I’ve been thinking a lot lately about a trip I took to Taiwan in the beginning of 2010.  It could be because I constantly find myself wearing clothes I bought there (amazing shopping btw), or because my new tattoo idea stemmed from my thinking about that trip (as far as the scriptures go).  My time there was life-changing & it will forever be one of my favorite places for many reasons.

I went to Taiwan with my sister and brother-in-law to lead worship for a conference.  We were able to spend a little over a week there before heading over to Japan and I have decided that I MUST get back someday…hopefully sooner than later.  My sister and I have even tried convincing our family to go there for a family vacation (I’m still pulling for that).  Since it has been on my mind so much, I thought I would share a few of my favorite photos – enjoy!

The area that we were in – Ximending, Taipei – is a center for a very large population of young people.  It is amazing.

Scooters.

Every 7-Eleven should have food like this.  I don’t know that I would try it, but they should.

The Starbucks was less than a block from our hotel – lucky me.

View from Taipei 101 – now the second tallest building in the world after the Burj Khalifa was built in Dubai.

Hey, there’s me.

Throwing down some tunes outside for a group of people in Ximending.

By far my absolute favorite photo of my nephew.

Have a gorgeous weekend!

I saw Bonnie Gregory at a Christmas concert this past December and could not get over how much I loved her hair.  She is the sister of a good family friend (of whom I may or may not have annoyed with talking about said sister’s hair…endlessly).  Even a few days later, I said to one of my sister’s, “Did you see Gwen’s sister at the concert?  I LOVE her hair!”

I was then told about The Horse Latitudes -- and I have been hooked.

According to her website, “Bonnie Gregory aka The Horse Latitudes is a landlocked sailor writing love songs to the sea. Her music, best described as “seafolk”, is inspired by personal shipwrecks, sea turtles in the morning and other basic longings.”  You’re curious already, right?

Her voice is so lovely and with it being only her and an acoustic guitar, there is not a lot of fuss -- just pure, raw beauty.

This is my current favorite song of hers.  I have watched this video a lot…it might be because the first line is, “I can tell you’ve been home, by the smell of coffee”…or maybe it’s just a gorgeous song -- but the coffee thing can’t hurt.

Another great song and a beautiful video.  I love how simple the videos are -- they let the music speak for itself.

The hair people…the hair.

You can check out more of her music on Bandcamp….and you should.

It’s Christmas week – hooray!!  Tristan and I (along with our 3 kids) made our Christmas card last week, and you get to watch it today!  We wanted to do something a little different, so we made a remake/cover version of “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year”.  I know I’ve said it before, but Tristan is a verrrry talented musician, and he was the master mind behind this project.  He taught our 3 kids to play parts on different instruments and then constructed the song by editing and mixing all of the sounds together.

We set up our “recording studio” in our living room and kitchen for about 3 days.  Since we were doing a video as well, we had to make sure that we wore the same outfits each day, which was weird for me!  I had to make sure to try to do my hair and makeup in the same way.

Each of the kids did such a great job playing their instruments and they never. ever. complained about the process (wink).  I was nervous about singing and playing guitar for the video, but I’m glad that I pushed through the fear.  It turned out cute, and even though I don’t love my parts 100%, I’m happy that it’s a really great memory of this year.

Tristan made this list of who did what on the song:

Gavin (age 8): Balloons, Sleigh Bells, Bass Guitar, Crash Cymbal, Bass Drum, Jaymar Piano, Dancing, Funny Faces

Guinivere (age 6): Balloons, Tambourine, Bass Guitar, Crash Cymbal, Bass Drum, Jaymar Piano, Dancing, Cuteness

Gemma (age 4): Balloons, Shaker, Crash Cymbal, Bass Drum, Jaymar Piano, Dancing, Sweetness

Stephanie (mom): Vocals, Guitars, Bass Drum

Tristan (dad): Drums, Guitars, Mixing

*We also wanted to thank my brother Rocky for helping with mixing, and my dad and Stormie for letting us use their cameras.  :)

Eeeep!  Here it is – hope you like it!

Over the weekend I got to spend time at Saint Ida’s Recording Studio, listening to a new project that my husband Tristan is working on.  The band is called The Thought Process (find them here & here), and Tristan is their (amazing) drummer.  The recording studio is in this beautiful old church that I absolutely fell in love with!  Now I really need to find an old church to live in – anybody know of one?  Anyway, The Thought Process hasn’t released any of their singles yet, but when they do, I will be sure and let you know.  They are a really talented group of guys:)

This week St. Vincent came out with a new album -- Strange Mercy.  I have been listening to it for the last 2 days, and am quite smitten.  Annie Clark is the front-woman of the band.  I love her mellow vocals and crunchy guitar riffs.

