Erica & Lacey go to the OKC Zoo Amphitheater.

This is the second week in a row that I blog about an activity that I experienced with dear ol' Lacey.  I should probably blog about her more since she's one of my two best friends and we hang out quite frequently. Lacey had her 31st birthday recently and I reminisced in her card that we've experienced a whopping 15 birthdays together... fifteen. We met in middle school, became friends in high school, were dorm mates in college and our friendship continued to grew from there. Now into adulthood, we're still thick as thieves.

For her birthday gift, I took her to the Weezer & Panic! at the Disco concert. She loves Panic! at the Disco and I adore Weezer. It was the perfect pairing. The concert was outdoors at the Zoo Amphitheater. The venue opened at 4:30pm so concert goers could queue up early but the doors didn't open until 6:00pm. We got there around 6:15pm and, I kid you not, the line was already miles long. We had to park pretty far away from the venue, walk all the way there, then walk past it & down a few blocks to get in line. Lacey set her FitBit goal to be 10,000 steps and she met her goal! I usually enjoy a good walk but this was in Oklahoma-style 95 degree (aka insanely humid) weather so it was super uncomfortable. So, a word of advice for those of you going to a concert at the Zoo Amphitheater... get in line right at 4:30pm to avoid all the madness! LOL

When we finally got into the amphitheater, it was really nice. I've never attended a concert there before so it was a nice surprise. The stage is large and can be seen from all angles. The landscaping is a sloping hill with stone steps and many trees. We stood toward the middle and off to the side in the shade but still had a good view of the stage. And, the best part, it was okay being short (a major problem I have all the time) because we stood on a hill & were automatically taller than the people in front of us. The opening band was Atlas Genius. I've heard a few of their songs play on one of my Pandora stations. They were pretty good but we missed most of their set due to standing in line. (;_;) No pictures were taken.

Panic! at the Disco put on a great show. The lead singer did a back flip off the drum set & they even had a brass horn section!

After Atlas Genius' set, I ventured toward concessions for funnel cake and water. Sadly, they only accepted cash payment so I returned to my seat empty handed. But then Panic! at the Disco came on and, in our excitement, I forgot all about my hungry tummy. They were good. Like, really really good! I last saw them in the early 2000's when they opened for Motion City Soundtrack. I was not impressed with them at that show but tonight was a different story.
       During one of their songs, the guitarist from Weezer randomly walked into our section with his bodyguard and stood pretty close to us. I really wanted to take a sneaky candid picture but he never turned toward us. I stopped paying attention to him for a while and when I looked back, he had already walked away. He probably only stayed to listen to half a song.

Anyway, moving away from my fangirl moment and back to Panic! ... They played mostly their newer songs but a few of the classics, too. Lacey got to see her favorite song by them played live. They had a brass horn section, which was awesome. And, for one of the songs, the lead singer and drummer had a drum-off. It was like dueling pianos but dueling drums. Best part of their entire set! At the end of their set, the lead singer confessed that when he was 10 years old, he stole a cassette tape of Weezer's Blue Album and learned all the songs and that is what turned him on to rock and roll. And now, his band is opening for them so it made him "Victorious" (which is the song that they closed with). 

After Panic! at the Disco's set, all the youth left. LOL I would reckon that about 1/5 of the audience left before Weezer even came on. They missed out. Weezer was great and had the absolute best laser light show that I have ever seen! The light show was actually too good. I couldn't take any pictures because the lasers were too awesome and the lights were too bright and the projections were too in your face. LOL They had a huge screen (pictured above) that played music videos and 90's montages. There was the Weezer logo, tie dye, Treasure Trolls and Air Jordans. Their lighting director and tech crew definitely stole the show. 

I thought they would play a lot from their most recent White Album but they played mostly their classic songs and singles. A few years ago, Wes & I saw Weezer at Win Star Casino and their entire set was classics and singles so, tonight I wanted to hear some of newer stuff but, it was still a really good set. My only complaint would be, they did a few "best of Weezer" mixes that was the chorus of few songs played together. It was kinda cool but I would have rather heard the entire song. And, on a few of the songs, I feel like they missed the transition... like two of the band mates were still playing "El Scorcho" but the other two moved onto playing "In the Garage". They came out for an encore and the lead singer did a cover of Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats." Then the band joined him for an acoustic version of "Island in the Sun" and then an all out rock-your-socks-off "Buddy Holly." Ah-mazing!

