Archive for » June, 2011 «

30
Jun

And Now for Melanie’s Amazing Punch!

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Melanie’s Punch was a huge hit at the party! I wanted to share (and remember) how to make this  because it was so easy and delicious!

Here’s the “How To”

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1. Cut up and juice an entire sack of lemons! (Or for the second batch we actually used 2 of those artificial lemon juice bottles and it was just as tasty!)

2. Slice 2 large oranges and place in the bowl for decoration! Squeeze the juice out of the end pieces of the oranges and toss those in the garbage.

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3. Slice up a crate of strawberries and add to the mixture for a nice splash of color

4. Open a large can of the pineapple chunks and put the entire thing, juice and all, in the bowl

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5. This is the best part! In goes 1 large bottle of Moscato white wine, 2 bottles of champagne, and 1/2 cup of Triple Sec! Yowza!! Recipe for a Grand Ol’ Time!

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Stir and Enjoy!

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30
Jun

Remie’s Wedding Shower!

My Remie-Girl is getting MARRIED in a month!! Eeeeee, we’re all so excited!!!!

Me and the other 2 ladies in the wedding party, Amber and Erin, got together and planned a sweet little wedding shower for our Lovely Bride-To-Be so she could be showered in gifts and have her family and friends come and share some well wishes and show her some lovin’! 

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We held the shower at Amber’s, which I’m so glad Amber offered to host the shower there because it was such a perfect space! She has such a beautiful home and she did a great job with all the decorations and with making her house the most comfortable and cozy place for visitors to relax. Loved it!! (Thanks Amber!! Really appreciated it!)

We had tons of food as everyone pitched in with bringing a dish or two! We had this amazing spiked punch that Melanie brought, we had 7 layer dip from Remie’s boss Kelly, Mrs. Tammy brought finger sandwiches, Erin’s homemade salsa and hummus, and also Remie’s mother Sach made pasta salad, tiny coffee cakes, and this corn dip that I NEED to get the recipe for (I could have eaten the entire bowl by myself)! I also I made my artichoke casserole dish that everyone seems to  love and I brought my chocolate covered strawberries! Everything was delicious!

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…and LOOK AT HER CAKE! 

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Remie was so surprised! I tried to capture her expression when she first spotted the cake, it was priceless!

Erin created this piece of art just by looking at the place setters Remie had picked out for the wedding! Little tiny cards! CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?! Girls got talent! Wowza!.

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So everyone arrived on time and Remie was the perfect little bride-to-be! She greeted and smiled  and mingled, you couldn’t even tell that she might have been nervous! She was a natural!

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People chowed down and drank and chatted it up, with most of us hovering over the punch bowl. It was fun to see some of remie’s friends that I hadn’t seen in quite some time and also meet some new people I’d never met. All of her friends and family are such sweet people!

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Having 3 bridesmaids that have never held a wedding shower before I was so grateful when Remie’s boss Kelly nudged me at one point and said “Presents?” I should have gotten the cue when all the girls started sitting in the chairs in a big circle but I was a little pre-occupied with filling the second batch of punch (everyone emptied that huge bowl in less than 20 minutes)!

WooHoo! Present time!

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Erin scribbled down the gifts and who gave what to who, Amber passed the gifts to Remie and took the wrapping, and I was in charge of pictures! It was a great time! I especially enjoyed seeing Remie’s reactions to each gift! If she got an ok gift, you couldn’t tell because she played it all off like a pro!

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This next part (down below) was one of my favorite moments of the shower!

Remie was opening one of the last gifts which happened to be a present from her mother when all the sudden you hear her saying,

“UUUHHHH… What is this…?

oooooh my GAAAWWWD!! MOOOOOOOOOM!!

THIS IS EMBARASSING!

::giggle giggle::

MOOOOOM!! YOU”RE NOT SUPPOSE TO GET ME THIS!!

::more giggles and laughter from the entire room!::

Winking smile lingerie…

WOAHAHAHAHAHA!!

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It was so perfect, I absolutely loved her reaction! If only I had video taped it!

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And here is, the beautiful Ms. Remie with her large mound of gifts and goodies!

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She stocked up quite well! She got Ninjas, Crock-Pots, fire pits, pictures frames, a huge basket full of every kitchen goodie you could ever think of, and tons and tons of other amazing, useful things!!

