, sandwiches, readings and musical entertainment, Granny’s Attic rummage items, a Bake Sale, and an intriguing Silent Auction. It’s a great opportunity to buy stocking stuffers and holiday gifts as well as books for yourself or your friends.”

20111110-223812.jpg

Roaring Mouse Holiday Craft Fair with Lavassar Florists (7526 20th Ave NE)
Saturday, December 3, 10AM-4PM

There’s a whole separate post dedicated to the details.

Fourth Annual Ravenna Holiday Arts and Crafts Sale, Ravenna-Eckstein Community Center (6535 Ravenna Ave NE)
Saturday, December 10, 10AM-3PM

“The sale prides itself on high-quality, unique crafts made by local artisans. This year, the size of the sale has been expanded, and includes a children’s art table. A bake sale benefitting community center programming is also held.”

*** Pressworks Annual Holiday Open House, 6312 23rd Ave NE
Sunday, December 11, 1-4PM

“Lots of original prints and handmade cards, trivets, bookmarks, etc.”

From an old post on the Utrecht Art Supplies Store Blog:

Pressworks Co-op, established in 1984, is a group of printmakers who share space, equipment, and camaraderie. We are a diverse group of artists working in various forms of printmaking such as intaglio, relief, monoprint, lithography, collagraph, solarplate, and various other experimental forms of printmaking.

History Friday, Part 8: Seattle’s Heavy Hand

This is part of the essay “Ravenna Park (Seattle)“, appearing here thanks to HistoryLink.org and author Peter Blecha, under a Creative Commons license.

[If you’re new to the series, you can start with Part 1 here.]

Seattle’s Heavy Hand

Later that year [1910] the City of Seattle condemned the couple’s park, and a court determined a fair market price of $144,920. Eventually Beck would complain in writing about the “false swearing and tricks of Satan” the City had used to acquire his park (Bush).

In 1911 a national membership directory for the Daughters of the American Revolution listed Louise Beck’s residence as being, interestingly, at “Fir Lodge, Ravenna Park.” That same year saw a most tragic alteration to the Cowen-Ravenna ecosystem. Action was finally taken to implement certain recommendations outlined in a Master Plan commissioned by the city from the renowned Massachusetts landscape architect John Charles Olmsted (1852-1920).

That 1903 document had envisioned a 20-mile-long system of scenic boulevards that would tie together various parks and playfields across the city. Unfortunately one of those streets — Ravenna Boulevard — was to be created after lowering nearby Green Lake, which effectively negated its need for an outflow creek. The plan envisioned a new boulevard along the creek’s former path through a winding ravine that had helped carve out the Ravenna canyon.

Thus, city engineers diverted Ravenna creek, forcing it underground into Thomson’s North Trunk Sewer line (which discharged into Union Bay), nearly drying up its old route (along with the once-bountiful fish runs) through the two parks. Although the resultant Ravenna Boulevard had its own positive attributes, many have lamented the fate of Green Lake: “The poor lake had been diked, dredged and drained, and its once-free-flowing outlet stream, Ravenna Creek, had evolved into a wetland dependent on springs and minor tributaries” (Hanbey).

Next week: A Public Park

______________________

Sources:

W. W. Beck, Ravenna Park – ‘Im Walde,’ (1903), Peter Blecha collection, Seattle; W. W. Beck, Ravenna Park – ‘Im Walde,’ 16-page postcard booklet, undated, in Peter Blecha collection; W. W. Beck, Ravenna Park (ca. 1909), Peter Blecha collection; “Ravenna Park Guide,” brochure, 1909, Peter Blecha collection; “Ravenna Or Big Tree Park: It is Famous = “Nature’s Exposition,” postcard, 1909, Peter Blecha collection; Harvey Manning, Winter Walks and Hikes (Seattle: Mountaineers Books, 2002), 42; Betty McDonald, Anybody Can Do Anything (Philadelphia / New York: J. B. Lippincott Co, 1950), 129-130; Paula Becker, “Time Traveling The Roosevelt District With Betty Macdonald,” Seattlepress.com website accessed July 13, 2010 (http://seattlepress.com/article-9455.html); “One of Ravenna’s Giant Trees Christened ‘Paderewski,’” Interlaken, February 8, 1908, p. 1; Sophie Frye Bass, When Seattle Was A Village (Seattle: Lowman & Hanford Co., 1947), 106-108:  David Buerge, “Indian Lake Washington,” Seattle Weekly, August 1-7, 1984; Seattle Polk City Directory (1901-1934); Directory of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (Washington D.C.: Memorial Continental Hall, 1911), 1340; “Mrs. L. C. Beck Funeral To Be Held Today: Woman Widely Known In Musical and Club Circles Is Mourned By Seattle Friends,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 9, 1928, p. 13; Kate C. Duncan 1001 Curious Things: Tales from Ye Olde Curiosity Shop (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2000), 73-78; Andrea Casadio, email to Peter Blecha, January 30, 2008; “No Finer Site: The University of Washington’s Early Years On Union Bay,” Web exhibition, University of Washington Libraries website accessed August 19, 2010 (http://lib.washington.edu/exhibits/site/); HistoryLink.org Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History, “Seattle’s Ravenna Park Bridge is constructed in 1913″ (by Priscilla Long), and “WPA builds Cowen Park Bridge in Seattle’s Ravenna neighborhood in 1936″ (by Priscilla Long), and “John Olmsted arrives in Seattle to design city parks on April 30, 1903″ (by David Williams and Walt Crowley), and “David Thomas Denny (1832-1903)” (by David Wilma), http://www.historylink.org/ (accessed August 1, 2010); Esther Campbell, Bagpipes in the Woodwind Section (Seattle: Seattle Symphony Women’s Association, 1978), 9; William Arnold, “The Great Mystery of Ravenna Park,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Northwest Today section, December 17, 1972, pp. 8-9; Steve Cronin, “Ravenna Park’s Famous Trees Vanished Furtively,” UW Daily, May 25, 1977, p. 3;  James Bush, “Remembering William W. Beck: The Father of Ravenna Park,” The Seattle Sun, August 2003, The Seattle Sun website accessed August 25, 2010 (http://parkprojects.com/2003news/0308aug/hisbeck.html); Mary R. Watson, travel diary (handwritten), 1910, portion accessed on eBay, December 2006, copy in possession of Peter Blecha; Russ Hanbey, “1916 Seattle was a Hotbed of Sin When 2 Officers Were Killed,” The Seattle Times, February 6, 2010 (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com); and Peter Blecha archives.