Vintage Finds and a Wee Little Announcement

A new artistic endeavor is in process. 

Oh boy, now I said it. 

Olie-oh: a vintage party rental boutique.

Coming Soon!

I will carry vintage, modern, unique and quirky items, for party planners, photographers and love birds heading to the chapel. Right now it means beefing up my blog, building a website and, my favorite part...... buying some really cool stuff!!! About the beefing up the blog and building a website, I am welcoming any encouragement, tips, referrals, services and/or helps that you might have to share.

Yesterday I packed up the family and hit the Petaluma Antique Faire. 

We had a blast! Even my 16 year old son thanked me for taking them because, "it actually was kind of fun." If you know him at all then you are reveling with me in this small miracle!

I found this:

I know that was an abrupt transition but I'm just so excited and I just wanted you to know that I found this!!!!!!!!

Amber Punch Bowl Set

I do promise promise promise that better pictures will be in the future,

I was just very excited to show you some and had very limited time.

I am crazy about amber colored anything and was delighted to add this to my Amber Goblet Collection. Actually I was downright giddy. 

I also found these:

Charming Table Cloths

And they will be adorable layered together!

No one can have too much bamboo and how happy I was to find this crazy fun table cloth in PERFECT condition. Again I apologize for these poorly styled pics. I will take much better ones soon, PROMISE! 

And at Auction House recently....

I found these:

Rose Colored Glasses

They are just so pretty. So pretty. And you just feel so pretty drinking from them.

Golden Demitasse

These are just so elegant and I can't get over the sweet little feet on the cups. And the color combination is my favorite. It's all over my house. I love it.

Oval Glass Serviette

Also called Snack Trays or Tea Service Trays

Vintage Gossip Table

What is not to love about this adorable telephone table? The phone, which required two hands, would sit on the top shelf and the caller would sit on the big shelf facing the small one. I imagine a note pad sat on the tiny shelf and a big phone book under the seat. I was thrilled to have picked this up at auction and I really look forward to styling it properly later.

So, I will posting more in the near future.

Spring CLEANing Update

21days!
It happened, we did it, and well....
Clean

Results:

I weigh a lot less. 
I dropped a whole pant size.
I don't pant or need to sit down after a short run upstairs.
I went off a few herbals I took for energy.
A chronic rash has cleared up.
I'm not hungry all the time.
I think my chicken neck is gone.
I have a lot more time in my day. I'm not stopping for coffee all the time.
My wallet doesn't have a hole in it anymore. We've saved so much money not eating out all the time.
Surprisingly, I think I'm just always in a better mood, much more the ME that I used to know.
I believe that my hormones may have balanced and improved (waiting for the Monthly Monster to be sure). I only decided to share the latter because its one of the main reasons I did this and I believe that many ladies would benefit from the relief I was seeking. I'll know better in about a week.
And I know of at least two people who have ordered the program already. 

Negatives:

"Mom, you need to buy some junk food. I can't live like this forever," says Calli who has been freely eating whatever this whole time. I guess my pantry has been on Clean as well.

You pee A LOT! Which is actually a positive because those toxins have to get out somehow. It's a negative at the movies.

Feedback from Friends:

"You look great! What did you do?"

"You're glowing! Your skin looks amazing!" (Although it could be the make-up. I do wear fantastic vegan, gluten free skincare and make-up.)

There was a compliment about my butt that I'm too embarrassed to include but it made me feel great! 

My daughter, who is very modest, and doesn't allow me to even speak of certain body parts in her presence, asked, "Mom, what happened to your butt?!" in a good way.

"You lost weight didn't you? How? I just saw you a few weeks ago? What the heck?"

"Whoa. You got skinny," from TrueLove.

OK. So, all of these compliments are mere perks. They make me ecstatic on the inside but they are NOT the reason I did this. As you recall, heart disease runs in the family on both sides, and my big strong brother is still recovering from his quadruple bypass. THAT'S why I did it......

and that's why I'm sticking with it. I feel great! My head is clear. I'm doing it.

