friday fixations

{fabric birds} These are the most amazing works of art.

{cat marshmallows} Yes, I'll have a tray of these for my hot chocolate this winter, please.

{candid photos of lions} I think my favourite is the one of them in the rain.

{flower pot art} How awesome is this?

{"tuna" salad} This appeals to me because sometimes I think about mercury. A lot.

{beyond black and yellow} Great article about the lesser known species of bees. This gives me more reason to get on that solitary bee house I've been thinking about making for a year now.

{watermelon agua fresca} This seems to me to be a good use of watermelon.

 

{lullatone} Just a little song that I kinda think is the best song (and video) for the last (official) summer weekend of the year. Make your weekend count, September's in the headlights.

friday fixations: summer tunes

{summer music} This mix is pretty good. I downloaded almost all of the tracks, so I figured I might as well just link you to it directly.



{solange} I'd listen to this on constant repeat, but I'm scared I'd get sick of it too quickly so I don't.



{the kinks} An oldie, but a goodie.



{alt-j} This song is good in all its incarnations.



{beck} I'll always love everything Beck does.



{lorde} Anything with finger snaps (or an equivalent sound) immediately gets on my playlists.

friday fixations: biking

Obviously, when I was younger, the ability to listen to music while bike riding just didn't exist. But now I'm taking full advantage of that luxury and enjoying every last minute of it. (i.e. pretending I'm in a music video is even easier now.)

Track Listing:

{Generationals} put a light on

{Robin Thicke feat. T.I. and Pharrell} blurred lines

{Katy B} katy on a mission

{Phoenix} trying to be cool (The Chainsmokers Remix)

{Peter Bjorn and John} breaker breaker

{Icona Pop} i love it

{Big Black Delta} side of the road

{Milky Chance} stolen dance

{Washed Out} feel it all around

friday fixations

{hani zahra} I could listen to this song a million times a day.

{a girl and her cat} These photos are so sweet. Makes me a little teary eyed remembering my kitty.

{food forests} I want this to be here. I mean, I want to live there. Also there are saskatoon berries around Edmonton in the parks if you look for them and I've never seen anyone else but me picking them.

{modern calligraphy} I've got a calligraphy book and pens and I've always kind of dabbled, but I've never found a book or information on doing modern calligraphy which is really the calligraphy I want to learn. Maybe I should take this course...

{forensic beauty} You probably saw this last week, but I think it's equally important to put a spotlight on the devastating beauty issues that men have, too.

{space} It's still pretty cool.

{oat bran} Do you like Cream of Wheat? Like that small little grainy texture in your hot cereals? I LOVE IT and haven't had it for years and then when I was researching foods that are nutritionally dense and filling, I stumbled on oat bran and tried some. It's so good, I've been eating it for breakfast for two weeks now.  I've even had it as a savory breakfast. Kind of like morning risotto with chicken. Super delish and keeps me full all day!

{dino corn cob holders} Good thing these are still in concept mode, cuz I don't eat corn on the cob so they'd be a completely useless purchase for me (but something I'd probably whip out and brag about every chance I got). Maybe someone could make a fancy dinosaur teapot instead?

{diy body wash} I know. I'm so cheap. But I see the tutorials on Pinterest so often, I just couldn't ignore them anymore. My soap turned out a little runnier than her version, but it works just fine and is super smelly. Are bar soaps smellier than body washes? Cuz I've been using Dove body wash for the greater part of my life and this is the Dove-smelliest I've ever been. Not that that's a bad thing. Anyway, I really like the cheapness, so I'll definitely be doing it again (plus I really wanna try the peach bars I spotted at the dollar store next time and I'll also be reducing the water by a half cup).

early fixation: benji hughes

A dumb thing happened to me last week. I lost the diy I had planned for today. I don't know where I put it or what could possibly have happened to it, but I've turned the house upside-down and I still can't find it. I think some little house gnome has got it and he's not giving it back.

Instead, I thought I'd tell you about Benji Hughes' album 'A Love Extreme.'

The thing with me and music is that I'm usually drawn to sounds that reflect what I'm feeling or what's going on in my life (even if that just means I was really digging anything with hand claps in it at the time). So usually, I can listen back on certain CDs and singles and remember the events surrounding that particular song and I can remember what it was I was feeling or what I was doing back then.

It's been kind of a slow music month for me, so I loaded some older CDs onto my iPod and 'A Love Extreme' was one of them.

It was probably one of the last physical CDs I've ever purchased, but I remember when I purchased it, back when I first met Idle Husband. So a lot of the songs remind me of that time. The crazy fun, the excitement, the newness, the love extreme. 

