Antique Turtles, Owls and Kitchen Paint

It's been awhile! Hopefully, everyone is enjoying this enormous heat wave that's plaguing the country. We finally had some rain here, about five minutes worth before it got all hot and humid again. It's making me incredibly lazy.

Today, I did muster the energy to go to the antique store, thanks to Andrew for encouraging me. I've never antiqued alone. But, I managed to spend money so I figure I did alright.

I saw this owl necklace a while back and loved it but talked myself out of it. I found it again and just had to snag this adorable little guy up. He was $18. I am not sure how antique this necklace is, but it definitely has a vintage feel, plus, it's an owl! With green body parts! It's full of win.

I also happened across this little/big turtle guy. He was only $5 so I had to take him home with me. It also has a vintage feel to it, almost a costume jewelery look and really nice details around it's body. And it's little feet, tail and head swivel around. 

I had to get something practical, so I bought the gallon brown glass for $6. Eventually I will rip off the plastic loop around the lid (but that will require sharp tools). Then I got the green juice/water glass for $9. Pretty sweet, right? They will both hang around our shelves and at some point or another be filled with flowers.

So, I haven't been completely lazy around here. I have started in on the kitchen. It's the last room on the bottom floor that needs painting and our own personal touches. 

We went from lemon meringue to Carrot Stick (Behr). I really like it, Andrew isn't crazy about it so far. But he hasn't seen it in person yet. Obviously, those curtains will be burned...

I know I've said before that I'm picky about curtains. But finding good kitchen curtains is harder than finding curtains for any other room in the house. I'm limited to lace, plaid and cutesy kitchen things. Not exactly what I was going for. I might have to learn how to make my own.

Anyway, work on the kitchen is slow going. I can only paint in the morning before it gets too hot so it might be awhile before there are finished kitchen pictures. 

WIAW: Running Low on Veggies

Mid-Week! More food! What could be better? This past few weeks I've been making some delicious meals. I don't think there's been one thing I've made that I haven't devoured. Ok, maybe I'm bragging a bit. But, it's really hard to mess up fresh vegetables, they're just SO good.



 

Breakfast: Oatmeal with golden raisins and pine nuts. Do you guys like pine nuts? They're like crack to me, and expensive, but so worth it. They have a wonderful piny taste to them.

Lunch: Whole wheat pita stuffed with pinto beans, onion, spinach and a Greek yogurt, horseradish sauce. Green beans, apricots and blueberries on the side.

Snack: Pita chips, hummus, carrots, mushrooms, cherries and Gouda.

First off, I'm not sure there's a better combination then Sabra hummus and Stacy's pita chips. I think the grocery store knows this too because their sales always go together. This week it was 2 for $6 on the hummus and buy one get one free on the pita chips. Score!! And raw carrot in hummus is very, very good.

Are you wondering what I did with those fiddlehead ferns? Well, I sauted them with olive oil and garlic and a bunch of swiss chard. Then added a few of our Chipotle Cheddar Cheese curds. I really liked them, the best way to describe the flavor is... green. They tasted fresh.

Dinner: Pasta tossed with swiss chard, fiddleheads, curds and stuffed eggplant(onion, spinach, zucchini).

Overall, another great week of food. Farmers' markets on Saturday again because my veggies are running low, hopefully I can find something new to try. If not, well, I'm definitely buying more swiss chard. I love that stuff!

Back to Texas: Japanese Tea Garden

More Texas!!! It already seems like it's been forever since I've seen Andrew in Texas, but it's just barely been a month. Only a few months left.

We managed to get a really good tour of San Antonio this time. Last time we were there together Andrew had just graduated BMT. Our exploring was limited by the heat and Andrew's requirement to wear dress blues everywhere. In the 100 degree heat, who wants to worry about walking around with blousings? So, we took it pretty easy.

This time, we saw all the things we didn't know about or have time for. Like the Japanese Tea Gardens at Brackenridge Park. This is a free attraction, and I like free.

I have no idea why the entrance sign says "Chinese Tea Gardens" there was a brown historical sign but I didn't read it. I blame the heat. It made me just want to walk around without reading signs. 

 The stonework was pretty cool, the park charges for professional photography sessions. And I can see why, it could make for some very dramatic portraits.

I was really there to take pictures of the coy...and the few random turtles.

Oh...and the ducks. So cute!

The flowers were great too, but I just wanted to walk around and enjoy them.

It was really hot at the bottom, and humid. So we only spent about 40 minutes here, but it was a lot of fun and I'm glad we saw it this time.