Have you been to The Shops at Cape Neddick recently? If it’s been awhile, you’re in for a treat. It’s expanded and still expanding, so give yourself enough time to look around and take it all in.
When you walk in, you will feel the lovely energy of this shop right away. It feels like you are being wrapped big, warm hug. Everywhere you look you’ll see something beautiful, fun, and unique. There are several different shops under this one roof, so there truly is something for everyone.
Today, I want to tell you about (you guessed it) the book section! Currently called Book Ends, there is a special section to highlight local authors. I am proud to tell you that I am represented here!
Every time I come here, I find just exactly the thing I want. Today, I found this ‘Be Brave’ bracelet, the perfect compliment to my first novel, One Brave Thing, which is available at The Shops.
On Friday, March 17th, I will be at The Shops at Cape Neddick, signing my book from 5:00pm-7pm. I will also be giving one card oracle readings as a bonus gift to anyone who purchases my book. When you come, ask me about my second novel, What if Bebe Stays with Steven? So save the date and tell your friends!
The Shops at Cape Neddick is at 1300 Route 1, Cape Neddick, ME 03902. For more information, call 207-363-2500, or check out the Facebook page here.
For one week only, One Brave Thing will be for sale on Kindle for only 99 cents! If you have already liked my book, please consider sharing this post with any of your friends who prefer to get their books on Kindle.
This special price is in effect only from December 9th (TODAY!) through December 16th, 2016. Click HERE!
I followed the articles in the local papers about the evolution of FOUND, a shop that is the vision of FOUNDer 🙂 Pamela Bennett. Pamela wanted to showcase the talents of Maine women (and some men!) who create from the heart and give them a venue in which to make their products available to people who might not otherwise find them.
Also, Jeanne Emerson has some of her designs at FOUND. This is her process (paraphrased from her website): Eco-printing, sometimes known as botanical printing, uses the natural dyes in flowers, leaves and other natural materials to produce one of kind, magical and beautiful designs on paper and fabrics. Check out the slideshow below to see her scarves and cards.
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FOUND also has books! Kathy Eliscu’s wonderful book is there, Not Even Dark Chocolate can Fix This Mess!Kathy’s book is about Tink, a woman in midlife who is so busy saying ‘yes!’ to everyone else that she starts to lose track of herself. She becomes overwhelmed, and then makes a mistake that turns into a big (you guessed it!) mess. Once you pick this book up, you will not be able to put it down!
My book, One Brave Thing, is also at FOUND. Bebe wants to get married some day but keeps picking guys that are wrong for her. She learns from her mistakes, however, and in the process, learns how to stand up for herself and trust her gut about how to live her life.
Find signed copies of both books at FOUND!
I have given you just a small sampling of the amazing gifts at this great shop. Have some Christmas shopping left to do? Stop in at FOUND in Kennebunk, Maine! You will be able to find a beautiful gift for everyone on your list.
There is a great book store in Biddeford: Nonesuch Books. They have books for sale, of course, both new and used. They also have a lot of interesting magazines along the left side wall of the store, complete with strategically placed chairs, to aid and abet your magazine perusal.
🙂
What you might not know is how many other cool things they sell.
Some of the best little greeting cards I’ve ever seen; I buy them in lots.
Some of the side benefits that have come from my Tidying Up Food project:
I have straightened up my pantry.
I know exactly what I have for food in my house right now.
I did not go buy another bottle of (whatever, insert food item here) because I knew I had one already on the top shelf of the panty, in the way back part that I need to stand on a chair to see.
In the March 2012 issue of her magazine, Oprah says, “Identifying the cause of your clutter is the first step to getting it under control,” p.31.
Ya think?
Just in case that’s true…I thought about it in relation to my pantry, because food clutter is one of the areas with which I struggle (read: argue about with my husband). I look in my overflowing pantry and see safety, security, love. My husband looks in and sees clutter, chaos, disarray.
It’s a problem.
He is to the point now where he won’t even look in there to see if we have the can of tomato sauce, box of spaghetti, or whatever he needs to make supper that night. He would rather go to the store and buy what he needs, thereby completely avoiding the pantry and hopefully (but not usually) a fight.
Well, Oprah, let’s see if you and Peter Walsh can help us out. I’ll read the article and see if I can be helped. Peter’s idea in a nutshell is to pare down your belongings to basically nothing so they don’t have to be stored, dusted, arranged, etc.
Don’t think so.
My idea is this: get a bigger pantry. Just sayin’.
