The One with the ShopVac

I love this! I wish I had the talent for the cool animation. :) Enjoy...

The One With the Monday Lullaby

Well good afternoon. I am enjoying a lovely cloudy, slightly drizzly Monday after a tempest of a weekend. Hope everyone else is having a good one. Last week I created a Band Profile for my Archangel Records facebook page, and I have been adding songs every couple of days. So if you would like to go over and enjoy the playlist, here is a link: Archangel Records Fan Page. I think you have to “like” the Archangel Records page in order to listen to the music and watch the videos there. So please click on “like.”

The song I put up this morning is such a sweet little song. It is a lullaby sung by one of my favorite people, Miss Tandy Shields. Hope you love it. It is great Monday music. :)

The One With the Short Playlist

Today is a music day. Okay, so... every day is pretty much a music day around here. But today I just felt like I wanted to listen to some music. Are these my favorite songs? No, but they are five songs I have been listening to this morning:

1. Any Other World by MIKA. This song makes me want to play the cello. I will settle for writing something for cello, since I know a fabulous cellist who is always kind enough to come record. But... love the song. I also love the kind of choir-ish sound when in the middle. I also like listening to this with my good speakers and hearing the sound drift back and forth between the speakers... the Wall of Sound.

2. Awake My Soul by Mumford and Sons. Yummy yummy yummy. Song for a rainy day. Mumford and Sons random fact: they are a bit literary and occasionally borrow a lyric from Shakespeare. So one day in an interview, Mumford was quoted thusly: “You can rip off Shakespeare all you like; no lawyer’s going to call you up on that one.” True, that.

3. Cold Hearted by Zac Brown Band. Because I love love love Zac Brown’s voice. He can sing to me any time. Every time. And today there actually it is a little chilly.

4. Rhythm of Love by Plain White Ts. Despite the fact that I have almost ruined this song by using it as a ringtone and an alarm wake-up song.

5. Little House by the The Fray. Not because of the lyrics. But the music is awesome. It starts out all nice, and then about 30 seconds in, it starts taking itself a little seriously. But in a good way.

Hmm. No female artists. Go figure.

The One With Her Fave 10

Has anyone else noticed that Blogger has been down for like... I don’t know... more than 24 hours? I don’t want to post for days on end, and then when I finally do, I can’t? That is bad timing, right there. Anyway, I am going to sneak this in before Blogger collapses again under the weight of so much meaningless drivel. :) I posted over at He Said/She Said today... my favorite ten photos I have taken in the last few months. Go check it out, and comment over THERE, please.

If I have one regret, it is that I did not get to take photos of Casey and Hannah. I had one that I tucked into the Mother’s Day video, but honestly, I didn’t even take that one! So they need to come visit so that I can satisfy my camera craving.

Okay, so, GO. What are you waiting for??? Go!

She Said: Finding Beauty

The One With the Senior Moment

Dillon is a senior. I have been trying to get him to let me take some photos of him for days and days. They have an honors night at church tomorrow night with a slideshow, and I found some fun ones from when he was a baby...

and a child...

but not any senior photos, until today. We took about ten minutes, ran down to O’Neill Park, and got a few good ones. The smiley ones were all vertical, and I haven’t edited those yet. But I thought these were pretty cool.

 

Dillon noticed some berries in the freezer earlier. He said, “You know... berry cobbler would be part of my dream meal. Along with shredded beef chimichangas. And maybe using hobbits as waiters... they are so short they don’t interfere with conversation. Although I’m not sure I want them touching my food. They don’t really seem all that clean, do they?”

What a weird kid.

The Mother’s Day One

This is how I have spent the last two weeks.... and it was a great two weeks. I got to take photos of some really cool people, and I love the song Garry and I wrote together. My biggest frustration, however, came after I completed the video. The video, which looks amazing on my big screen and sounds wonderful on my great speakers (do yourself a favor and listen to this once with HEADPHONES and you will hear a whole new world!) was not translating well to YouTube. I wanted it to be available in HD, and despite trying about 15 times with the last video, and about five more with this one, I was having no luck.

Suddenly this morning when I had already given up and told Garry to just post this on our Archangel Records Facebook page, I stumbled across a comment buried deep within an unrelated question on an old YouTube help forum. It stated that even though YouTube accepts MOV format (the Apple Quicktime movie standard) that I had to use a certain compression, with a certain number of databits per second, and check a particular box. Why no one could just TELL ME THAT... I have no idea. I suppose this had become a matter of my not inconsiderable pride that I was supposed to be good at computer stuff, and this was eluding me. But no longer, and so you should really watch it in HD... instead of watching it here, click and go watch it on YouTube, full-screen HD. Yahoo!

I hope you will not only watch this, but then share it with your mother. Your mother-in-law. Your daughters. Please share it on your blog. On your Facebook page. Hope you love it. Hope it makes you cry. That, as always, is the goal. Happy happy Mother’s Day!!!