THE LAST PAGE COMICS

Father and son reading the daily paper.

The couch is a Carl Malmsten on I got from a web auction site last year,  where I also got the old lamp. The plaid on the sofa a Eddi bought home from Bolivia.

HEART BREAKERS

With the dark and wet weather that's been going on for some time I have to confess I really start longing for colder days, frozen streets and snow.

But most of all I'm longing for dry streets and warm sunny days again so I can strut around outside in my Heartbreakers shoes I got from Frollein von Sofa!

VELVET VINTAGE

This is a vintage velvet kimono I got from Etsy. I've added the rhinestones myself; I use this as part of a costume for a twenties show of ours.

(Which you btw can see the 14th if you get your tickets now *wink wink*)

RED SHADOWS, RED LIGHT

The low November sun hits the refrigerator in the kitchen and the reflection colours everything red.

RED LIPS AND A WINK

'Tell me a story'-heels from Modcloth.

And their sweater twin. (From Sheinside.)

Plus their purse cousin (or cousins, as there are several in the series)  from Lulu Guinness.

I actually got the sweater out of a sudden idea to kind of look like it and wear it with waved hair peeping out of a black - or possibly red - beret, red lips and pair it with tiny black hotpants, dark tights and chunky heels. Would have made a nice combo;  I thought the knit would be kind of oversized and hang loose on my shoulders. Which it didn't. It was kind of fitted and with the fluffy mohair it made me feel like an albino orangutang instead. So I'll pass that look onto some tiny tiny petite person instead :)

FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW

Everything happens to hang in red and white.

 A lily in a big jar.

Dag trying to open the front door with my car keys.

And wool socks for a chilly November day.

MY SON AND I

Dag and I out on a muddy walk while in the countryside, by Ina.

THE FIRST TO THE TWENTIETH

Sometimes I tend to be a little over-employed and -occupied and thus spend rather little time with my dear old friend Internet (or Nemesis, depends in how you relate to the Hello-three-o-clock-am-I-should-work--or-at-least-sleep-not-look-at-the-most-hilarious-faces-in-places-and-more-internet...). Breaks in blogging happen every now and then but when I'm really busy you can see it in my Instagram feed which becomes less frequent; sometimes even my smartphone gets something of a short vacation. (Or then not. Compare to ten ears back when I did not check my mail daily and not certainly via my phone. Or even five. Quite the change already there too).

well,, here's some of what I've been up to lately, as seen in Instagram.

Been in Turku.

For Eddi's PhD thesis he is defending here behind a flower pot.

And then got to take out my long velvet dress for his dinner. 

Then he was off to Bolivia for two weeks working and Dag and I were by ourselves.

Went back and forth from the city to the farm a couple of times. Hung lanterns in the tree in the yard over there.

Got a new manicure. The next one I'm going to do will be totally crazy because: Mistle Tease.

Sew lots of blingy thingies. 

 Hanged around with some samba queens.

Went on some adventures with Dag and his animals.

Made myself various versions of pink smoothies. 

And pink breakfasts.

And then Eddi came home and Dag got a tiny little mini poncho which he has been walking happily around in.

YULETIDE APPROACHING...

Because we only have about one thousand other projects and gigs running right now Tinker Bell and I are also producing an event in the middle of December. But it will be worth all the blood, glittery sweat and tears as it will be the craziest, funniest, most sparkly and fab (and also, only) Christmas Burlesque revue in town!  We have a lot of surprises and new acts up our sleeves. (Sleeveless sleeves, that is. )

At Diana, Saturday December 14! Get your tickets from Tiketti. And do go get them.
You can find the link to our Facebook event HERE.

Asko Rantanen took the photo for our poster which I made.

THE CRAZY (BUT YET SOPHISTICATED) CAT LADY

 This is most surely the sickest piece of clothing that I own for the moment. Because, behold:

 It has this hideous grumpy cat princess on it. Or cat queen.

And it's looking right into yur soul! Meeeow.

But I like it because it is so damn crazy.

Originally this is a dress; I was thinking of wearing it with huge hair lots of lashes and boots, sixties style, but my hips said no. So it became a blouse instead.

The "Cat Queen" dress is fro Sheinside; one of the items I got to pick for free.
The skirt is self made and the shoes a very old trustworthy pair.

BROWNIE MUD CAKE SNACKBAR CHOCO THING (AND RAW AND VEGAN AND HEALTHY TOO…)

(…which I kind of dread writing out because that will scare some lesser knowing people away. Well, their loss!)

This is a sort of raw brownie that I make for dessert, as a snack or to go in small bits together with a smoothie for breakfast. I make a big set of it to last all trough the week.  It's so yummy so you fell all "Hallelujah! I will  never need to eat chocolate cake again" when you have it. That is, until you actually have a pice of mud cake and realise butter ad sugar does have it's point too. Well I have a version for that too, but that cake will be for later. Now it's raw brownie-thing time!

