One more song and a couple of layouts!

Well, I missed a few days of the challenge, due mostly to gorgeous weather.
The last 3 categories do not inspire me much and I think I'll skip them, but I wanted to do the one for day 27, as I knew which song I wanted to put. The theme is a song that you wish you could play. As I said, I don't play an instrument, and therefore there are many, but I did think for a while about trying to learn to play guitar as my hubby has a few and is a good guitar player. I can (probably as anyone else on the planet) play the first few notes of the song in question and it would be fun to be able to keep going (at least the rest of the verse and chorus, if not the solo...). You'll notice the first few notes are single notes not chords and they are played with the open strings, not need to use your left hand, which is the only reason I can play them... lol.
The song is beautiful and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. It's Nothing Else Matters by Metallica:



And now, onto scrapping!
Here are a couple of layouts I've done in the past week. My CT duties will soon resume as Artgal Style's newest kit is coming out in her new store very soon, but until then, I'm trying to get inspired by challenges, for which I did this layout of me and Cédric at the park:

And I'm also trying to scrap some photos of Cédric eating, as I'm planning a book of layouts of him with food. The little man is a very good eater and loves food in general and it's a pleasure to see him eat most of the time.
In particular, he loves fruit and here's a layout of him eating watermelon:

Thanks for looking, happy scrapping!!

A song you can play

Day 26th is a song you can play on an instrument. I never learned to play anything. I did one short year of piano and learned the recorder in school. And so the only thing I can play is Do a Deer from the Sound of Music. But I can play it on the piano, the recorder and the xylophone!! lol

LOL

Today's music category is a song that makes you laugh and I knew, from the minute I read the list of themes for the music challenge, what I would do on day 25!
I love the lyrics, they truly make me laugh out loud, the guitar playing is awesome, the voices and harmonies are fun and I love that Dave Grohl is the shiny demon!!
So without further ado I give you Tribute by Tenacious D:




And how could I forget ... the dancing!!! Jack Black may not be the most versatile, but he does what he does really well!!
Hope you enjoyed it and laughed a bit!

The final song...

... not of the challenge, there are still 6 more. But today's category is a song that you want to play at your funeral!
I had a couple of ideas for this one, but one or two were too depressing , others only applied to certain types of death (wow this is a cheerful category!).
In the end, after browsing a website and finding nothing, it hit me. I think I'd like Live and Let Die by Paul McCartney and the Wings. I like the song a lot, plus it's a Bond theme, how cool would that be ?!?



I though I'd share one of the suggestions on the website too, because it made me laugh. They suggested Another One Bites the Dust by Queen, and while I think it's a tad inappropriate, I do find it funny!!

Today's playlist and a layout

Today will have a few song. First because I skipped yesterday and because I chose a few songs for today's category ;)

Yesterday was day 22: a song that you listen to when you’re sad. I guess if I'm sad I tend to listen to some melancholic music and for some reason, I turn to French music more in those occasion, maybe because it's what I grew up with... So the song I chose is Daniel Balavoine's "La vie ne m'apprend rien":



Today's song selection is "a song that you want to play at your wedding". I am already married, so there are multiple answers to this, more than you'd think.
Our wedding ceremony was a traditional church wedding in a 12th century church, so the music was instrumental and traditional (in on the Here comes the bride, out on the wedding march).
The first one is the song that we played for our first dance. We chose something from an artist Dave likes, "She" by Elvis Costello:



However, the DJ put in the wrong CD and for maybe 30 seconds (before one of my bridesmaids made him switch) we danced to "Angels" by Robbie Williams (I love the song and people were staring, so we stood there a while, than just went with it and started dancing, than my friend made the DJ switch and "She" started):



Wait, there's more, lol. If Dave had known how to waltz, I actually wanted to dance to "Ces diamants-là" from the musical Notre Dame de Paris (a pretty song about a wedding):



And finally, if I were to get married now, rather than 7 years ago, I might try to incorporate a fun song I discovered in an episode of Glee, Bruno Mars' Marry You:



...or maybe even the Glee version ;)



Wow, all done for today!
Now onto a little scrappy stuff. Today I participated in a challenge at Scrapable, hosted by my digi-friend La'Shawn. It was a "redo" challenge, so I took an old layout with a photo and title I loved but room for improvement... It was the photo of a family ring I got from my Mom for my 30th birthday and I scrapped it with "Diamonds are a girl's best friend" as a title, using inspiration from the colours and patterns in the scene from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes with Marylin Monroe of course. I also tried to give it a vintage look as the ring is from the late 20s. Here are the inspiration, the old layout and the revamped version.




If you're still here, thanks for reading, hope you like the music and the bling!!

Catching up...

