Oh yay! It´s the national sewing month!!! Guess we´ll just have to fill the days with endless joy!

1. Mary Had A Little Lamb was published in 1830 and WW1 began in 1939. So tonight you can either sew something made from sheep-skin (gloves, maybe?) or watch “A Very Long Engagement” with Audrey Tatou.

After a long summer(?) of relaxing, it feels good to be back on track. To feel even better, contact your favorite charity, and ask what you can help them with this month!

2. Rearrange your furniture in one room. Pack away some of your decorative stuff and put it in the attic. Get one, just one, new thing. In half a year, change the things you have out now, with the stuff you put in the attic. This is a cheap way of re-newing the room

Make a very special coat-hanger using an old chair(!), be inspired here!

3. Have a walk along the beach and gather shells. Bring them home, drill small holes in them, tie them up on a string about 2 meters long. Make several and hang them in a door opening like a curtain. You´ll keep summer in your house a lot longer…

Go to the dollar store and get a miniature manicure set. Surround yourself with candles and good music, soak your feet and give yourself a pedicure. Paint your toenails a color that knocks your socks off!

4.  Spend an entire day without watching TV.  The whole family, too.  See what “quality” time it will bring.

Collect doilies. Make something fun with them. Like this maybe…

5. Write a Love List: reasons why you love your daughter…your mother… your partner… Listing the reasons has a trigger effect on your memories, the sweet, endearing side of things. “I love the way you squish up your nose when you are thinking hard”…”I love the way you take care of me when I’m having a hard day”. Keep the list and peek at it every now and again.

International bacon day. Yum!!! Make pancakes (recipe without sugar), fry up bacon and boil potatoes. It may sound strange, but it´s one of my favorite dinners!

6. Make a large bowl of jello, layering it in at least three different colors! Make vanilla-sauce, and enjoy!

Sew a cover to your favorite book. And then read it. (Below are some of my song-books with textile covers, painted, printed and sewn together.)

7. Add fancy trim to the bottom of a skirt or jeans. A ruffle of gauze, French embroidered trim, velvet ribbon. Find your favorite at a local fabric store, on ebay, or cut it off a no-longer-wanted skirt hidden in the back of your closet.

Get a tattoo! Not a permanent one, of course. Just mix henna-powder with a little bit oil, and paint on your skin. Leave to dry, then brush off. Depending on the quality of the henna, it should last a week.

8. Sew a self portrait – even if just 5 x 8 cm.  Sign it. Machine embroidery is super-fun! And it doesn´t really matter if it doesn´t resemble you perfectly.

Make home-made lemonade. This can hardly be done too often

9. Teddy bear day. Make your own cute-n-cuddly.

While I leave for London, bringing my passport safely protected within my new passport-pocket, why don´t you make your own?!

10. Swap ideas day. Gather your favorite art-buddies over for a creative evening, and do some ARTing! I am sure you are bubbling with ideas, but you know, just art-journaling can be great fun together.

In Norway the deer-hunting begins today. Maybe I should make a new paper-clay-maché deer-head for my masks-wall…?

11. Make your bed day. What a boring holiday, huh? … no, wait. Lets make it fun. After all it is sewing month. Let´s literarily make your bed. The linens anyway. For one set of a duvet-cover and pillow-case you need 5 meters of fabric and about a meter of ribbon. The sewing is super-easy, but before we get to that part, how about adding a personal touch? Maybe print a motif with your own stamp?

Leave random love notes for your children or partner in unexpected places: the inside of their shoes, coat pockets, in between a closed cell phone, written in dry-erase marker on the bathroom mirror, with a Sharpie marker on the mini bag of chips tucked into their lunch box. No need to write a book…short & sweet can say it all.

12. Make a small idea-notebook, and sew a decorative cover for it. Whenever you come up with a brilliant idea, write it down, and before long you´ll have a great idea-bank! (Or if you´re lucky, maybe you´ll win this month´s goody give-away-book!)

There´s a vintage & antique textile fair in Hammersmith in London today. If you want to join me treasure-hunting, please do! If you´re not in London, see if you can find a local flee-market or charity-shop and join me in the fun of looking for small treasures.

13.  There are so many options for this day: It´s the National Peanut day, Positive thinking day and Helicopter day. Feel free to make your own agenda based on one of these, or:

Make a special textile collage in celebration of your Grandparents. Mix in photos printed on textiles, bits and pieces of fabric from their favorite apron or shirt.

14. Treat yourself to a vintage portrait photo on Ebay for under $5.  When it comes in the mail, give the person a name. Make up a history. Write it all down on the back of the photo.

Spend an entire evening with the family playing Scrabble, Monopoly, Yahtzee, even Twister (if you dare). And of course, it doesn´t matter if you don´t have a twister game-board. Just sew one! (I did

15. Take a walk in the rain. Just throw on a coat and go for a quickie around the block. Don’t plan for it…just get up and do it. The fresh air will do you good!

Make a hat day. Oh, this could be fun! So many options. Sew one, and send me a picture, and I´ll share!

16. Start collecting something you love. Be obsessive. Perhaps it’s silverware with engraved monograms, heart-shaped stones, or vintage pearl necklaces to hang on your chandelier. Set a challenge…no more than $3.

Myself, I want to collect rocks today. See if you can find pebbles shaped as words or symbols.

17.  Fingerpaint with your 5-year-old.  If you don’t have a 5-year-old, fingerpaint with your best friend.  Get back to the basics.

Go decor-hunting in the attic. Find all those old brass candle-holders. Wash them, and paint them in a bright color. Talk to your local paint-shop people, to make sure you get the right type of paint. Spray-paint might lead to a great result! I want hot pink and turquoise!

18. Clean the car out. Get rid of the garbage (look under the seats…maybe you´ll find that CD you´ve been looking for)…wipe the dust from the dashboard…vacuum the pineneedles. Then buy an ice-cream cone while you´re at the gas-station.

Talk like a pirate today. Learn the lyrics to “A pirate´s life for me” and sing to yourself in public. Add an “Aaaarrrrh” every now and then

19. Wake up really early on the weekend.  Watch the sun rise.  Have coffee or hot chocolate and cereal (with bananas).  Read the newspaper cover to cover.  Stay in your jammies until lunch (maybe all day).

Or, if you get bored of staying in bed all day… sew something beautiful, but easy! Why not make a lacy collar? It doesn´t need to be like these, be creative, make your own special textile fall-jewelry.

20. Learn 5 new words. Open an old dictionary and blindly fingerpoint to 5 different words. Cut each one out and paste them in your notebook. Learn their spelling & meaning. Use them in sentences. Be a scholar!

Make some art, maybe a photograph or a painting or a drawing. Put the art in a nice frame, one that isn’t brand new. Then, hang your framed art in a place you aren’t suppose to, but where people will assume it is supposed to be, like the lobby of your apartment building, in the hallway at your office, on the smallest wall in a motel room, in the quiet corner of a library, outside the downstair’s restroom at a restaurant or bar, the back room of a club, in the bathroom of a museum. (This one is from 52Projects)

21. Monday morning… start the day by putting on your favorite up-beat song, at a loud volume, and DANCE!

International day of peace. World gratitude day.

22. Write a poem.  Limit it to 8 lines only.  Memorize it.

On this first day of Autumn, make a page in your journal stating all your plans for the fall. It´s somehow easier to get things done, when they are spoken, or in this case written. Take a walk in the park and gather some leaves to press, so you can use in your journal later in the winter.

Make a traditional dinner with lamb, potatoes , cabbage and carrots, or fårikål, as we call it in Norway.

23. Bake brownies.  Try not to eat them…but give in to the temptation anyway.

Go outside to pick nuts. My garden is full of hazel-nuts. If you haven´t got any, maybe it´s an idea to invest in a nut-tree. Fresh nuts taste completely different, and even more delicious, than the ones you get in the store.

24. Check out some fashion-designers fall-collection by visiting their web-sites: Alexander McQueen, Jean Paul Gaultier, Vivienne Westwood, Comme de Garcons, … be inspired to make your own fall-couture!

Let´s celebrate Native American day by making jewelry inspired by their art. Look online for inspiration. Or visit the library. (Oooo, I want to make a new bracelet with turquoises!)

25.  Have a holiday dinner NOT during the holidays. Make an over-the-top feast of a meal! Invite a few friends over “just because”. Out-do yourself. Appetizers…5-course dinner…a flaming dessert! Find recipes in a cookbook (that has pictures…so you can SEE how it will turn out). Set the table with candles, linen napkins, crystal. And just for fun…give each menu item your OWN name!

Make caramel-apples. The apples should be getting ripe now, and this is caramel-month, so what are you waiting for?!