So if you're looking for a CD that's got some sort of a Valentine slant to it but is nowhere near that crazy Mariah Carey or Whitney Houston type of love song ballad, then I think you're looking for Benji Hughes. His is about the closest approximation to lovey romantic music I've ever purchased and his lyrics aren't unrealistically sappy. He really tells a story with every song he sings. (And if you're single this Valentine's day, there're a few really great anti-love songs, like 'You Stood Me Up' and fun friend/party songs like 'I Went with some Friends to see the Flaming Lips') 

Click here to find more of his songs (and you might be able to download a few of them by clicking on the blog links).

friday music mix

I've been debating all morning whether to go out for a walk today. I went yesterday and immediately regretted not having checked the weather first (or worn any long johns). I shouldn't be such a baby (this isn't too bad), we've just been really spoiled for pretty good winter weather lately. These songs made up my gifted Christmas mix this year. I hope you hear something you like!

{A.C. Newman} Encyclopedia of Classic Takedowns

{Father John Misty} Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings

{Gold Motel} Brand New Kind of Blue

{Hesta Prynn} You Winding Up (Bear Hands Remix)

{Kishi Bashi} It All Began With a Burst

{Lady Lamb The Beekeper} Rooftop

{Major Lazer} Get Free (featuring Amber Coffman)

{Mind Enterprises} Summer War

{Passion Pit} Carried Away

{St. Vincent} These Days (Jackson Browne Cover)

{Stealing Sheep} The Mountain Dogs

{Still Corners} Fireflies

{Teen} Electric

{The Dø} Slippery Slope
{Theme Park} Wax

friday fixations: long weekend music

{A.C. Newman} Enclyclopedia of Classic Takedowns

{Moon King} Only Child

{Rai Knight} Without U

{Tiger Waves} Weekends

friday fixations: music edition

I made this tiny mix of songs that always make me feel like I'm in a music video and/or make me wanna dance while I'm walking. Of course, I remind myself that I probably shouldn't do either cuz I'm outside and people can see me. But then I figure, who cares? We should all dance like nobody's watching, shouldn't we?

I also want to include this song

friday fixations: thanksgiving cookin' music

I've been busy in the kitchen prepping some dishes for Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend. Mm, mm, mm, gonna get me some pumpkin pie.

Here's what I've been listening to (and where you can download it)!

{1 Hospitality: Betty Wang} 

{2 Azealia Banks: 212}

{3 Alex Winston (RAC Remix): Velvet Elvis}

{4 The Heavy: How You Like Me Now?} We watched Horrible Bosses during our vacation, and this song was played during the movie. I downloaded it the moment I got home. (Incidentally, the movie was pretty awesome, too. It's got all of our favourite actors in it.)

{5 Spoon: Utilitarian demo}

{6 Destroyer: Savage Night at the Opera}

{7 Os Incríveis: Uma Rosa Pra Dita}

{8 Metronomy: The Bay}

hey, man!

I got a little box of treasures this week.

Someone's grandma's old recipes. I don't know why anyone would ever give this away.

There are a few intriguing recipes. A lot of recipes for zucchini. I liked the idea of zucchini jam -- from Esther; Quite a few healthy granola-ish recipes, like this one for nut milk; And, of course, a lot of cookies and cakes. Golden honey carrot cookies sounded like something I have to try.

I had to laugh at the salad section. It only contains the jello, whipped cream, and fruit kind of salads, all happily named, "salad." It wasn't until I started reading ingredients that I caught on.

But the best part was what was printed on the back of some of the recipes cut from old newspapers.

Let me quote one of my favourites, a portion devoted to finding penpals.

...Age:14; Birthday: June 12; Favourite colour: purple; Favourite song: Too much Tequila; Favourite singer: me; Favourite actor: Kookie; Favourite saying: Hey, man! Favourite animal: wolf; Food: Spearmint and Juicy Fruit; Drink: H2O; Costume: bobby sox and blue jeans (etc.); Pet peeve: conceited boys like Jimmy F.; Secret ambitions: to become a beatnik, be first human on moon, live to be 21. All kidding aside (against my usual policy), I would like to have lots of penpals. Kookie fans, Elvis fans, horse lovers, and anybody interested in teen talk grab a hunk of wood and lead and scrawl me a line.

So I did some research.

gardening music

Yay! I'm really gardening this year! I planted large trees and small plants and tiny seeds. It's been so great! Anyway. More on that later.

Right now, here're some songs to listen to while you're out giving your plants some love!

happy walking music

I have to mention these songs for nostalgia:

Fine Young Cannibals {She Drives Me Crazy}

The Proclaimers {I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)}

Talking Heads {Psycho Killer}

If you've got any good suggestions for music, please tell me. I'm getting into a bit of a music slump now that I'm listening more often.

