Bmore Flea

Hello!

About two weeks ago Alex and I went to a fun craft fair called Bmore Flea inside St. Paul's Church, which is just a few minutes north of our apartment.  Bmore Flea has craft fairs in different areas around town but this is the first one we've gone to (we tried to go to one a few months ago but I think it had gotten rained out!).  There were a ton of vendors in the church - the main room was full and there were even more in a back room.  It was fun because I got to meet a few people that I had only seen/talked to on Instagram!  We also got to see a lot of great vendors and items that we've seen at other craft fairs.

I got to meet Netta from Knits, Soy, and Metal.  She makes cozy scarves, yummy smelling candles, and cute tiny jewelry!  We also stopped by the Herb's Furnishings booth.  I had found his Instagram a few days earlier and entered a giveaway for a desk.  Chris Herb finds wood all over Baltimore and recycles it into beautiful furniture!  At the craft fair, Alex and I entered another of his giveaways, for a really cute bar cart.  



Here's a picture of it from Bmore Flea's Instagram.  We won the cart!!!  But more about that later!

We saw Priya, whose company is Priya Means Love.  She makes natural body products like lip balm, body butter, perfume, and more.  I've met her at various events and on Instagram recently (I find out about so many people and events here on Instagram!), she posted that she made leather treatment and was giving away little jars to anyone that wanted some.  I picked up a jar there and gave her some hair ties in exchange!  I also bought a bottle of her Lavender Mud Hair and Scalp Cleanser!

Cedar and Fawn, another vendor with adorable painted ceramics, was there.  I bought two of her tiny, super cute spoons!  One for me and one for my mom :)

Look at them!!  So sweet.

Mimi of Mimidre, who makes really cute tshirts, sweatshirts, and hats with cute sayings like Fly Nerd, Be Weird, and Be Yourself, was there, and so was Tiffani of Jihe Jewelry, who sells really cute jewelry!  Both of these local vendors were also at The Exchange the next day, which I will write about in another post.  I also said hi to the woman who owns Maja, who I wrote about a few months ago.

It was so fun!  The venue was so beautiful and I just love seeing all of the things that the creative people in Baltimore are making and selling!  I weirdly didn't take any pictures inside (I was too busy looking at all of the cute stuff for sale!) but here's a picture that The Charmed City put up on their Instagram, and you can see Alex and me in it!

Thanks for reading!

Dooby's Bread Club

Hello!

There is a coffee shop/restaurant down the street from us that I've mentioned a few times called Dooby's.  We've gone there several times for coffee but we haven't gone for dinner yet!  It's super cute and they're always posting pics of yummy looking food and drinks on their Instagram!  Which is where I heard about their bread club.


Yeah, like Birchbox or a magazine or something else you subscribe to, but you get delicious surprise BREAD.  Of course I signed us up right away.  You sign up/pay by the month and it costs $37.10 with tax.  There are a limited number of spaces available (I need to sign up for March, quickly!  If it hasn't filled up already!) and every Tuesday you pick up your new bread (and a little surprise they throw in) anytime after 12pm!  Oh, and there's even a hashtag, #doobysbreadclub, to use when you post pics on social media.  It's so fun.

We've gotten two weeks of bread so far.  Week one was a gigantic, pretty loaf of sourdough with garlic olive oil.  It was so good.  We ate the bread plain, used it for sandwiches, made a basil pesto/mozzarella/tomato situation, and of course had it with the olive oil on it.


Isn't it pretty??  There's a cute note included every week, too, written by Katie Boyts (pastry chef/baker extraordinaire, who I've written about before because she also hosts Baltimore's CreativeMornings!).



This week we got four French demi-baguettes - one ready-to-eat and three that were par-baked with instructions to finish baking them.  



The extra surprise was some super delish apple citrus spice jam!  Oh my goodness.  We've eaten two of the baguettes so far and have two more in the freezer!




This is such a fun idea!  Besides that it's super yummy and convenient to pick up, I love that it's made fresh right there!  Plus, I love surprises, and posting pics of things, and bread.  So it's perf.

Can't wait to see what we get next week!

Thanks for reading!

Pop Physique

Hi!

