Mar 29, 2009

Grace in Small Things #17

1. I had a really good time last night with the ladies. I also learned that I really like grapes dipped in chocolate fondue.

2. I had the worst sleep ever last night, but at least that means I should sleep well tonight.

3. I am almost ready for Smyrish's birthday party tomorrow, and am super excited to go Mini-Golfing!

4. I cleaned out my closet yesterday, and purged all the clothes I don't wear.... so today I went shopping and started filling it up again. With summer clothes. Huzzah!

5. The Juno's are on tonight. It's the only awards show I watch....I loves me some Canadian music.

Mar 27, 2009

25 Albums - Part Deux

6. Vauxhall and I - Morrissey

At a family reunion one summer, my cousin made me come and listen to this Morrissey album with him. I had listened to The Smiths a bit, but had never heard any of Morrissey's solo work. ( Remember, in the early 90's, I was still fairly young!)

I was hooked. Since then, Morrissey has been a staple in my life, especially when I am feeling down. Anyone who has dated me knows, that if they walk into my house, and I'm laying on the bed listening to a Morrissey album, there is something wrong with me in the head.

7. Add It Up - The Violent Femmes

I didn't realize it until just now, but the same cousin as mentioned above, got me hooked on the Violent Femmes. I love "Add it Up", well, because it's a compilation of "hits". From the second you hit play, you know you're in for a punk rock/rockabilly/gospel/pop music roller coaster ride of fun.



8. Nevermind - Nirvana

I know, it sounds cliche. Didn't this album "just totally change the lives" (sarcasm) of everyone in my age group? Well, let's me honest. It did, to many. Unlike many other grunge bands that I was into back in the day, when I hear Nevermind, or any Nirvana album, I still get excited. It was nice to be an angst ridden teenager, and have someone out there with power and fame, that felt just the same way as I did.

Kurt Cobain would have been 42 this year. His birthday is over now, but for all you die-hard fans out there who celebrate his birthday, you may want to check out this link, just for kicks : http://www.ehow.com/how_13459_celebrate-kurt-cobains.html

9. Phantom Power - The Tragically Hip

This album came out the summer that I ran away from home, to Vancouver. Every time I hear a song from it, I get a sick feeling at first....remembering how badly I scared and pissed off family and friends.

But, I still have it in heavy rotation after all these years. Gord Downie let the other members of the band write songs for this album, and I think that what makes it so different from some of the other Hip albums. All the songs are beautifully written, and tell stories that are uniquely Canadian.

On a side note, when I was walking down the train tracks in Thompson, Manitoba a few years back, with Mr. Henry, I couldn't help but start humming "Thompson Girl". now that song will forever be ingrained in my memory. Thanks, Das Hips.

10. Mellow Gold - Beck

I'll never forget it. One day, a bunch of us went to a friends house to chill out at lunch time. We were hanging out in her basement, when the video for "Loser" came on. It was brand spankin' new at the time, and I had never seen it, being stuck with Farm TV, and all.

My girlfriends who had seen it already, started complaining about how stupid it was, and what horrible music, and going on about "oh-my-god-he-dresses-so-weird", and so on.

Meanwhile, I was on my knees in front of the television, thinking " Oh my god, there's someone else in the world that dresses as weird as I do." And I totally dug the music.

It wasn't long after that, that I had a fall-out with the popular girls I had known and been friends with since kindergarten, and my life was never the same.

And I thank Beck for that.

Mar 17, 2009

Grace in Small Things #16

1. Although he broke the coffee pot, his heart was in the right place. I still ended up with morning coffee, thanks to his creativity, and didn't have to clean up the mess. Thanks honey!

2. New material from Value Village in Prince Albert. It's going to make some nice purses!

3. Nutcase101 bought one of my favorite items. Thanks!

4. It is nice enough outside, that I can just go for a walk, instead of having to drag my butt to the gym.

5. The house isn't as dirty as I make it out to be in my head. If I just spend tomorrow morning cleaning, it should hopefully stay that way until Saturday when company comes, and the ladies come over for the Sex Toy Party.

6. I am not as stressed about having to go back to work on Thursday, as I was last Friday. Finally, I am enjoying my 6 days off....now that there is only 2 to go.

7. Patches original owners were ever so nice, and babysat while we were out of town. They are even going to drop him off today for me.

8. It is St. Paddy's Day! Even though I may not go out, I hope that all of my friends have a drunken good time.

Mar 16, 2009

Grace in Small Things #15

1. I am incredibly grateful for the fact that I was raised in a family where we were taught that family and friends come before anything else.

2. If I hadn't been raised that way, I may not have had so much fun on a road trip the past couple days, wrecking hotel headboards with Carla, playing cribbage, eating an insane amount of disgusting food, and singing oldies at the top of our lungs on the way home (in which I did a five hour drive in three hours!)

3. I love that I have people in my life, who will drop what they are doing, and leave town, so that we can check and see how a friend is doing....and have fun doing it.

4. I am extremely grateful that I had the chance to meet Wilf, and make some wonderful memories of him, and his children, before he passed on last week.

5. It makes me happy and comforted to know that his children have adopted my brothers and I into their family, and that we have done the same to them.

