Tag: Morning Meanderings

Good Morning!  I am truly thankful it is Friday!!!  I have had a super busy week and I am so glad to see that I arrived fairly unscathed to Friday morning.  I had a meeting o some sort almost every evening this past week.  Last night I had two tickets to go to the midnight Harry Potter release and due to unforeseen circumstances, we did not go.

I know, right?

So….. hopefully we will get there yet this weekend and I can give a “WOO HOO” report yet.  😀

In other random literary news, I received this list of the up and coming new releases.  Without having time to really look into these books, I would be interested in knowing more about #2, #5, #8, and #9.  I have read Fannie Flagg before and enjoyed the writing.

Any of these books catch your eye?

New Releases in Literature & Fiction
	Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon Read more Great House by Nicole Krauss Read more Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King Read more Sunset Park by Paul Auster Read more The Distant Hours by Kate Morton Read more The Wake of Forgiveness by Bruce Machart Read more Luka and the Fire of Life by Salman Rushdie Read more Mary Ann in Autumn: A Tales of the City Novel by Armistead Maupin Read more I Still Dream About You by Fannie Flagg Read more Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak Read more

Good morning!  My apologies to all my blog subscribers when you sat down for your Morning Meandering in your email yesterday morning and found I did not exist.  I did start a post yesterday morning but was in a hurry to get to work and planned to activate during a break in the morning…

well, that break never came.  😀

I do love my new position at work, it appeals to the creative side of me, but also includes times when I need to participate in evening events and this week… there are three of those.  SO…. that would explain my absence yesterday.

Moving on…

I had a wonderful time checking out what people are reading this past Monday and found a few treasures that appealed to me.  I would love to share with you what I found:

Set in 12th century Korea, this is the story of Tree-ear who lives under a bridge with his disabled older friend Crane-man. Tree-ear becomes fascinated with the potter’s craft and longs to create Celadon ceramics. However pottery is a trade passed on from father to son and Tree-ear is an orphan. He works long and hard hoping to become an apprentice.

Thank you to Jan at Eating Y.A. Books

 

 

In the midst of a Katrina-like disaster, 10-year-old Dinah and her siblings, teenager Zeke and toddler Rebecca Ruth, find themselves cut off from society, with only their distant cousin for company. To distract the siblings from their predicament, Gage begins to tell them the story of the skibbereen, the creatures generally known as tooth fairies. His story focuses on What-the-Dickens, an orphaned skibberee whose adventures bring him into contact with a house cat, a bird, a tiger, and a variety of humans, including Gage himself.

Thank you to Mardel at Rabid Reader

 

 

Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise, Reichl focuses on her life as a food critic, dishing up a feast of fabulous meals enjoyed during her tenure at The New York Times. As a critic, Reichl was determined to review the “true” nature of each restaurant she visited, so she often dined incognito–each chapter of her book highlights a new disguise, a different restaurant (including the original reviews from the Times), and a fresh culinary adventure.

Thank you to Michelle at Red Headed Book Child

 

 

A debut novel for the British Ghanaian writer tells of a dark childhood in an apparently safe Devon boarding school.

In the interview Yaba Badoe tells Nicola Barranger about how her work has been 18 years in the creation and how a tragic event in her own childhood drove the narrative in her True Murder.

Drawing on her rich family heritage Yaba also discusses how Ghanaian traditions inform the novel bringing together West Africa and South West England.

Thank you to Amy at Amy Reads

 

 

Agnes McMillan and Janet Houston were convicted for shoplifting. Bridget Mulligan stole a bucket of milk; Widow Ludlow Tedder, eleven spoons. For their crimes, they would be sent not to jail, but to ships teeming with other female convicts. Tin tickets, stamped with numbers, were hung around the women’s necks, and the ships set out to carry them to their new home: Van Diemen’s Land, later known as Tasmania, part of the British Empire’s crown jewel, Australia. Men outnumbered women nine to one there, and few “proper” citizens were interested in emigrating. The deportation of thousands of petty criminals-the vast majority nonviolent first offenders-provided a convenient solution for the government.

Crossing Shark-infested waters, some died in shipwrecks during the four-month journey, or succumbed to infections and were sent to a watery grave. Others were impregnated against their will by their captors. They arrived as nothing more than property. But incredibly, as the years passed, they managed not only to endure their privation and pain but to thrive on their own terms, breaking the chains of bondage, and forging a society that treated women as equals and led the world in women’s rights.

Thank you to Mari at Bookworm With A View

 

That is the beautiful thing about seeing what other book lovers are reading.  I love to see the books not yet known to me and read the excitement and experience of the book through another’s thoughts.  It was a great week to find new titles that appealed to me.

Have you found any wonderful “must reads” while reading other blogs recently?

Good morning!

Oh?  You are curious about the bomb?

I have decided to blow up my reading list this week and do a re – read of a book I really can’t believe I did not consider for this week.  In honor of this week’s release of the final Harry Potter movie, I have decided to set aside the previously planned reading by a few days to celebrate one of my all time favorite series….

