I heart The Black Keys

This video made me super happy this morning.  Thanks to Veronika for originally posting it.  Turn it up and dance!

The Falling Leaves...

"The falling leaves, drift by my window, the autumn leaves, of red and gold...."  I have had that song stuck in my head all day long!  We have been doing all sorts of autumn leaves-related projects around here, and when I found this cookie cutter at Michael's I knew I wanted to make "Falling Leaves" sugar cookies.  I don't normally do anything too strenuous around Thanksgiving food- or decor-wise.  Until about 4 years ago, we really had no family to celebrate with and honestly just enjoyed it as a long weekend, maybe visiting with some friends from home.  We also didn't eat turkey until recently!  But now that we are our own little family, it seems appropriate to make a little more effort.  (That, and I am Suzy Homemaker now, professionally-speaking.) :)

The boys love helping out in the kitchen anyway, so it wasn't difficult to talk them into it.  Just look at those eager beavers...  The little guy was of course covered in flour before we were two minutes in...

I made a glaze icing (using corn syrup instead of butter) since they seem to yield brighter colours.  I went with green, red, yellow, orange and brown.  With the differently-coloured bowls, icing, and spoons it made for a LOT of colour... I will put the recipe at the end of the post.

Then we had fun painting.  We mixed colours with spoons and tooth picks and I must say the boys made some really beautiful cookies!

The cookie recipe I used came with the cookie cutter:
Roll-Out Cookies
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 3/4 cups all-pupose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
Preheat over to 400F.  In mixer bowl (or if you are old-school like me, with a hand mixer) cream butter with sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in egg and extracts.  Mix flour, baking powder and salt; add to butter mixture 1 cup at a time, mixing after each addition.  Divide dough into 2 balls.  On a floured surface, roll each ball into a circle approx. 1/8 inch thick.  Dip cookie cutter in flour before each use.  Bake cookies on ungreased cookie sheet 6-7 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned.

The icing recipe I adapted from one online:
Sugar Cookie Glaze Icing
1 cup confectioners sugar  (adding more to desired consistency)
1 tbsp light corn syrup
2 tbsp water
food colouring
Because some colours needed more drops of food colouring than others, I added more sugar to keep them on the thick side - if they were too runny they would run off the cookie and on to the tray.

So what are your Thanksgiving traditions and recipes?  I definitely need to add to my repertoire.  Style at Home has a ridiculous array of ideas for food and decor - this recipe looks especially yummy.  House and Home also has come great decorating ideas that I may attempt, but I am going to try to stick with projects the boys can help out with.  Here are some awesome ideas my friend Blake wrote about for Canadian Parent, including gratitude rolls - genius and delicious.  Most of the American design sites aren't as crammed with suggestions yet, I guess don't have the same deadline looming this weekend!

I leave you with this, so you can hum along with me  - for the next few days at least:

Music I Like: Aidan Knight

I think I first heard Victoria-native Aidan Knight at an amazing vintage store in Kelowna (Frock - it is so, so good. I never leave empty-handed.) I downloaded his album Versicolour immediately and it is one of my go-to albums.  Mellow and folky, but so original and smart, it is full of those songs that seem to be the perfect soundtrack to whatever you are doing.  Suddenly washing the dishes slows down, the room is lit with flickering sunlight, and you realize that this simple moment is actually epic and life is pretty damn amazing... know what I mean?  His song The Sun does this to me every time.  You can download his songs from his website and see some of his more produced videos, but I wanted to show you these live videos - having listened so much to his album I can't help but love the fresh and sprawling take on his songs.

The Sun


Jasper with Dan Mangan - I have to admit that I feel a little patriotic as I watch them singing in the Rockies with their parkas and toques... :)


Aidan Knight - Giants of the Forest - Episode Five from Amazing Factory Productions Inc. on Vimeo.

Music I like: Mahler 5

Although I have worked for orchestras for the last ten years, I don't usually include classical music here. Perhaps because it was 'work', it didn't seem to fit on my hobby blog, or maybe I assumed that many readers would be uninterested in the subject.  I do try to keep my "Objects of Admiration" bite-sized: a quick break from the day-to-day, a taste of something beautiful or creative amidst the bland sameness you see everywhere.  However, today's entry is definitely more substantial meal!



I went to see the Toronto Symphony Orchestra perform Mahler Symphony 5 last night, along with a superb performance by Joshua Bell of Bruch's Violin Concerto.  Mr. Bell was incredible, as always, but for me the night was stolen by a performance of Mahler's 5th symphony, the likes of which I had never heard before.  At the risk of sounding like a cheesy music reviewer, I will tell you in all honesty that it was huge, it was gut-wrenching, it was tragic, it was tender, it was triumphant.  The symphony's Adagio has been used in the film Death in Venice, and for the funerals of Leonard Bernstein and Robert Kennedy, but Maestro Oundjian told us last night that it was actually written as a love letter to Mahler's wife, Alma.  He also explained that Mahler brought a colour and sound out of the orchestra in a way that has never been accomplished by any other composer. "Mahler is to symphonic music what Shakespeare is to the theatre" were Oundjian's first words on stage.  Conductor Herbert von Karajan apparently agreed, having once said that when one hears Mahler's Fifth, “you forget that time has passed. 

