february art journal calendar

i'm hopeless on my soujournal project at the moment. i have to send mine on to polly, but the last page i imagine before sending on to her is still stuck in my brain and will not come out on the page. i've even assembled some things that go with it and they're RIGHT THERE at hand and it still won't come out. what's up with that anyway?

however, it's going well with my daily art journaling in the moleskine calendars. i have fallen behind on sharing, but i'm only a teency tiny bit behind on the actual journal. here's what's i've done so far in february:

feb. 1 - totally me, if there's one thing i do, it's sketch plant-y things.

feb. 2 - tried to do something inspired by this. totally didn't work for me.

too cold and impersonal, i think. and too self-centered.

feb. 3 - been seeing mugs everywhere, so i drew a couple of my favorites. and a little plate of cake.

feb. 4 - back to the natural stuff + watercolor. much more me.

feb. 5 - we worked on a 3000-piece puzzle all day.

feb. 6 - a flea market find - a book on the vikings.

feb. 7-8 houses inspired by these.

i think these might eventually manifest as a quilt.

feb. 9 - dreaming of spring. and a vespa. (scooters courtesy of kim smith scrapbook paper acquired ages ago from the now defunct red velvet kit club)

feb. 10 - obsessed with plain spoken quilts, so i even painted one, but had to stitch it too.

feb. 11 - scraps of fabric, sewn together, to remind me how much i've been sewing of late.

feb. 12 - one heart for every year we've been married. and a switch to pastels.

feb. 13-14 - watched a marvelous show where joanna lumley chased the northern lights.

played with pastels again. not sure they're really me.

and again, one must be careful putting on hand lotion.

i continue to obsessively note where i am and when as i do each page, even when i'm a bit behind. it began as something i did on my travels years ago, noting where i was as i wrote and it has just continued, to the point of near obsessive-compulsive behavior. but, i'm going with it, because it doesn't really hurt anything. and it might be nice to remember at some point.

i'm not sure yet where these are taking me, but it's interesting (for me at least) to track the journey. and i think in time, when there's a critical mass of them, i'll know where it's going. and at least i've begun actually doing something with all that inspiration i've been gathering on flickr.

here's wishing you a weekend full of inspiration and creativity...

snow masks

late last evening, when the snow finally tapered off we went outside into the white, fluffy world,  all dampened and quiet by the new, pristine layer of snow. it was still and lovely and the perfect snow for playing. it made great snowballs and excellent snow angels. then, husband got the bright idea of making a faceprint in a clean stretch of snow. it was so cool, i had to run in for the camera.

the faceprints are really quite spooky. it's amazing how clearly you can see every wrinkle and the expression. what's also amazing is how they pop out of the picture, when in reality, they're pressed into the snow.

husband

me, clearly not relishing that faceful of cold.

sabin, wearing a warm hat

another one of sabin.

hers is spookiest, because it looks like a little girl buried in the snow.

aren't they deliciously creepy?

living in a windmill or a girl can dream

my desire to live in a windmill is growing. there's something so romantic about them. and the idea of living within that rounded space just appeals. think of the decorating possibilities alone. a round dining table. built-in couches with loads of pillows around the edges of a big room, walls lined with books. when we went to see the loom the other day, this beauty was right across the road. nobody lives in this one and you could drive your car under it, but isn't it just so romantic? especially since i antiqued it in lightroom.

it was quite lovely, even in the snow.

then, we saw this one over in jylland. these people clearly ARE living in it and it looks wonderful even tho' its windmill bit is gone. you'd still have that fabulous rounded shape and all those stories, winding ever upward to a little room at the top, designed just for writing.

and there's this one down on møn. it has some bits of its windmill left. and i just love the almost russian onion dome shape of the top of it.

but i could also be talked into a lighthouse.

thursday mosaic: flickr faves

i'll admit i still haven't really done any epic shit, but i have found a whole lot of eye candy and inspiration on flickr in the past week. since it was valentine's day, hearts figured rather heavily. and i suspect there is a plain spoken quilt in my future given the number of those that sneaked into this week's mosaic. as usual, there's a whole lot of color. i blame the snow for that. go away snow.

and then i had to share the photography that's inspired me for the past week as well. there are a number of hearts here too and some photos make appearances both places:

if you click on the mosaic, it will take you to my flickr photostream and all of the credits/links to the lovely people who took these photos.

would what the world be like...

