the way is clear, the light is good

the way is clear,

the light is good,

i have no fear,

nor no one should.

the woods are just trees,

the trees are just wood.

i sort of hate to ask it,

but do you have a basket?

into the woods

and down the dell,

the path is straight,

i know it well.

into the woods,

and who can tell

what's waiting on the journey?

*   *   *

a feather stone for the first person who knows where these lyrics come from.

preferably without googling it.

*   *   *

i'm planning on having a slow year. 

and january is starting off a bit slow. 

i have a cough from hell. 

so i'm taking opium-laced cough syrup,

which gives the world a kind of a golden tinge.

and makes me feel all floaty.

and a bit distant.

but that said, it really doesn't seem that bad.

without further ado

i apologize for being a bit later than i said i would be on announcing the winner of the garland giveaway. we went to ikea yesterday and, as you may imagine, wandering slavishly through a ginormous store along the prescribed arrows is exhausting, so once we got home my lovely assistant fell asleep before we could do our drawing.  plus, we ate the crack meatballs and they always let you down hard after the initial high(possibly due to high carb, low meat content). but this morning, we drew a name out of sabin's hat and we are pleased to announce that tracy golightly-garcia is our winner! tracy, i have your address, so i'll be popping the springy garland in the mail to you on monday!  thank you all for participating! we'll be doing this again soon. (the giveaway part, not the ikea part, you can only take that once in awhile.)

a few of the things i made today

remember that inspiration i told you about earlier? i could see this wire-y tissue paper butterfly thingie in my mind when i woke up, so i had to make it. you can see some of where i got the idea in my inspiration mosaic below. but i wanted it to be more naive and rough somehow than the ones in the mosaic. i think i succeeded. and in this case, it turned out even better than the picture i had in my head.

then i made a new springy garland for above my desk. this house is so depressing and awful, even the simplest little touches can brighten it up significantly. some bits of a handy little moda hunky dory jelly roll made for a very quick garland indeed. in fact, i made two and i want to give one away! so if you'd like to have a little springy garland for your very own, just leave a comment about how you feed your inspiration.  i'll draw a name at the end of the week and send it to one lucky person!

and lastly, a lilly pulitzer fabric garland for sabin's new room (i got the squares here ages ago). it's not hanging up properly yet, as there is still painting going on. but i think by the end of the week, we will be ready to reveal sabin's new and improved room!

i also painted clouds on the wall, made chicken stock and red velvet cupcakes and even managed to cook a vegetarian meal and completely resist putting in any bacon. and with all that coffee i drank, i expect this creative streak will go on well into the night.

* * *

don't forget the garland giveaway! leave a comment about how you feed your inspiration and you might be the lucky winner of a springy garland to brighten up these grey winter days.

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!