Nicole's Summer Playlist!

“Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent.” - Victor Hugo

I love listening to music…I love listening to it while I work or while I play, while I’m walking or while I’m driving, while I’m by myself or while I’m hanging out with friends…unless I need to be listening to something else, pretty much any time is a good time to listen to music! Although…sometimes certain occasions need certain kinds of music :)

Last week Samantha shared her summer playlist, this week she’s off having a blast in Las Vegas and now it’s my turn to share my summer playlist. Some of these songs are relatively new, some are older ones that I've just recently discovered and others I've been listening to for a while but they just never get old!

Usually I’m a ‘shuffle’ sort of person, I pick my playlist, artist or album and put it on shuffle, but I did try to have some kind of order for my playlist…like Samantha, I tried to start with the slower more mellow songs progressing to faster more energetic songs. I ended with Favorite Song by TobyMac since it’s just such a happy song and I just can’t help smiling after listening to it…and who wouldn't want to end their playlist with a smile!


Nicole’s 2013 Summer Playlist!

1. Let Us Love – Needtobreathe
2. Beautiful, Beautiful – Francesca Battistelli
3. I’ll Show You How To Live – Sanctus Real
4. Lay It Down – Jars of Clay
5. Speak To Me – Remedy Drive
6. Listen To The Sound – Building 429
7. Hall Of Fame – The Script
8. Between The Raindrops – Lifehouse
9. Black & White – Royal Tailor
10. Life In Color – OneRepublic
11. Everyday People – Nicole C. Mullen
12. All The Right Moves – OneRepublic
13. Gold – Britt Nicole
14. Gone – TobyMac
15. Legacy – Sanctus Real
16. Nobody Listen – Lifehouse
17. Selling The News – Switchfoot
18. Brave – Action Item
19. Control – Royal Tailor
20. Move – MercyMe
21. You Set The Rhythm – Newworldson
22. No Ordinary Love – TobyMac
23. Born Again – Newsboys
24. Wannabe – Royal Tailor
25. Favorite Song – TobyMac

Samantha's Summer Playlist

“Where words fail, music speaks.” – Hans Christian Anderson

I love love love music! Whenever I am down or even when I’m happy I always stick on some of my favorite songs or songs that deal with what I am going through and I sing, dance, and sometimes cry, I just escape. I love discovering new songs and listening to them over and over again. It’s always a special moment for me when I find a song that speaks to me and that expresses exactly how am feeling or what I want to say to someone. 

Nicole and I have decided to share our summer playlists with everyone. I’m up first because next week I won’t be here...I’ll be having the time of my life in Las Vegas! I hope you enjoy my summertime playlist; I’ve been listening to these songs non-stop since the summer started and some of them are becoming my all-time favorites. I guess there is sort of an order to my playlist...I started out with more mellow songs, progressed to dance and sing at the top of your lungs songs, and then I ended with a One Republic song that keeps me positive and makes me smile!

Enjoy the music,

Samantha

Samantha’s 2013 Summer Playlist:

1.      Daylight – Maroon 5

2.      Breathing Underwater - Metric

3.      All Time Low – The Wanted

4.      Cups – Anna Kendrick

5.      Makin’ Out – Mark Owen

6.      Hey – Matthew Morrison

7.      The Fighter (feat. Ryan Tedder) – Gym Class Heroes

8.      Anything Could Happen – Ellie Goulding

9.      Cruise (feat. Nelly) – Florida Georgia Line

10.  True Love – P!nk

11.  I Will Wait – Mumford and Sons

12.  Don’t Let Me Get Me – P!nk

13.  Love Somebody – Maroon 5

14.  My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark – Fallout Boy

15.  Starlight - Muse

16.  The Adventure  - Angels and Airwaves

17.  Rockstar (feat. Mike Krompass & Steven Schneider) – Jordan Knight

18.  What Do You Want From Me? – Take That

19.  Let’s Go Higher (feat. Colby O’Donis) – Jordan Knight

20.  Candy – Robbie Williams

21.  C’mon – Ke$ha

22.  All That I Want – Robbie Williams

23.  Blurred Lines (feat. T.I. & Pharrell) – Robin Thicke

24.  Walks Like Rihanna – The Wanted

25.  Feel Again - One Republic

Wedding Season

“A wedding is a party, not a performance. If at the end of the day you are married to the one you love, then everything went perfectly.” - Unknown

