A THOUGHT FOR THE OPENING YEAR

This is one of many pages of hand written poems and verses we found underneath the insulation in our

attic almost 10 years ago . I had kept them knowing I would do something

with them someday, frame them or bind them in a book. 

It lets me imagine a time when things were much much 

different in life, much simpler and it reminds me of 

what is important. It reads

A THOUGHT FOR THE OPENING YEAR

To be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love and to play, and to lift and to look up at the stars, to be satisfied with your possessions but not contented with yourself until you have made the best of them, to despise nothing in the world except falsehood and meanness and to fear nothing except cowardice, to be governed by your admirations rather than by your disgusts, to cover nothing that is your neighbours except his kindness of heart and gentleness of manner, to think seldom of your enemies, often of your friends and every day of Christ and to spend as much time as your can with body and spirit in God's out-of-doors. These are little Guide-posts on the foot path of peace.

Henry Van Dyke

To all the super duper blogging ladies who have the gift of good health I wish you a truly happy and joyous New Year! Thank you for being my inspiration. My dream is to join you one day in great accomplishments.

And to all who feels they are struggling, especially at this time of year when all others are celebrating and all you want to do is crawl into bed and not get out, please know that even if you do not know anyone else who feels as you do that you are not alone, I have been there  and that for every ailment whether it is of mind or body has a cause and you must  dig deep to find what that is and NOT GIVE UP and not  let anyone ever tell you it is in your head.

 I spent 5 long years thinking I was becoming less of a person, one who loss her passion for life  and was just plain old grumpy. I was NOT that person and neither are you.  I was getting sick from an ineffective synthetic thyroid drug that was slowly eroding my health.

Last year at this time I had such high hopes for myself that by the end of 2010 I would be 100 percent renewed and better. I am perhaps 50% on my way to 60% and I now know that it will maybe take another year or even more before I am all the way there.  I have learned so much about my health with the power of the internet opening all  the doors to my healing, along with the help of the incredibly wonderful women who have led the way on my yahoo groups and you can to.



Cheers to you all and may 2011 bring you health and happiness!

Sandra

I'm in Heaven, bread update

Sleep is such an important part of healing and usually we are in bed by 10:30 and sleep in until 8am on weekends but it was not the case last night. I started to make Amy's gluten free whole grain sandwich bread at 8pm and anticipated using the fast bake cycle as she does. I have never ever used a bread maker and after reading the manual realized that the fast bake cycle makes the bread in about an hour.

To my surprise the fast bake button did not work and all my ingredients were already in the machine. I had pressed start and it was stuck on the normal  4 HOUR cycle which means I was up waiting for a nice loaf of bread to cook.  Once it was done I was quite disappointed to see it did not rise as it should have and my loaf is half the size it should be. I left it on the wire rack to cool and went to bed.

Now don't give up on gluten free yet. As soon as I got up I checked out all the comments on Amy's blog below her bread recipe and learned that the key to the bread rising is the fast bake cycle. That said, I've got to tell you that this bread is nothing short of fantastic. Have you ever had malt bread, the round loaf growing up? That is what it tasted like to me when I toasted it and slathered it with ghee (ghee is basically clarified butter and has all the milk solids removed which contain casein that most folks are either allergic or sensitive to).

Our friends Jason and Lori have 4 backyard chickens (the first in our little town and are fighting the Town of East Gwillimbury to keep that right) and Todd is letting them in and out of their chicken coop each day for them while they are away and that means that  we have the delight of the freshest free range eggs ever!

My breakfast this morning left me in sheer heaven, gluten free toast with casein free ghee and free range eggs, it doesn't get much better than that!

Now I have to go and get myself a breadmaker with the fast bake cycle and I will be sure and use almond milk with the next loaf so it is completely dairy free.

Hope you are having a great day!

Sandra

BREAD!

Hey there!

Having multiple food sensitivities makes eating a challenge every single day. I try almost all the time to avoid gluten, dairy, refined sugar, vinegars, corn and most fruits except berries and apples or pears and  if I don't then I pay the price of feeling really crummy. More and more people are finding they are in the same boat and  have found there health improved when they eliminated these ingredients from their diet.  Whenever one eats something that they are sensitive or allergic too it causes an inflammatory reaction in the body which can lead to even worse things if you continually eat it and gluten is said to be the direct cause to many autoimmune diseases. Here's a tip, if you find yourself constantly clearing your throat and you don't have a cold, it is more than likely a reaction to gluten or dairy.

 Amy's gluten free pumpkin muffins

I have resorted to eating small dense expensive store bought buckwheat or quinoa  breads toasted with nut butters and have missed very much eating a nice sandwich.

I hope that today is the day that I can say NO MORE! My friend Tracey loaned me her breadmaker and I am as I type, waiting on a gluten free sandwich bread from Amy's Simply Sugar and Gluten Free blog to finish baking. This will be the second recipe I tried of Amy's, the first one was her pumpkin muffins and they were great!

I am also gearing up to make another wonderful recipe that Amy posted for gluten free coffee cake created by Kelly of The Spunky Coconut. I can't tell you how absolutely excited I am to feel good enough to have the energy to try some new wonderful recipes. Todd has also developed a sensitivity to gluten and dairy but doesn't avoid it and so my fingers are crossed that he will like this bread better than the store bought ones so I can get him off gluten for good.

