I’m SO glad they snap in!

He’s so cute. We’ve been making funny faces at each other today.

Today, I had a playdate for Clark, made bread, recorded a song, washed pans, and now I’m dyeing wool for my mother-in-law’s bathroom rug. (I know, wool and bathroom don’t typically go together, but it should work in this instance).

Here are PICTURES!

I’m realizing that there aren’t a whole lot of pictures of Max. This is because when I have the opportunity to take pictures, he’s down for a nap. Yes, those two things are related.

Poor Max. I’ll try to get some photos of him soon.

I’m having a hard time balancing housework and songwriting. Songwriting is rewarding and fun. Housework is not fun, and only lasts for an hour or so ’til the savages run through and destroy it again.

Hmmmm. Tough decision.

But if I ignore it too long, I get grumpy with the mess and heaven knows no one ELSE is going to do it. So I guess it’s time to switch back over to “housework” mode. Dangit. I don’t want to.

And while I’m procrastinating, I’ll tell you that I have a number of new songs I’m starting to work on, having just finished 2. My short term goal is to get a group of songs done and ready to be submitted for copyright. I think 6-8 will be enough. I had 8 in my first group.

I always want to be KT Tunstall. And every time I see her live, or watch a video of her performing, or listen to one of her CDs (so like I said, always), I want to be her more.

She’s amazing.

Sara and I had a fabulous time at her concert Tuesday night. Nate ended up not being able to come at the last minute but was more then happy to let me ditch him on his birthday so I could go.

As I’ve said previously, he’s wonderful. But to be fair (to me) hers is the only concert on the planet I would ditch my hubby on his birthday to see. It was a powers-of-the-universe thing.

So we did. And it was great.

Sara and I were totally crushing on the cutie keyboard/trumpet player. (Happy birthday, honey!)

The tour bus-

And I got the pick she threw out into the audience at the end of it.

(So happy!)

The next day, I spent quite a bit of time in front of the 8 foot mirror in our stairwell trying to dance and play guitar at the same time. (You don’t get a picture of that).

I look ridiculous, but I am getting better! And I think it relieves tension, actually. Moving with the music like that might help me be able to play in front of people with out my diaphragm turning to jelly. I’m going to try it when I play my song at the songwriter’s guild mtg tonight, and I practiced on my mother-in-law today. We’ll see how it goes.

So, there’s a new line of Fender guitars that have humbuckers as opposed to the more traditional single coil pickups.

I think I’m going to need to try out that Telecaster.

It’ll be fun.

Our jam session Monday afternoon was great! It was only the bass player that ended up coming, but that was perfect because we were so productive! I’d brought music for 7 original songs (the songs that we’ll record acoustic, since I haven’t yet figured out how to play electric guitar with any grace whatsoever) and we plowed through them in my brother’s living room. I played and sang my songs, he picked out a bass part, I gave input as far as “I like the activity in the beginning of the chorus, but I want it more simple at the very end.”

“No, more simple than that.”

“That’s good.”

“How ’bout at the beginning of this song, instead of coming in full throttle, you take just a little bit of time to work up to it? Maybe half of the first chord progression.”

“I love the resolution you added there.”

“That walkdown before the vocals came back in was great!”

Hee hee.

It was so much fun. He was great to work with and the addition of bass to my songs really spices things up.

I’m so excited!

So the next step is finding time to go to my brother’s house by myself and lay down a solid guitar track so the bass player can do his part. Then when I meet with the drummer and lead guitarist, we’ll be working with the recording so I can focus more on what I want them to do instead of worrying about my playing.

I put heavier strings on my guitar Monday night to try to fill the sound out in the recording a little better. Which makes it more difficult to play. Something I really don’t need. And we’re still trying to figure out how to best mic the guitar for a balanced, full sound.

Messing with mic placement and configuration took all of our recording time on Saturday, so I’m going to try to get a couple songs laid down on Friday.

Well, besides thank you-thank you-thank you-thank you-thank you-thank you-thank you-thank you-thank you-thank you!

On Saturday, my dad and his wife Jessica came over and surprised me with the electric guitar of my dreams.

Like, my dreams.

