Marimekko

Vintage Marimekko on my table

My favourite thing

Pruning...

They've pruned the bushes and trees on our street... I feel naked!

I'm so lucky!

Yesterday was an excellent mail day... I received a package from my mother, and then a lovely package from a lovely person who offered to order me a kit from The Plucky Knitter for the absolutely incredible Color Affection shawl by Veera Välimäki

(the colourway is Hippie Hippie Chic)

  
      As you can see it's not all that Heliraj sent me!!!


Today I received some consolation yarn (no hugs for me because          I'm going through a therapy for hyperthyroidism and must stay apart from the kids) from Handu dyed by Ilu... 

 
accompanied by the usual super cute buttons!

And then I got to see the cave-man, who is in hospital recovering from an operation... (He's all recovered if you ask me, and has lost weight... too much skin under his chin.) =) Glad he's okay again!

Bulevardi

Santa Claus gave me a curtain... by Vallila interior ... It's called Bulevardi and I LOVE IT!!!

Tonttu family

Our homes in Finland and here in Italy are home to gnomes, tonttu in finnish. They are Santa's helpers, but they are also good little spirits that take care of us and our homes!

This little guy looks over our livingroom:

This guy keeps an eye on our apartment in Finland... he even has the key...

And these two little guys are actually the figurines of the real live gnomes that live down under the pine-tree  in our garden...

Presepe/Nativity scene

 Our kitchen window last Christmas

And our Nativity scene... made by Aurora, Luca and Matteo years ago, and some pieces added by Minerva later...

Our Christmas tree last year

Chocolate and things!

Salty pretzels and slices of banana dipped into good quality dark chocolate... Yummy!

      Aurora enjoys making things and we enjoy eating them!

Four weeks to Christmas

          Last year's gingerbread house... Hogwart's style..

Cleaning up?

He's cleaning up the plants outside...

 ...and I'm cleaning up the stuff inside... 1st of November! =)

Halloween!!!

The dining table has been covered in Halloween things gathered in the years ... and some of Minerva's rubberducks that suit the atmosphere...

Aurora and boy-friend baked some Halloween cookies... and thankfully also pizza for dinner...

PS Behind the scenes some of the other rubberducks are lurking... and playing... =)

Earth and Sky?

When Stephen West announced a KAL (Knit-along) on Ravelry, I immediatly signed up... I'm not so good at KALs, but I love Stephen's patterns...

SO... when we were yarn shop crawling with my girl-friend in Helsinki, I bought six skeins of Drop's Alpaca in three beautiful shades of grey... urged on by my friend who knows exactly how easily I'm hooked with greys!

The first clue was published on August 1st, but I didn't start until when we came back to Italy... The first two clues were quickly knit:

... then we were hit by a heat-wave, AND my rows got awfully loooooong (size 3mm needles and a million stitches) so I slowed down a bit and finished it yesterday!

It's grey (love) it's BIG and it's gorgeous! It's also 100% alpaca and very warm... taking these photos was... painful in 30° weather, not to speak of the looks I got when the other day I was knitting this at the pool-side... =) but  I'm going to love this this winter!

Reading

There are days, and books, which keep her all day in the books world... reminds me so much of myself as a kid...

What is this?

I woke up rather late this morning ... and was shown this picture and asked if I recognized the view! =)

     (It's the view from our toilet-seat, with the door wide open...)
                                                     =) 

They're all here!

All three older kids , in their beds, all in the same room, same country, all with me!

The family is complete and two more weeks of vacation!

Sunset 13.07.2011

Books from Finland!

A package from Finland from my mother always means books and magazines and chocolate in the winter and good things!

Todays books: a great art book for Minerva and Marimekko's sewing book (now I need a sewing machine)

Cookbooks are always present... Gwyneth Paltrows surprisingly good cookbook and The Humming Bird Bakery's Cake Book... yummy!

 Books for Minerva, recommended by Heli <3... Minerva read them     as soon as she came home from school and loved them..

   Muses (?) and Paul Auster for me... 

  So... the sofa and books call me...

Lemoncurdpie and strawberries

Aurora has a boy-friend who has lemon trees, which is always a good thing... so today I made lemon curd, and then I made a pie crust, and then I assembled the pie

And just make it a little more perfect I bought a load of strawberries which Minerva sliced for me...

       And so we had lemon pie with strawberries... pure heaven!

              
                  The tablecloth is vintage Marimekko...