Shadowing Practice: everything changes in the first days of fall 🍂 self-employed artist diaries - Learn English Speaking with Video
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348 sentences
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good morning guys welcome
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or welcome back to the channel today is sunday i have a lot of sculpting
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that i want to do but before
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that i want to make some scones i got this mix
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from world market should be pretty easy to make i'm just really excited to have some scones with my coffee, so I'm going to try to make them really fast.
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It says in a bowl, add water to mix
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and stir with a fork
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until combined all right
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that seems pretty good to me now it says to just put 12 heaping tablespoons onto a baking sheet
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okay i could only fit nine of them
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but i think they look pretty good i know scones aren't supposed to look perfect anyway
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so i'm hoping they just look like scones by the end of this into the oven for 16 minutes
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okay i'm really happy with them they look so cute this one's a little wonky but that's okay
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you guys i wish you could smell this right now it
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smells like fall it smells like the craft store like william
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sonoma i've been wanting to make these scones for the longest time
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but i think i was just waiting for like the perfect like fall day
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but i realized like today's sunday and it's good as any it's already september 19th so cheers
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really crispy on the outside and soft in the middle
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okay now i'm ready to work we are here in my little art studio
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and like i said i want to do a lot of
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sculpting this week is going to be a little crazy because we are launching uncomfy World.
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It's the project that I've been working on alongside three other women for the past nine months.
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I hired an illustrator
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and two web developers to help me create a virtual world for all of my clay pieces to live in.
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Basically, it's like a little love letter to little Tammy who
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grew up in the early 2000s with dress -up games and Build -A -Bear Workshop and clay.
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It's all of those three things combined.
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You get to choose your character, customize it, name it, and then I will make it for you
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and hopefully make it a really really special experience for you at the same time.
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So last week I designed the certificate of authenticity.
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I already opened it up and here is what they look like.
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I don't know if you can tell I ordered it on a linen piece of paper
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and the texture of the paper isn't what I imagined it to be.
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It's kind of very grainy and it's not really giving what I thought it would
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so I actually reordered the certificates with two different types of paper to see which ones I like better.
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The good thing about everything being made to order is
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that I have a lot of time to work out these things like paper
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because the earliest batch is not going to be shipped out for another month
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so I'm really trying to perfect these certificates for you guys.
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But yeah this is my first time making something like this so I'm really excited.
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I also made the prototype for the clay characters last week
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but it cracked and I also cannot find it for the life of me
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so this morning we are gonna remake the prototype.
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I'm actually gonna sculpt two of them today
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because i want to hit two birds with one stone i gave my friends amanda
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and emmy early access to my site and these are the characters
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that they created they both happen to be bears
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which i thought was so cute so i'm gonna make them their characters
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and they're gonna be the very
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first uncomfy world characters ever Here we go.
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I love you, too.
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Let's go.
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all right guys it's about 5 40 now
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and i just finished glazing both of these guys i ended up making one keychain
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and one desk friend just to show people
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that this is what it'll look like
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if they order a figurine instead of a charm it's just
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a little guy who sits like this i also printed out
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some of these custom character stickers for people who can't afford
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to buy a clay piece i wanted to make sticker packs for y 'all as well, so I did that.
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I think they look so cute.
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The sticker pack is going to come with five stickers, and two of them are going to be custom made for your custom character, just like this.
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And then here are the other stickers.
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They're just little stickers of the artwork from the website that I really, really love, especially this little retro flip phone.
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I had a flip phone growing up, and it was like one of the best memories of my life.
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The original plan was for me to just photograph everything right now, but it's really cloudy.
