BIG NEWS ABOUT A LITTLE PROJECT...

Welp, For approximately the last four months I've been on the go, on the road, playing my guitar, singing  songs, creating goofy girls with glasses videos, fixin' a house, recording records and oh yeah... keeping a big secret  about another massive "little project" I've been hard at work on... 

But it looks as though my belly is blowing my cover... 

Yep, I'm havin' a BABY y'all! WOW, how weird does it feel to say that?! Super Weird and yet super awesome! I've always said I wanted to be an "M&M" a musician and a momma, and it looks like that is all coming to fruition in my twenty eighth... almost twenty ninth year of life (by the time she arrives), and I have to say while it came as a happy surprise, and at the same time, later then I ever expected, I'm feeling great  about having a baby at this point in my life! 

This little gal is already keepin' up with the crazy, in my Ultrasound we could see that we have a serious Rock n' Roll baby on our hands... by the looks of it, she's partyin' it up in there! My doctor said, "wow she doesn't sit still! " and Dave Ray quickly spouted "just like her mom!". HA! 

my rock and roll baby at 12 wks, she's grown a lot since then

Truth is, I already worry about her every day, I just want her to be happy and healthy... She is probably already tired of hearing me say "are you okay?!" which apparently she can hear and feel the sound and vibration of my loud voice at this stage. Poor thing gets to listen to me babble and sing all day and night! She is also the size of my open hand and though her closed eyelids see light.  She is also gettin' fatter and taller... cute huh? 

Honestly, we can hardly wait to meet her, see her, freak out over her and just hang out with her and take her to Target and band practice, cause she is gonna be such a cool baby. Until May 31st I will just have to patiently prepare for her arrival. That is, if she arrives on time... and if she is anything like her mom, she'll be late. Actually I was supposed to be born on May 21st, and wouldn't ya know I decided to show up two weeks later on June 2nd. For all I know she could be born on my birthday just two days after... and I'd be a June baby giving birth to a June baby! Perfect Present...

Now, my rock n' roll babe and I must get back to recording a sweet new J+W EP due in January...

PS- This was a really hard secret to keep.

PSS- Thanks to my fellow girl with glasses and dear friend Summer Bellessa for making me this fun lil' video!! 

CAN YOU FEEL IT?

IT IS IN THE AIR! This season has been over the top busy drizzled with gobs of crazy sauce! Have I lost my mind?! For sure!! The lil' list has been blown to smithereens, we are less then two weeks away from Christmas, and I am trying to figure out how in the world this could be true, as usual I have done zero of my shopping, my poor disheveled christmas tree has been shoved out of the way into the corner of my kitchen, and I am currently in the middle of the all consuming process of recording a second EP with Jack and White, pretty excited about it... fingers crossed you can expect to hear it in January! Oh and you can follow all our progress on our new Tumblr page: http://jackandwhiteandstuff.tumblr.com/

So literally the four days before my house became an explosion of studio equipment, guitars, drums, a tangled web of cables, ceramic animal sculptures, and ponytailed musician dudes, It was a major explosion of glittery goobery Girls with Glasses super Holiday Funnery! (Hmmm, looks like Funnery isn't a word, ah well, it should be). And when i say explosion, I mean explosion, we cooked, we baked, we lipsticked, we found interns, we recorded an original Christmas song (thanks Jack Matranga for your engineerial & mixing skillz) we sang, we danced, we Instagramed, we changed our clothes about fourty seven thousand times, AND we made a lil' music video...

Beyond our severe levels of exhaustion, we have fun we do, because we are the girls with glasses and we love Christmas, don't you love Christmas too?!

I've got so much more to tell you, but I just don't know when that will happen. I hope you are doing swell friends, lets all take a breath and remember that WE LOVE CHRISTMAS and the happy reason for the season!

THE LOWER LIGHTS...

HAVE A NEW CHRISTMAS RECORD!! You might remember a while back when I blogged about this amazing super group of musicians and listed their first album as one of my top five records of the year...

I was so obsessed with the record that I couldn't stop tweeting my brains out about them... well they noticed, and instead of thinking I was just a giant wierdo fan (and i am) they extended a warm invitation to me to come join in the jubilee of creating their Christmas record... and therefore I accepted with a spastic and enthusiastic YES tweet followed by an excessive use of exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!

So, I jumped on a plane for a quick 48 hour stop in Provo, UT to be a lil' fly on the wall and what a serious treat that was! Intensely musical dudes in thick rimed glasses and ladies with delicate voices of angels that harmonize like nobodies business, gather round pianos, guitars, drums, bells, glockenspiels, fiddles and microphones and outpours the sound of heaven!

