grateful friday

it's friday and i'm grateful for that.

i'm also grateful for:

~ good books (just finished per petterson's out stealing horses).

~ sunshine.

~ good business partners with lots of ideas.

~ baby animals (we've got bunnies, a single chick and will soon have kittens).

~ allergy meds.

~ all that business travel i did, which is helping me so much right now with a job i'm doing.

~ børnepenge, which always feels like free money when you least expect it (tho' it comes on a predictable quarterly basis).

~  the stable where we keep our horse - knowing that they take great care of her, even if we're really busy and can't get there for a couple of days.

~  really clever writing.

~ exciting work on the horizon.

~ blueberry plants.

~ taking a photo every day.

~ families who want to adopt a bunny.

~ stædtler fineliners.

~ moleskine notebooks.

~ i found lamb chops at the grocery store.

~ fresh nettles.

~ it's the weekend.

happy weekend everyone!

friday happinesses

apparently, husband has been giving orders from his tractor since at least 1970.
and that totally makes me smile.

the child brought home her friend's trousers for me to mend.
and that totally makes me smile.

her friend's mom was pretty embarrassed about the whole thing.
but we laughed and laughed.
and that was great.

red velvet cupcakes for breakfast.

a new, beautiful, gauzy lavender scarf from here.

the impending arrival of a couchsurfer who has been an artist-in-residence somewhere in denmark for the past month.

attended a pirate play at sabin's school last evening.
sabin sewed costumes for it.
and has learned how to use an overlock machine.
must find one at a flea market and have her teach me.

our veggie box will come and be full of exciting ingredients for dinner.

plans to plant an apple orchard this weekend.
and to finish the alley of oak trees leading down to the lake.
they're about knee-high right now, so it will be awhile before we can take a stroll down the majestic lane.
but we can wait.

much-needed, soul-baring conversation with a friend.

the weekend stretching ahead, promising time together, the hope that is planting things, sewing projects and delicious, healthy food.

happy weekend, one and all.

grateful friday: because it's been too long...

grateful on a friday for...

~ the fact that it's friday

~ pretty, new, trendy, safe bike helmets (safety items do not violate "not buying it" mantra)

~ that my child wasn't done for eight counts of shoplifting (oops, was that out loud?)

~ sharing a carafe of wine with husband in a café while the kids saw a movie

~ party plans

~ laughing over my inability to muster a single bit of caring where the water pipes run from the well to the house. even after i really, really tried - giving myself a mental lecture and everything.

~ red velvet cupcakes

~ wine

~ espresso

~ a murakami novel (a wild sheep chase)

~ pierce brosnan

~ getting this post in while it's still friday. but only just.

happy weekend, one and all.

friday confessions - halloween

it's friday. the day dawned cold and frosty, but clear and eventually the sun made its way over the horizon. but despite the crisp freshness of the air and the last glories of the autumn colors glowing in the sunlight, i confess i'm in a mild depression. and it's not just because voldemort has split his soul into multiple horcruxes and the challenge of destroying them all seems so daunting.

autumn brings about mixed feelings in me. while i love it the most of all the seasons, there is a sorrow about it. the leaves on the ground are beautiful but melancholy in their decay. there is a sense of passing. i have a vague dread of the dark months ahead, made worse, no doubt, by how very dark it gets in these northern climes i inhabit. so in all, i'm left feeling mildly depressed.

i also confess....

~ that panic is about to set in because we've invited 20 3rd graders to a real Halloween party tomorrow and i have no idea what i'm going to wear. pirate? witch? morticia addams? zombie cheerleader?

~ i have a lot of cooking to do for the halloween party. since i've got harry potter on the brain, i'm wondering if i can come up with some butterbeer and cauldron cakes?

~ i love carving pumpkins. we carved the first round last night and will do more this evening in preparation for the party. i'm looking forward to it with a childlike anticipation that almost throws off my mild depression.

~ i wonder if i'll finish sabin's costume before she gets home from school?

