Halloween Out Our Way

FIRST
We spread sand on the mossy walkway so the cute little trick-or-treaters wouldn't break their dear little legs


THEN
We both carved pumpkins. Mine was the cute one

SOON
Amanda came. When you give her a piece of candy, she puts one of HERS back into your bowl. It's a fair trade, don't you think? Her father was trying to teach her just to take the candy. I like her way best


NEXT
Dashiel arrived and blew smoke for me like a real dragon.

. . .

This beautiful lady ALSO came over and watched all the trick or treaters from the front porch. I'm sorry to say she's moved on this morning.

Pianoforte versus the BIG sound

Friday night I hopped on my bike and pedaled over to hear Ted Good play his "little red fellow" a reproduction Cristofori Fortepiano in a small concert hall at Stanford University. It was a personal experience. The soft sound of Little Red gave me the sense that Ted was making the music personally. The reverberating echo of our modern pianos was still to come, every note has a hand made feeling to it. Trills didn't echo but were delightfully different. Other than the up-close-and-personal sound, the bass notes sounded the most different. There was a kind of sharp 'boing' sound. I wonder if this is because all the strings (of which there are two for every hammer) are the same width. My 1903 Chickering piano, like my 2007 steel-string guitar have bass strings that are much thicker than the treble.

Saturday night I again biked over to Stanford (the ride over is fine if I leave around sunset, but coming back in the dark with no moon, there were a few very, very dark spots). This time to hear a chorus of nearly 150 people singing Felix Mendelssohn's oratorio "Elijah" in the Stanford Memorial Church. The performance was the culmination of a one-day workshop of people from many choruses and choirs. (I had a conflict during the day but- yes- I would love to have been singing.) This was BIG sound. I don't know what the official word is on the acoustics there but I got a great deal of pleasure when the director, Craig Jessop, long-time director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, raised his baton at the end of an air and I could feel the sound float up and resonate in the top of the dome. He also did an excellent job of organizing the group. There was a kind of angel choir effect in the middle that was particularly good. Though I figured out where my own voice part (the sopranos) were standing, versus the altos, I never quite figured out what voice part those young women were singing.

The mezzo soloist was the best. Her enunciation, emotion and the way her voice reached out to the audience was wonderful. During her character's angry speeches she flipped the pages of her music with impatience and in the soft gentle parts they were handled with a soft, delicate touch. I felt like the soprano soloist could have sent her voice out more, though she had a lovely bell-like ring. I sat up front in the middle and so was very close to the 18 piece students in the Stanford Symphonic Orchestra. There were some special instrumental bits that echoed beautifully, and were extremely well exectued, for first violin and cello when they go off with the melody. A nice air for a pair of flutists towards the end as well.

Soloists for Elijah
Michael Morris – Bass (Elijah)
Wendy Hillhouse – Mezzo
Sharon Davis – Soprano
Pedro Betancourt – Tenor

It's all in the Story

My now-a-college-sophomore daughter and I both took community college summer school. I think I enjoyed it more because I didn't have to take it. I took 3 classes and, as much as I liked it, it is nice to be able to take some time out to hang out in the patio now as my daughter and her little bug-eyed dog are doing here!

I took six week of Italian, 2 hours a day four days a week from the best language teacher I’ve ever had, and maybe the best teacher I’ve ever had. Apparently he’s not going to teach there anymore, but I’m glad I got to have him while I did. His approach was to base everything around the story. So we worked and re-worked the dialogs in the book, and also ones he had written, in all kinds of ways. You told and retold the story orally and in writing. You answered his questions, your own questions and your neighbors questions. I really focused on telling the stories in my own voice, using the words I would try to use if I were in Italy telling somebody about something. I really enjoyed sitting down and working on my homework! It was a very exciting approach and I’m working on incorporating it into my writing and other things I do. I’m interested in seeing what came out of it for me the next time I’m teaching math or language arts or whatever comes up. So often I get a chance to think on my feet when I’m subbing. Even the best-laid sub plans don’t always pan out or else there are kids who run out of things to do, or else just in explaining the idea or directing the kids you need different approaches. Often in math classes kids will finish early and I say “Ok write and illustrate a word problem that is just a little bit challenging.” And then I edit it. I find that kind of editing a lot more straightforward and immediate, than the kind for essays and social studies reports.

Stash Sewing: Frog on a Buttercup

[img]http://www.craftster.org/pictures/data/500/180492_FrogOnButtercupTurquoiseStripeBag.jpg[/img]Decreasing what I own makes life seem less overwhelming. Another good reason to shop my stash

Inspired by the purses, bags and wallets forum at www.crafster.org, I made a variation on a Buttercup Purse/Bag.

