ideas can make you sleepy

have you ever had a really good day? one intensely filled with good energy and ideas starting to take shape? and did that day leave you feeling really, really tired? well, that's what happened to me today. i think my brain is telling me to shut down so it can process. more tomorrow, when it's 12/12/12 - one of those days that must be magical.

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did you know columbus didn't think the world was flat?
i wonder what else the history books lied to us about.

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ideas for developing ideas. what would be more awesome than that?

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danish design? yes, please.

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fashion as craft? it's about time.

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the y board: yarn porn (of course).

what will you do with your weekend?

i'm no longer speaking to our car. we're supposed to be going to an 80th birthday party, but car troubles are preventing it. and that makes me quite sad. 80 is such an achievement! and i know it will be quite the event and i'm sad to miss it. this is the second time our jutlandish car has let us down when it was time to go to copenhagen - i'm beginning to wonder if it has something against the place. hmm...

yesterday, i visited the most fabulous leather store and stocked up on supplies for making iPad and laptop covers, so i'll comfort myself by using my day wisely.

i read this post and began to dream about there being something like the brooklyn brainery in my area. if there's going to be, i'll have to start it. i could also get into the idea of a society for the advancement of social studies in my neighborhood. i mean, an organization whose motto is: "all the history you knew but forgot, and all the booze you need to forget it again." has got to be good.

happy weekend, one and all...and if you want to read something interesting about the neanderthal genome, go here.

i woke up with a headache

i woke up with a headache. i blame the abrupt shift in weather.

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these photos were clearly taken before the weather changed...

the saddlemaker, who is actually a saddle fitter, is coming today, but already we think the used passier dressage saddle we're trying out is MUCH better than the other saddle we had. we'll see what she says about it tho'. who knew so many problems could be caused by the wrong saddle?

matilde is already quite fuzzy. i suppose she knows something we don't about the coming winter. and it doesn't bode well. 

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thanks to my headache, i don't have much more, so i'm off to make potato leek soup to try to feel better so i'm coherent for the saddle fitter.

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in the meantime, check out these:

the chef's garden

and the men-ups!

hmm, it seems i did have seven more random things in me...

mariA-thérèse of afiori tagged me (last week, oops!) for one of those 7 random things posts. i'm not actually sure there are seven that i haven't previously shared, but i thought i'd give it a whirl. and with a photo for each. because that might distract from the lameness of the seven things.

i love yarn. can't stop buying it, despite being utterly unable to knit or crochet.

just bought this yesterday. 

i am going to try to make one of these 

to match my new orange coat (which i believe i've mentioned before).

that one yarn that looks quite red in this pic is actually much more orange.

i love weaving, despite what happened that one day. byegones, i say.

there is something so peaceful and soothing about pressing the pedals and swinging the thingie (dang, i'm missing terminology here) forward. 

must look up the terms in english b/c the danish ones clearly don't stay in my head.

tho' i'm not that fond of this pattern, mostly because i could never remember where i was.

you can see i messed it up a couple of times.

but these are learning pieces.

i grew up with horses and i think they're good for the soul.

i love pretty ribbon.
and sunshine on pretty ribbon...even better.
got the ribbon here.
the sunshine was sent by google.

i do not miss going back and forth to norway. not one little bit.

i love house-hunting. i think it's really, really fun.
and i can easily imagine myself in every single house, at least during my visit.

i think there's nothing quite like a cotton candy bigger than you on a summer day.

and on that note, i'd like to tag a bunch of new bloggy friends, whose 7 things i'd love to read:

a commonplace life
concerning pancakes
one girl circus
so NOT cool
a crack in the window
the philosophy of KLo
provins
what would julie say...

and i just want to say that i'm really grateful to all these new bloggy faces for commenting on my blog in recent weeks.
changing jobs and house-hunting has seriously cut into my blogging time/energy and i'm grateful you all commented so that i was in turn led to your blogs.
because i always check out the profile/blog of anyone who comments (that's a hint, lurkers).
and i've discovered some great new friends that way.

of course, i still love all of my old blog friends, but i figured you've been random thinged to death. :-)

thanks maria-thérèse for tagging me for this one.

and do check out my tumblr. i'm adding good stuff all the time! and it's so much fun!

lifestyle editors need a lifestyle adjustment

"to be hip or not to be hip," that is the question. actually, the question is more, "should one be hip in a time of worldwide economic crisis and if so, how?" but that doesn't roll off the tongue in the same way.

it seems to me as i page through my sunday newspapers that the people writing the lifestyle magazines that come with those every sunday are lagging a bit behind. perhaps this is because they plan those magazines months ahead and although they are meant to be the trend-spotters, they were apparently WAY off and didn't see the crisis coming. or maybe they're kept in some isolated room, far from the rest of the editorial staff and they have no access to the actual news of the day.

case in point:

a photo and description of a louis vuitton caviar case. yes, you read that correctly, a little square designer, hand-sewn bag in which to carry your caviar and all its accoutrements (this could easily have been a WTF wednesday posting) (oddly, i cannot find the case in question on the LV website, so no link, just this shot of my newspaper). that seems a little lavish in these tough economic times, doesn't it? and it reminds me of when i once saw a chanel water bottle holder to take the gym in neiman marcus in phoenix. but that was in the mid-90s, when times were good. and yes, i restrained from buying it, mostly because i thought the gold signature chanel chain would get too hot around my neck to carry it out rollerblading in the arizona heat. but, i digress...

