passing time

on hot summer days when we're not at the pool or the beach.

making superhero masks. modeling clay birds. enjoying the last glass of elderflower drink and making pizza for dinner. creating dragons for the dungeons. drawing robots.

that elderflower drink was good. my amazing mother had brought flowers from her garden and made a bottle of the best summer drink ever. sweet taste of denmark mixed with lemons from our garden.

just a year ago my boys pretty much never felt like drawing. or anything else that involved sitting down at a table. today they all love drawing and creating. i guess everything comes in it's own time and we just need to be patient and stop worrying.

wishing you a wonderful weekend.

a look on the inside

a couple of weeks back we had an afternoon snack session in the garden. with some books.

for a few years the overall book of choice, the book that the kids have returned to over and over again, has been an animal encyclopedia. it is literally falling apart. the front and back covers are long gone and the pages have been taped and reattached several times. It’s been going along to the kindergarten, the beach, on plane rides and on car trips.

lately other fact books have turned into favorites. such as a book about the human body. things like how we detect smells, the layers of skin, how the muscles are build, how the lungs work, the heart pumps, and the fact that there's a spiraling "snail" inside the ear. i tell you, this is gold to know, read and talk about.

all this stuff on the inside is so fascinating (yes, it is!) that it has to be reexamined through drawings. of muscles, blood veins, the heart, the brain, eye balls, you name it. oh, and of course - and as as you might have noticed already - a stomach full of bowels and food inside those bowels (proudly displayed by daniel in the second photo in case you wondered).

bonus info: that black spot in the lower left corner of the stomach is a schnitzel bite.

on a rainy day

it's raining heavy today. a perfect day to sit indoor catching dreams and pulling strings. instead i'm going to work. which is ok too. i like to go to tel aviv.

rain or shine - i hope you're doing something you like too.

4 days for 40 years

november came and she brought colder weather and last week even rain and thunder. now the un is out again, but the season has changed. the nights are cold, the air dry and crisp. we even pulled out the heavy winter duvets.

the other day i picked the kids from kindergarten in heavy rain and we walked home. i was without a car, so it wasn't out of choice, but i decided to make it fun and so i didn't even try to make it home with dry kids. we walked through the dirt roads, all muddy and full of puddles. i don't think we missed one as they jumped (and fell) into every single one. when we came back we were all soaking wet, but laughing. and we were treated with hot cocoa and pancakes by my mother who is visiting.

the desktop up there is the october treat from geninne. and of course november is ready now, beautiful as always. i have it already. november is my month, the month i was born.

today my dad will arrive and tomorrow i'm off with the husband, leaving the kids behind to be terribly spoiled by their grandparents.

we'll leave for 4 days and i'll turn 40 in paris. 

happy easter - hag pesach sameach

wishing you all a very happy easter and pesach.

we're enjoying the time off, at home, in the garden, with friends, family and each other.


xo

neve tsedek :: yaffo

the day my friend left we went to neve tsedek for brunch. that's me right up there. i'm all over the place with portraits of moi these days, but this one i really liked. my friend took it and i love that you see her reflected in the glasses. and i love the sunflares and how the direct sunlight makes everything on the left side all soft. and it was a good meal too :)

then we strolled to yaffo for the fleamarket before i took her to the airport. in yaffo i found some really cheap type setter trays, and so i bought one as a birthday gift and another for myself. i found them in a shop with old wooden stuff all over the place. pretty much my idea of heaven.



and then there was this other shop. new stuff, made of discarded industrial wood. awesome stuff. like this plate shelf. the plates was instant love too. the texts are in hebrew and says "with love", "feel at home", bon appetit" etc.

it's still summer around here. but the nights are getting quite cold, so i've been digging for the woolen stuff. finally.

wishing you a beautiful first advent and a wonderful week.

a succah in the garden

we never build a succah before for succot. actually we tried last year, but it crashed four seconds after we had finished it, so it doesn't really count. but this year we were better prepared. we haven't exacty been eating out there, though. it's crazy hot here, much warmer than the usual end of september.

so we build a succah and i made some garlands with old paintings like i when i did these birthday buntings.  i was trying to get the kids in on this too, but they were in this "couldn't care less about decorating the succah" mood. so i ended up doing it myself. anyone ever tried that? to prepare for a perfect kid creativity moment just to find oneself pretty alone doing it. next year, i guess.

