a little list to get my groove back

it's a very long time since i did a bit of bloggy visiting, but an instagram post reminded me of the wonderful and creative sandra juto's blog and she did this list, which made me want to do a list to ease me back into the rhythm of blogging. sandra is swedish, so there's a mention of fika, that delightful swedish custom of relaxing with coffee and something sweet in the afternoon.

do you?

have beer in the fridge? no, but you can always find white wine and tonic.

have a pet? anyone who follows my instagram knows i am a cat person and we have multiple cats. favorites are molly, charlie, sif, billy and kittens bob and bella (that's bella above). we have a few more outdoors, but it's ok, because they have awesome lives and we have 17 acres of land.

have a favourite sweet? i'm not really that big on sweets, but do regularly make chocolate chip cookies and if i have a sore throat, some salt liquorice is a good thing.

wear powder? no, but i do swear by becca's backlighting primer and mac soft & gentle highlighter for that daily glow.

have any plans for the future? we will eventually finish our house and it will be awesome.

have any "best" grades from school? it's starting to be awhile ago, but i always did well at writing and in my lit and literary theory courses.

have an addiction? it's probably white wine, but i also can't do without my kiehl's lip balm #1. and i would be very sad without podcasts.

have fika today? alas, i did not, which was unusual, because we often have cake in the afternoon at work.

wear nail polish? yes. almost always. these days, i'm into quite neutral flesh tones, but i can also do a nice bright blue or salmony pink.

have a friend who lives in another country? yes. lots of other countries. and i live in another country as well (thank goodness, with that cheeto at the helm) - for nigh on 18 years now.

who?

do you despise? i think we all know that it's that dangerously ignorant clown who is destroying the country of my birth.

share most memories with? at this point, knowing one another for 20 years, it must be husband. i would say my mother, but we don't share that many memories anymore with all of hers fading away...

do you long most for? i still miss my sweet frieda badida kitty and think of her often.

annoys you? rude drivers. people who are at the back of the line and rush forward when a new cashier opens. people who say, "ik' aw" constantly.

do you cuddle with? sif, she's the cat most likely to snuggle up and sleep next to me.

cooks? i'm the primary cook at our house, but i love cooking. it relaxes me. sunday evening dinners, where i throw together a bit of everything that i find in the fridge and in the garden make me happiest.

does the dishes? husband does, which is part of why i like to cook.

which?

magazine to you read? i just bought a digital subscription to the new yorker. but i like to pick up unusual magazines when i travel. things like tank or kinfolk.

bus do you take the most? i don't take a bus very often, but when i do, it's 34. i'm more likely to take an s-train to get around copenhagen.

day is your birthday? march 22.

season do you prefer? i've always loved autumn. it signaled the start of school (and i stayed in university for a long time), and i still retain that love for a new sweatshirt and the sense of a new beginning that came with the beginning of the semester. i can still conjure that feeling, just from the shift in the temperature and the angle of the golden light.

town did you grow up in? platte, south dakota. i don't think i could live there now, but i'm glad to have grown up there.

what?

are you doing right now? thinking that i should probably be wrapping this up and getting to sleep

is good about you? i have a lot of energy, am funny and generally in a good mood. i love sharing ideas and seeing what happens to them, without feeling too protective of them. i think there's a lot of power in shared ideas.

is bad about you? i procrastinate. i need deadlines in order to function well. i talk too much sometimes. if i don't like someone, i can't hide it.

do you want to work with? social media, fun content, people who give me energy, ideas, ships (luckily, i get to do this).

is most fun at the moment? being in copenhagen during the week and at home in the countryside on the weekends, hanging out with kittens and enjoying the garden. going on holiday next week.

are you wearing? a grey t-shirt with hearts on it and comfy grey lounge pants, both from primark.

kind of shoes do you own? i'm in total sneaker mode now that it's summer - faves of the moment are rose gold pumas, white pumas, green converse, light blue adidas. and when i'm at home, haviana flip flops.

is your shoe size? 40

are you reading? i'm half-heartedly rereading murakami's kafka on the shore and i ordered a book from the library on the history of the cia - legacy of ashes. i intend to take it on holiday next week. i'll admit that i read an awful lot of news online these days and it means i haven't been reading books much. that's undoubtedly not very good for me, so i need to remedy that.

are you going to do now? i'll post this and get to bed. tho' i'm actually sitting in bed, writing it, so i wont' have far to go.

well, that was fun. if you're still blogging these days, why not play along? it just might get you into the groove again.

