Life as we go it

The days of the summer farmers' market are long past...and it seems as if we're entering into an arctic freeze. But luckily we have the Sheboygan Winter Farmers Market to provide us with the pleasures of summer, just in a "different" way (examples: tomatoes are canned instead of fresh and local lettuce is grown in a greenhouse instead of a garden).

I wanted to share what we bought at the market yesterday because all of it just looks so yummers.

Our next-door neighbor makes these salsas herself and sells them at the market. Made with heirloom tomatoes, peppers, onion, lime juice, lemon juice, cilantro, vinegar, garlic and salt. Hey, I know what all of the ingredients are!

Yeah...Matt ate half of this jar already. Also made with organic heirloom tomatoes.

Matt persuaded me to get this lamb steak. I'm honestly not a huge lamb fan, but I'll give it a whirl. This is from a local Wisconsin farm called Settler Farm Lamb.

OMG this honey is so good. Matt prefers orange blossom honey (but orange blossom honey is always imported from down south). I prefer clover honey. Liam will pretty much eat honey with anything (he would seriously dip pickles in honey if given the chance).

We bought a quart. It filled up our honey jar, our honey bear and there's still 1/2 a quart left in the cupboard.

This syrup is super local as well. Our neighbor's boyfriend tends to the syrup on this farm. Liam is obsessed with this syrup as well.

This cool hippie couple persuaded us to buy some of their freshly hand-dipped incense sticks. Matt and I both love the smell of Nag Champa. We like to place a stick in our fireplace at times, or we're stick them in the grass in our yard during parties for a nice little scent.

All of the above items cost us around $45. That may seem like a lot of money for some salsas, meat and sweet toppings, but when you really think about it, it's not too bad. At the grocery store $45 will buy you a few bags of Tostitos, some cases of soda and beer and some ice cream. And how long will those items last? Maybe a week or two? And how healthy are they for you? On another note, I know that $45 can buy you a decent amount of food if you're a smart shopper, such as a package of chicken breasts, canned veggies, some fresh fruits and a couple gallons of milk. But those will also be gone in a week or two.

Considering the items we bought, I'm predicting the salsa will last a couple of weeks in our house (ok...who am I kidding...Matt will probably down both jars all by himself within the next week), the meat will make a good 2-3 meals for our little family, and the honey and syrup will last us a good 6-9 months. Part of the reason the syrup and honey will last us so long is because we use LESS compared to syrups and honeys we've bought from grocery store. The local syrup and honey just taste THAT much better because they're not filled with sugars & artificial flavorings. And the incense will last us a good year.

Other that knowing we're eating locally grown & made items, it feels great to buy from local people.

Do YOU have a winter farmers market in your town? What are your favorite items?

This post is a quick shout out to Beef Tea -- the local bluegrass band that has stolen our ears and our hearts  :)

Matt and I love to see live music. It's one of our favorite things to do together. Some live music is "just okay" and some of it shouldn't even be allowed in public. But this live music was A M A Z I N G!

A couple of weeks ago we had the opportunity to see Beef Tea (who we've seen twice before) in the backyard of someones home! Our besties in Sheboygan (you know who you are) invited us to a private backyard concert/pig roast. The band played on the back deck of the home. It was a hot, sunny day and perfect weather to listen to some tunes. We feel so fortunate that we could see them in such a small, intimate setting.

If you want to hear some of their music, here's their Website and Facebook page . If you're a fan of Bluegrass music, I think you'll really like them.

And here are some photos from the private concert we attended!!

All of the members are talented in their own way. The lead singer has the most beautiful voice.

I think it's so cool that she plays accordion :)

Matt and Brian giving the thumbs-up

Liam and I walk to our local ReStore every couple of weeks. It's only a few blocks from our home. Liam LOVES looking at all of the things as we walk through the aisles.

In case you're unfamiliar with what ReStore is -- it's run by Habitat For Humanity and people donate used or unused home-type goods and materials. The store is always filled with goodies, and at excellent prices :) The store is a maze of wooden doors, used appliances, retro office furniture, ugly ceiling fans, cabinetry, mismatched tiles, etc.

Matt and I have donated a few things to our local store (kitchen cabinets and ceramic tiles) and we've also bought some things there (a sweet window seat that's currently being used as storage in our garage, a cool wooden box that we store firewood in, and a couple of other little doodads).

I bought this old black magazine rack a couple of weeks ago. I'm not big into decorating with the color black, but I saw potential when I spotted this. And it was only $5:

Hello weird ol' eighties-ish magazine rack...

Rust-Oleum in "Lemon Grass"

Two coats

I'm not exactly sure where I want to use it yet. And as I've shared with you before, I'm a bit of a magazine junkie, so I could really use it in ANY room in the house! But it will probably end up in our kitchen, living room or downstairs bathroom.

It's next to our couch for now

The lemon grass color matches well with my new LOVE pillow in our living room :)

And here's a quick show-and-tell from this week's Crafty Club. My friend Andi hosted craft night this past Monday and we worked on two paper-crafting projects:

We each stamped & put together six happy birthday cards

And we each made a bouquet of paper flowers