One More Shot from Cupcake Luv in Ballard, Washington

I posted too soon! Here's another shot from ELD Images of the "luvely" lady Laureen Lapitan of Cupcake Luv!

Shot at the Ballard Farmers Market, where you can buy Laureen's yummy cupcake creations.

I Spy: At Santa Monica Farmers' Market

Fresh lavender at the Farmers' Market.

My favorite childhood book- hands down- was Harriet The Spy. Have you read it? Harriet- the anti-heroine- helped change my life back in the Dark Ages. It was 1964 and girls were expected to giggle and take ballet and dream of party dresses. We were encouraged to walk with books on our heads to cultivate a ladylike gait, and practice buttoning the baby teeth pearls on our slim white gloves with nimble, dainty fingers. 

But, as you may have guessed, I was neither dainty or particularly infatuated with the girly stuff of being a girl. I was bored to tears with feminine training. I didn't long to be an object that was admired. I wanted to actually do something. To create something. I wanted to be Harriet the Spy. I bought a notebook just like Harriet, scribbled down stories and drew pictures. I created a world. It was my book of secrets. 

Today I roam the streets of Santa Monica with an iPhone. I take pictures. I walk and look and catch snippets of conversation. I photograph street life and shop windows, found art and empty spaces. The iPhone is my notebook now. I am recording my observations. 

And today, here is what I saw. Hope you enjoy it.

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A Bevy of Gluten-Free: Fruit and Vegetables

Jewels at the farmers' market -- naturally gluten-free.

Walking the Santa Monica Farmers' Market beneath dove gray December skies I fell in love with the quiet beauty of seasonal fruits and vegetables protected under netting. There is something so poetic, so archetypal about it. So shy and evocative. Seductive and beckoning. So downright bridal. So understated gorgeous. So rather than waxing all Emily Dickinson on ya and conjuring words for the experience I thought I might use my camera instead.

And let my pictures do the talking.

Jewels at the Santa Monica Farmers Market

Gorgeous fresh picked carrots in a rainbow of colors.

This week at the Santa Monica Farmers' Market the jewels of the season glow. Among my favorites? The rainbow carrots in orange, ruby, purple and gold. Some roots were so young they were the tiniest of crooked fingers, delicate and naturally sweet. These carrots make wonderful crudities for hummus.

Serve raw with:

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus
Jalapeño Lime Hummus
Classic Hummus Tahini with Spiced Olive Oil

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Summer in Santa Monica- and a recipe round-up

Farmers' market beauty in Santa Monica.

The first notes from our 

Santa Monica summer sublet:

After living in the brittle high dessert of Northern New Mexico for three years, I am drunk on oxygen. I walk Ocean Avenue cradled in moisture, intoxicated, breathing deep. And although we sleep seventeen blocks from the Pacific, I smell the ocean in the sheets. I wake with the sensation, the awareness of the sea. It infuses the day with an unnameable pleasure I can almost taste. If I could live on air I would eat the on-shore breeze with a spoon.

Steve has found his own source of bliss at Caffe Luxxe on Montana Avenue. Rich, caramel Italian espresso with the perfect artful brush of creamy foam. If further persuasion is needed to lure him into staying here, I only need to whisper, “Una bella tazza” and he'll be putty in my hands.

Things are looking up.

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