Just a quick announcement to let you know that using a random number generator, the winner of the Friday Finds #200 giveaway was:
Janelle Bracken (check your email for details!)
Her comment on the post was:
I have enjoyed your Friday Finds for a long time now, Amy, and my husband (he’s a foodie) has now downloaded the Paprika app and is enjoying it! Thanks for having this drawing. If I win, they are going to Larry, my husband. He would love receiving them.
Congratulations, Janelle, and I hope Larry enjoys the magazines! 🙂
To get you in the holiday spirit! Steinway Artists The 5 Browns performing Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride” arranged by Greg Anderson.
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Speaking of fun Christmas videos…
Thrill your students with the free Christmas music video series here on Piano Pantry. Take it a step further and use the listening guide available in the PP shop. Your students will be absolutely delighted.
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If you’re like us and bought your Christmas tree but have yet to decorate it…
I know it sounds kind of silly and quirky and it’s certainly not fancy, but we’ve found it to actually be a hit!
It’s a good price point and completely practical – assuming, of course, they do takeout pizza on any kind of a regular basis, of course!
We get takeout pizza maybe once a month. Believe it or not, my husband and I finally bought a second one to put in his car. It’s one of those things, if you don’t keep it in your car, you won’t remember to grab – or, in his case, if he’s picking it up on the way home from work, he couldn’t get it out of my car…
It makes such a difference in keeping the pizza hot and fresh!
Since it’s a holiday weekend, I’m taking a week off from our regular Friday Finds, but wanted to let you know what’s going to be up for grabs in our Friday Finds #200 celebration giveaway.
Since I’m not one to hold onto things, I was about to recycle the magazines when my husband spoke up and said: “Hey, why don’t just use them for a giveaway item?”
Brilliant!
While you may find a few handwritten notes here and there, they’re still in really good condition – why not let someone else benefit from them as well?
So, mark your calendar for:
Friday Finds #200 on FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11.
Enter to win 20 volumes of Milk Street Magazine (Fall 2016 Charter Issue to July/August 2020).
Also, since we will be hitting #200 in December, Friday Finds (a.k.a. Amy) will be taking a holiday break from the weekly series, resuming with #201 in January 2021.
We recently started a subscription with Black Rifle Coffee Company (owned by veterans) and LOVE their coffee. Our favorite so far is the “Just Black” medium roast. Delish!
Do you ever use the app Flashnote Derby? Guess what – you can send specific drills to your online students via email. Here’s a quick tutorial. It’s super easy!
As of today, we have just under two weeks to prepare for the often overlooked and yet beautiful holiday called Thanksgiving.
This holiday is placed at the perfect time of year, forcing us to count our blessings as the year comes to an end and before we begin indulging in all of the spoils of life.
Here are some items to help prepare and set the mood in multiple areas of your life this Thanksgiving.
These cookies are a staple in my fall food repertoire. They pack a slight crunch as they use sugar in the raw instead of white or brown sugar. As a bonus – if it matters to you – they’re vegan!
#3 is an awesome free PDF of Thanksgiving puzzles, word search, Thankfulness cards, and more. I’m SO EXCITED to use some of these when hosting my family’s Thanksgiving meal!
The crops are coming down, the air is getting cooler, pumpkin carving is underway, and candy may be in our near future.
Have a great weekend!
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After trying various erasable pens over the years for writing in student’s music, I’ve finally given up on them. They just don’t write nicely and they don’t last.
Good old lead pencils and Erasable, Twistable Colored Pencils (even those that don’t have erasers on them will still erase) are my writing tools of choice.
After having students constantly break the lead on “clicky” pencils, I went on the search for stronger ones and found the BIC X-tra Strong Mechanical Pencil (0.9mm). No breaks so far!
Storing your games in clear plastic A4 envelopes is a great way to organize them. I’ve found, however, that if I print the game instructions on a letter-size paper then laminate it, the instructions don’t fit in the envelope.
We are fast approaching 200 weeks of finds for you, my dear teachers. It’s kind of funny because when I first launched this website, I was desperate to get content up quickly before I left for MTNA 2016, San Antonio.
Several websites out there I followed did weekly posts like this I loved so I thought – why not! Although this series started on somewhat of a whim without much thought, it’s withstood the test of time.
When we hit #100, I did a big “best of” post with the top 100 items from the previous 100 posts but that was way too much work so I started doing best-of review posts more frequently (which always includes a giveaway 🙂 )
Here’s a sneak-peek of what will be up for grabs in post #200:
Can I give you an organizational tip? Pick one day of the week that you send a card/letter. Make your goal just one. For years I wanted to do better at sending cards. It wasn’t until I put it on my calendar as part of my Monday tasks that it became a habit.
Not only that, but keeping a stash of blank cards or general cards like sympathy, recovery, etc. means I can easily just grab one and not have to put it on my shopping list.
Every Monday, I send one card. It could be a card for quick recovery from someone at church, it could be words of encouragement and thanks to someone in your life who has blessed you, it could be a long-lost friend who isn’t on Facebook.
This uses browned butter. I skipped the step where they say to cool it but it made my batter too warm and the chocolate chips started to melt when I mixed them in. It’s a delicious cookie – just don’t skip the butter cool-down.
…and when the title says “Hand”, it’s literal. LOL. I don’t know if I would ever take the time to make something like this myself, but they look kind of crazy-fun!
Last week our church community group came over and we watched online church together out on our back porch, enjoying lunch together after. This casserole was a hit and EVERYONE had seconds. (When you look at the ingredient list, you’ll know why! LOL)
Nuts are much better on salads when you toast the first! 375 for 5-8 minutes. As soon as you start to smell them, it’s time to get them out within a minute or two.
There are all kinds of versions of this recipe online. I love it because it’s basically a “dump-into the crockpot” type of meal. I do a much smaller-scale version for just two of us and we like it heavier on the sausage and green beans and only a little potato.
If you’re an Evernote user, just a heads up if you haven’t noticed already that Evernote has gone through some big updates in recent weeks. To update to the new version of Evernote visit: evernote.com/download.
Here’s what new in Evernote for Windows and Mac.
Here’s what new in Evernote for iOS.
If you want to learn more about how to use Evernote, visit the Evernote page on Piano Pantry here.
