Happy Halloween!

This was our costumes last year- I was Margot Tenenbaum and Jeff was Teen Wolf. I'm happy to say I think we topped last year's costumes with this year's choices. I'll post pics later...

Have a spook-tacular day!

Very Impressed....

of an M.I.A. cover by Built to Spill. SO good:



(Via)

New Pillows

I love our new throw pillows:



Guess where I found them? Pier One- been loving some of their accessories lately.

This Weekend...

I did some heavy lifting at the site of my family's future cabin. I took a break to take these pics:

It was a lovely, sunshine filled morning. And, the family cabin is coming along... it's nestled right above the river shown in the third picture. Beautiful!

October Duets

I love a good duet. Here are my favorites that have been coming up in my iTunes library- some are new, some are old, but I love each song.

01. 2 Bodies 1 Heart... Noah and the Whale
02. The Devil... PJ Harvey
03. The Ballad of Sean Foley... Maria Taylor
04. When I Get to the Border... M. Ward ft. Zooey Deschanel
05. Harder on Me... Via Audio
06. Set the Fire to the Third Bar... Snow Patrol ft. Martha Wainwright
07. Islands in the Stream... Constantines and Feist
08. Going, Going, Gone (Live)... Stars
09. The Sound... Human Highway
10. Seaweed... Fruit Bats
11. Get Better... Mates of State
12. Between the Bars... Mojave 3
13. Now... Mates of State
14. You Don't Know Me... Ben Folds ft. Regina Spektor

Preview part of the mix here. (Unfortunately, iTunes didn't pick up most of the tracks.)

Do you have a favorite duet?

"Pushing Daisies"

I've finally begun to catch up on my recorded "Pushing Daisies" episodes (I'm three weeks behind!), and I'm totally in love with this show again.

My friend and I were talking about this clip from last year. It's so quirky and silly, and yet, it's still SO sweet:



(It does help that I'm utterly in love with this song.)

We've read articles that they're considering canceling this show, so if you haven't watched, give the show a try! It's on Wednesday nights.

Love This Voice...

For me, Neil Halstead's voice is a perfect match for this season. When Jeff and I were dating, we listened to a lot of Neil this time of year.

Have a listen for yourself; this is his new track "Paint A Face:"

A Proper Cookie...

I was so bummed to hear about this. These are mine and Jeff's favorite store-bought cookies. On Friday, I went to the grocery store to buy possibly our last package.... we're savoring them.

Served and dunked in hot cocoa- nothin' better.

"American Graffiti"

We watched this movie over the weekend:



We were entertained by the storyline and all of the amazing catch-phrases in the movie, plus the amazing soundtrack. It's pretty dang funny, and SO boss.

Beautiful Baby

I took pictures of my brother and sister-in-law with their new baby girl- who is absolutely beautiful. She's got the prettiest eyes and lots of gorgeous hair...

Band You Should Listen To...

Ra Ra Riot. Here's a band that's been getting a lot of hype lately. We saw them on the David Letterman show this week, and they just stopped by SLC last month.

I really like the mixed use of instruments they use... from the traditional drums, guitar, they also include beautiful strings. Yet, their songs stay upbeat.

I think you'll like them if you already haven't checked them out. Listen here. (The song that's being played a lot is "Ghost Under Rocks," which is oh-so catchy. )

Yahoo, Schmahoo...

Dear Yahoo,

If you are going to reveal spoilers related to a television's final show, please do not reveal it on your homepage, where thousands go to do a quick search, as some of your users were waiting to watch it TONIGHT.

This would help users from feeling angry and regretting their choice for NOT using Google when they should've.

Sincerely,

Disgruntled Yahoo User

Yes- that's right. I know who won "Project Runway" without even watching it, as I was planning on watching it this evening. I haven't even looked at some of my favorite blogs to avoid possible spoiling. Boo.

Sheesh, Yahoo...

So Pretty...

Love these sitting on my kitchen table:



(Thanks, Britt!)

I Like This: Efterklang

I really like Efterklang's recent video "Cutting Ice to Snow:"



The beautiful imagery is from a documentary called "In a New Dream," which also looks fascinating.

Cheesecake

I made my very first Cheesecake this weekend, per Jeff's request.

