Terse Verse Book Club

Well good evening (or morning, or afternoon…) and thanks for stopping by Meri-Goes-Round on this very Wordy Wednesday. Actually… this week I’m not feeling all that wordy since I’ve been busy working on a decoration for my sister’s baby nursery and setting up our own little bundle of joy (ahem… our new camera, that is…)

So, I have a fun little game to share some of the recent good reads that I’ve finished and want to recommend to the world. Rather than give a typical synopsis or review, I’ll just give my own free association “tags” to each title, to give YOU all the choice of which sounds most interesting to add to your reading lists! Here goes…

1. The Passion of Artemisia by Susan Vreeland:

art, renaissance, Italy, feminist, family, painting, forgiveness, Inquisition, science, spirituality, self-discovery, travel

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2. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins:

dystopia, survival, government, family, honor, fighting, riveting, wilderness, future, love triangle

3. History of a Pleasure Seeker by Richard Mason:

Amsterdam, wealth, 1890s, glamour, South Africa, sexuality, mental illness, luxury, money, asceticism, bisexuality

source

4. A Wild Affair by Gemma Townley:

British, chick-lit, characters, misunderstanding, adoption, marriage, escape, advertising, friendship

5. We the Animals by Justin Torres:

Brooklyn, coming of age, full of life, brothers, Puerto Rico, rivalry, expressionist, acceptance, family, anecdotes, realism

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This is part one of the list. Book club resumes next Wednesday for the second half of the list!

Which of these books looks the most interesting based on it’s “tags”? What are you reading right now? Can you think of “tags” for your favorite books? Do share!

Meri

Posted in books, Wordy Wednesday | Tagged , , , , , , | 23 Comments

Food with a ‘tude

This year, my contribution to our delicious Easter feast was this fruit “egg”:

I was inspired, of course, by Pinterest, and some of the fun, colorful illustrations others have made on their plates (for their kids or for themselves- I’m not here to judge!)

So for this Tasty Tuesday, I’ll share a few of my favorites:

Source: tumblr.com via Meredith on Pinterest

Source: mixingbowl.com via Meredith on Pinterest

Source: food.com via Meredith on Pinterest

Fun, right? Do you ever play with your food? What kind of pictures do you make?

Meri

Posted in produce, recipes, Tasty Tuesday, vegetables | Tagged , , , , | 27 Comments

Nonstop Photo Op

Great news everyone- man-go-round and I have bought a new (but very pricey) “toy”…

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We are beyond excited to go out and play with our new toy, (Canon EOS t3i). Tonight, for Make My List Monday, I thought I’d make a couple of lists for fun places to go shooting and experimenting!

General photo ops

  • RR tracks (I am inspired by cheesy senior portraits everywhere)
  • Bridges (duh)
  • Farmer’s Markets
  • Churches/ Basilicas/ Domes
  • Playgrounds
  • Ice cream shops/ coffee shops
  • Construction sites
  • Golf courses
  • alleys
  • bus stop/ train platforms
  • protests/ demonstrations
  • public parks
  • farms/ fields
  • Public art/ sculptures

Twin Cities/ Minnesota photo ops

  • St. Anthony Falls
  • Como Conservatory
  • May Day Parade
  • My family’s lake home
  • Millenium Garden- Plymouth
  • Rose Garden on Lyndale
  • French Regional Park
  • Target Field
  • Theodore Wirth Wildflower Gardens
  • Mill Ruins Park
  • Fort Snelling
  • Irvine Park (St. Paul)
  • Witches Hat Water Tower- from above
  • Purgatory Creek Recreational Park- Eden Prairie
  • Vermillion Falls- Hastings
  • Rice Park/ Downtown St. Paul
  • Mississippi under freeway bridges
  • Weisman Museum
  • Guthrie Theatre
  • Webber Park- Lyndale
  • Stillwater
  • Duluth/ North Shore

What would you add to the list? What is your favorite place or object to capture with your camera?

Meri

Posted in Make my list Monday, photography, twin cities | Tagged , , , , | 24 Comments

Ribbon Dancer

Hi y’all. Want to see one of the crafts I’ve been working on? It’s all finished and I hung it up today:

What is it?

Can you tell yet?

It’s a bird- it’s a plane- it’s an inspired by Martha Stewart ribbon chandelier!

