Category: Diamond Painting
Yay! I can actually report one finished project.
My other socks took a sideline as I finished the slippers. So I’ll take pics next week.
I feel better about my piano. We have love/hate moments. I do learn a lot with each sit down. I play not practice. I do work on problem areas. I work on my concentration. I see my playing as meditation. Here’s a thought. Check. Don’t dive in. A slight thought given attention can bring about a mistake tornado. Distraction of any kind can throw off the fun.
Take for instance, today I wanted to analyze the few pieces I shared last week. By thinking about key signatures my fingers lost their groove.
I’m much happier about the ukulele now. Being able to sing while playing makes this instrument far more fun than piano or recorders.
Recorders seem to be helping my breath control. Note recognition between the soprano and the alto instruments is getting better. I still have goals of playing duets with myself. I need to learn how to record like that.
That’s about it for now. Time to get to Duo, and the recorders and uke.
Remember way back when I mentioned I might start a podcast? I can’t remember what I thought I’d call it, but a new title comes to mind as I started day # 3 of piano reawakening. “Warts and All”
We are so used to seeing the end result of endless practice. That makes sitting in front or with your art impossible. “I’ll never be that good. Why try?” So many negative things we tell ourselves, and because of that, we will never know what enjoyment we might bring ourselves or others while waiting for perfection. Follow your passions. God, muses, whatever you may call it, gets the credit for your curiosity drive. Do we dare let our defeatism lead the way? So I’m taking you on the ride. I took piano lessons since I was 5. I rebelled my way out around 16. After marriage at 21, I had to wait a while to get my old piano. My second son was teething when I got my piano back. I was rusty but could still enjoy the below pieces and much more, nearly totally memorized. I would play so hyperfocused that that piano had teething marks as the poor baby begged for my attention. So, I had to keep the practice to light bits.
When we moved to my first desert, Antelope Valley, the house was so small I had to keep the piano in a chicken coop. It was an old upright grand. It looked quite at home there. I would get up and go out in my heavy coat and gloves, scarf, and cap. As I did the scales and warm-ups, layers were released. I was starting to fall in love with my kidnapper. Stockholm Syndrome? There was a lot of angst from the psychological damage that practicing piano imposed on me.
A few decades later, after letting myself enjoy other music, singing, playing the recorder, and playing the ukulele, I felt like I wanted to try to bring it all back. Three days ago, I figured out a time of the day I could schedule my piano time. My first day was a lot of cleaning my baby. We get a lot of dust out here. And the darned mice. Lots of cleaning. But hey, that old piano in the chicken coop was pretty bad, too. And I love this piano. How I got it is another story. So cleaning it was, is now, a work of love. I did start playing that day for a few minutes. It went well. I kept it to 15 minutes. For some reason, yesterday’s practice made me want to cry. Today I decided to start recording myself and sharing the mess and progress with you. You are not required to listen to these as if they were elevator music. It is merely how it is when you try.
Enough of music. I’ll share the uke and recorder progress later.
Passion is imperfect.
So these are the things in the making here. Hope you had a marvelous Monday.
There are a few more projects. I just ran out of writing energy. I did finish “Leave the World Behind.” The review hits Sunday.
I finished my scrappy no-show socks. I thought they’d fit me but they are slightly too small, so off to a friend.
I still have more of that purple-bluey yarn so I started toes for a new pair.
I finished my Uke strap.
The snow finally melted. We are told on the news, that though we started our week in the winter we will have Spring and then Summer by the weekend. Crazy Oregon! I love it!
Viewing Shogun all day today was a valiant effort. We binged all ten episodes. So soon after reading (listening) the book, it was interesting to see how well it was interpreted. Now, on Monday, I should receive the older version with Richard Chamberlain. I advise if you can, to read the actual book first. I did in the 80s. But I wish I had read it more recently. But my vision isn’t good enough for the printed volume.
Meanwhile, I have a bunch of socks nearly finished. My hands have been hurting with the weather changes. So not a lot of progress on any of the projects. But here ya go:
Now off to recorders and ukulele.
I don’t know if I’m behind or how I got there but I’m seeing others beyond R and I’m barely think of Q.
For some reason I feel like streaming. No plan or plot is showing up. I feel like the queen of lazy. No rhyme or reason.
Since I’m tired I’m in a quandary both mind and body wants to quit. Be quiet. And seeing no rescue in sight, I’ll go with the Monday que: what’s being made?
Finishing arch heading towards the heel.
And
Another challenge:
Time for Duolingo then 🎵🎶
None of my music pursuits are quiet. But I need to get busy on them. So I have to quit writing.
And oops! There’s
Darswords 
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