I've mentioned Pop Physique a few times so I thought I should write a post about it!  It's a studio chain that has locations in California, Florida, and here in Baltimore.  It offers ballet barre-inspired classes that focus on very tiny repetitive movements to strengthen your arms, core, legs, butt, etc.  When Alex and I decided that we were moving here, I was googling everything Baltimore like crazy to find out what kinds of things they had here!  I found Pop Physique and knew that we would be living on the same street.  It's only about a 10-12 minute walk but it took me a while to finally sign up for a class!  I purchased a Groupon several months ago for five classes for $39 (which is a great deal - individual classes are $20!) and then I won five free classes during a "Pie Off Your Thighs" contest on the main Pop Physique Instagram!

I finally signed up for a class a few weeks ago and now I've gone to seven classes!  I love it.  The owner, Kim, is so nice.  I met her the first time I went in and she has made me feel so welcome!  The instructors and staff at the desk are all very friendly, too.  The studio is super cute, with old black and white pictures decorated with brightly-colored painted frames, retro furniture in the lobby, a pretty chandelier, etc.  It's also extra cute right now because it's decorated for the holidays.

I've now taken classes from three different instructors and I really like all of them!  They all teach great classes and have their own personal style, which is fun.  The classes are an hour long (unless you take one of the lunch-time express classes, which are 45 minutes) and the equipment used is a mat (much thicker and softer than a yoga mat), a ball, free weights (usually a lighter and heavier set), the barre, and sometimes a strap.  I've gotten a great workout at each class I've gone to and I am definitely sore afterwards!  Sometimes for a day or two.  

I went to a fun event there last week that they called the Nutcracker Mash Up.  Two instructors team-taught the class with nutcracker music, fun lighting, and we even got to wear tutus!  So much fun :)  There were snacks and treats afterwards, too :)  I had been on the waiting list for the earlier class and I was happy when I found out on the day of that I got into the class!

 

(This picture collage is from Pop Physique Baltimore's Facebook)

You can see me in the middle right picture!

What a fun, festive class :)

Another really exciting thing is that I'm selling my hair ties there!  I bought a cute container to match the one that is already on the counter (filled with pink gum balls!) and people can buy my hair ties when they buy their cute socks and bkrs :)  So fun!!

Last week I purchased a class deal that is ten consecutive classes for $39.  I get to choose when to do it (by the beginning of February) and then I'll to go to classes as many days in a row as I can (up to ten)!  If I miss a day, the deal ends.  I think I'm going to do it right when we get back from our trip!  Hopefully I can do all ten days!

I went Thursday morning for the last time before we left to go to Tucson and St. Louis.  It was a hard one!  I'm was very sore (the good kind of sore, though)!!

Thanks for reading!

Pop Physique Baltimore

Hi!

I finally went to a class at Pop Physique yesterday!  It's one of the many places I found when I googled everything Baltimore before we moved here and I've wanted to go for so long.  It's on our street (about a 10-15 minute walk from our apt) and we've passed it so many times, plus I've had a Groupon for five classes there that I need to use!

Pop Physique is a fitness studio that has "ballet barre-based" classes.  I've been following them on Instagram (the main account, I didn't realize that the Baltimore location had their own account until yesterday!) and I entered and won a contest to win five free classes there!!  So exciting!  When I called to make an account there and sign up for a class, the person I spoke with said I was the first Baltimore person he knew of that had won one of their contests :)

The walk there is nice (even thought it was 32 degrees outside!) and the woman at the front desk, who is also the owner, is so friendly!  She showed me around a little bit before the class.  The studio is really nice and decorated so cute, plus the front window is decorated for the holidays!  Here's a pic I took (that both Instagram accounts posted too!).

The class was super hard and so good!  I loved it.  The teacher was great and the class was small which was nice.  It's lots of very small movements, sometimes with small weights, sometimes while squeezing a ball between your legs, sometimes without anything.  It makes your muscles shake like crazy.  I've gone to barre classes in Tucson at barre3 (my sister-in-law and I went to three classes together) and this class was very similar to those.

I am so sore today!  I was actually getting sore by the minute yesterday, and today I have been sore all day.  I know tomorrow will be worse!  But in a good way :)  I can't wait to go back!  I'm going to go again on Monday.

Oh, I saw this on my walk home :)

Thanks for reading!

The Exchange at Exit the Apple

Hi!

Today Alex and I went to a cool event called The Exchange at Exit the Apple, which is a really neat space that is used for all types of things!  You can rent it out for your own events, too.  I read on their website that the man in charge of it is a film maker and artist of many things and he and his wife also own Oyin Handmade, "a line of natural hair and body products".



