does it preserve sanity?

living in a windmill would definitely preserve my sanity.

a friend, who lives a similarly freelance life, mentioned to me the other day the question she often asked herself as she was about to embark on an activity: does it preserve sanity? and i came across an activity today that i realized most decidedly does not preserve sanity. at least not my sanity. and it got me thinking about what components an activity has to have in order for it to preserve my sanity.

~ i have to be able to understand it - the process, the steps it takes, how it works.  it's perfectly ok if it takes some work to figure that out (see next component), but there has to be an underlying discoverable logic.

~ it has to challenge me. if it's immediately easy and i get the hang of it quickly, i get bored.

~ it has to seem fair. i have to have an equal shot at it.

~ it has to be what it appears to be. if i feel it's somehow a lie or not what it seems, the sanity (and the patience) go immediately.

~ the activity has to give me a sense of satisfaction - either that i accomplished something that i can see, got something out of my system or built the foundation towards something else.

~ if it involves other people, i have to think that they are intelligent at a level commensurate with the activity (sadly, this is where the sanity bit often falls apart).

~ it has to make sense (this is different than whether i am able to understand it) - again, there has to be an underlying logic at work, one which is ultimately transparent.

it seems a little bit weird to be pondering the preservation of sanity while the world melts down around us, but on the other hand, perhaps that's the perfect time to do so.

how do you preserve your sanity?

where to begin?

another rainy day.

it seems like the world is full of turmoil and uncertainty. stock markets are down. starving people are meandering across africa. the syrian government is killing civilians. there are riots in london. fundamentalists of all stripes are getting bolder. the polar ice caps are melting. and the US congress is behaving like an unsupervised kindergarten. no wonder our television screens are full of senseless "reality" programs - we need escapism. because the world certainly looks hopeless. and it doesn't seem like there are any true leaders in the world with a single clue about getting a handle on it.

we had a lively conversation the other evening about whether it's even possible for individuals to make a difference anymore. i know i certainly can't think of anything that i could do (tho' i did spend some time today wondering if there wasn't an app in it). and a friend, whose job in television puts her in a position to have an effect on the wider culture, admitted that making denmark's next prime minister would be considerably less fun than making denmark's next top model.  and while it made me laugh (i do like me some cynicism), it also hits on a truth...if things aren't fun, we simply don't really want to do them. and saving the world would be some seriously hard work (unless there IS an app for that).

it seems like such a hopeless mess that setting whether or not i'm having fun aside, i wouldn't have a clue where to begin. it seems like even a small amount that you might give towards hunger in africa never makes it to those who need it...the big aid organizations have such a bureaucracy behind them that the vast majority of a donation goes to support that. we talked the other night about if it were possible to get even just a fraction of the food we are wasting in our part of the world to the people who need it, what an impact it could have. but so many regulations and rules and laws and transport issues stand in the way that we talked ourselves out of it before we even discussed it properly.

it must somehow be possible to somehow harness all of these social networks and all of the thoughts, ideas and innovations going on and channel them towards something good, don't you think? but where to begin? (maybe we should ask steve jobs.)

a little legoland story

 this is #33. he's from sweden.

 he had a few issues handling his car.

 his parents shouted instructions from the sidelines.

 but eventually he had to raise his hand for help.

 yup, that's a little bit embarrassing.

 the multi-lingual lego employee helped him out and he immediately crashed into another car at the adjacent gas pump (i missed that photo - because i was laughing so hard).

 you have to be at least 7 years old to get a driver's license at legoland.

we're pretty sure #33 was nowhere near that.

this is #33's aggressively perfect father. 

he undoubtedly signed his underage son up for the driver's license.

too bad he was the first one in the history of the legoland traffic school to completely fail the test.

much to our amusement.

that's my story.

and i'm sticking to it.

real clothes for real kids

sweet isabella makes her modeling debut.

she just turned three.

apparently she loved the blue dress so much, she insisted on sleeping in it.

family dog harley had to get in on the photoshoot.

i've been hard at work the past couple of weeks, scaling patterns, cutting out and sewing up a storm and now i'm ready to present my reversible organic cotton dresses in three sizes - 3 (100cm), 5 (110 cm), and 7 (125cm). if you're in denmark or scandinavia and would like to buy in danish kroner, they're in my beecharmer shop (more listings to come, as i had some hiccups on the back end). if you're anywhere else, you'll find them on big cartel in US$ - the price is the same both places (according to the exchange rates yesterday on XE).  they will also be available locally in a lovely little toy shop that also has children's clothing.  there are seven different color combinations and two designs (one two-tone and one with pockets). i have some of each size, but will also make them up as they are ordered once my stock runs out, so please allow up to a week.

click to enlarge

the fabrics i've used are the gorgeous nature walk and cut out & keep (by heather moore) lines by cloud9. if you would like another combination other than the ones i've put together, just email me - i'm happy to make up these dresses just as you want them. they're comfortable, soft and fully reversible, so they're two dresses in one. and with a long-sleeved shirt and some tights, they're perfect for any weather.

