AND THEN WE HAD MARCH

Not sure how it happened, but apparently the first quarter of this year has gone by already?
That can only mean that It'll be Christmas again in no time!


But first, lets set our minds on spring and the eventual summer! Here's what the switch from winter to spring looked like, and everything else and  in between, a second a day in March 2019.

SUMMER 2018

Summer 2018! And what a summer it has been!

   


           

            

Never before has it been this warm - hot and sunny since May, and such weather for over a month that even a +25c felt like "oh, it's a abit colder today". It has been like the summers of my childhood, warm and sunny forever! But whereas those memories are, if not sugar coated but rather sun-coated, this summer has actually been the warmest ever recorded with around +30c daily.

Not that is is over quite yet, but school started today, and just as the summers of childhood ended as school begun, it still does so today; on a mental level at least. While the weather has had it's downsides (drought, bad crops, perhaps a sign of an alarming change to come) and not everyone enjoys the heat I however bask in it. I said a big F to gardening this year, and haven't thus even felt bad for dead flowers and cherryless trees, but took had the opportunity to spend en exceptional large amount of time with family, visit my close-to heart summer places as well as had a fabulous trip to Italy, while still managing to squeeze in some work in a not-too-stressful way.


My pocket calendar is of such kind that it begins in August en ends at some point of the summer, and I also tend to think the year along the schedules of school and also the studio's school year, which means we are soon in for a new one. There is lots in store for autumn on different fronts, and lets see if I manage to make some of them appear here as well!




Hope you all have enjoyed a wonderful summer, and lets hope the last weeks of it, whatever may have been the case, will be just as good or even better!

XÀBIA

In the beginning of summer we went on holiday to Spain. We had a great Air Bn'B in Xàbia / Jávea; spent a week swimming and sweating and drinking sangria. Or well, juice; kids and children and so on - we were a big lot with the whole family, but the teenagers (my oldest stepson and his girlfriend) were being super teenagy and kept to themselves so no photographical evidence of them.

After almost a decade of blogging I have now let go of my constant 'thinking-my-life-trough-blog-posts' and 'must-take-photos-all-the-time' so I took less pictures than normally. Which afterwards when browsing trough is a bit sad but then again sure feels more relaxed on spot.

Spot the monkey.

 

My own little monkey in the ninja-suit I made him.

Dag turned five during the trip and I broke a couple of sunglasses and now it's almost October and we'll have to wait for true sunshine for months but I can still remember the hot salty sand between my toes.

HAIRCUTS, SUNSHINE AND MILKSHAKE

Heya internet!
Long time no see.

 Yesterday both dag & dad went to the barber shop to get their hairs cut for vacation mode.

 This little fella is turning five in four days and he's wearing a lion shirt that I sew him the other day.

Afterwards we went out in the sunhine to zip milkshakes from Kitty's Milkshake Bar (the best).

And hanged out by the orbs in Hietalahti.

And now it's off to Spain with the whole family, boys and girlfriends and bags and what not. Sangria and sunshine here I come!

THAT ONE ABOUT EASTER

Easter. This year I managed to plan a little in advance (as in I beat my side note challenge from last year, did them the night before; tada!) and did not have to rely on what randomness I could find in the drawers. We went feather-free and decorated the willow branches with small pom poms. The kids use these to hand out for when they go around wishing neighbours well for the year to come and expect to get treats in return. They actually turned out rather nice so maybe next year I'll make a vase for us as well. Well, we'll see about that next year then...

And then! Once a year: Mämmi. Memma. Yum. During my thirty-something years of eating mämmi I have, being the kind of person who apparently just can't do things without having to alter them a little, come to the conclusion that I prefer mine with lemon quark, with or sans fresh fruit on the side. And this is for breakfast in my book (and most likely my book only); not dessert.

Well here's another one who also tweaks traditions. For the Easter walk Dag wanted to be a knight, not a witch, which is basically the whole thing and thus pretty much the only option, apart from a bunny or the witch's black cat every now and then. Well we've seen huge eggs and chickens over here too and if the kid wants to be a knight I'll of course turn him into one!
You can read more about the candy begging-well-wishing Eastern tradition in the some past posts of mine.

