Well, we’re halfway through winter and my Winterfell scarf is finally complete. Just in case you needed evidence of how nerdy I am, here you go.
This is a follow up from this post. This scarf came together quite quickly. I just had to keep putting it on the side to work on other things. Can you believe there was a time when I thought I would run out of things to knit or crochet? Seems so ridiculous now.
An adjustment I made to the pattern was to line the back with fleece. Yay for $5 remnants at Fabricland! I also added a crochet picot edge. It wasn’t the exact edging I wanted. I could see it in my mind, but I didn’t know what it was called so I did this in the meantime.
In other nerd news, I was way too excited by the confirmation of the identity of Richard III. History + Who Do You Think You Are? + Science=AWESOME!
I don’t know about you, but when the temperature stays below -35C for an entire week, I drink my weight in tea. I don’t know what it is but when I’m very cold tea warms me up in a way that coffee never does. It has the same effect on me as soup. Since I’ve been drinking so much tea lately, I’ve started using my teapot. Before, I would just only want the odd cup so a teapot seemed excessive. Unforunately, by the time I got around to the second cup, the tea in the pot was often cold. Hmm….what to do.
I started to wonder if perhaps tea cozies were actually effective. I always assumed they were just for decoration. Since I have quite a lot of time on my hands (and a lot of yarn I need to use), I decided to search for a cute tea cozy pattern. This is what I found:
How cute is this?! Honestly, it brings me such joy everytime I use my teapot now. I’m absolutely thrilled with it. Naturally, I found this pattern on Ravelry.
Also, although I have no scientific data to back this up, it does seem that the tea stays hotter for a lot longer thanks to the tea cozy. I’m now determined to make cozies for my mugs. Functional & fashionable! Who knew?
Are you working on any current crochet projects? I’d love to hear about them!
Today’s marks the 200th anniversary of Pride & Prejudice! Do you think that our dear Ms. Austen had any idea that we’d be reading her works so many years in the future? It almost seems as though she’s had a renaissance over the past few years. Starting really (in my opinion) with Bridget Jones’s Diary which reminded everyone about Pride & Prejudice and the mini series it inspired. I know this might be sacrilege to some but I prefer the 2005 film because Colin Firth’s Mr. Darcy actually makes me nervous.
{This moment of flirtation is everything.}
I think I was first really made aware of Pride & Prejudice in the Meg Ryan / Tom Hanks film, You’ve Got Mail. It was Kathleen’s (Meg Ryan) favourite book and she described Elizabeth Bennet as, well I’ll let her tell you.
Actually, now I really want to watch that movie! I do love Elizabeth more than Mr. Darcy. She’s such a modern woman. If you would take her exact words and characteristics from 200 years ago, she would still be considered modern and relevant today. Casee did a great post today on how amazing Elizabeth is which sums up my thoughts perfectly.
If you’re looking to celebrate 200 years of Pride & Prejudice, please join me with this Bicentary Challenge hosted at Austenprose. I came across it a couple of weeks back and it sounds like so much fun. I’m going whole hog and signing up for the Aficionada challenge (9-12 selections). I’m actually hoping to focus more on new items as opposed to re-reads although there are a few of those. I’m so excited to read Bridget Jones’s Diary again, I can’t even tell you.
January: The Jane Austen Marriage Manual – Kim Izzo (book)
February: Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding (book)
March: Bride & Prejudice (film)
April: Pride & Prejudice – Jane Austen (book)
May: Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife – Linda Berdoll (book)
June: Pride & Prejudice (2005 film) (I love this movie so much I’m sure I’ll watch it more than once.
July: Mr. Darcy Broke My Heart – Beth Pattillo (book)
August: Lost in Austen (miniseries)
September: Midnight in Austenland – Shannon Hale (book)
October: TBD
November: TBD
December: TBD
Since there are always so many new Austen adaptations I didn’t want to set anything in stone so early on. I’ll update my list as more ideas come in. If you have anything you’d recommend, please let me know!
Are you a Pride & Prejudice fan? What do you love about it?
I can’t believe November is already here! Tonight I went into the grocery store and there were actually gingerbread house kits already for sale. I started to get really stressed about it but honestly I really wanted to buy one. Who doesn’t love a gingerbread house?
This month, I’m so excited to take part in NaNoWriMo! I participated (and completed) the month long challenge the year before last. Unfortunately, I was way too busy last year to even start it and I missed it so much. For those who don’t know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. Its goal is to write 50,000 words within the month of November. The last time I did it, I got off to a slow start and was really behind. It took a lot of work to get caught up and I was so proud when I did.
I’d also like to thank the lovely ladies at Awkward Girls for giving me a large sponsor space on their blog for the month of October. I won it on Oh So Lovely. If you’re not familiar with Madison & Lauren check them out here:
Are you participating in NaNoWriMo this month? What are your plans for November?
