When a Movie Takes You on a Voyage

The movie The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, not only takes the 7 English characters portrayed in the movie on a travel, it also lures you into the atmosphere of being in India. Like Claire said to me a while ago, the actors are a who-is-who in British movies.

One of the characters asks one of the others, what it is about this noisy and dirty country, that he loves so much... and it is 95% the answer I gave a friend about a year ago after returning from a trip to India: the colours and the smiles on people's faces.

You see those beautiful colors a lot of places on the clothes that they are wearing - a big contrast to a lot of western countries, where it all seems to be color co-ordinated to the same colours and some of them very dark. Sometimes you feel that you have been taken to a timewharp back in time, only to be reminded abouth the present when you realise the major presence of mobile phones everywhere. Despite they seem to live in another time, some of the fast-paste we know is indeed also present there.

The movies also makes you think about the thing of "getting older" - they are all at a time of their life, when they are widowed, retired, redundant etc. having to face what their future actually holds for them. How not to be put in a box by the surroundings with the label "old" but living a second live they never imagined.

The majority of people watching it at the same time as me, was either the age of the casted actors or some that like frequent travels to exotic places - a shame as I think this movie appeals to a wider audience than that.

Cola Has Many Looks

Curiosity Cola. That was the one I spotted first in a London store, and was intrigued by the name. Since CocaCola is usually my only kind of cola (the diets and sugarfree ones make me sick, as I am allergic to artificial sugar) I am always trying other colas to figure out, if there is any other label, that is ok.

According to the bottle's back label, it states the following "Originally the product of apothecaries, cola's were first sold as "Health Drinks" and were viewed with curiosity by the public." As Coca Cola Cherry Coke is also a favourite of mine (though only available locally occationally) I wanted to try the CheeryTree Cola too.

Did I like them? Ahmmmm..... No! I tasted them and could not finish either of those bottles. Know that many claim that they can taste the sugar cubes in a CocaCola, but to me this was like licking directly on a sugar cube. So once again CocaCola defeted the competitor according to me. However, you might think that no cola can compeed with CocaCola - yes there is, and it is actually a Danish cola, Jolly Cola, sad thing is that I do not spot that very often any longer though it is still on the market.

March 2012 Tea Swap - Part 2

Have seen several cafes having letter writing nights lately, as a lot of people misses receiving a handwritten letter or card in the mail in the world of emails, SMS and MMS. Despite that postrates have gone up in a lot of countries, there are still a lot out there, that is creating their own cards - papercrafting or based on own photos. I happen to participate in a monthly swap where creations and tea fly around the world.

Received this beautiful shabby chic style card from Karen on Tuesday and I just love it. Sadly the technology is not there for you to touch that butterfly, but the texture on that surface makes is very real. Karen wrote to me, that it would be a little late but I would happily have awaited longer for a wonderful creation like this.

When opening the card, it revealed the treasure of two teabags: Vanilla Nut Creme Decaf Tea and Pomegranate Raspberry Green Tea - both from STASH. Can you hear a cup of tea bewing right now?

The letter from Karen also contained two other non-tea goodies, but keeping them a secret for now, as I want to use them in some cards to be sent out. Karen: Thank you soo much! You know I love your blogposts/poems/photos - but adding your cards to that wonderful list of creations from you....and you know what I am talking about when I am saying that this arrived just in time for a pick-me-up.

London Moments

Two major events are on everybody's lips in London: the Queen's jubilee and the Olympic Games. Walked around and saw some of the old things instead - one of them Queen Victoria's tribute to her Prince Albert. The 1948 poster for the Olympic Games have had a huge demand and is already sold out - those retro posters are amazing but hard to get at the moment, wonderful to see how something old can be in demand again.

CupCake Meeting

So what is it with me and cupcakes? Well must admist that it was partly the title, that lured me into buying this book - but also the fact that I already own two of Jenny Colgan's books :o)

Jenny introduces Issy to us, that is suddenly without a job and with a redundancy payment, that equals some months' pay. As a young girl, she used to spend hours at her grandpa's bakery giving her an interest in baking scruptious cakes, that just might be her way out of the looong unemployment queue.

