Thursday, June 30, 2011

Looking Down - Part 6


Well cover.

Motif: Tivoli, Chinese area
Location: Tivoli, Copenhagen, Denmark

Elephant of the Day #19



Title: Elephas Maximus
Artist: Maria Bojsen
Location: Kongens Have

Elephant Parade's official website

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Getting Inspiration...

Making some more of these, the colour signals a day coming up soon. Will not be able to finish them in time for this year but rather next year - but think the recipient will like it anyway. All I can say is, that this will be one of a kind, as I am just challenging myself to see if I can pull this off and at the same time making someone smile big.

Fell a bit like Tom Hanks in one of my favourite movies (You've Got Mail), when he has a project "that needs some tweaking", as I need to "decorate" each streamer - now it is up to your imagination to guess what the decoration will be. I have an idea though not knowing how to execute it :o)

Guessing that is the curse of the crafter - starting projects that may wait for a while until one can complete them. Feeling wonderfully "lazy", since I am doing nothing that I have to, but instead walking, photograping, cardmaking, crocheting, knitting, sewing, watching movies, bloggin, reading etc. - Ohh the wonder of vacation time....... Reality will not hit my face until a couple of weeks.

Elephant of the Day #18



Title: Map Copenhagen
Artist: Peera Bangkae
Location: Hovedbanegården (Central Station)

Elephant Parade's official website

Photo Walk - Flowers




Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Gifts For A Little Boy

Recently one of my friends gave birth to a baby boy. Hearing the news I remembered about some yard laying idle in my appartment and decided to create a gift for him.


First was an "army" cap in MERINO PRINT yarn (cotton) in bluish colours inspired by a pattern in a knitting supplement to one of the weekly Danish women's magazines...however instead of knitting the edge, I chose to crochet it, as the knitting of the edge is a bit of a hazzle.

 

Second was a sweater, that I wanted to make in a more neutral color, so chose the natural white LIVORNO yarn and following a pattern from the knitting magazine, KreativStrik (translates to: CreativeKnitting) - I took me a while to find just the right buttons for the sweater, but opted for these small wodden bears.


 
Most of the knitting was done during the recent MS attack, as watching tv was only possible in very limited amounts, and reading was not an option - the attack was affecting my eye sight. It felt good, that the hands were still able to create something thus helping the spirits within me to stay up.

Procrastination, however, seems to be my middle name these days, so the finishing of the sweater has taken some weeks - but now it gets to go into the mail and surprise my friends.

Elephant of the Day #17



Title: Techno
Artist: Lucy Love
Location: Østre Anlæg

More distraction at the bus stop......

Elephant Parade's official website

Monday, June 27, 2011

And What Do I Spot?........



..... an elephant....

People must think, that I have elephants on my brain, but maybe this whole Elephant Parade thing makes me spot elephants in the surroundings, that I usually would not spot.
This wall decoration I spotted a few days ago, when taking a taxi from a meeting downtown and to my job, sitting in that car relaxing and just absorbing what  I saw.. my mind immediately went "Photo Opp" :o)

Elephant of the Day #16


Title: DJ Ella
Artist: Hanne Ravn Hermansen
Location: Østre Anlæg

This elephant is very close to a bus stop: Wonder how many people, that have missed their bus, when a colourful elephant caught their attention?

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Elephant of the Day #15


Title: In Prison
Artist: Janni Mai Larsen
Location: Nikolaj Plads

Naming of a Little Girl

Today, I will attend the christening of a little girl, so she formally gets her name. It is going to be in a lcoal German church, hence the ceremony being partly in Danish and partly in German.

Knowing that her parents are not too keen on pink, and that they know, that I have a little thing for rubber ducks, I decided making a card, that would hint about who created it.

Used some of the duck buttons I found at Stof2000 a while ago, placed around a photo, that I printed and added just a a tone of pink COPIC. The photo I shot a while ago of a duck figurine, that is owned by one of my friends, kinda like creating my own design paper or? When writing this, I notice that it seems like the duck is ready to pop out of the paper, a 3D illusion I guess, because this card is flat - except for the buttons.

