it’s the little things | indulgence.

As I am currently indulging in a 12 day vacation is lovely Colorado, I thought it’d be appropriate to share the little indulgences I’ve taken part in over the past week or so that have brought me joy. As usual, linking up with Lindsay over at Hello Hue for the “It’s the Little Things” link up party!

1 | surprises. Dan is the best. While I was in Maryland, he texted me to say he got me a gift. Just like that, for no real reason, out of the blue! Needless to say I was super excited. The box came one day, but he wanted me to wait to open it until he got home…so I had to wait ALLLLLLL DAY….which felt like forever. When he got home & I opened the box, I could not believe what was inside…

<3

It was the camera bag I’ve been lusting after for years–the Livy Coral bag by Cheeky Lime! I’ve been wanting a bag big enough to carry around my camera and other stuff as well, without damaging my camera. In my regular purses, the lens cap often falls off, and I’m always scared that I will scratch my lenses. This bag is awesome and has resizable compartments for everything both photography-related and not!

love the cute bird interior–totally my style!

I was so amazed that he not only remembered the brand, but which exact bag I wanted. He asked me casually once while I was looking at their site, and then apparently he went & wrote it down right away so he wouldn’t forget–MONTHS ago. So sweet!

2 | baxter. I love my cat. I know you know this already. And yes, we are those weird people who take our cat out on a leash & harness. Whatever, man! Indoor kitties need fresh air & supervised adventure too! :) We took Baxter out to Wethersfield Cove, where he went into what we call “Adventure Cat Mode,” and explored all over. It was very hot out though, and he actually started panting–it was pretty hilarious because we’d never seen him do that before, and also it looked like he was smiling when he did! Don’t worry, though–we’re not THAT cruel. We gave him water, too. :)

…normal baxter…

…and baxter panting!! haha. he looks like he is roaring like a lion. :)

3 | pinkberry. Can you believe I’d never had pinkberry until this past week? I got the strawberry flavor with fresh strawberries and kiwi…sooooo good! It was a nice indulgence on a hot day. :)

4 | garden-fresh goodies. Dan’s aunt & uncle grow a lot of their own food, and we were fortunate enough to get some of their broccoli & red bell peppers from their garden! We used them to make a delicious, fresh stir fry.

Also, I went out into the garden the other day to find that some of my tomatoes were ready to be harvested! I was SO excited! :)

So I went ahead and picked them, along with fresh basil from my garden as well…

…and I made a nice fresh bruschetta from the ingredients! It was so tasty and refreshing. And of course it felt great to have a meal from things I grew myself! :)

So fresh…so tasty! :)

I hope everyone has found some time to enjoy the little things this week!

gardening | an explosion of growth!

I know I already said it, but this humidity is BRUTAL.  Oy vey.  I went for a run today and I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it back home!  Hopefully it rains soon so we can get some relief.

The good thing about all this sunshine is that my garden is EXPLODING.  In the best way possible, of course. :)  I’ve got to say, it’s a pretty incredible feeling to start something from a tiny little seed, and watch it grow into something huge…and even better, something that you can eat!

My basil plants have a had quite a journey:

…the life of my basil.

To me, the most amazing plant I grew from seed is the garlic.  I saw online that you could grow new garlic from the garlic you buy in the grocery store.  I was skeptical, so I only planted four.  Turns out it is SO easy to grow garlic.  Apparently I’m growing it out of season, which means I will have small bulbs, but I am okay with that.  It’s really amazing how huge the garlic has gotten–I had no idea what a garlic plant even looked like before this.

now THAT is some major growth.

Huge, right?!  I bought my jalepeno plant, so that started off well.  It’s gotten much bigger, and is starting to get flowers–which means peppers will be coming soon, hopefully!  I’m looking forward to making some delicious fresh spicy foods. :)

My mint is a funny story.  Dan’s stepmom Victoria gave me a small piece of her mint plant last fall.  I put it in the garden, and then never touched it again.  It sat there all winter, uncovered, unprotected, and not cared for at all.  Completely forgotten.  So imagine my surprise when I walked outside in the spring to plan out my garden, only to find tiny mint plants sprouting!  I moved it into a bigger pot, and it is thriving.  So if you’re looking for an easy-to-grow plant, apparently mint is super resilient. :)

Yes, yes…this will make excellent mojitos. :)

Rosemary took quite a while to sprout.  So long, that I started a few more plants.  I do love rosemary though, so I’m hoping the growth will take off when I transplant it to a bigger pot outside!  I’m hoping to get that done sometime this week so that it can grow a little faster.

rosemary is pretty cute. :)

I have plenty of other stuff growing that I didn’t manage to get very good pictures of.  My lavender is slow to grow, just like the rosemary–but I started a few more seedlings of that as well, and I plan on transplanting the existing plants outside this week too.  My chives continue to grow, and grow, and grow…I’ve got to harvest some more and give them away because I’m basically drowning in chives!

