This summer really packed in quite a few storms for the old east coast, which is where SpeedySigns.com is located. North Florida, where our main warehouse resides, got hit really hard this past June with Tropical Storm Debby. When the storm made landfall on June 26th, it stayed for a hot minute, leaving much of North Central Florida flooded, and people displaced from their homes. What’s even more crazy is that while it was crossing Florida, it went down to a tropical depression! Though small in strength, The storms abundance of rain brought for a very difficult time to get to work for all of us here at SpeedySigns.com. Most of us had to work from home for a few days!
Most of the Summer days following Debby were riddled with rain, making it very hard for North Florida to catch up and get it’s bearings. There are STILL flooded houses and people left without their belongings.
That last picture was taken by a friend of mine who spent several days after the Tropical Storm helping people get to and from their homes via canoe, and helped remove whatever could be salvaged.
The Suwannee Music Foundation put on a two day jam, and all proceeds went to the victims of the Tropical Storm. I had the pleasure of running sound with my husband for one of the main stages, and it was so much fun!
I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for the hurricane season to be over! Unfortunately, the season doesn’t officially end until November 30th, but hopefully the storms will stay far away from North Central Florida.
If you ordered anything from us over the past three months and didn’t receive it in a timely manner, I want to express our sincere apologies. The storms of this summer also affected our shipping processes, especially over the past week with Hurricane Isaac. If you are reading this and still haven’t received your order, please contact us!
Did any natural disasters visit your town this summer? How has it affected your community?
Memorial Day growing up always consisted of boating trips, where knee boarding and tubing ruled the day and delicious food accompanied water breaks (that’s actually me up there on that knee board!). Those memories are nothing short of sweet, and I’d like to continue them throughout my adult hood and pass them down to my children.
The United States holiday actually started out with the title of “Decoration Day.” It was a day to observe and remember the fallen men of the U.S. armed forces, and women and school children would decorate the graves with flowers and pictures. Holding it’s original meaning still today, we remember those who have passed on fighting for our freedom and celebrate with beach trips, great food, fireworks, and the overall beginning of the Summer Season.
One of my favorite Memorial Day traditions is a cook out. Grilled food, iced cold beverages and homemade side dishes are what summer is all about. As I’ve gotten older, my taste buds have become more refined and I really enjoy new takes on traditional cook out dishes. I took the liberty of scouting out some great recipes that I want to try out today, and hopefully you’ll give them a whirl too. Enjoy!
1. Preheat grill to 400° to 450° (high) heat. Cut onion into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Brush with 1 Tbsp. olive oil, and sprinkle with 1/4 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp. pepper. Cut bell peppers into 1-inch-wide strips. Place pepper strips in a large bowl, and drizzle with 1 Tbsp. olive oil. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp. pepper; toss to coat.
2. Grill onion and bell pepper strips, covered with grill lid, over 400° to 450° (high) heat 7 to 10 minutes on each side or until lightly charred and tender.
3. Brush cut sides of rolls with remaining 2 Tbsp. olive oil, and grill, cut sides down, without grill lid, over 400° to 450° (high) heat 1 to 2 minutes or until lightly browned and toasted.
4. Spread blue cheese on cut sides of roll bottoms; top with arugula, bell pepper strips, steak, and onion. Spread mayonnaise on cut sides of roll tops. Place roll tops, mayonnaise sides down, on top of onion, pressing lightly.
*French hamburger buns may be substituted. We tested with Publix French Hamburger Buns.
Note: We tested with Saga Classic Soft-Ripened Blue-Veined Cheese.
Flank Steak Sandwiches With Brie: Substitute 5 oz. Brie, rind removed, for blue cheese. Proceed with recipe as directed.
Herb Chicken Sandwiches: Substitute Herb-Marinated Chicken Breasts for flank steak. Proceed with recipe as directed.
Herb Chicken Sandwiches With Grilled Peaches: Reduce onions to 1 and red bell peppers to 2. Cut 2 large peaches into 1/4-inch-thick rounds, cutting through stem and bottom ends. Proceed with recipe as directed, grilling peach slices, covered with grill lid, over 350° to 400° (medium-high) heat 3 to 5 minutes on each side or until grill marks appear. Assemble sandwiches as directed, topping onion with peach slices. Prep: 20 min., Grill: 32 min., Stand: 10 min.
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon salt
For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
1 (8 ounce) package of cream cheese
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Fruit for Decorating:
Strawberries, sliced
Blueberries
Blackberries
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a muffin top pan with cooking spray and set aside.
2. With a mixer, cream the butter and sugar together. Add the egg, lemon zest, and vanilla. Mix until well combined.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt.
