Here’s what it looked like when I got it! Tucker is helping to distract from the 70′s fabric.

After a little R+R (i.e. gluing, sanding, painting, and reuphostering), this is my new piano bench! I painted it the same gray as the inside of my favorite shelves. The fabric is from Hobby Lobby, and if you look closely you can see that I stuck felt squares on the bottoms of the feet.

I cracked one of the corner pieces of wood while I was unscrewing the thing. The screw got stuck on some fabric underneath and I practically had to pry it off. Had to run to the hardware store and get some wood glue and a clamp. I don’t know why I didn’t have these things already!

I’ve never upholstered anything before, so it’s good this project was pretty simple. I just staple-gunned new fabric right on top of the old. The corners were a bit tricky, but I think I managed ok. Got a couple slivers from the underside of the board before I got smart enough to sand it down. It’s not pretty, but hopefully I won’t get judged on the state of the underside of my furniture.

I’m sitting on it right now. It’s the perfect height for my table and my desk, and just a good sitting place in general. Maybe I’ll use it with a piano someday. Good find!

Look after the jump for the full details!

I took a creative nonfiction writing class in college that I really enjoyed, and it was nice to get back into a bit of transcription for this little project. Well, big project. It was quite an undertaking! I sent out an email to my family a couple months back, asking for memories. I only got a few of them at first. My guess is that they all went, Oh, I have a month or so to get in my memories, I’ll think about it and write back. But then forgot about it! A few nagging emails later, I wound up with over 100 memories from thirteen family members and friends. I whittled that down to 96 (some of the memories weren’t specifically based on my grandparents). Some of my favorites are below.

I remember vividly the day Mrs. Cowdery called and Mother answered the phone. Mrs. Cowdery was letting Mother know that Tommy was relieving himself on the day-lilies again. Tee hee hee! – Claudia Maurer

I remember when Mother would take me ice skating to the fairgrounds before Rebecca was born. The ice rink seemed SO BIG. Mother would be out there spinning around and I would be shuffling around with my little four-bladed skates so I wouldn’t fall over. – Thomas Maurer

Tuna fish and oranges. We used to have tuna fish sandwiches for lunch, with oranges. The smell of an orange still brings back that memory. – Amanda Mrowka

Ann, I remember all the summers we would go and spend time on Stony. No electricity, and Aunt Hattie trying to get us to eat cereal with evaporated milk. UGH! – Mary Ann Gandolfo

Scavenging around the farmhouse plot with one of my homemade excavating tools, looking for “volcanic rocks”. Gram was just humoring me, since everything I found was just old asphalt from Route 3 above. We found a giant puffball and she cooked it. – Samuel Mrowka

I remember hunting for cowslips with Gram by the old barn on the Montague land. It was swampy and wet, and I always felt like I was in a jungle. – Marla Mrowka

When Marty took Pink and me out in the boat. We came out of the cut, going towards Stony to go bass fishing, maybe in late September. Biggest waves I’ve ever been out on on the boat. Pink was having a great time. He said to Marty, “Wow, these are huge waves!” Marty replied back, very calmly, “That’s why I got a big boat.” – John Mrowka

We were playing dominos about five years ago, and Grandpa was keeping score. My score was so high that he wrote an infinity sign. – Emma Mrowka

For interested persons, all the other memories can be found here.

I went to a craft night hosted by some Martin ladies. It was pretty fun, I’ll probably go to more after this! I made a sugar scrub and salt scrub, ingredients are as follows:

Sugar Scrub
Lavender leaves
Lemon juice
Sugar
Honey
Jojoba oil
Sweet almond oil

Salt Scrub
Sea salt
Sugar
Lemon juice
Honey
Jojoba oil

Getting the tree from Lowe’s.

My wallet-friendly tree topper! Toilet paper rolls, glued together and spray painted.

Making ornaments at Whitney’s. We coated the inside of glass bulbs with hairspray, spooned in some glitter, and dumped out the extra. Easy and cheap!

My finished tree.

I used the trimmings to make my doorway festive.

Tucker likes to sleep under it.

Following the Zelda seriers is one of my (many) nerdy pastimes. Since no one wants to hear me rant about these things in real life, I thought I’d write about it in a place where I’m allowed to rant and rave about the best video game music I’ve ever heard: the Zelda series!

I just bought the new game, Skyward Sword for Wii. I didn’t just buy the game… I went out and got a new TV and a Wii just for this game. That’s how dedicated I am. I was a little skeptical at first, not really having played Wii before, and reading the reviews of the game make me uneasy that it would be cheesy and too easy. Boy, was I wrong. The graphics are sweet, the music is terrific (more about that soon), the storyline is interesting, and actually controlling Link moving throughout the game is challenging and enough fun that I may not sleep tonight.

Did you know that SS is the first Zelda game to have an entirely orchestrated score? Well, that may not be true. I read it somewhere and now I can’t find the source! The game comes with the 25th anniversary orchestrated CD with eight tracks, all of which are incredible. I’ve always been a lover of orchestral music, and for those people who aren’t, you’re seriously missing out. Even if you don’t like Zelda or play video games, but you like good music, you should check this out. The CD encompasses all the best-loved themes, from title themes to “Gerudo Valley” (love it!). One of my personal favorites from the entire series is the Zora theme, but sadly, that didn’t make the cut. It even has what I assume will be a very well-known Zelda theme by the time the next game comes out, a new piece for Skyward Sword called “Ballad of the Goddess”. The “Great Fairy’s Fountain Theme” is beautiful, it starts as a harp duet with the main theme, it doubles into the cut-time theme, then flute and oboe join in, cue the whole orchestra, complete with an angelic choir. Chills. Parts of the “Twilight Princess Symphonic Movement” sound  extremely ominous and eerie, like you’re traveling through a dark forest filled with mist with no chance of ever getting out, and all the stars are blocked out by shreds of black clouds. Then, it transitions into the horse-riding theme, with some very Carmina Burana-like choir voices in the background.

The happiest track on the CD is the Kakariko Village theme mixed with a little Twilight Princess. It’s soft and light, and hopeful. If you could listen to hope, it would sound something like this. By the end of the track, it’s very grand, lots of horns, trombones, and trumpets, but ends serenely, with a soft chord. “The Wind Waker Symphonic Movement” is amazing, it encompasses all the best themes from the game. I know there are a lot of haters out there that don’t think Wind Waker fits into the Zelda series because of the animation style. I highly disagree! Just because something is different, doesn’t mean it doesn’t belong. Come on people, didn’t we all learn that in kindergarten? If you were listening to just the music and not seeing the game, you would have no doubt about it fitting. All the themes in Wind Waker are fantastic, and the symphonic movement on the CD is no different. It’s happy and quirky, just like the game. You can definitely hear the series’ well-known humor come out in the notes.

I didn’t mean to write about ALL the tracks, but now I see that mentioned most of them! It looks like there’s a orchestral tour in the works. I’m definitely going to be keeping an eye on that. Thank you Koji Kondo for many  years of amazing music!