Please take a peek at what has been consuming my entire summer: my "A Nativity Suite" for piano/voice. A CD and the sheetmusic will be available in the form of an ebook or individual peices on www.sheetmusicplus.com in November 2013. :)
This is the piece that "conceived" the idea for a Nativity Suite:
It's that time of year again. You know the one. The time for Pumpkin Spice Lattes, Apple Pies, Taffy Apples covered in chocolate or nuts, picking pumpkins, sipping on apple cider while enjoying chillier days. The best time of year.
For piano teachers and students, it's also a time to whip out spooktacular tunes to fright or delight the ears!
I'm having a weekly contest on my Facebook page, and will be giving away a free copy to each of my 5 Halloween piano sheet music to the lucky winners chosen at random.
This week's sheet music prize: "SPOOKY TOWN"
If you would like to participate for you or someone you know, here's what you have to do: Winner announced September 21st.The winner will be contacted via Facebook.
Look what's finally updated and turned into a pdf in English, French & Spanish!
$5 in Paris has been my number one best seller freebie since 2007, and it's been long overdue...I know! I've been getting dozens of emails or Ravelry convo's asking for it to be PDF'ed. Please enjoy the revamped photos and look of the pattern.
Dear friends,
I realize it's been quite a while since I've contributed anything knitting-wise on this blog. Let's just call it a little hiatus, but I'm ready to dust off my yarn and pick up the needles again. I have ideas on how to come up with my "Punk Rock Tunic" (see Author photo), but in a much needed change of fiber in the newer version. I think it will be more slouchy too. I'm planning on using ribbon yarn because it looks fresh and it should wear well after many washings. I am doing this partly because I've had so many wonderful requests over the years for me to publish this pattern, but I haven't because I've lost my own notes twice. One was wiped from my hard-drive that broke.
In general, I've been pouring any spare time into my profession, which is teaching piano. I try to go at great lengths to teach creatively, because it's not only more exciting to children/adults, but because it sticks more! This year, I have started my new-found passion, composing piano music and have digitally published 13 (to be 15 in a couple of days) on www.sheetmusicplus.com. Since January, I've composed upward to 30 compositions, and it goes to show you that you never know what you can achieve if you never try. If you would have told me a year ago that I would compose music, I would have laughed. If you would have told me in college that I would teach piano, have twins and compose within the next 4-5 years after graduation, I would have had a heart attack. LOL. Life is full of surprises, and it will take you through a whirlwind of ups, downs, and new adventures. But you have to keep an open mind and heart to let new experiences in, even if you think you might fail.
Consequently, I have had very exciting news this week. UK composer Elena Cobb, the composer of the Jazz sensation "Higgledy Piggledy Jazz" wrote a blurb about my work on her blog! It made my day, week and year! We keep in touch on facebook, and I asked for her to listen to my audio-clips and give me feedback on it as a fellow piano teacher & composer...and she did much better than that! Read more about it here: http://www.elenacobb.com/blog/reviews/introducing-anna-maliszewski/
I'm excited to announce that I'll be in Paris for several days next week! Knowing me, I'll shoot five gazillion photos. It will just be me and my MIL, and my husband will spend 5 days taking care of the twins! Go ahead, wish him luck...I know you were thinking it! Now he'll get a good idea of my every day life (or no life)! No, I'll give him credit, though. He's very good with the boys.
Thank you for sticking with me. Please checkout my professional website if you are interested while I get back into pattern-making and blogging about actual knitting! (My favorite is still my inspiration piece called "Spirit.") I could sure use your help spreading the word, so please "LIKE" the following if you have time:
-Twitter (Anna Maliszewski)
-Facebook (Anna Maliszewski Music)
P.S- I have already released Youtube videos of Spooktacular Halloween music for piano. Yup, musicians have to think far in advance when it comes to holiday music. It's practically Christmas in July. ;)
P.S-please give me a shout-out that you are still visiting the blog. I think when the pattern is done, I'll give out some freebies of the newer Punk Rock Tunic when it's done.
