FROST AND LONG AFTERNOON SHADOWS

We had a few days of sudden frost.
The few leaves and sad flowers that are still around were covered in a crisp white layer, sparkling in the pale sun.

Narnia!

It always bugged me when the winter in Narnia ended.
But here the frost went away for now and we're back to normal autumn weather which is for the better I think. Come again in a month!

UPDATES AND INSPIRATION

As comments come and go, sometimes more, sometimes less, I've made these small positive reaction buttons for you after each posts. As most of you probably have noticed by now. (In fact I've had them for over a year but as my template is so old school they would not show and I had to ask my old pal google for help, which usually solves most problems, the technical ones at least). 

Then, I don't know how many of you ever browse or  notice the tags, but those of you who do might have seen some strange words among those lately, which would be tags in Finnish. If you wonder why, the reason is that I am part of a new inspiration network for Finnish bloggers, which was launched today.

Indiedays Inspiration is a site hosted by Finland's most popular blog portal Indiedays, gathering posts in a feed from 300 of the most interesting blogs over here. You can find and follow new blogs trough the inspiration site.

I totally suck at following anything, I never log in to Bloglovin' anymore for example, but I've tried out the inspiration site before it launched and it actually works quite easily, you can just pick articles from the flow, gathered under headlines such as fashion, food, lifestyle etc (hence the tags in Finnish I mentioned) without following anyone in particular.  Most of the blogs are in Finnish, some in Swedish, a few in english (like mine, well, obviously).

What else? I am having weekly giveaways over at my Facebook site  (which yes, you have to like to be able to join) at the end of each week. You can find the competitions straight trough this link: http://bit.ly/PonDjs
There will still be contest over here at the blog as usual every now and then too!

Last, my affiliate for this month is Aha! Shopping which offers you a 5% off, equal to their silver membership duiscount, with the coupon code: freelancers! Add freelancers to the coupon code bar and press validate before checkout and you're good to go.

SUNDAY / MOSTLY IN THE KITCHEN

Today when I woke up it was all white outside! Very pretty yes, but it's still only October! Way too cold too soon, brrr!

After a short walk amongst the white I spent most of my day in the kitchen.

The light in there was quite nice today.

It's surprising how strong the late autumn light can sometimes be, when it happens to come around. 

(And hey, only 8 weeks and we start going towards longer, lighter days again!)

I made a set of fig fudge to snack and lunch on for the week to come.

And put some mint from the garden I've dried into jars. Mint tea sessions ahead, oh yeah.

I put Dag out on the kitchen cold porch to sleep, after he'd been trying out different moods.

I've been cleaning up and organizing in there (the porch). The old postcards I've had in my kitchens before will hang there soon. But let's check back on that space some other time.

Back to the kitchen! I tried out a raw pumpkin pie, using pretty much this recipe from Jolie. Halloween!

And pumpkin-tomato soup for dinner with the rest of the pumkin. The soup got a nice full taste by adding uncooked bellpepper, onions and garlic plus a few dried apricots, fresh herbs and sun dried tomatoes just before mashing it all together. With lots of garlic, to keep the Halloween vampires away. Haha. (I often add some sundried tomatoes, a few apricots -or dates- or olives as spices in soups and sauces.)

I served the soup with popped aramanth, hemp seeds and chipotle tabasco. 

Possible leftovers works well as a pasta sauce.

The pumpkin pie was ment to be eaten with (a raw food) licorice sauce but I didn't have all that was needed for that s made mine of coconut cream, anis, some of that mint, agave and a hint of chardamom. Turned out rather nice togehter with a cup of black coffee!

And little monsieur shoutey kept quiet for a while and sported his smurf / Snowwhite and the seven dwarfs look.

DOUBLE KNITS AND FALLEN LEAVES

There's something about cold and humid weather that I like. Like, only when there's an option to go inside whenever one feels like it though. But you know,  fallen, wet molding leaves, raw and moist air (that will make you sweat like hell if you have to walk fast or say, attempt any raking).  I gathered the leaves in our yard into a few big piles and was waiting for a Halloween storm to come and spread them back all over the place.

But instead it snowed.

