Maree('s) Muses

Guess what! I have a special musical treat for you! Think of it as a Christmas present from me :) It's a compilation of some of my favourite Christmas songs and carols. If you find yourself too busy with last minute tidying, wrapping pressies or you're stuck in your cosily warm kitchen, tied to the cooker, preparing some yummy loveliness for your family,... I suggest you click here , where you will find a neat little youtube playlist of all the songs listed in this post, so you can listen to them while Christmas is knocking on your window sills. Starting off with something bright and cheery: this is my all time favourite rendition of the Christmas classic "Jingle Bells" , performed by Ondřej Havelka & His Melody Makers , featuring The Swings (vocal quartet). By this time, it should be no surprise to you that I am into this kind of old-timey swing music. Also, the video is quite funny, be sure to watch :) Slowing down only a little bit, still swinging...

Now that all the cards I've made this year have been recieved by my dear friends, I can finally show you what they looked like without spoiling any surprises :) I've been at a bit of a loss for inspiration this year. All I knew was that I wanted to use some bits of patterned paper that I got recently. (A stationery shop nearby opened a new section with lots of papercrafting supplies and it's all so dangerously cute! I must consciously try to avoid going there or else large amounts of money would end up being spent on papery things.) Anyway, in the end I only made a couple of cards for my nearest and dearest friends. It all turned out quite simple, heavily based on the patterned paper and then touched up with cute little bows and a few drops of glitter glue, just to give it some sparkle. Except for this one, which I made for my Whovian buddy and general cultural friend. It's a card that's bigger on the inside, like the tardis, and making it lit...

December is well under way and Christmas is getting nearer and nearer... I wanted to write something about what I've been up to, how I like to spend the Advent time and get ready for Christmas, and how I don't like all the commercial frenzy surrounding the holiday. One thing I struggle to understand is people waiting for the 1st December and then whipping out ALL of their Christmas decorations and trees and everything at once, because "it's officially Christmas now". No, it isn't. It's Advent. I myself prefer to build up the atmosphere gradually. Also because, being religious, I see the Advent period as time to prepare for the actual holiday, not as a way of extending the cheer for as long as possible. That is not to say that I don't like the decorations or Christmas markets in the streets... I just don't like it when it gets too intense too early. When by the time Christmas is here, you're sick of the carols because you've been hearing t...

Is it me or does the time really fly by faster and faster? We've turned our calendars onto the next month and you know what that means: that I should be sitting down and writing up some music. Here it is :) Music-wise November has been very optimistic. Not just music-wise. I'm still putting on a brave face and refusing to get upset about life things. Yay! First up, let me play you something a little bit personal. On the very first of November, the choir that I sing in had a little launch party for our new CD :) Technically it's our 4th album, but the first that we recorded properly in a studio, so it is quite a big deal for us. The record is a compilation of (mainly) advent and Christmas songs from all over Europe, in our own arrangements. Sometimes I say that it's our attempt to see how many languages we manage to mutilate within one hour :D Then again, we are not linguists, we are musicians and what we lack sometimes in pronunciation, we make up for with our hear...

There's never been a better time to be a Whovian than November 2013. !!! Warning: if you  a) are not familiar with the Doctor Who tv series                            b) are familiar with Doctor Who and you don't like it                            c) are familiar with Doctor Who, you like it, but you haven't seen the Special yet, I suggest you turn around and run away from this article as fast as you can. I'm not gonna hold back, I need to talk, so there will be spoilers and everything. And if you don't know anything about Doctor Who, chances are this will look like an absolutely crazy babbling that doesn't make any sense whatsoever. If you're still here with me, I'm sure it is unnecessary ...

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to join in our sorrow and honour the memory of an extremely exquisite crime television series. TV audiences across the globe mourn the tragic loss... Basically, Whitechapel has been killed.  ITV decided to cancel the series. image source here , edit by me.

