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Bonjour! Yes, I am aware that I haven’t posted in something like 7 million years. This week has been super-busy with the semester starting this passed Monday so I’ve have my head in psychology, sociology, accounting and French! I’m done for the week now (yep, Fridays off, so 3-day weekend, here I come ) and I’ve got a bit of time for some blogging.

To be honest, the week didn’t start out all that well. Last weekend and until about Tuesday I had been experiencing a lot of confidence and anxiety issues which did not make for the most enjoyable time. I was actually more anxious about beginning this semester than I was about beginning my first ever semester at university! I think that is probably because I know what to expect now and I’m not going in with the naiveté I was last year. I know there is a lot of hard work involved — you don’t just how much until you experience it — and that (for me) I end up working my butt off and having bugger-all time for anything else (like hobbies). Anyway, I digress. Fortunately I managed to pull myself out the funk with the help of some lovely people, namely my boyfriend and my mum. They are the best. So, the last two days have been really quite fun.

My accounting course is about developing financial literacy, so we’re learning how to wisely manage our money, including: saving, investing, retirement saving (in NZ we have something called KiwiSaver) and that sort of thing. There isn’t heaps of reading and the textbook, Get Rich Slow by Mary Holm (who is also the lecturer), was originally written for general population consumption, so it’s non-academic and thus very straightforward to read and understand. The assignments are also looking to be very straightforward and not too time consuming.

Sociology (cultural studies and theory) may turn out to be the one with the biggest amount of reading involved. Two big textbooks, some other required readings, and lists of recommended readings which our lecturer really recommends, lol. The reality is that no one is likely to read all of it, unless this is the only course they’re doing. Fortunately sociology is not terribly difficult for me to grasp and my previous sociology course has given me some decent background knowledge. I don’t think I’d want to be taking this one if I’d never taken a sociology paper before.

Psychology (mind, brain and behaviour) is probably going to be the one I find most challenging, but that’s a good thing in the grand scheme. Maybe not so much when it’s 3am and I don’t get something, no matter how much background research I do… But oh well, that’s what tutors and lecturers are for — to bug when you don’t get stuff. Bug, bug, and bug some more if necessary. We’ve just finished the research methods lectures and next week we start the statistics ones. Oh joy… Statistics is not something I am particularly fond of but I better get used to it because it’s a huge part of psychology (and I have to take a Stage 1 paper in it if I want to major in psych, which I do).

And lastly there is French! Learning a new language is so much fun and the tutors are marvellous. I have four classes a week and two tutors (two days each) who are both lovely ladies from France, Audrey and Marion*. This week has been fairly easy but I know things will become more challenging as we progress and I look forward to it! It may be early days yet, but I think I would like to continue on with French with the goal of eventually reaching fluency. Hopefully this will be aided by actually living in France for awhile, at some point.

Ok, phew, that was a lot of get through! I think I remembered all the main points of that poor lost post.

Tomorrow I’m off to stay at my boyfriend’s place for a week or so. We get to play house for a bit, though sadly I don’t think either of us will have time to do any baking. For some reason I always think ‘playing house’ should include baking. Probably because I have a sweet tooth. Speaking of which, I had my first ever macaron yesterday (yeah, I know, nearly 22 years without ever having one before, where the hell have I been??) and HOLY SWEET THINGS it was good. It was probably the most delightful, decadent treat I’ve had in a long time. I think you should go and find a macaron and try one if you never have before!

Loves!

*Same names as two of my favourite French actresses, Audrey Tautou and Marion Cotillard!

Anyway, because I don’t have anything decent to write about here is a link to an amusing blog post about the confusing nature of fruit and vegetables. And berries. Do read!

*I swear that dealing with StudyLink is actually harder than doing my degree.

Pretty laptop bag that makes me feel more business-like than student.

Today my mama and I went to get my textbooks and a locker for the year. I have to take my French textbook to every class, which is a pain in terms of lugging it to the class I have straight after, but nevermind. Nothing a chiropractor can’t fix, right?

