Year: 2012

Snubbed?

Anna Blankenheim Music , , , , , , , ,

So yesterday the Recording Academy announced the Grammy award nominees. Justin Beiber and his management team allegedly think that he was snubbed (“Grammy board u blew it on this one” is the quote from his manager on Twitter). He continues with “Huge [successful] album, sold out tour, and won people over … this time he deserved to be recognized”. Well, Mr. Manager, I have news for you… just working hard doesn’t win you Grammys. There’s that little thing called musical talent… normally that’s how you win the award, not by selling out an arena to thousands of twelve year olds who don’t know a thing about music.

In addition to that, look who was nominated instead of the Beibs: Frank Ocean, Mumford & Sons, Dan Auerbach (The Black Keys), Jay-Z, Kanye West, and Fun. I don’t exactly call that being snubbed when clearly much better musicians were nominated.

Just sayin’.

P.S. Mumford & Sons gets my vote!

Top Five Favorite Christmas Songs

Anna Blankenheim Holidays, Music ,

A couple of days ago the morning show that I listen to went through a list of the top ten most hated Christmas songs. I was actually blown away to hear some of the ones on the list (ok, not the Jingle Cats singing “Jingle Bells”). I love Christmas music. I wish I could listen to it all year long… there are just some great, moving songs out there. I actually have to consciously tell myself to not listen to it before Mike’s birthday and after New Years.Now that it’s officially the season, I thought I’d share what my top five favorites are.

1. “O Holy Night”: There are a lot of good versions of this out there – but there are a couple of amazing ones. Mariah Carey and ‘N Sync (seriously!) are a couple. My top version might have to be the Mannheim Steamroller instrumental version (titled “Cantique de Noel (O Holy Night)”). Definitely give that one a listen!

2. “The Twelve Days of Christmas”: Until about two or three years ago, I hated this song. That’s when I was introduced to the group Straight No Chaser. I’m serious, they’re just about the coolest thing to happen to music. Watch this video and make sure you watch all the way to the end:

3. “Silent Night”: Hands down best version ever is Boys II Men. There’s no competition to the a capella version. Period.

4. “The Gift”: This is a little diddy by Garth Brooks. Yes, I know, not very traditional. This song almost always brings tears to my eyes when I really listen to the words.

5. “Carol of the Bells”: Again, Mannheim Steamroller really outdoes themselves on this one – I love how it builds… this is my go to song for wrapping presents!

This brings me to my big question… what’s your favorite Christmas song?

Love It: Vanilla Mint Chapstick

Anna Blankenheim Product Reviews

For years and years I have tried to become a lipstick girl. Most of the time I hate how it makes my lips feel (dry, chapped, and peely). At best, I can get on board with lip gloss, but even that gets sticky and all over everything. I always end up reverting back to what’s easy and feels good – Chapstick.

A few weeks ago I decided to get crazy and try the Vanilla Mint Chapstick. I love, love, love it. Not only does it smell amazing, but it’s the moisturizing line and has 15 SPF. This stuff is seriously great – I highly recommend it if you like something with a little flavor, but not too sweet!

Vanilla Mint Chapstick
Vanilla Mint Chapstick

Waiting

Anna Blankenheim Family, Holidays

For those of you following along at home, my sister is pregnant and due pretty much any day now. I’m beyond excited… I married into a family where I was lucky enough to instantly have two nieces and four nephews, but this will be my first niece that I was here from the start. And the fact that she could be born any minute now drives me nuts… I hate waiting!

To pass the time, I decided to shop and decorate for Christmas early this year. I figure once the baby comes I’ll want to spend time with her and not be Christmas shopping. This weekend I wrapped all my presents, decorated the tree and hung the stockings. As always, Shadow wanted to help and take part in the decorating – and take the credit in the final picture:

Our 2012 Christmas Tree
Our 2012 Christmas Tree

Here are our stockings – this is the first year I hung them over the fireplace – normally we have a spot downstairs, but I have wedding pictures hanging there now.

2012 Stockings
2012 Stockings

I kept it pretty simple this year, but really like how everything turned out! I’m ready for that baby to come now! Is she here yet?

Brand New Blog

Anna Blankenheim Uncategorized

I’ve decided to give my blog a makeover and that includes moving it to Word Press. To be honest, I got pretty bored with Blogger and they have really limited a lot of what you can do. Word Press gives you the freedom to try a lot of different things and to customize your blog. So here we are. I’m contemplating moving all of the posts over from my Blogger blog, but we’ll see. I want to give this a solid try before I do that. Let me know what you think as we go… feedback (and comments!) are always appreciated!