October

Oh friends, graduate school is hard! Writing a thesis is hard! I don't have much to say that would interest you so here are some snapshots of my life at the moment!

This is where my weekends are spent. In this thesis mess (and yes those are wedding presents that have yet to find a home in our tiny apartment).

I've been drinking many cups of coffee (luckily out of a pretty tea cup).

Honey from my parent's bee hive is my new current obsession. We've put it in desserts, yogurt, tea, etc (I love this vintage glass jar my mom gave me!)

flowers from my mom's garden

pears are in season! that means pear-ginger pie!

saying goodbye heirloom tomatoes with cream cheese tomato toast :)

how we tried to be green and save money: wedding flowers

For those of you who don't know the force that is my mother, you are missing out. Not only did the woman insist on baking 35 pies for our wedding but she was insistant, and I mean insistant on doing the flowers. She and her best friend from college (auntie thea) planned in advance and grew in their gardens flowers that would be colorful and vibrant in late august early september. And not just the flowers for bouquets, nope. She, auntie thea and our family friend suzie were dream team extraordinaire. They started at 8am and got all the flowers done by 3pm! Right in time for the wedding!

I just loved all the colors, especially the black eyed susan's!

pictures by the amazing Denny Henry

These flowers were raised without pesticides in my mom and auntie thea's gardens. The only major expense were the wire and the ribbon which we bought at micheals (we did run out of ribbon and the wire was a bit sticky. But no worries, my crafty bridesmaids simply wrapped tissues around the ones that were missing ribbons)

picture by my Aunt Lisa

For the centerpieces my mom and I purchased these white planters from ikea for a whopping $1.99 each (28 x1.99+ tax)= about $60 total for centerpieces). Also we are reusing them. My mom sells flowers (and pie) at the Charlottesville farmers market in the summer and is using these planters for her arrangements that she displays and sells- of course we are keeping a few for ourselves :-))