* * *

reading this made me feel less helpless about the era of epic stupid we're living in. 

* * *

11 podcasts to brighten up your summer.

blog swag rocks

pretty little creatively-wrapped (brown paper bags, stitched around the edges - how clever is that!) packages of bloggy swag that i won on lizzie's blog. there's really nothing more happy-making than a package in the mail. i've thus far restrained from opening, as i'm trying to wait 'til christmas. but i'm not sure i'll manage to hold out.

jody pearl, who does a lot of clever re-designing of clothing, hosted an op shop swap and i participated. she was my partner and i totally lucked out!  my package came wrapped in this great crochet-like net shopping bag.

inside was a book - have a little faith by mitch albom, which causes a mary chapin carpenter song to go through my mind every time i walk past it.

best of all was the most gorgeous, bright, felt-backed scarf that was exactly what i needed in these dark winter days. the little koala (which sabin snatched up) had on a little backpack containing lovely vintage buttons that i'll be using on some or other project in the near future. there was also a little beaded snowman, but sabin snatched him up as well.

a big thank you to both jody and lizzie!

quiet inspiration

a foggy monday morning. the easter holiday has begun, so no hectic panic of getting the child up, fed and dressed. no dashing to make her a lunch to take to school. just a leisurely stroll through flickr and pinterest and blogs. so tho' i woke up from strange dreams, got the tea-honey-milk ratio all wrong and got yelled at for making the child's nutella toast all wrong, this monday is shaping up to be quite all right. quiet. contemplative. inspiring.

inhabit - a collaboration i found on flickr between kikiclark & moiraandobbie

kathryn clark had been a flickr contact since i stumbled across her foreclosure quilt series, but i hadn't discovered her blog until today. if you, like me, are in the mood for some quiet, contemplative inspiration on a monday, you should make haste to her blog immediately. or well, at least after you're done reading this. and definitely do read about the inhabit project. wonderful food for thought about the spaces in which we create.

kathryn led me to find another beautiful blog called found while walking. be sure to read jamie's post about kathryn. because it all connects. all of these loops and snippets of inspiration and contemplation.

and lastly, before i go to sew something, through kathryn's blog, i was led to this beautiful, quiet, contemplative video of anna allen sewing.

that definitely makes me want to get to the sewing machine.

happy monday.

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bloggy love

i've gotten so much bloggy love in my real mailbox of late that i had to share it, because it totally cheers me up in these dark, dreary, grey, stormy days of november. awhile ago, my beautiful friend se'lah and i decided to do a fabric swap, just to stir things up a bit in our stash. and here's what she sent:

i'm looking forward to incorporating these into upcoming projects and i adore the ribbon.

not pictured is a wonderful mexican cookbook she threw in as well! thank you, se'lah!!

next was a little set of martini stamps to add to my collection from *jean*

she included a beautiful handmade card and an ATC as well!

thank you *jean*!

completely out of the blue, DHL showed up with a package one day not so long ago. after recovering from my surprise that they actually managed to deliver something, which they have previously utterly failed to do on several occasions, i was even more surprised to find these:

from my favorite mexican/south african/finnish globetrotting citizen of the world friend extranjera, a new pair of precious south african havianas.  i'm told they're just for tourists at the waterfront in cape town, but i don't care if i'm branded a tourist, i've got the coolest havianas around and now i can retire my others, which are getting quite shabby and which i was thinking i'd have to staple or cellotape together in the near future. and there was also a package of scrumptious finnish licorice-laced chocolate for sabin, who experienced great sadness when her big sister ate hers the last time. that's why it says "for sabin and only sabin." thank you, extranjera! MWAH, as spud would say (as an air kiss, of course, no actual touching in light of your finnishness).  are you finnished with that? no, i'm danish american....but i digress...

