A bouquet from Vieno Motors
My sister and her baby
My sister's dog
My sister's dog
Our little black cat
A bouquet from Vieno Motors
The year is ending with a more active social life, I like that. It's been a heavy year I would say. So so many divorces and break-ups around us. The latest one was announced on the morning of 24th. I've been saying that when we break up we'll do it with a more unique timing. There's still one day to join the divorcés of 2014. My work scene has been quite heavy, and it even sounds heavier than how I've experienced it. But I've been ok financially, that's a welcome change. My ok is on the limits of poor, statistically, but I don't feel poor. But it's so good when you don't have to worry and use a lot energy for money thinking. The kids are growing, they're having a good life. What nice things did I do this year? I have to think about that. I saw Boyhood at a movie theatre.
(Oh this is the 700th post)
Our christmas this year is:
my sister, her man, their baby (6 months), their dog
a beautiful tree from our friends
no stress
some more ironing
date cake
raw chocolate cake
smoked tofu
vegetables with herbs
salad
glögi
lots of beautiful white snow
something else too, what? too many presents
little V is taking his nap under the christmas tree
This month really goes fast. Now we are officially on holiday! Yesterday my baby played the accordion a lot at the school party and it went so well. I am so proud of her. So happy that my child is experiencing music, learning, playing, feeling. Her class recited the christmas gospel and she was one of the three angels too. I like the school parties, I like the little community we have. We went to a pizza party at friends' house afterwards and came back home not too late.
Christmas would need some work, some cleaning and cooking and wrapping. My sister, her man and their baby will come spend the christmas with us. That's special and wonderful. One problem is that I ordered some wooden toys from Germany, and that lousy company still didn't send me my package. Also they don't answer e-mails. Never again from that place. I still didn't finish my knittings either. That doesn't stop me from planning new ones.
I've found out that I like ironing.
What I used to shoot before: the field series. Don't miss it. But it's pretty. I liked it. There's a one-year old kid in our old house and a puppy. We've lived here for 2 years.
I'm back to life, back to work. One kid told me at school today that "you're not allowed to get sick anymore". It came from a very unexpected mouth, nice. 2 more days, then the christmas party. Then holiday!!
I honestly thought I would post one picture every day in December. Archive pictures that I like for some reason -- easy. But apparently not. After a couple of missed days, I thought ok i will post "2, 3, 4, 5" all at once. Oh well who cares. If it doesn't happen it doesn't happen. The first one was a new one though. This is 15. We had just put up the Paradise wallpaper. I don't miss it. I get this strange feeling in my throat or somewhere when I look at photos from the early Manteli days. Maybe you thought I was happy then. But I was not happy. Right now I'm not too happy either because I'm sick since almost one week. Ok I was happy about some things. Now I'm just tired. But it will get better again. Christmas is super soon. I have an orange vest and siberian tiger socks to knit.
First of December, already! I'm thinking about a lot of stuff. So many things to do and think and so little time. That's how I like it, but still, I'd like to get some more things done. Same old story. This is my christmas calendar. Maybe. Stay tuned.
... just for one or two days. After the snow is gone it's just dark. I don't mind. I'm usually not too bothered about winter until after new year's. The darkness is so intense that I find it a bit funny. Not that I'm all that cheerful a person either. And you know, I have the table series, the table usually loaded with all kinds of shit, but in my house, every horizontal place is full of stuff. I could be doing the series wherever. What is good about the kitchen table is that it's changing more.
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I'm working with kids again, school kids now. I feel so happy that I was able to move on from a situation that was so unhealthy. (And as the situation includes children it's even more unhealthy. It just got so bad I had to quit. I even got little V a good babysitter that I do trust.) School kids are something else. The oldest ones I'm dealing with are 12. I started planning my "Japan club" again. All the kids are into Japan. My club would be an improvised combination of language, culture, crafts.
Working makes me pretty happy. I like to have my work time and free time clearly separated -- that's something I haven't experienced so much. I like being nice to kids. But I'm also super strict. My goal is to be an ok grown-up they meet for a limited time in their lives. Every Friday feels like a party day. Well a party day at home, baking, doing laundry etc. On Saturday there will be a real party, a house party for grown-ups.
Some tables again.
1. Preparing for little V's birthday. He's doing it "the Carrot Palace" way, you know? No? I didn't know either. (Peeling all around the whole table.)
2. Quick morning on a school fair day. She's wearing a finnish national dress of Munsala are (or so I'm told).
3. Y is aware of my series. "You should take a photo of this, what a chaos!" (Nothing new. But the situation has been a bit better since the birthday party.)
4. is a lemon squeezer I just got. Cute. Made in Germany.