Once again finished last minute, but the outcome was better than I imagined when starting working on it :o)

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Little Girl's Present

First there was one.....


With a little help from an online crochet-basics-how-to.....

Then there were 11...


Wait ??!! Did I just make them in two days after work? :o) The inspiration came from Karen Klarbæk's blog, and the funny thing was that two hours after I found the blogpost, I bought two skeins of yarn...only to get upset with myself: have so many projects on my must-do-someday list, so why did I buy yarn to this one?


The next day I started the project, as I figured, that it will the perfect little present to a little girl, who's sister is going to be named tomorrow. Think she might like it??

Elephant of the Day #14


Title: Homage to Klimt
Artist: Wikorn Sara
Location: Nikolaj Plads

Elephant Parade's official website

Friday, June 24, 2011

The Clock Is Loosing the Battle Against Time

BigBen 2009

The title is not mine, but borrowed from a free Sunday newspaper distributed nationwide locally.

More and more young people are skipping the wrist watch, as they are using their mobile phones to tell them time - a lot of teenagers consider the watch to be uncool. I still remember getting my first watch on my 7th birthday, and already then my wrist were so tiny, that it was hard ot get a watch strap that was small enough so it would not fall off my wrist.

When people buy a watch to their home, it is actually a clock - and most importantly: they need the clock to have a history. So going from being a household "gadget" to help keep track of the time, it needs to be decorative and unique and anything but digital, even though that would be a more accurate timekeeper.

Digital gadgets has taken over as storage of addresses, phonenumbers etc. and you do not have to remember a lot of things. Let's face it: How many of you can actually remember more than 5 phonenumbers without looking them up in your phone's directory?

Elephant of the Day #13



Title: Super Hero Elephant
Artist: Lars Birk
Location: Højbro Plads


Thursday, June 23, 2011

Looking Down - Part 5



Well cover.
Motif: Hans Christian Andersen
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark



Elephant of the Day #12


Title: Tears of Deliverance
Artist: Sasha Henneberg Bach
Location: Amagertorv

Elephant Parade's official website

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Elephant of the Day #11



Title: Censor
Artist: Penluk Rueangrabeab
Location: Amagertorv

Elephant Parade's Official Website

Nobody Cleaned My Kitchen....

...neither my bathroom....sigh :o(

Picture of my fridge

30 years with out cleaning of the ventilation system..... whops... and Tuesday the building has requested help to rectify the situation. I asked the building super prior to Tuesday, if it was going to be messy. The answer was a clear "No", because the building he lives in, had just had the same done and it was not messy at all.

Therefore I only removed everything made of fabric, toothbrush and other personal items, since it was not going to be messy.

But it was messy!!!! They left my kitchen and bathroom fully covered in 1-3 mm of black dust, and I even found it inside my kitchen cabinet. I should have know, when I heard a loud "Whooops!!!".. followed by a loud laughter "Wow look at it, it has never done that before!! Did you see it?!"..... Well I saw the consequence 1 hour later...and realised that I faced several hours of cleaning........... I hate cleaning!!!

Demanding day at work, followed by unplanned cleaning and I was ready to go to bed early, since all my strenght was totally drained

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

But That's S***

If you are about to eat something, please put it aside for just one second (don't want you to loose your appetite)... cause what the birds did on my blogpost yesterday, might give you a hint... and just for once, no pictures is going to be on my post.....you will figure out why in a minute.

When I went in to the MS attack treatment a couple of weeks ago, I picked up a copy of the free patient magazine, Rask (translation: healthy), on the third day, as my eyes started to regain the normal state again. Found an article, that I had to read twice as it was about research. Research into an area that seem nasty, just by reading about faeces, but then realising that it is actually been done since the late 1950s.

Seems like they are researching about transplant of feaces in the intestinal system, as they believe that this can better situtations for people suffering from eg. MS, parkinsons... but then again some are rejecting it just like people are rejecting the CCVI (blod vein) treatment.....

