Keep Calm and Play Bluegrass Music

                                           "Keep Calm And Play Bluegrass Music"


Hey everybody!

Let me just warn you now, you are getting ready to be bombarded with pictures!!
How crazy has this summer been!? Now it is over and everyone is back in school and already loading up on the homework. My summer was absolutely amazing besides the incredible missions trip I was able to go on with my family, our lives have been completely crazy with music. We have been going to show after show and seeing all kinds of people. In fact, for over a month we were at a different bluegrass festival/concert every weekend and it was awesome getting to meet so many families and get to make friends with so many people. It actually kinda makes you feel special knowing that you got to sit and talk to a lot of the groups that most people can only listen to.

Adding to the adventures of this summer, this Labor day weekend my family went down to Kendallville Indiana for a 4 day bluegrass festival, and can I say that it was probably the BEST festival I have ever been to! I met so many new people and had such an awesome time getting to jam with some people my own age. We didn't go to bed before 4:30 every night and on the last night it was after 6 by the time I fell asleep :) It was amazing :)
     We stayed in our cute little camper and my cousin Ian came with us, he tends to tag along when we go to long festivals like this. Anyway the first day we went and saw a family band called the Stockdale Family Band, their show was awesome and we loved watching them. Later that night my dad said he had seen them jamming not too far from our camp sight, so we walked down there to watch them and before we knew it my dad had somehow convinced us to join their jam of super pickers. We ended up having a lot of fun, and after seeing their evening show the next day we ended up jamming with them until 5:30 in the morning! We all had so much laughing and singing songs, even if one of those songs may have lasted half an hour ;)

    We all loved getting to see old friends too, we got to play music with so many people. We were definitely exhausted by the time we got back home, which is probably why it has taken me so long to write about this. We roasted marshmallows:

                                      
                                                  

and rode bikes and watched concerts.
It was an insanely busy weekend, and I can't wait to do it again soon. :)

                                                 
                                                  Have an awesome day/night/evening everyone!

RNC 1st Album Adventure Part 2

Hello again everyone

I feel extremely accomplished for about a million different reasons right now, starting with the fact that I have blogged three days in a row, that is an absolute record for me! 

   Today was our second and final day of recording in the studio. We started the morning off even more tired than we were the first day. None of us wanted to wake up and it took some coaxing from our mother to convince us to get out of bed. After eating the hotel breakfast (which frankly wasn't all that good) we made sure all of our things were packed up and loaded into the car. Now that we were "seasoned pros" of a whole day we knew what to expect when we got there. We knew that we would start with the instrument tracks and we knew what order everyone would need to go into the booth.

   Now it could just be me but I think all of the easy songs we saved for the last day, and even though I made the song order list I didn't expect the second day to go so smoothly. I really wish I could tell you more about each song, about the song that Maggie played perfectly the first time through and about the kick-off that Emma played without even thinking about it, but I don't want to give away anything about the songs on the CD. We got done right when we thought we would and everything went right as planned.I am so proud of all of us, we all did a great job on all of our parts and had a great time doing it. 

   


I have to say my favorite part was being inside the booth, its a little room almost like a broom closet covered in foam to keep the sound  in and its in a corner so no one can even see you while you sing. So since I was practically all in my own little world with just me and the voices in my head (the headphones with the harmony) I was dancing all around snapping, clapping having my own little party in there, and honestly if anyone saw me and video taped that I would have been so embarrassed. Standing in there all by myself made me hyper enough I sure hope none of that was recorded because I was saying some crazy weird things.

   The last song that we did was so exciting. As the song got closer and closer to coming to an end I got more and more excited, and the second I finished singing and he had shut the recording off I started yelling. GUESS WHAT?!?!! WE MADE A CD!!!! I was and still am so incredibly excited about all of this that its crazy!
   I ran and got all the kids and told them and then made sure we took group pictures so we will be sure to remember this forever no matter what.
 









