Guest post: Top ten modern holiday songs

Oh man, the holidays are kicking my butt around here! There simply aren't enough hours in the day. Fortunately, my good friend Jeff has some holiday cheer to share with you all. Enjoy :)

Source: landeeseelandeedo.com via Brandy on Pinterest

I start my annual holiday music sweep of local radio stations at about 5PM on Thanksgiving Day. I’ve become a connoisseur of carols, and a savant of the sacred and secular chants. I’ve heard “Christmas Shoes” 146 times and if that doesn’t qualify me for an Honorary Doctorate of Christmas Music, I’m not sure what will. It gives me great holiday joy (and apparently, equivalent college credit) to bring you my Top Ten Modern Holiday songs of 2011!

10. Weezer – Christmas Song: Weezer has had a long career and my love for them started with the release of Weezer(Green). The best part about that album, you ask? Well, it’s the hidden Christmas track found as a B-Side on the Japanese release, of course! Ok, that’s not the best part of the album, but it gives it a little extra re-playability. Basically, this song is what “O Holy Night” and “Rainbow Connection” would sound like with a little bit post-grunge flavor added. Enjoy!

9. The Decemberists – January Hymn: Moving away from the 90s and into this year, I present you with a track off The Decemberists’ newest album, The King Is Dead. Now, this one isn’t exactly what I would call a Christmas tune, but it captures the winter season in such a bittersweet sense. It’s a beautiful acoustic track that will make you want to get warm by the fire with a nice fair trade cup of coffee.

8. Feist – Please Be Patient: Stephen Colbert is a lucky man to have Feist so enamored with him. It came as no surprise that she opted to be on A Colbert Christmas and was fantastic on it. This is a funny one (no shocker there) that will have you both enjoying the “Angels We Have Heard On High” backing track and Feist’s modified, customer service-based lyrics. Best to listen to it while you’re in line at JCPenney’s buying that extra batch of Snuggies… you know, just in case…

7. Local Natives – We Come Back: Before you start to leave an annoyed comment about how hard it was to find this song, don’t worry, I know. Regional B-Side doesn’t begin to describe how hard it was to find this song after I first heard it. The song itself is catchy (find a Local Natives song that isn’t) and honestly, the only thing that really distinguishes it as a Christmas song is the bells. Fine, you caught me. I was just trying to get Local Natives on the list. Don’t look at me like that; you know you liked it anyway.

6. Fleet Foxes – White Winter Hymnal: This song will forever bring me back to winter regardless of the time of year. That’s the kind of power I demand of seasonal songs. Again, we’re full-on secular with this one, but no one can deny how expertly crafted those harmonies are. You can find this on the Fleet Foxes self-titled from 2008. Maybe after the holiday season, take a listen to the rest of the album. It might just get you through those mid-winter blues.

Intermission: It’s that time to get up, stretch, maybe do a Sudoku, or possibly start with the pre-verdict comment. Go ahead. I’m not watching…..
….you missed that 8 in the bottom left. Also, you already have a 4 in that row. …what?

5. She & Him – Christmas Day: We have to have a She & Him song this year! Matt and Zooey are a great combination of Indie royalty. They just put out a new Christmas album this year and it just goes to show that indie doesn’t have to be sad to be good. (It certainly helps, though, right?) Christmas Day is one of the lesser knowns on the album, but it’s not the typical cliché cover which is what I’m trying to avoid at all costs…

4. Sufjan Stevens – Come Thou Fount: How did this typical cliché get in here? Because it’s amazing, that’s how. I know I said I would try to avoid these, but this is such a wonderful rendition that I couldn’t help it. If you’re familiar with Sufjan, all you need to know is Sufjan + Banjo = the key to living a happy life. This is leaning heavy into the sacred category of holiday songs, but again, the sheer amazingness of this song earns it a religious overtones pass. This time…

3. The Raveonettes – Christmas Song: What’s up with everyone trying to redefine “Christmas Song?”
Step 1: Use your signature sound.
Step 2: Add jingle bells
Step 3: Call it “Christmas Song”
Step 4: ????
Step 5: Prophet. (See what I did there?)
The problem for me has always been I love The Raveonettes ‘ signature sound and adding jingle bells just makes me want to start cutting down pine trees to bring to underprivileged, abused, orphaned puppies…with antlers. Do you appreciate that kind of scenery? Good, you’ve proven that you’re part of this demographic. Stay with me for this next one.

