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Miranda Crotsley

@mirandaoutside

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Weaver. Seed Starter. Curiouser & curiouser.
Gets outside for fun and for a living.

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Do you like history? Old homes? Research? Learning cool stuff? Our BFFs @mirandaoutside @hollenbarmer @landandkincollaborative are presenting this super cool opportunity at the History Center about using archives and public records to mine for interesting nuggets and stories. Through their research, we learned that at one time, there was a family of 17 people living in our house! 😱

#repost @historycenter @housesofpittsburgh
Have you ever wondered who previously lived in your home or what happened inside its walls?

This spooky season, join local historians Hollen Barmer and Miranda Crotsley at the @historycenter to uncover the history hiding in your own house.

🗓️ Thursday, October 22 from 6-7pm
📍Heinz History Center
🔗Tickets are just $5 for members and $10 General Admission at the link in @historycenter bio.

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Part two: Santander, San Sebastián, and Paris

People have asked what my favorite part of this trip was. Although the most stunning part was the eclipse, I was most grateful for the warmth and patience of the people we encountered, who made every effort to understand my terrible Spanish and who allowed me to practice my French when their English would’ve been more efficient. It still feels like magic to speak and understand words I didn’t grow up with, and this trip was the most at ease I’ve ever been with both language and culture.

Santander: the most perfect eclipse viewing spot for the main event, a monument I only later learned was to nationalist (f@scist) political prisoners who were tossed or threw themselves into the sea during the Spanish Civil War (Spain leaves these monuments up but removes them when they fall into disrepair or are vandalized), beers under our umbrellas on sunny eclipse day, laundry (a favorite stop on any European vacation)

San Sebastián: a visit to the San Telmo museum for some Goyas, Semana grande parade for the assumption of Mary featuring the gigantes, the Virgin of Guadalupe/Black Madonna of Hondarribia, Saint Roch and his dog, a little walk on the Camino del Norte with horse friends, sampling Basque cider, Semana Grande folk music with a senior citizens’ choir, a rare moment of rest on a morning where I accidentally ordered three morning beverages for takeout (see note re: terrible Spanish), lovely afternoon in the shadow of Santa Maria Del Coro—one of the newer churches we saw this trip (1700s)

Paris: wrapping up our trip with sidewalk brasseries and watching the canal swimmers

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Part one of our 10-day, 5-cities trip: Bordeaux and Bilbao

I looked at the calendar, and it’s been exactly a month since we left on this whirlwind journey. The main event was the eclipse on my birthday, but there was a whole lot before and after that:

Bordeaux: staying out past 10pm on our first night (a jetlag record for us), beautiful old city gates, ice cream to stay cool, farmers market oysters and flea market finds, a trip to St. Emilion for a tour of some churches from the 1100s and 1200s, a wine tasting, and staggering monuments to soldiers killed in WWI and WWII.

Bilbao: walking across the Bidasoa River from France into Spain, our only hostel experience this trip (I miiight be ready to leave hostel life behind), getting acclimated to the pintxo bar experience, a walk with a view, outside the Guggenheim, and a monument to women who pulled iron-laden barges down the estuary in the 1800s.

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Life lately. Quality time with Jeanie Beanie and Neighbor Friend Buddy, and coloring.

Buddy is a BEEG dog with an actual tail, an otherworldly level of energy, and an obsession with BirbTV. We love this looney toon but are also jealous of his hoomans being in Europe eating all the helado right now!

#PorterLoves #PorterLovesJeanie #DoggoBnB #NeighborFriends #BuddyBear #BorrowedDog #DogObsessedCreativeSupport

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Sunshine and fun times with the brilliant and hilarious niblings.
Magestic gluten free waffle from the happiest place on earth @nectarinegrove. Not pictured: equally delish gf burrito.
Jeanie Bean living her best life being passed around a delightful cadre of baby-old-lady caretakers.
We made dog friends at the airport because of course we did.

We’re back and we still hate AI slop.

#PorterLoves #PorterLovesJeanie #PorterLovesTravel #CaliforniaDreaming #GlutenFreeNoms #PorterLovesOffTheClock

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It's another busy week in the Studios!

Some of these workshops still have a few spaces left—Join us!

Learn more + register at the 'workshops' link in our bio.

#contemporarycraft #pittsburghiscraft #workshops #crafteducation #thestudios

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Everyone is invited to join our Community Picnic following the garden tour!

Saturday, July 11
1pm-3pm
Les Getz Memorial Park - Lower Pavilion

🌟Local food favorites for free - sandwiches from Triangle Bar & Grill (including a veggie option), ice cream sandwiches from Dari Delite, and more
🌟Live music by Chris Leone and the Spurs of the Moment
🌟Pickle-themed activities 🥒

We’ll have tents, tables, and seating but feel free to bring camp chairs or a picnic blanket if you’d like to relax on the grass. There’s also a playground right by the pavilion for kids to enjoy.

The picnic is a great chance to hang out and meet a bunch of neighbors and garden-lovers!

🌻🥒🌻

This year’s parachuting pickles flyer design was created by local illustrator @aleaozora ❤️

🌻🥒🌻

www.swissvalegardens.org
#SwissvaleGardens

P.S. The first half of this post is useful picnic info - the second half is random extra pickle stuff because we’ve all been talking about pickles for months now.

Let us know if you have any fun pickle trivia or if you’re going to buy that set of 10 vintage pickle bookmarks for $264.50 from Wm Morford Antiques...

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Took Weave 1 with @mirandaoutside at @sccpgh recently and learned how to weave on a floor loom. I had no idea how much goes into weaving a piece of cloth. Can’t wait to get back on the loom again!!! Wanna make some yardage to sew with 🫶

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A much-needed restful weekend in a West Virginia cabin we first visited eight years ago with good old Silas, who was somehow better at chasing butterflies than Buddy.

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Come see us today, May 16 at the @regentsquarecivicassociation yard sale! We’re across from McBroom’s until 2pm or we sell out!

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Happy Valentine/Galentine’s Day, Swissvalians. Here are a few Swissvale-y valentines for yinz. If you have more ideas, post in the comments!

(@dar_es_balat and @beejo_tre, do you even remember coming up with some of these?? It was 3 years ago on a story question. -Laura)

♥️Bonus Valentines-ish Local History:

The last slide is a reminder of the 1915 “heart balm” case that kept Swissvale in all the local (and some national) papers for years. This story is a long-time favorite of ours, and we did a program about it at @swissvalelibrary a couple years ago.

The papers described Henry Denniston as a “hermit who has for years been living a life of seclusion on his farm in Swissvale with his only companion, his “cook and pastry maker,” Charlie.

The Denniston property included all of what’s now Les Getz park plus a good bit of the surrounding area, including some of current-day Church St. The family mansion (rebuilt after a fire in 1905) is still standing on Mansion Place.

In 1915, Nettie Richardson, a hotel clerk who lived in Mt Washington and was distantly related to the Dennistons, claimed Henry had proposed to her before cutting off their engagement. She was about 40 at the time and he was 76. Nettie sued Henry for $500,000, leading to a five-year legal battle.

In the end Henry settled for $30,500 (about 500k in today money and still a lot for this kind of case) and died five years later, in 1925.

Henry and a few other Dennistons are buried in one of the fancy mausoleums right in the middle of @the.homewood.cemetery. Nettie is buried nearby in a joint grave with her mother.

#swissvalepa

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Lantern parade time! Another magical holiday walk with @pgh_callithumpian_society

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