Bluegrass

On June 27, Steel Magnolia debuted their new song, "Without You", on Jimmy Kimmel Live.  Awesome song....loved it!  They make beautiful music together.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9G5KeMQBPc

To, through, and around Lake Tahoe

All I have got to say is...oh my gosh...what a trip!  In my opinion, Lake Tahoe is God's Country.  It is the largest alpine lake in North America and it is breathtakingly beautiful.  I went to Lake Tahoe the first week in September, over and around Labor Day Weekend.  It was about 75 degrees and sunny.  I am not a cold weather person so for me this was the perfect weather.  We wore tees, shorts, and flip flops.  It was very casual, slow-paced, and relaxing, the entire trip.  I want to take you to some of the places we went to in and around Lake Tahoe.

Going around the lake...first up is Tahoe City.  Tahoe City is a quaint little town of South Lake Tahoe, California.  It's about 1 mile end-to-end and full of unique little shops and boutiques (this is where I bought my Teva sandals that I think I wore most of the trip).  Tahoe City is home to Chamber's Landing Bar and Grill, the oldest bar on Lake Tahoe.  The Chamber's Landing restaurant is actually on the shore of Lake Tahoe but their bar is in a very cool shack at the end of a long pier.  The bar has casual food like hamburgers and hot dogs as well as their famous Chambers Punch.  And if you happen to be out boating around on the lake, you can just dock up and have a little shnack and some punch and then be on your way!  And their punch...I must say it is very, very tasty and refreshing.  That was just the first of our "punches" as we cruised around the lake.  ;)


Next up...Truckee, California.  Truckee is so cool.  It is a charming little mountain town located in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California (just west of the Nevada state line).  Truckee is full of adventure for the sports enthusiast...white water rafting, canoeing, kayaking, mountain climbing, very outdoorsy!  The Truckee River flows through the mountains to Truckee and then on through Reno and Sparks in Nevada.  The river is about 120 miles long and is the sole outlet of Lake Tahoe.  We stopped at a small restaurant that overlooked the Truckee River.  We sat at one of their outdoor tables, had a little lunch and more punch and watched people rafting and canoeing on the river.

                                          Truckee River

And then we traveled on to...Carnelian Bay, CA (on the north shore of Lake Tahoe).  We stopped at Gar Wood's Grill and Pier Restaurant, www.prestonworks.com/Garwoods.html, an awesome restaurant (great food and ambience) and one of the more popular restaurants on the north shore.  We had a few shnacks and some more punch on their large deck as we watched boats pull up to the restaurant's pier only to pick up some take out!  What a life!  We had a blast just chillin.  Gar Wood's is just the perfect place!  Don't miss it if you are at Lake Tahoe.

                                                Carnelian Bay

                    

                                   Driving near Carnelian Bay




Lake Tahoe is a special place.  It is a gorgeous serene lake surrounded by mountains and thick strands of giant pines, sequoias, firs, aspens...  It's like a little bit of heaven on earth.  So, if you have never been to Lake Tahoe and you get the chance to go, GO.  You will love it.  It was one of the best trips I have taken.  And I'm so looking forward to going back!



Make your heart smile

Do at least one thing everyday to make your heart smile.





Marissa Mayer and Googol

“Martha Stewart Presents:  Women with Vision"

 Premiering Monday, July 18

On the Hallmark Channel, on Monday, July 18, Martha Stewart will be interviewing Marissa Mayer - Google's Vice President of Consumer Products - the youngest woman to make Fortune’s ‘Top 50 Most Powerful Women in the World’’ list.  Marissa will talk about Google’s infamous homepage design and name, as well as give a glimpse into her personal life and her love of baking.

Marissa Mayer on how Google’s homepage graphic was created:

MS:  Now, that homepage when you go to Google, it’s very clean, a very white page with that nice neat box, and those primary colored letters ‘Google.’  How did that come about?

MM:  I asked Sergey this question, because Sergey did the original design of the homepage.  I said, “Sergey, is this a statement for minimalism, you know, what were you trying to convey?”  And his answer was, “We didn’t have a webmaster and I don’t do HTML.” And so basically we kind of stumbled into our signature look.

MS:  And it’s a silly name if you think about it, but it actually stands for something very un-silly.

MM:  Well it stands for a number, which is 10 to the 100.  And so when Larry and Sergey were looking for a name for the company, they wanted something short, six letters or less.  The number is spelled G-O-O-G-O-L.

MS:  Googol.

MM:  But the funny thing is that Larry and Sergey are terrible spellers.  I mean they spelled and it wasn’t taken, so they were like, ‘Great! We found it, and that’s how much information we want to organize.”… That’s great, but you misspelled it.



Believe in Your Heart

                                         

Believe in your heart that something wonderful is about to happen.

Love your life.

Believe in your powers and your own potential, and in your own inate goodness.

Wake every morning with the awe of just being alive.

Discover each day the magnificent awesome beauty in the world.

Explore and embrace life in yourself and in everyone you see each day.

Reach within to find your own specialness.

Amaze yourself and those around you to the potential of each new day.

Don't be afraid to admit you are less than perfect;

This is the essence of your humanity.

Let those who love you help you.

Trust enough to be able to take.

Look with hope to the new horizon of today, for today is all we truly have.

Live this day well.