2. Matteo Scumaci – Branch In The Spokes: Fair warning, this is a sad holiday song, but what would the classics be without “I’ll Be Home For Christmas?” Besides that, this is a fantastic song on its own. Matteo has a great voice and the arrangement sounds eerily like Ozzy’s “Mama I’m Coming Home” which I’m alright with. Best to listen to as you’re drifting off to sleep after your fourth spiced eggnog. I call them Nogquils.

1. Pomplamoose – Always In The Season: This is a song that came out in 2009 from the YouTube band made up of Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn. It’s been a staple on every holiday playlist I’ve made since then. The old time, Miracle-on-34th-Street-esque feel and sound really propels this to the top. How do you make great holiday music? You ask these guys.

Bam! What a list. Now go download legally purchase yourself some hot holiday tracks!

Gasp! A weekend post!

Shocking, I know. Actually, I'm not really posting today...just popping in to let you all know that one of my guest posts is being featured today on After Nine to Five. It's a recipe. For apple crisp. YUMMMMM!

While you're there, check out the rest of Ashley's blog and her shop. She's so sweet and she has tons of services and whatnot to offer us newbie bloggers. Love that gal!

Where I am today

Make sure you stop by Tales of Samantha Something today to check out my guest post! Or you can just click here -> (click)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Guest Post: Raych of Marriage by Design

Surprise! Matt and I are moving this week (and I'm facing a million other projects...) so here's a fun post from Raych of Marriage by Design. Raych is super sweet and her blog is a bit like mine...it has a little bit of everything. I'll be back tomorrow/Friday with some scheduled goodness, and will hopefully be able to catch up on comments and whatnot next week :) Enjoy!

Hi there! I'm Raych from Marriage by Design and I'm filling in for the lovely Emma as she moves to her new place! Today I'm going to give you a little tutorial for some simple hors d'oeuvres. I usually blog about home décor and fashion but every now and again I'll throw in a cooking post.

Let me preface this post by saying I am not a cook. I don't even really enjoy cooking very much. I do enjoy eating and since Husband can't cook, the responsibility falls on me. There has been more than one occasion where Husband will call and say "oh by the way, so and so from work is coming over to watch any given sporting event tonight." This is when these hors d'oeuvres come in handy.

First up is a really quick raspberry chipotle dip.

Ingredients:
1 can black beans, rinsed
1 can or 1 frozen bag of corn, rinsed
1 block cream cheese
1 bottle roasted raspberry chipotle sauce
1 bunch cilantro, chopped

This is as easy as it gets, folks. Just layer cream cheese, chipotle sauce, beans, corn and cilantro onto a tray or dish and serve. (This plate is shaped like a parrot; its the only one I could find in my mother-in-law's kitchen.)

Here is a close up of the finished product. I usually serve this dip with tortilla chips or crackers.

This next hors d'oeuvre is my absolute favorite: asparagus roll-ups.

Ingredients:
1 loaf of white bread
1 can or jar of asparagus spears, drained
1 tub of blue cheese crumbles
1 block of cream cheese, softened
1/4 stick of butter, melted (not pictured because I totally forgot)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Use a pizza cutter to cut the crusts off the slices of bread.

Mix the blue cheese with the cream cheese until smooth. I usually mix half the cheese at a time, it's a little easier than trying to do it all at once. Spread the cheese mixture on to the slices of bread. Place an asparagus spear on each slice and roll it up.