One of my celery plants pulled a Jesus-style move–I planted it in the pot.  I waited and waited…and waited.  When nothing sprouted, I dug into the pot and the celery is…gone.  Completely.  Like it was never even there!!  It’s so bizarre.  I keep thinking that maybe some animals managed to eat it…but there was no hole in the surface.  Maybe bugs?  Or maybe it just rotted under the surface?  Who knows. The other plant is sprouting, but seems to be having a lot of trouble.  I think something might be picking at it.  Not sure that it will make it, but I’ll keep hoping!

poor little guy.

The cilantro is growing just fine–but the plants keep getting tangled in one another, so I have to be careful when I’m trying to detangle them.  They do look mighty fine, though!

My tomato plants seem to have grown a foot in the past week.  It’s pretty overwhelming.  I’ve never grown tomatoes before, so I have no idea what to expect…I’m faking it ’til I make it, here. :)

Dan’s stepmom gave me a few new plants that I’m excited for as well.  One is Lemon Verbena.  I guess you can boil it in water to make tea. It smells FANTASTIC, so I’m very much looking forward to seeing how it progresses.

She also gave me some fennel.  I need to repot it ASAP because it is HUGE!  I’m not really sure what I can use fennel for, but I’ll figure something out.  In this picture it’s a bit droopy because it had just been transplanted from her garden into a pot.

Finally, she also gave me some thyme and lemon thyme.  I didn’t snap good pictures of those guys, so I’ll share those later.

It’s so hard to believe that I have THAT many plants growing here at home.  All of them are in containers, and in a tiny little garden at our condo.  One thing I have learned is that when it comes to gardening, you’ve just got to give it a shot.  I think a lot of people, especially apartment owners, are nervous about the idea of growing herbs and veggies at home.  Based on the research I’ve done online, many plants actually thrive in containers.  And from my experience, you can get some pretty good stuff without having to do much maintenance.  Even if it’s just herbs, it is such a great feeling to raise something from seed to harvest.  I’d encourage anyone to give it a shot–there are many resilient plants out there that will forgive you when you mess up.  I have found it’s a fun, worthwhile endeavor to grow some of your own food.  I can’t wait to have a house someday so that I can have a legitimate garden!  In the meantime, I’ll continue to experiment and learn a whole lot along the way.

nature magic | garden & rainbows!

I don’t have too much to share, but I’m excited about my garden’s progress and a giant, full double rainbow that I saw this afternoon!

the second rainbow isn't as bold, but still--pretty neat.

the whole thing! by the time I took this, the second rainbow faded away.

As for the garden…my basil is continuing to grow like a boss.  Cilantro has not only joined the party, but he basically kicked in the door when he arrived.  I swear it sprouted an inch overnight.  Lavender is coming in slow & steady.  Rosemary is being a bit of a prude and refuses to show her face, but once she sees everyone else’s facebook status updates about what a good time everyone is having, she’ll get dressed, throw some makeup on, and then come on out to be part of the action.  I just know it.

not a great picture, but I had my 50mm lens on and was too lazy to change it. :)

As for the outdoors, my tomato plants got their first flowers.

tomatoes!

the first flower! :)

The celery has yet to do anything…but the garlic plants finally sprouted! :)

look at that sprout! it's small, but it hold a whole lot of my hope inside of it.

Jalepeno is growing slowly, but the mint is on FIRE.  I’m amazed at how fast new sprigs pop up!

go mint, go!

And…two random flowers from a plant in my garden that I have not identified. :)

Yay for nature!

weekend | vacation comes to an end.

Alas, as they say…all good things must come to an end.  Back to work tomorrow.  The next few weeks are going to be very hectic–I have my thesis defense, two final papers to write, a final to take, and then I have to get the final version of my thesis done, get it professionally bound, and submit copies to the university library.

Luckily, this weekend was really nice.  On Friday Dan & I spent some time at Mohegan with friends, which is always a good time, especially when balloon hats are involved.  Not to mention I left with more money in my pockets….a whole $6.80! :)  Better than nothing!  Gambling a little is fun, but a wise man named Kenny Rogers once told me, “you gotta know when to fold ’em.”  Preach it, brother.