I'm on the left. Lacey's leg looks chopped off but she just has her legs crossed.

In the end, awesome night. \(^_^)/ Lacey & I had heaps of fun.  (We wore our matching infinity skirts and I'm sure our bitchin' fashion sense aided in our enjoyment of the concert. Hahaha!) Weezer is one of my favorite bands. It was my second time seeing Weezer live and I would go see them 5 more times if they were to return to Oklahoma. I'm still in awe over their laser light show! I wish I could have taken some pictures to show you. But song-wise, Lacey wins... I think Panic! at the Disco had the better set. They were just so damn good. I guess they must have known it was her birthday so they put on a good show just for her!

Erica is going back to crafting...

...that's not to say that I had abandoned crafting. (Oh no, I would never do that!) I just had a few weeks of recipes and a craft show taking up my time. Speaking of craft shows, I will blog about The Summer Show next week. I just wanted to give it a week or two to sink in so I had sufficient time to gather my thoughts before writing my reflection on it.

But it's called "Monday Craft Night" so I'm back to it. Way back, actually... back to when I had an old friend over each Monday evening for dinner and crafting. The original Monday craft night that started almost four years ago. I made this as a going away gift for my former crafting buddy last year. She moved to Texas and much has happened since. Sadly, both the occurrence Monday craft night and our friendship has dissolved but I think this project is very fitting for how we left off. Life moves everyone in different directions and sometimes, it's best to accept that life has come between us and let go.

Let's rewind to Christmas 2014. There is a Needtobreathe song titled "Keep Your Eyes Open" that I felt was really appropriate to use as a going away gift. The recipient of this gift is young and her life was ready to begin a new chapter. The adventures would be boundless and all she needed to do was to leave what was comfortable behind and start anew. She was very excited for this journey but I also sensed a little bit of hesitation. I decided that this would be a reminder of the goodness that lay ahead.

The chorus is:
Cause if you never leave home, never let go
You’ll never make it to the great unknown till you
Keep your eyes open, my love
So tell me you’re strong, tell me you see
I need to hear it, can you promise me to
Keep your eyes open, my love

Its a really great song. I don't know how to link to YouTube or Vevo from my blog so I took some screen shots of the video as it was playing. Find it and give it a watch.

I knew I wanted to use the lyrics somehow in her gift. I settled on wall decor because I figured that everyone needs something to hang on their walls when they move into a new apartment. And, we went to an arts festival several years ago and saw paintings with beaded jewelry hanging from them. We both liked the art and I really wanted to try that technique. I don't have step-by-step pictures but this tutorial is super simple and gives you a lot of artistic freedom.

Layered Collage Wall Hanging tutorial:

       Materials needed: three canvases for painting (I used different sizes.)

                                    card stock

                                    paint 

                                    string

                                    decorative items (I used ribbon, beads and charms.)

                                    hot glue gun & glue

                                    duct tape

1. String your beads onto the ribbon in any pattern and length. Leave about an inch of extra string at the top of each strand of beads.

       I made mine varying patterns and lengths. This was over a year ago so I don't remember if I did that on purpose or not. I think it's probably better to measure your string to painting ratio and sort your beads before starting. Just so you don't make anything too long or run out of beads.

2. Paint your canvases and let them dry.

3. Paint your card stock. I did a solid color, let it dry and then added the lyrics. I chose black and white to give it a chalk board feel with the standard cursive handwriting. 

       Or you could buy card stock in whatever color you intend it to be in the end and skip the whole painting part. I'm sure mine was left over from some other project and I didn't like the color it was. 

4. Once the canvases are dried, hot glue the card stock onto them.

5. Turn the canvases over and hot glue the strings of beads onto the back. 

       Measure and lay the strands of beads on the canvases before gluing. I left a lot of slack at the top of each strand so I had plenty extra string for gluing. 

6. Once they are all glued on and the hot glue is dried, duct tape the strands on along the bottom margin of each canvas. 

       No one will be able to see the duct tape since its on the back so go crazy! Make sure those beaded strands are securely on there!

7. Flip the canvases back over and add whatever other decorative items you have. I'm not sure if you can see clearly in the picture, but the decorative items I chose were cages, keys and birds. 

Erica is baking Alan-berry muffins.

