Hiking Adventure

For Father's Day, the old man and I ventured up to the North Georgia Mountains (Squidbilly country) to meet up with his Dad, sister and brother-in-law to hike up the 425 steps to the top of Amicalola Falls.  I had been there once before with Oni for some location scouting that didn't exactly work out but I got some great photos!
This time was no different except I knew we would be hiking so I dressed appropriately.  We started at the base of the falls where the reflecting pool was and walked up.  The view was amazing!  When Oni and I went, we started at the top and walked down the steps to the bridge over the falls but for some reason, the view was way better walking up and then back down again.  On the way down, I did get a case of jelly legs, so I kept moving in a very strange manner so that my legs wouldn't give out from under me.  I thought my legs were stronger than that but I guess I thought wrong!  Either way, it was a wonderful walk and even though some pre-planning had gone awry (or didn't happen at all at the hands of the day's organizer - not me) and nagging party member aside, it was a fun day.



This photo was taken on the way back down the steps so technically, we walked 850 steps (not including another trail we walked...)


Here's a very sinister looking photo I snapped of the old man at the top of the falls


Check out the route I tracked with the Nike+ GPS app

I like how erratic the stair climbing makes the path look. The big loop on the right side is some mini trail we ended up walking because our organizer thought was an alternate way down to our cars...Meh. In all, we covered roughly 4.1 miles.  I say "roughly" because the green dot where I started my tracking was into the trail some and the finish was at the trunk of the car.  Either way it was a nice walk and I'd like to come back for another go at those steps!

Nail Art Inspiration: Candy Paint

Well, I battled my "Nail Art ADD".  After some web surfing around some nail blogs, I stopped on one of my favourite pages: Candy Paint.  Her designs are always wonderful!  Her page is where I got the idea for my ring finger on this mani




Sweet right?!  Totally.  So when I saw these, you know I HAD to try it!


Mesmerized, I got out my newest, prettiest neon pink (Orly's La Vida Loca), my favourite blue (Sally Hansen's Blue Me Away), gold (Sally Hansen nail art pen brush thing) and black (China glaze Liquid Leather). As with all my nail art, the best representation is always my left hand (since I am right-handed). After a few splotchy mistakes on my thumb, I was pretty pleased with how my index finger turned out.



And after more messing around with my sewing pin and makeup sponge, I was pretty proud of my left hand



My right hand isn't as pretty but it still looks cute. I definitely love Candy Paint's way better than my version but at least I tried, right?!  I was getting lots of compliments (especially from the Big Boss' little ones).  Now that I feel confident in my animal prints (again) I might try another all-over animal print with a technique Christian shared with me.  Or I could go to her but I need a plan first.  I think I'll make my appointment with her before my trip.  Where am I going?  I won't say right now but know this: I am very excited!

Nail Art ADD

After seeing all the fun stuff on various nail blogs and Instagram accounts, I've been feeling rather inspired to try mo things. Maybe I just really want to be a Wah Nails girl but sadly, the Wah Nails crew is in the UK (and sometimes NYC) and I'll admit that I'm not exactly sure how to locate my nearest nail boutique for some sweet nail art (besides Christian at Sugarcoat) and I'm sure there's some Cosmetology School stuff that's involved so, like most things, I take matters into my own hands and just do it myself.
While I enjoy a proper mani with the soaking and the cuticle oils and all that, I like the fact that when I do it myself, my indecisive Libra nature isn't holding any other appointments back. No, I don't know how to execute the proper mani because I don't get proper manis on a regular basis - which could be why my cuticles look mangled most of the time...
So now since there's nothing on TV this summer, I've been left to my own devices. I could write more music but I haven't been feeling that inspired, unfortunately. After scrolling through my nail art-heavy Instagram feed, I decided I'd do a potpourri of nail art. A walking nail wheel, perhaps. I think I described it the best when I was with Lauren on Friday night. I told her I'd probably redo my nails on Saturday but she said I should keep them and I said I felt like an old lady who put on all of her jewelry before leaving the house. I'll show you what I mean.

