Posting shall resume very shortly, now that I’ve mostly recovered from the jet lag and can put two thoughts together. lol. Thank you all so much again; we have been so touched by all your comments.

[ bounty at the farmer's market. ]

Happy Monday, friends! I feel like I’ve been gone from the blogging world for ages, but it’s only been a few short days. lol. Even though we didn’t go anywhere terribly “vacation-like” last week while Sailor Husband was on leave, we had a great time: a couple trips to the beach (including hunting for shark teeth at one!), spontaneous outings around town, and late evening runs for ice cream.

Thursday, for Earth Day, Anthropologie was offering a free container gardening event. Now, I am by far not the most adept gardener–despite being fascinated by the idea of growing flowers and vegetables from an early age (and having many mishaps with trying to grow things!). But, I figured perhaps I could pick up some tips and such. The event didn’t end up quite like I thought it would–it was more of the sort of thing were you got to claim your own seedling and try some yummy vegan food. Which was fun anyway. I brought home a darling little chamomile seedling I picked out, as well as some of the neat seed bombs that Anthropologie is selling right now. I just need to find some big containers and try planting a couple on our porch…

[ organic carrots. ]

[ beets! yum... ]

The plant fascination continued over the weekend with our trip to the local farmer’s market. I’d only been once–before the weather warmed up–and was delighted by the amount of goodies on display (both food and otherwise). We got some organic vegetables (including a bunch of organic carrots–dubbed “Peter Rabbit carrots” by Sailor Husband because of their squat appearance), had some fantastic organic coffee, I drooled over fair trade bracelets that came in a rainbow of colors, and generally took in the atmosphere. I think this might become a regular weekend jaunt for us this summer–although I need to make a mental note to bring my parasol next time–the Florida sunshine just isn’t kind to my skin!

[ Sailor Husband's iced green tea smoothie--very sweet! ]

I was wondering… do any of you garden? I’m really hoping to perhaps cultivate my gardening skills (or lack thereof) a bit more this year and plant a few things in small containers for our porch. We really have quite limited space, but I know that hasn’t stopped a whole movement for container gardening in tiny spaces from springing up! If you have any green thumb resources (books or websites) that you could recommend, I’d love to hear about them!

Have a lovely Monday!

So… Major frustration going on here, but oh well! I do hope you all are having much better (technology drama free!) weeks! Hopefully it shan’t be too long ’til I’m back to my normal posting schedule!

[ a sweet old house in downtown Augusta, Georgia. ]

Sorry for the radio silence last week… I didn’t really get a ton of chances to log online while we were gone! Sailor Husband had a work-related trip up to Augusta, Georgia for a few days, so I tagged along since I had never been to Georgia (at least, not just passin’ through on I-95 on the way to or from Virginia!). Sadly, Augusta was too far from my wish list visits: Atlanta and Savannah (boo-hoo!), so despite daydreaming about a trip to either of those cities, it didn’t happen. I also didn’t get to do as much sight-seeing on my own as I had hoped. But we did make it to “downtown” Augusta Friday afternoon for a short while before we left.

[ a bakery, sadly not open by the time we got there! too bad... ]

We hit up some antique stores and a neat used bookstore. The antique stores ranged from high end, mostly furniture type places (in other words: the kind of places I look in the windows, drool over the gorgeous furniture, and realize that it’s definitely out of my price range!), to weird shops where you literally had to crawl over/dig through stuff. The one that hit the happy medium between these two was the one I hit the jackpot in terms of vintage patterns. Now, I wasn’t looking specifically for any, but when I noticed several large boxes of old patterns, of course I had to dig! There were patterns from the mid 30s through the 70s; all I can think is either Augusta is full of little old ladies who sewed back in the day, or someone had a serious pattern addiction. lol. I ended up only buying nine patterns, since I didn’t want to go overboard and just buy for the sake of buying. Although now I’m kicking myself for not picking up a few of the 50s patterns I liked (but lately I’ve been so on the fence about whether I even like the 1950s, that it seemed silly to buy something I was only so-so about!). But oh well: there will be other chances in the future, I’m sure!

[ more close-up photos of the vintage patterns I found here ]

Of course, while cooped up in a hotel room most of the week, I had lots of free time on my hands. I ended up spending three days of pretty solid sewing. Yes, I am one of those people who will lug my sewing machine along on a trip. lol. I cut out and made a dress from start to finish, and whipped up a skirt Thursday afternoon. I brought a total of four projects, but I think that was a little ambitious–even for me. lol. I’m pretty happy with the two I did finish–including a total copycat skirt (inspired by the fabulous Gertie’s recent creation)! Pictures and details of those coming real soon…

It’s good to be back home: now I just need to finish unpacking and get back into the swing of things!