noting 2018

hello 2018! i've got an old-fashioned calendar diary to use for the first time in years. it's by arctic paper and is appropriately called illuminate. it was developed together with students from the design school in oslo as a meditation on the differences in light throughout the year and it's beautiful. i can't wait to use it! i'm going to note something from my day every day in 2018. small bits and pieces, perhaps occasionally profound, but mostly about remembering the little things that happen along the way. there's something wonderful about a new, beautiful notebook. so much promise contained within its beautiful, blank pages. i'm looking forward to filling it.

as you know, i'm not much one for resolutions, but along with the intention to write a little something every day in my gorgeous notebook, i thought i'd note a few more intentions. in 2018, i want to be more thoughtful, kinder and more joyful. i want to be less cynical and less critical and more open, curious and accepting. i want to eat healthier, get more exercise and drink less. i want to be more in touch with my body and dwell within it, instead of always being in my head. i want to have less stuff and be more deliberate in the things i do acquire - embracing handmade, unique things. i want experiences, not stuff. hmm, these are sounding an awful lot like resolutions...

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did you listen to the polybius conspiracy podcast? did you know it was fiction? i'll admit i didn't, tho' i did find it super weird. and i found myself thinking it was good that radiotopia didn't choose it as a new podcast for their network, because it was in no way even close to ear hustle.

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loved this obituary for 2017.

thank you mcsweeney's

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bon appetit takes on hygge.
laughter ensues.

sweet '16! 2016"

we didn't spend thousands (of kroner) on fireworks last evening, thinking we'd watch everyone else's and still have our money. but it was weirdly foggy, so we found some sparklers and set off chinese wish lanterns instead. it was much more wonderful that way. and we didn't miss the fireworks at all. after all, the clear, still air was filled with the sound of them. it was rather weirdly disorienting, actually. all that sound and none of the visuals.

i have so many hopes for 2016: to be healthier - in body especially, but also in mind and spirit and relationships. to creative challenges at work - i got an awesome idea yesterday and can't wait to explore it. for travel. for new experiences. for spending time with friends and family. for remembering to live a less consuming, more sustainable life. for finishing that new kitchen. for getting rid of this infernal cold (i got out the juicer and worked on that one today).

a new year always feels like a blank slate. fresh and new and full of possibilities.

happy new year, one and all! it's going to be a sweet '16. 2016.

goodbye 2012

and the sun sets on 2012...and this is my 2012th post. i don't have anything profound to say. no big resolutions. no big revelations. no big reflections. i've read some good books this year. i've made some good food. i've had some great conversions and laughed a lot. i've done some things i previously didn't dare to do and i should undoubtedly have dared more (or believed more). i took photos every day, but i didn't really progress anywhere in my photography. i loved some cats. i spent time with horses. here at the end of the year, i went on a buffy the vampire slayer marathon (more about that soon).  in short, 2012 was another year. full of ups and downs and in betweens. i learned. i grew. i wasted some time and i used some time wisely.

perhaps a declaration is in order (tho' i'm still unwilling to call it a resolution)...i intend to believe more in 2013. and do more of following husband's example and just working on through at those moments when believing wears thin.

happy new year, one and all. may you eat good food and spend it with people who make you both think and laugh. that's what i plan to do.

deciding to be happy

pretty happy things inspired by pinterest

yesterday at the end of my blog post, i linked to an article about how it pays to be happy. and how you can simply decide to be happy, you just have to keep at it for 21 days (they say that's what it takes to make something a habit, tho' don't ask me who they are). i think what keeps going through my head is the line about: if you're positive, your brain is 31 percent more productive than it is in a negative state. honestly, i need all the productivity i can get, so i'm thinking it's worth a try to be positive and happy. 

last night, we had some car trouble that totally turned our plans upside down - we thought we'd be spending our evening in a nice restaurant in another country, eating and laughing with friends after laying in 3-4 months' supply of nutella and gin at a well-stocked german grocery store. when we got to the parking lot of the grocery store, our car began acting up (electrical problems), so we decided to high-tail it back to denmark, where our falck membership was valid and we could call a tow truck if necessary. (i ran in for nutella and gin before we departed, don't worry.) 

we called our friends to cancel and decided instead to go to their place (which was in denmark), where we ended up having an impromptu dinner and playing a great board game called ticket to ride (which i promptly ordered from amazon during the game) and laughing and having a great time anyway. we left around midnight and the car seemed ok. but along the highway, it came to a stop and we had to call falck after all. 

during the wait for the tow truck, we were beside the dark highway and cars sped past us. one truck actually honked as if we were in the way. and i found myself getting absolutely furious about the danish mentality of "we gave at the office, you're on your own." yes, it was dark, yes it was rainy and yes, help was on its way, but still, it would have been nice if someone had demonstrated courtesy and a shred of caring about others and stopped to ask if we needed help. i complained on facebook and my friends started piping in with commiserations and offers of help (from seattle!) and ideas (involving flashing my chest) for getting someone to stop. and it made me laugh and i felt a whole lot better. so i guess i feel i had proof that deciding to think it was funny instead of being furious actually worked. happiness won. (even if it was with a bit of help from my friends.)

i think i'm going to give it a whirl as an experiment over the next few weeks, following some of the advice from the article:

~ write down three new things you are grateful for each day
~ spend two minutes a day, writing all the details about a positive experience you've had over the past 24 hours
~ exercise or do something you enjoy for at least ten minutes a day
~ write one quick email, first thing in the morning, thanking or praising someone who's in your social support network

i know, it all sounds a bit new agey, but isn't it worth a try?

