Shop Owners Living Their Bliss

Two friends who are both talented artists and craftswomen, decided they wanted to open their own shop.

While some people dream of doing something like that, Debbie Chase and Gloria Greaves took action. Their "dream" store opened in March in Western Massachusetts. The owners are now following their bliss.
 

Today, there are 25 artists and craftsmen who sell their wares at the store.  They each pay a monthly sum to the store owners as well as a percentage of each sale. The owners pay the store's rent, sales tax, advertising, and promotions.

Everything in the attractively arranged store is handcrafted. From photos and  greeting cards to scarves and jewelry,  a feast for the eyes awaits. 

Seasonal holiday decor abounds such as this little fellow, ready for Halloween:

Humorous tags for gifts can also be found:

Items with numerous different painting techniques tempt the shopper:

There are even Sisterhood pins, made from tiny clothespins. They all wear different outfits. Attached to paper backing, on the reverse side are sayings such as "Sisters are the bacon bits in the salad of life."

There's even a big froggie "pillow" of sorts, looking down on all the store's goings on.

Here's good news. The store plans to eventually do mail order. They currently have a Facebook address so check them out: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Great-Gifts-and-More/181929888520837?sk=info  

Chicken Tangier

Admittedly, at first, when I read the recipe for Chicken Tangier, it sounded wierd.

Once I tried it, zowie, my mind changed fast. It's a really delicious, once-in-awhile dish to make.

I found it in a cookbook titled "CROCK Pot, The Original Slow Cooker, Chicken Cookbook; 5 Ingredients or Less Cookbook ; Soups and Stews Cookbook."  (2008 Publications International, Ltd.)  In other words, this handy little spiral spine cookbook is actually three books in one!

If you ever come across this cookbook, buy it. It's got some really great recipes.

Here's a little hint.  Sometimes I follow the recipe and cook Chicken Tangier in a slow cooker . However, I've also cooked it in a large frying pan on the stove. Either way, it's yummy.

The olives provide the salty taste;  prunes and raisins make it sweet; and lemons are nice and tart. The capers, well, they just add to the deliciousness.

The recipe shown here is directly from the cookbook. Just remember, it can all be done lickety split in a frying pan, if time is of the essence. You can also alter the ingredients to your liking. For instance, I made Chicken Tangier last night but had no capers on hand. It still came out great.

                                                                     Chicken Tangier

1 Tablespoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons seasoning salt
2 teaspoons pureed garlic
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3 pounds of skinless chicken thighs
8 thin slices of lemon
1/2 cup dry white white
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 cup pitted prunes
1/4 cup currents or raisins
1/2 cup pitted green olives
2 Tablespoons capers
Hot cooked noodles or rice
Chopped fresh parsley or cilantro, to garnish

1. Stir together oregano, salt, garlic, and pepper in small bowl. Rub mixture onto chcken, coating on all sides.
2. Spray inside of CROCK POT slow cooker with cooking spray and add chicken. Tuck lemon slices between chicken pieces. Pour wine over chicken and sprinkle olive oil on top. Add p4unes, currants or raisins, olives and capers. Cover and cook on LOw 7 TO 8 HOURS OR ON high 4 TO 5 HOURS.
3.  To serve, spoon over cooked noodles or rice and sprinkle with chopped fresh parsley orcilantro.

Makes 8 servings.

WOULD YOU TRY THIS RECIPE?

A Birthday Gift----An Old-Fashioned Beauty

It's been quite a spell since Writing Straight from the Heart posted on dolls.

Not everyone has the insatiable mania toward dolls that I do. Some people may find reading about dolls downright boring. 

Not me. Dolls bring me right back to the absolute happiest days of childhood.

For several years now, I have stopped adding dolls to my very large collection. 

However, during September, my birthday month, it was a sure bet that someone among all the people I love was sure to buy me a doll. Everyone who knows me knows I'm crazy about dolls.

Sure enough, an old-fashioned beauty, dressed in a light blue dress with lots of  lacy trim, came wrapped in tissue paper in one of the gift bags.  She's a knockout.

She  has blond curls, blue eyes, and long eyelashes. She wears a very Victorian looking outfit complete with lacy bloomers and little shoes. 

Tiny pearls are around her wrists, neck, and other parts of the gorgeous dress.

The name "Amelia" sounds good for this doll, don't you think?  It's a kind of old-fashioned name for a Victorian beauty.

This is what she'd look like in a police line-up:

A beloved high school friend bought her for me.  Just like my friend, the new doll is a keeper.

DO YOU KNOW ANYONE WHO HAS A DOLL COLLECTION? 

Roasted Red Peppers and Friendship

Isn't it funny how some foods connect us with people from our past?

Whenver I eat smoky, sweet roasted  red peppers, a former neighbor comes into my mind and heart.  She was an Italian lady named Nicolina.  She was a widow who never had children of her own.

I was a young mother with two small children. We lived in a very poor neighborhood in a big city. Because it was a choice to remain at home with the kids, we lived on the tightest budget you could imagine.

