Monday, January 16, 2012

Free.....Sooooo Gluten Free

To keep the body in good health is a duty... otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.
Buddha



Fresh Figs - SOOOOO yummy


Talk about one's problems is always soooo boring but...  I have Gluten Ataxia. It's a brain disorder that affects the vestibular part of the brain causing vertigo, dizziness, speech problems, deafness, numbness...
'ad nauseam' and I really mean nausea! Anyway I eat totally gluten free.  This means NO wheat, bread, cake, spaghetti, pizza and the list goes on for pages.  I began by feeling really sorry for myself until I learned that to eat gluten free is to eat FRESH.  So I'm going to let you see five of my easy to make lunches and let's just say I haven't lost weight.  Maybe I should exercise. 


Fresh Georgia Peaches

Shrimp with Videlia Onion and Summer Tomato Dressing 
Toss frozen precooked shrimp into hot butter and add small amount of Braswell's Gourmet Dressing.
Serve on sticky rice.  Takes minutes to make!


Shrimp with Valdelia Onion


Snack for Lunch - Prusunto, Fontina Cheese, Fresh figs Gluten free crackers or pretzels. So easy, fast, and yummy!!!!





Another lunch favorite that takes only a few minutes to whip up is a fried tomatoes and bacon salad. Fry up 6 to 8 slices of bacon then fry slices of a fresh juice tomato from your garden or fresh market that has been dredged in corn meal (gluten free) in the bacon grease.  Drop the hot bacon and tomatoes onto a bed of lettuce.  Then top with sweet pickles and a dollop of mayonnaise or honey mustard dressing.  Yummy!






Love to take a little left-over steak add summer fresh tomatoes, watermellon and peaches.  Cool = real cool.






Make some fresh lemonade and instant gluten free menu with no fuss and no one feels deprived.




Sunday, October 30, 2011

Eclectic or I Collect it!

We were discussing our decorating styles and I was sure that I was ECLECTIC.  I like the sound of the word, the free all over the place meaning, and the slightly baffling expression of people when it's thrown into everyday conversation.  Later that evening trying to start a conversation with my husband I asked, "Am I eclectic?"  And he said, " Yeah you collect it. You collect everything."  So I started looking around and I DO collect things... lots of things.  I've heard that if you have three of something , you've started a collection therefore to keep from being a hoarder there must be RULES....


 \
Glass paperweights


Rule:  Never pay over $10 unless you are in love!  Try to get people to give them to you as Christmas presents.  No one can pick an ugly one.  I display them on candlesticks to give them height and to catch the light.

Midcentury Glass      


Rule:  I'm in love with its color and unusual shapes.  Right now I am buying any Murano piece that I can find within my price range $10-$20.  I'm trying to find glass with movement and flow.


   
Old Bottles














Rule:  Most of my bottles were collected from our family land in Georgia and from Ascension Island in the middle of the Atlantic.  I find bottles not buy them.





Minerals  
Rules:  I love geodes, agates, coprolite( dinosaur poo), rose quartz, amethysts, and as I tell my husband around birthdays and anniversaries - diamonds.


Old Hand-Colored Photos
 Rules:  I inherited some Wallace Nuttings from my grandmother and started collecting old hand-colored photos but they are almost priced out of my range.  I have 10 so it is a collection but I want MORE.  Saw some in another booth at the antique mall where I have a booth and didn't buy them.  I'm still feeling the regrets.


Religious items





Rules:  I've been find beautiful carved saints and old Bibles at the auctions and yard sales I frequent and can not pass them up.  I like my modern Madonna and my 18th Century carved Brazilian St. Jose.  This picture looks like I need to dust!
















Rules:  I can't have any rules for books.  I buy books.  I stack them everywhere and pick them up and read different ones all the time.  I read a different book in each room...fiction in the bedroom, travel in the bathroom, non-fiction in the living room, and decorating/gardening/cooking books in the kitchen. 









Rules:  Schools have stopped buying globes for classrooms.  They think they are too low tech but in reality a globe in your hand is holding the whole wide world and all its possibilities.  They are informative, colorful, shapely, interactive, and a child can fill hours with the game of where are we now. Globes are easy to date by what countries are on them. I like globes that have Ceylon off tip of India which changed name to Sri Lanka in 1972, pre W. Germany 1949-1990, USSR, 1922-1991, and the various Congos especially Belgium Congo 1908-1966.






