Bedroom Quandry

  

I thought I would do some of my own relaxing today and

 ponder the state of our master bedroom while

someone else is nursing an extreme hangover from last

nights festivities (poor poor guy) in this room. 

Well not quite this room, this is how our  bedroom we currently use

as our master  looked  when we moved in.  Wow, it looks pretty scary

but I didn't see it that way then, I was smitten with the ol girl that had become our 

very own big beautiful century home. 

That's my stepson Josh peeking around the corner. What a cutey huh?

Although we have renovated the room by stripping wall paper off 

both the walls and the ceiling and kept the  original plaster, we  removed the  plaster 

 from the outside wall to insulate it and added crown moulding. I

have not given it any sort of attention after that and it shows.

  

We have one more bedroom to overhaul in the future and that will end up being our master and this one will be the office/exercise room so until then I still want to make some changes to this room to get

us by until then.

I did this little sketch a couple of years ago when I thought that we

would stay in this room. I now want it to look a little more

relaxed than this design feels.

Don't you just love dressers as night stands?! In a small bedroom I say they are a must.

Both dressers are cheapo second hand finds and the white one is being replaced by another $20.00 

kijiji find that as it is the exact same size as the dark one. They will both get a coat of paint to match each other. 

I found the chunky mirrors at our Real Canadian Superstore 

grocery store I think for $30.00 each and they may need 

a transformation as well. One thing for sure is the wall colour

has got to go! It's a dark room with east light 

and either needs to get more vibrant or go 

a shade of white. 

We have a new recycled paint line with premixed 

paint colours and I can get a gallon for under $10.00 with

 my staff discount. 

 I really hate east facing

rooms. I find picking paint for them a great challenge as I 

am drawn to cooler lighter colours and they end  up looking

cold or dead in this light.

We bought our antique burled walnut bed I'm guessing 

 maybe 7 years  ago and unfortunately the headboard 

veneer has developed a crack in the veneer due to winter dryness. We finally

invested in a humidifier for our home but the damage is  now done and a repair

would be expensive. Soooo, we are thinking of painting it. I'm just 

so terrified to paint a bed like this and devalue it and yet the wood is not rocking 

our world at all anymore.  I see this style of bed all the time 

painted with a antiqued paint treatment and think they are

just gorgeous and Todd is all for it.

So  I'm curious  what would you do, paint it or sell it and 

get something new to paint that is not an antique? 

What light wall  colours have you successfully used

in east facing rooms, I would love to know.

Please don't judge me on the length of my curtains, that is a 

goof up that I never corrected but will do with these changes.

I found this chair at Value Village years ago for just  $40.00 that  is a stunning

(I mean shocking)

colour of orange that hurts my eyes so I happily  covered it with a vintage

bedspread that I had. This chair is a dead ringer for the the spectacular Sarah Richardson's 

  Elsie Chair  (which retails for $2200.00)  and  I will get it slipcovered one day or maybe even 

reupholstered when funds allow.

I bought the mirror from work and it was  on clearance for  $30.00. 

The footboard has a chippendale style ball and claw foot. I would love

to know how old the bed is. 

I tried to find out but can't seem to get a date. I'm guessing

late 1800's or early 1900's.

I will have to do some more kijiji selling of items I no longer need  as I would like

to have  more modern lamps. I can then move these more feminine lamps that I have had for forever

to the guest room. I just love to reuse and recycle and  love even more

what it does for 

my pocket book!

So tell me is your master bedroom the room you have dreamed of? If it is I would love

to see what you have done or are you just 

like us and just haven't checked it off that great big fat to do list?

Hoping your 2011 is off to a smashing start.

Hugs

Sandra

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