Cold Camping

This weekend my dear family and I braved the cold and wet to experience the great outdoors. 

                                      

We decided to gird our loins and seek rugged adventure. This is also known as wet sleeping bags.    

                                        

                                      

We decided to enjoy the woods, which as we all know are lovely, dark, and deep. 

We also happened to pick the weekend of the biggest fog eclipse I have ever seen. 

This contributed to dramatic aesthetic appeal and also the likelihood of soggy extremities. 

On that note... here are a two things that made camping much more enjoyable this time around, in spite of the cold, and the wet, and the lack of anything even remotely resembling comfortable sleeping quarters. 

1. Squeeze Bottles. Seriously, y'all. Please use these next time you decide to go on an adventure, empty out a ketchup bottle and fill it up with pancake batter, eggs, whatever you can stick in a bottle to make prep and clean-up easier. 

2. Tacos in a bag...

I have no pictures to illustrate this culinary masterpiece. My phone died about 12 hours into our trip but it was one of the easiest meals I've ever prepared. You prepare the fixings for a taco ahead of time, and bring miniature bags of Doritos - dump all the ingredients straight into the bag and you've got almost no clean up to speak of. 

Plus, it's absolutely packed with nutrients and vital vitamins and minerals your body is craving and most likely deficient in. No no, don't thank me. It's my gift to you.  

That's all I've got. I really thought I had more to offer on the camping front, but no cigar. 

Thawing out,

Rae 

Imagine Dragons --> It's Time

I have a few favorite bands... not many, but a few. Mostly I just end up liking a few random songs from different people, not everything they do. 

Not so with these people...

If you aren't familiar with Imagine Dragons, please do yourself a favor and give them a listen.  

Dan Reynolds is the lead singer, they're based in Nevada and we got to see them in Atlanta on Tuesday...

AWOLnation was there as well, but they really didn't hold a candle to Imagine Dragons... 

Zeale

Imagine Dragons

Take two.. 

The group really was ridiculously talented, and they had such a great vibe. Check 'em out if you can and if ever you have the opportunity to see them in concert, do it. It's completely worth it. 

Love, 

Rachael 

A Recap

Georgia weather delivered this weekend...

I got to work as a second shooter with a dear friend who flew back from San Diego this weekend to photograph a wedding on Saturday...check out her work here.

Oh, camera envy. It was way fun getting to play with nice equipment. 

Happy Monday,

Rae 

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies - Gluten Free

I'm picky about chocolate chip cookies. The texture is kind of a big deal. 

As someone who avoids wheat like the plague, this is sort of not such a great thing to be picky about. 

The boxed gluten free cookies are depressing. The Betty Crocker mix is grainy, the recipes I've found and tried all seem to be either 50 ingredients long with tapioca starch involved which is a huge put off simply because tapioca starch strikes me as...complicated? Or it's a recipe some poor soul created just by substituting a gf baking mix in a normal cookie recipe, which doesn't work, FYI. 

So, try as I might, the cookies I make almost always end up crunchy or crumbly, not chewy. 

And then there was today... I creamed butter and sugar, tweaked baking mix ratios and baked one cookie at a time until I got exactly what I was after. These cookies are perfect. They're still chewy after they've cooled and the flavor is perfect. 

Ingredients 

3/4 cup margarine or butter, softened 

1 1/4 cups raw sugar (you can also use honey granules or a mix of brown and white sugar) 

1 tsp vanilla 

2 eggs 

3 cups of this gluten free baking mix - other stuff works but if a chewy texture is important to you then you need to use this particular mix...as opposed to, say, gluten free Bisquick. You can get it from Kroger in the health food section  

1 tsp baking soda 

1 tsp baking powder 

1/2 tsp salt 

1 package semi-sweet chocolate chips 

1. Preheat oven to 350, prepare a greased baking sheet

2. In a medium bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla and combine

3. Sift together baking mix, baking soda and baking powder and add it slowly to butter mixture, finally add chocolate chips and stir mixture

4. Using a teaspoon, drop cookies 2 inches apart on the baking sheet, bake for 10-12 minutes or until light brown. 

OOTD

Awkward moment to kick this OOTD video off...yay. It's been quite a week. Skinny jean (for mortals, as opposed to craft goddesses) tutorial coming up.

Happy Thursday

Happy Thursday. Today is carpet day, by which I mean - today is the day on which we are having carpet installed in the upper portion of our home. Which, of course, makes this a happy Thursday. Or a Happy Thursday if that makes you feel better. Whatever. 

It's a list kind of day...

1. I'm going to have a niece, definitely worth celebrating. 

2. This stuff is great - working on tweaking a DIY laundry soap/cleanser recipe based on this concoction by Cara check her out here. More on that later... 

3. This is one of the many thrift store chairs I have sitting around the house, it's one of my favorites because of the hideous mustard color.  

4. This place made me feel extremely nostalgic, it made me want a fishing pole, and to know how to whistle.  

5. This on the other hand, makes me feel like it's probably ok that I don't know how to whistle. Mostly because I know I couldn't do it professionally, and I need to choose a lucrative pastime so I can afford more over priced lattes. 

6. This was two years ago, at the beach. We're looking happy and shiny, you're welcome. 

7. This, was last Halloween. We're looking fashionable and classy. 

and.....bleached. 

Love,

Rae 

Chalkboard Room *DIY*

I've always wanted a studio...a play room packed with clay to sculpt and paints to smear and fabric to cut and sew. A studio with massive windows stretching from floor to ceiling where natural light can spill in and florescent bulbs aren't allowed. A sanctuary to create and build - to see mistakes and try again.

     I don't have one of those, not the kind I see in my head - but I do have a house and it has served as the best canvas for creative endeavors, mistakes and learning processes to date. Perhaps I need to work out a few kinks before I'm set loose in a room with too many pairs of scissors.

The latest project taking up my time is the music room. Chalkboard paint was a must, with all the lyrics, chord progressions and ideas that fly around it helps to be able to just put 'em on the wall. Have you ever written on a wall, as an adult, on purpose? It gives you the distinct feeling that you should probably be appalled. It's fun.

I chose to do the room in chalkboard paint starting from the chair rail. This room has been serving as a catch-all closet and so it was quite an undertaking to clean it out for painting. In fact it was such an undertaking that I eventually gave up and squished some things into the middle of the room. 

See? 

Sort of scary. 

Materials Needed: 

Latex paint - 1 gallon 

Unsanded grout 

Paint brushes

Fine grit sandpaper 

Chalk 

1. Combine two cups of unsanded grout with one gallon of latex paint in any color - the ratio for a smaller project is two tablespoons per cup of paint. Make sure you combine the two substances very thoroughly, no grout clumps. 

2. Paint your walls, the paint will be very thick and tends to cover well - just go slow enough to be thorough and not have your old wall color showing through. Allow your paint to dry completely... 

3. Go over the dried walls with an extremely fine grit sand paper, just a light brushing - don't get too excited about it or you'll sand through completely to the old color, no bueno.   

4. Treat your walls with chalk, turn your piece of chalk on it's side and cover the entire surface of the painted area with a light coat. After you finish, take a cloth and dampen it slightly and then dust off the walls again to blend the lines from the chalk. Don't skip this step! 

Here's a sneak peek of the music room today... it's coming along. 

Fun stuff, really. 

xoxo,

Rae