All Souls……

I don’t get a chance to read much but when I do, I like it to be a book that is real. My friend Mary who is Irish, gave me this book recently and thought I would like it. it came highly recommended. I am only into the second chapter, but far enough to know I LOVE it and that it is fabulous!  Here’s a quick review someone wrote about it:

Michael Patrick MacDonald grew up in "the best place in the world"--the Old Colony projects of South Boston--where 85% of the residents collect welfare in an area with the highest concentration of impoverished whites in the U.S. In All Souls, MacDonald takes us deep into the secret heart of Southie. With radiant insight, he opens up a contradictory world, where residents are besieged by gangs and crime but refuse to admit any problems, remaining fiercely loyal to their community. MacDonald also introduces us to the unforgettable people who inhabit this proud neighborhood. We meet his mother, Ma MacDonald, an accordion-playing, spiked-heel-wearing, indomitable mother to all; Whitey Bulger, the lord of Southie, gangster and father figure, protector and punisher; and Michael's beloved siblings, nearly half of whom were lost forever to drugs, murder, or suicide. By turns explosive and touching, All Souls ultimately shares a powerful message of hope, renewal, and redemption.

My mother and father in law are Irish as well and I immediately called them to tell them of this book. They both downloaded it onto their touchpad and I pad. It was purchased through Amazon I believe for just over a dollar….good deal! it was written a few years ago and they are talking about a movie. Michael has also written another book that follows this called Easter Rising. His stories are riveting and all true. A bit like Angela's Ashes if you’ve ever read that….but more up to date. Great story!!!….thought I’d share……

That Crooked House….

My friend Jane and I were emailing each other recently and discussing this and that when I mentioned something about the Crooked House in Raymond, Maine. She had no idea what I was talking about and why would she???…she lives in England!! There is a company in that town that makes Crooked play houses for kids and more. Here’s an example of one….They made this one for the television show Extreme Makeover Home Edition. And this one is a double sized…..

Aren’t they just adorable? Here is a link to their website and to their story of why they started building them………….. Crooked Houses ……………

I am lucky enough to live close by the original place where all this started. Out front is a long crooked house by the road painted in bright colors. It always catches my eye. Next time I go by I will grab a photo of it. Did any of you know about the crooked houses in Maine?I wish I could afford a Crooked House potting shed! Now that would just be a dream come true. I also have a fascination with golf carts. Ever since my cousin Margaret, who lives on Peaks Island, picked me up at the ferry boat on one. Here’s a photo of it…. on the fourth of July a few years ago. It’s called the Slow Poke….that’s on the license plate. Usually it’s dressed up much nicer with a lovely colorful canopy on the roof. Everyone on the island has one or two and they drive them legally all over….especially during the fourth of July parade….they dress them up like this…and this….. Oh God it’s a lot of fun being over there on the fourth! So….my dream is to have a Crooked House Potting Shed that is also big enough to house my Golf Cart, that I would name Slow Poke 2 in memory of my cousin. Hey….a girl can dream can’t she?

My Blurry Dad…….

   Just recently we had something very exciting happen in our family. Most all of you know, that my dad was a musician, especially if you follow this blog. I know how hard it has become following me, since I am NEVER here lately!! Sorry about that…. But I digress….

My nephew Adam Landry is a music producer in Nashville. He produces a lot of cool bands. Somewhere in his studio he has a picture of my dad and another man from the 1940’s playing music together. A band that Adam was producing recently fell in love with that old photograph, taken while my dad was stationed in Rapid City, South Dakota, during WWII. My dad had not yet headed overseas. I have some similar photos of the two of them. The man with my dad is unknown to us, but is playing an accordion in all the photos. In each of them, they are fully engaged in song and instrument and appear to be having a ball. ~..~

The band Adam was producing asked our family for permission to use that old 1940’s photograph for the cover of their new album and we said yes. Because of copyright infringements and not knowing the existence of the “other man in the photo” they had a bit of a problem at first. Then it came to them….The name of the band is The Rouge and the name of the album is Blurry….. so what did they do???? They blurred out the cover and both of their faces. But we know, the guy on the right is my dad and he is now on every cover of that album all over the country!!! He would have LOVED that!! Here’s the album…..

  and here’s a link to a review of it….The Rouge Blurry Review  .

How cool is that???????????????????????????????????????

An award….For Me??…...And For You….

 

There's an award in blogland. It's the Liebster Blog Award, and I was recently nominated for it. I was surprised and honored that Dawn at vesselsmemories2.blogspot.com felt my blog deserved to be recognized.

The Liebster Award is given to up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. "Liebster" is German for sweetest, valued, welcome and, or favorite. I think the nomination itself, is an award. It's certainly a nice way of recognizing and being recognized.

