Friday, December 31, 2010

postcards to blog camp

a little postcard from wintry denmark
blog campers - after the long year with the Blog Camp 365 photo project in flickr, we have decided to continue the sense of community, with a little less "must go take a picture every day" - and there is a new group, called Postcards to Blog Camp - if you would like to hang out in virtual blog camp and share the occasional photo, please join us!!  and in the meantime, this is my little postcard to all of you to wish you a happy new year! hello 2011!!

Saturday, September 25, 2010

fabulous in berlin

fabulous urban beth

i heard that beth had trouble with her memory card and her photos from berlin didn't really turn out. so this is for her. you looked fabulous on the streets of berlin, dahling!

Friday, September 24, 2010

ahh, berlin, i miss you already


i'm looking back wistfully to last week at this time. we were having dinner in berlin, laughing and chatting and eating fabulous (yet strangely inexpensive) food and laughing some more. and kristina was the best hostess ever. you can see the pictures she was taking in this shot if you go here.

Monday, September 20, 2010

these blog campers rocked


a BIG thank you to sammi, judith, kristina, beth and gwen for one of the best weekends i've had in a long, long time. i'm processing pix and will be posting them soon, both here and on flickr. i hope you all will too! and anyone else reading this, get yourself to berlin immediately. it's awesome.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

blog camp berlin, here i come!


the prezzies are wrapped and the suitcase is (mostly) packed. i'm feeling more excited than i've felt in months. i don't even care what the weather is in berlin, we're going to have a fantastic time!! see you tomorrow berlin blog campers!!

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

flocking together or autumn in berlin

birds of a feather
that's it, we're going for it. blog camp berlin. and the following fabulous peeps (pun intended) will be there....

kristina of vigdis et al
gwen of not really
kristina of no penny for them and mostly berlin
jude (she has a blog, but it's private), but check her out on the BC365 flickr group!

and


and my prezzies are coming along nicely.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

A Midnight Sun Blog Camp?


Hi, I'm Kim from *Numinosity*

I'm throwing out the idea to have a Midnight Sun blog camp at my home in Delta Junction, Alaska next summer. 

The ideal time for me would be around Solstice time the weekend of June 17, the following weekend or 4th of July weekend. The nights are longest then and the weather can be at it's best (well, not this year)

I have beds for five or six and even more room for camping or floor space with pads. We live an easy 100 miles from Fairbanks which is the nearest airport.  It's 6 hours from Anchorage.

It's a rural area with stunning scenery and wilderness in most directions.

Since it's a long haul for just about everybody I'm offering up lodging for a couple of days on either end of the chosen weekend. Of course you may want to take advantage of  touring this vast state if you're getting all the way here.

I have studio space and some supplies if you're feeling like projects and of course the photo opportunities are as vast as the surroundings. I can even show you how to make a glass bead.




My road off of the Alaska Highway.




The Garaj Mahal where you would be staying (no snow will be present!)




I also have a place in  Bisbee, Arizona that I could offer up for a blog camp in the winter but the lodging would have to be separate from my house as we don't have the room to put anyone up.


Tuesday, August 3, 2010

coming soon: blog camp berlin!

shooting "weissensee"
photo by kristina of no penny for them
i lifted it from her flickr, totally without asking, but i hope she forgives me. 
that's it! blog camp berlin is a go!! we'll meet in berlin on friday, september 17 for three days of cafés, sights and loads and loads of photos. oh, and nonstop laughter and intelligent conversation. we'll most likely rent a big apartment through one of those sites where you can do that and share the expenses, but kristina (of the above brilliant photo/blog) will be our official hostess and show us around (she just doesn't have room for us to stay with her).

please confirm with me if you're indeed coming, so i can find us an apartment that's the right size. you know the email address. :-)

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Blog camp virgin

Not blogcamp virgins
 This was my first blog camp. Which was a little awkward what with me not having a public blog and everything. Because Julie and Extranjera do have blogs and I have read them, I knew much more about them than they knew about me. So far, so much potential for a Misery like weekend.

I am glad to report that the weekend was far from a Misery like weekend (well for me anyway, you'll have to ask the others their opinion). Instead, there was food, wine, talking, laughing and a bit of photography. Oh and embroidery (why do the stitches have to be so small?!) and a fantastic chance to observe the country folk of Mid-Jutland at a huge fair.

The only part remotely like the movie involved the freakish vampire/zombie flies which despite being swatted, came back to life. So the big guns of electric flyswatters were brought out and despite being roasted with visible sparks and smell, some flies came back to life. It was a little disconcerting although great fun.

I think the best adjective for the weekend would be comfortable. Now I know that this may seem pejorative but let me explain. First, it did have the potential to be uncomfortable because of the unequal balance of personal knowledge but due to the loveliness of our host, Julie, and the coolness of the other blogcamper, Extranjera, it wasn't uncomfortable. Not even when I called Extranjera, Tatiana for the first day or so. See, so nice that I didn't even need to use their correct names. Secondly, it was comfortable to simply hang out and have wide ranging conversations from serious academic subjects to frivolous and fun ones. We simply got along well. Which was nice. And although I suspected we would from their blogs, it was still a relief that we did.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Totally not in any way inebriated or anything of the sort at all.