Happy upcoming Independence Day! I have a rather large sale going on in my Ravelry Pattern Shopnow until Sunday: 50% off all patterns! Just use the coupon code: FREEDOM13 for as many patterns as you'd like. Now's the time to stock up on knitting patterns for the coming Fall season. :)
We are doing a BBQ with our family at our house. We hope to see a bit of fireworks for the first time with our 2.5 year old twin boys. They are getting big, aren't they?!
Hey guys. I know it's been a long while. I do have two exciting **knitting** announcements for you guys. 1. $5 in Paris has been generously translated in FRENCH by Milla Ray, who is part of ”Traductions de Ravelry”, a
French-English bilingual group that translates patterns, articles and other
pieces of the site. I only have a pdf version so far of the translation, but if you are interested (or know someone who is in need of a French translation) feel free to email me. $5 in Paris is also translated into Spanish! 2. FIVE free KUAS patterns will be featured on Knitting Superstar: Cut Out + Keep in the near future. They've been emailing me for weeks now requesting some of my patterns, and with all of the renovations and piano accompaniment I've been doing all May, I JUST got around to emailing them today with it. If you are unfamiliar with that site, they feature one knitter a week, and every day of the week has a new free pattern from that designer. It's a cool site, you should check it out.
By the way... does anyone watch the show Fringe? I have something funny to share. This freaked the crud out of me and my husband while watching the 4th season. The boy on the left was a guest on the show, and the boy on the right is one of my toddler twins 6 months ago:
Creepy, or is it creepy?!?! In daylight, his eyes look exactly the same, they have the same face shape, same hair, same eyebrow shape, same lips and chin...
Hey All,
I'm very excited and happy to announce that my sheet music made it "live" on Sheetmusicplus.com and is available for the whole world to see/play! They can be instantly downloaded and printed out on your computer.
If you have kids that play piano, or know of someone that plays, you would be doing me a huge favor sending them to my My Music Publishing Website to test out the audio clips of all of the pieces that are available. Although all of them are my "babies" and I love each of them, my favorite in the Adult section is "Spirit" (second to it is "Guitar Dance") and the simple children's piece "Gypsy Fair" (which by the way was hard to top for a while in my husband's opinion!!) . "Pirate's Shanty" has lyrics that the audio clip doesn't show, but you can preview some of the lyrics on the actual sample page. I'll post the funny/cheesy lyrics that the pirates sing sometime.
You can find me in the "Publisher" finder (although I don't know why I'm not also in the Composer section as well):
They have like 500 "Spirit" songs, so unless you are clicking on it from my website, you might want to look me up on Sheetmusicplus.com that way.
Here's a couple of cutsie ads:
Thanks so much! It's going to be a long road going self-published...doing all the advertising myself, but I hope that pianists will find these pieces to be fulfilling and educational (especially under my "children's section.")
P.s- We are re-paining our house (no more green next to red or green next to purple-grey...and no more green running all up our staircase and ceiling). You'll all gasp at me mentioning "knitting" lately...cause who'd think I'd mention THAT on my knitting blog, but I have a children's rug project that is waiting for me to begin. It's fabric strips that I need to sew together first before I knit it. Hopefully soon I can actually begin this project!
This is exciting! All ten that I have uploaded to www.sheetmusicplus.com has been reviewed, accepted and undergoing processing for being live in under a week! (Audio music sampling of these pieces.)
Remember me telling you guys that I was dabbling into composing piano pieces (mostly for my piano students, and maybe formulate a children's book some day)? Well, since December, I've composed nearly 17 piano pieces. I'm just as shocked. I guess you never know what you are capable of, until you try! It was a lot of work-work-work every second of my children's nap/bedtime. Let's just say I "stayed up so late and woke soo early I almost crossed myself in the hallway" many nights.
Head over to my site: www.annamaliszewski.webs.com to check out the audio samples of some of my compositions almost ready for the public. I've submitted 4 pieces already to www.sheetmusicplus.com. Cross your fingers! This is really exciting! It can take up to 10 days to know whether they will release it on their site. Let me know what you think of them.
