Take a compliment, would ya?

I don’t know if it’s just me, but when it comes to my French horn playing, I literally cannot take compliments. Ever. From anyone. People always come up to me after concerts and tell me how nice I sounded and what a great job I did, and I’m just sitting there thinking “Are you kidding me? My tone was awful, I botched about 7 notes in the first song, I have no dynamic contrast,” etc, etc, etc. Of course, my mother raised me to always say Thank You when people give me a compliment, so I do so begrudgingly, smile at them, and at least try to look pleased about my performance.

I know absolutely nothing about athletics because I could not play any sort of sport if my life depended on it, so compliments might be really hard for them to take as well. I am fuh-reaking hard on myself when it comes to playing my horn, and if my performance or practicing is not as good as I think it could be, I beat myself up about it for at least 3 hours. Take this morning for instance. Got to Edson about 7:40 and practiced until about 10 minutes ago, and it SUCKED. I’m talking Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII (no idea what number that is so sorry) sucked. I had terrible tone, I couldn’t play high notes worth crap, nothing about that practice session was good. I get the exact same way if a performance doesn’t go well. The funny thing is, even when I do things well, I still don’t give myself nearly enough credit for it. Which leads us into the whole point of this blog post: how am I supposed to take a compliment from other people when I can’t even compliment myself when I play something relatively decently? I think it’s time to take a step back and start giving myself some credit when I don’t suck. Maybe I also need to learn not to beat myself up so much when I don’t play as well as I think I can, but instead think of some constructive criticism to write down in my practice journal so I can refer to it the next time I sit down to practice. AND if I learn not to be so hard on myself, maybe learning to take a compliment won’t be so bad. I mean, I need to learn to take one now because otherwise life as a teacher with a band program is going to be a little bit…TRICKY. Cue the Run-DMC music video. Talk to you guys later. 

3.1415... oh wait, wrong Pie!

I know what you are thinking. "Another dessert recipe, Kels? When are you going to make some food that isn't terribly bad for you??" WELL, to answer your question, probably NEVER, because as I have mentioned way too damn many times before, I LOVE SWEETS. The featured dessert of this post is pie. Pie has a stigma of being super American and awesome, and it's easy to see why. Who couldn't love a bunch of sugary fruit tucked away in a lard-filled, flaky crust?? The superior grocery store in town happened to have blueberries on sale last week,  thus Mom and I decided that a blueberry pie was necessary. (Side note: When I say the superior grocery store, I am obviously referring to Fareway. I'm not sure if this is Midwestern thing or not, but people generally tend to show strong loyalty to either Fareway or HyVee. I have to be honest and admit that we do shop at HyVee, but only on Sundays or after 9:00 PM because Fareway is closed at those times. But seriously though, FAREWAY FOREVER!) Back to the main topic. The making of the delicious blueberry pie was a three man effort. My wonderfully awesome Mama Struck made the filling, which will be linked below.

 I made the "Dutch" topping, which is your basic combination of flour, brown sugar, white sugar, and butter. You can probably find it on the internet somewhere but I just used one from an apple pie recipe in a cookbook. It's literally my favorite part of the pie besides the crust.

 The crust was made by our wonderful friend Mr. Pillsbury, because let's be honest, making pie crust is hard work, and.....

So yeah I guess most of the credit goes to Mom because she took the Pillsbury pie crust out of the box and made it look all fancy like.

Then you pretty much make it like a normal pie. I have no idea how long it baked, but I would be willing to assume that it was somewhere in the 20 minute range. Then you let the delicious concoction cool and eat it with Vanilla Ice Cream. That detail is very important, and must NOT be skipped.

So yes, that was our Friday night adventure in making a blueberry pie. Here is your before-promised link for the pie filling:

http://pies.tastycookingrecipes.com/perfect-blueberry-pie-filling/

Gee, making this pie and blogging about it was such a ..... thrill!! Hahahaha, I love lame joke references. And since I made the lame joke reference, I have no choice but to link a video of the wonderful "Blueberry Hill" by Fats Domino. Stay classy! 

I have seen the Promised Land!

