Edging towards Easter

Edging towards Easter

As we are edging closer to Easter, I can happily report that I have knitted half an Easter egg, cross-stitched a tenth of a Danish Easter pattern and more significantly, will be published twice this month!! How exciting is that?!

First up was today's two-page spread in good reading magazine. Jane and I attended An Evening with Armistead Maupin, and luckily Rowena the Editor was open to my idea of sending her a story about the night in question. Not only did Jane and I enjoy a wine and some nibbles at the Opera House before the event, I was excited to meet one of my favourite authors and be given the opportunity to write about it! Over 1,000 people attended and we all enjoyed devouring every word he read (from his latest book) and said. What a great author! It turns out that he writes very slowly and carefully, which came as a surprise to me. I wish him all the best in the next Tales of City instalment, which he promises will let us know whatever happened to Mary-Anne ex hubby, Brian ...

Secondly, the lovely Ellie of Extra Curricular asked me to interview another artist for Issue - Belinda Kennedy, a Melbourne based ceramic artist. The article is being printed as I type and I can’t wait to see it! The lovely Susie Stubbs of flower press who I interviewed for Issue 4 will also feature again, showing a tea towel design.

Belinda is a very talented 30 year-old who not only creates ceramic installations, functional ware and unique individual pieces, she is a qualified sustainable gardener, loves to dance and is a confident poet. She was very inspiring to talk to and I enjoyed writing the article – thank you Ellie!

Last but not least is the Country Style “South” writing comp (copy of page above) which is due at the end of this month (eek, that is only a few days now!) ... I am VERY tempted to participate but am not sure I will make the deadline ... the germ of my idea is still small, and does not seem to have enough arms and legs to make a run for the finish line! I'll let you know how I go.

On another note and in the meantime, I am being (helpfully) tortured by a local Chinese acupuncturist in his attempt to improve the blood flow in my liver so it can better process the hormones that upset my body every month! Imagine someone taking red hot pokers and sticking them in your boobs repeatedly for almost a week every month - aka cyclical mastalgia - versus being stabbed by sharp needles and being 'bled' for over an hour a week to massively reduce the sore boob issue. A tough decision, but the needles and cupping are better than the sore boobs at this stage! It made a huge difference last month, though I must admit I do dread every torture session ...

Anyway, that is all for now!

IL

Valentine, be mine

Happy Valentine's Day!

Rather than reminisce about this momentous occasion (for some), I thought I would share with you some of the persistent thoughts that enjoy swimming around my head ...

OK, here goes.

I want to write and enter my first ever writing comp! The deadline is at the end of March, and it needs to include the motif South (Country Style, Jan issue, for those of you who are interested in following suit). I know that I LOVE writing. The challenge is coming up with a great idea which can be brought to life - using South - in no more than 1,500 words. I'll keep you posted ... I don't have the confidence to share my ideas online, yet!

I've been asked by the lovely Ellie at Extra Curricular to contribute another interview - this time with Belinda Kennedy who is a ceramic artist based in Melbourne - and I am really looking forward to having a chat with her and writing something up for the next issue! This will be my second contribution, which makes me very happy and proud! The first was my interview of Susie Stubbs of flowerpress - a process I really enjoyed! Not only was Susie a really nice person, she is a really talented graphic designer! Let me know if you want me to email you a copy of that interview (a little test to see if you are reading this blog post!).

The other desire I have is to write a book - I remember telling you about the cheeky Danish rabbits tottering up and down the hills, and the idea for a childrens' book; but this latest idea is a little different. A bit more serious. Potentially heart wrenching, without being too heart breaking. I hope. I have recently read quite a few books partly, or entirely, influenced by people's experience of war - Amandine, The Kite Runner, City of Thieves (David Benioff), The Botticelli Secret, my list goes on, and on, and on. It got me thinking about the war diary my mother's father kept when he was a Prisoner of War (POW) during WWII. He wrote a daily entry for his wife - my grandmother - every day, from May 1942 until May 1943. In Dutch, it's fully vetted by the Nazis, so it's not overly revealing. However, it certainly gives a realistic  sense of what he and his fellow inmates endured, how he coped, what preoccupied him ... and so I asked my mother for permission to copy and read the diary … and use it as a source for my first novel. Luckily she said yes, and so I have begun. Slowly. I have scanned and printed hundreds of small, very thin, pages and look forward to reading the whole lot! I have read a few snippets already and it is definitely going to be a great inspiration. I’ve found out the names of the Stalags (camps) he was imprisoned in - Nuremberg, Bavaria and Stanislaw, Poland. I know which barrack he slept in, what he ate, what his overriding thoughts were, day in, day out. Part of me wants to rush ahead and read every page thirstily, the other part wants to take my time, and let it slowly wash over me, trying to imagine what it must have been like to be completely dominated, fearful, brave, hopeful ...

