Beer Review Wednesday ~ Hop Project Ale

I am in love...in love with hops! Since I've started following craft beer blogs and drinking more craft beers in the past year, I keep seeing the term Hop Head come up.  So I decided to consult the Urban Dictionary to see what the "official" definition is and here's what I found.

Hop-head: Someone who enjoys really hoppy beers, or drinks hoppy beers exclusively. Most likely this person is a beer-geek or craft-brew drinker.
Hops are what give beer the Citrusy, Piney, or sometimes what bring out the Herbal or Fruity flavors.

Man, that Stone Ruination IPA turned me into a true Hop-head.

So I guess it is official. My name is Bianca and I am a Hop Head. So here's my first beer review as a proclaimed Hop Head!

Yazoo Brewing Company, Tennessee - Hop Project Ale
Serving type:  Bottle poured into an  ALABAMA NATIONAL CHAMPIONS pint glass.

Appearance: Beautiful amber color. Clear with small head.

Smell: A sweet citrus/grapefruit smell with a hint of hops. Smells soooo good!

Taste: Sweet almost caramel taste with grapefruit/citrus yummy-ness! I am soo in love with this beer I'm tongue tied!

Mouthfeel: Medium carbonation, medium body with a dry finish.

Overall: Great beer!  Definitely one of my favorite Ales/IPA! If you check the bottle on date and then go to the Yazoo blog, they will tell you the specific hops used in that batch. How exciting is that?! I didn't find out about this cool feature until after I threw the bottle away but check this feature out when you get your bottle.

I bought my Hop Project Ale at Stone River Total Beverages in Murfreesboro, TN.  Visit Yazoo's website to learn a little more about the brewery. They do not have a "find our beer" search option on their site but you could probably email them to see what areas they cover.

Happy Wednesday Thursday!

The Game of the Century!

Saturday is THE day! #1 ranked LSU faces #2 ranked Alabama in Tuscaloosa. It is literally going to be the biggest game this year maybe even in the history of college football!. Forget the BCS National Championship, THIS is the National Championship!

The media has been in Tuscaloosa setting up since Tuesday. There's a line that started at 8 am Thursday morning for Coach Saban's radio show that evening. NFL scouts are going to be all over this game. Lebron James, Little Wayne, Condoleezza Rice, Shaq, Snoop Dogg, Jay Z, Kanye West, Charlie Sheen, Sela Ward (Former Bama Cheerleader), Leonardo Dicaprio, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill and Kenny Chesney are all expected to attend the game and that's the short list! For pete's sake even TMZ.com has a article about the game on their website! Is there going to be enough room in Tuscaloosa? Can you imagine what the Tuscaloosa airport is going to look like with all the Gulfstreams parked that day?

I saw this poster on Facebook on Thursday. Trent looks like he's ready to kick some butt!

Pic from crimsontidephotos.com via Facebook

This game will be epic. Regardless of who wins, these are two of the best teams in college football. I fully expect all of you to be glued to your TV's at 7 pm central because this is a game that people will be talking about for years to come!

ROLL TIDE ROLL!

Beer Review Wednesday ~ Prima Pils

I know. I have been a total slacker on my beer reviews. So I went to my favorite beer store, Stone River Total Beverages, and grabbed some beers that were on my wish list.

I thought that I was a huge fan of Pilsners but the more I taste them the less I like them. I think my main problem is that the Pilsners I always expect are German Pilsners, ones actually imported from Germany. That's what I'm used to and it's a standard that the few "domestic" Pilsners I've tried are not living up to. So with that being said this might be my last 'domestic" Pilsner review. I'm open to suggestions if anyone thinks there's one out there that comes close!

Victory Brewing Company, Pennsylvania - Prima Pils
Serving type:  Bottle poured into an  ALABAMA NATIONAL CHAMPIONS pint glass.
Appearance: Light gold/straw color. Clear with medium head. Pretty decent head for a Pils.

Smell: A slight sweet lemon smell with a hint of hops. This Pils has more of an aroma than others I've tried.

Taste: Light, crisp with a slight malt flavor and a bit of lemon. 

Mouthfeel: Great carbonation, light body with a dry finish.

Overall: Easy to drink and a pretty good Pilsner This is probably the best out of all the 'domestic" Pilsners I have tried. 

I bought my Stoudt's Pils at Stone River Total Beverages in Murfreesboro, TN.  You can visit the Victory website to find a Prima Pils in your neck of the woods.

Happy Wednesday!

DIY Cupcake Stands

I've got to bake two dozen cupcakes for a bake off at my mom's church in a couple of weeks and I thought I would make (by I, I really mean my boyfriend) a really cute cupcake stand for the occasion. I've been searching the web for some great ideas and I've found a ton and wanted to share some of my favorites with you.


picture via giverslog.com




Picture via sweetcharli.blogspot.com

Pictures via Punky & Me

picture via MarthaStewart.com

I will post all about the cupcake stand and bake off in a couple of weeks. In the meantime I hope you are as inspired by these adorable clips as I was.

