party preparations

gin cocktails, freshly-squeezed lemonade. guacamole (to go with grilled burgers). yup. we're having a party. more when it's all over. so much fun it almost doesn't even matter that my sister is apparently still not speaking to me. #getoveritalready #whateveritis

rockin' your socks off

dec. 10 - the party (reverbing for your reading pleasure):  Party. What social gathering rocked your socks off in 2010? Describe the people, music, food, drink, clothes, shenanigans.

a spiked (with tequila) shrimp "ceviche" of sorts

i think that the party that will rock my socks off in 2010 is still yet to come, as it's our annual christmas gathering with good friends who live on a beautiful lake called buresø. the party always promises loads of good food, ample drink, a silly gift exchange and another game involving famous names passed around in a bowl and a sort of pictionary-like guessing of them that always gets rather heated and the odd person or two (read: husband) deciding to engage in a bracing jump into the nearly-frozen lake. it's a party that's the highlight of the year for going on the 6th year in a row.

part of the tradition is that every couple brings a dish. most of the others are known for bringing the same dish year after year...flæskesteg (pork roast w/the cracklings on it), tarteletter (a danish thing-a flaky light pastry filled with a creamy mixture of chicken and white asparagus), tiramisu, sushi, herring...but me, i'm known for NOT bringing the same thing again and again. my contribution to the tradition is to be untraditional...hmm, maybe that's now i'm different...above is my contribution from 2 years ago...a tequila-spiked shrimp and mango ceviche that we used as a starter. last year, i made homemade herring (yes, me, in the land of the herring, decided to tackle this and ended up doing a very traditional, old-fashioned sort - imagine that!)

any suggestions for what i should bring this year? at this moment, i've got no idea! whatever it is, had better rock their socks off.

actually taken at the buresø christmas party in 2008.

a resounding success

a pig's head, rasta man, a nasty witch's potion, daring retrieval of coins from a haunted house, spiders in the ice cubes, edible mini dragon eggs and butter beer. in other words, a great party - if you were in the third grade and in the market for four hours of non-stop activities and food.

and these were #78. ghost cupcakes. recipe from here. they were a big hit.

the best things about this weekend

the one being confirmed looked a bit like a mermaid

even her dress was mermaid-y

which is entirely appropriate in the land of the little mermaid

beautiful table settings

a view like this from the party location

proud father giving a funny, yet touching speech

these two sisters of the konfirmand

children playing well together across all ages

this cake

getting lots of good prezzies

kick-ass eyelashes

doodling on the piano in the waning hour of the party

hearing hilarious tales of life at sea

and did i mention the view?

fresh homemade strawberry lemonade in the sun

enjoyed together with grilled apple & thyme sausages

getting these flower beds totally tidied up

hope your weekend was glorious too! 

ready for the weekend

husband comes home today! we're ready to see him and hang out with him again, for sure! i've volunteered to pick him up at the airport (and no, it's not ONLY because i want a starbucks grande venti latte).  i really can't wait to hear his stories of places with names like belo horizonte. doesn't a place with a name like that sound just wonderful? (more wonderful than clayton, NC, in any case, which is also where he was.)

i'm also looking forward to seeing the D60 and what pictures he managed to take with it. i don't really know what it thought of being sent out into the world without me and i'm a little sad that it's been to brazil and i have not, but i know it was safe in husband's capable hands. i told him he had to take a few hotel mirror self-portraits, but i'm not sure he did that (for some strange reason, he doesn't always do what i say). it's just that the D60 will expect it.

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husband said the other day that we should go to the states sometime this year. 

my response, "oh yeah, i just got a sale email from KLM and there are super cheap tix to joburg, like under 4000DKK or something like that." 

husband said, "that's not the states."

oops.

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watching all of the leaders arrive at the G20 summit in london it struck me that they're there to talk stimulating the world economy and about the environment and such, but they all pulled up in giant, bulky, beefed up armored gas guzzling big-ass cars and vans and SUVs.  is that really any better than the message sent by those assholes from the carmakers who showed up for their first meetings in their private jets? i also thought that instead of "growth" in the subtitle of the G20 conference, it maybe should have said "sustainability." because we can't sustain the kind of growth we saw. we've only got the one planet, you see.

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this is a screenshot of my flicker view stats. check out the spike when my kitchen was on apartment therapy! i normally have a rather steady amount of  views (between 200-400), but that day it shot clear up to 1854. it helped that the moo people tweeted another of my photos that day. i guess i don't really care about any of this one way or another, but i thought it was pretty funny visually.

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this is the weekend where we attend the wedding party for husband's sister. i'm so excited to see what they thinks of their atelierBB goodies. the party will be at the wonderful gamla kassen in landskrona.  these shots are from another party we attended there early last summer.

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note, i've been on a roll of late and put up a bunch of single entries over on balderdash, be sure to go check them out. they're autobiographical, but there's a couple of pretty funny ones.

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they promise sunshine and up to 15 degrees this weekend, so you won't see much of me here. i hope the weather is fine where you are and your weekend is filled with laughter!

the right life

do you ever go to someone's house, look around and think...these books, this art, this furniture, these dishes, this lifestyle...this is how i would like to live. that's what happened to us last evening. we had our annual cousins party, this time in copenhagen. we hadn't been to J&T's apartment before, but i totally fell in love with it, just stepping inside.

both of them are art historians, so their home is full of wonderful posters from all sorts of art exhibitions, as well as wonderful paintings and whimsical collages. they've got clever magnetic poetry on the refrigerator. there's even art in the bathroom. it's so cool. their furniture is the best combination of inherited pieces and the coolest flea market finds. it's all put together beautifully and in between everything there are shelves and shelves of books on art. it was a heavenly and inspiring place to spend an evening. everyone was completely at ease in the surroundings,  there was great food, much laughter, some fun and games, some homemade schnapps (which i, the non-dane, had made--one with horseradish and one with apple & cinnamon--they were a big hit, especially the horseradish one!). it all ended with the agreement that it would be thanksgiving at our place next year. i aspire to everyone feeling as comfortable and happy in our home when they come here next year.

* * *

last year we had no snow all winter long. finally, around easter, it snowed for about an hour and sabin rushed out to play in it before it was washed away by drizzly rain. but this year is already different! on friday, we got our first snow. it was rather strange snow and seemed to come down in little snowballs.

but that definitely didn't stop sabin from rushing out in her new snowsuit on saturday morning:

i don't know if you've noticed the new look of gmail over the past few days. i did and because i can't resist new gadgets, i went in and chose a theme. i chose tree. when i chose it, it asked me for my location, which i thought was a little weird, but didn't really dwell much on it. i've been stunned this afternoon and evening to see the weather change on my screen, to reflect the actual weather outside. right now, snow is accumulating on the top left corner of my mails and on the word Gmail at the top--just as fluffy snow is accumulating outside. it's obvious that it's night and the tree (of the theme name) along the bottom is barely visible. it occurred to me that perhaps google wasn't reflecting the actual weather conditions, but actually controlling the weather...

* * *

quick quilt update:  i did finish the quilt top on friday, as hoped, but with all of the other weekend rushing around, i haven't sewn it to the fleece yet, nor did i have time to photograph it in good light. perhaps tomorrow!