Sunday, May 27, 2018

Old stuff...

Things I had meant to mention in past blogs or just never got around to posting... a look back at the last few months.

A couple of months ago THIS appeared down the street from me.


I had heard of them in other neighborhoods and was happy to see one appear in mine. It is still there and yet undamaged, a couple of months later! I already brought a few books I no longer wanted and left them there. Maybe I will go walk down and take another look to see what is there today.

And I think I had talked about this being one of my projects to help my sewing. I had measurements here and there but nothing very recent so I made an Excel chart for myself with all the sewing measurements I could think of.


Maybe down the line some pattern will have another measurement to add but I think this will help me figure out my pattern size and adjustments well for now.

Of course if I eat too many of these luscious French pastries from a new bakery here in Sacramento I will have to take new measurements!


Sunday, May 13, 2018

Multi-faceted Sunday...

It was a busy week at Lake Rhonda...

Little bits of a lot of things...

Found a pattern for my Hawaiian shirt. Got matching thread, now to get sewing!


A few weeks ago I had my old (like from when I was in High School old) guitar restrung with the intention of playing it again. I even went out and got a guitar stand so I could have it out and handy for practicing! Last week I finally went to the ACC Monday night guitar group and had so much fun! So now I have two instruments to practice!


A couple of weeks ago I also started a Japanese calligraphy class at the Belle Cooledge Community Center not too far from my house. I got there a little early and one of the older women who was setting up came up to me and asked "Are you here for calligraphy?"
"Yes" I replied and she gave me a funny look.
"It's Japanese calligraphy you know" she said.
And to either put her at ease or throw her for a loop I answered. "Daijobu desu". (that's ok)
She started for a second then replied back to me in Japanese and we chatted for a couple of minutes in Japanese. Then she put her arm around me, laughed and said "You'll do fine in here then!". When she introduced me to the teacher a few moments later she told the above story and we all had a good laugh.
Then I was immersed into 2 hours of Japanese and learning beginning steps of calligraphy all at once. My head felt like it would burst but I was so happy? I hadn't spoken that much Japanese since my trip last year!

Last week I decided to try the pen version instead of the large brush and because it is better for kanji (character) practice, I will do that style first for a while.

And I decided to relearn Japanese kanji on my own again. I gave myself a little pretest to see how many of the 1st grade kanji I could remember (I used to know all the 1st and 2nd grade ones, oh 35 or so years ago!). The red is what I didn't remember! But as soon as I wrote them again, some I remembered easily, others I had totally forgotten. Will be an interesting study this time around!


Like I said it was a busy week here! Oh and I started an exercise class also at ACC before my Japanese class on Mondays. Had to have Andy go out into the garage to find my old light weights to bring to class next time. I am so weak! I watched the 80 year old ladies do the exercises sets with no problem and I was huffing and puffing! Yeesh!


Sunday, May 6, 2018

Trying to find a pattern...

Years ago it was easy to find a camp shirt pattern, you know, the easy to make comfy short sleeve shirt that is great for summers. Now, for women's patterns anyway, so hard to find -- must be out of fashion! Like I care! So I will have to go to JoAnn's and scour the pattern books to find one so I can make an aloha shirt out of the purple fabric for the CCC Ukulele group when we do a gig.



Ok that sounds way too professional -- we just play around at residential homes and a few other shows, like last week's ACC Big Day of Giving performance. There are some seriously good musicians and singers in the group then there are a few of us (me for sure) who just like to hang out in the back and strum. I am a total uke newbie -- just started it last year, but it is so much fun! You can see me hiding in the back by the window! LOL