Thank you Dawn for nominating me….. http://vesselsmemories2.blogspot.com/

There are a few rules to follow...

1.  Each nominee must share 11 things about themselves. 

2.  Answer the 11 questions set for you and create 11 questions for the people you nominate.

3.  Nominate promising new bloggers who have less than 200 followers.

11 Things About Myself….

1. I could watch NCIS reruns all day.

2. I enjoy playing RPG’s on my XBOX.

3. I think birch trees are amazing and spiritual.

4. I lost my first child through a miscarriage at 5 1/2 months of pregnancy.

5.  I am a former smoker….over 30 years. Just over 3 years nicotine free!! Yay!

6. I have a deep faith in God.

7. I believe we all have psychic abilities.

8. I love to laugh.

9. I battled depression for a short time in my life.

10. My absolute favorite holiday is Christmas. I love everything about it!!

11.  I was the 8th grade champion of my schools’ spelling bee and I still can’t spell the word I lost on in the states!

And now for the 11 questions Dawn asked me to answer…..

Q. What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

A. Playing guitar, sewing, playing xbox, finding new recipes, pinterest.

Q. Do you have a favorite quote?

A. Let Go And Let God

Q. The ocean or the lake?

A. Ocean of course!

Q. Do you have a favorite food or restaurant?

A. I just love bacon….LOVE IT!

Q. If you had to move, where would you want to go?

A. Hawaii

Q. Do you like sports, if so, what's your favorite?

A. Baseball….Red Sox Fan!!

Q. Pet peeve?

A. Drivers not using their blinker when turning! Makes me Loco!

Q. What kind of music do you like and do you have a favorite artist?

A.  I love most all music except for opera. Aretha has always been one of my favorites.

Q. A favorite movie?

A. My favorite the last couple of years was Spielburgs’ Super 8

Q. Do you text?

A.  Not if I can help it.

Q. What chore do you least like to do?

A. Cleaning the bathtub!!

I nominate the following blogs for this award ~

Dawn @ http://candgdesign.blogspot.com/

Jane @ http://northfinchley.blogspot.com/

Elenka @ http://downeastdoingstuff.blogspot.com/

 

Here are your 11 questions my fellow bloggy friends….

1. What’s your favorite season of the year?

2. What’s the most exciting thing you have ever done?

3. Best thing you ever ate?

4. What makes you crazy?

5. Do you believe in God?

6. What’s you absolute favorite hobby?

7. Favorite actor or actress?

8. Favorite meal including dessert.

9. What’s your favorite song from your teen years?

10. One of the most difficult things you’ve ever had to do?

11. What insect/animal scares you the most?

I’ll be back soon I hope. Life has gotten pretty busy this winter and both hubby and I got sick with a flu virus in between that seemed to just hang on. Some of you that I wanted to nominate (beyond the ones I did) already had over 200 followers!! So….good for you!! /See you all soon….. Debbie

Winter Mumblings…..

    Hello all….It’s 5:30 a.m. and why am I up at this Godforsaken time of the morning you ask? My husband is scheduled for a colonoscopy at 7:00 in Portland. Neither one of us slept last night. Why I didn’t sleep is a mystery, but the reason for his tossing and turning has to do with a possible flu, that curiously began last evening. Right in the middle of the great Colonoscopy preparations, he started getting the chills. Never having been through this before, he was starting to think it was lack of food! The orange Jell-O and the yellow Gatorade just weren’t cutting it! Being a seasoned contender at this (twice now!) I knew that wasn’t it. So….we will see what the day will bring….he’s just rising now and we will head out shortly.

    As some of you might know, I was hit with a bunch of spam. I’ve cleaned out most of it….I had a HUGE number of Anonymous spams about pills, enlargement devices, and other various crap that seemed to take over my blog! It really ticked me off. So….I had to disable the anonymous feature and I apologize for anyone that cannot get into the blog.There really was no other way around it. Having said that, I apologize once again for not being around here much! Some of you have come by anyway and I so appreciate that!! We had a wonderful holiday. I have been very busy with antiques I got from Peaks Island that I am sorting, researching and selling for a friend. Right now I am working on two good sized lots of Dollhouse Miniatures from the late 60’s into the 70’s. We will soon be listing them on Ebay. A woman from the island was quite handy when it came to crafting these wonderful little treasures. From old buttons,  antique pieces of jewelry, and great imagination, wonderfully unique items were created by her. Here’s an example of one of her many chandeliers for a dollhouse…..

The bottom is an old brooch with garnet stones. Above that is a combination of old jewelry. The stem are crystals and diamond (not real) studded jewelry pieces and the ceiling tile is hand painted….isn’t this something? They are mini treasures and I have a lot of them…it will be fun.

    I hope you are all well and I promise I will be by this week to see what you have been up to this winter thus far. Thanks for being so loyal and sorry for my absence! I am going to try and get back every week. Hope you are all well!!!

