Who Says You Can't Teach Creativity?

If one of my students was this funny and creative I just might have to give them an A! Just another reason why I love failblog.org and teaching. You never know that those kids are going to come up with.

Hair today, gone tomorrow...

So, I chopped off about 8" of hair a couple of months ago and I am just now getting around to blogging about it. After 4 years of growing my hair out non-stop, ever since I had a horror story involving a stylist who thought a bob would be more suiting on me than the picture of the adorable shoulder-length do I gave them, I finally pulled myself together and cut some serious inches of my hair and dyed it a rich chocolate brown to boot. I love the new style. It makes me feel like one less blonde in California and I love being able to use a lot less shampoo and conditioner than I did before now. I'm so glad I have a great hair-stylist friend in my church ward here in LA. Thanks Kelli!

The before, this picture was taken when I went to Burbank to visit with an old friend Rachelle from Cincinnati and was taken around May.

The after, just a few weeks ago at my 'lil brother's wedding. Pardon the cookie, but this was the only picture could get to load. :)

Ode to a Novel...

I absolutely LOVE to read and I am so thankful that I met and married someone who also has a love for books, as I do. Not only do I love to read, but I often read a couple of books at a time as well as listen to a book on CD in my car to make my 30 minute commute to and from work much more enjoyable.

Because it is officially summer and recommendations abound, I thought I would throw my two cents into the ring and offer up some of my favorite books for the reading pleasure of others. These are the top TEN books I have read this past year, but by no means are these my favorite books of all time, because that would be a whole different post. Let me know if any of you have read these titles and also what you thought of them. Thanks!

#10 Atonement - I especially recommend this novel if you have NEVER seen the movie.

#9 Year of Wonders

#8 Catching Fire - 2nd novel in the Hunger Games trilogy

#7 Life of Pi

#6 The Time-Traveler's Wife

#5 Hunger Games - such a page-turner, I think I read this book and it's second in the series in 3 days

# 4 Charlie and The Chocolate Factory - Oh, how I love Roald Dahl!

#3 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

#2 The Road - another page-turner! So incredibly well-written and I can't wait to read other books by Cormac McCarthy

#1 To Kill a Mockingbird*

By the way, I highly recommend the website Shelfari.com. I love keeping up with all the books that I read on it as well as keeping track of those that I want to read in the future. It has great features and allows you to add your virtual bookshelf to your blog as well as "friend" others on the site to keep up with great book recommendations. If you join, you will have to "friend" me on it. Happy Reading!

*Definitely now one of my favorite books of all-time

My Little Brother's Gotten Hitched!

This post is to congratulate my little brother Stephen and his new bride Stacie on their wedding. I was able to make the trip to Provo, Utah the weekend of the 12th and I had such a wonderful time with my family! Michael's niece was married in SLC the same day so he was able to make the trip as well but DROVE to Utah last minute!

We had almost everyone there, which consisted of me and Michael, my parents, 6 of my siblings, 4 of their spouses and 10 of their children, all in one house for the weekend. Due to the fact that my computer still will not allow me to upload pictures, (hence the few and far between posts I've added to my blog) I've borrowed a few from family! Thanks Kristi and Christine.

Stephen and Stacie - Manti Temple

Michael and me at the Temple waiting for the newly married couple!

All but one the sisters with Dad

Stephen and Stacie's departure after the reception!

Congratulations Stephen and Stacie! We are so excited for you and wish you many wonderful years of happiness!

I also have to congratulate Michael's niece and her husband on their marriage as well. Becky and Jarom were married in the Salt Lake City Temple on the same day and will be moving to Pensacola, Florida soon. We are so happy for you two! YAY for weddings!

Talented Los Angeles

America's Got Talent aired this week and although I'm not typically a viewer of the program me and a couple of the girls who live in my building got tickets to the show when they filmed here in Los Angeles. The show took place at the Orpheum theater downtown back at the end of March and the show was really fun to watch and the theater was truly beautiful. I had a lot of fun and describe the show as a very entertaining talent show with some amazing performers mixed into the bunch. A couple of my favorites were a cute little mormon girl from BYU who plays the violin to pop music while dancing and this guy.

Like I said, it was a lot of fun to watch and I love taking advantage of such awesome shows. I now have on my list Dancing with the Stars, American Idol and America's Got Talent. And did I mention these shows are all for free? Now I just need to add some late night comedy shows such as Craig Ferguson (and Craig Kilborn!! Oh, how I've missed you) to my list. Oh, and it won't be complete until I've attended So You Think You Can Dance. I love living in L.A.

Blackberries

I bought some beautiful blackberries today from the market and I couldn't wait to take them home. I must admit that upon arrival at my apartment I proceeded to eat half a carton of them while standing in front of the open refrigerator. I was taken back to my hometown of Tallahassee walking through the woods around our house in High Grove picking wild blackberries and arguing with my older brother and sister about who's just had the sweetest one, or who's found and eaten the most.

I love things that take me back to being a child, especially when it had to do with my old home. Another fond memory was of swimming in the pool all day long on the 4th of July and eating watermelon just after my dad sliced it and spitting the seeds as far as I could and lighting sparklers once it was dark enough. I practically lived in my bathing suit as child and I really miss those carefree southern days in the sun.