Here's my right hand

Pinky: Pink / blue gradient
Ring: Galaxy
Middle: Googley eyes
Index: Pink / black / white polka dots
Thumb: Purple / gold gradient

And here's my left hand

Thumb: Galaxy
Index: Pink / blue gradient
Middle: Purple / gold gradient
Ring: Pink / black / white polka dots
Pinky: Red and navy "Dalton Academy" heart

I had every intention of making them match but I didn't want them to be too matchy matchy (if that makes sense). And I saw that the Glee 3D concert movie was on HBO so I fast forwarded to the Dalton Academy section and felt compelled to have one Dalton Academy nail (my pinky on my left hand). But I only wanted one. So what should I do on the corresponding finger on my right hand? Enter the green base with the "googley eye" pattern. I was feeling very inspired by one of the people I follow on Tumblr and Instagram who has a very impressive googley eye collection: photographer Chloe Rice.
If you haven't checked out her stuff, you're seriously missing out! Her work is always great and funny and just entertaining overall. And she's got tons of googley eye adventures. I like the way the nail turned out so much that I think I might mix the googley eye nail with the pink, black, and white polka dot nail for another mani... PS - Chloe liked it too!  Fangirl moment!
It looks like I'm getting the hang of the lovely gradient mani as well. It still needs more work but it's definitely better than my first attempt.  I think the flaw in my first attempt was that the colours were too close to each other. Either way, I'm happy with the purple / gold and the pink / blue variations.
The pink / black / white polka dots were cute and girly and the galaxies are always fun to do.

I'm thinking of maybe learning the mani basics and possibly extending my nail art adventures to nails other than my own.  I can't do every design but I learn quickly!  Who wants their nails done?

Childish Gambino

I had technically waiting for last night's performance since December (when I originally bought my tickets).  There was an injury that postponed the original show date in March to yesterday and let me tell you - IT WAS WORTH THE WAIT.
I'm talking about the Childish Gambino show
Holy crap - I've never had so much fun!  And I'll admit my hopes were a little low when we were standing amongst bratty, teenage white suburbanites in line.  In the rain.
All of that aside, the show was AMAZING - although the opening act was not really my bag.  His beat man was tight but the performer was okay...
ANYWAYS - I felt a tiny bit out of place since *GASP* I don't own Camp just yet and it was the Camp Tour BUT I had my fingers crossed for some Cul-De-Sac stuff and that wish definitely came true.  I admit: I had a bit of a contained crazy moment during I Be On That (since that is my ultimate Gambino track) so that was definitely a highlight.  The other highlight was a short performance of Cashin Out.  I was NOT expecting that.
It's a bit of a joke with J and me since I was playing him Spend It and he said it sounded a bit like Cashin Out so now we'll text each other those tracks randomly.  But I think I win this one with Gambino



The energy was great, the old man and I got great seats, there were lots and lots of strobe lights and THE BAND WAS AMAZING. Don't get me wrong - I love me some Donald Glover but his band was INCREDIBLE. Where on Earth will you see a guy go from playing the keyboards to a violin to a guitar to a floor tom in one show? And on the other side, the guitarist went from guitar to keyboard to floor tom and the bassist went from bass to synth to floor tom and back again. WHAT.  And the drummer hopped off the drums for a minute to hype everybody up.  It was AWESOME. I tried to get video but I was having way too much fun (sorry!). I have a bit of the performance of Freaks and Geeks mainly because I liked how the lyrics were flying in on screen.





But look how energetic this kid is. And this was earlier in the show! So much fun!

My favourite is all the comments I'm getting in the Tumblr-sphere about this photo


Sounds like it's funny that there were lots of white kids there.  And Donald himself was like, "I know the answer to this because I'm in my hometown but, are there any black people here?"

ANYWAYS - all of that aside - it was an amazing show and I had a great time.  I hope he comes back again real soon!

The Transit of Venus

I started writing this really emo post yesterday and I deleted it because why would I be all sad panda about life when beautiful things like this happen?



 

I wasn't able to catch this in my neck of the woods but it definitely snapped me out of my bad mood. Probably because Venus is my ruling planet and crossing over the Sun probably re-energized my spiritual self - which I am very grateful for.
But it's not only that that I was enjoying. Look at how gorgeous space it. The Sun is so gorgeous.  And the majesty of seeing these wonderful images from NASA is just so amazing to me and I am even more grateful for everything around me.  Sure, things might get me down from time to time but I always try to remember never to sweat the small stuff.  Life is far more precious than we care to acknowledge on a daily basis and I'd just like to take this moment to appreciate life and all of the things around me because it's all special and wonderful and magical.