 I could go on and on and on talking about all of the things that happened all of the funny stories about what we heard in the first recordings that DEFINITELY shouldn't have been there such as snapping and clapping from a certain someone in the booth all by herself *cough cough* we would just laugh at it all.

   I can't wait to hear the finished mixed and mastered product, and I'm so eager to share it with everyone, I just hope I still think that it sounds good when we hear it again next week :).
   We should have a finished product CD, Album, whatever you want to call it by the end of the month. Artwork done and everything..
   Artwork is a whole 'nother story all in itself which I am also excited to show you guys, its all going to be such a surprise when it all comes together and we get to see it.

   Man I am just too EXCITED about all of it, so I will go and stop rambling using the word exciting every other sentence. I hope you guys have enjoyed the posts the last three days, I will let you all know when it is done, and I'm sure you can be expecting another excited post from yours truly :)
   Thanks for putting up with all of my randomness and rambling about a day that consisted of instruments and a padded room. ;)

Thank you all so much for everything all the encouraging messages and prayers as we have worked so hard for this, thank you to those who have helped us so much and given so much advice and supported you guys are amazing :)


Our website: rustynailcrossing.com
                                                 
                                                             Enjoy the Beautiful days Guys :)

 

RNC 1st Album Adventure Part 1

Hey everybody!!
  

      Look I really am back updating on everything going on today.
We were up bright and early this morning we got to the hotel at about 2:45 last night or this morning whichever you want to call it. We rolled over in our nice warm beds and considered not getting up..ok I considered not getting up, but the thrill of the recording booth grabbed my attention and I convinced myself to get up and get ready. After we had all thrown ourselves together to our satisfaction we went down stairs to eat breakfast and my dad changed the strings on the banjo and mandolin. When we had finished eating breakfast and trying not to throw it back up from nervousness we all got in the car and headed to the studio.
   

Once we arrived we unpacked our instruments from the car and went inside. Right away we started tuning and handing out sheets of lyrics and order of songs. We started with laying down the first 7  instrument tracks and then went back in and laid vocal tracks. It was SO nerve wracking but once we stepped into the booth it was totally awesome! You have no idea! I started smiling so big when I heard all the instruments coming in and we started singing. Not to toot my own horn or anything but I gotta say we sounded pretty awesome:)
       I took so many pictures and I'll try to post as many of them that I can, we had so much fun the first day and can't wait to get back to it again tomorrow.

       At first I was a bit worried about making a CD and being more "official" than we ever have been before, but now I'm really excited to see the finished product and hold an actual CD in my hands:)
     Well this is a pretty short post but I don't know what else to say about today, I'll post again tomorrow and let you all know how all this ended, hopefully it ends well and we can be satisfied with our final results:)
  
            Thanks for sticking around to read about this crazy life of ours and what we are doing with it:)
   

                                             


 I'll talk to you guys later have a great day! :)

Our website: rustynailcrossing.com

The Days Fly By

"Happy are they who take life, day by day, Complain very little, and are thankful for the little things in life." 
    
     " It's not Happy People who are thankful, It's thankful people who are happy." 

Hey everyone, sorry for not posting i was...not able to get to a computer. but while i was away i wrote a big long post on paper, so i will go ahead and share with you guys :)

Friday-  I was thankful for Storms. Storms you ask? Yes, storms, but not the kind that twist through New York causing so much destruction. I'm thankful for the storms that cause tree branches to shatter my best friends back window. Yes, that's sounds mean, but if it hadn't been for that tree branch I wouldn't have gotten to see her or her family.
             Friday, Lindsay and her family arrived at our house around 9 P.M. and this is where I have to really stop and think about what to say so that I don't sound like I'm completely stealing Rachel's Blog post about this weekend. When they walked in Lindsay and Miss Tracy looked beautiful with their cute boots and outfits, unlike Rachel and I who had shown up to their house in overgrown sweatshirts, sweatpants and our hair in pony tails :P
           Everyone was so excited, we all hugged and laughed and instantly picked up conversations as if they lived right up the road.
           Eventually Rachel ( who was obviously here because she practically lives with us) and Lindsay escaped up to my room where we all got to catch up. We didn't go to bed until after 2 A.M. which was surprising because last time it was after 5. :)
Saturday- Saturday came faster than expected, even though we slept until 11. The adults went out to breakfast leaving us with my siblings, we layed around, watched Gnomeo and Juliet and then went and got ready. Lindsay suggested that we all dress in flannel, which surprised Rachel and I because Lindsay HATES to match.

