Brick Fair 2016 Chantilly VA

School starts this week, so last weekend we wanted to do something fun for the end of summer vacation. We had originally planned to visit to Williamsburg, but my son really wanted to go to Brickfair in Chantilly instead.

He listens to an online  Lego Bionicle Podcast and found out that the members of the pod cast would be there. 

So we waited in line to meet them, get autographs and have his picture taken with them.  It was all very exciting!

On our way to Brickfair (5h drive) my girl drew pictures of the podcast members. When it was time to give them to them, she kind of panicked and didn't want to give them the pictures. i encouraged her to give them the drawing and they LOVED them. They made a huge deal about it, and had her come up and they all asked to take pictures with her (instead of her asking to take a picture with them). They even took a video of her holding the pictures.

She loved the attention and my boy suspects she'll be getting a shout Out on the next pod cast. i think he was a wee bit jealous of the attention she got. ;) Especially since she doesn't even really listen to the podcast.

The Brickfair was pretty overwhelming! It was really large and there were so many people! One of the rooms had all the lego models on display.  These are not sets you can buy, but models people created on their own just using lego pieces.  They were truly amazing!  i'm sharing a couple of my favorites. 

The Harry Potter Quidditch pitch!  The details are unbelievable. Harry and Malfoy are both on broomsticks in the field. You can see Snape, Hagrid, Dumbledore etc up in the stands. i could have stood there all day looking at all the details and finding different mini-figures we recognized.  

The White Council (LOTR).  i love the way the bricks look like water.  

The inside of the tardis. :)  This was amazing and so detailed.

These pictures are entirely made of lego, and they change depending on which angle you are looking at them. There was a lot of 2-d artwork like this besides just the models.

There were so many full landscape sets that were just unbelievable.  So much detail! We really enjoyed looking at them all.  Half the room was models on display and the other half was legos for sale.

They had a second room with bounce houses, games and lego tables set up for the kids to build. 

It was really a pretty neat experience. It was much bigger than i was expecting it to be. i was also able to meet up with a friend i haven't seen in 6-7  years and her kids while i was there.  So that was incredibly special. 

My kids really had a fantastic time, and i have a feeling we'll be back next year if they have it again. 

Painting with USartsupply (Review)

My daughter loves doing anything creative! She wants to be an artist when she grows up. :) We were recently given to opportunity to test out and review the "Super Solana" XLarge Desktop Easel by #usartsupply.  We've already reviewed some paints and brushes by #USartsupply , and were very happy with them!  They specialize in affordable arts and craft supplies.

The Super Solana" XLarge Desktop Easel is a really nice tabletop easel. The easel is solid beechwood, and feels very well made and durable. The wood has a soft natural finish and it's easy to clean paint off of it. My daughter claimed it immediately, and has been using it ever since it arrived.

It's a great size to set up on the table. She likes to stand while using it, but by adjusting the angle it would work great for sitting down too.

This easel also has a large drawer with three compartments in it, so you can store your paints and brushes. There are clasps on the drawer to keep it closed so it doesn't open when you are holding it by the handle. The easel adjusts to four positions and has a flip out shelf to hold the canvas.

It's portable as it has a handle on the top and clasps to keep it from coming open. It's a nice large size, but is not too heavy to carry. It folds up nicely, so it's easy to store. You can take it along and paint almost anywhere with this   She's been painting almost nonstop since we set it up for her. It's really perfect for her!

i'm so impressed with the paintings she has created this week! These are based on Animal Jam characters, but she drew them freehand and did all the painting herself.  She's already started a third painting.  i'm going have to go out this week to get her more canvas, :)  i couldn't be prouder.


i received the Tabletop easel in exchange for my honest review. i was not compensated. We really do love it!

Addicted to Zoodles!

A couple weeks ago i received a veggie spiralizer in exchange for a review. A blog post was not a required task, but i've had so much fun with my spiralizer that i wanted to share here anyhow.  There are a ton of different ones on the market, so i can only tell you my opinion of this one.

i love it!! i have never used one before, so i don't have anything to compare it to but it works fantastic for zucchini noodles! i also tried it out on a potato and made ribbon fries. :) It is two sided with a different blade in each side. It comes with 4 different julienne sizes 3mm, 5mm and 10mm and a 70mm that makes ribbon cuts. The 3 and 10mm works perfect for zucchini noodles. When i tried using the 3mm on my zucchini, it just turned it to mush, so i'm thinking the smallest size would work better for a harder vegetable like carrots or parsnips.  

The blades are stainless steel and are easy to put in and take out. Very sharp though, so be careful with them. This photo shows the 5mm size. Perfect for spaghetti style noodles.