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The shower had a great turn out and I couldn’t have been happier!

I’m so glad I had Amber and Erin there with me to pull this entire shower together, as they both did such a wonderful job, and without them it never would have happened! I can’t wait for the wedding!

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And, at the end of the day, all the hard work and running around and planning was worth it when you get a message like this! In love

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Mission Accomplished!

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Here are a few cute pictures from after the party was over…

Mr. Cameron, enjoying some cake alone outside, being adorable and shy when I tried to snap a picture of him. (We had to get his daddy to take the last photo, he kept hiding behind his arm when I tried. hehe! So cute!)

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And I was trying to sneak a picture of Amber having a moment with all of her kiddies, but then I just got off my booty and had them all look at me. :)

Love this family! They’re all so awesome.

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29
Jun

Sunday Morning Jog on the Lake!

After my morning motorcycle ride it was still early enough in the day to fit in the 3 mile lake front jog I’ve been meaning to do. In Louisiana, especially lately, if you don’t get outdoors before 9am you’re going to be sweating your ass off and suffocating in the thick humid air… SO! Having woken before 6am and finishing up the motorcycle trip in about an hour and a half I was excited to find it just early enough to fit in that semi-bearable jog by the lake! Here are a few pictures I took along the way. I’m enjoying testing out my new camera!

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I’m still trying to get used to lighting and angles and other such important photography concepts to know while shooting, but these came out decent for just pointing and shooting.

I enjoyed the jog, and hopefully if I keep jogging more frequently I’ll be able to run longer and take fewer breaks, but I think I did decent considering the heat! It’s a 3 mile round trip up and down the lake front not including all of the curves in the pathways. I’m thinking I jogged half the time and walked the other, alternating between the two every few minutes. It would have been more jogging, but every time the shaded areas disappeared it was to difficult to keep running for much longer. Next time I’ll try again a bit earlier.

Category: Exercise, Health  Tags: , , , ,  Leave a Comment
29
Jun

Hum at a Lower Vibration

I woke up Sunday morning, around 5:50am, rolled over once and was just about to close my eyes for a bit more snoozing, when I suddenly remembered:

…I have a motorcycle …and a brand new camera

!!!!!

Eeeeeeeeeee!!! I got my booty out that bed so fast!

I didn’t even have to wake Daniel up, as I’m sure my insta-buzzing had him wide awake in 2 seconds flat. Plus, he’s just as excited to ride my Shadow as I am so it took no convincing from me. We both threw on our jeans, slipped into our riding jackets, laced up the shoes and headed for the door! Yeehaw! Its riding time!

I had Daniel chauffeur me around as I rode on the back, that way I could capture some of those beautiful moments… the ones that only happen when the sun is barely in the sky and the world hasn’t quite woken up just yet.

Here are some of the photos from that morning:

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*We found this cute little fellow playing with a plastic bag inside the Global Wild Life reservation.

Anyone who has ever ridden a bike before knows the feeling… there’s just nothing like it.

Having the open road with all the elements so close and widely available, the wind in your face, the sun on your skin, the pavement several inches below you speeding by… its amazing.

And when you’re out on the back country roads before other cars and people are out and about, its really almost indescribable, its just so freeing… When I’m riding on a motorcycle in the early morning it seems to put me in an meditative state.

It clears my mind, and awakens my spirit. releases the worries, and eases the tension. Its really incredible.

I wish I could have written while I was riding, because the thoughts and clarity that was pouring out of me was something I’d love to have recorded and been able to express.

*That morning I was grateful for days off, nature, fresh air, and for NOT having a radio on my motorcycle to tune out my wonderful, peaceful thoughts :)

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27
Jun

Inspiration!

Remie gave me these, saying she came across them and they reminded her of me.

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Thought I’d share them!

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Thanks Remie, I LOVE them!!

*Today I’m grateful for sweet friends, beautiful colors, inspiring moments, relaxing days, shag carpets (that I get to snuggle with my pups on), and silencing the noise

Category: Fun, Love  Tags: , , ,  One Comment
27
Jun

My Camera!!! It’s IN!!

The Canon s95!

I’ve only been looking at this camera in my Amazon cart for like, 4 months! And its HERE! Finally!! Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

I finally convinced my brain to order my finger to push the final “purchase” button a the end of the checkout screen…It was such a relief!

