Delicious Frozen Yogurt Time for a cure!

So in case you're local and you didn't know, the south side of town now has it's own TCBY. Little known fact about me: I love TCBY. Not just like, love. We had a TBCY at the local mall while I was growing up and almost every time we went I would beg for TCBY yogurt. At the time my favorite flavor was their White Chocolate Mousse, which believe me I would still be enjoying on a regular basis if my stomach could handle the dairy. 

In any case the new TCBY is in Peachtree City, Georgia and is just a stones throw away from Haus of Nancy. When I scheduled a meeting with one of my favorite local ladies and fellow health food enthusiast, Mrs Carol, on Thursday we both knew where we were going.

The new Yogurt store is way too cute. I just love the funky updated retro-design.

The colors are really fun and right up my ally. Best part of the trip? The store was donating one dollar to the American Cancer Society for every 16 ounces of yogurt purchased that day. You don't have to tell me twice! I can easily rack up 16 ounces of fro-yo. Well, actually fro-so since I can't really eat fro-yo.

The Peachtree City TCBY is more like other popular frozen yogurt bars such as Yoforia, Cloud 9 (another personal favorite of mine), and Frozen Yogurt Bar. You start with a giant cup and the rest is self serve. 

I really wanted this....

But I was good and went with this raspberry fro-so[rbet]. 

And then I topped with some Strawberry-Kiwi sorbet for color. Who am I kidding? I just wanted more sorbet.

They had your usual display of toppings. I always go for the fresh fruit myself, but you can get anything from sprinkles to captain crunch to peanut butter cups. Michael, the store manager, tells me that they are working with local farms in the area to get all their fruit fresh and in season. I'm a big time local foodophile so I was very excited to hear that.

I was very close to grabbing some of these maraschino cherries, but I went with blueberries instead. 

I'd much rather have fresh blueberries then sugary food-colored semi-fruit, even if they are super delicious.

Of course I added a ton of my favorite thing on earth. That would be coconut. 

Delicious, delicious coconut. I also tossed on some toasted almonds and strawberries. Yum!

My finished creation was just under 16 ounces, but at least I gave it a good shot.

I guess TCBY donated about 90 cents in my name and I got to eat delicious sorbet and enjoy the company of a great lady who also happens to be cancer free for 29 years! Congratulations Mrs. Carol! 

So you're probably all thinking this is becoming a food blog with two posts in a row being food centered. Well I promise you it is not. I've got lots of sewing going on this weekend. 

Goals for this weekend are: 

1. Finish last baby surprise for Mrs. Eleanor

2. Cut out the fabric for the January Dress

3. Put some paint on the walls. 

Expect a sewing post on Monday all! Have a great weekend!

Forks Over Knives

I know I don't typically talk much about my diet on this blog. For one thing it's not the topic of the blog, but because Atlanta was host to a preview screening of the new film Forks Over Knives yesterday evening and I just had to share the preview with you.

For those of you who don't know I am technically classified as a high-raw ovo vegetarian. That basically means I eat a lot of raw veggies and do not consume meat or dairy products. I do consume eggs, but I only eat organic local free range eggs on occasion. Now don't go thinking I'm crazy. I have spent a lot of time researching my food choices, weighing the risks of certain foods, and decided on a diet that works for me and my lifestyle. I'm not trying to say my diet is best or that it's "right", but I will tell you that there is a lot of research out there that points to consuming large amounts of animal protein as being a large contributer to heart disease and diabetes. Forks Over Knives examines the idea that many health problems can be reversed by simply changing the ratio of meat to plant based foods in our lives.

I can't tell you how excited I am about the release of this film! I've been a long time fan of the books Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease by Dr. Caldwell Essestyne and the China Study by Dr. T. Colin Campbell. I strongly believe that as Americans we do not put enough whole and living foods into our diet. I know too many people who will not touch anything that's green and I hope that this film will help some to see the "veggie light." I don't think everyone should go out there and immediately adopt the vegan lifstyle, but I do hope that it will inspire people to incorporate more produce into their diets.

 So what do you think, Dear Readers? Would you watch this film? Do you eat a lot of veggies at home? Am I just some crazy nut job? Let me know your thoughts!