26. There must be a hundred ways to celebrate good neighbor day, my suggestion is to  pop lots of popcorn and then invite them over for a craft-evening. Creating together is a joy beyond words! Or you can bake a big, giant batch of cookies. Bring them to your neighbors “just because”.

Review a book you’ve recently read on http://www.amazon.com/.

27. Buy a vintage slip at a Thrift Store (or find one in your grandmothers closet). Wear it under a dress with a little bit of the lacy hem showing (ooh la la). Or just wear it as a night gown. And come to think of it, since it´s sewing month, trace the pattern of your slip, and sew a new one! It´s really not that difficult. Make it in some funky colors your Grandma wouldn´t have thought of, like hot pink, burnt orange of citrus lime

Continue the evening with mending. Sew back on all those lost buttons, mend the holes in your socks, fix that hemline… and so on. This is both money-saving and environmentally friendly.

28.  Venture under the kitchen sink and clean it out.  Warning:  do not mix cleansers and then stick your head in the cabinet to wash it out.

As a reward, splash out on a gorgeous flower-bouquet. The beauty of flowers is contagious!

29.  Change your passwords for everything.  Just like batteries in the smoke detectors, better safe than sorry. Oh, and change the batteries in your smoke-detector!

Scotland Yard formed in 1829. See the movie “The nine lives of Thomas Katz”. It´s one of the coolest movies I´ve ever seen! With a secret department of Scotland Yard included

30.  Draw the entire alphabet of letters.  Have them made into a font for your computer.  Visit http://fontgarden.com/ and she can create a font just for you using your handwriting.  Font Garden also has oodles of free fonts, as well as inexpensive purchasable fonts available.  The quotes are fun, too. Another version is taking your camera for a walk, and looking for the alphabet hidden in the surroundings. Be inspired by Michael at Alfabetfotos.

Make a punk-crazy-kilt and add lots of safety pins! And wear it! Don´t chicken out. You´re too old? Phøh! No, you´re not! Now go and act your inner child´s age!

Oh, and as always, send me suggestions for how we can celebrate October!

August is Artist Appreciation month! Yay! How cool is that! Let´s make a lot of art!

1. Write limericks just for fun. Begin each one with “There once was a girl named _______” or “There once was a town called ______”. Go around the dinner table and have each person make up a limerick for themselves or the person next to them.

This is friendship day. Invite your best friends over for wine, crackers and cheese.

Today, well, just over 800 years ago (1291) Switzerland became an independent country. That´s pretty long. And they´re still pretty independent: so neutral they won´t even be a member in the UN. And i some regions, women didn´t get to vote until the 1990s. But it´s one of the most beautiful countries I´ve ever been to. Read up on it, will you!

2. Pick up garbage when you see it on the ground. For example, if you are going for a walk and see a coffee cup in the gutter? Pick it up and throw it away. Every little bit helps to clean up our earth every day.

Visit a (local) gallery. Read up on some of the artists presented. Bring a sketch-book, sit down and draw. If you don´t want to draw the still-life in the paintings or sculptures, draw the people around you

3. Find all your skirts and dresses, and don´t wear jeans for the rest of the month!

Watermelon-day! Guess what´s for dessert?! Have a seed-spitting-competition outside, see who can spit the seeds the furthest…

4. Find a poem you like, and memorize it!

Coast guard-day. If you live near the coast, visit a light-house, in any case, make a picture inspired by the coast guards and light-houses and safety at sea.

*5. Go see a musical! And let yourself be drawn into the drama!!!

Make a big pile of waffles! Take them with you on a surprise-visit to a neighbor.

6. Be a Sunday driver. Take a long drive to the next town over…to the country…to nowhere. Stop for lunch (or eat in the car). Make a wrong turn. Find your way back.

It´s wiggles your toes day! Hm. What feels best? Green grass or warm sand between your toes. If you live near a beach, head on out for some wiggling! If not, dance barefoot in the garden!

7. Make one room in the house super-tidy! And keep it like that for the rest of the month…

Sea serpent day. Oooo! Make a painting, or several. Mermaids, giant octopus, sea dragons… let your mind go wild!

8. Sit outside on your steps and watch the world go by. If it’s chilly, throw a blanket around you. Say hi to the neighbors, wave at the people driving by, sip ice tea (or wine) and stay a while. You may even meet your mailman! Remember to bring your sketchbook!

Sew a big Twister-game-board (-carpet) and play with your favorite playful friends

9. Celebrate Betty Boop´s birthday by wearing a short, tight, red dress, with bright red lipstick!

Doodle on the bottom of your sneakers…you know…like you did when you were in high school. Write your sweeties name. Jot down your best friends phone number. Doodle flowers and faces and lines and spots.

10. Find a vintage crinoline petticoat skirt. Put it on and twirl.

The muslim holiday of Ramadan starts today. It´s a time for spiritual purification achieved through fasting, self-sacrifice and prayers. You don´t necessarily have to do these things, but it never hurts to sit down and think about your life, and how you are using it. Let´s make this an evening without TV, leaving a quiet calm that allows thoughts to occur and linger.

11. If your hair is straight…curl it. If it’s curly…straighten it. If all else fails…wear piggy tails!

Play in the sand-day. You can choose to be childish and build castles in the sand, or you can be all grown-up and play beach-volleyball. Your choice.

12. Take a class in CPR, learn to save lives!

Go to the beach with a group of friends and look for heart-shaped rocks. The one who finds the most beautiful rock is the one who gets to decide what treat you´re having for dessert!

13. Throw out your old make-up. It’s old. And if you still have it and it’s old…you don’t use it…so throw it out. Now go on a make-up shopping spree! Tji-hi…

It´s still summer! Have a picnic! Put on your white lace, and go to the park, bring along a big basket with home-made lemonade and cup-cakes and biscuits. Be romantic!

14. Play on the playground. Go to the playground. Right now. By yourself. Swing on the swings. Go down the slide. Slide down again.

15. Well, what do you know?! Today is relaxation day! Take things easy, chill, play lounge-music and smile

Spend the day exploring. Bring your camera and take black & white photos of everything. Or if you have a digital camera, buy a roll of Lomography redscale negative film from Urban Outfitters. They are pretty awesome! Look here for more pictures.

*16. Wear a candy necklace all day long. Re-string it if it’s too tight. Eat it if you’re hungry.

It´s roller coaster day. Yup! Go to the fun-fair, buy a ticket for this 1898-wonder, and brace yourself. One ride is enough. Afterwards you can find a bench, and draw sketches of people´s expressions as they come of the roller coaster.

17. Scavenge for old picture frames (the chippier – the better). Find them in different sizes (so that one will fit inside the other). Hang them on the wall inside one another or as an arrangement – the frames, themselves, will be art.

Archeology day. One of my favorite subjects! I love to read or hear about ancient Egypt. I would dream of sitting in the dessert unearthing pyramids with a spoon already as a 7-year old… 30 years later I´m inside one of the pyramids at Giza in Cairo. Beyond cool! Be inspired by history and archeological treasures to make your own little treasure. Like this chair I made while I was at teacher´s college.

*18. Take your mom and dad out for lunch. Don’t meet them…pick them up and be their chauffeur. Make sure all talk is “happy” talk. Treat them.

Put on your red, sparkling glitter shoes, and watch The Wizard of Oz. This film premiered today in 1939. Continue reading Gregory Maguire´s books Wicked and Son of a witch. The first is made into a wonderful musical.

19. Take your best friend to your favorite store. Do lunch and then browse. Indulge. Buy yourself a little “something-something”.

Potato day. How about a variation for dinner: Røsti-potatoes! We´ve been growing our own potatoes in the garden this year, so today I´ll be getting my dinner from my own back-yard. Now, that is pretty cool, my friend!!

20. Sign up for an art class. Local art stores usually have 3-hour or one-day workshops. Try something new! Go alone and make new friends.

Turn off the TV, and turn on the radio. When was the last time you sat down and listened to a radio-program? There´s actually a lot of really great shows on, if you choose the right channel.

21. Start recycling in a big way. Buy products that are green, save scraps to use in artwork, sort your garbage and recycle as much as possible. Organize a recycling center in your garage or basement…get the whole family involved.

It´s also the international day for homeless animals. Maybe you can adopt a cat? At least see if you can support a homeless animal shelter by a small donation of some sort.

22. Make tacos for dinner! Make sure you have a lot of avocado. They are really good for you! Oh, and save the avocado-peel. We´ll be using them for plant-dying silk fabric! Have a look at how Pat of Altering thoughts did it. Oh, I am SO trying this!

*(It´s also Be-an-Angel-day today. But seriously. If you did both the recycling-project AND the animal-shelter thing yesterday, I think your wings will still be white today.)

