Southern Living Photo Shoot

Go to Southern Living Magazine's site or see the November issue for two articles where I got to be a "super model"! Ha

I am the blue in the background behind the mugs in our kitchen
and the VANNA HANDS in this article about great gift ideas for the garden.

Also shown are some shots of Van and Missy Nevill Crawford doing some styling for an upcoming shoot in the spring around our pool.

Everything about what goes into the magazines that we read goes through such an extensive process, with the first spark being an idea around a conference table and growing into a finished "ah ha!" moment on a bright sunny day. It takes a huge team of professionals to pull it all off.

See the site at www.southernliving.comand lots of GREAT articles and ideas.

Photos shown from November issue:
Van Chaplin / styling Lisa Powell Bailey, Bridget Sellers

The Butterfly Effect of Love by Allison Adams

Science has shown the butterfly effect to engage 

with the first movement of any form of matter- including people.

            ~from Andy Andrews book The Butterfly Effect

            a gift for the families who attended the wedding

A few years ago, a boy was too busy to make it out for a blind date with a girl.

After talking to her long distance by chat, text, phone, he decided he had to see her.  Convincing his parents who were on their way to the town where she lived to drop him off at her house for the weekend, he arrived at her doorstep, a sleeping bag and pillow in hand. 

I don’t recall the exact way it was told at the Rehearsal Dinner but I think it went down like this.  As he stood there, a surprise to this girl and her college room mates, he waved to his parents over his shoulder with a huge grin, “This is Lauren. I am going to meet her parents this weekend, then another weekend you are going to get to know her and some day we are going to be married!”

They dated a couple of years and the celebration of their lives together was this weekend in Rosemary Beach, Florida.

My husband and two daughters (7 and 17) followed the flutter of love set forth in their college days and headed to Rosemary beach for their wedding.  Getting to know his family, in the brief moments we had around them, was something magical. To meet Will you can only grin from ear to ear. I don’t recall seeing him not smiling, and hugging people, and sticking his arm out to say “I’m Will!” to anyone and everyone he saw.

Toasts from their friends were all upbeat, magical, kind, genuinely all about the magic of their love.  The preacher who married them had been waiting for this day since he was a child. His humor and pure joy for the occasion sent waves of chuckles throughout the weekend.

A toast was made by an elderly couple, briefly strangers, who met Will on an airplane on his way back from Argentina where he works as a hunting guide.

“I’m getting married,” he told them.

The gentleman whom I would guess is in his seventies gleamed as he and his wife stood to toast Will.  “This boy whom I met for only hours but felt like I knew him my whole life told me about Lauren on the ride home. It sounded like such a magical union. “

Will’s answer was, “You should come. I’ll send you a ticket!”

And that is how the little northern couple too were sucked up into the love current started back in college by a boy with a big heart and a girl who won it with her brains, beauty and love of hunting.

And everywhere we were, stories of Will and Lauren drifted across the wind. Her college friends from Rhodes, her roommates from Auburn, and some from Graduate School at Vanderbilt all meshed together in a tail wind of excitement spurred by the birth of a little girl whose daddy taught her how to hunt and fish and her mama who loved to shop with her and ski and do all the things boys like for girls to do with them while looking “fabulous”.

While her parents are no longer married, the love in her heart and the love they have for her brought them to a moment where they could stand together, for her, with her.  The toast Carson made was not about him…but how “your mother and I feel about the blessing that you are”.

Love is the ultimate goal in life. It is the most important of all of the messages that God left for us here on earth.

The couple didn’t say “we are in love”. 

They ARE love. Their eyes showed it, their hugs showed it. There was no need for words.

In a time when the world seems tiny and meaningless for so many as it crumbles around us and hate rises up, we are reminded on a beach in a small town of Rosemary that there are great new beginnings being formed. There are messages floating along the sands and waves shouting out to perhaps a couple who was there who re-kindled a stale relationship, or a stranger who watched from beyond the dunes who dreamed of one day having such a blessed marriage.

Yes, there were butterfly effects going on all around us in Rosemary.

My seven year old watched it all.  Perhaps the effect she sees will be with her forever as she aspires for true love.  She was so excited to help hand out the rosemary that would shower the bride and groom  as they rolled off in their antique thunderbird convertible. Rosemary symbolizes love, remembrance, friendship and truth ~ something they will take into a new life, a new world, where laced into an even more powerful strand, I have no doubt that they will send tornadoes of hope across the world.