Saturday was a great day on three counts:

1: My basil is sprouting!  After only 3 days!  Which is exciting.  I’ve grown basil before so I know it’s usually pretty excited to grow and be eaten by me.  I also found one tiny lavender sprout this morning…now I’m waiting for cilantro & rosemary to hop on board and soon they’ll be planted outside.

hi there, basil! you're gonna be delicious when you grow up!

2: My cat is a cutie and posed for these pictures.  Usually he’s crafty and either runs away or makes weird faces, but I managed to snap a few cute ones Saturday morning.  His eyes are usually a really bright blue (he’s a cream point siamese), but when it’s dark out he gets what I fondly refer to as his “cocaine eyes.”  I’ve never seen anyone on cocaine (nor to I desire to), but I image this is what it looks like.

cocaine eye cat!

…at least this one captured his nice eyes. :)

awww. and yes, those are my bright teal fuzzy pajama pants.

3: I went thrift store shopping!  I only do this once in a great while because otherwise, I’d go broke.  Yes, go broke in a thrift store.  That is how much I love it.  I found a cute striped cardigan, 3 great pairs of shorts, a headscarf, and 3 dresses.  When I saw two of the dresses, I head my mother’s voice in my head saying, “These are great for teaching!” Haha.  I wasn’t sure about the third dress, because someone ripped the lining out–but I can wear a slip underneath and it should work.  Plus, it’s pretty cute!

head scarf! :)

I also found some other random fun stuff, like a cute small hand painted vase and an old bottle with a neat label!  I promise I’m not a hoarder, but I couldn’t resist these two.

It's hard to see in this picture, but it's a nice deep green color.

I’m probably the most excited about some of the fabrics I found.  I love looking in the “linens” section to see if there is anything I can use for a new sewing project.

The blue one was a shower curtain, and the floral pattern ones were short curtains.  I plan on using both to make purses since they are very sturdy fabric and are already lined.

I love this bold pattern.

pretty floral pattern!

I’m really psyched about this last fabric–first, it is mustard yellow. Yay!  I’m pretty sure I want to make it into a skirt.  I think it’d be cute, plus I love that color as a skirt.  It’s a lot of fabric, so if I have leftovers, I may try to make a cardigan or something.

mmm...mustardy.

And finally, I found this skirt.  It fits perfectly, but it goes down to my ankles…and I’m way too short to pull of the long skirt look…or maxi dresses.  Which makes me sad, but, y’know.  You do the best with what you have, and my 5 feet and 6 inches works for me most of the time! :)  SO, I am going to hem this skirt to update it.  I’ll be sure to post pictures of the before and after once I get around to it.

...to be continued, skirt!

So that was basically my weekend!  Last night we made some delicious lentil soup and salmon–brought to us by the queen of cooking, Ina Garten. :)  Tonight we’re trying a spicy pulled chicken in the crockpot…which reminds me that I’d better get to the grocery store if we want to eat this tonight!  I’ll leave y’all with a picture of a pretty house & pretty trees we saw on our afternoon walk yesterday.  We are lucky to live in such a pretty area!

vacation | new projects.

One of the advantages to being a teacher? Vacation time.  It bothers me when people assume teachers have it easy, but I can only agree when people say that vacations are the best part of being a teacher.  In my mind, it makes up for the countless afternoons and evenings I spend at the high school for extra rehearsals, parent nights, performances, and on and on.  That said, most vacations I’m either traveling to go visit family, or taking the high school kids on a trip.  But this vacation?  This sweet, lovely, warm, sunny April vacation?  I’m staying home…and it. is. DIVINE.

I started up the garden yesterday and today.  Last year, I tried growing things on my own for the first time.  Just herbs, but it was fun!  This year, I’m trying some different stuff, and I’m excited.  I was going to try to put some stuff in the ground instead of just using containers this year, but the only area where there is room to put stuff in the ground gets no direct sunlight…so containers it is! :)

Here’s the list:

• Tomatoes (Better Boy variety)
• Garlic (…out of season, which will mean small bulbs but that’s okay with me!)
• Celery (got the idea from this pinterest link!)
• Chives (which returned from last year)
• Basil
• Rosemary
• Cilantro
• Lavender

I think I’m most excited for the lavender.  I love the smell, and I’d also like to try doing some baking with it.  I’ve found some neat recipes online.  Here’s a picture of my container garden…

Obviously, lots more growth to come.  My herbs are sprouting as we speak (er…as I type?), so those will go into pots in the next week or two.

I’ve also been enjoying having the time to tackle a few cooking endeavors…which I’ll post about later.  In the meantime, I have a homemade loaf of bread with roasted garlic and chives (from the garden!) waiting for me in the kitchen. :)