anyway, we're off to the beach to bbq with friends and cool down, even if the water is really hot too (the water really is 30 degrees celcius, francesca, and because you asked, i can tell you that i know this, not because i am carrying around a thermometer, but because it's a part of the weather report in the summer. the water temperature :).

ps: those hearts are actually from our christmas decoration stash. thought hearts were pretty universal symbols and could work in a succah as well. thumbs up for mixing up traditions and culture :)

drawing feathers

back to the feathers, now on stones too. there's something very calming and peaceful about drawing feathers. and there's something fascinating and magic about feathers themselves.

the boys know i like feathers. whenever they find one they give it to me, like a flower. so i have quite a collection going on here in denmark by now. will have to set them free soon.

we're going to tivoli now. i equally look forward to it and dread it. but hey, we're in copenhagen, my kiddos are half danish, and we cannot put it off any longer, so here we go. and hey, i can always go home and draw a few feathers afterward to restore the inner peace.

just like magic

thank you so much for all your thoughts and wishes for light and ease. it always amazes me how much kindness and sympathy there is in this blog world. and even magic. see, right at this time i got a package from jane of spain daily. isn't that just the sweetest coincidence?

jane once wrote about a visit to bilbao. and i mentioned that i would love to go there, see the guggenheim one day. i wrote a paper on this museum, the architecture, the art, the placement back in the days of university of copenhagen. but i never saw it live.

so, she sent me these spectacular photos from another visit to guggenheim bilbao. with a note that she had thought about me while there. seriously. how awesome and sweet is that? it's almost as good as being there myself. or maybe not, but it made me feel good. i had to break open a cold beer yesterday and make a cheer for the awesomeness of blogging and jane and you. cheers.

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and about my blues. i'm better. taking your advice, treating myself easy and nicely. it's ok. it's part of life, the way i work.

i think, i will take the kids to the beach today. it's so so hot here. i cannot stand the way the air condition makes me feel all closed up, unable to hear the world outside. so instead i break a sweat. or rather i broke it days ago and didn't stop since. good thing about it is that it gives an excellent excuse to end the day with an ice cold beer. i might have to do that again tonight. but first, the beach. to see the horizon and listen to waves.

corner view - noticing

reds and blues - naked children - summer fun.

notice more via jane of spain daily

now

this friday's word is "now". i wanted to participate, but the time to come up with something never seemed to appear (i told you, it's an intense time right now in this house).

this morning i kept on thinking about it, and it bothered me that i cannot find the time to be creative. how important it is to take the time, or as aimee of artsyville so wisely says: make time for your art. now, and not later. and so i decided to participate.

i wanted to draw something that related to this idea about taking the time right now. i am not sure i succeeded in that. i was in a hurry. but that doesn't matter, because something much better happened: i drew something out of my style, something new to me, because i had to do it right now, without much thought.

so, this is my advice: what ever it is you want to do, do it now. you might not have the time, but then do it the best you can, do it in another way than you originally thought it should have been done. be creative. you might like it.

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the word was chosen by hanna of hanna-happening. and thank you for that, hanna. it pulled me back in and on to something new. for more "now", hanna leads the way.

now i am on to something else - and remember now - have a wonderful weekend :)

on the wall

i changed the wall in the living room. moved the boards and put up framed art work. including some of my own things (which i am not really sure i am completely comfortable with for some reason).

i love to see what people choose to display on their walls. it says a lot about them, shows who they are. what do you think people see, when they look at your walls?

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many of you liked the quote i used in yesterday's post. it is from a speech by haruki murakami that he gave when he received the jerusalem prize in literature this last fall. i linked to the entire speech via sarapirat and her adventures, but later i realized, that it wasn't really clear, that there is so much more where it came from. you can also read it here. it is a beautiful and inspiring speech.

corner view - spring

spring - it's pretty, fresh, young, blooming, energetic, sweet and full of promise. it's rain and sun on a blue, blue sky, it's cold breezes and warm spots in the sun. it's short sleeves and woolen shawls, rubber boots and bare feet in mud puddles, it's empty branches with dots of illuminating greens and pretty pink, purple, white pastels. full of cliches and so darn irresistible.

and right here and now, spring is a serious cleaning just finished, a house sparkling clean and filled with good times, a friend visiting, a husband who passed his deadlines, it's pesach vacation, sunny days, bbqs and children running bare feet in the garden. indeed spring has sprung.

more spring time via the gorgeous jane of spain daily - enjoy!

right now. and looking forward

:: little succulents and vintage bed sheets

:: a drawing/collage i forgot about (and now like much better)

:: my granny square blanket project - moving steadily (though not so fast) ahead, with new colors being added now and then

:: that this little plant i have in my living room (which i always forget the name of), a plant that i never before managed to keep alive, is growing so fast and furious - and now it is even blooming, something i never saw before (it's almost ridiculous so proud that makes me feel :)

:: that our nana (mint) is growing crazy this spring. last year they didn't do so well, so we moved the sad little stubs that were left after a burning hot summer to a new spot. and they are just all over the place now.