Her grandpa sends her letters with recipes - and how I wish that recipe books would be written like that, as it will give you a healthy laughter: "3 whole eggs. Plus an extra tree to break therapeutically by throwing at the wall" - "Now, to all intents and purposes, your cake wil look like an ugly dissaster. When people see your calke they will feel sorry for you....." Ohh did I mention that the recipes are actually written in the book, and tried one of them, that was a hit when bringing it to my friends house forgot to take a picture of it :o( 

How I sometimes wish that I could quit my job and do something creative for a living, but just have not found that niche yet, where I create something that stands out a bit. Surroundings often reminds me, that we are in an aftermath of a recession, as about 14 stores are idle in my neighbourhood. Saddens me, as I am actually living in the centre of the city. Always happy when I read a feel-good book like this just pushing that litlle "maybe someday" thought in the back of my head :o)

Two of Jenny's books already on my bookshelve

A Friendly Reminder

This may look extravagant, but it did not cost a lot of money. Actually this could fit almost any budget when travelling, as this is a find from a street off Portobello Road in London. Not a new purchase, have had it for almost five years now, but is the clock in my appartment reminding me about the time.

So do I find it stressing, since it's purpose is to remind me of the time? Absolutely "No!" as this is a reminder to me about all the good times spent in London, which makes it a sort-of souvenir without being one of the most common souvenirs depicting a red London bus, a London taxi or the Big Ben.

London: Hyde Park

When on vacation in another city/country, do you remember to just relax? Yes vacation is about relaxing, and not just running from one seight to another in order not to miss out on anything... no I mean sitting down and relaxing for a couple of hours doing nothing specific.

I have stopped having everyday of the calendar filled out with to-do's whenever I am in London - "just" going with the flow and still managing to see something new everytime. Spring has arrrived to London, so took the opportunity to sit on a bench in Hyde Park.... reading a bit, watching passersby and looking at the nature surrounding me... back to basics some might call it. I call it me-time as was not rushed by any particular agenda thus embrasing the whole concept of vacation and relaxing time.

China Re-visited

I would never have thought, that I would ever quote chairman Mao, but these words have been luring in the back of my head since I got to see one of the world's 7 wonders: "Until you reach the Great Wall, you're no hero".

So do I feel like a hero? How exactly does one define a hero? I got a chance to see the Great Wall and grapped it - it meant climbing (stairs and very steep walking paths) the Wall and being totally exhausted afterwards. So a hero? Well it was more like another small victory in my patch with the MS as heavy lugguage, where the MS was temporarily kept in a storage room, so I could do something I have never dreamed possible.

There Is Always a First Time Awaiting Somewhere.....

You thought I was posting travel photos?? Well have not browsed through all of them yet, so you have to be patient at least a day longer.....

Hurried home from the airport and just dropped the suitcase, looked up an address and hurried to a cupcake course. 2½ hours later and I could bring home these....... still have not touched even once, cause having a hard time taking the first bite.

Definately not the last time, that I am doing cupcakes myself - now that I have tried to make some myself I might just lure myself into trying some more :o)

March 2012 Tea Swap - Part 1

Time for the March Tea Swap - Fran called it and with the theme of spring using the color green. My swap partner this month is a blog friend of mine, Karen, who often comments my blog and she WOWs us with stunning photos and lately also Haikus, cards etc.

The card is inspired by Quirky Craft's Challenge #5: First signs of spring theme using the double Z fold card technique. Luckily I have tried the 3Fold technique, which has some similarities to this one so not too intimidated to try it out.

When seeing the theme, my thoughts were Japanese cherry tree blossoms and green tea, as this will also "speak" to Karen, since she is writing Haiku poems. It presented a chance to use a freebie digi from A Day for Daisies and some Japanese inspired paper that I picked up at a Søstrene Grene store.



The text on the card is blurred, as I think the written words are for Karen only keeping it a bit personal.

 

Then came the task of presenting the tea - in this case I could easily pick tea in green tea bag wraps: YOGI TEA's Licorice Mint and Green Chai - and needed something green to wrap it in. Somehow the colour is making me think of Skt. Patrick's Day, but guessing it has something to do with being a March event as well.

Karen, hope spring has arrived to Canada for your camera to capture wonderful photos :o)

PhotoWalk: Helsingborg

The next week involves travelling, so thought appropriate to share some photos from the Swedish city, Helsingbogr. Just one hour from my house and a place that I have visited over and over and .... and over again since 1981. Sometimes I forget that another country is so close by - in fact on clear days we can see Sweden from my office.

A Little Christmas Magic

If somebody says the word "Christmas" in front of most of my colleagues this time of year, they will be asked to wash their mouth with soap - Christmas is, according to them, only to be mentioned etc from either December 1st or 1st Sunday of Advent (depending on which one comes first). But let's face it: if you are a crafty person you know, that it will be too late if you start your Christmas projects that late.

