we did it!

got outside and had a nice long walk!
and there was only blue skies and sun!
we even woke up very late, but managed to do it anyway. me and V, Y was working for these 3 days.

i entered the gasoline station café for the first time (to use their toilet), talked something extra with the supermarket cashier lady and the gas station chick. nice.

our closest party was cancelled and we made the decision to just stay at home. nice.
made banana-tofu-chocolate cake and coconut cookies.

V is asleep, maybe it is movie time for the parents. i heard a wine bottle open.

Happy New Year!

before christmas

this is how the table looked and looks like on quite many evenings.
we were just discussing this with Y - that he thinks we should try and become more active, to teach V the happiness of active outdoors more. instead of just... i don't the word for this... well, it includes crayons, paints, glue, scissors, papers. as for me, i'm very happy to be "creating" whatever, i'm happy even if i make food, even if i just do the dishes, if draw a little line somewhere. and happy for any creation of V's.
it is the dark season and it takes a lot of effort to get out. the light time of the day is short, even though we're past the worst and heading for light now. i think it's good to always find things to do at home. i'm such a bad housekeeper that there definitely is always some house chores undone, but more importantly, it is good to learn how to entertain yourself on gray, dark and rainy days. it can also lead to sending some of those cards or drawings to friends. and to planning a walking trip for tomorrow.

the brown doll being wrapped. i was happy making her too. sewing machine broken, sewing only by hand. nice and meditative. she came with a pillow like this and with 6 little packages (clothes).
so far she's only called brown doll.
(by the way, the old doll, Telda, took her pillow and her gray cardigan. i made a new red one, as was the order. there are a lot of colour demands these days.)

the tree

Hauskaa joulua!

i wish

Merry Christmas

friends and family in Finland, Germany, France, Denmark, Japan
+
blog friends in Spain, Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Holland, USA, Belgium, Portugal

see you soon!

Hanna

perfect day / dirty shirt

so,
we baked. as i said, i was almost strangely anxious to make gingerbread. right after breakfast i thought. V thought so as well, but before that she was absolutely determined to wear the shirt i had put in the laundry. getting over this took quite a while. i was determined as well: you will wear the exact same shirt in a bigger size, or in different colour. and you don't bake before you get dressed and brush your teeth. this episode about the dirty shirt i can understand, it really is about testing limits. we laughed about it afterwards, V didn't know why she had wanted the dirty shirt so badly.

i don't know if i ever had a favourite recipe but this one was not it. it was from the moomin cook book; with indian sugar and spelt flour but they taste very regular. (i don't recommend Pippi cookie molds to anyone!) in the evening I came by for the first time. i like her, every time we meet even more. and she liked our house, she understood what we're aiming at here.

sewing: the brown doll for V
crocheting: clothes for the brown doll
knitting: green
listening: Monade "Socialisme ou barbarie", Colleen "Les boîtes à musique", Robert Wyatt "Comic Opera"

early presents

V got a set of dollhouse tableware with plum motifs from my mum.
i got 4 Beautiful glasses from Y and V. they are so perfect. delicate but not too thin to use. i somehow wish they would've waited until christmas. reading: new ANP magazine, i like the cover pic so much. but i'm trying to avoid seeing some photos inside there again.

our news is that the car is broken. yesterday we walked to a 2-year birthday party, good exercise, i need it. got a ride back. i regret not taking a proper photo of our pouch number 2. V drew flowers on it, never saw flowers from her before.
V has caught cold, so that's another reason not to go to the kindergarten. today was cleaning day - after our guests left, i wish i could've done some cleaning before they came... tomorrow is baking day! i can't wait. the gingerbread dough is ready. V wants to also make a strawberry cake, she whispered to my ear before going to bed. she was also worried if there will be some playing time too.
i
love
being
at home.
i feel like i've been away on a trip or something.