I've said it before, and I'm going to say it again right now. I love sweets. I'm only somewhat picky when it comes to what kind of sweets I like, but anything containing chocolate and peanut butter are going to rank above pretty much anything else. Therefore, when Mom decided to make these bars on the evening of the 4th of July after a full day of park food, concerts, and parade-ing, I was game for it. When I tasted these bars, I was pretty sure I had died and gone to Heaven. They were fuh-reaking AMAZING. Every element of these bars is good, and when you put all of those elements together, they work together in perfect harmony (kind of like Ebony and Ivory; heh!) to make something super delicious and fantastic. Before I do a nice little "picture and description" type thing of the baking process, here is the link to the recipe. You are going to want this because after seeing the pictures, you are going to have to make these bars. Not want to, have to!
http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/chocolate-peanut-butter-bars-224957/
Now for the fun "picture and description!"
The crust is a simple brown sugar oatmeal crust. This stuff in and of itself is delicious, and I kept sneaking little bites from the mixing bowl when Mom wasn't looking. But my real favorite stuff was the peanut butter concoction.

Anything with sweetened condensed milk is bound to be good, because I am convinced that sweetened condensed milk is indeed the nectar of the Gods. But mix it with peanut butter, which is one of my favorite foods, and it turns into liquid Jesus himself.

Then you layer this delicious liquid Jesus on top of your amazing crust, and top it with CHOCOLATE! You didn't think it could get any better, did you??? Well it did, because then you chop up a flipping REESE'S PEANUT BUTTER CUP and add that on top of the amazing also! These things are just too good to be true.

Top these suckers off with some reserved brown sugar crust topping, and you literally have bars that will make you think you have died and gone to Heaven.

These things are the bomb, and I will definitely be making them again in the future
I will be doing several posts this week, as I have been baking a lot recently, and getting some items crossed off my summer bucket list, so be looking for those posts. Stay classy!

Melted Crayon Art ~ Summer Bucket List 2014

Right towards the end of the school year, I came up with a summer bucket list of fun things I wanted to do when I wasn't working or driving to musical practice. One of the things I have wanted to do for awhile is make a melted crayon art piece, and that was the first thing I am able to cross off of my summer bucket list. I took lots of photos to document my process!

I knew right away that I wanted to do something with a stencil, so my first step was to find that stencil. Since music is pretty much my life, I decided that the most obvious stencil for me to use would be music notes. I made it as big as I wanted it then printed it out.

I bought my canvases at Hobby Lobby, but you can get them at any craft store or Walmart. I put my stencil in the back of my canvas and taped it down once I got it placed where I wanted it. It's necessary to have a light shining through the back of the canvas so it is easy to trace your stencil. I traced with pencil, making sure to press a little firmer so the lines were very visible!

 

After tracing my stencil with pencil (hey, I'm a poet!) I traced the outline with a regular Sharpie so I would see it more clearly when coloring with my paint marker. I got my paint marker in the craft section of Walmart. They come in several colors besides black so you could use any color you desire for your art. I followed the directions on the package for getting the paint to flow in the marker, but after that process was done, I simply "colored" with it like you would a regular marker.

After the "paint" was dry, the next step in the process was to glue the crayons down. I decided to glue them down in rainbow order with the brand of the crayon facing up. A little bit of hot glue on the back and a slightly firm press on the canvas will do the trick!

The next part of the process was covering the music notes. I didn't REALLY want any melted crayon on the music notes, so I covered the stencil in blue painter's tape. I read on Pinterest that this was the best way to make sure that your stencil wouldn't get any crayon on it.

Per my mother's request, I set up my melting station on the front step. I placed my canvas in a 97 cent plastic paint tray (also from the wonderful Walmart) to catch the flying drips of melting crayon. Then I went to work. I used the highest setting on my hair dryer and just moved it over the crayons (I first aimed at the "Roseart" to get the crayons melting, then aimed more towards the tips as they began to drip.) As the drips are falling, you can sort of "chase them" with your hair dryer to get them to move the opposite direction or further down the canvas. I ran into a problem with my painter's tape covering the stencil. The heat from the hair dryer caused the tape to curl. I honestly have no idea how old this tape was (I found it in my basement) so I wasn't too surprised when it didn't work. Instead of freaking out, I just decided that I kind of liked the wax running down over the music notes, so I peeled the tape off and melted some more wax down on the stencil!