I can feel them now in Belize~ landing on a soft beach, speaking of love, toasting to their future, perhaps sparking a small wave, a breeze of what is to come across the planet where we are, just as we are soaking in and simply remembering the first wave.

Cheers and congratulations to you for touching my life and reminding me how precious my sweet husband is and how blessed I am with my children.

The greatest of these….is love.  Thanks for sharing yours!

Allison Adams

www.allisonpadams.com

artists of the month of MARCH at ROJO Birmingham

Please join us on Thursday, March 7 at 6 PM at 

ROJO        

www.rojobirmingham.com

for the exhibition kickoff for the show entitled

HEART HOPE AND HOME 

which will feature vibrant artwork on canvas by 

Allison Puccetti Adams  

(www.allisonpadams.com)

and 

Kristin Drew Vickers   

(www.facebook.com/kristindrewvickersart)

20% of all artwork sales during the entire month will go to The Heart Gallery of Alabama, 

which focuses on highlighting the nearly 300 children yearning for adoption across Alabama.

Enjoy live music performed from 6-8 by Brent and Shelton McCollough

www.facebook.com/BrentMcColloughStudios

Prints will be available of the entitled work, “Embrace for Life” by Allison Adams

for $30.00 to benefit THE HEART GALLERY OF ALABAMA. (60% of price goes directly to the Heart Gallery)  

Come out and enjoy good fun, purchase some ART WITH HEART or just learn more about THE HEART GALLERY.

Register for a free painting to be given away!

If you are a family who has been changed by adoption we would LOVE to have you share your story.  At around 8 PM we will open the mic to individuals who want to share their HEARTS.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK AT 

 kristindrewvickersart and allisonpadamsartist

we will announce some free giveaways between now and the end of march

For more information contact Allison Adams at 205-914-2400 or visit www.allisonpadams.com

We hope you will spread the love and share this message with friends and family~

Visit the HEART GALLERY WEBSITE to see actual photos of the children awaiting families 

like yours, to find where their next exhibit of photographs will be located or to donate directly. 

NEW YEAR ~ NEW goals to YOU

Every year I love to pull out my journals from the year before
 (yes, there are usually two or more of them).

I am a journaling junkee!

This year I created a new way to capture my journaling and my calendar in one place.
The happYmess Journal documents my todays while I plan my tomorrows.

I also LOVE the SARK's Journal and Playbook! I have one from 1996, one from 2000 and one from 2006. While many of the goals, scribbles and thoughts are similar, they still evolve.

www.planetsark.com

WHAT ARE YOU DREAMING TO DO DIFFERENTLY IN 2013?

WHAT ARE YOU LOVING THAT YOU WANT MORE OF IN 2013?

After all, we all made it through the doom and gloom of the end of the world at the end of 2012!

CELEBRATE THAT!

Last year was the year for my painting evolution. I took some great workshops through local and regional outlets.

@pauljackson @alabamaartsupply  @kellienewsom @nancunningham  @forstallartcenter
(even google evolving where these are supposed to link to these artists~ who knows! but hey, I am up for big changes and new adventures, even if on my blog!

In 2013 I explored @seejanewrite the blog a day for 30 days and made it with a few "multi blogs" along the way! Thanks @javaciabowers  @seejanetweet

SET A GOAL, ANY GOAL AND SEE WHERE IT LEADS YOU!
It doesn't have to be life changing! Just something to help you stretch and grow!

Here is a GREAT one!
Anyone with a camera on their phone can do it!  And be sure to tweet it to me
at  #artallie on Twitter!

Source: positivelypresent.com via Inger-Marie on Pinterest

This is the link to the DAILY PHOTO CHALLENGE!

TODAY! DAY ONE!  A FAVORITE! FOOD

AND I LEAVE YOU WITH SCENES FROM BARTON G RESTAURANT IN MAIMI BEACH!

@bartong

a smoking drink

cotton candy!

menu pad....

http://bartongtherestaurant.com/experience/

surf and turf~ of monumental proportions

Tuna~ 

and great friends

which is what food is all about

lobster poptarts~ 

and my seven year old's favorite~

the chocolate treasure chest with graham cracker "sand"

Treasures like this are all over the world. GO EXPLORE them~

Barton G was the personal chef for Versace. Next time you go to Miami
find this quaint restaurant tucked on a side street among gardens and find a corner table beneath the twinkling lights in the trees.