23. Go through that special drawer in the house, (Everyone has one, either in the kitchen, the hallway, the laundry-room…) where all the odd bits and pieces end up. Find one thing in there, and make something creative with it.

Take your camera for a little discover-tour on the docks. Preferably with containers. Take pictures of letters on different background. Try to get the whole alphabet. Once you get home, crop your pics in Photoshop, and you´re ready to make your own groovy signs!

*24. Back to school! Go to the office-store or paper-store and buy funky, colorful erasers And get yourself a piece of art-supply that´s been on your wish-list for a while. A new type of markers? A new type of paint? A dremel?

Strange music day. How cool! Well, we´re bound to have different opinions on what strange is, but I will recommend some music I find both strange and kind of wonderful at the same time: Trio Bulgarka, Tom Waits, and The Avalances. Now that´s folks that ain´t afraid of being different!

25. Indulge in random acts of kindness. Send a handmade gift to someone (a teacher, a friend, even someone you don’t know). Pay one month’s electric bill for your parents. Give movie tickets and baby-sitting to a friend who could use a break for a date-night. Put your ideas in a bowl and every once in a while, pull one out and do it. Make up random acts of kindness for your children to do, also. Today is kiss-and-make-up-day. Coincident? I don´t think so

At the end of the evening keep indulging, this time in a big banana-split!

26. for one week, write daily love letters to yourself. Yes, you can do it. Write only good things: “You look great today”, “Exercising was fun, wasn’t it? Eating chocolate in bed was even more fun”. Put them in envelopes covered with stickers. Mail them every day.

Wear red socks today, and see where they take you…

27. Make chocolate chip cookies. That can´t be done often enough!

Restring some of your old jewelry into a new accessory. Mix new beads with heirlooms and flea-market-findings.

*28. Outbid someone on eBay at the last minute. Remember…it’s not about the item…it’s about WINNING!

In 1963, Martin Luther King made his famous I have a dream-speech. Make a page in your art-journal inspired by his speech. You can find it here.

29. Make your own paper. Find a blender at the local Goodwill. Put water in it, then add scraps of paper. It might be a good idea to a touch of wallpaper-glue in the mix. Blend until it makes a pulp. Pour onto an old window screen (found at a rebuilding center, hardware store, or your own basement). Press the water out (best done outside or over a plastic bin). Let dry and you will have paper. Press down more for a thinner paper, add bits of dried lavender or grass for texture. Use a ruler to tear it into squares for sending notes or making art on. Google “making paper” on the web and try some other recipes.

30. Wear several watches (each set for a different time zone). Think of the fun Swatch watches. Pick up used watches at a thrift store. Decorate them up and wear them on one arm. When someone asks you what time it is, raise your sleeve a little and say “1 pm here”…then pull your sleeve up a bit more “8pm in Los Angeles”…then pull it up more “3pm in Honolulu”….”7 am in Tokyo”.

Decorate your old towels with vintage apothecary labels, like Cathe over at Just Something I made.

31. Make your own chips! Slice a couple of big potatoes, fill a iron-pan with sunflower-oil, and fry them. Be very careful not to set your house on fire!!! Keep the lid to the pan right next to you, and NEVER leave the pan. When they´re fried, let them dry individually on paper-towel-paper. Put them in a bowl and salt them with maldon-salt (real sea-salt). It´s the yummiest chips I´ve ever tasted! Now bring your chips-bowl with you to the couch and watch an old classic (in black & white). Try Doctor Chivago with Omar Sharif or Gone with the wind with Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh. Oh, and send me a suggestion on how to celebrate September!

One of my favorite things about Christmas, is making calenders. But why wait for Christmas, when we can have fun all year?!? This is inspired from Sally Jean, but is also based of years of making advent calenders

So this is a list of 31 things to do to

You can choose your own order to do them in, as some of them require more planning then others or  special weather-conditions…

1. Find or buy a journal if you don´t have one, and leave it on your nightstand. Every night before you go to sleep, think of at least one thing you are grateful about that was special this day. Write it down. Just one thing. Not more, not less. This will be the best journal ever! You can of course incorporate it into your other journal if you prefer. I heard about this on Oprah years and years ago, and immediately adopted the idea. I bought tiny notebooks for all my students, and challenged them. I think some of them still have their books. I certainly have mine! On a blue day, it is good to find it, and read out loud a page to myself. Some days it might be hard to think of something original, but or anything at all to be grateful about. But it can be very basic: thanks for breathing!

July is the big Ice Cream-month, and the 1st is the Creative Ice Cream Flavor-day. Invent your own flavor! Here is a link to a basic recipe, but you can experiment with adding different tastes.

2. Run through the sprinkler… just as you did when you were a kid! Run under the arch and try avoiding getting wet… or jump over the sprinkler making funny poses as you fly through the air. This is a good time to try a  cartwheels as well

3. Today  is Compliment Your Mirror Day. Now, here is what you need to do……… Stand in front of your mirror with your eyes closed. Put a big smile on your face…. a big smile. Now, open your eyes. Isn’t the picture of the person in your mirror absolutely stunning!? The person in your mirror is beautiful (or handsome). So, compliment your mirror for displaying this beautiful person.

Then go to the beach. Bring sunscreen, friends and a soft-ball. Play beach volley-ball. And smell the salty sea air.

4. Celebrate  Independence day for the USA by making chocolate-chip-cookies and have a cookies-and-milk-picnic in the garden.

First Sunday in July: Build a Scarecrow Day. He will help to keep birds out of your garden.

5. Today is self-portrait day! Take a picture, or draw or paint. Save it, there will be a collection by the end of the year!

6. Buy a tiny tree, and plant it in your garden.

Make a home-made postcard, and send it to a friend. Or maybe to the post-office, telling them you appreciate their effort. This way you can celebrate both Postal worker Day and when the first picture postcard was made.

7. Go out in the garden, and play badminton with your friend. If you have several friends nearby, make a tournament!

Make macaroni-and-cheese for dinner, to celebrate macaroni-day.

And for dessert? Chocolate Day is the perfect opportunity to eat you favorite chocolates in ample portions. Do you really need another excuse to over indulge with your favorite food treat? I don’t need to tell you what to do to celebrate this day, do we? Eat Chocolate!

8. Do a good deed. Or better yet. Do several. Be creative in finding your deeds.

9. Explore another culture. Read up on the culture of your choice on the internet, then invite your family to a home-made meal inspired by this cultures food. Maybe you can even challenge your family to prepare some contribution for the get-together, to find music from this country, or a dance, or something else…

10.  Braid your hair, just like when you were young. Add a ribbon, and wear your stylish new doo to the supermarket

11. Today is Cheer-up-the-lonely-day. Phone or visit an old friend you haven´t talked to for a ages.

World Population Day focuses upon people under 25, reproductive issues, and health. This day is sponsored by the United Nations World Population Fund (UNFPA).

12. Make a tradition of after-dinner watercolors. Get watercolor paper for the whole family. Cheap watercolors from the grocery store will work just fine. Each night, after dinner, choose a subject, a tree, a cat, or the sunset. Have everyone sign and date their paintings. Find a wall in your house to hang your collection. When the season is over, pack them away in a special box to pull out and display again next year… or in 10 years! Frame and keep displaying your favorites.

Let your favorite kid borrow your small digital camera, and let them take as many pictures as they want. I promise, you´ll see things from a new perspective!

13. More ice-cream! Do the ice-cream bind-test. Get different brands from the different shops, invite over some friends over for the challenge. Which is the best?

14. Celebrate the national day of France: Bastille day. Find your beret-hat, your striped sweater, and go to a French restaurant if there is one around. If not, bake a big cake, and enjoy!

Oh, and it is also Nude Day. A way to keep cool on a hot , sticky summer day. So, if you dare, take it off……take it all off.

15. Take a field-trip to a museum. Often we visit museums and sights when we travel, but we always forget to visit some of the attractions that are near us. Play tourist in your home-town!

16. Lay in a field and watch the clouds go by. Give them names. Do you have a digital camera? Take pictures of some of the shapes, and print them out. Find a pen and draw eyes on them.

Make your own summer-music-favorites-list. When I was a kid, we used to make mixed tapes, now it would be a spotify-list or something, wouldn´t it. Feel free to send me suggestions for my list, I´ll be posting one shortly.

17. Go to a concert! Don´t be afraid to sing or dance along!

The sewing machine was patented today in 1790. I think that calls for a celebration! Hey-ho, let´s sew! How about your own, personal camera-strap?

18. Get yourself a tattoo! No need to spend hours under the needle. Get a party rub-on. Put it somewhere VERY visible and show it off!

