dear home

It will be so good to be away from you for a while. We'll have a fresh new start when I come back, ok?

Love,

H

I was ready earlier than I expected, some more photos to take and send, then it is Freedom! But I haven't packed yet (who cares?). But I have sewn some missing buttons and half of a skirt.

Yesterday I chose to miss the Deerhoof concert (I regret it) and instead started sewing the skirt and watched a very good film. Ended up staying up almost as late as the concert would've taken. It feels like I'm getting my life back! The film was "Thumbsucker". Mike Mills was great before, now he's even greater. Every frame so serene and collected. Tilda Swinton was wonderful. Lou Pucci was sensitive, charming and fresh. I love it when funny and absurd even meets touching.

The photo is a little bit dedicated to Celia. From our table, continuation to yesterday. Zebra and flamingo have become friends now that ostrich died. They're eating some kind of easter leftover soup with feathers and pieces of yarn and "willow-cats". V said it's a soup with carrot, tofu and lentils.

C U in May

traces

Of breakfast, a photo from yesterday morning. The table is set by V and the porridge plates are already in the sink. Porridge with raisins or cinnamon and sugar or maple syrup etc. I had sencha-mandarin tea and V had chamomile with honey, and milk. Dried fruit. Today I had jasmine tea and V had hot milk with honey (we both have caught a bit of cold). This is my unofficial participation to Corner views, Wednesday themes (links here).

Well, it's another day with fire under my ass (that's a finnish saying). 2 deadlines tomorrow, nothing is packed. But the washing machine is on, I've taken out recyclable stuff. Both cats have started to sleep up in V's loft. (That is another spot missing things: wallpaper, stairs, little fence, double window. But when the upstairs gets done, then there will also be a secret door to the loft.)

I'm gonna listen to music and work. Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed are coming to Helsinki in August. I will listen to one of them. Once a guy told me I remind him of Laurie Anderson. I thought that was pretty cool. I've forgotten his name again. He reminded me of Osamu Tezuka. That's pretty cool too, considering the era where O.T. is from.

entrance

...to the bathroom.
Things that are missing from this picture: the door and the wallpapers.

More urgent matters: upstairs needs floor boards and roof insulation. And stairs.

Out in the yard we now have numbered logs, a puzzle that will become a warehouse/workroom/guest room.
Y got the brilliant idea of building that house so that it would be facing the Manteli house. We would get a cosy inner yard and the new house would block the view to the ugly extension our neighbour has.

I'd also like curtains. I bought, washed and ironed some fabrics. Actually they are meant for V's summer wardrobes, but they'd make nice curtains too.

What I'd like the most right now, though, is that I'd get my work done somehow, and that we would make in time to the airport in the end of the week.

We had a nice weekend with many wonderful people, a special weekend, one of them is L who will be our cat-sitter!

spring styles

V's new spring legs. Last year it was green too. F got these for her daughter and I run to get them for us as well. Commercial looking but still quite nice.

V is not allowed to take this head band out yet, because she needs a hat, but she has it on every second she's at home and awake. She also has a cute little ribbon hair style she copied from a painting by Auguste Renoir (A Girl with a Watering Can, 1876 -- my mum sends her a lot of postcards even thought they meet almost every week). Hair band inspiration came from the Milk magazine, and we went to a super girly accessory shop. I was as amazed as V was. But it's all such junk and made in inhuman conditions.

I'm celebrating a little bit right now: I have finished 2 of my 4 deadlines. I still have one big job to do and one nice job before we pack our bags and fly to Italy!!

I feel bad about not talking about the house at all. Now the busy season is starting again... A lot has to be done before there's 4 of us living in here.

easter, easter

Easter branches from the kindergarten (a future topic: the non-personal crafting they do there) -- wash the windows soon...
A witch (from the kindergarten too; I like the shadow, but it's not made by my child)
An Indian carrot cake, a side product from making carrot juice!
Two little chocolate eggs

cats

Photos of the previously mentioned easter cats. My favourite one is the one on top. The feather cat is quite nice too. Both by V. I glued some of the paper scraps. There is also the book I translated. Hope it sells well and I get to do more.

I'm totally stressed with working, I have to get a lot of stuff done before our trip. Despite that V has been staying home 2 days now. Yesterday because I wanted to see if she's sick, she had been so tired at the kindergarten, today because we had a terrible fight over something insanely unimportant. A grown-up, well-balanced mother could've said lightly: "don't be silly". This mother had one of the worst fits of her mothering life.

But we met up with I for coffee (we got some mämmi made by her!!),
saw leaves of the blue spring flower
(...sinivuokko siis, ikivihreitähän ne lehdet on),
saw swans again, and 2 cranes and a pheasant couple.
And cleaned about 2 square meters of the veranda.

i have seen

Swans.
And more swans.
The snow disappear.
My dear F. It often feels like we don't manage to concentrate on talking enough about everything, but it is just wonderful to see her. She's beautiful and my style icon.
Anu Tuominen exhibition at Anhava. Didn't make it to the opening, but made it anyway!
Easter crafting take shape; today was our Art Association's crafting workshop at a fair. Cats and sheep.
L's wonderful spring hair -- very inspiring.
My baby a bit sick. It is so rare I don't how to be around her.
My book. ("my")
Our friend's new poetry book.

Photo from the cleaned doll-house. No photos of anything mentioned above. Very quiet and calm weekend after a city day. Observing her state, is she sick or not?

finds

Today is April fool's day. I tried to explain it to V in the morning, but I'm very bad at coming up with good foolings. So now she thinks it's about saying that some creature has moved into your house... I bought Y's story even though we were just talking about "aprilling" (in finnish we have a verb!).

These are my, our, two recent flea-market finds. I'm so happy, especially about the pan! It's like brand new. Under the pan a little house improvement: the oven got a blackening treatment. I've been wanting that to happen for over 1 year. The dress was marked size 110 cm, I was prepared for it to be quite short for V like old dresses are (she's a bit under 110 cm), but it's like a shirt. But I'll find ways to wear it. And I guess I'm hoping to get another girl.