Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

A Second Chance

"Mum, we have to give prizes for the fair at school. I have the gifts ready but I must wrap them. And there is no giftpaper left. I really need your help!" Marta was shouting from the basement.

I went down to my basement studio to have a look. How could there be no giftpaper left? I have several (huge) bags stored down there with giftpaper, wrapping paper, ribbons.....all you need to make the perfect gifts. I love wrapping gifts! It is my special art! I always have the paper I need for it! How could she say that there was no paper left?

Marta was right. At least partly right. I found the bags, but they were all in a mess. And I mean a total mess.

My motto is: "Let everything have a second chance", which means that hardly nothing is thrown away in The House in the Woods. At Christmas and birthdays I am always there with my scissor taking care of the giftwraps. I fold the red and gold Christmas gift paper, the pink paper from Marta's birthday, flower paper from gifts given to me, tissue paper from every time I get flowers. And I keep it in special paper bags saved for this purpose. You know the nice bags the trendy shops put your purchase in. Looking through it now, the bags revealed a terrible mess, with wrinkly and torn paper, ribbons in knots.

I could have thrown the bags away, agreeing that this would be a perfect excuse to buy some of the great wrapping paper which I've seen out there.

Oh no, I didn't. I emptied the bags and started to sort the contents. A couple of hours later the paper bags were again filled. This time with neatly folded paper, old "quilted" envelopes which can be made new with a glued on sheet of paper and used for small gifts for penpals, ribbons made into small balls sorted by colours.

Most fun though was to go through the bag with wrinkeled tissue paper-silk paper is what we call this paper is Norway, isn't that a beautiful name for paper? Once I started to fold the wrinkels the sun came up revealing the rainbow.

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I'm "on the road" all day today, so I had to give you a repost from May 2007. See you tomorrow.

Altered Books, one babystep at a time.....

A big envelope came in the mail yesterday. I could hardly wait to open it as I suspected the theme of what was inside when I saw the name of the sender. As soon as I was home from the post office I put down my grocery bags in the middle of the kitchen floor and ripped open the envelope........

My suspicions came true. Out of the envelope floated books, images and papers......all about altered book art.

Ulla, who you can get to know yourself at ULLABENULLA ,has gathered treasures for me to help me up from my crawling position to my first baby steps.

And together with all the books and papers, Inspiration floated freely from the envelope (Ulla, thanks for filling it so generously). Inspiration took my hand and led me around in The House in the Woods, first to find a book to use for practice, next to show me that all the "stuff" I have collected through almost 50 years can be used. Then Inspirtaion helped me to clean a space at my desk and didn't leave untill she saw me make the first pages in my practice book - Letters of Love and Friendship.

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I have learned the first, most important and only rule of book art - PLAY, PLAY, PLAY, anything is allowed.

I have a long way to practice before I walk this book art steady, the practice will be along the road of playing and having fun.

While practicing I see that I already have many books which can be called altered book or book art. I call them my "klippe og lime-bøker" (cut and glue books). Here are three samplers.

A "klippe og lime-bok" where I show parts of my collections, or themes from them. Here the theme is bokmerker - bookmarks. I haven't dated the page, but I think it was made about 3 years ago.

This is the first page in an art scrapbook I started three years ago. Another page can be seen in this post from November 2005. (and here is a link to a scrap book Marta was working on some years ago)

This last photo is from a garden book I have been working on over the years.

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The first two photos are pages I played with last night, when Ulla's Inspiration came for a visit.

Open Doors to Light and Shadows

A post about doors have been on my mind the last days, ever since Elizabeth told me about the event which will be occuring in the blog world today.

I have looked through my photos again and again, finding colourful and beautiful doors from around the world.

Again and again I came back to this photo where no door can be seen, instead you have an opening which invites you to walk through. To seek what is to be found, to go for the light and the shadows.

I need open doors in my life right now, and I need the reminder that open doors don't only mean going out into the light. The light share its space with shadow, and this play between light and shadow is what is needed to create beauty, to create life.

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Thank you Elizabeth , Frank and Rochambeau for organizing the door post event. Visit their blogs to find outher door post links.

And here comes a few of my other doors for you to enjoy:

Marta in Roma

Durham

Røros

Houses at Røros 2

At Røros the old wooden church, Bergstaden Ziir, can be seen wherever you are in the village. With it's significant black and white structure it has been and is a building popular among artists, and if you want a place for pracers and silence the church is always there.

One of the games I play when I am at Røros is to photograph the church from different angels, with different houses in the foreground. How many different church motives am I able to make?

Come, enjoy the walk with me.

.....and when we are tired of walking we can go inside the church for prayers.

My prayers today are for May and her newborn baby girl. May God give you strength through these difficult days. God bless both of you!

Cross Country Skiing

I have just decided one more thing for my Living Life list:

I will keep on cross country skiing for at least 25 more years. My mother is 78 and is still skiing from time to time, so why can't I?

Yesterday was another perfect day, too perfect not to ski. And out we went. Marta, Terje with our lunch backpack, me with my good friend Nikon.

On a sunny hill we sat down to enjoy our hot chocolate and pastries still cold from the freezer, spiced with the Blue Café special spice, called  "a taste of a lifetime of snow lunch memories".

While enjoying the sun, a biathlon race passed by, and in between our cheering Marta played in the snow.

Give me more days like this and I forget to miss spring. (I do count days to we are in Italy though.......)

