miss december

In 2009 I was Miss August, in 2010 I was spoilt with being both Miss January, Miss July and Cover Girl. This year the photos I had entered with to the municipal environmental calendar competition were of a better quality (if I may say so). They showed the varying landscape, architecture and nature of the municipality and I did feel they were really spot on for some of the months. Even if one can never anticipate the competition or take anything for granted (which I never do), but one can have hopes.

So when I got the calendar the other week I was struck by four things;

:: the quality of the chosen photos this year was higher (I adore the October picture with frozen apples on the ground)
:: 7 photos of 13 show water
:: 9 photos of 13 show motifs that could be taken anywhere and can not be specifically identified as taken within this municipality
:: the picture I won a month with this year is really not one of my proudest. It was simply the best one I could find for the month of December (you're allowed to send in 12 photos max and I try to find a decent one for each month so not to compete with myself.). And it's of my neighbourhood. Actually my street. Even a part of my house. Only reason for taking the picture was that it would be nice to see how it looked here amidst all snow in December 2009. Little did one know that December of 2010 would be even snowier...

But at least I won a month. Which is nice. Even if I would have thought it would have been February or May who made it to the calendar. But yes, nice.

What made it even nicer though was the discovery of what this year's prize was. One I'm really, really, really happy about. Spot on. When I opened the box and discovered four candles and the label "Design House Stockholm" I so hoped it would be that candlestick I'd been coveting but which definitely wasn't on any top-to-get-list in a house full of candlesticks and candle holders...

And it was! Hooray!! It's a wooden candle holder which is really versatile and can be folded together or open up in 4 (or 7) arms. Available in black, grey, red or white. Designed by Jonas Grundell and befittingly called Nordic Light. I would have loved to have one in red of course, but when I thought about it I felt black (of which I'm no fan, ya' know) would go better anytime of the year whilst a red candle holder is pretty Christmassy. So pleased am I indeed.

Though minus for the fact that label on bottom says "made in Thailand", since a piece in wood and steel, designed in Sweden, local production would of course be the obvious and decent thing from an eco point of view...