Omaha's Finest Farmers Market...

There is an awesome farmers market down town! It reminds me of the one in Montrose or Seattle. Although they don't throw fish here, there is still a lot to see and do. I love connecting with local farmers who grow various organic foods; vegetables, cheeses, honey and even plants! On this trip we took our nephew with us, to give my sister-in-law a chance to sleep in a bit after a long week.

With my trusty TJ bag and nephew in toe, we were ready to find some herbs for the garden and other little goodies.

This "sno cups" cart reminded me of the food carts in downtown LA...

Here we are picking out some plants for "Aunt Julie's Garden"...

I found some parsley!!!

After finding some plants for the garden, we decided to stop for a tasty treat at the... CANDY SHOP!!! :)

Roasting Coffee at the O'Neal's

Spencer has recently taken up a new hobby... roasting his own coffee. (Buying green beans are almost half the cost as buying already roasted beans, and they last up to a year. Once you roast them they last about a week, but are fresher then store bought.)

He wanted to share the first roasting experience with the O'Neals when we were over there last. Here's a few snap shots from the day...

All you need is an popcorn popper (that has slits in the inside to circulate the air), cardboard or metal tube (that sits in popcorn popper opening), metal strainer or stock pot, and a wooden spoon.

The first batch...

cooling the beans...

The girls have a turn :)

The finished medium and dark roasts... Spencer is pleased :)

The Container Garden...

I love to garden... so I've tried to maximize our back patio/deck to grow as many plants as possible. For those of you who haven't seen our patio... it's small... you can fit 2 folding chairs and a t.v. tray back there comfortably. Here's the garden as of today....

The pinto beans that went to seed when I soaked them in water to prepare for the next nights dinner, but wasn't able to get to them in time before they sprouted. I just decided to plant them instead of tossing them out... well see how they turn out... I've never seen what a pinto bean looks like as a pod. (this is like day 7 or so from when I first soaked the beans)

The eggplant I got from a farmers market downtown...

Blueberries... yes, I actually grew blueberries!!! and they are delicious! I read online that the first year is the most crucial though... so I'm not sure if they will last until next year since we don't have any ground to plant them in. I'm hoping they will do good as house plants over the winter.

Some Spring mix and dill...

Fresh herbs: (Left to right) Tarragon, Savory, Italian Parsley, Rosemary, Sage,

Cilantro, Oregano, Thyme, Majoram, and basil.

and sweet yellow peppers (the kind that are small)

The Fashion Show

I was able to put together a fashion show for Motherhood, and Friday was the big day.

It was so cool, because everything actually worked out according to plan... and everyone I asked to model for it all came!!!

HA! When they saw the hundreds of people we would be going to model in front of, some of them thought they felt the baby coming on... :) Nice try. But we all went out there....

one carrying twins...

one full term...

or just a belly pillow...

(I modeled too) and it was a lot of fun.

So much planning was involved for just 2 minutes of fame... but it was all worth it.

Hannah's flower girl dress...

My mother-in-law's co-worker is getting married in July, so she commissioned me to make her niece a flower girl dress.

I made it out of a brushed cotton and tulle as the base of the dress, and a black satin sash as the embellishment.

This was the first flower girl dress I made, but the second wedding gown I've made with tulle.

Project: Bean Jars

We were wanting to incorporate more beans, peas, and rice in our diet because we've heard a lot of good things about them... they're cheap, easy to make, they're high in fiber, protein and are pretty versatile in a lot of different foods (chili, soups, stews, dips, burritos, etc.). After realizing how colorful all the different varieties were I thought that they would actually look really nice if they were displayed in the kitchen.


We had a large old-fashioned candy jar that we had picked up at Crate&Barrel back in California that we really liked the look of, but we didn't want to end up paying $20 per jar. Then when we were doing our preliminary "move into a new place shopping spree" we found the exact same jars at Wal-mart for about $4, so we were able to do all the beans and peas we wanted! We also did a jar of brown rice that I forgot to snap a shot of.


We organized these by color... (Black, Red, Kidney, Split Pea, Lentil, Pinto, Chick Pea, Black-Eyed Pea, White and Navy Beans). Now whenever I need some I just take out what we need, put them in a bowl and soak them in water overnight and they're ready in the morning. Not only is it cheaper, but it's better for you, because you get to control the freshness of the beans and eliminate any additives (like sodium or high fructose corn syrup) which some canned beans have.


We also maximized the use of the jar by cutting a piece of foam board to split the jar in two, so we could have more varieties of beans. We decided to use the whole jar for black and pinto beans as well as a single jar for brown rice.

Project: Magnetic Spice Jars

We were helping clean up the party favors a friends wedding and my husband had an awesome idea to use the jars (from Ikea) for our spices and make them magnetic so that they could stick to the fridge. A year later we were finally able to organize our spices using the jars from the wedding.

We filled all the jars with our various spices, put magnets in the lids, labeled the jar and then organized them by color on the fridge. Some of the larger spices (like cinnamon and bay leaves) required larger jars, so we reused some of our store-bought spice jars.


No more knocking over the spices and trying to hunt them down in the cabinet. It's made cooking with different flavors so much easier!