Do you need to buy the kit from Clean Program?

Yes, it's easy, everything's in it, and no questions. 

But, I did not. It's over $400, which is fair for what you get, but we are in a season of serious pinching, so here's what I did if you are thinking of doing a Spring CLEAN yourself.

I already had Oregano Oil (anti microbial), Probiotics, garlic tablets, healthy oils (I take Cod Liver Oil, Borage Oil, and Olive Oil regularly, and I use a fantastic Protein Powder and Fiber, that tastes GREAT, is cheap, gluten free and vegan. I'm a consultant and can hook you up. It has cane sugar which is not permitted on Clean, but I chose to go with it because we had it, and I was committed to allowing that to be the only allowance I would make. I don't think it hindered my results. 

I do believe I was able to cut cost quite a bit and not miss a beat. The results I'm experiencing are confirming.

Tips:

Have snacks and meal components on hand. I got a lot of mileage out of making a bunch of brown rice, quinoa, chicken or roasted veggies ahead of time and being able to add them to a meal easily. They were not in there all at the same time, but I tried to have at least two things ready. The Cashew Cream Cheese recipe I made is always in the fridge for dipping veggies, making a quick creamy salad dressing or to top a piece of meat. 

Know what recipes you like and make sure that veggie drawer is full a lot. If you run low on the staples it will be a sabotage.

Know what restaurants have friendly options.

Make detox tea at night you're big snack. 

If you HAVE to have coffee for spiritual and intellectual reasons, then I recommend getting Water Processed Decaf. Marley's Coffee has a great one, Blue Bottle does all of their decaf this way, and Peet's Decaf Mocha Java as well. 
But it will still be dehydrating, I recommend you go cold turkey from coffee with some Feverfew the first three days to conquer the withdrawal headaches. Stick to detox teas and get the full benefit, I'm just sayin'. If I can do it, anyone can do it.

If you HAVE to have a cocktail, use fresh juice and Sake. I'll post more about that later, but for now, it's not perfect but your best bet and rich in amino acids. I needed to do this on Easter and it was perfect!

These are my best tips.

If you'd like a posting of my FAVORITE Clean recipes, then let me know for sure. Right now I am enjoying a gorgeous Sesame Brown Rice Bowl with Roasted Veggies and Tahini Sauce. I will definitely post later on it when my Camera gets it's detox. 

Urban Farming

I've been trying my hand at some... gardening!

Never done it before, super nervous, but determined.

 Inspired by a segment I watched on Kelsey's Essentials about a New York restaurant's roof top farm completely planted in milk crates, I thought I'd try it. 

And LOOK! It's working!

Milk crates are very practical, cheap, usually free, easily moveable and a perfect solution for my small yard. My yard is the perfect size for us, 24' X 24',  small!

Not only that, but half of it is not landscaped and unusable, for now. 

The other half is deck.

So, extra small.

But I was determined.

So, the milk crates happened!

In the t.v. inspiration I watched they looked cool and sleek, all black, neat little rows,

however, these are the ones we had on hand. For the best sun situation, we had to put them on this mangled, sad excuse for a bench, that is a project waiting to happen.

If you'd like a blog post with directions on this, you'll need to comment and let me know.

For now, we are growing lettuces, herbs and tomatoes.

I have procured a few more milk crates and as soon as I have them lined, we'll branch out into squashes,  peppers and berries.

I am beyond excited about this!

Easter Fun

This year is my families Off Year, meaning that my brother's and I miss each other's company but we are all freed up to be with our in-laws. We didn't make the trip to see the in-laws (sad face) due to work obligations as well as TrueLove and Jake's desire to serve with Father's House Vacaville in their Adopt-a-Block program. More on that later. 

