Columbus Day Weekend

It's Columbus Day weekend here in the North East and it has been beautiful! I took the pup out for a hike yesterday and these are some shots I got:

 

And Finally: The pup herself... running around with another friend: Jack

It's been a good day.

Friday Night

sitting on my couch

And I love it!

(maybe the music teacher is right and I do need to start dating again)

Its Raining Cats and Dogs....

Strangest day ever.

It was warm earlier and then it suddenly started pouring out... I mean REALLY RAINING.

And now I'm going to take advantage of this rain and go to bed.

Fall Flowers

Fall is an interesting time for me and my gardens.

I spend all winter planning them, all spring planting them, all summer maintaining and enjoying them, and then autumn comes and suddenly I just want to cut everything back and be done with it.

So yesterday I cut back the Hydrangea bushes. Then I made little bouquets and put them all over the house. My favorite was this one:

Its just so damn pretty!

Street Festivals

Don't feel bad, but I think New England has the lock on Fall Street Festivals....

no really, we do...

Just in my little part of NE we have had a festival every Sunday since mid August...

Last weekend I went to one of these festivals called stART. It was awesome! Hundreds of vendors selling some pretty amazing crafts. Now these are not your grandmother's mother's crafts. They are amazing mixes of jewelery, art, clothing, bags, and other things that I will just never be able to do. Even in my most creative moment I wouldn't have anything worthy of this place.

But enough self-pity.... let me show you some quick pictures of the event. I applogize now that I don't have more, I was so excited and focused that I forgot until the end that I should take pictures.

Plus... Shinny things really do distract me easily.

 

 

This booth was the most interesting of the group. I don't know if you can see it,but in the picture below the woman is wearing one of the chainmail wraps. This booth had all kinds of interesting things made from metal. I bought the bracelet above, but some people were buying full sets of armor. It was nuts!

 

Dinner time

I wanted to make a dinner that used up the fresh veggies that had suddenly appeared in my kitchen. I was at a bit of a loss (I think I mentioned that I don't cook right?) But I knew that tomatoes and basil were pretty safe start. Then I remembered the zucchini and summer squash waiting in my fridge. After that it was a bit of a free-for-all as I ransacked my pantry and fridge for things that might go together....

So I started with garlic and olive oil in a pan:

Then I threw in the squashes: 

I figured they were the hardest so they would take the longest to cook... see my cooking follows purely rational thoughts!

After that I added the tomatoes and greens:

I know what you're thinking... that doesn't look like just basil on the cutting board. I had totally forgotten that I also had chives in my herb garden... they were so pretty this spring with their purple flowers... but that's another story for another day.

Finally it was all in the pan:

I whipped up some minute brown rice:

And viola! Dinner was done... and it was pretty damn tasty if I do say so myself. 

Boring

Blogs without pictures are boring....

With that said, I have no time to post pictures today. I have a million ideas, but no time.

So I will leave you with this:

My cat likes to sit close by and watch me work... it would be creepy... but its what cats do.

What I love today...

 

It is a beautiful fall day here in NE so I took a quick walk around my yard to check on the plants and to see what might be chaning now that the nights are cooler.

While I was wandering around my 5 feet of land my tenant made his morning appearance and I mentioned that this morning glory vine is my favorite thing in the yard. (yes folks, I'm a landlady... only way I could afford the small patch of dirt I so desperately wanted)

His reply "Every day your favorite changes"

It is so true!

But come on now, how can I pick when everything is something I planted and loved. Someday I'll show you what the back yard looked like before I started working on it.

You'll cry

You really will. It was so sad.

But for today I'll just leave you with this... a perfect vine growing on a picket fence. Happy SUNday!

My herb garden at work

I'm going to preface this post with a statement that I really want you to take to heart.

I AM NOT A COOK.

No really, not even a wanna be cook. I have no idea what goes well together or what can be substituted for what.

But that doesn't stop me from trying, or from changing, perfectly good recipes.

Remember that basil I was talking about last night? My plan was to use it to make pesto...


