Growing old and fitting in

Tags

Crochet, Fitting in, Friends, Growing old

Last semester, the autumn of 2011, was quite relaxing. I had a lot of time on my hands, but I had a bunch of projects I had been postponing and that I then had time to get on with. After having Son I have been introduced to more and more people who knit. They’re mostly my age and have knitted for years already. The produce one gorgeous creation after the other, and their kids are dressed in the most adorable home-knitted clothes you can imagine. Whenever a friend has kids they’re there with the cutest little outfit, unique, with good colour combinations, and the perfect gift for a newborn world citizen. I can’t knit to save my life…

I had to do something though. Hour after hour I listened to them discuss the quality of different yarns, the recipes, and how to treat the finished garments. I turned to youtube. Then I found a book. I bought a needle. I bought a roll of yarn. And I taught myself how to crochet. It was quite easy. In only a short while I produced a hat for myself, one for son, another hat for myself (I scrapped the first – it was hideous), a set of handwarmers for myself, and a more complex set for my mom. But by then I had grown tired of it.

At least now I can, if I want to. And, while sitting in Aberdeen waiting for our flight home, I taught two of the world’s most wonderful ladies how to crochet as well. That way, when we’re approaching eighty and are sitting shaking together somewhere, we can shake while holding each our crochet needle. That way it’ll look like we’re doing something. We’ve even tried already! Not being eighty, but shaking with crochets needles in our hands. Shaking with laughter of the surreality of the three of us sitting in a room full of people with our needles and yarn. A few metres ahead of us sat three ladies a little older than us, 2-3 times older than us probably, but at least, they were knitting…

For the love of books

Tags

Artist, Edinburgh Evening News, Library, Whodunit

I cringe when I see someone highlight something in a book, unless they’re doing it very gently with a soft pencil that can easily be erased afterwards. I like my yellow marker myself, but always copy before I highlight, so I never highlight in the book itself. If someone tears a paper from a book, part of me dies. If someone burns a book, well, that’s on them!

But, I have now come across a story in which someone do tear books apart. And, I believe this will be the only time I’ll ever say anything like this: The person makes these books unreadable but yet doesn’t ruin them. Now, you must think I’m out of my mind, but have a look at this:

Now, if you don’t like the artwork in itself, then let me tell you a wee bit more of the story. The artwork you see above was evidently left inside the Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh. A note said: “This is for you in support of libraries, books, words, ideas…”, but the artist was anonymous.

Then it happened again, in the National Library of Scotland. A note said: “A gift in support of libraries, books, words, ideas…(& against their exit)”, but the artist remained anonymous. Five more appeared and the story, of course, hit the news. And then the most magnificent thing happened:

Edinburgh Evening News claimed to have cracked the case and could reveal the artist. Except, they didn’t! Instead they took a poll and asked their readers if they wanted to know. The readers answered that they would prefer not to know, and rather let the artist keep his/her anonymity. Consequently the paper did not tell and the artist is still not known.

I’m blown away, just as much by the artworks as by the story. However, I only read this story here, after Stan here linked to it, so it might not be real at all. I don’t really care, it made me smile 🙂

Evening creativity

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Cards, Creativity, Scrapbooking

I was quiet for a few days. The reason I have been quiet is that I have been so loud. I have not been embarrassingly loud, but I have been talking a lot, and I have been very social. The need to blabber digitally has thus not been as strong. Everyday life has returned, while extraordinary life has also made a brief visit, hence the real life blabbering.

Now, for a wee warning. As everyday life now seems to be back on track I also have time for some spare time activities. Consequently there might be a bit of creative input on the blog. The creative input will simply be me sharing what I spend my evenings working on. You see, I scrap: scrapbooking, cardmaking and various papercrafting (a few questionable gerunds there, but hey, I’m not a native speaker, leave me alone :P). These function as a creative outlet for me, where I get to make something simply be tearing or cutting paper and gluing it back together. A wee bit creative, a wee bit easy, and something to make gifts a wee bit more special.

Earlier this week I gathered four lovely ladies around the kitchen table. I made a proper mess, talked a lot, found some inspiration and ended the night with two simple cards. A very successful evening.

Decorating for children

Tags

Art, Children's song

I came across one of those pink, Norwegian, interior design blogs, and saw someone who had payed quite a bit for a what seemed like very little work. It was a children’s song written black-on-white with a few words highlighted in a different colour. The song was then framed in what looked like just a simple IKEA frame.

I had a few frames lying about after we framed some of Son’s amazing art productions, see this post. I used one  about 20x30cm (about 7×11 inches), then spent a few minutes on the computer, and then had a result that I think looks kind of cute. It’s cheap, it’s personal and it looks good on the wall in Son’s room.

 

Procrastination claimed another victim

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Gifts, Procrastination, Yule

Ahrf, I have an intense sugar craving. All cakes and cookies have been thrown out and I simply have to go without. Writing a post will probably give me something else to think about, so here goes.

I have a few so-called pink blogs in my RSS feed. The blogs of perfect housewives who can decorate both interior and children in white or pastel colours and keep it that way. Women who never seem to do anything halfway, especially not when it comes to house and family and all things lovey-dovey and heartwarming. This is not meant as a critique, I do enjoy reading these blog, or at least looking at the beautiful photos posted. Every now and then I found myself trying to copy these blogs. There is a desperate little housewife in me (maybe there’s one in everyone) and sometimes I just have an urge to do something I would call extraordinary. Sometimes it will be to show someone my appreciation by making them something I have spent some time or, or to just use it as an outlet for my mild creative drive. If both can be combined, that’s of course perfect.

For yule now I wanted to match these pink women. In my head I had an image of a perfect yule tree with matching, perfect gifts underneath, all traditional looking and all that. Gifts for friends and family that were well thought through and as beautiful on the outside as on the inside, that would give the received that much talked about yule-feeling if they still hadn’t got it on the evening of yule. Unfortunately, my good intentions are combined with an ability to always procrastinate. I managed to finish all the gifts, but not all at the same time, and usually only a few minutes before someone came to take them somewhere else. So I never got that perfect picture. Our tree wasn’t even decorated before we came home after celebrating yule. So I guess I failed.

But I do have one picture of some of the gifts. So at least the gifts looked like I wanted them to when given to our friends and family members.