Why does it always get so hard to post regularly in this time of year? It was the same last year. Actually last year it was probably even a little bit worse. Which then resulted in the whole thing crumbling down and the last 4 articles never saw the light of day. Well, in 2013 I actually intend to struggle and post them, however late that may be. If you need somebody to blame for the horrible blogpost delay, blame some of my friends who ask me to translate stuff for them, or write magazine articles. Or blame me that I agree to do such silly things instead of focusing on the realy important stuff like my blog is, am I right? ;)   Never mind that. October in music turned a little bit more indie for me. At least that's what I like to call it. I started watching a new music channel introduced to my tv channels package (Óčko Expres, if any of you Czech readers are wondering). I like it because it is much more varied in genres of music and definitely a lot less mainstream-pop-for-tee...

So, I finally got into a little bit of cardmaking again. It's been too long. But it always is, when I first need to clear my desk area to pull out all the paper crafty supplies. When I finally did, I wanted to make something autumny. My sister has asked me to make a get-well card for her friend and it took me a looooong time (my sister could tell you how long) to come up with a suitable idea. In the end, all it took were some buttons and white gel pen (that I gad to make a special trip for, because the one that I had decided to die on me. tragic loss.). I think this is the most autumny card I've made so far :) I'm very happy and proud of this baby :) This next card is a little something that happened quite spontaneously. I was on a train,

How very lovely it is to see all those bright coloured leaves! If it was only for this, autumn would have to be my favourite time of the year. But there is more: sweaters and earthier tones in all the new fall/winter collections arriving to the shops and the slightly lazy sunshine which gets ever so precious every day we have it. One thing that I am not so fond of is the temperature drop. I don't like change very much. If I get used to a certain temperature range, it bothers me that it then changes and keeps jumping up and down and one has to keep both the light and the warmer clothing close at hand, ready to switch between according to the latest weather whim.  I decided to share with you some of the things that have been making me smile in the past couple of weeks. Warning, this post contains girly things like nail polish and clothes. And I've got photos! :) Here's one:

I am not even going to try and come up with an apology for this article being 2 weeks late. It just is. Deal with it :) Why not take a little mid-October brake from digging in the back of our closets, searching for where the heck are all the gloves and scarves and warm wolly sweaters, make yourself and nice cuppa of something warm and listen to a couple of songs I assembled last month. As always, it's a little bit of everything: mainstream, indie, folky... I hope you find something you like. First up, yet again, Hudson Taylor . One more song and then I'll shut up about them. Haha, as if :D  First they would have to stop producing such lovely and heart warming music and that is unlikely. (New EP is out now, go get it on iTunes!) Anyway, this is about September and there was one song in particular that spoke to me more than the others. It's one of their oldies, from a couple of years back, and it's called "Concrete Walls" . Sadly, I must say that a lot of t...

People! I mean pretty little people. Geez, Maree, what are you talking about? So I was picking up my niece from school the other day. Coincidentally she goes to the same school where I used to go for a couple of years when I was a little cutesy girl just like she is now. Doesn't seeing your old school always fill you with nostalgia? I found myself pining away for the times when my life was worry-free, easy and predictable, and the main responsibility I had was to do my homework. Anyway, back to the point: as I was waiting for her, I'd been watching all the kids coming out of the building. Not in a creepy way! :D and I noticed that the overwhelming majority of them was very well dressed. They were all so stylish, the little buggers, that I had to containt myself not to comment aloud with "Ooh, that's a lovely scarf", "I love your jacket" and "This hairstyle really suits you". And that goes for both girls and boys. It made me won...

I tried to resist... but it turns out to be inevitable. You will have to bear with one more music-y blog post. I warned you. If you read my latest Music Monthly carefully, you should know what is coming. First and foremost, looooooots of good music! And the name you should remember is: Hudson Taylor . To read the equivalent article in Czech, PRO ČTENÍ ODPOVÍDAJÍCÍHO ČLÁNKU V ČEŠTINĚ > click here < official photo stolen from the official website