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I didn't think the sun would set this fast yet
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because it's technically not officially fall yet
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but i guess the equinox is going to happen in two days
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so it makes sense that the sun sets so fast
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but i'm not sure if the sun has set yet or
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if it's just cloudy so i think i'm gonna go try to take some photos of these
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and maybe the clouds will break as soon as i get there you never know with colorado success
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after a long day of sculpting nothing makes me feel better than being in my jammies
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and taking off my makeup and you guys know
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that i deal with hormonal acne quite a bit
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but it's gotten a lot better
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and i've actually simplified my skincare routine over the past few months i'm learning
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that healthy radiant skin comes with consistency not complexity
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and this omnilux contour face mask makes it easy to incorporate
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clinically proven led light therapy into your daily routine for just 10 minutes
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so i'm just gonna put this on now and i'll see you in 10 minutes
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the omnilux contour is dermatologist recommended fda cleared
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and designed with wavelengths known to stimulate collagen smooth texture
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and keep your skin glowing
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and you can use my all right i just unloaded my dishwasher
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while doing my face mask at the same time so
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that is the power of habit stacking this thing is super nice
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because it automatically sets it for 10 minutes
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so you don't have to set a timer
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or anything it's preset for you and once you're done you just put it back into this little travel sachet.
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Now I'm gonna do the rest of my skincare.
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I'm going to take a look at this.
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I'm going to take a look at it.
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I'm going to take a look at it.
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I'm going to take a look at it.
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I'm going to take a look at it.
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I'm going to take a look at it.
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I'm going to take a look at it.
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I'm going to take a look at it.
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I'm going to take a look at it.
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I'm going to take a look at it.
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I'm going to take a look at it.
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Thank you.
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Thank you.
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Thank you.
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yeah we did a test order we i did i signed
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the guest book i did too wait ali okay you should make a character
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if you can
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and add it to the guest book we did a bunch of like audits this morning too
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so it should be like good performance wise
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and stuff i try it was trying desperately to get a good page flip animation
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and i had to give up because i got one
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but it wasn't good like i had one
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and i was like that's gonna i can just like keep working on it but that
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hello it's been a couple days we're on the floor
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oh someone just made an order we're on the floor today
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because i just want to chat a bit
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and feel a little more grounded also transparently everything is a
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mess right now there's literally no table space to even put my camera on
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because of the tornado
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that is my small business after a launch i haven't even started sculpting yet
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and everything is a mess because of all the product photos
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and i recently just got a new shipment of these certificates of authenticity
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so i was testing out what they would look like with the little flower stamp
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and i love them i feel like they just look
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so much better than they did originally which I'm really happy about
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but needless to say I just have to update you guys
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on how the launch went for Uncomfy World real quick this is truly like the passion project
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that I was working on for the past nine months actually I think it's better
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if I just show you welcome to Uncomfy World it's my
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new website that's completely interactive for the design of the website I wanted to make it look like my desk
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and that you were encountering my workspace and just like rummaging through my things.
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This is like a tiny clay workshop where you can build your friend.
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This fountain pen is my about page.
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I really like how the picture here moves too.
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This little book is the shop all.
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This little letter is my email newsletter.
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The contact page is designed after the very first flip phone
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that I have and I love Polaroids
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and this is where the community board slash guest book is
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but my favorite part of this website is actually the radio
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because the dad of one of the developers actually composed all this music just for this project.
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I personally feel like the music makes this feel
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so much more like a game so you can keep this tab open
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and play music while you build your friend
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and yeah this is the friend builder you can make a keychain some stickers a desk friend
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or just play for fun and i feel like i've showed this part already
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but i'm really proud of this everything is hand illustrated by my dear friend ally
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and it's just it's the best thing ever you can customize
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the house name it of course i always name mine winnie
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and then you can save the polaroid as a digital keepsake
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because everyone deserves a little whimsy you don't have to pay for this at all
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or you could add it to the guest book this is
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where the community is where everyone has created their own character
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and sent a little message to everyone as well
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and this little guest book is what i'm actually proud of the most
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because it's tangible proof that real life people are enjoying this site
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and feeling the cozy and whimsiness
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that i've tried to design into every aspect of this project like even more than the sales
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that i made from the keychains
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and the desk friend like even more than the money i'm just
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so happy that people are playing this little game and and
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that it's bringing joy to them i got an email from a mother saying
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that she played this all morning with her daughter
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and like i absolutely just burst into tears
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because i remember the feeling of being a little kid too
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and feeling like i shouldn't burden my parents by asking for things, but you can bet I spent all day playing online games like free little mini games on my family's computer
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and it just made up so much of my childhood
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so far we have 898 friends who have shared their little friend with us
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and it just means the world to me
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that i was able to make this little world for almost 900 people
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and it's only been four days we launched on tuesday
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which was the fall equinox and today is saturday
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so i think by next week we'll definitely have over a thousand uncomfy world friends in our little guest book
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so my favorite thing recently instead of scrolling through instagram i've
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just been obsessively reading every entry in this guest book here
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we have cider cider loves baking in short walks to the
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coffee shop they also never miss the chance to meow at
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the full moon we also have bread full who says to be warm
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and soft like bread i love how creative you guys are
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with the outfits like literally none of them look the same y 'all are very creative with the names too.
