Archives for posts with tag: mood
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Break

March 7, 2013 //
4

deutsch Frauleins Art, Fly away

The week (yes it was only a week, not two) without the Dedes was like a holiday for me. And my head is brimming with new ideas. Thank God for that, because, honestly,  I really need to have new ideas. I just lost one of my jobs, I am not teaching this semester. For sixteen years it has been a regular income for at least half the year. This semester the  powers to be reduced the contact hours for the students and of course the part time staff had to go first. So I ended up with no hours, funnily enough at the same time I got a letter telling me my hourly pay-rate has increased. It is really quite hilarious.

I always had a plan for when this is going to happen. As soon as I am not tied down by weekly lectures, I wanted to go to Europe for an extended period and travel along the Baltic Sea eastwards. Unfortunately this is not going to happen now as we are doing up the house.  Bad timing I’ll say.

Sorry, I am blubbering at the moment and if my Dedes were here they would now remind me, “it’s not all about you, Missi!” But of course I am constantly thinking about what I should do next.

The Dedes won’t like what I have to tell them when they come back. (Maybe they sense something is up and this is the real reason why they stay away). I will have to tell them – and  believe me, it doesn’t come easy –  they will have to pay rent. They have to stop being freeloaders and contribute to our daily living cost. Otherwise I won’t be able to keep them and will have to find myself another honest job. Still, I don’t want to sell them, they have too many stories to tell. I came up with another idea and summoned them to the house for the weekend to break the news. No discussion this time. I will just tell them! Unless, of course, they have come up with a brilliant idea themselves.

Because I feel so bad about it, I am wondering what they are going to say. I have to prepare myself mentally for the right answers. I can hear Devil already… telling me the whole house thing was my idea, therefore I have to deal with it. They also might want to move back to the burrow as soon as I tell them, as life is so easy there. But let’s face it, the burrow is only a summer house – come winter and the rain, they must come inside. Then they will be very, very happy that the house is done up and warm and spacious and they have the large new studio space to run around in. They really have to be realistic about it. I am not asking too much, am I?

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Categories Art, Creative Writing, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

Back to the burrow

March 4, 2013 //
2

mouse packing

This morning Mouse was packing her bags again to return to the burrow and the others. I had to ask her: “How is it going up there, it must be quite crowded?

“No, no, it is a very spacious burrow. I wonder how Harvey, who is constantly broke, could afford it. He must have done a lot of work himself.”

“And how is it going with Pavlova? Isn’t she sick of having you all around?” I remembered how Pavlova sat quietly in the corner at our last party watching the others rather than partaking.

“That is the biggest surprise” Mouse stopped for a minute and looked at me. “She is really, really nice. She is the perfect host.”  Then she told me that she thinks it must have something to do with it being Pavlova’s own familiar patch and she makes everybody feel comfortable without being overbearing. And Harvey just adores her and is so proud of how she looks after the house and everybody.

“I am surprised to hear that. I thought she is focused on having a good career. Didn’t Harvey say she put herself through school and landed a good job in a lab? Now you say she is the perfect host. You say she is a good home maker.”

“Yes, right, but this isn’t a contradiction, is it?” Mouse asked, then gave the answer herself.  “She has made her own cosy nest and feels secure in what she is doing. That’s her world. With all the pressure from her family I can understand that. Can’t you?”

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Categories Art, Creative Writing, Digital art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

What are you doing?

March 3, 2013 //
10

mouse aid

Mouse was back this morning, all by herself. I was very surprised as she is the one who loves company and organising meetings. She thrives on being busy and Sunday is usually the busiest day of the week for her. But this morning she was very subdued.

“So you are all back from your retreat then?” I asked.

“No, it is just me! I needed a break. This lot is so disorganised. Grrr. I can’t stand it. The discussions go round and round in little circles and we will never agree on a workable solution.” These frustrating words were so out of character. Mouse thoroughly believes there is always a win-win solution, you only have to find it.

“What are you actually trying to do? Don’t you think you should talk to me? Whether you like it or not, we are shackled together. I am still your artist…!”

“That is the problem. It is pretty much about you” she blurted out. “We are very concerned about you!’

“Concerned? About me?” I was surprised. “What have I done now?”

“We think you have too much on your plate and you take on more and more!” Then she reminded me what I have committed myself to over the next few months. Not only am I writing the new book about Lou, the love sick puppy, but I will have to prepare the exhibition and I am doing a stop motion film with some friends. All this is happening while we have some major building going on. “And I don’t even want to mention your work situation” she finished with a very worried look in her face.

“Ah yes, I just have lost one of my jobs, that is a fact of life. I will have to fill the void somehow, but let this be my problem not yours.”

