It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

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Well, it’s getting closer, anyway. So here we go:

Dear Santa,

2009 has been pretty good. The shrub is no longer the leader of the (western?) world and I’m pretty happy with the way the elections turned out over here as well. Still, we’re hardly living in an ideal world yet, so there are a few things you may consider putting some effort into in the run-up to Christmas (and if you have to make it next Christmas, don’t worry, I realise there aren’t that many shopping days left before this one). As for me, well, I think I’ve been pretty good. But I’ll work on doing better, too, don’t worry. Anyway, here are a few things that would make my eyes sparkle (and who doesn’t like sparkly eyes?) this Christmas:

1. Peace on earth.

2. Any or all of the gadgets I’m drooling over at the moment: A new laptop, a mini laptop (Eee or similar), a Kindle.

3. An Overlock. Like this one. Or one of the Husqvarna Huskylocks they have here.

4. Health and longevity for my nearest and dearest and for the following authors/artists (and any others I may have forgotten): Robin Hobb, J.K. Rowling, Stephen Fry, Jo Nesbø, Ole Paus, Bjørn Eidsvåg, Alanis Morisette, Michael Wiehe, Michael Parkinson, Håkon Gullvåg, Lillebjørn Nilsen, Neil Gaiman, Bill Bryson, India Knight, Kate Atkinson, Bob Dylan, Jasper Fforde and the Top Gear guys. 

5. Accessories for the MUM6.

6. Anything from Gaver med mening, Gaver som forandrer verden, Oxfam unwrapped (look, you can buy “me” schoolbooks!) and similar sites. 

7. Non-stop (though perhaps not quite as many as last year…).

8. Some energy and wherewithall to start the house-selling-buying-moving process.

9. The Sandman books

 And for the lass, who really has been good, not just pretty:

1. Jigsaw puzzles of 8 pieces and upwards (the sky’s the limit, she’ll grow into them eventually).

2. Good books (but check with us first, we have quite a few – understatement of the year).

3. DVDs: Disney, old children’s tv shows and newer ones like Tony Ross’ Little Princess, Postman Pat, Thomas the Tank Engine, Kipper and others of the same ilk (check what we already have).

4. Listen and read combination things – those books with the story on CD – if they still exist?

5. Doll’s clothes (pretty much any size doll) – hand made if you do that sort of thing.

 (For reference, previous years: 2002 2003 2005 2006  2007 2008)

Motivation

Mirthful 2 Comments

I’ve forgotten who linked this, now, bad form, I know, but it’s certainly worth watching: Dan Pink on the surprising science of motivation

I’ve heard about the sort of research on incentives that he quotes before, and so wasn’t surprised as such, but he has a greater level of detail on which scenarios play out which way which was new to me.

I’ve “always” known that financial motivators don’t work for me, but I kind of thought it was “just me”, or at least “it works for some people”. This research should be slapped (yes, literally if you like) in the face of every CEO who justifies the ridiculous salaries and bonuses, especially in financial corporations, with “it motivates people to do a good job”.

Uh uh. It doesn’t.

A note – spoilerish, so watch the video first: The candle problem… When he’d shown the first picture and started talking about the task I honestly thought “well, what’s so difficult about it? Just use the bl***y box.” Smugness ensues.

Mer reklame, denne gang politisk

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Denne plakaten hang på bussen “min” i går:

Elephants? Seriously, WTF?

Egentlig vil jeg bare ha en forklaring på elefantene, men siden jeg først gikk til bryet med å ta bilde av plakaten kan jeg jo like gjerne plukke fra hverandre resten også…

For det første kan man vel gå ut fra at Ola Borten Moe (heretter OBM) ikke bidrar med nevneverdige arbeidsplasser for grafiske designere eller profesjonelle reklamefolk. Eventuellt driver han veldedighet og hyrer in sådanne som ikke får jobb noe annet sted. Men det er nå en sak. OBM er ikke alene om å tro at bare fordi dagens datateknikk har gjort at man KAN lage sine egne plakater så BØR man gjøre det.

La oss snakke litt om billedvalget, sånn utenom elefantene, selvsagt. Jeg skulle gjerne visst hvorfor det ene er i svart/hvitt, men slår meg til ro med at designeren (jeg bruker ordet i dets løseste betydning) synes det så kult ut. Ellers er det vel normal Senterparti-nasjonalromatikk vi snakker om. Ikke ett av bildene hadde skiftet “stemning” nevneverdig om de avbildede menneskene hadde vært ikledd bunad. Legg også merke til den totale mangelen på mennesker med noe annet enn griserosa hud. Nå kan man jo forstå at “bondepartiet” liker griser, men jeg har da sett mange flotte griser med andre hudfarger også, og da snakker jeg altså om griser – sånne som sier nøff, nøff. Nordmenn finnes også med mange flotte hudfarger, men det passer kanskje ikke like bra inn i Tidemand og Gude?

