Acting Squirrely

I saw this little risu when I was out for a walk yesterday.

 

Happy Halloween!

My Brief Career as a Model

I’ve been fortunate to be able to come to Japan and experience so many new things.  Recently I had another new experience – a (paid) job as a model!

My Japanese teachers found me a job as a model for an art class in Sapporo – two mornings, two hours each. The class members wanted a non-Japanese model, so I fit the bill (no experience was necessary).   All I had to do was sit still, which was a little more difficult than I thought it would be.  The teacher of the class “arranged” me, sitting in a chair on a little platform with one hand on a small side table and my head looking to the left out the window. One of the students made a chalk outline of my feet so I could get back in the same place after the break.   The ten students were positioned in a little semicircle around me, so each person had a different view. Some people drew with pencil or charcoal, some painted with watercolor or oil.

I couldn’t understand much of what was said, but I did hear “gaijin” (foreigner) and “muzukashi” (difficult) a lot! There has been research in the criminal justice field about how difficult it is to identify a person of another race, so maybe the same kind of thing applies to drawing a person of another race. I really wanted to see what they drew and painted, but they didn’t offer to show me and I didn’t feel comfortable asking.

So, anyway, being a model wasn’t on my bucket list, but it was fun and I’m glad I had the opportunity to do it. 

2014 Smalls SAL - Victorian Needlebook

My Small this month is a Victorian Needlebook, that completes a set.  I finished the bag a couple of years ago and the scissors case last year.

 

 

 

 

I’m linking up to Stitching Lotus’ Smalls Stitch a Long and Sharon B's Pintangle.

Student Art Show

I love seeing the University Student Art Exhibits.  I always want to be an art student!

Monday Morning Star Count - One Stitch at a Time

I’m really a slow hand quilter.  Some people can rock the needle and load several stitches on the needle at once.  I quilt with my left hand on top and the right hand below.  My left hand pokes the needle down and my right pulls enough thread to turn the needle, then pokes it back up.  My left hand pulls the thread up and I do it all again for the next stitch.

Top

Under-side

I stitched on the quilt a good bit over the weekend and this is how much I have done.

 

It seems I really was Home Alone over the weekend.  With 16 apartments in our building, Ted’s car was the only one in the lot yesterday and he wasn’t even home.

 

Home Alone

Ted left at 6 am yesterday with his Aikido group to spend two days at a workshop in the north of Hokkaido near Wakkanai.  In addition to practicing Aikido, the time away gives the group a chance to hang out together and eat well.  I think it’s the equivalent of my stitching group in the US going to Myrtle Beach for the weekend. (As Ted was heading out the door, one of our neighbors – a young, single professor in Ted’s department, was just getting home for the night. I remember being so young!)

I had a good day yesterday.  I did a little housework, worked on my quilt some, studied Japanese a bit, and took a walk.

 

It looks like I’ll be doing more of the same today.