Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Tuesday Toodles - Swap Cards
Yeah, yeah, yeah... it's Wednesday. I was out of town for a meeting yesterday and didn't get 'plugged in' in time to do it before I headed off to sleep last night... so here it is, one day late.
Today I'm posting a couple of the swap cards I've made for past stamp camps. For swap cards, you make 12 cards of one design and bring them to Stamp Camp - then trade out with the others that have done the same. So in the end, you end up with 12 different cards when you leave (if 12 people participate!)
This is a case I made to take my cards to Stamp Camp - and to bring home my swaps in...
And here are a couple of the swaps from past Stamp Camps - they are based on a layout - we are given a basic layout to follow, but the colors, stamp sets and accessories we use are up to us!
Monday, August 24, 2009
Monday Munchies - Pecan Pie Bites
I found the recipe for these little gems at some point last year, and they became my 'go-to' recipe - I made them for everything - including Thanksgiving Day! My dad is pretty picky when it comes to food to say the least, and was very skeptical when I brought these for the 'pecan pie dessert'. I told him to trust me - that when he got done with one bite, he would realize that he had just tasted a pecan pie, without the gooeyness! He ended up loving them - and had me leave all of the left overs so he could take them in his lunch throughout the next week - they were his favorite dessert out of everything I brought last year...
Even if you prefer the gooey traditional pecan pie, make these anyways - they are definitely more transportable than your typcial pie. And bite size. And cute. And well... just make them. Trust me!
Pecan Pie Bites
INGREDIENTS
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup chopped pecans
2/3 cup butter, softened
2 eggs, beaten
Add to Recipe Box
DIRECTIONS
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour 18 mini muffin cups (use LOTS of Bakers Joy)
2.In a medium bowl, stir together brown sugar, flour and pecans. In a separate bowl beat the butter and eggs together until smooth, stir into the dry ingredients just until combined. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups. Cups should be about 2/3 full.
3.Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 20 to 25 minutes. Cool on wire racks when done.
Even if you prefer the gooey traditional pecan pie, make these anyways - they are definitely more transportable than your typcial pie. And bite size. And cute. And well... just make them. Trust me!
Pecan Pie Bites
INGREDIENTS
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup chopped pecans
2/3 cup butter, softened
2 eggs, beaten
Add to Recipe Box
DIRECTIONS
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour 18 mini muffin cups (use LOTS of Bakers Joy)
2.In a medium bowl, stir together brown sugar, flour and pecans. In a separate bowl beat the butter and eggs together until smooth, stir into the dry ingredients just until combined. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups. Cups should be about 2/3 full.
3.Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 20 to 25 minutes. Cool on wire racks when done.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Friday Floatsam - 08.21.2009
A few random thoughts/happenings/suggestions/etc...
- Last weekend I got to see my perfect musical storm - Sean McConnell and Wade Bowen in concert together in the hill country with some of my favorite friends and a bottle of wine. Does it get much better than that?
- My vehicle and I have become a little too well acquainted over the past month or so. The traveling isn't going to stop anytime soon, but I'll be in the air instead of on the road. Dallas this weekend, Birmingham on Tuesday, possibly Nacadoches next weekend (I'm riding, NOT driving), Bryan the weekend after that followed by Boston, Denver (work) and then Baltimore/Washington D.C. My dogs are going to hate me. I won't have a weekend at home until October.
- My roommate, Kaila, moves out this weekend. She was a totally unexpected surprise and delight this summer. I'm going to miss her, but will be happy to return to my anal-retentive dishwasher loading methods. (Ha!)
- Every time I hear about future plans for the Firehouse Saloon in Houston, I get more and more excited - there are some awesome, and long overdue things headed our way - finally!
- I don't think I will ever understand corporate radio - and I don't think I want to. Ignorance is bliss in this case.
- My Young Life friends, past and present, continue to amaze me. Some have just left for college, some are returning to college, and the rest are looking forward to the year ahead in high school. I can't wait for it all to get started again and I'm excited to see what the year ahead will bring for all of them... and me too!
- I had major plans to workout this week - but they haven't happened. I do have a cleaner house though - that should count for something! I will start again next week - or something like that. I really wish paying for gym memberships would magically melt pounds off of you - who needs to sweat? (I'll be more accountable here next week - I'll post what I've done, or haven't done, and I'll be honest, yuck.)
- This week I made the following: Turkey Tacos, Red Hot Chicken Salad and Faux Vietnamese Coffee - all 3 hit the spot! I'll be sharing one of the recipes as a bonus tomorrow...
See y'all then! Have a great weekend! God Bless!
Thursday, August 20, 2009
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'?
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'?
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Monday, August 17, 2009
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...
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...
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