Milo volunteered to be the socks background. I finally knitted to the arch ribbing.
Only managed one row on the watermelon socks. Milo shows off the colors.😉
I have to admit that three furry babies take a lot of time and energy. Even when they are the best audience and supportive friends. I’m surprised at my slow progress on everything.
Nothin’ but blue sky…
Shiloh loves music, especially keyboard and piano. This is her before I started my session.
See what I mean?
Sammie is already asleep under the diamond painting table.
Shiloh finally secumbs
Sammie prodding his bed.
So here is the best of my Warts and All. Please don’t feel obligated to listen. I know it’s still way slow and bumpy. I am enjoying learning bluesy songs. Classical is predictable; key signatures make sense, rhythms aren’t wonky. Sure, I still make mistakes but I understand why. Modern, blues, jazz I understand in theory but my hands don’t get it sometimes. It doesn’t flow. Modes instead of major and minor throw me off. The one and three beats of classical are now the second and fourth as main beats. Sorry. A lot of excuses for why I’m not perfect. My purpose of this blog and YouTube is to veer away from perfection that is in our faces everyday. So here is God Bless The Child.
Sunset beach diamond painting is nearly finished. Just a little piece of sky. (Why did I suddenly hear Yentl in my head?) And I sealed the smiling turtle. As soon as I can I will hang it in my bathroom.
My fingering weight socks are coming along. Not very fast as thin needles and skinny yarn take more caution, time, eye-strain, nimble fingers.Guess who got a new watch? I’m still learning my way around it. I haven’t figured out how to capture my stationary bike time, distance, or levels. But the work should get reflected in other health numbers.
My new air plants found pinecones for homes.
Some things like the bike are hard to show progress. But my feelings about the tasks should be the quantifiable attainment. The gold star sticker is the happy accomplished feeling.
I’ve been working on “Shilo” on the piano in honor of
Shiloh. She and Sammie find their places in Dar’s Dabbling Den at practice time. I like their company as I stumble through 4 or 5 pieces a day. Once I’m bored with a song it goes by the wayside. But sometimes a song challenges me to the point of playing itself in my sleep.
I keep a practice journal and some pieces shine with my own praise of how well it went, others I actually draw faces sticking out the tongue in raspberries. I keep promising another ‘warts and all’ session. Stagefright keeps stopping me. Soon.
Duolingo is still fun for me. I do it while on the bike as the 11AM local news plays. I think movement while learning helps.
Yay! I’m more than halfway finished. The sea is done. Into the sky.
Birthday socks. The Fleegle Heel increases are nearly finished. There’s a chance I could finish these this weekend.
I’ve finally added vocal warmups to my music time. And as of today I actually accompanied myself to Somewhere Over the Rainbow, and God Bless The Child. True my voice was weak as my concentration was on playing. But I take the win that I sang the words. That’s one more line to keep track of.
I seem to only have a half hour on the piano. I’m working increasing my time. I think I’ll try a few quarter hours in the evening.
This is working on the exercise bike. Increasing time or mileage in one sitting. But then grab a ride here and there helps.
And now the daily walks around the yard with Milo, I’m feeling healthier.
I’m sorry A-Z Challenge, I’m so behind. But I’ll try to make up the alphabet soup on Monday. I’m two book reviews behind, too. My brain thinks we have a newborn. And Finishing Friday is sadly behind.
I did finally get to the doctor’s office for my routine physical. Yay, ME! Now for all the follow through.
Shiloh is making herself at home. During my piano/diamond painting time she sleeps on the Yamaha keyboard while Sammie found the bed I set up for him under my hobby-table. Sorry no pics yet but he’s getting braver.
Milo is equally happy with Chris so I can spend time with the cats.
I did make a small dent in the pre-Fleegle heel. The birthday socks will be done on time.
About halfway through sunset beach. I’m going to need to find new projects soon.
I found this on one of my favorite groups on Facebook, Returning Piano Students. This group is inspiring and challenging.
Speaking of piano, I gave myself all Fs a couple days ago. And gave up at 10 minutes. Lack of sleep can make the brain into mush. I couldn’t stay in any key signatures and misread ledger lines. But today all went well. It was fun.
I was going to do a couple of reviews but my back is hurting and I need to blog something a bit easier.
Bottom 1/4th of the beach sunset diamond painting is nearly finished. I’m loving the colors.
Chris’s socks are coming along. I need only a couple more rows of the arch hug and then the heel. It always seems so much faster once the Fleegle Heel is done.
With the furry ones much of my creative ventures are curtailed. But I feel a win. With so much going on finding music time without distractions is impossible. And I need to leave the screen open so Milo doesn’t freak out. So I’ve found myself able to play in spite of an audience or distraction. In fact, I found myself enjoying it. Yes, I will soon record a session or two.
