friday flickrs

hanne's corner
kim's queen anne's lace
baltic way
i hear it's hot in sweden too (but they're still drinking coffee of course)

also, be sure to check out mav's beautiful work!

ps. looking forward to feet week next week! join us!

feet week???

ok, i know there are a million pictures of people looking down at their own feet out there. and i know there are so many, that people have probably even said a million times how many feet pics there are out there. i really don't tire of taking them, or of looking at others' photos of them though, and obviously, neither do many of you. astrid's recent one was particularly inspiring.

anyone want to join me in a week of feet (or maybe even two!)?

maybe say, starting monday, september 3 (or jumping in whenever)?


ps. your nickname comments from last post were very fun to read. and i learned how to pronounce some of your names (gracia!) that i'd been saying wrong in my head.

nicknames and mispronunciations

feet, paws and tail

starting another semester at school always requires the explanation about my name - that it's spelled kerstin but pronounced shashtin since it's swedish. (i'm named after my mormor.) last night lying in bed waiting for sleepiness, i tried to remember all the nicknames i've ever had and mispronunciations i've endured. they make for a sometimes amusing list.

nicknames:
shash and shashy - the two most common ones i've had throughout my life
szechuan - a more recent one that developed because my coworker/friend's mom (who's in her 80's) called me szechuan by accident. TWICE. on separate occasions. she had chinese food on the brain i guess. at least i can say i'm a spicy dish. har har har.)
shashtin on the bus - my nickname for when i'm being bossy, stemming from an incident where i got bossy with my housemate about where we needed to get off the bus)
shashafras - just fun to say
pronounced shashtin - nickname from christina after she created a movie (also titled pronouced shashtin) in her mind, about me being assertive
ksh and kshooshy - both given to me by former housemate geof, who wanted to tease me about how it doesn't make sense that my name starts with k but is prounounced with sh
shashywashy - only lindy can get away with this
shussy - not so much a nickname, as the way my childhood best friend's dad has pronounced shashy since i was three. he's a mumbler and from boston, but i don't know if that's a good excuse. it's funny though how it's just normal to me that that's how he says my name. i'd be sad if he didn't call me this.
chachee (like joanie and __ from happy days) - also not so much a nickname, as how that same best friend's live-in maid has prounounced my name forever
shizzden svendzen (said with a fake, very sing-song swedish accent) - started by boys in fifth grade who thought this is what a swedish accent was like. i think casey johnson was a big proponent of this one. luckily, this one only stuck for one year.
shiz - shortened version of the above
maria - given to me by senor ortiz, my spanish teacher who decided to rename me since shashtin was too hard
ann - given to me by julia, who wouldn't say shashtin

and then there are the mispronunciations. a smattering:
kerstin (understandable)
kristen
shloshtin (my 6th grade teacher being mean i think)
justin (common mispronunciation, especially over the phone, even though i don't think i have a deep voice)
shoshtin and shostin (THE most frequent mispronunciations. to me this is the old british lady pronuciation of my name.)
shasta (makes me feel kinda disco)
shashkin (pretty common)
shastin (this one is actually not really a mispronunciation, because in southern sweden they say it more like this than like shashtin)

and i don't even try to make people say shashtin with a swedish accent. i've americanized it.

i don't mind all the explaining i have to do. i'm happy to have my mormor's name. it would be fun to compare notes with other swedish kerstins in the US.

what are some of your nicknames?

silver and gold on sunday

friday flickrs

slightly bigger

on my way to the shuttle stop in the morning.

and earlier in the week, i walked by a small stove store. i like how the owner carefully arranges the parts, making stove parts worthy of being the window display.

flickr favorites this week:

marta's 54
marta's pequeno paraiso
lea's sister
and my VERY favorite this week, also by lea, her grandmother

i'm off to school now (back to my second year in a graphic design program). yay! can't wait.

colors this monday

friday flickrs +

(look how the mannequin has a tree for hair)

hearing paul simon in my head lately singing

I was having this discussion
In a taxi heading downtown,
Rearranging my position
On this friend of mine who had
A little bit of a breakdown,
I said hey breakdowns come
And breakdowns go.
So what are you going to do about it
That's what I'd like to know.

(entire lyrics here. what are gumboots? hm)

he's kind of like woody allen in his flippancy regarding breakdowns. i like it. i often get paul simon lyrics stuck in my head.

friday flickrs (soon at 1000 favorites!)
by debbie carlos
by emiliebjork
livingroom
by eamonn harnett (wow!)

chillin' with PL

it's been a while since pinky leon's been on here, hasn't it?

he discovered the sewing machine cover today.

a special package

my mom recently came back from a trip to sweden. these goodies are from that trip.


from my mormor's things - a print of vallsta back when it was a school.

among the many letters and cards i sent my grandparents, a watercolor by me sent to her in 1998.

so far, i've only read about half the letters i wrote to mormor throughout my life (talk about a tearjerker). reading them makes me remember again (redundant but true) how important mormor was (and is) to me. there are not many people in my life who i've felt and expressed so much love for and who made me feel so loved.


and lastly, front and back of a retro cutting board from designtorget. good choice mom!

friday flickrs

snjezana josipovic (apparently a conspirator with one of my flickr favorites, woodenheart. snjezana's are achingly beautiful as well!)
sweet and like a painting
another
and

other favorites of late:
sometimes foreverIII
summery
Shoes, Clayton