RAINBOWS

I have been listening to some fun, light tunes this afternoon and immediately the sun began shining in my room...
and my daughter just chirped, "I LUUUUVVVV this MUSIC"

SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW...

And today I read a few blog posts from a smart little girl (14) who looks at life so much the way I did at her age..
I turned all my lack of control in my life into a whirlwind of "flying by the seat of my pants".

I always came out unscathed. knowing LOTS OF ANGELS must be watching over me..
cause there is nothing to explain why I am still alive..
always pushing everything to the n'th.

DARING people to love me,
DARING anyone to cross me....

and all along...
I have found..

people WILL love you..
and they WILL cross you...

and the closer you get to the end of your RAINBOW..
the more they will want to see you fall...

but when you get right in and start chatting with strangers about what is REALLY bothering them..

they are wishing all along they had the guts to just put aside where they are and GO FOR IT.

This year 2011..

a lot of families are gonna be in places where they can
hunker down...or they can leap...

I've seen alot of ups and downs in others..
watched players who were on top fall,
watched big developers crash and burn after taking their last cruise on that big yacht that cost them
their families in order to obtain...

and then I see a man who has all the money in the world and little time in life to live,

Last night I had a dream,
that I moved back to the country..
into the antebellum home that sits deserted,
windows barren, floors falling...
and crawled into a big four post bed,
the same one my grandparents once left deserted after the death of their child,
when they decided to give up and let LIFE happen however the chips would fall.

There were only four rooms and a kitchen, a garden, and our kids were
running all around...And it felt like HOME.

And when I woke up this morning,
it all seemed so real. I even wondered where I was.

And I thought,
Here I am at the end of another year,
2010...
when in 2000 I think none of us even thought there would be a world,
and I looked at my husband, snoring, exhausted after a crazy week
beating his head against the wall to determine how to make the world unafraid of the GULF MESS.

And I thought...
we are so blessed...
we both are intelligent...but a bit unpredictable...which sometimes leads to lack of common sense :)
and we both have a country edge, living in a place where everyone I think could use a few days MUD RIDING..
but we also have a spirit of change that I have no doubt will help us set sail which ever way the heavens have
in store for us....

tomorrow we head off for a Colorado Christmas...
leaving home and Alabama behind..

I think of Annabel's post about wondering "who is that in that airplane" and I know somewhere in a journal I had
similar thoughts.

I remember flying over little box like houses, thinking that each family there has a little problem, or a drama, or something
and it certainly made mine feel MUCH SMALLER.

I didn't have blogs when I was growing up, I always wrote when I was sorting it out,
and somehow, I feel certain a best friend/role model (Mendy) will see that those books are destroyed :)
although she has no idea what little nuggets she might find :)

the power of words...
such an incredible force..
but thats a blog for another day.

TODAY,
I wanna focus on whats at the end of the rainbow..
and I know that ONLY GOD can know..
and really, if we focus on him,
the hurts placed on us by people will all melt away

He has put me on a path that has been so glorious,
filled with friends, and laughter,
and careers I could not have imagined myself :)
and book ideas, and scribbled songs on napkins,
and travels across the world
and children who are becoming life-long friends
and another to keep us young at heart..

Yeah, I'm seeing a bit of rainbow right here where I am
and if feels pretty good.

I wish you all whatever it is that you are looking for to appear right where you are!

Merry Christmas and the best of all years I pray for you.

Blessings!