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One of them is named Latte the Bear, Lemony Gigi, Bon Bon Pumpkin Spice, and of course we can't forget about Egg.
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So yeah that is Uncomfy World.
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I hope you can tell how much love
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and care went into this website and I hope you can feel that you know real people made this.
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Like everything is based on the handmade clay sculptures that I made for the past five years.
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I creative directed everything all the illustrations are hand -drawn the
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web developers have their dad make the music for the site
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and yeah i hope you get to check it out
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if you have time i really do hope
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that this is just the start of uncomfy world we have
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so many ideas the dev team really wants to make little mini games for you guys
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so imagine like a maxine panko game comment down below
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if that's something you're interested in because i don't know
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that would be a crazy side quest if i went from a cozy artist to cozy game developer.
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Anyway here's a look at the mess
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that I've made this past week due to the launch and it's not just in the studio.
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My life has just been such a mess outside of
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that as well because as some of you guys know I am moving.
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Realistically it's gonna get much worse than this.
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Technically this is the calm before the storm
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so since today is Saturday I figure this is a good day as any to do a little 90 minute apartment reset.
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I've done this a couple times in the past.
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It's where I follow this schedule to quickly tidy up my apartment as fast as I can
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and not let perfection or obsession get in the way because life is just entropy.
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Everything is going to come back to the state of chaos.
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So believe it or not, I wasn't planning on doing an apartment cleanup in this video, but it needs to be done.
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So we're actually going to start here in the living room
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and sorry if you hear hooten
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and hollering outside I think there's like a huge event going on
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but I'm gonna edit this schedule just slightly
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because it allots 15 minutes for mopping
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but I am lucky enough to have a little robo vacuum
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so I don't actually have to do
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that myself instead I'm gonna allot those extra 15 minutes for picking up
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and putting things away because I just know myself
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that part is what's gonna take the longest for me I'm
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so excited to get everything clean and put away
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because I feel like for the past month I've just been having such a hard time with object permanence and finding things.
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Maybe it's because of stress, but I'll literally put down my phone and five minutes later have no idea where it went.
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Same thing with my house slippers or my water bottle.
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I'll have to go through the whole apartment for like 10 minutes straight to even just find any of those things.
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And not going to lie, it's been like a really big damper on my time management
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because I just spend so much time trying to look for shit.
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So I think this cleanup should help.
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Okay, I have a 30 -minute timer.
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Let's do it.
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Fun fact, my makeup bag
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that I use every day is handmade by one of you guys who sent it into my P .O box, so thank you so much.
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okay guys I finished my makeup desk I decided to also aggressively declutter at the same time as this
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because I'm moving
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so soon like I really don't want to be carrying all of this stuff with me
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so I just put all of my old makeup
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that I don't use in this box I saved some palettes to give to my sister
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but the rest of them i'm just gonna have to throw away they're either too old
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or expired or i'd feel gross giving it away to someone else as far as time goes
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that literally took more than half of the 30 minutes chat am i cooked now
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that i think about it every time i do this 90 minute challenge i never successfully do it
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but i think the point is just to add some pressure a little bit of fun
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so that i don't just dilly -dally
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and spend literally all day organizing like one thing um
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because i tend to do
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that scratch the 90 minutes we're gonna give myself an additional 60 minutes just to organize
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and declutter because i am kind of multitasking
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so i'm resetting the clock to an hour to tidy up my whole apartment i think that's pretty doable
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and we're restarting
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I'm going to add a little bit more to it.