A great performance of the Fifth is a transforming experience. 

The fantastic finale almost forces you to hold your breath.”

That certainly held true for me.  I am attaching some clips here from You Tube because it is impossible to describe the music without hearing it, but even these are a pale shadow of a live performance.  There is some inexplicable magic involved in being present when this music rushes out from the stage; watching the musicians pour their souls into their music, the sweating brows of the brass, the intense concentration and emotion on every face, and the almost rapturous expression on the conductor.  You can't help but be swept into this moment, and feel that you are involved in something magical that is being created in this very instant, never to be experienced this way again.  It doesn't happen every time, but it sure did for me last night.

Pretty mushy words, no?  I have made a career out of trying to describe the magic of a live music experience, and have never been satisfied with the results.  I think it might just be impossible to articulate.  But I urge you to put a live orchestral performance on your bucket list, you won't regret it.

For those of you in Toronto, who happen to be without plans for Saturday, the TSO is going to perform this masterpiece one more time, at a special Late Night performance which starts at 10:30 pm.  You can bring your drinks in to the hall, and afterwards meet and mingle with musicians and the conductor at an audience-wise party, featuring the music of Toronto's Paisley Jura.  I really, really think it is a one-of-a-kind experience!  And since I got me some connections...if you enter the code "FRIENDS" you can get your tickets for $22.50.  If you go, let me know what you thought.  And if you feel like, maybe leave a comment on your favourite classical music experience?  I would love to hear them.

Yo-Yo Ma and Lil Buck

I found this incredibly moving - it's like Lil Buck is floating on sound...  And kudos to Mr. Ma for continuously exploring the boundaries of music and performance!  I can't wait to see him in 2012 with the TSO.  What do you think?

From YouTube:
The other day, I was lucky enough to be at an event to bring the arts back into schools and got to see an amazing collaboration between Yo-Yo Ma and a young dancer in LA, Lil Buck. Someone who knows Yo-Yo Ma had seen Lil Buck on YouTube and put them together. The dancing is Lil Buck's own creation and unlike anything I've seen. Hope you enjoy. --Spike Jonze

Thanks for the link David!

Music I Like: Kimbra

Kimbra - "Plain Gold Ring" (Live at Sing Sing Studios) from Forum5 Recordings on Vimeo.

I found this video thanks to a link from Kate, and holy ga-MOLY I was blown away.  Of course, this is an amazing song, but this girl Kimbra sings the hell out of it.  What a voice - what a performer!  Her back-up ensemble is dynamite, and the videography is really well done.  The rest of her stuff is a bit poppy for my taste, but I would definitely go see her if she came to town.  She is from New Zealand and is... wait for it... 20 years old.  Sigh.

Music I like: James Blake

'K, I am not sure how you guys are going to like this, but I am in an odd kind of mood this evening, and the soundtrack for my mind is played to perfection by James Blake.  You have probably heard his cover of Feist's Limit To Your Love, but his other stuff is just awesome too.  His voice is crazy good, but the best part of his sound to me is the spaces.  The music has these amazing, vaguely unsettling silences that keep you engaged.  His songs are like the perfect minimalist room, where the only things that are there are the things that need to be there, and they are made all the more beautiful by the space around them.  (Told you I was in a weird mood...)  And man oh man, if you only listen to one - make it his live accoustic Joni Mitchell cover A Case of You (one of my all-time favourite songs) at the bottom.

Music I Like: The Morning Benders

Wowee - I haven't posted in a while cause life has been BUSY.  My mom was visiting, I had some birthday celebrations, we are getting ready for some summer trips, and we also decided to renovate our kitchen!  My time online has been a bit curtailed (or spent looking for countertops) but I am jumping back in with both feet.  Already this evening I have had some great luck with music recommendations from my blogs.  First up is The Breakers - recommended by Jen at the Haystack Needle (who also just had her birthday!).  Fun, upbeat tunes - I just downloaded it.

Then on Simple Lovely, Carina Schott posted this awesome video of Excuses by The Morning Benders.  His voice is great, and i sooo wish I could have been a part of this!  Anyone out there need a mediocre, self-conscious back-up singer (who prefers singing as part of a large group)?  No?  Your loss, man.

OK GO!

I just have to post this AMAZING video because 1) it is AMAZING and 2) it makes me think of my work spouse Natasha because we were introduced to OK Go in northern Georgia somewhere random when we  took a million dollar cab ride out of Atlanta while we were there on conference to see Snow Patrol and these guys opened.  Seriously.  I heart you Boodie.

Thriller - Imogen Style

I personally love Imogen Heap, and think this cover is kind of fun, even if it does remind me of Emm Gryner's Girl Versions and Tori Amos's Strange Little Girls covers with the piano.  What do you think?



Found on In Other Skies.