Kizhi Pogost

The thing is, I do have this weak spot for russian cupolas.
And in addition to that, for wooden architecture.

My list of places I would like to see in the world is loooooong, but I have to share this with you,
as the russian extravaganza of yesterday, made me think of it.

In central Karelia, in Russia, some 500 km. from St. Petersburg, is the lake Onega. In it, on the
Kizhi island, you will find one of the most spectacular wooden buildings on the planet, in my view.
Several buildings, in fact, as it is two churches in a large wooden enclosure - the 'Kizhi Pogost'.
The Church of Transfiguration (1714) and the Church of Intercession (1764).

It's on the Unesco World Heritage list:  http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/544 


This place I have to see, some day.

Images: top and middle: Wikimedia. The last one is by Flickr user ksenik_dan

Tivoli: from Russia with bling

We went to Tivoli, and they have really made a smashing russian themed christmas village this year.
Over the top colorful and extravagant, at least the exteriors and the lighting.

I mean, it is exactly the same vendors, selling exactly the same things as every year, the setup really
doesn't change much - but I got completely carried away with this russian thing, and purchased the
most outrageous christmas ornament ever to enter my home (and absurdly expensive it was as well).

Gingham hearts

Made you these today..... And even changed them a bit before saving the template, but you have
to make do with these pics, as my camera ran out of batteries. Download them here.

2021: I have a new location for my downloads: please go here (A) and here (B)

Gingham is great.

Did you know that the global reserve of gingham fabric was close to drying out, when
Brigitte Bardot got married in this little number, in 1959.....?
It started a worldwide gingham-craze, that lasted well into the mid sixties.

When Brigitte Bardot donned a pink gingham checked dress to her 1959 wedding to actor Jacques Charrier, it marked a notable shift in the fashion status quo. Although it did help the popularity of the designer Jacque Estral greatly, it coincided with, “the decline in the hold of couture over the fashion business,” according to film historian Ginette Vincendeau. As youth culture celebrities began to popularise styles instead of designers, looks were highly copied.
The August 1959 issue of Life magazine reads, “One of Paris’
biggest stores is selling 8,000 Bardot Kerchiefs a month and 3,500 gingham dresses like the one Bardot wore at her Wedding. Said a Visiting U.S. fashion editor, “You can’t buy a yard of checked gingham in Paris, not even for kitchen curtains, since Brigitte
picked the fabric.””

Text by Laura Havlin
http://www.anothermag.com/

Bridget Riley for beginners (and for the slightly advanced)

Ever since I saw it somewhere as a girl, I have been very fascinated with the work of british artist
Bridget Riley. Born in 1931 in London, she had her breakthrough as one of most important artists
of the swinging London experimental modern era - and I think the phrase 'op art' (= optical art) was
coined about her work.

She is particularly famous for her large black/white canvases, that almost make you dizzy!
She is 80 now, and - as far as I can find out - still active.

From above:
portrait / Movement in squares, 1961 / Intake, probably sixties as well / more recent installation

I find her work compelling in so many ways. It is visually stunning, but can be almost physically
disturbing to look at. As sheer work(wo)manship it is impressive: I think about her, constructing
these lines and patterns without as much as a cheap, chinese calculator to help her. Or without all
the clever tools in Illustrator!


So: I wanted to make a simple black and white heart that had just a tiny bit of that 3D-effect,
and have been doing quite a bit of weaving about, and not too successfully!

The first template I made, was so devilishly hard to actually make, that I almost gave up.
But not quite. I actually sort of finished it.
And even though I sort of f***ed it up, I actually kept it, but not to hang on a string, or so.

It is, pathetically enough, repaired with tape on the back - but it got just the right kind of
Bridget-like effect - so I framed the darn thing (Bridget would have trashed it, of course).

Here it is......

So, I could not give you a template, that was so tricky to weave - or could I?
I did a bit of both. I made you two much easier ones, and then I put the challenge on page 3.
Maybe you should trace that one onto shiny, thin paper ('glanspapir') before you try.
Or maybe you have more nimble fingers than me....

Download them all here!

2021: I have a new location for my downloads: please go here: (A) + (B) + (C)

Easy Peasy

This needs to be a very slow and low key day. No fuss. Sit down - and stay down. Please.

