2010 Pumpkins

Without further ado, here are this year's pumpkin masterpieces!  Mine was modeled after my favorite necklace:

Here's how it turned out:

And here's Mason's super-duper-masterpiece!  He raises the bar every year...

Happy Hollowed-out Halloween!

One night, two shows, musical bliss...



I'm on such a musical high right now.  Friday night, the stars aligned and sent me to two of the best shows I've seen in awhile.  First was fun. (for FREE) at the U of U's annual Redfest. I've long admired fun.'s frontman, Nate Ruess, for his live performance in his old band The Format. But this new endeavor has taken his songwriting to new heights, in my humble opinion. 

I've always said that I wanted to write a Broadway musical with Nate.  His songs have a whimsical quality, they tell a story, they lend themselves well to choreography, orchestration, gospel choir accompaniment, and they're full of theatrical pauses and climaxes.  Seeing him live on stage again totally re-ignited that little flame in the back of my head, and I tell ya, if I ever get around to writing that musical, he'll be one of the first that I send my script to.

The show itself was pretty fun (hahaah, I'm punny), but I was a little peeved at their setlist, as they left off two of my favorites: "Be Calm" and "Benson Hedges." However, they are coming to Utah again next month, so I'll give them a chance to right those wrongs.  I must admit that I felt a little old in the crowd, which sadly has been happening more and more at shows lately, but alas, I pressed onward!  I made it to the second row and befriended two 18 year-olds, and we jumped around and sang to each other for the duration of the set, as the sun set behind the stage. 

After a quick stop at Cafe Rio to refuel, we were off to show #2, Stephen Kellog & The Sixers at The State Room. I've never seen Stephen live, but when I saw a mandolin, accordion, slide guitar, and tuba on stage, I knew we were in for a treat of the country/folk/bluegrass flavor. Yummy.

Because my husband wears a bandana every day, like his Grandpa taught him, I of course noticed that all four bandmates were rocking a classic red bandana the moment they took the stage.  Pay attention to that detail, it will come into play later.

Stephen is so dreamy.  He's happily married and so am I, so I can safely say that it's a music-only crush, but I really did crush on him quite hard throughout the set.  His voice has a tonal quality that cuts straight to your heart and you just can't wait to hear what he's going to sing about next:  his daughter, his brother, a wild night at the bar, the whiskey on his breath, etc. You can understand each and every word he sings, and he delivers each one with his whole soul.

Their set was varied, energetic, soulful, and each member mastered more than one instrument.  It was pretty much musical (instrument) chairs....and I LOVE a band that can show their prowess in that way.  After their encore, they came back out on stage and tossed their red bandanas out into the crowd.  See, I told you it would come back into play.  Guess who caught one??  That's right!  Boo yah!

All in all, I left both shows feeling inspired.  Fed.  Uplifted. So let's hope all of that actually finds an outlet.  Today--I'm grateful for music.

Beach House Cafe

We spent a week in Huntington Beach at the most amazing house, right across the street from the water, with 5 of our best friends.  Life doesn't get much better. 

One of my favorite parts was (surprisingly) cooking!  It was my distinct pleasure to be head chef at the 5-star, critically acclaimed Beach House Cafe.  We had a huge kitchen with a fab Viking stove, and I was surrounded by friends to help chop, whisk, and grill.

Our menu featured the following:

Beach "garbage" salad with basil-lime chicken, grilled bananas, and homemade croutons





Citrus-grilled salmon, couscous pilaf, and mandarin cabbage salad



Traditional spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread

Greek salad with lemon chicken and MEXICORN
(God's gift to grilled corn--with cotija cheese and chili powder)

 Best. Week.  Ever.  I also enjoyed other stuff besides cooking.....

Sampling summer before it's over....

Kiddo LOVES a nice, local, Kolsch-style brew!

Sweet home in the Uintas....

Just a couple of my favorite photos from our latest camp trip to the Uintas....

