My Favorite Things

Yesterday my mom, grandma, little sister, and I got together for a tea. We haven't really done this in a while, for a lot of reasons, but we used to it with some regularity! It's a phenomenon that predates my blog, even. I'm sure we've been doing it for at least twenty years at this point. (I think I have only posted pictures of a tea once and that was almost ten years ago.) It's really an excuse for my mom and grandma to set a pretty table, which they adore! And of course we get to have little treats!

Any excuse for a tea will do. It doesn't have to have a theme. But you bet we have had Valentine's teas and Halloween teas and have had some very specific themes, such as the old Disney cartoon, The Reluctant Dragon. Our theme for this tea was The Sound of Music, specifically the song "My Favorite Things."

I inivted myself to use two of my Blythes as a centerpiece! As you can see, Olive and Tiphanie are the "girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes," and they happen to have "snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes!" There are some flakes I punched out with one of those decorative paper punches that I stuck onto their faces and hair with small shreds of washi tape, and there are also tiny jewels I pressed on here and there, for additional effect! My mom made place cards that are "brown paper packages tied up with strings." And, I found some old fake roses that I've had for eons and stuck some of those itty bitty blingies to them, for "raindrops on roses."

This is the kind of theme we could have gone overboard with, trying to represent everything mentioned in the song. But we came up with the idea only a few days before the tea, so we just did what we had time to do!

My grandma hosted the tea in her tiny and very dark dining room, so mostly, my pictures didn't come out. I didn't take too many, either. I felt self-conscious making people move aside for me and stuff, and of course I had a heavy bias towards mostly just wanting to take pictures of my dolls, hahaha. I did not get any good pictures of the food; they just didn't turn out at all! The following couple of pictures are from my mom's phone:

The treats were pretty! There were petit fours from a bakery, tiny cinnamon rolls, cheese on wheat crackers, a few varities of tea sandwiches, scones (blueberry and cranberry orange), and fruit skewers. I don't drink tea so I had some cranberry juice, haha. And it was so hot that nobody wanted hot tea. Iced tea was served instead.

After the tea, we four ladies sat in the cool living room and had a family sing-along. So von Trapp. I know y'all are not surprised that we do this with regularity. While it does depend on who's present for the sing-along and who knows what songs, as to what gets sung, it's very often folk songs from the 60s ("Where Have All the Flowers Gone" and "Teach Your Children" and such) that older members of the family know, or other songs that at least a couple of us know and can sing through. And family songs, you know? For us, a family song would be "The Ugly Bug Ball" from Summer Magic. A beloved staple for us, but maybe not well-known to most.

You better believe we sang "Edelweiss," "My Favorite Things," and "Do-Re-Mi."

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recording music

Of late I have taken on some new band duties: mixing! My band likes to record the songs we do. It's fun to get them nailed down and have that crystallized product, so to speak, that reflects our efforts. Historically our drummer has been the one to mix the tracks properly. But unfortunately he's taken a sabbatical and it's not looking like he'll be back. So the mixing duties have fallen to me and another bandmate who's interested in that process.

Mixing is a brand new beast to me! In a way, fun and satisfying, but definitely a Whole Thing. Like, a whole skill to develop. I am babie at it! I could really talk at length about my experience with mixing, but that's not my main point.

Mixing for the band is one of the things that has solidified and brought closer to me a long-standing interest of mine: recording my own music.

It's not that I am an artist who writes her own music (I have written a couple of songs in my life, but just for funsies) but I do really enjoy playing music in general. Since I picked up the guitar in 2011, I have always randomly recorded myself playing songs for friends, or just for my own self...

(These are all screenshots from videos I've recorded of myself playing/singing covers for the last fifteen years.)

Since getting my Omnichord I have found songs I really like playing on it and have shared clips of that on my omnichordcorner side-Insta. With so much music in my life, and with mixing being a skill I have been slowly adding to my repertoire, I have felt an increasing interest in those covers being properly mixed. And of course, I have had thoughts like: What if I could just record my own background music for my videos?

Now, having gained some experience with mixing, I have taken a step towards being able to produce an entire song myself. I got an audio interface (a Scarlett Focusrite 2i2) and have been experimenting with some lo-fi bedroom recordings! Fortunately for me, way back in 2015 I bought myself a fairly good-ish microphone for doing video voiceover recordings, because I have been able to utilize that mic for vocals without having to make another expensive purchase.

