Great Music, Great Food, Great Art, Great Cause

I’m suffering from time poverty today!   As soon as I wrap this up I’m off to scrape wallpaper in the boys’ room.  But I do have some good stuff for you today…

This video is a must see, people.  It’ll knock your socks off.  IL Divo’s rendition of Amazing  Grace at, of all places, the Colosseum in Rome.  WOW!!!!  I promise you that it is worth watching; it gets better as you go.

Tell me that didn’t start your Friday off well!

Mom and I made a visit to  Simply Divine Brownies in Freeport this week.

If you live in Maine, hello…make a trip!  If not, they mail, and they certainly are divine.  It’s a new favorite stop.

While we were in Freeport, we stopped at our second home, LL Bean.  And I discovered a new-to-me photographer, Ron Schmidt, owner of  Loose Leashes.  Even if you aren’t a dog lover, these will no doubt make you smile.  Go visit his site to see more!

Adorable!  What a talent!  And speaking of art, I had my second landscape painting class last night, which I am loving.  Yesterday I had my art supplies in the car, and Jack, my little artist, was determined to paint.  He would not stop saying “I be a painter!  I want to paint!”  On and on he goes while we are toodling around Bangor, browsing through shops.  Finally out of frustration, he tells my mom “I just can’t handle it.  I  have to paint.” Ha!

Alright, to wrap up, I believe the last number I heard was that over 1.6 million dollars was raised during Global Food Crises Day sponsored by  Compassion International on the 11th.  Wow!  On that note, I found another cause that is very worthy; click on the picture to learn more.

Living Water International canvases the globe, supplying wells for clean drinking water to those who don’t have it.  I can’t imagine being there to see the joy that clean water would bring.

Happy Friday, everyone!

Today is Global Food Crisis Day

Pumpkin Love

Starting off with an aside; isn’t it a sad, sad time of life when your children stop taking regular naps?  Mine are supposed to be tucked in bed, but they are raising a ruckus in their room.  Probably will burst through the door as soon as I finish this…

Anyway, found a good pumpkin cookie recipe if you don’t have a plethora of seasonal spices on hand.  The boys and I have made them a couple of times already!

You can find the recipe here.  I am ready to delve into all the nutmeg, ginger and cloves, but this only calls for cinnamon, and that worked for us this time around.

Yep, they are still bouncing off the walls.  But I Must Not Give In or we will have Cranky Brothers this evening.  (Hehe; Ryan is saying “Jack, get back on your bed!” And Ry is probably on his bed, but he’s certainly no where near sleeping.  Oh, oldest child syndrome.  How I understand…)

Things I Adore

Here is a varied list for you!

I’m currently munching on the peanut butter cookies that the boys and I made yesterday: 1 egg, 1 cup of sugar, and 1 cup of peanut butter. Whip it all up, drop spoonfuls on a pan, and bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees. Can it get any easier than that?!

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2 artists that are truly amazing-The Maine Grind in Ellsworth carries their work, and you can also purchase the prints online here.

Alan Claude? LOVE HIM. I particularly want this print. Here is a close up of Portland Head Light. It’s beautiful!

And this print is delightful. Can’t afford it anytime soon, but maybe someday! It’s by Philip Frey.

Ok, I am in need of art classes.

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Yesterday I received an email from Tintypes, a really fabulous store in Bath. On July 18th from 5-7, they are hosting a gathering focusing on the International Princess Project, and will be selling Punjammies for $30 ($40 after the initial evening), wherein all proceeds go to help women in India get out of the sex trade and start a new lifestyle. Click on the Princess link to discover more about this organization; it makes my heart sing when people start something so amazing as this. It’ll break your heart a little bit, but also make you glad for people who put things like this into action! I do believe I’ll be saving my bucks to buy a pair!

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One more delightful thing? Nonnie and Papa return tonight, and we are going to take the day off Wednesday or Thursday to go strawberry pickin! Shortcake, here we come!

Score!

Mom and I found Old El Paso cans of green chiles at Reny’s for 50 cents a piece! We are green chile fanatics, so we cleaned ‘em out! The cashier was a bit leery of the load of green chiles…(who, in Maine, buys so many?) Native New Mexicans, that’s who!

Oh, and I take back the scrapin’ paper woes (for now…); I have decided that scraping wall paper is SUPER for toning arms! Yay for productive exercise…it’s a two for one deal. We spent the majority of the day working on the house. (A good long putty knife and a vinegar/water mix does pretty well). Every day that I get over there, I fall a little bit more in love with the place. I can’t wait to move in.

Some Salad Love

My parents picked up a salad at O’Hare on Sunday, which was so delicious that I snagged more than a few forkfuls. I can’t wait to make it myself! Although I can’t remember every ingredient that was used, it went a little something like this:

• Fresh Greens
• Granny smith apples
• Dried Cranberries
• Tangerines
• Candied Pecans
• Feta Cheese, and (drum roll please…)
• Pomegranate Lime Dressing.

I googled the dressing and found this recipe at the Fat Resistance Diet website…looks to be more recipies out there, but this one sounded pretty easy!

Pomegranate Lime Dressing Pomegranate juice is an outstanding source of flavonoids which help to reduce inflammation.

1 Teaspoon Pomegranate Concentrate
1 Teaspoon Olive Oil
Juice of 1 Lime

In a jar shake together olive oil, lime juice, and pomegranate concentrate.

Nutrition per Serving
66 Calories
0.17 g Protein
7 g Carbohydrates
5 g Fat

I’m thinking I have a new favorite meal!