Terrain, etc.

Another random post today.

Our close friends gave us this fabulous galvanized chalkboard basket and the slate cheese board as Christmas gifts this year. They definitely know my style! This metal basket could be used for so many things~ serving bread for dinner, housing small potted herbs, displaying bottles of wine at a party, etc. Well for now, this sweet little metal basket is home to my latest health fixation~ hemp. Hemp hearts and hemp protein powder.

Chalkboard and tin basket from here, slate cheeseboard here. Terrain is Anthropologie's eco-friendly store with a focus on gardening, green personal care goods, furniture and some great home goods. I just ordered this cute set of mason jar salt and pepper shakers.

OK~ on to the little hemp station in my kitchen.

You'll recall that I used hemp protein powder in my hemp protein bars {here}. While pulling the recipe from Sarah's blog {My New Roots blog}, I became intrigued with the health benefits of hemp, which she describes beautifully right here. Shortly after making my protein bars and blabbering on and on about hemp protein powder and chia seeds, my hubby spotted this bag of hemp hearts at Costco and picked it up for his flower-child-wife. ☺

My oatmeal, cream of wheat, soups and salads are routinely sprinkled with a different seed each day {flax, chia, hemp}. I love the taste of each and notice I'm much more satisfied after my morning bowl of oatmeal [although, it could also be that I'm no longer running 30+ miles per week so I'm not as hungry].

I love cooking with coconut oil and grapeseed oil. I've been using grapeseed oil on my salad instead of olive oil AND I've been using it on my skin after the shower. I read that grapeseed oil is a good, all natural moisturizer for your face so I've been using this at night.
So there you have it, more than you ever wanted to know about me I'm sure~ ha! ☺

Does anyone out there have favorite new finds ~ new stores, health foods, unusual beauty products? I'd love to hear!!

xo~

Tricia

5 movies and a lot of vino!

Everything is back in it's place today after a somewhat wild weekend.

Lots of laughter, some loud music, soaking up the sunshine on the back porch and having deep conversations over a bottle {or two} of wine....stuff that you can only do with the closest of friends.
This crumpled couch was filled with kids, adults, and the dog all weekend {notice I didn't mention hubby, he tried to stay far away all weekend, hee, hee}. The coffee table was piled high with glasses of wine, platters of cheese, crackers, hummus, cupcakes and candles.

My girlfriend Lisa came in from New York and we had a ball, like we always do when we get together. We tried to cram in as many movies as we could before the SAG awards Sunday night and ultimately the Oscars in February.

At least 20 candles were burning in the room during our movie fest/girls weekend in.

I had to get these cute World Market apothecary candles after Linsey showed us hers last week.
We burned up apple-tv and on-demand and managed to see the following movies in 2 short days:

Paranormal Activity 3 {please don't judge, we like ghost movies}

The Help

Bridesmaids

50/50
We had a delicious brunch at Brasserie 19 on Sunday then stopped by The Bird and The Bear for some prosecco on the patio. The weather in Houston was too dreamy to be sitting in a dark movie theatre but we did sneak out to see The Artist on Sunday and it was great!

Here's to long lasting friendships, entertaining movies, Houston sunshine and staying away from wine for a week or so, eek!

xo~
T

**final days for 30% off**

Hurry, there are only a few days remaining for the 30% off online deal at Francesca's Collections.

Promo Code: MORNING
Promo Discount: 30% off a single regular priced item & free standard shipping!
Promo Dates: 1/1/11-1/30/11
Promo Disclaimer: Online only. Cannot be combined with other discounts or promo codes. One time use. Gift cards & sale items are excluded

I've already piled a few things into my cart in prep for Valentine's Day. I usually wait until the last minute to throw something together for my little sweetheart, but am getting a leg up this year with the 30% off.

*For my little Valentine*



*For my big Valentine*

*For moi*

Head on over to Francesca's online now and use your 30% off before it ends on Tuesday!

Promo Code: MORNING

Promo Discount: 30% off a single regular priced item & free standard shipping! Promo Dates: 1/1/11-1/30/11

Promo Disclaimer: Online only. Cannot be combined with other discounts or promo codes. One time use. Gift cards & sale items are excluded

Happy shopping~

T

a fresh start

Getting serious about running over the past few years has really changed my mentality on eating. I invested so much time and energy into training for the marathon last year that I made a conscious effort to put the same energy into what I was fueling my body with. It was a necessary focus at the time, but I kept up with it for so many months that it's just become habit. I've always been a relatively healthy eater but processed foods were a big part of my diet. For the past year I've been able to stick to eating real, unprocessed foods about 90% of the time.

My mother in law is a wealth of knowledge regarding holistic health and nutrition and she's turned me on to so many secret ways to use foods and spices for overall health and beauty. While she was visiting over the Christmas holiday she told me about a juice blend that is recommended for cancer patients, but is something we should all drink every morning, as a fresh start to our day.

My beet, carrot and apple juice {I also added parsley, kale, celery and ginger} from this morning. Before drinking coffee or tea or anything else in the morning, drink this freshly juiced concoction within 30 minutes of preparation.

The recipe is one beet, one apple and three carrots.

Not having a juicer on hand, I started out making these using the food processor. As you can see below it's a thick mess, but it still tasted really good to me. I drank one of these every morning the week before the marathon.

I figured if I could stick with pulling out the food processor and cleaning everything up in the morning before I left for work each day for at least a few weeks, then I would look into buying a juicer. After reading about the benefits of the actual juice versus drinking the entire fruit and veggies, I knew I had to take the plunge and get a juicer.

I really wanted the stainless Breville Juicer but hubby happened to be out and about earlier this week and this was the only model he could find. The Jack LaLanne Power Juicer.

It's a big ugly beast, but it does the trick and best of all, it's super duper quiet, which is critical for the 5am juicing fest going on in my kitchen nowadays. ☺

I watched a few videos on how to use it and clean it etc, and I was a pro my first go round. Within just this first week I have so much energy and I'm able to think more clearly. Of course it could all be psychological but whatever, I know I'm putting something good into my body first thing every morning and I have so much more energy during my early morning runs.

There is so much info out there on the benefits of juicing so if you're interested in starting this yourself click here or here for more info. I'm not planning on doing any juice cleansing at all, but Sarah Britton has some great 'juice feasting' combinations over here.

Here's to starting fresh each and every day!

T

vintage fresh

Check out this fabulous townhome in Boerum Hill, New York. Filled with vintage pieces, but with a clean and airy feel.

If I could just crawl inside this picture below and vegetate for a few days I would!

Source: nytimes.com via Tricia on Pinterest

Source: nytimes.com via Tricia on Pinterest

Source: nytimes.com via Tricia on Pinterest

Source: nytimes.com via Tricia on Pinterest

Source: nytimes.com via Tricia on Pinterest

Funny, I wasn't able to save the images to my computer but was able to pin them, ha!

See the rest here.

xo~
T