Allison Puccetti Adams

New happYmess PAINT PARTY CLASSES SCHEDULED

SIGN UP NOW FOR HOLIDAY happYmess PAINT PARTIES
Create a ONE OF A KIND GIFT and have FUN~


NOVEMBER 24 (Wed before Thanksgiving) $35
KIDS CLASS k-6~ 11-1 PM (canvas included) ABSTRACTED TREES
TEENS CLASS 7-12th~ 2-4 PM (canvas included) ABSTRACT FUN

*NIGHTLY CLASSES (ADULT): (byob) TOPICS to choose from BELOW
Limited to 15 per class ($25/person)
MONDAY Nov. 29TH 6:30-8:30 WATER AND WINE
Tuesday Nov. 30th 6:30-8:30 ABSTRACT
Wednesday December 1 6:30-8:30 NATURE
Monday December 6 6:30-8:30 TRAVEL
Tuesday December 7 6:30-8:30 CITY-LINES/HOMES (bring photo of yours)
Wednesday December 8 6:30-8:30 BEACHY THEMES
Monday December 13 6:30-8:30 CROSSES
Tuesday December 14 6:30-8:30 SHOES/HATS/PURSES
Wednesday December 15 6:30-8:30 PETS
MOM/DAD AND ME CLASSES: ($60 for two includes canvas/materials)
Monday Dec. 27 5-7 and Tues Dec 28 5-7 ABSTRACTED/NATURE

OUR UNIQUE CLASSES ARE DESIGNED WITH NEARLY A DOZEN OPTIONS TO CHOOSE FROM FOR EACH CLASS~ WE DIRECT YOU EVERY STEP OF THE WAY~ NO TWO WILL BE JUST ALIKE.

See “TOPIC OF CHOICE” for the week you choose. Fun, home-studio atmosphere. Non-alcoholic refreshments complimentary and byob.
CALL NOW TO REGISTER: (205) 914-2400
(REGISTER for 4 and get a 5th class free)

*Price includes use of easels, smock, paints and a gift of a color mixing kit
You provide a canvas (any size) you would want to give as a gift to someone special or keep for yourself)
11X17 canvases available for $10.00 each (please call to reserve)

114 Richmar Drive in Crestline ~ 205-914-2400
Home of Allison Adams~ with artist Kristin Drew
Allison is author/illustrator: Birmingham Sketchbook and The 12 Days of Christmas Giving

ANOTHER GREAT SEAFOOD CO. REVIEW-SUNDAY BRUNCH

See photos of our BRUNCH ITEMS
and a great review

click HERE to read the review~

they gave us 5 stars!

SO WHAT ARE YOU UP TO NOW?

THIS MONTH WE ARE GETTING READY FOR
a fun low pressure, family filled week with Thanksgiving gaining on us and Christmas JUST AROUND THE CORNER.

I have written a book called THE 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS GIVING

available for a peek at THE BLOG (CLICK HERE TO GO THERE)

and have had booksignings in Homewood, Livingston and Vestavia.

SIGNED BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE AT OUR STORE~ CRESTLINE SEAFOOD CO. as well as NEW ARTWORK~

A portion of the sale of each book goes to local charities.

If you are in Crestline, hope you will stop in~

Chad just got a thumbs up from Birmingham's own B-METRO MAGAZINE

Click here for the article about SOME OF THE BEST GUMBO IN TOWN~

HOPE TO SEE YOU SOON!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Allison

T shirts available

create & buy custom products at Zazzle

THE ALABAMA GULF COAST

A recent painting of Alabama Gulf Coast CRABS to inspire

while the oil rolls in, the spirit of the gulf lives.

For the MEN on Father's Day

A Note To All MEN on Father’s Day

Today I went water skiing for the first time in 30 years.

It was almost like riding a tricycle. All of the times when I was only twelve, a boyfriend of my mom’s would take us to the river and teach us to ski. The things he would shout, “bend your knees, let the boat pull you up!” came flowing back to me.

Looking back I think, he didn’t have to be so good to us. He didn’t have to pull us up and down sloughs in his boat from early sun-up to dusk. He didn’t have to teach me to back the trailer down the hill while he hooked up the boat. He didn’t have to let me drive illegally.

But he did. And he made a tremendous impact in less than a year while he was with us. He was one of the sweetest men I knew, but looking back, too weak a spirit for our family or for my mother.

