CSA- week thirteen

This weeks haul is huge. I just kept pulling more and more out of the bag! There is no way we'll be able to make it through all this in one week.

From the top left: chard, beans, acorn squash, eggs, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, garlic, eggplant, red peppers and dill and arugula.

Chard, eggplant and red peppers I will give to a coworker. We have found that Swiss chard is not our thing and there is no point in "wasting" it anymore. I'll probably just bake the squash and eat it as a side with some meat. Same with the beans. I still have onions, potatoes and garlic from past weeks... so they'll just hang out for now :) No clue about arugula or dill- I'll look something up later. Tomatoes and eggs we'll figure out as the week goes on. (Yes, I am getting very lazy with my CSA-meal planning.)

The last week for flowers :(

Gorgeous bunch to end on

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A nod to the cooler weather

It'll actually be fall-like in the DC area this week and I am really looking forward to it. My hands- not so much. I've always had cold hands and the fact that it's topping out in the low 70s for the next few weeks has me a bit worried. I guess it's time to pull out my winter clothes.

On a related topic (trust me, stick with it...) we watched Twilight last night. For those that haven't seen it, it's great. I plan on reading the books soon, which I am sure will taint my view of the movie. (Harry Potter anyone?!) Anyway! In the movie, the lead character Bella wears some gloves that I fell in love with. I guess it's more that my hands fell in love with them.

Here's a peek at the general idea

I love them because they're mittens and not gloves, they go all the way up to your elbow instead of just to your wrist, and they're simple but not frumpy.

Another look

I love the cabling!! All pictures from here.

And because I have a wonderful mom who has knit before, I asked if she could make them for me. Subliminal Rabbit (the blogger) posted the directions in PDF format and they seem fairly easy to follow. Whether they're easy to do is another story. But it sounds like if I send some knitting needles and yarn her way she'll give it a go. My hands I cannot wait!

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They're back to taunt me

Warning: Christmas talk included in post.

They're back. The Pottery Barn twig reindeer are back. As you may remember, I was drooling over them last year... and now they're back. Do you get it?? They're back! :)

Here they are once more in case you forgot about them:

I also love this door wreath hanger. And for $30? Awesome.


Pottery Barn has got some great decorations out right now- the acorn filler, the cranberry filler (makes me think of my mom!) and this gorgeous table runner.

Maybe I'll spend some of my BONUS (!!) on something. :)

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A wonderful weekend with a bitter end

A lot of great things happened this weekend- I got a possible bonus, we hung out with some friends and we went to Das Best Oktoberfest. The bitter part comes with the Redskins loss to the LIONS. A team that hadn't won since December 2007. What is it with us losing to horrible teams?!?! Let me back track...

Friday night we went south to visit some of the Mr.'s friends. We grilled some burgers and shared a bunch of hilarious stories. It's always great catching up with friends that you don't get to see very often. But now that we know they're only an hour away we'll make a point to see each other more.

Saturday we went to Das Best Oktoberfest at National Harbor. With our VIP admission we got unlimited alcohol (they had beer, schnapps and wine), a bunch of pretzels (hard and soft) and a t-shirt. We only hung out for a couple hours, but it was a lot of fun. I definitely think it's something we'll want to do again next year.

Here's a quick picture of (part of) the shirt:

(Bier ist wunderbar.)

Today we've been parked in front of the TV watching football games. After the whirlwind weekend complete with day-long headaches I needed a break. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

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So...

Either my company messed up or someone I work with appreciates my work... because I got an extra chunk of money deposited into my bank account yesterday- on top of my paycheck.

I check our accounts every day and noticed the "credits" column had a larger number than I was expecting. ALL day yesterday I was trying to figure out what it could be. We hadn't put down a deposit on anything, we weren't expecting a reimbursement, the Mr. wasn't supposed to be paid- nothing. The only thing I could think of is that maybe I got a bonus at work.

When the mail came yesterday I ran walked quickly to the mailbox to see if my pay stub showed any proof of this. Nope- nada. But when I signed in this morning I see two deposits from my work. One was my normal paycheck, the other was for the extra dollar amount.

So... I am hoping that it's the latter of the above possibilities and someone saw the hard work I put in over the last few months, years, whatever. And hopefully in the next few days I'll get confirmation of this so I can stop holding my breath, waiting for the money to be taken back out of my account :)

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Photography class two

We've got two classes under our belt and I am actually starting to learn something. Those P, S, A and M letters on your camera dial- program, shutter, aperture and manual modes. Yeah, who knew? :)

At this point our sensei has only talked about what the programs mean. Yes, the "A" mode is the aperture setting, and now we know what a larger aperture means, but exactly how does it impact the picture? That's for *me* figure out and I cannot wait to do so! He also started on ISO and exposure- two things that I'd heard about but had no idea how to manipulate, or when I would manipulate them.

He also went over some of our pictures at the beginning of class, but didn't really cover anything I didn't know. (Focus on your subject, get your entire subject in the picture- that sort of thing.) These are two of my geometric shapes that he seemed to like best:



No real assignments this week- he just wants us to take some more pictures and experiment with composition and zoom. I think I can do that.

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CSA- week twelve

Only three more weeks left!! (::small cheer::) It's a rather small batch this week but I am totally ok with that.

From left: kale, radishes, French beans, summer and butternut squash, eggs, pepper, basil and roma tomatoes in the center.

