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?

Syncopation

Just finished practicing piano alternating between McDowell's "To A Wild Rose" and a boogie-woogie version of "Frankie and Johnny" both are big favorites of mine. What a great contrast shifting from the syncopated, B-flat, F&J to the slow, romantic A-centric Rose. And getting that syncopation down by next Wednesday is a nice challenge. I'm due to play F&J then. Wild Rose is my final class piece towards the end of May. There the big challenge is all the notes in the left hand, lots of movement and getting the lovely roll in my left hand at the point when my left hand just won't stretch across nine notes. Often I get the roll but then my right hand gets lost, so I have to really focus on engaging that muscle memory with lots and lots of single hand repetition.

Hold on and Bloom

Erignyum or fleabane daises growing in concrete on El Camino Real. Where's the dirt? What's making them not only grow but bloom luxuriantly?

They remind me that some people manage to come out great with no nourishment at all.

They makes me humble.