Me?

Never!

Still.

Guess what I'm doing.

Hint: It involves head injury.


Because this is how we roll at Blog Camp.

(I swear I'll post something with actual substance and possibly even the answer to my initial question soon. I'm just like totally swamped sitting on my thumbs [yes, both] at this minute. That's why I'm not writing more. With my thumbs otherwise engaged and stuff.)

Monday, July 26, 2010

creativity at blog camp!

thanks to the ever-wonderful elizabeth, we began something new at blog camp 4.0. when she visited a few weeks ago, elizabeth brought me a large, beautiful vintage damask tablecloth that has hundreds of little squares built into its woven design. when she saw it, she thought it would make a fabulous blog camp project, so she knew i had to have it. and so, i asked the blog campers to embroider something - anything they wanted - on a square or squares of the tablecloth. and this was the result....

by jude - she immortalized my notion that there are no uninteresting chairs in denmark.
and extranjera - in her inimitable style, created a fabulous springbok(?) unicorn(?) with tree and comet.
sabin and i are still working on ours and isaac will have to come back to finish his, as we ran out of time (deciding lunch was more important) before he could finish. but, we got a good start on the blog camp art project.

Friday, July 16, 2010

blog camp: minnesota style

once upon a time there were three bloggers. they were all (originally in any case) from the upper midwest and had at least the potential to speak in that accent you've heard in the coen brothers' movie fargo, (tho' i can assure you they were not goin' crazy up here on the lake, at least not during the summer when there was no snow keeping them indoors). one of them had moved to a small european country and flying over coming for a visit, so she arranged to see them. one drove down to the big metropolis with her family to hang out. and the other one graciously agreed to host a crew of four adult and five child-sized random strangers at her house for lunch on a sunday afternoon. and it was wonderful. and we called it blog camp...
the five children who attended blog camp: minnesota.
a kitchen to worship (that's made of an altar! how cool is that?)
(that's husband and sandra in that picture)
a few four-legged blog campers
and honorary blog camper howard
after much discussion, the group finally assembled for a photo
keegan was our official photographer (man, i hope i spelled his name right)
he then passed along the mantle to his little brother (tryllen??) for a few shots.
and to end it all, an eagle soared overhead.
in all, a lovely little minnesota blog camp, thanks to jules & co. and sandra and mark. it was great meeting all of you in person at last. i hope it's not the last time. and sandra, i'll come to your gorgeous and inspiring house for lunch ANYTIME!! :-)

* * *

and speaking of blog camp - one spot just opened up for blog camp in denmark next weekend (july 23-25), so if you're feeling spontaneous and you really love old country houses that are in need of repair, email me: jknachti (at) gmail (dot) com

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

the one in which we all met up in Oxford

It's been a week since the British contingent of bloggers converged over mongolian dinner for a very happy incident - to get to know Jelica of Budapest Bits, who, although famous by now in blog camp circles, hasn't been introduced to its British line. The meeting was, of course, in Oxford. Where else.

Despite the A406 gridlock and the new StreetCar Golf refusing to behave like expected, I have made it, with half hour delay to the Cornmarket Street Starbucks... yes, again, where else! And, as the blog camp tradition dictates, that's exactly where we sat over lattes, with cameras and iphones, catching up and getting to know each other and this wonderful meeting over a coffee really was like going back to a blog camp home. After the all the coffees were drank up it was time for food and after careful consideration of some fine Oxford eateries we settled for a mongolian wok place, as recommended by Blanca. And that's where we set up camp for the rest of the evening. Talking. Talking, taking, talking. Talking about blogging. Talking about reading and writing and phototaking, and - of course, the theme of the month - about the Lack of Inspiration. We then moved to the train station and on to the car park. Still talking...




As with all blog camps, mini and not-so-mini, I've come back inspired and full of very positive energy. I'm so glad I decided to stick to blogging and my blog friends. I look forward to seeing you all again as soon as possible!

Friday, June 4, 2010

blog camp 4.0 - we're taking it to the countryside

outside shots - our new old farmhouse

it's not as nice as the blue room, but i have to admit that i'm totally jonesing for a blog camp. i can't let this summer go by without one, just because the house isn't renovated yet. it's liveable, there's room, there's wifi and the garden is wonderful. if the danish summer permits, we can spend the whole time outdoors. so i hereby announce a blog camp july 23-25 in denmark. email me jknachti (at) gmail (dot) com if you're up for it and i'll give you details about where to fly (or drive or take a train). :-) i have a little less room than we had at the old place, so be quick!

scenes from our lake

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

The blog campers... get creative!



Bee:
One of the many, many topics discussed at Blog Camp was the subject of creativity.   If you feed the creative mind with the right sort of oxygen, can anyone light up? 

