FOR THE LAST TIME

At the beginning of this month, on my way to the airport (everything is about multitasking and combining two things these days) I stopped by the city flat to take down the last lamps and to leave the keys there for the new owners. Moving out is always a little sad, and even more so if you've lived in the house/flat for some time and put a lot of memories and heart into it. I think this was one of the hardest moves, as I have been around this flat since birth. The absolute worst move at the tie was then I was  four and we moved away from the first home I'd ever known. (Which happens to be across the park from this one.) I missed it terribly, and some months later my grandfather took me to the building so we could go up with the familiar elevator and look at my old door. He showed me there was a new name on the door, and told me there were new people living there now. I remember being very sad that we could not go in and look at "my home" because surely they would have understood.

This is the flat I bought Dag home to first, and it's Eddi's and my first mutual home. It was the first home I was able to decorate and renovate totally as I wanted to, (with my mint green Smeg for example that I took with me now that we moved). This was also the place I had my first "job" at; I used to clean at my grandmother's as a teenager for pocket money, so I really knew every corner in and out. As a child my grandparents would watch me when my mother was at work, and I'd sit on the kitchen table watching the cars turn down from the big road and drive along the park and I'd be as enthusiastic over each and every one NU KOMMER MAMMA!; "this one is mommy!. Some time ago Dag would do the same and try to see when Eddi or me were coming home.

Here's before we started renovating it in 2010 -

And later the same year in action.

Bye bye kitchen!

It was also on the floor of this kitchen that I realised who my grandparents were (one of my earliest memories; I was propably two or three years old) - sitting there playing I heard my mother say MOM to my grandmother and was all "aaah, so that's why we're hanging around these old people all the time". We used to spend many Christmases here, and one time- I must have been around five- I was a hundred percent sure I saw Santa flying in the sky with his reindeer sleigh. Like, for reals, he was there. Weird that my parents were not that stunned out by it, but just sad that it was great.

Before the renovation in spring 2010.

 

And six and a half years later when leaving.

In between it was nice!

This photo was when we had just moved in and thing weren't really in place yet.

Now it's empty. Or, was.

I will miss my bedroom window view!

Most of all I'll miss the kitchen window!

We are now settled in the countryside for good, with a lot of boxes and ikea bags, no room for a Christmas tree this year, and with a big need for further renovations. Neither Eddi nor me have been home a lot lately and won't be for some time either, so I will have to be patient and take it bit by bit.

And now some new people are living in the flat. I hope they will have lots of great memories as well!

HOLIDAYS

I recall myself stating, after last Christmas, that went by too fast, that I'd start the following Holidays in early November already; haning up Christmas lights and stars here and there, enjoying glögg (the warm spiced wine -or sometimes just juice- that resembles 'glühwein') and getting to enjoy Christmas for as long as possible. I probably say it every year but I do enjoy the holidays.

Well, this year we put our lights up in the evening of the 23rd and didn't even get a tree (it can't fit for the moment, as our Tapiola-flat is boxed up in our living room)...



Well, next year my home will be nice, organised and fancy again and I'll have all the time in the world to sit at home and be cosy with my cup of hot and spicy and my seasonal light for weeks ahead. Or, so we can say.

But, even though the rain was pouring outside (ironically, I did joke about it being all green on Christmas as we had half a meter of snow two days after Halloween...) we managed to get into an express Christmas mood once the light were up and we did some ginger bread baking with the boys!

I also made a batch of apple-ginger marmalade for Christmas gifting.

Half of the dough never makes it as far as to the oven of course.


I supervise with a cup of glögg, before the younger generation think they've baked enough.

(That's about after one tray.)

And you haven't really baked gingerbreads if you haven't burned one set of them.
(The rest did turn out fine and half of them are in my belly already).

And then I (almost) turned off social media for a couple of days and my work email for reals and enjoyed being at home (first time on months Eddi and I are at home during days off at the same time!) with the family.
Christmas <3 3="" br="">

CASUALLY HANING OUT ON THE FAINTING COUCH

Some time back we had a photoshoot at home with Asko Jonathan Rantanen. (It's convenient when you have a house that can double as a suitable set for a photoshoot. Although for the nearest future it cannot, as there are moving boxes everywhere)

Here are a couple of photos from the first series -

I've worked with different things with Asko and his partner Nadja for years and it's always fun to come up with new themes and settings to shoot!

BACK IN HAMBURG

 At the end of last week I traveled to Hamburg again to perform at the Home of Burlesque.
As we shot the music video the night before I opted on the late afternoon flight; to once not have to get up at 6am with just a couple of hours of sleep to go to the airport. Arriving late when performing the same night is always a bit risky, but with a straight flight on a well travelled route you'd still think you're pretty safe, because things can go wrong but in the end they don't actually do that often.

This time it did though; first the Helsinki airport was shut down due to a rescue operation, which resulted in delays and too many people wanting to get to the same point (=inside) at once. I worked with transportation and travels for over a decade, and I know what it's like to be on duty when the shit hits the fan and you can't do anything to solve the problem, only try to make the situation run as smooth as possible, and boy was I glad I was not somebody working at Helsinki Airport that day.
But well, we made our plane on time but the flight itself did not, so we left a over an hour late.  Was already seeing the scenario of me putting the stage face on in the airplane, but we still time to make the show!