there is also a big feature on high end designer lamps. we're talking a 6-page feature article on lamps that start at $1,200. i really do wonder if these lifestyle people have access to the rest of the newspaper at all? do they realize that people's home values are plummeting and they can scarcely afford to buy food for their families, let alone spend their entire grocery budget and then some on a lamp that doesn't even really light up the room, but just looks pretty.  i wonder who they think their audience is?

in the influence section, right next to the LV caviar case, they redeem themselves a bit with a little blurb about some hip young danish students who have a fashion blog, where they talk about dressing like you just stepped off the runway even tho' you're on a student budget. that seems pretty hip to the times.

to be fair, there is also a very cool article on street art, which seems a bit more like it. what better activity for the economically-challenged than to wander around with a camera, looking for interesting bits of art here and there on the streets and then being enterprising enough to make it into a calendar? (i wish they had links up on berlingske's website, but it seems the people who post that stuff aren't working on a sunday. grr. so again, we must make do with a shot of my newspaper.)

i don't know about you, but i'd like to see a lifestyle section in the newspaper that reflected the reality of people's lives today. perhaps they're attempting to offer an escapism to make us all forget about falling currency values (in europe anyway, the dollar is mysteriously rising), the loss of our friværdi in our homes (that's the difference between what you owe and what it's worth--when it's positive--equity, that's the word i was looking for) and the fact that countries and companies the size of countries are going bankrupt if they don't get bailed out. frankly, that's not what i want. i'd like to read more articles about how recycling is chic and how to repurpose last year's little black dress so that it's cool this year too. i'd like to know posh ways to use obscure and cheaper cuts of meat. handicrafts are hot, why aren't there more articles about that kind of thing? i think these lifestyle editors need to stop eating posh, designer hotdogs with porcini relish (that was mentioned today too) and get out into the real world and see what's happening.

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p.s. i understand new york magazine has tips for people like me who are suffering from election withdrawal.

p.p.s. there's a very fun list of 37 things president bush should regret, since he recently said that he only had two regrets from his presidency. i think i could come up with about 100 more...

closer to vanuatu than answers

i'm no closer to any answers on my can i live in the mall that is singapore if i have a really fulfilling job, make tons of money, can bring my family and use it as a jumping off point to vanuatu dilemma, but i'm having a fabulous time.

1.  i've eaten sushi (and botched up photographing it because i was deliriously tired).

2.  and some other really gorgeous food.  those little golden rectangles are delectible pockets of mango and thinly-sliced scallop that were light, crispy and quite simply heavenly. the veg is rather spinach-like and is stirred together with a gorgeous sambal olek chili sauce and garlic. totally awesome and a good alternative to sushi if one must.

3.  and wondered to myself whether i could actually allow myself to eat sushi at every meal while i'm here (i chose something else tonight, as you can see, so i did not go with this option, tho' there's still a lot of sushi left in this city and i will have more before i leave).

4.  i wondered what the heck this was:

the waitresses were using these, i think it was some way of communicating to the cooks what had been ordered because they would come, stand in front of it, select a few and disappear around the corner.  fascinating, in any case.

5.  i've marveled at the sheer number of people wearing false eyelashes (i will try to surreptitiously take pictures of some of them tomorrow). 

6.  i've visited two scrap supply stores (read: heaven) and bought a few cool things (read: stamps, rub-ons, something fabulous called washi tape and yes, pretty papers). and i've spread it all out on the desk in my hotel room:

7.  i popped into the gap, bought a great dress (follow link to the very dress) which i already wore today and got a $10 (SGD, not US, tho' they're worth about the same these days what with the utter collapse of the US economy under the stewardship of the republicans...but i digress) gift certificate, which means i will have to go back.

8.  i viewed the new nano, but they were out of purple, so i restrained.

9.  i bought the new issue of martha stewart living. (sigh, i do love martha, despite the damage she's done to my psyche (what with the ironing the tea towels and all) so much that i paid $13SGD for it.)

10.  i bought thomas friedman's new book, hot, flat and crowded (tho' my version looks nothing like this picture on amazon) and listened to him being interviewed about it on CNN. it sounds like it's gonna be great, but i'm finishing this first. (my version looks like the one in the picture.)

11.  i've memorized the piece on CNN about whether or not south africa will be ready for the world cup in '10. dang, they repeat themselves a lot.

12.  i have yet to lens-shop for a macro lens for my beloved D60.

13.  and for the past couple of hours, i've been working in my art journal for the fabulous online course i'm taking.

i did a page called someday which listed all of the things that i will do someday (you know i'm a procrastinator):

and this one called need more, which listed all of the things i need more of (counterintuitively, not all were actual things, but stuff like patience, discipline, creativity and ideas):

and this one too which had only a little bit of journaling starting with i wonder...:

loving the SteadyHandFaultyHeart online art journal course (it's round 2) and it bodes well for singapore that i've had this spurt of creativity while i was here. and of course its proximity (relative to denmark) to vanuatu, where i will someday run away to. (in fact, i'm going to add that to my someday page.)

and now, it's ridiculously late here, so i'm going to go. catch ya tomorrow...do you think it's ok to have a list of 13 things? oh well, too tired now to care.