While there are no such things as "Alan-berries", I do have a friend named Alan who gives me fresh blackberries from his parents' farm. They are the sweetest & most delicious blackberries ever! He says his parents grow all sorts of fruits and veggies. I need to start getting more produce from him.

I used the first batch of blackberries he gave me to make blackberry cinnamon rolls for Wes' birthday. They turned out really well. I can't blog about them since I completely stole the recipe from the Internet and followed it step by step. This batch of blackberries will be used for muffins. My original muffins that I am literally making for the first time as I'm writing this blog.

This is my friend, Alan. He likes beer, I like beer, and we get along great. Greater than great, actually, I'd say we're thick as thieves. We used to work together at Accord Human Resources but it wasn't until after he quit that we really started to hang out. I don't know when we started this little tradition but we have a "beer on a Monday" theme to our get togethers. About once or twice a month, we'll meet up, have dinner and catch up on each other's lives. Over a few years of these Monday beer dinners, Alan has become one of my best friends.

We don't always pose and take pictures at dinner...this was his last birthday.

Dinners are usually beer and sushi on the patio with his dog, Sonja, at the Midtown GoGo Sushi. We've recently thrown pie into the mix. Fassler Hall and GoGo Sushi are walking distance from each other so why not? It'd be a shame to skip out on dessert. And Sonja loves it because she gets extra walking time and she knows she's getting a bratwurst each time she goes to Fassler.

Pretty Sonja!

I wanted to put beer into my blackberry muffins so I googled "baking with beer." Unbeknownst to me, there is a whole beer pastry movement out there. Beer cupcakes, beer breads, everything. I learned that beer is a leavening agent.  One blogger told me that you can replace a cup of milk with a cup of beer as long as you add something else in to replace the fat that's in the milk. So you can use a small amount of vegetable oil plus beer instead of milk. I don't really like vegetable oil so I wouldn't do that. I would try it with shortening, though...that's if I had any, which I don't. Armed with this knowledge, I set out to my pantry. I had all the ingredients needed to make traditional muffins--flour, sugar, eggs, milk and butter. To make "Alan-berry muffins," I'm adding blackberries, beer and maple syrup.

WARNING:  This recipe is completely experimental.  As stated earlier, this is the very first time I've ever made it and I'm sort of making it up as I go. After making these, I will taste them and write feedback at the end of this blog. Please feel free to tweak this recipe if you have a better experience or more knowledge in baking with beer. I love comments!!

Blackberry, beer & maple muffins:

      Ingredients needed- 1 1/4 cup flour

                                       1 cup sugar

                                       1 egg

                                       4 tablespoons (half a stick) of butter, softened

                                       1 teaspooon baking powder

                                       1/4 cup milk

                                       3/4 cup beer (I used a blonde because I hate dark beers. A few of the baking blogs I read suggested IPAs)

                                       1 tablespoon maple syrup

                                       1 cup blackberries

1. Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl.

2. Add the egg and maple syrup. Mix well and then add the rest of the wet ingredients - beer and milk.

3. In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients together - flour and baking soda.

In case you didn't know, chopsticks are the best utensil ever.

4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well (I used an electric mixer for all of this.) I poured the dry ingredients in little by little as I mixed.

5. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

6. Add blackberries to the batter and mix together one last time. 

7. Spoon into muffin tray or baking cups and bake for 40-45 minutes.

8. Let cool for about 5-10 minutes. Serve with maple syrup drizzled on top. Recipe makes one dozen muffins.

After tasting these, I have some recommendations:

       The muffins turned out too moist for my liking. I kept them in the oven for quite a while but I felt like they never fully cooked.  They reminded me of the pre-packaged Otis Spunkmeyer muffins.

       Wes says the muffins taste good but there's too much wet ingredients in there. The top and sides cooked through but the middle stayed a little gooey. He could taste the beer a little bit but I couldn't. I could smell it, though, and the muffins smelled really good as they were baking. 

       For next time, I would add a thickening agent... maybe some corn starch or gelatin. I think I used too much beer. I could use a little less or I could use beer + more butter instead of beer + milk. That way I only have one liquid ingredient. Or maybe add a little more flour. 

       That's the fun in baking...it's like an experiment each time!

Wes & I had ours at breakfast with ham and eggs over the weekend. I never was a fan of breakfast (mostly because I hate waking up early on weekends) but Wes has really turned me on to it. It's his favorite meal and we have breakfast at least one day on the weekends. Married life is great : )