A bag full of happy

My friend spent New Years in Japan and came back with a bag full of the loveliest origami papers for me. To me that is almost better than a really fancy box of chocolate (or is it...? Let me think. Yes it is. Most def.) Some of them are almost too pretty to fold, but they will be, of course, that being the whole point of origami paper. 

There are these tiny tiny ones, only about 2 x 2 inches, or 6 x 6 cm. and that is a bit of a fun challenge. As you can see, I immediately had to make a couple of mini diamonds. I made an awful lot of those in December, you can check them out here.

Such a sweet gift. Thank you, Nanna!

A rare selfie of this blogger

Yup, this is me - wrinkles and bad dye job and all. The thing is, that my son woke me up with a hair brush this morning, and insisted - as he sometimes does - on fixing my hair. I have frizzy, flimsy, typical Scandinavian hair in a nondescript beige-blond color, now with grey speckles here and there. So I jazz it up with a bit of chestnut red from the drugstore, which makes it even more frizzy. But my son is fascinated with the long tresses, only hanging loose in the morning (otherwise I always keep it in a bun or a ponytail), and loves to comb it. And now, he is learning to braid it, and gave me this makeover today.

The reason for this particular asymmetrical do, is that he has done me up me in the hairstyle of his heroine Elsa, from his favorite movie, Frozen. First he brushed and brushed (and I pretended it didn't hurt one bit), and then there was a lot of fiddling with rubber bands. I had to help him a bit with the actual braid, and then I was turned around, for him to check the result.

His eyes twinkled with admiration, and he gushed: "Oh, Mum, you look soooo beautiful! You look exactly like Elsa!!" 

(I guess I was hoping to look just a little bit more like this seriously cool young Danish lady)

And here is what Elsa looks like, in case you don't know:

Such moments of parenthood. They are cherished and put away a little box of treasures in the heart. And I have watched Frozen with him several times, and I am a little bit flattered, I must say. A bit of a (cold) hottie, that Elsa.

Frozen is the first major Disney movie my son (aged 5½) has fallen totally in love with. We flew from Copenhagen to Miami last spring, and he watched it almost three times in a stretch on the plane, although I do believe he napped through most of the third run. But he had lost his heart to Elsa, Anna, Sven (a reindeer) and the adorable snowman, Olaf.

We got the DVD and after a while I put all my politically correct reservations aside, and I really love it. The opening sequence with all the men carving ice blocks gets me every time, it is so beautiful. And the story is action packed, full of funny details and has a great B-cast, if you can say that - and old feminist me, love that the two female leads totally dominate the movie, that they are strong, determined and kick some serious animated butt, both of them. The story has a lot to do with love as a healing, magical, all-conquering force (that we all possess), but man-woman romance is not the peak of the story, even though it plays a part. The poor Elsa's evil spell is broken through pure sisterly love and courage, and the men sort of take second place in the story, where the love thing is concerned.

The visual style of the heroines is also much more manga, than big-boobs-and-pout-Barbie, and they are not offensively girly, in any way.

But even in my very PC world, it is still a mild case of puzzlement to some, that this can be the favorite movie of a very regular little boy with muddy boots and a great fondness for tree climbing and for wearing a Batman cape. Most people expect boys of his age to love movies where the heroes are made of space metal and mostly look like this:

But Elsa and Olaf and the rest are totally okay with me, and even though we parents do nudge our kids much more that we will admit to, I will try not to nudge my kid away from loving feisty princesses with purple eye shadow and talking snowmen. 

And he can fix my hair whenever he wants to.

The sky must be grey over Paris today

I run this blog where I write about small matters of everyday aesthetics and share my mundane thoughts on these. I almost never write about political or personal subjects, because I have decided long ago, that this is not the space for those.

But today I need to say, that the fact that I can choose to blog, write what I damn well please, and be free to do so - is almost the only thing really worth fighting for. And I say this as a sworn pacifist and a non-religious person.

If I could grant my son and his generation one single thing in their futures, it would be this freedom.
It encompasses everything I find important, including the right to express your religious beliefs in respect and with understanding for those otherwise inclined. It is the core, the very essence, of democracy.

My heart goes out to everyone touched by the attacks in Paris yesterday - and that, essentially, means every one of us.

Paris is one of my favorite cities in Europe, and one I have visited many times. And I really like the French. You only have to step into any tabac to feel how they appreciate debate and passionate discussion and how they actually value their writers, philosophers and politicians. I find that so deeply inspiring and wonderful.

We are all Charlie.

(photo is from fineartamerica.com)

Epiphany or Twelfth Night and absolutely no more Christmas for now

Today, January 6th, is traditionally the last day for Christmas trees, elves and tinsel. We haven't quite gotten rid of all of it, but almost. Our tree is still in a corner, looking like a hung over drag performer or some such thing. It was more or less demolished on New Years Eve, where we had a fairly crazy dinner party, and the young ones sort of bombarded it with paper confetti poppers and glitter streamers. It survived, however, in an almost prettily trashy way. Now it is completely dried out, and I just know that if I attempt to lift it, every one of its needles will drop to the floor. Just couldn't be bothered today. Maybe tomorrow.

I will post the last Christmas reference for this season - this photo of a Christmas tree I took Saturday in SMK, the great art museum here in Copenhagen, where it was still standing in the beautiful sculpture hall, looking pretty. Two bits of cardboard can make a nice tree, indeed (no needles to worry about), and all the decorations are made in the children's workshop. I find it adorable.

With this, I will thank you all, for visiting the blog during November and December, and for all the nice feedback I have gotten on my creative projects this (= last) year. Keep coming back, if you feel like it, because I will be blogging on, as I did last year (for the first time), about all kinds of other topics that take my fancy.

So see you later, right?