i lamented recently in a comment on bambi's blog that we had lots of halloween stuff available here in denmark now, but no candy corn. she decided i couldn't go without and so she sent me a whole bunch of it. thank you, dahling! i'm really happy it arrived after our party so i didn't have to share it with all those munchkins.

but the best part about the package was this:

methinks it's the telltale signs of a skinny caramel latte

but also awesome is this:

candy corn is considered PRODUCE in the US! hahahahaha! i love it!
thanks bambi, for the sugar rush and for the laugh!

thank you all for the bloggy real world love. it's so much fun to get stuff in the mail!!

blog crush: urbaNiche

mmm, chocolate dessert in manila (clearly before i learned flash was the enemy)
forgive me, food pictures are HARD!
this cake is for you, urbaNiche!!

not so long ago, urbaNiche, a lovely blogger and fellow feature on apartment therapy found me (through a comment, lurkers, come out of the woodwork, will you?). she explained to me the other day in an email how she came to my blog (via the helleristninger stones on etsy), which is always a topic that fascinates me...how we make these connections in the blogosphere. she's a fellow nikon girl and her little sweet pea has the most precious chucks i've ever seen, tho' he can't wear them at the moment thanks to a cast (we hope he'll soon be fine). someday, i hope she comes to blog camp. but in the meantime, do go check her out, because she's totally my latest blog crush.

an ode to snail mail

in the past week or so, i've gotten two wonderful things in the mail (not counting stuff i ordered myself on etsy, which while great, is not the same) and i've just got to share them with you.

i participated in se'lah's wonderful gift of jewels card exchange. and right in the middle of blog camp, i got this lovely handmade card from beth of be yourself, everyone else is taken. it's now in a place of honor on my inspiration wall in the blue room. together with my new lego magnets.

and then today, a lovely surprise arrived. rxbambi, who attended blog camp - reno, sent me some of her brand new moo cards (we know how i feel about those), a beautiful card made by her sister barb (who must exist because she blogs) and two stones from lake tahoe! how sweet is that?

a big thank you to both beth and bambi for the snail mail goodness (and to se'lah for coming up with the gift of jewels card exchange in the first place). email and the virtual world are great, but there's something really special about holding a hand-written card in your hand.

now, if only i'd read spud's fabulous post about low-light photography and the wobbles before i took these pictures. sigh. but i do hate flash.

the textures of life

we live in a world where impulses come at us all day long. many more than we can ever hope to take in. we grab onto some of them, but we undoubtedly let most of them pass us by. and we don't give any thought at all to what we're missing, i guess because blissfuly, we don't really know. at bee's recommendation, i recently read amanda craig's hearts and minds. (amanda blogs, by the way.) her book perfectly captures the sense of the world today and those missed connections. but this isn't really about missed connections. it's about found ones.

like these:

: : finding out about couchsurfing through tevolving, an adventurer in montenegro (at the moment). our first couchsurfer is showing up tomorrow night (husband will receive him). i wish i was going to be home.

: : the ever-fabulous discounderworld. stacey has some really exciting things in the works, so run along and order your gold edition today. you will not be sorry.

: : lovely lynne, who thought of me when an interesting opportunity recently came up. my fingers are still crossed.

: : kristina, who i met because i was once inspired by sandra juto and with whom i now share a fantastic photography project of which we are very proud. we've got a giveaway running thru the weekend, so do stop by and leave a comment, telling us your favorite diptych.

: : marinik, whose courage, strength and honesty have been making me cry lately.

i could go on and on, perhaps by mentioning how much i'm inspired by the photos here and here and here and here, but instead, i think i'll just say that i'm very grateful for connections and the textures they add to life.

note: this beautiful thai tapestry was on the wall at bee's house, but i was trying to avoid going on and on about blog camp in this post.

today is the day

i genuinely suck at this whole blog award thing. it's not that i don't appreciate them, i mean, who doesn't appreciate being recognized and adored and appreciated? it's just that there are always all of those rules attached to them and i'm not that big on rules. seriously, does anyone really want one more list of random things from me after the big 29 secrets and one lie in 30 days thing? and frankly, after that, i've not got that much left. but, what's cool about blog awards is that they are an excellent way to share the blogs YOU love with your readers. so, i'm going to try to catch up on the blog award love right here, right now.

