Musical musings for August

This month has been completely about country, which hopefully shouldn't come as much of a surprise. The satellite radio country station we listened to for 4 days straight whilst visiting some of Vancouver Island earlier this month is primarily responsible. There definitely doesn't seem to be an end in sight to this country love as tickets have been purchased for next month's Jason Aldean, Jake Owen and Thomas Rhett concert. I know country isn't for everyone, but maybe one of these tunes will soften your stance:

1. All Your Life - The Band Perry
2. Chillin' It - Cole Swindell
3. You Don't Know Her Like I Do - Brantley Gilbert
4. From This Valley - The Civil Wars
5. Crash My Party - Luke Bryan
6. Whiskey - Jana Kramer
7. Drunk Last Night - Eli Young Band
8. You - Chris Young
9. Tomorrow - Chris Young
10. Could It Be - Charlie Worsham
11. Round Here - Florida Georgia Line
12. As She's Walking Away (feat. Alan Jackson) - Zac Brown Band
13. Helluva Life - Frankie Ballard
14. It Ain't Love - Green River Ordinance
15. Mine Would Be You - Blake Shelton
16. She Will Be Free - Josh Abbott Band
17. It Goes Like This - Thomas Rhett
18. Friday Night - Eric Paslay
19. Parking Lot Party - Lee Brice
20. The Booze Cruise - Blackjack Bill

Lots of new country faces featured in my August musings. I am sure that more of their music will appear in future months.

August's music can be found on these albums (images courtesy of iTunes)

NYC in the summertime

This is quite the overdue post about my trip to NYC last month. I thought it still worth a quick mention with a few highlights and a photo collage because I did have a great time there. My top three new NYC things (in no particular order) had to be:

• Dining at Serendipity
• Taking the Radio City Music Hall Tour
• Shopping at the Tanger Outlets

Of course I enjoyed revisiting all of the usual tourist hotspots as well as the above. Whilst this marked my sixth visit, I am not sure when I will get to see this great city again. There are many other cities I haven't explored yet that I wish to, so I best get saving and planning!

A little bit of theatre

Before I talk about theatre, I wanted to acknowledge that this past week marked two years of blogging. It is funny to think that I have chronicled bits and pieces of the last twenty-four months of my life on here. I realise on reflection that I didn't mention the one year milestone and I am not sure why. Nevertheless, I thought it would be nice to highlight this latest achievement especially seeing as I didn't think I would stick at it for this long. Whilst the amateurish content, photos and layout haven't really evolved, I would like to think I have. I definitely know that I have had some amazing adventures these past couple of years and am excited to see what the future holds with whoever wants to come along for the ride.

Anyway at the start of summer I wrote up a to do list and attending TUTS was item number two on it. I will be ticking this off on Monday night when my visiting friend and I go to see 'How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying'. I am really looking forward to seeing this musical and the weather forecast is showing no rain so all signs point to a great night. Also, earlier this week I was able to see Riverview High the Musical, whose promotional poster had caught my eye in a Starbucks about a month ago. It was a fantastic production and I highly recommend it to any local reading this. So it seems that two theatre outings aren't enough because tomorrow I will be purchasing tickets for the production of Mary Poppins later in the year. I really do enjoy going to the theatre and hopefully I will be able to attend many more productions.

White chocolate chip cupcakes with raspberry buttercream frosting

White chocolate and raspberry is one of my favourite flavour combinations when it comes to baking as evidenced here and here. Therefore, it was a bit of a no-brainer to bake some cupcakes incorporating these two flavours today as I enjoy the last day of a lovely long weekend. It felt good to whip up a batch of cupcakes using this recipe, as I haven't baked in what feels like the longest time. I have instead been having a pretty awesome summer, but I always feel a bit restless when I know I haven't baked in a while. With the recipe I chose for the cupcakes, I used 2/3 cup of white chocolate chips as well as sprinkling a few on top of the batter incase the others sunk during the baking process. I also baked them for 25 minutes instead of the recommended baking time.

For the raspberry buttercream frosting I used the following ingredients:

• 15 fresh raspberries, washed
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 3 cups icing sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 tsp meringue powder
• extra fresh raspberries, washed (for decoration)

I gradually added the icing sugar to the butter in my KitchenAid stand mixer at a low speed. Next up I pureed the raspberries using a food processor and poured the puree into the already combined ingredients. Lastly, I added the vanilla essence and meringue powder and allowed to mix for approximately a minute. The cupcakes weren't quite cool enough so when it was time to frost them I allowed the frosting to mix for another minute on a medium speed. I used my Wilton 1M decorating tip to frost the cupcakes and finished off each of them with one fresh raspberry instead of dipping into my sprinkles supply.

I think the raspberry on top was a good choice and might just alleviate a small percentage of the guilt associated with eating a cupcake or two.

Bringing sexy back

Mid-week excitement may be tiring, but last night was totally worth it. July's musical musings touched on the fact that I was to attend a concert yesterday evening, which was to be held under the open roof of BC Place Stadium.

It was definitely one of the best concerts I have ever been to. It confirmed how glad I was that Justin Timberlake decided to end his musical hiatus. He is such a talented performer, who is, without a doubt, easy on the eye. As each familiar song was performed I couldn't help but sing along at the top of my lungs and gaze adoringly.

Jay-Z may not have been the reason why I wanted to go to this concert, but there is no doubt that he held his own as part of the two-man show.

The lack of sleep may have haunted me this morning, but I would do it again. Furthermore, I hope this is not the last I see of a certain performer who brought sexy back.

Hearts and skulls

Edgy isn't a term I would use to describe anything about me. However, a few months ago I did develop quite an infatuation with skulls as mentioned here. This was still evident during my recent vacation and compelled me to buy a pair of skull printed shoes from Steve Madden. Now I have started pairing these shoes with more girlie or feminine items in my wardrobe including some heart earrings I purchased back in March when I was enjoying both sunshine and shopping. I like having these items standout against understated clothing such as grey jeans and a navy v-neck tee. Maybe this is the start of a fun relationship between different existing styles in my wardrobe.