:::squeezing it all together:::

if i had a million dollars – crystal & gold mixer

ashallann — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 13:49:48 +0000

I love awards show season and the finale is this weekend with the Oscars! Something, something awards and red carpet. Let’s talk the swag bag. It’s loaded with goodies this year from jewelry to luggage, even a gold and crystal mixer. Yes, a Kitchenaid mixer:

Now I don’t know if the above is the exact one that will be given to the biggest stars, but it’s made by the same designer, Nicole Dinardo, of Un Amore. She turns Kitchenaid mixers into beautiful works of art (at least I think they are.) The gold and crystal mixer would retail at about $1500! Check out some of her amazing designs below. I would bake all day if I had one of these beauties:

If I ever get married I’ll totally register for one like this, or maybe I won’t wait and I’ll gift myself one for my birthday.

rubble and bolts

ashallann — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 13:48:35 +0000

Happy President’s Day! i’m going to put up pictures of past presidents and roll around in some money. Inappropriate?

Hey, ever go to Sneaky Pete’s? I know this kind of dates myself but around 2003-2004 we did a ton of events here, it seemed every Halloween and NYE was at Sneaky’s. It was inside the OTB on Central. Well here’s what it looks like today (kiddo was a backseat photographer)

I knew that the OTB had been closed but I didn’t realize the whole building was being knocked down. I remember (I think) when it was being built, or updated, in the early 80′s.

Moving on, running over a bolt sucks. I was near Everett & 90 this weekend and met up with this badass:

This was stuck deep in my tire. I’m thankful manfriend was able to help find a solution, but this thing is HUGE wtf was it doing in the middle of the road? I realize I’m ranting but I’d feel more comfortable with the bolt if I knew i had driven through a construction zone or something. I suppose I can always turn to one of my favorite quotes from John Bender in The Breakfast Club for solace:

“…screws fall out all the time, the world’s an imperfect place.”

Why don’t you just enjoy the top 15 Benders to ease into your President’s Day?

cakes and flowers

ashallann — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:32:57 +0000

Manfriend’s birthday was over the weekend. He requested a chocolate raspberry cake. At first I thought that would be insanely involved and difficult, but really it was chocolate cake + chocolate frosting + raspberry extract in some of the cake and some of the frosting + fresh raspberries =

Chocolate Raspberry Awesomness. Yea this wasn’t vegan either. I had a giant vegan fail this weekend. Epic.

So that love holiday is all up in our faces tomorrow. Funny thing, manfriend’s birthday kinda sorta coincides with our
anniversary-ish so we’re 12 years deep into this romance. We still celebrate Valentine’s Day. Kind of. The first few years he was johnny on the spot with the most beautiful flowers, roses that would bring a tear to your eye. Then something interesting started happening. I started getting flowers on the 13th. At first I chalked it up to a busy guy who couldn’t get his dates straight. Nope. When I asked him about the early floral delivery he was dead-honest:

“It’s cheaper the day before, even cheaper on the 15th”

Romance isn’t dead, it’s just a little early (or late.)

starbucks surcharge?

ashallann — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 19:06:10 +0000

I had to work this morning so I decided to treat myself to a little Starbucks drink and bite. I got my normal venti vanilla rooibos tea and in a moment of weakness ordered a very non-vegan and unhealthy pumpkin bread. The cashier asked me if I was getting the items for here or to go, I told her to go and she told me the total was $5.08, then quickly changed the total to $4.90 because “I’m not eating there.”

Huh?

There was a line of people behind me so I didn’t want to pester the cashier about the price differences but I was definitely curious. I’m not a daily Starbucks customer but I usually wander in once or twice a month. I’ve never had anyone mention the price difference for eating in vs. eating out. I was genuinely curious so I called the Starbucks later and asked the manager about the price difference and he confirmed that, yes, if you order a food item and you eat in it needs to be taxed. If you order an item to go it is not taxed (or maybe it’s taxed differently, it’s taxed like a grocery store would.) Groundbreaking news? No, but a new piece of info to keep in mind when ordering at Starbucks.

if i had a million dollars – 24k gold nail polish

ashallann — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:34:53 +0000

I balked at $15 nail polish last week, but in my world of million dollar fantasies $5,000 for nail polish seems pretty reasonable, especially if it has pure gold in it.