Camping Shenanigans

Hey readers! Thanks for all your well wishes after reading my last post. I really appreciate it. We're doing just fine and I've got some small jobs here and there to hold us over for a while. 

As I mentioned in the last post we snuck in one last camping trip of the year last weekend in Helen, GA. A few friends came along and we had a pretty awesome time, though I'll admit it was a bit cold. It was exactly what I needed for some serious stress relief. I'd forgotten how exhausting job hunting can be!

Our first stop on our little weekend getaway was at an awesome Granary and Mill right outside of Helen. 

They're an old fashion granary that stone-grinds everything. I'm one of those weird health and nutrition nuts so of course I had to buy some flours. We also bought hushpuppy mix and my southern man bought a ten pound bag of stone ground grits. Stone ground flour fresh from a mill is more nutritious that what you get in a grocery store and it tastes awesome. It's not over processed and keeps most of the germ in tact so it's much better for you. The only downsize is that it goes bad much faster than regular big-box store bought flours so I keep ours in mason jars in the freezer. Yum.

I of course stopped for a photo-op right outside the mill. I have to express my Nora Mill love whenever the opportunity arises. I don't know what kind of face I'm making there, but I guess we'll call it Sun-stare-squinty-face. 

Next we headed into downtown Helen which happens to be just about the cutest little town there ever was. They already had everything all decked out for the holidays. I typically don't like to see Christmas decor before Thanksgiving, but Helen is so cute that I had to excuse them.

We also stopped into Fiance's uncle's Cigar Shop for a visit. I don't smoke cigars, but I will admit that I love the smell of them. 

I was having so much fun during our visit that I forgot to take pictures of the smoking parlor. I pulled this image off their website so you could get a feel for the place. The smoking parlor is set up like an English cigar shop and is filled with antique chairs and sofas. It's really neat. 

Next step was a hike into the woods for about an eight of a mile and scout out a good campsite. We didn't want to be too far from the parking lot when we knew it would be below freezing in the evenings. 

Then we pitched the tent. I use "we" lightly. I pretty much just watched while Fiancé put the whole thing together. Fiancé is so woodsy. I guess it's all that Eagle Scout in him. Besides men are better at tent construction anyway. 

As it got dark we waited for our friends to arrive. They started to show up after dark and we somehow managed to get everyone's tents up without too much trouble despite it being awfully chilly and very very dark.

After a night of good conversation and general campfire revelry we all turned in.

Fiancé and I snapped a photo in the middle of the night to commemorate our first camp out at 25 degrees. Don't we just look lovely at 3 am? He was not as excited to take this picture as I was.

We had brought plenty of blankets and extra sleeping bags so we were nice and cozy all night long. We had also found a nice spot that was free of roots so we were quite comfortable. The only real hardship of the evening was a late night bathroom run. I swear my unmentionables were frozen solid by the time I returned to the tent, but I guess I've still got some northern blood left in me because even that didn't seem like such a big deal. I think some of the other members of our camping party were less impressed by the weather.

I was up a little before Fiancé the next morning. I had to hike down to the car to get some breakfast for us. As a general policy we don't like to keep food in the camp particularly since there have been a few bear attacks in the North Georgia Mountains recently. We did bring a bear bag with us, but we didn't end up using it since we weren't very far in. It snowed a little over night, but not enough to really do anything but dust our chairs.

Bringing lots of warm clothes also helped with the cold. I wore this hat and scarf that I made back in my knitting days. I also brought along my super warm Rochester, NY snow mitten/glove things that keep your hands awesomely warm. Let me take a moment to gush about these gloves. They are the warmest pair of gloves I have ever had. My hands barely get cold and you can seriously use these things as pot holders. I took our hot water pot right out of the fire using these things and couldn't even feel it. They're awesome.

We cooked some breakfast over the fire and then I enjoyed this delicious sweet potato while the menfolk chopped some wood and searched for kindling.

After breakfast we geared up for a short hike to the mountain top. Here is Lauren getting very excited about the trip. I won't bore you with pictures of the hike since it was pretty much just trees and a pretty stream, but it was a good hike. Nice and easy and very scenic. I was surprised by how crowded the trail was, but with the park being so close to Helen it makes the hike a good day trip. Fiancé stayed behind to mind the camp. We all thought it was best that he stay at the campsite since he was recovering from a knee injury.

