'Tis the Season

Merry Christmas! 

FSOW (Favorite Song of the Week)

More like favorite song of the year. It's just that good, especially the bridge. Only in my opinion, of course :) Someday I'm gonna see these people live.....someday.

Desert Photoshoot

The desert can be a great backdrop for portraits. After years of hating the desert I have finally grown to like it, and now I see how pretty it really is. My cousin Kinsey and I went over to a nearby mountain and had a great time taking portraits of each other. Here are my favorite shots:

Film Camera Adventures

I've decided that film cameras are awesome. Even if they don't give you the immediate gratification of knowing what your picture looks like, it's even more exciting to look at them all after they are developed. A couple weeks ago I tried out a film camera for a few days, and I didn't really know what to expect. What I see through the lense isn't necessarily what the camera produces, which made it even more exciting to see how all the pictures turned out. I went on a few adventures with the camera, and a lot of the pictures turned out better than I expected!

Discoveries

I discovered two bands recently, and their names are The Scene Aesthetic and There For Tomorrow.

I'm not sure exactly what genre The Scene Aesthetic would be placed in, but I supposed I could classify them as acoustic pop/punk. I only discovered them yesterday, and I already love their music :)

There For Tomorrow makes some seriously catchy music! And the singer's voice is just so.....good! I'm sure there is a word better than "good" to describe it, but I can't think of anything else at the moment. Their songs "A Little Faster" and "Backbone" are extremely addictive.

Scenes from a Psychotic Circus

So, my school's marching band this year is pretty awesome! The drumline/frontline got a Superior rating at PAS (percussion competition), which is the first time SDOHS has EVER gotten a superior at that competition! The show certainly isn't perfect, but it will get better over time. I'm pretty excited :)

The Full Show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5qWaSqhUc0

PAS performance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukT7H0kO16U&feature=related

Top 10 list #1

So I thought it would be fun to make a top ten list every once in a while. Here is list number one!

Top ten bands:

(not in any particular order)

1. Cinematic Sunrise

Simply awesome. I especially love the vocals! Songs to check out would be "Wordless" and "Umbrellas and Elephants."

2. The Morning Of

I discovered this band the other day and instantly fell in love with them. Everyone in the band is so talented! My favorite songs by them are "Shine" and "Tell Me I'm Wrong."

3. A Day to Remember

Probably my favorite band....ever. They do mostly hardcore stuff, but they also have some songs that anyone would like. A few of their good ones are "Have Faith in Me", "Monument", "You Had Me at Hello", and "If it Means A lot to You." There are too many to name.

4. A Change of Pace

These guys have been on my iPod for years! They actually originate from Peoria, AZ. They have several catchy songs that are what I would call "the classics." A couple of my favorites by them are "Take Care"and "Weekend Warriors."

5. NeverShoutNever

This one is kind of cheating, because it's not really a band, it's just one person. But oh well! NeverShoutNever is what Christofer Ingle goes by. I have always recognized the name, but haven't actually sat down and listened to him until recently, and I really like his music! Three words to describe NeverShoutNever: whimsical, raw, punk. A few of his songs that I like are "Did it hurt?", "Trouble", "BigCityDreams", and "On the Brightside."

6. Four Year Strong

Once again, I have always heard of this band, but never really listened to them until recently, and they are super cool. I would classify their music as punk/rock. My favorites by them so far are "Heroes Get Remembered, Legends Never Die", "Beatdown in the Key of Happy", and "Catastrophe."

7. Paramore

With vocalist Hayley Williams (featured in the song "Airplanes" by B.O.B."), it is obvious why Paramore is successful. Their music ranges from soft and sweet ("The Only Exception") to fiery hard rock ("Misery Business" or "Born for This").

8. Alter Bridge

One time while at the library I decided to start a new thing where I randomly select a few CD's that I'd never heard of before and listen to them. The very first random CD I listened to was Alter Bridge, and I immediately loved them! Great vocals, melodies, and instrumentals. They are definitely on the "very rock" side of music. A few of their best songs include "Before Tomorrow Comes", "Coming Home", "Blackbird", or, for their more softer side, "Watch Over You".

9. Escape the Fate

Like A Day to Remember, they do a lot of hardcore stuff. But they have a lot of really good songs! A few of my favorites are "Ashley", "Not Good Enough for the Truth and Cliche", and "Something".

10. Truman

The Truman brothers performed at my stake's youth conference, and they were amazing! They put on a perfect performance. I especially like their songs "Wasn't that your plan" and "I Want You There".

Catography

After looking at a bunch of creative cat photography on the website http://thepioneerwoman.com/, I felt inspired to take a few pictures of my own cat. Buzz became my model this morning, and he did and excellent job :)

I thought this shot was kind of funny:

Canada, eh?

I went to Canada earlier in July! The weather is most definitely more exciting up there, compared to the heat here in Phoenix. I am in marching band at SDOHS, and we were invited to be in the Calgary Stampede parade and field show competition. We drove (yes, DROVE) all the way up to Calgary on buses. We made several stops along the way, but only for bathroom breaks and to eat. Not for sleeping. The 36 hour bus ride has taught me that sleeping while in an upright sitting position is impossible to do.

Once we arrived in Calgary, we unloaded our stuff at a high school, which was our "hotel" for the next week and a half. People set up tents and air mattresses on the gym floor and made themselves at home. It sounds uncomfortable, But I actually didn't mind it.



