Amy Artisan

Family | Travel | Craft | Life | Books

Category: Ten on Tuesday (page 5 of 6)

Holiday Shuffle

December 9, 2014 / / 8 Comments

I had another Christmas themed post ready to share – but when I saw this prompt, I decided to join in. (Bonus – I now have a post ready for later this week…)

O Christmas Tree

For Ten on Tuesday this week, the prompt was the 1st 10 songs that come up in your iPod shuffle. While this would be an eclectic list given the wide range of tunes I have, I decided to give it a holiday twist & shuffle on the “holiday” genre. So, here are 10 holiday tunes that shuffled through for me:

  • O Holy Night – Joshua Bell (feat. Kristin Chenoweth) – Musical Gifts
  • The Chipmunk Song – Joey McIntyre – Come Home for Christmas
  • A Holly Jolly Christmas – Lady Antebellum – On This Winter’s Night
  • Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas – John Tesh – Big Band Christmas
  • Mary, Did You Know? – Pentatonix – That’s Christmas to Me
  • O Come, O Come Emmanuel – Kevin Max – Holy Night
  • Christmas Is Coming – John Denver & The Muppets – A Christmas Together
  • Mele Kalikimaka – The Puppini Sisters – Christmas With the Puppini Sisters
  • We Three Kings – Pink Martini – Joy to the World

As an aside, I actually have a playlist titled “O Holy Night” & it turns out that over the years I have collected 17 versions of this beautiful Christmas song.

‘Tis the Season…what tunes would shuffle through if you narrowed your music to holiday?

Give Thanks…

November 25, 2014 / / 5 Comments

Today’s 10 on Tuesday is a given during this week of Thanksgiving…10 things I’m thankful for…this list could go in so many different directions and could stretch for many multiples of 10. But for today, a simple list…in no particular order…

Give Thanks

  • My family! We are a family that enjoys being together. I’m thankful that we’re together this week for Thanksgiving. As we shared ’round the Thanksgiving table at church on Sunday, our Thanksgiving tradition is being together…some years our meals have been non-traditional (Planet Hollywood, Benihana’s)…this year we are on for a more traditional meal (& a non-traditional dessert!)
  • The gift of knitting, learned from my Grandma 17+ years ago. Both the activity of working calming stitches & the resulting gifts that are knit for dear ones bring me joy.
  • Dear friends. Silliness…seriousness…honest conversations…fun adventures…just being together…staying connected through the distance…
  • The warmth of hand knits as colder days descend…
  • “My kids” in Wisconsin & Texas. It is such a treat to be “Miss Amy” to these 6 amazing and unique kids. They fill me with joy and we have lots of fun, too!
  • Fun pottery mugs filled with steaming coffee or tea…
  • The technologies that allow me to stay so connected to my dear ones when the miles between us are many. From “text me when you arrive safely” to “gamecasting sporting events” to plenty of silliness in texts to FaceTime when you just need to see each other.
  • Good books and curiosity to keep learning…
  • Monday evenings at the local food pantry…it’s great to spend a couple of hours helping local families shop…some evenings it’s tough to see the scarcity on the shelves with the overwhelming needs…it’s always a great “perspective straightener” to remind me that whatever I’m going through truly isn’t bad.
  • A good job that I enjoy. Sure there are some challenging days but there are also great opportunities.

While it’s great to come up with a list as we approach Thanksgiving I believe it is just as important to be thankful throughout the year.

What are the things that you are most thankful for now…at this moment?

Have a blessed Thanksgiving!

Summer Shows

June 3, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Connecting up with Carole’s Ten on Tuesday this week…the prompt was 10 Bands/Individuals I’ve Seen in Concert. Since it’s summertime, which means that there are so many opportunities for great outdoor shows, I’m adding a twist to the list & only focusing on outdoor shows I’ve seen…

Scenes from Summer Sounds...

