posh gin

i went to the doctor today (remember that cough i had? i still have it) - it was only a hop, skip & a jump from germany, so i slipped over the border to a proper (read: has tapas, yogurt in jars, black beans, quinoa, amaranth and a whole wall of olive oil) grocery store. and i picked up this whimsical looking little gin. geranium gin. and am i ever glad i did!

while it's nothing like hendrick's (loved by a small handful of people, all over the world), it is definitely in the same category poshness-wise. i'd never stick a cucumber in it, like i do with hendrick's, as it's too gently floral for that, but it's just gorgeous - modern, light - precisely how a gin should be anno 2012.

the gin blog did a great review/history of it that you must read if you're at all gin-interested (and if you're here, i assume you are). it was actually developed by a danish guy and his father, tho' it's made in the UK. it's no ubiquitous grocery store gin, so you'll not find it everywhere, but look for it, you'll likely be able to find it in posh liquor stores or the duty free, or the finer(?!) border shops in your area. well worth the hunt.  and the 179kroner ($25) pricetag.

crocheting and blog camp and gratuitous yarn porn

learning to crochet granny squares

elizabeth and her family came to visit today and thankfully, they brought the sunshine with them. it actually hasn't rained here at our house since they were here. and that's a good thing. i'm really, really tired of this rainy, cold summer and could definitely use some consistent sunshine. especially as tomorrow is the solstice  and i would like to be able to see the sun in all its glory. so let's hope it holds!

beautiful crocheted basket liner by elizabeth + pears in the evening light of our terrace.

elizabeth is able to crochet anything she likes without the use of a pattern or most of the sight in her right eye. thanks to her expert tutelage, i am now crocheting granny squares with that yarn stash of which i have been so proud (see below). i hope to achieve elizabeth's facility with crochet one day, but at the moment, i'm having a few challenges figuring out exactly when it is you change colors (please tell me this is normal and if it's not, please keep the sniggering to a minimum) on the granny square, so i'm thinking they'd look quite nice all in one color. and do they really have to be exactly square?

yummy yarn stash

elizabeth brought a wonderful gift that's meant for the next blog camp, which is fitting, since it was one year ago today that we were enjoying the first blog camp! and the sun shined the whole time! so the danish summer is capable of being a good one. and i was supposed to have learned to crochet already back then.

back row: polly (who isn't polly) and marie (who isn't blogging anymore)
front row: b, me, sabin and extranjera

thinking of all of the good and creative people and things the blogosphere has brought to my life and feeling pretty grateful.  i think it's going to be a very good week.

* * *

oh, and since it's father's day, i wrote a little something to my dad over here.

how awesome is this?

tia, whose gorgeous and inspiring quilting i found on flickr, has put together the bushfire quilt project. she invited quilters from all over the world to make "wonky star" quilt squares and send them to her. she and a team of quilters she has standing by will sew them up into quilts for the victims of the recent fires in australia.

although i'm a very new, green quilter, i have put together a couple of wonky stars and intend to make a few more this weekend (it was that easy) and send them off to her down in oz early next week.

go, check out the bushfire flickr group and see the amazing work quilters from everywhere are doing to help victims of these tragic fires. and if you want to make some too, all of the info is there on the flickr group , including where to send your squares. and if you need help, like i did, to make wonky stars, there's an awesome tutorial here on the silly boodilly blog. i used it and had two stars made up of scraps from pillows and my first quilt in no time, although i'd never made them before.

this is the exactly the sort of thing that makes me love the blogosphere. although very remote from the fires, through social networking, we're able to come together and do something both creative and kind from across the planet. i think that's so cool. i hope that if you're of a quilting bent, you might consider making some wonky stars as well!