So for Easter we shared just the four of us and it ended up being delightful in every way. Since TrueLove and I are on the homestretch of CLEAN it gave me an opportunity to make an entirely healthy holiday meal without offending anybody. No Easter baskets, no chocolate bunnies, no creamy spinach gratin, no traditional carrot cakes. To defend myself and my parenting I will say that I purchased goodies from Sweet Affair to spoil my kids with special treats too, just TrueLove and I abstained. People in my family love their traditions I've learned since I am a variety junky and look at holidays as opportunities to experiment, I have often been overruled in favor of traditions. Well, yesterday I had complete freedom to go way out into Crazyville and make an entirely CLEAN friendly meal.

So, I'll show you what we did and link recipes. I will say that we were all in HEAVEN! We all loved it. We all felt really good afterwards, even too stuffed for the Raw Carrot Cake with Cashew Vanilla Frosting afterwards. We all had plenty of energy to jump in the car and go see God's Not Dead, my FAVORITEST part of the day. It seemed very appropriate to see a movie with that title on the day that the world celebrates that He's Alive. So awesome.

clipped from my garden

So here are some pics and links. If you want more info or step by steps then let me know. I'm happy to share but don't want to bore you.   

Minty Lemonade from Clean by Alejandro Junger

Halibut Baked in Parchment with Olives and Thyme also from Clean. 
And AMAZING!!!!! I knew it was good. I had made it for TrueLove when he was on Clean program years ago and loved it. I only add minced garlic and capers to the recipe because, I just have to.

Marinated and Grilled Artichokes from Community Eats and Emirel Lagasse
Brown Rice with Coconut Oil and Chives

 Easter Salad ( I made it up)

Lemon Cashew "Cream Cheese" Dressing. 
The base is the Cashew "Cream Cheese" by Clean and I turned into a dressing.

And Raw Carrot Cake with Cashew Vanilla Frosting from Gimme Some Oven
Whoa. What a terrible picture. AND lacking the frosting. Truth is by the time I got around to this I was exhausted and ran out of gas. I promise you a better photo later. And I confess that the frosting required honey which is not permitted on Clean. I allowed myself a healthy, natural indulgence for our special day.

Happy Easter from Olio

Happy Easter! Happy Resurrection Day!

I hope you have had as much fun preparing for the day as I had. My daughter and I spent Friday morning making Empty Tomb Treats with a bunch of darling little chili's, nine kids! Three of my girlfriends scooped their little ones together so we could remember what Jesus did with a fun tasty activity. I loved doing it with my kids but my munchkins are so big now that I asked if I could bring the fun to my friends who still have little guys. So much fun!
If you have little ones please do this with them. Just google Resurrection Rolls and if it includes the marshmallow and crescent rolls, and a devotional, then it's the right one. Easy, fun and way yummy ( I remember how yummy they are because they are not CLEAN treats and I easily resisted).

Today Calli and I had fun at the Farmer's Market grabbing all the ingredients for a CLEAN Easter. Next week I'll share the recipes. I am most excited about trying the Marinated Artichokes that my girlfriends posted on Community Eats. I promise, I don't intend for this to be another food blog, but CLEAN is what is happening to us right now, so I must share. Thankfully everyone seems pretty interested. All I am saying is that I'm planning to just slide over day 21 and keep this thing going. I feel amazing! Fitting back into my size (mmmm let's not share numbers like that out into the universe- especially on a holy weekend), but I'm quite happy with how clothes are fitting. I don't feel hungry and I never even wake up hungry. My face looks like it's original shape, not so puffy. We're noticing the gluten free shrink which I love! And I received a few compliments from my girlfriends that made me blush a little in a good way-the end.

Back to Farmer's Market! Bought some flowers to take to my mom for her Easter table. I had such a blast playing florist and it is "playing" since I find arranging super challenging. I took a class from my genius friend Missy at Twigss once and learned a few tricks, watched an Oprah bit on arranging, but even still I struggle. It wasn't working and I fussed and fussed with it. I decided to clip some of the exciting roses from my front yard, throw in a few lemons and some of the rosemary I grow and now, not too bad. A cheery little mix.

And I had lots of fun playing with some vintage china I just scored at Auction House the other night. I'll post some pics later this week but I am just having way too much fun!