I think that it’s very important to get out of your rut–I mean, routine–on your vacation week. This is especially challenging, of course, if you are taking (yet another) staycation. Having part of your time off fall during the holidays can make it a little easier to break out…as in the “Hel-lo? What day is it?” situation in which I found myself just after Christmas. Still, the gym on Tuesday and Thursday, food shopping on Saturday line up could definitely stand some tweaking.
Sunday: Christmas. ‘Nuf said.
Monday: Clean up the house, rest up from the holiday, dinner at Olive Garden. Happily, I found the $4 off dinner coupon prior to paying and then remembered to use it.
Tuesday: Friends came over to make home-made, authentic egg rolls. Last time we made chicken and shrimp. This year, to change it up some (hey, it is vacation!) we made a third version: spicy pork, which ended up being a hit.
Wednesday: Pirates game (a present for the fam) after dinner at Binga’s Wingas (a present for Dad).
Thursday: Friends day. Lunch with former colleague for our rescheduled gift exchange, then scrapbooking for the first time in a year and a half, with more friends. The understanding kind that are not shocked that, despite your good intentions, you did not remember to organize your stuff and print out the Christmas pictures to use that day. Hey, it’s all about friends, right? UPDATE: This event did not actually happen and will be rescheduled. Instead, I went to Kohl’s and bought some cute things on clearance. Yay!
Friday: Shopping at the mall with my tween with her gift cards. Got an $89.50 fur-lined hoodie at Aeropostle for $10!!! This was followed by eating w/reckless disregard for the future at the Buffet of Gorging and Obscene Excess at the mall. Then we saw We Bought a Zoo at the movies. May I just say: Go. See. It. It was excellent. We both loved it. Movie watching was accompanied by popcorn and Peanut M+Ms (aka “the devil”).
Saturday: New Year’s Eve. Chinese buffet at East and Just Dance 3 on the Wii to work (some of ) it off. Yoga first thing in the morning.
Sunday: New Year’s Day: Pajama day! Read stack of books and magazines that have been piling up. Went for a walk. More Wii. And…let the healthy eating begin!!!! Egg whites, soup, salad were on the menu. Really.
So, the baits we (read: ‘he‘, my husband; he did the actual crawling around up in the crawl space) put out yesterday were not effective. It sounds now as if the critters brought in some reinforcements, so we were forced to regroup and redouble our efforts.
First stop: Tractor Supply Company in Sanford. Anyone who has read my blog knows that I love the TSC which is why we went there first. Well, that, and because it was on the way home from the gym and we had limited time today since it was a workday. We split up to make the most of our time. My husband went to the pest control section and talked to the (as it turned out) very knowledgable staff person about…options. I stayed up in front and browsed the books and magazines (I love books and magazines! This was very soothing to me after my difficult night listening to non-specified critters running overhead). Spent $10 and left with a small bag of …ideas (like reaming out the bait pellets and filling them with peanut butter).
Next stop: Wal-Mart (sorry, Sheila). Waste of time. Staff person told us he had nothing in hardware to address this critter issue, to try looking in sporting goods. What? What? Wal-Mart = Waste of time.
The next planned stop was the hardware store but we ran out of time, so we just came home.
In the interim, I put up a plea on Facebook for ideas from the front. Who has fought this critter war and won it? Well, I got lots of very welcome responses (thank you all!) but no one who actually claimed to have evicted the little devils on their own, without bringing in the professionals. My friend Mandy gave me a good website from The Humane Society to check out. My friend Denise gave me the names of some good exterminators (you know, just in case). My friend Kristen gave me moral support and commiseration.
Actually, it’s amazing how many people are dealing with exactly the same issue right now. We found a person at the gym, a person at TSC, and people on FB all with critters in their attics right now. I guess it’s gonna take the village…
Maybe some of our efforts were successful today, since I’m not hearing any critters overhead at the moment and it’s well after dark as I write this. At this time last night the antics in the attic were already in full swing.
My tween daughter invited a friend to spend the day, and as the 7 hours loomed ominously unfilled ahead of us, I wondered: What the heck should we do?
First, I decided to do something for me: I had a 20% coupon to Kennebooks in Kennebunk so that was our first stop. A quick check of the local paper told me that they were having an Open House that started at 10:30am, so it was just me and my tween for this. When we arrived, there was a kids “author event” so we headed down for that, but it turned out to be for littler kids, so we did some browsing for an hour. I bought a book for a friend for Christmas.
