treasure in bremerton

Yesterday I took a little trip across the water to Bremerton.



I had a mission in mind: to visit a little shop called Flea Market Chics.


I had never been to Flea Market Chics, but discovered them via Craigslist. Lately, every time I find an item I like it's being sold by this particular shop. So I thought a visit was in order.

It's no secret that I LOVE vintage shopping and that I take immense pleasure in the fact that it's a requirement of my job. However, I am on the hunt for some very specific things these days.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Joe and I have a bunch of home improvement projects scheduled this summer. The biggest project is one we have been wanting to do since we bought our house 6 years ago: remodel our basement. That's right, next month we are ripping out the hideous carpet and popcorn ceilings and installing bamboo floors, recessed lighting, new drywall, and crown moulding. I cannot wait. In addition, we are tossing all the old, worn out furniture down there that has followed us around for years. Hallelujah!
I have a whole design and color scheme planned and it's my personal mission to find interesting vintage pieces that will help complete my vision.

On the work front, I am beginning the photography for a new cookbook later this month and the design theme is, you guessed it, VINTAGE. Specifically, desserts styled with a vintage feel. Things don't get much more awesome than that.
I have a good amount of older cake stands and antique dessert plates but I could definitely use more. Having options is extremely important when shooting cookbooks!

So, back to Flea Market Chics.
Ladies and gentlemen, it DID NOT disappoint.

Check out the interior....









On top of being charming and full of awesome vintage goodness, everything in this shop is priced so reasonably. It's more than worth the 1-hour ferry ride out there, (which earns you a 10% discount off your purchases by the way!) In addition, items in the shop are updated DAILY! That means that every time I visit there will be new things!! How much better could this place be????

So, on to what I bought...

Check out this cool chippy chair-- perfect for a shooting surface or as a plant stand on our porch.


Cute little table


See all that great stuff below? It's all from Flea Market Chics. Note the awesome old cabinet I got for our guest room, the chalkboard made out of an old frame, the chunky candlesticks, (for our future rocked-out basement), and the lamp frame I am going to use as a huge candle holder....also in our basement.



How sweet is this vintage dessert stand? I see brownies on it in a future cookbook....




These last few items were purchased at another shop but I had to share them anyways. How cute are those salt and pepper shakers? I think those will be staying in our home. :)


Stay tuned for my next vintage-seeking adventure!

**UPDATE ON UPCOMING WORKSHOPS: A few spots  have opened up in my Natural Light Food Photography workshop this coming Saturday. Go here for details.

old

yellowstone & the grand tetons

new (to me) flatware

My current project? Getting rid of all our matchy-matchy, modern flatware and replacing it with mismatched vintage pieces.

So much happier.

raised beds

Joe and I have a whole bunch of home projects scheduled for this summer and the first one was completed last weekend.
I am happy to say that we have our very first vegetable garden! Woo hoo!

Now I just have to make sure I don't kill everything. I have never been awesome with plants so, to give myself the best chance of success, I enlisted the help of Meg Brown, edible garden specialist and owner of Brown Dirt. She helped Joe and I develop a plan, drew us a color-coded map of what to plant where, and gave us a very thorough list of instructions on how to maintain and harvest our future bounty.

Check out the before & after pics below.

Note the overgrown craziness. That sure was fun to rip out. NOT.
(Oh, and please ignore the ugly chain-link fence. It's our neighbor's, and we plan on hiding/covering/replacing it as soon as possible.)


After a bajillion hours of backbreaking labor, we finally had a cleared space.


Joe building the raised beds.


Almost there...


Ta da! It looks sparse now but, trust me, there are a lot of seeds planted and I am hoping for some great results. Wish me luck!

kale

I have a lot more to write about my trip cross country. In a nutshell, our trip was INCREDIBLE. However, as usual, the transition back to life at home has taken more time than I expected and I am overwhelmed with photos to download, emails to answer, home chores to be finished. So, those posts will come soon. In the meantime, I want to talk about kale.

If you know me at all, you know that there aren't many vegetables I don't love. I have a particular fondness for all greens and every cruciferous vegetable known to man. While Joe and I were on the road, we ended up visiting a lot of towns where we were hard-pressed to get a salad that consisted of more than shredded iceberg lettuce. After 5 weeks, we could not wait to get back in our own kitchen and eat some vegetables.

