Halloween 2014

Not my door steep but seen in my neighborhood.

Happy Halloween

Beat Cancer - Knæk Kræften

There is a big Danish beat cancer campaign, Knæk Cancer, going on at the moment - and the intense coverage culminating in a big galla TV-show tomorrow has made some MSers angry in a Facebook Forum. Especially one lade was really agressive and would not tolerate that other MSers thinks it is OK for the campaign to take so much space on TV, social media etc.

If people commented on her post and did not agree with her she commented like a little stubborn child "For the 4th time.......!" really talking down to people. It an open forum, not even her personal profile page, so you should be prepared to face opinions not matching yours. But her tone and language really made me upset - luckily there is a function where you can blog post by a specific person so for the second time I used it (first time was to block a spammer)...... and she kept on saying "What about my MS?!"

Fact is that more people here have suffered from some kind of cancer and the cancer causes more deaths than MS ... sure MS could use more attention, but I am not offended by the massive Knæk Cancer campaign and realized just this morning that a lot of the coverage was just noise in the background on my TV. Others need repetition if their attention is to be caught.

Background noise or not - I believe that cancer research is very important as cancer has shown it's ugly face in my family on several occasions and amongst friends and I do not consider it to be less important than MS, just because I suffer from MS myself and not cancer.

So did the Knæk Cancer have no effect on me? Sure it did - I have supported it both via SMS donations and buying the two pins with the campaigns logo - wanted them last year but the 125.000 pins were sold out in a hurry, but this year I managed to by them. The flower symbolizes life and optimism and the exclamation mark that it is time to act.

Pins supporting various causes that relates to disease etc

P.S. Pins at my place are not placed on clothes, but used all year long as pins on my note board as a reminder that the causes always needs attention.

Fall Colors

Fall this year is not was it used to be - seems like we are heading for the 3rd warmest October since they started recording weather temperatures 100+ years ago - in fact I am not yet using my winter coat, which I usually would have been using 2-3 weeks already. Fall colors are everywhere and the days are getting shorter and yet the trees are holding on to more leafs than usual.

CCEE Stampers' challenge theme this week is Fall Colors - CCEE1443- used a freebie digi stamp (deleted it by mistake from my computer so do not remember where it is from) and colored the leafs with COPICs - found some fuzzy yarn in fall colors and crocheted a border..... the fuzzy yarn reminds me of falling leaves in the wind.

The Wishing Thread

It is October and the days are getting shorter - time to lit some candles, cuddle up on the couch with a blanket and read some more books. My ceramic Jack O'Lantern is lit up and reminds me that it is spooky month as Halloween is coming. A book with superstition and knitting, The Wishing Thread by Lisa Van Allen was just what I needed, as my health keeps me at home more than usual at the moment.

There were so many words on every piece of paper, tiny words made of tiny little letters, one running into the other. If she could unwind all the words out into a long, single thread, they would reach arounf the building and back again.  She could knit them into a sweater.

Tarrytown, New York is not the ordinary city. Superstition or magic is afoot - albeit some called it a hoax and others a blessing - but minds are colored by the fact that Sleepy Hollow is the neighboring city and tales about the Headless Horseman are still being passed on to the young generations.

The Stitchery is a yarn shop especially known for the knitted creations that contains knitted wishes, all knitted by the generations of Van Rippers women. When Mariah Van Ripper dies, it is up to her three nieces Aubrey, Bitty and Meggie to continue years of traditions handed down from the family's matriarchs through times. It turns out to be quite a challenge, as they are all different and from the outside only the knitting skills and family name unites them: Aubrey being the shy one who has always stayed in Tarrytown, Bitty the mum of two who wants to away a normal life far away from magic and Meggie, the family's nomad that left the Stitchery in search for their long lost mum.

One can almost smell the autumn in the area along the Hudson River, see the Victorian style old houses - wishing one could find a bench in the city of Tarrytown, sit down with one's knitting and a hot cup of something pumpkin spiced and dressed in a nice, cozy thick knitted sweater.. The knitting magic reminds me a little bit of Sally Owens magic skin creams and the nomad sister of Gillian Owens in the movie Practical Magic - and then again very different from the movie. A good cozy read.

My little heart skipped some beats, when I eyed a reference to a H.C. Anderson fairy tale - I have always loved his fairy tales as they were not only meant for children but a short story with a morale for their parents too. It is not often one spot a reference to his works in non-Danish literature as many finds his tales a little to dark.

The Cookie Dough in Cookie Dough Ice Cream

Could NOT resist checking out this news on Yahoo! Monday as Ben&Jerry's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream is my favorite ice cream - was smiling as how do you even think about trying to bake the cookie dough from the ice cream?

Too funny - but the cookie dough stays in my ice cream :o)

Follow Us On......

... Facebook.... WWW.... Twitter..... Instagram ..... It seems like everywhere we look, we are reminded about social media. When I joined Facebook 7 years ago, it was because a friend of mine had created a photo album so we could see their new home in a foreign country, an albums that only invited people could see. Back then Facebook was locally still quite unknown. 

In the latter years I maybe visited Facebook once a week, but that all changed during this summer after I got involved with the sailing project. The sailing projects uses social media to attract sponsors, to keep families, MSers, followers updated - in this case as a mean to keep the project running.

It has scared me how much time I actually use now to follow the project, but just because I have already been on board it does not mean that my journey/involvement with the project stops - nor do I want it to end just yet.

Facebook

Bad habit - I know - but I checked my Facebook the other morning on my phone just after the wake-up call and saw my face in an update. To be honest I am the type of person that feels a lot more comfortable behind a camera than in front of it - the smile is there as the professional photographer told jokes while taking photos that day. But my involvement with street art (not the underground street art but public events) and this project have suddenly exposed me to the media. Some projects needs PR to continue and they can get attention by using social media.

The official website keeps the latest news on the page with the teaser of that day's blog post. While on board the MS crew members take turns writing the daily blogs - not all were to happy about writing it but when they saw friends' and families' comments on Facebook afterwards, they felt good about sharing their experience. I was surprised when I was asked last week if I would write a post about my view on the trip now that I have been home for two months - even though I read the updates daily and post comments once in a while to blog posts, the response to this recent post of mine still makes me speechless.

Surprised how easily words came to the email when writing the post as I still have not digested all the things, events, people etc. that I experienced/met on that trip. Have not even started writing the journal from the trip - wrote notes everyday to help me remember - but not everything can be written as a full text yet. The adventure was simply a whole lot bigger than I had even dared to hope.

A Twitter account was created just because of this project, but not using it much - still it makes me a bit uneasy when I see my name mentioned. Participating in a project like this forces you to consider if you are ok with being exposed - part of it is to inspire other MSers (and non- MSers) to dare to dream a little and maybe go out sailing for just for a few hours and that requires the assistance of social media to spread the word. I am ok with it while the project is sailing around the world.

September Tea Swap 2014 - Part 2

For the first time in a really long time, the card was finished before I got my swap partner assigned..... the swap partner this month is Josie, the very same person that introduced me to this swap three years ago.

Optional Themes:   Color Blocking (Google "Color Block Cards" for ideas)
Optional Color:  Fall Colors

Using the colors: brown, red, orange and yellow and a maple leaf punch and the card just presented itself within minutes - adding my favorite autumn quote and voila. Tea sent to Josie was Licorice & Cinnamon from PUKKA and Indian Chai from TWININGS VOYAGE line of tea.