Once you have finished rolling up all the asparagus spears, melt the butter and brush it on top of each roll up.

Pop them in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes. Basically, until they are golden brown on the edges, like this:

Serve them warm. Hope these hors d'oeuvres help save the day if/when your husband brings unexpected guests over!

Guest Post (Again)!

Only this time, I'm the guest blogger! Head over to Maggie Rose to find out how to make this delicious Asian-Hawaiian dish from my childhood. (No, we're not Asian or Hawaiian. It's just an easy meal so my mom made it a lot, haha.)

We will return to your regularly scheduled Verbal Melange randomness tomorrow :)

Guest Post: Loren of Halcyon Days

And now, the final guest blogger for my little vaca! I'm technically home today, but our train came in (or, should have come in, as I'm writing this a week in advance) around 5 am, so I'm likely dead asleep right now. Or unpacking. Either way, I'm in no place to blog, so Loren of Halcyon Days is filling in. Her style is so unique and fun, and this girl has some mad Photoshop skills. So that's what she's here to talk about!

Hello Verbal Mélange readers. This is not Emma because she is on vacation, probably doing something awesome. I’m Loren from over at Halcyon Days. When Emma asked for some guest posts and I gladly volunteered because she is super cute and I adore her blog. I wanted to put together a quick Photoshop tutorial, because while I am a beginner chef and photographer, I am sometimes paid money to work with Photoshop. I majored in Computer Graphics in college and now work as a Multimedia Programmer. I’ve seen a couple blogger ladies lately lamenting their lack of Photoshop skillz so I thought I would run through a couple basics. (If you don’t have access to Photoshop you can use GIMP, it’s open source, free, and does 95% of the things Photoshop can do, although I will not be providing screen shots for it.)

First: Any time you edit a photo you’ll want to make a duplicate layer before you start editing (just in case something dumb happens). You can right-click and select ‘Duplicate Layer’ but I like to drag my layer and drop it onto the ‘New Layer’ button because that names it for me.

For Very Basic Color Corrections
Photoshop has a handy dandy “Image > Auto Contrast”, “Image > Auto Tone” and “Image > Auto Color”. Depending on your photo these can work really well. The “Auto Contrast” basically adjusts your photo so that the darkest color is pure black, and the lightest to pure white. (So not always 100% effect it’s super simple and easy for photos that are only slightly off.)

Better contrast/brightness correction
For slightly better correction and control over levels in your images use the Image > Adjustments > Levels Window.

The graph here shows the Image Histogram, which represents and how the luminosity in your photo are spaced. (This photo has a lot of midtones and darker colors, fewer lighter ones.) It shows you two sliders for the “Input Levels” and the “Output Levels”. You can set these numbers or use the sliders. The top sliders set the input luminosity in your photo. The rightmost slider will now become white and the left controls the black. The middle slider will adjust where the 50% mark lies and can be used to adjust the overall lightness/darkness of the photo. Normally these are set at 0, 1, and 255 but I’ve changed them to make the photo appear as below. The bottom Output Levels will set the new output darkest and lightest color. You generally won’t need to change this but it set the reset the darkest color to black and the brightest to white. You can adjust the levels of each color separately from the Channel drop down menu, which can help you create some cool vintage effects.

The Most Delicate Alterations
The most complicated (and best levels) can be set with the Image > Adjustments > Curves.

The graph in this window shows the same as the histogram as the levels window. If you click the diagonal line you can add a point that can be moved to change the output levels. The Channel drop down works the same as well, and each separate color has its own curves. This menu gives you much more control over the output/input levels than the Levels window. I wish there were a foolproof method to editing the curves but the best way to learn to edit these is through experience. The “Preset” drop down will show you a couple different types of curves that you can edit to fix your photos. Here are the final curves from my example image. Very small changes in this window can make a big difference.

Tips:
For both windows if you have something perfectly black and/or perfect white in your photo you can use the eyedropper tools to set everything. This is an easy way to white balance a photo when possible. (Because I never remember to white balance my camera.)

