100 happy days :: day 69

the new flatiron building by LEGO architecture. seriously the best, most clever build ever. 

even bats agrees.

i actually almost want to buy another one just to build it again.

it's that cool.

100 happy days :: day 58

a teeny tiny toothy tiger.

what could be happier?

why do grown-ups play with LEGO?

living vicariously through blog posts and instagram shots of the opening of the in LEGO, we connect exhibition a week or so ago at the bryan ohno gallery in seattle, i've found myself once again pondering the whole love of LEGO among adults. when i started working on this question in earnest a year ago, i think that one could still detect a slight sheepishness among some of the adults who loved LEGO. but that may have been my own uninitiated perspective.

today, i believe thanks (at least in part) to the LEGO movie, it seems that love of LEGO is everywhere. people get enormous and colorful LEGO tattoos (and they must be adults, since you have to be 18 (or at least reasonably look it) to get a tattoo). gizmodo writes about LEGO regularly and so do the folks at geekwire. there are elderly folks using LEGO to keep their fingers and their memories nimble. there are serious blogs, discussing the LEGO community at a rather academic level. and blogs analyzing in minute detail every new LEGO brick and color. thousands of grown up people around the world are unapologetically and even proudly devoting their precious spare time to their LEGO hobby.

there are also some folks who love LEGO who are making a business of it in grand style. people like ryan "the brickman" mcnaught in australia. warren elsmore in the uk. nathan sawaya in new york. these are folks who took their hobby and made it their very successful businesses. and they think they're lucky to get to play with LEGO for a living, there's no sheepishness in sight. as well there shouldn't be.

i wonder if this embracing of a childhood toy in adulthood is something unique to our times? we all want to hold onto our youth these days. and we do so in the form of elements of pop culture. so i find myself singing along to the same songs on the radio as my 14-year-old does and i too want urban decay eyeliner. and i want to play with LEGO minifigures. granted, i play with them differently now that i would have as a child (i say would have, because i didn't really play with LEGO as a child, i had a pony, after all). and my method of play - taking photos of them "in the wild" - actually rather embarrasses my child, who isn't that keen on me arranging marge simpson on a shelf next to a cup at ikea. so it is something other than holding onto my youth, at least for me, since playing LEGO wasn't a part of my youth.

but what is it? is playing with LEGO just like any other hobby? like flying radio controlled planes? or building model trains? or quilting? or painting or any other creative hobby? why do so many more men indulge in the hobby than women? can it be taken seriously? is it art? the three showing their LEGO photos in the gallery are daring to think so. and their photos are each marvelous in their own very different ways. and i think that's some pretty cool boundary-pushing.

scenes from the past week

if i'm honest, the past week has been full of flies and wasps, but thankfully, i have no photos of those. we have the warmest summer in 147 years, you see, and that means loads of flies and wasps (they're more bee-like than our nasty american kind of wasps, but totally annoying if you're sitting in the garden with a glass of wine). but i choose to focus on gorgeous baby bunnies instead.

on monday, our dear pigs, bacon and bacon, were sent to meet their fate. on wednesday, we scrambled to figure out what to do with 200 kilos of pork! yes, 200 kilos (that's 400 pounds for the metrically-challenged). we bought two freezers on the blå avis (our craig's list equivalent), if you were wondering. i made weinerschnitzel as the first meal. and yes, in denmark, that's made of pork, not veal (weiner means vienna, not veal). i think you can taste that they were happy and loved. so many of our friends and co-workers wanted pork that we have paid for the whole experience and are still knee-deep in pork chops (200 kilos is a LOT of meat, if you were wondering).

on thursday afternoon, some very good friends came to visit. the skies provided a double rainbow, just as we went for an evening walk. such a thing would almost make you believe in odin.

friday afternoon found us harvesting honey. 25-odd kilos, with one more round to go. this year, we have enough to get us through the winter and to sell a little bit. and man, is it good. and it's definitely helped me minimize my allergies. they're not gone yet, but they're much better than they were. the healing powers of honey are awesome.

gorgeous friday afternoon weather found us in the garden, building benny's spaceship and playing with our adorable baby bunnies. they're at their cutest right now. this was her very first attempt at eating a dandelion leaf. this photo looks like she succeeded more than she actually did.

unikitty in a spacesuit. is there anything more awesome? (if there is, please don't tell me.)

i got out my quilt book purchase from the V&A museum as i emptied the last of the suitcases from our trip (yes, i'm slow, so sue me)...even their bags are gorgeous, don't you think? the quilt exhibition was back in 2010, but the book is gorgeous (more about that another time) and thought-provoking.

sunday, we had another visit from good friends and exposed their daughter to bunnies for the first time. suffice it to say she wanted one, but we're not sure the bunny felt the same way, as her impulse was to grab it and squeeze as tightly as she could. by the end, she understood admonitions of "gently." she's a smart kid and is already a real charmer. i predict she will go far, but first, she'll probably put her parents through a bit of trouble.

the weather's been hot and so garlicky, cold, salty gazpacho has been on the menu. other than all that pimm's we drank in england, i don't think there's anything more summery than a delicious cold gazpacho.

my time of late has been taken up with this...the exo suit, a fan-created product from LEGO ideas. what a privilege it's been to work with an ultra creative group of people in rolling this out. i took this photo at the end of may and it's utterly unlike me not to use a photo immediately, but that's just how things are these days. i'm adjusting to it and it's expanding my spontaneous horizons. it's hard but also undoubtedly good for me to have to keep secrets.

this was another secret. i also got to play with the research institute ahead of time, since we needed photos for a blog post. it's the latest fan-created set from LEGO ideas. i'm truly blessed to be working with these projects. and how awesome is that magnifying glass that actually magnifies?!