“We have the feeling that because you spread yourself too thinly, the quality is suffering! One can tell your heart isn’t in it as it was in the beginning.”

“That is a bit unfair! I really look after you, don’t I?” Though I had to concede, it is a nuisance that my studio is packed up and I can’t make any new puppets for the time being.

“The zing is definitely gone!” Mouse stated matter-of-factly.

“Love changes over time. You can’t expect that we will be on our honeymoon forever.” I replied defiantly.

“We know that. But it is still sad and we want to help you find your old self. We want to make sure that you love us for a long time to come.”

It was so sweet of Mouse to say that and I had to give her a big hug.

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Categories Art, Creative Writing, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

Another story

March 2, 2013 //
17

philosopher cleaning

This morning we received another story for the competition. This time from our longstanding friend Arindam in India. He had exams and only got round to writing the story yesterday. He tells us how the image came about on a lovely spring day.

Unfortunately the Dedes are still missing and I can’t share my excitement with them. But I hope you all have a look. Don’t forget you can still write something about the image. The deadline is tomorrow (the rules are here).

I received a concerned question from Leopoldine asking what the skull in yesterday’s post was. It is nothing malicious, just a cow’s head I found when I rambled through the woods. The cow certainly died of old age. We don’t have predators in New Zealand that could be dangerous for animals the size of a cow. We don’t have venomous snakes and only one rare type of venomous spider. So life is pretty safe here. (Though I should add there was a fatal shark attack on Auckland’s West Coast last week. The first one in 37 years.)

This morning I finally made my way to the bottom of the garden and found Philosopher doing chores on his boat.

“Where are all the others?” I asked.

“With the builders in the house it was too noisy. We were only fighting and everybody got more and more agitated. No way we could have made any decisions. So Harvey invited all of us to his new burrow on the mountain top!”

“And why are you here and not with the rest?”

“I can’t stand decisions by committee. When you try to please everybody you will always end up in the middle of the road!”

“Tell me, what are they trying to do anyway?”

“I can’t reveal that. I have no mandate for it. You will have to wait!”

“When are they coming back then?”

“Who knows… When they are ready!” Philosopher looked at me and added “Didn’t you say earlier in the week we will quickly find out who needs whom more?”

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Categories Art, Competition, Creative Writing, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

Alien spaceship

February 27, 2013 //
11

alien spaceship

No news from the Dedes. They are still in lock-down.  I had to entertain myself last night, which was very difficult, as they were in the only room that still has a light. You might know that we are currently remodelling the house. When I was walking from one end of the house to the other I thought I saw an alien spaceship through the window in one of the empty rooms and I had to grab my camera. I finally realised how much I miss taking photographs of subjects other than the Dede puppets. They better be careful. Their strategy meeting might backfire if they don’t tell me soon what’s going on. I might rekindle my love for photography.

On closer scrutiny the glowing spaceship unfortunately turned out to be the old bathtub illuminated by the lights from the room where the Dedes had their meeting.

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Categories Art, Fun, Life, Photography, Relationships

Strategy meeting

February 26, 2013 //
0

do not disturb

Sorry, I can’t tell you much about the Dedes today. They left a sign on the door and went into lock-down. Of course I didn’t think it was for me and walked straight into the room. Woohoo, you should have seen them!

“Can’t you read?” Devil shouted at me.

“But… I live here. I have to get my…”

“Look, we’re having a strategy meeting. It will take all day. We have to nut out what we are going to do over the next year!” Mouse explained.

“Without me?” I asked very surprised. They can’t really make decisions without me, I thought.

“You wouldn’t be of any help. You are the worst planner on the planet. It drives us up the wall that you always just go with the flow.”

Cash Cow came to the door where I was standing like a possum in the headlights. I even had my hand still on the handle.

“We will tell you later what we came up with” she said and quietly shut the door in my face.

I didn’t dare interrupt them again and opted to go to work without breakfast. I have to warn you I will be very, very grumpy today.

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Categories Art, Creative Writing, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

First competition entry

February 25, 2013 //
2

mouse high five

Alien was indeed a bit too impatient. He had just left the room when the first story arrived. Written by his admirer Leopoldine from Austria, it’s a lovely long story in German recounting what happened when Alien was first beamed down to this place in the Dede World.

Mouse was truly delighted when the first story came in and she sends a big fat thank you to Leopoldine. Part of her delight was that she could stick it to Devil. Even though he is a very good mate of hers and she loves working with him, he can be a bit of a bully. Maybe it is a male thing – he truly believes he has the final say in everything and can get quite loud if he doesn’t get his way. He wasn’t a great fan of the story-telling competition. But Mouse stuck to her guns, trusting that Alien had come up with a good idea and believing she had good support from the rest of the Dedes, who – she sensed – were keen to try it.