There is a definate YUCK! factor, that people have to overcome.... I must admit, that I bit of a skeptic here, but then again I can not help think: What if something that is right in front of us offers some relief to a lot of diseases? Do we sometime forget, that Mother Nature actually offers a lot of natural medicines? In the dark ages a lot of people were burnt at the stake, because people were afraid of their insight to medicine - we do not burn them now, but we are often stilll reluctanct to believe.

Elephant of the Day #10


Title: Happy Flower
Artist: Prakompat Inthakaisorn
Location: Frederiksberg Runddel, Frederiksberg

Monday, June 20, 2011

Elephant of the Day #9



Title: Doot 4
Artist: Marco Evaristi
Location: Kongens Nytorv

Why am I suddenly thinking about some car commercial, where they are shoting paint bombs at a car, that is escaping them.....did this elephant just happen to pass by? Don't getme wrong, I like this elephant.

Elephant Parade's official website

I Hate Mondays

Well not all Mondays, but some of them just get too much - days where you wished you had a time machine so you could either skip directly to Tuesday or wind back to the moment, where your alarm clock went off and just stay in your bed forgetting all about that day. Bet you have been there once or twice - if not you are lucky.


Whenever I have a bad Monday or workday in general, I look at this cartoon and it makes me smile. I know that others have been in the same situation, and somehow most of us manage to deal with it. It saddens me to think about those, who breaks down with stress, dissease etc in these situations.

My job is stressing and offers so many other challenges, which help me "forget" about the MS for a while. Apparently latest research shows, that stress is not affecting MS. My vent to keep the stress at a distance is my camera and my creative time 


Sunday, June 19, 2011

Photowalk





Somethings are familiar, and others new - took a new route yesterday when walking.

Elephant of the Day #8



Title: TUTU
Artist: Jeppe Eisner
Location: Kongens Nytorv

Elephant Parade's official website

Saturday, June 18, 2011

What Is Up With People.....

Don't they know the word respect?

It turns out, that a lot of the elephants on parade in Copenhagen have already been the victims of vandalism -some places the elephants have been swarmed with small kids climbing all over the elephants in front of cheering parents.... Where has peoples' respect gone?


I shot the picture of this elephant last Sunday day and had pre-scheduled the blogpost for Wednesday.... However when I passed with the elephant with a bus on Tuesday  and Wednesday, it was covered with green tarpaulin.... Thursday there was an empty spot, where it had been the day before.

Pre-scheduling of posts.... well this come in handy these days, as the whole week, have been work-hurry-home-to-get-dinner-and-then-pass-out-on-the-couch since my body is still recovering from the MS attack a couple of weeks ago.

Elephant of the Day #7



Title: Elephant Meeting Place
Artist: Hans Kuijs
Location: Kongens Nytorv

Elephant Parade's official website

Miss Marple Met Sherlock Holmes

Now, would that not be an interesting story to read? What made me write this, was simply due to 2 DVD covers being on my table at the same time, making me realise that the new BBC Sherlock Holmes, has also been in one of the new ITV Agatha Cristie movies, as one of the locals assisting Miss Marple to solve a murder mystery.


Crazy how coincidences like this can make your mind go "What if....?" :o)

Friday, June 17, 2011

Elephant of the Day #6



Title: Indigenous
Artist: Joël Bigaignon
Location: Kongens Nytorv

Elephant Parade's official website

Taking Things for Granted


Even though I thought I knew a lot about Franklin Roosevelt (FDR), I never gave it much thought, that he was struggling with himself and his surroundings when he was diagnosed with polio. To me he is a rolemodel, since he became president of the USA after he got disabled and refused to give up.

A couple a weeks ago - actually when I went to the attack treatment - I watched a programme about Warm Springs, the places where he "claimed" his life back.

His surroundings labelled him, when he was diagnosed - especially his mother gave up and thought that his life was over thus condemming him to be a couch potato. He felt/saw discrimination at first hand and had to surpass that and his gloomy thoughts about his condition to return to life. He had to ask Eleanor to talk to him like he was. Warm Springs offered him a vague hope about being able to walk again, which he wanted to try and found out how to keep on living despite being labelled as disabled - even run for president.