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Here is an article from the biggest national Norwegian newspaper, Aftenposten, about our dear friends and their flat in Terracina, and here is a newsarticle from yahoo news about 10 Legendary Trips you still can take. One of the trips is The Appian Way, the old way which goes right through "our" house in Terracina, with the old stones still intact. We walk on the same old stones where St.Paul walked on his way to Rome.

A Saturday Morning Hike

I woke up yesterday morning to a bright and sunny day. We still have ALOT of snow, but that's typical at this time of the year up here. When the snowstorms pass by I long for spring, but on days like this King Winter is more than welcome.

My old and well worn hiking boots are big and heavy, and as I know there will be several hikes for me in Italy the coming weeks, I bought a new pair of more lightweight goretex shoes the other day. So now I am busy wearing them as much as possible to make them wrap my feet lovingly.

  With the thick layer of snow which still covers my corner of Mother Earth, I decided to walk along more easy roads. No need to walk deep, deep in snow when you don't have to.

The rising sun soon starts to melt the snow, and I prefere to believe that my winter white skin get some fresh colour.

My goal is Granåsen Nordic Ski arena. An international skijump competition is to be held later in the day, but when I came they were still working with the track preparations. I had put some money in my camera bag just in case the cafe in the log cabin was open, but luck was not on my side. I came several hours before the opening hours.

I found a place to rest in the sun and enjoy the ducks on the small pond before walking back home.

The weather forecast has promised me another sunny day tomorrow. May be it is time for some cross country skiing?

My Year. Updated list of Living Life. March

March is here, it is International Women's Day today and I work on my List of Living Life.

A few weeks ago I bought The Paintbox, a bit too big for my Italian suitcase, but I'll make it........, and now I am practicing almost every day.

I am no artist, but the love of playing with the colours is a game I love to play anyway. And as long as my paintings and drawings are for my own pleasure only - who cares about a lacking artistic skill :-)

My calendar tells me it is March 8, the Intgernational Women's Day. I look over at my bookshelves and take out three books by women I admire from different reasons.

Fanny Trollopeby Teresa Ransom. Fanny was born in  1779. She married young and got 7 children in 8 years, Anthony was one of them. Her marriage was a disaster, and to make money for the living of herself and her children she started to write. Among her work are also some travel litterature.

One Foot in Laos by Dervla Murphy. I never get tired to read Dervla's traveler's tales. She is among the bravest women I know. I've had this book for some time, and look forward to read more about this country I visited a few years ago.

The last of the three books is a biography by Olga Capek, the wife of Karel Capek. This is an old hardbound copy from 1951 in a Norwegian translation (I am unable to find it is English to show you). I read this book for the first time before visiting Praha a couple of years ago, and look forward to read her life story again.

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I will be 50 this year, in a couple of months. And I've got my first pair of glasses.

Turning 50 - is it a new beginning, a totally turn around or is it just a keep going?

I am looking forward to being 50. I find myself looking at older women, thinking - they are filled with lived life, the lines in their faces and on their necks comes from having loved through decades. Sorrows and happiness, it is all about living the life you are given. Age is beauty.

Turning 50 means "keep going", and again I pray with St. Birgitta "God show me the way and give me the willingness I need to walk it."

Turning 50! Keep going also means that I will continue giving myself challenges!In my diary I make a list.....

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• travel to India (I bought the tickets yesterday. YES!)
• plant roses
• read a book in a foreign language
• say hello to a stranger ( a stranger is a friend you don't know yet)
• climb a mountain
• love

The list will grow throughout the year.............................

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Update in January:

• Read Henrik Ibsen's plays.

Update in February:

• Buy a new paintbox before flying down to Italy for Easter.

Update in March:

• read books written by women I admire

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But before doing any reading I'll take a long hike to try out the new lightweight hiking boots I bought yesterday, for long hikes in the Italian countryside.

A Day in Venezia

When I am in Venezia I go out shopping every day. Who wouldn't with this perfect wheel bag.

Fish, vegetables, bread, cheese, coffee, a bottle of wine, pastries, fruit. I visit the local Billa store, I have small favorite shops where there is no space to move around and the shop owners have difficulties understanding my fumbling Italian words.....

And I go to local markets where the sellers do their best to teach me how to prepare the vegetables.

In between shopping there is always something new to discover. Where shall I go today? What about the colourful island of Burano? Do you want to come along?

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Photos:  Venezia once more.........

To make an ordinary day into a ME day

Yesterday was "one of those days". In the afternoon my whole body knew it was time for some self pampering. I made a fire and a pot of coffee and search through my Venezian books to see if I could find a treat.

My Venezia book collection is grand and contains books from several genres. Oh, how hard to decide.

I have just finished a Donna Leon and was tempted to take another one of hers. Or what about John Berendt's The City of Falling Angels, or Jan Morris' Venice, or a photobook with Carpaccio's Art, or an old H.V.Morton, or......

Every one of the books send cascades of dreams and memories down my spine. I flip through a couple of them to read a few sentences. I almost end up with Peggy Guggenheim and Out of this Century, Confessions of an Art Addict.......

......in the end I grab Venice, A Traveller's Companion, selected and introduced by John Julius Norwich.

Starting to read at once, I walk down the stairs from my studio to the livingroom. The coffee is still hot and the logs are burning playfully.

Venezia, here I come!

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Photos: Venezia from several visits. The first photo is the kitchen view in Nati House. Oh, I love this place.

An angel and a snowstorm

A snowstorm is visiting our corner of the world. As soon as the wind takes a break, Marta is out in the snow playing.

Making snow angels is a game from my own childhood.

The global warming threathens to make snow history. But as long as the snow angels are around my world feels right.

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Photos: Marta making snow angels.