I was inspired yesterday to compose "Gypsy Fair" for the Early Elementary Level pianist. It's in C minor. (I love minors, weird me.) Today, while the boys were napping and it was snowing-storming like no one's business, I also composed "Hop Frog Pond!" (for the Intermediate Level pianist). Everyone at the house really loved the first one, so I imagine "Hop Frog Pond" will be hard to compete for affection, but I think it's an official start to writing my own Children's Piano Literature Book for beginners. Or, at least I have two cute ones. Let me know what you think.
Oh, and if you are wondering why I am being more random than usual on my knitting blog with this video...I'm a mother by day and piano teacher by evening. This could be a start of something big (or at least something cool) if I keep at it. :)
P.S- it's all computerized instrumental voicing. Nothing live, or fancy...I literally just finished writing it! Double :)
Become a Character in H.P Mallory's Better Off Dead, the first book in the Lily Harper Series!
Here are the contest parameters:
Enter
to be written as a character in my book, Better Off Dead. I'll create
your character using your name, description and personality (I'll send
over a questionnaire, etc. to find out all about you!)
The winner will get:
* A written part in Better Off Dead
* The ability to read Better Off Dead before it's released to the public
* Added to the Acknowledgments page
To enter, you can simply comment on this blog post. To get more entries, you can do the following:
* Leave a comment on this blog post (+ 1 point)
* Follow my blog (+ 1 point)
* Follow me on Twitter (+ 1 point) (Link: https://twitter.com/HPMallory)
* Tweet about the contest (+ 1 point)
* Friend me on Facebook (+ 1 point) (Link: www.facebook.com/hpmalloryauthor)
* Like me on Facebook (+ 1 point) (Link: https://www.facebook.com/hpmallory?ref=hl)
* Mention the contest on Facebook (+ 1 point)
* Mention the contest on your blog (+ 1 point)
* Add Better Off Dead to your list of Goodreads books (+1 point) (Link:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15962381-better-off-dead)
Do
all of the above and you'll get even more chances to win with a total
of 9 possible points. Just mention in your blog comment how many points
you earned (and how you earned those points). And please also remember
to include your full name so I'm able to reach you if you are the
winner! A sample comment could
look like this:
Hey, HP, enter me (Jane Doe) in your ninth
awesomest contest ever! I have a total of 3 points for commenting on
your blog, friending you on facebook, and tweeting about your contest!
This contest is open until February 28th with the winner announced on March 1st!
Contest Rules:
* Total your points in the comments field of this blog and tell me how you earned your points.
* The winner will be drawn at random (the more points you have, the more entries you'll get)
Hey All,
I'm just checking in to show you a few things that are going on at the moment: fitness/wellness and reading. Oh yeah, we just "derailed" one side of the boys' cribs and are transitioning to their "Big Boy Beds." It's a pretty tough transition, not to mention throwing "twins" into the equation. The nighttime has been pretty successful (there was playing around for a long while, of course) but the daytime nap is the tricky one. Just to show you how crazy courageous I am, I did this with my husband out of town for the week! *sigh* I know, nothing knitty to show you (the real reason why you came). Any spare bit of time I have had has been so focused on preparing lighter meals (and documenting recipes to share with you all), excercising despite my physical or mental fatigue, and reading a really good series called "Dulcie O'Neil" by H.P Mallory (the Jolie Wilkins series was amazing as well) on my Kindle while exercising or in a vegetative state on the couch. And now that we are in the transitioning phase with the boys, my spare time amounts to maybe an hour a night. And that's with me going to bed very late! I can't knit during the day because the boys see fit to attack me and/or pull on the yarn or run away with the skein, etc.
Jolie Wilkins Series
If you haven't discovered these really inexpensive yet amazing paranormal romances, look them up! The first ones in the series are FREE and will hook you. The rest of the books are only $3.99 and are just as great! This author was self-published and used online services like Kindle to jump-start her career...and was so darn successful right off the bat that now they publish and sell her books in stores. I think her books are close to numero-uno on most bought kindle books. She's quite an inspiration to us amateurs that would love to write mysteries or romances, or...erm...knitting books and get "found." It's also cool to see other online places that give you the option to "self-publish" your book in hardcover for next to nothing (maybe four bucks), if you simply don't want to wait forever for the "big guy" to accept you. I wish I could remember the name of that site!