Twice a year, the citizens of Winnipeg put their gently used furniture on the curb with the hopes of finding it a new home. Even though I was looking forward to this fall’s curb swap I had no idea when it was. A couple of weekends ago, I figure it out when I drove by and saw items dotted along the front lawn down several streets. I was really hoping to find a coffee table because even though I need a lot of furniture, that was the one item I kept wishing I already had.
Fortunately, at around 8 pm on the Sunday, I drove by this coffee table. After about 10 minutes trying to figure out how to get it in my car (unscrewed the legs!), I had a new coffee table for my condo.
Even though there’s a few scrapes, it’s actually in really good condition. I also really love the detail that that goes around the entire table.
I’m undecided on whether I should paint it or not. Because I’m not obsessed with the idea of painting it, I think I’ll leave as is until I love the idea of changing it. I’m open to suggestions!
What do you think I should do with it? Paint, leave as is or any other suggestion?
Today I sent off the baby blanket and washcloths I made for my cousin’s brand new baby girl Zoey. This is the baby blanket pattern I used. I think it’s my new favourite. It was so easy and yet so pretty. I used Bernat Handicrafter Yarn. I love how soft cotton is. I used thesethreepatterns for the washcloths. I think I have enough baby cotton wool to make one for myself. I love the way it feels on my skin. So soft!!
I really meant to post this yesterday but wow Wednesday really ran away from me. I don’t even know what happened. lol. I went to a networking cocktail party last night and only meant to spend an hour or so. I was there until 10 pm! Hey, it was a good time! I’d just be working anyway.
Before I even start the Rosetta Stone review, I’d just thought I’d tell you a bit about my learning language background. When I really started to think about it, it seemed relevent to how I’d receive Rosetta Stone. I started learning French in school at the age of 8 and I continued to take French class up to and including first year of university. It was elective from Grade 9 up. I always did really well in it. Well, at least in tests, I never really felt confident speaking the language.
With 10+ years of classroom teaching, a besherelleand living in the one of the largest French communities in Canada outside of Quebec, you’d think I’d be completely fluent. But I’m really not at all. Not only is that disappointing, it’s frustrating. All those years and for what? Granted, I can read French very well and when I was in France I was able to buy train tickets and get around town but I expect more. Now, I know this all comes down to confidence. I should just speak French when I go to Le Croissant or my local bibliothèque but I just get freaked out. You know what I do? I think about what I want to say. Then I translate it in my head from English to French. Then I worry about what verb tense to use, if the ending’s ok, if it should be tu or vous and if there’s a masculine / feminine issue. If I go through all that for one sentence how can I ever expect to carry on a conversation? It’s exhausting!
So now that you know where I’m coming from, it’s time for the review:
Every since the first time I saw a Rosetta Stone commercial, I wanted it. It’s just so convincing.
But yikes it was so expensive! However, I tried the online demo and was convinced this would be right for me. I was probably on their mailing list for over a year before I saw the offer to get the full Totale package at about half price. I guess I was feeling wealthy at that moment because I bought the Italiano package immediately. And then I completely panicked. What if it doesn’t work? How could I spend this much money? Oh my God what am I doing?
Here’s what I got:
Rosetta Stone Italiano Totale : Levels 1-5
Headset
Audio companion disc for MP3 players
Here’s what I like about it:
1. You don’t translate anything.
Of course, you do some mental translating when put a picture and word together but there’s no English to be seen. From the moment you log on you’re completely immersed in your new language. You’re not worrying about masculine & feminine. My Quebecois friends tell me that English speakers always complain about masculine vs feminine words. I think it’s really funny that we get hung up on it but I know I can’t wrap my head around why a word becomes one or the other. In Italian, there’s the masculine vs feminine issue too but it’s not discussed or explained. I don’t have to debate it because I’m learning that it’s onlyl one way and that’s just the way it is.
2. You learn in every way. The way it works is that each Unit has one core lesson and then smaller detailed lessons. One lesson is on pronounciation, one on grammar and one is writing, etc and so on. It really helps you remember. You not just repeating a word you hear, you also read it, say it and write it.
3. It really makes you think. I found that particularly in the later units of this level that it’s a lot like problem solving. You have to figure out what’s going on because no one is going to tell you. You might get it wrong but so what? You’ll get the right answer and find out where you went wrong.
