Pinning while mourning my computer

My computer is dead.. I saw it coming, she gave me signs...  Lately, she didn't want to run, sometimes she would go to sleep every 10 minutes or just froze, thought she was being lazy.
It's been fun these 6 years...  last year you almost deleted my hard disk where I store all my pics, music and projects, or that is what you made me believe for an everlasting week :S
 New parts-new OS-repeat and you are still bit--ing...
 I guess it's time to let her go and buy a new one... a compact one to travel with a powerful video card to enjoy movies and games. Or maybe she will raise from the dead... like many times she has.

My marbles are still in place... not. Writting to a inanimate object is not sane.. I know.
Another insane activity (well, at least I share it with many others) I've been doing is... pinning, pinning, liking, laughing, awing and pinning.

I created an account at Pinterest, I found out about it at Smashed Peas and Carrots and I was like why not?.. to be honest, at first I didn't like it nor saw a good use in it.
I'm a very visual person and I love organizing, after making my first board... I couldn't stop :)

My first board is about all the pillow/cushions tutorials I had tagged/saved in my Google Reader, there are many of them I didn't even remember, so Pinterest is great for this.

Multitasking day(s)

uhm where to start....
Over a week ago I saw focaccia recipes everywhere (I love italian food), it didn't seem too complicated so I wanted to give it a try, since my brother's birthday was coming, it was the perfect opportunity. So I made it happen, wrote down 2 recipes that looked the best and made my own with bits of them and it worked out really well, I wanted to make buns with the dough leftovers but my brother was like... "why don't we make a pizza out of it?"

This is what is left for tomorrow (and the day after tomorrow and who knows) (lots of food -.- but you don't turn 29 everyday):
 

Today I've also been watching videos at lockerz, they give you more points for watching videos today and since the redemption is coming soon and I have enough points to TRY to trade for 25 bucks on my paypal account (I'm looking forward to buy a rotary cutter on etsy), I made the most of it and watched threadbanger's videos, interesting things there.
There were also idiotic videos like some girls talking emptyheadedgirly stuff, I can't believe such people can be so airheaded, it's so ridiculous that it looks fake... come on, who cares if your bf wears designer underwear that cost more than a car! or if your miniature dog's farts smell like flowers! or if a "newsupahottop" iphone gadget gives you massages! come on!... so with just reading the video tittles ("Pink is in, Julia is out" or "Sex with ex?" or "Strippers"... please, give me a break here >.>) I knew it wasn't good, so I muted them and listened to some good old Beck songs, nice memories there... I used to lol at this video when it was first released, I was like 11 or 12 and the image of the fridge humping the cooker was to die for, also the songs sounds so... happy, like No rain by Blind Melon with the little bee that kinda looks like the girl from Little Miss Sunshine.

DANCE LITTLE BEE!! ^^



 These days, and today, I've been crocheting a little, I still have this endless "square net sweater"

but I know I'm going to complete it... this time.

Seriously... I do. Oh and there is also a peek at the crochet cushion cover I made for the white cushions I also made :p, I just need to make the other one.... so lazy

Also while I was waiting for the dough to rise I tried to knit with these double point needles I bought today... I almost bought them on etsy because no craft store had them or the size I needed, funny thing is that I didn't even know their name in Spanish (I think I heard it on a craft show here but I first knew about them in English) so I was like translating it and I found out the name "agujas para medias" or... sock needles... it seems nobody knit them anymore but I saw oooh so pretty sock patterns on ravelry!

The result of me getting started in ... this technique, more here.
Well, it is a nice "thumb cosy"
I'm excited with this.... it feels like those moments when your mind is all happy and racing because you accomplished something that seemed too hard,
eg:
- "I'm riding a bicycle on my own!"
- "I'm knitting!"
- "I'm driving!"
- "I finished school!"
- "I won!" (a dressing contest in second life, funny thing it was "best in skirts" and my avatar was wearing a simple one and the rest of the girls were all dressing like ho's... and people voted for me and I won :p)  
- "Opeth is coming!!!" (probably one of the happiest moments in my life, too bad at that time I didn't have someone to share the excitement with)
- "I understand!" (when I read or listen to stuff in other languages that I don't know much about)
- Etc...
And now...
- "I'm knitting with double needles!" 
 

I finished my pattern making course!

Well, actually a week ago but I didn't want to make a post without pics...
So, first we learned how to make skirts (I made a post when I was about to), then how to make vests and here a pic of what I've done. The skirt is made with kind of godets.

