Nancy Drew and the Mystery of the Featured Work

Ok, so there's not that much intrigue, but since we brought our site back online (quietly, oh so quietly) in the New Year, our portfolio has been "hidey", as we like to say.  I thought it would only take a week or so to get it back online, but then it was two and I was busy and now here we are in February... so I decided to wait until our anniversary which is coming up "right quick", as they say in Texas.

We recently ran some upgrades and a teeny, weensy bug was causing the "Featured Work" page to display nothing but a blank white page. I'm guessing it's been like that for a few days, so our apologies if you happen to land there and get bupkis. The quirk has been abolished and the page is serving up... well, not our portfolio yet, but a lovely splash page, which is better than blank in my book.

The moral of this story is to always check all the major pages of your site after an upgrade, kids. 

Cheers to Pawcurious with the Italian Greyhound!

We're super excited for our client, Pawcurious, is nominated for a Weblog Award (or a Bloggie, as they are also known) for Best Pet or Animal Blog. If you haven't a favorite, you should definitely vote for Pawcurious. I'm not biased at all or anything. No, but seriously, Dr. V's site is chock full of great information and animal antics.

For this week's Champagne Thursday, we'd like to honor Dr. V and Pawcurious with a pet-themed beverage: The Italian Greyhound.  (I couldn't find a Labrador cocktail, sorry, Koa and Brody!)

You can find the original recipe for this beautiful Italian Greyhound with Rosemary Sugar, along with other delicious looking recipes on FamilyStyleFood.com.

Congrats again, Pawcurious. We hope you win! 

Shaken, Not Stirred

Source: greygoose.com via Joelle on Pinterest

Kathy re-kicked off our Champagne Thursdays last week with her favorite adult beverage and the namesake of this (hopefully, weekly) feature, but now it's time for me to bring you an example of my kind of drink -- one with booze, like nature intended.

I do like champagne, but I don't drink it that often. It gives me a wicked headache.  When I choose to libate, 95% of the time, I choose an old school classic -- a vodka martini, preferably made with Grey Goose, but I'm open to most top shelf vodkas.  I've never been one for sweet drinks and always preferred the retro cool factor that a classic martini offers. It's a slow sipper (at least the first one) and isn't full of sugary fruit juices or creamy milky whatnot.

Plus, olives. Mmm... I prefer mine stuffed with blue cheese, if the establishment has them lying about. Ultimately, the olives should be plump (but not huge) and firm, not tiny, hard, speckled or pruned up or that weird shade of green-yellow that happens to olives that sit in a garnish tray too long.  If you're going to indulge in what is basically straight, expensive vodka, please -- for the love of all that is decent and holy -- don't use crapola olives. Do it for the children!

I like my martinis very light on the vermouth. Like, light -- a mere suggestion, a hint, a whisper. So I prefer to use a martini mister for the addition of the vermouth to the shaker. Others prefer to add the vermouth, swirl to coat the shaker and then dump it out (which is my second-most preferred method).  And yet others feel vermouth should be heavy, as once upon a time a classic martini was almost half vermouth.  To that I say, bleh. Also, yuck.  

I also am not one of those girls who seductively asks the bartender to "make it dirty".  I like a little "dirty" (meaning, a bit of olive juice) in my martini, but very, very little and find most bartenders tend to be heavy-handed here, so I end up with a murky drink that looks and tastes like seamonkeys. So I just skip it and let my olive garnish add the "dirty" for me.

Anyway, I picked up this recipe from the website of my favorite vodka, Grey Goose. They include orange bitters, which I've never tried, but am intrigued about, so I may ask for that next time!

The Classic Vodka Martini

Ingredients

• 2 parts Grey Goose vodka (or the vodka of your choice)
• 1/2 part Dry Vermouth
• 1 Dash orange bitters

Instructions

• Fill a shaker with ice.
• Add vermouth. Stir to coat ice and strain out.
• Add  Vodka and bitters, if desired, and stir well. (I shake, not stir. I know some people say that "bruises the vodka", to which I say ,"whatever!".)
• Strain into a chilled martini glass.
• Present with an olive or lemon twist. (Olives! Three for me, please.)

Feel free to experiment with garnishes. Mix olives and lemon twists or use a fresh bay leaf instead. These additions will give subtle yet unique changes to the cocktail.

You can view a video on the Grey Goose website of their mixologists whipping one up if that blows your dress up. 

Finally, please, please drink responsibly -- this is straight-up booze, my friends. Have a snack with it or something so you don't make an ass of yourself. Not that I've ever done that. *cough*

Move Over, Barbie.

We love Pinterest -- as you may have noticed from the images in our sidebar and our links on our about page.  I didn't totally love it in the beginning -- it was a lot of soft focus photos of cupcakes and cheesy inspirational typography.  I like both cupcakes and typography, but it was a little too schmaltzy for me.  So I eschewed it for a while until more people started using it and there was more variety.

I started a board that Kathy and I both contribute to called Moxie Dream House. We've always fantastized about what it would be like if we could live in the same city and have a brick n' mortar studio.  Of course, our fantasy studio wouldn't likely include a bed -- we're not a cam girl site, much to the chagrin of some of our spammers -- but our Moxie Dream House board contains basically anything fabulous, pink, leopard or otherwise something we deem appropriate for our "fantasy studio were it potentially a giant mansion in which we could find room for all this stuff".

Here are some samples of the kinds of things we dream about:

A pink desk is imperative. And the chalkboard wall is brilliant!

Source: benjaminmoore.com via Katherine on Pinterest

If this was a real thing, we would be all over it.

Source: victoiredesamothrace.tumblr.com via Joelle on Pinterest

I thought they should've named this lamp The Phyllis Diller, but no one seemed to get my joke, which of course, means I'm old and no one knows who Phyllis Diller is anymore.

Source: fab.com via Joelle on Pinterest

A girl's gotta get to work, right?

Source: brookeanneaslett.blogspot.com via Joelle on Pinterest

Follow our Moxie Dream House board -- we're always adding new things and dreaming of ways a hot pink bathtub might be practical in an office...

Hello Champagne Thursday! (Where Thursday Means Almost Friday)

Good day! Welcome to Champagne Thursday! I am your gracious hostess, Kathy. *curtsey*  I'm not 100% sure where we came up with Champagne Thursday but I do think it had something to do with the chick flick where Sarah Jessica Parker is a professional man therapist and tries to force Matthew Mcconaughey to grow up and move out of his parents house.  I'm Googling it.... Ah! Failure to Launch! Anyway, I love Champagne.  I kind of like Thursday since it's almost Friday but not enough to not require a little bubbling happy persuasion to get me through.

I looooooooove Champagne.  I know I said that already but I need to actually convey to you how much I love it. So let's enjoy this recipe we found on Pinterest recently.  This cocktail kind of combines two of our favorite drinks into one beautiful libation.

Champagne Cosmopolitan

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 ounces vodka (we prefer Grey Goose or Belvedere)
• 1/2 ounce triple sec or Grand Marnier
• 1/2 ounce cranberry juice
• 1/2 ounce fresh squeezed lime juice
• Ice
• 2 ounces champagne (on the sweeter side) 

Combine vodka, triple sec, cranberry juice, lime juice and ice in a cocktail shaker. Shake, shake, shake. (I'll refrain from adding booty to this part).  Pour into a chilled martini glass. Top with champagne and garnish with a couple frozen blueberries or whatever you think looks snazzy.

Cheers!

(Original recipe and photo can be found at InspiredTaste.net)