I started working this week! It feels very nice. The problem is my little one doesn't have a daycare place anymore. But I'm lucky to have a friend who's taking good care of him. And my days are short. A new chapter in life!
Time flies. 40 years, for me to exist on this earth, have flown by. I'm pretty old! Forty sounds very cool, I think. I got a lipstick, never had one before.
We went to Estonia for a little bit, I hadn't been there in years. (It's not so nice to be a Finn there.)
I would need a babysitter, and a job. Not necessarily though!
The season is changing and the life is changing too.
I miss experiencing more culture. We saw the dance solo of a friend recently and it was great. So thought-provoking and true and funny too.
These days I'm into knitting, The Knick (hbo series), firewood, rugs, braiding and talking on the phone. And lipstick!
Little V has turned five years old. I've been a mother of two for 5 years. I love being that. The top photo: "Mum take my picture!" Perfect, with one shot. The invitation became quite perfect too. The cake, not so perfect.
What a strange sky one evening.
Sticks and stones, we went to the forest this evening and there was one basket for berries and another one for sticks. There are sooo many important sticks.
The table is set at the play cabin. The girls slept there one night, V and her friends. It looked super cosy. And they claimed it was, their whole day was "way too wonderful". I wish I was 9.
My vase from Berlin flea-market, V's from the wonderful lady next door (who no longer lives there). (I wish the house was wonderful too, and we'd get new wonderful neighbours.)
I'm having a very strange period in life right now. I quit working. I am called brave a lot. I wonder how this situation will turn out. Probably it will turn out wonderful! (It is quite wonderful now, I'm happy with my decision.)
The table series goes on... The top one is from May, I forgot to post it before, the rest more recent.
Thank you for new fox bag orders! I got the foxes made bigger and the fox bag is now perfect. Merci, merci, mille fois merci Anaïck!
O came for a visit some weeks ago and it was so nice. We went to a music festival in Turku, to a performance festival here and watched "Louie". Yesterday other dear Berlin friends left. I love to have friends over. (Which reminds of something. And that's sad. Some time ago I read the blog of a friend that we visited last year. And I read that she was not happy at all to have us over. She was so relieved to see us leave that it broke my heart a bit. I don't think we'll meet again.)
What I think is one of the biggest differences in people and what affects the relationships the most, is the level of privacy they have. I have quite a low level of privacy. I don't have many secrets and I like to open my doors to people. Obviously, I don't like so many people, but I do like many more than I used to. What a sell-out I've become. Anyway. I don't get along with people who are very private and un-open. I'd like my house to be a Jonas Mekas house with doors open wide and I want my kids to meet a lot of different people. Like in "As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty".
Little V's projects and a paper after cleaning the red currants.
Sending off some fox bags. I love my new lace bed cover. Flea-market find from last week. This is how it went: my aunt gave me 40€ to have lunch with the kids in town (she likes to do that even if I tell her she doesn't need to), we went by a flea-market, just a quick look, and there it was. I paid for the lunch with my card. I love the fox bag too. I'm using this one that has the white stripe on the left (the other ones don't).
The playhouse has walls (unfinished), it is super cosy inside. Y made a super door for it!
It's hot here, I like it. Today we went to feed the chicken and the cats we're taking care of for a couple of days. Unexpectedly nice. I'm not one of those (many) people who want a lot of animals. I want only cats. It might be that our little beautiful black one will get kittens. We also washed some rugs. Then there was thunder! Heavy thunder, exciting. I'm not ready to go back to work, I'm not.
Pictures from some other days. One day she played the accordion under the apple tree. ♡
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Olen näköjään ottanut kotikuvia. Olisipa eilen ollut kamera mukana rannalla, oli niin hieno performanssi. Mahtava ukkonen oli tänään. Ennen sitä pestiin vähän mattoja, ja ne ehtivät melkein kuivuakin. On ollut kaikenlaista kivaa ja hyvää ja ihanaakin, mutta en ole ollenkaan valmis takaisin töihin. En ollenkaan. Se painaa koko ajan niskassa. Asenneongelma. Tarvitsisin jotain super-erityistä vielä.
We've been going to these evening swims. We haven't been doing much. I like having some extra kids over. I'm not sure what birds those are but there's often a great crested grebe with 10 little ones. (So many? As I checked for the name in wikipedia, I saw they usually lay 3-6 eggs.)
We have done something, we've been to the Sun festival, children's party again and organized one here last weekend. It was good. I really like that. I think I'd like to be a florist. I'd like to have a shop like Saipua.
I'd like to take the kids to a lighthouse.
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Voisin olla tuolla järvellä joka päivä. Mutten oikeasti halua olla siellä enkä missään JOKA päivä. Oikeasti haluaisin olla floristi. Ennemmin floristi kuin leipuri. Voisin olla leipomon myyjä.