"what would the world be like if women weren't forever in the pursuit of pretty things?" asked husband this afternoon as i showed him the exciting package i got this afternoon from spudballoo.  she sent me some of those beautiful pins like hers that i had coveted on flickr a few weeks ago (note to self: publicly coveting things very effective). and on the outside of the package was the coolest tape that has pretty pictures and says, "and i thought and i thought and i walked and i walked." how cool is that? and she wrote a sweet note on a pretty postcard (what? not moo? then who?) of one of her pictures. there's also a very helpful crochet unravelled book in there which just may help me crack the granny square dilemma (which is a dilemma in that one wonders if a retarded monkey is at all capable of crocheting a granny square). it was all as a thank you for the last blog camp, which she most certainly did not need to do, but i will admit that it did lift my spirits considerably after how weaving went south at the end last evening.

husband disapprovingly reminded me of our year of not buying things and frowned a little bit and muttered something about "taking coal to newcastle" and "don't we have tape and pins in this country?" and like phrases uttered by a man who simply doesn't understand the beauty of the blogosphere.

one of husband's many theories is that of continentus tipicus. in this theory, the island of sjælland, on which we live, is slowly sinking on the copenhagen side. it all started when the english bombarded copenhagen in the early nineteenth century. all of those lead cannon balls are heavy and so copenhagen began to tip towards øresund. eventually, the sheer weight of all of the stuff will cause the island to flip, or so says the theory of continentus tipicus. and i think in his grudge-book worthy mutterings today, he was actually worrying that all of the gifts that come into our mailbox from my bloggy friends around the world are definitely contributing to the coming tip.

but, back to his original question...what would the world be like if women weren't forever in the pursuit of pretty things? i pointed out to him that there would be lots less shops. and that furniture and homes would be pretty boring, as would towels and bedding. and clothes. and most everything else. and he pointed out that china would have less power and people would care more about the stuff they have if they weren't forever replacing it with new and shinier stuff. hmm...

although i'm trying my best to consume less or to buy things second hand if at all possible (see recent loom acquisition), i still love pretty things. and i still feel pretty delighted by some bright pins and a really cool roll of tape. so thank you, spud, for brightening my day today.

things i hate

things i hate:

~ sleeping badly.
~ feeling incompetent.
~ not being instantly good at everything.
~ feeling frustrated.
~ feeling made fun of.
~ asking for help when i should be able to figure it out myself.
~ being dismissed when i actually do finally ask for help.
~ ten years of cultural oppression by a cold and closed culture that's not my own and which is prone to dismissing anyone who is not family or someone they met when they went to kindergarten together.

when these things happen all at once, watch out.

and i decided january 1 that i wasn't going to be quiet about it anymore when i felt dismissed and negated as a human being by this culture in which i live. and so it wasn't that pretty this evening when all of these things happened at once.

i was having trouble with a simple task at weaving and after trying on my own for ten minutes, i finally asked for help from one of my fellow students. it was actually a really simple task and all i needed was about 10 seconds of help, just to get me started. the person i asked totally waved her arms and dismissed me so she could continue her endless stream of chat standing at someone else's loom and then as i walked away, muttered something under her breath about me. and i can tell you that it made me very angry. and i can tell you that she and everyone else present now know how angry it made me.

and i can also tell you that i'm not sorry. treating people as if they are invisible or stupid just because they're not native speakers of your language is not cool. is. not. cool. and i won't enable you do it to me anymore.

please note that i am not at all complaining about my weaving teacher, he's amazing and helpful and kind and patient. this was a fellow student who did this, and it's her and only her i'm complaining about. :-) just for the record.

vinterferie

it's vinterferie the winter holiday (a week off school), so we're off to play in the snow. we'll be back with loads of pictures and stories to tell in a couple of days.