Date
July 11, 2010
Guests
Mom and Dad
Occasion
None
Menu
Root roast with brussel sprouts, daikon, sweet potato, white potato, leek and turnips
Sauteed kale and spinach with garlic and pine nuts
Red quinoa
Honeydew boats with lime sorbet, fresh peaches and blueberries for dessert
________________________________________________
Mom brought me a gorgeous and thoughtful hostess bouquet… Queen Anne’s Lace!
… A delightful evening!
I grew a garden this year for the first time. Ever. And I’m thrilled. I’ve already eaten some of the fruits of my labor but some of the veggies aren’t in yet. I have green tomatoes galore though so it will be soon. To make a meal from something I started out as a seed is an amazing feeling. There is NOTHING compared to it. And, shock of all shocks, I actually LIKE weeding. Who knew.
However, I did learn a couple of darn good lessons for next year’s garden:
Otherwise, I’m pretty happy with how things have gone. Of course, a few things die here and there but I’ve been told by some pretty advanced gardeners that this happens to everyone. So, that is that. I would have never guessed that I would love gardening but I do!
How does your garden grow?
I saw this same thing done on another blog the other day and found it so interesting and insightful – to really notice the everyday things around me.
~ fin ~
The confession:
As much as I talk about being earth-friendly, as often as I wear my tree-hugger t-shirt and as much as I recycle, reuse, etc. etc. I have not been taking my reusable bags shopping with me. {Hangs head in shame.} I just never gathered them up, never have them handy, never think to carry them to the car, never plan a trip to the grocery, the excuses are endless. And excuses they are.
But, that ends here.
The pledge:
To use them! Carry them! Not go into a store without one! Plan my grocery trips in advance enough to have them! Put them back into the car right after I unload my groceries!
You get the idea.
So, I rounded them all up today. I have a nice collection of them, as you see.
Believe it or not, my favorite is the red mesh one in the center. It wads up so nicely and will hold anything (I actually got a full-sized watermelon, two frozen pizzas, four avocados and a boxed dessert into it today. Nice!) Of course, on big shopping days, all of them will be used.
They are sitting by my door right now and will stay there or in my trunk, ready for use!
I got these (below) in the mail last week. They are handy-dandy produce bags with drawstrings at the top so that you don’t have to use those yucky, thin, plastic produce bags. Ick. These are very lightweight so they add almost nothing to the weight. I got them at SewCreativebySara (Etsy).
So, I think I’m all set for my next grocery shopping adventure.
I did use the red one today when I stopped in for food-stuffs for my Dad’s Father’s Day lunch. I can only imagine how hippie I looked but that is a GOOD THING! I had a doo-rag on my head, no make-up, flipper shoes, ripped up jeans and then asked that my items be bagged in a bag that I brought. I got a couple of sideways glances from the checker and the sacker-boys but I loved it! Even if the glances were because they thought I was weird, they were still paying attention and that counts! Hooray! Perhaps they are at home as I type rounding up THEIR reusable bags!
I can dream, right?
Just a note on bags, you can get them anywhere and don’t have to pay much (or anything) for them! There are any number of lovely ones on Etsy, but I got mine as gifts, on giveaways, free with grocery purchases and at the thrift stores (my favorite red one was a quarter at a Salvation Army.) So, you do not have to pay much of anything for them. Just pay attention to bags that will work; they are everywhere! Have fun with it! Revel in all the plastic you are saving and the example you are setting. Hooray!
And, just another fabulous reusable item along the same lines… these super-cool and uber-handy snack bags that I love love LOVE! I got them at GreenStreetBags (Etsy). They are amazingly well-made, they come in some really fun prints and they hold tight when closed. Love them! Will definitely be getting more!
So, there we have it. My ugly confession and my exciting pledge… better late than never, right?
Tell me about your favorite reusable grocery bags! Do you remember to carry them at all times? I confessed, you can too. And take the pledge with me! We are all in this together.
** (♥) ** (♥) ** (♥) ** (♥) **
{A blog I’m loving right now… check out the cool journal prompts!}
Sunday. A day of rest. And by “rest”, I mean “piddling”.
And I did a lot of that. But, it was productive-piddling.
My biggest order of business today was paring my Facebook friends list way down. I mean, WAY down. I went from over 1,800 friends to 186. It felt good; therapeutic almost. You see, I have been pondering completely deleting my Facebook account for some time. I’ve found Facebook to be an unhealthy mix of sorrow and negativity for the past few months. I know that I don’t need that so I thought about going extreme and doing away with it altogether. But, on the urging of some friends, I opted to cull my friend list first. I already like it better. A lot. The people I kept are either good friends in real life or people I know online who have proven to be positive, upbeat, happy. Positive, upbeat, happy is GOOD.
I also spent a good bit of the day working on The Happy Box. This is such a fun project that I was invited to participate in on Facebook, ironically. It is based on this book and is making its way around to a group of fun gals who each fill out some of the pages, take whatever they like out of the happy box and replace them with other fun things. The box was chock full of neat things! I took out an original art piece and a gypsy tie-dyed headband.
It was a really fun and reflective way to spend part of the day. Not only do I just enjoy things like this but I learned some things about myself by completing the pages in the book. Love that!
Yesterday was Green Market and it was a great one! I was really very tired by the end of the day but it was wonderful… one of the best yet. I got henna-d for it too:
This was before it peeled. I got one on my ankle too. Oh la la… love them!