4. It’s funny. Some of the photos are just so ridiculous that I actually laugh outloud.
5. The online segment is INCREDIBLE!
This is by far my favourite part of buying Rosetta Stone. With the program, you get access to an online community where you can play games with yourself, with another person or in a group. Each game challenges a different part of learning. For example, in one game you click on all the words you hear in a story that’s being narrated like a bingo. In another, you have to dig for treasure. You only get to see if there’s treasure under the section you’ve clicked on if you conjugate the sentence (described by pics) properly. In fact, for about two weeks, I just stopped with the regular lessons and just played the games. I found that they challenged me more and I didn’t want to just keep moving forward in the lessons if Iwasn’t really comfortable in the subject. Playing against other people is really helpful as well. I was shocked the first time I heard someone talk because I wasn’t expecting that but it really is helpful. After all, in the real world I’m not going to be talking to a computer in Italian. I also appreciated that they organzied an Italian Game Night. They sent an email suggesting a certain date and time for all Italiano users to be online so we could play games together. Sometimes, you might be online by yourself and not get the chance. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend that one but I loved that they thought of it.
The other really great part about the online portion is that at the end of every unit, you can schedule a studio session with other people who are learning the same language and an online native speaking tutor. This video describes it.
I was incredibly nervous about my first studio session. I was actually going to speak Italian in public?! But once we got started my nerves melted away. I was just so impressed that I could understand what she was saying in real time.
What I think could be improved:
1. The online portion expires.
This sucks. I only received 3 months of online access so now I have to pay a monthly fee if I want to join back in. I know some people got 6 months but still it would be nice if that was included for up to a year particularly since I bought the complete set which includes 5 levels. At this point, I’m just going to leave the online portion for awhile and wait until I complete Level 2. Then I might get it for a month, catch up and see how it goes. They even took away the app you could get for your iphone! The app wasn’t the greatest to begin with but now I can’t even use it.
2. A reference guide would be nice
I don’t expect a full on dictionary or grammar guide but a little book of common phrases so you can practice away from the computer would be nice. The kit does come with an MP3 disc as well so you can download lessons to your ipod but you can’t beat a book!
Final thoughts:
That’s really it. For me, this is a great program and I’m getting a lot out of it. Of course, I won’t know how much I really get out of it until I’m in Italy or the next time I watch I am Love. Another great thing about Rosetta Stone that I love is that it has a lot of diversity. Honestly, all ethnicities and ages are included. They also have multiracial families which is really nice to see. I also feel that I get a lot of bang for my buck but for the $500 I paid for it (still pains me to say it). According to their website each level will take 50-60 hours to complete plus the extra time you spend online. So that’s 300 hours of learning in my kit. It’ll cost me $1.67 per hour I spend using it. To me, that’s well worth it. Plus after shelling out that kind of money I’m definitely going to finish it.
I don’t expect that I’ll be fluent by the end of this. However, I feel like if I went to Italy today I would have the basics down. By the end of Level 5, I hope that I will have a really strong base so that I can explore other ways to become fluent which is my ultimate goal. Perhaps I’ll follow this guy’s lead.
Have you ever became fluent in a second language? What worked for you? What are your thoughts on Rosetta Stone? Share your tips I need all the help I can get!
It’s been awhile since I’ve posted a WIPW. That’s because I haven’t been doing anything crafty lately. I missed it!! I was hoping to get 25% of the pattern done by the end of February but that did not happen. It takes longer than you imagine because the needles are small. I feel like I’ve really picked up the pace now that I’m confident in the pattern. Because I’m still so new to crochet & knitting, I tend to second guess every stitch which takes up so much time! Now I can at least watch tv while I do this and not have to run to the pattern every other second. I will give this until next week and then I’ll have to hold off until I finish my cousin’s baby blanket present which has not been started.
The pattern can be found on Ravelry. I’m loosely following the colours in the pattern. The ones I like I’m keeping otherwise I’ll be adjusting slightly. I thik I’m going to keep it with cooler tones but we’ll see how we do. I’ve only been buying the yarn as I get to it to try to keep my stash at a manageable level. Honestly, Ravelry is the coolest place every for knitting ideas and patterns. I paid for this one and it was worth every penny ($4 AUD)! Ravelry has helped me learn a lot and has made me more confident in my knitting. If you’re into knitting and crochet and you’re not on Ravlery, you really have to get on there!
This is my first knitting project with cables! For some reason, I was really freaked out by it but it’s really not that difficult at all. Just another example of something looking scarier than it actually is. I’m hoping to make two of these. One in this dusty pink that you see here and another in cream. It would be a good little cushion for when my friends are over and some have to sit on the floor. The pattern can be found here.
Since the cowl is now complete (hooray!), I knew I’d definitely need matching mittens so I’m using this pattern from Bernat c/o Ravelry. I do like the looks of the scarf as well so I’m thinking of making it in another colour perhaps red. It’ll go great with a hat I made a few months earlier.
{This moment of flirtation is everything.}