Here's some lighter meals that your family will love (from yours truly) with veggies, veggies and more veggies!:
My scale is out of batteries, and I've been too lazy to get a screwdriver and check what it needs to change it out, but I should be at around 6-7 pounds down since Dec. 28th! Just a zillion left to go. Just kidding. It feels that way though.
I know I've already posted today, and I'm not a Taylor Swift fan, but I was forced to see a preview of one of her videos while watching On Demand. I couldn't believe my eyes! Knit cables wallpaper! Neat! I might be last to know about this, as I don't watch any music videos anymore. My TV mostly plays children's shows. ;) Where can I find me some of that action for my spare room? Heck, maybe for the front room too!
I know I've been awful lately at posting about knitting things. That's because I haven't been knitting at all for a month or so. Besides last week's drama of being filled with our family getting sick one-by-one, I've been focused on getting more fit and making healthy foods for my family with more fruits and veggies. It's something I've wanted to do for a while, and started on a while back, but didn't follow through as much as I hoped.
This is what I started, to document our crazy lives with multiple toddlers. I know, it's another blog. It's mostly my healthy recipes right now, but if this blog is a snooze-fest at the moment, go take a peek and tell me what you think!
However, I should finish up the two 80% and 95% done sweaters for the boys before they render themselves useless...and I am planning on knitting them buttoned-up cowl scarves for this winter!
I was just notified through www.allfreeknitting.com that I am one of their top 100 free patterns that they offer! That just made my day! The most popular patterns that I've given them are: "$5 in Paris," (the top-down raglan) the "Dummy Clap Shawl," "Lightning-Fast Slippers" and the "Double Looped Scarf."
I spotted the "Dummy Clap" there while going through the top patterns list!
I'm very honored to receive this award and to display it proudly on my blog! All of this has made me curious to see the statistics of who's coming into my blog from THAT specific website since blogger started offering this ability to track audiences (I'm not sure if this is since 2011(?), or if it really is since 2008):
It's a little creepy in a way to see what devices are being used, but it's fascinating nonetheless...
I know, I know, I know,... I haven't posted a darn thing since Cyber Monday...and I can only say that we were busy making Merry (or preparing to Make Merry) this month for Christmas, and any extra time I've had I spent playing piano, studying a Music Composition Book and even composing original piano pieces. Don't get too exited...one's half done and the other that is pretty much done still needs to be tweaked. I also plan on working with my husband who (occasionally) plays guitar, so that we can record a guitar (him) and piano/vocal (me) recording of a few songs like "Thousand Years," "Cold" and "Fields of Gold." It will be fun. It's something that I've always wanted to try. Who better to do it with, than my own husband?
But, in hopes that you forgive me, here's some rather cute photos of my boys helping me cut out sugar cookies, and some scrumptious pictures of my homemade kalachkie cookies.
Jake rolling out....flour.
Sam touching the rolling pin, but who is just actively eating the flour. Guilty as charged, dude.
Oh the mess! Flour, flour everywhere!
Oh mon dear!
Delish.
One lucky family. Kalchkies (strawberry, apricot and even almond) dusted with a snow of powdered sugar.
Do you remember these little guys? That was only two years ago!
I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas filled with joy, laughter and love. I will see you after the New Years. The world didn't end, so now you can feel okay about picking up those needles and finishing those WIPS for your gift recipients.! ;)
The KUAS shop is back, after a long hiatus!
To kick off cyber Monday, I am running a 15% off sale on ALL merchandise! That's huge!!!! That includes hand-knits too! Just use the coupon code "KUASWINTER"at the checkout. This sale will run until Sunday.
Check out the shop to see hand-knits from this blog, KUAS yarn, stitch-markers, and more! I think you'll find that most of the yarn and hand-knits are affordable, for being handmade. Do you have any knitter friends or family? Maybe some of these would make great gifts!