the sweet and lovely joei of the blog my days and night, who lives in one of my favorite places in the whole world (no, not cape town this time) - the philippines - has recently given me not one but two awards. our old friend "honest scrap" and that "kreativ blogger" award that must have originally been started by a dane because that's how you spell creative in danish.

on the same day (which is actually today, believe it or not, i'm on the ball this time), i got the "one lovely blog" award from kristine * who blogs at mostly berlin and no penny for them (don't you LOVE people with multiple blogs?) and who we are all hoping comes to blog camp 2.0 at the beginning of september (hint, hint, kristine).

and while i'm at it, an embarrassingly long time ago, clear back on her old blog, my friend borneochica who now refers to herself as cheekyketek and blogs at not really, gave me one of those lemonade stand awards and wrote something really super sweet and nice and flattering and stuff which is now inaccessible because she closed down that blog (tho' i could still see it in my reader, neah, neah). but anyway, i don't think i ever passed it along.

however, today is the day. i've discovered lots of fun new blogs of late because in this transitional season, it seems like i have lots of new visitors and commenters (yes, that's a word) here on MPC. and when you leave a comment, i click into your profile and check out your blog (that's a tip for you lurkers) and i often feel really grateful because you guys have some good blogs and frankly, i probably wouldn't have found them otherwise, what with the fact that those lame boeing people stopped that fabulous internet that used to be available on long-haul flights and so there's no way to get online when i'm flying. (am i the only one beginning to think some of that blonde bleach seeped into my brain today while i was waiting for the hairdresser to finish her very important and dramatic phone conversation and come back and finish my hair?)

anyhoo, without further ado, i hereby pass all three of the above awards on to the following bloggers....i am aware there were probably rules attached to them originally about how many to pass onto and what sort of tricks they should perform on their blogs when they receive them, but we shall dispense with tricks and just give the awards. and to celebrate the awards, this ice cream:

i hereby bestow the quadruple crown on:

maria-thérèse of afiori

she makes pretty books and takes cool pictures

and lives somewhere in northern sweden where they don't pronounce 777 that cool way that i like best

ju of blog maia & lara

recording the hilarious things her children say

they'll no doubt be mad at her someday and possibly require therapy

but for now, it's hilarious.

plus, we're friends on twitter too (@chachatwist).

and i think she's a fellow julie/julia. :-)

kristine of where is kristine now?

because she cracks me up.

and cheers me up.

and may travel even more than i do.

and because she doesn't have dengue fever.

tho' i do wish she had a normal email address and not one of those no-reply blogger thingies.

lea bolvig

even tho' kristine * already gave her one of these,

because she's also in denmark.

her pictures are beautiful.

and i was thinking she'd make a great addition to blog camp 2.0.

georgie k. buttons of the author's desk

because i love her blog header.

and i am utterly charmed at the notion

that a 17-year-old in utah regularly reads and comments on my blog.

tiffany of the water bottle

because no 18-year-old should

have such an articulate video rant

about the potential publisher of her novel.

and last, but not least,

an open heart of recovery from a life not lived

because she's going to blog camp 2.1 in reno

(tho' she should be coming to DK),

she's got a very big and generous heart,

and she recently asked me what these blog award thingies were all about.

and no, i did not accidentally hit publish

before i was done with this...

and please don't forget to check out joei, kristine* (both blogs) and cheekyketek, who started this whole thing in the first place (and a big thank you to you dahlings. MWAH, as spudballoo would say). i'm gonna go see if i can get some of those blonde fumes cleared out of my head now...for all of our sakes...

blog crush: heliotrollop

kim of heliotrollop, this beer, which is very special because it's a blog camp beer, is for you!