Sigh. I love to be with the books. But I digress…
Next, we picked up the friend and headed for the library. They browsed the shelves, and checked out some books, and then harassed me until I gave up and said, “Okay, yes! I’m ready to leave too!”. While we were there, we found a new cookbook called Betty Crocker’s Just the two of us, and they spied a recipe while flipping through it that they wanted to make. Since we had all of the ingredients already, I agreed.
Lunch was next, and I’m embarrassed to admit that I took the easy way out: McDonald’s was right nearby, and since it was almost 1pm and they were “starving”, we headed there next. In my defense, we haven’t eaten McD’s food in months, so here’s hoping that it didn’t do us too much damage. We drove through and brought it home to eat it (their choice).
Then we made the Double Chocolate Snack Cake.
Izzy and Ivy, the bakers
They did a great job! I helped a little but they were really in charge of the recipe (I was in charge of the oven) and it turned out really great. We ate most of it fairly quickly.
After that, they hula hooped and played on the swing in the yard, fed bread to the chickens, and played a few hands of cards: Uno, War.
Then, they actually read the books that they checked out of the library for a little while.
I had to run to Hannaford’s and they were thrilled to come with me. They got free cookies at the bakery, and free samples of cheese and turkey at the deli. They even watched the cart full of groceries after I realized that the most important thing that I went there to buy, I had forgotten, so I had to go back and get it and run through the cashier’s line again. (Hey, at least I remembered before I got back home; I figured that I was ahead of the game!)
When we got back, I made them spaghetti for supper, and after we finished eating they had another little bit of time to play.
They watched a little TV: one episode of iCarly, and one episode of Drake and Josh. Then they played some songs on the electric keyboard for a while.
When it was time for her friend to go home, they had even picked up after themselves!
It was a great day; I even was able to get my 2,000 words written in between everything else. Life is good!
In keeping with one of my goals this year of Food Security (well, full disclosure: it’s my goal every year, but this year it’s an official, written down type of goal), I thought I’d write a little about different food “emergencies” that a person might experience and how I prepare for them. Here are 5 food emergencies that often come up in everyday life:
Work day lunches (and breakfasts, and suppers, too, depending on the hours that you work). Disclaimer: assumes presence of water and microwave at your place of employment. Here’s what to keep in your pantry…er, desk drawer for days that you just don’t have time to pack up a meal (or meals) before you leave for work: single serving 3 oz cans of tuna, peanut butter (of course), granola bars (good luck finding ones without HFCS), packets of oatmeal, cups of instant minute brown rice, cans of nuts.
Last minute playdate for tween, the timing of which will undoubtedly span a meal time (and possibly a winter storm in which you’d prefer not to drive). Keep a box of mac and cheese on hand, but hidden so that no one eats it when you aren’t around. This is a meal option that no tween has ever turned his/her nose up at. I make this statement with full confidence since I’ve had to rely on it on many occasions for both the boy-child and the girl-child over the years and it has never failed to please.
Last minute invitation (or you actually remembered the invitation at the last minute) to a potluck (work, family party, book club). An antipasto platter is the way to go. You can keep everything you need in the pantry so all you have to do is open the jars and dump on the platter (this step can even be done at your destination, so all that prep would involve is bagging up the jars before you leave). If you have any lettuce in the fridge, that would be a bonus, but it’s not necessary. *Note: pay attention to spouse’s anxiety level due to over-stuffed pantry, fridge, freezer…he may not take kindly to a bonk on the head from your stockpile. Also, try to ignore it when he mumbles about ‘hoarding behavior’ under his breath.
And speaking of weather (see #2 above) that you don’t want to drive in…there will probably be plenty of occasions of that in the next couple of months…this is Maine, with winter approaching, after all. Keep a box of the macaroni of your choice (capellini and rotini are my go-to’s) in the pantry, a block of parmesan in the fridge, and a bottle of olive oil on the counter, and you will never starve (garlic, red pepper flakes, and parsley are welcome bonuses to the above dish if you have ’em). . . well, unless the power goes out and you are generator-less.
Chocolate emergency. I keep a few (okay, many, many, many) pieces of dark chocolate around for when I just have to have it. There really is no substitute that works in this case. Buy a bag of dark chocolate Hershey’s Kisses. Split the bag between your hiding place…um, cabinet at home and (the back of ) your desk (drawer) at work. You’re welcome.
That’ s my short list of food ’emergencies’ for today. Do you have any of your own to add to the list?
Karen Creamer Author, Coach, Speaker 
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