Tuning a Violin and the Insides of my Sewing Machine

So my goal today was to learn how to tune my violin. I used this site: http://www.violinstudent.com/tuning.html and succeeded (both according to my ear and my electronic tuner). Then I played through 29 exercises in my beginner's book. Sadly, I discovered that the accompaniment CD does not go past exercise 71 - so the last few I did, I do not have the satisfaction of knowing sounded good with other instruments. I feel like I am getting this and am quite happy with the progress I am making. With the help of my tuner (to know when the note should sound correct), I am retraining my ear. I had pulled out a row of tape, to tape out the fingerings, but after reading a few online opinions about tape, I've decided against it. It may be harder to where the notes are initially (and harder on any one listening to me practice in the process), but overall, I think it will be better for me to train my fingers and ear at the same time instead of relying on tape. Besides, I don't really want to get in the habit of staring at my left hand's fingers while I play. I want to have my eyes free for reading music. I played for about an hour before deciding that I should probably pick up my neglected guitar and play it for a while. My sore fingers lasted for about another 20 minutes, but I made it through several worship songs I know and even had fun singing along. It's been a while since I've done that and it was nice.

This evening looks to be a night of sewing, so hopefully I will have some Organization XIII cloak progress to comment on later.

Update:

I was very happy to note that I had made more progress on the cloak than I had remembered when I last tucked it away in October. We pulled everything out, and I was getting the sewing machine ready when I realized I needed to wind a black thread bobbin. The bobbin winder on my machine had snapped (the machine had taken a dive from a high surface a while back when we thought we had placed it their securely - a quick once over didn't show anything wrong at that point, but then I probably just over looked the bobbin winder portion). So hubby to the rescue found out that Walmart [because they have a 24 hour store by us and Michael's and Jo-Ann's were both closed by then] sells a bobbin winder and we set off to shop (after I put the case back onto my sewing machine - twice). It turned out that this Walmart didn't carry the winder, but the one up by hubby's work does. So we will have to pick one up tomorrow. Thus, the sewing has been postponed (again - my husband has more patience than I deserve) and I now know what the inside of my sewing machine looks like.

Oh! My violin music books arrived! I've uploaded all the songs to play along with onto my iPod and have started ingraining the tunes into my brain. I realized that I know how to play all of the notes for "Augie's Great Municipal Band" [from Star Wars] so I plan on learning that tomorrow [I thought about trying it today, but an hour of violin and 20 minutes of guitar have left my fingertips complaining]. I also went on a violin music kick this afternoon and found several youtube violin rendition of video game songs that kept me amused for a good chunk of time. Still waiting for the mute to arrive as that shipped separately, but I am happy to say that my playing is sounding better.

And on a completely mushy romantic note: Today marks eight years since my husband first kissed me! [And 8 years of arguing about who kissed who first. It's our best argument because it always works to end any argument when it gets heated - disarming us from upset all the way down to playful.]