The other thing pre-occupying me is my proofreading course, which I started over five years ago. "Remote learning". Easy peasy. Not. Should I ask for another year's extension? Which reminds me, that the next issue of Dumbo feather is due to be proof-read in the middle of Feb, which is about now. I should send the new Editor another email and find out what his deadlines are!

So. Last, but not least, blogging (and lack thereof) has also been keeping me awake too. I am so slack! I love it so much, yet I resist the urge to blog with futile activities - like doing the washing up, cleaning, reading, work, faffing about. As I near 40 (I'll write another blog post about this milestone), I really should be spending more time doing all those things that make me happy. Blogging is certainly one of them, hence this post! I hope you enjoyed it.

Thanks to the Ashbrook Estate red from the Margaret River for accompanying me back into blog land. A nice sip every now and then certainly doesn't hurt anyone!

To those of you who read this, thank you. To the inventor of the blogosphere, thank you.

Adieu, good night, sweet dreams, Happy V Day, and until soon!

Ike

x

Large Lego on the Loose

Continuing the spirit of all things Danish, Elliott, Jane, the kids and I all enjoyed a visit to Sydney Aquarium this morning to visit the underwater beasties as well as larger than life LEGO ® models – “Australia’s largest collection of super-sized LEGO creations”. They will be on display until the end of May and I highly recommend that you go and see them, as they really enhance the whole Sydney Aquarium experience. I was quite awed, actually!

Kids under four are admitted for free (great for Sam and Lucy) and Zack and Max (fee payers) each received “your World Exclusive LEGO minifigure”, though these were not well advertised and I had to ask, nicely. Twice.

When I did some website homework last night before today’s adventure, I read about how the LEGO artworks have been painstakingly designed and assembled by the LEGO Master Model Builders (wish I had thought of that as a profession when I was growing up, how fab is that!) from the US.

At Sydney Aquarium, I read that we could check out "huge scale myths and legends of the sea" – including Moby Dick, Neptune, a pirate, mermaid, killer whale tail and more. Today, the first model we found (we walked straight past Neptune without even noticing him, so it was good to spot him on the way out as well!) was near the wriggly turtles, and was a pirate at a ship's wheel. He had a cute face and was brilliantly built, as you can see here.

LEGO Pirate at sea

Then, as we walked through the shark display I looked up to notice a massive great white shark, built to scale, in LEGO! It was amazing! Hanging from the ceiling, no less. They showed a video of it being made, with the Master Builder talking about how many pieces were used, its weight, etc.

Great White Shark LEGO

And on the wall below, was a vast mural made of 331,776 pieces of LEGO. You know how the top of a LEGO piece it has a little ® trademarks on it? Well, the mural’s façade was made of the tops of lots and lots of LEGO pieces in every colour imaginable and the more you stood back, the more you could see the large scene they all made together. This first one showed LEGO pirates on boats, fighting, on vast seas. So, so clever.

Mermaid above the Dugong aquarium

LEGO man with penguin, located next to the penguins

Moby Dick, a huge gleaming white beast

Mural behind the sperm whale Moby Dick, showing Captain Ahab about to seek revenge for the loss of his leg, bitten off by Moby Dick in a previous encounter**

Scuba diving LEGO

Neptune

Apparently, there are more LEGO statues and animals to be seen at Sydney Wildlife World, but after temporarily losing Sam for a few minutes today, I think I will give those a miss!

PS:  **  Wikipedia search results on Captain Ahab and Moby Dick: 
Ahab hurls his last harpoon while yelling his now-famous revenge line:

... to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee.

The harpoon becomes lodged in Moby Dick's flesh and Ahab, caught around the neck by a loop in his own harpoon's rope and unable to free himself, is dragged into the cold oblivion of the sea with the injured whale. The mechanics of Ahab's death are richly symbolic. He is literally killed by his own harpoon, and symbolically killed by his own obsession with revenge. The whale eventually destroys the whaleboats and crew, and sinks the Pequod.