Something I want to do this week… An accomplishment board. A friend suggested this and I love the idea. It is like a Vision Board (which I have one of and LOVE) but it is filled with my accomplishments instead. This would be a great way to keep in mind those things I’ve already done, the things I have to be proud of. If a Vision Board is about setting your intention and putting it out to the Universe, an accomplishment board is about gratitude and pride. I think everyone needs a Vision Board and I think everyone needs an accomplishment board. I plan to make that happen.
Happy Sunday!
This has been my day, my “Personal New Year”.
One year ago today, I had open-heart surgery at age 32 to repair a life-threatening aneurysm. It all happened so quickly but today – today especially - I see how far I’ve come, how much good is inside me, how blessed and grateful I am and how much I have to offer this world, so much still to do. The universe realized this and saw to it that I survived, that my heart was repaired and kept beating. I don’t know what all I still have to do or want to do or what the Universe has in store for me but I’m realizing and learning and discovering. Slowly, sometimes painfully.
Always gratefully.
As many of you know, I recently bought a house. An old house. A fixer-upper house.
But, it is a wonderful little house with TONS of potential and I feel that it is moving at a nice pace toward that potential.
So, what is Project Backsplash then?
Well, this is a picture of my (very torn apart at the moment) kitchen:
If you can look past the mess that you see, you will notice MANY very beautiful cabinets. My wish is to put a tile backsplash from the cabinet-top to the underside of the cabinets. Lots of tiles will be needed for this, needless to say.
So, I’m asking all of you out there to send me a tile. That’s right, send me ONE tile, or several tiles! Just send tile! The only criteria is that it be 4 inches by 4 inches (10.16 cm x 10.16 cm). Besides that… have fun! Any color, design, patina, texture, etc. Just a 4 x 4″ tile. That’s it. Period. My hope is to have a lovely eclectic, mish-mash backsplash from all over the world! So… Please send me a tile!
This, then, is Project Backsplash!
Send tiles to:
Zazazu – Project Backsplash
P.O. Box 373
Corinth, MS 38834
And feel free to share the word about Project Backsplash with your friends!
Until next time… I’m needing some zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz’s!
Welcome to the first installment of Zazazu’s Things I Love Thursdays, brought to you courtesy of galadarling.
Let us begin… but where to begin? Ah…
1. Beautiful custom-covered literary classics like Wuthering Heights…
2. The promise of Spring around the corner and new Spring-y clothes…
3. My evening cup of chai… it is like a constitutional for me…
4. Facebook status updates that use quotes by L.L. Cool J. ‘Nuff said.
5. Amazing vintage shoes… even if they aren’t my size…
6. Learning new things… Like at the grant-writing workshop I’m attending this evening.
7. Daily emails from my best friend… my rock, my sanity, my lifeline.
What are you loving today?
|
Attention fashion forward friends! I recently bought these amazing bootlets as a gift-to-me but find myself wondering what to wear them with. I will say that I don’t “do” leggings and I can’t wear jeans to work. So, help me with some outfit suggestions here, please!
Fabulous.
Hot.
Divine.
Vogue. Strike a pose.
My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods. Time will change it, I’m well aware, as winter changes the trees – my love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath – a source of little visible delight, but necessary.
I love my murderer--but yours! How can I?
Sometimes I can’t imagine anything more beautifully written as passages like this, passages from Wuthering Heights. Wuthering Heights is one of my all-time favorite novels. I read it first when I was very young, several times since and am craving to read it again. Nothing compares to it; it is the quintessential Gothic love story. Indeed, it is perhaps even the quintessential love story, period.
When reading Wuthering Heights, I’m often amazed that a clergyman’s daughter, a woman who was never married, could have concocted such an amazing story of love that transcends – literally – everything.
And I pray one prayer–I repeat it till my tongue stiffens–Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living; you said I killed you–haunt me, then! The murdered DO haunt their murderers, I believe. I know that ghosts HAVE wandered on earth. Be with me always–take any form–drive me mad! only DO not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! it is unutterable! I CANNOT live without my life! I CANNOT live without my soul!
Terror made me cruel...
If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger: I should not seem a part of it.
I will admit that I’m very picky about film adaptations of my beloved classic works of literature, particularly ones as powerful and soul-consuming as Wuthering Heights. I’ve not yet seen a truly good, accurate version of it and doubt that I ever will. It simply cannot be done; film is not and never will be literature. In this case, actions do not speak a thousand words.
That being said, I will say that the recent Masterpiece Theatre version was immensely enjoyable. The scenery is just amazing: the moors are everything I would imagine them to be and the setting for the Heights and the Grange are seemingly perfect. And, the cast in this version is about as close to what is in my mind as I think is possible, particularly Heathcliff. Tom Hardy does a brilliant version. He is not Heathcliff – no one is or can be – but he plays him nicely. Cathy and Nellie are also very good, I think.
However, I will also say that this version includes several glaring inaccuracies and even more subtle ones. There are things that I can’t imagine being included in the film, things that are so removed from how it was in the book that it almost seems a bit disrespectful. So, there is that.
But, all-in-all, it is a beautifully done film that is just fun to watch and, even with its inaccuracies, it is a brilliant story to wrap yourself up in. It doesn’t consume the soul like the book does but it will completely captivate you while it lasts and for a time afterward too.
It is well worth owning. I’m planning it for a Happy Valentine to me. ♥
Wuthering Heights on DVD
Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He’s always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being.
It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him: and that, not because he’s handsome, Nelly, but because he’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same; and Linton’s is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire.
Disclaimer: My advocacy of this version has absolutely nothing to do with Tom Hardy being an amazingly stunning hunk of burning love. Okay, his being an amazingly stunning hunk of burning love HELPS but my heart truly does belong to the story.
