Findings | Unruly Bliss

Feb

27

Charlito’s Cocina and The Welsh Rabbit Cheese Shop

Have you ever heard of Fab.com? I looooooove this site. My first purchase from Fab was this super fun Explore America poster by the Anderson Design Group. It lives in a lovely, vintage gray frame in my living room. A few of my other purchases include a 2 year subscription to Clean Eating Magazine {for 13 bucks!} and this amazing sausage that arrived in the mail this past Friday!

It’s a dry cured black truffle sausage called Trufa Seca. It came from Charlito’s Cocina, a charcuterie based out of Long Island City in New York. I love their food ethics in that they “strive to create delicious, shelf stable foods using the cleanest, most well raised ingredients possible.” All the meat they use is 100% pasture raised, heritage breed pork and the salt they use is all hand harvested fleur de sel. {Good stuff!}

Now, one of the millions of things that I love about Justin is how willing he is to try new things with me. So, off we went to find a new delicious cheese to go with our new sausage {which we had no idea if we’d even like}. We headed to a little cheese shop that we found through a friend’s Facebook post {hello, social media!} called The Welsh Rabbit Cheese Shop.

It was absolutely wonderful! They work with other local specialty and food shops so that you can purchase and enjoy crafted cheeses, charcuterie, chocolate, crackers, and wine! It’s a cute little shop with tables to sit at and lots and lots of yummy cheeses to try. We sampled a few goat’s milk cheeses {my favorite} and we ended up buying a few ounces of Garrotxa! It’s a goat’s milk cheese produced in the Catalonia region in northern Spain and it has definitely become one of my absolute favorites! {We all know I love cheese…from here, here, and here…so to be an absolute favorite of mine means a lot!}

So…together {and separately of course}, the Garrotxa and the Trufa Seca were DELICIOUS!!! It took everything we had not to eat all of it in one sitting! Sometimes these little adventures really pay off {thanks Fab.com}. So, if you ever find yourself in Long Island City, New York, visit Charlito’s Cocina. Then buy some Trufa Seca sausage! {Or buy it here.} And if you’re ever in Old Town Fort Collins, Colorado, visit The Welsh Rabbit Cheese Shop. And buy some Garrotxa cheese! Then enjoy them both with some yummy crisp crackers and someone you love…

Pin It

Dec

9

I’ve never done a gift list post before, but with Pinterest around, I am finding just way too many things that I’d love to receive under my tree this year! With just under the wire {perfect} timing, here is a list of extremely affordable items that any woman in your life should love. {Sorry! I’m not so good at guy gifts.} Links to each gift can be found below… Have a wonderful holiday season and happy gifting!

LINKS

1. 2013 {12 month} Paper Source Wall Art Calendar

2. 2013 Recipe Wall Calendar – Local/Seasonal Ingredients

3. Avian Friends Birthday Calendar

4. Remember the Day canvases and prints

5. Vintage Pin Board Frame

6. Fun and Funky Vintage Maps

7. Removable Chalkboard Wallies – 4 pack

8. My Quotable Kid Journal

9. Williams-Sonoma The New Slow Cooker Cookbook

10. Blue & White Paper Straws

11. Gem Earbuds

12. Wish – Eau de Parfum

13. Vintage Bird Mug with Lid

14. Stella & Dot Light Bracelet

For even more amazing gift ideas, head over to my friend Chloe’s blog. She’s posting some pretty awesome gifts every day for two weeks. {Cool guy stuff too!}

My featured image is from Heather over at her wonderful site, WhipperBerry.com. Visit there for some beautiful DIY packaging tutorials!

Pin It

Sep

6

I have a problem. Well, it’s more of an addiction really. I’m addicted…to plants. And flowers. So because of this, I am, of course, obsessed with pots. And terrariums. And vases. And anything else that can be used as little vessels for green life. I have 24 living plants in my living room and kitchen {they’re small}. Trust me, there would be many more, but I have a smart husband who can smooth talk anyone into and out of almost anything. At this point though, there simply isn’t any room left. 1100 square feet only goes so far, especially when you need to, ya know, live in it. Here are a few of my favorite gems…

Rabbit Foot Fern from Pottery Barn

Open-Face Terrarium from West Elm

Aqua Glass Vase from West Elm

Terrarium from Pottery Barn

Hanging Glass Bubbles, wedding gifts

Pin It

Apr

18

On Monday, April 16th, Google honored one of my favorite photographers with a Google doodle.

Image Source

According to Matthew Shaer of the Christian Science Monitor, Robert Doisneau was “Only one of the most recognizable stylists in the annals of modern photography – a Paris-born flâneur who wandered the streets of his home city with his trademark Leica in hand, collecting images of the local street life.” Doisneau was born on April 14th, 1912, and passed away on April 1st, 1994, making last Saturday his ‘would-be’ 100th birthday.

I remember seeing one of Doisneau’s photographs for the first time when I was 11, in 6th grade. My English teacher told us to find a picture from a book in the library and write a long story about it. I found this one…

Image Source

While all of the other kids chose to write about motorcycles and baby elephants, I chose to write about a kiss. I can remember that I wrote some elaborate love story where the man in the picture was a prince and his lady love was just a commoner. His parents disapproved of his choice in marriage and so the two were running away together. Now let me explain, I was not some love struck 11 year-old. But I had just seen Romeo and Juliet right before this assignment (yes, the one with Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio) and I was truly traumatized. I must have been the only person to see that movie who had no idea they would both die at the end! It was a horrible first experience with a Shakespeare play. So with that tragedy in mind, I happily rewrote Shakespeare’s play for him using Doisneau’s photograph and gave it the proper ending that I thought it deserved. Everyone, of course, lived happily ever after. I can’t remember what grade I received for the story, but I do know that for my entire life, this photograph is how I pictured love to look and feel. Read the REAL story behind the photograph here.

Here are a few more of Doisneau’s photographs that I just love…

Image Source

“Toute ma vie je me suis amusé, je me suis fabriqué mon petit théâtre.”

Translates to:

“All my life I had fun, I made my own little theater for myself.”

Pin It

Apr

13

A few weeks ago, my best girlfriend Ebony sent me a request to join Fab.com. Since she doesn’t really email me often and never sends out forwards or emails of that nature, I thought I should actually check it out. I loved it!

It’s the coolest thing ever. Well maybe not ever. But pretty close.

It’s got great search options (browse by price, shops, and colors) and I’m loving Vintage Thursdays and Foodie Fridays.

I’ve been stumbling onto all sorts of new shops that I love and I found an amazing design group who is apparently all over the place.

Anderson Design Group, Inc. is an award-winning graphic design firm based in Nashville, TN. Founder Joel Anderson and a group of talented artists and illustrators have been designing logos, book covers, products, posters and more for clients such as National Geographic, Golden Books, Universal Studios, Capitol Records and DreamWorks since 1993.

-Poster, Cupcake Collection: Ligia Teodosiu