annieB’s Neighborhood

Some friends of ours host a coffee social at their house most Sundays. One of the parents in the family has been away for several weeks and so the hosting duties have fallen on other families in our circle of friends and I had volunteered to have it fall on me this week. I enjoy being able to entertain but I had hesitated because I don't feel like our house can accommodate as many kids as their usually are at this event without the noise level becoming excruciating. Swine flu saved me from having to find out, or prevented me from finding out that I was wrong, depending on your point of view. Since Niels' class seems to be getting it and a couple of kids in Stefan's class have been sick with something that also sounds like it could be it I didn't want to invite a separate group of children to our house when we could be coming down with it any day now. I'm sad that I'm unable to even try having them over but I really don't want to be responsible for spreading it around.

In my attempts to keep the sickness at bay in our house I made a recipe today that came from a small pamphlet at Whole Foods. I can't find the recipe on their website, though, it's called "Better Than Chicken Soup". I find the name somewhat strange since I did use homemade chicken broth at part of the soup but I guess the other ingredients also have immune boosting powers: garlic, turmeric, shiitake mushrooms, kale (i used spinach), squash (I used pumpkin), cayenne, ginger, lemon and miso. It also called for astragalus root which I don't have on hand. I wonder what that tastes like. I made it as a side to dinner and Stefan and I were the only ones who ate it. I thought it was fairly spicy but he didn't comment about the spiciness until I did. I think it would also be delicious with cubes of tofu added to make it a more filling dinner soup.

I didn't manage to trick myself into thinking people were coming over and cleaning up thoroughly but I did get as far as decluttering the dining room side of the kitchen counter. That part of the house is a clutter magnet as most horizontal surfaces are. I need to pay more attention to it on a regular basis because it's too easy to just pile stuff there and ignore it.

No knitting in this post yet! I don't think I'm much farther in the sweater than the last picture. I went to get my flat tire repaired but rather than sit and knit while they fixed it I walked across the street to the Japanese market to buy rice. I did knit one row when I got back before the car was ready. One row! How exciting is that?

Originally published at sixhours.net. You can comment here or there.

Today got off to a rough start. This morning after the usual routine of a change and a bottle, I started to clip Ellie's nails and accidentally snipped her pinky finger in the process. It didn't seem to hurt her, and at first we thought it wasn't a big cut--a little blood, a little mama guilt, no problem.

Except her finger just kept bleeding and bleeding and bleeding... you'd be amazed how much one tiny finger can bleed. Several tissues, burp cloths, much gauze and three band-aids later, the second floor looked like the scene from a small disaster and I started to lose my calm, can-do front.

Then I imagined the headlines: "Baby bleeds out--death by hangnail."

We decided to go to the doctor just to be safe (thank goodness for weekend hours). They were very nice about our new parent paranoia, even though by the time we got there, Ellie's finger had stopped bleeding and she was obviously fine (if not grumpy with us for making such a fuss). We were sent home with instructions to keep it clean and relax. Ahahaha, I think that last part was a joke.

So the morning was not quite what we'd planned, but thankfully it got better. We chose to brave the rest of the day and make the trek to Ellsworth to the Gifted Hand Show to check out some handmade goodies from fellow Maine artists. I purchased a cute hat for Ellie from Worthy Goods and a surprise Christmas present from Atlantic Art Glass. I ogled the kids' peasant dresses from Anabelfuzz and the intricate glass beads from Fern House Studio. I'm definitely a fan of online shopping, but there's nothing like seeing an artists' work up close and meeting the people behind the Web addresses. Maine is home to some very talented people!

After returning from the show, El and I hung out with our friend Danielle while Tim caught up on homework. Then we all crashed in the living room to eat pizza and watch Supernanny and celebrate our pinky fingers being (mostly) intact.

If tomorrow is as eventful as today was, I'm going to need a second weekend to recover.

Voici le nouveau Cru de Jamie Cullum qui a une saveur particuliere…

Un album tres inégale mais pas pour autant mauvais et comme d’habitude, je vous propose mes morceaux favoris apres écoute.

