Homemade dinners and farmers markets

This was dinner from Saturday night. Amazingly put together, and I even helped! At the top left of the plate is the fresh cold salad we've named Citrus Tuber Salad: turnips and beets from the South of the James farmers market, backyard garden cucumbers and parsley, some orange, honey, olive oil, lime juice, pepper, salt, olive juice, and pine nuts (a last-minute addition that turned out to be perfect).

Here's a close up:

The beets made everything pink

The main dish was a combination of homemade pasta, grilled and marinated chicken, mixed cooked fresh veggies, fennel (the bottom left there, didn't turn out that great).

The food was all complimented so nicely by an acidic Spanish white and then a bottle of sparkling. I can't believe I ate as much as I did, since I ate so much by nibbling while we were cooking.

This is an edited-color photo of a flower I discovered in North Carolina. The flower is a purple-pink, but my crappy camera didn't do it justice, so I edited the tint. It was so so fragrant and soft. I was afraid it didn't grow here but turns out, it's everywhere! I picked these from the tree in the Ellwoods parking lot!

This was dinner from the other weekend: a salad with all kinds of greens from Victory Farms and other yummy veggies from Ellwoods, and my corn salad (corn, red pepper, feta, lime juice, pepper, olive oil)


It was my first time at the South of the James Farmer's Market this weekend. It is arguably the best/most popular one in town. I was feeling a bit car-sick and ill from the heat, and needed sustenance, so I had my first-ever Nate's Taco Truck Taco. I know, it's sacrilegious I've lived in RVA as long as I have without one of their tacos. Well for $3, my chicken taco got eaten in about 3 seconds. I would have liked a little more lettuce, but I always want more lettuce on everything. I went back for seconds after getting my iced coffee from Blanchard's Coffee, but they had gone on a break because of the heat. I was SO mad. So instead I wandered in search of more food, and felt like I might pass out if I didn't eat something. I found a table of someone selling homemade pastries and fresh cold salads and had the most amazing bow-tie pesto pasta salad with fresh fresh cherry red and yellow tomatoes, carrots, and beans. God it hit the spot.

The produce from Victory Farms was amazing and delicious looking and SO MUCH CHEAPER than Kroger. Why am I not buying all my produce here? I may have to start. I'm being turned into a hippie, I swear. Lots of people were selling really scrumptious looking blackberries, but I am holding out for picking access to a backyard bush I know. Oh, and I also had yellow watermelon for the first time. Weirdly, tastes just like regular watermelon. 

While there, I also ran into several familiar faces. Wouldn't be Richmond without it.

Music tonight with a cup of Illy coffee--The I-Am-An-RVA-Hipster-Mix:
Untitled 4: Sigur Ros
Hang Me Up To Dry: Cold War Kids (fun band name)
Idioteque: Radiohead
1901: Phoenix (my new favorite band)
I Turn My Camera On: Spoon

because

I love this picture so much. I've been sitting on it, waiting for the perfect occasion to use it, but have not come across one yet, so here you go. (From pretty.little.world)

Now that's a party I'd like to be at

I want to hang out with all the beautiful, unique, and well-dressed people in this post. Scroll down on that link to really see the folks at the party.

ani

I read a lot of fashion bloggers, but one I've been reading for a long time is The Clothes Horse. She often posts little animated GIFs of her doing things and I think they are quite charming. Click on over to her site to see the one above, which is a fave.

I just napped at my desk on my lunch break and actually started to dream. I would really like to go home and cuddle up with someone or something soft and warm, listen to the rain, and take a nap.

Want to go there

I wish these guys lived here so we could be friends. I want to live this life too. Or really, I want to visit whatever country they're in and live with them for awhile.

Sandra Juto has the most amazing photos.

Streetstyle blogs

I just posted a lot of new inspiration photos in my Winter Everyday People. Here a few teasers:

Deniz Baran

Found at Cafe Mode

Kendi Everyday

I'd wished I could have gotten an outfit photo of the student earlier in my office, but that probably would have seemed weird. She was dressed casually in jeans, but had an overall theme of sparkles. She had a embellished crystal beige top, with a glitter beige shrug over it. She had a fascinator with sparkly stones on it, and her thong sandals were crystallized too. She had 3 large crystal bangles on one arm, and another with thinner bangles. It was a lot of accessories, but it really worked on her. Oh, and she had red hair. I covet red hair, but I've never really seen it look good on someone who isn't naturally a red head, and I don't want purple hair. I think hers was dyed, but she was fair and freckly and it looked good on her. Sigh. Shear Genius (I never watch this show, but I caught it last night), had a Gorgeous natural redhead as a model for one of the challenges. She's here, click through to number 9. Other fav redheads of mine:

Rene Russo in The Thomas Crown Affair (also a fav movie)

This was from an Etsy site I think, but I love both the color, style, and the hair fascinator.