Yesterday Mouse noticed that she might not have been totally clear with her rules. The story doesn’t need to be very long, it could also be a very short story, or even an extended caption. And everybody is invited to write, not just long-standing friends of Alien :). At the same time we don’t want to bully anybody into writing only because they are a long-standing friend. It is just an invitation to be creative. We are really curious what you make of us :)

You also can win the book ‘Hermit’s Web’ or 10 Dede puppet postcards. The rest of the rules you’ll find here.

Devil said to Mouse we shouldn’t exclude our Facebook fans either. Mouse doesn’t have much experience with Facebook and she  isn’t quite sure how it would work for them sharing their story with our blog friends. But of course if they want to do something they are very welcome as long as they let us know where to find their story.

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Categories Art, Competition, Creative Writing, Digital art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

First day of competition

February 24, 2013 //
4

mouse alien sush

“And, and, and…?” Alien asked excitedly when Mouse started up the computer this morning.

“What?”

“Do I have a new story?”

“Not yet!”

“What do you mean? Are you telling me nobody has written in?” Alien’s face dropped.

“I knew it will be a disaster” Devil interrupted. “We should have gone with my idea!”

“Give it time! It can take a little while to come up with a new story” Mouse replied calmly.

“Where I come from….” Alien started.

“Shssh.” Mouse put her hand over his mouth to quieten him. “you are not allowed to say anything until next week. You don’t want to influence anybody in their writing.”

“At least tell the readers they can find the rules for the competition in yesterday’s post!” Alien begged.

“C’mon, our readers are not thick!” Mouse replied and left it at this. “A bit of patience wouldn’t go amiss.”

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Categories Art, Competition, Creative Writing, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

Tears of a clown

February 22, 2013 //
5

snippedy complaining

Snippedy, the clown, also had a suggestion for the anniversary. He wanted all the Dede puppets to have their own dedicated post. A post in which they are described in more detail. More than the two sentences on the “Characters” page, which he describes as a joke.

“This is too impractical” Detail said. “There are 46 Dedes. This would take more than a month.”

“It is easy for you,” Snippedy retorted. “You feature strongly in the story, but for me… I have been around since September and I have only been mentioned once or twice”.

“Hang on,” Devil pointed out. “You were one of the contenders for the ‘Super Dede competition’ before Christmas!”

“Yes” Snippedy admitted very subdued. “But I didn’t make into the finals. Absolutely nobody voted for me.”

“You should have been more active then” Harvey said. “You should have rustled up all your friends, like I did!”

Snippedy’s eyes got all watery when Harvey said this. We suspect it is a bit of a problem for him. He seems to be convinced he has no friends. True, the Dedes avoid him a little as he always tells the same stories, just like a broken record. When he first appeared they all laughed at his jokes. But once they had heard them for the third and fourth time, they weren’t quite as funny and their response was more a cringe than a laugh.

“What’s the use of being a Dede when you don’t get mentioned…” he said desolately. “I’ll tell you what, if there is an opening somewhere else, I will be the first one to hold my hand up to leave! Nobody will miss me anyway.”

“Cheer up!” Devil recommended, “Who wants to have a sour face around!”

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Categories Art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

Running out of ideas?

February 19, 2013 //
5

devil serious talk

Devil is the self-appointed spokesperson for the Dedes. Whenever they are worried about me, he pops around to have a “serious conversation” with me. Last night he turned up again. I had just settled on the sofa, when he tugged at my feet.

“So,” he said. “One year of blogging and you ran out of ideas?” Devil is not known for beating around the bush.

“What makes you think that?” I asked.

“You left it to us to come up with an idea for the anniversary!”

I burst out laughing.

“It’s not a laughing matter” Devil said indignantly. “You know what that means… don’t you? If you run out of ideas, that is the end of us, all of us!”

“Oh no, don’t worry” I apologised and told him a story about what happened to me once when I was teaching. Each week, I started the period by asking my students what we had done the week before to get them to focus their minds on where we are at. One year, the lecturer’s evaluations came in and one bright little thing had commented: “The lecturer doesn’t seem to have a good memory, she always asks us what we were doing the week before!”

“And how exactly does this fit in with your lack of ideas?” Devil asked a little annoyed.

“Of course I have a couple of things up my sleeve, but I wanted to know if you have anything in particular you would like to do. After all, it is about you, isn’t it? Not about me!” I explained.

Devil rolled his eyes and said he would go back to the others to ask them again. As he turned round he said: “But you know you scared the shit out of us… we really thought that is the end for us!”

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Categories Art, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network
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