Angela Elliott, REALTOR® C21 Classic Properties ~ Gainesville, FL Real Estate

Pictured above is the Ivy House Restaurant (formerly Govindas Indian Cuisine) in the City of Alachua

I love old architecture: Victorians, Cracker Style - anything that speaks of time's past. I came across a home for sale on the Gainesville, FL MLS that was apparently in the historic district, and there was a link to the histroric guidelines. There are certain restrictions when remodling homes in the historic district. These guidelines are in place to encourage the owner to keep renovations with the integrity of the structure and area in mind.

I was trying to find this link to the guidelines online, when I came across a really excellent catalog of Gainesville and Alachua County Historic Homesites and buildings, such as the well known Univeristy of Florida Historic Campus and homes in the Duck Pond area of Gainesville: Historic Preservation Website

By clicking the Historic Towns tab, you are given a little map in which you can click the cities within Alachua County to gather historical information and view a map of what sections make up the historic districts in those towns. For Gainesville, you will find unique links covering the following areas:

History of Downtown Gainesville and Related Structures
Historic Downtown Structures

History of the Northeast Historic District (Duck Pond area)
NE Historic Sites

History of Pleasant Street Historic District
Pleasant St. Historic Homes

History of Southeast Gainesville Historic District
SE Gainesville Historic Homes

About University of Florida Campus Historic District
UF Historic Buildings

These links have a lot of Valuable and interesting information. Next time you're driving around the Downtown area, try to locate some of these historic buildings.

Looking for Cracker, Victorian, or Traditional old homes/real estate in Alachua County? Contact me and I'd be happy to send you available properties. One of the homes in the Duck Pond area/Northeast historic district registry is even currently available (info current as of 5/28/2008)!

Angela Elliott is a licensed Florida REALTOR® with Century 21 Classic Properties in Gainesville, FL. Please visit my profile for more about me and browse my Gainesville, FL real estate website for additional Alachua County information and listings. Your phone calls are always welcome at (352) 256-7038 as are your e-mails to angela.elliott1@century21.com. A portion of all my closed sales will be donated to the Alachua Co. Humane Society (View my mission statement).

I'm planning on going to dinner with some friends tomorrow night at the Taste of Saigon here in Gainesville,FL. I have been here one time and thought it was very good, but my friends have not eaten here yet. I was trying to tell them where to find a menu they could peruse to see if they want to eat here or somewhere else, when my friend told me about AllMenus.com

I'm not sure often you guys try to find menus for your local restaurants online - either to place a to go order or simply to familiarize yourself with the offerings of a place you've never been to - but I do so frequently. Usually I just google <restaurant name/menu> Gainesville, FL, but I'm bookmarking allmenus and will have that as my menu go to of choice from now on. Hope you guys can use this!

Realtors: make sure to share this with your relocating customers and customers coming in for the weekend to look at property (they need to eat somewhere!). For those of you who are members of Active Rain Foodaholics, you can use the menu link in any restaurant reviews you do for your local area too, if a menu for that particular restaurant is available!

*Make sure to visit my Article Index for Gainesville Restaurant Profiles, Gainesville real estate and other Gainesville Info.*

Active Rain members: Make sure to join Active Rain Foodaholics!

Angela Elliott is a licensed Florida REALTOR® with Century 21 Classic Properties in Gainesville, FL. Please visit my profile for more about me and browse my Gainesville, FL real estate website for additional Alachua County information and listings. Your phone calls are always welcome at (352) 256-7038 as are your e-mails to angela.elliott1@century21.com. A portion of all my closed sales will be donated to the Alachua Co. Humane Society (View my mission statement).

If you're looking for absolutely the BEST ice cream shop in Gainesville, FL, you've come to the right blog! I have been going to Sweet Dreams for years. Initially, my love affair with their fresh, creamy, sweet divinity began with Plantation Brown Sugar, an ice cream containing brown sugar and a bourbon extract. It does not taste anything like alcohol, but rather a deep butter flavor that I can closest compare to a Werther's Original, just not as sickly sweet. To this day the Plantation remains my top favorite with a similar flavor, Brown Sugar Toffee, following closely behind.

What I like about Sweet Dreams is that they are not afraid to branch out and make unique flavor combinations, some that may even be considered a little "weird" by some people's standards. But as I've espoused in my other restaurant profiles: if it's different, I'm on it. I love trying new things and flavors and I get bored of your basic meals and sweets.

Just a FEW of Sweet Dreams' amazing and unique flavors (I've tried everyone on this list) include:

• Guinness - This is very good. If you've ever had a Guiness, then you are aware of the dark chocolate and coffee notes this thick Irish Stout contains. It pairs extremely well with the sweet ice cream. The Guiness flavor is subtle and this is a good ice cream to try if you're normally a vanilla person because the flavor is mild.
  
  
• Pineapple Upside Down cake - Uncanny to and just as delicious as its namesake. One of my favorites.
  
  
• Zucchini Bread - Wow. I had this today and it is amazing. It is extremely smooth with very small flecks of zucchini. The zucchini bread spices come through. Would definitely buy again.
  
  
• Lavender Blueberry Honey - Next to the Plantation Brown Sugar and the Pineapple Upsidedown cake, I have to say this is my favorite. Made with fresh blueberries, this refreshing ice cream with its additional of lavender buds and honey for sweetness is so unique, I just love it.
  
  
• Mayan Chocoloate - Mmmm. This is a mix of a relatively dark chocolate ice cream (not bitter though) with cinnamon and a kicker of cayenne pepper. It's not for everyone because some people have a hard time with the idea of the cayenne, but it's really excellent. Think Mexican hot chocolate. Yeah, it's that good!
  