My TrueLove and my son went serving the Vacaville community doing graffiti abatement with The Father's House, a church really transforming a community with love and meeting very practical needs. It was with their Adopt-a-Block program. I wish I had pics but I'll be joining them soon and I'll lug the camera around with me to share. I can not wait!

Anyways, Happy Easter Everyone! Easter reminds us how powerful Love is and how much we have to be grateful for. May your day be filled with Love, Joy, Family and Memory Making!

Cheers!

CLEAN

TrueLove and I are in the middle of the CLEAN program!

"Program sounds so much better than "detox", but that's what we're doing. Several friends of ours have done it with raving testimonials and now it's our turn to embrace it. You can read the book Clean by Dr. Alejandro Junger or just pop over to www.cleanprogram.com for more information.

We started the program immediately following a close family members quadruple bypass surgery. This guy had the sensibility to go to the doctor and check things out when things just weren't feeling right. Good thing he did! The next week he was getting all fixed up. IF SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR HEART DOESN'T FEEL RIGHT GET IT CHECKED! 

Taking an inventory of family history and death by heart disease, it propelled me to embrace the Clean Program, written by a cardiologist, it became clear that doing Clean could not wait. Clean addresses two major things that affect our overall well being: Toxicity and Inflammation. I'm in week 3 and not itching to break fast at all. I decided to return to blogging (notice how I glossed over how long it's been since my last post), by the prodding of several people missing the posts. Awe.

The book has some wonderful recipes, but I don't always have everything on hand and must fall back on old fashioned creativity. And Clean Chicken Salad happened! OOH it was good. So. I thought I'd blog about it mainly so I could go back to it and remember how I did it. How fun would it be if someone out there detoxing might like to try it too. I am quite certain that my peeps who are Paleo Foodies can enjoy it too.

Clean Chicken Salad
Now. Know that when you set out to do something routine like just make lunch, you are not always expecting a "wow! this salad changed my life" moment, so you are not measuring and calculating or really even thinking. Just going about the business of satisfying hunger. So bear with me that the measurements are merely what looks right. It made enough for 2 people and I ate them both.

1/2 chicken breast, cubed small 

(mine was leftover, which I recommend)

1/2 carrot, chopped very small

1 green onion

1 stalk of celery, chopped very small

1/2 apple, chopped very small

1/2 avocado, chopped

pumpkin seeds

celtic sea salt

pepper

thyme

juice of 1/2 lemon

cashew cream cheese with dill and garlic, 1 big scoop

Cashew Cream Cheese with Dill and Garlic

(this is straight out of the book pg 278 and I followed it exact)

2 C cashews soaked for 2 hours

1 C water

2 capsules probiotics

1/2 bunch minced dill

2 garlic cloves pressed

sea salt to taste

1. Blend cashews, water and proviotics in a high-speed blender until smooth and very creamy.

2. Transfer to a bowl and cover with a cheesecloth or a mesh. Let sit for 8-12 hours on a warm area for fermentation. This will be the basic cheese.*

3. Add dill, garlic and salt. Keep some dill to sprinkle on top. You can use other herbs such as chives and rosemary. Refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.

*I always freak out a little bit (a lot) when I'm fermenting ANYTHING and haven't a lot of experience with it either, but I did it anyway. Had a little faith. Trusted the book that says "The Revolutionary Program to Restore the Body's Natural Ability to Heal Itself" had my staying aliveness in mind with this recipe. It tasted delicious and I didn't die. And I loved it and will make it even when I'm not detoxing, because it's that good.

Back to the Clean Chicken Salad

Mix it all together and make sure that the avocado gets creamed up with the cream cheese. 

The cream cheese recipe makes a TON, so just use enough to make it as creamy as you like your chicken salad.

This recipe is only quick and easy if you already have made the cream cheese and have leftover chicken, which I did, because when detoxing you need the good stuff right there when you have a snack attack and can only eat the limited list of approved things. 

To finish it off I drizzled some more fresh lemon, sprinkled celtic sea salt and capped it off with some pumpkin seeds.