I spent one morning getting some applique ready for Mrs. N. She wants to make the center medallion of the Songbird's Garden quilt... which I am also doing again, and so I offered to set up the applique borders for her... AS LONG AS SHE PREPPED HER OWN APPLIQUE LEAVES!!! I had just finished cutting out, ironing and starching to the template, my own 80 leaves and I really didn't want to do it again...
"If you'll make the leaves, I'll do the eight flowers for you..."
She had popped in long enough for me to teach her the technique for prepping the leaves, and I did the flowers and stems and got them placed on the borders for her. I'm finishing up my own applique borders this week.
Another day Leiya Facetimed us to show us Luka's reaction to opening a package of used picture books that we'd sent him. It was so fun to see how excited he was! And so of course, Grandma and Grandpa have to spring into action again and go out and find him more used picture books!
Swimming when I can. My hip pain doesn't interfere with swimming.
You do realize that all these doodles of me in my bullet journal make me look much more slender than I really am. Wishful thinking!!! I'm actually rather dumpy these days.
Yesterday we went to the movies for the first time in three years, and we saw Bullet Train with Brad Pitt. Tetsu loved it, but it was a bit too gory and bloody for me. I had just "read" the English translation of the book in my Audiobook app and it was interesting to see how the book changed into the movie. Oh, I've missed movie theater popcorn! Delicious!
Somewhat worrisome was an Instagram post from Julieta saying that their house isn't far from the California Fairview Fire. I've talked with both Julieta and Takumi and they say that they aren't in danger.
Not newsworthy, but I thought I'd show you how we've been getting our rice this past year. We purchased a 15 pound bag of rice from Tetsu's friend who is a rice farmer and to start eating it Tetsu needed to take the bag over to a rice polishing booth and have the rice turned from brown (with the hulls) to white. The polishing is all done automatically, much like stepping into a photo booth. Pour in your rice, set the level of polishing you want done, drop in coins and the polished rice will begin pouring into another bag. In our part of the countryside, polishing booths are set up in the parking lots of almost all supermarkets and hardware stores.
Okay, that was a pretty random post!
Random but interesting. Thanks for posting.
ReplyDeleteRandom is good!! Hope that Julietta and Takumi will be fine. Fires are a bit scary.
ReplyDeleteLove all your sketches! And a very interesting read about the rice.
Tanya, I find your posts interesting. Even when you feel you don’t have much interesting to write about, I love reading your tidbits. Thanks for posting.
ReplyDeleteMost sincerely,
Helen from Kent, Ohio
I never heard or thought about a rice polishing machine and in parking lots! I found your post educational. It's always good to learn about things from other countries and also about the culture. I always love your doodles!
ReplyDeleteI'm very interested in the idea of polishing booths all over the place. I suspect that most people where I live don't even realise that that is something that happens!
ReplyDeleteI forgot to ask - will Luka be bi-lingual?
ReplyDeleteDefinitely interesting. Thank you.
ReplyDeletethe rice booth, what an innovative way to get the rice just as you want it. Love the sketches.
ReplyDeleteI feel my days are pretty random too, even though I am back at school 4 days a week. Cramming stuff into the remaining days is a bit tricky, and sometimes not very successful. I love your artwork and am wishing to get back to painting.
ReplyDeleteRandom but very interesting! I had never heard of rice polishing. Love seeing your sketches and your talent just improves with each piece. Hope the fires will be extinguished soon and Julieta and Takumi will not suffer any damage.
ReplyDelete