Happy...... Cow Appreciation Day

Did you know that July 15 is Cow Appreciation Day??

Well it is, and that is the day I chose for the Holiday's in July Card Swap over at Paper Craft Planet - July (and any other month of the year) have a lot of unknown holidays. I was to send a card to Bridget, and since she was the one who originally introduced med to Beccy's Place I immediately knew, that the quilted cow would be the image for the card.

I forgot to take a photo of the card, so here's the photo Bridget took when receiving it.

Was struggling a bit on how to color this cow when eying a black/white monochrome paper pack..... well this digistamp did not end up being colored - but paper pieced :o) To me a cow is black and white - yes, know they come in other colors too, but an old neighbor when I grew up had black/white cows only - and hey: the cows depicted on Ben&Jerry's ice creams are black/white too ;o)

Others like cows too, as here is one depicted on the wall in one of the streets of Copenhagen, Denmark - a place that I pass from time to time.

Happy Cow Appreciation Day!!

Angora Alibi

We have had some good summerdays lately, so time to go to the local park and find a reading place on a bench during the weekends - just for a couple of hours to rewind. The past weekend it was needed even more, as my sleeping, eating, resting patterns etc. got all messed up du to a 5-day MS attack treatment. Most colleagues never realised what was happening, as I went to work as usual - due to summer time things are luckily a little slower than usual - and trying to have a normal day is the best medicine. One normal thing for me is also "escaping" into the wonderful words of a book.

 

Back to Sea Harbour where Izzy Chambers Perry is almost due with her baby - she discovers an abandonned baby car seat on the beach, eqiuipped with a knitted blanket. The yarn used for the knitted blanket was sold from her yarn shop only to fuel more thoughts about the discovery.

 

Soon we realised that the car seat has a connection to a local murder and suddenly it becomes a race against time for the Sea Side Knitters to solve this so the new born can arrive in a safe world while they are knitting on a baby blanket for baby Perry.

 

I love reading those books, where you return to the same city and cast of characters and feel present there yourself. It also makes me smile a bit - as I remember something I read about the tv-series "Murder, She Wrote" with Angela Lansbury. They said that Cabbot Cove, where the series mostly takes place, has the worlds highest murder rate due to all the murders happening in the tv-series.... but then again Sea Harbour still seems a lot less extreme :o)

April and May Tea Swaps remade

 

I was partnered up with Robyn in Hawaii, and needed to do something with a male theme (see Fran's open call here), so came up with the above cards, using Becky's Old Boots. The base back paper is actually from a paper back, that had nice print on it and the wooden like stripes are washi tape.

Create With TLC had this Mad Hatter (Alice in Wonderland) freebie image a few months back, which I thought was suitable for the pouch holding the tea for Robyn.

 

Now you might be wondering, why I am mentioning April's teaswap for Byron again - but actually both first attempt of the April and the May swaps did not reach Hawaii - and the May swap from Hawaii has not reached here either. Second attempt on both swaps made it last weekend after 3 weeks in transit - wierd as it used to be only 1 week transit despite the distance - wonder if the changed the mail routing?

Here are the card and tea pouch remade for Byron, in link above you can read what I used as image etc.

 

Flora Danica

 

 The four parkmuseums in Copenhagen are hosting Flora Danica exhibits.

 

Flora Danica - flowers of Denmark - 123 years in the making (1761-1883) with a huge collection of botanical drawings showing the Danish (and Norwegian, as Norway once was part of Denmark). Elaborate copper prints are well kept, and have been the source to lots of artists (painters, sculpteurs,pottery makers,  knitters etc).

 

The exhibits shows us some of the copper prints and art work throug time inspired bu the copper prints - or better yet natures own artistic curves and colors.

 

It was actually naked men - or an article about naked men in a local newspaper that made me pursue a visit to these exhibits.... yes NAKED MEN. It was a huge and cheerfull discussion between us ladies in my office that started it, and for once the guys (they outnumber us girls) dropped their jaws and refused to take parts in our discussions due to the topic.....

 

Or what their minds believe were the topics....

 

Admit it - you too were thinking that I have now turned the subject away from flowers, but I really havent :o)

 

It started with a colleague seeing a photo of a plant, where some of the flowers resemble naked men.... just a few days later we discovered the news about the exhibit, and here the botanical drawing of same flower was dipicted in the new paper..... ergo no hoax with photo shop on the Facebook photo, as there was the proof. Way back when the drawing was made, the botanist were quite surprise about this phenomenon. It an orchid by the way: orchis italica.

 

:o) Have a nice weekend

Vintage Day

During the weekend I went not far from my home to capture the following two buildings - love how the vintage look reminds us of old times - hidden gems in the city.

 

There was one... then another one.... and one more..... grabbed the camera in my bag and captured some the old cars passing by.... the were moving so some of the cars did not come out well on the snap shots, and wish that I had captured the first one, as that was a true beauty.... but at least I captured these :o)

Went out looking for something specific and got to see more vintage things than expected. Free surprises beat them all.

Close Knit Killer

Feels like coming home everytime I start reading a book about Kelly Flynn and her Lambspun friends - almost like you are there yourself in Fort Connor, Colorado.... that is what I like when reading books. However, I have one BIG problem when reading knitting mysteries: when I read I get the urge to knit and when I knit I want to read more pages in the book. I have seen some reading while knitting - and sadly I do not master that version of multi tasking..... sigh :o)

When Jared Rizzo returns to Fort Conner, he invokes bad memories and emotions in a lot of Fort Connor citizens, as he misled them years ago financially and ruined a lot of people's lives. He has paid his dept to society and has no nice words for those who confront him with the past - a person that makes you feel uncomfortable.

No murder mystery without a murder and Jared Rizzo is the victim? Who did it? A lot of people close to the Lambspun friends are suddenly possible suspects which triggers Kelly's habit for sleuthing when murders occurs in Fort Connor. All this while the House of Lambspun add more place to facilitate the yarn activities and we meet young Cassie for the first time

National Geographic 125 Years

 

Øksnehallen, Copenhagen, Denmark - one of only 3 places in the world commemorating the 125th anniversary of National Geographic with more than 100 photos (old and new) on display. I am one of them alway's WOW'ed when flipping through a National Geographic Magazine, so a visit to this exhibit was an absolute MUST.

Photos by Tim McCurry were present, historic photos etc. that just makes you speachless. These two photos were a real treat, as I had never seen them before:

 

Albatrosses at the South Georgia Island, 1977 - never knew that albatrosses can become 40 to 50+ years old.

Photographers: Des and Jen Bartlett

 

Borneo 1980 - the boy, Binti, is the son of primatologist Biruté Galdikas - look at that orangutang trying to avoid the soap :o)

Photographer: Rodney Brindamour



 

 

This is the cover from National Geographic July 2002 - one of my favourite covers (and I have that magazine) featuring the beautiful bald eagle - the magazine features the stunning photos by Norbert Rosing. Looking at this cover it almost seems like a painting with the vast shades etc. - yet knowing that it is a photo, enjoy that effect.

 

Whenever I spot a magazine with the signature yellow border, I just have to browse through the magazine, wether it is brand new or 30+ years old - the photos in there are a mix between timeless or a view into the then look of a city, country etc. But few realise, that some disliked when the first photos appeared in National Geographics magazines as they thought they were tabloid like that had no business in their scientific magazine. These days we regard these photos through the years as some of the best teachers as they capture things, that one never gets to see in real life.