Je vous laisse vous faire votre avis par vous-meme !

Un rendez vous hebdomadaire que j'entretiens pour l'instant, mais je réfléchis toujours à la version "the song of the day"
Au programme:
A Broken Robot, Bird Talk, Warpaint, Candy Claws, I Was Totally Destroying It, The Thrills, Patrick Watson,
Joseph Arthur, Killing Mood, Nina Kinert, Scary Mansion, The School.

Un petit comm, un avis, une suggestion sont toujours les bienvenus  :)
Amitiés

J'ai attendu patiemment, le soleil déclinait à l'horizon, le vent balayait la cote et mon visage. Les derniers badauds on renoncé, seul je suis resté, espérant que le couchant soit magique. Quand au dernier moment, surgi de nulle part une barre nuageuse surgit de l'horizon portant des nuages sombres comme une promesse de tempête future. Alors j'ai compris que dans cette longue attente l'astre solaire ne serait pas au rendez-vous à la ligne d'horizon. Seuls reste cette image pleine de promesse. Un autre jour peut être, la vie d'un chasseur de couchant est pleine d'espoir et emplie de déceptions.

                                           Vs

En 2009, La Grande Sophie a perdu tous ses repères au mois d'avril, il est arrivé la même chose à Charlie et ses filles, mais ce soir c'est le come-back : le retour du tiercé vocal féminin en commençant par une charmante anglaise au look rétro, ancienne choriste de Madonna, d'abord remarquée dans la presse féminine : VV Brown.

Après avoir essuyé quelques déboires dans l’industrie musicale, Vanessa Brown a décidé de prendre son destin musical en main, armée de talents et de perspicacité, cette anglaise de 24 ans revendique ainsi l’entière maternité de son premier album, " Travelling Like The Light " déclarant à ce propos: “J’ai écrit toutes les chansons et produit intégralement l’album en composant les morceaux chez moi avec Logic puis en les retravaillant en studio avec Pro Tools. C’est également moi qui joue du clavier ainsi que les lignes de basse”.

Pour un premier album, inutile de dire que ça ne manque pas de personnalité et surtout de voix, on a rarement entendu quelque chose de si old school et de moderne à la fois. Interviewée, elle explique : "La musique et la mode marchent ensemble. J’aime m’exprimer dans tout ce que je peux. Les vêtements sont comme des notes et des accords quand on les assemble. Et mes inspirations sont souvent communes : les punks, le sexe, la religion, la douleur… et surtout Dorothy Dandridge (première actrice noire à s’être imposée à Hollywood)".

Repérée par l’un des plus gros labels indépendants d’Italie, Malika Ayane a sortie également son tout premier album dans l'Hexagone au mois de septembre.
Après avoir conquis son pays d’origine la jolie brune et ses chansons pleines d’émotions ne devraient pas laisser le public français indifférent.

Pour son 1er album, Malika s'est entourée de grands noms : le compositeur Ferdinando Arnò, Pacifico (un autre artiste renommé de Sugar Music) , Paolo Conte (qui a fait cadeau à Malika d’un titre de sa composition “Fandango”), Tom Elmhirst au mixage (Amy Winehouse, Adele, Lily Allen, Moby, etc.) , Tony Cousins à l’enregistrement au studio Metropolis à Londres (Massive Attack, Peter Gabriel, Robbie Williams, etc,) et Vincent Mendoza (Björk, Joni Mitchell, etc.), pour les arrangements sur “Il Giardino dei Salici” and “Perfetta”.

A la différence des deux premières donzelles, la dernière des filles n'a pas encore sorti un album, seulement un maxi quatre titres auto-produit : " Human Nature ".
Originaire de Hartford aux Etat-Unis, Alli Millstein, inspirée par Dylan, est l'une des artistes émergentes de la scène folk indépendante, elle a récemment tournée dans les pubs de sa région mais également dans certains lieux mythiques New-Yorkais (Kenny's Castaways, Arlene's Grocery).
A suivre ...