Beer Review Wednesday ~ Tallgrass IPA

So I ventured out and about this past weekend and went to the Nook Tavern in Huntsville. This place is so awesome and probably has the best beer selection in North Alabama with over 300 beers to choose from. They just expanded their deck area and it was a great night to sit out on the deck for the first time and have some great beers.

This is my first time reviewing a beer while I was out so this one will be short and sweet.

Tallgrass Brewing Company, Kansas- IPA
Serving type:  Can poured into a Pilsner glass by a very nice bartender. By the way the can thing really threw me for a loop. If you go to the Tallgrass website they tell you all about the pros of cans versus bottles. I honestly couldn't tell the difference so of course on a pure packaging/marketing stand point I thought it was pretty cool!

Appearance: Amber/copper color. Clear with medium head and no sediment.

Smell: Nice citrus/hops smell with a little malt. Good aroma, ready to give this one a try.

Taste: Mild, crisp with good hop flavor but not overwhelming. Slight bitter aftertaste but not too bitter.

Mouthfeel: Good carbonation, medium to light body.

Overall: Very easy to drink and a pretty good IPA! The hops flavor isn't overwhelming so if your really into hops this might be too mild for you. I think this is a great intro beer for those wanting to venture into discovering IPA's. The can again I thought was really neat. Of course the packaging was my favorite {Love the ROLL TIDE elephant} but I purely chose this beer because I wanted to try something new, I had no idea what it looked like. Maybe I should stop judging books by there covers? Naaah.

I bought my Tallgrass IPA at The Nook in Huntsville, AL. To find a Tallgrass IPA in your area, visit http://www.tallgrassbeer.com/maps.html

 Happy Wednesday,

Roll Tide Wreath!

Some of you that follow me on Pinterest are going to be so sick of seeing me craft everything that I pin! I saw these adorable yarn wreaths on Pinterest recently and knew I had to make an Alabama one!

Myblessedlife.net via Pinterest

thesimplylivingblog.blopspot.com via Pinterest

I used a Styrofoam wreath that I bought at Michael's, a skein of yarn and some felt for the flowers. The banner I made with some houndstooth wrapping paper I had left over from Christmas. I will give ya'll one really big tip, please get the straw wreath with the plastic wrapping on it. I spent about 2 hours wrapping that stinkin' wreath! It turned out to be worth it but my arms hurt afterwards.

Happy Crafting!

Beer Review Wednesday ~ Dirty Blonde Ale

I've been totally MIA on my beer reviews because I honestly haven't found any amazing or spectacular beers lately that I haven't already reviewed. BUT I know not every review is supposed to be FANTASTIC so here's one that I wasn't over the moon for. Of course I picked this because of the label :)

Atwater Block Brewery, Michigan - Dirty Blonde Ale
Serving type:  Bottle poured into a pint glass.

Appearance: Orangey, amber color. Clear with small head.

Smell: A slight citrus smell, doesn't have much of an aroma.

Taste: Label suggests orange peel and coriander? I did detect some orange/citrus but not sure about the coriander. It was a little watery to me?

Mouthfeel: Fair carbonation, light to medium body.

Overall: Very easy to drink but I was underwhelmed. I would like to say this would be a good beer to drink on a hot summer day but you can just as easily reach for a Bud Light Lime if that's the case. This beer just screamed average. Nothing too exciting.

I bought my Dirty Blonde Ale at Stone River Total Beverages in Murfreesboro, TN. To find a Dirty Blonde Ale in your area, visit http://www.atwaterbeer.com/beer-finder/

Have a great Wednesday!

 

Game Day Nails

IT'S COLLEGE FOOTBALL SEASON! Yes, finally my favorite time of year is here! I have recently been OBSESSED with Pinterest. It's been occupying entirely TOO much of my time {hence no posts lately} I have been pinning everything and anything that has to do with tailgating, houndstooth and crimson. Here are a couple of examples.

photo via http://sarabakescakes.blogspot.com/

photo via Etsy

Roll Tide by jackieturner featuring a black shawl

While I was pinning, I stumbled across the new (well at least to me) nail trend where the middle finger is painted a different color then the rest of your nails. I LOVE this but I wanted to put a little BAMA twist on it. So, I was in CVS over the summer and this houndstooth pattern caught my eye.

 Sally Hansen makes these nail polish strips that come in a houndstooth pattern {LOVE}! So I grabbed a box and took it home. I thought about what the heck I was going to do with it. I just couldn't see myself having all my nails in houndstooth so when I came across this new nail trend I knew what I was going to do.