Or better yet, stay in tonight and get creative!  Find a bucket and fill it with ice cream, candy bars and top it with POP ROCKS!  Your kids will love you for it!

Blessings to CREATIVE LIVING EVERY DAY in 2013~

Allison Adams
www.allisonpadams.com

ABDUCTED: Elf answering to ELF-is. Last seen 2011

OK ALL YOU CLEVER ELVES, who started your escapades early in November.

Do you THINK we don't hear about all of the wonderful mischief you have concocted?

Your pranks are filling up Pinterest, your "children" are bragging at school.

http://pinterest.com/bgall/christmas-elf-on-a-shelf/

Meanwhile, I am scrambling around in all of the buckets in my garage for any sign of you.
Panic is setting in as I am remembering that you were last spotted
in Colorado last year as we spent the week out there....
At least I am thinking you graced our presence there!

but I really am not sure.

And I am remembering you weren't that REGULAR easy to find ELF-is
(the name my daughter continues to call you, in her letters, on notes by her bed)....

So I ask, WHY on a holiday FILLED with plenty to do,
do we pack on another thing to coordinate?

Yes I know, he does it all himself! But hey! He DOES NOT CLEAN UP!

Parents need the ELF THAT DOES GOOD DEEDS AROUND THE HOUSE
fueled by KIDS WITH HUGE HEARTS AND APPRECIATION for
what PARENTS do!

And at Christmas, the time we should be remembering Jesus,
we have a TREE to get and decorate (I have to say it is my favorite thing!)

Does the Christmas tree have anything to do with Jesus?

And then there is that dude, Santa~
who really has little to do with the reason for the season~
and possibly evolved from Father Christmas riding a goat!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus

But hey! real or not, he is everywhere! even in my brownies!

and NOW A DANG ELF that eats my boxes and spills cereal,
who is missed because he is NOT destroying the laundry room,
not squirting toothpaste everywhere, not playing in the potty.

So I thought~ should I dig into the stories behind these things?

Come to find out~ as A LOVER OF THE BROWN LIQUID THAT CLOGS
MY ARTERIES~  COCA COLA is behind the creation of the
American SANTA CLAUSE.

http://robwrite.hubpages.com/hub/The-Real-Story-Behind-SANTA-CLAUS

and the Christmas Tree?

I have to say this link is written by a biblical scholar, a bit dry in tone but hey!
Who KNEW the tree's message was so varied and so powerful?

The evergreen, that withstood the winter when a child was born in a manger.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/thepastinthepresent/storybehind/whychristmastrees.html


The presents beneath are another issue~ isn't the GIFT of LIFE and the gift of time
with family, LIKE ON THANKSGIVING ~ ENOUGH?

http://www.thelaboroflove.com/articles/why-do-we-give-gifts-at-christmas

As I wrap up this blog post with all of the new knowledge I have about this season
we call Christmas Time~
I am relieved that as new events evolve, new traditions are introduced,
I am reminded that

the most special reason for this season is LOVE~ the GREATEST gift of all...

and with that, the satisfaction of family member's joy as
they open their gifts, as they sip hot cocoa beneath a beautifully decorated tree filled with
hundreds of little mementos that remind us of great times together,
of the rare beautifully thought out cards we still receive from friends near and far,
of the angel trees with wishes still being fulfilled, of the churches singing praises
to our king.

We anticipate the giggles when they open the fridge to find
 (hopefully by FRIDAY according to my Amazon.com elf package tracking!)
not only that Christopher Lumpkis or POPKINS
or whatever version of the ELF that we can't find LOCALLY

but his new friend (YES THERE IS A FEMALE ONE NOW)

CHANDA BELL!

based on her CREATOR.  (an author loves a good success story now~)

all cozied up in the cream cheese.

Move over Rudolph!
 Elf on the Shelf even has an event NEXT WEEK
so you can make him a HOUSE
DECEMBER 18 at the library in Crestline!

AND YES there are different KINDS...SOFT, HARD, DIFFERENT BOOKS
and only the children probably know the skinny on THAT~
http://www.elfontheshelf.com/AboutUs/TheTeam.aspx

http://www.elfontheshelf.com/en-us/home.aspx
http://www.imaginatives.com

CHEERS TO NEW TRADITIONS!
AND MAY THE BEST ELF MISCHIEF WIN!

