Thursdays Rock - Who is your musical 'ONE'?

The other night, on our way home from a show, my friend Christy and I got into a conversation about how many of us that follow the same type of music all have our 'ONE' (there was another term coined for it, but we won't get into details...)

Christy - Jason Boland
Meg - Hayes Carll
Suzy - Randy Rogers Band
Amber - Jason Eady
Me - Wade Bowen

Sure, there are others that we travel to go see, that we love listening to, but there seems to be SOMETHING about that ONE that's just a little different, that hits us like nothing else. And I really started thinking about why my favorite is my favorite.

Was there one moment? One song? One concert?

For me, it's a combination of all three. My story of following Wade Bowen (formerly West 84, and then Wade Bowen & West 84) started WAY back in 1999. I remember going to Hastings in College Station at the beginning of every school year and with leftover loan money, my roommate and I would each buy 5 CD's. In the fall of 1999, I bought 3 CD's I had wanted and 2 totally random CD's for the fun of it. I wanted to be surprised. One of the CDs I bought was West 84, because I thought the guys on the front were cute. (For the record, looking back at that CD now makes me laugh A LOT because the guys look so funny dressed like that standing in an open field... it was a little cliché for a Texas band at the time).

Anyways... the cd was ok at best. And I think most that have it, or have heard it, would probably agree. Not bad for a 1st CD, but it wasn't produced in Nashville or anything. I'd listen to it every once in awhile, but it didn't stand out.

Fast forward a few years to the fall of 2003. I was at the Firehouse Saloon on a Thursday night for an acoustic show with Bleu Edmondson, Stoney LaRue and Wade Bowen. It was the first time ever I have been 100% glued to my seat. The show ran long, my friends left, it was almost 1am and I had to work the next day, but I didn't care - I was riveted by the song writing of all 3. The very next day I ordered all of the CDs by all 3 that I didn't have. And I was a big fan of Wade Bowen's sophomore studio album (Try Not to Listen) and his Live at the Blue Light album. They were both a step up, and I started catching every show I could from that point forward. I loved it!

And that was that for awhile. Wade was my favorite because I really liked his show and his music - very basic, very surface-level (not the music, but rather my relationship with it). Then came 2006. At this point it had been AWHILE since Wade had released a CD - AND there was one already DONE and ready to be released, but they were waiting for the right time. Well that right time happened at the end of February 2006 and Lost Hotel was released. Just over 2 weeks later, my life was turned upside down. I have a hard time believing in fate or coinscidence, therefore I think it was perfectly timed that the two songs that would get me through the journey of recovery, Broken Reflection and Walking Along the Fenceline, were on that CD. The CD I had been waiting for from my favorite band for a long, long time. I believe it was during this time that I really realized how much healing power the music truly had.

Once again we fast forward to the fall of 2008, Wade released his latest CD, If We Ever Make It Home, and once again one of the songs, Somewhere Beautiful met me exactly where I was in life. Granted, Wade didn't write that song, Sean McConnell did, but it was on Wade's record, and I don't know that I would have heard it otherwise. To me, the song represents Young Life, an organization that I volunteer with and 100% believe in its' mission. Everyone that got into my car for 6 months had to listen to that song - on repeat. Ha! But that's how much it meant to me...

So, to wrap this up - why is Wade my one? Because he writes songs that hit me where I am in life. Which makes sense - we are about the same age, and while we have very different lives and families, there are still a lot of parallel themes. So to Wade, and the guys in the band, thank you for sacrificing what you do to share your music and thank you for pursuing your dreams.

My question to the rest of you - who is your ONE, and even more importantly, WHY?

P.S. I just got a call from a friend that didn't want to comment, because he didn't have one band that he felt that way about, but rather just a song... and that works too... just trying to open up a discussion and see what people think. So if you don't have a band, do you have a song, or an album that is your 'ONE'?

Wordless Wednesday - Bella Vineyards, Russian River Wine Road

Tuesday Toodles - Odd Size Cards

So awhile back, I can't remember what month it was, we made odd-size cards during stamp camp. While I enjoyed this workshop, I am not the biggest fan of odd size cards because then you need an odd size envelope to use them - and those are hard to find! Not to mention more expensive to mail... But the following cards could certainly be adapted to 'normal' size cards as well...






P.S. I know some of my images are cut off for right now - especially on the posts that I moved over from Wordpress to Blogger - I'll work on fixing those throughout the week...

Monday Munchies - Almond Joy Cookies

And...we're back! Here we are with the first ever Monday Munchies - I really hope that having a plan helps me to get back into the swing of blogging. Blogging random things just didn't work for me - either I just rambled on and on about things no one cares about, or I was so sporadic that no one really came back to check this thing... hopefully it'll be different this time, and hopefully I post stuff you're actually interested in!