First I applied the strip per the instructions and then I painted the remaining nails with Fishnet Stockings by Essie.

So far the strips have already chipped a little but this was my first try.

Have a very happy Friday and Roll Tide Roll!

Your Help is Needed!

I've been missing from the blogosphere for the past couple of weeks for two reasons 1. I had a vacation hangover and 2. I've been working on helping my brother raise money for a friend of his.

My brother on the left and Justin on the right

Justin doing his job as a mine sweeper

As many of you know I have two brothers that are in the Army. One is stationed Italy and the other is stationed in North Carolina but is currently in Afghanistan. Four weeks ago one of his team mates took a gunshot to the head while on a combat operation. Emergency brain surgery was performed in Afghanistan and he was then immediately flown to Germany. He was then transferred to ICU in Bethesda, MD. He quickly was released from ICU and had feelings on both sides of his body and was able to complete small tasks when asked. This alone is amazing! He is now in Richmond, VA for physical therapy. The beginning of this week he was actually able to get out of bed by himself and walk with some assistance. The physical therapist says that he should be walking on his own by the end of the month! I am in total shock that all this has happened so quickly! Justin is still not able to speak but everyone is confident that he will recover his speech.

Although Justin's recovery is coming along quickly, no one knows how long it will take and his family wants to be by his side every step of the way. His family has had to leave their home town in Idaho to travel to Germany and now the East Coast to be by their son's side as he recovers from this traumatic injury.

A Facebook page has been created to help Justin's family with their travel expenses. Please take a minute to visit the Facebook page and share it with your friends. If you would like to make a donation, please click the Paypal link.

These guys risk their lives for us everyday and I can't even begin to imagine the things they've seen and gone through. They do this because they can't think of anywhere else they rather be than serving their country and doing what they love. As a sister of a Wounded Warrior I can tell you that this is an extremely stressful and intense time for this family and if we can just give them some sort of relief, I know it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your generosity.

French Manicure made EASY!

I absolutely love the look of a french manicure. I think it just looks so professional and lady like. I love painting my nails but the polish always chips off in about 3 hours (I'm hard on my hands) and I don't have the patience much less the precision to make that perfect moon shape line of a french manicure. So the other day when I was in Sally's Beauty Supply picking up another bottle of Batiste Dry Shampoo (btw this product is AMAZING as well) I came across this little jewel from Nail Bliss Pro called the French Wrap and thought I would give it a try.

This product is awesome and super easy to apply. I mean if I can do it, it's easy! It comes with everything you need: 13 different sized French Wrap applications, the base seal, top seal, brush on glue and a mini buffer. Essentially you glue on the smile line (as they like to call it) and then apply the base and top coat. These will make you nails strong and super shiny just like a professional manicure. I'm not much for artificial nails because I hate how weak all the filing makes my nails. This process only requires a light buffing and I'm working on day 5 of my flawless manicure.

The best part of this is that this only cost about $12 and the box says that there are about 10 applications in this kit. I'm not so sure there are 10 true applications but even with at least 3 you are definitely getting your money's worth.

I obviously have not tried to remove it yet but according to the directions you can remove it with acetone based remover (keep your fingers crossed). I'd love to hear from you if you have ever tried this product. Please leave a comment below!

Happy Monday!

Shower for Baby Keaton

A couple of months ago I helped plan a baby shower for my dear friend Samantha. I absolutely LOVE planning parties so I was over the moon to help out with this one.

The first part of the planning process, for me at least, is selecting the invitations. I believe they set the tone for the party and also help with tying colors/theme together. For this party I used Em & N Designs again (they also did the killer invites for Jackie's Bachelorette Party) and I was not disappointed. We decided on a yellow and gray damask theme 1. because Sam is crazy about Damask and 2. because they weren't 100% sure if they were having a boy or a girl (Keaton was very shy at his first ultrasound). The custom invitations and wishing tree cards turned out AMAZING!

My friend Linda from Linda Lou Photography in Ft Walton Beach took all these fabulous pictures for the shower. I aimed high and decided to make a photo booth backdrop. This was pretty easy but I decided to make it hard by finding custom fabric instead of a sheet. In my opinion it turned out better but it was a tight squeeze in the picture with more than 2 people. My insanely awesome boyfriend made the fabulous chalk board speech bubbles and they were the hit of the party. I also added a little fun with the mustache and lip props.

The awesome "Baby Mama" and "Baby Daddy" props were done by my fabulous graphic designer friend Jill. {TO DIE FOR!}

Hello Keaton? Are you in there?

The food was fantastic! Suzy and Cindy really did all the work on this part and everything turned out so great.

Overall this was a great party! So good to have everyone in the same state, if only for the weekend.

Happy Friday!