7 Quick Takes Friday: Pretties, Brews, & Bros.

–1–

I know, I know, big noob blogger faux pas: changing the graphics on her site point five seconds after launching it.  But isn’t that like ahhh, so much better?  I’m done. promise.  …with that part.  Yes!  That’s actually my silhouette. Fun fun fun.

–2–

The thing is, for the last 5 years that I’ve been blogging, 80% of my stuff has come directly from my smart phone. The other 20% has come from our Macbook Air, which is basically an iPad with a keyboard.  Which is fine if all it’s being used for is …NOTHING. AT ALL. EVER.  But my husband uses some hulking program to login remotely to his work office, AND he also somehow crammed Microsoft Office Suite for Mac into the tiny nonexistent hard drive.  Literally, the Air has no hard drive.  Craig would place blame of the memory sucker on like two DSLR photos I tried to upload once or twice, but even then —just, we’ve been in a really frustrating digital storage gridlock for many years.

 

–3–

The point of me sharing this backwash: I haven’t had the amazing creative freedom to use any sort of photo/graphics/web design software in just about 5 years. Everything I’ve shared with you through my blog and through Instagram has been 99.9% iPhone photos and iPhone graphics created with apps.  They do a great job. BUT.
We recently purchased a real, grown-up, desk-top computer with Buzz Lightyear memory capacity, and I swear I’m going to slay the web with all the pretty I am gunna do.  Roar.  You’re gunna hear me Katy Perry roar.

–4–

So, hi. Country girl wants to know what one of these puppies taste like:

Jenna had me drooling all over my screen a few days ago, and I’ve seen them all over creation but, not in Podunk town USA. When I think about how a macaron might taste, I imagine it’s a hybrid of a petit fours, a doughnut, and an oatmeal cream pie, but in the colors of the rainbow.
Am I spot on?
Are they soft and chewy? Do they have a cracky shell? Are they light and fluffy? Are they mostly dry and crunchy with a cream filling? How are they all so colorful? And why, oh why, did we not stumble upon some during my trip to Paris 10 years ago?
How is it fair that I can pronounce their name correctly, but know not their flavor?

So I looked up some Pinteresty Macaron recipes and when I came upon words like sieve, froth, sift, “fold in gently”, and piping bag, I knew I did not fit the description for Macaron Maker.  I do love a good and thorough 48 hour recipe method that births a delicious and beautiful treat, but I can only handle one of the above words per recipe.  Otherwise, the boys sense that I’m concentrating, and they don’t like that at all.

–5–

Have you heard of this lot yet?  Apparently, some Catholic chicks created an open Facebook group for anyone to join and ask questions, just chill, brew ideas, keep up with Catholic media, and get to know everyone on a more personal level.  It looks sweet to me, and I think the question as to which kind of “brew” is open for personal interpretation… just not the Bible. Cause if it were, we wouldn’t be Catholic. ding!

Come talk!

–6–

I know it’s about a month away, but I’m getting hyped up for the canonization of Blessed John Paul II.  He is my patron, my homie, the artist I strive to be.  Ah! He brought me back to Jesus with his Letter to Artists, and I’ve never been the same. I can’t even try to talk about how the letter transformed me without tearing up.  Expect me to get increasingly worked up over this as the celebration draws nigh. le sigh, le sigh.

–7–

How are we doing with our Lenten crafty crafts?  If one might recall, I’d aspired to create an in-home Stations of the Cross, a poster board calendar of the 40 days of Lent, and print out a bunch of goodies which the boys were all going to lovingly help me do, and everything was going to be pretty and lovely.

This is what I’ve got so far:

I count it as a huge success.  I didn’t think I’d get the holes punched and was ready to throw in the towel.  But my momma is a preschool teacher, and she’s got all the crafty tools, like laminators and mini hole-punchers.

The poster board calendar is sitting, unfinished, on top a bunch of stuff somewhere.

Go give Jen and the other quick takers some luv!