This is one of the songs off the album.  I LOVE it and I adore the styling of the video.  Can I get a few of those dresses please?  Oh, and maybe that house?  I’ll pass on the creepy kids and hairy husband though.  Favorite.

Buy the album.

What are you listening to these days?

Love,

Stephanie May*

I’m playing catch-up today on a lot of things and since Stephanie May promised you more photos of our Eisley concert experience last week, I figured I’d better deliver:)  They are so talented and the fact that they are family makes me love them all the more.  One of my favorite things in life is making music with my family.

Sisters ♥

Stacy is incredible and so lovely.

This weekend…phew.  Crazy.  Remember how tired I was this weekend?  Yeah, I’m more tired today than I was after the music festival.  I didn’t think it was possible, but it is – it’s just a different kind of tired.  It’s a fall-asleep-fully-clothed-with-hair-still-pinned-up kind of tired.  And that’s exactly what I did last night.  I feel overloaded and like I have a cold coming on which is definitely bad news.

While this weekend was packed back-to-back with fun things and family hang out time, for whatever reason I was just exhausted every second of each day.  It probably didn’t help that since I was with family the whole weekend, at some point that inevitably means Stephanie May and I make coffee way too late which keeps me up way too late.  Bad idea for an impending cold, yeah?

One of many exciting things that happened this weekend, which Stephanie May mentioned here, is that our sister got engaged!  Woohooo!!!  And since Stephanie also promised you more photos of this, I can’t disappoint:

Here is her gorgeous 1920′s ring – which has since been rhodium plated so it looks closer to the white gold that it is.  I love vintage rings!  I didn’t get a very good photo of the ring up close apparently so this was as good as I could do:)

Aren’t they adorable?

We are all very excited for them and to be honest, I am SO excited this Monday is almost over!

Here’s to hoping I can resist drinking coffee to keep me awake past 8pm tonight because it would most assuredly keep me awake until 2am and none of us want that…because then you’d have to hear about it for days.  Trust me, I’m doing you a favor.

Love!

Stormie Dae

Hooray – we are back!  We took the last 3 days off from blogging, and it was nice to have a break, but we are ready to get back to it today:)  We hope that you had a good Labor Day weekend – did you?

On Friday night, Tristan and Stormie Dae and I went to see Eisley at the Marquis in Denver.  It was our first time seeing them, and the concert was so much fun!  I loved singing along to all of the songs, and watching those gorgeous girls perform their hearts out.  I’m sure Stormie will share more photos of the concert this week!

On Saturday, Stormie and I had planned to take some photos of the two of us (for some blog changes we are working on) and then go thrifting…but we were kinda tired from our late night at the concert, so I ended up laying around for most of the day in my pajamas (don’t you just love those kinds of days?).  We picked up our original plan for photos and shopping on Sunday afternoon instead, and got some cute new things for our MayDae shop, and my Fibbie shop:)

Yesterday I took the kids to get a few birthday gifts for my cute husband:

Yup, tomorrow is Tristan’s birthday!  I am excited and also a little nervous.  You see, Tristan gives me the most thoughtful, wonderful gifts every year for my birthday (see two examples here and here), and I can never seem to come up with anything that has a big WOW factor like his gifts ya know?

Don’t get me wrong, I know that birthdays aren’t all about gifts, and I realize I’m putting a lot of unneeded pressure on myself.  Tristan always loves everything that I get for him, but ultimately, I just hope that he feels as special and loved as I always do on my birthday:)

He is my guy.

I love that he makes me laugh out loud on a daily basis.

I love that he works from home, and always gives me his time and attention when I need him to.

I love that he lets me sleep in while he takes the kids to school in the mornings.

I love that he has never given up on his dream as a musician (he’s seriously an incredible drummer).

I love that he knows how to fix stuff for me.

I love that every morning when I wake up, he crawls into bed with me and cuddles me.

I love how much he loves, protects, and nurtures our 3 kids.

I love that he encourages me in my dreams.

I love that he knows how to make yummy food, and he always shares.

I just pretty much love him:)

Love,

Stephanie May*

Happy weekend lovelies!