This was my finished project. Total time was only about 2 hours! I used cheaper crayons that were really runny, so when I make my second one I will probably use better quality crayons so the wax doesn't look as runny!

I think the art work makes a nice edition to my "album wall." It draws attention to the kick-ass albums that are covering the wall above it!












So, I have one thing off my bucket list down, only about 20 more to go. Bring it on!
Stay classy folks, and thanks for reading!

Not my Grandma Struck's Carrot Cake

I love desserts. I love sweets. This is not something that is new. But, for as long as I can remember, I have been haunted by the idea of carrot cake. Just hearing the words "carrot cake" conjured up awful memories of my Grandma Struck's version of the dessert. (Before I continue with the story, I need to make a disclaimer. My Grandma Struck made a ton of delicious things that I absolutely loved, but these were not one of them.) My Grandma Struck's carrot cake was full of giant, huge chunks of carrots and an overabundance of nutmeg and cloves. I thought it was the most disgusting dessert ever, and because of that, I have not eaten anyin my 20 years upon this earth. However, while talking to my mom one day (how we got to talking about carrot cake is beyond me,) she mentioned that my Grandma Graham used to make carrot cake with baby food carrots, so the chunks of real carrots would not present an issue to me. I am awful when it comes to textures of food, and the reason for me not liking a lot of foods is because of the texture. I decided to try making carrot cake with baby food and see if my problem with carrot cake was indeed the texture of Grandma Struck's, or if I just thought they were plain disgusting. Upon tasting the batter before pouring it into the pan to bake (I am extremely guilty of doing this before baking, but if I was going to die of salmonella I would be dead by now so I don't think it's as big of a deal as people try to make it seem) things were not looking good for this carrot cake. The taste was overwhelmingly carrot-y (not sure that is a word, but it's my blog so I do what I want.) I figured that my mom and sister would eat them, and I could find some friends that would take them off of my hands if I ended up not liking them. We baked them and frosted them with cream cheese frosting, and Mom loved them. I stole a corner of hers because I did not want to take a whole bar if I was going to find them utterly disgusting, but they were actually pretty good. The only spice I put in was cinnamon, and I think it could have been a little bit more. The carrot taste baked out overall, and it is a more subtle carrot flavor that works well with the cinnamon. So the verdict is in: it was indeed the unpleasant texture of my Grandma Struck's carrot cake that had turned me off on this dessert for most of my life. One Pinterest recipe down for the summer, a lot more to go.
Recipe Link: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/carrot-cake-bars

Stay classy!

Crocheting Update

As I am sitting here reading through my blogs from last summer, I ran across the entry where I told you all I was starting my first afghan project. This is an extremely overdue update, but I have since FINISHED that afghan! I finished my Mile a Minute afghan on New Year's Day. For me, it was more like a Mile a Month, but I digress. Making that afghan has corrupted me for the better, because now all I want to do is crochet afghans. I am working on 2 other afghans currently, a shell afghan that is a similar pattern to an afghan my Grandma Inez made me before she passed away, and the other is a Granny Square afghan that I hope will fit a queen sized bed when I am done. My goal for the summer is to finish my Granny Square afghan. The other one is worked as one piece and it gets really hot and humid in Iowa in the summer, so I will not work on that as much. Granny squares also take about 20 minutes to make a piece, so I can get a lot more of them done when I sit down to watch an hour long TV program or a movie. So, without further ado, my very first afghan!

Here is the picture my mom posted of me after I finished my afghan. No doubt she was pretty proud that I finally figured out to make something besides Hipster hats and scarves.

This is my afghan all laid out. The panels were done in four  steps: the inside shells, the first green border, a white border, and a final green border. After completing that with all nine panels, I whip-stitched them together

This is the book my afghan pattern came from (I never post photos of my projects without a link to the pattern it came from.) Mom bought this book at Walmart a few years back, and I have taken it hostage from her. There are several other patterns in this book I would like to try, but some of them are still a little difficult for someone who has only been crocheting about a year and a half. I also need to finish my other two before I embark on another one!

I plan on doing lots of crocheting and other crafting projects this summer, so stay tuned to see what I am making. I also plan on baking a lot of the recipes that are sitting on my Pinterest boards, so I will blog about those as well (the good ones AND  the bad ones.) 