The even said I could jump in on a few tunes and sing a bit on the mic with my foghorn-ish voice, nice of 'em. Oh and not only were they recording the Christmas album, but also a second hymn revival record set to release in the coming year, also got to take part in that... particularly on this one favorite tune of mine that we would sing in primary as kids, it was me and three dudes singing in harmony with a couple of guitars in a stairwell during a thunderstorm... MAGICAL! We'll see if the song makes the cut, hope so, cause it may be on the top of my list of fave recordings i've gotten to be in on... just sayin'

Anywho, you should really jump on this lovely holiday record OH COME LET US ADORE HIM by the Lower Lights... you won't regret it. They're just really really good... oh and here is a lil' behind the scenes vid to give ya a vibe...

The Lower Lights: Come Let Us Adore Him from The Lower Lights on Vimeo.

http://thelowerlights.bandcamp.com/album/come-let-us-adore-him

A FEW OF MY FAVORITE (THRIFTED) THINGS...

I scored some major pieces while thrifting over the summer and intended on blogging about them and just never got around to it... but since my last post was upon the subject, I figured better late then never! 

Here are a few of my favorite thrifted gems! Photos by this talented lady

mendipixel.com

THE GOOD WILL GIRLS...

Summer and I share a serious love for thrift store shopping, we're pretty much obsessed. This passion prompted our Recessionista mini-series on thrifting for the Girls with Glasses Show!

Not only does thrift store shopping save ya loads of cash, but it also gives your wardrobe and home decore a dash of originality and character. I've been resale shopping since I was a kid, I learned from my mama, and through all the different economic phases of life we always went back to the good ol' good will and D.I. not just cause sometimes we had to, but because it was fun! I've carried on the tradition and treat it as an art form, one that takes practice... and I love to practice! I really dig the deals, I get a major kick out of finding something unique for a couple bucks, I get super jazzed just thinking of how I can repurpose old furniture... the possibilities are endless! Kind of a treasure hunt of sorts, a challenge... to find that diamond in the rough! 

You really don't have to spend a million bucks to look like ya did... 

MORE ON THRIFTY ACTION ON THE WAY!!!

HOW TO BE ALONE...

Have you seen this? Apparently millions have, I have not until five minutes ago... and that is precisely how long the video is. Obviously it impacted me enough to immediately feel the need to post it and share it with ya...

Sometimes we must be alone, whether it is self imposed or not of our choice, it can be both a place of comfort and emptiness... I've been there, and likely you have too... and that is okay, if not vital. 

This is just something beautiful... an insightful interesting perspective...

PS- Should you go into the woods or city alone, please be very careful :-)

THE LIL' LIST...

I'm all about the Lil' list these days. I used to create these mammoth daily lists for myself,  they went on and on forever and ever... basically the short hand version would probably of been something like:

TO DO:

PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING THAT'S EVER NEEDED TO BE DONE BY THE END OF TODAY

This approach is a big frowny face No-win. I always felt overwhelmed by the list and disappointed in my non-ability to be super woman and accomplish all things in a twenty four hour period. Not to mention the inevitable burn out. I over promised to myself, and under delivered, and if there is anything that I should of learned during my two years of employment trying to sell shoes to highly maintained ladies of entitlement and granting returns of fifteen year old used bras in customer service at Nordstroms, it was "Under promise and over deliver". 

As I get a little bit older, I get a little more realistic... not a lot more, but a little. I am realizing that there is just not enough time to fulfill all my wild ambitions and expectations, I so sincerely want to do it all, and I want to do it really well... and it bums me out that I can't. I want to say, YES YES YES! It is such an easy word to say, and yet such a hard word to do. This becomes a habit in the business of life and dream achieving where your success depends on taking advantage of every good opportunity, and they all seem good don't they? My manager Brad has coined the phrase for me "always trying to fit ten gallons into a five gallon bucket". It made me chuckle and yet I continued living a life of overdoing,   and over promising and well... 

The bucket broke.

Lesson slowly learned... success is obtained by setting small achievable goals. Eating the elephant one bite at a time as they say. That is where the Lil' list comes in.  The rule: Keeping the number of items on the list to be done less then ten, and ideally no more then a handful of things. This forces me to get real with myself..."What is truly important today?"... starting with priorities, or sometimes urgencies, commitments to others and then perhaps if there is time, a few other small tasks that have a tendency to get over-looked... notice how I have to list "shower".

Truthfully, the Lil' list is changing my life. My productivity level is increasing, my sense of accomplishment rewards me with motivation and inner peace, I'm finishing more of the things I am starting, following through on the commitments I've made to others and myself... and not all at once, but one thing at a time, one day at a time. And let me say, there is nothing quite like crossing off those to-do's on your list, can I get an AMEN from the list makers?! 

Lastly, my level of awareness of how I CHOOSE to use my time is becoming more acute. I'm learning perhaps, that you can't say yes to everything and everyone all the time... I might even be coming to grips with the fact that sometimes, you just have to say NO... 

Now, saying the "NO" word is a whole other blog post unto itself... I'll put it on my list... the lil' one.