All posts by abitofsoul

Helena Bonham Carter quote

Helena
“I think everything in life is art. What you do. How you dress. The way you love someone, and how you talk. Your smile and your personality. What you believe in, and all your dreams. The way you drink your tea. How you decorate your home. Or party. Your grocery list. The food you make. How your writing looks. And the way you feel. Life is art.” ~Helena Bonham Carter

 

Breakfast Yogurt

You know what tastes delicious and is really good for you? Greek Yogurt, Blueberries and oats! This breakfast bowl not only looks good but it’s filled with antioxidants, protein & nutrients! The oats help give you strength and energy to get you through your day. If not for breakfast, it’s a great afternoon snack as well. The yogurt and blueberries are from Trader Joe’s and the Oats are from Whole foods. Enjoy!

yogurt

The musically gifted Sia

So you’re in your car driving and you turn on the radio. Suddenly amongst all of the noise, a song comes on that completely rocks your inner core! You might be thinking, wow I wish I was able to make music like this singer! Little do you know that the singer not only didn’t create the lyrics or the instrumental but they definitely didn’t create the melody & style it was sang in either! In this case, the singer is really just someone who is a good performer with very rarely a good voice to go along with it. They are usually looking for fame and don’t have the creative edge to make their own music but they might have the vocals and ambition to carry them to stardom. These singers need a song writer as well as someone to lead them through the harmony. This is where Sia comes in. She is apart of the “behind the scenes”, music world working on the songs that you love, sang by people other than the creator herself!

Sia is a singer songwriter (a real one) who hid from the spotlight for decades. Her career took off when she sang in the band Zero 7 on their 2006 album, “The Garden”. Her last unforgettable hit Breathe Me played at the end of the show “Six feet under” and she has only recently come to the surface since with her latest song Chandelier, which made it to the top of the international music charts. This song is much more than just another “Pop” song on the radio. Sia wrote this song originally to sell to Rhianna or other pop artists that she usually writes for but she decided that it was much too personal to give it up and kept it for herself. After-all, it’s her song and it’s about her! In the video, “Chandelier”, an 11 year old dancer Maddie Ziegler performed an out of this world performance. Sia helped choreograph the dance. The scene takes place in a sad crumby apartment with dull colors and depressing kid drawings on the wall, while Maggie plays out the songs darkness with her upbeat beautiful ballet, modern and contemporary hip hop dance steps that can come off pretty creepy at times. It is really a genius piece of work! 

Sia’s story is pretty remarkable and you can find her talking about it on the Howard Stern Show. It’s an hour long but if you’re into the back story of all of your favorite pop songs, you will be shocked to know that Sia is behind them. She wrote “Diamonds in the Sky” sang by Rhianna, as well as “Titanium” and so many others that you will find a whole new level of respect for this talented woman!

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Arcade Fire Reflektor Tour

I have been a die hard fan of “Arcade Fire” ever since they came out with their album, “Funeral” in 2004. Ten years later, they are still on the scene since in 2011 they won a Grammy and have blown up surpassing any mediocre one hit wonder, trendy indie rock band and have been certifiably recognized for their true indie rock talent.  I have to say though, they were going strong for a while with SOLID albums like; “Funeral, “Neon Bible” and “the Suburbs” but this last album “Reflektor”, has only about a few good songs while the others are just fillers for the abum. It’s not solid and although it breaks my heart that they weren’t able to meet my expectations of their genius musically gifted past, they were still able to put on a badass show!

Seeing them play live yet again was worth all of those surcharges on ticketmaster as well as rip-off stubhub. It’s a BIG band of people, with two drummers (one’s the lead singers wife) and various instruments that keep you going. This tour specifically had a cool mirrored man reflecting light off of him and back onto the crowd. There was also a DJ playing on the sound stage across from the band and during the show Regine Chassagne (Win Butler’s wife) surprised the crowd appearing on the small stage giving people who have crappy seats a chance to see the performance up close.

It turned into a huge dance party that continued past Arcade Fire’s performance.

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40 Different Fruits Tree Design

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This is a rendering of a single tree that bears 40 different fruits! The idea is genius and the artist, Sam Van Aken came up with it. He began by integrating two different species of plants, then three, then four and so on until he figured out a way to have 40 different fruits on the same tree.

Sounds like magic but it’s really just science. About 14 of these trees are planted across the country. Each with their own varieties of fruits such as peaches, apricots, plums, cherries and more.

In 2008, Van Aken used a technology called chip grafting. Growing up in Pennsylvania on a farm, he was mystified by grafting. Although he was quite skeptical about the whole process, he realized that the tree actually grows and becomes a multiple fruit tree.

Pretty amazing, right?!?

 

Banana Bread

BananaBread

Super simple! Whenever your bananas start going bad, grab ’em and mush them!

Prep:

4 bananas mashed

1/3 melted butter

1 egg

3/4 cup of sugar

1 1/2 cup flour

1tsp baking soda

1tsp baking powder

1tsp salt

Directions:

Turn oven onto 350 degrees. Grease your pan with oil and flour (it makes a great paste). In a large bowl, add all the ingredients listed above in prep and blend. Pop it in the oven for about 25-30minutes, stick a wood tooth pic and check to see if it’s ready. So delicious, so simple!

Dutch Oven Chicken

Wine&OrangeChicken

A friends fiance, Sarit just gave me this recipe and it turned out so good, my husband wants me to make it again this week. Tastes better than it looks!

Prep: 

1 yellow onion

2 red potatoes

2 medium summer squash

cumin

paprika

Salt & Pepper

4 Chicken legs

5 cloves of garlic

2 oranges

white wine

Vegetable Oil

Directions: 

Turn on your oven to 375 degrees. Put your sliced onion in your oven dutch pot with some vegetable oil & sautee with a bit of cumin (depends on how much you like cumin). Spice your chicken with salt & pepper as well as paprika. Then dear in the 4 chicken legs and cook each side but don’t over dry. Then gently add 2 cups of white wine, followed by 2 freshly squeezed oranges (add some pulp). Next mince 5 cloves of garlic and add them to the pot. Then cut the red potatoes into semi small pieces as well as your squash and put into the pot. Add an extra touch of salt and crushed pepper on top. Put the top on the pot and put in oven for 2 hours. Make sure to remove the cover for the last half an hour.