:: looking happily forward to this wednesday where my friend and her youngest son will come visit us. yay! i need to tell her to bring rum for those mojitos.

hope you're looking forward to something good too :)

good stuff

drift wood creature - work in progress - old wooden box - new floral print pillows - eggs in many different colors and sizes. and then the temperature dropped, the heat wave broke. which actually feels good.

what's your good stuff today?

a sense of something far eastern

i had a yoga class this friday morning. when it was done i went home and had sushi for brunch, because D had brought me the best sushi (from miyako in tlv) when he returned home in the wee hours of the morning. he's working late these days. i suspect i will be an (almost) single mom until pesach. important deadlines.

anyway, i had sushi and after that an amazing homemade chai based on this recipe. i used a bit more spices than listed. i don't recommend spicing it up unless you like it sweet like i do.

then i drew a little feather i found on the way home, and i had to decide which of my four japanese masking tapes i wanted to use to place the real feather in my sketch book. you know, important decisions deserves absolute devotion, so i took the necessary time. sometimes it's ok, even good, to just focus on the - seemingly - irrelevant things, right?

i am currently in the middle section of elizabeth gilbert's eat, pray, love. this part is set in an ashram in india. i have been carrying a lot of thoughts around from that book, and since the landscape around me is full of trees dressed in pastel color blossoms, i sensed an eastern theme to this day. not bad at all...

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my dad is leaving in a couple of days. i will need to practice some breathing, so i can stay zen-like cool and calm in the coming kind-of-single parent weeks. om and out from here - wishing you a calm and sensible week.

forgetting. and to get it

i forgot about jane's corner view today. or i didn't really forget, but i just didn't notice that it was already wednesday. so, no miniature world from me, not now at least. and since we're talking about forgetting days and blog posts: i forgot to make a special thing out of my post number 100. i can live with that. then i forgot to mark post number 200 as well (which i had planned to do, since i forgot the 100th). and then - can you believe it - i completely forgot that my blog had it's first birthday. a week ago. and i forgot! what a neglecting blog owner i am. i must pull myself together, or next thing you know, someone will come and take it away from me.

so, a belated happy birthday, you sweet blog of mine. and to anyone reading it: i am so so happy to have you here. the friendships and kindness i have met in blog world have been so overwhelming and has been such a sweet addition to my life. thank you.

another thing, i saw this beautiful crochet on flickr by the talented ulrika (really, go check her flickr or her blog and get all blown away by her exquisite photos, always amazing colors and beautiful atmosphere). these granny squares with the round center looked so good, so i decided to give it a try. and can you believe it, i managed to make one in my first try, just from looking at the photo. i know, any pro crochet person out there might not find this a big deal, but to me it was like "yay, i totally get this crochet thing!"

now i'm off to bed. i have decided i will dream about a beautiful miniature world, with tiny elfs, mushroom houses and soft, white feathers for beds. sweet dreams.

corner view - coffee companion

my mom has been my favorite coffee companion for the last three weeks. she left yesterday. *sigh*. it's that thing with family and good old friends: you can have coffee, be together and the silence between the talk feels good. even if it lasts for a long while.

those last few days she was here, and i finally got the hang of the granny square crochet project, we would sit together, talk a bit, but also just sit the two of us with our crochet work, sometimes making a break for a cup if coffee, prepared and served by my dad. what a luxury of good coffee company.

she left this beautiful pillow behind for me to look at and admire. i love those granny squares, but i am also really thrilled about that perfect white back of the pillow. so simple and pretty.

i obviously also like to go out and have coffee. in fact, it feels like ages since i went to tel aviv and had a coffee date with a friend. you know, one of those coffee dates that involves a lot of talking, walking around the town, a bit of shopping, some nice food, and - of course - a cup of coffee.

anyway, i think i need my morning coffee now with my dad, my coffee companion these days. and if you're looking for company, then let jane of spain daily introduce you to coffee companions around the world.