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING 2012

Hey everyone….I have been incredibly busy but wanted to pop in and wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!! We are hosting this year and hopefully it will come off without a hitch. There will be 8 of us and maybe a few extras for dessert later on. Yesterday we cleaned and today I  bake and tomorrow we cook. I got a 21 pound turkey and will have butternut squash, mashed potatoes and gravy, my mother in law’s peach/pork stuffing which is to die for, my daughter who is vegetarian is bringing baked stuffed acorn squash.  We’ll have homemade snowflake rolls, stuffed celery, two kinds of olives, and pickles. Oh and garlic carrots. Today I am baking two apple crumb pies, one pumpkin, a chocolate with chocolate filling and glaze Bundt cake, and banana bars. I think that’s enough don’t you? What are you all having?

I wanted to apologize for not visiting all of you and not responding to my comments. Life has been so busy. I started selling on Ebay a lot more than I thought I would. The research and all else that goes with it has taken up a lot of my time. My upstairs room is filled and I mean FILLED to the brim with antiques!! I will take a picture after the holiday to show you. I want to wish all of you a wonderfully joyful Thanksgiving!!! Relax and take time to smell the turkey!! Love you guys!! Blessings to you all.++

CRAFT IDEAS AND A BREAK…..

While perusing my new addiction Pinterest.com recently, I came across this amazing blog. It has tutorials on some very cool items to make for your craft room if you have one. Here’s a link to this woman’s site…………SCOUTS STITCHES  Hopefully it will bring you to her blog and you may have to do a bit of searching to find the crafts. The picture above is from there. I love that! I plan on making one this winter!!

                ~>>>>>>>>>>>>~

Meanwhile, my best friend Lorraine    came home from Florida about a week ago.  She was on vacation here for the week. We grew up in the same small town and went to the same schools. We see each other just once a year. This year was very special because she recently survived Ovarian Cancer. I’m so proud of her. Her joy regarding the colors of the fall trees and the cooler temps invigorated me! She helped me remember to be grateful. Living in Maine is wonderful and the four changes of the seasons are a wondrous part of our existence here. But…I sometimes take that for granted. She helped me see the colors with new eyes.We had breakfast twice at a place called in North Yarmouth, only about 15 minutes from here. I have heard good things about it but have never been. They are a favorite of the locals and apparently chefs in Maine declared the place one of the top 50 in Maine to eat. Stone’s Café makes their own pies, pastries and many other amazing desserts and meals. Here’s a link……STONE'S CAFÉ  It’s definitely worth the trip if you are a Mainer. We had lunch at my niece’s golf club called Toddy Brook. It is so lovely there overlooking the golfing green. TODDY BROOK

We had gone to our home town and picked up another dear friend from school and she joined us for lunch.

We visited our parents at the cemetery, and then took a ride across the ocean in our home town to a place we loved as kids called Cousins Island and then Little Johns Island. Here’s the bridge we drove over to get to Cousins Island….We walked down to that beach. As teens we jumped off that bridge in the middle! Then on to Little Johns Island down the road a bit. It was a place we retreated to party as teens sometimes. The roads are narrow going around the island and halfway around there’s a dock we used to fish off.

People still do. We had a lot of laughs. The next day, we had a big barbecue together with Lorraine’s family. I can’t wait to see her again next year…..it was a fun time. I am so glad she is still with us….she’s a courageous girl and my best friend.

 

~TO DIE FOR~ BANANA BREAD BARS W/BROWN BUTTER FROSTING

My new addiction lately is Pinterest.com. I find myself mindlessly looking at photos of crafts, food, décor and anything that catches my interest. I have tried maybe 3 or 4 recipes from Pinterest but none of them compare to this unbelievable recipe that I have pictured above. I am NOT  kidding when I say they are TO DIE FOR!!! These ARE the bomb. If you like banana bread, you won’t want to ever use another recipe…..this IS your new recipe….it’s that amazing. First I will give you the recipe and then tell you what happened the first time I made them. Here’s the recipe…

Ingredients:

Banana Bread Bars:

1-1/2 c. sugar

1 c. sour cream

1/2 c. butter, softened

2 eggs

1-3/4 (3 or 4) ripe bananas, mashed

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 c. all purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. salt

1/2 c. chopped walnuts (optional)

Brown Butter Frosting:

1/2 c. butter

4 c. powdered sugar

1-1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

3 tbsp. milk

Directions:

1.  Heat oven to 375F.  Grease and flour 15x10-inch jelly roll pan.  For the bars, in a large bowl, beat together sugar, sour cream, butter, and eggs until creamy.  Blend in bananas and vanilla extract.  Add flour, baking soda, salt, and blend for 1 minute.  Stir in walnuts.

