Structure Minerals - a daily dose of color

The mood has been grey around here lately, but this morning we were blessed with an unusually sunny and beautifully clear morning. It was hard not to feel a bit spring delirious. As it happened, I was walking my friend's dog, so I really got the full benefit of the few hours of brilliant sunlight, otherwise I might have just hurried home. Now I am at my desk working, and the sky is back to overcast dull blah.

I am desperate for color and light now, and to treat myself to some dreamy escapism, I have begun to follow some more exotic feeds on Instagram, rather than the endless cups of expensive coffee, house plants and children's rooms with quirky vintage wallpaper. I am looking for weird and wonderful now.

These guys I have been following for some time, and practically every day I am rewarded with beautiful shots of a rainbow extravaganza of minerals and precious stones.

They are Matt and Ashley from Minneapolis, and they have an Etsy shop called Structure Minerals.

And here they are on Instagram. Such a feast for the eyes!

From Ouch! to vintage skiing

Exactly a week ago I did something with my back, nothing much, I hardly remember the specific thing, but the result was days of almost crawling around, bent over in pain. I actually got so desperate, that I went and saw a chiropractor for the first time in my life, and he twisted and pushed me around, and massaged my lower spine with a small wooden instrument of torture.

And then he prescribed ibuprofen, weird little back exercises and lying face down on the floor with a bag of frozen peas on my back several times a day.

And I am so thankful it all helped, and very very happy about that, because today we are leaving for our annual skiing trip to Sweden, and that is the highlight of winter, as far as I am concerned, and I just love love LOVE it.

I made a post about it last year, and the whole thing just gives me a wild surge of fresh energy. The snow, the light, the stillness, the beauty of the mountains. The physical strain of cross country skiing, that leaves you utterly exhausted every day - but next day you just get up and do the whole thing over again. And the food, the wine and the good company. The happy kids. 

And the way that you wear practically the same clothes and no makeup for a week. You hardly comb your hair and you look a complete mess, but with rosy cheeks and stars in your eyes. It totally works for me, happinesswise.

Of course it wasn't always like that. So, let's enjoy some stylish skiing of yesteryear!

That guy in the leopard fur, huh? Have you ever seen anything like that? Cannot source the image, alas, but in a note it says 1927, and I found it on this blog, where you'll se many more great ones / the dad with his kid in a rucksack is from the twenties, and from Norways National Archives / the row of girls are American, and from 1925 / the last, pretty girl is in traditional Arlberg attire from Austria, and the photo is from 1935.

Lets round this one up with none other that Rita Hayworth and Ingrid Bergman, both looking their finest in the slopes. Thus inspired, I feel that perhaps I will comb my hair, after all. Make a bit of an effort, you know.

The photos are collected over a long period from tumblr and elsewhere, and I have no credits for them. Please let me know if you have!

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?

Confetti System on the last day of 2014

It's the last day of the year, and I am making very rich chocolate-pecan pie and vacuum cleaning everywhere, in honor of our guests, arriving later this afternoon.

New Years Eve is always a bit weird for me, it will never be my best evening - I get too moody and reflective, but I insist on a bit of celebration all the same. I love champagne, and kids can stay up as long as they like. People may kiss or cry as they prefer, and on this one night of the year we do hook up our mirror ball (on display all year round) with its little spin-around motor.

Let's pretend I was a lady of independent means with enormous ceiling height in some vast space: then I would throw a grand ball for everyone I like - and you, all you out there, who have found your way to these pages and enjoyed them through the seasons - you'd be more than invited.

I know exactly who I would summon to do the blingbling-ing for this fantasy party: Confetti System.
They are my paper craziness heroes: a duo of artists from New York, who have taken tissue paper and all kinds of metallic foil to very sophisticated heights.

Read more about them in this article from www.dwell.com.
You could also check out their blog.

Now, back to my fantasy party. There would be champagne, of course. It is one of my favorite beverages in the world. There would be ice cream. There would also be drinks with fresh mint in them, because we mustn't forget our vitamins, and there would be a salsa band playing all night long. Since no band can play non-stop, they would take turns with this very fantastic classic motown disco-type band, with a kick ass horn section. If you wanted to rest your feet, there would be a bonfire outside and cosy chairs around it.

And you could stay as long as you liked.

On this note I will post the last images this year: various projects by the amazing Confetti System.

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Remember the advent gift wrap? It has been a great hit with my son - and I hope some of you out there have used it as well. We have had lots of fun and daily discussions about numbers, and most particularly about how different they might look. Very educational, but not boring, I would say!

I actually hardly remember what I wrapped in these last two, but the rattling teeth and the Playmobil lumberjack, were in there, sometime in December.

And here is our tree. Atopped with candy stripes, and adorned with this and that. Now for a late breakfast, and then I need to wrap some gifts. 

Merry Christmas to all my readers, everywhere in the world.
I wish you all peace and some quiet days and time to enjoy the company of someone dear to you.

Superstar

The last four days have been non stop activities and driving around for visits and shopping, but now all we need to do is trim the tree and sleep late and eat a slightly unhealthy breakfast in our pajamas. And here is what I made last night.

If you have some time over for a little crafting project today why don't you make one as well? It's a stripey superstar! I made a woven top star for the tree a few years ago, which have been used since, but we have a really giant tree this year, so I felt like making a new, slightly more outrageous one. And I just looove red/white stripes.

You download these two designs - one for the star center and one for the star beams.

(here you see all the beams plus the center bit unfolded, and how it looks when it's folded and glued)

You need to make 20 of the pointy things (so print 5 copies of that design), and one center bit - and then you simply glue the 'beams' - as I have decided to call them - onto the center, which is easy and quick. As usual I would say it pays off to cut very precisely, and trace all the lines lightly before folding them. Simply drag the tip of a sharp knife or a needle lightly along the lines (use a ruler), don't cut through the paper of course. And the folding will be so easy! If you make this a top star for a tree, leave out one of the pointy bits, and gently cut a hole in the center bit instead. And the star sits just fine on the top branch. Of course you could make it a big hanging ornament, or a standing paper sculpture as well! 

The finished star is approximately 25 centimeter in diameter. It took me a bit more than an hour to make it, and it is not at all complicated, just a little bit boring to make those twenty beams - but it will be worth it! I recommend printing on 90 or 100 g paper, as the more common 80 g will be too soft.

Have a lovely December 23rd...

A teeny tiny crafting party for the young ones

We usually have a kind of party where we invite quite a lot of people over for Christmas paper crafting and general munching and beer / hot tea drinking, and it is usually one of my favorite kinds of Christmas get together, but somehow we forgot about it this year. When both my husband and my sister were going to their big office parties today, I decided to make a mini party for the remaining family. 

I sort of curated some projects for the two five year olds, with a pack of plastic straws and a lot of paper scraps. Since you can be certain that you can always get these two boys to put stuff on a string, I decided to make it simple for them. I punched a gazillion little flowers and cut the straws in bits, before the boys even got here. 

I absolutely insist on activities like these once in a while, even though LEGO and iPads are more appealing at five o'clock on a Friday afternoon. They stuck with it though, the little darlings. And my nephew even wore a tie. How cool is that?

They made glittery garlands and hanging trees. So pretty.