Playing Beethoven on ukulele

Yes folks, indeed we are.  Uke group started up again last Tuesday night and homework is to practice Beethoven's "Ode to Joy", not a difficult tune but it is taking me a wee while to work out some of the fingering, none of which is indicated on the music we were given.  When I had classical guitar lessons many many years ago the fingering was always shown on the music.....made it so much easier when one knew that one had to place one's third finger on the second fret because the second finger, which may have been more obvious to use, was needed for the next note somewhere else.  But never fear, all will work out.

Been thinking of my family and friends in parts of Canada, the snow storms have been quite bad - worst for several years.  Stay warm and safe!

Not much activity to report this week from the sewing room.  The pants pattern is drafted and has been transferred to pattern tissue and cut, now need to cut out the trial fabric, a very bright red gingham with 1in squares. The large checks make it easy to check any fitting problems, and they can have lines drawn on them to match hips etc.  They will never, ever be worn in public.  Trust me on this.

But because I don't want you all to think that nothing ever gets done here, before we went to Canada I made two more leaf bowls which were needed for an exhibition at a local craft gallery.  A gold one had previously been made and shown on the blog.

This glorious leaf fabric was a gift from Rose Marie a few years ago......

 .....and this fabric was a good match for the other side

 Some more of my stash of leaf fabrics, I'm not sure whether I like this side best..........

 .......or this side.

After these were made they were put together as a trio with the gold bowl, and it has a much narrower zig-zag edging.  Obviously it wasn't checked before going ahead with these two, as their edge stitching is much wider.....but it doesn't look too bad, for all that.  When autumn eventually arrives, La Chateau des Wombats will have a head start on decor.

Speaking of decor, the small bathroom has finally been painted and is now dazzling white rather than the unfortunate yellow/orange sponged finish left by the previous owners.  The small plastic mirrored cabinet has been removed and a large mirror ordered, it should be installed soon.  The mirror had been screwed high on the wall, and I am short, so I could only see from my forehead up.....it was much too high for applying lippy, even standing on tippy toe......perhaps the previous Man Of The House was a tall bloke and put the mirror at a height to suit him.  The ceramic tile in my wombat collection will go on the wall, I only ever managed to find one wombat tile.......surely there must be more than one......

"Etiquette of calls.
There are calls of ceremony, of condolence, of congratulation and of friendship.  All but the latter are usually of short duration.  The call of friendship is usually of less formality and may be of some length."

Calls, and calling cards, seem to have passed by the wayside, haven't they?  Nowadays we are more likely to meet a friend at a café than make a more formal call to their home.  When I was a child people still called on each other, because cafés hadn't yet been invented.

Enjoy your days!