Kale is one of those veggies you hear about all of the time because of it's enormous health benefits. I have always loved it steamed, sauteed, and stir-fried, but have only become a fan of it in it's raw form in the past year. In my experience, raw kale salad is very often poorly made and I end up chewing a bite of salad for, like, 900 years.

Not appetizing.

It was my awesome brother, Sean, who showed me how to use kale in a salad. After my tutorial with him, it is my opinion that there are 5 factors to a successful kale salad: removing the spine of the kale leaves, chopping the kale into bite-sized ribbons, making a good vinaigrette, massaging the dressing-- BY HAND-- into the leaves, and letting it sit for a bit so that the kale softens a bit and the flavors have a chance to meld together.

The recipe below was inspired by a salad Helene and I ate from a Charleston grocery store. She and I DEVOURED it, (along with a few glasses of prosecco), and I couldn't stop thinking about it for the rest of our trip.

Sesame Ginger Kale Salad

*One thing to keep in mind when making a salad: buy more kale than you think you will eat.

After marinating and sitting, raw kale will reduce in size by about half.

This recipe makes enough to serve 4-6 side portions, less if you eat salad as a main course like we do. Also, this salad is great the next day. That's one of the awesome things about kale-- it's a hearty green and doesn't wilt easily.

3 bunches of black dino kale, (washed, spinned dry, spines removed and then chopped into bite-sized thin ribbons)
Sesame Ginger Vinaigrette (this recipe will make more than you need)
-1 1/2 TB minced ginger
-1 tsp. crushed red pepper
-1/8 cup rice vinegar (not seasoned)
-1/8 cup Bragg's Liquid Aminos or tamari
-1/2 cup toasted sesame oil

Whisk together vinaigrette and drizzle half of it on kale. With your hands, massage the dressing into the leaves and toss. Whisk dressing again, add a bit more, massage, and toss. I ended up using about 2/3 of the dressing, but the amount you use will vary depending on your taste and the size of your bunches of kale. Make sure you taste as you go.
Let salad sit for a while. The intensity of the dressing will mellow a bit, the leaves will soften a little, and the flavors will meld together.

Enjoy!

charleston

There is honestly too much to say about my time in Charleston.

The time there was inspiring, exciting, magical, exhausting, intense, and overwhelmingly wonderful.

You may or may not remember that I went there to co-teach a workshop with my dear friend, Helene Dujardin.
The workshop was 3-days/4-nights long and took place in a beautiful beach house in the Isle of Palms.
Over those few days, students participated in 5 photo shoots, visited the amazing Charleston Farmers Market, shared a dinner at the delicious restaurant, Lana, bonded over wine and cheese, laughed a lot, and worked their butts off. Everyone arrived as strangers and left as friends. It was an amazing, awesome few days.

Since Helene and I have worked together before, we were both pretty confident that our first joint workshop would go smoothly. That being said, there was still a bit of nervousness on both our parts. Luckily, we had nothing to fear-- the workshop went better than we could have ever hoped.
Not only did we luck out with an incredible group of women as students, we also found our groove as co-teachers and deepened our friendship in the process.
















Meet our AMAZING chef/kitchen manager/food guru, Laura. We could NOT have done this without her!














Joe and I spent an additional few days in Charleston and were treated to a world-class tour by Helene's husband, Bill, (aka: Joe's new BFF and budding bromance.)









One of my favorite memories of the trip was walking down to the dock near Helene and Bill's house.
So beautiful.






For those of you wondering about future workshops, Helene and I have some VERY exciting plans brewing, particularly for 2013. Stay tuned for a lot of new workshop dates.

In the meantime, though, I want to say a heartfelt THANK YOU to Helene and Bill, for welcoming Joe and I into their home, (we LOVE you guys) and to the ladies of the very first Charleston 3-day workshop. We are so grateful for our time with all of you.

I'll leave you with a photo of Nina and her new boyfriend, Bailey.
Like Joe and I, Nina is missing Charleston and cannot wait to go back. :)