Nicolina lived across the street from us in a light green house. I learned so much from her. Always willing to help out and give advice, she became a dear friend. 

She taught me how to roast red peppers.

       "It's easy," she told me. Pick a few big red peppers and wash and dry them. Put them under a broiler. You can use a big oven or toaster oven.  Let one side of the peppers turn black. Carefully flip them over and let the other sides turn black.  When the entire peppers are nice and charred, take then out of the oven  and cover them.

Let them cool. Then, remove all the black skin of the peppers as well as the seeds. This is the messy part.

Once the peppers are peeled and deseeded, store them in a closed container in the refridgerator. Mmm mmm mmm They are sure good in a sandwich. And they are not too fattening!

Today I roasted red peppers. As always, they tasted delicious and they made me think of Nicolina.

Sadly, she was unable to continue living at home and died in a nursing home. There were no children to help her out. I went to a yard sale in her house, after she moved out. Looking at all her pretty things made me incredibly sad.

She has gone to the other side of life, now, and for sure, she's probably cooking up a storm. 

As for roasted red peppers, Nicolina taught me well.

Thanks, dear Nicolina!

DO SOME FOODS MAKE YOU THINK OF PEOPLE YOU LOVED?

Fall Flowers Transform Front Yard

Today we are joining Metamorphosis Monday on Susan's blog, Between Naps on the Porch.

Go over to her blog and see all the cool transformations and projects.

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Even though the thought of what comes after fall is chilling (to say the least), it's a very favorite season.

The hot temps of summer go the same way as warmth-loving birds and cool, sunny autumn days lift up the spirit.

One of the best parts of autumn is the arrival of chrysanthemums.  While yellow is not among my favorite color of flowers, mums in that shade make for happiness.

Light orange, too, are cheerful and purple and burgundy mums add to the happy color palate of autumn.

Our front yard is now abloom with mums.

This sweet mum got placed in a bushel basket and adorned with leaves, thanks to a sweet friend.

A couple of orange pumpkins add to the decor.

Did you know that mums are a very ancient plant?  In her book, "Garden Flower Folklore,"  Laura C. Martin noted that Confucius wrote about them in 500 B.C.! So they've been around for awhile.

Also, mums were considered favorites of the noble class. In China, Ms. Martin wrote, "common folk were not allowed to grow them in their gardens."  Yikes, glad that changed. If that were a rule in the USA, we wouldn't be able to have a single mum in our yard.

The petals of mums can be eaten but I'd rather just look at them.

In  Victorian times, chrysanthemums meant cheerfulness and optimism.  That still holds true today, don't you think?  

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE COLOR CHRYSANTHEMUM?

Gift at the End of the Day

After a delightful day on Saturday,  we got an extra gift.

 Driving home, the sky in front of us turned everything in sight to a hazy gold.

"Look at that sunset," I exclaimed and we all agreed how tremendously blessed we were to be seeing such immense beauty.

On top of a hilly road,  I pulled the car into the driveway of a golf course so we could feast our eyes upon the sky.

Brilliant gold melted into deep orange, creating a giant painting in the heavens. On the horizon, we could see rows of black trees silhouetted against the fiery sky.

After such a great day, the sunset was just an extra gift from the Creator.

WHAT WAS YOUR LAST SPECIAL UNEXPECTED GIFT  ?

Swimming----in the Mud!

The day began with the sound of rain hitting against the windowpanes.

Dark, gray, and rainy equaled extra sleep.  Glancing at the clock, I grimaced when realizing it was 8:15 a.m. Usually, I'm at an indoor pool by 8:30 a.m. at least two to three times a week. It's about the only exercise I get.

Every excuse to skip my swim flew into my head. "Too late."  "Too wet."  "Too dark out."  Instead of listening to the negative voices, I got up, flew in and out of the bathroom, slipped on my bathing suit, sweat pants and shirt and ran out the door.

Now my hubs is putting in a brick walkway from the front porch and across the lawn to our driveway. It's only three quarters done. Once the rest of the bricks are laid, everything has to be grouted.




Still, I ran down the newly laid bricks toward my car, hurrying so I'd be able to get in at least 45 minutes of swimming. When my feet stepped off the bricks onto the lawn,  a massive slide began. Rain had soaked through the grass and underneath was a thick layer of mud.

Looking up, I saw the gray sky.  My towel was somewhere near my side, as well as my purse.  Picture a woman laying back down in the mud. That was me.

Struggling to get up out of the mud, my sweat pants felt like they had been dipped in cement. Same with the back of my shirt.

So what did I do?  Well, I folded my towel in half, mud side in, got into the car, and drove to the indoor pool.

A river of brown mud swirled down the drain in the locker room shower . My mud caked rubber clogs even got washed.

After the 45 minute swim, getting back into the mud caked pants and shirt was quite a challenge but I did it.

Who said exercise wasn't important to me?  Huh? Huh?  If one person said it wasn't, he'd get decked.

As for that brick walkway, it's now avoided at all costs until it's finished.