I looked him up when I took my Sr. Trip in High School. He was happily married living in South Florida. I was glad he had found a great life outside of Livingston. Mom broke his heart. Think it was the brown van in the driveway that drove her crazy, it had painted designs on the doors. We loved driving it, Danielle and I, up and down the driveway. I think my sister must have been ten then.

I look back at that time, now 44, and cherish the sunset afternoons on the river. My sister and I skiing on his shoulders, my mom watching and I think then she was even skiing.

After we docked today at the lake, I came in, made a post on fb, my latest obsession, and thought, I’ll write “Pete” a quick note. I knew he was most recently a PE coach for a Bradenton High School. “I’ll tell him how much it meant to me, all those days with us.”

And there it was, in Person Search. Died, 2008.

Because of him, I can waterski, I know I could drive a truck, I could trailer a hitch. It is the little things that men take the time to share with us that make us who we are.

I have always been an independent “woman” type all my life and those who know me are quite perplexed with the gentleness I express when talking of Pete. I have run off QUITE a few boyfriends AND a questionable husband or two. (not all mine) But I write this to remind all of the boyfriends, husbands, and even friends of women with children, YOU can make a difference.

How often do you take the time to throw a ball (Jim Pate taught me to pitch when I was about six and I played until I was at least nine, he’d yell at me just as loudly as his boys “catch that ball!”. I loved that he didn’t treat me differently. Back then I think I was always on the “shirts off” team when we played sports. I was one of the boys.)

There are few others who affected me like Pete and Mr. Jim, as I called him. Mr. Jim was at Ann Kathryn’s graduation from kindergarten, he and “Miss Betty”. Not because of Ann Kathryn, but because their grandchildren are in her class. And it was just as special. It was like having family there.

My daddy, Tom Puccetti, treated me like an adult. At 5 he made me wire my own stereo, I had a dirt bike in the first grade, we’d ride his motorcycle all the way to Meridian where he worked. He would let me drive the tractors at the farm that is now Chemical Waste Mgt in Emelle. He taught me to ride a horse. I think he is the reason I can write, as I would go with him to teach his college English classes. In the fourth grade I would take the exams, sitting up in the corner window. He says I made A’s. I have no idea, but I read every English book he left in the garage when he left after I entered the fourth grade.

Without these influences, I think I might have been one of those gals to “sit on the sidelines”, to not take a risk. I might have been a person without a voice. I might say, whoa, I don’t know where to begin. I would watch them ski, I would be about like when I rolled down the mountain in Vail...not having a CLUE what to do. Too bad mom never had any snow bunny influences in my childhood. I might have been a graceful bunny instead.

Chad and I are making efforts to expose our children to everything we can, so that when they grow up they can become well rounded, adults, not afraid to take chances or “try that again”.

Brent was a natural on snow skis in Breckenridge, Shelton tubes, but we will be sure to put her on the skis at least once. We have no doubt Ann Kathryn will do it all. She tried to get up today on Chad’s feet. She is only 5.

I never want them to look back and say, “Mom, why didn’t you tell us about this?”

So MEN, this is a cry from the little girl inside who was lucky. And yes, we can learn it from our Mama’s, but it sure is refreshing to have a strong figure to look up to.

Blessings and happy Father’s Day to all those who are and who will be a light in a child’s life. We in Alabama have over 600 foster children, and countless others without fathers to believe in. Bored one afternoon? Look into how YOU can be the light in their eyes.


Allison Adams June 2010

Day off to SAVOR LIFE

It has been a week of celebration for the ADAMS FAMILY at our home.
A pre-school graduation, a 40th birthday of a "sister" of ours, a farewell to teens from Sweden, Norway, Germany who have spent a year in Alabama getting to know our culture, a 5th birthday party that promises to be wet and wild and then a lakehouse full of friends on Memorial Day.

All of this going on within the walls of our home...and when I think of all of the parties up and down our street, the festivals (Springalingadingdong- Library Carnival to name a few of the weekends)in our neighborhood, the graduations going on across the state, campaign rallies. Weddings. I realize everyone could use a good DAY OFF.

