that sunday evening feeling

although it's summer holiday time, since we're just at home and not really going anywhere this year because there's so much work to do on the house, i find myself wanting to feel what i call my "sunday evening feeling." that feeling that you are prepared for the week ahead. the dishes are done. the laundry is done. you've vacuumed. and in my case, i've put the garden in order, or at least gone a long way towards doing so. everything so that i can face the challenges the week will bring.

one of the things i've done is ponder what i'd like to write in the week ahead. since my hand isn't really getting that much better, i have to conserve my typing, so i must carefully consider (notice that i don't really consider NOT writing anything--i'm choosing to think of this as a good thing) what i will write. inspired by the summer column on page 2 of the culture section of my daily newspaper, i'm going to write a week's worth of postings on people, places or things that have had a big effect on my life, 3 of them are people, one is a horse and one is a country. at least as i feel right now, that may change as i begin to write them, my writing has a way of doing that, taking me off in directions i hadn't anticipated.

other than that, this week i must:

1. prepare and submit my first VAT statement
2. paint the købmandsdisk (yes, this is an encore appearance for this task)
3. help move everything out of the addition into the writing house
4. eat healthy foods!
5. exercise every day!
6. do something creative every day!
7. write article for Scanorama
8. some consulting work tasks (separate list)
   
9. take pictures every day!
10. find a small table/chairs for the greenhouse
11. finish cleaning all of the glass for the greenhouse
12. avoid cutting myself while doing so
13. finish up the last two beds of the upper garden, sweep and get new shell gravel stuff
14. take bike in for a tune-up
15. make pillows for the iron bench in the upper garden

what will your week bring?

things i learned in the garden: part 2

the work continued this weekend in the upper garden. i tell myself it's good for my left hand to do some activity of a different sort than sitting around typing.  the garden isn't totally cleaned up yet, but it's getting there. i have a strong sense as i'm weeding and fixing and tending up there (i say up there because our yard is on a hill and this little garden is up that hill) that this activity is very good for my soul. i find myself slowing down, breathing more evenly, listening to the bird song, feeling the dirt under my fingernails. it can only be good for me.

roses now tied to the trellis so they can begin to climb and climb.

i think i said before that i'm not THAT fond of roses,

but these are a beautiful, vibrant orangey red.

the one on the right has suffered a bit from neglect, but i am hopeful it will come back now that it's been fertilized and given new soil and had all the dead bits trimmed off.

6 beds fixed, 3 to go.

you can see that i'm still unable to "weed" the strawberries

that have escaped their bed and are crawling over towards the other one.

they're nearly done bearing fruit, so perhaps then.

two giant buckets of weeds!!

now that my peonies and the one giant poppy are done, there's not much color up here.

hmm, perhaps i should go get some pretty plants that are blooming from the nursery.

that hydrangea on the right should bloom soon tho'.

these little primordial plants, while rather pretty, are an insidious weed.

they may look cool, but their roots reach up to 5 meters into the soil.

this makes them very nearly impossible to get rid of!

they were here in the time of the dinosaurs and i guess they will long outlive me.

well, i'd best get back to work, there's plenty more to be done and i can see that my lavendar is covered in butterflies, just beckoning to be photographed. i wish you all a happy, slow, lazy sunday.

on stashing the stash and never actually using the stash

my scrap stash continues to grow and i still don't really use any of it, except to make the occasional card. why is that? what is it that drives me to buy pretty paper and embellishments like a woman possessed? and why don't i sit down and use it? some of it comes in kits i subscribe to, some from shopping online, others from visits to craft and scrap stores.

speaking of scrap stores, the one i know and like best, scrapshop.dk, in roskilde, is closing at the end of this month! so, yesterday, i went there and finally bought that QuicKutz squeeze in pink that i've had my eye on for a long time. i've managed to restrain from going back today. i also stocked up on bazzil basics paper, since i find myself using that as the base whenever i make cards. i also discovered another scrap store in høje taastrup--dream papers--but didn't get to properly explore, as the woman who owned it was on her way to a craft show in sweden and had everything packed up. i did score a couple of sassafrass lass robots papers and one of the sets of owl stamps, also from sassafrass lass. i'm still obsessed with owls. i discovered that shop through this fun blog, the first blog friend i've made who actually lives in the same country as me! :-) imagine that!

my dozens kit also came yesterday. it has some super fun little pink plastic alfas by heidi swapp. they may be what makes me scrap something. i got my label tulip kit this week as well and it has some inspiring bits in it--especially a prima adhesive black felt that looks like a city skyline. i love that so much i put it on the inspiration board beside my desk.

best of all, at the scrapshop, i finally scored one of those little 7 gypsies ATC carousels. there's something about the playing-card size of ATCs that makes it seem less overwhelming than a big 30x30 sheet, so perhaps i'll find my scrap groove doing a few of those. it's a bit silly NOT to scrap when i have so much beautiful stuff to use and because i have tons of great pictures and i really enjoy the pretty paper--wouldn't i enjoy it all even more if i actually used it and had it right in front of me on the little card carousel? one would think so.