And the bonus… Shiloh is a musical kitty. She hits the ivories with soulful, quiet feelings. Then she lets me know it’s my turn. She stays in my music room while I play.
Though I don’t have as many finished projects, I feel happy and content with our accomplishments of the week.
Not my piano or sheet music. It’s a free source picture.
I pulled out my knitting for the first time this week. So I can only claim a couple of rows in Chris’s socks this morning. So it’s not worth taking a picture. I still have a couple of inches of arch ribbing until the heel. The other two pair, I’ve done nothing.
I did a bit more on the sunset beach.
I did finish more books so over the next few days I’ll post reviews.
I didn’t even get around to playing piano today and the week has been full of short sessions. One day I only managed 15 minutes. Today, none.
I’d love to blame the trio of fuzz but honestly, I drank too much caffeine yesterday so spent my night in bed as a tree full of owls. I’ll try to make up for it over the weekend.
The real progress has been our fur babies.
Milo, oh, by the way, that’s the pup’s new name, finally did his business outside instead of the kitchen and hallway. He rarely barks at us as we come out of other rooms. It was so hard at first. He seemed never to recognize us. And he was over-rambunctious around his black buddy, Shiloh, now he’s calming down.
Sammie is finally joining the rest of us. So it may not be long until he feels his confidence again.
Hopefully, we will all be able to be calm and sleep.
Sadly not many diamonds reached the beach this week. This and my piano on the south side of the house are too hot to sit for long. Succession is coming along. The first page is starting to sound like it has promise.
The scrunchie is done. Yay! Time to start a new one. It’s an easy crochet pattern I found on Etsy.
Empty needles called for more socks so toes are nearly finished.
Huggable Arch is coming along.
Ready to do heel increases.
I had to get peg drops for my violin 🎻. I’m learning basics like tuning and putting rosin on the bow. Finally making notes sound halfway like notes. So much so that I’ve managed the first line of Twinkle, Twinkle.
I’ve nearly memorized Imagine on the uke.
With smoke the recorders aren’t getting attention because deep breaths and scratchy throat make this a bad choice for now.
With smoke and heat the only exercise I get is on the stationary bike.
It is getting cooler. And September seems closer. Let’s pray we all make it. Fires on our coast, floods to the east. I hope we all make it to Fall.
Wow. With summer heat and humidity, not to mention ADHD with non compliant stresses, progress is slow. But my super power is running.
Even the smallest amount of progress will get the job done eventually. It is in the giving up that nothing happens. Except drama. Reliving trauma never brings positive results. Acknowledging the downside, not jumping in and feeling sorry for myself, helps me survive and thrive.
In this case:
Talking too much, distracting thoughts, feelings, actions, and resulting health issues. They all are there. It was worse when I was working in jobs that weren’t healthy for me.
I wish when I’m interrupting I could say I’m sorry. But I believe that sorry implies a will to change. Sadly, in my 74 years that change is detrimental to my health. Every time.
I was Hermione raising my hand with the answer. But being fair, I let others answer first. By the time the teacher called on me my mind had already gone a thousand places and I couldn’t even remember the question. Then someone else would get it right and it was exactly the answer I knew I knew. And I knew what I had to say was unimportant. That my gold star was unimportant.
Yet learning was the reward. Still is. And friends. And family. But ADHD threatens all of it. Unless I do little bits. Many, many little bits.
I’ll never be a concert pianist or win great awards from my efforts of anything. But I have to be happy with my little wins. And keep trying to be a human who does her best to be kind.
Anyway. My little win is my new slipper socks.
I move the stitches as I work the last ribbing row onto separate 9 inch circular needles. That makes the cast-off work so much easier.
Shorty slipper socks with arch hugging ribbing.
Yep. For me.
And because I love how that arch feels I’m trying it on the watermelon shorty socks.
Two rows into the ribbing.
The heat makes yarn too hot. My brain needs something to stimulate it. But often, I find I get sloppy and make a ton of mistakes.
My Duolingo is still going but Chinese is as hard as Hebrew and Navajo. I tend to lose a lot of hearts. But I find a successful language like Italian to play with until I build the hearts up.
My music is even harder to get to because of heat and disruptions. But. I will keep trying to get all my passions back into my daily schedule. I miss having a good routine that pushes me to try.
Across from my piano that didn’t get touched is my sunset beach. But that’s the south side of the house and it gets hot in there. Bring back nice temps!
Working on my series: Haven.
Doodler (zendoodle.com)
Music major: voice and piano
Mom of four great adults
Reiki II practitioner
I have been on disability/retired for 10 years now from depression, anxiety and fibromyalgia.
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