Monday, August 17, 2009

Chicago Farmer's Market

These are some pictures I took during my recent trip to Chicago with my Mom and my aunt. We stayed in the Rosemont area and would take the blue line into Chicago usually getting off around Jackson give or take a stop or two. We came across this farmer's market as we were wandering around getting our bearings. It seems to be one of many around Chicago during the season.
Fresh Peaches
I love the color in this one. Don't you just want a bite?
Sunflowers
So happy looking.
Handfuls of Beauty
Some lovely flowers. As much as I enjoyed Chicago, it is so nice to see these bits of nature as you wander through the canyons of glass and steel and stone.
Beets
Last, but not least, beets. I love fresh beets. Boil to doneness, slip the skin off, roughly slice and garnish with butter and a little salt. If I had a way to cook these in my room, one of these lovely bunches would have been mine.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Back Home

I have been gone on a trip to Chicago and to Amish country in northern Indiana and only just got home today. It is so good to see my husband and children and my very own bed which is, unfortunately, covered with a partially unpacked suitcase and no clear idea of just where I want to put things. This is the problem with leaving on a trip shortly after moving into a new house where improvements are still being made and so you don't have the organizational system worked out yet, because you don't have full access to all rooms yet.
Nevertheless, I will be sleeping in that bed tonight even if I have to just set some things on the floor. I organize better after a good night's sleep anyway.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Colander of Fruit

Bowl of Fruit
I have never liked the color of this colander, but when I was rinsing this particular combination of fruits it turned out to be a wonderful color after all. IMHO.

Not-So-Plain Brown Wrapper

I finished reading a book just a couple of days before I was going to be going on a trip and I didn't want to start one of the books that have already been packed to take with me, but I did want to read something that I could finish before I left. So I looked for a skinny book in my bedside stack and found one that I was too embarrassed to have my co-workers see the cover of. You know the kind. They have titles about the billionaire and his virgin secretary and their love child. So bad and yet so good, like that secret stash of Hershey's miniatures you put in the back of highest shelf so your family won't eat them all.
Anyway, I grabbed a lunch bag and a scrap of some striped contact paper on my way out the door to work. Using the same technique I had used in high school to cover textbooks, I made a cover for this book out of the paper lunch bag. Of course, a plain brown wrapper is like a beacon saying "look, there is something of an embarrassing nature under here," so I cut strips from the contact paper and then applied them in a woven pattern to the cover to make it look more like a craft project and less like an attempt to protect my co-workers eyes.
Not-So-Plain Brown Wrapper
I like it.