The temperature has been heating up, so here are a few albums I like to listen to while enjoying the nice weather.

1. London Calling- The Clash
2. INXS- INXS
3. Body Talk- Robyn
4. On- Imperial Teen
5. Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga- Spoon

Long time no list! Working on being more on the ball with the posts.

So here's 5 of my favorite Led Zeppelin songs, just because I had a discussion about it recently.

1. Heartbreaker
2. Living Loving Maid (She's Just a Woman)
3. Immigrant Song
4. Dazed and Confused
5. Since I've Been Loving You
   

For Steve's 33rd birthday yesterday, I went with a very specific, one time only theme. One of his all time favorite bands is the Smashing Pumpkins, who happen to have a song called "Thirty-Three". It also happens to be one of my favorite songs of theirs, which is good because I've had it stuck in my head a lot in the last month.

The Goal:
Create custom wrapping paper (inspiration) with the lyrics from the song as well as the sheet music, and do it on the cheap.

The Supplies:
Kraft paper
Packing paper (I don't know what to call this, it came from a Sephora box)
Gift bags
Alphabet stamps
Ink pad
Gray paper (optional)
Sheet music
Scissors
Rotary cutter & mat (or paper cutter)
Glue stick
Tape
Pencil

The Process:

Wrapping paper:

• I made sure I had the lyrics for the song and divided them up based on the number of gifts (it worked out to be about 2 lines per gift).
• I precut the kraft paper to the sizes I would need for all the gifts.
  
• For each piece I drew some rough guidelines to try to keep the spacing consistent.
• I stamped each letter separately (to get them closer together). Each piece took about 30-45 minutes (I have plenty of time on my hands so this wasn't a big deal). I wanted each piece to have a handmade feel so no agonizing over making perfect lines.
  

Tissue paper:
Rather than stamping the plain bags I bought, I decided to stamp the tissue paper instread. I figured normal tissue paper might be too thin to stamp on, but luckily I had some paper from a Sephora box lying around that was thicker. Upcycling!



Sheet music:
I scanned a couple of the pages of the sheet music, worked some Photoshop magic on them to clean up the scans before printing them out. And then...

The Make It Work Moment:
I didn't realize you can't wrap a cd using a single sheet of paper until after I'd spent time scanning the sheet music (which was fairly time consuming). So instead, I found a tutorial on creating bows from magazine pages from How About Orange. I followed the tutorial except I used a glue stick rather than stapling all the parts.



The Results:
In the end, I spent less than $10 out of pocket on this project, thanks to using supplies I already had on hand, getting things for free (my mom very happily gave me the alphabet stamp sets cause she didn't want them), and shopping at the dollar store.

Now I've tackled the bear that is Daniel Deronda, I have a backlog of library books to get through. Apparently it's my mission to read every book I can get my hands on that sounds remotely interesting.

Just Read:

Ready Player One- Ernest Cline

I loved this book. It hooked me pretty early on, no doubt because my love of the 80s. Although the majority of the references went over my head since my nerd cred is practically non-existant. I can definitely appreciate the encyclopedic knowledge of all things pop culture that the characters had.

American Psycho- Bret Easton Ellis

Oddly enough, I found this book tedious and boring. The graphic parts were pretty graphic, which I expected, but the in-between parts got more and more tedious to me as the book went along.

Daniel Deronda- George Eliot

I enjoyed the overall story and the depth of the characters, but this was a really tough book for me to get through. It got really long-winded at certain points. I think I would've enjoyed it even more if it were 100-200 pages shorter.

Currently Reading:

We Need To Talk About Kevin- Lionel Shriver

Up Next (probably):

The Sense of an Ending- Julian Barnes

Despite all the blog neglect, I swear I'm (mostly) alive.

5 songs I've been obsessed with lately:

1. "Antenna"- The Church
2. "We are the Dead"- David Bowie
3. "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around- Stevie Nicks & Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
4. "What's Going On"- Marvin Gaye
5. "Stone Rollin'"- Raphael Saadiq

This list pretty accurately represents the ratio of old to new music I've been listening to recently.

Mad Men finally starts up again on Sunday and I've been rewatching the whole series. Here are my favorite episodes.

1. Red in the Face
2. Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency
3. Shut the Door, Have a Seat
4. The Chrysanthemum and the Sword
5. The Suitcase

Been a one-book wonder for the last month.

Currently Reading:

Daniel Deronda- George Eliot (I'm about 2/3rds through with it now.)

Up Next (Probably):

American Psycho- Bret Easton Ellis

My Etsy store is now up and running! For the moment it's patterns only, but I plan to sell some finished pieces once I move in a few months (fingers crossed for that). I'll also be adding some new patterns in the next month. I am taking custom orders for patterns and finished pieces though!

Stepped up my reading game this month by reading shorter books. Go me!

Just Read:

The Help- Kathryn Stockett

I haven't read a book this fast since I read The Lovely Bones in one night a few years back. A pretty easy read but still had plenty of depth. Looking forward to seeing how they screwed up the movie version.

The Leftovers- Tom Perrotta

Interesting premise (life after a Rapture-type event) that was pretty well done. Made me think about my reaction if something like that were to happen.

A Wild Sheep Chase- Haruki Murakami

Really enjoyed this one, wished it had been longer though. I like sheep.

We Are All Weird- Seth Godin

I thought the basic concept behind this book was interesting- the rise of niche markets, but the book was boring. I was hoping for more stories about the niche groups and their growth, but instead I just felt like the same point was being repeated over and over.

The Leopard- Jo Nesbo

The Leopard really picks up where The Snowman left off. It's an interesting mystery and Harry Hole is still a deeply flawed character. I'm really getting into foreign mysteries. I think it's the foreign names and places.

I Want My MTV- Craig Marks & Rob Tannenbaum

This book was awesome. I think it gave a pretty in depth oral history of MTV from all the important perspectives: MTV execs, record label execs, artists, video directors, etc. You can see how great MTV's impact was on the music industry and the beginnings of the industry's collapse. I'd be interested to read a book about MTV's second decade just to see how it's turned into the joke of a network it is today.

Currently Reading:

Daniel Deronda- George Eliot (I'm going to finish it finally)

Up Next (probably):

Double Dexter- Jeff Lindsay

It's been awhile since I've found any INXS vinyl that I didn't already have, but yesterday I found a 12" copy of "Devil Inside" which means now I have the 12", 10" and 7" singles. And I can check that off my list. Here's a few other things I'm on the lookout for:

1. Live Baby Live
2. Welcome to Wherever You Are
3. "New Sensation" 7" (how I haven't found this is beyond me)
4. "Mystify 7"
5. "Listen Like Thieves" 7"