JULY 31st

Because I'm in vacation mode I will let Instagram do this post for me.


 Today we went on a day trip to visit my parents at their summer stay in the archipelago home.

 A little by-the-way but here's where my iPhone wemt bathing earlier summer.

Yet another angle of my grandparent's house.

 
Walking to the garden.

The small guest house shed in the garden is pretty much ready now and mainluy occupied by my sister and her fiancé. (Funn,y I posted about it being built one year ago exactly...)

And here's a little Eddi & Dag parade:

Eddi and Dag eating berries.

Eddi and Dag about to go home. 

 Eddi and Dag leaving.

And here's a majestic harbor view to end the day.

Good night!

A SHADE OR TWO

 I got myself a white version of the cotton top that buttons in the back. (I will, when older, most likely turn into that person with just twenty pairs of that one good shirt in the closet... oh no who am I kidding of course I won't.) White is white and that's fine but I was in need of a top in a more natural, broken shade like creme or so.

And did you know there is an easy way to darken a piece of clothing without having to color it with chemicals?

You do it with plain old coffee! An eco-friendly solution.

Strong, black tea works as well. 

Coffe or tea "dye" is good for giving a darker shade to pale and nude colored cotton (or other natural un-treated fibre that wil take on color well) clothing but you can of course do this with any color to give it a slightly darker and less vibrant hue. Or, if you have a white piece of clothing that doesn't look so fresh anymore due to miscoloring from deodorant or make up for example.

For the most even result you should rinse your cloth well first, although it will of course take on more color if put in the liquid dry. Let it soak for at least 30min or as long as you like. You can add a spoon of vinegar to the end before rinsing. I gave this top two rounds as the first one gave a too mild result - better that way.

 The main reason for dying the top was to wear it with my jungle skirt, which does not want to be paired well with most other items in my wardrobe.

And it turned out well, almost the same shade of pale!

(The top was originally from Seppälä and the rest is vintage.)

x4

 I did some serious gardening. You know the kind that starts with a pair of cutters dum-di-dum and ends with an everything-must-go moment, a tractor and a big pile of dirt. The one that makes it all look much worse than before once finished but you know that eventually, with some time,  it will all turn out better than it was.

Dag indulged in some serious ice cream cone eating and was strangely keen on hading out and asking for immediate hugs right after. Nice.

 So we all went for an evening swim in the pond nearby, to wipe off dirt and ice cream and the heat. It's iek plus a million here right now. And I'm not the one to complain.

And then when all the small noisy people were asleep I had myself seom Neil Young on the radio, a beer and a lot of one of my favorite dishes; vietnamese spring rolls. With lettuce and cabbage, bean sprouts, avocado, tofu rolled in rice paper and that yummy vinegar-soy sauce. Oh droolers, must make myself some more as son as possible...

SKY BLUE PINAFORE SKIRT

I noticed I didn't have a blue skirt for the summer season and thought that I maybe should so I made myself one. And so I did and here it is.

 The skirt is a half circle skirt.

 That I put pockets on, well, of course.

The suspenders cross in the back and are detachable (with buttons on the inside) would I sometimes want to wear it as a plain skirt too.

CATCH ME IF YOU CAN

 No.


Noup.

No. (here with bonus speeding cat)

 Almost.

 And no.

 No way...

HAH!

Trying to get a photo of your toddler a) not moving and b) looking into the camera and c) catching an actual expression instead of those in-between chancing face ones that makes the child look drunk or full of rage (as well as trying to be in focus yourself) turns out to be harder than one'd think.

We went in to town today so I dressed Dag up in something that actually is a pyjamas but I think works pretty nicely as a light and comfy summer suit! That's one suave little toddler over there.

FIFTEEN PERCENT LESS

It took my brains two days of cold weather, some newsletters and a few magazine ads only to be reminded of the fact (well, those were quite many reminders, actually) that at some point yes autumn will come - and that point is kind of soon thinking of how fast time tends to fly by. So I secretly started going trough my wardrobe and it's existing and non-existing knits in my mind. The warm weather is back -phew-and autumn angst gone but I have to confess I got that knitty-itch already. So I have been browsing, oh yes.

Items above from Boden US.

Boden US -which is my affiliate- has their new autumn collection out which has lots of knits and a lot of the best kind of dresses; comfy but good looking jersey ones.  Many of those with pockets too, may I add. There is a 15% off discount on everything in the new collections until August 19th.





You also get 15%off your purchase at ModCloth (which is also an affiliate of mine) for 24 hours, ending July 24 10:00am some American time. (That would be pacific time; pst, which gives lots of extra hours if you are, say, in Europe.)  The discount code is WOOF15:



You can click the banners to get to the sales!

