Self-portrait by a 4-year old.

I'm having trouble uploading pictures for some reason, so I decided to show you
this self-portrait. I think it's rather stunning! (That tiny person on the left is her baby sister
Sisie.)

PS. Yes, Cologne! (Or Vienna... or Madrid... or London... or Boston... next summer,
wohoo! Which one of these should we pick?)

See you tomorrow!

In the park

We've been outside, outside, outside every chance we get. We've been hanging out with
friends a lot lately, too. I'm so glad that dreary long winter is over!

Here we are playing frisbee late in the evening in the park (it was 9 pm,
the sun was just beginning to set... oh, how I love the long days of Finnish summer!).

I received such a lovely e-mail yesterday from Maria from Portugal. She sent over a
few links to blogs she likes to read, and I am so enamored with them that I just had to
share them with you:

Moka (a collection of kids art work) and
Karen Barbé (a textile designer's blog).

Maria has a delightful blog, too, where she finds the most inspiring images from across the
web, from for example this lovely blog). Definitely go check out her blog here.

She also let me know about a fun pop-up card contest at Mr. Spoqui. Fe and I will
try to participate. Entry deadline is the 20th of July.

Thank you, Maria, for all the links!

I'd like to wish you all a happy weekend, but I might pop in tomorrow, so see you later!

:)

Hanging

Hi and sorry for not stopping by much lately.
My laptop still isn't fixed, which means I have to use an old desktop computer that is SLOW, and that sits in a room that is
MESSY. (= Uninspiring).

I still have so many vacation pics I haven't shown you...
Oh.. and I've painted our terrace and I want to show you, too...

Later. (Next week?)

For now, I hope you enjoy spring! I know we do!

New Coat

 



"Mom... No more pictures" (rolls eyes)

I got that coat for her from the flea market in mint condition for 5 EUR. When I got home, I realized it's from
this Danish kids label. What a lucky find! Yes to thrifting!

And now we are off to enjoy what's been promised to be a sunny weekend. We'll hang out with friends, go
play some Ultimate Frisbee, cook some good food, paint our terrace. (Clean, maybe.)

A happy weekend to you, too!

Masks

We needed some color in the middle of a grey week!
Happy Wednesday!

PS Much more color on this blog.

The lamp.

----

Once upon a time there was a lamp.

The lamp could talk
(but it could not walk.)

It lived inside a cozy home
(a big, quite beautiful one in Rome).

One day, the lamp said to itself:
I can talk!
But I'd also like to walk!

So off it went into the starry night
it walked and talked
until it reached the city of light.

From there it took flight....

then flying over the River Elbe
it realized it had the sun for a bulb.

"Oh happiness, oh joy,
no more
of that tedious chore

of lighting.

Now, further on to sighting!"
(And writing.)


----

Dress-up and silly rhymes, making up stories and painting together, putting images into words... words into images...
(that lamp above is meeting a hippo along the way, can you see it?)...

Sometimes the bad weather outside isn't so bad.

:)

PS Ordering one.

Homes.

Pictures from Strasbourg (France).

I am still fascinated by doors and windows... especially old ones. Can you tell. What lies behind them? Who's lived there over the centuries...? Who lives there now?

We were in the Old Town part of Kaiserswerth in Germany (sorry no pics, as I didn't take my camera), and we walked through a little alley... they had a monastery there, an old church... and then, behind a big oak, you could see into the courtyard of an old brick house from a time gone past... and there, in the middle of it, were two little children with their tricycles, chasing their dad, and the mom was sitting a little ways off on a wooden chair, smiling and watching the scene. Such sacred happiness! And it is all safely guarded by the houses we call home.

Strawberries And Chocolate

Strawberry-filled, chocolate-sour-cream infused goodness is just what
I need on a cold day in May.

The first fresh strawberries of the year came a long way from Spain, and were
a bit pricey (and still a bit sour), but, oh, so worth it.


Recipe comes from the Cake-Lover's Guide here. I lessened the salt and
the sugar content and used ready-made, store-bought yellow cake bottoms.

Coz I do that sometimes all the time. Coz I am radical.

(You see, my sister-in-law called me the perfect little housewife the other day,
and while I think she meant it as a compliment, I was shocked to the core.
I CANNOT accept such classification. First of all, I am not, and second of all,
I don't want to be. Somebody help me before I become a living cliché.)

Happy Sunday!

PS For more delicious Sunday treats, go here. And check out Initiative Sonntagssuess
(today it's on mat & mi.)

PPS Tomorrow I'll continue posting the vacation pics. I'm sorry it has been slow
around here. My laptop broke and I'm using an old desktop computer that takes
one hour just to start up. What did people do in the 90s.

PPS Dining chair make-over.

Pink

(Taken in Baden-Baden, Germany.)

(If I had to pick the one thing I miss most about Germany, it would be flowering trees, alleys of them.)

(To my Finnish friends, please know that I love Finland no less because I love and miss Germany.
This is my time now to indulge, please let me, I don't get to, ever.)

(To Annakaisa, to some it's given to be a flower, and to some to be a bird.)

(To anonymous, you are very wise. Who are you? ;))

(To myself: I need new shoes.)

The grass is greener.

It is! Proof.

(Even the hub noticed the "neon" quality of German forests and dove into
a lengthy exposé on why Germans like techno music...
Yes, you are guessing right, it's because of the forests..
and also the smurfs.)

(All pictures were taken in and around the Black Forest).

PS Thank you for your sweet comments. I already feel much more "settled"
and "at home" than I did yesterday. It is, as some of you say:
home is where the heart is.
(And btw, Pam, I know the feeling. Too scary indeed.)

We are back!

Hi all, we are back from vacation. We had a fantastic time... words can't explain.
I had the hardest time coming back (to reality? to home? life? what exactly?)...
I cried on the plane and I cried some more on the bus... I am not really "here" yet,
I am still somewhere in that land between time and space, resisting that stage of post-holiday settling
(ah, here is that word again... "settling"... it is, as ever, looming
in my future like a giant sword about to drop on me and slice me in two).

I have so much to tell you, I hardly know where to begin... I thought I'll just post
pictures over the next few days... from different places around Western Europe...
These above ones are from Ghent, Belgium and that last one is from Strasbourg,
France.

Oh, I am in love, love, love... with Germany... with the Continent... and my family...
and I really want to take them all and move back home. Home, yes, there I said it.
It's home, and it always has been, and it always will be and I miss it like those
salmons do who, after years of swimming in the ocean, swim back to their
birthplace to die.

And thank you, thank you, sweet Deborah, for all the love. I heart you big time.
You have the best kiddie design blog out there, and I am not even exaggerating.
Merci chère!