Want some cool and unique Christmas songs this year? Check this out.

Get last year's and this year's albums totaling like 30 songs all done by unique and upcoming artists. Be the coolest kid on the block rocking awesome Christmas songs.

Pretty Sure I Should Have Added This To Our Wedding

I found this awesome post on Ruffled and wanted to share it here.  As many of my readers know, I am a lover of music and own my own music studio called Charlie Pants Music offering singing, guitar, and songwriting lessons via the internet and in person and find this to be one great wedding idea.  Check it out!

Johnny Cash Inspired Wedding

I am not kidding when I say that Jesi Haack Design crafts the most beautiful weddings I’ve ever seen. Pair her talents with equally amazing vendors such as John Robert Woods Photographer and Crafthouse Productions, this Johnny Cash inspired wedding sweeps me off my feet. I highly recommend viewing the entire gallery. It’s that good.


Instead of petal or rice toss, they had guitar picks! Guitar picks, people!

At the entrance of their ceremony setting, Jesi placed two guitar cases and two amplifiers, one on each side of the aisle.


They used a guitar for guests to sign on, with a faux vinyl record cover using one of their engagement photos.


Jesi Haack made their escort cards with harmonicas and guests received posters as wedding favors.




The groom Zak sang to his bride to propose, so it was only fitting that he would sing during the ceremony as well.

View all images from this wedding in the gallery

Wedding Vendors and Venue (Aliso Viejo, CA):
Venue: Soka University / Photographer: John Robert Woods Photographer / Designer + Coordinator: Jesi Haack Design / Videographer: Nick Bowser of Crafthouse Productions / Bride’s Jewelry: Stella and Dot / Hair and Makeup: Jessica Young / Bridesmaid dresses: ModCloth, HM, Macys / Wedding Cake: Groom’s mom / Desserts: Grooms mom and friends and family brought their favorite family favorite desserts / Flowers: Honey and Poppies

Want a New Band to Listen To

Blind Pilot is a wicked awesome band and I promise you wont be disappointed if you check them out.

give this song a listen. Love it!

Remebering Alec

As a voice teacher I am blessed to work with thousands of people from young to old. There is a moment of pure magic that happens in my studio, where kids open up and let me see a bit of their soul. They remind me of the excitement and love found in music and in life.


Alec Henriksen was one of these students to me. I taught him for about a year in singing and guitar and was continually excited to banter with him about life. We laughed a lot during lessons and I watched him become more sure of himself as he would play and sing for me. When Alec was just 15 he helped me with my first website of my business. Such talent. Such a brilliant kid. One of my fondest memories is when he and Breezy, another student, baked me a chocolate birthday cake and brought it to the studio to wish me a happy birthday. That is just the kind of kid he is.

I was devastated to hear of Alec's death. My heart goes out to his family. I knew them fairly well, as we grew up in the same neighborhood and we went to the same church together. I remember Alec as a baby with his twin bother Landon. I am very sorry for your loss and I pray that you will find comfort at this time.

Here is a link to Alec's obituary. Alec you are loved and thank you for touching my life.

This song reminds me of you Alec, not because of the lyrics, but because I think we worked on it for maybe 2 months or more and the difficulty of the guitar didn't get you down, you just kept on trying. Even years after I taught you, every time I hear this song I still think of your fabulous blond hair and that cute smile probably teasing me about something.

Please feel free to leave a comment or memory about Alec, as I will make sure his family sees it.

Celebrity Crush-Zooey Deschanel

What is not to love about this quirky, ECCENTRIC, beautiful and Unique woman? I find her enchanting and exquisite and elegant. Many of you have seen her in movies like:

• Failure to Launch (SJP roommate who hates the mockingbird)

• Yes Man (lovable singer and moped driver)

• 500 Days of Summer (emotional and adorable Summer)

For a fabulous wedding shoot inspired by 500 Days of Summer click HERE

She is also in a band called She & Him and I really love her light and breathy voice.

Here is a song of hers called Why Do You Let Me Stay Here? by She & Him. This video is cute and is made to promote the movie 500 Days of Summer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtVh8kVZ_XM

Zooey was also in Domino magazine back in February 2009 showing off her sweet digs. The space has a lovely vintage and classic feel and I love the contrast of dark blue and white. Just another reason I love her--- she has great taste.

I also love Zooey because she dresses so fun and has great STYLE and sings and is in a band and is always such an adorable character in movies and I feel like if we could meet I would want her to be me friend and we could jam out together.

Check out her great clothes with the vintage collars and the high waist skirts and the great bow belts and the cute red hat.

Lately I have been thinking about starting a band. Is that way to cliche? I realize there are like a million bands out there, but hey what is one more, plus my band would be amazing (i hope)---I wouldn't have it any other way. I saw this great performance by my singing teacher Wendy Parr, teacher of Regina Spektor, and I was really inspired. So I want to do an all girl band and I need someone for keys, cello, drums and violin. If you know anyone who is 1. cool 2. talented and 3. female that can play any of these instruments and lives in the DC area please let me know.