Before I go, I want to share a little something with you. The other night I was going from my room to the house when I saw this little guy or girl! Cute! It stayed while I snapped a few photos and then decided the flash was evil, enough was enough, and waddled off.

One thing I learned from my first semester and going through exams is that it is imperative my study notes are all organised throughout semester and that I methodically work through all the material so that there is as little cramming as possible at the end of it. The worst is feeling bogged down by loads of information that’s barely making sense.

The other thing I learned was not to set myself too many tasks to do in a short space of time. I am notorious for having giant to-do lists and a ridiculous amount of time to complete it all in; it’s often just not possible to accomplish it all. Unless I suddenly turned into Super Woman or something. Doing this only ends in irritation because I become cross with myself for not completing everything. Though I would probably accomplish more if I also got a hold on the procrastination and managed my time to every minute detail. I guess, with a lot of things, I just like to take my time. I’m not one of these hyper people who rush about doing whatever it is they’re doing. I’m methodical and I find myself feeling stressed if I rush myself too much. Hrm. :/

So, 2010 will see me not procrastinating and not over-stretching my time! I vow to you, to the universe, to any potential god(s) and/or goddess(es), to my ancestors, to my future children, to…to…Twisties chips and ginger ale, to my mother and father, and most importantly, to myself. I do. I vow it whole-heartedly.

I think I should make a deal with someone that if I don’t honour this vow I should have to get all my hair cut off or something.

Anyway, time for me to get going and do a couple more things online before I ice my dad’s birthday cake (carrot). Happy birthday, Dad! Love you! ♥

I used to be a bit anti-Valentine’s Day. Well, anti-the commercialisation of Valentine’s Day, which ultimately clouded anything that was actually nice about a day for celebrating love as opening and as cheesily as one wants. But what can I say? I’m crazy in-love with an amazing guy who treats me beautifully every single day. So even without a day like today, I would still feel like the luckiest woman in the world to have such a perfect man! I still wanted to do something a little extra-special today though, because I’ve never ever celebrated Valentine’s Day before. Fortunately he didn’t scrunch up his nose about it.

Both of us are pretty broke at the moment so I came up with the idea of not spending any money. We’d basically have to be creative and use whatever we had on hand to make gifts. I decided to write him a letter and make it look a bit fancy with some fun folding. He wrote me a beautiful poem and made a funny and cute Venn Diagram. We actually ended up giving them to each other on Wednesday because we couldn’t wait and weren’t entirely sure if we’d get to spend today together, which we’ve actually been able to do. We’ve had a really relaxed day, watched TV, made food, etc.

From Kate Bangs.

I hope you’re all having a wonderful Sunday and a thoroughly gorgeous Valentine’s Day if you celebrate it. V-Day shouldn’t be just about romantic love, but every kind of love, so we shouldn’t forget to let our friends and family know how much we love them! Much love to all my readers. ♥

From riptheskull.

From Amy Honey.

I went to the library yesterday and came home with a nice pile of books! Here’s a taste from one.

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

1. Grab your current read.
2. Let the book fall open to a random page.
3. Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
4. BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
5. You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given.

There isn’t terribly much agreement about when or how crocheting developed, but it is known that the first printed crochet pattern appeared in a Dutch magazine (my peeps!) early in the nineteenth century. Over the next few decades, crochet became well established in Europe as a way to re-create the look of fine laces that were available only to the extremely wealthy, making them affordable to a much larger portion of the population.
Stitch ‘n Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker by Debbie Stoller

I’m quite enjoying the way this book is written; Stoller’s quite witty and makes reading a book about crochet fun. Some other needle work books are so boring I look at the pictures and that’s about it…

Yes, I am preparing for winter by making winter accessories now, such as hats. The latest in my crochet accessory collection is a neck warmer/cowl, the idea of which came from Holly’s guest D.I.Y at A Beautiful Mess. I’m a scarf girl and would wear them all year round if it wasn’t so hot during summer, so I when I saw this idea I knew I’d love it!

