Store Review- Burgurs Market

I usually have Wednesdays off from work and I have to say it is just lovely to have a day off in the middle of the week. I like to use these days to take care of errands and generally enjoy my town while it isn't crowded as it often is on weekends. Today I grabbed some lunch with my parents on Marietta Square at Vineyard Cafe (which was delicious but I'll save that for another post). I can't tell you how much I love Marietta. Having grown up here and then moving back as an adult I find that my affection for the city has only grown over time and I am so proud to watch it grow and develop.

I didn't have my camera with me today so i had to steal this picture from the internet.

One of my favorite spots in Marietta is Burgur's Market (1395 Canton Rd Marietta, GA 30066) and we were able to stop by there on our way back from lunch today. The market has a great selection of fresh local produce and plants as well as local honey, preserves and relishes. Apparently this is another of Alton Brown's favorite spots, the man has good taste :-) The quality of the plants I have bought there in the past has always been excellent and they have always been healthy and hearty (important for me since I don't have much of a green thumb and need all the help I can get). Today was my first time buy fresh produce there and I was impressed by the prices and the quality of the fruit I bought. Here is a picture of my haul from today, all told about $4.

I got a selection of apples and a few California navel oranges. 

I have been craving a lot of fruit at this stage in my pregnancy and I couldn't resist these beauties. They are quite a bit smaller than the monsters you find in the grocery store but in my mind this is good thing since they are a better snack size for me. I got some California navel oranges a big bag of Gala apples and the two dark apples in the middle are Arkansas Black apples which were advertised as tart but I found to be quite sweet with almost a vanilla flavor. I think they had a great flavor and are much more complex than your normal Red Delicious. It makes me want to try some more different varieties of apples, they have a lot kinds that I have never heard of at Burgur's and I will definitely sample some others next time I go back. 

I also got a really fun plant that I have no idea how to grow today, a pineapple! It was a gift from my Dad and I am pretty smitten with how adorable it is, now I have to look up how to care for it. It was about $10 at Burgur's. 

Next time you are in the neighborhood I highly recommend you check out Burgur's Market. Right now their plant selection is a little slim since it isn't quite planting season but if you go a little later this Spring you will find a great selection of beautiful quality plants. Even if you go now you will find some beautiful peppers, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, fresh beans, apples and citrus. I promise that if you go once you will fall in love like I did and be back often.  

Kitchen Sink!

Eric's parents came down this weekend and gave us the kick in the pants we needed to finally install our new kitchen sink. We have been hanging on to the thing forever but we were hesitant to start the project because tackling plumbing issues seems scary and overwhelming. Luckily, my father in law Don was happy to help and he and Eric spent the better part of the weekend installing the new sink, faucet and a section of butcher block counter. We still have a lot to do and the kitchen looks like a hot mess right now because of all the unfinished details but oh my gosh, what we do have in place looks gorgeous! I am totally in love with the new fixtures and the countertop, just this little bit is really helping me envision what the kitchen will look like when the whole remodel is done. Here are some pictures before, during and after :-)

Before, Eric had already ripped out the countertop in preparation for the new butcher block

Old Sink

Old faucet

Installing the new sink and butcher block

In progress, the sink has no faucet yet!

After, taa daa! Still kind of in progress since there is now a gap to the left of the sink and we are missing some tiles from the backsplash

The new sink is deeeep!

New faucet, so spiffy! It's fun because it has a normal mode and a sprayer mode and it's all flexible and easy to move around.

Another after shot, now I have to get on painting the rest of the cabinets!

 For the counter to the left of the sink we are thinking of using tile so that we have a safe place to set hot pans and an area that won't matter if it gets too wet so we can dry dishes and things over there. We're still figuring this one out but it is sure to be exciting! Right now I am just loving the new sink, washing dishes has never been so fun ;-)

Baby Morph

On thebump.com they have this little tool where you can upload a picture of yourself and the father of your baby and it will predict what your baby will look like. I thought it was hilarious so I just had to share. Eric thinks it's creepy looking, I think it just looks like a generic baby. I put it on random gender and it gave us a girl (which I am convinced we are having but Eric swears it will be a boy). Only time will tell how accurate this is ;-)

Carb Cravings

If you've noticed a decline in my posting lately, there's a reason. Not only am I exhausted ALL THE TIME but I am also still doing battle with morning sickness. I have to drag myself to work each day and when I get home I pretty much lay on the couch until it's time for bed (around 9:00 PM these days). Housework has pretty much gone by the wayside, the only exceptions being laundry and dishes since those are the two absolutely essential things that have to get done. I thought the morning sickness had just about ended when I had a break in symptoms this weekend but it turns out I just had a lucky few days because it has been back with a vengeance this week. I can't wait for the second trimester so that I will get some of my energy back and not feel sick all the time! It won't be much longer now and I do feel like the worst is over (knock on wood).