It's obvious it's ONLY for practice, the fabric is cheap and I chose those colors only for sight sake :p, and also the vest is not finished, I don't think I'm going to unless I need this for a costume or something.
In those 2 garments I learned how to sew a zipper, invisible stitch, waistband among other things.
The teacher asked us to create designs for a vest for us, so I did it, he loved them, specially the corseted ones, I've not scan them though but we had to make them real so I'm going to make a post about it later.
Then we moved to shirts and learned how to make collars, sleeves and cuffs and finally a pant and then a dress.

I chose this pretty striped black fabric for my pants since I wanted to make something I'd wear, the fabric was very affordable and did I meantion it is striped?, it's a denim corduroy kind of heavy but it's for winter, I have trouble with the crotch though so I'll have to look for a solution on the net one of these days. Good things I remark is that I learned how to make pockets and also sewing the zipper, which I kind of forgot now :p
About the dress, I have this beautiful black satin modal top, I love it but since my chest is too... big it's kind of too revealing so I have to wear it with a kind of bandeau underneath, I still love the shape so I told my teacher I wanted something like it, so he taught me how to do it, the transformation was easier than I thought. And I'm testing the pattern on this cheap cloth before actually going to the fabric I have in mind.
So this is more or less what I've done on the course, now I kind of miss going there but it was going to finish someday.

Also I found this great blog in Spanish, El costurero de Stella, she teaches pattern making and other stuff about sewing,I had the exact same idea of her blog, start to explain the process of pattern making, I love that because I've seen other blogs that only teach the sewing part, which is very important, but you have to buy the pattern or already know how to draw it from scratch so I'm really happy I found Stella, I wish she would have started to write it in English too, I'm starting to rust since I'm not reading crafts blogs everyday so I'm kind of forgetting English sewing terms, I wanted to say "vista" and "cartera", I just can't find the words in my head... oh well... they will come into my mind eventually.

So, I'm still waiting to get my camera

... my perfectionism doesn't allow me to post crappy pictures taken with my cell...so

Here a fan page I found on facebook, CroChet, it has many many graphics on their photos *drool... and there I read that someone said something about Crochetville, I'm sure I checked it before, but I didn't pay attention... I think it's really useful, you can ask if you have doubts or if you are stuck in the middle of a project, and there are patterns, crochet-alongs, tips, different ways to crochet and links to other related sites and shops. I wish there were a page about tatting, I can't wait to learn, I must know how to! I'm really hooked on it, I already thought of many ways of applying tatting designs, in bags, dresses, tops, shoes, scarves...

... right now, I just don't know where to start, I just know I want to crochet/knit/bead/sew SOMETHING! but I finally bought a pair of bag handles for my Christmas present for my mom (I'm going to try to crochet a bag with lining, pockets and everything) and many beads and embelishments for a future project... I can't help myself in the store... there is just, too many pretty things!.. I wish I could buy the entire shop...

Semana de los idiomas 2010

Por Octavo año consecutivo, la Asociación de Centros de Idiomas organiza la "Semana de los Idiomas", del 23 al 31 de Octubre de 2009, con un circuito de actividades especiales en distintos puntos del país, abiertas y gratuitas para toda la comunidad.

La Semana de los Idiomas brinda a la comunidad la oportunidad de reconocer y valorar los distintos idiomas que los estudiantes aprenden en los centros asociados de idiomas de todo el país (inglés, francés, portugués, quechua, español como lengua extranjera, entre otros).

Cronograma de Actividades

 http://www.idiomas.org.ar/Semana_2009_Actividades.pdf 
 Muy interesante todo, pero los que hay en Córdoba parecen que son todos destinados a alumnos que ya están inscriptos en los institutos que participan.

Becas SEA 2010

Hay un concurso este año y se llama "Mis diez palabras favoritas en español o inglés" y de premio hay una beca de estudios para el año que viene. 
Para participar hay que llenar el formulario, hay tiempo hasta el 6 de Noviembre, y la SEA (Asociación de Centros de Idiomas de la República Argentina) ofrece como premio, como dije, 25 becas anuales para realizar cursos de inglés en forma regular.

El programa está destinado a personas de todas las edades, cualquiera sea su nivel de idioma, que cursen la educación formal independientemente del estadío alcanzado y también a aquellos que estén fuera del sistema educativo con el objetivo de brindarles distintas habilidades técnicas que faciliten una mejor salida laboral.

Banderas con comida

Muy original, estas son los platos que más me gustan... o deberia decir las naciones que más me gustan, lastima que no esta la de Argentina :/.

Italia

Brasil

 

Francia

Libano

Indonesia (en realidad me gusta Polonia pero seria este plato al revés :p)

De la feria internacional de comida de Sydney (Sydney International Food Festival). Más fotos acá. Fuente.