i finished lay-out checking today while V was in the dollhouse. another one later this week, almost holiday. V has a ride to daycare on Wed and Thu, she has agreed to take the rides. that's quite something. also christmas party at the kindergarten. we have to plan how we get there, me from home and Y from town. i have to concentrate on making V's doll...

i'm excited about my dear K's new life in Kyoto and happy about another friend's new life as a father.

another new week. oh, i'm tempted to wish everyone a good week...
i will: have a wonderful and stress-free week!

my hood

celebrating unpretentiousness: on the way to the bakery. on a gray day. to the most delicious spice cake.
now there is snow again! and there is the biggest snowman in front of our house. no photos as i'm in a hurry in the morning and it's dark when i come back home.

my last day at the incense shop. i took photobooth pics of the beautiful cups by Niran Baibulat. i didn't find any good link to her, but she's one favorite. she came by yesterday. i've worked with these cups before at a gallery.


thinking this week: i love Helsinki, but i am happy about the change of life. i don't want to let go of my Helsinki identity, but it's not my home anymore. and the feeling is the same about any city that i have loved. i want to remember everything, i want to know my way around, i want to know everything that's new. not forget the tram routes and where their stops are. this week has helped me to make the distance smaller.

partying

on Sunday we went to 2 birthday parties: Y's aunt 50 years and N 3 years. the aunt got a video camera (not from us though), she needs it for filming herself dance on the beach. she's super nice. also her daughter, who has a 3-year old daughter too, V's second cousin. for N i knitted a scarf (organic wool + pompon of icelandic wool) packed in a pouch with V's portrait of him. i realised, happily, that since we moved i'm only making presents to everyone! far from shops what can you do... proud of myself. actually it's all featured in the blog too. V and N being entertained by Y.

V is into writing. we sent a letter to my bother and his girlfriend. especially the drawing of my brother is very resembling. he should get a shirt with such big buttons.

i'm missing my home life here in town, but it's a happy feeling. i like this shop.

tonight i'm gonna meet up with dear F, without any kids, yeah!

search again, where is my face

it was a good weekend. now the working week has begun.
i will be playing shop-keeper for a week, which means there is an unbreakable schedule in the morning. i have to make it to 9:40 bus. today V stayed in the kindergarten crying and i just left. her big round tears look so sad and beautiful. well, here i am now, looking at her photos from the hair-game and from the birthday-party from yesterday. i could work too. but i don't need to rush. it's almost like christmas holiday already. but i have a project i should not forget: V's present wish is a brown doll that i would make. the sweetest wish ever. when i asked her what would she like to have from my brother+ his girlfriend (they asked), she said "i'll have think about it" (pitää miettiä).

i made a new advent calendar, simple style. today was the number that she knows. biggest successes so far: green-green striped underpants and crocheted sock-shoes from flea-market.

on the underpants day V was inspired to dress all in stripes: stripy undershirt, stripy shirt, stripy pantyhose, stripy pants and suddenly: polka-dot socks. i didn't take a photo (it was a kindergarten day), but we made some stripe drawings. there are also winter-worm and summer-spring-worm.

city day

look, it's another set of random photos. maybe not so random, 2 themes: notebook pages and 3 steps of the brown cardigan.

right now i'm here to brag about our fantastic city day. (before i was very definite about calling Helsinki a "town" - now it is the opposite, my big city.)
-first of all we left quite late, but i stayed calm.
-i picked up my 4 kg of indian sugar straight from Bolivia and 1 kg of rose salt.
-we had a nice lunch at Kiasma (actually the lunch was bad but we had nice time)
-visited Salakauppa and A was there - i'm so happy for them, they have created themselves a wonderful spot in the world of design, making the world better i think. and i have a wish list in their shop...
-picked up keys to here. they had beautiful window decoration, i will be looking at it all of next week. i will try to drag the camera there one day...
-meeting with F and the girls, always nice. looking out of their window, for a second i thought i'm going back home to old home, it feels like my body remembers the route.
-then we went to see "the christmas street" and "the christmas window". oh traditions. V was very impressed by the lights. she had this look on her face, like "can this be true". that's where we also met up with Y.
-then saw the exhibition of Anne Koskinen. her work is very impressive. V seemed to think so too.
-saw the calendar designed by Y, it was very nice, very pretty. my month has Helene Schjerfbeck's red-haired woman!
-knitting with the organic yarn on the way back - that yarn makes me want to have a baby.