Today is MY day to DO NOTHING.

I have spent the morning on fb (havent been there in a while) catching up on everyone. And a few minutes ago I cruised through random blogs on blogspot. Many stories of moms, here and all over the world, showing photos of their children, a sad newlywed from Mississippi who has inherited her new husbands children while he runs off to Texas to chase a job. A soldier in Afghanistan, an italian racers blog- ferrari signs, but no English, a Mexican soccer team.

There is so much life going on all around us.

Everyone has a story to tell. Facebook and blogspot are only two ways our world gets smaller.

We have been blessed to have someone from another country show us our world through her eyes..her perspective on our predjudices, our customs, our quirks, our hot sticky summer weather.

On July 29, Amalie leaves us to go back to Norway. It will truly feel as if we are sending a part of our family away.

That date was also my very best friends birthday (and sister by marriage). She died of a brain tumor a few years ago.

I miss her and think of all of the great inspiration she passed on to me. Even at deaths door she was so positive about her fate. She was always wanting to tell me how great life was going to be once I got through the hump of an awful divorce. Said somewhere there was a perfect man like her Steven (who I watched in amazement as probably the only couple I knew at the time who truly loved each other) who would love me for me. She told me that would be her "first to do" when she was on the other side- to find him for me. She wouldn't talk about her situation. She shared stories of light, of life and hope and beautiful music she heard as she slept. She told me she saw her great grandmother waiting for her. She was never afraid of death. And I feel sure, as she told me she will be, she will be there waiting for me beneath a cluster of cherry trees on a red and white checked blanket one day.

Thinking of Adrienne reminds me to savor the little things, the simple things...family, flowers, prayer time, the labarynth she walked through using a cane in her final months.

I hope today brings you little pleasures. Take time tonight to run and catch the lightening bugs, to see the ladybugs just outside your door.To notice the red birds. To simply savor LIFE.

Blessings!
Allison

On the Gulf Coast

I have been here many times, in the three years I lived actually ON THE BEACH...
with boarded up windows, awaiting winds and rain and hurricanes...

but never imagined I would be sitting on my back deck, on a beautiful morning, watching the sunrise
awaiting an oil spill.

What an eery feeling to imagine that the place I called my back yard might soon forever change...

I remember a particularly scary red tide...that brought dead fish to the shore, and a dolphin that once floated up. My teenage friends and I marveled at the scars on his sides.

But we can only pray that God will protect us, as we pray he will protect Nashville from floods, or Mexico from gangs and protect those caught up in riots in Greece or Europe from fallout from their own natural disasters.

We live in a world where, no matter what we try to control in our back yards...it is ever moving, changing, and we can only, as we hope our oceans will, adapt.

I still wonder if the color variation of sand from Texas (more golden brown) is a reflection of the years of oil exploration there. I look out at a fluffy white mound of sand dotted in swaying sea oats and wonder if it will ever be the same for my children's children to walk on?

Everyone who comes into Crestline Seafood wants to know...what is gonna happen?
We all know....there are plenty of other fish in the sea...but what will be of those favorite...plump, red juicy gulf shrimp that come out of the waters just beyond the shore...sometimes in big boats at night we can see their nets dragging the floor for something that might be on a table in Minnesota the following night.

What is gonna happen to the truckers who dock in Mobile to pick up loads of cargo from all over the world and the ships can't get through?

How long will they be unable to import? To export Southern pine timber being harvested and waiting to be sold to a foreign country that is paying top dollar?

For that matter, when will anyone be able to light a firecracker along the coast?

This is affecting us all. I laugh at the way BP says "legitimate claims". Our lives are ALL affected. You just might not notice it til you order grouper or Appalacicola Oysters (some of our favorites) and we say, sorry those don't EXIST ANYMORE. How about an upper east coast variety?