6. After a week of birthday's, night shifts, drinking with the ladies, and a funeral, I finally just let myself take the time to have a huge cry over the loss of a man, who I am ever so grateful to have had in my life.

Mar 6, 2009

Grace in Small Things #14

1. Because I never bothered to use the Luiggi's gift certificate's I received a couple years ago, after I found a rusty screw in my pasta, I don't have to make supper tonight. I'm still a tad weary about eating there, but the chance to go for supper with Smyrish trumps my fear of finding foreign objects in my entree.

2. Paying the lady at the laundromat to wash, dry and fold our insanely large pile of dirty laundry was the best idea we've ever had. I would have had to spend most of the day at the laundromat if we didn't, and wouldn't have had time to enjoy my day off. Totally worth the money!

3. Finally had time to start taking photos of jewelery I've made this winter for my Etsy shop.

4. Having a TV that can tape shows for me, has freed up some time in my life as well. Hangover Sunday will be all about watching the shows I missed this week.

5. When we got our new cable package, Smyrish had the fore-thought to get us SexTV. Thanks honey! Now I have something to do on Friday nights!

Grace in { Crafty } Things #13







Mar 4, 2009

25 Albums - Part One

Ah, Crackbook. I've been getting tagged for meme's left right and centre, and have been ignoring every single one of them. And then the 25 Albums meme came along. I just cannot turn down anything music, and to get a chance to relive some musical memories while drinking coffee and Bailey's for breakfast? Hells yes, I'll take it. The hardest part was narrowing the list down to 25. I could EASILY pick 125 albums that rocked my world.

The rules are:
Think of 25 albums that had such a profound effect on you and how they changed your life or the way you looked at it. They sucked you in and took you over for days, weeks, months, years. These are the albums that you can use to identify time, places, people, emotions, etc. These are the albums that no matter what they were thought of musically shaped your world. No being cool, which albums have you actually listened to thousands of times?

The only problem I had with it, is that I wanted to explain my list. So, Crackbook got the short version, and the blog is getting a five part series.

1. Micheal Jackson- Thriller

I don't care what anyone says about MJ, this album is a fucking classic. I never actually owned it, but when I was little, a friend of my parents dubbed a copy on cassette for us. Me and my friend Chad, had a game we would play, while our parents were downstairs playing board games and getting slammered. We would sit in my room, in the dark, and play Thriller (the song). The person who could sit through Vincent Price's voice the longest, won bragging rights. Usually, it was both of us, running screaming down the stairs to our parents.

I did not listen to this album, and somewhat forgot about it, until I became bar age, and was going out dancing every weekend with my friends. When any one of the songs on this album get played at the bar, or at a party, I just cannot help myself...I have to get up and shake my money-maker. I hope that Smyrish is going to be okay with a bunch of Micheal Jackson being played at the wedding reception....if not, we're going to have words. :)

2. A Hard Day's Night - The Beatles

Before any hardcore Beatles fans start going on about how The White Album changed their lives, or Revolver was the most under-rated Beatles album, let me explain myself.


When I was growing up, all we had was a record player, and an 8-track player. Later on, we acquired a cassette adapter that could be played via the 8-track, but it wasn't until I was 17 or 18 that we even had a CD player in the house.

This meant, that my parents vinyl collection, Video Hits, and the radio, was about all the music we had. This album was the first Beatles album I actually took a listen to on my own. Sure, I had heard their music, and liked it, thanks to my mom and dad, but I was young, and not yet at an age where I really paid any attention. Still, when I see the album cover, it reminds me of the day that I taught myself how to use the record player, without scratching the vinyl...and deciding that, without a doubt, hands down, George Harrison was the cutest Beatle.

3. Saturday Night Fever - The Soundtrack

I listened to this 8-track for years, before I had even seen the movie. By the time I did watch the movie, I knew all the songs by heart, and to this day, I can recite all the dialogue and sing and dance along with the characters in the movie, from start to finish. I was born the year disco died...but in me, it lives on. ;)

4. Pinkerton - Weezer

Best Weezer album ever. Hands down.

I actually haven't listened to this album in years, but I think of it often. My high school sweetheart, J, bought it for me for Xmas one year, and later that year, when he went away on a school trip to Greece, I listened to it over and over...and over. I missed him so much, and this album's lyrics really helped me make it through that week. ( Oh, how things are so much more tragic when you're in high school!) Listening to sad, heart-wrenching, angsty music always makes me feel better when I'm down, and this album has it all.

Rivers Cuomo, I beg of you. PLEASE, go out and get yourself laid. Enough of this abstinence shit. Screw some dirty whores, get your heart broken...and write us something better than "Pork and Beans". The world could use another Pinkerton.

5. Ten - Pearl Jam

Although Eddie Vedder has a habit of getting on my ever-lovin' last nerve at times ( not as much as Bono and Bob Geldof, mind you), I am a huge Pearl Jam fan. When "Ten" came in the mail with all the other cassettes from The Columbia House Record and Tape Company, I was hooked from the first listen. I don't even remember the other albums that came with it. I overplayed this album to death for years...until my brother "borrowed" it, and I never saw it again.