i've been a bit absent from the blogosphere in recent weeks and have hardly been managing to read all my regular reads, let alone go in search of new ones. but thankfully my very underdeveloped theory on the sociology of mobile phones post brought a few lurkers very nice new people out of the woodwork and one of them is my new blog crush. i give you the lovely kim of heliotrollop. i'm not sure what that means, but she claims that everything else was taken (which is pretty much why i call myself julochka, so i can understand that).

here are some of the reasons why you should go check her out:

1. she's smart.
2. she's funny.
3. she tricks people into making dinner for her (this would be the kind of skill we could use at blog camp).
4. she hates wal-mart. this alone = instant follow in my book.
5. her mother buys her sweaters that indicate that they've never met (so does mine, tho' you might not have known that, but now you do).
6. she learns from her mistakes. (well, ok, time will tell on that one..)
7. she too is pondering whether she has too much stuff.

seriously people, i'm starting to think that she's me in new mexico. go read her now. and for the love of odin, follow her. you won't regret it.

stoned. in a good way.

a few weeks ago, trinsch of the lovely, carefree hairstyle fame (which i am too uncoordinated to duplicate, by the way, tho' i tried), had a corner view: the beach post which had some really beautiful stones in it. there was a picture of them lying in their natural state in the sand and then in a beautiful little stack. i asked her to upload that little stack to flickr so i could favorite it, because you know i have a totally minor and not at all requiring meds or excess baggage fees thing about stones. happily, she obliged and i was content.

and then, today, a little envelope arrived in my mailbox.

fabulous handwriting! cool stone with a hole in it! could it get any better? why yes, it could!

inside the pretty little bag were those very stones trinsch gathered on the beach in israel! how awesome is that? but wait, it gets even better.

that little white stone at the bottom (at 5:30) is a little piece of marble. trinsch says that it's from the historical site of caesarea--the ruins of a roman city--2000 years old. italian marble, washed and rounded and smoothed in the sea for hundreds of years, washes up on the beaches in israel, near the historical site. but my very favorite one is the little round grey one right beside it (at 7:30)--it's smooth and perfect.

trinsch's beautiful picture of them in their natural habitat

from trinsch's picture, i imagined that the stones were larger (tho' husband made fun of me for that, asking how large i imagined the bits of sand were), but i am madly in love with them and not the least bit disappointed that they are small--they're absolutely perfect! than you so much, trinsch, for making my monday! in fact, i'm sure it will actually make my whole week! 

today, trinsch has a lovely post featuring a typecase from her childhood where she displays stones and shells found on beaches around the world. you should go have a look at it, it will make your monday less weird, i promise.

feeling a bit noir

since it took me an inordinately long time to process photos, upload and create this mosaic, i have nothing left for proper words to go with it. it's a busy, hectic week. talking to lots of old friends and making new ones. after six hours on the above shoes on tuesday night (and i do mean ON, not in--look how high those heels are), my feet spent all of wednesday not speaking to me. 'til i bought them new chucks and a new pair of el naturalistas, after which we have made a tentative rapprochement. if you've been on twitter, you've seen both. i'll provide proper shots of them when i'm back home on the weekend. i'm tired of the carpet in my hotel room (see above).

* * *

really loved everyone's lists of simple things yesterday. huge thank you to christina for the initiative--i made a whole lot of new friends and i felt totally recharged here in the middle of my hectic week just by reading everyone's lists of what they love. thank you all!!!

don't forget! big petroglyph giveaway tomorrow!

remember--if you want to be in on the big thank-you-for-voting-for-me-for-the-gold-issue-of-discounderworld petroglyph/helleristning/stone giveaway (i need to work on these names) tomorrow, do leave a comment back on this post. i'll print them all tomorrow morning, snip them up and have one of my lovely assistants draw the lucky winner. because yes, it's constitution day tomorrow and therefore, a holiday. ya gotta love denmark

* * *

and while we're on the subject of giveaways, mal* at turning*turning, the most thought-provoking art therapist out there, is giving away a lovely mini quilt in my most favoritest colors to celebrate her 100th post and you can enter to win that as well. so run over there--she actually gives you five ways to have a chance to win! but you've gotta be on twitter for one of them. ;-)

fabulosity all around (and a giveaway)

i'm all for looking at the world differently, with fresh eyes, from a new perspective. wearing orange tights with red shoes and taking photos of my feet against the green grass in front of a snotty spa hotel in skodsborg while i wait for husband. but seriously, i have to draw the line somewhere and that somewhere is here.  apparently nancy reagan gets regular visits from ronnie during which he talks to her. i always knew the woman was nuts. tho' admittedly running the US by astrology does seem better in retrospect than the 8 years of the bush administration.