Why don't you make yourself some of these?
It gets no easier than this, and they are great to make for even very small kids.
But they make such a pretty shape - and I mean to hang mine in almost invisible thread.
There are no handles in the template, but you could make some from ribbon, glossy pink, perhaps..?

I made these, lying on the floor, sorrounded by two a-bit-more-than-two-year-olds, whomping
each other with the BRIO train set. Quite cosy, actually, as they were not whomping constantly.
In between whompings, they smeared themselves with tangerines and sometimes they just played.
Nice 'n easy. 

My husband is a bit of a math wiz (in my eyes, at least), and I asked him how many ways the twelve
'dots' can actually be combined - from one print, of course. He promptly blurted out: "Twelve, you said... Well, let me see - that must be about some forty thousand combinations".
This he promptly withdrew a moment later. Then he started calculating again - and then he and our
little train wrecker went to the zoo. So your guess is as good as mine.

Download them here

2021: I have a new location for my downloads: please go here (A) and here (B)

Birds

Today is (yet another) a rainy and grey day here in Cph., and I feel in the mood for some rather
springlike birds. Don't ask me what kind they are, as I am no ornithologist.
They might be robins, though, come to think of it...? Nope.
Just googled robins, and they look completely different.

But when you have a garden - as we do, in our little place just outside the city - birds are a very large
part of the winter scenery. They are somehow the garden flowers of wintertime, and I can watch them
forever. We don't go out there as much in the winter, but when we do, we feed them excessively with
peanuts, sunflower seeds and other luxuries.
And then you just sit very, very quietly inside and watch them gobble away.
Very relaxing.

And birds are important on christmas trees, for more animistic reasons than christian ones.

So today I give you a birdy heart. Chirpy cheep cheep. Download here.

2021: I have a new location for my downloads: please go here  and here for the birdies.

Julemarked på Væveværkstedet i Smallegade

Til alle jer der er sådan lige i nabolaget eller deromkring, er der håndvævede/strikkede/broderede
tekstiler af meget høj kvalitet og til vanvittig rimelige priser, hos mine venner på Væveværkstedet
+ deres gæstende venner (jeg har også et lille hjørne) i Smallegade på Frederiksberg.
Der er også masser af fine småsager: keramik, julestads, smykker, tehætter og alverdens ting.

Læs info og mere til på deres egen hjemmeside.

De har åbent i dag og i morgen, check det ud. Her er lidt glimt fra min tur deroppe i går.

0,0 kJ / 0,0 Kcal

I have such a sweet tooth - actually more than one I think, and it just gets worse with age.
I am not one of these lucky bastards who just need a tiny bit of organic single estate very dark
chocolate, too feed the sugar bone.

I need masses of kiddy candy, with lovely colors and artificial flavouring. Yum yum.
Good thing I own a very worn pair of running shoes, and have a fondness for using them as well.
I also take my daily vitamins.
If my adult super ego didn't rule me, I would be having this on my table every, every day.

So I made you a guilt free candy - and I guarantee you it has no harmful additives, either.
Yes. It's a sweetheart.

Click here to visit the candy store! 

2021: I have a new location for my downloads: please go here

Countdown part two

Not surprisingly, I have had a certain tune roaring in my already sore head, ever since I wrote
the first caption this morning. It's one of those songs you love or love to hate.
A true poodle rock classic.

My husband and his old friends play it, when a certain kind of (a bit drunken, I guess) male
bonding happen - and they turn it up real loud, and just kind of skip about to it.

Here is a version I hadn't heard before... Very refreshing.

Countdown

It was a dark, confused and utterly screwed up morning. Absolutely not the ideal start of December.

But we lit the candle - I wonder if these are common elsewhere? I don't even think they have them in Sweden or Norway. The idea is, well... fairly obvious.

While I recouperate, and try to get down to some serious business - involving a lot of mindboggling
Excel spreadsheet and complicated text formatting - I have a bit of fun for you:

Ta daaa - the Countdown Heart. Of course.

Say: Yes, I will be starting the countdown, and I will click here to download!

2021: I have a new location for my downloads: please go here