As in, there isn’t another guitar on the planet I want more than this one. (I already have the acoustic guitar of my dreams). This guitar wasn’t even on my list, but that didn’t keep me from drooling over it. It seemed so beyond reach. We’d been talking about different guitars and I asked if he’d seen this one. He asked what I liked about it and then that email thread died out. What I didn’t know is that he was calling all over Seattle, and then the country trying to find one that he could get in town by this weekend before our scheduled visit and his trip to Jamaica. He ended up finding one in San Diego and talking the music shop owner into having it flown in. It apparently took some convincing from my dad to get it done.

He’s nuts!

So, here’s my Gretsch Duo Jet.

In my house.

I’ve played it. It feels amazing. It sounds amazing. Like really, really amazing. (George Harrison played one of these). I’m so excited, I still have butterflies in my stomach.

Because I didn’t have an amplifier of my own, (I’ve been borrowing one that I don’t really like from my brother), Nate went out and bought an early Mother’s Day present.

So here’s my Marshall half stack.

I love it.

I’m kind of in a daze still.

Thank you-thank you-thank you-thank you, dad!

And thank you-thank you-thank you, Nate!

What a weekend!

So, my brother and I are working on a CD. My CD, actually. I have 8 songs written, and several more in progress. We’re shooting for 12.

My brother has gathered a group of musicians that are willing to do the drums, bass, lead guitars, audio mastering, etc. So, I have to record my song, email it to him, he’ll bring in and record the band members, then I come back in at the end and re-record my bit over the top with a good mic.

My sister will be doing some backup vocals from Texas. We’ll probably have some friends sing backup too.

It’s too much fun. I’m really excited. Finding opportunities to try and record is a trick. It’s a good think my first tracks are “scratch” tracks, because they have Clark’s hotwheels racing along the kitchen counter and him asking me random questions in the background. Max gets a complaint in here and there, too.

I’ve found that workout time is pretty good songwriting time. Yay, elliptical! Yay multi-tasking! Yay, Donna for helping me establish Max’s naps!

So, that’s why I haven’t had much to show on the blog. I’m not currently doing anything with wool. Every spare moment is spent with either a legal pad, mechanical pencil, and guitar or a microphone and guitar. My callouses are holding up ok, but I’m having to build a new one along the side of my left pointer finger for barre chords. Ouch. And my pansy little hand can’t even make it all the way through one of the songs that’s all barre chords. (My songwriting surpasses my guitar playing ability).

So, that’s what’s up with me lately. At some point, I’ll put a song or two up here for you to hear, but we’re not there yet.

So, I found out on Saturday night that a friend of mine just got a job as the new Editorial Director of Interweave Press, books division.

How cool is that?

I’m totally geeking out, and very excited for her! If anyone has an idea for books they’d like to see, tell me, and I’ll tell her.

I know I’ve been scarce around the blog recently. Max is mostly better, I think, but he’s still not sleeping. I can’t decide if I’m actually sick myself, or if I’m just so sleep deprived that I might as well be. When Max was sick, he couldn’t sleep longer than 2 hours at a time without waking up choking.

Now that he’s better, he thinks he’s starving to death and can’t sleep for more than 40 minutes to an hour without eating.

I’m going to die.

To add to our family fun, Clark has a fever and threw up last night.

Seriously, does mothering get any better than this?

I have one final complaint before sinking back down into my reclusive hole. Yesterday, Clark broke from his tradition of being careful around my musical equipment and knocked my Gibson (my gorgeous, gorgeous guitar) off the stand and flat onto its face on the hardwood floor. I keep this particular guitar cased. All the time. Just to be safe. And Clark has never knocked a guitar onto the floor before. But I had set the Gibson on a stand for 30 seconds while listening to a recording, and I was standing right next to it. But I couldn’t save it, and now it has a small dent in the front (which is really ok) and an ugly gash in the side of the headstock. (Not ok).

Dangit.

I think it’s fixable. At some point, I’ll take it in to my luthier to see what it’ll cost me.

Last night, I dreamt that chunks of wood kept falling off the front of the guitar, and every time I looked at it, I saw more damage. Which means that the little bit of interrupted sleep I actually got last night, was stressful.

How’s that for a “Happy Tuesday” post? Sorry. I’m going to slink back into oblivion now.

Well, almost. My songwriting is really coming along. I’ve got a lot of positive feedback and my sister thinks I should get my songs registered and find someone to promote them for me, trying to get an artist to record them.

I don’t really know where to start, and from what I’ve read, it’s nearly impossible to get anyone to listen to your stuff unless you “know somebody.”