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I felt like a kid a Christmas!

I got the 30$ upgrade package that came with a ba-zillion accessories!

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The door bell rang at 9 p.m. Saturday night!! What a surprise! I was not expecting it for another few days, and definitely at 9 at night!!

I couldn’t have been any more surprised and excited!

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Thank you, Dear Blog, for convincing me it was time to upgrade to something I absolutely love!

Tons of wonderful pictures to come!!

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27
Jun

Chocolate Covered Strawberries!

I was making these tasty treats Saturday night for Remie’s wedding shower Sunday afternoon!

Here’s a quick How To:

You start with a double boiler type setup. I just use 2 pots, one slightly bigger than the other, and fill the lower pot with boiling water (or rather regular water that you bring to a boil while on the stove). The purpose being to not burn the chocolate at the bottom of the pot.

In the smaller pot you put:

-one bag of semi-sweet chocolate morsels (I don’t use any particular brand)

-a pinch of salt

-and a splash of heavy whipping cream (a actually used soy milk for these because I didn’t have any cream in my house. They came out just as tasty! The only difference I noticed was the chocolate coating didn’t look like as shiny as it usually does. It was a bit milky looking, but it worked perfectly!)

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You stir this up on medium-low heat until the mixture is melted and smooth!

This is usually enough chocolate to dip 2 entire cartoons of strawberries (+ some left over, if you want to try dipping other things, like cookies or granola bars Winking smile).

*TIP: After washing your strawberries, dry them off with a paper towel! The chocolate sticks much better on a dry strawberry then on a wet one!

DIP! DUNK! POUR! LICK! AND TASTE TEST UNTIL YOUR HEARTS CONTENT!!

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And that’s basically it! You can eat them right then, with the warm gooey chocolate covering, or place them on trays in the fridge for at least an hour for the cool hard coating! Both are delish!!

I trayed these up and left them in my fridge over night! When it was about ready to head to the shower I pulled them off of the pans and placed each one in individual cupcake papers for a cute little decorating effect.

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I really think everyone enjoyed them! And it seems people were quite impressed when they found out I made them myself. Go me! Party smile

So, that’s it!! I suggest testing this out yourself, ASAP!!! Its so much fun! Especially with buddies!

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27
Jun

Hot Tamale!

I’ve never had a tamale! EVER! In my entire life!

It seems in the past year or so tamales have come up in conversation over again as if to tease me. It’s a favorite dish for many AND since becoming vegetarian 3 1/2 years ago its been near impossible to find one that wasn’t stuffed with meat!

While roaming the aisles in search of random goodies to entertain me for the night, I came across a lovely little tamale kit that looked fun and interesting! Having already decided that tonight was a Mexican night, it only seemed fitting to get the kit and experiment!

WooHoo! I love Kits!

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When I arrived home I got right to work by laying out several plates and setting up my little tamale making station. The recipe called for a pound of ground meat, but having several years worth of substitution experience it was easy for me to find a replacement. I went with 2 cans of organic black beans and one can of vegetarian refried black beans.

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Basically the kit said to take a nice little spoonful of the filling and roll it around in the corn mala until nicely coated. This was an interesting and fun step to try and master! Because I substituted beans for the meat, I had to try and figure out how to solidify the soupy like mixture. Daniel suggested flour! Brilliant!! I added little pinches of wheat flour and BAM! Perfect clumping effect!

I rolled the mixture around a bit and then placed it on the paper wrap making sure to leave a fourth of the wrap empty, as instructed. I folded and pushed and squished and somehow fit the gooey bean/corn mixture into the tiny tightly packed paper! I folded under that little empty end and had officially made my first tamale! I was pretty proud.

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I did quite well with my first attempt at rolling a tamale! Its not easy business!

(I think it had a little to do with having so much sushi rolling experience.) Winking smile

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The kit came with 36 paper wraps, but I  ran out of filling and the corn mala stuff, so I only got about 18 or so out of it. I suppose I really stuffed those puppies!

I tossed the tamales in a pot and covered them all with the tamale sauce and set it to simmer for 40 minutes. Those were the longest 40 minutes!! Everything smelled so good!

