giving thanks

it's thanksgiving and it feels like 2016 hasn't given us a lot to be thankful for. the death of david bowie, prince, leonard cohen, as well as brexit and trump -  it's been a rather brutal year. at least for the world.  personally, it's been pretty good. so i think i'll focus on that.

first, i'm thankful for husband. and for the amazing young woman that the child is becoming. i'm thankful that my job has taken me new places - poland, latvia, estonia, belgium and paris. i'm thankful for the fun and creative people i've had the chance to work with all year.  i'm thankful that my back is better. i'm thankful for yoga - for it bringing me in touch with my body again. i'm thankful that i get to spend the week in copenhagen and retreat to the countryside to husband and the garden and the cats on the weekend. i'm grateful for friends - both virtual and irl. i'm thankful for podcasts, the pantsuit nation facebook group, for my cousin who is letting the child stay for her year of high school, for seeing my hometown through her eyes (good and bad (and honestly, it's mostly bad)).

i'm thankful for late nights with friends, drinking wine and solving the world's problems (and also a few wardrobe-related problems). and great food (that sushi in gdansk, a seriously good ramen in london and foie gras in paris). and amazing projects. and the opportunity to be in a london bell tower, both listening to and watching the bells being rung. and for what happens when you share your ideas and are willing to let go of them and let them become what they are meant to be, which is so much more than you imagined. and by you, i mean me.

and i'm grateful for being seen. for unfolding. for transformation and becoming. and finally finding out what i can do.

and i'm also thankful for kittens. and laughter. and candles. and mac highlighter, and benefits mascara and urban decay eyeshadow. and for a day when we think about it all and are thankful. despite all of the other stuff that's going on.

happy thanksgiving, one and all.

pink martini and painting

my to do list is full of photoshoots and video shoots and salmon and the english channel and iPhone covers and terminals and ideas! idea for stories i want to write,  to produce, to make as a podcast. i need to learn more about photoshop and indesign and premiere pro and recording equipment. i need a more zoomy lens. i signed up for a yoga class tomorrow - one that should be gentle on my back, but for which i am so ready. the laundry is done (as long as everyone keeps wearing the clothes they currently have on). i sorted three bags of clothing from my closet to donate. per marie kondo, i thanked them all for their service to me over the years and released them. it felt enormously freeing. surprisingly so, in fact. the bed is made, the bathroom is clean, the kitchen tidied. and now there's even time for a little bit of afternoon creativity - listening to pink martini and painting. just how a sunday afternoon should be.

* * *

these make me long for summer!

* * *

this totally made me laugh - a review of what the presidential candidates look like.

* * *

i dare you to read this and not download neko atsume, the cat game.

* * *

does knausgaard deserve to be canonized already?

life is good, but my memory? not so much.

it was a rainy, dreary day. i had to pull out a warm sweater again when i dressed for work. but despite that, it was a good day. great collaboration with a colleague. good progress on some of my projects. and a general feeling that i am regaining my confidence and getting on top of things. however, i'm not on top of everything. husband went to scotland today and tho' he told me last week, i didn't remember until he called around dinnertime from edinburgh. it's rather worrying that i don't even remember that my husband is flying to another country (tho' i did wonder why he was looking for his passport yesterday).

but at the end of the day, the rain cleared and i had walk in the garden with my camera. all of the cats came out to play, as did the sun, and it cleared my head and left my soul refreshed. despite a week filled with teachers having nervous breakdowns, time that flew by too quickly and cloudy, rainy days, a walk in the garden, accompanied by playing cats and the beauty of the golden hour sunshine on raindrops really truly can make it all better.

wherein we actually have summer

summer is actually upon us.

that's not always the case in july in denmark.

but we've had an absolutely glorious few days.

the kittens have spent time outside, learning to climb trees and chase frogs.

there's been time for tie-dye projects.

sabin's transforming a brand new pair of white vans into a bright rainbow.

the good bit about our summer is that it's never too hot.

it's actually just right - upper 70s and a nice breeze.

i hate to be one of those bloggers who seems to be bragging about a perfect life.

but it has been pretty perfect for the past couple of days.

what's better than creativity and kittens in the garden?

even my old, faded, scuffed yellow converse got a rainbow facelift.

i can't wait 'til they dry so i can wear them.

rainbows are just so happy and cheerful.