Once you have altered the curves or levels you can’t edit them. An easy way to edit multiple photos the same way is to use the “Actions” window to record your selections and use those actions on your other photos.

I hope this has been helpful. I know that I just tried to pack in a whole bunch of information into a short 700-word post. I’ll try to hang in the comments to clarify anything that was confusing. Emma is, I’m sure, having fun and will be back soon for your regularly scheduled Verbal Mélange posts!

Guest Post: Whitney from Between the Lines

Today's guest blogger is Whitney from Between the Lines. I love her blog because she posts awesome, workplace-appropriate outfits that are also affordable. (She's a teacher, so she has to make sure she looks good on a budget...a lot like me, actually!) I'm particularly excited about this post, because she talks about "Glee," which is probably my biggest guilty pleasure. I. Love. That. Show.

I’m Whitney from Between the Lines and I’m excited to sub for Emma while she’s on vacation.

As any of you who are familiar with my blog will know, I am a teacher. Being a teacher definitely changes and challenges the way you dress not only professionally, but also on weekends and during the summer. My once skinny-jean and sundress-filled closet is now infested with pencil skirts, button downs, and cardigans.

My teacher wardrobe is taking over.

One challenge I have faced with this invasion that I feel as though I have to compensate for the fact that I’m young, so I am trying to dress older and more modestly without being frumpy.

Another challenge is that there are not a lot of “style icons” for teachers (or for young ones, anyway). The only real source of inspiration for me is Jayma Mays’ character Emma Pilsbury from “Glee.” If you watch Glee, you know that Emma is the adorable, sincere, doe-eyed counselor who is a sufferer of a major case of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Her style reflects the same sense of control and propriety with her tie-neck button-downs, pencil skirts and classic pumps.

If you know anything about Emma’s wardrobe, you know that OCD is not her only problem--she has to be thousands of dollars in debt for her shopping addiction.

In one episode alone, she wears clothes and shoes from Marc Jacobs, Kate Spade, Anthropologie, and J. Crew totaling in at $4,913*--probably more than my entire wardrobe put together. I don’t know about other teachers, but I don’t make that kind of money. True, I shop at J. Crew (specifically in the sale racks) and drool over Marc Jacobs and Kate Spade, but to own approximately $22,125 in clothes** from these designers seems a bit unrealistic for a teacher’s salary.

*expense estimated by the blog What Would Emma Pilsbury Wear?
**estimated expense for Emma’s season two wardrobe by WWEPW

Instead, I use her looks as inspiration and I build outfits from central pieces and styles of her wardrobe—with a much cheaper price tag. I have put together three outfits based on clothes Emma has worn. (I did my best to identify where an item is from, but I couldn’t get them all.)

Inspiration One:

Emma is wearing:
Kate Spade A-line dot skirt
Anthropologie necklace

I'm wearing:
Target skirt and plain tee
Multi-strand turquoise necklace (gift)

Inspiration Two:

Emma is wearing:
J. Crew skirts
J. Crew sweater (?)

I'm wearing:
LOFT skirt (clearance rack)
NY&Co sleeveless button down (clearance rack)
Target sweater and necklace

I, like Emma, appreciate embellished cardigans. She often tucks them in and pairs them with belts, but I can't quite pull that off as well as she can. I combined looks for inspiration and added my own personal touch with the necklace and un-tucked cardigan.


Inspiration Three:

Emma is wearing:
Anthropologie skirt

I'm wearing:
CATO shirt (clearance rack)
Target shirt and belt
DIY'ed necklace

This is one of my favorite Emma outfits. I love her Anthropologie skirt and I could not pass up the skirt I’m wearing when I saw it on clearance (for $13!). I added a red belt and necklace to add in the red my skirt is missing, but I can pair my skirt with so many other colors and shirts.

Bottom line is: Emma’s style is possible without living out of my car and eating rejected cafeteria food for a decade.