Having thought of myself as a deeply uncreative person for most of my life, the company of bloggers has challenged my pre-conceptions of myself.  Are we all a little bit guilty of ring-fencing artistic expression and then filing it away into mental drawers that read CAN or CAN'T?  Some of us cook, some of us knit, some of us can draw, or sew, or take beautiful photographs, but can we all do a little bit of whatever we put our minds to?

When Julochka told the January Blog Campers to bring art journals, my mental "I can't do that" switch was immediately short-circuited.


She brought out her treasures
and shared them with us

But when confronted with stacks and stacks of "pretty papers" and every imaginable sort of doo-dad, I was so impatient to begin that I started yelling (not altogether politely) for some glue and scissors.  It was a wonderfully relaxing thing to do with our group, especially since it didn't inhibit me (in the slightest) from keeping up a steady stream of chat.



Camille captures that rare expression: 
 me, with my mouth closed
(the child kept grabbing the new Nikon off of me;
she's not nearly as intimidated by it as I am)

In the spirit of Blog Camp collaboration, B and I thought we would mingle together some of the BC moments.  While my (newly) 12 year old daughter was observing everything we said and did, and then cataloguing it in her Art Journal, B was taking pictures.  (The pictures of the people are mine; despite Julochka and Spud's injunctions against "flash," the lighting conditions of the blue room and the yellow room in deepest winter encouraged me to experiment with that aspect of my new Nikon.)

B:
Our very special honorary blog camper Camille created some art journaling pages for each of the blog campers. She's incredibly observant and talented, and so her pages are a perfect reflection of the different personalities at Blog Camp 3.0 and some of the crazy and silly things these people said...

Poor Kristina had a migraine... 
(but she still had the sensitivity to bring my child an art journal of her very own:  Bee)



Spud was talking about botox, boys and cars?
(So far, she is holding up well . . . but then she does have those Megaboys to contend with.  Bee)






B obsessed about yellow and her new favourite TV series: Glee. Bee is also pretty Glee-ful, but Spud was NOT impressed.

(I loved this beautiful close-up of B's sweet face.  Yellow is the perfect color for this Spanish girl -- and her ever-present sunny smile.  Bee) 







Julie let us play with all her pretty, pretty paper, and had something to say about Bee... :)
(Humph!  Bee)




Polly, who is not called Polly, wondered why we all still call her Polly...and bossily asked B to stop drinking (which was probably a good thing!)

(Polly:  absorbed by her ART.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, Polly tapped into the mental skills of concentration that she honed during her long graduate-student apprenticeship.  Bee)






Sabin showed Camille all her favourite animals and sweets...

(These girls will never grow up being intimidated by their lack of creativity!  Sabin muddles the nature/nurture question, because in her case it is so obviously BOTH.   Bee)






Elizabeth was surprised that green was supposed to be her colour according to her horoscope...

(Elizabeth, the only newbie Blog Camper in the group, proved the Blog Camp magic.  Despite already well-established friendships, Elizabeth fitted in beautifully.  She was a bit camera-shy, but I did manage to catch a glimpse of those graceful, capable hands.  Bee)






As for my own Art Journal . . .  well, did I create something equally stylish?

Frankly, I didn't really have the knack for it that my creative and observant daughter displayed.
Indeed, after completing five pages, my daughter noticed that I had put them in the journal both backwards and upside-down.

Oh well.  Baby steps.


from Elizabeth's Soul Food

Even when I photographed the spinning spider, Elizabeth's symbol for creativity, I realized that I had pictured it upside-down!



Tuesday, January 19, 2010

if your bird needs a friend



if you find your bird is lonely
and needs a friend.
go here, where you'll find the pattern
and you can make some more.
now that you know how.


Thursday, January 14, 2010

post #100 - blog camp 3.0 approaches



blog camp 3.0 begins tomorrow! i'm not ready at the moment of writing this...i'm still frantically finishing up prezzies and putting clean linens on the beds. but the menu is planned, the cooking will begin later this afternoon and i'm looking forward, in happy anticipation to heading in to meet everyone at the airport on friday.

this time, sabin and i have planned a number of crafty activities, in a sort of return to the original concept of blog camp - which was to share our creativity and talents. i really can't wait for everyone to arrive. tho' at the same time, i feel a bit sad that it's the last one in the famous blue room, since the house is sold. it will likely be autumn before we can host a new edition of blog camp, on the farm that we have yet to buy (husband is looking at two of them this weekend with our carpenter and our architect, so we move ever closer).

but first, we have this weekend to enjoy. check in for updates from blog camp central all weekend!

Thursday, January 7, 2010

to eat or not to eat?



i can't remember, was it fish in general "we" didn't like or just shrimp? let me know. i'm menu-planning and i like my fish guy, so it'll be on the list unless you tell me differently!

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

the time draws near



hello dahlings...please do send me your flight details for the upcoming blog camp so i can be there at starbucks the airport when you arrive! and don't forget to bring a blank journal with you! i've laid in a supply of south african chardonnay and i think there is a lot of fun on the horizon!!