Frightened Rabbit @ Urban Lounge - May 13, 2010

Frightened Rabbit is a band I fell hard and fast for.  I looked up a few videos on YouTube and wasn't all that blown away with their live performance, but OF COURSE had to go see them play at Urban Lounge anyway. 

There's something to be said for lowered expectations.  They were superb live, and Annan and I had an absoultely mezmerizing time watching them from the front row at that tiny venue. I may or may not have cried during the breakdown of "Keep Yourself Warm"--it was simply soul-crushing (in a good way). My friend Rebecca snapped the photo below with her phone, and apparently that's my arm there up in the air on the front-right....

I will definitely be seeing them the next time they visit from Scotland.

The Seven Year Itch

 

On June 5, Mason and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary, and threw a grand ole party!  Why celebrate 7 years in such grand fashion?  Well, that requires a bit of a back-story.  I'll try to be brief:

...Carly throws her back out right before the wedding in 2003, Carly goes to the ER and physical therapy, they prescribe Carly pain pills, Carly doesn't really like pain pills and decides not to take any until the day of the wedding when her back is really bothering her, Carly makes it through the ceremony and the photos then starts to feel nauseous, Carly throws up for hours because she can't handle the pills, Mason attends our reception by himself and has to answer the question "Where's your bride?" way too many times, Carly and Mason miss the bouquet-tossing, the garter, the first dance, and all those other things you're supposed to do at your wedding, Mason carries his vomiting bride across the street to the hotel, puts her to bed, and watches billiards on ESPN2 on his wedding night...

For years we have wanted to re-do what we missed at our wedding.  7 is our favorite number. Our anniversary happened to fall on a Saturday this year.  We have a new house.  We haven't had a housewarming party yet.  Combine all those reasons and boom....the 7 Year Itch Party was born.

As long as we were trying to re-create the first dance and throw the garter, I figured I might as well bust out the white dress!  The good news: it still fit!  I decided to have it altered (or un-altered) and removed the cap sleeves that I had added 7 years ago.  I really liked the sleeves at the time of the wedding, but the dress was MEANT to be strapless, and I think it was happy to be back to its intended design.  Yes, dresses have feelings and opinions too.

We invited our close friends and family, cleaned the place up like new, hired some very cheap yet professional caterers (our moms), and had an amazing and wonderful evening.  I feel like I finally have the memories of my "wedding" that I've always been missing. 

My favorite memory of the evening: my "first" dance with my husband. 

Mason and I have danced with each other countless times since our wedding, but there was something so profound and different about the feeling I had while we danced under OUR deck at OUR home, surrounded by the family that we have built together over the past 7 years.  We both had a hard time containing the tears, so we just grinned from ear-to-ear the entire time. 

I also got to dance with my daddy, which was something I had sorely missed the first time around.  We sang along to Frank Sinatra together while we danced.....epic:

Mason's mom custom-made us a Moulin Rouge-ish garter 7 years ago to go with our wedding colors (red, black and silver).  It was fun to finally put it to some use.

Our dear friend Matt, who we met after we got married, caught the garter.  It was perfect.  I can't think of anyone better....

I tossed a small bouqet of red sunflowers and red gerbers--just like the original bouquet--and my adorable niece was the lucky lady to catch it.  This was also perfect, because it was her baptism day, and she continued to feel like the special lady of the day!

The food was incredible and plentiful (or Bountiful, if you will).....

We put out the wedding albums and photos for nostalgia's sake...

Other random favorite pictures from the evening:

Most of the guests left by 2:00 am, but a select few of us kept talking, picking at the buffet, laughing and dancing until after 6:00 am when we saw the sun rising over the hills:

"Happiness is having a scratch for every itch." 

                                   - Ogden Nash

Latest mix...

Yeah yeah, I know, it's been awhile.  I have lots to catch up on but this is a quick and easy post...my latest mix!  It's a good one, let me know if you need a copy.  Title:  MAN JOBS  (stems from a camping trip joke...)

Sunday grilling...

