miles to go before we sleep

when i got home, husband had cleared our bedroom and had started to paint it. just a nice chalky white. and instead of moving our bed back in, we decided to make a small, makeshift dining room, since with the approach of winter, we will no longer be able to eat out in the terrace.

we scored some awesome green wool-covered chairs and a pretty cool round table, with leaves, at the recent flea market at our local kulturhus. and they are going to be our dining set, since our other table is far too large.

yes, those are breakfast crumbs on the table. but hey, there's also a cat on the table that apparently didn't get the memo about "no cats on the table." what was most fun about setting up the room (because i got home in time to help), was digging out all of our old photos, which used to line the stairs back on poppelvej and hanging them on the wall. i changed a few out, but mostly, i left them, for the sake of the memories. fresh, white walls and loads of meaningful pictures make for a lovely space, even tho' the ceiling is low and we're waiting for the electrician to come and deal with that light fixture (we thought it didn't work, but husband got zapped, so it apparently does).

do you ever visit someone and think that they've really got this life thing nailed in a way that you don't? well, i do, more often than i'd like to admit. but no more so than visiting the amazing and wonderful bb (of wobbly plates fame) at her beautiful home/atelier in brooklyn on my recent trip. she has this amazing table, which her husband made (so there is hope for us) and has created the most beautiful, livable, enviable space. but you can't even envy her (read: hate) her for it because she's so utterly and completely real and wonderful that all you can do is love her and feel privileged to be able to visit. and to hope that a little bit of that ability to live rubs off.

we have a ways to go before we're here. our house didn't have the beautiful skeleton that bb's brooklyn brownstone had, but we will figure out it. the house. but also this life thing.  of that, i'm certain.

12.12.12

yet again, the interwebs are abuzz with what is seen as an auspicious date - 12.12.12. we won't actually see another of these in my lifetime, as there won't be a 13.13.13 or a 14.14.14 - that makes me wonder whether i've used them wisely. if a line of numbers can mean something, did i make the right wishes or do the right actions on those significant dates? or does it matter more to take the right steps every day? (one could hope so.)

but, on the off chance that it might mean something to think about and write down the things i'd like to manifest in my life here and now while the numbers are aligned, i'm going to do so today. some of it in my art journal and a little bit here. because sometimes you're just not ready to speak all of your wishes out loud. but a couple of them won't hurt, if writing is indeed the new praying.

i'm very hopeful about my business in the year ahead. it's been slow and a bit up and down this year, but we've learned a lot and have many projects buzzing on the horizon. i want to see those to fruition and be open to where they take me.

my dad will turn 80 next year and we (husband and sabin and me) want to be there for his 80th birthday. i want us to go for his birthday and stay until new year's (that's pretty much most of december). we want to travel a bit in the US while we're there - go skiing and visit friends (and sights) in the desert southwest. i'm going to work hard to be able to afford that trip - both financially and the time off it will take.

maybe these things are really just a question of setting a goal and working towards it. what do you think? will you make any wishes today?

* * *

a bit of bitterness on the rise of eBooks. frankly, i think we need to just get over it with this, see it as the democratization of the writing profession (what gets published is no longer determined by a closed group of elite publishers), and get writing.

* * *

it seems russians (and probably a lot of others) are still struggling to understand americans.

hello thirty-fourteen

happy birthday to me

i always think that perhaps this year i'll make one of those lists...you know the ones, where you declare all of the things you want to do before your next birthday. but again this year, i think i'll pass. i have a lot of balls in the air at the moment. i need to be open and adaptable to be able to catch even some of them. if i'm focused on a specific list, i might miss.

i mused a bit on this last year, when we were about to embark on this huge change...moving to the countryside, changing jobs, moving across the country. but i still believe it. which isn't to say that i don't believe in setting goals, i just don't believe that goals always hold over the course of an entire year, especially not personal, private goals. and that if you're too focused on them, you might miss something, some golden opportunity. and frankly, i'm too old to miss any opportunities. so i'm going to keep my eyes open and i'm going to enjoy being thirty-fourteen.

the age of contentment

a lake makes a nice birthday present. but i got that loom too.

i got an early birthday present yesterday when the realtor called and said that the seller had accepted the terms we'd offered on the property over in jutland (this is property #2, to our knowledge, the dog sled has never arrived at the owner of property #1, as we've heard nothing from those clowns). things are really falling into place. it seems both like it's taken an eternity and that it's happened in the blink of an eye. in just two short months, everything we thought about moving to a farm has changed. we thought we'd move to one here in our area, but now, we're packing up and moving across the country. it's funny to think that the whole thing was initiated by a friday afternoon phone call from a friend as i walked from one terminal to the other at copenhagen airport, picking up the blog campers back in january. one phone call can change your whole life.

window on a whole new life.

since it's my birthday, i had mulled over making one of those lists of things to do before my next birthday, but in light of the enormous shift that's happened in our thinking and in our lives, i'm not sure that it's worth setting out such a list. because it's so hard to know where life will take you and if you're too focused on a specific list, you just might miss some golden opportunities. what if we'd not opened our minds to the possibility of a move to a new area? then we'd not have new jobs and a 17-acre farm with a lake and a house built in 1895 (for a good quarter of the price of what a similar property would have been here). what if we'd stayed focused on our original little list of things we thought we wanted? i shudder at the thought.

of course, that's not entirely fair to lists of goals and many of the goals on a list as long as mine would be - if i were making one of those 43 things to do before i turn 44 type lists - would be more frivolous goals, like the one from last year's list that said, "become blog of note." i also had more ephemeral things on the list like "be more present," and "dare more" and "believe more." i suppose some days i fulfilled those goals and some days i didn't. i never had things on my list like "run a marathon" or "lose weight" (tho' i undoubtedly should) or those typical resolution-type goals. it would be more fun to have something on it like "make cupcakes once a week" or "talk to a stranger once a day," but my photo-a-day and art journal calendar projects are enough for me and since they're not specific to my birthday, it seems a moot point to make a list.

but it's weird with birthdays when you've reached my age. tho' it's a bit ho hum, i feel comfortable being 43, it feels like the right age to be. it's where i'm at. i wouldn't want to go back and i feel there's still loads to look forward to. it's likely that i'll never run a marathon, but that's ok, i never wanted to anyway. it's interesting that as i look both back and forward on this day, i'm quite content to be right where i am.

a little self-present for my birthday. a felt brooch from lilfish studios.

* * *

i've written more about the new property over on livet på landet.

creative goals

Goal 1: make a bunch of cool art stuff. set up etsy site and sell it. by end of april.
Goal 2: submit an article to an airline magazine. by end of april.
Goal 3: retain creativity, even when i start my new job.