Chaos is the meaning of life

Good morning it’s 5 a.m. and my life is chaos again!

Chaos is the meaning of life, my daughter says. She is nine. Number of the hermit, number of wisdom.
Chaos is something all children know deep from the heart. It’s the thing, they welcome, because we all force them to live in a world of squares.
How to live in a square, when you are a circle!
So welcome chaos, if you want to be a child. A child? I am an aging child. Like in this song by Joni Mitchell.
When you are an aging child, you are waiting for the chaos to lay down and make a bridge for walking over to the other side (what ever that may be!).
When you are an aging child, you are waiting for the hot, dazzeling light to dim down and make it all calm, round edges, soft atmosphere.
All should fall into pieces. All should fall into pisces. The other side of virgo. The virgin light in the morning.
It’s 5 a.m and my life is chaos again.
Chaos is the meaning
of
life
my daughter says
as she learns how to survive being a circle in a world of squares.
From some distant planet she waves to me
out of time and space
with nine years of compact wisdom
the huge Pandora box to pop up and spread
what grown-ups fear:
there are no soft edges in life
and no smooth corners to catch your breath
on
on with the dance
the limbo of making your way through.

In our heads- a sister piece

My dear friend and art sister Eliza has made this wonderful double page around the theme "What's in your head".



I decided to make a sister piece to it, with what's in my head.


Please click on pix to see the translation.

More lovely art works on that topic are to be seen here.

Keep calm and....

All from Flickr (please click to see credits)

Like x-mas...

Lovely sendings from paper swapers and flickrfriends! Thank you all, you really rock!


From Robert (USA)


From Margaret (Australia)


From Laurie (USA)


From Lumilyon (UK)


From Barbara (USA)


From Lee (Canada)


A gift from Ingrid (the Netherlands)


And a lovely letter from Erin (USA)

My gloomy mosaics

As you may know making mosaics on Flickr is one of my hobbies.
Lately I'm often making some "darker" ones. I think there are so many interesting stories and textures in these ones.

This is called:
"The heart is wild and will remain wild, longing endlessly for the hidden home in the woods"


This one is called: "Where will I find myself (and when)?"


"My quiet evenings merge into quiet nights"


"What do they really know about us?"



Please click on pix for credits. Thanks.

Paper Swap in June: Culture & Events around your area

Please sign up for the new paper swap, starting on June, 6.



It's all about interesting papers around your area, please collect: newspapers and magazines, flyer, ads, postcards, programs, or whatever fits in that topic.

Please sign up soon at lawendula@googlemail.com and look forward to another fun exchange with people from all over the world.

This is the last swap before summer break.

Happy world book day!

World Book Day!

I love books. I always did. And I always will do.
They accompained me through good and bad days, through all phases in my life, I can't remember a single time in my life when I did not read.
I love reading in bed, when it's raining outside. I love reading outside in the garden or on the upper deck of a London bus.
I love book stores and the smell of books.
Karl Lagerfeld is about to create a perfume with the smell of books!

Books can change a life. Books make the difference.

I am very happy to live in a country where books are lovely made, good quality and not too expensive.

So if you want to exchange a paperback with some-one in another country, why not signing up for the "paperback swap". Please send me an e-mail to lawendula@googlemail.com.


Please click on pic to see credits! Thanks.

I am sad (and angry)

I am sad and angry!
In recent times there is too much trouble with people signing up for projects and then never show up again, so that others send something out and will never get anything back.
Although most of you are doing a very great job, these "black sheep" spoil everything.

And one of those has now ruined the collage box #2 project. She keeps the box since weeks, she is not sending it on and she does not answer to any e-mails. (But she is blogging!) She does not send out anything to her swap partner too.
And there is nothing I can do!

All for all this I do, I am called a liar! Me! I can't believe it, it really takes my breath away. I will not write an answer to that. And of course it's completely unfair, because I have to do all this in a foreign language.

It's much work and much time I spend with doing these swaps and round robins. I am doing it, because I believe in the magic of networks and communication. But something went wrong somewhere. And that makes me really sad.

For all those of you who are in Collage box #2 and will not receive it now, I will start a new one in fall 2011. I will inform you via e-mail, when it gets started.

Thanks to all of you who've sent me kind words via e-mail and who understand this.

Parts of my life (2)

Parts of my life (1)

The ephemera quap

For all those of you, who want a fine, quick, tiny swap in between, I now proudly present:

The ephemera quick swap= quap.



It’s for all those who love the bits and bites of stuff for journaling, scrapbooking, collaging or mixed media arts.

Please sign in NOW (due day will be soon, April, 15)

And this is how it goes:
The first one on the list will receive an envelope full of ephemera from me. She or he now fills up an (normal letter!) envelope with ephemera herself and sends it on to the next one on the list and so on.

Depending on how many will sign up, I may devide the whole thing in three groups (according to the place you live in):
Europe
USA
Australia (&world)

Please sign up with your mailing adress via e-mail to lawendula@googlemail.com

Hope you have fun! Any questions? Feel free to ask!
Please consider: only the small envelope (up to 8 inches long and 4 ½ high), not a big one!

PS: You can of course join the other paper swaps too!

Paper Swap News

So the gates have closed for the April Swap, thank you everyone who has come to play along.
E-mails with all informations are on the way!


And we're heading for a new swap in May, a special one: the paperback swap.
It can be your favorite novel, a book with poems or just any other book you like and you want to share with someone. It also can be your own book, if you have published one. (Zines are also possible)
It does not have to be a new one, but it has to be in a good condition.
Please write a few words, why you like this book.

You can sign up now, it will start on May, 2 2011.
If you do, please let me know, if you want to receive a paper back only in English or if you may like one in another language. If possible, I will consider this.

You can sign in now: lawendula@googlemail.com

And for all participants of the March Swap "The Scavenger hunt": Please give me feedback, send me pictures of the exchanged items or your blogposting about it.
I really want to know, how was it going? Was it hard to do? Was it fun?