And all the small witches left their marks on our door.

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="">

LIGHT CARNEVAL AT LINNANMÄKI

Eddi is in Iran for a month, and I am working on a lot of projects, but I've tried to come up with some bigger and smaller quality-time things for me and Dag to do when possible. We've played some word games and made late night apple pie, and the other day we went to  Linnanmäki with my sisters and their boys. The amusement park normally closes after summer, or is open just a few hours in the afternoon, but throws a light carneval each October with evening opening hours and different programs and light installations. (Light is an often recurring theme -and subject- in happenings over here, as we tend to go towards darker days, and there is an acute lack of it...) Last time we went to the Light Carnival was three years ago when Dag was just a baby.

The park really looks pretty with all the lights of the attractions on (in summer it is so light so they don't really show) as well as the trees illuminated, led-light infused cotton candy, and light installations and performances all around.

There are a few attractions for smaller kids that are free of charge, which is a welcome feature, but we of course had to buy tickets with Dag for the old carousel too. This time Dag rode the giraffe.

Tonight is the last night of the light carneval!

MY SON, THE TATTOO ARTIST

It does not take much longer than a hair wash for your child to decorate himself throughly.
And when your own canvas is not enough anymore you will want to continue onto the next one - Dag thus gave me a foot tattoo that he got a little eager with and extended onto my leg.

I noticed the kid had managed to "tattoo" himself on the neck as well. Rather impressive, I'd say.

So much concentration.

So now I have a leg full of ninjas.

And Dag has them on his arms and chest as well. Plus in the face.
Time to pour up a bath I think.

THROWBACKS, OLDIES

There has been this old-photos challenge going on on Facebook lately. Not that I am sure why everything has to be a challenge actually. The only challenge for me would be to actually make the effort to post something (when there are lots of better things to do), or then to find the time to do so, which I guess in this case is the case, as it meant trying to dig out some old photos). As I was young before digital cameras came most old photos of me are in albums at my parents house and in one box in my basement somewhere, and the amounts are of course nowhere near the selfie parades of today's world. I pretty much only remember having this photo of me from around or before this millennium. But alas, I did find some more. And I did have a little laugh and also a nostalgic smile looking at some of these. As my blog will soon turn nine years (fanfares!) and as I will get yet another year older around the same time prtt prtt PRTTT (=trumpet sound) and have often posted something old about me because of that, but nowadays usually post everything with at least a six month delay, I will do this a bit in advance. Oldies on parade, here you go!

It's 1982 and I turn one year old and have chubby cheeks and look an awful lot like my son. Or, he sure did look an awful lot like me when he was a bébé.

My sister and I sit on a rock some years later. 

And then we pretended we were on the beach in Miami where my dad had gone for business and bought us these sundresses. My youngest sister apparently wears the pink one still as a nightie. She's rather tiny. There are not so many photos of me with my youngest sister. One where we are rocking her in a swing when she's a baby and we are wearing these really strange Playboy sweatpants & shirt combo that my grandmother had bought when she was on holiday in Ibiza. "There's a cute rabbit on them..".

So here's one instead by the cabin lake shore where we are pretending to be street musicians. In 1990 or so.

Jump some five-six years forward and I'm fifteen and in a drama group and featured in this leaflet. I dyed my hair and all my clothes black at that time. My friend dug this one up some time ago and it gave me a laugh indeed. 

And then I turned sixteen and seventeen and was a hippie but these ones you have seen at some point already. I also notice that it was possible to get caffe lattes by then.

Mmmyup.

I still have that dress, a yellow 1960's sundress that used to belong to my grandmother's sister. Not that if probably fits me. But it's in a chest in the bedroom along with some other clothes that I still hold on to.

And now we are in the digital age! Here's me as an design student in 2002 or so when we had a photography course and got to take photos with a digital camera.


Not sure how to end this one here so I'll do it with the latest photo there is of me, which, suitably for our age is a selfie from earlier today when I found this field with sunflowers that one could pick and that was a nice thing for my Monday.

(For the recored,, being older is a lot better than you'd picture it to be when you are say, 15 or 21. Phew.)