Talk Like Jane Austen Day: October 30th, 2013

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Talk Like Jane Austen Day Freebie

This is my first Talk Like Jane Austen Day. And I think I’m ready for it. 

Copy of the complete works of Jane Austen? Check.

Love for old, big words and talking in formal, complex sentences? Check.

Excited to go fangirl on an author who has been dead for almost 200 years? Check.

Liked the Talk Like Jane Austen Day Facebook page? Check. 

I could not resist, and I even put together a list of 5 tips for Talk Like Jane Austen Day:

Talk Like Jane Austen Day Button

Admit it, Talk Like Jane Austen Day is at least as cool as Talk Like a Pirate Day. And there are just as many fun, Jane Austen films to watch as there are pirate films.

Also, my Ignite Phoenix presentation on Jane Austen and Argument (or in other words, how to talk like Jane Austen) is now live on youtube. Conveniently, you can also watch it here:

Have an amazing Jane Austen-inspired holiday. Maybe your boss will even let you take the day off.

Ignite Phoenix, Austenland Review, and General Austenness

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Today’s post is on all things Jane Austen. First, my Ignite Phoenix presentation, second, a bunch of Jane Austen pages I added to my website, and third, an Austenland review.

Ignite Phoenix

Friday, October 18th, I’m presenting at Ignite Phoenix on Pride and Prejudice: Jane Austen and the Art of Argument. There are presentations on everything from race car driving to NASA launches to hitchhiking–it’ll be a few hours of action-packed, 5-minute presentations. If you weren’t able to get tickets (or don’t live in Phoenix) you can watch the livestream (details here). It starts at 6:30 p.m. in Arizona (same time as California, for the moment).

Have I mentioned that I’m excited? Or that I made amazing bookmarks to hand out at the After Party?

Jane Austen Bookmarks

New Website Section: Jane Austenness

I went a little crazy and decided to create a bunch of new pages for my website, all about Jane Austen love. You know you want to read them:

Talk Like Jane Austen Day Button Jane Austen Fandom, Statues, and Websites ButtonGet the Books Button Argument in Pride and Prejudice Button

Austenland Review

Austenland

Have you ever wished you could just step in one of your favorite books and live there for a while? That’s the premise of Austenland–a thirty something single woman decides to spend her whole savings to go to an Austen theme park, where she gets to dress and act like a Jane Austen character for a several week period. This is a hilarious film on love, literature, and finding happiness wherever you are. I could not stop laughing, and I really want to see this movie again soon.

Anyone who likes Jane Austen loves this movie. To my family: I want a DVD copy as soon as it comes out–it would make a great gift, hint, hint.

Austenland was an independent film, made on a small budget (though you can’t tell from the film itself) and after premiering at Sundance Film Festival it was picked up by Sony. As such, it’s had a limited theatrical release, but it’s still playing in theaters across the US, and if you like Jane Austen, it’s worth a 20 or 30 minute drive to see. Google Austenland for showtimes near you or visit this website.

Art Museums for 2 Year Olds

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A couple weeks ago I took my 2-year-old to the Phoenix Art Museum–and she loved it. Her favorite exhibit was filled with modern art and was titled, “Order, Chaos, and the Space Between: Contemporary Latin American Art from the Diane and Bruce Halle Collection.”

Sticks at a museum

This was one of the pieces. She got super excited and exclaimed, “Sticks! Touch it?” I said no, she couldn’t touch it, but she enjoyed looking at it from all sides.

In the background you can see one of the other pieces–thousands upon thousands of black butterfly sculptures. They were attached all through the front entrance areas of the museum. It was quite a sight.

Butterflies Butterflies

It’s easy to fall into the trap, when looking at contemporary art, of trying to force meaning. For example, there were four glass boxes, each a different color, so I could read into that feelings of containment over the course of seasons or something along those lines. Here’s what my daughter read into them: “Look! Blue! Look! Yellow! Look! Red!” She experienced pure joy just at the coolness of the boxes and their colors.

My daughter’s approach framed my entire visit. Instead of finding deeper meaning, I just enjoyed the objects and colors as objects and colors, and in doing so, I left the museum with a different, better, fuller perspective. Ordinary things became extraordinary when enlarged (the sticks), filmed (there were three films of tops playing simultaneously), or put into a different context.

My daughter’s favorite part of the exhibit was this piece:

Candy at the museum

You probably can’t tell, but that’s a pile of candy. A very large pile of candy. (My daughter called it chocolate, but to her all candy is chocolate.) There was someone standing nearby, inviting you to take one. We were there in the afternoon, so the piece didn’t look quite as rectangular, and there were open holes on the floor. Candy can be art, and art certainly is sweet. And now my two year old keeps saying, “Go to museum! Get chocolate!”

 

 

The Trouble with Holiday Crafts (Ah, Kairos)

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Last night, I finished an afghan for my parents’ Christmas present:

(In case you’re interested, I slightly modified the  free poinsettia throw pattern from Red Heart.)

I’ve been working on it since late October, and I’m happy with how it turned out. The trouble is that this afghan was supposed to be my parents’ Christmas present six weeks ago. My sister, who was heading home for Christmas, even volunteered to carry it with her on the airplane. Not only that, but it’s a Christmas-themed afghan that they may not even take with them when them move to Africa this summer–kairos, alas!

(And yes–I did cross stitch on top of the single crochet. You could do really cool things with cross stitch on crocheted pot holders…)

Kairos is the opportune moment. That moment in time where things can change, where your words make a difference, where what you do is relevant if you do it then. It’s the reason holiday-themed arts and crafts are so popular: they’re perfect for the season, make meaningful decorations, and help get you into the holiday-spirit, whether that holiday spirit is about scaring children or blowing kisses.

Luckily, I did manage to hit one kairotic moment with this crochet project–my mom flew out this morning, and I finished it just in time for her to take it with her.

It’s easier for me to meet kairotic deadlines for smaller projects like these hand warmers I recently made:

Hand warmers must be given away while it is still cold and wintry. Check.

(I was inspired by these instructions on hello dearie, though I skipped the liners and just used cotton fabric. I used my sewing machine to sew most of them, flipped them right side out, filled them with rice using a funnel, and then closed them using this invisible closing seam.)

The heart hand warmers I made would make great Valentine’s Day presents:

And the four leaf clover hand warmers could be given for St. Patrick’s Day (though I failed the first set by making the stem too narrow, leaving it impossible to fill them with rice):

I was skeptical about whether home-made DIY hand warmers would actually work, but luckily they do. (Heat them for 30-45 seconds in the microwave, and they’ll stay warm for at least half an hour.)

I have no holiday-themed arts and crafts currently played, so hopefully I won’t run into more kairos problems in the near future…

I Love Yarn Day! Video: Reasons Why I Personally Love Yarn

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You may have gathered that I love yarn from my previous post about entering crocheted items into the Utah State Fair. However, it’s fair to give it another post, because I’ve been spending 5-10 hours a week crocheting over the last several months. And today is “I Love Yarn Day”! after all.

To celebrate I Love Yarn Day! I’ve put together a little video of why I love yarn: