Memories in a Photo

My humble photos will never have the same effect as Steve McCurry's wonderful photos, but when I saw his latest blogpost, "When Words Fail" my own snapshot from Beijing, China just came back into my thoughts.

 

Amazing how something you see, hear or even smell, can bring back memories in your head - and even more wonderful if you were lucky enough to capture exactly that moment with your camera.

All the Buildings in New York

Since I discovered James Gulliver Hancock a few years back, I have admired all his drawings of New York's buildings, so I ordered a book that have drawings of some of my favorite buildings.

"Only" trouble with a book like this is, that I want to go back to New York soon as it brings back a lot of good travel memories. Flipped quickly through the book to find Empire State Building and Chrysler Building and got a big smile on my face - yes there are tons of other wonderful buildings in New York but these two have a very special place in my heart. Know that I would have to restrain myself when eventually buying some of the prints as too many are tempting :o) But for now I will just revisit the city by browsing through this book.

Ribbon

Do you ever have to urge to buy something, that you really do not need, but still you have the sense, that you must buy it, because it is cheap or maybe you foresee future creative use could pop up using the newly purchased craft item(s)??

Well I call that the Crafter's Curse - that sounds a lot better than a supply hoarder does it not? Then one could argue, that I should now better as being a purchaser for a living - but then again, I know that this particular store takes home their goods in bulk, so if sold out you have to wait an uncertain number of days until restocked - if restocked again at all. The day I purchased these was the first time, I have even seen their ribbon as so many colors/shades at the same time.

Elementary - Sherlock Holmes

 

 

Elementary - the Americans' take at updating Sherlock Holmes.

 

It's present day, and Sherlock is persona non grata in London, so he has taken refuge in one of his father's places in New York. He is a bit more political correct as he is now a recovering addict and Dr Watson has been employed by his father to keep him on the right track. Dr. Watson is also updated, as he (John) is now a her (Jane) in the American version.

 

I enjoy this series, as they are not deprieving Sherlock of his English heritage - he is still not afraid to challenge his surroundings in pursuit of the truth and Watson is still trying to keep him a bit more in sync with his surroundings.

Crafts Fair 2013

Discovered the Craft's Fair two years ago - revisited it last year, so a visit was obvious this year. It takes place a short walk from where I live, so really there is no excuse for me not to visit it. Left money and credit card at home, as I otherwise might have used too much money seeing all the wonderful things on display, so grabbed contact info from two stalls, that had some true eye catchers for later purchase.

 

One was this bag from Mi-Jo and another was a vase like this from Marion Fortat :o) So have a wishlist now, but most likely I will end up buying these items myself.

 

Yarn to Go

First book in A Yarn Retreat Mystery series by Betty Hechtman - made me think of a scene in the movie Snow Wonder, where Aunt Lulu (Played by Mary Taylor Moore) says the following:

"You know, sometimes in a family there can be a square peg - the one that doesn'r really fit in. And sometimes family can embrace that and sometimes they feel threathened by it. They try to sit on you. They love to tell you what isn't possible."

I bet that Casey Feldstein feels a bit like that, when it comes to her own family - she now stays at her aunt's place in a small city where she has build up a business as a dessert chef. When her aunt dies, she tries to host a yarn reatreat, that her aunt had planned before dying. But "She got totally frustrated when I kept mixing up with crocheting and knitting. I knew that you needed two things for one of them and one for the other, but not which for which. Needles, hooks, not my thing."

A regular at the yarn retreat is suddenly found murdered and Casey decides, that the killer must be caught - but will she succeed? And will she ever learn the difference between needles and hooks and get the yarn in her blood?

May Tea Swap - Part 2

I had to re-do the May swap, and so did Robyn... wonder why the mail route between Denmark and Hawaii has become that bad, and the replacement from Robyn took about 2 weeks to arrive - and it was worth the wait.

I took several photos of the swap card since I noticed a shadow when taking the first photo - yet picking that first photo, as I think the shadow added something to it.... What do you think?

The swap card is a card - with a pocket inside to hold the two teabags: pineapple and passion fruit from Hawaiian Islands Tea Company - that Robyn had made during one of Fran's classes. The card FEELS Hawaiian with the flowers, colors and everything about this card. If a card can be an ambassador for a place, this card certainly earns that title

Robyn included 4 more cards that she has created - all of them very elegant and fitting for numerous receivers and all of them oozing lots of inspiration for future cards.

Thanks Robyn for being the May swap partner and the inspiration sent my way :o)

Happy... Aviation Day

My second contribution for the Holiday's in August Card Swap over at Paper Craft Planet - again a holidays that immediately "spoke" to me. Maybe because I like this Mo Manning image? Or maybe since I like to fly: reading time + taking me to another place for just a few days? Design paper is from Søstrene Grene.

 

This one flew to Mary Gregor :o)

The Biennale For Craft and Design 2013

 

I have learned, that even "small" exhibits may be quite a surprise on creative influx - The Biennale for Craft and Design 2013 (Biennalen for Kunsthåndværk og Design 2013) is on display in Rundetaarn (old observatory in the middle of Copenhagen, built by King Christian IV 1642) and with the cheap entry, I took a chance and went in to see it.

 

The back of these three ladies captured my attention - the creation is named The Dance of the Deaf and Dumb Eye and by the artist Nikoline Liv Andersen

Wigs are made of yarn skeins - fabulous idea.

The three ladies seen from the front. The skits on the left and right dresses are made of drinking straws, and the artists have also use material like paper mache, yarn, fabric

Wait look closer!! She has a monkey on her head: "Hear no evil"

"Speak no evil"

"See no evil" - yep the 3 wise men.

"The Thread That Binds Us" - installation by Karin von Schantz. Pictures from 2008-2008 around Denmark with different people knitting on the project.

Every little girl's..... princess' dream cave/ hideout.

Needless to say, I left the exhibition, with a smile on my face and a "Wow!" on my lips.

Organic

Just love this packaging of organic eggs - seems so creative, alternative and reminds me of childhoold drawings and advertising - homemade style. Also reminds me when we could go to the farm "next door" and buy fresh eggs by the stable door - often cheaper than the stores and natural (before we started using the word organic) - no additives and only natural food.

Now the natural thing is the most expensive, outprices by the cheap and often with additives (monitored though) or socalled fresh vegetables and fruit, that is actually not ripe when being shipped off, but ripens during the transport from other countries.

Money talks, so it has become more about the profit than producing the real stuff: organic food. Growing organic food requires more land, man hours etc.

I grew up with a huge vegetable garden and a lot fruit trees, so we were more or less self sufficient through the year depending on the fruits/vegetables/berries of the season, jarred items and the big freezer, and was in for quite an eye opener when moving away from home: those vegetables and fruit that I could afford did not have much taste/flavour compared to the homegrown stuff.

 

The UK has no tax on healthy food, which can encourage more to buy organic..... China has experienced quite an explosive tendency, as more and more Chinese now want to buy organic food. Is this tendency spurred by some of the food scandals that they have had? But what about the poor - they can not afford the more expensive organic stuff.... Buying organic in some countries are still regarded as alternative way of living.

 

So for me less has now become more - I may not be able to buy as much when using organic food, but the taste does all the difference and one can enjoy the food more, so I do not mind. Then again I am also the type of person that tries to recycle as much as possible to save ressources.

Happy ... Book Lover's Day

My first contribution for the Holiday's in August Card Swap over at Paper Craft Planet that Julie hopefully receives today. Guess I qualify as a book lover having read 20 book already this year. Now, I do not normally count the number of books I read, but Angela's post on January 1st made me wonder, just how many books I read during a year. Totally surprised that my number is 20 already, as I would have guessed maybe one book per month in average.

 

Design paper is from Søstrene grene, stamp is from Nikki & Friends colored with my COPICs, text is from Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility".... and the quote:

 

You know you've read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend. Paul Sweeney

 

The Silence of the Llamas

 

The Silence of the Llamas by Anne Canadeo - the 5th Black Sheep Knitting Mystery.