And here I am at the end of the trail. It ends in a pretty waterfall coming down through the rocks. The water was so clear and I wanted to go swimming very badly. Unfortunately it only warmed up to the low 50s during the day so that wasn't really possible. That and the water was FREEZING. I washed my hands in the water instead. 

My morning sludge and some new new patterns!

(The first photograph of Lightning from the George Eastman House Collection)

Jennings, William N.

American (b. England, 1860-1946)

I woke up this morning at around 5am to a massive thunderstorm. That's one of the downsides of living in the lovely south. This is the time of year for big storms. We've been getting about one or two a week this year which is an improvement over last year where it seemed like we had one every day. This mornings weather was harsh enough to shake the house. My Beau got us both out of bed and went to unplug all the computers. We then had to relocate downstairs to the guest room. Apparently these types of storms can rip roofs off of houses, cause tornados and all sorts of nasties.

So needless to say the rest of the night was pretty rough and when it was time to get up and start the day I needed some serious energy. Enter my morning sludge!

I try to eat high raw food diet for most of the day. I normally succeed in managing two meals a day this way. The other meal (typically dinner) tends to be cooked because I still can't get over my addiction to hot food. These green juices, shakes and smoothies have become my new coffee. I fill them with some sort of leafy green and some kind of fruit. Most of the time it's some kind of red fruit making the overall color of breakfast a dull brown. The picture above is one of my rare green results and not a good example of a typical breakfast drink. Hence why I've begun to refer to my concoctions as my morning sludge.

I've offered to make these for my Beau several times, but for some reason he doesn't take me up on the offer. Our conversations about these things tend to go like this:

Beau: What is that?
Me: A smoothie. Guess what's in it!
Beau: Gross. Gross is in it.
Me: Actually it's romaine and banana...

But I needed a boost of extra energy this morning. Beau and I spent all weekend painting the dining room and it looks smashing! We did the tray ceiling and the first coat of wall paint yesterday. This morning I wanted to get up and finish the second coat before work. So I needed to get a move on. I threw a whole bunch of swiss chard, some frozen strawberries and some frozen mango in the blender. The overall color result was a bit like baby puke brown, but it was tasty! Really once you get past the color these things are fab.

With my new burst of energy I went to work on those walls. I wasn't able to finish one wall, but I have secret plans to finish that as soon as I get home. So there's my lengthy excuse for not posting anything sewing related this weekend. Painting takes forever. Especially when you're painting crown molding, a tray ceiling, a chair rail, the walls and baseboard molding. Yikes. What a project!

So onto the sewing stuff. I'm currently waiting patiently for some of recently ordered patterns to come in. I got a steal on some Butterick patterns this last week. They ran a three day sale where all their patters were $1.99. Being the cheap frugal gal I am I had to snatch up some of the retro reprints.

Butterick 6582 Retro. The black satin number really got me here. I love the criss-cross top and the cute little bows. I'm thinking this would be a great Atlanta look. If only my hair was more well behaved and did that nice little swoop and curl.

The famous (or infamous) Walk Away dress. I've been wanting to do this pattern for a while. Mainly because it is so un-flattering on a smaller girl like me. Even the sample dress on the Butterick website shows how unflattering this dress can be. Liking a challenge, the masochist in me thinks it would be fun to mess with this dress and make it work. The bodice needs better shaping, the sleeves need to be moved in and from what I've read the back of this dress is too heavy and pulls the whole thing out of shape. Sounds like an alteration that's right up my alley.

One can never have enough apron patterns... Butterick 5435

And lastly Butterick 5281. This dress is very charming and only takes 3 yards of fabric. Sweet. The lower the yardage the more fabric options I have. The short sleeved version is much more appealing in my eyes. I like the idea of belting it at the waist or using the tie the pattern includes. I love a nicely cinched waist.  I would ideally like to make this in a floral print. 

I'm very interested to see how these differ from actual vintage patterns and if their modern updates actually improve or screw up the construction. I'm also excited to be able to cut these babies up, rearrange them and man handle them in a way I don't feel comfortable doing with my 1950s and 40s patterns.  Fabulous!