* * *

A VERY BIG THANK YOU!! so big, i had to use actual capital letters, so that's big. thanks to all of you and your votes, my story will make the print issue of disco underworld. i quite literally couldn't have done it without you, so to celebrate, i'm going to give away one of my helleristning stones.  if you want to be entered to win, please leave a comment on this post. i think i will make an entirely new helleristning on one of my stones from my recent trip to norway, so this picture is just a sample. you will get a totally new, unique to you, very own helleristning. :-)

so, to review: leave a comment to win a helleristning stone on a stone from norway. it's my thanks to you for helping me make the print issue of discounderworld! and speaking of discounderworld, there's a new issue out now, full of cool people and things! you can go read it right after you finish reading here. :-)

my lovely assistant (i haven't decided yet whether it's sabin or husband) will draw the winner on friday.

* * *

did you know that you're limited to 200 characters in labels? it's practically a tweet. i'm feeling restricted!

* * *

and while i was sitting here, killing time waiting for magazine proofs and in between last-minute edits and trying to shoo a bumble bee out of the addition (they get totally confused by the big windows), the mailman knocked on my door. he brought me this:

a package from the fabulous (i know, i'm overusing that word, i can't help it, there's just so much fabulousity) lynne of wheatlands news. and look what was inside!

rocks and toys and cards, oh my!

and lynne's 82-year-old mom made the cards.

i love that!!

these are seriously cool toys!

husband is gonna love these.

and so is sabin.

i might have to hide them and play with them all by myself.

and each of these rocks is cooler than the next!

lynne calls us stone freaks rotsifarians--b/c rots is rock in afrikaans--i LOVE that too!

the flat one is from namibia

the others are from diamond diggings at alexander bay

the red one is a "red luck stone" because it indicates the presence of diamonds (cool!)

and the little one is covered in eyes!!!

i love the little beaded doll too. 

it appeals to my superstitious side.

THANK YOU LYNNE!!!

i love having these little pieces of africa right here in denmark.

* * *

blog camp note:  don't forget about blog camp II scheduled for september 4-7 here in denmark. i have room for 4 and one spot is tentatively booked. all of you north americans should be checking ticket prices right now (i hear air france is having a sale (ha, bad joke, but i couldn't resist)). but seriously, there are some good prices out there, so do book ahead! and if you're coming all that way, we can arrange for spending a bit more time than just a long weekend.  there may be one more blog camp during 2009 in the US--we're in the tentative stage of planning a trip and just might make time for a few days of blog camp fun sometime in the autumn. stay tuned for updates on that one.

* * *

don't forget to check out the latest issue of disco underworld now.

there are lots of cool and creative people featured this month!

blog crush: the (mis)adventures of veg!

sarah --two glasses of champagne

one for you and one for the hubby

it's friday and that means it's time for another installment of blog crush!  this time, i turn your attention to the amusing antics of sarahenviro at the (mis)adventures of veg!  she's only been blogging on (mis)adventures for a short while, but she has already made it clear that she's hilarious. this is a girl who managed to break all ten of her toes in one go. she hates that the olympics are coming to vancouver. she ponders things in list-form (and we know how much i love lists).  she rants even more than i do and sometimes even wakes up disgruntled.  in other words she's exactly the kind of person we'd like to hang out with at blog camp.

so, if you need a laugh or just to feel better about your own level of coordination, run along to vancouver  and have a look.

a virtual adventure

a few weeks ago bloggy friend and fellow julie jules and i started a little project with our 8-year-old daughters. we call it trans-atlantic adventures in learning (cumbersome, i know--we're open to suggestions for a better name). the idea is for our two curious 8-year-olds to learn a bit about what it's like in another country.

