my top five favorite: albums

Even before itunes and ipods and spotify I used to prefer building my own playlists (with mixtapes!) to playing an album start-to-finish, but there are always some albums that I think are so perfect that I happily play them uninterrupted, the way they were intended to be heard.

First up is Power, Corruption, and Lies by New Order. One of my all time favorite albums, although I tend to play one side more than the other and I tend to go over and put the needle back on "Your Silent Face" over and over again.



This post could have easily been five Killers albums but I wanted to limit myself to one and give some room to other bands/artists. And narrowing it down to one was VERY DIFFICULT.  But ultimately Day and Age has my heart. Honestly whatever album "Dustland Fairytale" was on was going to get my vote, but when you add in "Spaceman" and "Human" it's basically a shoe-in. (Runner up would probably be either Sam's Town or Battle Born.)



This is the soundtrack for the movie Borsalino. It's just a super fun jazzy '20s-'30s inspired album and I put this on all the time when I need to get some pep in my step for the day. If I need to clean up or get dressed for a late shift at work after I'm already done in, this does the trick. It also reminds me of the movie (which I love!) and that's always a fun bonus when you listen to soundtracks :)



I first heard this when I was staying at The Polynesian in Disney World two years ago and I ended up downloading the album to listen to on the plane home, and then I found an LP on ebay to listen to on my record player. My favorite song on the album is "Pineapple Princess" followed closely by "Hawaiian Love Talk." It's just so fun and bubbly and, especially in the winter, it's nice to be transported to Hawaii (or a Disneyesque version of Hawaii, I guess, lol!)



Last but not least, my favorite Frank Sinatra album -- Moonlight Sinatra. This has spun around my turntable so often that sometimes I think I should buy a backup. Whenever I decide to put this one on, I just can't stop. I keep flipping it over, playing, flipping over, playing, until it's time for bed. My favorites on this album are "Moonlight Serenade" and "Oh, You Crazy Moon."

nepotism and holiday shopping!

My dad has owned a small mail-order music t-shirt company since the late 1970's, and since times are tough right now I thought I'd try to help him out a bit! He had a huge setback this year when his web host suddenly went out of business without notice, so we had to quickly move the whole site over to Shopify and his sales have really stalled out ever since that happened. If anyone on your Christmas list is a music lover (or movie lover -- he has some movie shirts, too!) this is the perfect gift! He has merchandise on hundreds of bands, everyone from The Smiths to The Killers, from Radiohead to The Spice Girls. If you like them, my dad probably sells their shirts. And he's still running his Black Friday sale, so you can get 10% off with code "108" (It's a Lost reference, if you're curious!)

And if you're a giant fan of The Killers like I am, he has a lot of their designs in the shop right here. This is the one pictured above. (Sidenote - thank you to my dad for supplying me with an endless supply of band tees for whatever band/artist I'm currently obsessed with since I was like 5 years old!)

And now it's my mom's turn! ;D My mom runs a little etsy shop called Baubles Bangles and Beans, where she sells handmade earrings. She sells two kinds -- coffee bean earrings, made with real fair trade coffee beans, and "extreme decaf" earrings, which are similar to her coffee bean style, but without the coffee! My mom is so cute, it's ridiculous... I am not exaggerating in the least bit when I say that each time she's made a sale she's positively GIDDY with excitement. She usually has the order packed up and ready to go within like 10 minutes because she's so excited that she made a sale. It's so adorable! And this year she's 4 sales short of hitting her annual goal of 12 sales per year. If you help her reach that goal it will literally MAKE HER YEAR.

So if you have a coffee addict on your Christmas list, this is a pretty cool gift, right?! She offers free shipping on all orders, no coupon necessary (and you know you'll get it for Christmas since she ships it within like 10 seconds of your order, lol)

If you order from either of my parents and mention me or my blog in the notes section, I'll be sure to throw in some goodies from my shop as well, as a huge THANK YOU for supporting my little family of weirdos :)

And last but not least, a shout-out to my brother's burgeoning company, Welsh Knight, where he sells travel pillowcases. I love this idea so, so, so much! I have very sensitive skin so the idea of having my own pillowcase with me when I'm on the go is a dream come true. I used to take one of my own pillowcases from home, but honestly half the time I ended up leaving it at the hotel by accident and that's unacceptable when you've built a very curated collection of vintage-floral linens. Now I take one of my brother's travel pillowcases and I don't have to worry all that much if I accidentally leave it in Disney World ;) This is SUCH a perfect gift for someone you know who loves to travel! You can check out his pillowcases right here. (I can't guarantee he'll let me know if you leave a note saying I sent you, but it's worth a try!)

music complete

New Order released a new album, Music Complete, in September and I'm a horrible fan who just got around to purchasing it. But I'm beyond obsessed with it already (I may have a few songs memorized and I just got the album on Sunday, oops) My favorite songs are Singularity (you can listen on youtube here) and Superheated (you can listen on youtube here.)

Brandon Flowers from The Killers does the vocals on Superheated and SOMEHOW I wasn't super familiar with them beforehand, except for Mr. Brightside. But I loved Superheated so much I ended up binge-listening to their songs on youtube and then buying all of their albums on itunes. I have a somewhat large itunes library (mostly due to me acting impulsively like I just did with The Killers) but my actual listening habits tend to be very focused on one single song or artist. I'll listen to one song on repeat for weeks sometimes. I don't end up trying to find new music too often because I get so compulsively attached to the songs I'm already listening to.

Maybe that's why whenever I do find new music that I love I fall completely head over heels. Music just makes me happy in a way that few things do. It reminds me of Leslie Knope's quote about taking risks ;) "Amazing. Tingling sensation throughout my whole body. I feel flushed. My muscles are relaxed yet I feel awake. Just waves of pleasure. I wish there was something physical that could make me feel this way."

ps. If you're like me and were somehow unaware of The Killers, these are my favorites so far -- Human, Spaceman, Change Your Mind, Read My Mind, Joy Ride and All These Things That I've Done. Go forth and listen!! :)

dress - asos | cardigan - old navy | shoes - bait footwear