Let a little sun out as well as in.

Create your own rainbows.

Be open to all your possibilities;

All possibilities and miracles.

Always believe in miracles....

                                                                     Author Unknown

Baby Shower Bliss

Click on invitation to enlarge

Colorful fun fabric....

Just have to say that I'm lovin this fabric!  It's so colorful and fun.  Love the colors as well as the creamy white background.  I think I'm drawn to this fabric because it reminds me of a garden.  It's not inexpensive fabric so I may just have to use it as inspiration.  What do you think?  You like?

STOP the Junk!

I don't know about you but I hate getting junk mail.  I'd say I throw away a minimum of 90% of my mail everyday.  A lot of it I don't even open!  Here are a few statistics:

* The average American household receives unsolicited junk mail equal to 1.5 trees every year - more than 100 million trees for all U.S. households combined.

* 44 percent of junk mail is thrown away unopened, but only half that much junk mail (22 percent) is recycled.

* Americans pay $370 million annually to dispose of junk mail that doesn't get recycled.

* On average,  Americans spend 8 months opening junk mail in the course of their lives.

So let's get on a STOP the Junk Campaign!  If you’re interested in living a more eco-friendly lifestyle, here’s something you can do that will help protect the environment and preserve your sanity: reduce the amount of junk mail you receive by 90 percent.

Start by registering with the Mail Preference Service of the Direct Marketing Association (http://www.dmachoice.org/).

You can also go to http://www.optoutprescreen.com/, which can enable you to remove your name from lists that mortgage, credit card, and insurance companies use to mail you offers and solicitations.  It is a centralized website run by the four major credit card bureaus in the United States:  Equifax, Experian, Innovis, andTransUnion.

Keep the junk mail out of your mailbox and out of the landfill.  Jump on the STOP the Junk Campaign!

A Crush on You ;)

I love Hallmark movies!  Well, at least most of them.  And there is one coming up that I'm looking forward to watching.  A Crush on You ;) airs Saturday, June 11th, on the Hallmark Channel.  Yep, lookin forward to it!  I hope I'm not dissapointed!  Here's some pics from the movie:

Margarita Time

Razzmatazz Margarita

¼ cup Tequila

2 tbsp Cointreau

2 ounces roasted raspberry chipotle sauce

Juice of 1 large lime

1 cup crushed ice

2 lime wedges

Raw sugar on a flat plate

Combine all ingredients except lime wedges and raw sugar in blender; puree until slushy.  Moisten the rims of two large margarita glasses with the lime wedges.  Dip the moistened rims into the raw sugar to make a thin edge of sugar on the rim of the glass.  Carefully pour in the margaritas, taking care not to disturb the sugar on the rim.  Place the lime wedges on glass rim and serve.

Makes 2 drinks.

Nothing like an ice chilled margarita on a hot summer day.  Cheers!

Life's Little Joys

One of my favorite websites is called 1000awesomethings.com. It was started by a guy in Canada. He was going through a rough patch. His best friend had just taken his own life, his wife had suddenly left him, and he was looking for reasons to be positive. So, he sat down at his computer, and started to make a list of all the awesome things in the world. He soon came up with a list of 1,000 things.  Here's a few:

#267  Car dancing
#366  Little kids showing you their muscles
#472  Finishing your last exam
#495  When it suddenly just clicks
#526  When dreams come true
#538  Laughing so hard you start crying
#588  Tossing garbage in the trash can from far away
#643  The sound of steaks hitting a hot grill
#647  When batteries are included
#921  Snow days

 

Creating Invitations

One of the things I enjoy doing is creating party invitations.  Guess it brings out the creative side of me....  Here's an invitation I created recently.

Giving Back

I feel so blessed and fortunate that I was born to wonderful parents and had a great family life.  I am also very grateful that I was born in the United States of America, the land of opportunity and freedom.  So many in this world are not so blessed and fortunate.

Volunteering is a great way to give back.  For the past few years, I have worked at PepsiCo's Bowl For Kids' Sake (BFKS) in Plano, TX.  BFKS is Big Brothers Big Sisters' (http://www.bbbs.org/) largest national fundraiser, raising over $20 million annually for children in need across the country.  I also help out with the Great American Bake Sale at PepsiCo.  Share Our Strength's Great American Bake Sale (http://www.strength.org/) is an organization which helps to end childhood hunger.  Nearly 1 in 4 kids in America faces hunger.  Last year, the Great American Bake Sales across America raised 1 million dollars.

If you haven't already, I encourage you to sign up to volunteer and help out a charity or organization.  There are tons of charities and organizations out there that could use your support!  Besides that, it will make you feel super good about yourself.

The BEST Lemon Cake!

A lemon cake...so moist and the refreshing lemon taste is perfect on a summer day.

It is delicious and so easy to make!

All you have to do is combine and mix the following ingredients:

1 package of lemon cake mix

1 package of lemon gelatin

¾ C. water

4 eggs

¼ tsp. salt

Then pour the mixture into a greased bundt pan and bake it at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.

Then prepare the glaze for when the cake comes out of the oven.

To make the glaze, stir together the following ingredients:

1 cup + 2 tbsp sifted powdered confectioner sugar

Juice & grated rhyne of 1 lemon

Let the cake cool a bit before gently drizzling the glaze over the cake.

Enjoy!