Tag Archives: music

i’ll give it to someone special, special

Posted on December 17, 2013 | 2 Comments

There is a distinct dividing line in my house when it comes to Christmas music. Three people in the house love it, and turn it on the radio the second it starts playing – you know, sometime just after Halloween. And then there’s me – I get slightly nauseous just listening to it playing throughout the stores. It’s not that I don’t like Christmas music in general – what I really don’t like is commercial-pop music that plays seven different songs on an endless loop. The songs get stuck in my head, and I find myself singing the refrain over and over and over again, and it’s maddening. I can make a conscious choice to turn it off in the car, but turning it off in my head is way tougher.

I’m not the only one experiencing this phenomena – but others in my house just embrace the endless repeat. This past weekend M decided to record what our house sounds like these days by quietly placing a camera on one of the stairs to capture F playing (and singing) in the back room. The video is a tad long, but if you can’t watch it all, then at least catch the last thirty seconds when she realizes that she’s not alone in the room. (And Dad tries to deflect the blame to me!)

If you are more like me, and find yourself needing to listen to music, but are unable to stomach the commercials and one more Mariah Carey song, then here’s what I’ve been listening to lately:

Heavy Rotation: Public Radio’s Songs of 2013

The mix features a very diverse range of music that was featured throughout the year – so there’s a sprinkling of holiday music in there, but not so much it will make your head spin. It’s perfect for a weekend afternoon when the house is quiet and you have the space to sit down with a cup of coffee and a project at hand.

And it might just help you get those other lyrics out of your head. Maybe.

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Posted in general

Tagged holidays, music, my girls, videos

friday finds: oliver jeffers + u2

Posted on November 22, 2013 | Leave a comment

I wish I could tell you that we’d have Oliver Jeffers at our book fair again this year, but alas, no such luck. I do have this video to share with you today. Jeffers’ fantastic lyric video (with Mac Premo) of U2’s song “Ordinary Love” from their new album “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom”. Let me see if I can name all the reasons I find this cool:

Oliver Jeffers is one of my favorite author / illustrators.

U2 is one of my favorite bands (and quite possibly the last concert ticket I purchased).

I completely dig the act of writing on objects.

I actually own objects in my own home that have been written on by Oliver Jeffers.

I actually own all of U2’s albums.

I follow Oliver Jeffers on Instagram (and I highly recommend that you do as well) and he’s been showing little mysterious snippets of the creation of this video. It’s pretty awesome to see it all together.

I’m running out of things to list.

Oh, M lived in South Africa – which I realize is a bit of a stretch to a connection to Nelson Mandela, but I was trying for the trifecta of reasons that I loved watching this today.

And just for giggles, last year’s book signing. That’s me, trying to look cool with my children and nine books, but not really succeeding. I wish you could see the three books F’s struggling to hold onto against her belly. The woman behind me is not impressed with my stack.

Whatever, we ended up with a library of these…

I hope this Friday finds you well. I’m glad it’s Friday – I’m ready to be surrounded with family (and books).

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Posted in (story)time

Tagged friday finds, music

instagram prints: artifact uprising

Posted on September 16, 2013 | Leave a comment

I mentioned a few weeks back that I ordered a couple of items from Artifact Uprising. They offer several different ways to get your favorite Instagram photos out of your phone and into your house. I ordered the calendar and the wood block with prints. The calendar option is nice because you can select the month you want to start with – I chose September – versus waiting until January to start it up.

For the calendar I chose images that I liked – colorful ones that were slightly seasonal. I purposely didn’t choose images with people in them, with the exception of one where the girls aren’t really the focus of the image.

I’m really pleased with the quality of the prints – especially considering these are non-professional camera phone shots with filters applied. The paper is beautiful, and I love the wooden clip board. It just comes with a magnet on the back, but I did have a small bracket in our picture hanging stash that I attached to the wall. There’s a little lip at the bottom of the bracket that the magnet rests on, but it also sticks to the bracket as well, so it’s not going anywhere.

I also purchased the wood block with prints, and for those twelve I chose favorite photos of the girls. I rotate them often, and so do the girls.

It’s a nice little addition to the coffee table, and when we had an event at our house last Thursday, F loved flipping through them with the guests and telling them a little about each photo.

I would order from them again – my only (small) complaint was the price of shipping. I really thought their overall pricing was fairly reasonable, but the shipping was pretty steep. Still, it was packaged perfectly, and everything arrived in mint condition – they’ve obviously taken great care to ensure that. There’s nothing worse than ordering some custom paper item and having it arrived bent and creased – it seems like that happens a lot to me. If you are ordering, it might be worth a quick email or call to see if they are offering any shipping deals, just to make it a little more reasonable.

Meanwhile, the girls have become huge fans of Instagram. At the end of the day they like to scroll through the pictures and find their cousins and their friends and see what they’ve been up to that day. And of course, send plenty of silly ones right back to them.