HAVE YOU HEARD OF

DAVID RAMIREZ?

We were invited to a house show a couple weeks ago. I had never heard of the guy but decided to go. I almost didn’t go; I was working on a project (you’ll see soon). Dave left and then came back in because he forgot to grab cash. This is when I decided to go again, and I am so glad.

A few dozen of us piled into the living room of an old house. I took a seat on the stairs. We were met with this smokey voice that immediately held my attention. I was so struck by his emotive song writing and melodies. My mouth hung low, wondering why I hadn’t heard of him before.

For a while, I closed my eyes and imagined with him, trying not to get teary-eyed because I didn’t know most of the people in the room.

Being in the setting that we were, we had time to ask David questions and chat. I got to learn which songs he doesn’t really like to sing anymore, what he thinks about the ocean, what parts of the country are his favorite to travel to, and some of the stories of how he wrote certain songs. It was such a lovely evening.

Give him a listen.

 

HOMEWORK

We had a FUN night. We are apart of the ministering prayer team at our church. We meet formally once a month, and each month we receive “homework”. It usually involves spending a certain amount of time with God, reporting on an article, etc. This month our assignment was to have fun and act childlike. We all did different things throughout our month, some did several things, some picked just one. Dave went storm chasing, bought a record, I bought a wire basket for no reason other than I wanted it :), rearranged furniture in the middle of the night, you get the idea. Some people may have even tee-peed our pastor’s house.

To top it all off, tonight was our once a month meeting. About an hour and a half before the start time, we received a text message telling us we’ll be meeting at a different address. We spent the evening with friends in the junkiest of movie theaters Des Moines has to offer, catching popcorn in our mouths and laughing loudly while we watched The Lorax (ok, maybe I teared up a little in there too). Afterwards, we stopped for ice cream.

If you haven’t for a while, will you do something just for fun as well? Maybe get a manicure, roll down a hill, laugh and don’t try to stop, eat candy for breakfast, wear mis-matched socks, buy something you wouldn’t normally buy yourself, you get the idea. I’d love to hear what you do :)

Mariah

CLOUDS

I mentioned yesterday it had been stormy. What I didn’t mention was that Dave and some friends took off around noon to do some storm chasing on Saturday! They were gone most of the rest of the day, even while things were getting crazy around here.

Dave uploaded this short time lapse of some clouds while they were out. Powerful.

 

STRAWBERRY BANANA PICK ME UP

Well, hello there!

I know, what a stranger I’ve been. I have all kinds of things planned for sharing, but we have been busy! I don’t think things will be slowing down for a few weeks. I feel too guilty to blog when I have paid work to be doing :) So that is that. Hopefully, I’ll get some guilt-free time to catch you all up on that past couple of weeks.

In other news, there was a huge storm here the other night. There is still debris all over the road and tree trunks and branches on the curbs in our neighborhood. We’ve been hearing a lot of chain-sawing as neighbors work to clear up their yards. Our neighbors across the street have some decent damage to their home from 200+ year old oak tree branches. There are a couple of cars that were smooshed, and so much else. I feel badly for all of my friends with water in their basements or broken windows.

There has been a lot of rain and a lot of dreary weather. I do like rainy days, but we’ve had so many, it’s hard not to be tired and lazy. I decided a deserved a little something to pick me up.

Here’s my recipe for a super thick smoothie. I’m not really sure this is a smoothie anymore; we are out of milk, so I “had” to enjoy this with a spoon. It feels even more like dessert with a spoon :)

1 frozen banana
1/2 cup sliced frozen strawberries
1/2 cup homemade yogurt
you could stop there, but feel free to add any stevia or honey, chia or flaxseeds if you like (I like)

Blend it on up, and enjoy!

 

 

The New Shipment

I briefly mentioned before that we are selling cameras on Etsy. Each one requires a good bit of clean up, and then Dave works his magic soldering on new custom-designed battery packs. He has been talking about doing this for a few years, but the big push came when he brought home a camera that I deemed out of our thrifting budget. I told him he could only keep it if it could make X amount of dollars. Well, he did.

I love that all of these cameras we’ve shelved for so long have been shipping out, but that has only encouraged him to obtain more, haha. Well, I can think of worse hobbies. So far the shop has only housed Polaroid Land Cameras, but he some different models he’ll be adding eventually.

If you don’t care about the cameras, no problem. Just enjoy some film from some of our favorite road trips :) Don’t you feel fully alive when you hit the open road and see where it takes you? We’ll be packing up to catch a friend’s big week on the east coast with our good friend Seth in May. Can’t wait :)

Recipe: Cookie Dough Truffles

Well folks, this one has been mentally catalogued for a while. And though they are thoroughly delicious and a cinch to whip up, I not-so-secretly long for peanut butter instead. Oops.

But that doesn’t mean they aren’t worth sharing! Somebody out there might just be a cookie dough fiend! I haven’t tried it yet, but I think this would be pretty tasty squashed up in some vanilla ice cream. Give it a shot. Let me know.

