1. Hiya, girls! How are you? I hope you are all having lovely, cozy, joy-filled days!
First things first: I’m over at Faith and Family Live today. I’ve asked readers to weigh in on the question of whether it’s important for women to wear traditionally feminine clothing. I realize it’s a bit of a hot-button topic but I’d love to have you girls head over there and weigh in! Pretty please? 
2. I just discovered a new blog that I am absolutely smitten with! It’s called The Sew Weekly. The author, Mena Trott, aspires to have a closet filled only with clothes that she has sewn herself (with a few exceptions). To accomplish that goal she plans to sew something new every week in 2010 while sharing the adventure with her blog readers. I am particularly excited because so far all the dresses she’s made have been created from vintage patterns (though she just started documenting her journey this month she’s been at it since last fall). Swoon.
3. It’s not right that we are regularly waking up to temperatures in the teens (quite out-of-the-ordinary for us deep South folks) and yet we have not had the tiniest bit of snow. What good is freezing my bum off if there’s not going to be snow? I’m quite bitter about all of this. 
4. Our family just made a new discovery that almost makes the fact that it’s so very, very cold outside bearable. Storyteller Jim Weiss. His voice is amazing! Expressive, soothing and simply intoxicating.
We picked up our very first books-on-tape from the library yesterday and we are hooked! We are currently listening to The Wind in the Willows. I was left speechless after putting this on and watching as my incredibly rowdy boys sat quietly FOR MORE THAN AN HOUR. This is unheard of, ladies. Unheard of! Thank you, Jim Weiss. You have changed my life.
5. Many thanks to all of you who left supportive comments for my friends Devin and Katie Rose. If you haven’t had a chance to leave a comment yet, I know they’d still love to hear from you! And if you did, Devin left a very kind thank you in the combox. I know he’d want you to see it, so go take a peek!
6. I watched Julie & Julia
Inspired by the movie I picked up My Life in France, Julia’s autobiography, from the library. It is supposed to have lots of lovely tales from Julia and Paul’s relationship. I’ll let you know how I liked it when I’m finished.
7. I need to get in as much reading as I can before the new season of television shows gets underway. We don’t actually have cable (which I love) but Mr. Beguiles and I have still somehow managed to get hooked on 24, Lost and Fringe. Luckily for us, they can all be found online soon after they air. I have missed my Jack especially, but I must admit I also have a soft spot in my heart for Benjamin Linus and Walter Bishop. (Though I remain quite upset that the Fringe folks thought it appropriate to off one of my favorite characters this season. They very nearly lost me but I just can’t resist actor John Noble. I won’t name names in case any of you have not yet watched this season but plan to.)
Stroll on over to Conversion Diary to check out more of these fun Quick Takes entries. Thank you, Jen! You’re the hostess with the mostest!
13 Comments
We love Jim Weiss stories. Our library has a bunch — Shakespeare, Astronomers, Ghost Stories, etc. Lots of fun things to listen to in the car.
Thanks so much for the suggestion of Jim Weiss! My four-year-old boy is very interested in audio books, so this was perfect timing. I checked online through my local library and already requested quite a few.
Also, I love Julie and Julia, but where I had a hard time with it is because I watched an interview with Julie Powell recently and found out she had an affair since all of that happened. Her husband and her are still together, but that made me a bit disappointed.
Hi, A few years ago, I was supposed to read Julie & Julia for a bookclub and although I was totally intrigued by the challenge that Julie set for herself, I found her loathsome and I couldn't finish the book. I haven't seen the mvoie yet, but I feel it may be one that is actually better than the book. Is that what you meant by the inaccurate portrayal of Julie Powell? I'm curious.
I'm really enjoying your blog by the way.
I second Carmen – in what way did you find the portrayal inaccurate? I just saw the movie and didn't know much about the blogger prior to. After Googling and reading reviews of her latest book, I was a little put off. Yuck.
And yay for Jim Weiss – we don't have The Wind in the Willows but that's one I think my son would love. My children, nieces and nephew love the American Tall Tales. It's super silly.
Carmen: Yes. They portray her as this sweet, gentle, soft-spoken young girl which, as you know, couldn't be further from the truth. They do show her struggling just a bit with her own sense of self-importance but that's pretty much the only negative aspect of her personality they illustrate. Also, at one point during the movie they bring up the fact that Julia Child was not a fan of Julie Powell's but they don't say why. They just insinuate that Julia Child simply wasn't as perfect as Julie Powell had made her out to be. The whole thing was really disappointing. Nevertheless, The scenes shared by Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci more than made up for it (for me, anyway).
Valerie: I think your son will absolutely LOVE those! Let me know which ones he likes best. So far, we've only listened to The Wind in the Willows. I need to put a few more on hold at the library.
Jordana: Listening in the car! I love it! Thanks for the idea!
Jenn: Thanks for the recommendation! I'll reserve that one soon.
Sounds like we were all disappointed for the same reasons. Of course, I think I'd have despised the movie if they had portrayed accurately so they were probably smart! LOL!
Soft spot for Ben Linus? *gawks* Well, truth be told, I feel somewhat bad for him too. But…not that bad, I guess.
I'm with you on Jack though, and I am a big fan of Desmond. I love the accent!
I clicked over to the F&F post, and I just wanted to share a tip from this Northern girl: I've always found two pairs of hose to be just as warm as pants. I hang onto my nylons that have holes worn in the toes specifically for layering under other stockings, tights, or knee-high socks. Good luck staying warm!
LOVE Jim Weiss! Such an effortless way to soak the kids with background knowledge. We are listening to the Renaissance set right now and I am learning as much as they are!
Thank you for the recommendation of Jim Weiss. Do you think a two year old would enjoy them already?
I am currently in the same boat as you on the clothing issue, living in South Carolina, prefering dresses and skirts and having emptied my wardrobe of anything else and being now eight months pregnant to boot, so with no desire to spend money on pants that I can only wear for another 6 weeks. Well, I have ONE pair of maternity jeans, that I do not like wearing too much.
When not pregnant though, leggings under long skirts (Tznius for example) seemed to work well in keeping me warm.
Hi. I just jumped over from "Faith & Family." I appreciated reading your post about skirts vs. pants … I wear both, but have recently felt more "called" or convicted to wear skirts more often. It's been a challenge to find longer ones, as in below the knee, but I'm slowly adding to my collection …
And I completely agree with your movie review. I really liked the scenes with Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci, who portrayed Julia and Paul. What a charming couple they were! But although they definitely sweetened up the Julie character from the book, I still got annoyed with her (too self-focused perhaps). I could only read about 5-10 pages of the book, and then I closed it for good.
Lastly, my DH and I also are eagerly awaiting "Lost" to begin. It's been a fun show to follow.
Ah!!! I am all over the sew weekly blog…LOVE it, thanks for pointing it out. I also just watched Julie & Julia recently and had the same reaction as you. I started reading the book a while back and just like Carmen, couldn't stand it because Julie Powell is very liberal and crude. My Life in France is on my reading list too =)
We love Jim Weiss, too, and our library has a good selection of his recordings. I don't suggest listening to the "sleepytime mediations" while driving across the country, though. Very…very…relaxing.
We love "Fringe," too, and watch it on Hulu. I was confused because the character you are alluding to was present in the most recent episode up at Hulu and nobody seemed to notice that there had been a resurrection. I am wondering if they upload past episodes out of sequence or if we'd just missed that one before. (I'm talking about the episode where the girl is "possessed").