May ’25 Update

May was a month of crafts, carilloning, and friends. However, I seem to have only gotten photos of the crafts and carillon! How dare I?! No fun selfies with friends from the graduation party or the partnership celebration, probably because both days were chilly and rainy. I thought we were done with the April showers, but it seems not. Anyway, on to things I have photos for.

House Guests

This month, we had the surprise of hosting some unexpected house guests. Thankfully, the couple was pretty well behaved, except for the time we found them partying on the shed roof. They ended up eating a lot of food, especially when they invited several friends over. Thankfully, they didn’t stay at our place for every meal, and they hung around less and less as the month wore on. At the start of the month, we were seeing them every day, but now we only see them once or twice a week.

Craft Updates

I finished up the 3″ hoop of Acadia National Park. The details are teeny tiny, but I fit them all in, somehow. It helped that I was working with a single strand of thread. After such a challenging project, I did an easier one – a kit of the Matterhorn in the alps in a 5″ hoop. As you can see from below, the wall where I display all my finished pieces is getting overly full. What started as a central “sun” and planets has become a crowded galaxy, which I really should reorganize to make better use of the space!

Below is the two satin stitch projects I’m currently working on – Grand Canyon (in a 5″ hoop) and a summer Stitch-a-long (in a 7.5″ hoop) which will have small sections “released” each week. I got all the materials for both projects and traced the outline for Grand Canyon. Enjoy a tiny preview of the stitch-along as I did the first week already on June 1st, and couldn’t resist including it here.

Keep Calm and Carillon On

I’ve been practicing several days a week and had two more bell tower lessons this month! My mother came with me once and even got some video. Dedicated readers of this blog will have heard this song (Bengawan Solo) before, without any mistakes. However, you can see here how being up in the tower, with the teacher, and spotting that I was being recorded all added up and got me flustered. Choices were made in how I powered through the mistakes, wanting to give the listeners on the ground the benefit of an uninterrupted song.

I also had fun playing Country Dance on the bells, but took it slower than usual because my nerves were getting the best of me.

I also got some new songs to play this month. Take a listen to Snow Bath and Big Bear Little Bear, both of which were written by Native American composers. At some point, I will do a “duet” of these with my teacher playing beside me, but we haven’t taken the time to try that yet.

Craft Room Project

Lastly, Kim and I welcomed Princess Buttercup to our craft room. This 8 foot long arm sewing machine came in four boxes and required many hours of assembly spread out over several days. However, she’s finally up and running. I didn’t get a final photo, but here she is, sans a few of the accessories that keep the quilt in place while it’s all being sewed together.

June Plans

Looking ahead, we have a small trip planned to Indiana Dunes National Park for the Juneteenth weekend, and a wedding at the end of the month. I will have my last carillon lesson until the fall, but I still will have access to the practice rooms for the summer. Other than that, I plan to just continue working on crafts, spending time with family and friends, and doing some work on myself. Until next time, everyone!