~ i do wonder how we're going to fit everything in tomorrow...party preparations, riding lessons, costumes...before the kids arrive at 4 p.m.! eek!

i'm really grateful for all of the encouraging comments and emails from all of you after my post about moving on to something more creative as a job. it comes pretty close to lifting my mild depression. thank you so much.

i hope you have a lovely weekend!

p.s. have you checked out our halloween week over on across ø/öresund? there also will be halloween-related recipes going up on domestic sensualist (as soon as i get some pictures taken). be sure to check out both!

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. :-)

friday lists

very busy day ahead....here's my list (because we know i love lists):

1. lots of work to do (yes, i do work, believe it or not, i just don't sleep enough)--it's this work that's currently giving me nightmares about global warming and the environment in general. 
2. hair appointment (desperately needed, nearly unable to appear in public). 
3. thing at child's school where parents must buy middle ages inspired things made by twenty-first century danish children over the past week (i saw piles of cool leather in a classroom this week, so i'm looking forward to that). 
4. having visitors from north carolina for dinner (they are not the dinner, we intend to serve dinner to them). 
5. figuring out how to connect macbook pro to big-ass flatscreen t.v. for gala confirmation party on saturday. 
6. transporting said t.v. + Wii, wiimotes and basket o'Wii games to party location without breaking or losing any of it or having to strap self to roof of elderly toyota to serve as cushion for big-ass t.v.
   
7. creating playlist for party and putting it on one of our many iPods.
8. clean out horribly dirty ancient yet reliable toyota so husband can transport the north carolinians without being completely humiliated.
9. thank heavens for GEC* and the EU because they have brought me my beautiful, wonderful, fabulous sent-from-heaven cleaning girl from poland.
10. figure out what the hell this is:

edited: second picture added for full effect:

seriously, these are the only two extra large phallic protrubences (is that a word, it's the second time i've used it this week) on this tree. i know i said that the entire plant world is behaving in an overtly sexual manner, but this is simply carrying it a bit far.

* * *

and because it's a friday a mini grateful friday list, i always forget to do these, but i love that del remembers and she's the one who originally gave me the idea. it's good for the soul to stop and think about what you're grateful for right now at this very moment (in totally random order, if it was order of importance, 3 would be 1, followed by 5 and then 6 or perhaps 4 (if husband brings home asparagus, we get them both at once)).

1. someone from the middle of siberia visited my blog (or so site meter told me). for some reason, that just tickles me. maybe because i studied in kazan and although that's not siberia, i felt the pull of siberia from there, so it's always held some fascination. i'd like to go there and dig up a frozen wooly mammoth.
2. this whole zany week of the bestowing of BoN by the blogger illuminati (thanks suecae sounds for that apt word) and the influx of new friends--thank you all so much for stopping by! double thank you for following. and quadruple thank you for the comments. looking forward to getting to know you better.
3. all of my "old" blog friends, who've been here with me through all the rants and the laughter and that whole thing with sarah palin.  you guys totally rock.
4. that husband's coming home today after being away at a course all week. 
5. there's a lovely south african chenin blanc in the fridge (6 bottles of it, to be exact).
6. asparagus is in season.
7. the sun has shined all week.
8. the birch pollen counts are already on their way down (my eyes are grateful for this).
9. jon stewart and episodes of the daily show that are only a day old.
10. that i don't have to do anything special on sunday.

 i wish you all a most glorious weekend and i hope you have lots to be grateful for this friday. and if anyone knows why that tree produced two mutant pine-cone-agtig thingies when all the rest of its pinecones are totally normal and petite, please do let me know about that....botanists...anyone...bueller?