If you are looking for a healthier way to eat then you must absolutely check out these incredible gals!
They are such an inspiration to me and I thank them from the bottom of my heart for sharing their recipes with us.
Oh and I will let you know how the bread turns out.

Hugs
Sandra

My Christmas

I am so happy that  this year was a little different than others in that I had the energy to make our home a little festive but just a little sad that once it was done I was not able to share it as  we  then lost our internet connection and only got it back today with help from tech support.  I was treated to a wonderful faux beauty for my birthday that was on sale. I have drooled over this type of tree as it looks so real and passed on the expensive price tag in the past but we waited long enough into the season to get a great deal. I already had the soft blue, soft sage, cream and turquoise decorations for the tree and added burlap and sparkly stars for a more relaxed feel. 

The bookshelves are now painted and we just have to add the doors to the bottom section .
I recently discovered a great store called BouClair that used to be just fabrics and now is home decor and  I found some star fish votive holders on sale for our table.

Although my colour scheme is not red I love these berries and cannot part with them as a dear friend gave them to me and I love how they have a look in our  mudroom on the open shelves.  

.

Ok now isn't this the most beautiful fauxliage you ever saw? Well now I kick myself that I didn't buy two for the garage since it was only $18.00  but we are on a very strict budget so  I will get over it. 

I'm still digging our Boca Raton blue door even in the grey of winter, it is a happy splash of
colour that greets me each night I come home.

Now our front hall is a is not at all complete, actually there was a homemade deacons
bench right here that we replaced with a more functional table that I found on Kijiji and painted white. Once we added
 built-ins to the dining room we had a piece of baseboard that was removed that could fill the gap where the deacons bench was (still need to touch up the paint though).    

This little guy holds a special place in my heart as it was gift to me when I was in the hospital for my cancer surgery and a 5 day stay turned into 6 weeks which  included both my birthday and  Christmas. When it was lit at night it filled me with comfort during some really tough times. I added some new decorations that I had and it makes me smile every time I go into our hall.

A  perfect tree topper

I sprayed my PEACE sign a soft blue green for a subtle but important message

I have really missed catching up and can't wait to read what you are all up to. I am so lucky we have time off this year and look forward to relaxing! I hope you are having a truly wonderful holiday with your family and friends.

Cheers!

Missing my girls oh so much

A House is Not a Home Without Man's Best Friend

Haven and Todd

You do anything to make your pet comfortable when they are not well.

The other day at work I had the extremely wonderful pleasure of holding one of these (a 4 month old italian mastiff pup named Bella) and it sent a wave of overwhelming emotion through me.. 

She was huge at 4 months and yet so well behaved and I wanted to run away with her never to return but at a price tag of 2500.00 I don't think that would have went over to well with her kind owner. His first stunning boy is an english mastiff and now he has this precious  Bella.

You see I love dogs, have always had a dog and after our last sweet rottie girl passed, (she was our third) we decided to take a break due to my health. I am a big dog, rottie lovin girl  and  regardless of size all  dogs need regular walks in order to be happy and healthy.

As I still have my good days and bad days (the good are ever so slowly out numbering the bad) and until I am sure the good days are consistent enough and here to stay  I will have to wait.



isn't she so incredibly beautiful!





and this is what she will look like when she's all grown up,
be still my beating heart!

That night I committed myself to sofa duty as I was not feeling so great and immersed myself in the Humane Society's websites. It was eye candy for me but it saddens me so to see so many wonderful pets looking for the forever homes. I got my first girl Kayla as a pup from a breeder and she was nothing short of a spectacular dog but then we found our second 6 year old  rottie girl Haven at the Humane Society and she was just as wonderful. I would love to adopt again and I so badly want to do it right now but we vowed to not get another dog until we fence in our backyard and that is not going to happen until the snow is gone!

 My heart is aching.

Tell me who is your toe warmer and did you adopt, go with a rescue organization or buy from a breeder?

Hugs
Sandra

under construction

I have not spent any time at all  learning how to make my blog look extra special or even how to navigate it. Some folks are are all computery and I am not nor do I have a young one  to pass their wizardry on to me. I was messing around with it and now it looks even worse. Hope it doesn't hurt your eyes to much. Bear with me while I try to fix'er up sometime this weekend.

Hugs
Sandra

Kijiji Love!

I sold this antique  pendant light on Kijiji to a very appreciative buyer for her new cottage that is being built in the arts and craft style. It was a hard decision for me to sell it because it is original to the house but I have my heart set on a much different lighting style for our home. It was fun to meet her as we share a love for antiquing and now have plans to hook up to go to an auction that's close to my work together. Bonus on two parts!

and so  now 

 I could afford to treat myself to this little beauty. We renovated this bathroom a whole 9  years ago and have had a few different inexpensive second hand fixtures in here and we were always moving on to another project or didn't have the cash and so I am thrilled to finally have a pretty chandelier in here!

I love the contrast of the aged bronze finish agains the seed pearl walls.  Of course it's set on a dimmer for just the right soak in the tub kinda light.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful getting ready for  xmas time!

Hugs 

Sandra

upscale beach inspired dining room

upscale beach inspired dining room by Serendipitous Home on Polyvore.com