Og så var det mottoet, da. “Gode liv – der du bor”. Sikkert godt ment, for all del, men burde det ikke være enten “Godt liv der du bor” (personlig) eller “Gode liv der dere (evt. folk) bor” (generelt velvillig)? “Gode liv – der du bor” gir meg inntrykket av at OBM vil at jeg og naboene mine skal ha det bra, noe som forsåvidt er hyggelig, men at det ikke er så nøye med resten av verden. Det er upraktisk på flere måter, blandt annet ser jeg for meg at det kan bli folksomt i nabolaget mitt dersom det bare er her man kan få seg ett godt liv.

En annen ting er at i følge bildene bor jeg visst i en eller annen blomstereng et sted, det er forsvinnende lite asfalt i OBMs verden. Ikke at jeg er så fryktelig fan av asfalt, men jeg bor nå engang i byen og selv om jeg av og til får lyst på “katt og kaniner og et småbruk på Høland” så går anfallet som regel over det øyeblikket jeg kommer på at vi er tom for skikkelig ost (nå kan man argumentere med at hvis jeg bodde på et småbruk så kunne jeg lage ost selv, men jeg er ikke så sikker). Er ikke dette feil bilder å reklamere med på bussene i Norges tredje største by?

Og hva er det egentlig med den nettadressen? Nudge.no? Hæ. Hvorfor? Nudge er, meg bekjent, ikek engang et norsk ord. Er det ikke norsk valgkamp?

Men egentlig var det altså disse elefantene. Hva? Eller som vår gode venn Bertie Wooster ville ha sagt: “What, what what, what, what?”

Er det et forsøk på å ta klimaendringene på alvor – snart får vi elefanter i Sør-Trøndelag? Synes OBM bare at elefanter er innmari ålreite dyr? Er det et nikk til the Republican Party (United States)? Er det en oppfordring til nytenking i landbruket: Hvis Senterpartiet får makten vil det bli store subsidier til elefantfarmer? Kan det overhodet finnes en logisk og gjennomtenkt forklaring?

The mind boggles.

Bundle of Love

Mirthful 1 Comment

Can you tell I’m doing catch-up?

Well, I have dug through my fabric stash and now I have this pile:

Bundle to be

And all I have to do is locate some thread and trimmings and the scissors I picked up at IKEA the other day (scissors are useful when sewing, right?), and perhaps I have some yarn, too? Anyway, it is then getting wrapped up and sent off to the Netherlands where it will enter the mysterious thing that is APO and hopefully, at last, end up being put to good use by an Iraqi woman (or man?). Stashbusting AND do-gooding all at once, can it get better?

Hurry, you just have time to join me! Go to the IBOL-blog for more info and to sign up.

Edited to say:

In case you’re wondering why I’m doing this, I guess you could call it paying forward. And I just found this piece written by the woolywoman via the IBOL blog:

Well, I hope somewhere in Iraq, someday, a young man who is hearing that he needs to blow himself up because the Americans are evil pauses back to the day that the American soldiers gave his mom a bundle of sewing supplies, and how happy she was, and that the bundle was sent over by a regular American woman for his mom. Maybe she will be making her sons some nice little shirts for school out of that green fabric, and they will remember, and the world will change a little bit. I remain hopeful. My kids remain hopeful. I am so grateful to the US soldier who gave me the opportunity to reach out to a mother across the world.

So I’m not American, but in this case it really makes no difference. This war was started in my name too, whether I like it or not. So here’s my contribution to a common sense attempt at making life just a little bit better for just a few Iraqis.

Refashioning, and not.

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I have to use one of these:

Get out of Jail Free

Because I purchased two dresses this summer. One for wearing to a wedding and one because I found that first, and really liked it, so caved, but I couldn’t wear it to the wedding because it was black. So. Both dresses were on sale, though I’m not sure I really think that helps. (Well, it helps my finances, obviously, but not the “do not buy new clothes” angle.)

But the dress was sleeveless and, well, Scandinavian summers can be a bit unpredictable, so I decided I needed a bolero. And I had two of these tops in my wardrobe, one grey and one purple.

Refashioning - not this top, though.

As they were too short for me in any case, and what do I need two pretty much identical tops for anyway, I chopped and spliced a bit on the purple one and got a bolero.

From the front:

20090823_refashion2

And the back:

Refashion done - back

What I did, if you’re interested, was to cut off the frilly bit from the bottom, then cut a reasonable bolero shaped bottom hem free hand then sew the frilly bit back on. Very simple, but very effective, and frankly it looks much better on me as a bolero than it ever did as a top.

Another quilt done, and given away

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The scrappy hedgerow quilt is done and gone.

First, of course, it has to be bound. By hand. I guess I could do it with machine stitching, but, no.

Binding

Here it is in all its glory. And I forgot to snap a picture of the back… Oh, well.

Quilt front

As you can see, I did pretty simple quilting on this one – well, I had to do it myself, for one thing. Just straight lines, one wide masking tape width apart, except in the corner, where I did an A, as the recipient’s name starts with an A (I used masking tape to mark out the A, too, and just sewed around it).

20090816_quilt2