The Eleanor quote that I saw on a memorial in Washington now makes even more sense and got more powerful after having watched this programme. 

Chills was running down my spine when I watched this - the day I got the MS diagnosis, I was in a wheel chair. The doctor asked me to think about early retirement since my world was now limited. Makes me happy that I realised that the lady in the bed next to me had a very active life despite being paralysed from the waist down, hence giving me the courage to seek out exactly what I could do. I have encountered people's perceptions of MS as being disabled and not able to have a normal life, even within in my family - but also opened other peoples' eyes to the possibilities you still have even with MS. I choose to try to see if I could get back to normal - carpe diem - and doing things that people without ilness does not even do :o)

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Elephant of the Day #5



Title: Human Within Elephant
Artist: Kamol Tamseewan
Location: Nyhavn

Spot the human head :o)

Elephant Parade's official website

Looking Down - Part 4


Well cover.

Motif: Elephants (Does this have to do with Carlsberg? Or the elephant parade? LOL)
Location: Copenhagen Denmark



Wednesday, June 15, 2011

World Wide News Clippings

What happened to the days, where there were less meat on the plate and more vegetables? Meat was expensive, so you had to add a lot of vegetables or bread to the meat so make sure, that you got some energy.

These days vegetables have become more pricy, and often if you want to have some taste (other than the watery taste in tomates and cucumbers - locally that is usually the imported goods that has to ripen during transport) you have to buy local/organic produce.

The tendency of buying much more prefabricated food and super size-mentality when it comes to fastfood has unfortunately resulted in a staggering rise in the number of obese people. The US government have therefore launched the ChooseMyPlate campaign, as obesity often causes ilness, that is also a huge expense for the society. Hopefully this new campain will help fuel a better awareness about food.

I can not help thinking about Mireille Guiliano's book "French Women Don't Get Fat", where she encourage people not to multitask while eating as this often enhanses the taste of the food and actually gives you the sense of being full. That works for me, as my favouite pizza now lasts 2 meals instead of 1 - and it is the only pizza I have found to be good cold-the-day-after.

Elephant of the Day #4


Title: Horton
Artist: Henrik Stenberg
Location: Royal Theatre, Kongens Nytorv

.....and the Royal Theatre houses the Royal ballet :o)

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Elephant of the Day #3



Title: Mosha the World at Your Feet
Artist: Jane Veveris Callan
Location: Nyhavn

Elephant Parade's official website.

The Temporary Home City


This is where I am currently staying, when looking after the cats - Frederiksberg. Some might argue, that it is just a part of Copenhagen, but in reality it is one of the boroughs in Greater Copenhagen area. It is a little bit more expensive to live here, and if I could get my hands on an affordable appartment, I would seriously consider moving here.

They have a lot of small shops, that people from most of Copenhagen goes to, as they (besides nice things) also offers the best customer service and a sense of being welcome. They have time for their customers, which makes the customers want to return again.

Frederiksberg is also considered to be one of the country's green cities, as recycling is high on the agenda. Eg this appartment building has the following trash containers: 2 for domestic garbage, 1 for cardboard, 1 for aluminia, 1 for glass,  1 for paper and finally 1 for hard plastic. They found out, that they could reduce the size of the domestic garbage containers, as a lot could be put in some of the other containers - and it does involve that the garbage men comes by more frequently. It remains the original number of emptying the containers, just spread out on various items.

Last weekend, they had Frederiksberg Days, where lots of things was happing in the area combined with a night run (the route usually takes you through the lobby of one of the hotels = hotels guests in the bar are dropping jaws at this sight :o) ), markets etc. This years offical poster was made by the local Ole Lindholm, and I can not help thinking about the 60s when seing a poster like this, or something mendi (henna hand painting) inspired - a poster that makes you happy just by looking at it.

Monday, June 13, 2011

Harbour Walk






I did not realise how long I had been on my feet, until I started doing the MS Walk (walking like a drunk without having sipped one drop of alcohol)...hurried home and rested. Still not completely back to normal and have to be patient.