On Wegman's, Work News and Wonderful Cheese

That's right, you read it correctly....Fredericksburg has finally come into it's own. We got a Wegman's!! I never really new what I was missing until I toured the mecca that is Wegman's. The organic section alone made my head swoon and it was love at first sight the moment I laid eyes on the cheese area. I did manage to restrain myself on my first ever shopping trip there. Partly because I had a limited budget and partly because it was the grand opening and you could barely move. I did however have coupons for a free packet of Wegman's butter and Wegman's BBQ sauce... I chose to go with Memphis style as opposed to Asian (it contained high fructose corn syrup as it's first ingredient.)


I purchased a fresh loaf of pain de champagne ( AMAZING!!), rye crackers, Italian salami, reduced fat cream cheese, Drunken Goat cheese (my absolute favorite), a mixture of olives and the brown Wegman's bag contains one everything bagel which I had for breakfast this morning. :)


The bbq sauce, organic 1% milk, salad mix, butter and the white bag contains and assortment of rugelach from the bakery. Sigh.
I cannot wait until the crowds die down to go back and truly explore all the wonders that store has to offer.

On to other news. Most of you know (cause it's on the side bar;)) that I am reading Eckhart Tolle's book A New Earth. Well it took me a while to connect with the book but I have and was it ever amazing. My eyes have been opened to a new way of being. A new way of looking at life, the world and myself. I am not quite finished with the book just yet. It's a lot to go over and contemplate and to be honest... I don't want to rush it. I am enjoying it too much. :D

I don't know if it's the book or the work I have been doing for a while on positive thinking and the Law of Attraction but something very exciting has happened. My business partner and I are doing well enough that we have decided to get a much bigger office. We have also decided to take the leap on an idea we have been sitting on for quite a while. It's still in it's infancy BUT we are opening the Alternative Wellness Center of Fredericksburg!!! I will go into more details in a later post but for now here are some pictures of our new (as of August 1st) office.


It's located right next to the buildings elevator which is awesome since we both have elderly and handicap clients.

A nice big welcoming waiting area. I see it painted a soothing color with warm comfy seating, plants, soft music, soft lighting and candles.

It has a separate storage room for a fridge, microwave and plenty of shelving for sheets, lotions and oils.

Don't worry these desks will be gone before we move in. :) It has two separate offices for private massage, reiki, reflexology and healing rooms.

It was like these rooms were made for massage. The back wall has a built in ledge that can hold any manner of decorative things, candles, lotions and whatnots.

This little alcove could be anything. We have a number of ideas for this space.
It really is coming together beautifully. Wonderful things are unfolding every day and I am excited and curious how it will all turn out. Our marketing has been really aggressive and is starting to pay off. Our main goal is to help people. To offer folks an alternative to healing, wellness and health. A place they feel safe and can trust... after all, isn't that really all anyone wants? :)

Well, it wouldn't be my blog if I didn't include some pics of delicious, whole foods so here goes.

This weekend my favorite wine bar/shop, Kybecca was having a sale on their cheeses.... of which there are many and they are all delicious. I managed to limit myself to just 3 but they were unfortunately the three most expensive. :/

I only have pics of the two I have tried so far which combined with some fruit made a delicious and oh so European lunch.

The yellow one is a semi-soft cow's milk cheese from Virginia. Have to say that I didn't care for it as much as I hoped to. It may be better cooked into a dish but on it's on it was too gamey. The white cheese however I could eat all day. It's a french Camembert that was as smooth as butter. Some rinds on cheeses are meant to be enjoyed like certain Bries but this one you will want to remove. It is very bitter and has a distinct penicillin flavor which made my eyes tear.

Cherries!!!! My favorite fruit!

This with crackers is all you really need in life. :)

Be good to yourselves blogger friends.... it's the truest road to happiness. :)

Pretty Little Things

I thought I might take a break from food pics (since I haven't really been inspired to take any lately) and shift my focus to other baubles that make me smile. I felt an urge to stop by Ulta on Sunday and and here are my purchases:


Two very different styles of L'Oreal eyeliners, two Rimmel lip glosses, 1 four set eye shadow for blue eyes and a two set eye shadow in the Hip collection of L'Oreal called Showy.


One side is a metallic turquoise and the other a deep and gorgeous blue. As much as I love these colors I have to say that I did not care for the shadows. They do not cover the lid evenly and you wind up with more pigment on your cheek than eyelid. Also, not a good color for my skin tone. :(


When I saw these colors on the display I fell in love. They remind me of the amazing Clinique lip glosses that my home girl, Patherine turned me on to. However, they don't have much pigment when you put them on your lips and the worst part is they smell and taste sickeningly sweet. I will be returning these along with the above eyeshadow and the black pencil eyeliner I purchased but forgot to take a close up pic of.

But this lovely thing I will most definitely be keeping. It's almost like a Sharpie it goes on so smooth and easy. I am horrible at eyeliner application but this I could do. :)

This one is also a keeper. It even comes with easy four step application instructions on the back of the package and the shadow goes on much smoother and stays on the lid. Score!

