the picture of this yellow dress

is featured in this really cool set from chronicle, curated by this lovely and talented lady.

what are you waiting for? go get you some.

long beach swap meet

dear long beach swap meet.

you are my very favorite swap meet. i love you, long beach swap meet, but i beg of you not to tell the others (pcc, rose bowl, santa monica, torrance . . .). it's just that you never disappoint. you are always there for me (at least you are on the third sunday of every month). you feed me with your soft pretzels and semi-flat pepsi and you don't rob me blind. in fact, i always find the most inspiring things at you, long beach, and they usually cost around a buck. somehow this weekend the bucks added up, but that's probably because i have a little project i'm working on. thanks for the inspiration, and the horrible sun burn.

xo
jen

figs

as it turns out, my brother has a fig tree in his back yard, and . . . it has figs on it. i know. exciting, right? i made him pull off a whole branch, cause i thought it looked so pretty. i took lots of fig pictures and now i have all of these figs. does anyone have a good fig jam recipe? is that hard to make? i feel like it should be easy. please help before they die.

making a move

anyone that knows me knows that the last year has been especially overwhelming for me. starting a business (we just turned 1, hooray!!), styling, shooting and blogging have been just a few things that have eaten up my time and a large sampling of my sanity. i have neglected lots of people and lots of projects, and i am riddled with guilt (jewish guilt, no less, and it's the worst). i wish i could say i am the type of person that rises to the occasion when things get overwhelming, but usually i curl up somewhere and cry (but please don't tell anyone, as i pretend to be quite strong). in an effort to reduce this sort of behavior, i am trying to streamline a bit. so i am doing something i should have done a long, long time ago. i'm bringing becoming a foodie over here. i have so neglected that sweet blog and i want that to stop. i think if i just have one blog, it will be easier and great for you, cause now i won't feel guilty about doing food posts over here. let's see how it goes.

ps. finally got to pick a whole bunch of tomatoes from gwendolyn (that's not a lady, that's my tomato plant).

in the garden

i spent some time in the veggie garden today.
pulling weeds.
staking tomatoes.
catching hornworms. (very satisfying)
hand pollinating cucumbers.
cutting down my amazing lettuce that just bolted. (i would insert a sad face emoticon here, but i don't believe in emoticons)
harvesting radish seeds.
and just feeling generally satisfied at my accomplishment. i am finally a green thumb.

too busy to clean

do you see a theme starting? gosh, i hope not. i was meaning to become less busy, but somehow that hasn't happened. we had a shoot here on tuesday, and the kitchen still pretty much looks the same. my very talented friend and stylist, emily, suggested i get an intern. not a bad idea. any takers?

too busy to blog

apparently, not only was i too busy to breathe, but also too busy to blog. oops. sorry. here is a beautiful zucchini leaf as a peace offering. yes, a zucchini leaf! from my garden! it's growing!!!! i am loving every minute of it. it has become part of my daily routine. wake up, check mail, check perez hilton (to get my "news"), put on sun dress and flip flops, grab garden clippers and head out back. yesterday i even hand pollinated my cucumbers (sounds so dirty and for some reason i end up singing "reproduction" from grease 2 - yikes). so far we have had one zucchini, one strawberry (yum), one persian cucumber and a bunch of different lettuces (been making salads almost every night). i have also already turned a garden misfortune into a garden fortune. early on i was very impressed at how my radishes were growing. i had never seen radish leaves that big. i must be an amazing gardener. then i thought to myself, "self, this is too good to be true." so i took myself to the computer and googled large radish leaves. not good - - bad. it was too hot for radishes (i kinda knew that, but i wanted radishes gosh darnit), so they never "took." the plant is now huge as i am letting it go to seed and will attempt to harvest the seeds and plant them later in the year. the good part is that i read you can make pesto from the leaves. you can. it's delicious. so all was not lost. ok. i have to run (i will literally get up from the computer and run) and start my busy day of not breathing. bye.

ps. if anyone knows a good veggie garden blog, please oh please let me know.