Fresh Food!!!

So, for some reason, even though I've recently started working full-time hours at work, I have been motivated to cook real dinners for myself. Or at least a real main dish. I have featured two of these below:

The artichokes I got from my garden
 and marinated myself.

The pizza I made using my artichokes, basil, and some farmers market tomatoes, peppers,  swiss chard, and turkey sausage and then I bought some feta cheese from good old TJ's to throw on top! A-ma-zing. Quite easily the best pizza I've ever had. Oh yeah, and the bread is Italian herb focaccia bread I also got from TJ's and just sliced in half and oiled with my farmers market buttery olive oil.

Kale...also from the farmers market and my first time trying it actually!

Pecans, garlic, lemon, nutmeg and freshly
grated parmesan cheese to go with it!

White beans (sure wish I had actually
 cooked them long enough...)

My almost superb beans and kale. Ha! Not too shabby though. Kale turned out to be completely edible. I was worried since it's green and supposed to be pretty good for you. Happily, it's quite mild with a good texture to boot!

Gardening!!!

Thyme, parsley and chives!

Cilantro (which it turns out is not a
great one for a pot), rosemary, and sage.

I've already enjoyed several of these artichokes! They were here when I moved in.

Strawberries, which are not doing terrific, but we've had a few tasty ones.

My gigantic tomatoes! Can't wait for these to get red and ready.

Squash and peppers.

My first cucumber is looking amazing.

Surprise cherry tree!

I love roses.

Working on the lawn, but I promise,
this is 10x better than it started. The
green (in 2 ways) bin you can see on
the left is the compost.

Lawn, part 2.

I love working outside in the yard. Raking, trimming, gardening, even weeding isn't too bad! Sure, sure, harvesting is my favorite just like anyone, but it's all a pretty good time. I love the instant gratification after a few hours work when you can see how much better everything looks as well as the feeling of accomplishment after working hard. LOVE IT. So, here's a little tour of my backyard at this point. Enjoy.

Art Attempt

I found this art book at the thrift store near my work.
I love impressionism, so...I got it!

It's full of prints so I thought I could use some of
them on the wall. Especially since some of the pages are loose.

John gave me these that he got from a guy he works with,
since he's an "artist." So, he gave them to me!

The plain white looked not so good on the light walls,
so I used some art chalks and did this. 

So, I got home from work a couple days ago and for some reason had lots of energy and I wanted to paint my bedroom. However, I don't have all the stuff I need, I didn't have time really, and I would have to move all the stuff out of my room or into the center. Instead, I racked my brain for some other way to make things look better. My first idea was shot down, for some reason my roommate didn't want me to spray paint the lamp shade from his childhood. Lame. Ha! So finally I decided to use the free mat board that he gave me and hang up a print in the living room. It's not the most amazing thing ever, but it definitely cheered the place up!