Do you have any “style icons”? What are some ways you incorporate their looks into your everyday outfits?

*All images and information borrowed from What Would Emma Pilsbury Wear with permission.

Guest Post: Samantha of Tales of Samantha Something

Hello again! Here's number two in my lineup of fabulous guest bloggers who are covering while I'm in the Big Apple. Today, it's Samantha from Tales of Samantha Something. Sam has a great sense of style, gorgeous photos and the best personality you could ask for. Make sure to check out her blog for outfits, recipes, beauty tips and DIY projects!

Hello, lovely Verbal Mélange readers! My name is Samantha from Tales of Samantha Something. I am so excited to be guest posting for Emma while she is in NYC with her bf! I've never been, so I cannot wait to hear all about her trip! I live in Charleston, SC and write my own life and style blog. Being in my early twenties I am still uncovering my own personal style, but my love of color and patterns influence my everyday wardrobe.

Sweater and shorts: J. Crew
Wedges: Nine West
Necklace and clutch: F21
Sunglasses and bracelets: Urban Outfitters

It's so great to be able to share a little piece of my blog with you all! And thank you Emma for letting me fill in!

Guest Post: Kellyn of the church mouse

Hello, everyone! Since Matt and I are in New York City from now until early Monday morning, I've asked some of my bloggy friends to guest post for me. Today's post is from Kellyn of the church mouse. Kellyn is the sweetest girl, and she has such a unique sense of style! Her blog is an eclectic mix of music, musings and personal style, and you should definitely check it out! So without further ado...

Hello, everyone! This is Kellyn from The Church Mouse guest posting for the lovely Emma while she's on vacation! I’m totally jealous she’s in New York.

I have a do-it-yourself project for you guys. Every store I've been to lately has feather earrings. There's a pair at Urban Outfitters that I am just in love with but they are $24! I don't know about you but I don't have $24 to spend on earrings. Instead, I bought supplies to make my own. I spent about $18 total for everything. I have enough supplies for about six pairs of earrings, bringing the price to around $3 a pair. I recommend saving money by splitting the cost with friends.

The tutorial is pretty easy. Don't be afraid to experiment with different types of feathers or supplies! There are tons of ways to make feather earrings.

You will need:
-jump rings
-feathers
-crimp beads
-earring hooks
-small chain
-jewelry pliers

All supplies can be picked up at your local craft store. I was unimpressed by the feathers my local store had, so I bought mine from ubTribe on Etsy. They have some amazing feathers for a pretty cheap price!

The crimp beads I used are called a clam shell bead tip. I prefer the way those look but I think using a "chain end" would be simpler. As long as it has a hook and a place for you to attach your feather, it should work.

Step one: Using your jewelry pliers, break off two 2 1/2 inch pieces of your chain. If you prefer to have yours hang lower, use more chain.

Step two: Attach your crimp bead to the end of your feather. Use the end of the feather that has the stick-like end. (Kind of obvious, but I figured I better clarify just in case.)

Step three: Crimp your bead.

Step four: Add a jump ring to the hook on your beaded feather, and attach it to your chain.

Yours should look like this so far!

Step five: Use a jump ring and attach your chain to an earring hook. Repeat these steps for as many feathers as you like!

I placed two feathers on each earring; one with a chain and one without. You can add three or four! It’s totally up to you. Seriously, feel free to experiment! Don’t worry if it doesn’t come out exactly right the first time.

This is what my final product looks like!

If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. I would love to see pictures of your finished product! churchmouseblog(at)gmail(dot)com

I hope you enjoy making these wonderful earrings! And a big thanks to Emma for letting me share :)

Where's Emma today?

I got all freaked out today because I thought I didn't have a post ready. This weekend was just insane, I hardly took two minutes to sit down and just relax. Sad, but necessary, and the upside is that I got a lot done!

But I digress. As it turns out, there IS a post for you guys today! You just have to go visit my bloggy friend Sydney from take me for a twirl to read it ;)