summer csa

 
it's official, our summer csa is in full swing. we got our first delivery last week and devoured every part of it by the time we picked up our second box last night. this year we are sharing our csa between four people so it is much easier to finish all the wonderful produce boistfort valley farm gives us than it was when just jon and i shared it last year. it may not sound like a big problem to have too much produce, but imagine a big head of fresh lettuce starting to wilt in your fridge because you couldn't eat salads fast enough. loosing food is never fun.

my challenge to myself is to: 1. eat all our produce before it rots 2. make some fun and new recipes with our vegetables as well as find ways to throw produce into all my basics and 3. (this one is the best) take a picture of our csa every week, in some form. i like the idea of documenting how the season slowly develops with what is ripe and harvest-able.

this week, i snapped what was left of last week's box.
feel free to email me if you have questions about community supported agriculture.

chocolate ventures

 

good morning! there have been some exciting new projects in the works for me and one of them is my dad's new chocolate truffle company. i am helping him and his business partner get off their feet and get their amazing hand-crafted truffles out into this chocolate-loving world. seattle chocolate lovers, look out! soon, i will update with more information about where to find their truffles and even what you can do to help spread the word. to all you non-seattle chocolate lovers, there will soon be a way for the chocolates to travel to your home. get ready!

above are pictures from their kitchen. the lighting may be bad, but it's a really cool space to be in. see that fourth picture down? a picture on the side of a fridge? that's me rolling out my first baguette! take a closer look.

vacated

 

 

 hello there. it is already friday and i have hardly been here all week! i've sadly been out of the habit of snapping pics and taking my camera with me everywhere. but i'm itching to get back behind the camera and click the shutter. soon, i hope, i will have a new wave of things to show you. do you go through ups and downs of interest in your hobbys? i'm afraid i do that with a lot of things. for example, i spent the past three weeks devouring a string of books. my energy and interest level in reading was very very high and now i can't get sucked into anything but bon appetit. so it goes...

so, the boarded up houses in these photos are evidence of big changes in seattle. these houses have been on a main corner for as long as i remember and now they are vacated and will soon be demolished. what will go in their place is a light rail station, making a larger part of the city accessible and convenient by public transportation. it will be interesting to see the changes in the neighborhood as this happens. for now, though, these vacated houses have a slight beauty to them.

and, since i promised to follow up on my event with anthony bourdain--i am here to say it was amazing. he rocks.

a sweet lunch

a couple weeks back i had a sweet lunch with tara at the place i seem to always be talking about--volunteer park cafe. it was a beautiful day and we had delicious blueberry mint lemonades. tara is such a sweetie!

today i am meeting anthony bourdain! i can hardly believe it. i've met a lot of high profile people over the past two years, but for some reason he seems a little out of my reality. i also get to spend the whole day with him as opposed to just a few hours in the evening. i'll let you know how it goes.

also today is the first day of our summer csa. i am contemplating snapping pics of my csa goods every week to see the change as the summer progresses. that might be fun. all i know is today we are getting two pints of strawberries!!

now i have to go before i add any more exclamation marks. i can get carried away.

summer solstice

happy longest day of the year! yesterday we were really turned around. the sky was low and gray the whole day as if it was january, but it didn't get dark until 9pm. i'm hoping summer will truly be here soon. my basil plants hope so, too.

to celebrate summer, hop on over to words to shoot by. there are a lot of great summer triptychs there. 

have a good monday...

pin it forward

hello! today i am participating in pin it forward, a fun mashup up put on by sfgirlbybay and pinterest. i've had fun playing around with pinterest, but i haven't gathered nearly the amount of images that i had hoped. i'll consider this 'home tour' just the beginning.

and so, a bit of what home means to me...

cozy bed sheets and comforters, simple and classy kitchen towels, a full and organized pantry with whole foods, shelves and shelves of books, the dining room table as a centerpiece for the home, chalkboards...these are all small pieces of what makes home home. go to my pin it forward page on pinterest to see more images and the beginning stages of my pin boards.
if you are interested in pinterest, i have a few invites to pass on. let me know and i will send you one. i've enjoyed using it as a visual bookmarking tool.

