Spring's Bounty

It seems like this time of year is when beautiful photos of local farmers markets start popping up all over my favorite blogs. If you can't beat em' join em'! Here are a few photos of some of the wonderful goods found at the Asheville City Farmer's Market this past weekend!






This asparagus was in the field 45 minutes before I bought it. I LOVE that!
We even have a local company that sells bottled water from a local source. Its tasty too!

Dinner!

So George was having a rough day today. I wanted to make something nice for dinner but with limited groceries in the house, I knew I needed to be creative! We had pork chops and stuff for salad so I went to it to try and make it special. After a long winter of cooking inside, it was time to break out the grill! I had never grilled by myself and managed not to set the house on fire. I have an obsession with cast iron cook ware and even our grill is cast iron! I HEART LODGE!

So I put on my grilling face (which happened to include red lipstick because I had been shooting new photos for my etsy store!), cracked open a beer and got to grilling!

First, I marinated the pork chops in 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/2 cup lemon juice and a crap ton of onions and garlic. I let those sit in the fridge for about 4 hours but only because I had thought about it. I've let them sit for as little as 30 minutes and they still turn out good. This is great for pork loins too! I don't think you'd want to leave them over night because the acid would cook the meat too much. Anyway, a little salt and pepper when they come out of the bag and you're good to grill! Here is the left over marinade after I had all the chops on the grill (you should have seen the people walking down the street stare at me holding this bag of gray juice and taking a picture of it!)

Throw those suckers on the grill and let them go!

MMMMMMMM....meat. That statement is funny coming from a former vegan.
I also made a lovely baby spinach salad with a blue cheese vinaigrette!

I made some creamed corn and when George walked in he sat down and was presented with a platter of goodness! I definitely earned my keep (and beer!) tonight. =)

No crafting = no good.

So I haven't been crafting. I came up with (and am still tweaking) a new clutch that I hope to make and get into the store soon... along with 500 other things I've been sitting on not photographing.

I'm still not feeling 100%. I have a little bit of a lingering cough from this horrible cold thinggy that I had. It will NOT go away! Needless to say, I haven't been to the gym because I still can't breathe (that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it!)

I do get to go on vacation this week! George and I are taking advantage of my spring break at school and heading down to Miami and then driving to Key West this week. We leave Monday and I'm SUPER psyched!

I also cut over six inches off of my hair today! It was pretty cathartic and it just feels OH SO MUCH lighter! She thinned it out and put a lot of texture in which is really nice too!

okay, so that was my quick recap of the whole lot of nothing going on with me!


(ready for Florida!)

Copy Cat

Okay, I just turned on VH1 morning music videos because I couldn't stand anymore nick jr. and I saw this video by some guy I never heard of that looks like it is filmed in front of the EXACT store from the Like I Love You video... his outfit even looks similar! COPY CAT! Okay, glad I got that off my chest. = )

Justin Timberlake "Like I Love You"


Jason Derulo "In My Head"

Sick Ick Ick

I've been sick for about week now. It started as swollen glands, a horribly sore throat and head congestion. Then morphed into laryngitis. Now the little bugger has dropped into my chest and is punishing my poor lungs. I'm hacking constantly and I won't even tell you about the gobs of stuff coming up every morning. It feels like that fat guy (in the mucinex commercial) has decided on camping out and has started a proper camp fire in my lungs. OUCH. I'm ready for this to be over.

Crazy for LOL

Have you been to Target to get your Liberty of London haul yet? I did. Today. The first day it was out. I thought I'd be sneaky and go when most people in the bible belt were in church but I guess I live in a heathens town because it was still INSANE. People had carts overflowing with all kids of lovely florals. I heard more than one Target employee mention how they were shocked at how many people had tried on all of the different dresses so far. For my load I got the following items:



Cute ruffle dress (perfect for my Miami vacation coming up!)


Nightie (also perfect for my vacation ;) )


I can totally see me on this bike with a cute basket on front, but alas they didn't have it at my Target... I looked!


I did get this tray. I thought it would be perfect to display my flowers on at craft shows.
I also got a floral print box that they were calling a gift box but it really looks like a mini hat box (for craft shows and storage) and a black and white tunic/beach cover up that I can't find a picture of anywhere. Its super cute and really light. I think it'll be perfect for cruising South Beach and Key West in a few weeks!

Reading

I recently got my little amazon box on my doorstep that contained my newest addition to my craft book library! Its called Handmade Marketplace How to sell your crafts locally, globally and online and its by Kari Chapin. I have only had a little time to thumb through this gem, but I can tell you that it is FULL of insider information!
If you have ever been terrified of starting an etsy store or submitting for a craft show, this book will help ease your fears! It has a little bit of just about everything in it, marketing, blogging, selling, branding... everything! Its got guest spots by some of my most favorite authors on my blog roll and crafty heros which makes it ten times more valueable to me. I know that all of these people have started from the bottom and are HUGE now! Okay, maybe only to the crafting world, but that's the world I want to live in! =) I highly suggest buying the book if you're looking to further your business or create new avenues to grow. You can buy it on amazon for a little more than ten bucks! (Perfect when you spend all of your money on craft supplies!)