The Exchange is the second Sunday of every month and I've known about it for a few months but we just haven't been able to go until today!  Thanks to Instagram, I've seen tons of pics of past events and I've started following a lot of the vendors that sell there every month.  Here's their pic about it:



There were probably nine or ten vendors there selling all types of things.  Clothes, jewelry, candles, body products, makeup, etc.  There were a few places giving out samples of food too!  We got to try pie from PieCycle, a food tricycle in Baltimore!  Alex tried the salted caramel apple pie and I tried the salted lavender honey!  Both were soo good!  We also got to try yummy juice from Grind House Juice Bar, a vegan cafe!

I've seen lots of stuff on Instagram about Oyin Handmade so I was really excited to look at all of their stuff there today!  The woman working at the table was so nice and told me about all of their different products.  I bought a shampoo bar that I'm really excited to try!  We also got a cute little lotion sample, too :)  

They have a new salon in their store so I want to go there to get my hair cut soon!

We had an abbreviated Moonbot rehearsal tonight and we did some fun warmups and games.  We have another show this Friday so that will be fun!

I've been eating apples with peanut butter a lot!  Tonight I tried a sample of Justin's Almond Butter with my apple and it was delish!  I got two samples of the maple flavor in my last Conscious Box and finally used one!



I kept trying to figure out what the taste reminded me of (it reminded me of almonds...duh).  It was really good and it would be fun to try their other flavors!  Some people are getting the chocolate flavor in their Birchbox this month!  They're sampling a few different treats so we'll see what I get!!

I'm gonna go start reading Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children where I left off a month or two ago!

Thanks for reading!

Cold, Windy Day!

Hi!

Alex and I have been watching Season 3 of Homeland!  It's really good and intense, of course!  We also watched the second episode of Boardwalk Empire today (also good!).  It was pretty darn cold today so besides going to get groceries and then going to improv tonight, we stayed inside!  It's been really windy, too, and when we walked to the parking garage to go to Safeway we saw a huge tree branch that had broken off and landed on a couple of cars!  What a bummer :(

I read a lot more of Sharp Objects today and it's good and getting a little bit suspenseful!  Speaking of books, the Birchbox Book Club book for November is Yes Please by Amy Poehler!  I'm so excited!!  I love her so much.

(see full image)

See, we're very similar.  Almost like BFFs.

I guessed that it would either be Yes Please or Lena Dunham's book called Not That Kind of Girl (which I'm also super excited to read because she is amazing!).  I think Birchbloggers does giveaways for the book club books sometimes so I hope I can try to win a copy of Yes Please!!

Speaking of Lena Dunham, I also want to get this shirt that she designed for Planned Parenthood.  



They're to help encourage women to vote!  Here's the link, but they're sold out right now!  That's good, of course, but I want to buy one too :)  On Lena Dunham's Instagram she has posted a ton of pictures of awesome people wearing this shirt.

Moonbot rehearsal tonight was really fun!  Everyone was there (I'm pretty sure!) and we had lots of fun doing different types of warmups and improv games.  We have our next show on November 14th!  I think there is going to be a fan page on Facebook soon so I will post it so everybody can like it and learn more about what we're doing!

Thanks for reading!

Sugar Paper

Hi!

Have you guys heard of the stationary brand Sugar Paper?  I may be the only person who hadn't until last night!  They have really cute stationary, notebooks, calendars, etc. and (if I read it right) everything is printed on a letterpress!  I couldn't fall asleep last night so I was surfing Instagram, as per uzsh.  On my Explore page, I saw a picture of some cute planners and calendars.  I went from one pic to the next, like one does on Insta, and found out that apparently everyone knows about and loves this brand of stationary!  And it just so happened that today, Target was putting out their newest exclusive-to-Target Sugar Paper stuff out on their shelves!

Of course I had to go to check it out!  Alex and I went tonight after I picked him up from school (and after we went to Ace Hardware to get hardware to put out new license plate(s!) on our car).  There were so many cute planners and calendars!!  I got a really cute planner for me and one for a present (shhh!), so I'm not going to post a picture of them yet!

On Instagram, so many people were talking about how everything was sold out by the time they got to the store!  Luckily there was a nice selection left at our Target :)  I even saw a pic that somebody posted saying that their Target hadn't opened the shipment yet, so she begged the employees and they let her unpack everything!  Wow!  I feel so in-the-loop now that I know about this stuff haha

Tomorrow I'm going to tell you about a really awesome review on a really awesome blog!  It's about my hair ties!!

Thanks for reading!