News reports are still showing the oil out in the gulf, men with only greed who spent billions to figure out how to tap into it and nothing to assure that it did not spill (as required in ALL COUNTRIES except America) try to figure how to thread a needle with bungie cords in a dark, moving ocean.

We along the coast can only pray that tonights sunset and tomorrows sunrise yeild the same beautiful beach that is lying here in front of me today.

For today, I am gonna be puttin my toes in the white sand and counting my Blessings.

Allison Adams

WHATS NEW IN 2010

I am spending Spring Break with my children this week....the sun is as hot as I remember when I was living here...but the wind has kept me inside the doors... only my toes out on the porch in an attempt to get some sunshine on this body in preparation for a Mexican Cruise we embark on later in the week.

I just realized I have neglected my blog...Fall? my last post? Where DOES the time go.. I was working on updating our NEWEST venture blog...Crestline Seafood Company...which I guess I will use as my excuse for not updating, painting lately...or at least in a productive fashion or doing much writing.

I guess I have been using my creativity in other..more FOOD oriented ways :)

BUT TODAY I AM IN REFLECTION MODE...been awhile...at the beach.

The beach is a great thing..the surf roars, we sit on the deck...free to do NOTHING...watching gulls soar, planes stall (we are at the practice point on the beach where they turn back)...lucky us :) and now watch the occasional gambler blimp float by.

During those times are when my mind re-fuels and with uninterruped sleep without the dogs...I can focus on what I want to do next.

The creative person is a complex puzzle..that is why I SO love my creative peeps. This semester I have not had my usual group to paint with me on Wednesdays.

READ ABOUT THEM AND OUR PAINTING EXPLORATION AT
www.highlandartists.blogspot.com

I did however branch out and have a FUN GIRLFRIENDS NIGHT OF PAINTING at my house with 15 ladies in byob fashion where Kristen and I instructed on how to do a landscape. It was so much fun! Every painting something unique...so many styles in one room of the same subject.

I hope to do those again SOON. Just trying to figure out where. Thinking for my birthday I need a studio garage in the back :)

The restaurant is in full force..originally a market...we began serving lunch now lunch and dinner. We have wine tastings on Mondays and Brent our 16 year old plays keyboard every Thursday. Check out the link to that blog at
www.crestlineseafood.blogspot.com

IT IS HARD TO BELIEVE WE ARE CELEBRATING ONE YEAR IN BUSINESS THIS MONTH!

I sell my paintings there as well as Merrill Millers Interiors- Orange Beach, Willis Gray Gallery in Decatur and The Commissary, Birmingham.

Paintings by my art class are ON DISPLAY as well. These kids are quite talented.
We start up those classes after the break but will probably go to a group setting paint party style for summer.

We had such a blast at the last one!

In January my latest book "12 Days of Christmas Giving" finally rolled off the presses...but just in time to miss the season. THIS is a main focus for the year ahead. I was tired of hearing "what am I getting for Christmas" so the book is a challenge in rhyme to take a present each day for 12 days from under the tree and GIVE IT AWAY. The book will be linked to various charities and you can teach your children to help celebrate with a perspective that has been there all along.

www.12daysofChristmasgiving.blogspot.com

And while other things are going on with the kids...school and such...we are still so excited we have Amalie Holt with us from Norway. She applied for her ticket to leave us in July and I was sad. She has been such a blessed addition to our family and we can't wait to meet her parents, little sister and little brother in June.
If you have not ever thought of hosting an exchange student, all I can ask is WHY NOT. The blessings are endless.

We take her on a cruise with all four of our children on Thursday and then I hope to take her and Shelton to New York-Boston (while Brent performs with mens choir in Boston) to meet me grandmother Nana Rosalie Costontino and aunt Rosalie Cicciarelli in April...then a train trip to N Orleans..and if it works in, Miami, where she originally thought she was coming to in the states.

Until I have the chance to sit down again (especially with a five year old :)) hope you are following your creative dreams.

BLESSINGS!
Allison