Well hello, friendlies :) It's about time we listened to some music, don't you think? So, August... unlike my usual boring summer, it was actually a fun and busy month. Featuring the tragic story of how I didn't get to meet no YouTubers, more dental adventures (dislocated jaw. woop! woop!) and then a week in the mountains spent with my choir. Happy times! :) Musically, it has been very... erratic, which will be reflected in the absolute incoherence of this post, I am afraid. Anyway, what have I got for you today? My new discovery and love, a dance tune, a blast from the past and two current mainstream songs that I happen to like. Not necessarily in that order, we shall see. Read on and listen to an unlikely mix of Ricky Martin, The Cranberries, Rudimental and Hudson Taylor. Oh gosh, that sounds like I've no idea what I'm doing :D

It doesn’t happen very often that the first episode of a series makes me immediately grab a pencil and put down some notes on how brilliant it was. Broadchurch did. I know I am a couple of months late to the party (and what a great and exciting party it was that grasped the British nation earlier this year). However, if I am not mistaken the series is currently shown in Australia (ABC1), Canada (Showcase) and in the US (BBC America), possibly some other countries as well, so I hope this little posting of mine is not completely out of place. For eight weeks in March this year the question on everybody’s lips in the UK has been: “Who killed Danny?” Do not worry; I am not going to tell you. No spoilers ahead. Source

Well hello there! How are you doing? I'm sorry this is is all so late. My home internet connection died on me, therefore everything bloggy got a bit more complicated. Sorry. Apparently it’s summer holidays for some lucky bastards who go to school. Good for them :) How was your July? Mine was slightly uneventful, if you don’t count a visit to the zoo *smiley face* and a dentist appointment *not smiley face*. I’ve spent the rest of the month hiding in the fridge, climbing out only to secure the windows when a thunderstorm was coming, so they wouldn’t get smashed. No, I’m only kidding. We don’t have a big enough fridge. How did you survive the heat wave? I turned to having ice cream for breakfast, lunch and dinner, in the end :) Let’s have a look at what I’ve been listening to while melting away…

You already know what I have been listening to recently, but I couldn't resist and had to share some more about what I've been doing. Among a lot of boring but necessary things that have kept me busy, I have been looking into improvements and things I could do for this blog. And the big news is:  You can now follow Dance The Drizzle on Bloglovin' if you want to !!! If you are not aware of it, Bloglovin' is basically an online environment for you to read all of your favourite blogs, keep track of what you've already read, etc. That's all I know. I'm new. But I've heard only good things about it and many bloggers that I read swear by it and recommend it. So I thought, why not give it a try. If you are on Bloglovin', follow Dance The Drizzle here. Anyway, now for some artsy stuff: There's nothing I love more than spending endless hours (I wish!) watching my current favourite TV series and making some crafty magic happen at the same time. S...

Sorry, sorry, I apologize, darlings! I'm starting to suspect that there must some sort of a summer trickery going on, because as soon as there is generally more sun than clouds in the sky, I lose my ability to post articles more or less on time. This exact thing happened last year. Everything was fine for 5 months and then the series fell apart. But here I am again, fighting the laziness and giving you what you deserve, which is my 5 most listened to songs from June. I admit it wasn't easy to compile this playlist. I usually try to find at least an echo of a theme that would bind these particular songs together, and with this month it seemed particularly impossible. On the other hand, I suppose that the common denominator of these songs is, after all, me. Read on for a little bit of Lana Del Rey and some Doctor Who music...

I admit, under the current circumstances in my country it is really hard for me to sit down and write something cheery about the great songs that I listened to last month. My lovely hometown of Prague is being flooded. Luckily nobody I know is in immediate danger, and although I live only a couple of streets from the river, it is very very unlikely that the water would reach us. I am safe, but it is still an immensely frustrating and depressing situation. Imagine that somebody you live is being savagely attacked and beaten up, and you can do nothing to stop it. You just have to wait. That's how it feels :( However, I'm trying to "keep calm and carry on" - e.g. write my regular blog post. I owe it to the good songs that are on my list and I owe it to May for being a quite cheerful and lovely month for me. All because after 2 and a half months I was finally fit enough to slowly start going out and actually doing things and being with people and stuff :) Read on for Daf...

