Our record player and stand

We got a record player! Actually, we got the record player a couple weeks ago but I finally got around to taking a picture tonight. We ordered it from Amazon and it's just awesome! We bought an antique stand to put it on and it's sitting cozily in the corner of the living room:

We absolutely love both the record player and the stand. We got the antique stand from a store here in the city. The owner told us he bought it at an estate sale and it belonged to a man that had a lot of really nice stuff and he spent $20,000 at the sale. Wowsa! The owner told us it's a parlour table (which is such a great name!) made of 'tiger' oak and he figured it was made between the 1900's to 1930's. I like having something old like this in a room full of really new stuff.

Anyways, here's a pic that shows the side of the record player where the speakers are. They actually sound really good and the volume goes quite loud so we don't need external speakers. Also check out the cool curve on the side of the table (I love that part!):

Here's a close up of the top of the record player so you can see the controls:

Pretty easy to use! It can also be connected to a computer with a USB so you can rip records if you want. We haven't tried it and probably won't really do that much but it's still cool.

And here's our massive record collection:

We had two records when the record player arrived so we visited two record stores in the city and came home with a bunch of new and used ones. Here's what we have so far:

The Beatles: Abbey Road

Creedence Clearwater Revival: Chronicle

Nirvana: Nevermind

Nirvana: In Utero

The Cars: Greatest Hits

Foo Fighters: Wasting Light

The Everly Brothers: Looking Back

The Guess Who: 20 Original Hits

Adele: 21

Superman The Movie: Original Soundtrack

Superman 2: Original Soundtrack

Superman 3: Original Soundtrack

The Doobie Brothers: Best of the Doobies

Bob and Doug McKenzie: Great White North

Elvis: 20 Hits

The Steve Miller Band: Greatest Hits 1974-78

Guns n' Roses: Appetite for Destruction

Oh yeah! Quite the mix we have going. Can you guess which ones Dave picked out and which ones I picked out? I can't wait to get more records to fill up the shelf!

Cool record players

I saw this cool record player in Anthology's Winter Gift Guide (a digital mag) and I sure do like it:

Crosley Revolution Portable Turntable from Amazon

I've honestly never seen anything like this. It's small, simple, and very cool looking.

This one is very different, but also quite awesome:

Crosley AV Room Portable USB Turntable from Urban Outfitters

Grey and navy...aren't those the same colours in my living room? Hmmm.

Keith Urban tonight!

My mom and I are going to see Keith Urban tonight. So excited! I've seen him once before with my friend Steph and he put on such an amazing show. He is an extraordinary guitar player...amazing to watch! Here's a video of one of his newer songs (a slow, romantic one!):

So good!

The Trews. Love.

The Trews recently added this little video on their site. It's of a soundcheck when they were in Calgary (not too long after their amazing show here in S'toon). I've watched it more times than I should probably admit! My oh my...oh my. I adore them. I really do. I listen to their albums more than anything else on my iPod and I just can't wait to see them live again. This last show was my fifth time seeing them and it was just so great. The Trews doing acoustic = awesome. I love their electric shows too but that acoustic show was extraordinary!

Anyways, these guys are amazing musicians...and my love for Colin runs deep I tell you. Perhaps there is even a picture of Colin on my desktop at this very moment...I'll never tell.

By the way, if you remember the post about how I was longing for a guitar, just want to update you that my friend Sol lent me one of his and I took it up for a bit and then quit. Yes, I'm a quitter. I just don't have the time right now. Maybe one day I will try again. Listening to The Trews makes me love the guitar so much. Watch the video and listen particularly at 2:44 and 3:06 and you'll see what I mean.

Me...spoiled?

Indeed I am. Spoiled rotten really. It's not even my birthday yet and I've gotten a bazillion presents! And I just want to show them off! This is what Dave surprised me with:

The beautiful carved horse is a dala horse that he ordered from swedishness.com (straight from Sweden!!!). And I couldn't be more excited to read these books he got me! The first is Tiffany Style: 170 Years of Design - be still my heart...I may have mentioned once or twice (or maybe a few dozen times) how much I love Tiffany & Co. and I can't wait to drool over this book of pure loveliness! The other book is Valentino: Themes and Variations - again, my poor heart...I open this book and I'm pretty sure it races just a little! If you haven't noticed, I do throw around the word 'love' every now and then...but please be assured I do love Valentino. Every image of the fashion he created is a work of art I tell you! I can't even imagine how many times I will look at these books after reading them the first time! Thank you so much Dave!!!

And I also got a super gift from my friend Steph...who is also super by the way! It's a Riders toque that I will be rocking at the Grey Cup. Thanks Stephanie!!! Take a look at how cute it is in all of it's stripey goodness next to a little ivory crocheted number I bought myself today with some birthday money from my grandma:

Aren't they both great? And do you know what else is great? The Trews! If you don't know The Trews, what you must do is immediately go to their site to find out about them and also buy any one of their albums (or preferably all of them) so you can listen to one of the greatest bands in the world! Dave, Steph and I went to their acoustic show in town last night and it was so unbelievably good. This is the fifth time I've seen them and they put on the best live shows ever. Do I love The Trews? Yes, I do indeed!!!

I really need one of these

I'd also take this one:

And no, I have no idea how to play a guitar but I really really want to learn! Today I was listening to The Trews' acoustic album Friends and Total Strangers on my iPod...which is one of the best albums in the world by the way...and I am feeling inspired. I also don't know how to read music so I'm quite aware that I have a long way to go before I could actually play a song but I would really like to get a guitar and start learning!

Now you all know I love pretty things and one of these beauties above would certainly also look nice in my house! I found the two above on Long & McQuade's website and yep I picked them because they're pretty...and they weren't the cheapest! I might need some help when it comes to actually buying one. My birthday is pretty far away but maybe I'll stop drinking Starbucks and save my spare change so I can buy one. And I wouldn't have to pay for lessons because I know a few people who I'm sure would really like to teach me...or at least there's always the internet!