  
• Kulfi - This is not a very "weird" flavor so to speak, but rather a traditional Indian dessert that you don't ever see anywhere other than, maybe, an Indian Restaurant (I've had it at Chutnees, an Indian Restaurant I love, but it doesn't even remotely compare). Kulfi is a sweet cream ice cream with pistachio, cardamom (one of my favorite spices) and a splace of rosewater.
  

• Pear Brandy Stracciatella - Not an ice cream, but rather an Italian Ice type of concept. What is amazing about this is that you aren't scraping at it to get a spoonful like those store-bought ices. This is an incredibly smooth and creamy ice that you don't have to work at. It is extremely light and refreshing if you want something sweet but not as heavy as ice cream. This is what you need to have in your freezer to reward yourself after doing summertime yardwork! This is a pear ice with a splash of brandy flavoring for depth and chocolate shavings throughout.
  

Sweet Dreams is not just for scoops! You can also have your ice cream in a fresh made on-site waffle cone or regular cone, a milkshake, sundae, brownie, or the occasionally spotted chocolate dipped banana or chocolate dipped cheesecake. The also have ice cream cakes available or you can order a custom cake. Every year for my Mom and Dad's birthdays, I order a Plantation Brown Sugar cake (as that is their favorite ice cream as well).

Check out some of Sweet Dreams' offerings:

Sweet Dreams also runs **CHOCOLATE NIGHT** twice a year, which features around 30+ flavors of chocolate based ice cream! You can look forward to next Chocolate Night this fall, date to be announced. They have *mystery flavors* of chocolate as well. These are last chocolate night's flavors revealed:

CRAZY FLAVOR DAY, JULY 20TH!!! This is what I'M talking about!

Sweet Dreams is located at:

Map it with Google Maps

Sweet Dreams blows your chain ice cream stores out of the water. What are you waiting for? Go get yourself a treat!

*Make sure to visit my Article Index for more Gainesville Restaurant Profiles, Gainesville real estate and other Gainesville Info.*

Active Rain members: Make sure to join Active Rain Foodaholics!

Angela Elliott is a licensed Florida REALTOR® with Century 21 Classic Properties in Gainesville, FL. Please visit my profile for more about me and browse my Gainesville, FL real estate website for additional Alachua County information and listings. Your phone calls are always welcome at (352) 256-7038 as are your e-mails to angela.elliott1@century21.com. A portion of all my closed sales will be donated to the Alachua Co. Humane Society (View my mission statement).

Because this is not as commonly known as a cardinal or bluejay, I wanted to make a thread exposing you guys to the Tufted Titmouse. He is a small insect eater that is attracted to the suet feeder as well. He is a grayish blue in color with a little black patch in between the eyes. He sports a "mohawk", much like a cardinal. The titmouse has a little bit of yellow under his wings.

I love birds. I have various feeders and hummingbird attracting plants in my yard. I can count on the cardinals making a nest in one of the hedges up against my house. We've been fortunate enough to see cardinal families be raised for 3 years in a row now. These tufted titmice have their own "bird personality". Their nature is extremely playful (they chase each other around the yard). They are pretty hyper and never stay in one place for long. I decided to write this article because I was sitting here doing my morning routine of coffee and Active Rain and there were 6 titmice and 1 cardinal right outside my home office window. 1 of the titmice flew on to my window and pecked at it. 4 of them sat on the privacy fence for a few seconds before another one came over and started chasing them to continue the play. I will see the tufted titmouse fly around with blue grey gnatcatchers or even the carolina chickadee (really precious bird with black cap) and play. The chickadee is very small and is another bird attracted to the suet feeder.

These birds are so fun to watch, but they only grace your prescence in a particular section of your yard for a few minutes and you won't see them again for hours. I think they are so dang cute that they almost rival one of my top favorites: the Carolina Wren. The Wren might be overlooked because it is not a flashy bunch of colors, but their nature is calm and inquisitive/curious. They are one of the sweetest singers and will sit on your fence and serenade you without a care in the world. They are not hyper. I love seeing wren root around in my yard. Wren are also attracted to the suet feeder and every now and again I will see him take seed.

What are some of your regional birds that you enjoy watching or feeding? Do you have any tips for attracting specific types of birds to your yard that you'd like to share?

Angela Elliott is a licensed Florida REALTOR® with Century 21 Classic Properties in Gainesville, FL. Please visit my profile for more about me and browse my Gainesville, FL real estate website for additional Alachua County information and listings. Your phone calls are always welcome at (352) 256-7038 as are your e-mails to angela.elliott1@century21.com. A portion of all my closed sales will be donated to the Alachua Co. Humane Society (View my mission statement).

SALES for Alachua County Homes since January 1, 2008- May 14, 2008:

85 2 bedroom (or less) homes sold

401 3 bedroom homes sold

201 4(+) bedroom homes sold

SALES for Alachua County Condos/Townhomes:

195 total have sold this year

Average Days on Market for homes & condos/townhomes: 122

(2 beds or less) (3 beds) (4 or + beds) (Condos/Townhomes)

CURRENTLY ACTIVE LISTINGS IN ALACHUA COUNTY:

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Angela Elliott is a licensed Florida REALTOR® with Century 21 Classic Properties in Gainesville, FL. Please visit my profile for more about me and browse my Gainesville, FL real estate website for additional Alachua County information and listings. Your phone calls are always welcome at (352) 256-7038 as are your e-mails to angela.elliott1@century21.com. A portion of all my closed sales will be donated to the Alachua Co. Humane Society (View my mission statement).