HELSINKI STROLL

Yesterday we went into town for a stroll together with Dag's oldest (half)brother . Which does not happen that often, having a day off and haning it in town, when you spend most of your time way out in the countryside.

Walking in Ruoholahti, which is something I almost never do; walk around in, other than walk just trough. I used to come trough here almost every day when at lunch from the harbour.

Some hundred meters further a whole new part of town has sprung up during Dag's lifetime on parts of what was once the old harbour. It looks different every time I pass. When I left work before Dag was born this was all just one big construction site. (And half of it still is.)

Do you know how many times I stared at those shipyard cranes and the blue dry dock wall opposite of our spot in the harbour? Do you know how many times? Of course you don't, but many, many times I tell you.

 We popped by the flea market. Dag got a red smiling tractor.


Had lunch at Moko market. Salad with kale and marinated carrots and fresh pea puree. Nom.

 Moko is also an interior store, with lots of wonderful useful-and-less usefull stuff, books and some foods as well.


 Moko has a playground space for kids too. Convenient.

I used to go there and shop all the time before, you know, when I had a job with a steady monthly wage and could do shopping just for fun. When you work solely by yourself things are so much more uneven. (I might have to get myself some pineapple and palm tree boxes though. Because they are always good for somehting...)

But I wasn't really there to get anything for myself but to pick up some things for our studio. Which I will get back to later. (And get back to a lot to; you'll see.)

 Later we did some toy shopping -there are a many small misters all turning one year old in August.

Sometimes I wonder how these small stores that are specialized in something can pull trough when rents in town are what they are - I remember thinking so about this toystore too when walking past it before, do people really buy enough to make it go around? But now I get it, in this case at least, I just wanted to buy everything in there.

Then we went to join up with some 15,000 other people at the Citizen's Square. 

The rather impromptu manifestation for multiculturalism and anti-racism; We Have A Dream, took place. It was organised in just a couple of days as a counter-reactions to some writings of a politician and the discussion it sparked.

Then the teenager got tired.

So we had burgers at the new-in-town hipster burger place Friends & Brgrs. (Everything there is made from scratch and with clean ingredients. The queue in the restaurant is thus thereafter. Here's my veggieburger. Approved!)

And strawberry milkshake. Made on actual real berries, not just aromes.

More days should end with strawberry milkshakes.

FOUR THINGS TODAY

 Put on some red and beige and polka dot.

Went to pick up something mint green (alright, sea foam) and very fluffy and flowing.

Made a salad with things from our garden. Goat cheese and red wine berries makes a superb combination!
I mixed lettuce, spinach leaves and rucola,  random veggies (tomato, cucumber, yellow bellpepper) edible flowers, wine berries and goat cheese. Plus a balsamico vinaigrette. Summer points to the max!

Went up the hill to Eddi's aunt. She lives in a small house on top of a hill just nest to the farm house, She had picked berries and baked a blueberry pie with Dag. More summer points! (We need them, the weather is still a huge disappointment...)

A little bonus one still: you can pick cherries right out of her window! Summer points, ca-ching!

GARDEN LIFE vol.2

Small sunny summer moments in the garden between all the cold and rain (can't get over that, sorry!) between and all my work. (I've probably spent half my summer in the car driving back and forth to town, there are a lot of things going on the work front.)

 Peonies.

 Back porch breakfast.

On the first day of his vacation Eddi built this garden chair, inspired by chairs my great-grandfather made in the 1930's for the summer house out in the archipelago.


All green things inside my growing boxes have grown huuuuge. My coriander (cilantro) is about 1m. Whoah.

 Dag got a haircut.

Brothers chilling in the swing.

And then chasing bubbles.


PS. if you see a pop-up window here it is for a Finnish blog survey for Indiedays (it is not for me and noup, it is not an ad). If you don't know Finnish or don't want to answer it just close it. If you do answer you can also choose to give your info and be part of a drawing for three 100€ gift cards or beauty product packages. If you want to answer it separately/the pop-up not showing you can do so here.

BABY BLUE AND VERY RED

The combination of soft blue combined with different shades of red has always been one of my favorites. Or mint green and turquoise with red as well!

I have been walking in my Hasbeens that I got last winter; not many chances to do so before summer season. Hasbeens clogs are comfy once you get part the rather painful part of walking then in, for me at least. I am between sizes and have the smaller size in both my Hasbeens so for anyone wondering:; size down.

I am dreaming of a pair of red sandal clogs but wouldn't want to spend so much as on yet another pair of Hasbeens. There are many other quality brands -I have a pair of black Moheda's and they are very comfy - but sadly they all are a teeny bit less pretty than the Hasbeens. DAMN.
Well this summer has not been much of sandal weather anyways so...

But red. I am often drawn to red stuff. But then wear them seldom because they tend to feel too red. It's different with shoes (and evening wear), they can be super red no problem.
I haven't worn this dress in ages because it somehow also feels so very red when on. Which is silly I guess, because it's a very good day dress in a very nice colour.

And you can see what it also has that give it instant bonus points...
The dress is the Runaround Sue from Vivien of Holloway.

The cardigan is the Hellbunny Paloma. I have a problem with all cardigans getting a bit noppy after a while so I tried to be extra careful with this, storing it well and washing it by hand. But it is still getting a bit floppy-and noppyish. Perhaps it is because cardis are often taken along as a just-in-case, stored in or hanging on the handbag and that's what wears them out...