Be sure to share your ELF-IS experiences with me! I would love to post some!

AND REMEMBER~ DECEMBER 25 IS ALL ABOUT ONE THING.....
Merry CHRISTmas!

The rest of the days! are all about the FUN!

And if you want to read a bit about that date, which is really NOT the
guaranteed day of Christ's birth,
find it here~
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas

I will say, according to history, CHRISTMAS IS A GIFT TO OUR ECONOMY~

Maybe the story like THE MIDDLE'S this week where we make gifts and
sit around and sing songs together is not a bad idea AFTER all...
no elf, no tree, no presents, no Christmas cards.

But then, THAT would just be ANOTHER DAY....

I think I will STICK WITH THE HUSTLE AND BUSTLE!

Blessings to YOU and your family!

Allison Adams


And if you haven't gotten ENOUGH information~
here is a link to an alternative view on CHRISTMAS.
Don't let it cramp your CHRISTmas spirit.

http://www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/Christmas_TheRealStory.htm

Photography

20 Days of BLOGGING 

Gone are the days of the old rolls of film where you shoot and shoot and hope something comes out that you can keep. I wish I could go back and re-live some trips with my digital camera. 

The memories are great, but now that I actually know how to select the ones that work, tweak them if they don't quite get there and DELETE if they stink, I would have loved to have those memories IN LIVING COLOR!

I recently took some photos of babies~ They make such great subjects!

Photography, another great source for all things CREATIVE~

(and on subject with my blog daily on creativity as well as today's about "what you are doing")

I am available to take photos on location where they are most comfortable~  

$50 fee to come to your house which includes access to one free photo for you to use.

A great way to capture that Christmas card photo or holiday gift idea~  

I also photograph your pet and create watercolor/ acrylic pet portraits.  

Play in the DOUGH

CREATIVITY BLOG LIKE CRAZY A DAY

doesn't ALWAYS have to be about PAINTING

Get out your crescent rolls and play in them!

(hot dog inside makes it even yummier with a dab of mustard!)

Make the kids smile at a crocodile!

How do I know it is indeed a croc?

I don't! Who cares!

But I know the kids were smiling!

This post is for the one I won't be making tomorrow ! Just saying!

#bloglikecrazy BLOG A DAY CHALLENGE #2- DEFENSE

Friday, Nov. 2 --  Defense! No, I'm not talking about football. Write a post defending something or someone that usually gets a bad rap. This could be a celebrity, a book, your favorite food, a region of the country, etc. The possibilities are endless. To narrow your choices, pick something that's somehow related to your blogging niche.

Defending artist Paul Jackson’s nude painting removed/ censored from Facebook~

It amazes me how different Americans are from Europeans when it comes to the naked body.  All along the streets when my sweet husband surprised me for my fortieth birthday and whisked me to Paris were billboards and posters promoting a beautiful exhibit. A European photographer captured the body through creative photographic vision to resemble flowers, a river, mountains. The exhibit was tastefully provocative, creative, magical, the posters quite interesting, and most definitely a stretch for American standards.

I had photos of the poster that lined the streets. It was at first not recognizable as a body, more like an inverted lotus flower in black and white that ended up being a buttocks. 

In America we make such things taboo and in doing so magnify the dirty feel instead of embracing the sheer beauty. The masters of Europe captured beauty in the natural body, making women of any size and shape feel good about the natural tendency for the body to be appreciated for what it does.  The significance of the breasts for nurturing a newborn in Europe was so often captured in magnificent light with the subjects being revealed as Goddesses of life. 

Because our children are not exposed to the pure beauty of the woman’s body, they find at puberty this snickering, immature relationship with the very thing that brought them into existence.  

Even facebook bans nude paintings and drawings on sites. And while I am surely against the posting of a bleach blonde revealing breasts that are guaranteed to show no functional value for bearing children, I appreciate the tastefully painted rendition of a woman with light cast on her body as she is captured by the creator of a painting. 

http://www.pauljackson.com/2012/01/muse-27x56-watercolor-by-paul-jackson/

Here is a link to his facebook and blog posts about the painting. 

Be WARE!  Tasteful nudity alert! If you are under 18 do not open without permission from your parent. 