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By the time the tamales were finished I only had room for 1 taste test! Lol! I had filled up on the salsa and chips and the black beans and rice side dish that I had made to accompany the tamales! Isn’t it funny how it works out that way?! You fill up while picking and tasting during cooking that by the time everything’s done you’re already stuffed! Haha!!

Oh well, that taster was fantastic! At least I knew I’d have a great lunch prepared for tomorrow!IMG_2804 IMG_2777

The finished dish!! Everything came out delicious!

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Enjoy!

P.S. – I wanted to slip in this tiny picture as a cute little treat, as it made me so happy after I took it! Daniel recently discovered his favorite salsa! Normally I’m the salsa queen and Daniel is never really a fan but I came cross this interesting Tomatillo Verde Salsa in the store and when we got it home Daniel couldn’t keep his fingers out of the jar!! I made him take a picture with it, and this is what came out!! It makes me smile. :)

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23
Jun

Run!

I decided to get off my butt and run this evening. Its been rainy weather so it’s significatly cooler than it has been outside, but its still super humid. Do-able! I harnessed up my pups and headed out the door. It was about 8:45 so the sun was down and there were very little cars on the road. I let the pups set the pace (which was full speed!!) since they hadn’t been able to run in so long. We went around a huge lap of the back 3rd of the neighborhood, stopping only once or twice for pee breaks. I was super impressed! All three of us kept the pace the whole time.

I dropped the pups off and headed out for the remainder of my run. I went up and down each and every street and back again, keeping a running/jogging pace 2/3rds of the time. I was proud of myself and happy to get some exercise in. Can’t wait to go again tomorrow night! I’m thinking Sat morning I’m going to hit up the lake front for a 3 mile jog really early in the morning. I really want to make that happen. Fingers crossed

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23
Jun

Early Morning, Greet the Sun!

I greeted the morning a bit earlier today as I woke up around 6:15am. I’ve been trying to wake up a bit earlier each morning so the pups and I can enjoy some outside time together before it gets too hot.

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Its so refreshing to be out doors before everyone is ridding around and making noises and commotion. While my girls pranced and played around in the grass I watched and listened to the sounds the morning had to offer. I never realized how many birds were in my area. We have no trees in my neighborhood so its rare that I actually see a bird, but this morning I could hear many of them. It was such a peaceful and soothing moment to sit there hearing their song and enjoying the morning with the sun barely lighting the sky.

After a moment of reflection and a few more moments of stretching and breathing exercises, I turned my attention to the 2 cute pups playing tug-o-war over a long strand of grass. I tried over and over again to get a decent photo of them playing but it seems my camera phone only wanted to capture funny faces and blurry backs of heads. (Molly makes the funniest faces while pulling and eating grass!)

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I hung out a bit breathing in the morning air and relaxing with my Yoga Journal magazine. Because I don’t have a back fence I sometimes wonder what the neighbors think of me… I’m always outside stretching my arms and shoulders and doing different yoga poses in the grass. That, or hooping it up dancing to a blaring radio belting out the India Arie song Video!

::Some times I shave my legs and sometimes I don’t!

Sometimes I comb my hair and sometimes I wont! Rolling on the floor laughing 

But, I learned to love myself unconditionally
Because I am a queen!::

Great song, huh?! Love it! It would probably be my theme song, if I had one! hehe!

I would bet that I’m referred to as that crazy backyard hooping, yoga, grass laying, book reading hippy girl in the neighborhood. LOL! I’ll take that title with a smile. Rainbow

Or maybe they don’t even notice me… Its actually pretty rare that I see anyone else outside at all. Hmmm…

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My alarm finally went off around 7:50am letting me know I had 30 minutes to make some breakfast, feed the pups, and get dressed for work. I made my favorite breakfast: organic oats! And spruced them up with organic blueberries, hemp seeds, cinnamon, stevia, chia seeds, and sun butter (made from sunflower seeds, yum!). It is delicious and filling and gives me energy to take on my mornings like a lioness!! ROAR!

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WELL, Off to work I go!

MEGA HUGS FOR YOU!! IF YOURE READING THIS, ITS BECAUSE YOU’RE AWESOME! (or you love me just a little bit…) Winking smile 

*This morning I’m grateful for the lovely bird symphony I was fortunate enough to hear, for having such nutritious foods so easily available to me, and for having a couple hours of free time before work to show my puppies and myself some much deserved lovin’ and appreciation.

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