Okay, so it was really nice weather, and Father's Day, so we were busy and I missed a few days of the challenge!!

I'll try to catch up here...
The first one I skipped was day 16, a song you used to love but now hate. I had to browse my iTunes collection to find one of those. It's a song by a French artist called Renaud. I don't like all of his music, I love some songs and hate others. There is one song called l'Hexagone that used to be my neighbour's favourite as a young teenager and I had learned to like it a lot, I thought the lyrics were clever and funny. They are actually very political (which is not surprising coming from him) and I've grown and learned to actually dislike the lyrics which I find a bit too drastic and rude and as the music was never actually good, too repetitive, I'm now to the point where if I listen to his Best Of album, I'm likely to skip the song:



Categories 17 and 18 ask a song you hear often on the radio and a song you wish you heard on the radio. As I don't listen to the radio at all, it's kind of hard to answer. Instead, I'll share an anecdote about the difference between countries. In France, one of the songs I used to hear all the time on the radio was one of my favourite U2 songs, Sunday Bloody Sunday. It played very often. When I moved to Canada, I was really surprised to hear quite a bit of U2 on the radio, but rarely if ever Sunday. So it'll be my answer for category 17 in France and category 18 in Canada ;)



And speaking about U2, day 19 asks for a song from your favourite album. That would have to be Achtung Baby. I love it from beginning to end. Choosing one song is tough, it's a really close call between three songs: One was a real contender, Mysterious Ways is awesome but I think my favourite has to be The Fly. I love the riff and the sound of The Edge's guitar and the high pitch back up in the chorus is too much fun!! Enjoy: (the actual song starts at 0:25)



And finally, today's category was a song that you listen to when you're angry. I don't specifically turn to music when I'm angry. But here are a couple of songs for a couple of occasions. The first one is by The All American Rejects. The lyrics suggest a break-up and as I've been happily married 7 years, I don't have any occasions to sing it to anyone, but I really like the first line of the chorus and I 'd love to sing it to anyone that gets me mad. Plus it's the music is fun and happy and I like the contrast. So if you annoy me at all "when you see my face hope it gives you hell"!!



The other song would be for anyone who gets me angry when I'm driving. The Offspring's discography is awesome to vent out some frustration as they allow you to swear guilt free, and Bad Habit is perfect to express what I think of some drivers out there (although I swear I have no gun in the glove box):



Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed the music!

A song that defines you

That's today's music challenge category of course.
I'm not in an overly introspective mood but ever since I read the category I've thought of one song and I think it works well.
It represents the fact that I accept myself the way I am, that I can be a leader and make things happen and that I have a good and funky sense of humour ;)

Unexpected

Today's category: a song that no one would expect you to love.
I have very varied taste and I don't think people who know me would be shocked by much. But here's a song I really LOVE that is probably heavier than people might expect. I love the riff, the harmonies and the poetic (if creepy) lyrics. Take the time to listen to Devil at a Midnight Mass by Billy Talent:



Hope you liked it ;)

Guilty pleasure

That's today's category (or rather yesterday's which I missed...): a song that is a guilty pleasure.
I thought about that one for a while and realized it's not really one song but a full category that's a guilty pleasure for me. And that category is kid's music!!
Parents have to listen to a lot of kiddie music. Usually it's repetitive, the lyrics are less than inspiring and a lot of it out there is just really bad. But there are some really fun songs for children. Most parents complain and say they can't wait for the day when they don't have to endure it anymore... well I sometimes think I'm really going to miss some of it.
Things like Annie Brocoli, a great children's singer and performer from Québec.



Or Bobs and Lolo, whose job I actually wouldn't mind having. I love the harmonies. This song is my favourite because the lyrics are so cute (it's a live version, only one I could find...):

Tragically bad and a new layout

Well, today's category is another one that might get people mad...
The category is a song from a band you hate!
There's a lot of music I don't like but "hate" is a strong word. The only band I could think of that I consistently dislike, and whose music tends to make me change the station is The Tragically Hip. I really do hate their music, it rubs me the wrong way and I hate the singer's voice. The sadest part is that I lived for a while in their hometown and they played A LOT on most radio stations.
I don't know any of their songs by name, so I literally went on YouTube and picked the first one there. It's a live version of one of their most famous songs (I think), called New Orleans is Sinking (apparently).



Now let's move on to scrapping!! I did a layout about my little charity contribution. It doesn't change the world, but I'm happy to do it and it might change at least one life.


Done with Beth's Belief, a freebie by the ever-so-talented Kate Hadfield (I absolutely love her doodles).
Happy scrapping!

Don't stop me now...