The stampede parade was miserable, because I had to carry a heavy banner AND march in step for at least an hour and a half or longer. Although the parade was miserable to be in, it was really exciting to see all of the enthusiastic Canadians on the sidelines. The stampede is a big deal up there; bigger than we can understand. On some sections of the street there were even grand stands put up, ranging from around five to twenty rows high. The day of the parade was probably the hottest, reaching up to 88 degrees. The entire band was super hot and sweaty at the end, sore from holding their instrument, banner, or flag. Out of 21 bands, our band won fourth place, and we received a bit a money.

The Calgary Stampede is a HUGE deal in Canada. Bigger than the Macy's day parade, and bigger than any state fair! We spent a day just walking around the fairgrounds around the Saddledome, and it's insanely bigger than the Arizona State fair. The most exciting part of that day was the Rock n' Roll Acrobatic Ice Show which was the coolest ice show I've ever witnessed. Rock music mixed with acrobatics mixed with ice skating mixed with crazy lighting effects. Also, the Olympic gold medalists for ice dancing (Tessa Vitue and Scott Moir) were a part of it! It was a thoroughly entertaining show.

One day we took a trip to the Lake Louise area, and had the opportunity to ride a ski lift that had a fantastic view of the surrounding country. Following the ski lift, we drove over to Lake Louise to see the lake up close. The coloring of the lake is very pretty, and not just the average water-blue color. It was more aqua/teal colored.


On the last day of our trip, we took a trip to Edmonton and spent almost the whole day at Edmonton mall. It's the coolest mall I've ever been to in my life! It has a whole theme park AND a waterpark right inside of it. And of course, excellent stores to shop at.




Overall, the trip was a blast! I most definitely want to go back to visit again sometime. And maybe even try and go to the Calgary Stampede again too.

Voiles

I recently started working on this neat song on the piano Called "Voiles" which can be translated to mean sails, or veils. I think the piece is rather interesting! It is very contemporary sounding, because of the use of the whole-tone scale. Anyway, give it a listen! It sounds pretty strange at first, but I've grown to like it.

Spontaneity

This past Thursday I got a call in the afternoon and was offered two free tickets to a Jordin Sparks concert that was going on that night. I couldn't pass up the offer, so I figured, why not be spontaneous? I called up my friend Rachel, and we went to the concert in Tempe.

The pre-show turned out to be the best part, because one of my favorite bands, A Change of Pace, showed up and gave a little mini show before the pre-show even started! That was pretty exciting. The pre-concert show was also very good, with the band Days Difference followed by female artist Ashlyne Huff. I definitely enjoyed both of their performances.

I went to get a drink in the foyer, and A Change of Pace was just hanging out by their merchandise table. There was almost no one in the foyer, so Rachel and I decided to get individual pictures with them! That definitely made my night.

Moral of the story is: never pass up free concert tickets, even if you aren't a fan of the headliner artist. You could end up pleasantly surprised! :)

Award-Winning Cookies

This past February I entered a batch of delicious Pinwheel cookies into the Youth Olympics that was put on by my stake. They won first place in the dessert section. These fabulous cookies are extremely addicting, which is probably why they won. This is a picture of my cookies taken before the judging took place:

Pinwheel Cookies

3/4 cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

2 tbsp. melted butter

6 tbsp. cocoa powder

1. Begin by blending the butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla thoroughly. Stir flour, baking powder, and salt together; blend in. Chill for at least 1 hour (optional). Divide dough in half. In a separate bowl, stir 6 tablespoons of cocoa powder into 2 tablespoons melted butter. Knead cocoa/butter mixture into one of the dough halves until coloration is even. Set chocolate dough aside for now.
2. Lay out a smooth, waterproof cloth (such as a tablecloth) onto a hard surface. Take the white dough and roll it out about 3/16" thick into an oblong, oval shape on the waterproof cloth. Roll out the chocolate dough the same size and shape as the white dough. Try and roll the two halves right next to each other, leaving a little bit of space between them. Now, this next step is a bit tricky, and may require two people. Using the cloth, flip the chocolate dough on top of the white dough. The chocolate dough should loosely stick to the cloth, allowing enough time to carefully lay it onto the white dough. Make sure to line up the edges as best as possible. Peel the cloth away from the dough, and make any needed corrections to the edges.
3. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Roll up the layers of dough, beginning at the wide side. Using a sharp knife, cut 1/4" slices*, occasionally rotating the dough to maintain the roundness of each cookie. Place onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake 8-9 minutes.

*Note: when cutting the slices, don't press down with the knife or else the dough will just flatten. Gently move the knife back a forth across the dough, without using a lot of pressure.

So there you go! Hopefully my directions make sense. I originally got the recipe from this really old, well-used cookie book that is missing its outer cover and supported with tape. The recipe above has been tweaked a bit from the original, but I think the modifications were necessary. Have fun! :)

Hello, Blog World!

Last night, while trying to fall asleep, I suddenly decided that I wanted to start my very own blog! I plan to write about several of my favorite things, such as cooking, music, photography, photoshop, interior design, fashion, recent events, etc. The possibilities are endless! But I would not let myself start a blog unless it has a snazzy header and background, so hopefully I succeeded in accomplishing that, at least for the time being. The "cluttered desk" header took me forever to make, but I had a lot of fun creating it. I look forward to blogging in the near future! :)