Upon arrival in Hamburg it's pretty easy to get  to the venue; straight with one train and a little walking-and-bag-dragging. However, one situation was not enough; there was (apparently) an incident on the tracks so at some point we found ourselves, our bunch of bags and a clearly added sweat-layer to our foreheads stepping out on some train station in Hamburg as the trains stopped moving. But, there's always a cab to be found somewhere; we made it on time to our show in the end but I am seriously wishing I was able to do all my show travels a day in advance... The rest of the shows went well (we perform for three days in a row) except for one moment when the DJ managed to accidentally mute my track and I found myself just clapping my hands to get the crowd going, starting to do jazz hands (and singing JAZZHANDS YEY) after a while as nothing was happening, and finally getting the DJ, who seemed rather clueless and actually asked me what to do to just play any f-ing music ok? and then improvising myself trough some random rockabilly song to finish my act. But those things have to happen sometimes too. And the bar serves good gin afterwards to cool your nerves.

Otherwise -

- late evenings and late mornings, the usual traveling showgirl nutrition (a mix of yin and yang there I tell you), my have-to-go in Hamburg: Miniatur Wunderland, harbours makes me happy (both miniature and actual ones), Christmas markets and fairs too. Also the Reeperbahn version, because: mulled wine, although I am a little more traditionally put and thus care more for candy apples and gingerbreads than giant inflatable dicks. By large.

Now I'm back home and this weekend it's off to Southeastern Finland to perform. And next Saturday it's time for our fourth (time flies!) Christmas revue, Under The Mistle Tease!  Everybody has to come.

THE PERFECTION OF MOVEMENT

Since this autumn I've been following dancer Lil Buck on social media in total awe. Very inspirational and madly beautiful movement.

SHOOTING THE MUSIC VIDEO

The other day we shot the music video for our UMK song.

The second look for the day.  That's a lot of brushing and hairspray there I tell you.
...and a lot of conditioner afterwards.

A bunch of fabulous friends as well as our burlesqe students joined in on the shoot.

My glitter boots are surprisingly comfy but after a whole day of dancing on an uneven concrete floor the only thing you want to do is take them off and put your feet high high up in the air.

 It's good the behind-the-scenes interview was done only waist up. Wool socks for the win!

Checking out the group dance shot with Antti; our director. I have worked with him on a few occasions before, when we shot Iskelmä Suomi for example.

Shoot done! All the videos will be out on the 31st of December!

UMK!

Photo: YLE / Miikka Varila

So, you know I've been rather (add ""...) lately, and one reason is the fact that I am part of UMK, which is the competition for the song to represent Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest.

I'm a huge lover of all things kitsch and camp and thus also a huge Eurovision fan (and prefer it at it's most glittery self) and I also have this thing of never saying No to anything as you never know what one thing might lead to. There are a lot of catchy tunes and both fun and interesting artists in the competition this year, and I know glammy rock n' roll is not up everybody's alley, so this will be an interesting ride. And I promise mine will be filled with a lot of glitter.

WINTERIZING SUMMER STRIPES

Well, it's that time of the year again when you either have packed some of your clothes away (if you are the organised type that actually does that instead of having to lean against your closet door to close it. Not saying I'm either one  though, ehrm), or have started indulging in some hardcore layering, in my vocabulary known as winterizing.


I wear quite a lot of my dresses during the colder season as well paired with thicker tights and something underneath plus a layer or two on top. It depends a bit on the dress weather it works or not; the thinnest materials seldom look good that way, but this cotton is a bit heavier.

This is a cotton summery dress that I got from thai vintage store Sugar & Cream Vintage, that you might remember me writing about some time ago.

It's in mint condition with hidden buttons in the front and, like in the red vintage dress I have from the same store, this one also has a hidden zipper in front in able to step into instead of having to pull it over the head.  Handy!

But I just might (or: will, eventually) have to add a pair of patch pockets, which, as you know, makes everything better - I have a cotton fabric with similar soft coloured stripes, just a few more hues in the blend. It will sit pretty well there.

And no, I didn't cut my almost-there outgrown bangs back; this is a wig! I use some pieces on stage and in shoots for all those days that I did not have the time to roll my hair the evening before, but some of them can make themselves useful during the bad hairdays of everyday life as well.

For those who want to know; apart from the Sugar & Cream Vintage dress the belt vintage too, the bag from the early 00's, boots new and the wig from Annabelle's wigs.

THE GOLD LINING

Me, online: So, now that winter is coming and we're out on the countryside for good I should really get myself a pair of practical boot...- uuuh hello what are these?!

So yes; I am still trying to remember to get a pair of practical shoes, because I ended up with a pair of cute black velvet-y platform boots instead. Now ho would've thought.

Well, in my defence, if you can manage to drag 20 kilos of suitcase for three days in a row on the cobblestone streets of Prague they could kind of be labeled as "practical", right?
But no, these boots with their flocked surface are indeed not for the muddiest days.

While on talks about the sliver lining (the one of clouds you know, that applies to events and situations) you can also talk about a golden edge in Swedish, which is applicable to anything or anyone that gives everyday life and existence even the tiniest sense of luxury. So this muddy-snowy-stormy November I'll let my gold lined heels act as the little golden edge of the day. Walk, at least. And thinking about it, I still have my old workwear boots from the harbour to wear in the countryside mud instead.

See, every cloud does have a silver lining!

I bought the boots from LightInTheBox.