PLUS 16

Plus 16C when in April is good.
+ 16C in September is niiiice.
+16C in May is normal, and +16C in August is a little bit sad because it means autumn is coming soon. +16 in June is an annoying disappointement.
But +16C in July is down right depressive.

And here I am, in +16C wearing the same skirt I did in winter. Nothing wrong with the skirt itself -it's comfy and have pockets (my mantra. That, and the weather.) - but I'd rather be wearing my thin summer dresses and sandals. And be sweating because it's summer goddamit!(OK, it might have been close to 18 at some point of the day but anything under 20 degrees is wrong, just oh so wrong.)

SUNDAY BAKING: QUICK VEGAN BANANA CHOCOLATE CAKE

I run one of those households that often (or well, always) ends up with a banana or two turned so ripe they're too yucky to eat. But they can happily go in a cake!

So today we decided to bake one with Dag; a quick banana based chocolate cake that is - for being a cake, -not too unhealhty. Kids can easily participate here as things like getting to mash banana is fun and easy to do, and with a big enough bowl not necessarily even that messy.

It's a cake easily altered, for example, I add some more spices to this during the colder season.

You will need:
3 ripe banans
around 50g of dried dates + a hint of water
1dl coconut sugar (or brown sugar)
1-1,5 dl cocoa
3 dl spelt flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 dl oil  - I use coconut oil
(+ a dash of cinnamon)

Now, to make the easy things hard, or at least a bit more confusing for you: I have made this with four small bananas and with just two bananas and both versions work as well. The more banans the less dates you need, so when I had four banana-nanas I used just five dates. Also adjut the amount of cocoa powder to your own taste; 1,5 dl of cocoa makes the  rather dark and strong so you can go with less if that suits you better. I have also made this without the soda and it turned out fine. I you don't care about it being vegan or not you will get a nice cake by using butter instead of oil too (and you can of course toss in an egg for more fluffyness but then again that is already another cake). For more spices try some ginger and clover and perhaps a little cardamom.

First,  pre-heat the oven to 200c. Chop the dates and put them in a pan with a hint of water so it covers the dates, and heat up. Let it boil for a little while so you get a sticky paste. Add a little water if needed so the dates don't burn.

Mash the bananas with a fork or a masher. Add the sugar and cocoa, then the date-mass, then flour and finally the oil (in a runny state). Put in a greased cake mold (or fold it with baking paper).

I don't think the batter on this one is very good raw (which is a good thing, because that means more cake later) but Dag was eager to lick the bowl.

Bake for 35-50 minutes in 200C, depending on your oven and the size of your mold. Try it with a stick and take out to cool.

You can eat this warm, as it is or with ice cream. I prefer it after a day or two in the fridge.
Pimp it up with salted peanuts (no that's not crazy!), jam or with a bunch of cherries and some chocolate coconut cream  frosting!

FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW: THURSDAY EVENING

There's a 1930's postcard of me and Dag.
My mom sent me this.

 I harvested some of the spinach and mangold from my growing boxes. I put them in the freezer but a handfull got to join some pasta earlier tonight.

I've sewed and embellished a lot ot blingy skin-tight stuff.

(People have a custom here in the countryside to just walk trough the (front) door wihtout knocking when they come over, which can be a bit funny if you happen to be trying out the tiny showgirls pants you just sew in front of the mirror. Which is next to the front door.)

Been making lots of shimmering thingies as well.
(To see these in action head over to our Paris-themed club Pariisiklubi at Mascot this Saturday!)

GARDEN LIFE vol.1

(flower photo alert)

As summer comes we spend pretty much all free time at the farm and we let the back door stay open to extend living out to the garden. Everyday life elsewhere, perhaps but here only for those short sweet summer months.

I stocked up on flowers and pots at the start of the season as usual.


Hello hanging strawberries-to-be!

 So beautiful, aren't they?


And things that I have planted, as well as others generations before me have, pop up one by one. So many colours, so many prety flowers.

 I had Eddi build me these growing boxes. I planted herbs, salads and other greens in them.

And the cats tried their best to sabotage it all, by hopping in and out of the boxes and making a mess.
Let's just say the order I put the seeds in are no more.


Cauliflowers waitinig to be planted outside. I hade some sunflowers coming up too. But they fried in the mini greenhouse when it got real sunny outsisde. Ooops.

 I also have a set of tomatoes and chilis sitting on a bench by a sunny wall.

 It's a goddamn water circus every day (not to forget all my indoor plants) and I dread going away as I know no one else will remember to water them. But I like having a lot of plants around there and every now and then get to enjoy a home grown tomato too.


We had Dag's three year birthday outside party in the garden as well.

This was a few weeks ago now already, when it was still cold(er), but we were lucky enough to manage the party right on the only day it was warm and sunny during those weeks.

The pram park. I actually don't have so many friends with kids so this was an unusual sight. People have been busy the past year!

Dag's favourite colour is red. Preferably everything he wears has to be red.

Evenings are for barbecue, and as usual the guys are at it with their burgers and sauces.


And come night time, my solar lit fairy lights go on.

But it is still so light they are merely there just for the fun of it. But come August with it's warm (hopefully) and dark evenings they get to shine to their full potential. I might hang up a few more still...