HAVE YOU EVER FALLEN IN PUBLIC?

Weekend Jaunt

What could be better than spending the afternoon having fun with a dear friend?

Attending a church tag sale, followed by lunch out is a winning combination.

Picking up a few Christmas gifts for others was definitely part of the fun.

Then, at a restaurant called Tunnel City Cafe, in Massachusetts, we each had a piece of delicious quiche. It had dried tomatoes in it, as well as ham and lots of creamy cheese.

Loved looking in the yum yum (dessert) case but am happy to say I didn't order a blessed thing from there.   Sure enjoyed looking, though.

Outside, I loved this plant arrangement.

WHAT FUN THING DO YOU HAVE ON TAP FOR THE WEEKEND?                                      

Children's Dish Set Delights the Little Folks

Children are special guests. 

They see the world through different eyes than adults. 

 They find sheer delight in the smallest of things.

With this in mind, I wanted to set a dinner table for little visitors to our home. Wouldn't you know it, one day, while strolling through a Goodwill Store, I spotted a box filled with bunny tableware for children. 

Stuffed beneath a shelf, I pulled out the box and looked inside. It was love at first "hop." 

There were little bunny napkin rings, bunny soup cups with china spoons, and a big mama bunny pitcher. To fill it, one must life mama bunny's head off.

The entire box cost $7.50.  This week, during a birthday dinner, I decided to set a table for the little guests. It was an instant hit. Even though it looked a little "springy," the little girls visiting absolutely loved it.

There was no yelling, crying, or sounds of "I want to go home."  The little girls attending delighted in pouring orange juice from the pitcher, eating with their little spoons, and slipping the napkins out of the bunny holders.

The little diners had tiny cupcakes made just for them, too.

After everybody went home, while washing dishes, I couldn't help but chuckle. Inside the pitcher were French fries and even a piece of bread!   Guess the little ones wanted to see things disappear inside the mama bunny's tummy.

In retrospect, that kids' china turned out to be a great purchase.

DO YOU SET A SEPARATE TABLE FOR LITTLE GUESTS?

Penny Candy Heaven

As a kid, do you remember loving penny candy?

It was so exciting to have a nickel in one's hand and head for the candy counter of a neighborhood store. Selecting the candies to be put into a brown paper bag was serious business. It took a lot of concentration.

My absolute favorites were rectangular shaped chewing confections called "Squirrel Nuts."  They came wrapped in waxed paper that had, sure enough, a picture of a little squirrel on the front.

They had little chunks of nuts in them and were so sticky, sometimes we couldn't even open our mouths when they were melting inside. They were almost guaranteed to pry up tooth fillings.

We used to walk to a neighborhood store called "Johnny Gorman's" to buy penny candy. Excursions there were pretty doggone exciting.

Johnny Gorman's is long gone now and childhood days seem like eons ago. But man, the thought of eating a Squirrel Nut again is pleasant to contemplate.

By the way, the penny candy displays shown in this post came from the Berkshire Mountain Country Store in Western Massachusetts.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PENNY CANDY?

A Most Delicious Birthday Breakfast

On Sunday, my daughter, bless her heart,  treated me to a really sumptuous breakfast in my absolutely favorite restaurant, Cafe Adams.

It's a bit of a drive to get there but worth every mile. It's in a small town called Great Barrington. The owner, Adam Zieminski, is a graduate of Johnson and Wales in Rhode Island. Trust me, he does his alma mater proud.

Oh!  To read a post on it from last year go here.

Sunday was actually an early celebration of my birthday which just happens to be today! Yippee! It's so great to be alive and I'm so grateful to have made it this far.

We started out our delicious meal with a fruit plate that looked like a piece of art. (Shown in photo at the top of this post). Honestly, it looked almost too good to eat but, somehow, we managed to make every morsel disappear. It came with a strawberry mint sauce. Mmm mmm mmm

I had Eggs Benedict with a piece of salmon, smoked bacon, and asparagus.  It was a scrumptuous choice.

My daughter had a kind of blood sausage and eggs with mushrooms and small tomatoes with grilled toast.

The dessert, my portion of which came complete with a birthday candle, was a kind of cream puff shell filled with pistachio ice cream inside and chocolate sauce outside. Strawberry halves provided the little pop of red on the plate.  Rarely do I order dessert but I did on Sunday. It was quite fabulous.

That's the kind of meal that suffices for the entire day, with just a nibble for supper.

You want to know what a huge source of happiness has been for the past two and a half years of life?  The answer is writing this blog.

 Because of Writing Straight from the Heart, I have gotten to know so many wonderful people in blogland, including yourself!

It has been such a joy to share big things and little things with you.

 Each new Follower has brought so much happiness to me. Getting comments each day is thrilling, too.

Every photo I've taken and every word written have been like shots of sunlight in a dark room.

Thanks to each of you for contributing so much to my life.

A big birthday hug to from me to all of you!

WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO DO TO CELEBRATE YOUR BIRTHDAY?