As an artist, I will say, if you are my child...appreciate ART. You are wise enough to know the difference.

#bloglikecrazy

Today begins the BLOG EVERY DAY challenge set in place by
Birmingham's founder of SEE JANE WRITE
and WRITEOUSBABE'S blog CHALLENGE.

Each day IN NOVEMBER Javacia provides a prompt to get us started~

Today, November First~ AND I AM OFF TO A GREAT START!

 It is all about intentions!

And the day I signed up back in October I had TONS OF INTENTIONS~
And thankfully I got a jump start last week on ideas for these although this one is
fresh off the top of my head with none of those being used.

TODAY~ ANY INTENTIONS I MIGHT HAVE HAD rolled
out of my agenda one by one as a sniffly seven year old and a coughing sixteen year old
showed me their throats.

And THAT my dear is why I am grateful that I can shift gears, light a fire, and
cancel my day.  (I'll get to that topic later in the week about how those of us with flexible creative schedules also struggle as much as those with the fixed work routine)

My intentions to write an uplifting blog today about all of the goals I was excited about two days ago when I wrote my "blog outline" are smothered today in a messy post halloween floor and a washing machine with a stuck door and a fault code that screams "you have to call someone!"

My intentions to start the day on the road to Montgomery to keep my very pregnant friend from having to go alone were halted with sniffles and coughing I must have picked up from the kids.

My intentions to have a recent book illustration "for hire" completed early might still make it on schedule but meeting with the client is probably out. Thank goodness for email.

So today my intentions are to take advantage of another day at home with the kids, heat up some soup, make some cookies, light a fire, and wait for their appointment time at the pediatrician, but probably, I will just be crawling back in bed and cover my head.

Not a bad plan for a sniffly, blustery November Thursday.  Looks like I should take a lesson today from the fur balls who live their lives with NO intentions!

Allison Adams

www.allisonpadams.com

Some Recent Artwork by Allison Adams

LATEST WORKS

Some of my latest work has been in WATERCOLOR (Stars and Stripes and Ezulwini Hidden Treasure)
The bottles are inspired from a photograph I took in Savannah, Ga. in a flea market window.

This month I was asked to be the featured artist at 31 CHURCH STREET GALLERY in Crestline.

I hope you will drop in this month to check out the newest watercolors and acrylics (summer fun)~

Thanks to all who attended the opening and came out to hear BRENT MCCOLLOUGH perform!

Blessings creative friends!
Allison

Ossabaw Island RETREAT~ Savannah Book Festival

I recently had the rare opportunity to visit Ossabaw Island, just off the coast of Savannah for the first annual Savannah Book Festival Writer’s Retreat. Ossabaw is Georgia’s largest island and privately owned. :

We have all had that dream, that we might one day leave our mundane lives, just for a second, flee to to a magical island, find the writer, the artist within.

I have done that, in a magical place called Ossabaw Island, a private sanctuary just off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, only accessible by boat. No cars, no television, no phones, except those bootlegged in, and only if using Verizon did they work.

For four days I and three other juried writers immersed ourselves in the craft of writing, digging deeply into our souls to extract nuggets buried within, dormant for most of our lives.

We were invited by founder of the program, Tony Morris, a poet and professor of English at Armstrong Atlantic State University. He brought with him a wealth of talent: Beverly Donofrio who penned the novel that brought Drew Berrymore as Beverly’s character to the big screen in Riding in Cars with Boys; Lenore Hart, with seven novels and a children’s book under her belt, Her lastest novel, The Raven’s Bride, being released in New York that very week; as well as the Poet Laureate of North Carolina, a darling Southern Belle named Cathy Smith Bowers, who turned each of us into a lover of not only the craft of writing but the sounds of letters and words.

As I approach age forty-five, it seems that something in me has been asking, am I finished learning? Is this it? Where is that novel that I have known brews inside me? A question many of us mid-life creative mortals ask.

I found that answer on Ossabaw, a discriminating place. To be allowed on, you must be studying the arts, science or contributing to the furthering of your craft. Artists visit here each year, and the only way to be a part of it is to be investing in yourself or fellow man.