19. You know that book you´re gonna read someday? Guess what? Someday!!! It´s here! Start reading.

Go to a photo-copier-place, empty your pockets onto the glass, lay your head down in between and push copy. Sounds silly? Send your contribution to this anthropology-study to this address.

20. Get up really early, and watch the sun rise!

Armstrong and Adrian landed on the moon today, in 1969. Celebrate by making a painting, your own story-book illustration.

21. When it is raining, really hard summer-rain, wear shorts and a T-shirt, and go dancing barefoot in the garden. Feel the grass between your toes!

22.  Eat chocolate-cake for breakfast!

Summer is in full swing. It’s time to slow down and to relax. There is no better place to slow down and relax, than on a hammock.

23. DIY-day. Find a piece of furniture that´s be dying for a make-over. Paint, re-upholster (they have great books at the library), basically: Give it new life!

24. Play with water-balloons. Fill them with water. Draw your own target and try to hit the bulls-eye. Or play catch with a friend trying not to break the water-balloons. If you do, well, you don´t loose, you just get wet

Amelia Earhart-day.

25. Have a picnic in bed. A real one. With the family. Don´t be afraid of crumbs. They´re not harmful

Culinarians Day is a special day for anyone who cooks. That means just about everyone of us get to celebrate this day. You don’t have to be a chef, or a graduate of a culinary institute to celebrate this delicious day. You simply have to  cook, and to enjoy the results.

Today is also Carousel day. Get some popcorn, or that sticky sugar-cloud-goo, and go for a spin

26. Take your bike out on a road-trip. Start by going somewhere you usually drive and see how many more things you notice long the way, when you have more time. Remember your helmet!

27. Make a treasure-chest! Everyone loves fancy-dress. So gather all your costumes, fun clothes, hats and wigs and over-the-top jewelry and put it in one easy to find place: the treasure-chest! If you don´t have much to put in your treasure-chest, check out the charity-shops or go to a flee-market. You never know when you might need a great costume!

Take Your Pants for a Walk Day is a great day to get some exercise. Its an easy day to celebrate. Simply go for a walk. Unless you are wearing a dress or a skirt, you probably are wearing pants. So, by definition, as you walk, they come along. Give your pants some exercise. After all, they are looking a little tight around the middle. The walk will do them good.

28. Write a real old-fashioned snail-mail post-card to a friend or two.

29. Grab you camera, and photograph tiny details. Notice your surroundings. Key holes, leaves, painted letters on signs… Make a montage of your theme. Print it, frame it, … and then find another theme and do it all over again.

Today is lasagna-day, so guess what´s for dinner?

30. Go camping in the yard. The real-deal-camping with a tent and sleeping-bags. Cook on the grill. Toast marshmallows or make grilled fudge-bananas in foil. Rough it up. (But you´re allowed inside for the bathroom)

Hm. Today happens to be cheese-cake day too. Can we bring the cake into the tent?

31. First, send me suggestions for ways to celebrating August, then invite all you musical friends over for an evening of song and wine. Oh, and remember to save the corks! If they are real cork, they can be used for a crafts-project.

Here is the list. Next month there will be a new one. This time YOU can send me suggestions for activities on the calender. All suggestions will be in the next goody-giveaway.

I wanted to make real lemonade. You simply don´t get that in Norway, there wasn´t even a recipe for it in my cook-book. So I went online, and found the perfect recipe:

1 cup freshly squeezed lemon-juice

1 cup sugar

4 cups of water

Pretty easy to remember, and SUPER-YUMMY!!! I´m gonna be making more of this, that´s for sure!

I cooked the meat last night, so today it was just the vegetable-cutting to do. I used my hammock from Guatemala as a table-cloth to set the mood.

We found some Soul Bossanova and some Sergio Mendes music, covered the roof-terrace with kelim-rugs and big pillows, and just enjoyed!

Did you remember to celebrate the international taco-day? If you didn´t, I think you can cheat a little bit, and pretend it´s next week, and just celebrate then It´s a highly recommended way to get to know your new neighbors for instance.

1. Today is both Kids day in Russia and Dinosaur day in the USA. A perfect combination if you ask me! Take the kids to a dinosaur-museum, or go play dinosaurs in the jungle-forrest-backyard.

2. Go fishing!

3. Make a collection of small line-drawings. Buy some henna-powder and oil to make a temporary tattoo from your favorite line-doodle-drawing. The tattoo will only last a week or so, but hey! That means a week of fun!

4. Make a wholesome breakfast that is so good you´d think it was dessert! Here´s the recipe for yogurt delight: mix 1 sliced banana with 2 teaspoons of honey i a bowl. Add 1/4 cup of frozen red raspberries,  1/4 cup of frozen blackberries and 1/4 cup of frozen blueberries. Then add 1/2 cup of plain yogurt, and if you want 4 teaspoons of granola just before eating. Enjoy frozen yogurt day!

5. UN World environment day. There are literally thousands of ways to do something positive for the environment. Whatever you decide to do, tell them about it so they can post your activities on this website and make it part of the ‘Wide World of WED’ map.

6.  Today we celebrate the cows in Norway (this is new to me, but anyway). I think we should show our appreciation of cows, by using milk in one of my favorite foods:

Ice cream!

Ingredients:
4 egg yolks
1/2 pint (250ml) milk
1/2 pint (250ml) double/heavy cream
4 oz (100g) sugar or caster sugar
1 vanilla pod (scored down the middle)

Click the recipe-link for the instructions.

7. This week is clay-week. Get some paper-clay and have fun sculpting. Look here for inspiration. And as today is Accordion Lovers Day, listen to some old Sivuca or Edith Piaf.

8. I have a big veranda on the roof of my house. Every year I invite some of my friends over for “tak-terasse-taco” (roof-terrace-tacos). I cover the floor with all my kelim-rugs, find all the biggest pillows, and all the most colorful plates for the food. Lots of vegetables and sauces and drink to choose from, and a feel-good music compilation, and PARTY! You can copy the image below, and add the invitation-text onto it:

9. To celebrate Donald Duck birthday, sit down and make a cartoon. Find your own story and plot, and make a short story to fill a page. It also happens to be the National Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Day. So guess what you have to make for dessert?! O, yum!!

10. Make a big batch of ice tea, find your hammock and a good book, and have a very relaxed summer-afternoon.

11. Today is National Feed the Ducks Day. (Pigeons don’t count). Personally I intend to attend a tango-course today!

12. Learn a magic trick today. Maybe you can find a trick here. Now practice!

13. “Creating with Your Heart Day”, a way to honor the values in your heart with action. Well, that says it all, doesn´t it. Let´s get creative!

14. Today is Family History Day, and I want to start working on my big family album that I´ve been planning for some time now. An old victorian album where every one of my great-grand-parents get their own page. I´ll have to see how much I can find out about them, and try to incorporate some of it into their pages.

15. Go fly a kite. Don´t have one? No problem. Make one!

16. Meet a Mate Week  begins today. Travel, sports events, volunteer activities, all great ways to meet new people in summer..

17. Let´s celebrate with Iceland today. It´s their indpendance day. Iceland IS more than volcanos and ash-clouds, even though that´s pretty much all that´s been on the news lately. They´ve got some really great designers, and are way ahead of the rest of us in fashion for example.

18. Take your family with you on a picnic. It doesn´t have to be far. Eating outside in the nature can be great. I think the fresh air probably gives a better appetite.

Today is Constitution Day in Seychelles, a nation of 79,000 people on 86 islands in the Indian Ocean. Maybe we should read up on this tiny, exotic country. And dream of visiting…

19. Invest in a small tent. A two-person tent is big enough. Go camping. If you don´t live anywhere near a camping park, go camping in your own garden. Sleeping outside at night, in a sleeping bag, is just another experience! Even if you are just two feet from your house, the sounds are different, the smells are different! Bring a flashlight and tell spooky stories to each other. Because you need to bring a friend to enjoy this with and come to think of it, you might need marshmallows for munching too

20. Today is finish-a-project-day. I invented this one myself, and it shouldn´t just be a day, it should be week! I´m gonna start with fitting that beautiful 50s vintage dress I got at a flee-marked. If you don´t have any unfinished projects (yeah, right!), why not paint the walls on your new tent. Customize it!

21. On the first official day of summer we will have an Aimless Wandering Day. Take your camera for a walk and take lots of awesome photos.

22. Today is pink. And since it is also Soap Microphone Day, shower while singing into the soap. Dress up in your pinks, and eat pink food. Hm. that would be strawberry macaroons, wouldn´t it? Listen to Pink, and sit out in the sun long enough for your nose to turn a light shade of sun-burned pink

23. Midsummers eve! This is when the sun turns in the Northern hemisphere, and days will start go grow shorter again. But tonight is the longest day in the year, and tonight the witches will be out! Make a big bonfire with all your neighbors, bring hot-dogs and marshmallows, and have a big out-door party!

