Musical Monday : Tyrone Wells

So a huge thanks goes out to Pandora for introducing me to the music of Tyrone Wells.  I first listened to Need  - Live Version. It is one of those songs that is catchy but also makes you melt too. This reminds me of the movie Say Anything when he is holding the boombox over his head, blaring a song hoping for the girl to swoon and go to him. Well let me tell you if this song was blaring I would totally swoon! For sure! Give it a listen and fall in love just a little bit.

I need you
Need you baby
This craving makes me crazy
I'm dying inside
Baby make up your mind
I need you
Need you baby
I'm holding on, but barely
I'm dying inside
And I cannot hide my need

 

Till then, smile often!

Kerry

Musical Monday : Ray Lamontagne

When I think of an artist that I can listen to when I am happy, sad, driving, lying on the beach or capturing an amazing moment it is Ray Lamontagne. His voice just seems to pull me in and the lyrics just pull at my soul. He is just one of those artists that are to beat to their own drummer and withstand the test of time, at least for me. So please take a listen and fall in love with this artist, as I truly have recently.

Musical Monday : Amos Lee

Happy Monday! It was another amazing vacation day for me, and bittrsweet as I have to return to work tomorrow but Amos Lee helped make this beach day pretty amazing. His smooth jazzy sound and soul just soothes and makes you smile. I have his song colors on repeat lately so this is the one I will share but there are quite a few favorites so check them all out while you are at it.




Till then, smile often!

Kerry

Musical Monday : Eric Hutchinson

Happy Monday! Since this is going to be a month of long weekends I need music to express my sheer unadulterated joy for July!!! So I bring you Eric Hutchinson with Rock and Roll. It has such a fun and upbeat to it, and reminds me of long rides in a convertible. Take this tune to the beach with you, or on a stroll with your pup you will love it!

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July everyone! Hope everyone stays safe and enjoys the day! My puppy Seamus had some issues with the fireworks last night going off in my neighborhood. I brought into work yesterday cupcakes in the shape of a flag.

[caption id="attachment_62" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Yummy flag"][/caption]

For the cupcakes I used this recipe:

Classic Vanilla Cupcake

* Side note I modified the recipes slightly as I don't drink milk I only had half and half so I substituted with that, next time I may try buttermilk or plain, milk. The cupcakes were more cake than I would like but everyone seemed to like them anyway, just a matter of preference. This is where experimenting is fun!

Here I am combining the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients:


When you fill your cupcake liners only fill about 3/4 of the way up to allow for the rise. This allows for a flatter top for frosting. If you fill all the way up you get more of a rounded muffin top.



I used a measuring cup to fill but you can also use a spoon or spatula. Remember to clean up any stray batter on the cupcake pan. I also lightly bang the tin against the counter so it flattens out the batter in the pan to get a nice flat even cupcake top to frost.



Let your cupcakes cool for about an hour or so. You want them to be completely cooled so your frosting doesn't "rip" the top of the cupcake. For the frosting I used:


Best Buttercream Frosting

* It ended up a tad sweeter than I wanted so I added an extra pinch or two of salt. Again, this is a matter of preference. Add slowly and re-test to desired sweetness.

When I began frosting, I began with the plain white frosting first. This let me know how much frosting I had left for the other colors and so that I wouldn't get any bleeding. Use a separate knife or wash between each color. Blue was next as it was only four cupcakes, then the red. I only had the standard red, yellow, blue, green coloring, as I don't have a high-tech bakers kitchen, so add as many drops to get the intensity of color you want. I would have liked a little more colors for a richer final color, but such is life. Use what you have! Now that all cupcakes are frosted place in the desired design. For the "stars" I use powdered sugar through a strainer. Again, it was what I had in the house. You could try to find small star sprinkles, or plain white sprinkles, or star cut out sugar cookies frosted in white royal icing. Get creative, get baking!

Hope you enjoyed my take on the 4th of July. Safe safe! Till then, smile often!

Musical Monday : Alexi Murdoch

In my quest to find balance and peace I am trying to find music that matches that desire. This artist calms and soothes with his voice. The song moves through you and seems to bring peace, at least for me anyways. Hope you enjoy, till then, smile often.

Balance and Stress Management

So in the last week or so my job has gotten extremely stressful, to the point of having chest pains. I work on Government Contracts and this is the start to the fiscal year end crunch time. I have come to the conclusion that I am not managing my stress properly. In these high level stressful times of the year my perfectionist side, and my need to be all, and do all for everyone just doesn't work. I have a hard time saying no as I want to get everything done. So this week I will be researching and reading what I can to try and bring more balance to my days. I am making a vow to myself to walk everyday during work to get that much needed mental break. How do you manage your stress? What do you do to find balance?