these long summer days stretch out and there's time for everything.

time to wander the treeline separating our property from the neighbor's

and pick a basketful of wild rose petals.

our strawberries are in full production mode.

we picked more yesterday than we've ever picked in one go.

i didn't weigh them, but that's an enormous bowl.

and it was heaped to the top.

a little break during the strawberry picking.

i hadn't put the beers in the fridge, so i just poured it over ice.

that was good too.

a separate bowl of strawberries set aside for dessert.

we're eating strawberries every night right now.

 fresh, fragrant, sprinkled with a bit of sugar and some cream.

i must remember this taste of summer

when the clouds and rain inevitably return.

this is the summer we actually had some summer in denmark.

thankful thursday

rainy days (yes, you got that right).

because with the rain comes mushrooms and that means dinner!

yellow swamp brittlegills (russula claroflava) - absolutely delicious with our pasta dinner. and absolutely free from our very own forest.

special black canary island potatoes - growing in OUR garden! now that's what i call well-irrigated joy!

happy visitors on a sunny day

rainbow fingernails

real rainbows (you need a little rain to have a rainbow)

for more thankfulness, check in with miss buckle.  and please do play along, it makes a nice change from the madness of the world...

radical change

i've been coloring my hair blonde since i was a junior in high school.
that was a long time ago.
today, that all changed.

and i have to tell you that i feel incredibly liberated.
who knew a color and cut could free up so much baggage?
baggage i didn't even know i was carrying around.
and definitely didn't attach to my hair color.

i seriously feel like a new person.

mostly it feels pretty good that i finally really dared something.
and it feels like just the beginning.

~ photos by sabin.

light

i am not my house.

my car.

my job.

my kitchen.

i breathe in golden evening light.

and a calm comes over me.

the very air itself shimmers golden.

liquid gold.

and realize that light is all there really is.

the start of a great week

when you wake up with a cheerful morning song in your head that reminds you of someone who makes you laugh...

and husband brings you a vibrant and friendly new snail to use as a canvas...

and that snail keeps exploring while you paint it...

...bright like a rainbow...

you know it's going to be a great week.

happy monday, one and all.

*  *  *

the sun is shining today, can you tell?

in this together

we spent a good part of the weekend, including all day friday, loading this container and another one like it, with the wood husband bought a few weeks ago. hours and hours of lifting and moving and in the process getting to know the boards. and it made me realize that physical labor is good for the soul. after a long, dark, cold winter, without a whole lot of physical activity, it feels good to stretch unused muscles and to feel tired in the way that only physical labor can make you feel tired.

but mostly, i noticed this most amazing feeling that we're really in this project together. watching husband's capacity for hard work is awe-inspiring. the division of labor at our house is that he builds and fixes and i cook, keep more or less on top of the laundry and sew stuff. i get a lot of ideas for things i'd like to have built and he builds them. but helping him with "his" side of things made me realize, for one, the enormity of the project we've undertaken, but mostly, that i love doing this with him...dreaming and quite literally building our dreams. there's really nothing like it.

loving friday

loving today.

loving soft braids.

loving this blog.

and this etsy shop.

(you can see they're related.)

still hanging out here an awful lot.

and still pretty jazzed about this.

but mostly, loving that it's friday.

happy weekend, one and all!

a perfect day

think about it for a moment...what would your perfect day look like?

what would the texture of it be?

would you zero in on one perfect, shining moment?

or would you breathe in the whole of it?

or would it be an entire landscape of perfection...
every moment as beautiful as the moment before it and the one after.

and would you remember to savor it, every bit of it?

a sparkling good time

the weather is completely glorious - low humidity, perfect temperatures in the upper 70s, low 80s (mid to upper 20s for you, my european peeps), sunshine, fluffy white clouds in blue skies. visits with old friends and new friends, baseball games, hours spent in a bookstore, hitting a gap outlet, getting to know our iPad (fabulous, i tell you), good food, loads of fresh fruit that's perfectly in season, loads of laughter and sparklers. what more could one ask of their holiday?

we're off to an icy start

ice. -10°C. cold, crisp air. it seems cleansing. fresh. and along with clear skies in which the full moon and eclipse were visible last evening, it was the perfect start to 2010. and to kick off my blog camp 365 project, i took 140 pictures today. pretty good start, i say. happy 2010 to all of you!!