Here's hoping your past week was lovely too...

50 things about right now (mostly awesome)

i totally copycatted was inspired by molly's 50 things about right now post.

1.  in a word, kittens. two of them, tho' we thought she had 6 in there, her belly was so big.
2.  sunshine breaking through.
3.  working at home.
4.  sitting for too long in one spot when i work at home.
5.  building excitement over our coming holiday in london.

7.  flowers in bloom all over the place.

8. did i mention the two perfect, tiny kittens?

9. awesome projects at work.

10. great people to work with on awesome projects at work.

11.  a trip on the (rather distant) horizon to seattle and then new york.

12. yes, me, in new york.

13. for the first time ever.

14. cold white wine in the garden.

15. and the odd gin & tonic.

16. the coolest business cards ever. and i have some.
17. long, light summer nights.
18. being invited to a party this weekend.
19. horses with fly fringe attached to their halters.
20. the antics of our pigs.
21. the child hanging out with her good friends.
22. the awesomeness being submitted to the turtle competition we're running on eurobricks.
23. these are the ultra-creative people i get to work with. all. the. time.

24. pinterest.

25. looking forward to molly's kittens.

26. yes, that's more kittens.

27. awesome neighbors.

28. summer visits from friends.

29. rewatching friends from the beginning on netflix.

30. shark burgers for dinner.

31. salmon burgers for dinner.

32. burger burgers for dinner.

33. berries to pick.

34. the strawberries are done.

35. the child buying a nikon D7100 with her confirmation money.

36. arranging lunch dates with friends in london.

37. and tours of oxford with other friends.

38. packing up the "dining" room so it can become sabin's room.

39. reluctantly. because packing all those books away again feels wrong.

40. our independent, awesome feral hen keeping her babies safe up a tree every night.

41. overusing the word awesome.
42. but it's because everything is pretty much awesome.
43. looking at the calendar to find the best time for a weekend in rome.
44. and maybe one in berlin.
45. did i mention we're going to london?

46. getting to write at work too.

47. mowing the lawn.

48. strawberry shrubs.

49. staying up late.

50. sitting in the golden hour light with husband in the garden, sipping a cocktail and talking about our days, the future, living abroad, the angle of the roof, and what to do with all these cats.

* * *

seriously awesome reflection photos by kiripi katembo siku

they are stunning and so full of subtext and depth.

a big thank you to molly for sharing them with me.

things we've built lately

the creator 3-in-1 beach house. it's got all kinds of great details - like a wave out front and a surfboard.

it also has a cool window that opens on the back side, for playability. and check out that outdoor shower!

and from this side, looks like an architect must have designed it.

we put emily to work building the treehouse when she was here. it's also a creator 3-in-1 set.

there's a little crankable bucket and the ladder can be folded up to prevent unwanted folks from coming up into the treehouse.

love the super cute friends camper - sabin built it, but i might have to take it apart and build it myself, just for fun. if i had a camper that looked like this, i could totally get into camping.

next up was the friends juice bar - all kinds of awesome details in this, but that's what lego friends does best.



juicing blenders and check out that orange juicer detail on the right. love it! but probably the best part of these friends sets is the colors. they're so bright and cheerful.

i have a little bit of a thing for chima legend beasts. they've got cool teeth and ball joints, so what's not to like?

and the minifigs are dressed very cool as well. i don't really know the chima stories, but these little warrior animals just speak to me.

look at all of those cool wing pieces on the awesome eagle!

the lion was the one i got first and oddly enough, i don't think i shared him before. posable and cool. i think maybe what i like is that they remind me a bit of mixels with the small ball joints and posability.

i can die happy as soon as i build this

could there be anything better than combining my two favorite jobs i've ever had into one fabulous LEGO set? only if this was an LNG carrier instead of a container vessel would it be more perfect.

dinosaurs will be trolls

hmm, i've been blogging for nearly ten years (tho' there were periods of dormancy), and i've been blissfully fortunate not to have any serious encounters with online trolls. perhaps the limited reach highly awesome, select audience of my blog is the main reason. but whatever it is, i feel fortunate. especially after quite a shockingly trollish series of messages from a fan of my favorite plastic bricks via facebook. yikes! trolls are no fun. (i do realize i've used a photo of a dinosaur, so my metaphor is a bit clouded, but it's what i had at hand.)

at the same time, it was an oddly fascinating experience. this individual made a whole lot of crazy assumptions which he threw my way and then, despite my polite tone, in which i actually thanked him for giving me insight that was useful for my work, he blocked me. hmm. i wonder how that works? but however it works, i'm actually good with it, tho' a little bit of me wishes i'd have thought to block him first.

oh well, trolls will be trolls and dinosaurs will be dinosaurs and the odd dinosaur will probably even be a troll. and it's no good losing sleep over it. it really was a valuable insight into a certain type of fan and for that, i'm strangely grateful.