You can find the pattern for these bags at

http://madebyrae.blogspot.com/2009/02/free-buttercup-bag-sewing-pattern.html

I also made a matching top.

[img]http://www.craftster.org/pictures/data/500/180492_turquoisestripetopandbag.jpg[/img]

The fabric is a light weight denim I held on to for too long. Feels great to use it up!

Stash Sewdown is furthered by repeating the use of the same, well-fitting, happy-making patterns. I've made several of these tops lately and two of these purses, in different sizes and fabrics.

Hooray! I posted to one of my favorite forums at crafster.org. Checkout my nifty vintage inspired cold water wash bag I learned about this great site from a Lori podcast at Sew Forth Now.

Notes from Dogpatch

Here we are outside of the D.C. award ceremony.  I'm wearing the cute dressy outfit that I sewed as part of my sewn-with-a-plan mini wardrobe. Part of my plan was that it will also work for other festive spring and summer occasions. I’ve already worn it once back here at home. That also means I’ve successfully hand-washed both pieces.I was a little nervous about that.  Part of my wardrobe plan was to wear all three different tops with my tried-and-true black palazzo pants. This pattern is an out-of-print Butterick that was originally for capri pants. I’ve altered the pattern over the last few years. First it became the base for a wide legged divided skirt (I shot out at a diagonal from just below the pocket and also straightened the inside leg). I liked that so much that eventually I got brave and did a lengthened version for very wide-legged, elastic waist pants. Boy these pants are great. I make them all the time, particularly when Joanne’s has their 100% linen on sale. They really suit my life style and my figure. I go in very little at the waist and I don’t go out much at the hips.

 Luckily I checked my most recent pair of  good black linen pants I had made a few months ago in time, I had spent my time sewing   the cute top and jacket as well as two other tops and a pair of nearly knee-length black linen shorts/skorts (same pattern shorter!). Of course I knew those pants would be fine, so I simply put them in with the dark cold water wash on delicate and then hung them on the line to dry without paying them much attention.

 Was it the washing machine or is it just that I need to start interlining?

 As I went to pack I found two GREAT BIG HOLES right in the REAR END of my wonderful pants I can always count on! Of course first I tried to mend them by fusing scraps of black linen underneath the holes. How noticeable could it be? Well I looked exactly like somebody from Lil' Abner.  I could just imagine walking around W.D.C. having people think I came from Dog Patch. Luckily I had time to go to Joannes, buy more black linen and quickly sew a new pair. 

Sewing for D.C.

I'm focusing on sewing black and lime green for the summer. I've got a bit of copper in my hair so it's a good color combo for me. Inspired by many of the SewForthNow podcasts, I sewed a mini wardrobe with a plan for a recent trip! I've been enjoying wearing my new clothes since I came home too. I've since added a pretty black and white toile purse with a flower and some other embellishment bits in lime green. I got a lot of compliments walking through the community college where I study piano when I was wearing my new black and white toile shell top that matched the purse. I never seem to get to old to enjoy compliments!

I thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Washington  I have never had the opportunity to go to D.C. before and we managed, despite  work commitments (!), to slip in just over two days of tourist experience before the event that sparked the trip.  Visiting the Supreme Court and seeing the Lincoln Memorial, and the World War II and Washington monuments lit up at night, was like seeing the social studies textbooks come to life. We were also able to fit in  time at the American History Museum, National Gallery of Art and the National Portrait Gallery, as well as a very thorough visit to the Natural History Museum. We spent a fair amount of time admiring the rocks and minerals collection. I also searched out all the fossils I could locate. They are a lot easier to find behind glass than they are when you work as a volunteer field assistant. The trilobites there are gorgeous.

One of the many monuments we went to was the Vietnam wall. Though we are the right age, we fortunately  didn’t know anyone who died in Vietnam. Thinking geneology, we looked for family names to see if there might have been any very, very distant cousins. Again, happily very few possibilities, though I forgot to look for 'Jost' which might have turned up a candidate given my mother’s six boy cousins who could have had a child of the right age. Nor do I know the name of the family who Mama's grandfather married before the second concurrent wife. Yes, he was a bigamist. 

I did find an "Issac Taggart' born in Chicago Ilinois April 1 1947. Did grandmother Mary Taggart have any male relations who came over to this side of the pond and might have had children at that time? Was he a cousin many, many times removed?