There are no tourists, no boat tours, just 26,000 acres of pristine history to be explored. I found myself reflecting on my family’s heritage, that of timber. Here you can see where forestry practices stopped cold. Immersed among ancient live oaks, palms, magnolias, dogwood and wild azaleas are towering pines, all about the same age, maybe forty years old. Deep within the property is “The g-nomey tree” that stands gnarled and the Breakfast Tree has a twisted, table-like trunk. At the south end is the pride of the island, a tree nearly thirty feet in diameter with a canopy of over a hundred and fifty feet. This tree may have sheltered not only the Creek Indians who first settled here, but the patriot soldier, the planter and the children of the family that now owns it, the Torrey’s of Grosse Pt., Michigan. The final heir at age 98, still lives here in her summer home, a grand pink stucco fortress with soaring ceilings and beautiful iron work. She is active and knows the island backwards and forwards. Her story featured in Atlanta Magazine. http://www.atlantamagazine.com/march2011/theoldladyofossabaw.aspx)

The family has gifted it to the state of Georgia as a wild sanctuary. Today she enjoys its final years of private oasis and shares it with strangers who quickly become friends. Ten miles of beaches divide the island from civilization, one are called the boneyard where hundreds of trees stand naked against sky and sand is particularly mesmerizing.

We bunked in the old hunting lodge, a quaint wooden two story building with massive fireplace and an updated kitchen. It was in the living room our writer’s minds were transformed, as each night our mentors would read to us from their own works. We immersed ourselves in workshops, revealed portions of novels we had brought with us, unveiling parts of ourselves, peeling layers of life, and weaving them into friendships I will carry with me the rest of my life.

These women, models of who I, as an “artsy type”, a creative person, might one day become. They were all older than I, by ten to thirty years, and life bubbled from each of their cores. Tony would sit crouched in the corner, a tree watching a nest of bees create honey from pollen made of words.

“We will never be the same,” Kathy would tell us as we gave life to our words, and like the flap of a butterflies wing, we sent creativity off into the universe, clear across the waves surrounding Ossabaw.

I have been back in my home now for only eight hours and already I have begun to fill the pages of my new journal. Words flow from my brain, spilling out, down my arm to paper. My computer has remained shut, the link of my fingers to my brain untangled, somewhat awkward, but no longer blocked.

Ossabaw and the treasures there, a pig named Paul Mitchell, who loves to have his ears scratched and his belly filled with scraps of gourmet fare, and donkeys that greeted us with deep calls each morning set the tone for a place where time stands still.

As we spent our last day there, stranded for a few hours as we waited for Mother Nature to bring back the tide, we savored the day on the front porch of the guest cottage, pulled out Tony’s guitar and sang some Patsy Cline, listened to some of Tony’s originals. A great end to a glorious day of 70 degree weather and sunshine on this magical day in late February.

I will forever look at this experience as one that has changed my life. Like the events of 9/11 that turned my life on a different path, this will too go down as one of the experiences that made a difference in my being. Ossabaw, has told me, without a doubt, that I was born to be a writer. It is the core of who I am. It is what I do to “unleash the cobwebs- the fluent weavings of words that hide in there- in the soul I was formed from.”

I need only remember the big trees that lined the fern and palmetto framed paths, the old slave quarters that remind me of people who never got to tell their stories. And so tonight, I sit propped on the edge of my bathtub, my legs crossed, the sounds of my snoring husband drifting into the night.

I am home, the writer I was when I left, but now fully awake.

I thank Ossabaw for that chance to unleash the thoughts in the darkness, and bring them to light, that once released, live forever among us.

Allison Puccetti Adams 2011

Independence Day

This morning
I zip into the Chevron,
grab a shot of caffeine,
Head on my way.
In front of me
A woman on a cell phone slows traffic.
I watch another walk her dog
On the long winding path beside me,
No cares, no concerns.

Yesterday,
As I hit snooze,
Purrs of lawnmowers and
shrills of children on bikes
Dashed in through my window.
I turned over,
Went back to sleep
Because I could.

Overseas,
A friend sleeps on rock,
In tents,
As much as he can,
Before jumping into action
on streets where
Women scurry with children,
Men eat quickly in fear,
Pausing only to listen for any
Sign of threat.

This Independence Day,
I pray that the joy I have
With family and friends
Is scattered across the globe,
In the minds and hearts of children,
Who also play, but
Under shelter of cover,
Not openly in the streets
As in AMERICA.