Scenes from Summer Sounds…

  • The Hollywood Bowl – A classic American concert venue…in July 2002 I had the opportunity to see a concert there…Pink Martini opened for Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66…It was the first time that I saw Pink Martini & I instantly became a fan. In fact, I flew back to Chicago on Sunday on Monday at lunch I was picking up a copy of their CD. Since then, I’ve seen Pink Martini in a wide variety of venues and their shows never disappoint.
  • Ravinia Festival – A quintessential summer evening in Chicago is to picnic on the lawn at Ravinia & enjoy a great show. Pretty much, a no fail recipe is “group of friends + some sort of picnic + any performance = great evening.” During my time in Chicago, I enjoyed many an evening at Ravinia – from work team outings, to book club gatherings to evenings with good friends, no matter the performance the evening was a delight. Among the performances: James Galway (1st Ravinia experience); Chanticleer; Joshua Bell; Tony Bennett; James Galway with Tiempo Libre; and my fave Pink Martini.
  •  The Jay Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park – A more recent addition to the Chicago outdoor venue (& skyline) is this striking Gehry designed band shell. Several fun evenings were spent enjoying a performance there. Again, great picnicking is a key component. When I worked downtown, it was so easy to do this. Among the shows I saw there The Decemberists put on a great show in a race against an incoming summer thunderstorm and I also enjoyed seeing The Joffrey Ballet performing to tunes of The Beach Boys, Motown & Prince.
  • First Midwest Bank Amphitheater, Chicagoland – A standard outdoor concert space. It’s hard to believe that it has been 5 years since Rebecca & I reverted to screaming teenage girls for the first NKOTB reunion show that we saw. The Jabberwockez as an opening act were great; Jesse McCartney, not so much.
  • Back in high school and college, the concert pavilion at Six Flags over Georgia was the scene of several fun concert adventures with friends. One evening was Richard Marx & Wilson Phillips. I also remember getting rather sunburned one weekend while enjoying a Christian Music Fest (including The Newsboys, PFR and so many more…)
  • A fun evening while on a project in Chattanooga during the summer of 2006 involved see Los Lonely Boys at the Riverbend Festival – just blocks from our hotel & office.

What about you? What are some of your favorite outdoor concert venues & performances? Do you have any outdoor concerts on your summer calendar yet?

P.S. Several years ago, I wrote about the joy of partaking in outdoor performances – both musical & theatrical.

Mom Teachings

May 5, 2014 / / 3 Comments

Through the different link-ups that I’ve been participating in this year, I’ve been stumbling upon lots of “new to me” blogs. When I saw that Jana was planning to host a Little House book club at the Townhouse Pioneer, I thought it would be fun to join in and re-read some favorite childhood books. Each month, one book in the series will be read and discussed via blog. As I reread “Little House in the Big Woods” I was quickly reminded of why the series has always been a favorite of mine. There are a lot of different thoughts that come to mind as discussion points for the book; however, since we are in Mother’s Day week I’m going to focus on mother as teacher. Throughout the adventures and the mundane that Laura and Mary experienced in that little house, Ma was right there – teaching them every step of the way. Some things were survival skills like putting up food for the lean winter months: in the kitchen; others were life skills like knitting and sewing for clothing; some were life lessons about how to treat others.

Riding the carousel at Greenfield Village with Mom!

Riding the carousel at Greenfield Village with Mom!

That is a theme that runs through every mother/child relationship – I’m pretty sure I’ll never outgrow learning things from my Mom. For this week’s Ten on Tuesday, Carole asked us to share “10 Things Mom Taught Me” – so here is just a small & rather random sampling from the things I’ve learned from Artisan Mom…

  • Simple Hospitality – it doesn’t take much to provide an inviting environment to host friends and family in any situation
  • The best strawberry pie recipe – more on this later this week…
  • A love of reading
  • Meyer lemons really make any dish better
  • While I never picked up Mom’s great sewing skills, I picked up the basic mending basics from her
  • Doing housework is a perfect time to pray for those you love
  • A mug of hot tea can solve almost any problem
  • Puzzles are fun! Jig saw…words…or numbers…
  • You can find wonder in the smallest and simplest things – don’t get so caught up “in it all” that you miss these moments
  • No matter how bad a day seems…it’s really not that bad…tomorrow is a new adventure to be had!

“All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.” – Abraham Lincoln

What has your Mom taught you? 

Today, I Am…

February 4, 2014 / / 4 Comments

20140204-201718.jpg

Today, I am…

…ready for winter to be over. A big snow yesterday and prepping for snow + ice tonight into tomorrow…

…fighting winter weather grumpies! More so than during all my Marinette winters. Sigh

…thankful for the ability to work from home on snow days instead of venturing out on the roads.

…double checking my “emergency kit” here at home, in case the overnight ice causes us to lose power. 

…knitting away on a new shawl – not officially a “knit Olympics” event since I cast on during the Super Bowl (knit during the game – pause during the commercials).

…in week 1 of my 2nd Whole30 and enjoying the time in the kitchen. 

…planning several posts on the cooking & tips that help me through the Whole30. 

…really enjoying the homemade coconut milk I’m making these days.

…enjoying decaf Candy Cane green tea in the evenings to unwind. (And enjoying the rest of the teapot poured over ice as I get home from work.)

…enjoying the grapefruit splash candle I picked up in Lancaster Co. – a splash of sunshine in a jar.

Linking up with Carole’s Ten on Tuesday: I Am.

« Older posts Newer posts »

Archives

Meta

Pages

© 2024 Amy Artisan

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