Hello!

This post has been sitting in my drafts too long. Time to finish it and actually post it. :)
Our family has started school, and geometry is much more fun than algebra. (I'm told that most people like one or the other) But school is fun and keeps me a little bit more busy. I think I'm going to learn spanish this year with my two brothers. We are excited to hopefully be able to talk to each other privately in front of everyone else. ;)
I am almost done babysitting, next week is my last week. (the boy goes back to school) And orchestra starts in 4 more days! And my private violin lessons in 1 1/2 weeks. It's going to be awesome to have stuff to practice, as I feel my violin progress has sort of halted over the summer. I'm so excited to see my teacher too! She's amazing!!
I've been reading: Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth Speare, is my latest book. (don't let the title scare you, it's actually very good. I think this is the 4th time I've read it  :) Also, poetry is one of my "new" subjects in school. ('literature' haha!) and a lot of people are either are in love, or die. There's a few heroes though, i guess. :)
Goodwill is so cool! :) I love shopping (cheaply) and almost all my clothes are from Goodwill. We went there a few days ago, and I found this awesome floor length black dress! It's from Stage Accents formal apparel.... and I got it for 5 dollars. :) (this would have easily cost $50+) It's in perfect condition, and I can't wait for a next concert.  :) :)

And back to the subject of violin.... I thought this was amazing! Playing violin during brain surgery????  Wow! (please do not watch if you get queasy about surgery. It's not very graphic, but "watch at your own risk." You've been forewarned!)

Concert violinist playing violin during brain surgery

Neat, huh?

What's keeping you busy? Any book suggestions for me?  :)

2014 String Festival

String Fest started August 4th through the 8th. (from 12:30 to 5:00pm) Five days of really fun music practice! We all had 5 songs. 4 orchestra pieces, and 1 quartet (or bigger) song.
Fiddler's Fare, Enchanted, Pizzicato Polka, and Andante Festivo. My quartet piece was called Red Wing. Twas a fiddling piece. :) And actually, we had 7 people in the group, so what would that be called? (Google say's 'Septet.')
Enchanted was my favorite piece. I've never seen the movie, but the songs via youtube are pretty awesome. This piece was a bunch of Enchanted tunes combined into one song.

Fiddler's Fare was an accompaniment piece for our soloist. The soloist had a bunch of fiddle tunes, and the orchestra played "background music." Somehow we all got behind at the end and skipped a few measures of music. Oh well. Our conductor was great at not freaking out, and got us all together fast. I asked my family if they had heard it, and they said they didn't. :) Oh, and this one was cool because the piece hasn't even been published yet. And the guy who wrote it was at the concert. That was fun! It's not that often you can play a piece for a live song writer before that piece has been published!

Pizzicato Polka - we didn't have a conductor for this piece. Our concert master led us in unison. :) Haha! And like the name, the entire song was pizzicato. (that means no bows are used, and it's all plucking the string.)

Andante Festivo was a "big" song, in terms of volume. It wasn't really that long (actually it seemed the whole concert went by in like... 5 minutes.) of a piece, but it was mostly forte the entire time. :)

Red Wings song I really didn't like the song the first day we practiced it. It didn't sound good... at all! And then a different instructor came in our practice room. And she really helped us lighten up and have fun with the piece. Since it was fiddling, we got to slide notes, play really short bows (see below) yell "yee haw," and for the concert we all wore cowboy hats and bandannas. It ended up being much more fun than we thought!

Our orchestra director was hilarious! She has this box of things she calls "torture devices to torment teenagers." Basically 1/16 size bows, and clothes pins. When you have a full size violin, than you have a full size bow. I like to use full bows. I can't use full size bows in fiddling. So I used a 1/16 size bow on a full size violin for practice one day. :) We were laughing so hard! In fact, then everybody got a really small bow, just for fun! Except the bass, I don't think he got 'em. Or she'll hand you two clothes pins, and you fasten them on the bow about 5 inches apart. Then you are restricted to using only that amount of bow. It's hilarious. And also helpful. ;)


Disclaimer: Don't worry!  No one and no instruments were harmed at all during these methods of learning violin.

Friends

Last week was just a leetle bit crazy. Which is the reason why I disappeared. :)
(More details on the awesome string camp later.)
In the middle of that crazy week, I got to spend the evening with this beautiful girl! Josie is a very sweet young lady! Very mature, and has a beautiful heart for Jesus! We spent some time together over the sewing machine, as I showed her how to make a pillowcase. Than we joined the rest of the family for a campfire. We walked outback to take some pictures in the magic hour of sunset.

(I don't know why her shirt looks completely different, but I like both shots!) 

Back at the house a while later I was chasing a 3 year old around and tickling him. Josie had my camera and took a few pictures. :) 

Hope your day is as awesome as playing with this little boy!