sabin being half american but not growing up in the US makes me think she's missing out on certain things that i had growing up (and probably, let's face it, being protected from a whole lotta crap like overly-sweetened peanut butter), but for me, it's a chance for her to experience a bit of what it would be like to grow up in the US and to share her experience growing up in denmark. she loves it. she looks forward to checking her blog every evening and is very active in deciding what stories we tell on the blog.

the girls exchanged a soft little animal and are using the animals as a medium for telling some of the stories. when early, addie's robin, first got to denmark, he flew up in a tree and he played a little nintendo.  next, sabin wants to take early with her to riding lessons next saturday. early has also drawn himself a little nest which we need to photograph and post for addie to see. on addie's side, buller, the little lizard sabin sent has helped make dinner and gotten up to some mischief with the big giant statue of paul bunyan.

other than that, the girls have shared walks and favorite places, a typical school day and the outfits that they wear. we had a busy week last week and i was away (since i work in a different country), so we didn't keep taking a daily picture of what we're wearing, but we'll get back to it. we have a new feature this week--where the girls are photographed with a sign bearing a question and we'll answer the question with another photo of a sign with the answer. that will be fun.

it's really a kind of modern way of being penpals. all the more fun because it can be a daily thing with lots of interactivity. i remember waiting weeks for the next letter from my penpal when i was a kid. and best of all, it's already inspired another pair of girls to do something similar. and i think that's totally cool. come on over and check out what addie and sabin are doing this week. and if you feel similarly inspired and you have kids around the same age, leave a comment and we'll see if we can hook you up with someone who'd be interested in a similar project, just like jules did for mikaela and ashlyn.

blog camp: SA

slight misrepresentation since this is cape town

but this was the picture i had

taken from victoria & alfred hotel where i stayed

the fabulous lynne of wheatlands news has suggested she would host an MPC blog camp: south africa simultaneously with MPC blog camp: denmark on june 19-20-21. she has room for five in moorreesburg. of course, this makes me want to drop in there, but since i'll be here with four (maybe five) fabulous blog friends and sadly transporting star trek style is but a hollywood dream at this point, we'll have to make do with a virtual hook-up. (the logistics of which we i are am frantically working on.)

 although this is at spiers' moyo

this is how chilled out i imagine blog camp: SA will be

i wanna go to blog camp: SA!! if you do too, please send an email to me with "blog camp: SA" in the subject line and i'll hook you up with lynne. we'll be coming up with more blog camp details and announcements here in the coming days. tho' you can already check on the blog camp blog (of course we have a blog!) to see who's coming in june and why they decided to come.

and remember if you're really serious about attending either of the blog camp dates--june 19-21 or september 4-7 in denmark, please send me an email (my email address is in my profile) so i can put you on the list (if you only comment, i can't get in touch with you if you're using a no-reply blogger address, so please do send an email). 

just a note: people are finding some seriously good ticket prices from the US for the september dates, so have a look at kayak.com (that's where the best price i've heard is coming from). even if you're flying from somewhere obscure like fargo, it might cost less than you think! and if you're coming all that way, we can surely find a way for you to stay a few extra days and see the sights, so don't worry about jetlag and making such a trip for only a few days! :-)

you can learn a lot from BoN

ok, it's been ten crazy days since MPC was named blog of note (still thanking you, gods of google) and i've been overwhelmed--more than 15,000 folks have come and had a look.  that's crazy, man! don't get me wrong, i love it and i'm very grateful that so many have stopped by to see what randomness came out my brain and onto the screen. i've also learned a few things...

things i've learned checking my site meter:

• someone posted my post on the new new world order to a website called conspirama: the best of conspiracy and the paranormal. kinda cool, but frankly, that post doesn't pose all that many conspiracy theories. i can write one that does, however. :-) i read ALL of those books on kennedy and marilyn monroe...
  