It took me a little while to get the hang of making ‘granny squares’ and I ended up resorting to YouTube as I found most written instructions a bit confusing. I learn better by seeing someone do something anyway, and following along as necessary. Once I figured it out, they were a breeze to make. I will definitely being adding my cowl collection and crocheting some colourful ones!

Please excuse my tired looking self. I woke up before 5am this morning, naturally, so instead of going back to sleep and waking to my alarm at seven, I decided to get up and do some yoga instead. I love waking up early without an alarm because I always feel like I’ve had a much better sleep and so I feel fresh and ready to start the day. Alarms are evil! If only I could rely on my body to wake up naturally early.

Have a lovely Monday (or Sunday if it still is in your part of the world)!

Earlier last week my dad asked me if I would create a website for our family farm, which I was more than happy to do, so I’ve been playing with that most of today. The design is close to being finished but some of the content will take awhile to be published because I’m not the one writing it. That’s actually fine with me because I’m probably a bit more at home playing with graphics and writing code.

And now for more crafty news.

On Thursday night I had an urge to make a needle book because I didn’t have anything decent to store my needles in (pin cushions are hopeless because needles can disappear inside, where they lie in wait to poke the crap out of your poor unsuspecting fingers!). I was feeling too lazy to design my own, so after much searching I finally found the cutest needle book pattern ever! Skebba designed the book to look like a letter which you unfold to reveal four pages inside for your needles. This is one of my most favourite designs for a functional item! Love, love, love.

My sewing is not overly neat because I’ve barely ever used a sewing machine, despite my mum owning one my entire life and my love of hand-sewing. One would think that I would have hours of experience, but no. I use the machine so little than every time I do use it I have to get Mum to show me how to thread it… However, I think I have finally unleashed the sewing machine junkie within me because I had a lot of fun. I even had to teach myself a couple of things (Mum had, um, gone to bed by this point so I couldn’t ask her, lol) as well: how to put new thread onto a bobbin, and how to catch the bobbin thread with the needle thread. Now I want to sew other things, but I’m not sure what. Any ideas?

Check out Skebba’s Flickr group for her tutorials!

Happy Sunday! ♥

I’ve had quite a busy and exhausting day. Toddlers will do that you to, though! On Thursdays my mum looks after my 17-month-old niece and today I tagged along with them to do grocery shopping and pick up a few stationary supplies I needed. Persia is a pretty good baby and quite happy to sit in the trolley while going round the supermarket, though this is much more successful if there are snacks on hand. If there aren’t any, she’ll eat the plastic bag the bread comes in. I’m serious! Luckily we were armed with some goodies for her to munch on while mum and I battled the unusually busy store. There were swarms of people everywhere! It really is never like that at that time of day, unless it’s going to be a holiday. It was scary in there!

After our errands we brought my niece back to our house for a few hours. She played with other people while I sorted and almost-successfully reorganised 3 sets of drawers in my room. My arts and crafts supplies are all in one place, my stationary is nice and handy, and last semester’s course stuff (notes, research, assignments, etc.) are neatly stored away. Now I just need to find room for the pile of other stuff I couldn’t fit anywhere!

Earlier in the afternoon I took a break from all that sorting, just in time for Persia’s nap. She had her bottle and slept on my bed while I half-napped next to her. I love doing that. Sleeping babies are so wonderfully adorable. Sadly, her nap was cut short because my dad was building something and took that moment to use a hammer rather loudly! Poor Pershi woke with a fright but was content to lie on the bed finishing her bottle and poking me in the eyelid every time I shut my eyes to rest, lol. She’s probably the only person in the world I would tolerate poking my eyelids!

Right, I shall go and put my laundry away while pondering what to do with my stuff!