Recently, I have noticed a lot of youtubers skydiving, bungee jumping,... doing a lot of super exciting things. It might have something to do with the whole thing of... "I'm in my late teens/early 20's and I have no idea what to do with my life, so I'm trying as many new things as possible, hoping that in the meantime a miracle will happen and I will figure it out." Well if that has worked, congratulations! I am sincerely happy for you! There is some kind of a modern trend of hunting down adrenalin, feeding on excitement flowing through your body. Step out of your comfort zone, overcome your fears! It's a challenge! An experience! And when you have done this and your adrenalin level drops again, find another one! I'm sure they are not bad things to do... I guess I'm just not convinced about the importance of this kind of experiences.

Hellooo, anybody reading this? No? That’s fine, don’t worry about it. I know we are already 10 days into May, but I am not giving up on this! Neither should you! How was your April? Mine was not very eventful. The living room sofa and I are in a pretty much symbiotic relationship by now. I’m not sure where I end and the sofa begins. I assure you it brings me no pleasure whatsoever. Not anymore. I just can’t wait to be able to jump up and start moving and exercising and dancing and… just doing all the things that I can’t do now! But it seems it will take some more time. So while we wait for my body to stop messing about and actually get better, why not listen to some good tunes? As usual, an all-genre playlist summarizing my recent musical experience is awaiting you:

Me and Cards I like crafty things! And my favourite craft activity, or maybe the one I am most proficient at, is card making. I do not consider myself "visualy" talented, like I'm not very good at drawing and stuff, but this type of visual expression is very close to me. I have been making cards for a couple of years now. Luckily the internet is an overflowing well of inspiration. My favourite paper-crafty person is Kristina Werner , whose videos have taught me a great deal about different techniques, compostition, etc. Especially at the beginning I really could not afford to buy any of those "professional" patterned papers, fancy stamp sets and hole punches. Not that I can afford them now. But at least every now and then I treat myself to some nice and uselful addition to my crafty drawer. I must say I quite enjoy the challenge of using up all the possible material I can find at home, like scraps of gift-wrapping paper, left over lace, buttons, ribbon,.....

Welcome, dear readers, to March edition of Music Monthly, historically the first one to be published simultaneously on both of my blogs. Yes, I have two, because I’m greedy. What interesting things have you done in March? I for example started my transformation into a professional couch potato. Due to medical reasons though, not by choice. Which makes it slightly less enjoyable. Anyway, I hope you’re ready to listen to some good music. I’ve all kinds of genres ready for you, so let’s dig in.

I'm skipping unimportant chit-chat and getting straight to music! There are a few good songs that I’m really excited about, in this edition :) Read on to discover my favourite tracks of Febrauary and why I like them.

Music Monthly is a blog series that I started bilingually at my previous blog, last year. It kind of fell apart in the second half of the year, but still, if you feel like checking those posts out, you will find them here . I am reposting January and February of this year on Dance the Drizzle, because I want to start afresh and have all of 2013 together at one place. To explain what Music Monthly is about: more or less regular posts somehow summarizing my musical experience of the previous month. As I was looking back at 2011, I realized that what you go through in life often reflects in the songs that keep you company. And through these songs that are with you in your good times and in bad, you build a relationship to a new interpret or a new style of music that you haven’t listened to before. So this will be a monthly insight into what songs have caught my attention and why, which ones got stuck in my head, etc. :) What’s in it for you? A collection of songs, both old and ne...

Hello, reader! Welcome to Dance The Drizzle! First, let me tell you a little bit about myself and explain what you can or cannot expect here. My full name is Marie Honetschlagerova, don’t bother trying to pronounce that. Marie or Maree will do just fine. I am a passionate music lover, and at the moment most of my writing is related to that. I am interested in other aspects of culture such as film, television, … sometimes literature…   If things go according to plan I would like to throw in some film articles occasionally.   Or just tackle any interesting topic that I find inspiring or stuck in my head for no good reason. Why “Dance the Drizzle”? Shall I be honest? It should have been “Dance the Rain”, but that one was already taken. *sigh* So here’s my original explanation for Dance the rain: