About a month ago, Ben and I went to Atlanta on a mini-vacation to visit our friends the Kesters.   Ben made us a mixed cd for the trip.  He is so thoughtful and sweet.  Ben even decorated the cd! Oh and I just figured out how to actually add the songs below!  (Someone is moving up in the blog world.)

Hot-lanta Mini-Vaca 2011 Mixed CD

1. Silver Jews Animal Shapes
2. Bright Eyes Another Traveling Song
3. The Beach Boys Wouldn’t it Be Nice
4. The Beatles Here Comes the Sun
5. Lucero Sweet Little Thing
6. The Byrds Hickory Wind
7. Danger Mouse &  Daniele Luppi  Black
8. Crimpshrine Tomorrow
9. Jawbreaker Kiss the Bottle
10. Against Me! White Crosses
11. The Gaslight Anthem Meet Me By the River’s Edge
12. The Clash Police on My Back
13. Elvis Costello & The Attractions What’s So Funny ‘Bout Peace, Love & Understanding
14. Los Campesinos There are Listed Buildings
15.  Julian Casablancas  Left & Right in the Dark
16. Matt & Kim Cameras
17. Gorillaz Clint Eastwood
18. Modest Mouse  Paper Thin Walls
19. The Vaccines If You Wanna
20. Screeching Weasel Hey Suburbia

Enjoy!

My jewelry box is filled with a combination of my grandmother’s costume jewelry, thrift store finds and some newer earrings etc.  I am pretty into it.

Cheers!

Recently, my friend Nikki showed me this sweet video.  This little girl and her father are precious.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ben and I have so busy lately painting our bathroom and guest bathroom, planting annuals in our front flower beds, hanging shutters, painting cabinets, starting our seedlings for this year’s garden and making a headboard (I will be posting about these projects soon!).  While working on these home improvements, we have fallen in love with vinyl all over again.  I don’t think I would ever mind painting a cabinet as long as I could listen to Jim Croce on vinyl.

Here are a few of our favorite albums in our small but slowly expanding collection:

1.  The Beatles- Abbey Road

2.  Jim Croce- You Don’t Mess Around with Jim

3.  The Strokes- Is this It (One of Ben’s top 5 albums of all time.)

4.  Neutral Milk Hotel- In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

5.  Carpenters- Self Titled

6.  Elton John- Honkey Chateau

7.  Willie Nelson- Red Headed Stranger

8.  The Clash- London Calling

9.  Frank Sinatra- Come Dance with Me!

10.  Oh and of course Poacher (Ben’s band)

Christmas Mix 2010

1. Best Coast “Bonus Track: When I am with You”
2. Arcade Fire “Ready to Start”
3. Band of Horses “Is There A Ghost”
4. Superchunk “Crossed Wires”
5. Titus Andronicus “Theme from Cheers”
6. M.Ward “To Go Home”
7. Tokyo Police Club “02 Favourite Colour”
8. Jamey Johnson “Lonely At the Top”
9. Drive-By Truckers “Outfit”
10. Lucero “What are you willing to lose”
11. Sanford “Midnight Sky”
12. The National “Bloodbuzz Ohio”
13. Overnight Lows “Low Road”
14. Screeching Weasel “Thrift Store Girl”
15. The Misfits “I Turned into a Martian”
16. Surfer Blood “Catholic Pagans”
17. The Hold Steady “We Can Get Together”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Lead Singer Craig Finn

Craig Finn (Lead Vocals), Tad Kubler (Lead Guitar), Galen Polivka (Bass) and Steve Selvidge (New Guitar player from Memphis- Back Left)

Tad Kubler and Galen Polivka (Back left)

Dan Neustadt

The keyboard player gave me his set list which only made my night better.

Craig Finn, Steve Selvidge, Galen Polivka, Tad Kubler and Bobby Drake (From Left to Right)

When Ben (my husband) and I first started hanging out he tried to win my heart by giving me two cds.  He gave me his band’s (Young Agent Jones) recent cd and a mixed cd.  It worked.  Also this cd introduced me to The Shins, which is now one of my favorite bands.  I’m sure my best friend Nikki got so sick of hearing these cds during our 30 minute commute to and from the W (Mississippi University for Women).