Another big part of summer is weddings. I love weddings and everything to do with weddings. I am the first one to admire wedding dresses when I see them; I even did projects on weddings dresses and weddings cakes in school. Wedding season in Victoria is very exciting because we have so many beautiful little bridal shops with very pretty window displays plus, there are so many picturesque outdoor locations to have a wedding at here in Victoria. 

We have been designing and creating lots of special wedding cards and we thought that we would share a couple of our favorites. 

This LOVE card can be for an engagement or wedding. We wanted to do something fun so we stamped a diamond ring in place of the O in LOVE and just kept the rest of the card very simple and plain with a few layers. 

Coral is a big trending colour this season, so we picked it for this pretty and elegant card. This card is simple and plain like our LOVE card, but we’ve added a 3D flower embellishment as well as some white ribbon to make it stand out a bit more.

Our newest wedding card is cute and sweet and has a little bit more going on. We recently bought some patterned paper which makes our cards pop a bit more than just plain cardstock and this is our first go at using it! We decided to go for neutral tones in the cardstock because the patterned paper that we chose is very rich in colour. Instead of centering the layers we decided to set them off to one side which I personally love. A perfect added touch that Nicole thought of was a chocolate brown bow, so cute!

For fun, we wanted to list some wedding movies that we've seen, so here’s our list (in no particular order)...

-          Father of the Bride (original and new version)

-          Bride Wars

-          My Best Friend’s Wedding

-          27 Dresses

-          The Wedding Planner

-          Five Year Engagement

-          High Society

-          Leap Year

-          Royal Wedding

-          Mamma Mia

-          My Big Fat Greek Wedding

-          It Had to Be You (1947)

-          Seven Brides for Seven  Brothers

-          Wedding Date

-          Philadelphia Story

     Happy movie watching and happy wedding season.

     Samantha

Chocolate Ice Cream

“I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!”

          (Howard Johnson, Billy Moll, and Robert A.K. King)

It’s ice cream time! 

The weather is warm and summer has officially kicked in, so I have decided to start making some of my summertime treats. This week I decided to go with a simple favorite...chocolate ice cream!

A few years ago I got an ice cream maker and it has to be one of my most favorite things that I own. The best thing about making your own ice cream is the fact that you get to decide what ingredients you put in it. You can make somewhat healthy ice cream with just a few ingredients, you can experiment with all sorts of flavors, but personally, I like how I can ensure that my family gets a nut free cool treat. I have included pictures from my most recent chocolate ice cream making adventure and a recipe as well. Enjoy!

Samantha 

Basic Chocolate Ice Cream

You’ll need:

1 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder

2/3 cup of granulated sugar

½ cup of packed brown sugar

1 ½ cups whole milk

3 ¼ cups of whipping cream/heavy milk

1 tbsp. of vanilla extract

Day 1

Mix all of the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. 

Using a mixer or a whisk, combine the dry ingredients with the whole milk.

 

Stir in the whipping cream/heavy milk.

                                           Finally stir in the vanilla.

* I usually let the mixture sit in the fridge, covered, overnight so that it gets super cold.

Day 2

After the mixture has been in the fridge overnight, I turn on my ice cream maker and pour the mix into the freezer bowl and let it do its business.

I usually time it for 30 minutes, but I check on it often. Once the mix is thickened and looks like soft serve ice cream, it’s done.

I like my ice cream a little bit firmer so I put the mix into a freezer safe container and let it firm up for a bit, but if you like soft serve, like Nicole does, you can just eat it as is. 

There you have it, simple and very yummy homemade ice cream.