It is also said that if a girl puts flowers under her pillow that night, she will dream of her future husband. (sigh…)

24. Make two tiny boat from a tree´s bark. Make the sail from a scrap of fabric. Take them to a book or a river and have a race with one of your friends.

25. Today is Independence Day in Mozambique, Slovenia, Croatia, and Bhutan. Pick one of these countries, and learn more about it. Personally Bhutan is on my dream-countries-to-visit-list. (Even though it´s quite cold there) Maybe I´ll make a picture inspired by the folk-art from Bhutan.

26. I´m going to Tuscany today, maybe we should make today an Italian wine-tasting party-evening?

27. Today is  Lemonade Day. Yay! I love lemonade! Make a big batch, and set up a table outside your house, and give away a taste to your passing neighbors. Maybe you get to know new friends? Save some of the seeds, you´ll need them to stick in a pot of soil later, so you can get a lemon-tree for next year. In cold areas, like Norway, they can grow inside.

28.Today is Long Letter Day, a time to stop and write that long letter to an old friend. If you´re out traveling, make a couple of postcards, and send them this time, don´t just save them for your scrap-book.

29. Take your water-colors with you, and find a secluded spot with a great view. Remember to bring something to drink so you don´t de-hydrate in the sun.

30. Superman´s birthday. Hm. Maybe make a special gift for you own super man? A personalized tie for instance.

The first week this month is inspired by Kurt Johannessen, a very creative Norwegian artist. If you think these are a bit weird, he´s done them all. Including following a snail for an entire day! (Now that might be interesting for someone as impatient as me…)

1. Write a question on a battery-driven boat. Start the boat, and send it out to the ocean.

2. Bake a bread that has the shape of an airplane. Put it outside, and let the birds eat it.

3. Walk along a beach while you whisper moon-sounds.

4. Dig a tunnel and stick your arm through it.

5. Think about something you don´t know.

6. Take a swim in a pool. Afterwards, have fish for dinner.

7. The last post inspired by Kurt Johannessen: Climb up a high mountain. Try to stand on your head. Climb back down again.

8. May is the month of flowers. Plant some today, it´s not too late. Even if you don´t have a garden, get some solid terracotta pot and plant some lovely flowers. How about pea-seeds? The blossom a lot, especially if you keep cutting off the flowers and bring them inside in a vase.

9. Celebrate your mother today. Make her something beautiful, a card is the absolute minimum. Visit her and tell her how much you appreciate her.

10. Dig up a small patch in your garden. Maybe just 3 by 3 feet, and put potatoes in the ground. About August they should be ready for dinner…

Want to have extra fun? Try getting hold of the type “Blue Congo”. They are really dark purple-bluish on the inside, and make the funkiest potato-mash ever!!!

11. This is bike-month, so maybe you should simply go for a ride. Go somewhere you usually drive, and see what you observe now that you are going at a slower pace. What sounds do you hear? Smells?

12. Make a kite. Go to the park and fly it. Then go home and write a limerick.

13. Tulip day. If you haven´t already planted some bulbs, today is the day!

14. Climb a tree. This can not be done often enough.

15. Take a pre-summer-vacation-weekend in your own neighborhood/area. What are the “sights” around you that you´ve always meant to see someday, but just haven´t because you can see them at any time (and then end up never doing). Go to the museum, the gallery, the mountain-top, the old church with the beautiful murals… the list could go on. Bring a camera and be a real tourist!!!

(Here´s the view from a hill in my neck of the woods)

16. Continue your sightseeing from yesterday. And make a visit to the park. with a ball. You can have a lot of fun in a park with a ball. And some friends

17. Norway´s national day! Celebrate with us by having fun with potato-sack-races, potato-in-a-spoon-races, and listen to Norwegian music. Traditionally there´s a lot of brass-band music this day, but why not listen to some really good norwegian music, like jazz-saxophonist Jan Garbarek, or urban-world trumpet-player Nils Petter Molvær.

18. Visit your relatives today. Or invite all of them over to your place. Find your old games. Crocket and badminton and softball and have fun together outside in the garden.

19. Circus day! Put on a red nose and learn to juggle three balls! Have the kids practice their acrobatic skills and put on a show for each other. Don´t forget the popcorn!

20. I´ve said it before, I´ll say it again: May is the month of flowers. Go out and pick some and bring them to your office or your living-room. Anywhere that you can see them. Being around flowers, arranging them, planting them: Flowers make you happy!

21. The Red Cross was founded this day. Have a look at their web-site to learn more about their work. Clean out of your cellar and have a garage-sale, where the money you get in, is given to the Red Cross.

22. Maybe time for a new hobby? I want to start mountain-climbing! I very much prefer climbing real mountains outside, but maybe I should try the indoor-version, just to see if I can excel and do some cooler stuff outside when I´ve been trained?

23. Bring your camera with you today when you go out, hunting for details. You want to take close-ups. When you get back home, download, and print. Take your favorites and paint one ( or a series) of them. In your journal or on canvas.

24. Wear light colors to work today. And add a flower to your hair. If not a real one, than at least a little textile one, just to brighten everyone´s day.

25. Tap dance day. Learn a few basic steps.

26. Make a bowl of “Heavenly salad”. Using fruits and even some flowers (make sure they are edible!) Strawberries, blueberries, apples, banana, pear, grapes, mango, any favorite fruit you have. Remove all the seeds, and add chopped almonds. Should be served cooled and or with vanilla-curt. It tastes like summer! And heaven

27. Golden Gate bridge opened 1937. Find a local bridge (or a photo of the Golden Gate) and make a picture. Paint it in acrylics or draw it. How about pen and ink? The details in arcitecture look great in pen/ ink.

28. Have all your nature-changing pictures from February printed and start making the little book. There are online how-to´s.

29. Invite friends over for the summer´s first bar-b-que! Find the grill, make a big green salad, a potato-salad, steam some rice and make a huge pitcher of lemonade, and ask everyone to bring the meat of their own choice. Find your favorite summer music, and you´ll have a wonderful afternoon/ evening!

30. Ice cream was patented this day in 1848. Make a ice-cream cake, with an almond base. YUM!!! I tried translating a recipe, but it got to complicated, so:

Here are recipes in English.

Here are recipes in Norwegian.

31. Summer is here! Run in the grass without shoes and socks. Feel the grass tickling your toes. It´s raining? Never mind! You´re water-proof, right?

Oh, and send me suggestions for how we can celebrate June!

1. Today is share-a-smile-day. Now isn´t that a nice way to start the week Let´s start using our creativity this month to make a beautiful postcard, and send it to your mail-man! Show the him and the people at the post-office that you appreciate the job they´re doing.

2. March is also women´s history month. Go to the library, and borrow a book on a strong women through the ages. Read up on Mary Magdalene or Marilyn Monroe, Queen Elizabeth 1 or Mother Theresa, Cleopatra or Madonna. Or read a bit about all of them, by for instance this book: Women Who Changed the World

3. Doll festival in Japan: Hinamatsuri. This might just be a great day to try sculpting your own doll. You might want to try using DAS modelling material, like I did when I made this little dog.

4. March 4th is the only day of the year that is also a command! You can use this day to celebrate your achievements and set new goals. Oh, and don´t forget to wear a flower in your hair! Flower does wonders for the soul in the cold, dark winter.

5. Today is the day Da Vinci invented the parachute. Two of my great-aunts got married right after WW2, and made their own wedding-dresses from papchute-silk, as fabric was really hard to get hold of. Inspired by my aunts, I think today should be recycle-a-piece-of-clothing-into-a-beautiful-new-garment-day!

6. Play young-me/now-me! Recreate that special Kodak-moment. Find a copy of your favorite childhood-photos, and make a new version of the picture, with the same people, only older. Oh, this is gonna be fun! I can just feel it!

7. The telephone patent was granted today. I think we can celebrate the invention by calling a friend we haven´t talked to for a long time, maybe even two. But hey, it´s Sunday, so we need to do more tan just talk on the phone. Let´s crochet! It´s impossible not to be inspired by Lucy´s colorful work at Attic24! Make your own throw or pillow or dress or maybe something else. Once you get the hang of it, you might even be able to speak on the phone while you´re crocheting! Two-in-one!

8. Working womens day. It is a major day of global celebration for the economic, political and social achievements of women. Make a gold-medal or two (media of your own choice) and give it to someone who really deserves it: a hard-working woman who isn´t always appreciated as much as she should be. Check the local news-paper to see what arrangements, gatherings, seminars, etc are held on this day, and join at least one of them.

