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.