* GEC = global economic crisis (i get tired of typing it out)

friday the 13th

isn't friday the 13th supposed to be unlucky? i think someone forgot to notify it today, because it's been a great day.  my house is clean and sparkling and a lovely young polish girl did it so i didn't have to. the sun shined today, which reminded that when it's there, the light is wonderful!

sabin's big sisters were here, so i scarcely heard a peep out of her today, which left me much peace to sew and read and take pictures and generally enjoy the clean house. have i mentioned the clean house? it's absolutely amazing what a relief it is to have someone come and clean. if i'd known this before, i'd have done it a long, long time ago.

so, on this friday the 13th, i feel extremely, thoroughly grateful for my sweet new cleaning girl, sylvia. and the sunshine. what are you grateful for today?

grateful friday

it's grey and dreary and a rain of the sort that chills you to the bone is falling outside, so it seems appropriate to reflect on the things i'm grateful for this week:

• last friday, i took the picture above.
  
• a whole week at home.
  
• getting to see the new james bond--which, while a departure from the usual james bond formula, wasn't as bad as reviewers have made it out to be. i think bond comes out of it a deeper, darker, more complex character and what they have done to film pacing in the chase scenes is extraordinary and more than a bit jarring.
  
• an entire weekend devoted to creativity on the horizon.
  
• stitching cupcakes.
  
• real cupcakes.
  
• my little yellow teapot.
  

• my new heather moore cushion covers.
  

what are you grateful for this friday?

of train wrecks, halloween and gratitude

only a few more days left of my daily linking to the latest campaign news. tangobaby actually directed me to today's first link...an article by the director of a 2005 sundance film festival film called why we fight, and an early encounter with mccain's now derailing straight talk express. very thoughtful and well-written, read it if you have the time.

last night, the daily show with obama was on here in denmark, only one day after original broadcast--that's pretty cool, because until about a week ago, the daily shows were about a week behind (i suppose to give time to the subtitle people). it's on at 11:40 p.m., but both husband and i stayed up to watch it. glad we did, as there was more than the clip that had been available online. barack obama takes political speech to a whole new level...returning it to something you can believe in and with an underlying assumption that the audience consists of thoughtful, intelligent people. it made me realize that that's been missing for a long time now. at least 8 years, and as much as i like bill clinton, perhaps even longer than that. it is like we have our kennedy, although i will admit that in the early 90s, i felt that way about bill clinton and his campaign video a town called hope , done by those designing women people--i loved that and had the same goosebumps and tears in my eyes i had watching obama's infomercial yesterday.

one more link, you must check this blog that i just discovered. FANTASTIC! (thanks to magpie on twitter!)

* * *

but, i can't wax philosophical all day. i have to prepare for 20 2nd graders to descend on us at 5 p.m. for a halloween party! the house has to be decorated, the pumpkin tops cut open (they're going to start off by carving pumpkins, tho' i am uncertain that giving sharp objects to 20 2nd graders is a good idea), warm beverages simmering on the stove, food and snacks prepared for the hungry masses, apples tied to a string for fun and games, i have to be in my modified morticia addams costume (i got a black & purple wig instead of black & grey).  last night, we carved a couple of pumpkins to get ready:

and sabin worked on her halloween costume:

it is a spider web-y ghost costume of her own invention.

* * *

 i've been wanting to do a grateful friday posting for awhile now, inspired by del at serenity now, but am usually all worn out by friday and don't have it in me or am on some kind of rant. however, today i will do it!  here is a list of the things i'm grateful for at this very moment:

1. i'm headed for manila tomorrow for a week of interesting meetings and catching up with old friends and i'm staying at my favorite hotel in the whole world.
2. i'm almost done with my VAT statement for Q3. (ugh!)
3. and i have only one invoice left to create.
4. next i get to bake cupcakes.
5. that i have a wonderful husband who i have engaging conversations with every single day.
6. realizing that we've already managed to establish traditions with sabin--she insisted on the ritual pleasure of roasting pumpkin seeds last night when we carved the pumpkins. i had actually forgotten about doing that, but she remembered and said, "but mom, we ALWAYS roast pumpkin seeds with that yummy salt." 
7. a steaming mug of fragrant tea.
8. that i'm sitting in a space where all kinds of materials for creativity are within reach--pens, pretty papers, my camera. (i don't have time for any of that today, but i love knowing it's here.)

what are you grateful for this friday?