See some more beautiful photos from NASA here

Adventures in Dessert

This weekend, I channeled my inner Paula Deen for my Dad's early Father's Day present and there was NO BUTTER INVOLVED!  Imagine that!  Though, there was shortening involved but that's not the same is it?  Meh - same difference I guess.
My Dad is a big time chocoholic and so for his early Father's Day present, I decided I would make him Paula Deen's Frozen Chocolate Mousse Pie.  I am not a chef.  I am most definitely not a baker.  So why make it?  Because I was watching an unhealthy amount of Food Network (as per usual) and Ina Garten made an easy-looking Key Lime Pie.  I'm usually not a Barefoot Contessa fan (especially after her Make-A-Wish fiasco) but she was making my most favourite dessert: Key Lime Pie.  Easy enough, right?  Sure!  I could make that!
But wait!  I don't think my Dad likes Key Lime Pie as much as I do!  I had to change it up and FAST or else it was a chocolate sampler from Godiva and I felt that that was a little impersonal since he's heading out to Kuwait for 9 months.  So I decided I'd peruse the Food Network site for the ultimate chocolate recipe.  Who better than Paula Deen, right?!
I skipped buying a pre-made shell and made my own using the Best Ever Pie Crust.  Like I said, I'm not a baker and this pie crust was super easy to make.


I tried to scallop the edge to make it all fancy and with as many times as I had seen it executed on Food Network and shows like Top Chef, I couldn't do it quite right but it still looked pretty.
The chocolate sauce and the whipped mousse were the scariest parts for me.  I'd never melted chocolate for any kind of sauce but here it was as the base of the whole dessert.  I had also never made whipped cream and I was so scared I was going to screw it up and have to go to the mall.
But the recipe was SO SIMPLE.

 

There it was! The chocolate sauce! I left out the chocolate creme liqueur since I didn't feel like running out just for 1 tablespoon, so I subbed in an extra tablespoon of heavy cream. The chocolate sauce took no time at all! Easy, right?! Totally! But now for the whipped cream... I was joking around and had a Tony Montana moment when I was measuring out my powdered sugar (I'll never grow up)


I don't know how many times I've seen whipped cream being made on Food Network. I know the egg white version and the powdered sugar version. I know to look for stiff peaks and all that but I was so scared I was going mess that up as well!
Ugh - I sound really insecure, don't I?  But I really was afraid I was going to mess it up.  Well, the joke was on me since it's the easiest thing to make EVER.  There's no possible way you can mess up making whipped cream!  EVER!


And even with my little hand mixer, I got my coveted stiff peaks.  I was so excited that I was actually cheering for myself!

Nerd.

So then came the folding of the whipped cream into the chocolate sauce - with care to not overdo it.  What did that mean?  Well, I'd seen enough shows to know that I could potentially take all the air out of my whipped cream if I overdid it, so I took very special care to be nice and gentle (which I'm usually not during cooking)


Easy peasy lemon squeezy.  I could make whipped cream ALL DAY.  Too bad I had made A LOT OF IT.  But I remembered - it was Paula Deen's recipe.  Of course there would be TONS OF EVERYTHING.  Except the chocolate sauce.  I felt like there wasn't enough.  But then I thought that maybe there was enough because it was a frozen mousse pie after all.  But as I was folding the whipped cream into the chocolate I thought that maybe there was too much whipped cream there.
I foolishly spooned out what I had mixed into my pie crust and it went all the way to the edge of the tin in height.  That was enough right?  Well...in the photo, the mousse reaches epic proportions.
Check it


Was there enough room in my freezer for all of this mousse? Hell no.  I guess I would just deal.  I spooned out more whipped cream into my mousse mixture that I had already put in the pie shell and started folding it in for that creamy brown colour but I had to give up because I didn't want to demolish my pie shell in the process so I just spooned it out on the whole thing and made a pretty coating of whipped cream and put the rest in a container for fruit dipping.

 
And there you have it. My adventures in desserts. I can't really call it baking since the only thing I baked was the pie crust.
My everyone at the party liked it - including my Dad - which made me happy.  I did feel like it was missing something (probably the liqueur but whatevs).   At least everyone had the sense to mix the fruit salad in with the chocolate to cut the sweetness.
So now that I've done it, I can make another version when my Dad gets back!  Hopefully by then , I'll have a nice, customized version (Grand Marnier anyone?).  Sounds like a plan to me!

How was your weekend?

New music just in time for your weekend

As some of you know, I work with some pretty talented people.  One of these talented people include the lovely Regina Troupe.  She's funny, sweet, gorgeous and she can sing.  Lucky for you her album is available for download on iTunes today! Get it here!