Red Carpet Manicure created the ~~completely unnecessary~~ fabulous nail polish for the Grammys, whether they win the award or not stars will find this expensive polish in their gift bags. According to Glamour the polish could retail at about $5,000. Now if the polish costs $5k, how much will it cost to have someone apply it?

energy balls

ashallann — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:12:33 +0000

hehe, balls. I’ll get to ‘em.

While I’m a full on Pinterest addict, sometimes I feel like a fake. Here I am pinning all this sh*t I, allegedly, want to cook, create, and decorate and 9 times out of 10 I do nothing…really like 9.999999 out of 10. The few pins I have tried ended in a disastrous, but highlarious state, that is until tonight! I saw this pin over the weekend:

Source: smashedpeasandcarrots.blogspot.com via ashallann on Pinterest

I was sold as soon as I saw “no bake.” They were so easy to make, and claimed to be delicious. Bonus that it’s fun to call them energy balls (sometimes I have the humor of a 12 year old boy.) You’ll notice the recipe creator didn’t refer to them as balls, that’s my own personal way of classing it up. If you can’t get to the original post for the recipe, just click here. Basically you’ll need oatmeal, chocolate chips, peanut butter, honey, ground flax seed and vanilla extract. Mix. Refrigerate. Roll into balls. Enjoy.

I didn’t stop with the delicious balls this evening, I was on a roll. I wanted to have portobello mushrooms, but didn’t feel like sauteing them or soaking them in balsalmic, so I decided to stuff ‘em! I sauteed about a cup of spinach with a tbsp of olive oil with 1/4 of a red onion (chopped.) I added in tomato towards the end and then took the mixture and placed it inside a washed portobello mushroom cap. I added some chopped bacon to manfriends. I baked the whole thing at 375 for about 10 minutes. Awesome, perfect balance of natural flavors:

Seriously, try the energy ball recipe. I don’t know if they actually give you energy but they’re easy. You could make them at work.

snack attack

ashallann — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:09:59 +0000

I spent most of the afternoon in the kitchen on Sunday getting snacks ready for manfriend and kiddo ahead of the game. Here was the spread…obviously kiddo and his dad are not embracing my attempt at vegan eating:

Fresh Salsa, I just chopped three tomatoes, half a large green pepper, 2 ears of fresh corn, 1/2 c of cilantro and mixed with a dash of lime juice and 2 spoonfuls of chili sauce. Amazing.

Nachos (melt cheese over nachos, tough stuff.)

Honey Lemon Garlic wings, you can find the recipe here. I threw some honey on them for the last five minutes of baking and manfriend loved them. He’s a wing expert.

Twice baked potatoes, which are always amazing. The big game version had bacon and cheese in them, but I’ve made them vegan many times with a little bit of Earth Balance and some veggies or herbs mixed in.

There were also lots and lots of veggies. If my kid is allowed to eat anything with bacon in it, he better be housing some serious veggies along with it.

Hope you enjoyed the ~~snacking~~ Big Game!

head north

ashallann — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:35:52 +0000

Are you there winter? No? Ok, that’s cool.

The mild winter has been fun, but I know my kid has been pissed. He’s a kid, of course he wants tons of snow! This grass in February stuff isn’t cool. To give him something of a little winter experience his dad and I brought him up to Saranac Lake this weekend. It’s the Adirondacks, they must be slammed with snow? Nope. But it was still pretty cool.

Manfriend’s brother helps construct the ice castle for The Saranac Lake Winter Carnival so we got to get a little preview of the awesomeness:

Really amazing stuff. I believe the Winter Carnival kicks off this weekend and runs through next. Weather permitting the ice castle should be open for the next 30 days. The theme this year is space invasion and there are a lot of amazing space craft ice creations…2 1/2 hours away from Albany…definitely worth the drive.

