Friday Chat
Two Fridays ago I wrote a chatty style post to share more about my life beyond how I decorate my house and DIY projects that I usually do. Many of you wrote telling me you really liked the post and asked for me to do it more.
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I know I like reading more personal posts that I read on other blogger’s sites, so I thought, “why not do it myself?”.
So here is what I have been up to.
Saw a Show
On Tuesday night, Ed and I went to the University of South Carolina’s, Koger Center in Columbia to see Riverdance. We had never seen the show before and loved it! So much energy. I want their legs and butts – so fit and shapely. :-)
We are Broadway in Columbia season ticket holders and attend about 6 shows a year. We usually make it a date night with dinner beforehand and then a short walk to the show.
Readers often ask me where I come up with my inspiration for the decorating ideas I use in my house.
Here is one example. When standing in line during the show’s intermission to use the Ladies Room, I passed this piece of modern art. I liked the mix of colors a lot! It gave me an idea to do something similar with a canvas I have.
Having a cell phone camera makes it easy to document inspiring things when you see them. When the time comes you can use the photos for reference when you want to create something similar.
I am Now a Foster Pet Grandmom
My daughter Mandy became a foster pet caregiver. Meet Lolly. She is a 2 year old Pomeranian/Chihuahua who loves to cuddle.
Lolly and her two siblings were dropped off at a shelter near where my daughter lives two weeks ago. Both her siblings were adopted right away, but Lolly has a problem with one of her hind legs. Since she is waiting for surgery, she won’t be up for adoption until her leg is better.
Mandy was happy to care for her until she gets surgery in about a month or two. She had an older cat who recently died. She missed having a buddy and learned about the fostering a pet program and signed right up.
If you are not familiar with the fostering a pet program, it is where you become a caregiver of a cat or dog for a temporary time without the lifetime commitment with the option to adopt them yourself if you happen to fall in love with them.
What I Eat in a Day
A frequently asked question I receive is about what I eat in a day on the plant based diet I follow. When I first started eating this way back in March of 2020, I searched for recipes and spent a lot of time in the kitchen. Now that it has become a habit and way of life, I eat very simply. Mostly unprocessed food. I still intermittent fast for 16 hours and eat between the hours of 12 noon and 8PM.
For every meal I follow the 50/50 plate. Half the plate is non-starchy veggies and the other half is a starch – potato, rice, or beans of some sort.
For lunch it is either a salad or a chickpea salad collard wrap (my favorite) and soup. Snacks are fruit – usually berries or air popped popcorn with no oil or salt.
For dinner most nights I have an Asian sweet potato or Hannah yam when I can find them (both varieties are white inside, not orange) and a veggie like Brussel sprouts or kale cooked with veggie broth with onions and mushrooms.
A few nights during the week I will make a bean stew with veggies. I batch cook every thing and then freeze it making meal time prep easier as I just have to grab something premade earlier in the week from the freezer and warm it up.
For dessert, I always have a plain banana, a banana whip that I make in a Yonanas Frozen Fruit soft serve maker, or a frozen fruit pop that I make by freezing canned, no-sugar or syrup added crushed pineapple in a popsicle mold. If I don’t have one of these I eat whatever fruit is in season – like watermelon in the summer. I drink black tea or peppermint tea all through the day and drink about a gallon of water a day.
When I go out to eat I have to plan ahead and have gotten used to bringing my own salad dressing to put on a salad. I usually ask for a baked potato and steamed veggies. If I can find a Vegan entree, then I will order that. I drink seltzer water with a squeeze of lime and on occasion will get a glass of red wine.
If you have any specific questions, just leave them for me in the comments.
Dealing With Autoimmune Disease
I got this book at the library this week to see if I could learn anything new about the Vitiligo I have. After reading, I was happy to learn that I already do everything mentioned in the book to reverse autoimmune diseases, except two things.
The first is consuming a larger amount of greens daily in the way of a smoothie. The second is finding ways to lower my stress level. Whipping up 9 cups of greens in the blender is pretty easy and I started having one each morning.
As for the second item, I am working on lowering the stress factor, as stress is what my dermatologist thinks is the cause of the Vitiligo that started showing up about 4 years ago.
I have it on both sides of my face, arms, hands and one knee. I have been trying to lower daily stress and not worry internally about things, but that is not as easy for me as simply eating more greens.
The good thing is that my dermatologist thinks the Vitiligo may no longer be active as I haven’t lost any more pigmented sections of skin show up in quite a while.
Now I am trying to get the white patches to re-pigment with a healthy diet and keeping my skin care simple. I think it is working, but slow going as the new brown dots borders around the white patches show up darker. Over time the dots join together.
When the skin does this – it is called “chocolate chipping”. It can look pretty weird and believe me when I say I get lots of stares from people when I am out and about, I do! I always just smile and move on. After a day in the sun, the difference between the pigmented skin and non-pigmented looks much worse, hence my use of plenty of sunscreen and a wide brimmed hat.
There is a new treatment cream recently approved for Vitiligo, but it has a black box warning on it and costs $2000 a tube which my insurance won’t cover. With the warning and the side effects, I don’t think I would use it anyway.
The dermatologist told me to use simple skin care, products with no lighteners, brighteners or retinol, Tretinoin, etc. as they lighten skin, as want I need to do is the reverse.
He has me using CeraVe cleanser and lotion. I am fine with using these, but am interested in finding other lightweight moisturizers and serums that have no lightening or brightening chemicals. It is hard to find them as even some of the CeraVe products have lightening ingredients in them. If you know of any, please let me know.
I Did Something I Have Always Dreamed About
Since I was a teenager I always wanted pretty nails. I fondly remember my 12th grade English teacher, Mrs. Sleazer who had beautiful graceful hands with long pale pink polished nails. I remember watching her hands more than listening to what she was teaching. Twenty years later I was at a restaurant and saw her.
I wasn’t sure it was her, but then I saw her hands and knew it was her. I went up to her table and told her I was a student of hers back in 1977 and what I remember most about the class and her were her nails. She couldn’t believe I even remembered her. I told her I would never forget her, as her nails in my mind were unforgettable and something I wish I had myself, pretty nails.
Even after this encounter, I am not sure why I just didn’t go to a nail salon and get my nails done. I have tried to grow my nails and they do grow, but then one or two break. I never have been able to have 10 finger nails all long at the same time.
Well, at 63 years of age, it was time to finally do it – get a full set of acrylic nails done natural (American) with a clear gel polish. I am so happy I did. I have gone twice now – first for the initial set and the second time for a fill.
The DIYer in me had me watching YouTube videos this week so I could learn to DIY them. Since I am pretty good with a paint brush and a Dremel tool with sanding bits, I think I can get the hang of doing acrylic nails and save myself a lot of money while having the finger nails I always dreamed of.
Decorating Project I am Working On
And last, the two wood panel sections in the above photo are the sides of an antique wood file cabinet that my neighbor was throwing away.
When I saw it, I looked it over and realized it was beyond repair, but the side panels were intact and very nice by themselves. I knew I would come up with a way to use them. I asked Ed if he could take the cabinet apart and save the sides. He did and now I am making them into something new. It is taking me longer than planned as I need my neighbor with a wood shop to cut each of the panels for me.
I also am giving a small makeover to these tables, so stay tuned to see what I do to give them a new look.
That’s it for this chatty post, but I look forward to chatting with you like this more often.
I hope you have a great weekend. Enjoy!