a royal jewelry box

a diamond daisy for queen daisy

the greenland crown

a more contemporary headpiece that fits the queen's up-dos. 

some of the many honorary titles and orders the queen has been given by various countries over her 50 year reign.

the pearl and diamond set that the queen often travels with, since the crown jewels aren't allowed to leave the country. 

a versatile three-piece set that the queen often wears.

this is probably a bad blog post because i know so few of the details of these pieces. i went to an exhibition at the amailenborg museum (that's the residence of the danish queen). it features the queen's jewelry. actually, the royal family's jewelry, not just the queen's. it is quite well done - you get a listening device that you scan along the way and hear the queen tell about the jewelry on display in her own words. my friend and i were speaking english, so the docent handed the device to us, set to english. the english voice was some snotty brit and hearing the explanations in her accent was utterly off-putting, so we had to go back and have them set them to danish. it was so much warmer and more palatable in the queen's own words. it was actually quite interesting, the difference that made. the brit imitating the queen sounded so condescending and the danish queen doesn't sound like that at all. 

and it wasn't all historical tiaras passed down from the russian tsars or the swedish royal family, there was also a pair of blue plastic earrings that the queen bought one summer in matas, a shop with an outlet in every town that features makeup, shampoo, nail polish and other personal care items. 

there's so much history and thought behind the pieces. and so much thought behind when they are worn and by whom. and who made them and for which occasion. it made me glad that i live my ordinary life, though it made me want to do so more deliberately. 

doing hard things

a moment of serenity in the greenhouse when i got home.

dang, today was hard. a very long project is about to come to fruition. a year and a half of work. and weirdly, today, one day before launch, we found ourselves in a holding pattern. there was a major bug and the development team was working frantically, and the rest of us just had to wait. finally, the decision was made to just roll back, without really figuring out what the hell caused the bug. and although most of the day was spent waiting and not really doing all that much, damn, it takes a psychological toll. i swear, we're all going to need therapy after this. i am completely wrung out this evening. i was going to keep editing and checking pages, but instead, i'm telling myself that no one will actually read all. the. pages. tomorrow when we launch in the first two languages, so, as the danes say, "det skal nok gå." (it'll be all right) and i'm taking myself off to bed after a long, hot shower and a rather large glass of wine. i'll put a cozy mystery (this time, the royal spyness series by rhys bowen), curl up with a cat and fall asleep. the hard part isn't over yet, but it will all be easier after a good night's sleep. and thank odin for good colleagues.