Chirped by Tina
If you need some new, festive recipes to make for the holidays, here are two good ones you should try.
Our first little holiday nibble is a fancy cocktail for a cold winter night… Gingerbread Martinis. Continue reading
Chirped by Cass and Tina
October flew by, with not a peep from us since our last list of chirpable highlights. Stuff happens, and we’re pretty sure no one has been holding their breath waiting for us to post something. If you were, you can breathe again! And if you’re following us, hope you enjoyed having a few less messages in your inbox… (-; Now on to the good stuff we’ve been up to!
Favorite Book of the Month
Our winning selection for October was The Vengeance of Mothers, by Jim Fergus. If you were a fan of One Thousand White Women, you’ll enjoy this continuation of the story about the fate of the women who volunteered for the government’s “Brides for Indians” program to escape from less desirable conditions (mental institutions, prison, etc.) back home. Continue reading
Chirped by Tina and Cass
It’s that time of the month again! And we’re ready with another list of ten things that we’re happy about from the last thirty days or so. It’s a good exercise, when you’re stressed (or even when you’re not), to take time to be grateful for the good stuff!
Just as a side note: We don’t get any kickbacks from any of the links we provide in our blog, and we try to spread the love between various booksellers or retailers while still giving you an easy way to check out stuff we’re posting about. That is not to say we would mind having “affiliates” at some point if we were big fans – but we’re not there yet. We’ll let you know if we ever are! We just don’t want anyone to think our motivations are anything but pure when we chirp about a book, local restaurant, craft source or whatever! Cheers to the good stuff! – Tina & Cass
Favorite Books of the Month (Tina)
For September, our two book recommendations are Little Fires Everywhere, by Celeste Ng (author of Everything I Never Told You) and The Wife Between Us, by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen. Little Fires is about a nice, quiet, planned community where everyone is expected Continue reading
Chirped by Tina and Cass
Unexpected Treasures
Sometimes Nature just plops a drop of sunshine in your path to brighten your day. I photographed a variety of perfect little mushrooms while hiking with my sister a couple of weeks ago. And I’ve never seen a feather like this – I’m guessing it’s from one of those purplish finches that love to nest behind our shutters. Since it was unaccompanied by ants, gore, or signs of struggle, I choose to think of it as a little present left on my doorstep. The cobweb was wafting in the breeze one dewy morning as my son left for his Continue reading
Chirped by Tina and Cass
As you’ve probably noticed, we like to end each month by highlighting ten great things that we enjoyed over the course of the last 30 days or so. Whether it was a fun event we participated in, something we read for book club, a new recipe we tried, a craft that we loved, or an awesome life hack we discovered, taking the time to make our list helps us appreciate the good stuff and stay positive even through difficult or trying times.
Favorite Books for the Month
Ok, full disclosure, Cass and I didn’t actually finish/read July’s book club selections, but you’ll be happy to know that if our clubs didn’t think a book was really great, or we didn’t actually read it ourselves, we’re certainly not going to list it as a favorite! So we’ve gone back into our pre-blog archives to pull out two favorites from last year.
At the Edge of the Orchard, by Tracy Chevalier. Set in the mid 1800s, this novel introduces you to James and Sadie Goodenough, who headed West with some cuttings from the family orchards to stake their own claim… on the edge of a swamp in Ohio where their wagon got stuck. I loved being immersed in the brutal realities of frontier life, and was fascinated by the descriptions of cultivating and trying to maintain an apple orchard. When their youngest son escapes the crazily dysfunctional family to head to California, we learn all about the giant redwood Continue reading