The Listeners/These Train Tracks

The Listeners/These Train Tracks is an awesome children's book and 7", handcrafted by artist/musician, Michah Middaugh of Breathe Owl Breathe.  If you haven't heard any of Breathe Owl Breathe's stuff, you're missing out.  Seriously.

If you're a fan of cuteness, music and well-crafted art, please check this out.  You won't regret it.

Take a listen.

The book/7" is set to release on December 6th, for $28.50.  Pre-order your copy here!

* When we have kids, I promise you, they're totally gonna jam to stuff like this.

What do you think?

Weekend Recap

{my mom's haunted living room, and this picture does not do it any justice...}

Being home means two different things to me.  The obvious is being home, where I live, in my house. The other is being home in Kansas with my entire family.  I enjoy both and can honestly say it's amazing to "be home".  I am so tired and exhausted and thankful for a safe journey, and I am also so overjoyed and full of love from being home.  Not to mention I already miss them all terribly.  It was a great trip all in all.  Some highlights include ::

• Coffee talk with my mom
• Play time with the kids
• Family dinner with homemade lasagna and cupcakes that the girls and I made/frosted
• Family game time
• Family bowling
• Dinner out with my cousins (one of who just got engaged!)
• Drinks with my stepbrother & stepsister-in-law
• Watching 9-year-olds play football (my nephew looked great out there, even though they lost)
• More Aunt Mimi time - the littlest one and I got a lot of hang time in and it was pretty much awesome.  
• Halloween party! Our whole family came over, the kids dressed up and my mom created tons of game stations for them all to win tickets.  She put out a ton of prizes like an arcade and they went nuts.  It was hilarious!
• On our drive home we listened to The Great Gatsby in its entirety.  
• Bears win!

How were your weekends? Heart warming, I hope.  Even though I'm not nearly ready enough for it to start, here's to a great week! 

Show Dogs

I've got a bit of puppy fever.  No thanks to all the amazing pooches I get to see frequently (Charlie, Lucy, Dubs, Canubs, Bentley), or the fact that I've volunteered a few times at PAWS.  Then there's the fact that we just might be getting a pooch of our own once we are all moved and settled. But these pictures, I just can't get enough.

Photographer Kate Lacey created a guide book to dog breeds that has captured personality through the photograph.  She has simply let the dog's speak for themselves.  You can see the pride, playfulness, adoration and curiosity showing through these different breeds of dogs.  There is no commentary in the book other than the dog's name and breed.  Who doesn't love a well made pictorial book featuring adorable pooch after adorable pooch?!

You can buy a copy of Show Dogs : A Photographic Breed Guide by Kate Lacey here.

Via The Fox is Black

God's Nightgown!

{image}

I started reading Gone With the Wind so long ago.  Back in May!  It's 1400 pages and in my defense, I've never read a book this long for pleasure and I'm no longer riding the train twice a day which was my sacred reading time.  

I've got about 70 pages left to go and I feel so excited and relieved to be nearly done.  What a wonderful story.  I've never seen the movie (gasp!) and I honestly only knew very little about it going in.  I knew about Tara, Rhett, Ashley, "frankly my dear, I don't give a damn", and that it was set during the civil war.  But there is so much more to it and it's totally worth reading.  My best friend listened to the story on an audio book and could NOT stop talking about how wonderful it was.  I was so intrigued that I picked up an $8 copy and got to work.  But then, well, I got married and stuff and stopped reading altogether.  So now that I've been fully engrossed in it for the last couple of weeks, it's hard to put it down.  It feels like such an accomplishment to have almost finished it and I can't wait to read how the story wraps up!  

I would love nothing more than to be Scarlett and Rhett for Halloween but it's really not easy, nor cheap, to find such lavish items to turn into a costume!  Oh fiddle-dee-dee!

She Ain't Heavy, She's My Mother

For those fellow Mad Men lovers out there, Bryan Batt, the actor who plays Sal Romano, has a new book coming out. It's a memoir, or as he is coining it, a 'momoir', and is a tribute to his mother who he calls a steel magnolia/Auntie Mame of a mother. 

Batt writes about growing up gay in New Orleans in the '70s.  He describes his childhood as Running With Scissors meets David Sedaris meets Tennessee Williams.  I don't know about you, but this sounds incredibly intriguing.  The release date is Tuesday, May 4 (just in time for Mother's day).  Check it out!

* Via AMCTV.com

Feeling bookish

Hi loves,

Today I am in a funk.  Yep.  A classic case of the I'm-feeling-sorry-for-myself blues.  I think perhaps what I need is to get on the train and take it home, where my baby and the chief will be waiting with open arms to greet me.  That usually does the trick. 

ANYWAY...

I'm finishing up Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine, and while I did enjoy it, it wasn't one of those books that moved me.  I just spent half of my lunch in Books-A-Million trying to find something that would by chance call out to me.  But I failed at that. 

So I'm going to wind up on a plane come Friday (to see my besties in KC for Gracie's bridal shower/bachelorette party, woo woo!) and I'm going to be without a book to read.  That frightens me!  So tell me...do any of you sweet readers have a book for moi to stick my nose in?  Preferably something that is ASTOUNDING (no pressure), that won't put me to snooze, that won't take me years to read but will be definitely worth my time and effort?  Anybody? 

Photo via ropeburns