Classic Christmas Songs.

As I've grown older, I've noticed how the holiday season is just a consumer playground. The bad things about the holidays become more apparent, noted.
As I've grown older, I've also noticed how the holiday season still feels like Flushing on Christmas Eve and sneaking stuffoli when my great grandma's not looking and seeing yourself in the reflection of a mirrored Christmas ornament if you look past all of the bad things about the holidays.
But what also helps to make the holiday season so special, you ask?
I will tell you.
Vintage Christmas music.

I was raised on Phil Spector's Christmas album. And sure, he's kook'd...and yes, he held The Ramones at gunpoint in his home, but normally good ol' Phil sure knows the key to making a good song sound even better. When it comes to his Christmas album, it's apparent that he really knows how to bring us all back to a time when we all felt like this:

Anyway, here are a few of my favorite songs from
A Christmas Gift for You, From Phil Spector:

"Frosty the snowman" -- The Ronettes
"Sleigh Ride" -- The Ronettes
"Christmas (baby please come home)" -- Darlene Love

I hope you like them!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Jason and I were supposed to drive from Madison to Oklahoma for Thanksgiving to spend it with his family (it was supposed to be my first time meeting them also! Scary!!) but I got pretty sick, so we decided to take advantage of our 4 day weekend and get some good rest while we could. I was pretty bummed. I'm used to cozy family Thanksgivings, and I was worried how I would feel about Thanksgiving without my family. It is my first big holiday without them.
Although I did miss my family very much today at dinner (and yes, I even missed my dad's stories that he tells over and over and over again), it was nice to have a quiet dinner with Jason that we cooked together, and it felt especially nice to start new traditions and try new things.


Really, the newest thing about Thanksgiving this year was that we made tofurkey.
It's tiny and kind of salty, but it was a good alternative.


I also made my own cranberry sauce, only I tried it with less sugar, and it tastes better that way!
Recipe:
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar (let the two boil together)
3 cups cranberries

Let cranberry skin pop and serve. Easy peasy.

Happy Thanksgiving from my crazy family to yours!

Tunes for Tykes, Part II

The oldest of the three girls I'm a nanny for turned nine years old yesterday! Half way to 18, holy cow!
I bought her Kids Knitting, US size 10 bamboo needles, and two skeins of lambs wool yarn which her baby sister picked out.
I also made her this CD, which I thought I would share with everyone.
Since she's nine, I put a few more songs on here that maybe a teenager would like, mixed with songs that kids like.

Photo by Margaret Ayres
(isn't it so sweet?)

Tunes for Tykes. Part II
(And for mom's and dad's, too)

1. "Birthday" -- The Bird and The Bee
2. "Make Believe Hearts" -- When I Was 12
3. "Grass Skirt" -- All Girl Summer Fun Band
4. "When the wind blows"-- Katy Davidson
5. "Ten Things" -- Paul Baribeau
6. "Behave" -- Lake
7. "White Winter Hymnal" -- Fleet Foxes
8. "Recovery" -- New Buffalo
9. "Oh Marie" -- Louis Prima
10. "Hit the Road Jack" -- Ray Charles
11. "High on a Mountain Top" -- Loretta Lynn
12. "I'm into Something Good"-- Langley Schools Music Project
13. "One Fine Day" -- The Chiffons
14. "My Girl" -- The Temptations
15. "Stand By Me" -- Ben E. King
16. "I Wish That I Could See You Soon"-- Herman Düne
17. "Bubble to the sun" -- The Bossettes (It was requested, I'm sorry. ickk)
18. "The Rainbow Connection" -- Kermit the Frog
19. "Little Sally Tutorial" -- The Blow
20. "Stars" -- Au Revoir Simone

I highly suggest to everyone to check out these bands
a bit more after hearing these samples of them.
They're all really fun and extremely talented (excluding maybe 1/3 of The Bossettes...eek.)

November House Show, Part II

The last house show of November was so much fun! I wish everyone could have been there to listen to the music and experience the fun!
We made some new friends, played with kids, ate a lot, our brains were blown by great musical performances, AND no one was mean to Willi. Hooray!

Eli August played, and he did a great job!
I especially loved his ukulele songs, however, I am biased when it comes to uking til you're puking. In fact, the topic of puking even came up during his set! (Not in a gross way, of course. It was fitting and humorous.)

Plum Union graced our presence once again. It feels so nice to have a circle of friends all over the country, however, it feels comforting to know that there are some right by you that you can always visit with and smell the garlic and tea tree oil mixture on them when you hug them! Not only that, but to hear their lovely singing voices almost whenever you please!
Edwin of Plum Union just had a birthday on Wednesday, so I baked a cake for him from scratch, and I decorated it with some runny homemade frosting.Cat also played some solo songs, which were a real treat! It was the first time I've seen her perform live by herself.

Cowboy Motif played some pretty upbeat, acoustic pop songs with an Animal Collective backbone, which I am always a sucker for.
They were very young and very sweet and kind.

Let's do this again, and again, and again, please!

November House Show #2 flyer.

Tonight is the second and last of the November House shows.
If you are in Madison or nearby and want some free food , music, and company, please feel free to stop by! Click on the photo for more info on the event!
You won't regret it!

Flashback Fridays.

Today I was walking my favorite two year old, in hopes that she would fall asleep on this lovely day that we were completely blessed to have (50 degree weather in November...in Wisconsin. I'll take it!) On my walk, I passed many scents.
Food being prepared, crunchy leaves being burned in the distance, and of course, the smell of something crawling up your nose and and proceeding to die there.


Whenever this happens, I am brought back to when I visited the Great Salt Lake on my first tour, and how completely disgusting it was.
It smelt, looked, and felt like pure yuckfest 2008.

Rob illustrates.That stuff that looks like plantlife....yeah, it's actually bugs clumped together.

By the way, although the Great Salt Lake was repulsive, it was worth seeing,
and I would rather picture that whenever I smell something gross rather than something that might make me want to puke.

My work with Resin, Part II.

For those who were wondering, I've documented the drying process of Resin.
Day 1 of drying: smells like death, sticky, not dry.
Day 2 of drying: still smells like death, sticky.
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Day 5 of drying: no smell, sticky.
Day 8 of drying: no smell, completely dry!



Well, there you have it.
Resin is a pain in the ass, but it's so lovely when it's complete, isn't it?