Weekend Wrap-up

So I turned what started as a bad weekend into a good one. My vending job did not go as well as...well, it was the worst. So Saturday I played hooky and spent the day exploring Kernersville, NC with Adam. We checked out the K-ville Indie Flea which was very cool. I knocked out a couple of Christmas presents there. I'm hoping to find a free Saturday in the next month or two to go out and set up my own table. Then we walked around the Honey Bee Festival. The weather was beautiful. Adam really enjoyed watching the iron works demonstration while I browsed the booths.
Tonight we wrapped it up by getting some end of summer chores done. We made pesto and cooked some eggplant to freeze for making baba ganoush when we need an appetizer for entertaining friends. I also tried my hand at making homemade crackers. This recipe comes from How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. I think they are going to be tasty and they were very easy and economical. I think we'll have fun experimenting with different herbs and seasonings on these. Tonight I just did a basic sprinkling of sea salt, wheat berries, and flax seeds.
In crafting news, well, I hope there's no where but up from here. I got a lot of encouragement from friends and then found this in my in-box tonight. This local blogger put one of my pendants in her weekly etsy treasury. Click here to check out her blog, especially if you're in the Triad area - she's got lots of info on the local scene!

What's for Dinner?

I rarely get all Betty Crocker when I'm home by myself for dinner, or anytime really. Cooking is something that I wish I could learn to enjoy. But tonight I was trying to fix something semi-healthy with what I had. Egg sandwich, broccoli and carrots, and a black berry smoothie for dessert. Not bad! I think I have one more small serving of broccoli before the plants are all done. These are the secondary heads after I cut the first ones back. They went to flower during an early spring heat wave before we could eat them.
We're getting quite a few blackberries from our few canes. I couldn't stand to put the bird netting on them after last year- we caught more birds than we kept out! While picking the blackberries, I noticed a spider web on the top of one of the canes. Then I realized that it was filled with hundreds of baby spiders!!! The little white specks in the photo are the spiders.

Ode to Spring

There's something about this time of year that makes me want to live more simply.

That makes me want to wear holey jeans and rubber garden shoes as a daily uniform.

That makes me want to hang the clothes on the line intead of throwing them in the dryer.


That makes me want to plant more vegetables (peas, onions and garlic).

That makes me want to play in the dirt (Beulah taking a dust bath),


look at the flowers (didn't intend on getting azaleas at the Farmer's Market this morning but have you ever seen such a deep red on one?),



and feed the birds (the house finch Ella's babies in the vine on our front porch - I'm really going to miss them when they all fly away).

That makes me want to spend more time in the kitchen making homemade cookies, pizza, and coleslaw (thanks to our friends who surprised us with a present of cabbage!).

How has spring fever got you?