To make, you’ll need:

  • several colors of complementary ribbons. I chose springtime colors.
  • a ring of some kind, about 12 inches in diameter. I used a sage green foam wreath base from Michaels because it is really lightweight and matched my green ribbon pretty well.
  • Scissors

Yep, that is all you need. Simply cut a bunch of lengths of ribbon in each color (I used different lengths so it wouldn’t be too perfect, about 2-3 feet long each). Then I tied them around the wreath somewhere in the middle, and used one long ribbon looped over a hook to hang it from the ceiling. 

That’s it. Now go make one! This entire project cost about 4 dollars using Michael’s coupons (well, free for me because of my generous family gifting me with Michaels gift cards) and it really brightens up the home!

Happy Spring! Now who wants to do an early dance around the may pole?

Meri

Posted in crafts | Tagged , , , , , | 13 Comments

Jacqueline

A while back, I started a Pinterest board based on Jackie Kennedy/ Jackie Onassis/ Jackie Bouvier (whatever we want to call her…) Jacqueline.

Then, inspired by Jennifer’s recent post on the style icon, I thought I’d share a few of my  Jackie photo faves. Enjoy!

Source: google.com via Meredith on Pinterest

Source: jenniferfabulous.blogspot.com via Meredith on Pinterest

Over and over, I chose gleeful, chic, and smiling or laughing photos of Jackie. In the end, I don’t want to think of her like the final picture, although she is beautiful in tears as well as joy. I want to think of all of the happy moments in life, with just one small reminder of the sadness that we must also go through as human beings.

Do you have a favorite “Jackie” moment (or outfit)? Do you think of her has a joyful or a tearful icon? Or both?

Meri

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Fro-Yo Chips

I just have time for a quick Tasty Tuesday post tonight- to show you all something I saw on Pinterest and then tried a few weeks ago when it was super warm out (80 degrees or better). Since then, its dipped down to the 60s, so I’m not quite ready to make it again yet. But when summer comes for good, I’ll be ready with the easiest frozen treat ever.

I’m talking about frozen yogurt drops. Simply grab a carton of yogurt (I used vanilla dannon, but you could probably try greek yogurt too or any other flavor), drop it in tiny spoonfuls onto a non-stick pan or baking sheet, freeze for an hour or two, and enjoy!

Once you’ve got the “yogurt chips,” you can put them on top of overnight/ cooled off oatmeal, eat them plain to cool off, or try mixing other ingredients in before freezing. Easy, refreshing, fun!

Now if its not cold where you are, go try it!

Meri

Posted in recipes, Tasty Tuesday | Tagged , , , , | 24 Comments

Get your head in the game!

So today, at work, I met with a new kiddo who I haven’t seen in quite a long time. In order to break the ice and build a little rapport, I suggested that we choose a game from the game cupboard to play together.

In the game cupboard at work we have the usuals (Sorry, Candyland, Chutes and Ladders), and some quite odd games (Pirates of the Caribbean, The Talking/Feeling/ Thinking game, backgammon). Today we chose Chess, and I was able to actually win a slight majority of pieces over my child opponent before our time was up (yes, I am proud of that, and no I don’t let kids win…)

All of this gaming got me thinking, though, to what some of my favorite board games are. In the spirit of Make My List Monday, I thought I’d share my general opinion. For today’s purposes, I’ll break it into “favorites,” “will play if someone else wants to,” and “dreaded loathsome games.”

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Meri da Game Playa List:

Favorites:

  • Scrabble– top choice, and dedicated to my Mama!
  • Candyland (forever and ever)
  • Twister (even though I’m now grown and sometimes pop a hip when I play)
  • Yahtzee. Love love love love Yahtzee! The only numbers game on the favorites list, I bet
  • Balderdash. Even if I hated this game, the sheer amount of silliness that went into this game during my childhood with my family would force me to still love it on some level.
  • Catchphrase– suits my mild attention deficit issues
  • Mad Gab- Especially while enjoying a tasty adult beverage.
  • Taboo. Especially with a partner that “gets” you. Unstoppable.
  • Chess. I’m not great at it, but I honestly love that you can get away with either chatting away while you play or being dead silent, and either way is acceptable depending on your playmate.
  • Hi-Ho Cherry O. MAN I love this game! So simple, but like Candyland I just can’t get enough!
  • Clue The ultimate game would be played while viewing the delicious cult classic film version. Anyone want to have a Clue party?
  • Pictionary: This game is so money and it doesn’t even know it. Well, maybe it knows it, but it is da bomb.
  • Trivial Pursuit. Yes, I get absolute pleasure out of having a ridiculous amount of trivial knowledge. I don’t even need to keep score with pies, I just like the satisfaction of being a know it all. At least I admit it.

