Mainely Beauty

Here's a post of mainly pictures of all the fun things and places we've been to recently.  Some inspiration to share, both in pics and words.  First a quick background, my cousin recently triumphed over cancer and I am soooooooo happy to report this!  We visited her in Maine and her smiling face and warm ways was balm to my worries.  It's the kind of thing one can't talk about really, not knowing what to say, I just kept hoping to hear good news... and then good news came and we hit the road to help celebrate.  Maine is beautiful but she was the most beautiful thing there.  I didn't want to embarrass her by posting a picture (the hair is still growing back) but Linda we love you and we're so glad that you are better!

At Aarhus gallery in Belfast, ME

And by the way, Happy Valborgsmässafton!

Glad Påsk! Easter time

Hi, Easter is coming (Påsk in Swedish) and it's the perfect time to drive yourself bonkers fixing up the house, preparing for spring, pinning and making all sorts of cute crafts (pyssel in Swedish).  Well, unless you are like me and have a job.  So, for those of you who wish you could do more, here's some easy tips from Tiffany! It's in Swedish but I'm posting anyway because I love it.  Why do I love this video?
1. her Skånsk dialect - very Southern, reminds me of home - what a drawl
2. her snarky comments - in particular the end where she opens up her friend's gift. Ha, ha!
3. her "lovely" crafted egg ;-) See the end

Enjoy!  And for the more serious Easter egg lovers, here's some great inspiration! Glad Påsk!

All pictures picked up from:
http://www.skonahem.com/inspiration/Kok-Kok/40-vackra-paskagg--och-du-kommer-garanterat-vilja-ha-veranda-ett

Waterloo

ABBA day just happened last week (on April 6th) to commerate the 40th anniversary of ABBA's historic (ha, ha) performance of Waterloo on the Eurovision stage, see here. I love their crazy outfits and how young they look.  Benny and Björn are rockin' the grotesque star man boots, and the girls look so cute in their way out 70's garb.  As Frida herself is quoted as saying in the Associated Press on 4/7/14;

"It was our youth, it was our time, and we decided how we wanted to dress ourselves onstage," said Lyngstad. "And it was fun."

It was fun to watch Abba, and still is, as Meryl Streep could attest

Check out silver star man boots and Napoleon himself on stage

The ABBA museum, and yes, I still want to go!  Read more here,
on my post

Björn and Frida on April 7th at the celebration at London's Tate Modern.

Agneta, Frida, Björn and Benny have managed more or less to live under the radar of public scrutiny that young artists go through today.  Given that they're pretty private people, especially Agneta, I wonder how they would have fared today?  Social media captures every utterance, the paparazzi every move, and for those unguarded moments there's always your "friends" and lovers to post pictures or movies on the web.  I feel sorry for them myself.  

Easier to have been a star when there were still some sort of boundaries don't you think?  I'll leave you with a little something to brighten your day, enjoy the glitter and music, from Sweden.

Hejsan!

Here's a visual for you... a big hall, full of kids, international booths, the smells of yummy foods, and echoing laughter... can you feel it?  Well here's some photos of our recent multicultural event put on by the PTO for the public elementary school here.  It was a great success, and it felt good to donate our time, talents and food to help the children be exposed to other parts of the world and learn more about their ancestors. I even had a real Swedish "folk dräkt" sent to me by my mother, and it fit like a glove (a very tight glove) but nonetheless I felt like a true "Dalkulla".  (Swedish girl from Dalarna like this painting sold Stockholms Auktion Verk).

These pics just give you a quick taste, it was really a lot of fun and something you too might want to do at your schools to help kids in the US become better global citizens!