Project Thursday was semi-productive yesterday…We discussed new changes for the blog and did some inventory of items for our Etsy shop.  There will be lots of updates coming soon, so make sure you check it out.  We also can’t be without treats on a work afternoon, right?  Brownies were definitely the best part – in my opinion.

Today was a very long workday for me and it felt like it.  I worked 10 hours and threw in a couple of errands before heading to Starbucks(best place on earth) where some friends were playing a little patio concert.

It was a very relaxing end to a busy day and I loved every minute of it.  Tomorrow, Stephanie and I are heading thrifting first thing in the morning and I am so excited!  I haven’t been thrifting in too many weeks and I miss it desperately.  This weekend will be a little full, but all fun things with the family and I am really looking forward to it.  Do you have any fun plans for this weekend as the end of Summer approaches? (yay!)

Love,

Stormie Dae

My kids decided to make a band yesterday – pots and pans for drums, and a couple guitars (one that was missing a string).  They jammed in the living room for quite awhile, and it made me want photos of the event.  I set up a “band area” in the living room this morning, and got out Tristan’s vintage accordion and an old snare drum that he has.  I also used my vintage Jaymar toy piano, and let the kids choose what they wanted to play.  It took some coaxing because 2 of the kids (who shall remain nameless) were having a bit of a bad attitude…but they finally warmed up to playing for the camera.  The drum was in pieces, so it wouldn’t really stay together, and the front of the accordion kept falling off.  Oh well.  As is real life.  These photos crack me up!  They are far from perfect, and some are blurry (I really need a new camera), but they are cute.  These kids are always cute.

Love,

Stephanie May*

P.S.  I can’t wait to see them play in a real band someday:)

It has now officially been 7 days since my last post.  Remember when I said I would update every once in awhile with photos?  Well…I’m a liar.  Remember when I said I was going to be very busy working for a music festival this weekend?  Well….that was true.  This year I had the privilege of working with the photo and video team for the festival – amazing group of people, I tell ya.  I LOVED my outfit for the festival, but I was way too tired all day to take many photos so I don’t think I ever got one of my full outfit which bums me out.  I also didn’t get many photos in general, so this is just what I could find on my camera and since it’s been so long, I have quite a few photos for you from before Saturday – this is my week in a nutshell:

My mom and I were working on a backdrop for a photo booth at the festival.  Hot glue + Stormie = no bueno apparently.  I literally squeezed out a HUGE circle of glue on this thing and proceeded to put my thumb right in it.  Of course I had no ice water nearby so I had to wait for it to burn my finger while cooling down so I could take it off with my other hand.  I almost cried…almost.  Then I iced my finger for 2 hours and since it was still hurting, I wrapped it in black duct tape and pickled it with aloe.  Problem solved.

I admit it, I am an over-packer.  But this time I did really good with not over-packing on clothes.  Accessories, that’s a different story.

I had to get all of my work done for the festival before Thursday last week except for set-up the day before so when I got off work early on Thursday, I was able to walk around the festival grounds and take photos – the sun was so gorgeous and it was very relaxing.

My sister and I were doing some data entry on Friday and it was scorching hot but we already had loads of water and needed the caffeine so our sweet dad picked us up some Dr. Pepper(best drink ever) and ice…so nice.

This is the most beautiful piece of equipment I’ve ever seen…and I got to touch it.  Yes, you should be jealous.  It’s called a Steadicam and one of my video team members(Payton) owns it – he is the most talented 16-year-old I’ve ever met.  Actually, he is the most talented camera man I’ve ever met, period.

Last minute details on Friday night to prepare for Saturday, the big day.

Part of my video team – these guys rocked it!  And that’s Payton in the middle, with his Steadicam.

My niece and I, before I lost all energy to the sweltering heat of the day…she apparently was not in the mood for photos.

This is the backdrop that was out to injure my poor thumb.  We made it with plastic tablecloths and it was for our official photo booth at the festival.  This is my Media Manager, Chris(also my tattoo guy) testing out the natural light, which looked awesome btw.  I don’t know, I think he kind of liked the photo booth, don’t you?

Just taking a little break in the golf cart.  By this point in the day I was completely unable to hold coherent conversations with anyone…I was a little loopy for sure.

And my feet were dirty…really dirty:

This is at about 1:30am on Sunday after the festival…gotta be honest, I didn’t feel like I looked as horrible as I felt at that exact moment…the festival was so much fun and everything ran so smoothly, best year yet out of the 4 years we’ve done it, for sure!  Did you get to make it out to the festival?  What was your favorite part?

Love love

Stormie Dae