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I'm going to add a little bit more to it.
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I'm going to add a little bit more to it.
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I'm going to add a little bit more to it.
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I'm going to add a little bit more to it.
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I'm falling in love I'm falling in love
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I'm falling in love I'm falling in love I'm falling in
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love I'm falling in love I'm falling in love I'm falling
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in love I'm falling in love I'm falling in love I'm
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falling in love I'm falling in love I'm falling in love
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I'm falling in love I'm falling in love I'm falling in
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love I'm falling in love I'm falling in love I'm falling in love
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I'm falling in love The living room is all tidied up.
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I'm going to stop the timer now.
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The main thing that I really wanted to tidy up was my couch area
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because that's kind of where I nest and do all my editing work and journaling and stuff like that.
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So it was just a lot of my clutter around that area, honestly.
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So I found a little shelf in our media console where I can put all of my journaling stuff.
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And I don't know why I didn't think of that sooner instead of just having it on the couch.
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Now we have half an hour left to do the office, which you guys saw earlier.
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But before that, a little treat for myself.
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I have some crisp apple olipop and then some treasure joe's oat creamer.
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I'm gonna make myself a little midwestern soda
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Tastes like fall
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okay guys I finished tidying up my office space which actually didn't take that much time at all.
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I think it just looked a lot worse than it actually was.
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The last thing I have to do for this area is refill my printer ink.
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I've been meaning to do this all week, so let's do it.
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all right now all the colors are full speaking of printers this whole time
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that i've been cleaning my 3d printer has been running i
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think it just finished printing here she is i ended up
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moving the 3D printer from my living room into this little workshop because it just makes so much sense.
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I don't know why I didn't think of that at first.
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Here's what I printed.
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It's a little shelf for my little sculptures.
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Here's the vision.
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Because I just opened up my shop again, I'm going to be sculpting a lot of desk friends
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and I thought this would be so cute to display them and make little videos as I made each one.
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Although this works for my old desk friends like it's perfect
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for this little coffee bara unfortunately my newer desk friends are a little taller
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and like bigger so it doesn't actually fit in this one it's still
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so cute though
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so i'm probably just gonna save this for all of my
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really tiny tiny pieces like i found this little monkey
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that i made for my mom
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when i was like nine years old this one would definitely
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fit here too nine years old versus 22 years old
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so cute now that we're done putting stuff away i can start on the other things.
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So I'm gonna start the robot vacuum so I can do the floors
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while I take Winnie on a walk and then
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when I come back I'll start wiping down all the surfaces
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and do all the fun stuff like the toilets and the trash.
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It's 4 30 right now
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so I think by the time I do everything hopefully it'll only be six o 'clock
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and then I can just enjoy the rest of my night.
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That's my big goal.
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Amen.
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Thank you.
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Thank you.
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okay guys I finished the bathrooms the living room feels
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so good and clean now the last thing I have to do is take out the trash
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all right I took the trash out
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but I think the sun is setting right now so let's go outside and see it Wow
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Well guys, I think we did it.
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I have my tea, I have some orange chicken baking in the oven, and I think that's the end of this vlog i feel like
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so much happened in this vlog
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but it's like a good time capsule of where i'm at
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in my life just a lot of things are happening i've been working on a lot of projects obviously
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but it feels
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so good to actually have one of them wrapped up obviously
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it's not finished per se i still have to sculpt all the orders of course
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and it's my shop so it's like a living thing but it's
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so nice to have it out there in the world instead
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of just in the preparation phase I also wanted this vlog
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to show a bit more of my personal life specifically because next week it's all going to be sculpting.
