I did a little presto-chango with the living room this week. The first reason is that it's the start of a new season and mixing things up in my environment helps me appreciate that all the more. A shift in my environment, a shift in the weather, and a shift in my perspective.
Aura Joon recently posted something similar that resonated with me about the end of summer feeling a little stale and wanting to welcome fall and all it's newness. Well, she puts it much better
here.
The other reason for rearranging besides FINALLY having that useless organ out of my living room was to make room for my favorite new thing! Brett surprised me with the Crosley record player from Urban Outfitters and a few albums by some of our favorite bands on my birthday. He's been keenly aware of my search for a working and affordable vintage record player in a specific style and my lack of finding one for over a year and a half. I've loved the UO record player from afar but have been supremely enjoying it in a corner of my living room these last three days. THANK YOU, BRETT!
He also picked up
Arcade Fire's Funeral, one of our long time favorites and an album he claims was made to be listened to on vinyl. He also got
The Eraser by
Thom Yorke, and
The Bends by
Radiohead because "Fake Plastic Trees" always reminds me of the year I spent in England. That night Elsie and Emma brought over three more records from bands we love including
Devotion by
Beach House,
Cease to Begin by
Band of Horses, and
The Suburbs by
Arcade Fire. The next day we picked up
I'm Having Fun Now by
Jenny & Johnny,
Dearland by
Elvis Perkins, and
Forgiveness Rock Record by
Broken Social Scene. And in case you thought I was the one with great taste in music, Brett is the only reason I know anything about anything in this department. He has more music knowledge and appreciation for the concept and thoughtfulness that goes into an album than most and I just kind of absorb it as it wafts through our conversations.
I got a few thoughtful cards from various family members, the contents of which will be going towards something fun in the audiovisual department. Why I hadn't heard of
this little bugger before RubyEllen
posted about hers, I'm not sure. And I'm almost positive that my little brother got me the
other thing on my wish list...and we'll find out in 7-10 days. THANKS, FAMILY!
And last but not least, I got a Restaurant.com gift card from The Margot, and an iTunes gift card as well as "Hooray, It's My Birthday" from the new album
Do Fun Stuff by Ryan Marshall from
Pacing The Panic Room. If you haven't already seen it tweeted, blogged, or discussed it over coffee with friends, and you have kids, you'll want to give it a listen. Best of all 100% of proceeds go toward funding research to better understand Smith Magenis Syndrome. THANKS,
MARGOT, and
SARA!
Thanks again for the many, many sweet well wishes here and through Twitter and Facebook. Ya'll are the best.
xoxo,
Rachel
The last time I colored my hair was my junior year of college and it was short and I only used like 1/3 of the bottle from the box. I didn't even own a digital camera back then but I'm sure I have a film print in a shoe box under my bed. I stopped coloring because of the upkeep and I'm not really a high maintenance kind of girl when it comes to grooming. Some days I wish I was but the curls are hard enough to tame as it is. 
However, this weekend is our annual RVA weekend and I saw a few days ago that Holly had gotten a new hair cut and I decided I needed a little something-something myself. Then I saw that Elsie had scheduled an appointment to get her hair colored red and that Holly's still looked red. So this weekend Emma will be the only non-redhead in the bunch. Well, besides the bald babies.
