Xmas Stitch-a-Long, part 1

Hi everyone!

It's been a busy and exciting three weeks. I got a new job, turned in my notice on my old job, and started the new job. Oh, and I still managed to do some stitching.

At the last check-in I was nearly finished with the odd little cherry blossom cross stitch set.

I'm happy to report that I finished the stitching AND the ink all rinsed out just fine. I even found a ready-made frame, so it's all framed and ready to go for Christmas!

Then the next project I wanted to work on was this kitschy Christmas banner from an old Edna Looney kit:

I love these old felt-and-sequins sort of kits. Maybe I just enjoy building up layers of felt? The "bits" part of the kit had gone missing, which meant I didn't have the sequins or beads, though I did have the feathers for the beard. But I cobbled together a few things and voila!

I'm especially pleased with my adaptations of the pattern. I decided to attach the holly leaves by stitching veins rather than stitching around the shapes, and I found some cute tiny red jingle bells to serve as holly berries:

I also found some black "gems" and a red "gem" to replace the missing ones from the kit. The red one was bigger than the original piece in the kit, so I just used it without a background:

In other Christmas news... Many years ago I bought a couple of dozen spools of craft ribbon in a 90% off after Christmas sale with the idea of weaving them together and making a table runner. That took a couple of years to happen, but I did eventually make the table runner. (I'd show you but it's still packed away with the Christmas decorations!) But of course there was a lot of ribbon left over.

I had been wanting to make some Christmas bunting using the old ribbons, so finally made the time to design the project, gather supplies, and even start sewing. First I stitched the ribbons to the blue flannel backing fabric:

Then I cut those into 8-inch rows, stitched the edges to keep everything together, and then cut them into flags:

Finally I zig-zag edged the flags. Next step will be to make the letters, which requires a trip to the fabric store to choose the fabric for them (a bright blue metallic, perhaps?) and then I'll stitch on the felt snowflakes and the letters, and bind them to a ribbon for hanging.

That's still a lot of work between now and Christmas, but I'm hoping to have it done before our next check in on December 15!

Now, I'm sure my fellow stitchers have been just as busy on their projects -- I think a few will be doing their own happy dances this time! Check out their work on the links below:

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Sue, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Linda, Heidi, Jackie, Hayley, Megan, Deborah, Mary Margaret, Renee, Jenny, Carmela, Jocelyn, Sharon, Daisy, Anne, and Connie.

See you on December 15th for our next check-in!

Adventure 41/50 : Cape Flattery Trail

The Makah people -- a name given them by neighboring tribes, which means, in Salish, "people generous with food" -- see their land as "the beginning of the world". And if you look at the map of where the Makah reservation is, you can see why:

The very tip -- "the northwesternmost point of the contiguous United States" -- is Cape Flattery.

For our anniversary -- given we just returned from Japan -- we decided to stay closer to home. We love holing up in a cabin and hanging out for a few days, so we went to Neah Bah and stayed at the Hobuck Beach Resort.

view from cabin 15

Nice, well-appointed cabins, just steps from the beach. And it's a glorious beach.

One day we drove out to the trailhead for Cape Flattery. 

On a blustery Friday morning in November there was plenty of parking at the trailhead, so we hung up our Makah recreation permit ($10, available in town, valid for a calendar year) and headed out.

Everywhere we went on the Olympic Peninsula was saw these big chairs. I don't know why.

The trail was deserted and relatively gentle, though there were a couple of short stretches that were a little steep or "rooty".

I always love "built" trails, with raised boardwalks.

The boardwalks, of local cedar, were in great condition, if so narrow that I wouldn't have wanted to pass another hiker.

A few stretches were also these "log circles" sunk into the earth. You can see that the ground was pretty muddy in places, hence the boardwalks.

As we got closer to the end of the trail, we went down some stairs to a few different built platforms.

We went to the farthest platform first, of course. To get up on it required a little ladder -- maybe difficult for some to go up or down, but sturdy. And the platforms were sturdy, too.

And the view? Postcard lovely. 

 Off the coast is Tatoosh Island, where a lighthouse stands. 

We stood for a long time on the platform enjoying the solitude and the sounds of the seabirds and waves.

I love seeing the sea caves being carved by the surf. Apparently this cape is "riddled with sea caves".

Eventually we turned back to explore some more, stopping at each platform. Each one had different, glorious views.

