More Tomorrow...

I couldn't leave today post-less.





But know this: there was fire. It was good.

Daily Bliss: sulphur haze in the air and more fireworks than ever
Wake-up Playlist: Frank Loesser, Heart and Soul

Ouch

I talked to my new piano teacher this week. She is nearly as excited to get started with my lessons as I am! I guess my kids are so great, she can't wait to see if I'm the genetic source of that or something. We shall see.
I asked her what technique books she uses...you know, what I should be working on before we actually get started so that I'm not all creaky and rusty on the first day. And she told me to pull out my dear, old Hanon book of finger exercises and to be working on my scales.
Whoofda.
My forearms and finger muscles are screaming at me. They are asking why, at this advanced age, we are returning to the tortures of our youth. I keep telling them that this is good for them and that, once we brush the dust off our skills, we will make beautiful music again. It will all be worthwhile.
My hands and arms have begun to buy into my pep talk. They have been responding and finding strength in the repetition of scales and arpeggios.
But, as I said before, the piano and I have a tempestuous relationship. We are on-again, off-again. We have fought over who really is the boss. And today, as I made my reconciliation efforts toward it, it bit me.
The piano drew first blood.
It's war now.
I had to cut my fingernails pretty short - shorter than they have been in a long time. And somewhere around exercise #16 in that Hanon book, something pinched right at the corner where my fingernail meets the side of the nail bed. But I pushed through. And it bit harder. So I stopped in the middle of exercise #17 to have a look, and for the first time ever, I have bled for the sake music.
Mind you, it's tiny. Minuscule. I will knit tonight and not really feel pain.
Also, the piano should know by now that I bite back.

Daily Bliss: all four of us - hubby, me and both kiddos - filling the house with laughter and fun because we all have the day off!
Wake-up Playlist: Jason Mraz, I'm Yours

Forgot...

Daily Bliss: organic cotton yarn in my mail box - hello, baby Nolan sweater!

Wake-up Playlist: The Beatles, If I Fell

Feast

It's been raining so much this week! It seems that the rain this year is either feast or famine. We had such a hot, dry spring in which we could not keep our garden wet enough with the hose, followed by a torrent of rain over the course of two weeks during which all my tomatoes cracked under the pressure of the sudden moisture being delivered to them with incredible speed. Then we have had just nothing again - oh, I mean, it tried to work up an afternoon shower here and there, but it was largely unsuccessful. But this week? It's been incredibly rainy, stormy and wet. The humidity this morning was 95%! It's the kind of hot, steamy morning that makes you feel as though you could shower off by simply wringing your hands above your head, squeezing the very drops out of thin air. Tomatoes? Ha! They are so full of blight and fungus by now that they are nearly hopeless. I suppose we will try again in September.
Speaking of feasts, we had our new old friends over for dinner last night. They are in town from Tennessee and have actually been considering making the move back home. Just between us, I hope they make it back here soon. It was a night of good food and great conversation. My cheeks hurt from all the smiling and laughing! And their two precious girls hid away in my precious girl's room, doing the secret things that girls will do, only to pop out now and again in fantastic outfits from the dress-up clothes bin. Andrew, for the most part, preferred to be in on the grown-up conversation, leaving the room when topics turned a bit more serious for his taste. And when the feast and conversation were through, one tiny "fairy godmudder" was found huddled behind our biggest chair, presumably hoping to live out the rest of her days in the frothy pink finery she had discovered.

A Little Game

There's this beautiful photo blog I stumbled upon last week and I've been meaning to add it to my sidebar. Last week, the author proposed a little game. She'd been watching Amelie, one of my favorite movies, and loves the part at the beginning where the narrator introduces new characters, listing a thing or two that they love (aime) and that they do not love (n'aime pas). This little quirk of storytelling is my absolute favorite thing about the movie.
She asked her readers to play along with the same game, listing several things that they love and that they do not love - but they must all be small things. For examples from the movie, you can check out this post on La Porte Rouge.
I'm a little shy about leaving comments for people I don't know, and by the time I thought I might go ahead and do it, well, it was kind of late to jump in, you know? But I want to play the game anyway. And I hope you'll play it too. Would you, ever so kindly, drop me a comment (even if you're a silly, shy lurker like me)? Tell me some tiny little things that you love and a few that you don't. Five of each, maybe?
I'll go first.