Today´s song: “Sisters are doing it for themselves” by Aretha Franklin & Annie Lennox

9. Well, what do you know?! Barbie is 51 years old! If you have a little girl in your family-circle, I am sure she´ll be very happy to receive a beautiful handmade (by yourself) garment  for her Barbie. So that´s today´s creative task. You can knit or sew. But high-fashion in a mini-size it is!

10. First paper-money was issued this day in 1862. Find an old, or at least not too valuable note, and blend it into a collage. (Sorry about the reflection in the picture)

11. Have you seen the “Angels and Demons”-movie, based on Dan Brown´s book? The Illuminati have 4 anagram-branding irons, for each of the four elements. So today, find your calligraphy pen, and try to make an anagram of your name! (Did you know the main character in his book, Robert Langdon, is named after the professor who made the anagrams for the book/movie?) I´m still struggling with mine, but I did make a fairly good one of Axel´s name.

12. Plant a Flower Day is a day to get a little dirt under your fingernails. Take a few minutes to plant a flower today. If you live south of the snow, plant outside, if you live in the North, plant inside, and give the baby-seed a chance of survival before it is let out into the wild (garden). How about planting flowers you can use in decorations later on in the summer? Oh, and while you´re at it, have a pot ready for some seeds, so that the next time you eat  red pepper, put some of the seeds in the pot, and water it. They make beautiful green plants, and I´ve even gotten the cutest little red pepper for my sandwich from a homegrown plant.

13. The Good Samaritan Day. Well, there´s lots to chose from. How about taking a few hours off to visit an elderly people´s home. How boring is it to just sit there not being able to do much, and every day being the same. And how much wouldn´t a visit be appreciated. Bring a game, or a bottle of wine, or a good book to read out loud from, just as long as you bring yourself and your good company!

14.  March 14th is a relatively new holiday in modern culture. It is also known as “Male Valentine’s Day”. Ladies, if your man treated you right on Valentine’s Day, return the favor by doing something special for him on March 14th.

15. Enjoy this day with an incredible kid. Do something wild and wacky. If you don’t have an incredible kid of your own borrow one and let them know how special they are.

16. Summer is getting closer every day (I hear). And since this is clean-your-closet-week, maybe it´s time to find your summer-wardrobe. Sort through it: wash, give-away-to-charity, fix. After you´re done with the fixing, write a wish-list for new garments that you need.

17. Let´s celebrate St. Patrick´s Day by making a picture (or a journal-page around these Irish blessings:

May the road rise up to meet you.

May the wind be always at your back.

May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain.

May the rain fall softly upon your fields. And the sun shine warm upon your face.

Today´s song:  Sinead O´Conner´s “Famine”

18. First walk in space in 1965. Let´s learn the moonwalk! I mean, Michael Jackson´s moonwalk. We dance far to seldom. And we should do something about that! Seriously! Nothing can make you happy like dancing wildly to a real feel-good song!

19. This is the American Chocolate week. YUM! I think we should make this a world celebration! It´s been a while since I saw “Chocolate” with Johnny Depp- I think tonight might be a good option And instead of eating popcorn, I´ll be eating… chocolate!!! Maybe I should make chocolate chip cookies? Or brownies? Or chocolate fondant!!! (I need to take a break… I´m getting hungry!)

20. First official day of spring! YAY! Celebrate by burning the snowman in your garden! Sounds weird? Apparently it´s a tradition in Switzerland… Hm! Wonder how…

Moving ever so swiftly along… It is also the national Quilting day. So let´s whip out the sewing machine, and find some leftovers and make magic! And guess what?! If you´re in London, the V&A opens it´s quilt-exhibition: over 300 years of quilting, that should tickle the inspiration.

21. Find things you don´t really need anymore, or that you know others would be really happy to receive, and give away one thing every day for the next week. That will mean, making at least 7 people happy!

22.  Make marbled paper by dripping drops of silk-paint into a flat plate filled with shaving foam. Mix the colors up with a tooth-pick, and drag the paper across. This is a (relatively) no-mess version of making marbled paper. If you want to do it the good old-fashioned way: mix oil-paints with white-spirit, and carefully drip it on to a water-filled plate, mix the pattern with a toothpick or brush. Once you get the hang of it, you´ll be making Christmas-gifts for your whole family before you know it! It´s great for making beautiful edges on envelopes, etc. It can also be really cool to use in your journal.

Afterwards, take a well-deserved bubble-bath!

23. Change your perspective. Take your camera with you and go on a path you know really well, like around the house, the neighborhood, or to work. Take pictures of things you pass on the way, but from a frog´s view. If you have stilts, do the tour once more!

24. Self-portrait night! We´ve done that before you say? Oh, but that was last year. It´s a brand new year now, and we need the practice!

25. Greek Independence day. Make Mosaka for dinner, invite your favorite friends and learn to dance the Zorba by finding tutorials on Youtube.

26. Learn encaustics! I don´t know how to yet… but I´ll be taking a course in just this technique these days, so I´ll learn. I´ve seen some awesome pictures made like this, and am so looking forward to sharing with you the results. If you take a class (online? via the library-books?) we can share our experience! Yay!

27. Today is Earth hour! Earth Hour is a global event organized by WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature, also known as World Wildlife Fund) and is held on the last Saturday of March annually, asking households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights and other electrical appliances for one hour to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change. So find your candles and light them, and have a family evening without the TV. It´s about time you whipped out the old games, and had a game-night. Remember Life? Trivial Pursuit is also always a hit with my friends.

Today is also the World Theatre Day. So if you´d rather go see a play than play life, swap the game for another night.

28. Go Bollywood! India is such a wonderfully colorful country! Find your hot pinks and burnt orange acrylics and make a Indian-inspired painting. Or maybe you want to have a go at mosaics? You can use broken mirrors or ceramics, stones and beads, glass or plastic. Listen to Rahmann´s Chaiyya, Chaiyya for inspiration. (My favorite!! Only in India will you find an entire dance-company on the roof of a moving train)

29. Passover begins at sundown. Buy a dozen eggs, and carefully make tiny holes at the top and bottom, and blow out the yoke and white. Make something delicious in the kitchen with it, scrambled eggs for breakfast, cakes, desserts. The egg-shells are now free to be decorated. If you don´t want to paint them, try a different version this year. Boil them together with the outer onion-leaves(?) for a warm yellow tone, with red cabbage for an almost purple hue, and tea for warm pinks and oranges. Place them gently in a moss-covered plate. You might also want to decorate with small branches from some of the garden-trees. Keep them in water, and the leaves will come out with promise of spring!

30. Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1867. What do we know about Alaska other than it being the home of Sarah Palin and grizzly bears, it´s cold and wild and far away . So maybe now´s the time to read up on this state.

31. Make pancakes for dinner. With boiled potatoes and fried bacon on the side. I promise: it´s super-yummy!!! Then send me a comment with suggestions on how we can celebrate April!

1. Nature is changing. The nights are slowly becoming lighter, the snow is raining away (it is here anyway). Find a good spot for your tri-pod (or a small table you don´t need for a month) Place your camera on it, and every day at the exact same time, take a picture of the view. (So it might be a good idea to place it near a window). Do this for a month, have all the pictures printed, and make a little book of them. 

2. Head over to Sally Jean´s blog, and check out her suggestions on how to Celebrate Love!  This is one of my favorites: Take pictures of LOVE – take pictures of things that are heart-shaped.  A “heart” drawn in the snow, bare twigs laid out in the shape of a heart, the finger-print heart drawn on a dirty car (from another step in this list). 

3. Carapace suggested we should Celebrate February by hiding inside and finding new blogs! I suggest you start by going to A whimsical Bohemian. She is hosting a One world, One Heart-party until the 15th. On the right-hand side you can see a list of lots of participants who are part of the party, and if you have a blog, you can enter all of their giveaways!

4. The Wizard of Oz-night. Invite friends over for a movie-special. Of course they should all wear glittering, red shoes! After the Lion´s third roar, push play on Pink Floyd´s CD “Dark side of the moon”.  I´ve been told it´s a completely new experience of the “Wizard of Oz”, but I haven´t tried yet. Let´s do it together! Ps! Remember the pop-corn!