Stay classy readers!

Get mad if you want, I really don't care.

This one is going out to all  the family members and anyone else in the world who thinks I'm a little bitch for posting mean things about my dad on Facebook. Let me give you a glance into my life the last year and then you can determine that I'm not being bitchy, I'm just being realistic.
Background: My senior year of high school, my dad developed epilepsy. We aren't sure what  caused it or why it started to develop then, but all it has done is take my family's life and put it on a downward slope towards hell.
He has not worked in close to a year (I've honestly lost track but it's been a damn long time), and due to his lack of a job right now, he sits. At home every day, all day in front of the TV, doing nothing to contribute to the welfare of the house or the family for that matter.
My mom works full time, and I work two jobs plus go to school, yet it is up to us to figure out the bills, buy the groceries, cook the meals, clean the house, and do the laundry. My sister will do things when she is told what to do, but my dad continues to just sit. Notice a theme here?
Then when my dad did win a bid for a job, and it didn't work out, he lied to my uncles about working, and now they don't even talk to me. I went from seeing my aunt and uncle in town almost every weekend to never even hearing from  them because of something my dad did. Not very fair to my mom, sister, and I huh? But does he care, no. Because if he did care, he would do something about it. He would apologize to my uncles, or tell them not to stop seeing my sister, my mom, and I because he chose to lie to them.
Is it his fault he got epilepsy? No. Is it his fault Tyson is being screwy about finding him a job? No. But, he has all the capabilities to do things to help around this house and not sit 24/7 watching crappy TV shows. My mom, sister, and I bust our butts to make sure things are done right, and while we are running around sweating and working hard, it wouldn't take you very long to find my dad, sitting in his chair not helping.

Judgement

Matthew 7:1-3
"Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged."
Judgement is an inevitable part of life. We will judge others, others will judge us, end of story. I get so pissed off when I put something on my Facebook or Twitter account and immediately get barraged with comments from friends and family about how "hurtful" I am being and telling me that I am a selfish, smart-ass bitch (although not usually in those words.) I get so mad that I slam doors, cry for hours, then go on a rampage that results in me having about 70 less Facebook friends. My comeback is always "Do not judge me until you live in my life." But the kicker is, I do the exact same thing to people. I am no better than the people that comment on my stuff, heck I might even be worse. Today I finished a J-term class entitled 'Group and Team Communication,' and at one of our first meetings I was the only one who appeared to show up with her speech ready, cue cards written, expecting that were going to run the full presentation a few times and call it a night. Instead, I was met with people who knew what they were going to talk about, but didn't have any idea of how they were going to talk about it. We were only able to run our presentation once in our 2 hour meeting, and it was sub-par at that. Of course, me being the idiot I am, the first thing I do is post on Facebook about being frustrated that I was the only one with anything done. I had no room to judge my group for not having things ready, because I ASSUMED that they had just chosen not to be ready. There could be a million reasons why they came to that meeting being "unprepared" in my mind, but I didn't bother to find out. I just got ticked and posted on Facebook. My group members weren't mad about my post, they merely told me that when I'm frustrated, I should just talk to them, because they care a lot more and they don't want me to be frustrated. I have ruined relationships because of the things I post on Facebook when I am sad, angry, frustrated, whatever the emotion may be. Half of my family won't talk to me because I frequently post about how angry I get at my Dad for sitting at home all day and leaving the housework and everything for my Mom and I who are gone for most of the day (and now they will probably read this blog post and hate me even more.) My first instinct is always to retort back and say "If you lived a day in this house, you would understand my frustration," but I always fail to forget that they have been through tough shit too, a lot tougher than my Dad not contributing to the household in monetary or other ways.  I put myself out there to be judged everytime I post something on those damn websites, and I get so mad when people do in fact judge me, but I do the same thing, both in real life and on social media. Talk about me being a hypocrite.
A new semester is dawning next week, and I am making a vow. When I am sad, angry, frustrated, whether it's with someone in my household or someone from school, the last thing I am going to do is rant all over some god damn social media website about it. So far it's done nothing but make people think I am a selfish, snotty, smart-ass bitch, and I can't blame them for making that judgement. I guess now comes the time for proving to people that I am not what I seem, and the first step is a social media attitude adjustment.