Back Into Blogging!

Well hello again! Somehow 6 months have flown by since I last posted and Gavin and I have been so busy. I know that I have said this before, but I really am trying to get back into the swing of blogging consistently. I have some things coming up that I am pretty excited about! There will be some DIY posts, recaps and Gavin is going to start guest posting.

Here is a quick recap of things that have happened in the last 6 months:

June: CMA Fest was amazing with my parents, Garret (Gavin's twin) and Lynn (one of my very good friends from home) coming out for the whole long weekend. We also went out to California again for one of my dear college friend's wedding in San Luis Obispo. My birthday, our anniversary and a visit from Gavin's sister and her husband were also in the mix of things!

CMA Fest

Meeting Kip Moore

Drinks made by Craig Campbell

Out to dinner for our anniversary

Julia's Bachelorette Party

At the wedding

Dinner at Red Pony for my birthday. Yummmm

July: Was much more low key just being in Nashville. We spent a rainy 4th of July around downtown Nashville and saw The Band Perry for free! Gavin's birthday was the first time he has been apart from his twin Garret on their birthday. I also baked Gavin a 10 pound cake. We took a weekend trip down to Atlanta and stayed with Gavin's Aunt and Uncle. We got to experience some Atlanta originals including Sweet Water Brewing, The Varsity, and Coca-Cola. Gavin also traveled for work to New Jersey and Michigan.

Cake I made for our church 4th of July Picnic

I got to meet Kellie Pickler!

The Band Perry

Sweet Water Brewing

The Varsity

The World of Coca-Cola

August: I got my current job as an AmeriCorps member at the PENCIL Foundation here in Nashville! I am serving in a program called PACE (PENCIL Academic and Career Enrichment) doing an after school program with Metro Middle School Students. We also went to a free Jake Owen concert. Yep, we love Nashville!

Jake Owen Concert

September: Gavin and I visited Danica (Gavin's sister) and her husband in Virginia. We went to an Oregon Ducks football game while we were there as well (GO DUCKS!). Our sweet niece Harper was born on September 10th, just a few days after we left. I started programming with students after school the second week of September.

Oregon vs. Virginia

Brunch with Danica and Gary

October: Was also a really low key month. We both were in the full swing of things with work. We started the month off by going to an amazing intimate Switchfoot concert. I went on a women's retreat with our church. It was a great weekend away from everything to connect with other women in the church and grow deeper in my relationship with Jesus. Towards the end of the month Gavin and I drove over to Memphis for a Jason Aldean and Jake Owen concert. Gavin even got to meet Jason Aldean!

Switchfoot Concert

At the Jason Aldean and Jake Owen Concert

Jason Alean Performing

November: The month started off with a benefit concert put on by Dierks Bentley. Brett Eldredge, Easton Corbin, Jake Owen and Luke Bryan all played in addition to Dierks Bentley who played for almost an hour! Yep, we love Nashville! We went out to Virginia for Thanksgiving and had a wonderful long weekend visiting family and our adorable niece.

Brett Eldredge performing

Our Thanksgiving Dinner

Gavin and Harper

December: Seemed like it flew by! We had Gavin's work Christmas party in downtown Nashville and like last year it was a great night. Our young married's group had a Christmas party the next week that was a fun night of food and games. Then the next week we flew to California! I am going to do a little more detailed recap of our west coast travels tomorrow.

Before Gavin's work Christmas Party

Playing Games at the Young Married's Christmas Party

Wow! I had forgotten how many fun things we did this year! Here is to many more amazing memories with friends and family in 2014!

4th of July

Our church had an early 4th of July celebration out at a retreat/summer camp. They asked people to bring sides or a dessert so you know I had to take something Pinterest inspired!

I love to bake and decided to make a patriotic cake. It was red velvet and cream cheese frosting, I mean we are in the south now! 

Just a quick note on the recipe I used: I always use box cake mix to make my cakes. It is just so much easier and I am all for simple. However, I always make my own frosting from scratch. Homemade frosting tastes so much better than the frosting from a can. I don't know what they do to that stuff to make it taste so terrible. Plus using homemade frosting somehow makes the cake taste more homemade. Don't ask me know, but it just does. Also I have had quite a few people not believe me when I tell them my cakes are from a box. Like I said, it is all about the homemade frosting. 

So, now that I have sold you on making your own frosting (I did right? If not go back and reread that last paragraph) I should probably give you a recipe! I tweaked this recipe from all recipes to make it stiffer in order to be able to decorate with it. Now I didn't write it down but it was something along these lines.