Mel's Anatomy

Cool, huh?... I guess I found that pic in an anatomy site or somewhere else, but yay for the site, I just love when I find great sites randomly, and I love anatomy, it's one of my favorite subjects. The site is called Street Anatomy, it has cool stuff, all related to anatomy (... and I wrote many times the word "anatomy" but whatever). Stuff like street art, books, photography, 3D illustration, tattoos, origami and some tutorials... I'm excited about it!!.


Here some pics

Anatomy!

Jak masz na imíe?

I love languages... it's my thing, so far I speak 3 (Spanish, English and Portuguese). And I'm looking forward to learn French and Polish, and I'd like to learn German, Finnish or an Asian language.

I think it's essential to learn new things everyday, and for me, it's essential to learn those things on my both main languages (Spanish and English).

I don't know how (I never know how I find sites, I think the best sites are found randomly) I found a site to learn Polish, and then I ended in a channel on youtube, and that channel guided me to other. (I'm learning English-Polish, English-French and so on, I think it's easier that way because English it's a "plain" language)

They have pretty videos, and they are really easy to understand and practice. The channels are AbcSchoolOfPolish and travellinguist. The last one it's very dynamic and it has a lot of languages to learn from French, Spanish, Portuguese and German to Hebrew, Thai, Russian and many others. Each language has different categories, and each category has 3 levels, in the first one you learn the translation, how to pronounce it (they repeat like 3 or 4 times the word or expression) and how to write it, in the second level you learn how to pronounce it and you hear the word just 2 or 3 times, in the 3rd level you just have to read the word.

Other useful language tool is Wordrefence.com, I go there every time I have doubts, and I have a forum account so, if I want to know how to say, pronounce or define a word or expression I go there and ask and people answer me really quickly.
And also, if you want to know how to pronounce a word or sentence, you can type it in this site, IVONA and you can hear it in English, Polish and Romanian, It is a useful site that people recommened me on the Polish forum.

I'm learning fast, my dad used to tell me that it's easier to learn languages once you have learned 3 or 4.

Do zobaczenia, do widzenia :)

(Language family tree scanned from Almanaque Mundial 2006)

First attempts of Crocheting - Primeros Intentos de Crochet

Horrible, no?... la idea la tenia de otro "trabajo pendiente" y tenia (en realidad mi mamá) la revista original de donde saque el diagrama, pero lo encontré online acá.




Después empecé a buscar tutoriales online, NUNCA me hubiera imaginado que habia blogs de tejido, y encontré algo que me sirve muchisimo, videos con gráficos, es más facil para mi seguir gráficos que instrucciones... sin gráficos me pierdo. En fin, después de mucho buscar encontre un canal en youtube, que es plenamente dedicado a Crochet, la dueña se llama Teresa (explica todo en inglés, y yo mato dos pajaros de un tiro, aprendo crochet y mejoro mi inglés) y está aca y este es el blog.

After googling and googling key words about crochet I found this great channel on youtube, and Teresa, its owner, explains everything so well and with graphics! and in English, perfect match for me. Here her channel and her blog.

Anyway, I began to practice right away... and here are pics of the result, the stitch or pattern on (in? help grammar!) the first pic is called Shell Stitch and it's a basic and easy one. [Tutorials: Video and written instructions] My mom told me it'd be nice to knit a purse using that stitch, I'll think about it...

Lo segundo que hice fue intentar hacer algunos de los motivos que explica Teresa. El primero que intenté fue el de la foto, no sé como es el nombre en español, todavía no soy experta en eso. Cuando se lo mostré a mi mamá me dijo que seria un buen motivo para tejer una cartera... pero me faaalta un largo trecho.

Y este ---> fué el segundo intento, no se si es asi de feo o la calidad de la foto no me ayuda. Pero sí, en realidad iba saliendo mal pero no me daban ganas de destejer y volver a tejer (de por si la lana ya estaba tejida y destejida varias veces) El punto está explicado en video y acá estan los gráficos.

Star Stitch is the name of the second stitch I chose to try, and... it went well, I mean, clearly it doesn't look well, but I was pleased to give it a try. [Video and written instructions] I might knit a pillow cover with this stitch someday.



Estas flores ya salieron un poco mejor, las saque de revistas. La violeta me parecio muy pesada para aplicarla sobre una bufanda, creo que quedaria bien como agarradera de cocina o como una carpeta para un portalapices o algo asi.



Con esta flor estoy haciendo unos apliques para una bufanda para mi vieja (hace años que le teji una y todavia no la termino)





Soy yo, o este --> diagrama (2) no se entiende bien?...