Another Pinterest Post

Do you have a Pinterest account?  If yes,  estimate the number 'fulfilled' pins that you've pinned over the weeks and months.  Is it 50%?  20%?  1%?    I haven't actually counted all the things I have baked/crafted/purchased verses pinned but I'd say I am probably slightly higher-than-average because I use it like a cookbook and I like to bake cookies...a lot.  Anyway..

One thing that I always wonder about is the people that have pinned hundreds of DIY or 'clothing I want' pins.  I just cannot fathom how someone with over 1000 pins ever plans on implementing/purchasing all these different things.  Do these super-pinners ever go back and look at their boards or is it like...window shopping..on the internet?  Those are just my random thoughts on the matter and have nothing to do with what this post is really about-- my new ceramic berry baskets! I pinned this a couple months ago on my 'products I'd like to love' board:

In case it isn't obvious, they are, in fact, ceramic!.  A few months ago, I was in a store here in DK and noticed they had a little section of ceramic things that were made to look like 'American picnic items'--Solo cups, tin foil pie pans etc.  I had a chuckle to myself but moved on without spending my kroner.  However, these, I could live with!   When I unexpectedly snapped one of my favorite spatulas (didn't know that was possible), I decided that I would include these with my replacement purchase from Williams-Sonoma.   

They arrived last week and while Ed doesn't understand my obsession with 'containers', I think they make the Danish strawberries (that I could eat by the handful) taste better :) 

They are made by a company called Heirloom Home & Studio and they are also for-sale at William-Sonoma if you're interested in having some interesting, reusable berry baskets of your own!

I loved you danish snow! Why did you have to leave so soon??

 If I were blogging on a regular basis, you would have known that it snowed here. And for this Texan, it snowed a lot.

The apple tree in our backyard after the first snow...

Several more inches fell in the following days so this snow ended up quite deep, I'd guess 8 or 9 inches??  Just a guess

The greatest part about the snow was that I was able to walk Scout in the woods again.  The trails had been wet and muddy from the rain and cool but with the below-freezing temps and snow, they were usable again! So we headed out to see our favorite sites in the winter.

'Sleepy Hollow' trail in the winter

Scout's favorite ground covering: Snow...

Did I mention Scout loved it?  This picture makes me think of a book my friend bought me about a boy and his beagle.

The frozen lake from one side

and the other

I'm sure you get the gist

Scene of my first ever fall on ice.  Yes, I slipped and actually feel while walking down this hill.  The funniest part was the noise Scout made...I guess me falling scared him and he made the noise scooby doo always makes when he's curious or scared...I have no idea how I'd type that noise but maybe you get what I am saying.

Just to see the difference from fall to winter

fall

winter

Watch out for Me!

Ed pointed this sign out to me the other day.  Definitely much cuter than the silhouettes of children on a yellow-orange diamond :)

Volleyball, 10 years later

I think I mentioned this in a Facebook 'status update' but didn't mention it on my blog (probably because I didn't have a picture to include with the post). I, after a 10 year break, am going to start playing volleyball again for a city league here in Kolding.  Correction, I started again last night.  I just want to say this will be a short post because my forearms are killing me.  They are so sore and seriously swollen.  I knew they were larger than normal but didn't realize how bad it was until i took off my watch earlier today and found a massive 'dent' left behind.  And it's not just my arms! I am pretty much sore all over- back, legs, shoulders, you name it.  I can honestly say that today is the first time in my life that I actually feel like I am 'getting older'.  Yes, I realize that my age isn't really considered 'old', but I now can say for a fact, that despite not feeling any older mentally, my body is actually 10 years older than it was when I was diving for a ball at 16.
In other 'news', I purchased the largest mirror that I have ever owned, or seen in a home for that matter, today. I think it is pretty awesome--and not just because every time I am directly in front of it, I can see myself :)    It currently is standing in our bedroom but I believe it is going to move to the living room, where it can be enjoyed by everyone--and maybe make the room slightly brighter in the dark evenings. Ed and I toured a historic home in Franklin TN and it seemed like there were mirrors everywhere, including all over a huge, nearly-to-the ceiling decorative shelf/buffet in the dining room.  The tour guide said that the reason for all the mirrors was because it would reflect the candlelight in the evenings and make it 'twice as bright'. So that is actually my true goal in buying the mirror, though I can now see a full image of myself aging by the day :) 
 If you are interested in seeing a picture of the shelf, follow the link,  the image is 15 of 33.  AND, if you are ever in Franklin and are interested in Civil War history, take the tour of the Lotz House.  I found the tour and history behind the house to be very interesting. I wasn't blogging at the time so didn't write about this but Ed and I will briefly appear in a documentary called Heading Back Home. When we visited the Lotz House, a film crew was filming the tour guide as he was guiding us through the museum and we just so happened to be in at least a shot--our acting debut haha

I'm sorry this isn't a picture of my puffy arms.

The Forest

I will probably say it 1000 times before we move again but I love the area where our house is located.  I love it! I am not sure if it's because I have always wanted to live near woods, hills, trails and creeks or because when I am out on the trail, I feel 'normal'--like I could be anywhere.  I am not struggling to understand spoken danish,  stammering "Jeg taler engelsk bedre end dansk"  (I have a feeling these words will be used quite often in the coming months..years..), or attempting to differentiate between the 20 kroner (approx $3.75) and 10 kroner coins while staring into my now stuffed-to-the-brim coin purse.

Side story to go with the money here-I went into the gas station last night to buy ice cream and a magazine--a danish magazine.  I didn't say anything to the girl that was ringing me up but when I began fishing the 80 kroner out of my coin purse, it became painfully obvious that I was not all that familiar with danish money, or danish for that matter.  I'm sure as I left, she had to wonder why in the world I would be buying a danish magazine...and the ice cream. Well that was to sooth my depression over paying around $15 for stuff that in America, would have cost about $8 :)

So back to where we live.  As I was saying, I love it.  I am just another person out for a jog with my dog.  No one gives me a second look.  I have a feeling that scout and I will be spending a lot of time on the trails...

It's not difficult to see that Hans Christian Andersen had plenty of fairy tale inspiration all around him. I know he didn't write Little Red Riding Hood but sometimes running through here, I think about her...skipping through the forest to grandmother's house (which is probably the house with the thatched roof at the end of this particular trail!)

Beginning of fall colors

Perfect morning (not a gravestone behind ed in case you were wondering)

In front of our house--scout smells rabbit, which is why he is licking his chops

Scout, my running buddy