DIY project: "quick" and easy t-shirt bag

I have a lot of reusable shopping bags, but I don't have enough cool, interesting, unique ones, so in comes the t-shirt shopping bag!

I spotted this video eons ago and since then, I've seen many other t-shirt bag tutorials pop up, but the video continues to be my favourite example. It seems to be the simplest and most straight forward to follow.

I used my super old Beastie Boys shirt I found at the thrift store years ago. So it was already used when I got it, then I wore it for a couple years, then I retired it to pajama status, and then, when it developed crazy armpit holes (like, how does that even happen?), it got scrunched in a bag with other scraps of fabric.

I totally forgot I even had it and found it in that scrap bag completely by accident while looking for other scraps (for another project, of course). I thought now would be the perfect time to scratch the t-shirt bag off my list since I finally had the perfect t-shirt for the job. How's that for a great recycling story?

And when I remembered that the Beastie Boys had just released a new album, it was almost as if finding the t-shirt again was meant to be. So turn on some Beastie Boys and get to work!

Fold the t-shirt in half, making sure to align the sleeves.

With some sharp scissors, cut off the sleeves and the neck to form the handles. I had to cut my sleeves off a little lower due to the holes in the armpits, but it would have been much better to aim for cutting only the sleeve portion off with as little of the body fabric as possible. Look at it this way, the less fabric you cut off the sleeves, the larger your bag will be and the more in proportion your handles.

You have to use your judgement for where to cut off the neck portion. If you don't mind cutting through whatever print is on the shirt (if yours has one), then go right ahead. Or you can cut it just above the print like I did.

Next, turn the t-shirt inside out and do a straight stitch along the bottom to close it. Then stick your hand in one of the corners and form a triangle and sew that. Do this on both corners.

The triangle thing is kind of tricky and I wish I could better describe it now that I've done it. It's best to watch the video a couple times. But don't sweat it too much. Just figure it out best you can. I looked at the bag without the triangles, too, and you could really skip that part if you're a little uncomfortable with it. The bag will still be a bag.

Now's the part where I explain why this was a "quick" project for me. I don't know why, but any time I have to use my sewing machine, I'm almost guaranteed to either have just enough thread on the bobbin to make me think I can get the whole job done or something happens to the bobbin thread which causes it not to be picked up or gets it stuck and knotted so it doesn't want to work. Both happened on this project. So when I was trying to stitch up the last triangle (something that should take about 2 seconds), I had to readjust the bobbin, then readjust again, then take the last little bit of thread off of it and rethread it, and adjust a couple more times before I could run that 2 seconds of stitch along the corner. Sigh.

Now turn the t-shirt right side out, and you've got a really sweet shopping bag! I've been keeping it folded up in my purse for spur-of-the-moment purchases. The last thing I had in it was a couple of 2 L bottles of pop and aside from some stretching (since the fabric is stretchy), it handled the load perfectly.

And while we're also talking about the Beastie Boys, I listened to their new album when it was streaming for free and it sounds a lot like Hello Nasty to me, so I really liked it. Unfortunately it's not streaming anymore, but they do have a really interesting video up now (fyi it's nsfw). I thought it was going to be some kind of documentary type of revist and then suddenly, it turned into one of those "which famous person am I going to see next" kind of games and I couldn't turn it off. I know 29 minutes is long in internet terms, but if you have time, it's fairly amusing. (Will Ferrell -- cow bell. Need I say more?)

the entire diy list is here

because I'm not feeling particularly inspired right now

{The Ghost of a Sabre Tooth Tiger} Jardine du Luxembourg

{The Walkmen} Canadian Girl

{Washington} Cement [No Device remix]


{Foster the People} Pumped Up Kicks


{Peter Bjorn and John} Second Chance

moving music

Look at me! Packing well ahead of schedule!

Listen to what I'm listening to after the jump!

musical montage

Also these:

Two Door Cinema Club -- Something Good Can Work

Phoenix -- If I Ever Feel Better

Cosmetics -- Black Leather Gloves

Anya Marina -- Whatever You Like (T.I. cover)

Everything Everything -- My Keys, Your Boyfriend

Miike Snow -- Animal

Breakbot -- Baby I'm Yours

I'm really digging this song right now

Do you have any other skills?

I bought the second Flight of the Conchords album, "I Told you I was Freaky" for Idle Husband's Valentine's gift. We're both really digging it, especially these songs.



 

 

I love this rendition so much better than the original

It's my hundredth post!

So here's some internet stuffs I like for reasons I can't explain.

Very Mary-Kate, Episode 4 from Mary-Kate Olsen on Vimeo.