When a colleague spotted me reading this book in the bus from work the immediate reaction was "Catching up on your reading from Christmas?"  HA!! No, because I did not buy this book until February: "The Magic of Christmas" by Trisha Ashley.

Read her "Twelve Days of Christmas" last year, which was a read-until-the-end-with-no-interuptions, so had really high expectations for this book. Maybe those expectations ruined the read of this book, since the book from last year reminded me of something from my life.

"The Magic of Christmas" is an ok chich-lit, and enjoy how it reminds us, that homemade stuff (in this case food and cakes) needs to be prepared well in time for Christmas. That makes it actually an "all year" read, as most of the story does not take place during the holiday season.

Hearts - Need More Hearts

I am close to have completed 2/3 of my quest to weave a heart daily for a year - still have some special ones waiting to be weaved. Surprised about the number of books about weaved hearts, that have been published locally, though most of them are out of print and "only" available through the library.

Today I published a weaved heart on the Weaved Heart A Day blog, where I have created the template. A simple one, but one has to start somewhere and dabling with some sketches that might end up in more templates.

Sunday Morning Inspiration

One of the beautiful things of having time off work is, that you can shuffle your plans around a little bit to make place for sudden input that one want to pursue. Quietly sitting at the computer this morning and checking some emails, blogs and news around the world, when I saw the new sketch from Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenges (#154):

Still need to finish about 5-6 Saint Patrick's Day cards, and immediately remembered the Friday freebie, that I grapped from Sassy Studio Design. Albeit the digistamp is rich on details to be coloured, I opted only to outline the stamp with green in and then use some green distress ink around the image on the grey paper.

Round sentiment is a freebie too from Andrea Design and the gingham paper is from Mat Stacks: Earthprint and Cardstock. Amazing how you sometimes can be clueless about a card, that you want to make for a special occation and other times new ideas spring into your head while creating one card. Well can not push all that I had on my to-do list today, but have scribbled the ideas down and will pursue them, when I get home tonight.

Hope you all have a wonderful Sunday.

Need More Time

Have suddenly realised, that I have several photos of Clocks (above photos represent cities like, Copenhagen, Ipswich, London and Oxford) and wondering why I even took those pictures? The motifs themselves are beautiful but can not stop thinking about that the little voice in my head might have reminded me to slow down without me hearing/noticing it.

Luckily I can stop worrying about the time for the next couple of weeks most of the time, as I have time off work to do wonderful things like reading, crafting, walking, travelling, photographing and mayby indulge in the pleasure of a scrumptious cupcake.

Unexpected Something

Maybe you have noticed this image on the rightside of my blog already. Got an emails earlier this week, where one of my blog readers has apparently submitted my blog to Blognation's category of Multiple Sclrosis Blogs with the description "This blogger proves that MS sufferers can revive cliches like "seize the day" out of sheer necessity. The randomness of the posts reflects her bent toward creativity."

Well I don't know who submitted my little blog of random thoughts to this site, but I am truly humble and grateful, that that person wrote those words: THANK YOU!! :o)

Sweet Paul Magazine

Sweet Paul arrived to Denmark this week - in a printed version. Our weekly magazine FEMINA also contained an issue of the magazine, that I have alreay encountered online (it is free of charge). It has a lot of really nice looking pictures with the various good articles and food recipes.

I still prefer the online version, but it is great that the Danes can now get to know this magazine - don't think too many know about the online version yet and buying an imported magazine at stores usually means either double or tripple the original price (subscriptions directly from the publisher is  a lot of money saved)

First Walk In March

When walking - especially with my camera - my mind often wanders too. Visual impressions fuels the imagination to the story of today's walk - knowing if someone else took the same path to walk, the story will be different than mine.

My Knitted Chicks

OK..... I have been wanting to do this post for a really really REALLY long time now.....11 months to be exact. The reason why I have not posted it until now is, that it was part of a shipment sent as Secret Pal to Blayne, who was to be kept in the dark about my identity from October 10th 2010 to October 10th 2011. 

Recognize the front chick? Well it was the one I originally made in Februay last year to figure out if I could knit one following Anjie's how-to. When I made those fuzzy chicks (those three was shipped to Blayne) I made a lot of trials with the fuzzy yarn, until I altered the how-to a bit and combined both a fuzzy yarn string and a regular cotton string when knitting the chicks.

Soon after those four chicks was followed by several others as friends and family suddenly wanted one of those chicks, that I had in my appartment. Follow the link to the post with the original post if you want the original how-to from Anjie - It it takes me about 2 hours to make a finished chick and you need no more that basic skills to knit them, as in super-easy :o)