FARM FRESH

Our good friend, Justin, has been living in Europe for the past two years and just arrived in Texas for a short visit.  His family recently moved from the suburbs of Dallas/Ft Worth to an amazing farm in a nearby town.  His wonderful mother sent him with a dozen farm fresh eggs for us.

I do believe these are some of the best eggs I have ever consumed.  I really hope we can have chickens someday.  But for now...a veggie garden will suffice.

INSTAGRAM WEEKDAY WRAP-UP

It has been a crazy couple of weeks!  Here's a little summary...

Embroidery / thrifting  /  tiny surprises  /  baby cucumbers  /  crazy Texas storms  /  work  /  more embroidery  /  lounging pups  /  nail-polish funtimes  /  DYI pop-up cards / wine + Morris cat mugs  /  handmade tamales  /  pooch passengers  /  cat butts  /  homegrown squash  /  more embroidery  /  coffee shop work days  /  dinner made by friends  /  spiders (ugh)  /  and super cheap beers.

It's summer, y'all!  Let's party!

P.S. You can find me on Instagram under the username KendallKendall.

GARDEN BABIES

Our garden is barely a month old and we already have our first edible babies!

We had this little yellow squash last night for dinner and it was amazing.  I've never been a huge squash fan, but it was darn good!

Our cucumber is a little guy.  I was afraid that I plucked it too soon, but it is delicious and the seeds are the perfect size!  I hope all the cucumbers end up this small.  It's the perfect amount for two people.

I am over-the-moon excited about having my own garden and can't wait to have a wide selection of fresh veggies daily.

I've been investing much more time and energy into researching where our food is coming from and how it was grown/raised/manufactured.  I have been more and more grossed out with processed foods and the lack of information included on labels.  Having our own garden is a small step to ensure we're consuming fresh yummies and I hope everyone starts (or continues to grow) their own garden.

INSTAGRAM WEEKDAY WRAP-UP

1 :  Joey and I had the best time in Dallas last weekend.  Record Store Day was tons-o-fun.
2 :  I hard boiled some yummy eggs.  Which in return gave me food poisoning.  Jerks.
3 :  We stayed at a fancy-pants hotel.  Shoe mittens included!
4 :  I got a little too excited about the shoe mittens and ended up with an adult headache (hangover).  BC Powder is disgusting, but the fastest headache cure ever.
5 :  Just a reminder - Gonzo is a pretty baby.
6 :  Bun-bun is currently nesting under our house.  She usually hangs out in the front yard in the mornings.  I can't wait for the baby buns to arrive!
7 :  Damien Jurado makes me happy.  I suggest you grab yourself some of his tunes if you don't already have some.
8 :  The weather is so nice right now.  Gonzo like to camp out in front of the door until playtime.

Did you have a good week?  Circle yes or no.

OH, HAI!

I see you there, little squash!  These are our first little veggie sprouts.  They're about the size of my pointer finger, but I love them nonetheless.  As I'm sure you have noticed, I'm simi-obsessed with our garden.  I check on it about 10 times a day to see if anything new is growing and to make sure the critters and bugs are staying out.  Joey thinks I'm a crazy person.

Also, I randomly found a blackberry tree the other day.  Minding it's business, growing blackberries.  Nature is pretty sweet.

AND...a group of deer surprised me at work the other day!  There were three of them roaming around looking for snacks.  I could only get a few sniper-style shots from my desk because I didn't want to scare them.

I want to name them, knit them little sweaters, and give them lots of treats.  P.S. I am also running a mild fever, which might explain my delusions...

GREEN THUMBING

This is my very first garden.  My mom has one of the greenest thumbs ever, however I'm fairly certain that it skipped a generation.  I plant things.  And then they die.

But this time...things will be different.  I've been nursing a few little seedlings over the past few weeks and my mom surprised me with a handful of veggie plants to fill out my garden.

We planted tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, carrots, peppers, jalapeños, broccoli, and various spices.  I'm pretty stoked.

The garden has been in existence for approximately 36 hours and the plants are already starting to hug their surroundings.  The little spiral arms are definitely my fav.  Tiny green darlings.

Now alls I have to do is keep the bunnies, deer, birds, bugs, and miscellaneous critters out of the beds so they can grow.  Sounds easy enough, right?

Wish me luck!

