Friday Favorites~a weekly series where we share our favorite books, decor, fashion finds, recipes, podcasts, articles and more.
Friday Favorites No. 651
Good morning friends! Happy Friday to you. It’s a three day weekend as well, do you have any plans? It’s the 5th Annual Pinehurst Barbecue Festival and we have tickets to a few events. Hopefully the weather will cooperate.
Speaking of weather, it was beautiful here this week. There is nothing I love better than a cool crisp morning. The first thing I do each morning is open the front door and look at the view. Some mornings it is the sun rise, other mornings it is my wildflowers swaying in the breeze and once in awhile a deer having breakfast in said wildflowers. Last week I walked out to the front path and a hummingbird buzzed over to the flowering plant right next to me. There is something special about them, they are like little fairies.
Although Fall doesn’t officially begin until September 22, Labor Day weekend is the last hurrah. The lazy days of summer are now filled with school activities and a new season has begun. Pool noodles and swimsuits replaced by pumpkins and sweaters.
I have lots to share this week so lets get to it.
Food
A cheeseburger is my favorite bbq food, and this weekend I plan on making “the perfect burger” to celebrate the end of summer.
Are you a fan of Cuban sandwiches? Me too and these potato skins are a great riff on them.
We love bowls at our house, especially my husband, rice is one of his favorite foods. This hot honey chicken bowl with zucchini and yellow squash is piled on top of rice.
A 4 day weekend is the perfect time for a decadent sweet treat. These Sweetened Condensed Brownies are easy to make and they are scrumptious.
LINKS TO READ+WATCH+LISTEN
Why Do I Feel So Much Worse After a Nap – and How Can I Avoid It?
AI Isn’t Coming for Hollywood. It’s Already Arrived.
The Silent Epidemic: The Pros and Cons of Screening for Prostate Cancer
Go ahead, get “Sleep Divorced”
The remarkable 17th-century Dutch dolls’ houses that were anything but toys
CEOs tighten grip on workplace culture, dialing back flexibility
I Tracked a Wild Salmon From Sea to Plate — What I Learned Surprised Me
Why Do We Hesitate to Talk About Our Own Good Deeds?
Books
The Highland Hens
In the imposing Glen Carrick House overlooking Scotland’s famous Loch Ness, lives eighty-eight-year-old Mimi McKinlay, cared for by her three adult sons.
Hamish has inherited his mother’s musical talents, Fin is the responsible brother, and Angus has the complicated and brooding personality to match his dashing good looks.
But what all the brothers share is a concern that their beloved mother is living in her memories of her days on stage, while letting her present days pass her by.
Jess Oliver is at a turning point. Amicably divorced after years of being married, this trip to the Highlands is a first taste of independence. It isn’t long before the beauty and hospitality of Scotland captures her heart.
When Mimi and Jess’s paths cross, a friendship is formed that will change both women’s lives. And as together they find ways to look forward instead of to the past, long forgotten dreams are within reach, and every new day is fresh with possibilities.
At twenty-four, Betsy Cornwell runs away to Ireland for a fresh start. Leaving behind a painful past, she chases her dream of becoming a novelist to the misty shores of the Aran Islands. There she meets a handsome and charming horse trainer, and her life takes on the glow of a fairy tale when they elope to Gretna Green.
Five years later, her happy ending has twisted into a nightmare. Betsy is trapped in an abusive marriage, isolated and afraid with a newborn baby. On her son’s first birthday, she must flee home again, this time turning to the women around her—her local survivor support group, a trusted family friend, and an online Smith College alumnae network—for help she’d never known she could ask for.
After a brush with homelessness, she struggles to scrape together a living for herself and her son. On sleepless nights, she scrolls through real estate listings that might as well be castles in the air, and starts to foster an impossible dream: What if she could use her writing to buy a home, one that no one could take away from her and her baby? One that might become a haven, not just for her family, but other single parent artists and writers, too?
When she discovers a historic knitting factory and former cinema on Ireland’s rugged Connemara coastline, left empty and crumbling for years, that precarious dream becomes her lifeline. Over the next two years she works to crowdfund the old knitting factory’s purchase by sharing its story and her own, in candid posts that range from the unexpectedly steep learning curves she encounters with home renovations and internet dating, to her heartbreaking fight to keep custody of her son, with her growing online community. But as the deadline to buy nears, she realizes she will have to reckon with everything she believes about family, survival, and what happily-ever-after truly means for her dream to have any chance of coming true.
Ring of Salt combines a powerful and relatable narrative of survivorship and healing with lush writing about the windswept landscapes and rich mythology of rural Ireland to craft a real-world fairy tale about the ordinary, but no less life-changing, forms of magic we can all access: vulnerability, community, and the power of telling your own story.
The House on Serenity Lake
When Manhattan attorney Vince Hayward retreats to his late brother’s lake house seeking solitude, the last thing he expects is to be captivated by Serenity Lake—or by the shop owner who wants nothing to do with summer visitors.
Anna Metcalf has rebuilt her life around The Keepsake, the boutique her mother left behind. She knows better than to trust tourists—handsome ones always leave when the season ends. So when the brooding lawyer keeps showing up in her store, Anna steels herself against the pull between them.
But Vince isn’t just another visitor. Burned out and grieving, he finds something in this lakeside town he didn’t know he was searching for. In Anna’s quiet strength and fierce independence, he sees a reason to reconsider everything he thought he wanted.
As summer deepens into something neither expected, Anna dares to believe this time might be different—until Vince’s Manhattan life intrudes with a crisis that forces them both to choose between the safety of the familiar and the terrifying promise of forever.
Looking for more books?
If you have already read these books or missed something I have featured before on the blog check out My Bookshop on Amazon.
SHOPPING~OUTFIT OF THE DAY
What is your favorite Fall color? Mine is burgundy, and navy is a close second. As for patterns, I love houndstooth and plaid. This outfit combines both, a fine plaid herringbone shirt, paired with a burgundy sweater and a gorgeous statement trench from Boden.
Outfit Details~Click the Photos Below
What do you think? Would you wear this bold plaid coat this Fall and Winter? I have it in my cart but have purchased it yet because I have so many coats and I really do not need another.
UNTIL TOMORROW
I hope you enjoyed the recipes, links and books I discovered this week on Friday Favorites. Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for Weekend Meanderings with Kim and Juliet!
I hope that you have a wonderful day, thank you for spending part of it with me.
Before you go, tell me the best things that happened to you this week?
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On My Radar~Fall