Some story! On that note, I'm off to bed with Water for Elephants by Sara Groen, which I am really enjoying!

Long live LEGO!

Hop along!



Large Overall Rabbit, Girl, depicted on Maileg website



'Hop along!' is something I will always associate with Mor Far - Antonia's maternal grandfather, may he rest in peace - who used to say this to us regularly on our visits to Virum and Rorvig in Denmark, where I have been lucky enough to visit on many occasions throughout my life! In fact, I now use it with my boys all the time! Thought it also made an apt title for this little blog post, which will be about Danish rabbits, amongst other things. I'm also including lots of pics, as I love reading other people's blogs which contain lots of photos! I hope you like them too!

source:  http://www.maileg.dk/category/rabbits

"These rabbits live in a wonderful lair behind a tiny hill-top. There are sisters and brothers, nephews, cousins and a whole family. Every morning they wake up the sun, before it rises, and in the evening they eat star-sprinkles with warm milk using a silver spoon." - 

Wow, how good does that sound? Potentially a great inspiration for anyone – maybe even me, one day – who wants to write a story inspired by this paragraph. I found the paragraph on eBay item descriptions earlier today, as well as on Maileg’s own website, describing its 100% cotton rabbit toys, which I happen to love! Tiny hill-top in Danish is "lillebitte bakketop". Ha ha, what a great language!

The rabbit at the top of this post is called Overall Girl. She is probably one of the cousins, keeping in mind that the whole collection is called "Brothers and Sisters".

Yes, more about Danish design … what can I say? And it’s not just rabbits, either, but little people, Christmas Pixies, mice which live in match boxes and more – heaven!

Back to that first para:  Can you imagine? The rabbits would have to have their own names, unique personalities and most importantly, a way of living together to capture kids’ (and our) imaginations. I may well write about these little treasures, so keep your eyes peeled. And yes, that first liner will have to be all important, according to Alexander McCall Smith, remember?!

Now, a little more about Maileg, “a Danish lifestyle design company”. Established in 1999 by Dorthe and Erik Mailil, the collection has a unique – and extremely well made - authentic look and touch created by Dorthe, a trained graphic designer. She is known for emphasising seasons into her work, especially Christmas and Easter, both traditions I like to observe with unique decorations around the house. The name Maileg does not seem to mean anything, unless it is a combination of the first three letters of their surname - Mai - and the Danish word for game - leg. Who knows?



Christmas Pixies, depicted on Maileg website

I love all the Christmas Pixies, shown here, which you can actually buy in Sydney at sole distributors Nordic Fusion, located in Mosman and Manly. I asked Mum to go to the Mosman shop for me the other day, when she mentioned that she was going to Mosman anyway, with hopeful instructions to reap some Christmas sale treasures for me, especially those lovely Christmas Pixies! Thanks Mum! I can't wait to meet them all, which I know will include some of the above little poppets.

Antonia actually sent me my first Maileg toy a few years ago, and I have been in love with her ever since. Isn’t she pretty? She has pale pink blush on her cheeks and is wearing a little elasticated red cotton skirt, to keep her modesty intact. She's been sitting alongside a range of other Danish treasures in our living room. I will post about my other Christmas decorations soon, as part of saluting them on their way back into storages boxes until Christmas 2011!

 Christmas Pixie sent to me from Antonia, about four years ago

Quality is key to all things Maileg. Each toy is designed in Denmark, made of 100% cotton (not sure if they are made in DK, will check - just did: My Pixie's bum reveals that she was made in China. Hmm.) and popular all over the world. I could not resist today when I was browsing a UK website, found after googling Maileg:  http://www.bijoulifestyle.co.uk/. They sell a whole collection of Maileg goodies, some of which were begging (me) to move to our wonderful shores ... Here, I'll introduce you to some who are hopefully on their way soon!

Magnetic climbing Christmas Pixies, bought from Bijou Lifestyle, UK.
They will be making a proud (and cheeky) appearance this Christmas!

Cute as a button, a little mouse, who lives in his own match box.
He may well be welcoming visitors throughout the year and was also found at Bijou Lifestyle!