5. Make a new label for your suitcase, while you keep planning your summer-holiday! Go to the library, and get some travel-books. If you´re lucky, you´ll find travel-novels on audio-books. That way you can “read” and craft at the same time! How about that for efficiency! Borrow an audio-book with the language of the country you´re dreaming of, while you´re at it, and learn a couple of phrases. (I just have to get going on Spanish soon! Donde esta el estation de ferro carril? Does that make sense? I hope so, cause it´s the only Spanish I know…)

6. Culture-night! Make or take a class with friends. Find a piece of MDF-wood, and make a stamp from it. This way you can make a graphic print the old-fashioned way. If you´re up to it, you can even make two layers, for different colors. It requires some work, but it´s Saturday, so we´ve got all night! Invite some friends over, it´s always nice to be creative together. (I´m going to a graphic artist to a wooden stamp class. I´ll post on how it turns out)

7. Here is a nice project from Project 52:

Make a cake. A big one. Write something obscure on the top of it:

“How about 1972?”, “Texas, here we come!”, “Tuesday is the day to roll the dice.”, “Here’s to more closet space!”

Then, tomorrow morning, place the cake in your office’s kitchen area or break room. Put paper plates and plastic forks next to it, and make sure to cut out a slice, so people know that it’s okay to eat. Don’t let anybody see you bring in the cake.

8. Make lots of Valentine cards. As many as you can for all your lovable friends, and three more to send anonymously to someone you don´t know. Write “from a secret admirerer”. (Yay! Guerilla-art!!)

9. First: remember to send the secret postcards from yesterday!

Then make a “Token of Love” like Flora suggested. What ever medium you prefer, to express your love for a very special person. Sculpted, winged hearts on sheet music of love songs, perhaps? (Oh, and you should totally check out Flora´s blog! She´s got some serious inspiration in there!)

10. Take some chopsticks from your kitchen drawer (the one where all the take out chop sticks get thrown), and, along with $25 cash and a take out Chinese food menu, seal them up in an envelope. Mail off the envelope to one of your currently unemployed friends, your college-aged kid brother or sister, a person you know who is financially strapped at the moment. Keep it anonymous. Do not hand write the mailing address or enclose a note. Include the take out Chinese food menu regardless of geographical issues. You want to be sure that the person you mail the envelope to gets the right message and orders up some good take out.

11. Today is the independence day for the Vatican City. It signed a treaty with Italy as late as 1929. Have you been there? Some of the world´s finest art-treasures are here. You should really try to get there some time. But until then, take an online-tour. 

The international film festival in Berlin opens today. 

12. Check out this wonderful blog I just found and be inspired! Buy some flowers, arrange them beautifully, and find your paint-gear. Painting them means you have to study them, and studying beauty like this, can only bring one thing: Happiness! Oh, and maybe dreams of summer (Can you tell I´m tired of winter?!)

Someone who´s not tired of winter, are the hosts of the Winter Olympics, which start today in Vancouver, Canada. Maybe I should watch some curling…

13. February is International Friendship Month. Contact your local centre for new citizens (refugees? asylum-seekers? Not sure what the correct word would be in English) and make new friends from a foreign country. They will deeply appreciate getting to know some of their new country-men. And you will be richer from the contact too, learning to know new people is always a prize in itself!

14. Valentine´s day! Buy a red rose and send it to your dearest at his or her´s workplace. Or if you´re rich (or VERY much in love, splash out on a huge bouquet!) Keep sending love-notes in the form of SMS and e-mails during the day. Or leave little notes in in his shoes, his lunch-pack, on the mirror… be creative!

Oh, and today is the Chinese New Year! We are entering the year of the Tiger, the most special of al the “animal-years”.

15. Well, for all I know, this just might be the perfect day to spend in bed?

16. Inspired by all the snow we´ve been having, make a white-on-white picture. Mix up your media and have fun creating texture!

17. South Korea has recently passed a new law. The country has one of the lowest birth-rates in the world, and the government doesn´t like the statistics. So every third Wednesday of the month, they shut down factories early, so that all the employees can go home to their loved ones and stay warm the old-fashioned way… (You know where I´m going with this, don´t you ) So tonight, relax, be kind to your special loved one, and have a South Korean evening!

18. Girls-day-out. Spend the day with your best friend, and just do girly stuff. Go shopping, eat brownies at a café, get a free make-over at a make-up store, see a day-time movie, talk about the never-ending subject of men and well, just enjoy life!  

19. Read a book that´s a hundred years old. (or was published a hundred years ago)

20. Invite friends over for a beach & bar-B-Q-party! I know, I know… It´s winter. But lets pretend it´s not. Pump up the heat, play “Copa cabana”, “Summer in the city”, “Tropical summer” and so on. Make colorful drinks (with or without alcohol, but all with paper-umbrellas!), make you favorite summer bar-b-q dish. Grilled steak? Grilled salmon? Remember the salads! Oh, and make sure the invitation states the dress-code: Hawaiian!

21. Find old letters from a childhood friend, take photocopies of them, and send them to your long-lost friend. That could be an interesting way to get back in touch with someone!

22. Today, apparently, is the World Thinking Day AND the Be Humble Day. So lets start by turning off the TV and removing other outer distractions. Sit yourself down with a big cup of tea and make a list of reasons to be humble. Now that should start the thinking-process. 

23. Have a happy Tuesday! Make a big batch of home-made bread (remember to add sunflower-seeds. They´re yummy!). when you´re done with the baking, wrap up a bread and go see an old neighbor you haven´t seen in a while. The best way to be happy is to make others happy as well. 

24. Go to a Body Shop or local drugstore, and splash out on some semi-lucrative spa-products, including a good salt-scrub. Then find a swimming-hall that has a sauna. Swim at least 500 meters, 1000 and you´re really good! After the shower, leave the conditioner in your hair, when you go into the sauna. (Your hair will be baby-soft afterwards) Sit there as long as you can. Don´t pretend to be a hero, sitting on the lower bench is fine if it´s really hot. Put on your face-masks, your peeling lotion and so on. Don´t be shy. And if you are, bring a friend, and make them join you! (And if you live in Texas, go sunbathing!)

25. Maybe it´s time to do something we´ve been putting off for a while. I know I have to get the floor-lists back in place after laying a new floor. How about you. Get out your tool-belt and do something you´ve forgotten you had to do in the house…

26. Carnival! Today is the main day of the carnival. Living in New Orleans as a kid, going downtown to see the big Mardi Gras parade, was a treat! I don´t live there anymore, but today I plan on wearing something bright and colorful, just to cheer up anyone that crosses my path. When I get home I´ll make a mask, cover it with feathers and sequins and beads, just like Gail suggested. And I will make a colorful page in my art journal every-bit as cheerful as any carnival. And then, late at night, I´ll find my DVDs with Carnivale. Oooo… I like the mystique!

27. Here´s another good one from Project 52: Go some place, alone. Once you are there, take a picture of yourself using the self-timer. Immediately after taking the picture, leave, and never go back to that place again. Ever.

28. List the years that you have been alive. Then, in a word, sentence or short paragraph, write down a significant memory from each year. Some years will be easy, others you might have to check with your parents, your friends, your photo-albums and diaries. This list — in the form of words, sentences, short paragraphs, or a combination of all three — is your life calling.

Oh, and as always, remember to send me suggestions on how to Celebrate March!!

1. A new year has arrived. Time to reflect and contemplate. Sum up all the good things that happened last year, and leave the bad things behind. Make a list of what you want to do this year, before your next birthday! or ideas, click here!

2. Clean and organize your workspace. This way, clutter won´t get in the way of your creativity in this fresh start of a year.

3. Still snow? Go out and play! Make a snowman with a real carrot-nose! Remember to take pictures! When you come back in, relax in a comfy chair in front of the Christmas-tree and enjoy it with a big cup of hot chocolate. 

4. First day of work in the new year. Cold? Dark? Tired? Add 8 drops of rosemary pure essential oil in the shower, turn on the water, and step in. The burst of freshness will invigorate your body from top to toe. Put on something brightly colored to cheer yourself up! You´d be amazed how much colors actually affect our mood!

5. Find a recipe for a good healthy granola and make it yourself, then add some freshly sliced fruit and enjoy a bowl for breakfast. Try to eat simple and light for a week or two and drink lots of water.

6. Today is the 13th-Day-Christmas, which traditionally means the end of Christmas, so in other words, time to start taking down the decorations. 

7. Go to the movies and see Avatar (if you´ve already seen it, see another film)

8. Make use of one of your Christmas-presents! 

9. Rummage through your old childhood collections. Remember all those stickers and idol-pics and napkins and stamps and bottle-tops and what-nots? Pick a couple and use it in a little art-piece or scrapbook-page or your art-journal. 

My old Scratch´n sniff stickers from New Orleans. We were crazy about them in the early eighties. do they still exist? Anyone knows?

10. Enjoy weekend breakfast in bed. Eggs, bacon, bread, the whole lot!

11. Soak in a warm tub at the end of the day. Think of your bathroom as a haven of pure relaxation and set the scene by dimming or turning off all of the lights, put on your favorite relaxing tunes, and light some candles. Soak for a full 20 minutes.