As of right now I am feeling nauseous a lot of the time and on top of that I am also having weird food aversions. This means that many of my go to meals and long time favorites are suddenly repulsive to me. Instead I have been craving a lot of weird things, many of which are meals that I loved when I was a kid. For example, I can't get enough sloppy joes and orange sherbet, weird huh? Most of the things that I can eat without feeling like I'm going to throw up are carb heavy such as pasta and bread. Too bad for Eric trying to eat low carb, when the pregnant lady is doing the cooking you have to eat what I want ;-P

Yesterday I had a lovely day off from work and I had an overwhelming urge to bake bread from scratch. Pretty weird since I haven't done that since I was a kid. I roped my mom in to helping me and we had a fun day of bread baking and hanging out, it really took me back to my childhood and the bread was amazing! There is something therapeutic about kneading the dough and I don't care what people say, bread machine bread is not in the same league as honest to goodness homemade bread. Here are some pictures of the deliciousness, half of it is gone already :-) I got the recipe from the King Arthur Flour website, here . It's called hearth bread and it is a really simple recipe to make, plus it tastes great and is perfect for sandwiches.

Happy Anniversary To Us!

It is just over a year since we closed on the house, my how time flys! I still can't believe that all that paperwork and all the headaches that go along with buying a home are so far behind us. It's a great feeling to be settled in to our own home and we have been working diligently to pay off our mortgage ahead of schedule. It will be another amazing milestone to pay off the house but that is still a long way off.

Needless to say a lot of my short term plans for home improvements have been put on hold because of the impending new arrival to our family. We are putting away as much money as possible to save up for baby so that has caused us to slow some of our bigger projects. On top of that I am totally wiped out and nauseous all the time which basically means I have no energy (or desire) to do home improvement projects. Apparently growing a baby is hard work because it has left me totally exhausted. Oh well, it's supposed to get better in the second trimester :-)

Eric was able to find time to put in a new light over the sink in the kitchen so I wanted to post a picture of that to share with everyone.

We got this nice little pendant light at World Market, it is a big improvement over the ugly florescent fixture that used hang above the sink.

Other changes around the house all have to do with the coming of Spring. We've had such a warm Winter and I know things are blooming early everywhere. Our yard is no exception although we do seem to be a little behind Atlanta proper since we are little higher altitude and it tends to be slightly colder here in Marietta. Here are some of the things that are starting to sprout and bloom around the yard.

Daffodils coming up but not quite in bloom yet. I planted about 25 of them last Fall, it's exciting to watch them come up.

Azaleas starting to bloom but not up to their full glory yet.

Close up of Azalea blossoms, my white Azaleas aren't blooming yet for some reason. 

We're Expecting!

This image is from a congrats card from my parents :-)

I've gone back and forth on the right time to announce this but I am tired of keeping it a secret (let's face it, I'm terrible at it anyway since I've already told just about everyone). Eric and I are expecting our first child in late September and we couldn't be happier!

It is completely overwhelming to be bringing a new life in to the world, I can't believe I have an actual person growing in me! It's like something out of a Sci Fi movie. Being parents is something that Eric and I have always known we wanted to do and we welcome the challenges and rewards that go along with it. I can't imagine anything more fulfilling than being a parent and I know that I am ready (well, as ready as I'll ever be).

If I've seemed standoffish, antisocial or just absent lately I do apologize and I hope that you won't take it personally. I have had round the clock nausea six the 6th week of my pregnancy and pretty much all I want to do is sleep and eat ice cream. I am also extremely emotional and prone to weepy meltdowns for no reason. Let me tell you, I'm *really* fun to be around right now ;-P

Eric has been a saint and is keeping me calm and well fed. The other night I asked him to pick up some orange sherbert on the way home from work for me and he came in with six pints of various ice creams, sorbets and sherberts and a bouquet of daisies, what a sweet heart :-) My parents have also been wonderful and it has made me sooo happy that we made the decision to move close by.

I want to thank everyone that we have told our big news to for all the love and support, you have all been amazing! We can't wait to meet our new family member and I will try to keep everyone updated here on the blog as the pregnancy develops. Yay for babies! Yay for our growing family! This is such an exciting time in our lives, thanks to everyone who is sharing in it with us :-)

My Childhood Jewelry Box Restored

I recently had a family heirloom restored to me and I can't tell you how excited I am to have rediscovered it! The item is a jewelry box that was built for me by my grandfather on my Mom's side. He was really in to wood working and made me a lot of things that I didn't really appreciate when I was a kid but now I am so happy to have them. This jewelry box is kind of like a miniature dresser, in fact, I used it to hold all of my doll's clothes when I was little. I've seen this style of jewelry box become popular recently at stores such as World Market. I don't think I ever actually used it for it's intended purpose until recently but I can tell you that I am very happy to have it back in my life. My dad was kind enough to refinish the jewelry box for me and add some new knobs, Not only is it great to have something from my grandfather, it also solves my jewelry storage problem (which had gotten quite out of hand). Thanks to my Dad for fixing it up for me and thanks to my Grandpa for making it for me to begin with!

My cute new/old jewelry box

Storage problem solved!