Cat news!

Picked up from "The Local".  I love this picture and the headline which read quite frankly;

Swedish cat adopts two baby chicks and it's incredibly cute

Glad Påsk!!

Happy Easter to everyone who celebrates it, and if you don't Happy Spring to you then!  Normally I'd have an "Easter tree" with feathers adorning it similar to the picture you see here but not this year. The cats found my bag of feathers and torn it to shreds.  This bag was in a box which was in another box!  They must be hard-wired to attack anything feathery.  (Good thing I don't have a hat with a plume.)

We did a funny thing today.  A friend and I dug holes in the sand and buried the kids Easter treats. We gave them a story about "Neptunia" the mer-rabbit and sent the kids off with shovels after showing them the approximate area (say 20' x 20') where the five holes were dug.  Almost two hours later only three of the five treats had been found. ;-)  We had to concede defeat but nonetheless it was a really fun time, and the kids will certainly sleep well tonight!  Dreaming of the real Easter bunny no doubt. Glad Påsk!

Want to speak Game of Thronish?

OK, so this is pretty cool.  It appears that there still is a strand of Viking language being spoken in Sweden called "Elfdalian", and if that isn't cool enough they are now opening a preschool in which it will be spoken in Alvdalen in the northern part of the country.  I never knew that this language existed.  I guess only 60 children still speak it  but soon there will be others.

The town, with only 2,500 inhabitants, is the birthplace of Sofia - the young bride of Prince Carl Filip of Sweden.  (She is due any day with their first baby.)  Below is a video with snippet of an old man, and then an old woman, speaking "Elfdalian".  I recognize some of the words, the flow of the words is similar to Swedish, but I cannot understand what they are saying, just the general gist.  Well, having studied ethnology and linguistics I find it interesting.

Here's what they said in the press information taken from The Local:
"It is important to preserve it [in Älvdalen] because this is the only place where it is actually spoken. For linguists it's very fascinating. It has a mixture of very archaic features and very innovative features (...) and we can see some aspects which have been preserved in Elfdalian which have died out in all other Scandinavian languages."

 

"We can go back 2000 years in time," he added." - Yair Sapir, Associate Professor of Swedish Language at Lund University in Sweden.  That is cool!

 

Earth Shaking News!

The biggest earthquake to hit Sweden in 100 years bangs down near Piteå and rattles coffee cups all over town.  I guess a quake measured at 3.9 on the Richter scale may not sound that much to you Californians but it is the largest earthquake to hit Swedish soil in about 100 years.  More here.

Winner of Newburyport Chamber of Commerce Guidebook

More earth-quaking news, ha, ha, my piece depicting the beautiful Newburyport waterfront was picked as one of the top ten finalists in the "Newburyport Chamber of Commerce" Guidebook Competition.  Last week Handsome Hubby and I attended a nice reception with chamber at our local gallery with fellow artists.  The piece above was chosen, it is very fun and colorful.  Grattis! (Congrats) For me it was an honor to be chosen and fun to be part of the event.

My piece "Sailor's Delight" (for sale)

Yummy spread at the NAA

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The Swedish Chef and his friends wish you all a happy one!  Skål!

Melodifestival 2016

Late-breaking news, Frans Jeppsson is the winner of the Swedish national final of Melodifestival and he'll be going on to the Eurovision finals. Love this kids accent, it's "Skånsk" (he's from Ystad in Skåne) and it warms my heart.  Frans is just 17 and he's a cutie if perhaps a little rough around the edges.  The song is "If I Were Sorry".  For those of you who don't know, Eurovision is a music competition in which contestant from 40 countries compete in the country of last year's winner, in this case Måns Zelmerlöv of Sweden!  He sang "Heroes", a great song.  This song isn't as good but I haven't had time to check out all the competition, you just never know.

Personally I love that Eurovision is still a big cheese fest.  For example check out Austria's video, the song is pretty but "Loin d'ici" is a pretty great example of the cheesiness throughout the whole show. How about those magical mushrooms and the off the rack discounted bridal gown?  Snarky, yes, but that's part of the fun.  (Sorry Zoe.)

And just got the news that Lynda Woodruff will be the spokesperson again for Eurovision's melody festival this year to be held in Stockholm in May, 2016.  That should be fun.  Here's a little silliness from the Lynda Woodruff, the lady who likes to massacre names, from 2013:

Jimi Herd, a great art teacher

Please read this article on how a great art teacher can help change the world!  By L.A. Johnson on NPR.  I've known teachers like this, I hope that you've too, it's what I aspire to.  If only all teachers were like this.  Personally I am still trying to find my purpose, but luckily I'm on the right road.

EDUCATION

A Great Teacher, Illustrated

Marimekko & Target!

 Images via Marimekko

Mark your shopping calendars folks!  On April 17th Target's new collection with Finnish design superpower Marimekko will launch in-store!  Such cute, cute things for summer.  I love the bright colors and the playful designs don't you?  Here's a quote from Philly Mag (read more here.)

The collection features over 200 products, spanning apparel to home goods, designed exclusively for Target. (We’ve got our eye on the tableware already.) It's also Marimekko's first venture into the outdoor-sports world, with paddle-boards, hammocks and mini tents, all covered in Marimekko signature patterns.

Images via Marimekko

My mother and I have been Marimekko fans for a while, check out our pics from the Boston store.

It's a boy!!

Congratulations to Princess Victoria and Daniel on their new baby born born yesterday, 3/2/16 in Stockholm, Sweden.  Weighing in at 3,655 grams (8 lbs) he is "an average Swede" - at least size wise. His name is Oscar. Of course Americans think it's due to the Hollywood influence ;-) but Oscar is a very popular name in Sweden.  Oscar Carl Olaf is his full name, or OCO, Duke of Skåne. (Wish I was the Duke of Skåne, it's awesome.) Congrats on your baby boy!  Here's how to pronounce the names and some unimportant info including the royal salute.

Kurbits class

I want to learn how to paint kurbits.  Does anyone know of a good class either in the U.S or abroad that would be able to help me develop my style?  I love the folky storytelling quality of some of these earlier panels.  Please help me out if you can. As you know I'm a big fan, see my earlier posts here, here and here.  Tack!