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Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts

Thursday, May 7, 2015

April Joys & Favorites

JOYS!
Easter! (Or, in our house, more like Eostre!) Mads found all the hidden eggs in the living room immediately, at expert level.  Note to the Easter Bunny: you'll have to work a lot harder next year.
Our Ella Bella is 2 years old!
Everything is spring timin'.
Mads has been exploring LOTS of new playgrounds and the like.
Mads has also been spending a lot of time with his great-grandma, who's been doing some babysitting for us.  My grandma's always been the most magical person in my life, and I'm so happy she has the opportunity to play a big role in my son's life.
April showers! (And storms!)
And, perhaps the biggest and deepest joy for me this month: at the age of 30 I finally got my driver's license.  As Wolfman said, "Congratulations on becoming a legal vehicular menace."
Favorites!
Favorite Acquisition - At the end of the month, an accidental (I swear!) trip to the Apex Goodwill resulted in a handful of good finds, but my favorite was this purple, floppy dragon.  Normally, I wouldn't bring home a stuffed animal from a thrift store, but I recognized this particular stuffed animal--he used to be a string puppet, he was hand-created and sold at the Lazy Daze craft festival a number of years ago, and I know this because I have a couple of his brothers at my grandma's house.  Likely, his strings got tangled, snipped, and then he was boxed up and donated. I just couldn't not adopt him.  He lives on the back of our sofa now, lounging like a purple, winged house cat.
Favorite Supplement - Since turning 30, food has turned against me.  I still love food, but certain things--like dairy, baked goods (particularly yeasty breads and sweets), and even raw vegetables--have turned decidedly anti-my gut.  I picked up some chewable probiotics at Earth Fare, and while my digestive issues are not completely gone, they've certainly mellowed a bit.  I mean, I can eat my morning toast (with butter and honey yum) now without suffering too terribly for it.
Favorite Beauty Product - Seriously. Raw Apple Cider Vinegar.  I was just talking to my co-workers about this: you know in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, how Toula's father sprays Windex on everything because he thinks it's a cure-all?  That's me and raw apple cider vinegar.  I use it to wash my hair, I use it to tone my skin, I drink a diluted solution of it for my digestive ailments, my immune system, and longevity, and I'm finding new uses for it daily.  I am this close to pouring it in a spray bottle and carrying it with me everywhere I go.
Favorite Publication - Faerie Magazine is a new discovery for me.  My grandma handed it to me while I sat in her living room watching Mads play, and I as I skimmed its pages, I immediately fell through the rabbit hole into a dreamy little springtime world full of magick.
Favorite Book - Territory by Emma Bull.  I learned about Territory a few years ago, in my Shelfari days, but it wasn't until working on a project with my husband and friend Bruce (which will remain undisclosed for the moment), that I decided I definitely needed to read this book, a fantasy western retelling of the shoot-out at the OK Corral (or, actually, the preceding events). I've read two biographies of Doc Holliday (as well as named one of my grandma's cats Doc) if that tells you anything of my interest in this story.  The fantasy element was beautiful and seamless, and I recommend this book to fans of fantasies and westerns both, or just fans of good story telling and characterization. In particular, the relationship between Doc and Wyatt Earp was so right, so needful and melancholy and bound.  Bookslut did a much better review of the book here
Favorite Television Show - Trailer Park Boys, season 9.  Trailer Park Boys is one of those things I recommend to everyone, knowing full well it's not a show for everyone. I just recommend it on the off chance that somebody else (like my Grandma, for instance) might love it the way Wolfman and I do, which is as if these characters are real people, family, indulgently and unconditionally. Netflix recently released a 9th season of the show, which has been around for nearly 15 years now, on and off, with movies and stage shows.  I'm calling it.  Trailer Park Boys is the next Doctor Who.
Favorite Movie - Guardians of the Galaxy (2013). I had no idea what Guardians of the Galaxy was, even while selling the costumes at Halloween Alley last October to little kids.  Wolfman had to tell me it was a Marvel thing, and as we're doing a catch-up of all the Marvel movies we missed while caring for an infant, we watched it this month.  It was cute. Chris Pratt is cute. It probably wouldn't have been my favorite movie this month, if not for the fact that we didn't watch a lot of movies (in fact, we only watched three), but it was cute.  I'd watch it again.
Favorite Music - Christopher Paul Stelling. All these flowers blooming, everything turning green had me in the mood for Sufjan Stevens and Ray LaMontagne and Nick Drake--pretty man voices accompanied by pretty guitar.
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Monday, April 6, 2015

March Joys & Favorites


Joys!
Goodbye to Winter! Hello to Spring!
We spent a lot of time at Grandma's house and with Grandma this month.  Always a lovely time.
The time of living with Sierra, Bobby, and Ella is coming to a close, so I'm just soaking up all this cousinlove goodness between the babies.
Lil' babies! Our seeds arrived in the post the day after the equinox, and they were eager to grow, obviously.
This can't be considered a joy or a favorite yet, exactly, because we're all still adjusting.  But, Mads got his first big boy bed this month, and that's momentous if nothing else.
Favorites!
Favorite Beverage: Humdinger juices, made fresh, organically, cold-pressed, and (I presume) with love in Raleigh.  Wolfman particularly likes the Zinger double shots. 
Favorite Food Stuff - Firebud Brands Slap Sauce. We discovered this via free sample at Whole Foods.  The woman handing out samples told us something like, "this sauce is for people who really love mustard."  I am one of those people.  This bottle lasted maybe two weeks.  We put it on everything.  Everything.
Favorite Beauty Product - Moist Hemp Body Moisturizer.  Back in college, my roommate and friend Mckenzie had a big bottle of Hempz lotion, original scent, that I used perhaps too copiously.  (Like, seriously, to this day I probably owe Mckenzie a bottle of Hempz.)  I found this Moist Hemp lotion at a beauty shop for a good price and bought it primarily for the scent, which reminds me of being 21: sleepless and idiotic, but fairly happy and unencumbered.  It also reminds me of my friends in those days.  I have a rule, normally, that I don't put anything in my hair or on my skin that's not edible, so I don't use this lotion all over my body (I'm pretty loyal to my coconut oil).  I just keep it on my kitchen sink and use it on my hands when need be, and take a trip down memory lane.
Favorite Acquisition - Prayer flags! Early in the month, Grandma and I visited the Tibetan Himalayan Gift Shop in Cary, and she bought some prayer flags for me.  I've been wanting prayer flags for ages, and I can't imagine ever tiring of watching them billow on the breeze.
Favorite TV Show - Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.  Everybody loved Kimmy Schmidt this month, but that doesn't make it any less amazing.
Favorite Movie - The Boondock Saints (1999).  This wasn't only my favorite movie of the month, it immediately became one of my all-time favorites.  I plan on re-watching it next St. Patty's. Honorable mentions: Robocop (1987), Moonstruck (1987), Eagle vs Shark (2007, New Zealand)
Favorite Music - Young Dubliners.  Every March, I listen to Slacker Radio's St. Patty's station.  As far as I know, I have not an iota of Irish heritage to claim, but regardless, something about St. Patrick's Day speaks to me.  It is easily one of my favorite holidays (or, at least, it is my favorite minor holiday). The Young Dubliners popped up a few times on the station, and then they continued to provide the soundtrack for the rest of my month.
 
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