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I'm excited to film that video but for now, Uncomfy signing out.
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I'll see you next time.
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How do you sleep?
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It's so bad.
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You're right in your turbles.
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Oh no, you're good.
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I actually don't get how the Mavs thinks I can get out from the house.
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Here we go.
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Thank you.
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Regular.
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Thank you so much.
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You are very welcome.
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Can we get some water?
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I'm going to leave right now.
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I'm so wild.
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I'm so wild.
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Thank you.
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Thank you.
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Thank you.
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We're going to grab some syrup or water, maybe anything else.
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I'm hushin' the dog on the tank
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I'm winding up stones on the edge of the bank Rally the troops for another refrain
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I sing this softly to myself I sing this softly to myself
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I'm buried beneath the sand There's no way to speak
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or reach out my hand Watching the paper slowly unfold
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B1 speaking lesson is built on the video “everything changes in the first days of fall 🍂 self-employed artist diaries”. This video has 348 sentences and 3897 words to shadow. The speech runs for 31:00. The speaker talks at a steady 126 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 82% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| sculpt verb | /skʌlpt/ | To form by sculpture. |
| uncomfy adjective | Uncomfortable. | |
| sticker noun | /ˈstɪkə/ | Something or someone that sticks (pierces, or adheres). |
| clay noun | /kleɪ/ | A mineral substance made up of small crystals of silica and alumina, that is ductile when moist; the material of pre-fired ceramics. |
| scone noun | /skoʊ̯n/ | A small, rich, pastry or quick bread, sometimes baked on a griddle. |
| printer noun | /ˈpɹɪntɚ/ | One who makes prints. |
| flip verb | /flɪp/ | To throw so as to turn over. |
| developer noun | /dɪˈvɛləpɚ/ | A person or entity engaged in the creation or improvement of certain classes of products. |
| certificate noun | /səˈtɪf.ɪ.kɪt/ | A document containing a certified statement. |
| cosy adjective | /ˈkoʊzi/ | Affording comfort and warmth; snug; social and comfortable. |
| keychain noun | /ˈkiːˌt͡ʃeɪn/ | A chain or ring to which a key may be attached. |
| vlog noun | /ˈvlɑɡ/ | A weblog using video as its primary presentation format. |
| tidy adjective | /ˈtaɪ.di/ | Arranged neatly and in order. |
| timer noun | /ˈtaɪmɚ/ | A device used to measure amounts of time. |
| bake verb | /beɪk/ | To cook (something) in an oven (for someone). |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| tidy up verb | To make clean, to make satisfactorily neat. |
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. |
| come back verb | To return to a place. |
| dress up verb | To put on special or fancy clothes. |
| give up verb | To surrender (someone or something); to inform on (someone). |
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. |
| grow up verb | To mature and become an adult. |
| have over verb | To host (a visiting guest) at one's house. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- I'm going to take a look at this.
- I'm going to take a look at it.
- I've done this a couple times in the past.
- I'm going to stop the timer now.
- Can we get some water?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | i've been wanting · I've been working · I've just been having |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has set · i've actually simplified · it's been |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | being made · be shipped · is designed |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | guy who sits · people who can · friends who have |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 149 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, gonna, I've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: authenticity /ɑθɛnˈtɪsɪti/, beneath /bɪˈniːθ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: workshop /ˈwɝk.ʃɑp/, shelf /ʃɛlf/, dishwasher /ˈdɪʃˌwɑʃɚ/, shipment /ˈʃɪpmənt/, obsession /əbˈsɛʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: developer /dɪˈvɛləpɚ/, certificate /səˈtɪf.ɪ.kɪt/, authenticity /ɑθɛnˈtɪsɪti/, technically /ˈtɛk.nɪˌkəl.i/, dermatologist /ˌdɝ.məˈtɑ.lə.d͡ʒɪst/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like sculpt, uncomfy, sticker.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.