You will need:

125g of natural cashews
about the same amount of sunflower seeds
16-22 soft dates (depending on their size and how sweet you want the result to be)
3 tbs chia seeds (optional)
3tbs coconut flakes
3-5tbs of -raw or regular- cocoa powder (depending on how
3 big tbs  of virgin coconut oil
some real vanilla powder
1 tbs lucuma (optional)
1 ts maca root (optional)

Grind the cashews in a mixer semi roughly and add the sunflower (and chia) seeds, blend smooth.

Add all the other dry ingredients. If you didn't add chia seeds you can put an extra spoon of coconut flakes or two. I use five big spoons of cocoa powder, but if you prefer your brownies less dark you can go for a little less. I use lucuma which is sweet and tasty and just put in a little macs because it will go unnoticed and vitamin things up, you you can leave it out or add some other booster if you so prefer. Add the coconut oil, which should be room temperatures; soft and fluffy.

Pit the dates and add them one by one for requited texture and sweetness. If you used less cocoa powder you can manage with a few dates less and vice versa. 

 Your dough should look like this, quite firm and chunky.

 Form the dough into a loaf.
Or, if you prefer a cake, you can press it out into a round mold, or of course roll it ito balls too.

Wrap the loaf in plastic and wait an hour or two before serving.

Cut into bars/slices and enjoy as it is or with some fresh fruit.  And a cup of black coffee. Or strong tea.

The brownies stay well when kept in the fridge for a week at least. You can also freeze slices to take out for later.

SHOPPING, CASH BACK AND CHOCOLATE / OSTOHYVITYS.FI

I have a new affiliate which I am going to present here to you. It is for the Finnish market, but we'll do the talking in English anyway, as we are used to over here.

(To illustrate this post we have a totally not-staged photo moment of me -happy and internetting about- and my son in scarily matching at home-outfits.)

The site I am adding to my affiliate list is Ostohyvitys.fi. It's the first cash back site in Finland. What that literally means is that you get part of your cash back when shopping online;  a certain percentage (or, in some cases, a fixed sum) from a purchase you have made via the cash back site. This service is possible as Ostohyvitys kind of works as an affiliate for online stores, being a portal to shop trout,h directing customers forward and giving part of it's affiliate commission to the shopper itself (from some sites a percentage even higher than 10% of a purchase). By logging in and visiting stores trough the site you collect your bonus which will then be paid back to your bank account. (Which happens when you have collected 15euros in returns, or more). A small forever ongoing sale, sort of.

I originally signed up to get a free chocolate bar (chocolate, you know, always works as a bribe for me ;) without thinking too much about it. But then I looked into the system and now I am totally hooked. I try to remember to always check with Ostohyvitys.fi first if there is something I need to get online - it would be stupid not to. There are over 450 stores  and service providers to choose from -so many it's almost surprising- both Finnish stores as well as international ones. Not the most niched ones of course, but still a crazy lot; several hotels and hotel booking sites (for example 5% off a hotel booking at hotels.com), virtual malls and fashion stores like Asos, Ellos, Zalando and Nelly, flight companies and travel agencies, Akateeminen Kirjakauppa, Apple Store, lots of magazines, etc.
Well, you can see more on the site yourself.

Många bäckar små… as we say in Swedish; a buck or two here and there turns into quite a lot in the end. For example, I buy some of my eco makeup via Nelly as they have a 11,5% bonus percentage. So my mascara (Une Green Pride btw, it is very good) which is 20,50 at Nelly is then18,40 for me! So I can't really see any reason for anyone not to sig up, hence the affiliation.

And I did mention chocolate earlier… There is a campaign going on giving you a complimentary Fazer's Blue after you sign up  via me and do your first purchase.
You can join Ostohyvitys.fi HERE!

STREETCAR DRESS AND A UKULELE

Here we are on our way to my dad to celebrate Father's Day (which we obviously spend now and not in June over here), wearing plaid together. Since the father in this house is on the other side of the world working for the moment it was Grandfather's Day for us instead.

My sister gave me a ukulele for my birthday; I've wanted one for some time. My father also recently got one so Dag and I practiced a song to play on the uke together for him. "Together" you know. Pling plong.

My dress is the Streetcar dress from Trashy Diva and the shoes are old Minna Parikka's.

BEFORE THE SNOW

November is generally considered the dullest, ugliest time of the year. Everything outside is dying if not already dead, the colours are gone, it's dark. But it wasn't until I started spending more time out in the countryside that I noticed it is not that bad after all; I have actually started finding this something of a more quiet, calm time of year, soothing almost*;  like everything is just waiting for what is to come. It is clearly the end of a cycle, the time before nature goes to sleep until it gets the chance to wake up and again. The circle of life you know, bla bladi-blah. But it really is like that, still, faded, waiting.




*(Well, weather- and nature wise that is. Otherwise the hullabaloo of everything is on; the high season for showtime and new acts and Christmas and work and Whoa! Wake me up when the sun is back please.)