Eventually we turned back up the trail. Did I mention how much I love a raised boardwalk?

We stopped for one last glimpse of "the beginning of the world", before heading up to the trailhead.

We saw a few people heading down, but the trail was still really quiet. And at only 2.4 reasonably gentle miles round trip, it's a perfect little hike.

Travel Tuesday : A Lengthy Train Journey in Morocco

Up early in the morning to catch the 9:00 train to Fes. Breakfast was a bit late, but it gave us the chance to play with Khalim the kitten. Then off to the station, stopping on the way to the Djemaa el-Fnaa to pick up water from our second favorite shop. An old lady begged me for bread and when I said no, just grabbed a loaf. I looked at the shopkeeper, who nodded and took a 1 Dh coin from my change. Probably not enough to cover the sale of the bread, but hopefully enough to cover the ingredients. 

Then a taxi, where we were told it would be “fifteen”. Fine, okay – until we got to the station the driver asked for fifty. We knew he was having us on – it shouldn’t really have been more than 10… so we laughed at him and held firm.



Unhappy surprise at the train station: there were no 1st-class tickets left on either the 9 or the 11 train. Oh well. So we bought 2nd class tickets and hoped for the best for the 6.5 hour journey.

 

As the train arrived, the usual boarding scrum occurred – complicated by me getting my pack stuck in the doors. (I’m awesome.) We got in a car marked with a 2, went through doors marked with 2s, but found a compartment that looked suspiciously like a 1st-class compartment: 6 velour seats with nice wide armrests rather than 8 orange bench seats. Still, we sat down and hoped we wouldn’t be moved.



We were joined by 2 German girls who had been in Morocco for about 30 hours and already seemed ready to leave. They were leaving lovely Marrakesh for icky Casablanca – I hope they find something they like. Later, 2 young Moroccans joined us just before the train left. 

We stopped several times at a variety of stations – our original Moroccan couple left and a family with 2 small sleeping children took their place. At some point a ticket collector passed through and didn’t seem phased by our presence, so I guess we really were in a 2nd class car. Perhaps it was just an older model? Regardless, we'll book first-class tickets for the trip back to Casablanca.



The countryside was very dry and sparse. In the south the only green was from the cacti which seem to have been planted as hedge/fences around where animals are kept. As we’ve come farther north, there’s a bit more green – olive trees, some palms, something that looks like sugar cane? Also, the closer we got to Casablanca there was more industry and the villages, once just a few houses and a mosque, were replaced by towns – more houses, some shops, a pharmacy, and of course bigger mosques.



Strange glimpses out of the window – shanty towns covered with satellite dishes; skinny Holstein cows surrounded by cacti.



The German girls got out at Casablanca, and were replaced by a Moroccan family including a grouchy lady who immediately took off her shoes and put her nasty bare feet on the seat across from her, her skinny husband, and their surly teenage son. The lady kept holding the door shut so no one would come in and take the open seat, even when people were standing in the aisle outside. And shall I mention the belching?

All this meant the ride from Casablanca to Fes felt very long; and when the train arrived, an hour late, we were happy to see the end of the fat belching woman.

We went immediately to the ticket office to buy 1st-class tickets to return to Casa after three nights. We had been relatively lucky with our seats, but didn't want to push our luck!

Adventure 40/50 : Nidoto Nai Yoni, the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial

Whenever we decide to go on a trip, I try to learn a lot about the destination. Maybe I get a little obsessive, but I read a lot and look for documentaries and local events to learn more. 

So when we were planning our trip to Japan, I decided to attend a lecture called "Let it not happen again: Lessons of the Japanese American Exclusion. 

I didn't know very much about the topic -- I knew that a lot of Japanese people were rounded up during World War II and sent to internment camps. But I don't remember ever learning about it in school. 

The speaker, Clarence Moriwaki, told the story of his first week at the University of Washington in the 1970s, where he attended a meeting of Japanese-American students. As they sat around, one of the other students said to him, " So... what camp did your folks go to?" Moriwaki said, "Man, my folks were farmers ... they didn't have time for summer camp." Everyone stared at him, in silence, until one of them said, "InTERNment camps, man. During the war."

He had never even heard about it. 

Turns out his parents lived just far enough away from the coast that they didn't get sent to a camp. And he grew up in a small, tight-knit community where a few other Japanese families, none of whom talked about it. 