4. Add flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until just combined.
5. Press about 1/4 cup of cookie dough into muffin top pan. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until pizzas are slightly golden brown. Let the pizzas cool for 2-3 minutes in the pan. Remove to a wire cooling rack and cool completely.
6. While the cookies are cooling, make the frosting. Using a mixer, beat the cream cheese, sugars, lemon juice, and lemon zest together until smooth. Spread frosting over mini fruit pizzas.
7. Arrange fruit on each mini fruit pizza. Chill until ready to serve.
Note-if you don’t have a muffin top pan, you can make a large pizza by using a pizza pan. Feel free to use your favorite fruits-kiwi, mango, raspberries, mandarin oranges, peaches, and bananas are also great toppings!
3. Spray 4 mason jars with non-stick spray and press graham crust into jars. I began by adding a tablespoon to each, and repeating until graham crumbs were gone. They don’t need to look perfect. I pressed the crumbs down firmly with the flat bottom of a clean screwdriver.
1. In a bowl, whisk egg and sugar until smooth and no lumps remain.
2. Add milk, cream, butter and vanilla, and mix until combined.
3. Stir in sour cream.
4. Sift dry ingredients together and add to wet mixture. Mix until batter is smooth.
5. Using a 1/4 cup measure, add batter to mason jars one scoop at a time. You only want to fill them up about half way, and the batter should work evenly for 4 jars. Again – don’t worry if it is perfect. Place mason jars in a baking dish and add about 1 1/2 cups of water to the bottom. Bake for 30 minutes, or until cake is set.
6. Remove cake from the oven and press large marshmallows down on top, being careful not to burn yourself. There is no set number of marshmallows to use, I pressed down as many as I could, about 4-5 each.
7. Heat the broiler on your oven and watching carefully, brown marshmallows for about 1-2 minutes, or until golden brown. Do not take your eyes off them! Serve immediately.
“Advertising ministers to the spiritual side of trade. It is a great power that has been intrusted to your keeping which charges you with the high responsibility of inspiring and ennobling the commercial world. It is all part of the greater work of regeneration and redemption of mankind.”
- President Calvin Coolidge, 1926 Speech
That’s a pretty hefty calling made by President Coolidge. Has the advertising men and women of today held to that great responsibility? I think that question holds much more complication than we could ever answer. Advertising in this day and age is such a gigantic entity that to discuss the ethics of it would take days. But the advertising world was not always so huge.
During colonial times, most advertisements involved verbal announcements of the goods that businesses had in stock. Small advertisements that were very cut and dry appeared in newsletters as well. It’s also important to remember that back then, you didn’t have 10 of the same kind of shops on one street. Most people knew of the one or MAYBE two places to buy their toiletries and dried goods. Advertisements during this time were not always about goods and services though. Sadly, many of the advertisements you would see had to do with the buying and selling of human beings- the slave trade. So glad that ugly part of our history is over.
In the 1880′s, manufacturing companies started mass producing generic products and were looking to sell as much as possible. This is the time when national advertising of branded products started appearing. Business also took to the new advertising revolution and started finding ways to sell their products. Major department stores began to send out the mail-order catalogs with everything in it from clothes to home furniture. The money spent on advertising in America during this time went from $200 million in 1880 to $300 billion in 1920. Advertising went viral! I guess you could say that the rapid and continual uphill growth of advertising started in the 1920s, and has not stopped ever since. Once radio broadcasting, television and the movies came into play, it was nothing but forward speed from there.
The 1960s brought on a new style of advertising that we see in a large way today: target audiences. Agencies started advertising their product to attract a certain kind of customer, and the style exploded. There’s probably not a commercial on t.v. today that isn’t targeting some specific person. Some would say that the ethics of this approach is highly questionable and sometimes downright wrong, but it nevertheless takes the shotgun seat in the world of advertising everyday.
So where is advertising at in the year of 2012? Well all of my browsing, research and everyday living would point to the world wide web, and more specifically, social media.
Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, WordPress, Blogspot, Reddit, Foursquare, etc. The list could go on and on, and it seems to be running our world. Is it a tool for advertising that will stand the tests of time? With the way technology is going, absolutely. However, no matter how sleek and attractive online marketing and advertising gets, it’s undeniable that, when it comes to directing customers to your front door or attracting visitors to your event, quality signage is still one of the cheapest and most effective forms of advertising. Let SpeedySigns.com be your source for all of your signage needs. Vinyl banners, custom signs, you name it. Design and purchase online or contact us for a custom quote. We’ll work one-on-one with you to produce the perfect signage solution for your needs and budget. Looking for something geared toward helping your organization or business grow? Check out or business solutions and let SpeedySigns.com help you acheive your marketing goals.
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