So, all that said, I want to share a couple of covers I've recorded. Don't feel obliged to listen. Music is truly something I do for my own enjoyment. But I am sharing this here because I share about almost all my hobbies here.

First up: A cover of "Science Fiction/Double Feature" from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Notes on this:

• there are six tracks, all of them Just Yr Girl: guitar, main vocals, two background vocals, and two Omnichord tracks
• given the original song, I am naturally sort of emulating Richard O'Brien's tone of voice; idk how to explain that to people who aren't familiar with Rocky Horror. That I might not usually sing with this particular affectation. That said, this is my first and only main vocal take, lmao
• I did background vocals for myself during the chorus, which was an entirely new experience!
• I wanted to have a music box-sounding element because the reprise of "Science Fiction/Double Feature" at the very end of the film has a music box-esque descant over the melody. It felt right!

And secondly: a cover of "Linger" by the Cranberries.

Notes on this:

• there a dozen tracks on this one: guitar, main vocals, harmony vocals (anywhere from one to three layers), a couple of vocal riffs, three Omnichord tracks, and two Stylophone Beat tracks
• I really did my own from-memory version; it is my own take, which is what I feel interested in doing (versus a 1:1 recreation)

As you can see, I made a little YouTube channel just to dump my covers onto. I mainly did this so I could easily share them with my dad, as he's interested in what I can do with my little setup. I am not seeking, like, subscribers or a following by putting songs on YouTube. (Although you can feel free to subscribe if you want.) But anyway, I picked the name "lo-lite" for this venture. I usually keep the lighting in my room fairly low since that's what's the most comfortable for me -- hence the lighting in these pics is heinous! Especially with the pink neon light I have behind my monitor. I didn't try to light the room for photography, and I just let my cluttered desk and amateur setup be what they are and look how they really look. It represents THE VIBE in my room when working on this music. If I could add a lava lamp I absolutely would. And maybe I will. So regarding this project, my brain said, "Not just lo-fi, but lo-lite." :)

I might rename my Omnichord insta or fold it into this in some way, or I might not. Don't know yet. I'm not in the mood to let the fear that I have too many places I post or the perfectionism-oriented thought that I should have some so kind of cohesive "presence" stop me from pursuing this particular joy! This is all super low-key! Lo-key, even. I'm just having some fun and trying my best to not let self-consciousness or perfectionism stop me from making stuff.

Oh, and don't worry: I won't post every cover I do here. As you know, I have sooo many hobbies and special interests that get posted about occasionally, as they may bring me comfort and happiness. Music's always been one of those things, and occasionally something weird (like my still-ongoing Litten hyperfixation) joins the rotation!

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baby brother's baby blanket

ICYMI: I'm going to be an aunt! Again! My baby sister is once again expecting, and so of course, I am making baby boy #2 his own little ripple. His big brother got this one, wherein I alternated colors (lime green, aqua, and rust orange) between stripes of white.

I want baby brother to have a matching blanket, but also for it to have its own vibe. Again I'm doing light stripes interspersed with three different colors. But this time I'm using an ivory yarn instead of a brighter white, which really changes the appearance so much. And because he is due in October, I wanted it to have autumnal feel... but without it being Halloween-y. So for the colors, I am using a darker red, a milk chocolate brown, and a lighter red that is called "terra cotta." I really like the color scheme, actually!

This has been really soothing to pick up and work on, lately. It's nice to do something other than band (which is an endless hamster wheel for me). And I get peaceful vibes working on something for an anticipated family member. I try to weave in my intentions, so to speak -- my love and my hopes for this little boy. I think about baby brother lying on this ripple for baby pictures, or getting covered up with it while he's in his car seat. I think about him being a younger sibling who is probably going to come into a lot of hand-me-downs. I hope in the future he'll know I made him his very own blanket so he won't have to share it with anyone, or have something that was someone else's first. It's something his auntie made for him especially!

Of course it's a gift for him, but it's a gift for me too, because I really like to make ripple blankets.

It's exciting to think that come Christmas, baby brother will be topside; we'll know his name; we'll have a really good idea of his personality; my parents will have another grandchild to dote on. My nephews are a bright spot amidst the chaos of the world.

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