Moriwaki told us about the Japanese community of Bainbridge Island, near Seattle, and how over time they integrated. He showed pictures from the community in the 30s: the strawberry festival, school pictures, pictures of local businesses. And then he told us that on one day, in a coordinated, synchronized effort, each of these families was visited by a representative of the U.S. government and told that they would have to leave their homes and travel to a secret location in six days. On March 30, 1942, all 227 residents of Japanese descent -- many of whom were American citizens -- were rounded up, loaded on a ferry, and sent to unfinished camps in the desert. 

He told us about how in most places, the Japanese didn't return to where they had been rounded up; but because a lot of the community on Bainbridge Island -- notably the Woodwards, editors of the local Bainbridge Review newspaper -- kept in touch with the internees and welcomed them home after the war. '

In all, some 120,000 Japanese -- two-thirds of whom were American citizens -- were imprisoned in concentration camps during the way. There is a wealth of information about these historical events. I still can't believe that I never learned about this when I was in school. 

A few weekends ago we finally made our way over to Bainbridge Island to visit the Japanese American Exclusion Memorial. It takes the form of a memorial wall that follows the road to the Eagledale ferry dock. 

image from the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial site, bijaema.org, combining historical photo with the modern memorial

The names of all 227 people are inscribed on the wall, along with beautiful art pieces showing the history of the Japanese community on Bainbridge Island. It was quiet and somber and beautiful and moving. 

Nidoto Nai Yori means "Let it not happen again":

The view down to the former location of the ferry dock.

The panels are accompanied by stories and reminiscences; I loved the story of how the coach of the Bainbridge High School baseball team let all the Japanese kids play in the last game before they were imprisoned -- even though some of them weren't very good, and the team lost badly.

People who were children at the time remembered how frightened they were, carrying their things and wearing multiple layers of clothing.

And others remembered continuing their studies behind the barbed wire of the camps.

But the final panel showed the community welcoming the Japanese back to the island with open arms.

It's a beautiful, quiet place and I haven't done justice to it or the history here. But I'm really glad we were able to visit it, and someday would like to visit the Minidoka National Historic Site in Idaho to learn more.

Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial website
Minidoka National Historic Site website
Clarence Moriwaki's speaker page on Humanities.org, where you can learn where he is speaking

Adventure 39/50 : So this one time, at WordCamp...

I had been feeling stuck and like I wasn’t learning anything. But I also realized that *I* needed to take control of my own growth. So I made a list of things I wanted to learn / get better at / do more of. One of the things was to learn something about WordPress.

I've been blogging for more than ten years. I remember trying to choose between WordPress and Blogger, and chose Blogger. Why? Because it felt like Google was the better partner. Oops.

Now, to be clear, I haven't had any trouble with Blogger. Do I wish there was an official mobile app? Yes, but I didn't use it much when there was one.

But I know that WordPress has grown and grown. And when I wanted to build my won site, I decided to try using WordPress. And then I got stuck, and didn't touch it again.

After identifying WordPress as "something to learn", I started looking for resources. I'm too shy to drop into a meetup, frankly, but heard about "WordCamp" --  a mini conference, organized by volunteers, that are all about WordPress. And as luck would have it, Seattle was hosting theirs less than two months later. For $50 for the two-day event, I figured there wasn't much to lose.

I didn't really know what to expect, but the event felt professionally run and well organized. The quality of the speakers varied from session to session, but I've experienced that at much bigger events and conferences.

One speaker I especially liked was Nathan Ingram, who's talk "Dealing with Problem Clients: Fencing in the Friendly Monsters" included great strategies to manage client relationships -- which are also relevant to other workplace relationships, too.

On the morning of the second day I realized that I was really happy that I had come to WordCamp for a few reasons.

One, it made my introverted self proud that I had been "brave" for going. Now, I didn't network much, if at all. But I still decided I wanted to learn something, found an opportunity to do so, and actually WENT.

Two, I did learn some things. Not necessarily about WordPress, but some useful strategies and some interesting information.

Three, and perhaps the best thing, was that I made the time to sit and think and write and plan. I don't do enough of that, so it was really useful to make lists of things, and put some thought into plans for 2020. So I used the time between the sessions as well.

It might be time to move this blog from Blogger to WordPress ... though just typing that makes me feel anxious. But at least now I have a better picture of how to do so.