Christy n'aime pas
stiff bubble gum
cracking toe knuckles
commas in wrong places
Neil Diamond
animal movies

Christy aime
surprise kisses
air conditioner smell
chipmunks with stuffed cheeks
knitting with alpaca yarn
coconut milk in my bath

Daily Bliss: reading to my kids while it rained and thundered outside of our little cottage
Wake-up Playlist: The Silver Seas, An Infinite Number of Monkeys

Done

I have been a busy, busy little buzzy bee over here. I've been finishing projects and starting new ones and have taken no time whatever to tell you about things or to take decent photos.
But.
Max's blankie is done (my new little nephew in Indiana). That sucker is big! I had no idea how big it was until I started binding it off and it was coming off the needles. It's big enough to be a watching-tv-on-the-sofa blankie for me!
I'm really pleased with it, though. Here's the blanket and my silly puppy wishing she could sit on it.





I've also gotten hold of the irresistible notion to make a sundress wardrobe for Emma and myself, as we are heading off to an artist's retreat weekend at the end of July. I have a sneaking suspicion I've mentioned it before, but I don't want to check to see whether I did. What that means, really, is not as fancy as it sounds, but it will be so perfect for us. We are going to visit my friend Allison who has a bit of property a little ways south of us. She's a writer and a kindred creative soul. And the three of us girls will paint and write and draw and generally just be artists for the weekend.
Don't you think that calls for a wardrobe of simple sundresses? Well, I sure do.
I made two for Emma over the weekend and one for myself. There should be three outfits total for each of us, plus a fabulous ruffle bag! Pictures and links will follow to be sure.
The only dress I have photos of is the one I finished for myself. I made Poor Chris try and take pictures of me tonight in the dark house. He really hates it when I ask him to take pictures of me. Mostly because, even though his pictures sometimes turn out okay, I am entirely too vain to post pictures of myself that are not flattering (read: shave off 20 pounds and add four inches of height to my frame). But, as I have little else to offer you in the way of proof-of-crafting, here are some blurry, dark photos of me in my super-cute dress. You can't even see how pretty the fabric is! It's a lovely blue and purple calico-ish floral print. And, it has pockets (which I will place higher up next time. oh well.)!



It's the Mendocino Sundress pattern by Heather Ross and it's simple and fabulous - and free! The shirring on the top is done with elastic thread in the bobbin case and it's super-easy. I do it lots of it on stuff for Emma, but it's rather tedious on a grown-up-sized dress. I do like this dress enough, though, to do it again! I hope it will be soon. I could simply live in this dress all summer long.
The kerchief is on my head, not as a fashionable accessory, but because my hair is pretty dirty. When I have a project I am focused on, I have little ability to focus on anything else, and that certainly is holding true with this silly sundress wardrobe idea! I can't seem to make my head be where it needs to be.
But that is nothing new. It will pass.
Coming soon: a red gingham dress for me and the first skirt Emma has sewn for herself!

Daily Bliss: bubble gum
Wake-Up Playlist: The Silver Seas, High Society

Tea & Knits

It's been a full day.
Emma had her Rock Band Camp concert this morning. She did so well. I have high hopes that her stage fright issues will be overcome with time. This was a nearly all-girl camp, so their band was called the Music Magicians. They played Twist & Shout, Surfin' USA and an original composition called My Life and they were all so cute. One of the instructors told my mom earlier this week that they'd never seen anything like Andrew...until they met Emma. I'm pretty much glowing with pride right now.
Lots of small projects are afoot here, including several summer dresses for Emma and myself that should be simple and breezy and ready for use by the end of July. There will be pictures as they roll out from under the needle.
And I have a few personal projects - some new directions I'm thinking of taking. If they come to pass, you'll be the first to know. One thing I've been considering is returning to the piano - she and I have something of an on-again, off-again, tempestuous relationship. But I've been thinking a lot about why I let it go when I was younger and why I haven't followed through on the handful of chances I've been offered to pick it back up. And maybe, I've been thinking, I owe it to myself to take one more stab at it, just for a little while, to see if I really was any good and to see if there's anything left in my fingers that's worth salvaging. My mom and dad have granted me six months of piano lessons as a birthday present, and when they told me about it, I cried. I am rather terrified to jump back in, though. This is something that I definitely want, so it is something that definitely brings out my preternatural fear of failure. Probably, there will be more to say on that later, once I get started or at least once it isn't late at night and I'm sleepy.

I attended knitting night tonight, which was hosted, for the first time ever, by someone other than me.



I don't mind hosting. In fact, I rather like it. But it was nice to have a break this time and just show up with my bag o'yarn + sticks and not even have to make the cookies. Consequently, Nephew Blankie is nearly done. I have high hopes that it will be finished tomorrow.




Daily Bliss: Dipping an Earl Grey Tea cookie into my Earl Grey Tea. A full-circle moment to be sure, at least in the life of that cookie.

Wake-up Playlist: Muse, Thoughts of a Dying Atheist (shaking my head over that one)