12. Make three handmade and personal birthday-cards for upcoming birthdays. Homemade cards are much appreciated, even if they don´t look like they´re from Hallmark

13. Go to the library and check out their section on DVDs and CDs. They have more than books, you know. Films that have won (or have been nominated) an Oscar for best foreign film, are usually very good. 

14. Start planning your summer-holiday. It´s not too early to dream! We´re thinking about renting a house in Tuscany in Italy. I´ve already checked the map. Four of the seven mini-states are within reach for a day-trip: The Vatican, Liechtenstein, Monaco and San Marino. A very hot tip is Shanghai, China. From May 1st to October 31st they are hosting the World Expo! I would LOVE to go there!

15.  Rent an old Carmen Miranda-movie, and have tacos for dinner!

16. Weekend project: make a birdhouse! Check out Harmon Country Crafts, A Country Way and Door County Woodworks for inspiration!

17. Invite good friends over for a nice afternoon-dinner. And play Twister afterwards!

18. Time for the monthly self-portrait (although we´ve been kind of forgetful about them lately… ups) This month, try sketching yourself on news-paper or phone-book paper. 

19. Start a secret flirt with your spouse/dear one! (Secret between the two of you. Pretend no one should know about it.) Send each other coded text-messages, or e-mails, trying to make a date. Be shy!

20. Sort all your books either by color, theme or alphabetically. And while you´re at it: dust a bit. And by all means, DO get lost in a book, without even a tad of bad conscience! 

21. Start reading a real-life adventure book: Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts.

22. Go to a concert or a theatre show. Hopefully you were able to get your secret date from the 19th to go with you

23. Knit mittens!

24. Family-day! Go out and have fun! Remember to dress warmly, it´s cold outside!

25. Find all the clothes that need mending, and do something about it! Play you favorite 80´s music while you work. 

26. Go blog-hopping! Start with a blog you know (like mine, since you´re already here ), click on a link on the righthand side, After looking at that blog, pick another link from the last one you visited, and so on. You never know where you´re going to end up. It´s a cheap way to travel the world

27. Listen to the music of Pink Floyd. Make a picture inspired by what you hear. 

28. Sort out your freezer. Bring a note-pad and a pen. Afterwards, make a menu for the next couple of weeks, using some of all that food. There´s a lot of money to be saved by eating it, instead of forgetting it, and tossing it because it´s too old. 

29. Walk around your house with a digital camera. Take pictures of all your reds. Mix them together in a collage on your computer. You now have the perfect background for a page in your art-journal.

30. Weekend-project: find an old frame that you don´t use anymore. Make a soft wooden plate the size of the opening (on the back-side), dress it with a layer of soft fiber-filling, then your favorite textile. Hang it up in your bathroom, or bedroom, and you have a great place for your ear-rings to rest when you´re not wearing them. 

31. Well, if you ask me, there´s good reason to celebrate: the coldest month of the year is over! And let´s celebrate by making brownies! Yay! Remember to send me suggestions on how to Celebrate February!

1. Yay! Finally! You can open the first present in your Advent-calender. Find your Christmas decorations and decorate a little bit every day. Check at the local post-office when the deadlines for Christmas-cards to arrive in time are. Start your own christmas-journal, where you write lists for presents, cards and cookies-recipes.

2. Make a list over all the Christmas-gifts you have to buy or make. A good list is a job half-done. Almost…

Buy tulip- and hyacinth-bulbs, put them in water, leave them in a relatively cool room and they´ll be ready for Christmas. 

3. Plan the Christmas-parties, send invitations and plan the menus. Light the fire-place and listen to some of your favorite Christmas-music.

And find all your red clothes, and have them ready-to-wear!

4. Put up all the decorative lighting outdoors. 

5. Rehearse Christmas-carols while you bake the first batch of Christmas cookies. December is a month of song, so sing out loud with your most personal instrument, your voice!

Bake dry cookies and fruit-pies that need a while to mature. Let the children join in the fun!

6. Second Sunday in Advent. Light the two candles.  Today is Nicolas-mass, named after St Nicolaus, patron for children and sailors. Take a walk in the nature and collect pine-cones funny branches and other elements you can use in your decorations.

Make and write a couple of Christmas-cards. Oh, and write something personal, like what you appreciate about the receiver. 

7. Go to the post-office, and buy postage for all your Christmas-cards. Buy different ones, to make the cards/envelopes cheerful!. Like this package I got last month from Japan:

8. “Mary-in-waiting”-day, referring to the virgin Mary waiting for Jesus to be born..

Make a new tradition: every year one new ornament for the Christmas-tree. A self-made one. By making a new ornament every year, your tree will become a tradition-bearer in a new sense of the word. You can make several, and give to your friends, along with other presents. I love hearts, and decorate my whole house with them for Christmas. That´s what it´s about isn´t it? Love?

 Or invite a couple of your favorite creative friends over, and make one ornament for each present, and swap between yourselves afterwards. What fun!

9. Decorate the entrance, maybe you can make a big wrath of some of the things you picked up on your walk on sunday? Make a part of the house ready for the Christmas-cards. How can you display them, so they can be enjoyed the whole month?

Find some things you don´t need anymore, wrap them and give them to a homeless shelter. 

10. Make edible gifts, like caramel-candy or jams or sugar-coated almonds. Write a letter and find a gift for your adopted child in a third-world country. If you don´t have one already, check out SOS children villages. They do a great job!

11. Make your own candles! Get a kit at the local craft-store, and have a fun night with the entire family! And while you´re at it, get the christmas-plants. If you wait too long, there will be just left-overs. And then they´ll help you decorate tomorrow when you…

12. Invite lots of friends over for a light-feast! This is the darkest time of year, still a couple of days to go, before the sun turns. So light candles inside and outside if you can, and celebrate the light!

13. Third Sunday in Advent. Saint Lucia-day, in memory of the saint who died a martyr in 304 in Sicily. Wake up early and bake rolls, add cream and wake everyone up singing the Santa Lucia-song. Light three candles.

14. Make a ginger-bread house and decorate it with the kids. Be creative and unfold your inner architect!

15. If you haven´t already, now is the time to get hold of wrapping-paper, and ribbons, make labels. Get candles and napkins too. Take extra care in wrapping presents. Be creative in how you decorate them. Add a little ornament or a candy-cane with the ribbon and label. I´ll be back with lots more suggestions and tips.

16. Christmas-workshop with the kids. Or friends. Make a gift. Maybe you should try making that painting you´ve been thinking about. 

17. Buy the Christmas-tree and wreaths and candles for the graves of your lost loved ones. 

Make a fire in the fireplace (or light lots of candles) and enjoy a good book.

18. Seriously cleaning! This is the day. This is the weekend. By the end of it, the house will sparkle!

19. Keep cleaning. When you´re done: Spa-day! Take a long, bath with scented oils, take a hot-mud-mask and a glass of red wine by the tub. Have girls-night-out with your friends, and dance the night away!

20. Fourth Sunday in Advent. Thomas-mass. Light all four candles. Take a walk outside and forget all about Christmas for a little while. Visit older friends or relatives, and bring some cookies or snacks.

21. Check all your lists, to make sure you´ve remembered it all. Make a couple of extra gifts to have in case someone drops by unexpectedly

22. Make the sour-kraut (surkål) and polish the silver. Then make a treasure-map with a small edible treasure at the end! Like … brownies!!

23. Decorate the Christmas-tree. Use ornaments that make you happy, even if they don´t match your sofa. The corky Santa your nephew made in kindergarden, the Eiffel-tower key-ring souvenir from Paris, and your newly made decoration of the year. All while playing Christmas songs on the CD, and singing along. Have an open house, with friends dropping by, invite them in for egg-nog /gløgg.

24. Christmas Eve. Set and decorate the table in the morning. Go to church and light the candles on the graves. Let the peace silently unfold around you. 

25. Christmas Day. The big family day. Or to be more specific: the day you spend with your loved ones. 

26. Another peaceful day. Maybe time to spice things up a bit? Find the games and play Monopoly or Life or Chinese checkers. Make a family-tournament!

27. Time to visit friends. Or maybe you can invite them to your house. Invite old friends who come home for Christmas, that you only get to see a couple of times a year. 

28. There are lots of concerts these mid-season-days. Go out and have some fun!

29. Make a list of things you like to about yourself. Keep it and look at it on blue days. And while you´re at it. Make a list for some of your loved ones too. It will certainly put a smile in their heart

30. Go outside and make a snowman. Or if there is no snow, go outside and sing in the rain!

31. New Years! Yay! Make a nice table in silver, and smile, dance and be happy! Forget about resolutions – you´re already great just like you are!