Do we have to? 

  • Checkers. Kind of dull for my taste
  • Chutes and Ladders– ditto
  • Boggle– I should love this, since its a word game, but its not actually that… challenging. So I would choose Scrabble or another word nerd game any day.
  • Pretty Pretty Princess. If there were even one actual rule to this game, I might like it more. The jewels can be fun.
  • Monopoly. I’ll play it, but I think we all agree this game needs a way to officially end in 20-30 minutes instead of taking all month long.
  • Hungry Hungry Hippos. Sure, its benign and all. But its also pretty noisy.

Bringing out the bad sport in Meri:

  • Racko. Awful. Numbers in general? not my favorite. Combined with trying to keep things in order? fail.
  • Mousetrap. Did anyone actually ever play this godforsaken game or just lose their mind trying to set the stupid thing up?
  • Cranium– I nearly blew out my cranium trying to read through the exhaustive directions for this one. Can’t we just keep it simple?
  • Operation- That noise. That NOISE!!!
  • Life. I’d rather not have to think like a grown up when I’m playing a game for crying out loud

So tell me- what’s your favorite board game? Which ones turn you into a bad sport?

Meri

Posted in lists, Make my list Monday | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 37 Comments

Brazillions of Blooms

Okay, cheesy title- yes, agreed. But I wanted an attention getting title for today’s post so that I’d be able to catch more attention to show the brilliant blossoms and blooms that we saw today at Macy’s annual spring flower show. This year’s them was that vibrant gem of South America, Brazil (Brasil).

Filling the 8th floor auditorium at the Nicollet Mall Macy’s are Bougainvillea, Begonias, Birds of Paradise, Wisteria, Hyacinth, Orchids, Daffodils, Bromeliad, Spathiphyllum, Amaryllis, Lilies, Magnolias, Roses, Redbuds, Banana trees, Palm trees, Coconut palms, Coffee and Cherry and Cocoa trees, Bamboo, Juniper, and more.

But why list all of the flowers and trees and vines when I can show you a quick collage of what is in bloom? In this case, I think the pictures are worth not a thousand words, but surely more than the paragraph above. Enjoy!

What did you do this weekend? What is your favorite “exotic” flower?

Meri

Posted in flowers, photography | Tagged , , , , , | 18 Comments

Eggstra! Eggstra! Read all about it!

I wanted to put up a quick weekend post to show one of many craft projects that have been filling our house of late. Since I can’t (for secretive reasons) show almost any of them, I thought I’d at least show the beginning stages of our egg-blowing session last week. We haven’t decorated them yet, but probably will later on this week or tomorrow evening. Since man-go-round had only a few minutes to participate and I have limited lung capacity (without keeling over) and attention span, we made 4 egg/eggshells.

First use a safety pin to poke a small hole in each end of egg
Then, poke the yolk a bit with the pin and let it drain. Use a straw to blow through one end to speed up the process (hence the reference to lung capacity).
when all the yolk is out (you'll know), rinse through the egg with a bit of water, then lay out to drain on paper towels (without the yolks inside they stand on their heads pretty well, actually!

Then, after they are dry you are free to decorate them as you please! Some of my ideas are:

  • sparkle-bomb them with glue and bright colors of glitter
  • Use tissue/ crepe paper and mod podge to make a mosaic style egg
  • take a sharpie to them for a freehand henna style egg
  • polka dots (because I can never get enough polka dots)
  • traditional egg dye (or the natural dye counterparts I’ve seen on Pinterest)
  • self portrait and portrait of man-go-round in miniature…
  • after the relative success of Harry Potter Pumpkin last fall… dare I suggest Harry Potter Egghead?

Do you decorate/ dye Easter eggs? What do you think we should do with them?

Meri

 

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