four fanciful things: world market style

I am a World Market fan... big time!  It is the only place that I will buy olive oil and i know if I can't find a good price on spices, I can there.  I love what they have to offer in home decor as well.  Matter of fact I just happened on their website this morning and chose four fanciful things to share with you in a heartbeat of a hummingbird. 

 

 

 

Shoe Rack

Metal Picnic Basket

Cloche

Plant Ladder



In This Skin

Me and my spotted skin... here we go.  I live with psoriasis.  My psoriasis is called Guttate Psoriasis.  Red spots form on my skin anywhere they want to, without reason or timing or cause from anything I am doing.  The cells in my skin produce at a more rapid rate than they should.  I have been dealing with the red spots for about six years.  Before that I dealt with white spots or areas of my skin turning into white splotches which happened mainly when I would tan and mainly on my torso.  It was like my tan would peel off. This I can remember starting in my late teens to early twenties.  Whether the white spots are related to the red spots I don't know.  Doctor after dermatologist can't make it go away.  Items help and sometimes make it lighter but never go away completely.  I feel that I am in a lucky stage right now because the red spots are mainly on my shins, the white spots remain everywhere. 

 

The sad part to me is that this is the first year that I have actually thought about hiding it from people.  When you go from long pants and jeans, because of warmer weather, to shorts and skirts and the kids at day care ask about my owees and does it hurt.  The truth is that it does hurt at times and it does itch and I do want to hide it.  The good thing is that I do have ways to make it feel better and please believe me that I have tried remedy after remedy over the years.  When you have something like this, that is visible to everyone, you try everything from tar to vitamins to teas to sunlight to lotions to medicines.  One tube of cream from the pharmacy had a retail price of $860.00.  Yeah.. that is what I said... and it doesn't work... for me anyway. 

 

So there is my confession and here is what it looks like and what I use to calm it down and the best lotion that I have found to use.  I wanted to share because I know I am not the only one and you may have it or may know someone who is at their whits end and maybe something I show you that I use may help flare ups or itching.  Or maybe you have a suggestion for me that worked for someone you know. 

 

 

 

And what I use.

 

 

ugh this is as big as the picture gets.  If you can't see something let me know and I will help you find it.  I didn't include links to the products and for that I apologize.  I feel as if I have said enough.  Sometimes I let people in on the blog here before I would ever let anyone in in person.

And by the way, psoriasis is hereditary and supposedly can go into remission.  Here's hoping!

 

 



Easy Croutons

I have never made croutons in my life... up until now.  I was taking an easy route while making supper by omitting a vegetable and adding a salad.  Just a plain salad with iceberg lettuce, sliced grape tomatoes, shredded cheddar cheese and croutons.  But alas, when I went to the pantry there were no croutons to be found.  How sad.  I thought for a moment about making them and almost decided to tough out the salad without any crunchy goodness about.  I opened my trusty red and white Better Homes cook book and thumbed to page 431.  There I found simple instructions and proceeded to make a simple batch of croutons that only took a little bit of time and I created magic. 

I love and adore a good crouton.  When I think of a restaurant where I normally order a salad with my meal, I can picture what kind of croutons the salad will include.  These croutons are light in the middle and perfectly crunchy on the outside without breaking your jaw.  I had no idea, I just had no idea that I could make something so easy and kick every crouton's ass that I have ever tasted.  You can do it too you know... and you should.

 

See, I liked the first picture of ingredients but it didn't show you the label on the seasoning good enough.  Blogging is work y'all!  Oh and you don't have to use unsalted butter.  I normally don't unless I am baking.  This was all a set up after the fact when I realized that I made the best croutons ever.  Had I known I would have made pictures the first time.  I need to trust my abilities before hand huh?

 

Headed Our Way

Well folks... I have great news.  We have a puppy headed our way!  After trying to adopt a rescue dog that was two years old, and it not working out, we decided that we needed to start fresh with a puppy who will know us it's whole life.  Shaun has been looking for puppies and a dog for a couple of months now and Thursday I came across an add in the Tennessean-online.  I made a phone call and it turned out the lady was just one town over from us!  All of the other places were going to require a road trip.  This trip was only about fifteen minutes.  When we got there I was very relieved that it wasn't a puppy mill.  You just never know.  The couple had both parents there and they were extremely friendly and well mannered dogs.  We somehow picked which puppy we wanted from a litter of eleven!  Tough choice because all of the puppies were friendly and everywhere!  We chose a little girl with pretty standard markings of a Border Collie and she has the cutest freckles on her nose.  We get to pick her up in two weeks.  The agony of waiting!!! 

 

 

Rolly Poley Sweet Baby Girl.

 

We don't have a name for her yet and are open to suggestions!