Maybe I should do my own woman and man band. I'll see if I can recruit Paul for the taking. Today we were riding in the car and the Fugees featuring Lauryn Hill came on the radio singing "Killing me Softly" and Paul said he would like to be my back up rapper who says things like "sing it Leah" in the open spaces of my music and "what?" and maybe have a solo rap section. I like that--maybe we will debut such an album.

Thanks Zooey and Wendy for being cool and making me want to be in a band.

So there is my celebrity crush. Love you Ms. Zooey.

Texas Girl-My Niece

I would like to think I was this fabulous when I was her age and I hope that maybe this carried over somehow through my family genetics since she is my niece and all.

Please watch-you will definitely enjoy!

Recording of Leah singing Ave Maria

As a Sutliff Family Tradition (for all of you that don't know, Sutliff is Leah's maiden name), we have to prepare a talent for Christmas Eve to perform for the family. Leah usually does something musical and I take credit, but since we are far away this Christmas and away from family, Leah made a recording of herself singing "Ave Maria". She says "It is not perfect and I am not claiming it to be. I just really wanted to share this with my family and friends who have been bugging me to sing something for them. So here you go-please don't judge." (blah blah blah, Leah could make excuses forever about her voice- she is her own worse critic. I guess as a voice teacher it is hard not to be). Sutliff family, you can listen to it if you want during the talent show part of the evening-only if you want to.

Leah also put the song to a very beautiful video made by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints called "The Nativity." It took her a really long time to figure out how to do this, so for the sake of all her hard work and the opportunity to feel the Christmas Spirit, we suggest you check it out. We do not own the rights to the video- and hope it is okay that she did this and that she doesn't get into trouble!

We are sad we wont be able to see all of you this Christmas, but we will be thinking of you-- that we can promise. We are leaving today to drive to Canaan Valley in West Virginia to stay in the mountains at a Ski Resort from Christmas Eve-Dec 27 and then Leah will be flying to sunny California on December 28-January 1 to be with her fabulous family at Disneyland.

We hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas! We are grateful for our Savior and the amazing family and friends He has given us to help us be better people. Thank you for being one of our special people.

With lots of Love---The Stone Family (Paul, Leah, Jack & Charlie)

I Heart NYC

I scheduled a voice lesson in NYC last Friday with the ever amazing Wendy Parr, teacher of the talented Regina Spektor. I got two of my friends to come with me to see New York in the Fall.

I have to say that Central Park is breathtaking in the fall. It reminded me of one of my favorite NYC movies You've Got Mail and the quote by Jo Fox played by Tom Hanks, "Don't you just love New York in the Fall. It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address."

in Central Park

Rowing a Boat while boating in the Park

Sarah Bennett, Me, Emily Bergeson

Times Square at Night

Me and Emily with the famous boathouse in the background

(think 27 Dresses)

Adorable park in Greenwich Village near my teacher's studio. The whole think was lined with pumpkins. I was in Fall heaven.

Sarah and Emily on the Brooklyn Bridge

Living on the East Coast is so much fun! Friends and family please

come and visit! We have a spare room and bed and towels.

xoxo

Sundance Film Festival

Paul and I volunteered at the Sundance Film Festival this year. This was our 3rd year doing it. We worked at the Egyptian Theater and had a great time. We saw a couple of movies. One called "I Love You Phillip Morris" and we saw Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor.



Saw Rachael Yamagata at the Music Cafe



And met some great people. Volunteering is such a fabulous time. The Sundance staff treats you really well and gives you lots of cool swag...like free winter coats and movie tickets.

I love Portland...My 1st Marathon

I had lost my pictures, but found them...so sorry about the delayed post.

The first weekend in October of 2008, I traveled to Portland with my girlfriend Jo. Our hears were set on trying to do a marathon. The day before the big day we checkout out the local farmer's market at Portland State University








Took Charlie to a fabulous dog park




And then we checked in, received our numbers, and went to a friends house for some pasta dinner and then off to bed.
I set my alarm like always to wake us up at 5:00 am so that we would have time to get up, eat, get ready, and drive 40 minutes to the starting line.

At 7:05 am I shot out of bed, looked at my phone clock and started to cry. The race had started 5 minutes ago. I called my husband in tears, said a zillion four letter words, and ran around the house throwing my clothes on. Jo and I were out of the house in under 5 minutes, stopped at a grocery store and grabbed some bananas and drove like hell to the starting line. By the time we arrived we were like almost an hour and a half behind. So we started running..



and running...


and running.


And we just kept passing people. I am so glad we didn't give up cause even though we were dead last we ended up somewhere in the middle.