          Finally the parents got home and we three girls left. Which brings me to Day #3 
                                                            I'm Thankful For:
Starbucks-  We headed for the glorious house of coffee, it's only 5 minutes from my house, so why I've never been to this Starbucks I'm not sure. I discovered the most amazing drink, a gingerbread latte, at first I didn't think I was going to like it, I was very wrong. We took a bunch of pictures sitting there, I'm sure people were starring at us, but it was most likely because they were jealous that the didn't have an awesome trio of friends like we do.

         After we had finished our coffee we headed back to my hose where a ton of people had shown up. We ate dinner, watched Minute to Win it and even came up with our own challenges. Now, if you knew this group of friends, you would know that there is one thing we have to do when we are together, its a sacred rule that can't be broken. APPLES TO APPLES. We all went upstairs and I got out the game. While the cards were being passed out, we laughed and talked, cramming into my room. There's something you have to understand, if you have never played this game wit us, then you haven't really played the game. We are crazy! we relate each card to the person who wins it, and it's insane how much it really fits them. Sadly, after we had played Apples to Apples, Mad Gab and " Silent Football" everyone had to leave and the house became creepily
quiet. We girls went upstairs and changed into our PJs. Then we grabbed our journals and started reading and reminiscing. "Was it really 2010 when that happened?!" we would say, Or " I forgot all about that!" Oh, journals, yes I'm Thankful For: Journals too, without them I wouldn't remember half the things I do.
        Eventually it got quieter and quieter as one by one we fell asleep, all scrunched together  in my "twinsized" bed which is actually smaller than that I've decided.      

Sunday- Sunday morning we went to church, Rachel came for morning service and I realized that soon they would be leaving again. We went out to lunch and sooner than I had hoped we were hugging goodbye. Leaving is always hardest because you never know when we will visit again. Sunday especially, I was Thankful For: Cameras, capturing every moment we could, all the smiles, the games, the people. I'm so thankful that one day God put it into someones mind to invent a device that would keep memories forever.

           
Speaking of cameras, Last Friday before the Wassons got here, I ordered my camera!! I've been saving for a while now, refusing to spend even a penny of my paychecks when I had my job, and finally I had enough money to buy it. Now, there has been some delays so I won't have it as soon as I had thought, but just the thought of knowing it coming is exciting:)
           Well, That's pretty much all of Last weekend, I'm sure I left things out but these are the main things I'm thankful for.

 I'm Thankful For :

Day #5 An easy day of school, and season 2 of my favorite T.v. series "Downton Abbey"   

Day #6 Books! I read a 400 page book in one day, and I can't wait to start reading another one:)

Day #7 Beautiful and warm days

Day #8 Monk, the T.V. series (we watched 5 or 6 episodes.)

Day #9 Car rides. Yes I know, who actually likes riding in a car for 4 hours...that would be me

Day #10 Jamming at 4 A.M. with awesome friends and Steak and Shake, because it wouldn't be a proper jam wit us if you didn't go there ;)

Day #11 My own bed. After a three day jam where you don't get any sleep you begin to appreciate your bed a little more.

Day #12 Best friends who plan out you life for you , so that you never have to leave each other. you know who you are ;)

                             
 Alrighty guys, I hope you have a spectacular day..week, and even month. Find something you're thankful for. God's in the details. ;)

                                                             Seea!