that's it. i was traveling today with a very big girl. and also a grown-up woman. now it's teatime.

somethings

random pictures... looks like i'm avoiding work.
what Y's been busy with these last times is the oven. connecting to the chimney.
bottom: a little collection of things i "found" when i was talking to H through the window.
i think i forgot something.

tomorrow is city day.
next whole week is a city week and J & A will come!!!
lots of birthdays in December.
listening to Sebadoh!

anger

i can't believe i'm only writing about cookies.
me and my daughter suffer from anger.
i don't mean Kenneth Anger, who is present as well (i read a long article on him and a dvd box arrived to Y).
we get angry about a lot of things, and very angry too. it's very dark and depressing with the snow gone.
i thought i need some guidance and looked up recommendations for helpful books. i had almost forgotten about the "nature-child" forum (i wouldn't call it "chatting", but is that the word?), but my password was still valid. one book i ordered, "The Anger book", it arrived extremely quickly. maybe they know people are desperate when they order it. another i got from the village library! (i was surprised.) it was labeled in a quite scary shelf, and it made me feel like we really have a problem. i guess it's all normal, but oh man, how heavy. it feels so triumphant when i manage to stay all calm and reasonable. stay adult. don't go along with the feelings. offer safety.

before i got any of those books we tried anger drawing. there's thunder clouds, lightning clouds, thistles and nettles. in the last corner Hanna and V. it helped.

if i would make an anger drawing it would look like a 16-year old me made it. i'm a bit hesitating to try. of course i could just burn it afterwards.

last night i read about anger, again, and started to knit green.

practising 2

my very long-term dream is to have a himmeli, a Finnish straw decoration thing (maybe in Sweden too). i got some straw, and was trying to make the basic form... i should get some instructions! i want to get this book. i was borrowing it in the summer, but didn't study any instructions... and actually a himmeli would be too fitting in this house. it would've been just perfect against our old light grey stone wall in the kitchen, hanging from almost 3 meters...

and more cookies! i got a recipe from tiny happy, a blog i have recently found. i don't know why this late, the name is cute and inviting and puhti has it in her blog list. anyway, very nice ones. i put sesame seeds instead of coconut and organic cream instead of condensed milk. and a non-gluten version (for my aunt) with buckwheat flour, buckwheat flakes and potato flour. they were wonderful!

a hat for a 1-year old. knitted with organic wool, first time, it is so, so soft, extremely wonderful. and it was exactly right size. i hope to see her wearing it soon... very nice party at our friends' yesterday. they are really good at making parties. with 3 kids, there are quite many parties! (now, when i checked at tiny happy to make the link, there was a similar hat!)

it's been a good and long Sunday.
waking up late,
reading Ugly Duckling twice,
taking bath,
sewing a bit,
making cookies again (with an almond on top),
making some corrections,
making soup,
organising one corner

practising

cookies... i don't have any good recipes. i'm obsessed with baking with less sugar and full-corn, or i would like my bakings to have some nutritional value. well, they are very hard, "do you want me to break my teeth!". coconut cookies (very strange recipe) that taste nice, i think. we had a girl over from next door, she and V helped me bake, and she said "yuck, tastes like bread dough!" when she tasted the dough. the other ones are lemon poppy-seed cookies from the book in the bottom. very hard also. maybe i'm doing something very wrong. soon it's time to make piparkakkuja (christmas cookies), they don't fail. unless they get burnt.

i should write about something else. anger management.