New Years was dark

My camera is so crappy and only takes acid-camera or dark/blurry shots. Attended a lovely party, were light sabers involved. Also, salsa dancing which I just don't do enough. As I type this, suddenly, there is a cat in my lap.



I did have a rockin outfit though, with my grandmother jewels.




This photo ended up looking like something from a scary movie. It was foggy on NYE, and these people are standing at the edge of an overlook over the city. I couldn't walk outside without breaking into the song The Fog. I sang it in 6th grade chorus. It's a canon, in minor key, and the lyrics are from a Carl Sandburg poem. I'm sure everyone else thought I was just strange. Disappointingly, I just looked all over the Internet and can't find an audio or video of it.

Fog
Carl Sandburg (1878-1967)

The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbour and city.
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

I've been off since before Christmas, and a lot of my holiday has been spent lazily, starting with mornings that look like this.

Fall in the city

These photos were taken by a blogger I enjoy reading, Rockstar Diaries. I think she's editing them to make them look more "vintagey" but I dig the coloring. These are from Capitol Hill in DC, but the city is similar enough to Richmond that it is like looking at my own neighborhood. Somehow she must have found a break in the Nor'easter that has been drowning the Eastern Seaboard all week. I have 2 new leaks in my apt, one which I just noticed has definitely gotten worse, and there is ugly staining from the water damage. GAR.


I love how the stairs are worn but someone still adorned them with teeny pumpkins on each step

FU, allergies.

I have the worstworst allergies today. I feel like I contstantly need to sneeze, there's pressure right behind my nose and eyes, and my eyes keep watering. I'm in my office and took my Zyrtec as per normal today. This is making me miserable. What gives, Universe?

Have some pretty pictures instead, mostly of food, since this is the time of morning when I get hungry again and crave sweets.

Don't those Oreos look luscious? I love Oreos. This is why I don't shop at Ellwood Thompson's. Give me my high fructose corn syrup and processed sugar!

Two of my favorite things: caake and glitter!

I love breakfast, so a cartoon about it? Even better.

Piles and piles of Gelato.

(photos from Daily Pep)

Through the eyes of a foreigner

It's funny how it can sometimes take a fresh set of eyes to appreciate something you see every day. A gorgeous fashion blogger from France, The Cherry Blossom Girl, takes great photos, and she was recently in the U.S. Her photos here from the West coast beaches, LA, and Vegas are stunning and make me proud of my country.

This one's my favorite from her recent batch:


(photo: The Cherry Blossom Girl)

Karaoke at Sticky Rice

The OMGWTFRVA crew was hell-bent on getting popular NBC 12 Anchor, Ryan Nobles, to come out to Sticky Rice's weekly karaoke for his birthday. After much Twitter talk, he did! Ryan brought the house down with House of Pain's "Jump Around."




MattonFire did a nice rendition of Bust A Move.

Curt Autry even showed, looking very dapper in his suit. Emmy-Award winning!

Headed for some confusion

Vote for my photo on Fail Blog. Click here!



BJ's included.

Nights in Slower Lower

These are pictures I took with my travel companion's DSLR. Oh, how it captures low lighting so well at night, which is what I so lack with my point and shoot, and are the kind of pictures I want to take 90% of the time.

Night Photog in RVA

Took photos with my new Holga Saturday night with the RVA photography meetup. It was a clever idea, meet up and walk/drive to specified points around town to take photos at night. Found a cool new lookout of downtown from the southside flood wall, and realized the platform at the James Monroe building is open to the public after hours and is a direct shot of Main Street Station. I had some donated b/w film, one of which had no exposure information on it, so I have no idea if any of it came out. I prefer color though. I turned it in to Richmond Camera today so we'll see how the negatives come out. Film is a bi*ch, let me tell you. We have all gotten so used to digital and instant gratification that film shooting was surprisingly unsatisfying, especially amongst 20 other folks with serious DSLR equipment and tripods.

I did get some cool acid-camera pics with my point-and-shoot digital

Warehouse/factory on Southside

A warehouse on the Southside

A shadow of a rusty structure at Rockett's Landing

Passenger bridge on the floodwall

A Manchester apt bldg