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DOUGH TRUFFLES
Adapted from Love and Olive Oil via Vanilla & Lace 

Yield 3-4 Dozen (I only made a half batch however)

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup milk of your choice
1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips (I had regular sized chips and just ran my knife through them quickly)
14 oz dark chocolate candy coating

METHOD
Beat butter and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add milk and vanilla. Mix in flour, salt, and baking soda on low speed until incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips.

Cover dough and refrigerate until firm (about 1 hour).

Form dough into 1 inch balls (or size of your choice) and place onto baking sheet lined with waxed paper

Chill in freezer for 30 minutes.

Towards the end of freezer time, prepare your chocolate coating. (Chocolate candy coating or Almond bark is recommended, but chocolate chips work too.) Melt in double boiler or in microwave according to directions. Dip/roll chilled balls to coat with forks or dipping tool, tapping the side of bowl or pan to remove excess coating. Return to baking sheet and allow to set.  Store chilled in an airtight container for up to 1 week. Enjoy!

 

 

Filling in the blank

I’m sorry, friends, that I kind of took a vacation from the blog. It would be a nice goal to have a couple of posts planned for each week. Yep, a nice goal. But I don’t want this space to become a burden to up keep. It’s original intent was merely correspondence. It has maybe grown into more of a desire to share life’s happenings with whomever wants to read it. But still, if I’m not on here, it’s probably because I need to be away. (If you don’t already have a way of chronicling your blogs, I recommend Bloglovin’ or Google Reader. They’ll let you know when I post -or anyone else- so you don’t have a growing hatred for me if ever I go three weeks without posting again and you check everyday. Just sayin’ ;-)

In terms of filling you in on the past few weeks, where to even begin, right? I’ve made some yummy food, and some days, I didn’t. Sometimes we eat a lot of pizza because it’s probably my favorite, and it never feels difficult. Have you ever been really tired and didn’t want to make dinner for your ol’ huzbo? I have been sick and now worn down for just under a week. One night in particular, Dave so badly wanted sesame chicken, and I just couldn’t bring myself to thinly slice all of four chicken breasts. It seemed like too much work. Now pasta with meat sauce, for some reason, that seemed like a much easier task. That I could do at 9 o’clock at night. (It was late because we planted our garden  and then had to clean ourselves up.) Alas, he started slicing, and we indeed had sesame chicken.

Oh yes, so the garden has been planted! It’s early. And it’s a risk. It has been so nice here, we have been tempted with the idea of one extra month of fresh garden yummies.

While my little brother was on spring break, he taught me how to disc golf. I’m not great, but it was fun.

We still haven’t done our taxes.

I’ve drug both my keyboard and bass out. I keep catching hints that maybe I should be playing again.

Dave has been on so many video shoots lately. One landed us in Kansas City for the better part of a day. If you didn’t know, I lived there for a short bit while I interned at a missions base. I always love getting back there. I hung out in the prayer room for a bit in the morning, and spent the afternoon weathering the rain at one of my favorite parks reading. It was pure joy.

There are so many more excerpts I could add, but let me close by telling you about St. Patrick’s Day. We never get too much into holidays, big or small, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t invited to amazing celebrations. My friend Allison invited us over for lunch. She prepared a meal of corned beef with cabbage and red potatoes and strawberry shortcake for dessert. The boys hoisted furniture, while we caravanned the dinnerware and entrees to the mews beside her building. It felt festive and glorious. There is no other way to celebrate this holiday, than breaking bread with friends in the fresh air.

There you have it.

CREATING (MESSES)

Walking around the apartment this morning, I’m questioning whether or not there were crafty little mice roaming about while we were sleeping. There are projects everywhere! I’ve been having the itch to clean and organize as well as create, and our apartment reflects that. By that I mean that there are cleaning supplies out, things in the process of being organized so really just piles of mess about, and sketch books, yarn, and paint hanging around waiting for me. Dave apparently has had the itch to… something as well. His mess includes soldering equipment, polaroids, business card photography, packaging supplies (we’re sellling cameras over here!), and a lot of trash. Hopefully we can remedy this today!

In less chaotic news, while searching for some typographical inspiration, I found these beautes.

source 1, 2, 3

HAPPY BIRTHDAY M + H!

I am always impressed by the creativity and skill that consumes every member of Dave’s family. They are just neat people. Let’s talk about our nieces’ birthday. The girls’ birthdays are five days apart so we usually celebrate them together. Their birthday lists included things like a pony, a pet butterfly, a violin, and strawberries. So what are we to do? I don’t believe there has been a birthday or a Christmas where handmade things weren’t gifted. Here is another year, and I’m impressed. One aunt hand crafted a special photo book chronicling sweet memories of them together from all their years of life. There were even a few blank pages for them to create together. The girls loved it. I could have cried :) Mom and Dad made the girls each a different piece of furniture for their dolls, a picnic table for the older one, and bunk beds for the younger (she has twin dolls, you know). Grandma and Grandpa made a campfire(!) as well as some wooden block clompers (these are like mini stilts). It was awesome to see the love behind it all, and the girls had so much fun.