So after our yummy coffee and croissant at Four Flour we were ready to start shopping at the Ballard Farmer’s Market! Color was everywhere from the incredible bunches of carrots in all hues of orange, gold and burgundy – I loved how these beets looked against the yellow lilies!

Of course not only were the fruits and vegetables incredible to look at but so were the people! Lots of cool vintage/Thrift Shop looks that I hadn’t seen for a while including this little girl who’s mom is out to make her a poster child for Urban Outfitter! Her outfit was adorable but this parrot didn’t seem to care what she had on, I suspect it just wanted to show off it brilliant green feathers against her flaming red hair!

There were a couple of toe tapping musical acts and this band was the first – love the name! They were great and really set the ambience for this laid back, old fashioned kind of market!

What I love about this market is that you get the combination of the market itself as well as all the cool shops and restaurants that Ballard has to offer. I spotted this guy whose name is Brooks, hanging outside Cafe Bastille, an amazing French restaurant I will tell you all about soon I promise!. All he needed was to be smoking a Gauloises and he would have been straight out of the Left Bank (of course I’m actually glad he wasn’t smoking…!) Bonjour Brooks!

On that note I’ll say au revoir, I’ve got some my farmer’s market goodies – little potatoes, tomatoes, blueberries, romaine to turn into something delicious!

the band

Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhh…What a lovely way to start a Sunday morning! Marc and my first stop in the really cute town of Ballard before we hit the Farmer’s Market. The bakery is called Fresh Flours and is one of the shops that lines the street which then get surrounded by the farmer’s market. When we first came in they were playing Led Zepplin, then they eased into Van Morrison (more my idea for that time of day) and somehow segued into Hendricks.

These muffins were tempting but……

We each had a chocolate croissant – inspired by Meryl Streep and Steve Martin’s gorgeous bakery scene in It’s Complicated. They were delicious – I’m pretty sure we’ll be back! And as for the farmer’s market, definitely!

And I hope you do to!
I want to thank the people who made it possible – Elizabeth, Ryan, Martin, Sonia and Marc for all their hard work and incredible generosity! It’s so cool!
The timing for my new header is perfect as Cozyland is now finding out all things Cozy specifically in the state of Washington and the city of Seattle!

Lots and lots to explore!

This white cottage (anyone else wanna live there besides me?) happens to be on Orcas Island, one of the San Juan Islands off the Washington coast. For Seattleites, a simple day trip with car and ferry.

Orcas is just one of many islands to explore and it’s hard to imagine how much COZINESS is out there but you can bet I plan to find out! And as it turns out, all I have to do is step outside my front door, no ferry required!

No matter how I get there, I hope you can join me on my adventure, I hate to travel alone!

What a GREAT idea! This one comes from 2 guys both named Greg who live in Seattle. They decided to put a new spin on pizza and make it as delicious, fresh and hot as possible! So they created Zaw!

Thats what they did. Here’s what we did!
First we walked a couple of blocks up to the main part of Queen Anne. There was the vet we had just taken the cats to the day before. And right across the street was Zaw. Our idea was to pre-order out take home and bake pizza, go have Happy Hour at Paragon and when we were finished, swing by Zaw, pick up our ready for the oven creation and go home and have dinner and a movie!

Good plan, huh?

It was a tough decision but we chose the BBQ chicken pizza.

This delicious concoction just slides off the cardboard onto your oven rack (there is baking paper under neath the dough which makes it easy to remove – they thought of everything).

12 minutes to perfection – a thrown together salad with more Arugula picked that day from Kimberly’s garden (thanks again!) and a special bottle of wine given to us by Scott, husband of Sherrie our new landlady, from their friend’s vineyard. A cab franc/merlot blend. Nice!

Thanks Seattle for making things so easy, it feels nice for a change….!

Gavin really knows how to do it up right! I was surprised when he invited us over for “an ice cold glass of Pinot Grigio” on Sunday evening considering I knew he and sister Kimberly were on day 2 of the Master Cleanse. Whats that you ask? Well why not just ask that other famous couple who is also on it, Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher!

But I wonder if Demi and Ashton make their cleanse anywhere near as stylish and appetizing as Gavin does (see pic above)? That’s right folks, that’s lemon juice, maple syrup, water and cayenne pepper. And you thought it was a lemon drop!

For Marc and I it was deliciously chilled Pinot Grigio as we watched the sunset over the Puget Sound from Gavin’s balcony. Aaaaahhhhh………..

Maybe they should rename it the “Masterful Cleanse” right?
I’m sure to be reporting from Gavin’s balcony many more times!

Lemonade stands were very popular in Queen Anne this weekend! This sign was done with particular attention to detail, love the lemon slices!

There is such a great feeling in this neighborhood and lots of summertime activities – softball games, garage sales. Marc and I have to remind ourselves that now that summer is not all year round we better enjoy it while we can! Something tells me we will!

This weekend marked the annual Ballard Seafood Festival. Ballard is this really cute town just across the bridge. Not sure what bridge or what water. I have a lot to learn but I know how to get there myself and its such a cool old town that has the BEST farmer’s market on Sundays and this weekend a double whammy with the Seafood Festival Saturday and Sunday! Oh yeah, seems the Vikings liked Ballard a lot too – definitely a Scandinavian population happening in this part of town!

To beat the heat we went early which ended up being a really good thing. By noon it was super crowded but not in a totally annoying kind of way although with the heat we were lucky to find a place in the shade to pull up a couple of chairs and eat our grilled salmon and cole slaw lunch which was delicious!

Grill of my dreams!

This shrimp with vegetables would also have been delicious – it was a tough decision! I just could have done in!

Food temptations everywhere! Boy, that ice cream was tempting but we did resist!

Alder smoked – that’s what we had……

This guy looks like he is straight out of Philadelphia! but he’s actually working the famous blackened salmon that Ballard Brothers is famous for. Coincidentally just the other day Marc, Gavin and I had lunch at Ballard Brothers and Marc and I both had a blackened salmon sandwich. Gavin had a Vegan choice and ordered a side of fried pickles. Yes, you heard me right!

Catch of the day!

Afterwards we walked off our lunch which is easy to do around Ballard and funny enough we plan on returning on Sunday not only for the Farmer’s Market but to watch the finals of the FIFA World Cup match. Guess you could say we are Ballard bound!

It seems that fresh wild caught seafood is to be had everywhere – just one of the reasons we moved to Seattle!