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

This past Saturday my friend Cassie and I decided to make a yummy and unique treat for a Stampin' Up! get together that I planned. After looking through a couple of cookbooks, such as Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book, and also a few blogs, we decided on these very pretty and somewhat simple Pink Lemonade cupcakes from the blog Cast Sugar. They turned out great, although I would recommend sticking to the recipe when it comes to the amount of lemonade concentrate you add to the buttercream frosting, we went a bit crazy and ours came out a tad too tart! But still very yummy!!

I hope you enjoy them. They were so pretty with the pink frosting and hot pink sugar.

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 c. all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

Pinch salt

1/2 c. granulated sugar

1/4 c. vegetable oil

2 egg whites

1/3 c. thawed frozen Pink Lemonade Concentrate

1/4 c. buttermilk

2 or more drops red food coloring

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line muffin pan with liners.

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, oil, egg whites and lemonade concentrate. Alternately whisk in flour mixture and buttermilk, making three additions of flour mixture and two of buttermilk, beating until just smooth. Add just enough food coloring to turn the batter a light shade of pink.

Scoop batter into liners (fill about three-fourths full). Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until tops of cupcakes spring back when lightly touched. Let cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool completely on rack. Top cooled cupcakes with frosting (see below).

Lemonade Buttercream:

3 c. + 3 Tbsp. confectioner’s sugar

1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature

1/8 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. pink lemonade concentrate

Red food coloring

Add the butter, confectioner’s sugar, salt, lemon juice concentrate, and a few drops of food coloring to the stand mixer and mix on low using the paddle attachment until combined. Turn the speed to med-high until the buttercream is fluffy and uniformly pink. Pipe or spread onto cooled cupcakes.

Gently Down the Stream...

This is why I like the website engrish.com, otherwise known as the website that compiles funny interpretations of the english language from other languages. This is definitely one of my favorites.

Oh, Tallahassee!

The latest post on Design Sponge makes me nostalgic for my hometown of Tallahassee, Florida. I miss so many things about my childhood and where I lived until I was 17-years-old, so I was very excited to see that the d*s city guide series has come out with a great Tallahassee, Florida guide and I absolutely love the guide cover with the capitol buildings. I would love to frame it!

The d*s city guide series also has a great guide to Cincinnati, Ohio, where Michael and I lived for 5 years, as well as great destinations such as Savannah, Georgia, Paris France, and Dublin, Ireland. Just go to http://www.designspongeonline.com/ and check the city guides on the left-hand side.

I think it's high time I travel back to my hometown of Tallahassee, Florida. I really miss where I grew up.

Toy Story 3

Pixar is not only amazing for the sheer volume of quality movies it puts out (The Incredibles and Toy Story are my favorites) but also for how creative they are in "re-introducing" to the general public a particular toy from the 80's that never even existed only for the sake of Toy Story 3's release. This is great and it really reminds me of how fun the toys were back in the decade of which I grew up. Enjoy the Commercial and all its 80's glory and get yourself prepared for Disney Pixar's Toy Story 3.

It's show time...

One perk of living in Los Angeles is having the ability to be part of the show taping process and being within a few miles of all the major tv broadcasting channels such as NBC, FOX, CBS, ABC, you name it, I've had some really fun experiences. Tickets are actually pretty easy to come by if you want to sit through a taping of Doctor Phil or Disney's Sonny with a Chance, but neither of these interest me. I'm still waiting for my tickets to the Ellen Degeneres show and American Idol, which have huge wait lists for both! Think at least 9 month!!

So you can see how excited I was to find out last minute that I got tickets to "Dancing with the Stars for tonight's results show! I can't wait. Unfortunately, no one who lives around me in LA can make it, only *those who live in other cities wish they could be here. So, this means that I will be attending a taping of DWTS all by my lonesome. Luckily I found out that the LA library branch just a couple of blocks away from where the tv studio is (and did I mention a couple of blocks from where I work) happens to finally have the novel **CATCHING FIRE in for me to pick up. So, at least I have a great book to read while standing in line by myself.

So, keep an eye out for me on the results show tonight of DWTS. I'm giddy about seeing my BF Evan Lysacek... and I'm intrigued to see exactly what the bachelor, Jake Pavelka, saw in Vienna... Blah!

And a side note. You'll have to look for me as well on the episode of America's Got Talent in June when they came to Los Angeles. I actually went to the show taping back in the beginning of March but they don't premiere the show until June. THAT was a really fun show to attend and I can't wait to get some more show tickets in the future for some more amazing shows. :)

*I'm thinking of Dee Ann, Kimberly, Heather and of course you Grandma!!

** CATCHING FIRE is the sequel to the amazing novel THE HUNGER GAMES. If you haven't read it yet you're missing out!! It's truly a wonderful book.

A few of my favorite things...

These are a few of my favorite things:

Santa Monica Beach on a beautiful sunny day. Last Thursday happened to be one of them. Perfection.

Trader Joe's Orange Chicken. Yum.

Watching Evan Lysacek on Dancing with the Stars. Because watching him win gold in the Olympics wasn't enough. :)