practice run writing a small stone

i'm planning on participating in a january mindful writing project. i was alerted to it by a facebook friend. the way it's described sounds like an extension of the already daily mindful effort i make in taking a daily photograph. only instead of a photograph, it's a daily snippet of writing and the project initiators call these little bits of mindful writing small stones, and we know how i feel about stones. so anyway, i'm going to give it a whirl (despite being a little put off by the new ageyness of the site). but just because they're new agey doesn't mean i have to be, right? besides, i want to be more open in 2013 - open to other ways of thinking and looking at the world and open to new people, experiences and opportunities. (dang, that's sounding an awful lot like a new year's resolution.)

i thought i'd give it a little practice run here, based on a photo i took because i noticed the golden light and the shadows it cast.

small stone ~ golden light, the sweet scent of hyacinth, short winter days mean the light must be embraced when it comes. but the light also embraces - a bobbaloo, a special mushroom, a unicorn and a papier mache head - products of creativity from people i love, bathed in golden light.

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some spectacular photography.

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the r boards on pinterest: rainbows. raw. rest.

a spring manifesto

pentax ME super - kodak 800

tara wrote a spring manifesto and that seemed like a good thing...

~ plant things.
~ be more aware of the moon.
~ dare.
~ worry less and do more.
~ eat lunch in the garden.
~ learn to crochet.
~ build.
~ banish negativity.
~ use the stash.
~ do something scary at least once a week (includes phone calls and taking shots only on film).
~ help husband with the garden house.
~ acquire a goat.
~ and more bunnies.
~ shoot film.
~ get in touch with my inner viking.
~ dress up. for no reason.

this is starting to sound a whole lot like resolutions and we know i'm not so keen on those, but i want spring to be full of growth and writing is the new praying, so consider this a prayer of sorts.

365 group created

i have created a 365 group for 2010 in flickr. i called it the blog camp 365 group, mostly because there are a zillion 365 groups and that name worked as a unique name. i've made it so you need an invitation to join, but please do request one if you'd like to participate. i just thought we should reasonably know one another. at least at first. maybe i'll change my mind down the line.

i've made it less restrictive than many flickr 365 groups. here are the rules:

1.) do take a picture every day.
2.) post when you have time.

i'd also request that you do leave comments. for me, doing this is about pushing my photography, so i'm really interested in feedback - good or bad. i hope you all feel that way too.

so click on the link and request an invite to play along and then get ready to take some pictures.

writing is the new praying: non-resolutions for 2010

i'm not super big on new year's resolutions, at least not the traditional kind--you know, exercise more, get more rest, eat healthy, lose weight, run a marathon, stop drinking wine - all that stuff. but during 2009, one of my resolutions was to carry a camera with me at all times and if i can count my iPhone, i did, in fact, achieve that. i also vowed to create at least 100 things and i have also achieved that (photographic evidence of the last few coming soon). in my private, written journal, i declared that i wanted to be a blogger blog of note and that happened in 2009 as well.  so in the interest of writing as the new praying, there are a few things i'm going to do during 2010.

1.) the main thing i intend to do involves these gorgeous moleskine calendar notebooks i scored last month at norli bookstore in oslo. inspired by these beautiful journals by cathy cullis that i saw on flickr, i decided that i want to do mini art journaling in these calendar journals. i also love these. and these beauties by geninne. i know that mine will land somewhere in between and somewhere more me, but it's something i feel motivated to stick with. the small size of these and the fact that there's a different color for each month makes me think i can stay interested. the only drawback is that they have faint lines, but i'm hoping that i can deal with that, tho' normally i feel constricted by lines.

2.) i'm going to embark on a 365 photo project. i haven't selected a flickr group and i'm not sure i'm going to (unless some of you are interested in starting one with me? - do let me know and i'll create it). i very nearly did this in 2009 as it was, but i'm thinking it would be good for me to push through my current lack of photo mojo if i gave it a whirl.

3.) the simplicity project - as you know, we are planning on being very selective about what we buy during 2010 here at our house.  thanks to a great suggestion by glenn, i'm going to keep myself posted/accountable/focused on this quest by sharing a weekly "what i didn't buy" blog with all of you.

4.) a book contract. i want a book contract in 2010.



so there you have them, my three main resolutions that i'm hesitant to call resolutions for 2010. what about you?

the naughty noughties

what a decade it's been. we've gone from monica lewinsky to sarah palin. ken starr to osama bin laden. clinton to bush's non-election in 2002 to obama. from the Y2K scare to the triumph of the iPhone. september 11. the asian tsunami. wars in afghanistan and iraq. from the skeptical environmentalist (bjorn lomborg) to an inconvenient truth (al gore). from the matrix to avatar. it's been an eventful decade.

my friend zuzanna wrote not long ago about all of the words that are forever changed by the decade, so i won't repeat that, tho' i did argue in a comment that the word "bush" is forever changed. we do things differently now than we did at the beginning of the decade. we blog. we google. we tweet. we have clever phones and GPS and digital photography.

although i think that forty is the new thirty, i spent the prime years of my life thus far in the noughties. i had a daughter. i accidentally worked for microsoft. i traveled the world. i had a good decade. but i'll admit, i'm ready for the new one to begin. i'm ready to leave behind the excess. the striving. the constant accumulation of more stuff. i think the decade ahead will be a simpler decade. we'll do more for ourselves - growing more of our own food, learning more, remember more of how things were once done. we'll return to a place where we can simply do more things for ourselves (sewing, canning, making cider are on my list). or at least that's what i hope.

i hope a lot of other things too, but only time will tell.