This gorgeous clown, who I will have sitting on my desk to remind me to have more fun!
He is also joining his friends from Bijou Lifestyle, UK.

OK, hop along now. It's almost time for bed! Hop, hop!

x

Running into 2011

Happy New Year!

I have just spent two hours sorting through cross-stitch, embroidery, knitting and other craft paraphernalia - and have culled a little, filed a lot and am feeling confident that I am all set to start a lovely Easter project! Yippee! Or, to be more exact, finish an Easter project that I barely started about ten years ago. Better late than never ... Can you tell that I am in New Year Resolution mode?

Anyway - it's a pattern that I bought in the Eva Rosentand shop in Copenhagen about 15 years ago, when I was there with Eva and Antonia (I love you guys). The pattern is for a "loper" [in Dutch] – you know, the long table-cloth strip you hardly ever use to decorate the table for special occasions. The English word is "runner", which sounds more energetic than the Dutch loper, which means walker! 

The design isn’t the Eva Rosenstand one shown here, but it gives you a bit of an idea ... Mine is more simple and less old-fashioned. It has a little yellow chick, a bright red Easter egg, a tulip and three tall yellow daffodils. I think the design is by Clara Wæver; it is numbered CW 2-3778.  I was reading about her on the Eva Rosentand website, and she was a pretty inspirational woman. She had a “great talent” for embroidery, worked in an embroidery shop and taught women the various techniques.  Later, with her sister Augusta, Clara then opened her own shop when she was 40 - in 1890. This gives me GREAT hope, as I turn 40 this year! The sisters sold embroidery materials and produced patterns. They also taught young women how to embroider in the old Danish 'white embroideries' style, as well as training brides in decorative techniques for their "marriage portion".  Hmmm, makes you wonder how times have changed, and what makes up a marriage portion? Must be like a dowry?

Anyway - Clara apparently always looked for new designs and was known for buying original drawings by several Danish artists for inspiration. Almost 20 years later, in 1917, the sisters handed over their shop to N.C.Dyrlund, who continued their tradition. In 1930, when she was 75, Clara Wæver died. There is a lot more to the shop's history, with the Danish company Carl J. Permin A/S - Permin of Copenhagen - taking over the Eva Rosenstand / Clara Wæver shop in 2003, which ensured that the company remains in Danish hands.

Anyway – it seems that my modest little pattern must be at least 85 years old! I can't get the printer to scan my little pattern, sorry, and I can't find it online, so you will have to wait to see the final pic of my finished work! Let's hope I get to finish it this time!

Also some other exciting news:  some Mums and I are setting up a monthly Stitching session, so I can make sure to spend at least several hours on it every month!

In the meantime, I will post a pic of the actual pattern (which is the size of a postage stamp) as soon as I can scan it - where is a computer tech when I need one?!

Happy New Year again, let's make sure we are all feeding our souls!

Ike
xxx

A proud first liner

Sorry it has been so long!

I keep on meaning to blog, and I keep on being taken over by work, calls, doing the washing or the washing up, cleaning, the boys' activities, etc. The list goes on. Anyway, when I had the chance to read some of the paper last weekend, I was delighted to come across someone's (sorry, can't remember who - Maggie Alderson, I think!) list of favourite books.

You know how I love a good first line of a book. Well, you would know if you have been reading this blog! Anyway, Maggie (or whoever it was, sorry, I did not tear that bit off because at the time I thought I would remember!) listed Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen as one of the books that she most enjoyed. And here's why:

"I'd heard of this book, which I picked up one dull Sunday afternoon in the playroom of my family home when I was about 11, but didn't really know what it was about. That legendary first sentence fizzed in my brain like a soluble aspirin in water and as the meaning of it became clear, I realised that this was a grown-up book that I could read and understand and enjoy. Finishing it - and adoring it - gave me the confidence to embark on a great adventure of devouring classics."

I have read this book too - many years ago, and needless to say am about to rush off to the book case (which I meant to do last week when I tore this section out of the newspaper) to find that opening liner! Hang on a sec, while I go and find it!

Would you believe it? I have Mansfield Park and Sense and Sensibility, but not Pride and Prejudice!! Incredible. I will buy a copy tomorrow if I get the chance ... in the meantime, thanks to the WWW I have tracked down the opening few paras for us to enjoy!
Dreaming on, as ever,

Ike
x

Chapter One – Pride and Prejudice

Source:  http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/ppv1n01.html

IT is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.

