I’ve been reading about books, now I can read about book covers. What more could a girl want?

This will be the first time in seven years I get to spend an autumn in New England. I need this. And the best part is it’s free. And the best part is I get to introduce my son to hoodies and pumpkins and clean air and leaves. And the best part is that we’ll be there long enough to DO things. And the best part is that when we get back, Trevor is taking a whole week of vacation to be with us. And the best part is that it’s only one month away!

A fun little good taste to get you in the mood for fall!

It’s nice to feel a little bit good when you get a whopping electric bill:

Thank you Blue Bell, from the bottom of my heart, for putting pie crust pieces in a creamy vanilla ice cream with blackberry swirls. Southern Blackberry Cobbler. If the Texans do have one thing going for them, this is it.

PS Has anybody else wished they were a silent graceful Chinese woman just so they could walk around in those gorgeous dresses?

I am really quite in love with these.

For a few months now I have been playing around with the idea of starting my own little Etsy shop, for many reasons (me time, extra cash, an outlet for the fireworks of ideas I can’t seem to suppress). A few weeks ago I told Trevor about it and he is all in favor. He has started watching Max a couple of evenings a week while I try to bring into being the perfect little creations that pop into my brain every night while I’m falling asleep. Sometimes I am successful and sometimes I doubt. Sometimes I just don’t have all the right tools or skills. But no matter what the current status of this endeavor is, I always get remotivated when I find perfect wonderful creations like above. On the one hand it can be intimidating, because hi has anything I have made ever looked that cute?? No. But the possibility of someday reaching that point where I’ve found a creative niche that I fill perfectly is why I am going to keep this goal.

That’s what I’ve been doing instead of blogging.

I bought these today. They’re fun and fabulously comfortable, and I don’t have to wear a belt. Yay. After reading the online reviews I expect they will fall apart after the first washing… which is disappointing… but I’m not letting that ruin my enjoyment of them this evening.

But I have to stop going to Target. Every time I set foot in the door I spend at least 4X the money I’d planned, and I’m talking benjamins here. They get our whole paycheck. It’s always for stuff we “need” (planned purchases, I guess) but I go there at least three times a week, because it’s one of very few places I feel comfortable going by myself in this city, and what else is a one-baby-mom supposed to do to stay sane during the day? It’s the cheapest of the pleasant shopping experiences, but that mindset means I just buy and buy, and when I go with Trevor he lets me get a treat which means it’s one of my favorite things to do with him (I am so three years old), and there exists in my mind a perpetual list of things to buy for grand project ideas I get while I’m there, which means there’s always a reason to go back again. And I think he should ban us from ever shopping again because somebody needs to ban us and it certainly can’t be me.

I have finally found something here in Houston (excluding the hypothetically transportables, such as friends) that I would miss if we moved to New England: the Central Market on Westheimer. I now live for food shopping. (More than before.)

There is a chain by a different name (that I understand is owned by the same company) in the mid-Atlantic but it does not extend past New York. I’m sure there are many similar markets available in New England but I never came across one anywhere close to my parent’s house and I do know there is nothing this large. I told Trevor I need to fly my mom down here JUST to take her to the market; that is how much I love it! I guess if I wanted to come across as a die-hard organic farmer’s market kind of girl, I would just play it cool and act as if this is the only place I ever shopped. But the fact is that this is all new to me and it is so exciting to discover something that you never knew was your thing because you didn’t really know it was there, and then one day you find it and it fits and you’re in love!

We decided to do our shopping here first, and then go elsewhere for the rest of our stuff. Hopefully that will inspire the majority of what we eat to be better for us. I am not going to be obsessive about everything we eat being organic, because it’s just not really feasible unless you have the time and money to be way hardcore… but I am going to start paying attention. Fresh speaks to me. While it’s all good and preferable if the production process was organic, the most important thing is that I like knowing everything that is in what I eat, and I like knowing what all the elements of the ingredient list are instead of reading off preservatives and partially-hydrogenated oils. It does a body good.

This place is very very large. On Saturday afternoons they have live music and an abundance of free samples. I love how you put your produce in a bag and then type the number code into the keyboard on the scale and it spits out a little barcode sticker for your bag, so you know exactly how much it will cost and when you get home the name of what you bought is on the bag (handy if you buy something unfamiliar). On our first visit we focused on the produce (17 varieties of potato, anyone?) and last time we lingered in the bread (fabulous ciabatta so good!) and I bought some roasted pepper ravioli with mozzarella and basil. Fresh-made and real and yummy. We tried wasabi peanuts and tamarillos and Maine maple syrup, among many other things. I am trying to focus on only a few new things each time. Next time I am hitting up the chocolate blocks!

Trevor showed up with three fatty-size bags of Cadbury mini-eggs. For an annual stash. A necessary part of food storage. Premium chocolate is so the key to my heart.

What a smart man.