Advent Calendar

This year I’m the one receiving an advent calendar from my mum – and I look forward like a little child! I have two siblings and some years ago my mum thought we should have an advent calendar by turns - none of us have complained.

I have made an advent calendar for my parents for 29 years, this year will be the 30th time. I embroidered a snow landscape in 1981, the last year I lived with my parents, of fabric and yarn remnants from my school. My mum and I love snow landscapes. I asked my granny to buy small rings (for the gifts) in Copenhagen (where it was much cheaper), since I obviously didn’t have any money. The first year they got one piece of chocolate to share each day, and a little gift the 24th. Later they got two pieces of chocolate and a gift every day - they open the gifts by turns.

I buy gifts all year long, except in January, so when I find something nice I buy it and store it in a box in my basement. This way it is neither expensive nor hard. What gifts do they get? Well, everything from spices, mini bottles of shampoo and soap, gift cards, movies, candles, napkins, ribbon, tape – I try to find things they can use, so they don’t drown in a lot of thingamabob. But some Christmas decorations are also found on the calendar, my mum loves glass ornaments for the tree, so I always find some beautiful ones for them.

And I also take care the calendar looks decorative:
Six or seven years ago son, who was a little boy then, thought their dachshund, Luffe, should have his own advent calendar. Yes, they do exist, also for cats. If some of you think dogs are stupid and cannot remember, then you have to think again. Luffe’s calendar was smuggled home and hidden in the attic until 1st December. Luffe was both deaf and half-blind, but his sense of smell functioned perfectly.

The 1st December the calendar was placed on the cupboard, and when my parents had opened their gift after dinner, then they had to hurry up opening his gift – or he would get very noisy! An advent calendar for dogs is like a chocolate calendar, just with dog goodies instead of chocolate. The 24th there are extra goodies and after he had ate them, he got the calendar to examine carefully so he was sure there were no more goodies left. The 25th everything was OK, he knew it was over – no more noise.

But now Luffe is in dogs’ heaven, so I will not be buying a calendar for him this year – makes me a little sad.

Happy Birthday

Today is my birthday and I have celebrated myself by investing in Lippmann's beautiful Happy Birthday nail polish:

I've seen it several times at NegleNymfernes blog, but unfortunately I cannot buy it in Denmark. But a nice eBay seller sent it to me.

Here it is on the nails:
It is looking really nice on a white nail polish, then you can see all all the confetti colours.

At Sunday I will light the most beautiful (and most expensive!) Advent wreath:

Here is a close-up, it is simply fabulous:
It is made of dry materials and will last for the next 20 years which I think justifies the price.

Wishing you all a nice weekend and a lovely Advent Sunday. :)

Tarot

Two great colleague girl friends and I held a tarot evening not long ago. And besides a lot of talking and laughing, the tarot cards also came onto the table. I had brought my tarot collection with me: cards and books, and told them some general things about tarot. Not that I am an expert, I leave that to Rasmine – in fact she got me started. One day some years ago the Arthurian Legend cards literally fell out of her handbag, and I got curious and had to have a closer look. I’ve always loved the legend of King Arthur and thought the cards were beautiful. So combining the legend of King Arthur and tarot made it really exciting. Rasmine ended up giving me her tarot deck and I started an energetic translation and wrote a lot of notes about the meaning of the cards. It took several years! I’m not the type that does anything half hearted, sometimes I wish I could just do things a little easier. I’m also translating this funny deck, which I’ve mentioned previously, but it is quite easy.
But what is tarot? Well, as mentioned I’m not an expert, but I can say the following: You can probably only trace tarot cards about 600 years back. I think they are much older than that. It was of course the gipsies who used them. A tarot deck consists of the large Arcana (the large secret, also called the triumph cards) and the small Arcana (the small secret, also called the court cards – at least in Danish). Tarot is said to be “the mirror of the soul”, meaning you already know the answer to your question. But it might be nice to see the answer lying right in front of you. You cannot ask yes/no questions, since the cards cannot answer yes/no – a pendulum can do that.