I have been thinking the past couple of days about what I would like this blog to focus on. I don't want to focus on what I deny myself but nor do I want to be a glutton. I would really like to focus on what makes me feel good and happy. Truly happy not just material happy and making myself up so that I feel really pretty does wonders for my soul. That and pedicures!

Summer toenails on pale winter feet! :)

Yesterday's Bounty

Since I had such a lovely day at the berry farm on Monday and picked up many wonderful foods there and en route I wanted to eat them as soon as possible. Can't help it....I am instant gratification girl. :)


Breakfast was Kashi H2H cereal and fresh strawberries and blueberries.


So vibrant and colorful.

Lunch was nothing extraordinary.

Turkey and cheese on whole grain with two olive eyeballs staring right AT YOU!

The most exciting part of lunch was my Blood Orange Italian Soda.

Off to work......

Afternoon snack.

Strawberries, blueberries, low fat organic vanilla yogurt and granola. Slurp.

After work things began to get a little hairy. Since I was trying to be all active and exercisey I decided to walk to work but after my last client left the hell of all hell storms blew in to town. Having walked to work in flip flops and no umbrella I had to wait out the worst of it. Once the rain slowed from a "DEAR GOD! IT'S HAILING!" to a drizzle I began the scary trek home. It was still lightening for goodness sake. :/

Needless to say I needed a little wind down before I started to prepare dinner.

Ladies and Gentlemen.......Vodka Tonic with Lime!

Gulp.... slurp.... snarffle.....

Dinner was chock full of local foods. :)

Mmmmm......

Spiced steamed shrimp.

Sweet potato with butter, cinnamon and a little sugar.

Good ole corn on the cob with butter and salt. So amazingly satisfying.

One a local foods note and on a different day (today) I went to my local baker and picked up an amazing loaf of country 7 grain. Toasted it, slathered it with butter and honey and had myself a lovely snack.

Crunch!

The artistic view. ;)

Pssst..... don't say anything just yet but I saw a sign in the window in one of my favorite buildings downtown that said.....are you ready?!...... Olde Town Butcher coming soon!!!!!! {{{geeking out noises}}}}}

Westmoreland Berry Farm

Yesterday was absolutely beautiful and extremely hot. So having decided to play hooky for the day I realized that there was only one thing to be done......mini road trip!
Westmoreland Berry Farm is one of my favorite places on earth. It's about 40 minutes East of Fredvegas and one of the most beautiful drives in this area. So having kidnapped my Mom, off we went.


Even the clouds were happy.

So gorgeous!

Not only is it a berry farm but it also has a little store, a petting area and a beautiful porch/pavilion to sit and enjoy the view. The breeze was lovely and so was lunch.

I had a sauerkraut hot dog with mustard, bbq chips and a pink lemonade. Definitely picnic style food.
You can't go to a berry farm and not sample some of their delicious fresh fruit baked goods!

So my mom and I decided to share a piece of Strawberry/Rhubarb pie with frozen custard on top. It was my first time trying that pie and may I just say it was AMAZING!

Here are some more pics of the view.

You can't have a porch with a view without a rocking chair.

The farm has done so well for themselves over the past several years that they were able to get rid of the port a johns and build and actual public restroom. :D

Baby animals!

Picnic tables with a view.

So lovely!

If you get a chance to get to this part of Virginia I highly recommend stopping here for a little refreshment.

Friday's Food

Boy, I have really been on top of things lately, huh? :) Okay, here goes....


A new Kashi cereal I have been wanting to try....it's like a healthier version of Cap N Crunch, only it gets soggy pretty quickly.


Mmmmm.....coffee, the sweet nectar of life.


Cereal money shot. ;)


A royal bee jelly vitamin I have been taking lately.


Overview.

I have to say that without any additional fruit the cereal didn't fuel me for long and since work wasn't that busy I don't feel I should have gotten as hungry as I did so quickly. But, what are ya gonna do. Except maybe have lunch!


Fredericksburg has a lovely lunch spot called the Fredericksburg Old Town Grill & Cafe where I got this yummo sandwich.


It's called the Autumn Turkey: turkey, gouda cheese, lettuce, tomato, cranberry sauce and ranch dressing.


Sweet Potato Fries.....it was a very Thanksgiving type of meal.

My little niece came into town to stay with Grammy and Pop Pop on Thursday night and the only chance I would have to see her was Friday night. So off we all went to Pancho Villa's Mexican Restaurant.

I had a few chips and salsa, a fruit punch Jarrito and the taco special.


Grilled Tilapia Tacos


They couldn't even compare to my beloved Soup and Taco fish tacos. Oh well.
We ended up sharing a fried ice cream amongst the four of us. So since I ate out twice it wasn't the healthiest food choice day.

I didn't record my eating for Saturday, Sunday and only managed to get one meal on Monday which I will post next.

Ta Ta!