...'cause I'm having a good time!
It's true, I'm really enjoying this challenge. But these are also lyrics from the song I chose today.
The category is a song by your favourite band. So first I had to select the band. I wouldn't say I have one absolute favourite, but if I had to pick a top 10, Queen would definitely be in it. I've loved their music since I was a little girl (my parents listened to them) and still love it all to this day. There will be a movie soon about their career and I can't wait to see it.
Then I selected one of my favourite songs in the Queen repertoire, Don't Stop Me Now, which is also in my 3-year-old son's top choices (he like this one and We Will Rock You the most). And as he himself could easily be called Mr Fahrenheit, judging by the energy level, I think it's quite appropriate ;)

A song you can dance to...

That's a hard one too, there are many options here. I love to waltz, and I took some ballroom and some swing lessons at different points in my life.
Of course, I also just enjoy shaking my bum on anything with a good rhythm (be it dance, pop or hip hop).
So I'll pick a song for which I know the official choreography, to which I've danced many many times when it first came out (especially at the aforementioned Fêtes de la Madeleine) and to my surprise as recently as last January at a Beach Party in Punta Cana: La Macarena by Los Del Rio!!



It's not a music masterpiece, I think we can all agree, but it's a lot of fun to dance to ;)

PS: I skipped yesterday, so I'll be back later today for the next category

Quite an event!

Today's song must be one that reminds you of an event.
When my son was born, after a couple days hooked up to machines, he was transferred to my room for the night. I was left alone with this little man and wanted to sing him something soothing, but no lullaby came to mind. I drew a blank, and out of nowhere I started singing Good Riddance by Green Day (incidentally my hubby's favourite band). I soon brushed up on kiddie songs but to this day, when I hear the song, it reminds me of singing it over and over that one night...
And here it is for your listening pleasure!

A little bit country (way too much in fact)

Today's song challenge category is a song that reminds you of somewhere. Again there are lots of song that remind me of one or more places. I decided to go with a song that reminds me not only of a town, but of the good times to be had there. I lived 4 years in a town called Mont de Marsan in the South-West of France (grades 7 to 10) and then visited for a few summers after that as I had a really close group of friends still living there (I was an air force brat!). In this town, every summer, a major one-week-long street party called Les Fêtes de la Madeleine takes place with music, dancing and lots of drinking all over the streets (along with corridas during the day). The few times I participated in this party, one song was always played, year after year. This song I can still hear at parties here in North America and it always makes me think of how we dance to it: everybody joined both hands with someone and created a sort of arch and two by two, crouching, we would dance down the middle under the arms of others (does that make sense...?). As it was in the streets, there were hundreds of people involved. Lots of fun!!
Without further ado, I give you the song in question: Cotton High Joe!!

Kicking it old school

Today's category in the song challenge is a song that reminds you of someone.
A lot of songs remind me of people, like my Cédric's favourites, or something I danced to with Dave, but never has anyone been associated to music to me more than Philippe, my friend and neighbour when I was in university in Lyon. He was into rap and to this day has kept it his passion and made it his job. He used to sing one particular song, all the time! So today's song is dedicated to Philippe, wherever he is, and it's Rapper's Delight by Sugarhill Gang:



Enjoy!

30 Day Song Challenge!

I thought this seemed like a fun one to do!
The challenge, if you haven't seen it around, asks to select a song for a specific connotation each day for 30 days.
As I'm starting it on the 4th, I'll do the first four today and then try to do one per day (or if I can't be that consistent, I'll do clusters ;P ).
So here it goes, I'm going to fight my personality and try NOT to overthink every choice...

day 01 - your favorite song
That's almost impossible to answer as there are so many in so many styles... I think it would be easier for me to give my husband's favourite than mine... (at this point I'm doing what I said I wouldn't and way overthinking it, lol). I'll pick Kings Horses by Jet a little randomly. There's something really cool about a rock waltz!



day 02 - your least favorite song
That's almost as hard, I can't think of much that I actually hate right now! There is one that annoys me to no end, because I find the lyrics make no sense, the distortion on the voice gets on my nerves and mostly because despite all that, it's kind of catchy :( It's Fireflies by Owl City (apparently, I didn't even know who sings it...).



day 03 - a song that makes you happy
Somehow this one is easy, the first song that came to mind is I Want You Bad by The Offspring. I LOVE that song, it gives me energy and puts me in a good mood and the lyrics are really fun, as always with The Offspring which is one my favourite bands!



day 04 - a song that makes you sad
This one is French. It's a beautiful song by one of my favourite artists who writes great music and even better lyrics. For those who don't speak French, it's about leaving (can be interpreted as separation or as death) and it's a very sweet message saying that despite the separation, all that was done together was worth it and will live on. I have some strong memories associated with it too... It's called Confidentiel by Jean-Jacques Goldman.



That's it for today, hope you enjoyed my choices!