i think part of the problem for me is that scrapping is so about squarey edges and perfection, even when people are "distressing" their paper edges or ripping them, they do it just so, all perfecty, perfect. i feel constricted by that. and although i have lots of words in me, i freeze before the scrap page. i might have the perfect photo, and tons of cool ribbons and buttons, but then i never really know what to write in my journal spots (and believe me, i have lots of those) or what to write with my cool thickers and other alphabets. am i the only one who feels this way? in love with the supplies, but paralyzed before them?

does anyone else have issues like this? do you also collect and collect art supplies and then finger them lovingly and look at them, but not really use them? how can we get started? maybe if we promised one another to make and share something, that would kickstart things? anybody up for that?

things i learned in the garden

i've horribly neglected the upper garden.
it had gotten a little outta control.

weeds everywhere.

roses can actually thrive even tho' you

woefully neglect them.

although beautiful, roses are kind of a mean plant.
i got stuck multiple times by thorns today.
i probably deserved it.
but i'm still not that fond of roses.

despite neglect, there are tons of strawberries in among the weeds.
learned today: i talk to myself more than normal while i'm weeding.

they taste like beyond amazing.
and i didn't even have to do anything to get them.
other than pick them.

also learned: strawberries that are growing where you don't want them to be are weeds.

i'm only halfway through cleaning it all up.
will post pictures of "after" as soon as it's done.
that might be on the weekend.

gorgeous summer evening

i'm not supposed to type, i know, but the keyboard is elevated now, which i think will help. and i couldn't resist sharing pictures from this absolutely gorgeous summer evening. i made husband take my picture with the nikon while i took his picture with the diana+. we'll have to wait to see how the diana pix turn out.

it was a lovely evening for a balloon ride, as these people no doubt experienced..floating across from our house in a balloon made to look like the dannebrog, the danish flag. we could hear them firing the gas, it was so still and clear.

and one lovely dandelion-like flower. i don't think this is a dandelion, it was taller and sturdier, but i'm no good with plants, so i'm not sure what to call it. i just had to try to capture the waning hours of golden sunshine on its gossamer seeds.

getting on my nerves

i was just ordered by the doctor not to type anything with my left hand for 3-4 weeks! apparently, i have a nerve in my left hand/arm that is a tad ticked off at my fabulous new, very flat, paper-thin, gorgeous, awesome iMac keyboard. so the coming weeks will be more pictures and less words. starting with these strawberries from my very own garden. yummy.

headlines

"Now I've finally become myself." --Danish Tour de France winner, Bjarne Riis

i'd like to know who you were before, bjarne, if you only just became yourself. apparently that guy who doped himself silly and won the tour de france (in 1996, when doping was still ok) or the guy who last year admitted all that doping wasn't the real bjarne riis. what is up with that? when do people become who they are? aren't you just who you are and what you do is come to terms with it somehow?

i think this is a problem today. newspapers and magazines scream at us every day that we have to find ourselves, follow our true path, not to mention telling us constantly how stressed we are. quite frankly, it's all making me feel a bit lost and stressed out.

i'd like to think that i am who i am and that i've been me all along, i don't have to do anything special to become me, i just already am. there may be things that i'm not that happy to admit--

• i procrastinate like crazy
• i don't get enough exercise
• that whole pageant thing in the early 90s
• on occasion i drink a bit too much white wine
• i have a tendency to lose myself in my work and forget about what's important (e.g. my family)
• i have mental blocks that are hard to overcome (like this thing where i don't post stuff i've made on etsy)
  

however, all of these things are a part of who i am. it may be that i should work with them, but that too is part of who i am. i may change my habits, but i don't actually change who i am. as much as i might not like to admit it, in the early 90s, i had platinum blonde hair and entered beauty pageants. would i do that today? no way. but, it is a part of who i am today that i did that.

we may evolve, but we don't suddenly become ourselves, we just already are.

* * *

in denmark there is no separation of church and state. in fact, there is a state church. the danish people's church, which is a brand of lutheran protestantism. you can choose to pay church tax or not and thus are a member or not a member of the church. although not religious at all, i do choose to pay the church tax, mostly because i find it amusing that there are several ministers who have said that they're not really that sure about the whole god thing and especially not the bit about jesus. i think it's pretty cool to have ministers who express human doubt in this way. plus, i'm happy to have my tax kroner go towards the upkeep of the beautiful and charming churches around the countryside.

however, in today's newspaper, they have come with a new proposal. they will hold divorce ceremonies in the churches. with 50%+ divorce rates, the danish church recognizes that there is a need for people to part ways with as much ceremony as they wed. interesting concept. there is something comforting about ritual, so perhaps they're onto something. i wonder if people will spend as much on a divorce party? and what do you wear to your divorce ceremony? a black dress? or red? or purple?

* * *

that's enough headlines for today. i have an electrician working in the house and he keeps turning off the power, so i'll get this posted while i can.