However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.

“My dear Mr. Bennet,” said his lady to him one day, “have you heard that Netherfield Park is let at last?”

Mr. Bennet replied that he had not.

“But it is,” returned she; “for Mrs. Long has just been here, and she told me all about it.”

Mr. Bennet made no answer.

“Do not you want to know who has taken it?” cried his wife impatiently.

“You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it.”

This was invitation enough.

“Why, my dear, you must know, Mrs. Long says that Netherfield is taken by a young man of large fortune from the north of England; that he came down on Monday in a chaise and four to see the place, and was so much delighted with it that he agreed with Mr. Morris immediately; that he is to take possession before Michaelmas, and some of his servants are to be in the house by the end of next week.”

“What is his name?”

“Bingley.”

“Is he married or single?”

“Oh! Single, my dear, to be sure! A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a

year. What a fine thing for our girls!”

“How so? How can it affect them?”

“My dear Mr. Bennet,” replied his wife, “how can you be so tiresome! You must know that I am thinking of his marrying one of them.”

I only hope that times have changed, and people marry for love!

Sweet teas

It has been a while, and I have been gagging to share lots of bits (with all seven of you, ha, ha), so thought I would start with a recent discovery I made!

Thanks to a great blog called The Design Files, I have been enjoying some brilliant insights and sneak peeks into Australian-based artists and their homes. The most recent profile was a tour of illustrator Paula Mills’ Melbourne home. This very talented artist manages to juggle motherhood - three young daughters - wifedom and creativity with writing and creating for two blogs and managing online sales of her wonderful work. Not to mention creating a cosy, lovely home for her family.

Needless to say, reading through the blog post on Paula Mills, I was innocently led astray to her ‘illustration’ blog - which made me greedy for more, so I visited her online Etsy shop. Sigh. Heaven, as Gus would say! I had to click on every item in her online shop to take a better look. What can I say … Paula Mills is one gifted woman!

Together with her Wellington-based sister (Shelley Gardner), these creative sisters “love to make, draw, sew and collect lots of lovely, sweet things”. Join the club! I wish I had even half the talent they do!

Paula’s Sweet William blog, which she co-writes with Shelley, is really lovely as well (and half of the title of my blog post today is named after it). It can be found here. Personally, my favourite is the first blog, which showcases her designs and sweet descriptions of how she was inspired for each.

ANYWAY, like I said I also ended up taking a look at Paula’s online Etsy shop, which inevitably made me think that, possibly, maybe, she might make a great illustrator for my (as yet unwritten) children’s book?! I have been keeping a look out for potential collaborators to help make my dream of writing a book for every year that the boys are at school a reality. Mostly talking about their adventures, ups and downs. When it mentioned on Paula’s website that she is open to commissions, I got just a tad excited and a bit more focused on my idea of writing something dedicated to our little men. So, watch this space!  Please note: you may be watching for a while!

  

To sum up: I just love Paula's work. Here, take a look at a really small sample. 

Tea 1

A digital print of an original pen and ink drawing Paula made of one of the many tea cups she likes collect. The drawing was scanned and digitally enhanced, printed using high quality archival inks on Epson A4 matte heavyweight - bright white card (signed and numbered). Measures 6 x 8 inches.

Tea 2

On Etsy, Paula talks about how she loves pattern. Her small collection of delicate tea cups in blue willow is one of her favorites and featured here. She loves the intricate drawings and the simple rich colour they depict. So do I! Again, available as digital print of an original pen and ink drawing which was then collaged, scanned and digitally enhanced by Paula. 7 x 7 inches in size.

Tea 3

Another digital print of an original pen and ink drawing Paula made of one of her many tea cups. “This could make up a set of three tea cups”. No kidding. Come on over and see mine when they arrive in a few days’ time! He he ...

Camille sailing

“This is Camille - a very special girl who has the power to do many things - she is able to climb any mountain, fly with angels and dance with the wind, wouldn't you like to sail away with her in her little teacup and explore the seas?”.

Wow. Maybe she could co-write my children’s book?!  Like the other three tea designs, this is a digital print of an original pen and ink drawing done my Paula. I managed to resist buying Camille. Too many to choose from!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy these as much as I hope to, for a long time to come!

Shower and bed are calling. Sweet dreams.

IL

x