tulips tomorrow

mixed photos: another hardcore pie, lingonberry and apple with ice-cream. finnish sour apples are the best! it's funny, i never make apple pies in the winter or spring. V with new autumn hat, she picked this yarn in the yarnshop. who am i to resist, even if it has some synthetic... as it is autumn, it's time for haramaki ("belly wrap") that V got last christmas (fine little day had this in her blog too). it is from our good friend who just told me she's not coming back here until next year...

today we went to Taidehalli ("art hall") again to see an exhibition that's ending tomorrow. there was a fog/smoke room, Speechless. it was weird and wonderful being inside, V was a bit scared to go there, but was excited in there. our friends C and O and baby M were there too. and the artist T herself. and her kids.

me and V haven't been to Manteli on last two weekends, but tomorrow we go! we bought flower onions, red (V's choice) and white tulips and white flowers, whose name i forgot already. Y is there, making the bathroom. feels like a very long break. trees must have gotten barer, and it gets dark so much earlier. exciting to go, and a bit scary - winter is so close.

red shirt for burma

a third post in one day? this still had to be today. demonstrating at home.

bubbles

yesterday my other birthday present arrived from e-bay. V has learned to make sounds with the bubble wrap. Y & V opened it in the kitchen and hid it somewhere. V said it was a sun. i mean, i know what it is, but i want to wait for the day, open a beautifully wrapped package, and have a sunny coffee moment on Manteli veranda!! with all the windows in their places! and finger panels on the walls, ok?!
polka dot pants are made with a Juju pattern and a fleamarket curtain.

dollhouse and lost boy

i remember as a kid i always built a house for dolls or barbies on a chair; there was upstairs and downstairs. this chair-box became a house for little guys while we are waiting for the dollhouse.




this is the last photo of Boy. he got lost on wednesday after our dance class (mothers + kids) and before lunch with my aunt. he's been V's favorite to take with in the red shoulder bag, and now he's gone. he just got a new face and house and everything. if you see Boy between Ruohonjuuri and Zucchini, please report!

a thought and a moustache

there haven't been too many thoughts on moving to the countryside - i guess it's their time once we actually get there. this counts as a thought: i was emptying a shelf in the big closet, and found some old Purple magazines. this photo is one of my magic pictures; it is a portrait of happy life. i thought so when i first saw it and still do. and in a way it looks like our future scenery (well, without the distant mountains), or maybe it's just the atmosphere. nothing glamorous or breathtaking. happy simple life. the photo is by Michitaro Suzuki. (i don't know anything about him.) also, the home feeling comes from the person on the right, who has the silhouette of my mum (70's).

we are all in town this weekend, Y & me went to separate birthday parties. where i went, a moustache was required:

this would need another attempt. like most things.

letting go

usual situation this time of day: V won't sleep, so i can't start working. she's in her bed organising all these guys and their sheets and blankets forever. we've been to a dance class in the morning. then shopping cat food and fabric for V's doll: it's supposed to be green with black hair and red dress, green eyes, small nose, white hat and red small bag. we'll see how this proceeds. the green we found was perfect, a bit classy cotton with satin. i bought 15 cm. 20 cm for the dress. the sales girl was not too happy about my purchases.
the title and the picture are about my vision to have a golden crocheted curtain for Manteli bathroom. i can't crochet so nicely, or at least not so big. i tried a little bit... i didn't let go of the idea though. i have to find a proper pattern or ask someone else. the bathroom window is towards forest/hill, but i think it would be nice to have something there anyway. i always have this image of a prisoner on the run, hiding in dark places. this prisoner is not so dangerous, i guess he just wants to go unnoticed. but i don't want him to have clear view to the bathroom anyway. yeah... the gold thread looked so beautiful there on the table.

nature morte

we have a problem. i am in love with this wall paper. i want to have it somewhere in MY house. we already bought wall paper for bathroom (it will be on the dry side) and other one that is probably for the "hall". i always thought the "kamari" (chamber? old house word) would be green (sometimes i call it "salon"), but now i started to think the birds would go there. but Y is against it. he reminded me of the green color. he now likes this other wallpaper, that does look great, but i don't want live with that one. for now, the solution is that we paint it green, and i'd like to paint something on it. green on green. flowers and stuff, with the help of an overhead projector. a friend of mine painted café walls like that once. maybe i start campaigning that the birds get the hall, then it's not too many birds for the mister. the industrial light switches are in the picture as well, and hooks. i love hooks. i have more, and that's something i'm getting as a birthday present (Y can't keep a secret).



this may sound like a joke, but this is something i'm happy about too. kitchen autumn decoration! pihlajanmarjoja. rönnbär. what is the english word then?


miss Cousteau is serving tea. ("this fits me well!)