• someone from Nilai, Negeri Sembilan is looking at my blog right now as i write this. i don't even know where that is! somewhere in africa? indonesia? myanmar? i really don't know!
• people do a lot of blog surfing from work on monday...there's a big jump on mondays after the weekend. i can only assume that it's when people get back to the computer at work!

things i've learned from comments:

• my snow white story was viewed as a whole lot sadder than i meant it.
• my musings on the zone, which i found a little navel gazing myself, were something people could really relate to and which generated some really great comments. that makes me really happy because everyone should experience the zone. 
• lots of you guys are funny.

things i've learned from the follower thing:

• lots of people follow without commenting.
• this might be a good thing in light of how many are now following. i'm already using 29% of my gmail inbox and am notoriously bad about deleting things after i've read them.
• it's way fun.
• i remember that it wasn't that long ago i was offering a prize to my 50th follower. seriously, it wasn't even two months ago. 
• i thought i would do a shout-out to #300 when it reached that. and then suddenly it was 400 and last night, before i went to bed, i saw it become 500. i've clearly got to get quicker about these shout-outs. 
• i love you guys.

this whole thing has opened up a whole new world to me and for that, i am very grateful on this friday. thank you for stopping by!

note:  if you comment with an email address behind your comment, rather than one of those "no-reply blogger" addresses, then you will quite likely get a response. :-)

blog crush: cuttings on a blog

please forgive crappy quality of iPhone photo

the latte is for you, B 

i know you do coffee, not tea

yes, dahlings, it's time once again, for an official blog crush. i hereby give you cuttings on a blog--a witty and well-read, well-traveled, belly dancing spanish girl in oxford. what more could one ask? she's learning dressmaking, she had the computer skills to merge several of her multiple blogs into one (some of us would do well to do the same...ahem, ahem). she blogs in two languages...check her spanish language blog here. i'll admit that i can't really read much of it unless she mentions menu items since that's as far as my spanish extends (not that i'm saying she does)--guacamole anyone? she makes lists...like this one of her five rules for life. she's inspiring people from belize to zambia with her thoughts on home. she does beautiful posts on the covers of books.

do i really need to go on? why are you still here? go read her! you won't be sorry.

yay for monday!

yay for monday and yay for heidikins!  and yay for super cool ruthie pearl reusable shopping bags! and yay for me, because i won this in heidikins' happy birthday roxy (roxy is her super cute shiny red bug) giveaway!

ruthie pearl 

reversible

"aunt jean" print

eco-friendly shopping bag!

i had to choose the one with red, in honor of miss roxy and of course, my red smeg. :-)

i already always, always use canvas bags for my groceries, but it will be so much fun to have a pretty new one that i can reverse as my mood dictates.  thank you heidikins and thank you ruthie pearl !!

i can't wait to have it in the basket when i ride my red bike down to the red mailbox:

taken with diana+ & cross-processed

i hope you wake up to a happy surprise this monday too!

...and now, to work for me.

blog crush: ohfortheloveofblog

it was so much fun indulging yesterday in the whole concept of outwardly declaring my blog crushes (instead of just stalking them in silence), that i have to give you another one for the weekend!  and yes, it's another south africa-based blog.  i have a bit of a thing for cape town and have been a faithful reader of molly's ohfortheloveofblog since she found me last summer (after i bought heather moore's fabulous patchwork and went all giddy about it).

so molly, since it's the weekend and who the hell cares whether it's 5 p.m. yet (it must be 5 somewhere), this glass of crisp cold chardonnay is for you. i hope you like it, i bought it in norway, so it was $45.

i recently gave molly a blog award, but i really can't stress enough how cool and funny and smart i think she is.

1. she's the one who has me counting all my creativity during 2009 (we're both trying to reach 100 things created and we may have gotten a little creative in our counting--hey, does that count?). 
2. she has the cleverest titles to her posts. like this. and this.
   
3. she loves murakami. 
4. she rants and swears. 
5. she makes lists. (sigh) oh, how i adore lists.
   
6. she devises clever plots against her avocodo-hoarding neighbors. 

and except for the camping, she's pretty much me living in cape town. or so i feel sometimes (and i realize she may find that deeply disturbing). there are a few people i've found here in the blogosphere who i feel are my long-lost sisters and molly is definitely one of them.

so please go check her out, if we all do it, she'll have to change her tagline which today reads: "blog like nobody's reading." 

happy weekend!