I'm not a fan of Cheesecake (give me chocolate instead!), but Jeff and my family approved. And, I had lots of fun baking this:

Recipe:

Best Cheesecake
12 whole graham crackers, finely crushed
1/2 C. sugar
1/4 C. melted butter
2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 C. sugar
1 t. vanilla
1 pint sour cream
1/3 C. sugar
1 t. vanilla

Combine graham crackers, 1/2 cup sugar, and butter in a medium bowl. Press mixture into the bottom of greased 8-inch springform pan. Chill.

Meanwhile, combine cream cheese, eggs, 1/2 cup sugar, and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Place on top of crust and bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool 30 minutes to 1 hour on a cooling rack.
In another bowl combine sour cream, the 1/3 cup sugar, and vanilla. Pour on top of cream cheese mixture and smooth out. Bake for 7 more minutes at 450 degrees. Refrigerate overnight. This must be made a day ahead. Top with berries (Jeff chose cherries.) or other topping of your choice. Makes about 8 servings.

In My Backyard

I snapped these before it starting snowing on Saturday.

We then sipped some of this...

Don't think I'm ready for the winter... (However, I love me some good cocoa.)

Sorta Obsessed...

with a cover song by Glen Hansard (of the Swell Season). He covers Britney Spears' "Everytime."

The melody of this song is very basic, and I always (guiltily) thought the melody was beautiful, but couldn't handle Britney singing. Now... with Glen's voice and a stunning violin that carries a lot of the melody... it's a fantastic cover.

My favorite part, 3:15 into the track, the violinist begins to carry the "Canon in D" melody into the track... and, it totally works.

I'm such a sucker for a good cover. Listen to the song in the right-hand column of my blog.

Fall...

After waking up this morning and feeling that chill in the air (the 35 degree chill), and with a possible snow storm on Sunday, I've realized that I may have missed out on this:

I took this last year; I went out searching for evidence of changing seasons. Now that fall is surely coming and going, I feel that I missed out. We should have taken that drive up the canyon, or I should have gone out for walks a little earlier, so I could take advantage of this lovely season.

It's a good reminder to slow down and take it all in...

I'll try and slow down this weekend; you should too.

Happy weekend to you!

Finally!

Four years later... look who's back?

Listen to two new tracks here. The title track, Elephants, is in the same vein as a lot of her slow songs on "Happenstance." I like it.

Yamagata will be here 11/12; I wanna go.

A Little Help...

So... I'm making a permanent switch from Bloglines to Google Reader. Bloglines has been driving me increasingly crazy; it's been so slow lately, and I've been missing out on a lot of new blog posts from some of my favorite bloggers.

In the transition, I've realized that there are a lot of blogs that I subscribe that I don't jump to read. They idle and I don't get around to reading them until they have 20+ new feeds.

My question to you: what are the blogs you read (outside of close family and friends) that you're always quick to jump and read?

Here are some of mine:

+ How About Orange
+ SFGirlByBay
+ C Jane Enjoy It
+ Frolic!
+ I Heart You
+ It's Hard to Find a Friend

What are yours? Would love your feedback!

Out-takes

Here are some out-takes from thee party of the year:

(Thanks Polly for being our paparazzi!)

Thanks again everyone for showing your wonderful faces at Jeff's party!

Vegas, baby...

Before Jeff's surprise party, I had another surprise in store; I whisked him away to Vegas for the day. Jeff has never really stopped in Vegas, only driven through (and, I can't really blame him for that), but I thought it would be fun for us to fly down for the day/night to shop, play, and yes, gamble.

We had a lot of fun eating at In-n-Out, shopping, eating at a late-night buffet, spotting L.C. (I don't believe Jeff.), sleeping in, and losing money. Ah- Vegas; we won't be back for another five years.

Here are some sights from the trip:

To Get You Excited...

For live music this month:


This is Ray LaMontagne with Damien Rice (thanks for the head's up on the video Hartman & Hannah). Ray will be playing in SLC on 10/28. Find out more live music details here.

Jeff's 30th

Here's the aftermath of Jeff's surprise party that I threw on Saturday night. It was a lot of fun, and best of all, we definitely surprised Jeff.

Thanks to everyone who came; it meant a lot to us- we couldn't have surprised him without you! (I'll post more pics later.)

Also, for those who asked, I made the garland based on a pattern found here. And, my amazing baking twin-sister made the sugar cookies. They were amazing; I'll post that recipe later this week too.

Another Lil' Babe

This little boy was so darling and so sweet. And, I adore his name.