Twilight Themed Yarns (what are left after the Craft Show):
-Twilight (lace, fingering, worsted, bulky)
-Bella ( alpaca fingering)
-Alice Cullen (worsted)
-Renesmee Cullen (lace, worsted)
-In the Meadow (alpaca fingering)
-On the beach with Jacob (bulky)
Our family is grateful for many things: a supportive and helpful family that lives very close, that helps play or watch the boys while I teach, a home with heat (our furnace broke a couple of weeks ago! Right when it started getting cold) and a father (mine) that knows how to save us hundreds by installing the part himself, healthy boys, daily comforts and love...
I am also thankful for YOU, dear readers. I enjoy hearing how your projects turned out, or if you enjoyed a post or photo. It always makes me smile. I am very grateful for all of your support and interest in my work and blogging. I may not be the best at keeping up with blogging nowadays, and so I am happy to know that people return to visit when a post eventually makes it way into cyberville.
We enjoyed our Thanksgiving at both of our parents houses. I didn't think to capture any photos, but here is what I did with the boys (well, mostly me just tracing their hands and doing everything else myself because I personally am not ready to clean up a bottle of sprinkles all over the floor!): HAND TURKEY COOKIES! Yumm!
Trace hand. One of my toddlers is a lefty, so I drew each hand in their writing preference. I know, I know, I had to straighten mine out as I cut!
After the dough is rolled out, cut out the template with a sharp knife.
Sprinkle each feather with a new color. Add eye dots. Sprinkle body with black or brown.
The Craft Show went fine. Ok, it was slow. VERY, painfully slow! I only had 1 customer (a lot of lurkers though!) at the beginning, and I am very grateful that she bought several skeins from me. Thank you, thank you!! It at least payed for the booth cost and some of the 5 hours of my Saturday staring at the other booths around me getting decent sale action. Most of my conversation consisted of "Oh, that actually belongs to my neighbor, and it's $5..." when they inquired about the half crocheted towels that sat next to my merchandise (despite the fact that we had different table cloths, our tables were pushed next to eachother by the craft show committee and it was confusing to some). Those towels sold like hotcakes.
It really was hard to see people around me with constant sales while I stood there doing my best to smile while people glanced at the table and walked right on. I did prepare myself for not having a lot of action, but really, I thought there would be at least a few costumers. I really low-balled the prices, but I had to face the fact that this isn't the place were it is appreciated. One lady actually told me that her granddaughter knit socks and she couldn't see why anyone would take the time to do that when they could but it. Walk on, lady.
Yours truly needs to buy silk scarves to dye...obviously that's what the people want, and it doesn't take hours of hand-knitting. I've already found an online venue to purchase the blank scarves. It seems like a lot of fun!
Oh, and I'm planning on resurrecting the 'ol "KUAS Shop" on Etsy to sell what was at craft show. FYI, there will be Twilight themed yarns and also the hand knits as well. All yarns come with a free stitch-marker.
Something just got off the press. Care to venture a guess? It's fairly obvious, I guess.
After hours and hours and hours and hours...and more hours of prepping for this, the Craft Show has finally arrived! If you live in the Chicagoland area, please head on over and visit me at my KUAS booth sometime between 9am-2pm.
WHAT'S BEING SOLD:
-Dozens of Hand-knits that you've seen from this blog (the previous post "Sashay Shawl" will be among them)
-LOTS and lots of yarn! Almost half is TWILIGHT THEMED, and I gotta say, I'm in love with the Bella alpaca blends that I have. If those don't sell, I might just save them for myself...
-Patterns
-Stitch Markers
-Owl Jewelry
-A few mini-cards
I would take a picture of the lot, but some of it is separated, and between working every second of today, and teaching and the extra stress of managing the boys all week with my husband out of the country...my stomach is in knots and I'll just have to take the photo tomorrow at the booth. I don't even think I'll eat dinner. Maybe just tea. I just have some more stitch markers to make. Maybe.
1. $5 in Paris has been generously translated in FRENCH by Milla Ray, who is part of ”Traductions de Ravelry”, a
French-English bilingual group that translates patterns, articles and other
pieces of the site. 
If I don't make back here in time for the 'ol switcheroo...Have a HAPPY NEW YEAR! Many blessings, adventures and great joy to you and your family.