CHARLOTTE

I got myself a new Trashy Diva dress. Apparently it is just bound to happen a few times per year... It's  quite modest in it's cut and thus makes it a great day dress, although a rather fine one as it is in silk. Silk is so comfy in summer!

The dress is the Charlotte dress and it is on sale now. Oh yeah, and it has frilly pockets! 'Nuf said.

SUNDAY BAKING pt. Not-Keeping-a-Record-Anylonger : GARDEN PIE

(First I miss-wrote the title "summer baking" which of course would suit this very well too.)

I made a pie of what was to be found in the garden with some bonus strawberries on top, as the ones we had are long gone and eaten by now. Originally this recipe is meant for rhubarb alone, but it works well with other fruit and berries added as well. The original recipe is one from my mother in law but yes, I am that kind of person who absolutely has to go and alter everything so I made a "stronger" version with rye.


I took the last of the rhubarb from the garden and picked a bowl of black currants, wine berries and some random raspberries growing around the berry bushes. For rhubarb only, you will need about 500g. If you like me add more fruit you can of course manage with a little less rhubarb.

For the crust you will need:
1dl sweetener of your choice. I use coconut sugar (which could almost be considered healthy :).
1 dl fine rye flour
0,5dl rolled oats
1,5 dl wheat or spelt flour (you can of course just use 3dl wheat flour too)
1 tea spoon baking powder
a hint of salt
1,2 dl coconut oil or -
/175g melted butter (or margarine)

Mix all the dry ingredients and add the melted coconut oil/butter and put in a mold. I use a silicon one as nothing ever gets stuck to it. Or use a glass one if you plan to serve it straight form the mold.

For the filling; peel and cut the rhubarb into thin slices, put them in a saucepan with a little water and heat up and let cook for a minute or two. Pour the water away and add 1-1,5 dl of whatever sugar you used and add a big spoon of potato flour, stir well. Add the berries and pour the filling in the crust. Put sliced strawberries on top.

Put in a pre-heated over at 200C for about 25 minutes. Let cool a bit before removing it from the mold, otherwise the pie will break.

Serve it warm with ice cream (why not cashew ice cream? ) or put in the fridge for a while or a day and enjoy as it is.

THE HALLWAY

 We also fixed up the hallway and staircase in the country house during the renovation. I had thought of it in a yellow color resembling the ones on a well known cookie over here "carnival cookie yellow". (This however is a shade darker or two than that.) We didn't have the possibility to renew the space totally, as in re-build it, but with some wood and paint we did manage to renew it totally anyway.

Here's how it looked before:

 An absolute before picture was hard to come over as I had not exactly been taking pictures of this space, it wasn't precisely worth photographing, and they guys dug into the work so quickly I wasn't around to snap one.

The house had had some renovations done during the 80's when the original staricase had been removed and a then considered airy and more modern solution built instead in varnished wood. The wallpaper was also from those days and it had some defects from moist. The hall was rather unpractical as it had the big freezer standing on the parade spot. This pic is some random shot from 2011 of me and my photo face.

 February 2013. The hall and staircase walls covered in panel.

The handy men that built the kitchen and bathroom did the main work here. This would so not have happened if we'd try to do it ourselves...

 March 2013. The stairs being covered and a closet to keep the fridge built. Or, we had to switch to a smaller fridge as the 300-liter one was just too massive to fit anywhere.

April 2013. Painting time!

As we did not remove and re-build the stairs we didn't tear away the parquet floor underneth it but crossed our fingers and gave it a try at just grinding and painting it -and it turned out better than we'd thought! Eddi painted checks on the floor by hand.

Floor done! We had planned to do this in the kitchen all along after the bathroom renovation was over but then realized it would bee too much with both rooms having a checked floor.  Quite the relief actually when we realized that, hehe, less work.

Here's how it turned out when done!:

The floors are painted with Permo paint for wooden floors and the walls with linseed oil paint.

The furniture are old/vintage.

Back in the old-old days there used to be a window around this spot. I put up a mirror in a window frame instead.

The rest of the rooms downstairs turned out rather different after their painting jos as well but that will be for another time to look at.

ALMOST BUT NOT QUITE

Today I was just about to blog from here, the (finally cleaned up-) porch.
With not-too-hot weather, the kind where you're constantly looking up to the sky to see if the rain has started yet, such that won't make you feel guilty for not sitting outside enjoying the summer day, but still with a soft pleasant breeze sweeping in from the open door I was kind of looking forward to this moment of almost-outdoor computeering bliss.  Had a a pesto-avocado sandwich and some lemon juice waiting for me and Dag sleeping outside in the pram right under the window, Eddi at work and the rest of the kids at swim-school nearby.

And then I am all one-two-three-peaceful afternoon begins NOW when Dag wakes up and is all totally pissed off at everything, they way it sometimes is for the little ones too.