After we checked out the castle we wandered into Lake Placid for a bit..walked out onto the lake, enjoyed the day. Then manfriend’s bro took us to a relatively secluded frozen lake, it was pretty breathtaking at dusk (sorry for the choppiness, it’s a crappy panorama app on my iPhone):

Not a ton of snow in the Adirondacks right now, but still beautiful to see. That’s what I love about living in Albany. Jump in the car, drive about 2 1/2 hours south and you’re in the city. Drive about 2 1/2 hours north, you’re deep in the Adirondacks. NYS may annoy the crap out of me sometimes, but it’s got range.

ding dong

ashallann — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 14:13:08 +0000

Weekends are always busy. Most Saturdays we’re up and out early for work, sports, events, activities, etc. When there is a Saturday that we don’t have to be somewhere I may act a little lazy. I still get up early, I do work from my couch, I clean, I’ll play with kiddo…but I’ll stay in my pj’s a little longer than normal. Yesterday was a total full on lazy day. I did a ton of work (in my pj’s) then started straightening up in the kitchen and dining room. When I was cleaning the kitchen floor I heard the dreaded,

DING DONG

I hate hearing the doorbell on a Saturday.

I hate hearing the doorbell on a Saturday when I’m in my pajamas.

I hate hearing the doorbell on a Saturday when I’m in my pajamas and it’s after 1pm.

Because the kid screamed “DOORBELL,” I couldn’t pretend that I didn’t hear it (I‘ve done that before.) So I was forced to look like a total bum and answer it in my pj’s. It was just someone in the neighborhood with information on an event, but I still felt scummy.

if I actually looked like this in my pajamas I probably wouldn’t be so embarrassed to answer the door

When I tweeted that I had just been caught by an unannounced visitor as a late in the day pj offender I was relieved to find that I’m not the only one who isn’t a fan of the doorbell on Saturdays. I was even more relieved to discover that I’m not the only one who has ignored a doorbell before. Evil smiles.

Time for a total topic change. I feel like I’ve lived at Target this week. Between needing stuff and hitting their clearance (yes I’ll get jeans for the kid and I for $10) I’ve been all up in the land of addictive shopping. I always wander through the accessories department before I head to the checkout and couldn’t believe what I saw:

FRIENDSHIP BRACELETS! For sale. Like $4.99 a piece! I used to be able to bust out 5 or 10 friendship bracelets a day when I was younger. I wonder if I could set up shop from the back of my truck in a Target parking lot and sell these for $3 a piece? I have friendship bracelet-makin’ skills. Can’t believe stores are selling them. It’s as if the 90′s are for sale – again.

bittersweet-ish

ashallann — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:44:59 +0000

So this afternoon is my last day on air at my country station, 104.9 The Cat. I’m really excited about new opportunities but I’m always sad to leave a station. This station launched in Feb. of 2010 and I joined in May of that year and it’s been a fantastic station to be a part of. Despite the fact that it’s a smaller station (radio stations have different power capabilities) it has kicked some major ass! A lot of formats have appeared on this frequency over the years but this is one of the more successful brands. Country works!

I had the chance to broadcast at Wolf’s 1-11 Arena Sports Grill before the Rascal Flatts show at the TU last night and it was so awesome to hear from listeners how much they love the station, warms my cold little heart. I’m not only on the air, I also manage the station so it’s kind of like a little radio baby. Of course I want to hear that people like it!

Some of my favorite moments from 104.9 The Cat include, debuting our mascot…Cooter. Yup, Cooter. My old manager named him. People love meeting him, seriously.

Throwing an amazing FREE first birthday show for the station with Jaron & The Long Road to Love (or you may remember him as Evan & Jaron from the 2000′s)

Seeing ~~smelling~~ & meeting Keith Urban, amazing show. Go see him live stat!

Most of all watching the station grow has been the most rewarding. I’m still working behind the scenes on the station while a replacement is found. I’m staying with the same company, in the same building, just moving to a different station that’s literally the studio next door to mine. Super excited about my new opportunity but I’ll miss 104.9 The Cat.

In 14 years in radio (I started when I was 17) I’ve worked physically at 5 stations, been heard on about 20 stations, I’ve had about 9 different managers and easily 200 co-workers. Always change, but I’m sure it’s the same at any other job.