vans: a space odyssey

how seriously proud of my child am i that she made these awesome space-inspired vans? real, authentic vans were a spotvare (aka a large load fell off a container) in netto this week and sabin said she wanted a pair that she could paint. hey, for 400 kroner (just do me a favor and don't convert that to dollars), i said, "why not?" they were black when she started, but now they're like a total space odyssey. and i have to say it makes me very proud. she used a combination of washi tape (to protect the edges), textile paint, nail polish and nail sparkles to create this starry starry night extravaganza.

if she were to open a big cartel shop, would you be interested in some spacey vans of your very own? totally unique and one-of-a-kind? (plus a matching pair, not just a single - the other one wasn't finished yet and i couldn't wait to take the photo, as the light was fading fast., but she is working on a pair.) as she went to bed, she was already fantasizing about new designs...night & day, rainbows, summer & winter. the possibilities are endless. and they could also come in converse.

universe, are you listening?

what if it was possible to have a place where you could combine all of the things you want to do in your life? a place full of good energy, inspiring surroundings, nurturing, caring people. a creative place, where you could do business, come up with great ideas, learn new things and spend time with people who make you better at what you do and challenge you in a good way. and what if you could get a cup of really good coffee there? what if that place didn't exist, so you had to create it yourself? and what if there just happened to be a charming old train station building, standing empty, just waiting for you to make it awesome?

and what if it needed a whole lot of paint and elbow grease? would you do it? would you, on the theory that writing is the new praying, write it down here for all the world to see and hope that the universe is listening so that all of the pieces would fall into place to make it happen? would you dare to believe and do all that you could yourself to make it happen? even if people thought you were crazy?

tiny kitten perfection

our beloved molly dolly, the kitten we got last summer in minnesota, had her very own kittens today. she was a little confused at first, wondering what it was all about, but she soon caught on and promises to be a good mother. there are four perfect little kittens - one black, one striped, one black tortoiseshell and one stripy tortoiseshell - so two girls and two boys. the perfect first batch.

my beautiful people and a lot of great links

my beautiful people, i haven't shared them with you for awhile.

sabin's fancy hair colors even look cool when they're up in a bun.

and husband, despite needing a haircut (he's had one since), just gets cuter all the time.

how come the same isn't true for me?

that's kinda not fair.

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the entrant from denmark won the eurovision song contest the other night.

happily, i wasn't watching, even tho' i do enjoy me a bit of kitsch on occasion.

it was best to learn of it through facebook updates.

and i did read a bit of the guardian's live blog of the proceedings.
that was pretty hilarious.

best quote from that came during the waiting for the votes bit:

"I'm not saying that this bit is long, but I think I just saw time detach from itself and form a spiral and slowly disappear into the universe."

i kinda like when time does that.

* * *

*sigh* - 1913 was just really my year.

i can't even imagine an intellectual avant garde art scandal happening today, can you?

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still enjoying that article about whether you have to like the characters in a novel. 

mostly because of quotes like this:

I hate the concept of likeability—it gave us two terms of George Bush, whom a plurality of voters wanted to have a beer with, and Facebook. You’d unfriend a lot of people if you knew them as intimately and unsparingly as a good novel would. But not the ones you actually love. 
--Jonathan Franzen

* * *

this makes me want to draw some maps. maps of me. maps of things i love. maps of life.

* * *

ever wonder where those bloody swear words come from?

personally, i think we should bring nackle-ass back into fashion.

happy monday that's actually a tuesday!

it's tuesday, but it feels like monday since monday was like sunday this week due to another of those danish spring holidays. the benefit of having a tuesday that's a monday is that you don't have a monday kind of a monday, since monday was a lot like sunday and tuesday is well, tuesday. so it can only be a good day, right? it's overcast, but warm and balmy, so i'm not complaining. you can't really complain much when you're wearing bright pink pants. even if you are also wearing your old wellies that are full of holes because you can't really decide what color of new ones to get. plus, it's a good year for dandelions. and is there anything more cheerful than a dandelion?

* * *

do we have to like the characters in the books we read?

* * *

what do we think of flickr's changes?
methinks they took a page from the Google+ design book.

pinse planting

today was pinse, the last of the easter-related spring holidays that mean loads of days off in denmark.  it is ironic that the danes take that whole jesus thing so seriously when they're some of the least religious people i've ever witnessed, but hey they'll clearly take all the time off they can get. and so will i.

it was a great day for planting the garden. overcast, but warm and unusually still.  we've been preparing this piece of the garden for nearly two years. it's been covered in black plastic to kill off all of the weeds and husband has tilled in a bunch of cow poo as fertilizer. we have extremely sandy soil, which makes for great drainage, but which requires far more fertilizer. it's taken us three years to realize that.

molly, who is going to have her kittens any day now, had to inspect my work in the herb beds. i fear she thinks they're a giant litterbox, just for her.

she's so cute, i had to include another shot. it seems like her tummy just couldn't get any bigger. i can't wait to see her kittens.

here's a whole day's handiwork. we planted leeks (winter and summer), kale, red cabbage, carrots, beets, parsnips, asier (a kind of hearty cucumber), zucchini, squash, edible flowers, peas, borlotti beans, green beans, potatoes and shallots. look how happy our rhubarb is down at the far end. i've picked enough to make 6 liters of juice and a rhubarb crumble and it hasn't made a dent. apparently rhubarb loves sandy soil.

the strawberries are blooming. in just another few weeks, we'll be eating them and freezing them and making jam and juice. strawberries also seem to like sandy soil. and plenty of poo. it finally feels like we're getting the hang of this gardening thing.

there's the rhubarb. encroaching a little bit on my asparagus, which is also doing really well. two rows from seed - they have to grow one more year before we can harvest them, but the roots we planted the first year are producing very well and we've been eating asparagus for the past week. it's a short and fleeting season, but worth the wait.

our planting today made husband very happy. he said at one point that having a garden like this was like being in the john seymour books he so loved looking through during his childhood (and still does today, to be honest). it's a gradual process, but we're getting there.

a day of nothing much at all

it's that time of year again. the rapeseed fields are in full, buzzing bloom. it's that yellow that makes you feel a bit dizzy if you look at it directly. they speak the language of danish summer. short, fleeting, but intense.

today was filled with slow tasks. picking violets to make violet cordial. getting enough of them takes time and there's no way around it, you just have to pick them, one at a time. it was cloudy, but still and warm, so picking them was a pleasant, rather meditative task. it worked rather nicely to clear my mind and funnily enough, i didn't really think about anything at all in particular. some days, that's precisely what you need.