a weather does christmas

Round here we love free downloads from good bands of classic Christmas song covers. Especially since the 25 Christmas albums that play at work begin to feel more like the same one album on repeat. Thanks, Team Love.

mp3: A Weather - Baby It's Cold Outside

decorate sufjan

at xmas.asthmatickitty.com

as if you didn't already want to shop at anthropologie all day

Watch this.

Let's catch up on the last few weeks. I...
watched BYU win by a fingertip in Vegas, then celebrated,

had the traditional Christmas candy gorge in Idaho,

won the first annual Make Dad Cry On Christmas contest (thanks, iPhoto),
made some discoveries when home in the OC:
While antiquing, found an ominous note on Raggedy's belly.

Then, spotted high up on the wall of a bank in Orange:

It says, "I pulled it off." Who knows? But with a little human tower we did, and Brynn kept the reward. Too bad she doesn't have her own blog or she could have told you all about it herself.

Then noticed this when driving by my old high school. Really?
And I got to hang out with Brooke which was a total treat.

Like the procrastinator I am, I have a 2007 musical recap post in the works and it's now the second week of 08. Well, soon enough.

wrappy

I tried a little experiment with my Christmas wrapping this year. I got the idea from one of my mom's sewing books. First I sewed some plaid onto brown craft paper from the garage.
And sewed a little tag for the underside, just freehanded with the feed dogs down.But I liked this thinner brown pinstripey paper from Ikea much better. And I tried a little holoshimmer thread this time. The bows could use some perfecting. They're just long strips of paper rolled together, fanned a bit, and wound with thread.
It's a bit cumbersome to sew paper for a large present, there's probably a good way I just haven't figured out yet. But you could get creative with what you're sewing--random stripes, patterns, drawings, writing. I've still got more wrapping to do so we'll see what happens.

A vintage Christmas clip for this Sunday night.

mp3: Peggy Lee, Nat King Cole, and Nancy Wilson - Toys for Tots

And if it so moved you: Toys for Tots

goings and goings

After the rigor of November I was a bit lax on the blog this week. There was just too much to do. I caught Vampire Weekend Friday but was too lazy to take photos of the show. Though many others did, like these. I'm kinda eating up their playing up of the whole Ivy League thing.

mp3: Vampire Weekend - Campus

And then there was our Christmassy going away party for Nic and Timmy, who I'm still in denial of having to live without. I experimented with baklava for the event, of which the guests kindly left a little corner for me. I used a combination of this recipe (just the first listed when Googling "baklava recipe") and the recipe on the back of the phyllo dough box. Turned out divine if I do say so myself. A few of the party photos are up here.


And howsabout another holiday tune.
mp3: The Beach Boys - Frosty the Snowman

every valley

Sunday night I got to go with my aunt and cousins to a Messiah sing-in where I was reminded that if ever a piece of music was inspired, this one was. The Hallelujah chorus may be ubiquitous and abused by now, but still. I've been to these sing-ins in California and New York, but for some reason this time, in Draper, it was just so spectacular to hear and participate.

mp3: Mormon Tabernacle Choir - For Unto Us a Child is Born
Chorus No. 12 from Handel's Messiah

Merry December

To commemorate the beginning of the month, these are a few of my favorite Christmas songs that aren't lost in a garage somewhere.

mp3: Elvis - Blue Christmas
mp3: The Orioles - O Holy Night
mp3: Sufjan Stevens - Holy, Holy, Holy (ignore the Trinity references if you prefer)
mp3: The Raveonettes - The Christmas Song
mp3: Little Isidore & The Inquisitors - Christmas of Love
mp3: Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas Is You (I know, I know. I can't help it.)

doin' stuff

Tonight Katie and I checked Steve and Barry's for the winning outfit from Project Runway last week, and sure enough, it was there. I didn't buy the dress (fabric so cheap!), but snapped a quick photo in the dressing room.



And just a few things about last weeks Project Runway:

1 - If Marion wasn't so freakin bashful--he couldn't even look the camera in the eye during interviews--maybe he'd still be there.
2 - I swear having Sweet P as a teammate is the only reason Elisa did so well this week.
3 - Why was the designing partner of the team have to be the one responsible to get kicked off? I deserve to go home if my name is attached to burlap toilet paper going down the runway, even if it's wasn't originally my design.

We also decorated the Christmas tree last night. We got all festive and even strung popcorn and cranberries. Looks pretty cute with my glass partridge from Anthro and the little baker man from Germany, eh?

It's Christmastime in The SLC