for more pin it forward, check out global atelier tomorrow to see what home means to her.
image credits: 1. fog linen 2. emmersonmade's home via design*sponge 2. blissinateacup
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i'll be back soon with regular posts.

summer visions in my head

summer is quickly approaching here and i am ready for it. i've started daydreaming about little road trips and camping and star gazing and popsicles. we got a big bag full of oranges from jon's family, grown off their tree in california, and i am freezing the juice on a tip from tara. we will use the frozen orange juice later for summer drinks, popping them into tequila or seltzer. i'm also excited about freezing tonic, something molly wrote about in my new favorite book. i'm scheming up different sorbet flavors and, in anticipation for our summer csa, i'm thinking about all the different things to do with lettuce. this time of year i still feel the ingrained adrenaline rush of freedom dangling in front of me, yearning to run free as if i had a summer break. i don't have a summer break, but i am determined to not let that stop my fun. i even bought shorts! and i am pulling out my summer dresses! yes, i know this summer will be just right. with canoe rides and hikes and picnics and...so much possibility.

sights of minneapolis, part 2

on sunday we spent the day with julia. it was a beautiful day to saunter around uptown minneapolis and talk and get lunch and look at the neighborhood and garden spy. come along, i'll show you our day.

julia took us to tao natural foods for coffee and sandwiches. we sat outside under a pretty tree and got a little respite from the sun. i had a southwest wrap with beans and rice and salsa, jon had a tempeh reuben and julia had grilled cheese. also, we met at magers & quinn bookstore and i couldn't help but pick up a book.

walking along back streets, we peered into people's yards. i spotted a huge pink chair (that picture up there doesn't really convey how huge it was). minneapolis has been popping up on lists for best bicycle cities in the nation. they have a great web of bike trails and it is so flat, i sort of wish i could have transported my bike out there for the weekend.

after a quick downpour, the sun came back full blast, so we headed down to the lake. we sat in a nice grassy spot, looking onto the water. julia snapped some awesome polaroids.

it was so great to meet julia and to get to know minneapolis better. watch out julia, i'll be back soon!

sights of minneapolis: part one

 

the midwest is flat. i visited minneapolis for a big family gathering and we did a lot of driving to and from family affairs. we did a lot of sight seeing from highways and we of course went on a family history tour; neighborhoods different parts of my family live or have lived. i really loved seeing the horizon so far off and i loved the big expanse of sky. it was a refreshing change to my rolling hills and mountains point of view. i have gone to minneapolis often to visit my dad's family, but the more i go the more i realize i don't go often enough. it really is such a sweet place. and my family is so sweet, too.

minneapolis also has a lot of lakes and on sunday, jon and i met julia and--among other things--sat by lake calhoun for a good long while. i'll have more to share from my meet with julia tomorrow.

june 8

i'm back from minneapolis and not quite ready with pictures or words. why not reminisce on lilacs instead?
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also, i just caught sight of these helvetica cookie cutters via sacred lotus. aren't they classy? and the card society is celebrating 4 years with 15% off. i look forward to my package every month.
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i hope to catch you up with my trip soon. in the meantime, check out the cute picture julia snapped.

off i go

i'm headed out this morning for a long weekend in minneapoli. going to see family, going to explore the city and going to meet a new friend. while i'm en route, i thought i would leave you with this poem i came across (that has nothing to do with traveling and more to do with life and language). wish me luck!
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Note

Remember how the naked soul
comes to language and at once knows
loss and distance and believing

then for a time it will not
run with its old freedom
like a light innocent of measure
but will hearken to how
one story becomes another
and will try to tell where
they have emerged from
and where they are heading
as thought they were its own legend
running before the words and beyond them
naked and never looking back

through the noise of questions

--W.S. Merwin, Shadow of Sirius

shop local outtakes part two

 

hello. here is more from the shop local ballard project i worked on for a friend. most all of these shots are from one place, bop street records. it was too cool in there to not go crazy with my camera. even though i think the store would have looked great on film, i'm glad i could use my digital and shoot with abandon. and i'm glad i could see if the light was right instantly. (don't worry film, you're still my number one).  the first shot is a cool stamp and engraving shop and the last two shots are from the people's pub. 

have you had a chance to read or add to the june lists? they are great! (scroll down to comments)