Thursday, October 31, 2013

Cheese making and vacation time!

A couple weeks ago I tried making goat cheese with a little DIY kit that I received as a Christmas present. I would have tried making this sooner, but it took a really long time to track down non-homogenized goat milk! I finally found some at the Union Market (where Crafty Bastards was held) so the time was right to try my hand as a cheese maker.


I followed all of the steps, but ultimately this was a failure. I had a fun time trying to make cheese, but the end result was a slimy wet mush that slipped out of the molds and into a salty puddle. Oh well!

On a completely different subject, I am leaving soon to go on vacation with my sister! We are having another sisters' trip to Walt Disney World (we had our first sisters' trip 2 years ago)! Shannon arrives in DC tomorrow afternoon and we leave for Orlando the next morning. We will be there for 8 days total (woohoo!) and I plan to blog about our adventures after I return. Ohboyohboyohboy~

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Crafty Bastards and Navy Barracks Street Fair

I thought I had already posted about this, but it looks like I haven't written anything about Carlos' and my festival adventures from a couple of weekends ago! On the same day (a Saturday) we went to the Crafty Bastards arts and crafts fair (which we have been to every year since we've lived here--this was our fourth one!) and after that we visited the fair happening in the Eastern Market area near the Navy Barracks.

Honestly, Crafty Bastards was a bit of a let-down. The new location (Union Market, where it was last year, but not the previous two years) is way too fancy and is really a hipster haven. We have to walk through a really sketchy neighborhood to get to Union Market, which is kind of like an uber-fancy food court. Also, we had to pay admission ($5/person) to attend the festival. It was really crowded and full of annoying people so I really don't think we will be going back again next year (not that we will still be living here in October of next year, but I will post more on that a little later). We wandered around for about an hour, found a couple of gifts and decided to head back home.



After a little break, we walked to the Navy Barracks Festival and it was so much fun (we should have just skipped Crafty Bastards and spent more time here instead!). We went to the petting zoo, saw Chesty the bulldog (mascot of the Barracks), saw a cooking contest, watched an ice sculptor, and lots more! The group hanging out here was more diverse, fun, friendly, and decidedly less hipster-y than the lot at Crafty Bastards!



From there we took the metro to our friend Terry's house and we all drove out to the Maryland countryside for a BBQ at a friend's house. We didn't get home until around midnight--such a busy day!