Today's recipe are for some cookies that I've dubbed 'Almond Joy Cookies'. I made them for my Young Life girls for a recent trip we took to the Hill Country and they were gobbled up! I got the recipe from Jamie at My Baking Addiction - one of my favorite recipe blogs! Her recipe was for Coconut Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies, but I left out the pecans because I didn't know if anyone had nut allergies. And I used milk chocolate in place of semi-sweet/bittersweet. So when I bit into it, it tasted much like an Almond Joy after you've picked off the chocolate-covered almond on top and are eating just the little bar... Yum!

Almond Joy Cookies
Adapted from My Baking Addiction
Yields 4 dozen cookies (if you make them small)

Ingredients
2 cups + 2 TBSP all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
12 TBSP unsalted butter, melted and cooled until warm
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (I used chopped milk chocolate)
3/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut
Nuts optional - add one almond on top for the full effect of an Almond Joy, or add in a cup of pecans to follow the original recipe

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350*F
2. Cover cookie sheets with parchment paper, or use a well worn baking stone
3. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside
4. Mix butter and sugars with a mixer until blended and smooth. Add egg, egg yolk & vanilla and mix until fully incorporated.
5. Add dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
6. Stir in chocolate, coconut and nuts if desired.
7. Using a medium cookie scoop, scoop out dough and place on cookie sheets.
8. Bake for 12-18 minutes (mine took 14 minutes and because they were smaller than the original recipe).
9. Cool on cookie sheets to maintain texture.

I hope you enjoy these as much as me and my girls did...

Have a wonderful day - hope you find many reasons to smile!

-Reneé

New Plan

So last night as I was trying to go to sleep, but was still hyped-up thanks to my need to try out the recipe for Vietnamese Coffee I came across, I finally figured out a plan for this blog-o-mine! Which is exciting beyond words... so much so that I'm going to take next week to get things organized and re-launch on August 17th! I'm sure you're all on pins and needles with anticipation - ha!

Here's what you have to look forward to...

Monday Munchies (Recipe of the week)
Tuesday Toodles (Craft project of the week)
Wordless Wednesday (Picture of some sort)
Thursdays Rock! (Music related)
Floatsam Friday (blatant rip-off of Meg - rambling of whatever I want to write about!)

I have A LOT of backlog, so I'll get it organized and get going... wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Have a great weekend!

Stamping Picture Frames and another Baby Card...

A friend of mine welcomed his second son into the family at the end of June. In celebration, I stamped a picture frame for the little guy, and didn't want to leave his big brother out, so I stamped one for him too. I've never made picture frames before, but this was pretty simple and they turned out almost exactly as I envisioned them! The card that I sent with the gift is below as well...

Operation Baking Gals - Round 3

Well, obviously I lied. I said I'd be updating this more frequently, and I sincerely plan to at some point. For now, I will at the very least entertain y'all with a post for the latest round of Operation Baking Gals.

This time I baked for CPT Christopher Dalske, you can read a little bit about him here. Considering that he's the unofficial morale officer, I have no doubt these cookies will be distributed to all around him, and I hope he gets a couple for himself too!

So, what did I make? Once again I pulled out that incredible cookbook, Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan and chose 2 different types of cookies. The first are Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters - which as their name implies has a little bit of everything in them! They turned out perfect - I really enjoyed them and they were pretty simple to make...

For the second cookie, I chose something a little different, and one that I would have probably skipped over time and time again in usual circumstances, but I'm glad I made them - they turned out pretty tasty! They were the Honey Wheat Cookies and their main ingredient, as you can see from the pic below is Wheat Germ. Who in the heck puts wheat germ in a cookie and makes it taste good!?!? Dorie, that's who! The lemon zest really kicked these up. I think I will make them for my dad sometime soon, they are cookies I think he would enjoy! And I might make a slight modification and sprinkle some sugar in the raw on top before baking to give them a little added sweetness, although these are good as they are!

And last but not least, is the card! This time I included a card made by one of my very best friends, Courtney. She, myself and my other best friend Joanne got together one afternoon and had a great time making cards that we then shared with each other. This was Courtney's first time making cards, and she did a GREAT job! I helped her design the card (there was a template we needed to follow for the swap) and then she was off to the races! I loved the final result!

I hope you all have an incredible day! I hope to post again very soon! I just need to sit down on afternoon, write a ton of posts, and then schedule them to post automatically throughout the coming month. Then maybe I will be all caught up! And THAT'S a feeling I don't experience often! Ha!

In closing, thanks Operation Baking Gals for such an awesome event every month and a HUGE Thank You to Chris and those around him for serving our country. May God bless you and keep you in the palm of his hand...