This is Zoodles with a garden fresh marinara sauce, vegetable tian, garden salad and dragon tongue beans. Ecerything came from the garden except olive oil, salt/pepper and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. The zoodles are so easy to prepare, just saute them lightly in olive oil and garlic. The top with your sauce. So delicious.

This picture shoes the 10mm which comes out similar to a fettuccine noodle.

i made roasted red pepper and feta fettuccine using these and it turned out fabulous! 

i used this recipe for the red pepper feta sauce  and served it over the fettuccine style zoodles. The red pepper feta sauce is a favorite, it's so easy and good. i served it with breaded zucchini, fresh tomato and dragon tongue beans. The Dragon tongue are a recent favorite. They are yellow with purple stripes, but cook into a tasty flat yellow bean. It's a nice change from regular green beans. 

i also made eggplant Parmesan over a bed off zoodles, i layed the zoodles on the bottom, then marinara sauce, breaded eggplant, cheese, more sauce, more eggplant and topped with cheese, then baked it.  i'm happy to say the zoodles kept their shape/texture even after being baked. i was a little afraid the zucchini would just turn to mush, but it didn't at all!  

Next i'm going to try using the flat noodle blade to make zucchini lasagna roll ups. :) i don't have any problems eating pasta, but with so much zucchini right now,  zoodles are a wonderful healthy alternative! 

i received the spiralizer for free in exchange for an amazon review. i was not compensated, nor was i required to blog about it.  i chose to post about it here, because i really do love it! 

Greenhouse Tour and Garden Update

So in case i haven't said it before, i LOVE my greenhouse. It's one of those things i have always wanted, and it totally lives up to my expectation.  It's my happy place, and i really, really love it.

 i was playing around with the video on my phone and thought i'd give you a little greenhouse tour.

Tomatoes in my greenhouse. They are about 8-9 feet tall and completely free of disease. Every year i struggle with tomatoes in the garden. i've had more diseases than i can count. Early blight and Septoria leaf spot are a constant, but i've also had late blight a few times, bacterial canker one year and various leaf molds and other foliage diseases. 

Being able to grow a few (7) tomato plants in my greenhouse has just been amazing. They are in a raised bed along one wall. The greenhouse is 11 foot tall, and the tomatoes have found their way to the roof vent and are escaping the greenhouse. :)  i also have peppers and eggplants growing in the same raised bed and they are all doing fantastic. 

Outside in the garden the eggplants are always attacked by flea beetles. They end up stunted and barely grow. i'm lucky to get one small eggplant off of them. i have three eggplants in my greenhouse and they are loaded with eggplants and blooms. The leaves on some of them are huge! i didn't even know eggplants got that big!!  i can't even express how exciting it is to grow something so effortlessly that i've never been able to grow before.

i use to be able to grow peppers in the garden okay, but the last couple years they have looked stunted and diseased.  i really had no idea what was going on with them. i now believe it may have been a potassium deficiency. We had out soil tested and were very deficient on potassium. 

i've added some potassium supplements to the soil and are hoping to see an improvement on them, but until then i have peppers in the greenhouse that are just exploding with fruits. 

This whole gardening season has felt like a bit of an experiment. i had no idea how growing in the greenhouse would go. i had to play with regulating the temperature. i came out a few times to find the greenhouse temp at 120 degrees! i ended up just putting a fan inside to help lower the temperatures and it worked well.  We added quite a few additives to the gardens, and saw a huge difference in one of the beds.  The other garden still seems to be a little deficient in potassium, we added a slow release (greensand) and think that a quicker release may have been better this year, as the plants are still showing signs of deficiency. 

i definitely feel as though we've learned a lot this year, so even though parts of my garden are still struggling i have a much better grasp on what needs to be done to improve the soil this fall.  

Monarchs have returned.

Every year around the end of July i start looking for Monarch butterflies. Some years i see quite a few, and some years i don't see any. This year i've only seen 3 so far, and they were just passing through.  

The monarch population has been declining for years, because of pesticides and loss of habitat, but i've been seeing a lot of articles this year saying the monarch population is on the rise!  Such great news!  

Around this time each year, i go out and collect monarch eggs so that we can raise the caterpillars inside. In the wild, only 1 out of 10 monarchs survive to adulthood. So by raising them inside away from predators, and lawn mowers we really increase the survival rate.  We still occasionally lose a few due to disease (usually infected milkweed) or already infected caterpillars (full of wasp larva) but i still feel like we are helping the population by raising them inside. 

Yesterday i went out looking for monarch eggs and instead found several caterpillars! 

So we brought them home to raise inside protected from the predators and county mowers, who mow down all the milkweed each year.

i brought home 4 to raise inside in a glass aquarium, and will be checking for more all week.  i'll keep y'all updated on their progress and release. Even though population is increasing, i still plan to help keep it that way by raising and releasing as many as we can!