Peddlers

I’m teaching in a summer art program in my hometown of Florence and staying with my parents for the next few weeks. It’s awesome work and the only downside is that I really, REALLY miss my kitties (and Forrest).

Florence is growing in big, real ways and I’m so excited about witnessing it. I’m going to try to document some of that growth here.

This afternoon, I checked out Palmetto Peddlers with my mom. Imagine a warehouse full of antiques and fun stuff. It is awesome- everything from cutouts of the Disney Pocahontas to serious antique furniture and gorgeous depression glass pieces.  This place is really fabulous and they have SO MANY different things. I was impressed by the size of this place and the variety of merchandise sold by the vendors.

Whether you’re a Florentine or passing through, I recommend a stop at Palmetto Peddlers. It’s totally worth it. Here are some of the lovelies we spotted today…

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Junkin’

Fact: I love old stuff. I’m inspired by antiques, old family trinkets, furniture, and stories. Recently, I’ve spent a good bit of time digging through antique stores-  usually just looking, rarely buying anything.

I found these in an antique store this afternoon- pretty common, just a few old photos. But every time I stumble onto this kind of thing, it sets my head spinning with stories about who these men were, where they lived, who kept this photo on their dresser. And what kind of person sells family photos? …that brings up even more questions- sadder questions.

I’ve been thinking about this Stephen Nevitt exhibit a lot lately. It was beautiful- paintings based on photos of the women in his family, accompanied by stories of the lives they led.

I’ll be back and forth between my parents house in Florence and our home in Columbia for the next few weeks. I’m teaching in an art program in Flo-town and my parents have been kind enough to let me stay with them on weekdays. Give me a call if you’re in town!

<3, Liz

Fig pizza? YES, please.

So there’s this amazing restaurant across town called Rosso Trattoria. I’m obsessed with their fig, prosciutto, and goat cheese pizza- it’s salty and sweet and excellent.

Forrest and I tried our hand at making our own version of that pizza last night. As luck would have it, my grandmother makes preserves every year from my grandfather’s fig tree in their yard. I’d been sitting on a little jar of her preserves for about a year now, so we pulled it out and diced up a few figs and for the pizza.

Fig preserves

I’m not into making dough, so we bought fresh dough from the Publix bakery. We spread it with fig preserves, ripped up a few pieces of prosciutto, sprinkled goat cheese, and threw it on the grill (it’s too hot in SC to cook inside nowadays!).

Perfect. I’m not sure my Ginma will understand using her homemade preserves for a pizza, but man, was it incredible. Maybe I’ll make one  for her this summer.

But really, we were giddy at the way it turned out and that doesn’t happen everyday.    🙂

<3, Liz

hey there, beautiful

In celebration our third anniversary last night we cleaned up, put on our fancy clothes, and headed over to the Hampton Street Vineyard! It isn’t really a vineyard, but their crab cake was on the cover of Columbia Metropolitan last month. AND it was beautiful and I knew when I saw it that I had to make it mine.

Creamy and lovely.  Delish.

I’d show you pictures, but they have a strict no-cell-phones policy in that joint. As in, it’s printed multiple times in the menu. Whatev, you should still head over and tell them you came for the beautiful crab cake.

<3, Liz

May 30 Garden Update

Just a quick update about our garden progress!

Sungold tomatoes

First up are our sungold cherry tomatoes. The ones on the left are just starting to get some color and ripen up. I expect these first ones will be eaten before they make it in the house.

White CucumberFruit on the vine! This looks like the first of our white cucumbers showing up on the vine. We’ve never grown this variety before so we can’t wait to see how they turn out.

Yellow summer squashThat little guy is our first squash of the summer. There’s another one of similar size on the plant and I just noticed new one on the plant today.

Jacksonville, featuring friends, food, and coffee.

The worst part about growing up and getting older is that many of our friends have moved away- some to graduate school, some to jobs in other cities. On the other hand, visiting friends is a great excuse for a road trip/mini-break!

Forrest and I spent the weekend in Jacksonville, Florida with his old roomie Jon, his wife Diana, and their sweet puppy Jax. Jon and Diana live in a super cute house in a lovely neighborhood with plenty of free-ranging cats.

That tall red head in our wedding photos is Jon. He and Forrest totally feed off of each other- it can get a little crazy.

Continue reading “Jacksonville, featuring friends, food, and coffee.”