Soooo I am a I-collect-it rather than Eclectic.  Will discuss my crystal candlesticks obsession, my carved animal collection, my husband's old camera cache, and the art gallery that I call my house on other posts.  So to fellow collectors(hoarders) set up some rules and maybe you too can stay in control just like me!!!






















 


         



















Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Reuse, Redo, Rejoice!

Lots of people ask how I refinish furniture for the White Booth.  Here's the technique I'm using right now.  I continually refine my technique.  Right now I love all the new products being carried by the Benjamin Moore store in Peachtree City.



Sand and prime with Zinsser 123 latex primer

Ugly side of cabinet

Aura semi gloss Ben  Moore


Pro doo- Z Detail Roller and good brush


White painted completed


Distress it!


Scrape off paint on mirror


Tools - sanding sponge, rag, sock, glass of Malbec, primer




Finished product - Rejoice!!!


My re-tirement has become an adventure in thrifting and learning to reuse. This is a lesson on how to redo a $15 blanket bench and several mirrors.  The largest one I won at an auction for $1 by staying until the VERY end of the night. So let's begin to reject buying new and learn to redo and save that, that others think is trash.

Friday, September 2, 2011

Traveling Like a "Free Bird"

If I leave here tomorrow
Would you still remember me?
For I must be traveling on, now,
'Cause there's too many places I've got to see.
But, if I stayed here with you, girl,
Things just couldn't be the same.
'Cause I'm as free as a bird now,
And this bird you can not change.
Lord knows, I can't change.

    Our philosophy of travel is to travel with NO PLANS, NO RESERVATIONS and NO EXPECTATIONS.  It started because my husband worked for Pan Am and we could travel free and never knew if we'd be on the plane or off.  Therefore reservations were not possible because in Pan Am jargon we traveled sub-low. Sub-low could be 1st class with crystal and Beluga caviar or sorry no room for you, fool.  Flexibility is key.  If Paris is full, how does Rome look?  One time we headed out to New Zealand, where it was summer and ended up in Scotland in the winter!  So 4 or 5 times a year for weekends or even weeks at a time, we head out somewhere with no set itinerary, rent a car and head in any direction.  Then we stay as long as we are having fun and have money left.  Sometimes we stay in one area and sometimes we jump from country to country.   Last month we traveled as free as a bird to Manchester, England because it was the only city in Europe that had space available. We visited:
  Yorkshire
York Minister


  1. York Minister http://70.86.220.251/learning/the-minsters-history/
  2. Treasurer's House http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-treasurershouseyork
  3. Fairfax House http://www.fairfaxhouse.co.uk/
  4. Jorvic Viking Center http://www.jorvik-viking-centre.co.uk/
  5. York Wall http://www.britainexpress.com/cities/york/wall.htm
  6. Yorkshire Air Museum http://www.yorkshireairmuseum.org/
  7. Newby Hall http://www.newbyhallandgardens.com/
  8. Horn Blower, Ripon http://www.bbc.co.uk/northyorkshire/content/articles/2008/07/10/ripon_hornblower_history_feature.shtml
  9. Bolton Castle http://www.boltoncastle.co.uk/metadot/index.pl
  10. Fountain's Abby http://www.fountainsabbey.org.uk/
  11. Birnham Rocks http://www.brimhamrocks.co.uk/
  12. Beningbrough Hall http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-beningbroughhallandgardens
  13. Chatsworth http://www.chatsworth.org/
  Now I you want to take a virtual vacation follow the links or just look at our vacation pictures!
The Fountains Abby


Arboretum - Garden of Trees

Street dancers

English countryside


Hostas!

English breakfast


Knot Garden

The perfect English cottage










Wednesday, July 6, 2011

A Peach of a 4th!

 Peachtree City, Georgia has been named one of the top five patriotic small cities in the USA!  We think it's number 1!!  Take a look at our golf cart parade that takes place every 4th at 9:00AM.




We gather early and share donuts, coffee and smiles...

 We love the dressed up dogs.....






The decorated golf carts....




The  fancy folks...





The flags parading by...


The bands, the floats, the cars are next...

Then when it is over who is going to drive us home????



Next will be our picnic and then the fireworks..... It's a wonderful 4th.




Happy 4th to all and be sure to join us next year!