Mason spent all morning putting the 999-piece BBQ jigsaw puzzle together, but the end result was definitely worth the pain of the project. I snapped this photo with my phone to send to his Mom (the grill was a birthday gift from her) and he asked, "Well you're not going to put this on Facebook right? Cuz I'm in my PJ pants." Hehe....it wasn't a lie, I didn't post it on Facebook...

We had my whole fam over for dinner on the deck, and we fell in love with our house all over again.  The grill played a big part in that.  Take a look at this spread...

This changes our entire philosophy of eating this summer.  Things I already learned after one day of grilling:

-The GRILL BASKET is the best invention ever!  It keeps the veggies from falling through the grates without pesky skewers, plus you don't have to cut them any fancy skewer-ready ways.

-Grill whole cloves of garlic along with your meal.  You can always use some roasted garlic later on, trust me.

-If you're having salmon, or fish of any kind really, slice some lemons and throw them on the grill with the fish.  When the lemons are hot, the juices and guts come out so much easier than when the lemon is raw.  You get about a jillion % more juice from roasted lemons than raw ones.  How can you argue with those numbers?

-My mom was a genius and pre-cooked the sweet and russet potatoes beforehand, so that we were basically browning and warming them on the grill.  Cooking them from a raw state would take waaaay to long.  I brushed them with a mixture of olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper and they grilled up like a dream.

-Speaking of brushing...they have these new silicone brushes that are SUCH a great idea.  The bristles won't get nasty and bend like regular brushes, and they'll actually get clean when you wash them.

Sorry for all of the product placement, I'm really not endorsing anyone, I'm just loving the picture of summer that this new grill is painting!

Billy Mays here....

Carly: solving your recession issues since 2009

Friends, I learned an important life lesson this morning.  While sorting through my emails, I found one from Delta, telling me this AMAZING news:

So the life lesson is this:  When something is bothering you, simply complain about it on the internet, and pretty soon, almost as if by magic, your gripe will be addressed and resolved!

Also, Wendy's is back to the 5 piece nugget.  You're welcome.

The Precinct at Vertical Diner 4/16/2010

Don't knock the flyer, my usual designer was busy so I just made this...in PowerPoint.  Yeah, I said it, PowerPoint,  that's how I roll.

Convenience Fee? More like INCONVENIENCE Fee.

I just bought a slue of tickets for the spring concert season and I'm so pissed about these so-called "fees" that every single ticket vendor feels the need to tack on. I'm looking at you in particular, Smith'sTix.  Here's what it cost me for two tickets to Alexisonfire, which is supposedly a $13.00-per-ticket-show.

 

Let me repeat that small print for you.

$  1.00    Facility Fee 

$  3.25    Order Processing Fee

$  2.50    Will Call Pick Up (Um, you're charging me for what exactly?  The cost to NOT mail me paper tickets?)

$  8.50    Convenience Fee

--------------------------------------------------------

Grand total:  $15.25 in FEES!!!!!!!!!!!  

That is more than the "price" of a whole nother ticket.  Disgusting.  I would honestly rather see all that in the cost of the ticket, rather than THINKING I'm getting a good deal and then getting raped upon checkout.

The good news is that I now have 7 nights to look forward to:  Rx Bandits, RX Bandits again, Frightened Rabbit, Passion Pit, Say Anything, Alexisonfire and MUSE!

Peter Corroon by Mason Fetzer

Mayor Corroon is running for Governor!  The campaign asked Mason to paint an image of Peter, and the above was a result of an epic all-nighter.  

Medium: house paint, acrylic and spray paint on wood with a custom wood frame 

Dimensions: freakin' huge

I'll get some better pics up as I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of this paining before the election in November, but for now, I love the way my camera phone captured the artist and the subject.  This was taken at a St. Patty's Campaign Kickoff Party at The Depot.  The place was packed and the energy was high.  I have a feeling this will be an interesting gubernatorial election.  

PS- I hate that word: GUBERNATORIAL