I've never had kale so that will be fun to try. I've never created anything using radishes, so that will be fun. :) I'm brought the red pepper into work to give to a coworker- we still have some from last week! No ideas for anything and I just don't have the energy to come up with anything definitive right now. Probably a salad with the radishes and squash. I'll most likely use the tomatoes on my work sandwiches. No clue for the kale- seriously :)

My blooms:

Orange flower + black jack-o-lantern = awesomeness

Perfect for fall

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A couple new things here at The Proudfeet

In an effort to make things easier for you wonderful readers, I've added a few gadgets that I hope will be helpful.

First- an email address. I've received numerous comments asking about something in a past post and often I have no way of getting in touch with the questioner to give them an answer. So if you've got a question, feel free to shoot me an email at mrs.foot.blog@gmail.com. I've also added the email address to the right side of my blog, so if you don't feel like writing it down now it will be there for you later. PS- You're still more than welcome to leave a comment on the post- I'll be sure to answer there, too. (I love comments!)

Second- a search function... for my blog! If you *know* I talked about going to a concert, a killer movie or a great pair of jeans and don't have the time to scroll through pages and pages, now you can search for those terms and find that post. Google for this site. Great, right? That feature is also to the right.

Third- "you might also like" thumbnails. I've found this helpful on other blogs when they talk about one subject repeatedly. It's a quick way to see some posts that are related to the topic at hand. It's currently not working, but I have tech support on it ;) It will appear at the bottom of each post, beneath my Mrs. Foot signature.

A fourth update might be coming soon, but that's more for aesthetics. For those who may be curious- the old Proudfeet header may be coming down, down, down!

Let me know if there is anything else you'd like to see here at the Proudfeet. I aim to please. :)

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Tired of my hair!!

It's been 16 months since I started rockin' the bob and it's just not my style anymore. When I straighten it it's too flat. When I leave it alone it's super curly and looks like a 'fro. I need something a bit longer to pull the curls into waves that I can still straighten if I feel the desire.

I've started pulling together some ideas for length and cut. I'll probably go a little longer than shoulder length- so about 4" longer than my hair currently. I think I'll keep some longer bangs that can be swept to the side when I leave my hair down, but easily bobby-pinned back when it goes up.

Something like these:

Love everything about this style

Another view of the same cut/style

Not this long, but I like the bangs

My waves are similar to this

I'm also thinking about dying the underneath portions of my hair a dark blonde color. Just to give a little depth to my thin hair. Kind of like these, but not nearly as drastic a difference. I'm talking dirty dirty blonde, not platinum blonde.

What do you think? Other suggestions?

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Two wonderful years and counting

And I couldn't love him more. He, of course, is my wonderful husband.

The man who makes me laugh until my stomach hurts. The man who makes me want to be a better person- not because he expects it of me, but because I want to be a better person when I'm around him. The man who I know will be an amazing father, because when he's around our nieces and nephews he can't get enough of them and they can't get enough of him. The man I love with all my heart. 24 hours a day. 7 days a week. 365 days a year.

We already celebrated our anniversary by taking a trip to Atlanta, but we still exchanged small presents today.

His gift:

My gift (four of them):

Another view

I look forward to forever with you...

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What's this "relaxing" thing I hear about?

Guess what we didn't do yesterday? Relax. Guess what we got to play with? This:

Yup, our garbage disposal. Fun stuff, no? I was trying to wash the dishes after doing some baking and noticed that the disposal wasn't working properly. In fact, when I turned it on I saw a vortex in the water. Uh-oh. I looked underneath the sink and saw a looooot of water leaking. Eeek! We tried to find the leak and deduced it had to be a problem with the disposal. After pulling it out, we saw this:

Uh yeah, that's not good. (But hello gorgeous nails!) It was about noon, so we quickly cleaned up some of the water, rushed off to Lowe's and hustled back with a new disposal before the start of the Redskins game.

Doesn't this look like fun?

And in the sink wasn't much better :(

The new disposal we picked

Getting the electrical all set up

Less than an hour later, it was done!

Not exactly how I wanted to spend $170 or my morning, but we've been really lucky with house problems- or lack thereof. So I'll take it in stride.

Relaxation 0, House 1.

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Fall 2009 decorations

I don't know if I was antsy to get them up this year or what, but I am so excited to post these pictures! I think the cooler weather has something to do with it. Most of the decorations are the same as last year, but I haven't put up everything from those pictures yet. I snagged the wreath and a few small pumpkins at Michaels yesterday and that's all that is new for this year.

Jack-o-lantern and one of the new pumpkins

And of course my CSA flowers

Isn't he cute?!

The buffet set up

Free pine cones on the other end

Table setting

Probably my favorite piece to change out for seasons

More free pine cones!

Fireplace with a bunch of stuff

Sign from last year

More pumpkins and swapped out fall candles

Blue for summer, red for fall- perfect!

The last of the new pumpkins

Sorry for the dark picture- I didn't want to bother the Mr. :)

Glass bowl + candle + glass rocks=

Simple decoration! :)

My new spools!

They are awesome, and I love them

Kitchen cabinet

I love the friendly looking ghosts

Some more pine cones in the bathroom

Close up shot

Old sign that still works perfectly in this area

Same welcome sign as last year

I moved the old CVS wreath here

To make room for this beauty on the front door

I still haven't put up the outside decorations... I can't decide if mid-September is too early for Halloween stuff! Either way, the bulk of the fall stuff is up. I'll still have a few things to swap out post Halloween, though.

Our second wedding anniversary is coming up next week and we've been celebrating a little throughout the weekend. So I'm off to snuggle with my hubby and enjoy the day. Go Skins!

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