I don’t believe in tarot myself. I think it is funny and interesting, and I always say to those I predict that “it is only cardboard”, meaning they must never believe what I tell them and go home and change or rearrange their life based on what I’ve told them. Strangely I’m almost always 100% right. You also have a professional secrecy to those you predict. What is asked must never be told to others! You must never tell others’ fortune without their knowing. It is like prying – and you DON’T do that. I cannot tell my own fortune, it is never true, so I’ve stopped doing so.

You can buy millions of different card decks at different price levels. If you don’t have a shop nearby go to the internet on which you can also find decks to download for free. You should choose a set that appeals to you visually, since there is a lot of meaning in the motif. The most known tarot set is Rider Waite, which I think is both ugly and dull, but I have a tiny travel set, since it is often referred to in books.
You can also buy tonnes of different books. If you like used books you can buy them cheap at Amazon. I will not recommend any in particular, but ask in a shop or flip around in the book and read some bits here and there and see if it appeals to you.

There are also lots of free online courses on the internet and you can read a daily card too. Reading a daily card might be good practise – something I ought to do more often.

There exist a lot of different decks, I suppose the Keltic Cross is the most know. I like the “past-present-future” deck, which is three quick and easy cards to open the ball with. I predict most in time frames - the client chooses e.g. a card for each 6 months, 3 months or a card for each month considering the nature of the question. But never more than two years, I’ve been told that the cards cannot predict correctly for more than two years.

And last – Death doesn’t necessarily mean death (in fact never!)! I often have to start telling this, since many have seen movies where the heroine gets a card with the Grim Reaper and then the action gets truly horrible. The death normally means that something ends, and something new starts – and that might be very positive. I like the Death in the Arthurian Legend, since it is so little scary:
It is Gwyn Ab Nudd who once a year collects all the dead souls and brings them with him to the kingdom of death, and that is great. I think you stayed indoors that day.

So if you think tarot is interesting, but have been a little afraid it was some mumbo-jumbo, I can only recommend you to get started. It is both fun and cosy.

More Bribing

Do you remember how I bribed son to not have his ear pierced?

Well, here is the continuation:

Son: "Mum, can I have a tattoo?"
Mum: "Hell NO!"
Son: "Can I have a pair of shoes then!?"

He is a funny bunny that boy. I have to admit that I had a hard time not laughing. Fortunately, he was only joking, tattoes are not an issue yet, and if they do become one I'll better find some serious bribing.

Self-pity

Is it one of the seven mortal sins?

1. Pride
2. Greed
3. Lust
4. Envy
5. Gluttony
6. Hate
7. Sloth

No, it's not, but perhaps it should have been. Friday I felt a lot of self-pity and yesterday I spend the day being ashamed of myself.

I'm still not feeling too well, and I'm not feeling well being a sissy, who has no energy or can do anything. I'm not good at being inactive. According to the papers I got from the hosptal I should be able to have sex and take tough exercises. Oh-yes, I can walk a cautious walk about one kilometre, then I have to go home to the sofa again. I have no energy to read or watch a movie, I don't want to knit, so some days I just lie and gaze our of the window. Ough!

Friday, DH and I went to Ikea, just to do something, but I thought everybody smelled - of strong perfume, smoke and fart. The nausea is at the top of my throat all the time. I do hope I loose some weight since I don't eat very much, that would be a positive side effect.

I just want to feel better - please give me back my life!

Is it too much to ask for?

Flip

I am a feminine woman, who is in good contact with my masculine sides. I love cars, motorcycles and ... gadgets. Last week, when I still laid in the sofa feeling quite bad, my good friend Jesper, came by and sent me to the same club as Mick Jagger and Oprah Winfrey by giving me this super smart tiny video camera:
It is the same size as a cell phone and is so super easy to use that even your granny can do it. It shoots in HD-format, it looks smart and is so tiny it can find place in my handbag. I'm very excited.

A test movie!?! Eeeeaasy now, I'll make a little film for you soon. :)