Productive Weekend!

I got quite a bit done this weekend!  I ran errands, cooked yummy foods, made a handful of DIY projects, did a favor for some friends, cleaned the apartment, and even got around to taking all of my bottles/cans/boxes to the recycling center!

On Saturday I vacuumed, put away laundry and did dishes before I headed out to run errands including returning shoes and a bathing suit, buying plants for one of my DIY projects (more on that later), adding chemicals to my friends' pool while they're out of town, and stopping off at my favorite grocery store, Central Market.  I went a little hog wild there and bought a TON of yummy foods, a lemon thyme plant to replace the one I already killed (whoops), a couple of bottles of wine, and (I couldn't resist) some beautiful pink tulips.  That night when I got home I absolutely HAD to make dinner with my new ingredients and I settled on a shallot, shitake mushroom, aspargus, and shrimp risotto which turned out amazing.  Shallots and shitake mushrooms are my new super flavor duo - everything I make with them tastes fantastic!  For desert I had a scoop of this interesting new saffron spice gelato that I had purchased - it's ok.  Better in small doses and with something else to mix up the flavor.  I added strawberries.  I also took the time to roast a big batch of campari tomatoes that I had just bought as well.  Super easy and super delicious - just cut in half, coat in olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and bake in the oven at about 250 for 3 hours.  It concentrates the flavor into pure awesomeness.  I did this while I completed a handful of DIY projects that I'd finally gotten all of the supplies for:

I had linked to this epaulette in my Summer Wishlist post, but at $140 it was a bit beyond what I wanted to spend on a piece of jewelry.  So I made my own.  The original is on the left and mine on the right.  Not spot on, but I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out!

 I had mentioned this cool anchor bracelet a while ago and after toying around with the knotting scheme a bit, I think I got it figured out.  I chose to use large brass end caps instead of the method used in the original post, and I think I wound up using much thicker cord too, but I think they're really beautiful!

These bracelets came off of my favorite blog for DIY inspiration in two separate posts.  I combined them all and made the macrame bracelets, the tube bracelets, and the leather cord tube bracelet.  I love the way they looked stacked!  (the left and center pictures are from Honestly WTF and the picture on the right is my finished product!)

That was it for Saturday.  I accomplished a lot, right?!?  On Sunday I finally organized all of my recyclables and took them to the nearby recycling center.  Then I got a bunch of food stuff ready for my evening DIY event, showered up, and headed out.  B was hosting a Cork Succulent DIY party at her place where our friend V joined us.  We used a dremel tool to drill holes into corks where we planted the miniature succulent plants that I had purchased the day before.  They turned out REALLY cute!  B and V attached magnets to the back of theirs to take to work and pretty-fy their cubicles.  I chose to add thumb tacks to mine and stuck them into my wall at home.  Succulents are supposed to be hard to kill, so here's hoping!

In between steps of the cork projects, we ate an absolutely delicious dinner of bread, cheese, and fresh green beans.  I had bought the cheese the day before at Central Market and I picked out some really great options: a Dubliner with Irish Stout, a Garlic and Dill Cheddar, a super oozy Brie, Goat Cheese with Basil (which tasted amazing with my slow roasted tomatoes), and my favorite, St. Antoine Comte.  YUM!  For desert I made a recipe I found on Cup of Jo for an orange vanilla marscapone cream topped with fresh berries and crumbled sweet biscuit.  It was light and delicious and tasted vaguely of creme brule.  And during the entire process we sipped on Grapefruit Habanero "Margaritas"...