Andy's Idea Factory

Having been off coffee since going on the SCD diet, and boosting my existing Scotch-Irish-induced adoration for tea, I've found a new favorite: the naturally sweet and nutty Kukicha tea, also known as bancha twig tea or winter tea (how perfect).  Kukicha comes from the tea tree Camellia sinensis, just as it is the case with green tea, white tea and black tea and is made from roasted and aged twigs, stems and coarse leaves of the tea plant. I was introduced to Kukicha at my last Tea Party by my Ayurvedic Practitioner for cleansing and healing my liver ~ but the benefits of kukicha tea are numerous, it is an important part of the macrobiotic diet (truly taken from Ayurvedic tradition) and it is considered to lead to stable health and longevity.  Sold! Kukicha tea's benefits come from its alkalizing properties and is good for the prevention of numerous diseases by balancing our levels of acidity.  Here's where the SCD diet comes in:  diets containing white flo...

They say the first month is the hardest, so I'm feeling pretty good that the first month wasn't actually that hard.  I won't lie, I went through a bad second-week chocolate withdrawal when my brain let go of that addiction, I had two straight weeks of adrenal fatigue , and getting used to making everything from scratch took some effort that I just barely had during that fatigue.  But coming out of the other end of that feels magnificent and the patches of psoriasis are already practically gone - and going gluten free didn't really affect them really at all - and when I pay close attention to the quality of the nuts I'm eating, and soak them, the arthritis has also been non existent.  I've finally started feeling like not only can I handle this for a short term (my naturopathic doctor said 6-12 months, probably more like 6 for me), I will likely take many of these practices with me far into my future food consumption. Since I have taken the time to do some qua...

I can't take credit for these, going around in a mass email, but they're sure worth sharing!! (Thanks Mom!) H ull strawberries easily using a straw.   Rubbing a walnut over scratches in your furniture will disguise dings and scrapes.  Rubbing a walnut over scratches in your furniture will disguise dings and scrapes. Remove crayon masterpieces from your TV or computer screen with WD40. Stop cut apples browning in your child’s lunch box by securing with a rubber band. Overhaul your linen cupboard, store bed linen sets inside one of their own pillowcases and there will be no more hunting through piles for a match. Pump up the volume by placing your iPhone & iPod in a bowl.  The concave shape amplifies the music. Re-use a wet-wipes container to store plastic bags. Add this item to your beach bag.  Baby powder gets sand off your skin easily, who knew?! Attach a Velcro strip to the wall to store soft toys. Use wire to make a space...

This past month I've been lucky to help a dear friend start up her new practice of Ayurvedic Medicine, and it stirred the wheels of writing again to share the steps we took, in case you have something new you want to promote and generate income with, with little-to-no startup.  After our first session together on December 1st, we summarized what Tracy needed... She already had a space rented, a name for the business, and a nice shiny new degree to be proud of. So what she needed next was: A logo. A website. And blog. Some photos. An emailing system. And of course, a Facebook page. Now it was time to start checking things off the list! We started with everyone's favorite, GoDaddy, and secured her website's name:  www.wholehealingayurveda.com .  Three years of hosting and one email, check. Then we went to my favorite, Weebly, and started her free website design.  If you want an easy operating system with preset designs and settings, Weebly the way to go....

After 2.5 years on a strict gluten-free diet and showing only marginal improvement to my skin condition of psoriasis, (although pain free from psoriatic arthritis), my naturopathic doctor has recommended the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD). I had grown frustrated with the worsening allergic reactions I was having to several new foods, and went in for a checkup about two months ago, seeing both my naturopath and a new acupuncturist.  For me this reaction is severe joint pain and swelling on my right side, and I am so sensitive to gluten that now anything made in a factory with gluten - as well as all "inflammatory" foods such as soy and the "nightshades" family now - gives me this reaction. Both docs agreed I should go off the nightshades, refined sugars, and soy, and add some acupuncture, Chinese herbs and natural remedies (aloe juice, apple cider vinegar, and more) to my daily rituals to enduce some intestinal healing.  Since then I have seen a 50% reduction i...

Even though I'm a good baker and love to be in the kitchen, I still love the ease of a ready-made gluten free kit.  Many of my friends who want to go gluten-free complain about the high costs of buying several different types of flours, starches, along with xanthum gum, and they're right, it's a pain in the butt to keep up. Half the time I go into my cupboard, it seemed like I was missing one of the four key ingredients.  So over the past year I've been taste-testing some goodies around the country and have some to share for those who have recently decided to go off wheat/gluten, or for those who, like me, get tired of making everything from scratch. When the temps drop, I love to start baking again, and these mixes have made it into my cabinet, and will surely repeat themselves soon! Purely Elizabeth Apple Spice Muffin Mix Whole Foods I'm not vegan, so I went with the egg over the applesauce and went with the coconut oil over the veggie oil. Truly delicious ...

Recently I made the jump to HDR photography because a new real estate job required it.  For a few years now I've been impressed by the HDR results I've seen from my peers but haven't had the reason, other than hobby, to make the leap myself.  But once you do, it's hard to go back. Combining the light and dark exposures of a single image, HDR can capture both sunrise and sunset in the same image, that is if you have the patience for it.  Many pros think it's cheating, but as someone who grew up with the cumbersomeness (and failures) of shooting with film and the darkroom, I wouldn't label any new technology as cheating. High dynamic range imaging (HDRI or HDR ) is a technique that brings together the lightest and darkest exposures of an image into balance with computer processing through special programs.   If Ansel Adams were around, he'd be eating this system up, as it takes the time of burning and dodging images out of your "darkroom" schedule ...