Hopefully Chance (Kinship Partner) and I will be attending the modnight showing on Thursday night … errrr…. the wee hours of Friday morning.  This is kind of a tradition with us except this time it will be a school day for him and a work day for me on Friday at 8 a.m. so we still are in the planning phases 🙂

Are you reading any of the Harry Potter series this week?  Are you planning to see the movie?

Good morning!

Yesterday afternoon I received a text message from college son.  He said that he had awoke in Mankato to about 6 inches of snow and wanted to know what was happening here in Brainerd.  I was happy to say that at that time, it was little flurry flakes and nothing accumulating.

I spoke too soon.

Throughout the day it continued to snow and now by morning… well see for yourself.

I know it is bound to happen but I really am not a fan of snow.

Anyway – moving on….

My friend Cindy is very creative in decorating and in cooking.  At our last girls weekend her cookie recipe was a delicious and deadly combination of chocolate and peanut butter – and they are pretty to look at too.  Here is her recipe.

Peanut Butter Balls

1 bag of powdered sugar

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1/2 cup butter – melted

1 cup peanut butter

Blend and put into refrigerator for 20 minutes

Take out and roll into balls and place on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper

Return to refrigerator for another 20 – 30 minutes

Melt 6 squares of chocolate almond bark in a small bowl and add 3 Tablespoons pie shortening to make it thinner

Take the peanut butter balls out of the refrigerator and dip them into the chocolate mix covering the entire ball

Place back on wax paper and continue until done.

Melt two squares white almond bark and drizzle this with a spoon over the top of the peanut butter balls.

Return them to refrigerator for an hour.  This will firm them and they are ready to serve or to freeze for later use.

Certainly delicious and pretty too!

Have a wonderful Sunday everyone!  My day is pretty free so I am looking forward to catching up on a few more things around here.  🙂

Good morning!  I feel… refreshed.

I just took my pups to the groomer for their trim.  They are pretty shaggy looking and they will come out looking like they each lost about 5 pounds of hair.  My timing is not the best as the weather is getting a bit cooler now, however by the time we get into the real heart of a Minnesota winter they will be putting the coat back on and all will be fine to get to them their next cut in late February.

I have been promising all week that I was going to share the recipes and the crafts from my girls weekend last weekend and in my hustle and bustle of life I have managed to give you one recipe so far.  GAH!

Today I will share with you the craft that I brought to the cabin for us to do, painting Christmas ornaments.  Here we go!

 

Christmas ball ornament painting

 

 

You will need:

An assortment of glass ornaments like pictured above.  The craft stores have some fun shapes – squares, tear drop, egg-shaped, heart-shaped, coin shaped, etc….  mix it up – it is fun

A variety of colors in craft paint  (Delta ceramcoat works well,or any acrylic craft paint) **If the paint is too thick add a little water to the paint bottle and shake it well.

Pretty ribbon for the ornament to hang

assortment of items (optional) to hot glue on to the ornament such as:  craft pine, craft berries, sequins…

To do this project, choose the colors you would like in your ornament… drip them down the side inside the glass ornament, not too heavy on the paint – you can always add more.

Some people like to slowly turn their ornament to let the paint run together to create the design – I take a napkin over the opening of the ornament and shake it to cover all the spaces inside with paint.  If you have a spot that is still unpainted, set ornament down with that side as the bottom and the paint will eventually run to it – or I gently pat that part of the ornament until the paint fills in.

If there is excess paint inside your ornament we usually have a large ornament that we tip the excess paint into to create a “community ornament” which winds up with a mix of everyone’s excess paint – and usually turns out quite pretty.

You should let the ornaments dry out with their lid off for a day or so.  (It still works if you do not have that kind of time to finish them)

Choose your ribbon and if you wish choose decorations for the outside of your ornaments as well.

These are fun and fairly easy to make, plus you can customize them for friends and family by using their colors of their home in the ornament, or decorating with their homes theme:  woodsy, antique, modern, etc….

Ideas beyond the tree….

A few ideas we came up with besides putting these ornaments on the tree are

Put the ribbons at different lengths and hang them on the curtain rod in a window

make a large ornament and hang it off a hook

make a glass bowl centerpiece and fill it with the ornaments

Hang them from a stair railing

Have you made these?  What ideas or tips can you share?

😀

 

 

Good morning!  Coffee Cup and I are sitting here a little sore when I move but feeling good.  😀  I completed yesterdays office painting job and I am very happy with the results.  My goal was to get in early and have it done before the rest of the staff started coming in and I was in their way.  Mission accomplished, by 9 am when a few started trickling in I was cleaning brushes.

 

 

 

I had my first Zumba class yesterday afternoon and I brought 3 friends with me.  We were all newbies and I assured them that if we could not do the steps – laughter burns calories too.  I think I did some of both.  The steps were easy once you got the hang of them but the fast paces music occasionally made it so by the time you got the step… the instructor had moved on to a different step.    I loved it though and laughed a lot!

