Bagatell

April 20, 2008 - Sunday

My aunt died yesterday. Her name was Emma Lou, but she was always "Aunt Lou-Lou" to me. She was born in 1915, the oldest of my dad's 6 brothers and sisters. Her husband died before I was born and she had no children of her own but she kept me at her house from when I was about 4 years old when my parents were at work... I remember clearly being often at her house - at least until I entered my teenage years.

She loved to read and took me often to the library. I know my deep love for libraries is primarily because of her influence. She told me not too many years ago that she had taken to writing a small "E" in the front of books she checked out at the library, to keep track of what she had already read.

I remember sitting with her on the front steps of her house, watching the tiny ants carrying things back and forth to their ant hills. For an only child with no close neighbors it was a valuable lesson to learn how to find endless fascination in the details of the world around me.

She took me into the woods, searching for dragon's tongue ...

...which we carefully dug up and planted in terrariums. I planted a terrarium just last week.

She taught me to play solitaire with an actual deck of cards. And she kept a toothbrush at her house for me. She let me into her life and took care of me.

For the last few years, she was unable to live alone at home and had to be moved into a nursing home. Summer before last when I was there, I helped move her from one where she was profoundly unhappy to a different, hopefully better, one nearby. But for someone who has lived alone for more than 30 years, a nursing home is a terribly hard adjustment to make.

I feel like I didn't know her as well as I should have. Teenagers are always more interested in themselves than their aging aunts and when I moved away I can't say I visited her as much as I should have when I was in town.

But I owe a lot of who I am to my Aunt Lou-Lou. I hope she knew that.

(Picture by hansrwl.)

Posted at 5:48 pm |

April 6, 2008 - Sunday

Dansefeber!

It's time again for my great obsession! (This year they're calling it "So You Think You Can Dance - Scandinavia" but it will always be Dansefeber to me.)

Today (actually it was Thurday which WHY DID THEY HAVE TO CHANGE IT from Tuesday to Thursday!?? ARGH) was chosing finalists day and my favorites so far are...

Daniel - in the Swedish auditions, he came in looking like he just woke up. He was one of the ones you think "Å Gud, this is going to be embarassing" but then he just BLEW me away.
Emma - it kills me when they lose it completely on hearing they're in.
Junior - the lines! The elegance!
Andrea - such a cutie. And that sparkly orange costume she wore in her first auditions? Priceless!
Siv - 33 years old! (Does this mean there is still hope for me?)
Huyen - she hit it SO hard with her hip-hop in the auditions.
Mona - Mona was in last season's top 10, but hurt her knee during a dance. She really impressed me then with her versatility. Other wildly popular (OMGPONIES!!11!!) contestants in last season who got near the top (cough, Alexandra, cough) were not NEARLY as versatile. I remember Mona saying that she couldn't even try out this year, but apparently she was allowed. Yay!

In other - non-dancing related - news, I spent some time today cleaning up my how to, Red Sweater and Ribby cap) pages today, finally! Yay for no tables!

And in non-knitting related news, I'm taking a sewing class! Turning this...

hopefully into this.

Posted at 6:49 pm |

March 30, 2008 - Sunday

Let's see if I remember how to do this blogging thing.

Some things I'm loving this week:

Integrity (alternative) motivational poster spotted at Design*Sponge.

Skipping Lillies flower pendants that Laura found at a market earlier in the week.

Megan's brilliant how-to-indicate-the-needle-size-in-the-actual-gauge-swatch idea, and the subsequent follow up for European needle sizes.

Felisi's Love Knots Tutorial (in Norwegian, but with lots of pictures!)

Etsylab's personalized dress form tutorial. (I'd seen this years ago, elsewhere, but have just enrolled in a sewing class!)

Another oldie-but-goodie... YarnStandards Standard Body Measurements. (Thanks Maryann!) Speaking of which I also love that a whole blog post has been written to me.

A very cool alternative for stash-busting. Found at Ask Metafilter.

These Very Terhi fingerless gloves. I especially love them turned into mittens.

The reindeer buttons on my recently finished Tudora...