Author: Jo

Steve’s 5 Minutes as a Politician

Steve and I went to a sub-committee hearing for the Tennessee Agriculture Committee in downtown Nashville today regarding the sale of electronic cigarettes.  Since we are the owners of an electronic cigarette company, of course we wanted to be in attendance.  The bill was originally written to ban the sale of electronic cigarettes, but fortunately the committee amended the bill so that it would only ban the sale of e-cigs to minors.

This was great news for us, since if the bill went through without that amendment, we would have been out of business.  Steve had spoken several times with the assistant to Rep. Dale Ford, the chairman of the committee, prior to this hearing, and was allowed to speak a few words regarding electronic cigarettes.

Here’s the link to the video:

http://tnga.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=112&clip_id=4110

To skip right to our bill, click on Bill #HB1729 on the left under the video.  Rep. Armstrong speaks first for a few minutes, then Mr. Hill for another minute or so, and then finally Steve is allowed to speak.

If only this was on CSPAN!  He’d be famous!  Haha.

Here’s the Chairman, Rep. Dale Ford.  He looks grumpy, but I know he’s probably a teddy bear at heart. 🙂  His assistant Michelle, whom Steve spoke with several times, was very friendly.

I was so proud of him for speaking in front of all those men in suits.  My little public speaker!  My heart was pounding for him the whole time.  It was as if I was the one speaking in front of everyone!

After Steve finished speaking and sat down, Rep. Armstrong came back up but couldn’t answer a question one of the committee members asked, so Steve came back up to the podium to answer.  What a good helper.

All in all, it was kinda a scary but fun experience.  We got to listen to a couple bills before our bill was heard, and one of them was just retarded.  It called for owners of aggressive dogs to be required to purchase liability insurance for their dogs in case they bit anyone.  Umm, lame!  We do not need any more government control!  But that’s all I’ll say about that.

Spread the word about electronic cigarettes!  They’re GRRRRREAT!!

P.S. Our website is puresmoker.com if you wanna check out our e-cigs.

P.P.S. CLICK HERE to watch a video The Wall Street Journal did on our company.

My First Time Decorating Sugar Cookies

I’ve been enjoying looking at several baking blogs lately, and many of them display beautifully decorated sugar cookies.  I’m planning on incorporating pretty sugar cookies into my wedding design, so I thought I’d practice on my Dad and my friend, Katie.  Their birthdays are this month, and what better way to celebrate than by eating cookies made by yours truly?!

Sugar cookies are not my favorite cookie.  I’m a chocolate chip girl all the way; and I also appreciate a good peanut butter cookie now and then, but since sugar cookies are the traditional cookies for decorating, I decided to go with them.

I didn’t document the process since it was my first time making these from scratch, and I didn’t want you all to follow my instructions in case they didn’t turn out that good.  The batter was VERY crumbly, and I had to knead it together as I scooped it out of the bowl.  I had a hard time keeping it together as I was rolling it out.  Next time I think I’ll add a little more liquid.

I went to a bakery supply store and Joann’s and picked up some cookie cutters, squeeze bottles, and a few other supplies.

Here are the cookies I made my dad.  Since it was my first time making them, I wasn’t very organized with the frosting, and so I wasn’t able to do as many colors or details as I wanted, so I finished decorating with an edible marker.

He is turning 70 this year.  70!!!  I can’t believe it!  He’ll always be young to me.  When I look at him, and I look at other 70 year olds, he still looks WAY younger!  Maybe it’s because he still has brown hair, and doesn’t even color it!

These hammers are my favorite.  He has been a contractor since he was about 16, so a hammer seemed pretty fitting for him. 🙂  I know hammers don’t usually have white handles, but I didn’t have any brown….so you’ll just have to deal with it.

The butterflies I made for Katie turned out pretty good.  Although, when the icing dried, it left a couple craters.  Hopefully she won’t notice. 🙂

I know I’ll get better with practice, so if anyone would like me to practice on them, feel free to let me know!  I certainly can’t eat a bunch of cookies, especially before my wedding!

Here are the rest of the butterfly cookies.  I made several different sizes so she won’t feel too guilty if she wants to eat more than one at a time.  I hope they don’t break during shipping!  Thanks for sharing my first sugar cookie decorating adventure with me!

Got Weddings on the Brain

It’s wedding season, and I’m getting married in 3 months!  I’m also hosting a bridal shower for my best friend Elizabeth next weekend, which has me completely stressed out!  Last night i had a dream nightmare that I had somehow forgotten about the bridal shower and everyone started showing up to my house and I had nothing prepared, and my house was a mess because of our many animals.  Talk about a stressful dream!  I woke up abruptly in the middle of it and then couldn’t go back to sleep because I was thinking about everything I had to do for the shower.

So, to de-stress myself, I browsed through the wedding section on Etsy, and boy oh boy did I find some gems!  Literally!

Like this gorgeous crystal bridal bouquet wrap.  I wonder if there’s an easy way to make this myself?  The price tag on this thing is a whopping $339!  That’s more than my dress cost.  No thank you!

I also found this beautiful hair comb.  I definitely want something like this.  I originally though I wanted a tiara, but I’ll just have to see which looks better with my hair style.

And what about these cuties!?  The only problem with these hangers is that they’ll only be used 1 day, and I want to get my bridesmaids something they can use all the time.  I mean, I guess they can use them after the wedding, but they’ll only be cute for one day, and then they’ll just get mixed up with all the other hangers in their closets.  It’s a cute idea though!

I’m still on the hunt for the perfect earrings and necklace.  I want something pretty and simple…..

…like this.  Wow, I just noticed that there’s a little piece of hair or lint on that earring.  Haha!  I wonder if the Etsy shop owner knows that.  That’s kinda grody.  But nevertheless, this is kinda the style I want as far as earrings go (minus the hair).

I still need to take my dress to a seamstress to have a bustle put in, but other than that, my dress fits perfectly!  What a relief!!  Now back to stressing over Elizabeth’s shower.