Things Are Hotting Up

It has been in the upper 80's several days this week.  The nights continue to be  cool and the humidity has only gotten a bit higher; but it's not just the temperatures. After months of spending mornings tidying up the house and afternoons reading, I find that I have successfully begun several diverse projects that I can drift between on the days I don't need to go out.

• I have worked on a couple patterns for clothes for the summer that have turned out reasonably well. 
• I have several bags and purses that I want to put together.  
• I have my friendship quilt with the squares made by my Japanese quilting friends. 
• Then there's the vintage double wedding ring to repair.  
• I also have the bi-monthly work in fact-checking articles for Japan Harvest. 

This last bit of work influenced me to explore the world of freelance online writing and copy editing.  When I first looked into this industry I felt that I wouldn't have the qualifications to attract jobs.Through the registration process I took some tests for things like English grammar, spelling, sentence structure, punctuation, even some British English tests.  It turns out that the years of incidental experience combined with education and natural bents has stood me in good stead for some special kinds of copy editing. I always enjoyed working with the Ichikawa Volunteer  Interpreters Society in taking their word by word translations of Japanese to English and smoothing them out to something that sounds more like the words of a native English speaker.

My first invitation to submit a proposal arrived today. A native Russian speaker with an online service wants just the kind of vetting of online materials that I could warm up to. I'm not fooling myself, there are plenty of others making proposals for the same job.  It's all good experience, and might supply some extra cash to keep the air conditioner running.