TOUCH WITH YOUR EYES

We stopped by the Brookshire's Wildlife Museum & Country Store this weekend.  The museum is essentially a super creepy (and amazing) taxidermy museum with an old-timey country store at the end.  Random?  Yes.  But most of the animals were donated by Mr. & Mrs. Brookshire, who were the founders of Brookshire's Food & Pharmacy (a big ol' grocery store chain).  They were definitely meat lovers!

I don't think I will ever understand the sport of killing animals for leisure, but at least they were world travelers?

All of the animals were placed in diorama-esque habitats...with the exception of the monkeys.  They were playing Monopoly.  And wearing island attire.

The museum is tiny and a little old lady kept announcing over the loudspeaker, "Attention wildlife guests, please remember to only touch with your eyes and not your hands."  Crazy ol' lady!

My fav part was definitely the country store.  I wish this is what grocery stores still looked like.

You should definitely stop by the museum if you ever find yourself in Tyler, TX.  It's free!

35DENTON

It's 35 Denton weekend.  Hooray!

I won a four-day wristband for my pancakes that I submitted for the "Instagram 35" contest.  Pretty cute, right?

Ta-ta till Monday!  If you need me, you can find me boogin' around Little D.  In the rain.

SUSHI SUNDAY

My mom has been teaching herself how to roll sushi and decided to have a little DIY Sushi Sunday party.

The actual rolling process was easier than I thought it would be.  Gotta have a super duper sharp knife.  That is key.

Mini was there for moral support.

I think we did a dang good job.  I made the one on the right with the sesame seeds.  Everything was super yum.

Sushi always tastes better when it's delivered to the table on a boat.  Just fyi.

SWEET MOSS, DUDE

The 'rents got us a juicer for Christmas and we've been experimenting with veggie juices.  So far, they taste like pureed lettuce.  Sounds super gross right?  Well...it totally is.  

I've been choking them down shot-glass style because I can't bear to waste fresh produce.  If anyone has any good recipes (or even simi-decent) please pass them along.

On a completely random note, I found a pretty moss-covered log in the woods.  That is all.

GIMME A BREAK DUDE, IT'S CHRISTMAS

I spent my very first Christmas in Texas this year.  I have lived here since 3rd grade but we usually traveled to Kansas City to celebrate with my extended family.  Things were certainly different, but it was by far one of the best Christmases ever.

Cookies were baked...

Seasonal decorations were plentiful...

Animals were loved and photographed non-stop...

I spy with my little eye...myself...inside Neely's pupil...

I received way too many gifts that were all amazingly wonderful, thoughtful, useful, and love-filled...but I might love my new camera lens and filters the most.  Can't you tell?

Chalkboard holiday drawing by Joey.  Truth.

DISHZILLA

I'm pretty proud of our clean dish tower that has been accumulating since mid-day yesterday.  Please note the stregicly placed green cutting board on the right.  It has created a nice wall for the plates and coffee mugs to rest on.  (*golf claps*)

We do not have a dishwasher (if you listen closely, you can hear my sister's mouth drop open in disgust) but I enjoy doing the dishes.  It's therapeutic.  We also don't have a washer/dryer or central air/heat.  But I would trade those things any day for the screened-in porch that you can see in the background.  It's perfect for romantic dinner eatin', domino playin' and armadillo watchin'.    

COOKIN'S AND BOOKIN'S

Since moving to the country, we have been preparing all of our meals at home.  And by "we have", I mean "Joey has".  I can clean some serious dishes though.    

It only took one week of living out here to realize how much we ate at restaurants (or not at all).  I have always been a coffee-for-breakfast kind of gal, but I'm starting to realize the benefits of eating a meal before 2:00pm.

We're looking forward to finding some local produce vendors and farmers markets, but until then we're trying to eat as fresh as we can.  Our meals are typically pretty colorful.  That down there is homemade salsa, homefried tostadas (don't hate), tons of fresh veggies, and some lean, ground turkey.  We don't eat no hooves around these parts.

We found this killer book when we were unpacking that my mom gave me about 3 years ago called "The Doctors Book of Food Remedies".

I have spent the past few days finding remedies for what might ail me.  Neck pain?  Need to consume more dark green and dark orange fruits and veggies.  Preventative tooth health?  More tea.  Hangovers?  Nothing special.  Just water and time.  Damn.  Anywhos...it's totally worth leafing through.  P.S. Vitamin C prevents everything.