My First Mixed Cd from Ben

1. Ash- “A Life Less Ordinary”
2. Alkaline Trio- “Cooking Wine”
3. Cruiserweight- “Cautionary Tale”
4. Neutral Milk Hotel- “Holland, 1945″
5. The Shins- “So Says I”
6. Hefner- “The Hymn for Cigarettes”
7. Bishop Allen- “Eve of Destruction”
8. Built to Spill- “Car”  (I love this song so much.)
9. The Flaming Lips- “Five Stop Mother Superior Rain”
10. Beulah- “If We Can Land a Man on the Moon then surely I can win your Heart”
11. Phantom Planet- “By the Bed”
12. Jon Spencer Blues Explosion- “Fuck Shit Up”
13. Sonic Youth- “Bull in the Heather”
14. The Breeders- “Little Fury”
15. The Postal Service- “Such Great Heights” (This song, actually their entire album defined that summer for me.)
16. Sleater Kinney- “One More Hour”
17. Ben Kweller- “I Need You Back”
18. The Replacements- “Beer for Breakfast”
19. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club- “Generation”
20. The Walkmen- “The Rat”
21. Wilco- “Misunderstood”

I just told Ben that I would love to see them in Athens, Georgia on 9/24/10 for our 1st Anniversary.  Since the first wedding anniversary gift is traditionally paper, tickets would count!  Maybe we could even visit Laura, Funmi, Roxie, and Cash oh my!

Listen to their music here for free.

1.  Jantzen Vamp Maillot One Piece in Red

I bought this swimming suit for my bachelorette party and honeymoon.  I love it.  It is so classic and flattering.  Its hard not to feel pretty in this swimming suit.

2.  Bug Spray

Burt's Bees Herbal Insect Repellent

Mosquitoes love me.  My mom says it is because I am so sweet.  I usually use whatever bug spray I can find but I recently tried this insect repellent from Burt’s Bees and it is my new favorite.

3.  Benadryl Itch Stopping Gel

Don’t judge me.  I live in Mississippi where there are as many mosquitoes as Republicans. I keep this in my purse at all times during the summer.    It works.

4.  These Sunglasses

I wear them everywhere.

5.  The Hold Steady

I can’t wait to see The Hold Steady at the Hi-Tone in Memphis next month.  I heart them.

My husband is wonderful and I have mentioned before that he makes mixed CDs (not actually mixed tapes) for me for holidays and random occasions. I love these CDs so much.  Isn’t a mixed CD such a thoughful gift?  I decided to share this mixed CD because I think that you can tell a lot about a person by the music they enjoy.

This is a list of songs from the CD he made for me for Christmas 2009.

Christmas 2009 Mix

Side Note:  Ben said, “I hope you don’t mind that I bookended this CD with the Beach Boys.”  I never mind that.

1. Beach Boys- “Surfer Girl”
2. The Hold Steady- “Multitude of Casualties”
3. Julian Casablancas- “Out of the Blue”
4. Gaslight Anthem- “High Lonesome”
5. Still Stanley- “Semi-Sublime” (This is a band from Jackson, MS)
6. Drive-By Truckers- “Self Destructive Zones”
7. Ben Kweller- “Wasted and Ready”
8. Pains of Being Pure at Heart- “Come Saturday”
9. The Ramones- “My Brain is Hangin Upside Down” (Live) (Ben is always trying to get me to love The Ramones, which I don’t hate.)
10. Son Volt- “Tear Stained Eye”
11. Belle and Sebastian- “Like Dylan in the Movies”
12. Yeasayer- “Tightrope”
13. Jay Reatard- “Nightmares” (RIP Jay, Ben was so sad that he died.)
14. Japandroids- “The Boys are Leaving Town”
15. Uncle Tupelo- “Sin City” (Flying Burrito Bros Cover) (I love this song a lot.)
16. Pine Hill Haints- “You Will Never See Morning”
17. Vampire Weekend- “Horchata” (This is from their new CD, Contra, which was not out at the time he made this CD.)
18. Benji Hughes- “I Went With Some Friends to See The Flaming Lips”
19. Beach Boys- “You’re So Good to Me”