Special Delivery

Check out those gorgeous fresh veggies. I know there is parsley, spinach, scallions, and baby leeks. Beyond that...hmmm, no clue. But I bet they all taste delicious.

My mom decided to join a CSA, which means that she will now be sharing a basket of fresh produce with my sister and I. Regular, seasonal veggies straight from the farm? Yes, please! And it is the perfect amount, when split between us.

If CSA is a new term for you, it stands for community-supported agriculture. You can purchase a monthly share of the farmer's produce (sort of like a membership), and in turn you get a box of fresh fruits and vegetables each week. Some CSAs include other farm products too. It is a great way to try new things, and it is a fun surprise to see what will be in your box each week.

Fresh and local. Two great words when it comes to food.

Still Standing

10K Complete! I survived my first race and am here to tell the tale...

On Friday, I discovered that it was most likely going to be raining during the race, and polled some experienced runners about what to wear. They suggested:

• A few water resistant layers
• A baseball cap to keep the rain out of my eyes
• My glasses - also to keep the rain out so that I didn't have to squint the whole time
• A trash bag - to wear until the race started to keep me dry for as long as possible

I woke up on Saturday morning and it wasn't raining at the time, but sure enough, at exactly 8 am, right after I picked up my race packet, it started to rain. Oh, and hail a little. Thankfully that stopped before I had to get out of the car. I really did not want to get out of the car, but I also didn't feel like I could skip out on my first race.

Signs that I was a beginner: I had no idea what to do when they only gave me one safety pin for my race bib. Thankfully I eventually found a table that had a handful of em. Oh, and I waited until 10 minutes before race time to get in line for the porta potty. I ran out and directly to the start of the race.

The rain was pretty cold and miserable throughout, but the run itself was not too bad. I actually did not find out my final time until today, when I found the race results posted. I finished in 1:06:28, which is a pace of 10:42. I was surprised to discover, I wasn't last! I finished 170 of 192, and 17 of 19 for my division. I obviously was not competing to get a medal, and was just trying to finish, so I knew I would be towards the end. I am hoping to increase my pace a little bit over time, but not bad for my first race.

My next race will be The Color Run 5K on May 19th. It should be a ton of fun. More training miles to come!

Gathering Art

Chris and I spent some time last weekend determining what art that we have for the many walls in our apartment. It appears that we have a lot of Dave Matthews Band posters. Yep, sounds about right.

We also have a lot more walls than we have things to hang, so I have been spending my evenings perusing original art pieces on Etsy. One of our hopes is to have a gallery wall in our living room. And we already have some great pieces to get us started that fit in with our current color scheme of black, tan, red and gold.

First, there is the St. Louis Love gocco art print that I bought from Art Shark Designs last year. It's so cute and itty bitty.

Then, there is the Providence Skyline print from ReStudios that I got for Chris last year for his birthday. It adds in a little bit of blue.

 

 I have had my eyes on this Clink illustration by Genevieve Santos for quite a while. I just think it is so adorable, so I finally bought it yesterday. 

And Chris picked out this Rooster Art Print from The Joy of Color, which will pull in a bunch of our main colors. 

Finally, I pre-ordered this Madison Map drawn entirely in lines from Studio KMO. I love that you can see the isthmus!

 

We sort of have a theme going on based on places that we have lived. I like it. 

Now I am trying to figure out what additional art that I might be able to make, to supplement and add in some more color to the gallery wall. Once our prints come in, then we can pull out the gallery wall tutorials that I have pinned, to help with the assembly and hanging process.

 

Decorating is much more fun than unpacking!