See photos of our BRUNCH ITEMS
and a great review
click HERE to read the review~
they gave us 5 stars!
ALLISON PUCCETTI ADAMS Artist ~ Southern Author
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
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
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
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Thursday, June 17, 2010
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
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
Wednesday, May 26, 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
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
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
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