Monday, September 24, 2012

Listen While You Work


Creating is a mostly solitary occupation. For me it’s lots of quality time spent with my sewing machine, ironing and cutting boards. While I enjoy the silence when I am thinking through a pattern layout or a tricky bit; background noise is usually welcome. Maybe it comes from my Mother reading us stories after lunch and in the evenings as kids, or maybe it is just my love of a good story but I enjoy audio books.

Here’s a few of my favorite places to listen on the web!

  B. J. Harrison has a lovely clear deep voice and reads very well. You can subscribe to his Itunes channel or buy some of his very affordable audio books. He has been on several car trips with the family and his podcast is listened to regularly. Need more reasons to love him:
  • He started Classic Tales and is trying to make a go of it just like I am. Hurrah for small business.
  • It’s classic literature, which I happen to love. He has recorded some of my favorites, like “The Scarlet Pimpernell” and “The Phantom of the Opera” He also has titles I haven’t heard and I feel I am improving my mind as I work. He introduced me to Jeeves as well!

It’s chock full of books in the public domain and read for free by people just like you and me. While the quality is not as good as professionally read books they are free and read by someone who loves the story. I’ve spent many hours there listening to the Father Brown mysteries and other tales.

I confess it is a website geared for children, but who doesn’t love a good fairy tale? Especially when it’s read in a perky british accent. I listen to these online so they take more clicking and are much shorter than the other two sites but I enjoy the lightheartedness. They have great quality and download options too. I liked their original Awaking Beauty series. If you are a crafting mom maybe you can steal some time by inviting your kids to listen while you work!

So what do you listen to while you work? Music? Movies? Audio Books? If you find anything great on the sites I mentioned please let me know! I’m always ready to hear a good story!

4 comments:

Cation Designs said...

Thanks for popping over to visit my blog!

I love feeling like I'm killing two birds with one stone by learning while I sew, so I listen to RadioLab. Their podcasts are just enough science to keep me feeling like I'm not wasting time, but not so heavy that I feel like I need to be totally focused on what they're saying.

I've only tried a couple of audiobooks, but generally I find that I get bored with classic lit while sewing. I should try those fairy tales out!

EmSewCrazy said...

Well thank you right back! I will have to check RadioLab out! Sometimes some of the classics do get a bit much, that's when I zone out for a bit or switch to the fairy tales. They are always fun.

Anonymous said...

I'm working on a pair of knitted mittens from Jane Austen Knits magazine & I listened to Pride & Prejudice on Librivox when I started. It was perfect. But I also love having old movies in the background while I sew. Netflix is great for that. But I can't listen to anything that's new to me, otherwise I don't take in half of what's going on.

EmSewCrazy said...

How appropriate!! I can't wait to see your mittens! Most movies distract me, even ones that I have seen before. Movie time is usually my knitting time since I don't have to be watching what I am doing every stitch.