Can you imagine driving into the country side in Massachusetts along with some of your friends during the fall, stopping by farms buying pumpkins, apple sauce, apple cider, fruits etc.? Your final destination is a fiber festival, held by a friend - and also to support one of your closets friend who has a stall at the festival, Maggie.

 

The merry festival ends abruptly due to animal cruelty, and the knitting group finds out, that there are several suspects to consider. Or are their farm friends caught in the middle of a battle regarding land protection? The animal cruelty escalates and suddenly they also have a murder at their hands - they chose to stand by their friends while figuring out whi they can actually trust.

 

While they are sleuthing, they are knitting items to sell for a charity. I love reading about charities - they knitted a blanket in "Knit, Purl, Die" - and in another book I am currently reading, they are making caps for preemies, just like I did a few years back. Feels good once in a while to support various causes with hand crafted items - and love how the authors encourage their readers to participate too. In this series, recipés, patterns, links etc are shared via the knitting store's bulletin board.

 

Till Death Do Us Purl

Till Death Do Us Purl by Anne Canadeo - the 6 th Black Sheep Knitting Mystery

Maggie is know as the local EFT (Emergency Fiber Technician) and is contacted by Nora and Rebecca Bailey, as Rebecca's wedding date has been accelerated to take place in less than two weeks and her knitted wedding dress plus shrugs for the bridesmaids are far from being finished. 

 

Maggie and her friends abandon their own projects for a while and step in to help Rebecca get the knitting done in time. But happy times are soon interupted, as a death occur only days after the wedding - the circle of friends once again start wondering: Who did it? Why? And who can they really trust? A new trend reaches the shop: arigumi - Maggie tries out the patterns for knitted miniature animals and starts classes teaching arigumi.

When reading about Maggie's window decoration "...she noticed Maggie had channged the window display. The clever kites were gone. A flock of colorful knitted birds had taken their place, hopping around a tree Maggie had fashioned out of cardboard, complete with paper leaves.", I remembered a pin that intrigued me on Pinterest:

Source: Pinterest and UsefulDYI

 

There is even a how-to - and that seems like and amazing way of using the small ends and pieces of yarn you have left after finishing knitting a project - and fitting for a window display in a yarn shop. It could be just one of those things that Phoebe could find on the internet or something that Maggie could include in one of her fiber classes, where knitting mums could attend a course while their kids could be occupied with a project like this.

Wonderful, when you read a book about creative people, that your minds wander of to projects and thoughts that could be fun :o)

Pacific Rim

"Godzilla meets Transformers" used quite a lot locally when newspapers have revieved the movie "Pacific Rim" - and very good reviews. Well Godzilla (Japanese: Gojira) is Kaijus that has risen from the Pacific Ocean and are striking against the contries at the Pacific Rim - and Transformers are actually Jaeger (the German word for hunter) robots, that are operated by at least two humans, who are synchronized/connected in neural bridges.

 

What makes the movie extra special (in my opinion) is that it is directed by the Guillermo del Toro ("The Orphanage" and "Pan's Labyrinth") thus adding some of the humour we saw in "Hellboy", while good inspiration from the movies mentioned by the newspaper reviewers also flows in this movie.

 

Honestely, I did not quite know what to expects when going into the cinema darkness but came out with the good feeling of excellent entertainment

A Little Late....

Some say "Better late than never".... I hope this is the case, as privately my mind still seems to be in July, where at work the calendar is adjusted. Maybe it is due to the weather lately: when you get outside it is just warmer than we are used to, and then the humidity plus no wind at all .... work place is better due to the cooling system.

 

Whipped up this card in an hour using paper from Mat Stacks (by DieCuts with a View), stamp I drew a year or so back, a Chinese font (computer) and washi tape.... on a roll today as actually 5 cards are almost finished - all with individual themes. Feels good to be crafting.

 

Entering it into the following challenges:

Crafty Calender Challenge - Anything Goes

One Stop Craft Challege - Keep It Simple