From Trash to Treasure

My roommates and I have a witty relationship with our landlord. We like to pick on each other and have fun. When I came home on Saturday, Tim was cleaning out the shed behind our house. Finally! I thought. . . I could move my bike from the entrance into the shed. He had a ton of junk pulled out of the shed and was just dumping it into the trash. Among all the trash was a beat up old desk.



When Tim told me he was going to trash this, I asked if I could have it. He looked at me like I was crazy. but agreed. The desk, as pictured, was extremely beat up, had tons of spider webs on it and truly looked like trash. But I saw a vision. Plus J has such a rinky little cheap looking desk in his room, I thought this might be perfect. I went out and bought primer, eggshell colored spray paint, and a finish. I had a nautical theme in mind. I envisioned a ropey looking handle and navy and white striped contact paper. The inspiration for the pulls came directly from Anthropologie. However at $14 a pop, I opted to make my own pulls. I purchased twine for about $3 and 9 pulls off an online site for under $3 each. The spray paint was roughly $4 per can. I've already gone through 1 can of primer (I actually needed 2), 6 cans of eggshell and purchased 4 more cans, plus 2 cans of finisher. Oh, and a sandpaper block, which was about $4 too. This puts me at about $96 for the project.


I made J do all the sanding and I taped the drawers and applied the primer. Primer made all the difference. The places where I didn't prime the paint didn't stick so well. . .

Right now it's still a work in progress. I'm waiting for the handles to come in so I can work on applying the twine and the desk needs another coat of paint. Stay tuned for more pictures!

Mermaid Winery, Norfolk, VA

I heard about the Mermaid Winery by chance. My beau's sister was hosting an event there and helping with the marketing. Norfolk had it's own urban winery. I couldn't be more delighted. Now I just needed a victim to drag along. My parents came in town and brought my sister. Bingo. Elise volunteered to join me in Norfolk after our visit to the Chrysler museum on Sunday afternoon.

I was delighted to find a wine flight and a cheese pairings -- one for white wine, one for red. As we tasted our five 1oz pours and munched on fruit and cheese, I took in the surroundings. There was a fabulous outdoor area for some of the cooler summer evenings. Inside was large with an industrial flare. Elise and I sat at the bar. Everything was so open, I could even see into the kitchen. Unlike most winery,  you had to pay for your tastings here, which was fine. I really didn't expect anything less from Ghent.

I will be back to this venue. I love a good wine bar and this combines a winery with a wine bar in some sense of the world. I'd like to find out more about their wine club as well. At $45 to $75 a month for a few bottles of wine, I wasn't sold yet. It would have to rival my go to party wine, Generation Green. I encourage you stop by and give it a whirl. The food is just as good as the wine!

Trout of Papallacta

We set out on a deary Thursday to travel nearly two hours to see what Papallacta had to offer. This day was supposed to be our day of relaxation after hiking up and down to waterfalls and volcanoes of Ecuador. Among the many offerings of the small town of Papallacta, hot springs and trout are two of them. We hit up the hot springs first. Not exactly what I had imagined. The hot springs appeared to be a various titled pools throughout the area featuring an array of temperatures. Some were too hot to stand, others were freezing. It was an interesting experience. If we were to do it again, I would upgrade to the private pools and bring my own towel (we were charged $12 to purchase one which is highway robbery in Ecuador).  

After wrapping up at the springs, we were famished. We hit up a local restaurant, where a full meal was offered for $5 (pictured). The trout was to die for if you didn't mind dodging a few bones. It also paired perfectly with the local Ecuadorian beer, Pilsner. A large Pilsner cost a whopping $1.25. A pleasant surprise for these spent vacationers. After lunch we went to a spa. I swear it was the most productive half hour massage I've ever had. Quite relaxing until the chopsticks at the end to signify my time was up. All in all, a great trip to Papallacta.

Home Grown

Several months ago, Jason returned home from Lowe's with a garden box. He set it up in his back yard and filled it with dirt. Shortly after we ventured out to purchase plants. We settled on blackberries, jalapenos, squash, basil, strawberries, eggplant, and 2 different types of tomatoes to fit into this 4 by 4 garden box. Of course, being new at gardening, we didn't account for the fact that plants GROW. In the coming weeks the garden battles beetles, sun, drought and over crowding. We quickly had a strawberry and blackberry crop, which was over taken by slugs and beetles and then overshadowed by the enormous growth of the squash plant. 

Today we have 18 healthy looking tomatoes on 1 of the tomato vines, 1 eggplant, a few sprouting peppers and a flourishing basil plant. The blackberries have come and gone. We never were able to get more than a few to put in our morning smoothies before dashing out the door for work. There have been discussing of adding a second garden box in the backyard, but the thoughts of mixing dirt with the carefully laid stones still lurks in the back of our minds. You see, the entire backyard has a tarp placed over the layer of earth to prevent weeds from frolicking in between the stones and creating an unsightly mess of the backyard. To us, this means the roots of the plants we chose will never venture further into the earth than the depth of the  garden box. 

With much delight, we found after a week long's trip to Ecuador that our garden had furnished a perfectly purple eggplant. The shape seemed a bit alarming at first, but it's heart shape seems to resemble the care that had been bestowed upon the 12 cubic feet of earth.

Spanish Mackerel

My fabulous roommate skirted off to a family reunion for the weekend and in her passing words indicated that my beau and I could enjoy some of her precious Spanish mackerel. The Spanish mackerel had been caught on a deep sea fishing expedition that she had taken her father on for father's day. My beau and I had been covetous of it ever since. As she and her boyfriend jetted off in a plane to see her family, I wasted no time in thawing the fish. 

We looked up a simple recipe for grilled Spanish Mackerel. We paired the fish with red Inca quinoa and roasted potatoes seasoned with Parisian spices. The flakey white fish was melt in your mouth. So good that Jason and I indulged in two filets each. 

Rockbridge Winery

A weekend trip to Rockbridge, Virginia lead us to explore the Rockbridge Winery. Breathtaking mountains and rows upon rows of grapevines enticed us to have a sit and enjoy the gorgeous scenery, glass in hand. A huge red farmhouse greeted us oozing twangy folk music. We entered the wine tasting room and were deleted to discover a white pinot noir. We made several purchases while we were there. 3 bottles of wine, a block of cheese and grape olive oil. The grape olive oil is said to be the best of all the olive oils for you. In comparison once we returned home, the calories were the same, but the saturated fat was much lower.

The wine was delicious, a fresh twist on the ordinary. I must say, we were slightly dismayed to discover the bottles could be purchased in Virginia Beach's Total Wine and More under the local section for a few dollars less. However, our disappointment vanished once the bottles vanished and we were delighted to know we could readily purchase more when desired.