Random Puppy Love

In honor of the fact I took Texie to the vet yesterday, here are a few random photos of my little fella.

“Mama, don’t take a picture of me now, I have bedhead!”

“It’s ok ma, you don’t need to give me a bath, I’ll just clean myself like Aunt Autumn, with my tongue”

“It’s only root beer, I won’t get drunk!”

“I’m not drunk Ma, I’m just wanna lay down right here for a minute.”

“I’m just gonna smell these dandelions, I’m not gonna eat them I promise.”

“THIS BONE IS AWESOME!”

<3 Frank

CSA Loot

Last night, I picked up our CSA share on the way home from work. I was so excited to bring home our loot. Here’s what we got:

We got, arugula, collard greens, bok choy, broccoli rabe, red leaf romaine lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, radishes, Tuscan Kale, and Red Russian Kale. Also some thyme and some basil.

Immediately after I arrived home, I started washing the arugula (my favorite), red leaf romaine, and radishes. I cut up the arugula and the lettuce and put it in a big salad bowl. Then I sliced four radishes as thinly as possible and added those. I let some organic goat cheese come to room temperature, then used a spoon to scoop small clumps into the salad. I quickly toasted some pine nuts and then added those as well as some pickled beets. I whipped up a quick dressing of fresh lemons juice, white balsamic vinegar, oil,  some dried oregano,  dried marjoram, salt and pepper. Let me tell you this salad was so delicious. I wish I had leftovers! Unfortunately, my mom and I devoured the entire thing, while marveling in between mouthfuls, “This is perfect,” “Amazing,” “I wouldn’t change a thing.”

Salad pre-dressing and pre-beets

 Amazing salad. But now what do I do with the rest of the CSA loot? How should I cook the collard greens, or the various types of kale. That will be the real challenge. Recipe suggestions are welcome, as I’ll be doing that tonight! Also, what have you cooked from a CSA share?

Frankly, Me

Cassie’s Graduation and a Navy Base Trip

This weekend, we went to my sister’s graduation. (Congratulations Cassa!) We had a really nice time, and ate a ton of food!

Saturday, the day after she graduated, we all took a trip to Annapolis to the Naval Academy. If you haven’t been, I highly recommend it. We didn’t get to spend as much time touring the actual town as I would’ve liked because Erik, Cassie and I did a little too much celebrating on Friday night, and the whole family got to a late start.  We did, however, tour the actual Navy Academy. A young at heart, woman gave us the tour- she was super fast, but her knowledge of history was a bit lacking. My dad impressed us all by knowing about 10x as much as she did. She claimed my dad was one of only 2 people to respond correctly to her question about John Paul Jones (his monumental grave- shrine is beneath the chapel on the base). He also answered most of the questions the other tourers had about history. He’s pretty smart.

My smarty pants dad, and me in the new dress

Anyhoot, I was really excited to wear my new  (Urban Outfitters) dress that day. I loved it so much when I tried it on at the store, but then I saw it in pictures and now I’m not sure how I feel about it. What do you think? I styled it with a purple belt from Anthropologie, a striped straw hat from Forever21, old Aldo sandals, some bangles from Francesca’s,and a turquoise necklace from forever ago Macy’s.

Cass and I

So what do you think? Is the dress cute? How would you wear it?

Frankly, Me

P.S. The dress in the photo of my sister and I from her graduation is vintage from my nonna’s basement. Pretty right? I really enjoy wearing it, except when I had to walk sideways into my seat at the actual graduation, and I heard a ripping sound, and realized, I may have expanded the slit in the back just a little.

Adult Art Camp

About a month ago, I had a near breakdown about all the things (mostly crafty) I want to do and how I won’t have nearly enough time or money to do all of them. I was literally sitting in Jon’s room, hysterically crying about not being able to accomplish all the things I want to accomplish. And can you guess how Jon reacted? He started laughing at me, and while now I can see how utterly ridiculous I was being, at the time his laughing enraged me further. Well after laughing, he calmed me down, and he said, “Frank Sauce, you’re 24. Just do it. Let’s find you a class to take.” And just like that, he was on the internet looking up a craft center he’d learned of by word of mouth, and he found me a class to take. I was to stay the whole weekend at this craft center Peter’s Valley, eat the food, sleep in dorm, and learn some fine metal jewelery making skills.

Old structure in Craft Center

Leading up to the class which was 2 weeks later, I was really nervous. What if no one liked me? What if I couldn’t do it? What if everyone else knew what they were doing already? What if the teacher was mean? What if I had no one to talk to all weekend? What if they didn’t have enough pescaterian options at the dining hall? What if the food was nasty? Frankly, like I couldn’t survive one weekend eating nothing but granola bars and skittles? Again looking back, I was being ridiculous, which is nothing new for me.

So I arrive, and I’m more nervous than I’d been in the weeks leading up to this weekend. I was the first one there so I introduce myself to the teacher and the guy in charge of the studio. I then proceed to sit in a chair, make small talk until other people come in. Turns out, I only had 3 other classmates; a woman who’d never taken an art class before, and a couple who had very little crafting experience as well. Relief washed over me, I got some confidence back and actually felt pretty good.

Sawing Results

The actual process of metalworking we learned is pretty simple, design, cut (with a saw… yep they let me use a saw), solder together (yep I used a torch too but that’s old news), grind edges down, polish, change color of metal with smelly sulfur stuff, polish some more, and you’re done. The hardest and most important part is the designing. I didn’t really like my design towards the end. It was mediocre at best, but it was a learning experience, and now that I learned what to do, I think I could make some cool stuff. The most boring/annoying part is the grinding. I may have burned my finger using the grinder WHOOPS. Also sanding with sand paper sucks too.

soldering

Overall, the weekend turned out to be pretty awesome. I made 2 pretty decent things (a ring and a pendant), I’m saying so myself. I met some nice people. I learned how to solder (AWESOME!). I also gained some more insight into who I am and who I might want to be. While I’m not sure that metal working is my cup of tea (mostly because it’s a very expensive cup of tea), I did enjoy it and am considering taking another class towards the end of the summer, but I know there are other crafts I want to explore too; pottery and print making topping the list at the moment. And now that I got over my fears, nerves, and doubts to take this class, I should have no problem getting over them again to take a similar or totally different class.

My classmate who'd never crafted before she made this. Pure Awesomeness.

Have you ever done something you were nervous to do, only to realize you were really silly to even be a little concerned? Isn’t it funny, terrible, how nerves and fears can hold a person back?

Frankly, Me