Craigslist Outdoes Itself

As I've mentioned, many times, most of my home was furnished through Craigslist. Many of my Craigslist finds have been cheap and essential, such as a dining room table, but until this weekend my favorite find was this antique cabinet that we now use as a linen closet. It was free. Every time I look at it I feel lucky all over again.
Until this weekend when I begged, twisted arms, inconvenienced multiple parties and scored 3 citrus trees. For free.

One bitter orange (seen here), one lime, and one lemon. A citrus tree, just one, has been on my Christmas list for years, and here were three five year old, dwarf trees for the taking on Craigslist. I could hardly sleep I was so excited.

Those are oranges growing in my dining room. They are miniature and tarrrt. Try one when you come over. My sister had to drive 2 hours to go get them (why my sister was involved is part of the twisting arms part - she was such a good sport). She drove Lisa's truck, so Lisa got the lemon tree by way of reimbursement.

That lime? That is growing in my living room, and will be plunked into a frosty gin and tonic this weekend when its fully ripe. Its friends will be made into salsa and mexican chicken soup. And more gin and tonics.

Here's another baby lime on the way. Now the trick will be, of course, to keep them alive. Given my track record with plants that will be difficult. I'm super motivated about these, I'm reading Gardenweb.com (thanks Aunt Mimi) and everything. But if anyone has any experience or tips please help me out.

Twins at 2 Months

We spent a lovely weekend in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and while I had every intention of finishing Fashion Week with a picture early Saturday morning and late Sunday night, it was just a little too much. Besides, so many pictures of me was freaking me out. I'd rather look at babies.

Specifically Mia.

Or Mia and me.

And that's the end of Mia because Honnah proved herself more cooperative that night.

Mia's not quite smiling yet but Honnah sure is.

Man oh man, they just melt me.

Fall Fashion Week Day 4

Friday (inspired by Lisa)
Top/Dress: From Double Dutch in Baltimore
Belt: Thrifted

Pants: Old Navy
Shoes: Dolce Vita



So many fun new ladies have stopped by here because of the Fashion Week, thank you for all the nice comments! Here's a list of others who are participating:
Laura @ Every Path
Mama Bird @ Three Birds
Kalle @ Growing C's
Marla @ Today is Mine. Tomorrow is not my Business
Katy @ Trying to Live for Today, While Looking Towards the Future
Jilian Dee @ Jilian Dee & Dexter too
Amanda @ Lullabies to Terrorize
Marianne and Baby Penny @ Ancora Imparo

Indy & Summer @ a shot in the dark
Christina @ he.makes.all.things.new
Rita @ Me & My Shortloffs
Mrs. Boo Radley @ just like camping

Fall Fashion Day 3

Thursday
Shirt: F21
Dress: American Eagle clearance
Leggings: F21
Boots: Gift from Zeb (thrifted)
Earrings: Made by me
Glasses: Zenni Optical

Note: I am standing straight up in this picture. The bookshelves, all askew behind me highlight the fact that our building is tilting toward the sea, if it weren't snuggled right up to the next house over it probably would have fallen over by now.

Fall Fashion Day 2

Wednesday
Dress: H+M clearance (I understand the clearance part now that I see in this photo that the hem is uneven. Details, details.)
Tights: Target
Shoes: Anthropologie clearance


I don't think there's a single room in my house big enough that the camera could get me in one shot. So here are the shoes. They hurt. So bad. I switched to flats for the rest of the day. If that's cheating don't tell me.

Charlie

I had the pleasure of spending this afternoon with Mr. Charlie Hartman. Charlie is my friend Sarah's son. I was itching to try out a new lens, so in typical me overkill style, I shot about 200 pictures of Charlie over the course of a few hours.

I still don't know how my lens works though.

These first few pictures of Charlie are rare ones, because he's almost always smiling. He's a dream baby, always happy as a clam.

Valerie was his nanny for the first year of his life, she came over for some Charlie love.

Charlie's into saying hi to everyone, cheerios, and kissing things.

This, this is typical Charlie. He cracks up at everything. He'll just look at you and laugh. Or maybe it's just my face.

Next up - the twins at two months!

Fashion Week Day 1

It's never too late to jump on a bandwagon, right? Marianne and Summer started fashion week yesterday, but I didn't read about it until today. I love street style fashion blog stuff! Even better if it's people I know! I have to play along! Luckily today my sister was around to help take the photo, tomorrow I'll have to figure out the timer on my camera.

Tuesday

Shirt: Charlotte Russe clearance rack

Pants: Anthropologie clearance rack

Shoes: Garage sale

Scarf: Target

Accessory: Charlie (on loan for the afternoon)

At Last

Goodbye Fuji FinePix.

Hello, new love.

Here we go!

Zeb Was Right: Salsa Edition

I love it when Zeb turns out to be right in the end. After I fight him tooth and nail over some trifle, to be finally proved wrong has just a touch of bitterness, for sure, but mostly just strengthens my admiration for the superior being I married. Such was the case with salsa.

When I'm gone for an evening Zeb tends to eat chips and salsa for dinner and I used to feel guilty about it and pester him to eat something 'real.' I'd always thought of it as boy/junk food. 'Boy' because I've known quite a few who think salsa is its own food group, and 'junk' I suppose because of the slimy version that comes with Mexican fast food. Z kept insisting that salsa was good for you and I kept scoffing when he said it. Then one day he broke it down for me - fresh tomatoes, fresh garlic, fresh onions, fresh herbs, maybe some black beans - and a light went on! I believe in all those things. Salsa is good for you!

The remaining issue for me was taste - slimy fast food salsa had left a bad one. But one day the CSA was brimming with tomatoes and peppers and Zeb found a recipe that changed my mind about salsa forever.

Salsa
(Feeds a boy and his wife for several hours)

3 large tomatoes, seeded and chopped

1/2 - 1 tsp salt

1 medium mild or sweet onion, chopped

2 fresh jalapeno peppers, chopped

Juice from 1 lime

3 T fresh cilantro, chopped

Mix.

This salsa knocked my socks off. Not too spicy, amazingly flavorful, highly addictive.

I know, I know, I'm probably the last person in the world to discover the joy that is a good simple salsa. Zeb was so right on this one. And he didn't even rub it in, he just welcomed me to the salsa club and asked if I'd prefer plain or Hint of Lime Tostitos. Now, if he knows what's good for him he'll rest content in this victory and lay off the campaign for the frozen mini tacos.

Sail Picnic

Axon pointed out that my blog's pretty quiet right now. I'm choosing to not feel guilty about that, but it's hard.
That whole staying on top of things? That went away. But things will slow down again soon, I know it. It's all fun and good stuff, I just have to prioritize. Last weekend sailing was a priority.

It's crazy how, doing Euclid again, I see triangles and angles in everything. I'm pretty sure there's a proof for the Pythagorean theorem somewhere in these sails.

So...I'm really good at choosing recipes, and Zeb's really good at cooking the recipes I choose, I'll share some of those soon. But this is it for the moment.