i hope you like them!  happy weekend, one and all!

fixed 50 envy

my sis got a 50mm fixed lens. for her canon. and it makes me want one too. waah...

feeling ranty (or am i a woman yet?)

i'm feeling a little ranty (i blame caitlin moran).  so avert your eyes.

rant #1:  i'm still fuming over the far-too-expensive ferry ride we took on mols-linien from ebeltoft to odden a week or so ago. as any of my FB and twitter pals know, due to my obsessive photographing of it, there is a rather large bridge (18km) that takes you to the devil's island (sjælland), but for fun, we thought we'd take an alternate route. mols-linien had been bragging in their ads about how if you took them you'd skip fyn (the island in the middle) and how they had cheap tickets over kattegat. turns out those cheap tickets that compete with the price of the bridge (220DKK or about $42) have to be ordered at least 7 days in advance. so much for spontaneity. and so much for truth in advertising, because that's definitely not clear in the ads. nor are any of the prices clear on the mobile version of their website. which i found worrying as i tried to check departure times/prices as we got closer to ebeltoft. turns out if you don't book in advance you pay the OUTRAGEOUS sum of 775DKK ($147) for the hour-long crossing. and this doesn't come with anything. you then have to pay 3 times the normal price for a sausage (every ferry ride must include a sausage) and a coke, so they are definitely adding insult to injury. my advice?  AVOID MOLS-LINIEN like the plague. there is NO value for money. none at all. and their little high speed ferries are ugly.   take that, mols-linien.

rant #2:  as you know, we live out on a country road. it's paved and the speed limit is actually a shocking 80km/hour.  however, most of the people who are going past (i don't have a radar gun, so i can't prove this) are going at least 120km/hour. it's INSANE. there are people out for a run, or walk or bike ride and the cars scarcely even slow down. in fact, most of them don't slow down. someone's going to get killed and i hope it's not me, my family, our cats or our hedgehog. i do, however, hope there is a fiery crash where one of those speed demons rolls multiple times and i can stand and laugh.

rant #3:  as you gathered, i continue to read caitlin moran's how to be a woman with a mix of the fascination one would feel to see the aforementioned crash and indignation at how in one breath she can claim to be feminist and then refer to women as chicks.  and then i fall a little bit in love with her when she says that lady gaga is the most exciting pop artist since madonna. so i'm torn by her. her writing is like rock 'n roll - it's loud, it's in your face, it makes me feel hyper (and ranty) and it's just really good. but a lot of this shit she's saying is just pissing me off.

ok. ranting over. for now.

EDITED:  wait a minute, hold everything, i totally forgot to rant the main rant!!!

rant #4: getty images. grr.  last week, was pleased to receive a flickr mail telling me that the good folks at getty images had selected a number of my photos and would like to license them. they're mostly ones of the old kitchen, the blue room and sabin's two bedrooms, plus one of my rainbow snail. so, i made haste to the getty images website to sign up. the sign-up is all very official and of course, asks you a lot of questions about your details - address, paypal account, where you pay taxes. and because i live in denmark, i was not able to sign up as anything other than a non-american. i've run into ameri-centric sites before (hello there, eBay and yes, i mean you, best buy), but none that actually wanted me to commit perjury in order to complete the invitation that THEY sent to me. after three days of going back and forth with several different "customer support" people, i finally agreed to commit perjury. yes, i wanted to sell my photos THAT badly. but seriously. i must not be the only expat american living abroad who has ever licensed their photos through getty images. and i think it's downright bogus that i had to pretend to pay taxes somewhere else in order to accomodate a faultily-crafted website. boo. hiss. getty images.  that said, get to selling my photos, will you?

and now i'm done ranting. for now.

monday ponderings

~ if your 8-year-old child is an incredibly annoying know-it-all and you just drop him off and foist him off on strangers in a public place, what kind of a parent are you?

~ should one or should one not read the books everyone is buzzing about?

~ i'm reading caitlin moran's how to be a woman (see above) and so far, i've learned a lot of new slang for one's private parts and had a vicarious experience of ecstasy (she writes well). and while i enjoy her ballsy writing, i'm not sure that i want to be the kind of woman she describes. right now, she's at a strip club. i'll share more about the book when i've finished it and digested it.

~ i've been writing a piece about foraging in my head for a couple of weeks now and thought i'd reached the point where it would come out onto the page, but strangely, it won't.

~ i hate when that happens.

~ my sewing is going well. i've got three sizes of little dresses (3-4, 5-6, 7-8(at least i think those are the sizes)) now. a photoshoot with them and a beautiful little girl on the horizon. and i've learned a lot about patterns and scaling. plus my sewing is getting faster and neater. these are all good things. i'll be providing some to an actual shop at the end of the week! very excited about that.

~ as you can see, the wildflowers are plentiful and make a fetching bouquet.

~ more thoughts soon....