This Independence Day
I pray for PEACE.
I extend gratitude
To those
Who give me and my children
the choice
To simply BE.
Allison Puccetti Adams 2009

Painting at the Orange Beach Art Center

Here is the most recent painting...

If you are on the coast, please visit the Orange Beach Art Center.
My exhibit there ends the 10th of June so hope you will go by.
Print this out and receive 15% off of any purchase there...only for blog followers.
(Deepest discount there is 10%) the final week of the show.

They will begin an exhibit by area art students that should be great inspiration.
They also have a great art camp for kids so be sure to check it out!

Blessings~

Allison

Orange Beach ART CENTER

Here are upcoming events at the Orange Beach Art Center.

I will be having a show in May there.

Also coming up:

Friday Feb. 20, 2009- Booksigning at FOUR SEASONS in Homewood 5-7

Mountain Brook ART Association SPRING SHOW- April 18-19
I will have new work to show. Lots of smaller works. Great for sea and sand..crabs, kids, and lake subjects.

Orange Beach ART CENTER- Show of works on the study of Light and Movement
April 30-June 12

Hope to see you SOON!

Also, check in with Wildflower Wax for some fun smaller paintings of horses, chickens and other crazy barnyard specialties I have been scrapin on with my palete knife lately!

Blessings!
Allison

Orange Beach Art Center

SUSHI Chefs!

Yesterday Chad and I were trained in SUSHI rolling...

WHAT A BLAST!

We are opening our new FRESH SEAFOOD MARKET in Crestline
on tentatively (depending on inspections...) FEBRUARY 20.

The new awning should arrive the first of next week!
We can't wait to see everyone there!

63 Church Street

We will offer FRESH market seafood for you to take home and prepare at home (we will have a RECIPE wall so you can grab a good one with your fish (recipes free of course)) and will have many gourmet items to use to make your seafood dining experience at home a TASTY one. Grab a bottle of wine or some import beer and you are off to a great dinner!

Send me your favorite recipes or a good seafood secret and we'll quote you on the board!

At lunchtime, if you are in the mood for seafood...stop in for gumbo or the soup of the day served in bread bowls, a bit of sushi (if I'm in..look for creative twists in the menu :) I'm an artist COOK! or grab a veggie roll.

We will bake fresh bread daily and be making our own waffle cones.

Don't forget fresh tuna dip (and other dips) in the fridge...

And you can ALWAYS zip through the alley (call ahead) and we'll bring steamed shrimp...with many season options (curry, barbque, smoked, or cajun blend to name a few) We will have gourmet tartars and sauces for your seafood too!

After 3 PM, send the kids in, for free popcorn in the old fashioned popcorn cart and ice cream (soft serve happYmess flavors)

Flavors: cherry, chocolate, peanut butter (not from Georgia:), Strawberry, Cheesecake, Mint, Mocha Cappucino, Blue GOO, bubble gum and cotton candy
(put in your suggestions to GIVE THEM THEIR HAPPYMESS NAME!)
I'm thinkin' CARLOTTA COTTON CANDY...BLUE GOO..IS WELL, BLUE GOO..


You create your happYmess ice cream blend from up to 8 flavors in colorful rainbow swirls and top with your favorite topping..from pop rocks, oreos, or gummy worms to the old faithful vanilla cream with sprinkles. Grab a coke from the old coke fridge like we used to see in our Livingston grocery stores!

We hope you will appreciate the "community store" atmosphere we are trying to offer and hope you will just come hang out!

Watch for our monthly newsletter starting in March (available to pick up in the store) for fun HOLIDAY dates...recipes...tips....
we are always celebrating! or check the blackboard out front! These are REAL holidays!

Opening weekend: National Clam Chowder day,
Feb. 23: National Personal Chef day..a great day to branch out and cook for your sweetie
Feb. 24 Mardi Gras...come in for a purple green and yellow swirl!International Pancake day
Feb. 25: Ash Wednesday and National "Inconvenience Yourself" Day
26: National Levi Strauss Day, For Pete's Sake Day (name Pete? come in for a free cone!)
27: Rabi'l
28: Floral Design Day (work at a florist? come in for a free cone)
It is also NATIONAL TOOTH FAIRY DAY...lost a tooth this week? bring some proof (or lack of..) and get a free cone!

And remember, EVERY Birthday person gets a free cone on your special DAY!

Blessings!
Allison