Fall Photos

Some photos from this past fall that I've finally got on here.  Photos are from near my cabin, Chicago, and the Pretty Lights concert. 

porcupine balls

made one of my favorite dinners for the first time all by myself.  It's a dinner my mom made for me, and one my grandma made for my mom.  My mom said they used to eat spiced apple rings as treat with them.  I'm not the biggest fan, so we replace the apple rings with apple sauce. These are super easy to make and super yummy!

Ingredients:
1 egg, beaten
1 box of beef flavor rice-a-roni
1lb ground beef
1 tablespoon veggie oil
2 1/2 C water

What to do:
1. combine the rice-vermicelli mix, ground beef and egg.  Shape into 1 1/4 inch meatballs.
2. in a large skillet, over medium high heat, brown meatballs in oil; drain.
3. slowly stir in water and seasonings packet. bring to a boil. cover; reduce heat to low. simmer 30 min or until meatballs are cooked.

zucchini oatmeal cookies

makes about 3 dozen

the ingredients:

1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups zucchini, grated
3 1/2 cups oatmeal

what to do:

beat butter and sugar together well

beat in eggs and vanilla

mix dry ingredients (flour, salt, cinnamon, and baking soda) together

add creamed mixture

stir in zucchini and oatmeal (add 1 cup raisins and/or 1 cup nuts here if you'd like)

drop onto greased cookie sheet

bake at 350F for 10-12 min.

if you love oatmeal cookies and/or zucchini bread, these are the cookies for you. they are super easy to make, minus a little bit of man power grating the zucchini.

Lollapalooza 2012

This last weekend Justin and I had the opportunity to go to Lollapalooza at Grant Park in Chicago, IL.  It was absolutely amazing.  Lolla was everything I expected and more.  We did have to evacuate the park Saturday afternoon because of severe weather, which caused a muddy rest of the weekend, but it was still an all around amazing weekend.  I think every time I listen to the bands I saw, I will always think of Lolla and the amazing time I had with Justin.

Friday: We went almost as soon as Lolla opened the first day.  We did this to get a feel for what the set up was  like and see where everything was.  We also stopped by the Toyota Prius tent that was giving out free Lolla bandannas that they had soaking in cold water.  We also got some fanny packs from the Play Room by Google Play.  Our Friday line-up included: Blind Pilot, Die Antwoord, The Shins, Dev, Black Sabbath, Bassnectar.

Saturday: Saturday we only got one band in before we were evacuated.  Going to Lolla we knew it was gonna be super hot because just walking to the train it was almost unbearable. We got to the park and went straight to the stage Doomtree was playing at. It was a lot of fun, but with the heat from the sun and body heat from all the people it was crazy hot.  On our way to the next band we saw some dark clouds building and everyone was saying how it looked like it could rain.  We actually said how we wouldn't mind it because it would really help cool things off. We then heard the announcement from the nearest stage that we needed to evacuate and shortly after got a message from the Lolla app.  We decided to make the best of it and head to the nearest bar.



As soon as we got word it was back on, we headed back.  Because of the rain the schedule changed to fit as many of the bands in as possible.  The grounds were soaked, but we got to see almost all the bands we wanted to see.  During a little break we had we decided to stop at the Sony Electrolounge, where they were having a limbo contest to give away a pair of their DJ on the Go headphones.  Guess who won?!  Our Saturday line-up included: Doomtree, Fun., Franz Ferdinand, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Avici, Santigold.

Sunday:  Sunday before we headed into Lolla, Justin and I decided to get some food outside the park.  We stopped at Epic Burger, just over a block from the park.  It was a little slower than we had expected, but their burgers were so fresh and delicious. Plus they had Wisconsin cheese! We tried to meet up with our friends that only had Sunday tickets, but with the amount of people and the size of the venue it was almost impossible.  Our Sunday line-up included: Nadastrom, Sigur Ros, At the Drive-in, Miike Snow, Justice, Childish Gambino.

My top three performances of the weekend:

1. Miike Snow

We were so excited to be front row! They way they organized the music they played was absolutely perfect.  They started with the song "The Wave" from their newest album, Happy to You and it crescendoed from there.  They played the perfect mix of music from their newest album and their first album.  Miike Snow ended the show with one of their "slower" songs, "Black Tin Box."
 set list

2. Sigur Ros

Sigur Ros was everything I expected.  We got to them early so we could get close. We ended up being a few people from the front, on stage right. It was amazing to be so close and hear a band I love to just listen to and relax.  Everyone in the crowd seemed to just take in the amazing music they make.  

set list

3. Die Antwoord

I do have to thank my co-worker for introducing me to this South African rap-rave group.  If it wasn't for him, I may have never gone to such a fun, crazy show.  The entire crowd was jumping around and jamming to the music.  Die Antwoord was one of the only groups we saw that did an encore at the end of their set. 

set list

For a complete list of artists that were at Lolla visit this page.

Owl salt and pepper shakers

For anyone who knows me well, they know I love owls. I've been wanting some owl salt and pepper shakers and have never been able to find some that I loved.  So when I opened a birthday present from my parents I was so surprised to find these two super cute owls.

One of my favorite blogs that is everything owls: cute hoots. Everything they post is owl related things and where to get them.  So many cute owl things!

black and white photography

Finally getting up the black and white photos I took on my Pentax K1000.  This was my first time using black and white film on a manual. So theses were some of the ones I liked the most.  Locations: Olbrich Gardens, the cabin, Pope Farm Park, and the Wisconsin State Capitol.
Let me know what you think. I'm always down to hear what people have to say.

weekend in photos 4/13-4/15

This weekend Justin and I went to Bassnectar and met up with friends. It was so awesome. Didn't really know what to expect going other than That it was going to be crazy and it was. It was so much fun!

Saturday it was gorgeous out so we visited Olbrich gardens. It was so nice to walk around and enjoy the weather all with the smell of flowers filling the air.

weekend in photos 4/6-4/8

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend!  I spent the weekend at the cabin with my family [minus my sister :(].  We enjoyed kayaking, learned to play Talisman, ate delicious food, dyed Easter eggs, and relaxed.  Sunday was spent with the rest of my family at my Aunt and Uncle's, which involved even more delicious food.

Music Monday: Gotye

I heard this song while out with some friends this weekend and loved it. I'm a sucker for music videos and stop motion so I fell in love with this one as soon as I saw it.  The whole video isn't stop motion, but it's still pretty sweet. I find his other videos just as fun and entertaining.

Gotye (pronounced "Gor-tee-yeah"), real name Wouter "Wally" De Backer, is a Belgian-Australian multi-instrumental musician and singer-songwriter. You can check out more about him here and watch more of his music videos here

Earth Hour

Earth  hour started in 2007 in Sydney and has grown to a global event as a symbol of hope and a movement for change.  Last year was the largest voluntary action reaching 1.8 BILLION people in 135 different countries and territories. 

You can be involved to! All you have to do is turn out your lights for 1 hour starting at 8:30p.m. and if you feel like doing more you can create your own challenges or help others here.

craftgawker

If you love crafts or just want to be inspired to create something yourself, craftgawker is fantastic! There are so many unique and fun craft ideas posted on the site from other craft lovers.

Ideas for things such as:

• hair
• jewelry 
• paper
• sewing
• decorating
• and many more

Weekend in Photos 3/23-3/25

Spent the weekend wandering. We hit up downtown and the east side Saturday. Sunday a spontaneous trip to Devil's Lake lead to a difficult, yet fun hike that was well worth the views. Got a lot of use out of my Pentax this weekend, so I can't wait to get those developed.