I AM ACTUALLY JUST ABOVE AVERAGE HEIGHT / ELLE STYLE AWARDS 2012

I went to the Elle Style Awards yesterday. I didn't manage to take any photos before the event (surprise...) so here's the classic gala cover-pose photo instead.

I wore a vintage dress I have had for years but never really got around to wear.
The yellow pearls are old and paired up wit my yellow shoes, the bag is vintage.



I should have chosen the higher pair of shoes though. I look like a midget next to Tyra and Fiona...

DAG.

Dag is over four months old already! Time flies. But then again squeezing him out it feels like forever ago.

WHY NOT

I never really thought of wearing bright red with mint green but then again, why not! And well, mint green - you know. No problems, ever.



I bought the knitted striped shirt when I was very pregnant (as some may even remember) on sale for five euros thinking it'd be alright to let it stretch all out but it didn't; so it's still around. The pencil skirt I got at the beginning of pregnancy (as you might also recall) and wore to up about six months. Probably the best thing I've ever bought; super reduced to only ten euros, a great thick stretchy material and very comfy. And it didn't stretch out either. Yey.

Most of my bags tend to be vintage but this is new...I guess there is no doubts over why I bought it...
It also happens to go perfectly along with my iphone cover. First world happiness. Yey again.

WILL WORK FOR CLOTHES / HORROR & TEASE

I am getting ready for premiering my new number tomorrow (in other words, have been dead busy as usual, this time with a baby by my side too. Phew.) at the Finish Burlesque Gala. Which is sold out. So if you missed out on the tickets and thus didn't manage to get your October dose of burlesque, of if you just cant get enough, or if Tampere is more convenient for you than Helsinki there is another superb event next week: the second annual Horror & Tease Show!

Just as last year,  I did the poster for Miss Olivia Rouge's Halloween burlesque party spectacle.
And just like then, I will get paid in clothes now too. Obviously I'd be ruined if I did all my works like this but then again I buy quite many dresses with the money I earn anyway so in this case it's just cutting out the middle man. Hahaha.

Last year I was performing and the Bitties too but this year there won't be any Horror& Tease for me neither on stage nor as a spactator; too far away for me. (Or, for Dag actually, to be precise). But among many other one gets to see Anna Fur Laxis on stage instad and she is one of my absolute favorites, ever! I mean I saw her to this in Vegas for example:



The event is a week form now; next Saturday. That would be the 27th.
Get your advance tickets from the Olivia Rouge Shop in Tampere.

And once we're at it; let's throw in a little speedy give away too! One of you will have the chance to win a pair of tickets (your names on the list) for the event. You have time until Tuesday Oct.23 to enter; I will announce the winner then! Leave a comment on this post letting me know your in for the competition. And as usual, make sure you are reachable to me.

HONEY-COCOA BALM

I have some pure cocoa butter that I use for Dag's bathing water; it gives great moisture for the skin. I love how the cocoa butter feels on my fingertips when it's about to dissolve into the water, so I started thinking about making some sort of a lip balm out of it.

I am sure google could have provided me with some ready made recipes and how-to's, but I decided to just get on with it right away with what I thought would work.


For the balm I used a few pieces of cocoa butter, some cold pressed coconut oil and some honey. I sometimes use honey as a face mask, but I can tell you right away to skip it in this form when it comes to the balm. It did not blend out properly and went all weird.



Once I was at it I also added some of the other skin care oils I had around; almond-, argan- and jojoba oil as well as some rose water and propolis extract. Propolis is some sort of bee goo and is the honey in a t least a honey chap stick I have at home, now as I afterwards checked the ingredient lists.



I melted the cocoa butter and coconut oil in a jug put in hot water and then added the rest of the ingredients, just a couple of tiny drops per oil. I stirred with a toothpick and pour the mixture in a little jar to cool.



The result turned out very nice and smooth, although the next time I attempt this I will have to use less coconut oil; my balm turned out a little softer and oilier than I had wished for.

(I also attempted to make a chap stick of the blend. Which didn't really go all that well - I put one of my old sticks that had just run out in boiling water to clean the applicator and then later poured my mixture in it to cool. But before it did it slowly leaked out of the applicator on the table. So I'll just stick to small jars instead.)