I found an relatively easy recipe for Pesto at tastykitchen.com (Amazing website, started by an amazing blogger, and on my daily read list)

I was pretty sure I had all the ingredients needed, and since I had the basil growing right outside my door, I dove into the recipe.

Of course, as with all things, I was wrong about the ingredients part.

I didn't have the pine nuts so I had to substitute with pecans. Why I had pecans is still a mystery to me, but it was better than running to the store so I went with it.


Garlic, Pecans, Basil. I ended up using more than the 2 cups recommended because my basil had flowered earlier this week (flowering reduces the amount of flavor from the leaves).

So I just kept adding until it tasted strongly of basil.


When the paste was thick and green I got out my EEVO. Now here's where I think I made a serious mistake.

I used the EEVO I had in the cupboard... but being me... I have no idea how old it is. And after it was added, it was clear that this was not the highest quality oil.

My pesto was suddenly tasting very icky. (Is icky a real word?)


But no fear!

I decided to continue on and add the cheese.

And cheese being cheese saved the day (as it always does in my life).

After I added the cheese I finally found the flavor I was missing...

The final product...

Not the most amazing thing I've ever made but pretty good for a first time working with herbs.

Harvesting my Herbs

This is my herb garden when I planted it in April. I won't bore you with the details of how this garden came to be (or at least, I won't bore you until tomorrow).... but basically, I decided that every quasi-country home needs an herb garden.

So I planted chives, sage, basil, mint, lavender, and lemon balm. I had no idea what I would do with any of these herbs, but they smelled so damn good that I felt the need to own them all.


This is my herb garden last week.

It is a wonderful mess

It has taken over the space and then some....
So today I decided to harvest all those wonderful herbs and dry them... because this city girl doesn't cook and won't every use them for anything else!

Except maybe the basil... I have a plan for that basil that will hopefully work out...

Why I sometimes think I'm a 50 year old woman trapped....

... in the body of a 30 year old:

This is what makes me happy.... really stinking happy.
My Home and Garden Magazine showed up in my mailbox today and I immediately put all other chores on hold so I could read it. I'm a dork. It is official.

DIY metal chairs and table (before and after)

This is an outdoor dining set that I had thrown together from mismatch pieces over the summer.

...and since I don't have enough time to take pictures of my front door today (and because the weather in NE isn't really great for taking pictures anyways today) I thought I would share with you the process of turning ugly into fun.

I had bought this beat-up round table for $10 at a junk store:

The two yellow chairs were given to me by a friend. The yellows didn't match and the whole thing was in a desperate need of a paint job. So I got out my trusty sawhorses and started spray painting the whole kit-n-caboodle (is that how its spelled? You'll soon learn my spelling is HORRIBLE)



Once everything was painted a sparkly white, I realized it was pretty boring. This was a sad realization for me, because I love things to be white. My wicker chairs are white, my picket fence (oh yeah, I have a picket fence!) is white, my newly painted kitchen... you guess it, white.

So when I realized that the table and chairs were just too blah... I decided to jazz them up with a bit of blue paint I had left over. What resulted is below. And there I thought would be the end...



But as I was heading home today I had a thought... maybe the chairs should be red?

My favorite time of year.....

Is it too early in our relationship to admit that I love fall?

(photo courtesy of http://www.vtliving.com/foliage/index.shtml)

Or that when the leaves start turning and crunching underfoot I get giddy?

(photo courtesy of http://www.dann-online.com/Sweaters/index.html)

I also probably shouldn't mention that my idea of comfort is to wear a "too big" sweater... I can feel you cringing but its true... nothing says comfort like a "too big" sweater!


(photo courtesy of http://thedelightfulhome.blogspot.com/)

And there is no way you can tell me that seeing pumpkins and mums gracing the front steps of your neighborhood home isn't wonderful.

Tomorrow I'll try and give you a glimpse of my NE front door....

Things I hate...

... school work on a beautiful Fall night.

I'm in my final semester of graduate school for my chosen profession and I can not WAIT for it to be over. I'm looking forward to both a pay boost and some time to myself. But most importantly, I am looking forward to what happens next, to what I can potentially become after this chapter in my life is over.

Things I love

Blueberries

The Beach

Coffee

Lilacs

And my pup...