Karin Mamma Andersson

we had a wonderful morning, picked up kilos of organic vegetables, saw the amazing exhibition of Karin Mamma Andersson and had lunch in a small italian place. after the tram ride, me and V met up with Y and his colleague K, who is a great guy, one of the best people in this world. the exhibition is only open until sunday, so i had been worrying if i already missed it. getting up the stairs to Taidehalli, it felt like it's too wonderful to start looking, or that there are too many paintings and each one would need a lot of time. it's not so often that i get the feeling that i'd want to have a painting at home, but there were so many of hers that i can't imagine to get bored with. i was fantasizing of hanging one in Manteli... when we went in, it said on the ticket counter that Mamma Andersson book by Steidl is sold out. on the way out though, new copies just arrived, with her signature too. after a while it will be nice to look at the book, not yet. the real texture of the paints and layers is still in my head.

V told me yesterday that i have lovely hair! o sweet daughter.


Boy and Baby sleep in little chick's egg, the others came to look.

happy about these

V's scarf became a bag instead. i thought it's too late to have a cotton scarf, and V got very happy about the idea of a little bag. she chose the buttons herself. she's carrying Boy and Baby in it.


today was a grumpy day for me and V, but we made a pie: lingonberry-raspberry-apple and nuts, sesame seeds and sunflower seeds. and whole wheat and honey. very nice. i like my pies nutritious and not too sweet!


is this called rose cabbage? they are so beautiful! from the market square.

we got the kitchen tap in the mail, and it's so much nicer than we expected! big and heavy. and the red and blue buttons are super cool! also two new light switches. also big, and very tight. that's what industrial means i guess. and i know what i will get for my birthday in one month! everything from ebay...

Joanna Newsom etc

this guy joined our family last week! a present for V from Osaka. seems it got the same name as it's sender. nice reminder of a dear friend we don't get to meet so often.

yesterday me and Y went to see Joanna Newsom, V was sad to miss a concert. it was great. she's such an impressive artist. and she had a very cool ensemble playing with her. it's so rare to go out nowadays, especially together. many sweet people too, wish i could see them more. there's some other harp playing in town later this week, at a child friendly time.

Manteli weekend was changing the polyurethan insulation around the windows of the old side to wonderful linen insulation. it was nice work, V played outside and slept long, so i got to participate... there was a dramatic difference to the feel and sound of the rooms, now that there's all that wool. and it was warmer too. from now on, it's big steps: papering the walls and putting on wall boards after the wool dries a bit more. we have good heavy wooden boards from Y's work (they've been used as exhibition walls). it will make such a big change. spaces will look smaller though. hardest part of the house now is the bathroom, i think. we have this worried bird to have in there somehow.

blow wool

this week we got insulation on the new side of the house. men with a blowing machine will came and shot eco-wool on the walls. it is made of recycled paper, no nasty chemicals. it's amazing that they still sell the disgusting poisonous glass-wool and all unbreathable materials for houses, even though people should know better nowadays. a former colleague of Y's was just cursing the hardware stores for selling and recommending only unecological shit. we know (Y knows, finds out, tells me) what we want to get, but finding things can be difficult. manufacturer says that their linen insulation is sold in big hardware stores, but maybe one out of five big ones actually had it. and it's not because it's sold out. the clerks have never even heard about it. no matter how ecological we try to be, there's still many things that are not solved with natural materials...
the picture is of light switches that we missed on e-bay yesterday. we have got quite nice ones already and our electrician is quite positive about them. it's a mix of different styles again, like everything else!

shoes shoes shoes

today i've been wasting my time on looking for shoes for V instead of working. and finding ONLY hell expensive beautiful shoes. red and brown boots in the bottom are from trippen. handmade shoes from berlin. i didn't know that they make kid's shoes too. i wish i didn't. (i found loads of very ugly shoes too. but many of them are expensive as well.)