Here is a sample video I found on You Tube of Zumba:

I am so glad it is Friday today and other than the pups getting haircuts tomorrow morning and Zumba class 2 , I have a day to read and maybe do a bit of writing which currently sounds very appealing to me.  My house is all clean from Tuesdays book club so I am really in a good spot to just melt into a chair and enjoy some time.

Any big weekend plans?

Good morning!  I am off super early this morning – 4 am to be exact.  I know I know…. I am a bit insane but I am moving around my office and as long as I am switching things around and I am getting new shelves installed on Saturday…… so to keep this run on sentence running…..

I am painting my room.  😀

AND I am going in so early so I can get the majority of it done before the office traffic starts to come in around 8 am and then I am in everyone’s way.

And you thought there was no method to my madness…. 😀

I am leaving you this morning with one of the promised recipes from my girls craft and baking weekend.  A few years back my friend Cindy and I went to a community education cookie class where we paid $25 to work with a group and each make a cookie recipe that made 12 dozen cookies.  There were 12 of us in the class and we each received a dozen of each of the cookies as well as the recipes to do them ourselves.  My favorite that I could not keep my hands off of was the Snicker Surprise cookie.

This was the cookie I shared with my friends this past weekend, and now I will share it with you.

 

Snicker Surprise Cookie

 

2 sticks softened butter
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 bag SNICKERS Miniatures
1 cup milk chocolate chips (melted)

Combine the butter, peanut butter, and sugars using a mixer on a medium to low-speed until light and fluffy.

Slowly add eggs and vanilla until thoroughly combined. Then mix in flour, salt and baking soda.

Unwrap all the SNICKERS .

Divide dough into 1 tablespoon pieces and flatten. Place a SNICKERS  in the center of each piece of dough. Form the dough into a ball around each SNICKERS .

Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 325 for 12-15 minutes.

Let cookies cool on baking rack or wax paper.

Melt  milk chocolate and drizzle over cookies.

The first time I made these cookies I could hardly keep my hands off them – the gooey melted snickers inside this peanut buttery cookie is the perfect combination.

Do you have a favorite cookie recipe?

Good morning!  Coffee Cup and I are basking in the early morning light (or lack there of) and still basking in the events of last nights book club.

I don’t think I have said it yet in November…

I love my book club.  😎

Last night we reviewed what I would consider a long-awaited review on a large read – and a potentially controversial book.  To be honest, I struggled with it too.  Yet the Bookies come through and I don’t know why they surprise me, but they do – in good ways.

I am not going to talk about the book yet because the review is coming up later today.  So instead now I am giving you the pictures from our Italian potluck, themes after the book, as well as the pictures of our baby shower we had at book club for one of our members.

 

 

I know, I know… I should have grabbed pictures before everyone dived into the food.  We had a penne, chicken, and sausage pasta, a tossed green Italian salad, Tiramisu, french bread, homemade mozzarella, cake, and more.

 

 

 

 

Today is another crazy Wednesday for me.  I have another event planning for tonight – this one however is smaller than last weeks.  So work this morning until mid afternoon, gym, then back to work for security training followed by Leadership Training (which is the event I am referring to).

Tomorrow is the first Zumba class and I am soooo looking forward to that.

Have a super fab day everyone 😀

Good morning!  I had a wonderful weekend with the girls at our cabin.  It was our first weekend where we planned a baking and crafting weekend and it turned out fantastic.  Here are a few pics:

We had so much fun baking!  We each brought a cookie recipe to make enough so each of us could have 3 or 4 dozen to take home and freeze for the Holidays.

 

I did not realize I was clinging to Sara’s hand until after I seen the pictures…. well… we were standing on little rocks and the water I am betting was pretty cold this time of year!  😀

 

Cindy and I – also balancing on little rocks in the river!

 

Who knew that .97 cent spa masks would be so much fun?  We laughed in these for about an hour!

 

This was fun and I had no idea how much I looked like The Joker until we shot these pictures.  Hmmmm…. next years costume perhaps…..

 

We had a lot of fun and have already planned to do the same thing same weekend next year!  YAY! I will post cookie recipes and the craft pictures throughout the week as well as “how to’s” on them as well.  🙂

Tonight I have book club at my house.  The Botticelli Secret was a monster of a book and I will talk more on that tomorrow…. lets just say tonight’s discussion should be interesting and oh yes… there will be pictures.  Our theme is Italian and we are potlucking!

Good morning!  This is probably the first post I ever wrote from the back of a moving vehicle.  We are on our way home from a wonderful weekend on the North Shore.  I am with my friends Heidi, Cindy, and Sara, and we are just passing through Two Harbors, Minnesota.  We forgot about Daylight savings time this morning so we were up pretty early, cleaned up the cabin stop and had brunch at out favorite place in Beaver Bay Minnesota before we realized that we were actually an hour earlier than we thought we were.  😀

We had such a fun weekend of baking cookies and making crafts.  We didn’t leave the cabin the entire weekend and had tons of fun eating great food, and laughing like crazy (stay tune for Tuesday – I will post pictures then).  I plan to post the recipes and the craft projects as well and how we did them.

See you tonight for the Monday What Are You Reading post!  😀