november wakes up on the wrong side of the bed

i hate to start off november with a rant, but there you have it. husband is on one of his snoring kicks and i woke up about 72 times in the night, so i'm grumpy. there's a fine mist hitting me in the face whenever i step outside to do chicken and rabbit chores. the horse is still lame. and she's getting crabby too. our washing machine is down and tho' i've called a repairman, they're extremely imprecise about when he'll show up. a rant is simply in the dark, chilly, damp autumn air.

*  *  *

i tried to cheer myself up with a little browse of my google reader via flipboard. and can i just say that those blogs where there's only a truncated feed and you can't see the whole post without clicking an extra step....i'm just not going to read those anymore. the reality of today is that people are reading on a device - an iPad, an iPhone - and it's a big pain in the ass to have to click an extra step. i know all the reasons why one would truncate the post...to make sure the visits are counted...but really, it's just arrogant and annoying. and i'm done clicking the extra step.

*  *  *

i'm reading another bad book. elaine feinstein's biography of anna akhmatova, anna of all the russias. and it's just bad. she extrapolates all kinds of biographical details from anna's poetry, as if they're true and not art. clearly the woman couldn't be bothered to do real research - she doesn't properly explain who anyone is or their connections. she appears to have only the vaguest knowledge of the russian revolution.  it's just a bad book. luckily, it's not a novel, so i can put it down without finishing it. i'll be taking it back to the library today.

*  *  *

i no longer have any patience or time for things and people who drive me crazy. meddling. being too involved. not just letting me get on with what's ostensibly my responsibility, that stuff pisses me off. and makes me want to take a step (or two) back. this is why i'm not in the corporate world anymore.

*  *  *

another thing that's driving me crazy is how people wear stress as a badge. as if it's a good thing to be so busy that you feel totally stressed out. here's a news flash: it's not. and i'm not impressed by your bragging about how stressed you are. it doesn't mean you're important, and it may actually mean that you're stupid.

*  *  *

ok, i'm going to stop grumping now.

i'm actually very happy because handmade holiday starts today

and i'm really excited to share a lot of fun projects

with a lot of fun people.

it's not too late to join us!

flash mob

if this flash mob performance of ravel's bolero by the copenhagen philharmonic at copenhagen's central station last may doesn't get your blood flowing on a monday, nothing will. i love the occasional train station sounds and how sad everyone looks that it's over.

these are the things we will remember

building a trampoline in the waning hours of sunshine on an autumn day.
carving awesome pumpkins.
the first jump on the new trampoline.
a basket of baby bunnies.

annual halloween parties.

scary (in a good way - for halloween) uncles.

treasure hunts.

broken pinkies.

chasing the chickens away from the cat food.

life. lived. every day.

what are you going to remember?

perfect pumpkin

not a perfect photo of it, but i had to share. this is my favorite pumpkin. ever. and now there're only 9 to go....

an excuse for bunny photos

we don't have a black cat for halloween, but we do have a black bunny

is it just me or is this week FLYING by? we've got our big (and i mean big! 30+ kids!!) annual halloween party on saturday, so i've been running around trying to secure enough pumpkins and now we've got to get carving. i'm so glad that pumpkins are readily available in denmark now. i remember my first year here, they were impossible to find and i paid an amount that still makes me feel a little bit faint for a single, oddly pale pumpkin in a florist shop. now they're at roadside stands for $5 apiece.

despite living in the countryside, it's been quite an ordeal getting our hands on a whole small pig to roast for the party. i kind of thought it would be a matter of asking the neighbor, who would spread the word and then one would magically appear on our doorstep, but it's been a bit more difficult than that. we did, however succeed and we will pick up our pig tomorrow afternoon and slow-grill it all day saturday. a whole pig serves the double purpose of being a bit scary for the halloween party and also delicious.

yesterday, as we embarked on our pumpkin mission, sabin managed to slam her left pinkie in the car door and we ended up spending the better part of the evening at the emergency room, waiting to have it looked at. tho' it was 4.5 hours we'll never have back, it did turn out to be broken, so we were glad in the end that we had gone to the ER. the worst part of the waiting was when my iPhone ran out of battery (sabin didn't have hers along) while we were playing chuzzle and then we didn't have anything to do but sit around missing our baby bunnies. when husband tried to saw off his finger a couple of months ago, there was almost no waiting - we were in and out in under and hour and he even had stitches.  the lesson in that? if you're going to get hurt, do it on a friday, not a wednesday.

gratuitous cute bunny photo - smilla is very photogenic.

* * *

i'm really excited (and grateful) about the positive response to our handmade holiday eCourse.

there are still a few spots left, so please join us!

sabin and i are having so much fun preparing it.

announcing a handmade holiday: an eCourse for beating the holiday rat race

every year, i declare that this will be the year when i don't succumb to last-minute gift buying panic and angst and the whole holiday rat race. this year we mean it and so, sabin and i are very excited to offer our very first eCourse, to share some ideas and a sense of community in our quest for a handmade holiday.

for $30, you'll get access to an exclusive blog, where ten step-by-step projects will be posted. projects you can make with things you already have around the house, your existing stash, those boxes of old baby clothes, ordinary craft supplies or things you find in second-hand stores. some of them are holiday decor, some are gift ideas and some are treats for yourself, so you don't lose yourself in the holiday rush.

at least three projects will be specifically aimed at kids and sabin will lead the way on those.

we'll also have weekly exercises in noticing our immediate surroundings, so we can all keep this whole holiday thing in perspective.

ten creative projects for you and your kids (tho' you don't need kids to do this) - all of the patterns and lots of photo how-tos (and maybe even a video or two), so you can have a handmade holiday this year.

that's only $3 per project - a great investment in making this holiday a mindful one.

when you place your order, you'll get an access code to the closed blog. the first project will be posted november 1, with the others and some other fun little extras to follow throughout november. you do the projects as they inspire, no deadlines (except the approach of the holidays!). we'll have a flickr group to share your creations with the other course participants and there will be at least one opportunity for some "live" chat via the comments on the blog.

we're going to have a limited number of participants, to keep it manageable and hyggeligt (as the danes say) this first time around. we hope you'll join us. please go to MPC: the shop on big cartel to secure your spot. sabin and i are really excited to get creating for the holidays with you!  the access code will be sent out on friday to all who sign up, tho' you can join in anytime and after friday, the code will be sent upon receipt of your order.

inspiration is as close as the library

i've been perusing jan messent's designing for embroidery from ancient and primitive sources, which i just picked up from the library. it's so fascinating i even let my coffee get cold! it was published in 1976 and tho' some of the embroideries and crochet look very 70s, i'm mesmerized anyway. we're a bit enamored of the 70s around here anyway, so it kind of fits.

for a person who thinks almost constantly about inspiration, it's an absolute goldmine - full of ideas on sources of inspiration and how to use them. i scanned a few pages, just of the parts in which messent uses the white horse of uffington, an ancient ground mark in berkshire, england, still visible from the air. 

she shows various ways of using the basic graphic outline of the horse to create very different things....a circle, a repeat, reverses, blocks, color, texture. it has opened my eyes to a whole host of new possibilities.

i'll be on the lookout for this book as i comb the flea markets, but for now, i'm grateful for well-stocked libraries and a service that delivers whatever i want to my local library for pickup, just within a couple of days.

where will your inspiration take you today?