This is the chord I was most excited to learn because it is the major chord in the song I want to learn to play. My finger still feel a bit sore from learning the other two chords, so I don’t practice this one as much as I did the D and A. But it’s definitely getting easier for my fingers to find the right strings.
Alright, so Justin says you should be practicing 15 minutes a day, every day. Well, I know I have 15 minutes a day and it should totally be easy… but I’m a busy girl… and I like the snooze button.
So, today ran in the Shamrock Run 5k in downtown Portland. My girlfriends and I dressed up in tutus and knee high socks and ran on the Columbia Sportswear team. There were so many people! It way mayhem. We finished in about 45 minutes and went to get our celebratory Saint Patrick’s Day free beer. We waited in line to get into the beer tent for about 10 minutes, only to realize that all the people in the beer tent were in line to get beer! Another 1500 people stood in front of us and sweet victory. Obviously free beer tastes better than beer you pay for. Der. But after calculating how much a free beer is actually worth… x > time/hungriness… carry the 1… fuck it. Let’s go to Genie’s. Bacon infused Bloody Mary’s, eggs benedict, and Stumptown coffee wins every time. Sunday brunch > everything!
So, after a brief appointment with my real estate agent, a much needed couch nap, and a Girls marathon with Katie… I learned the A Chord. Wahoo! It looks like this:
The first chord taught in the beginner course of http://www.justinguitar.com is the D Chord. Pretty easy. Looks like this.
Oh yeah, I know how to read that! The line on the left represents the string on the top, going all the way down to the string on the right, which would be the one on the bottom. The “X” at the top of the picture means you do not hit that string when strumming. The “O” at the top means you strum it as an open string. Then you place your fingers on the fret where the black dots are. Now you know the D Chord, too! You can strum it together, and then pic all the strings individually to make sure they are all clear.
So, I started watching the beginner section of all these Justin Guitar videos (www.justinguitar.com.) Took me a few to realize that these first videos don’t really need to have your guitar in front of you. So, I took my iphone and headphones to get a pedicure and watched the rest while I ignored the girl next to me giggling annoyingly as if every touch of her foot was too ticklish to bare.
About 6 months ago, I bought a salvaged window pane from the ReStore. It was $15, I think?
I thought it was really cute, but I had not idea what to do with it, until I went to The Craft Warehouse. There were two aisles devoted entirely to making your own organization boards. Peel and stick chalkboard and dry erase paper, calendar inserts, recipe and menu planning, magnet boards, cork/magnet board combos… I was overwhelmed with choice. Decided to get two chalkboard pages, two metal strips for magnets, and make my own calendar.
There are 6 panels on the window, so I was going to use the actual window panes for dry erase markering. I cut out the exact shape of the pane in the chalkboard paper and stuck it right on. I glued the metal strips directly to the window. I made a blank 5 week calendar and taped it on the back of the window panel, this way I can write directly on the window and erase or change easily. I found random hooks in my toolbox and screwed them to the bottom of the frame. I also had to install the wire hanger, which was also in my toolbox, but you can get at Home Depot. Done-zo!
Alright, WordPress. Here’s the deal. My name is Abbie. I am 29 and live in Portland, Oregon. I am like most people who devoted a lot of time and energy to other people and work. I found myself not even knowing what I enjoyed doing. I started a project on November 1st, 2010 to do more and learn more. I made a list of all the things I wanted to do, but never had time for… painting, skydiving, fencing, learning Japanese, dancing, running, glass blowing… the list went on and on. I decided to take one thing on my list and focus as much spare time and energy on it as possible. I spent months training for a half marathon (which I ran in October 2011,) learning to bake (scones, bread, pretzels, and cookies,) eating healthy (mostly raw fruits and veggies,) drinking wine (easiest month ever,) getting fit (taking zumba, Krav Maga, yoga, and TurboKick classes,) doing community service (for the Oregon Food Bank, community gardens, and raising $1500 for the Children’s Cancer Association,) trying my luck at online dating (and meeting my current live-in boo,) hiking (taking several trips all around Oregon and Washington,) and finally blogging (you can read all about my past adventures at http://www.thirtydaysofnew.tumblr.com )
So, I’ve had my tumblr for almost a year. I found that it was lacking several key factors that I have found on wordpress… so here I am. I thought for a long time about incorporating previous posts onto this site and actually had them all transferred over for a few days before I trashed them all. This is thirty days of NEW! I am so apt to creating new adventures every month but I didn’t recognize the opportunity to new-ify my bloggy blog. This is a clean slate… the forever-promised organization and brevity might have a chance in the new format. Well, that’s basically it… I hope you enjoy.
thirty days of new 