World Press Photo 2011

World Press Photos is a collection of the world's best photos depicting real life - sometimes a little bit to real for my taste. But can it ever get to real? It is not just me having an upset stomach just by looking at the reality of some of these pictures since they are depicting a horrible truth?

Not all of them are scary, see the two old biddys in the poster above, they are attending a fair somewhere in the UK, you can help wonder if they are family or old friends. Other photos were amazing animal photos and some depicting a sports situation/event.

Press photos are still a strong provider of truth/enlightenment/vision etc. -In the past it could take days for a news story to reach the other side of the world, now it happens just by the press of the button and the internet/news stations.

Can one really help the world having seen a press photo? Or are we just a passive bystander?

Meat With Green Curry

Now you are asking: What kind of meat? Well if you go to a Thai restaurant, they might offer this dish with chicken, pork or beef, but it is also good with turkey, shrimp or crayfish tails. Tasted this dish for the first time 8 years ago and found a recipe ½ year later, which I have adjusted a bit to make it look/taste like the one served at Thai restaurants.

Meat with Green Curry  (serves 4)

1 tablespoon green curry paste

1 canned cononut milk

350g meat (*) sliced in thin pieces

150g sugar peas (with pods)

100g bean sprouts (¤)

1 canned bamboo shoots

1 sliced pepper fruit

1-2 tablespoon fish sauce

1 teaspoon sugar

3-4 chilis (#)

1 small bundle of fresh basil(@)

Warm the green curry in 1-2 tablespoons of the fat coconut milk (in top of the can) in a wok or suitable pan. Add meat and cook the meat until it is no longer red (for shrimp and crayfish tails only 2-3 minutes are required).

Add the vegetables (the canned ones are to be added without the liquid in the cans) and cook for 1 minute.

Add the fishsauce, sugar, chili, basil and the rest of the coconut milk and let the dish be heated up for 8-10 minutes.

Serve with rice (or noodles)

(*) chicken, pork, beef, turkey, shrimp or crayfish tails

(¤) can be replaced with 1 canned bean sprouts

(#) can be replaced by 1 teaspoon grounded chili

(@) can be replaced by 1 teaspoon grounded basil

The recipe come with a little warning: it is very hot/spicy/stong - keep some extra coconut milk in reserve, if it is too much to soften the taste a bit

Panduro Hobby: Christmas Cards

My "local" craftshop, Panduro Hobby, have a blog with challenges, and when I saw the lastest one yesterday I realised, that it was a chance to kick myself in the behind and make one more Christmas cards as a lot more is needed before December starts (if I am going to meet all the international deadlines for sending cards).

All paper on this card is from Panduro Hobby, some of it a few years old - and have wanted to make an iris folded moose for a while now. The template for the moose is actually a moose shape cakecutter from IKEA and thought it fun to use for a friend living in a country with moose - hence the use of greetings in both Danish and English.

Still sticking to my Christmas Card concept this year by using red and white + a weaved heart.

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Mit bidrag til Panduro Hobbys blogkonkurrence no 23.

It Is Not Only Rock Stars.....

...that die young after misuse of substances. I did not know that the French artist Toulouse-Lautrec died at the age of 36 due to alcoholism and syphilis, until I went to an exhibition of some of his artwork at Statens Museum for Kunst (National Gallery of Denmark).

I grew up with posters like this in the late 1970s, where you could find replicas in almost every home you went to (in the 1980's it was Monet replicas that were found in a lot of these home). Fond memories of them, as I remember looking closely at them and dreaming me into a world much like the one depicted. Was too young to realise, that is was mostly Montmartre and Moulin Rouge, that was captured in his works - for me it was some decadent art deco world, where women had astonishing clothes etc. The great laugh here is, that he is not representing art deco but impressionism :o)

Wandering around his works at the museum brought all the memories and fantasies back into my mind - something I thought long forgotten, almost like a déja-vu. Wonderful to get lost for a while in this time-pocket.

In A Lonely Place

Photo by Gregory Crewdson

You might think about an old Humphrey Bogart movie, when you see the title of this blog post, but it is also the title of a photo exhibition with the works of Gregory Crewdson.

Have you ever experienced a bombardment of a story into your mind just by the view of one photo, and you get totally exhausted, when it is several pictures doing that to you, all with their individual stories? The photo seems so familiar, which fuels the story despite the fact: You have never seen that photo before in your life. It is almost like you walk into the picture.

Chills were running down my spine when wandering from picture to picture - leaving me totally speechless. When leaving the exhibit, one of the custodians asked me "Did you enjoy it?" and strange sounds came out of my mouth. His smile said it all: he had already seen a lot of museum guests react the same way as me.

Creative Weekend - Paverpol Sculptures

I am totally smitten/intrigued by Paverpol sculptures - the other workshop at the crafty weekend. When I signed up for the seminar, I had never seen anything like this before, but watching that workshop's participants create some wonderful pieces, I know I have to take a course/workshop in this one day.

These are the creations of the intructor Britt.Mai August:

One of the participants had this idea, and started creating the shapes of a Buddha

And she ended up with this wonderful creation:

Another participant's creation:

And can you believe it: it was their first Paverpol sculptures ever. All the participants in this workshop made one beautiful creation after another and this type of creativity is now added to top 10 on my list of must-do-someday crafts :o)

Secret Pals - Part 3

Throughout the past year, I was Secret Pal to Blayne in Canada. She have not been much online in the forum, so I hope she is doing ok.

These are the creations, that I sent to her (except for one - can not locate that card amongst my photos):

And in case you were wondering: I have already signed up for the 2012 round of Secret Pals :o)