2.  Spread batter evenly into pan.  Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.

3.  Meanwhile, for frosting, heat butter in a large saucepan over medium heat until boiling.  Let the butter turn a delicate brown and remove from heat immediately.

4.  Add powdered sugar, vanilla extract and milk.  Whisk together until smooth (it should be thicker than a glaze but thinner than frosting).  Using a spatula, spread the brown butter frosting over the warm bars (the frosting will be easier to spread while the bars are still warm).

Yield: 2 dozen large bars

Ok…now the first time I made these I was very distracted and was multi-tasking.  I had put the stick of butter in the microwave to soften a bit and forgot it. So…I made the recipe without the butter and in 20 minutes the banana bars came out and were fantastic! Don’t ask  me why…but you CAN cook them without that butter but they rise up quicker. So…here I had this partially melted butter in the microwave….what did I do???….I figured if I was already blowing the diet, I should still use it….I poked holes in the hot bread with a fork…slathered the butter over it and it sunk in….and left the bread with an incredible buttery/banana taste. I wouldn’t recommend that though…..that was a mistake on my part that ended up ok!

Some quick tips that helped me:

1. Watch the butter when boiling. It turns a light brown quickly. Don’t let it brown too much or it will ruin the flavor. Both times I made these, they cooked quicker than the recipe called for in the oven. The first time, the bars were done in 20 minutes. The second time, in 17. Start checking on them at 20 minutes I would say.

2. Keep the frosting a bit warm and stirred. Immediately after I took out the bread, I poked holes with a fork and frosted. It got down into the bread and made it Oh so Gooey Good. I decided to add a couple tablespoons of Maple Syrup to my frosting and it added a very nice flavor combined with the banana bread.

3. Cut into smaller bars than recommended because these are very, very rich and the moistest cake/bread you will EVAH taste!!!!! Oh MY FREAKING GOD ARE THEY GOOD……you have been warned…..not for anyone who is dieting! Let me know if you try them??? Your husband will adore you and your kids will too. People won’t be able to speak….they will just mumble when they eat these. You will be thinking of  these bars every time your bananas get ripe! Enjoy…..I won’t be making these again for a while…..back on the diet tomorrow…..but I will have the memories of these to carry me through…….MMMMMM…..good.

Batting Down The Hatches…..

One down and one more to go. I finished Carissa’s pillow. If you have not followed this blog (and I don’t blame you if you haven’t) as I am not here much lately!! I mad my daughter Carissa and my son Kyle lap blankets for Christmas last year…see previous post. I don’t own a sewing machine and do everything by hand, so A. It takes longer and B. They don’t look as nice probably. Kind of puffy looking pillow but heck…it’s hand made!and the back matches her blanket which is lavender fleece…a bit bumpy and uneven but that will fill in as she uses it. Now on to my son’s pillow. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My brother Art and his wife Amy live in Nashville. They have had two Jack Russells for some time now. One of them is a brother to my Obie that we had to put down last year. His name is Ziggy. At some point when them moved to Nashville, they purchased another Russell…a female named Zoe. Just recently they got a third and she’s a doll. A pup named Magnolia….Maggie Mae is what they call her. You would think someone had a new baby….well…I guess THEY did!! Here are the 3 of them…Maggie Mae, Zoe, and Ziggy…asking to come in. Have you ever see anything cuter??? One day,  Zoe dug a hole in the yard small enough for Maggie to get under the deck lattice but no one else.I was told it took lots of dog biscuits and coaxing to finally get Maggie out! Maggie got a little muddy and was ready to come in…which prompted my sister in law to give Maggie her first bath!! And left her looking like an Alien Russell!! And before you know it, it was beddie-bye time…Isn’t she just the sweetest thing you ever did see???

Did I tell you someone called and asked me if I would take a little bit of quilting batting and yarn and sewing stuff that her mother once had?? She’s been storing it for 10 years. Ok….she showed up and her entire car was filled!! I know I am foolish but this is what I lugged up to my craft room….

There are six giant tubs that are filled! Two with yarn….the rest with batting and I don’t know how to quilt! I will find a home for a lot of it. Those tubs are at least 3 feet long and a foot of more wide and tall….huge! There are other things in there too…material to sew with, brand new thread, a very large wooden oval hoop (for quilting?) and other odd things I cannot identify yet.

There is also some poly stuffing. I used a small bag to fill Carissa’s pillow! So…it came in handy already. I wish you could have seen my husbands face when he saw all these! Yikes!Maybe I need to learn to quilt?

While my sister in law is busy with those Russell's, my brother is fundraising in Nashville by playing some music….That’s him on the far right with the hat and plaid shirt. He really enjoys this kind of thing. He’s exactly where he needs to be. Someday, I hope my husband and I can take a trip down to see all of this for ourselves….