winter getaways

Hello, dear readers!  Wow!  It's been so long since I've posted.  Here's a little about what's been going in our world over the past two weeks...

We had two back-to-back family cabin trips in northern Minnesota.  They were lovely times filled with much lounging, knitting, some reading, a lot of eating, outdoor adventures, and much laughter.  It was a great way to wrap up Christmas and celebrate the New Year.  

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My favorite food moment of the cabin trips was the hot cocoa I made for everyone after a very chilly and windy ice skating adventure.  I used this cocoa mix, local grass-fed whole milk, and we topped it with homemade marshmallows (recipe found in The Homemade Pantry).  It was so creamy and just the right amount of chocolaty goodness.  Yum...

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With our cabin trips behind us, this week is a bit of a transition period before the spring semester starts back up for me.  Here's to a week of spending time with friends, cleaning house, and refilling my kitchen with good, wholesome foods.  

Happy January to you all!

celebrating our love

This weekend Dan and I got to escape for a few days and celebrate our second wedding anniversary.  It was an absolutely wonderful weekend, even though it's been almost a month since our actual anniversary!  We stayed at the Spicer Castle Inn and spent our time reading, dreaming, laughing, talking, and just enjoying being together.  Since the inn is on a rather large lake, we decided to take my grandpa's boat with us and enjoy one last water adventure for the season.  

Throughout the weekend, my fingers also made a ton of progress on my "honeymoon sweater," a cardigan for myself that I started on our honeymoon two years ago.  It's a project that has spent a lot of time sitting in my knitting basket while other many other projects have gone on and off the needles.  It's finally nearing completion, though, and I'm getting rather excited about it!

It was a truly wonderful weekend--one which made me love my dear husband so much more.  Here's to the rest of our lives together, my love.

in the spotlight

This past week has been rather exciting for my husband and me!  A few weeks ago, Dan was commissioned to write a song for a possible placement on a Budweiser PSA commercial.  He got the request while he was out of town with the non-profit he works for, Youth Frontiers.  That night, in his hotel room in some small town, he sat down and wrote a catchy little tune called "When You Come Home."  The publishing/licensing agency loved it, the ad agency loved it, and when Budweiser heard it, they loved it too!  

The next thing we knew, the ad "Friends Are Waiting" was live and within 7 days it hit over 15 million views!  It even made it into the "most popular" category on YouTube's homepage for a day!  It's been so fun to see so many people not only watching the commercial, but seemingly loving it's message and music as well.  While most of the views and press related to the video have focused on the message and video itself, a few of them have mentioned the artist behind the music (links below).  This has been great for getting Dan's name out there!  It's been amazing to watch the hits on his website climb and his social media explode with activity.  

After I got done with my class yesterday, Dan called me to say that a few of our local TV networks wanted to do a news segment on him and the commercial.  So exciting!  He then proceeded to tell me that they wanted to do so at our house...that night!  Whoooo!!  With the craziness of the past few weeks, our house has been more than just a little messy...it could even be said that it's been an absolute disaster.  So, I few home on my bike and we made quick work of that mess in order to present the Twin Cities metro with a clean view of our home and yard (the later as been completely destroyed by chickens as of late).  With 45 minutes of my arrival at home, I was watching Dan be interviewed by one of the local news anchors.  

And an hour or so later, another anchor and camera guy showed up.  It was quite fun, and my house looked quite clean, I must say! 

Overall, it's been a fun week for us.  The news reports referred to all this as Dan's "big break."  While we'd love for that to be the case, we'll see how it will all play out in the end.  What we do know, however, is that this is a definite step in the right direction.  Hooray for that! 

Press Related to the Commercial & Dan's Music:

mile of music

This past weekend, I flew to Chicago, where Dan picked me up after a week-long stretch of shows.  From the airport, we drove to Appleton, WI, for Mile of Music, Appleton's annual music festival.  It was a fantastic weekend, full of great music, successful shows, and fun!  Dan played 5 shows in 2 days, which left us thoroughly exhausted by the time we left Appleton early Sunday morning.  Appleton's music festival is held in different restaurants and venues on their main street, so there is music happening inside and out for 4 days straight.  It's a great festival, if you ever find yourself in the Appleton area in early August!  

After a long, full weekend, it's lovely to be home again and have my husband home!  We are looking forward to a rather relaxing and low-key last couple weeks of summer! 

knitting my way to extrovertism

I'm quite the introvert.

Thus, eleven days of Summerfest drains quite a lot of energy out of me.  You see, selling CDs at Summerfest looks a bit different than it does at other shows that we do.  At this festival, Dan plays for tips and CD sales, so while he plays, I chat with people, sell CDs from the table, walk around with a tip bucket, and walk around with CDs!  From before he starts playing until well after his set is done, I'm socializing, small-talking, and explaining who we are and what we do.  While I love doing this, the introvert in me gets throughly exhausted in the process, especially when the process happens twice a day for eleven days!  

I've found, though, that I'm able to knit my way to extrovertism (yes, I know...I made it up...)  Having my yarn, my needles, and even a book in my hands (or even just by my side) throughout the day makes me feel so much more grounded.  A few stitches here and there makes me feel alone in my own world, even if it's only for a minute or two.  It helps me recharge, making me ready to chat with and enjoy the next wave of people who come my way.  

Here's to a chilly Summerfest Day #7, filled with lots of people, a page or two of reading, and a few rows of knitting!

festival fun

Gosh, I have had the best of intentions of sticking to my regular blogging schedule, but the busyness and exhaustion of Summerfest always catches me by surprise!  Dan has been playing at this 11 day music festival for the past six years.  He plays twice a day, everyday, on this little side stage called the Tiki Hut.  It's a great place for new people to hear his music and buy a few CDs.  We thoroughly enjoy it, but my goodness, is it exhausting!  For an introvert like me, this drains every ounce of extroverted-ness out me! It's so worth it, though!  We meet so many lovely people and the income will help get Dan back in the studio again this fall.  

Here are a few pictures of what our days have been filled with.  We stay with our friends at their beautiful lake home outside of Milwaukee, which gives me the opportunity to make some of our own food and enjoy the tastes of home while being away.  

We are having a lovely time here!  We're both missing home, but are happy to know that the garden, chickens, and kitty-cat are in good hands.  We've been told that one of the chickens flew over the fence.  So, a proper wing-clipping ceremony will need to take place when we return!  Ha!  Tomorrow is a day off for us, and all of Summerfest, and we are looking forward to it very much!  For today, though, we are headed back to the grounds for another day of making music and selling CDs!

on the road

Hello!!  It's been a few days since I've posted, so I thought I'd take a minute to say hello!  My husband and I are spending the next 12 days in Milwaukee for Summerfest Music Festival!  It's a festival that he's played at the past several years and it's quite a fun time for us.  I'll be posting more about the festival and some other fun things while we're away from home, so stay tuned!!