Cream Cheese Frosting

2 8oz packages of cream cheese (room temp)

1/2 cup butter (room temp)

1 teaspoon vanilla

4+ cups of powdered sugar, (original recipe calls for 2)

1. Cream together cream cheese and butter until smooth and fluffy.

2. Add vanilla

3. Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time. If you want the frosting to crust (be able to hold its shape) you will need to add more powdered sugar. It should hold peaks and not fall off of your spoon. You may end up adding 6 cups of powdered sugar. That is fine! The frosting will be sweeter and more sugary the more powdered sugar you add (this seams obvious, but just thought I would throw it out there).

So if you want your frosting to really taste cream cheesy add less powdered sugar, but just know it might not hold its shape as well.

*Note sifted powdered sugar is ideal, but sometimes there isn't time for that and that is ok!

On to the decorating!

Fill your cake and stack it. I did a light crumb coating just in white. 

Take the remaining icing and divide it into three bowls. You will want the most blue, then white and then red. Tint your icing preferably using gel icing colors, but if you only have the grocery store liquid ones you can use those too. If you are using the liquid ones you might want to make your icing a little stiffer since you will be adding more liquid when coloring.

I used this tutorial from cake central to learn how to do the petal technique. I am not going to explain it here because she does a great job! Just go watch the video!

Are you back from the tutorial? Great! To create the flag effect I just did two dots of white, two red and then two white vertically and then went around the whole cake. Easy peasy, but a little time consuming. Just put on your favorite Netflix series and you will be good to go!

The stars on top are the sugar sheets from Wilton that you can find at the local craft stores. I used some star cookie cutters in different sizes to make the stars for the top of the cake. Done!

Also I just want to say that making the perfect cake does not matter! We are not perfect beings (only Jesus was perfect!) and thus we cannot make perfect things. So have fun with it!!

This fruit salad also easy peasy. Get a star cookie cutter and cut watermelon into slices that are slightly thinner than your cookie cutter. Then just cut out some stars and throw in some strawberries and blueberries. Festive and yummy!

This is Gavin and I with two of the women in the church. We are so thankful to have found a church where we can serve and grow! What a blessing!!

For the actual day of 4th of July we went up to Nashville for a Hot Chicken Festival and a free concert! Oh Nashville and your free concerts how I love thee!

Striking Matches started off the evening!

To finish the night The Band Perry played!!

They really are such a fun group to see live. So much energy in their performances!

The fireworks were set to a recording by the Nashville Symphony and were great!

The only thing that could have made the day any better was if it hadn't rained. I could not believe it rained on the 4th of July!! Even growing up in the Pacific Northwest I had never experienced a rainy 4th of July. Well there is always a first for everything! Here is hoping that next year is much sunnier and drier!!

What I'm Listening To Now

I thought it would be fun to post some music videos of the songs that I have been listening to lately. So here are some of my favorite songs currently:

Chris Young "Aw Naw"

Florida Georgia Line "Round Here"

Randy Houser "Runnin' Out Of Moonlight"

Charlie Worsham "Could It Be"

Darius Rucker "Wagon Wheel"

I love that the Duck Dynasty cast is in the video! So fun!

Craig Campbell "Outta My Head"

This is actually an older video, but I just found it. It was actually filmed in downtown Franklin and you can kind of get a feel for our little historic downtown.

I hope that was fun for you and maybe you found a new song or two to listen to! What are the new songs you can't stop playing?

CMA Fest 2013

CMA Fest was a great week and I was so glad that my parents, Lynn and Garret could come out for the week!

Lynn and me at the Fan Fair

The first night of the LP concerts

The second night of LP concerts

Right after getting my pass signed by Charles from Lady Antebellum

Lynn and me meeting Kip Moore!

We made the guys take a picture with the veggie tales characters.

It rained a couple of the days and we didn't have rain coats so we just used free t-shirts we had been given.

The boys just got wet.

We could ring out the water from the shirts!

Brett Eldredge performing at the Riverfront Stage

Dierks Bentley played an acoustic set at the Martin Guitar tent.

Gavin and me meeting Dustin Lynch

Eric Church playing at LP Field

Craig Campbell made us drinks!

At the night concerts!

Gavin took this picture in the fan line during Lady Antebellum's performance at LP Field

I took this picture during Florida Gorgia Line's performance at LP Field.

There were a lot more pictures, but I figured I would just post some highlights! We can't wait for next year!!!