FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW: SATURDAY MORNING

Woke up to a slow grey November morning.
Look at my plant btw. It's grown over 3 metres long during this autumn! It's called doftranka in Swedish and tuoksuköynnös in Finnish but I don't know the English name -it has white flowers that smell very sweet and I'm hoping it would bloom next spring; last year it didn't.

Beautiful dew-drops on the porch plants.

Made a porridge on our homegrown organic oats with pomegranate and banana plus an anti-flu smoothie with red oranges, pineapple, wineberries, lots of organic ginger and cilantro.

Then Dag (and all his animals) got a quick bath.

And now it's on with our clothes and heading to the harbour and hopping on the ferry to Sweden tonight for a family trip!

BY HIMSELF

Dag has for some time been approaching, and now definitely reached the age that most parents recognise; when he needs to try and do absolutely everything himself.

It is heartbreakingly adorable but can also be highly annoying at the same time, in those moments when you are in a hurry or really need to get things done.

Having two bigger (half-)brothers that are a lot older than him of course also pushes it, because he wants to do everything the same way. Plus the huge need to HELP MOMMY.

Dag wants to use a knife while eating. He has been eating with a big fork a long the time since he does not want to be the only one with a spoon in the table and baby cuttleries is hard to hand to him when the whole family is dining. THE BIG ONE. (I can then have the tiny fork.) But he's quite skilful around the kitchen already so he can handle a lot. (He actually managed to peel some clementines rather well the other day. And once he had done one he wouldn’t stop. TO MOMMY he says and pushes a whole one , warm and rather well worked-on, inside my mouth so he can go on peeling a new one for himself.)

And then he's cleaning the table. When I was washing walls and doors the other day it wasn’t as successful as the floors were very wet after him “helping out”.

And when we go grocery shopping he has to, really has to, put everything in his little cart himself. The whole world will fall apart if I am the one to put it down or even. god forbid, put it in my cart.
Well as a parent you develop lots of ways to innocently trick your child, and so I have developed a system for secretly moving some items into my cart as we shop along. Altough sometimes he outsmartens me too, as surprising and random things might show up at the cashier.

But shopping - he has a lion-cap that he shopped himself! ("The Lion Cap" has to be said with a rrrroaring sound when you say LION.) Sort of. We were at the mall doing some errands when Dag showed me he wanted to visit this one accessory shop. Um, OK. Then and went right to one shelf an pointed at the lion cap and said THAT ONE. I was not raised as a child that got everything I pointed at, and so will Dag be,  but in this case I had to give him the hat that he surprisingly enough must have spotted earlier and remembered!

As it was father’s day yesterday (over here) I will end this post with a pic of me and my father thirty years ago. Like Dag (or, Gad as he says)  in a mini dirndl!

INSTA-IMATRA

Last weekend we drove eastwards for a show we had; this summer most of our shows have been and will be in Carelia for some reason. 'Easternfinland14' as we in innovatively named it; this was 2 out of 4. This time we were performing at an outdoor event. We stayed at this jugend-style hotel.

Waiting (in proper style for the 2010's) for our ride to the venue.

After-show bubbly and red nails.

(pic from @ruskarieban)

The event took place at an island in the middle of the big river. It's deep and the current is very strong so you can't swim even though the surface looks mirror calm. Beautiful and scary, especially since it was said the water was 20m deep under the jetty we stood on. 

Next-day-hotel-exterior-posing.

The hotel is just next to the steep, deep dry river bank. I remember standing on the opposite side as a kid looking at the water rushing down the waterfall when they let it out of the damm. I wish I had brought my camera but I also know I seldom have the time to take photos on gig-trips so the iphone had to do. 

On the way home we stopped at our cabin, which is just along the road, for a quick swim.

The water was warm and clear as always.

So time to jump in!

The woods were full of blueberries so we picked some around the cabin before leaving.

The berries then made it to a late night pie when I got home.

4 x SO FAR

Some things I've done so far this summer...

Midsummer barbecued in the cold rain. Rain rain rain.

After which, eventually, comes sunshine! And warmth!
Spotted a fancy rainbow.

Gone on light midnight runs around the fields listening to rautalanka and surf (and been distracted by things I just have to photograph and instagram right now!).

And hung out at an art deco casino rooftop by the sea.

(Pics from my Instagram @turrrbocherry)

PARK PICNIC

Yesterday we were supposed to go to a 1950's picnic organised by the city as part of a photo exhibition with motifs from that era but the constant rain ruined those plans. Well, at least we had just managed to have a little picnic of our own in the park outside our building before, so we were not left totally picnic-less.

Breakfast pink ith avocado sandwiches and some pancake with freshly made rhubarb jam. Panda-boy decided to eat both at once just in case I would end up having more than him; he always seems to be very concerned with that.

Park view. Tapiola; nowadays a constant mix of nature and construction sites.

Oh summer, how I have waited for this!

Sometimes happiness is a kid and a ball.

For a short while at least. Then he was very eager on me putting my shows on and us moving on. The playground calling!

NAILS x 4

Four of my latest manicures. Pink with accent glitter, french in pink with gold tips, mint green with gold tips, shimmering peach. Nails are fun, now that I'm on to them.

I remember a funny thing from the harbour some years back. Can't recall if it was me or my sister who had some temporary glue-on nails with a french manicure on, and one of the guys asked "is that a French manicure?". There was a deep silence where all the other guys stared at hime and he said "I probably should not have known that much". Oh my, the harbour years, sometimes I miss them quite a lot. But was I there now my long fancy nails would suffer...

STUDIO COSTUME SELFIE (WITH MANDATORY TODDLER IN THE BACKGROUND)

Tonight I'll look like this, with still a little more add-ons,  at the second night of the Helsinki Burlesque Festival!

Then it's back to a more normal life rhythm; the past weeks have been nothing but rhinestones and flowers and very late nights of sewing...

FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW: MONDAY MORNING

Dag was reading the paper very seriously.

 Had a peanut-butter apple mash sandwich.

And made a smoothie milk shake of frozen black currants, some banana, tropical juice and almond milk.

It was so popular I had to make a second set.

The rest of the day has been spent in bed, trying to entertain Dag with picture books and cartoons,  as I have caught a cold of some sort.

SHOOTING IN THE LIL' PALACE

Today I did the well familiar -I go there often to perform- two hour drive  up to Tampere trough white powdered and beautifully sparkling but oh so cold landscapes. (Too cold to take pictures in, fingers freeze.)

I went there for a photo shoot;  to shoot some wedding dresses for and by a friend of mine. The shoot was in an amazing old house that is still in private ownership (the old lady lives upstairs) but which lower floor can be rented for events.

 It's called the "Little Palace" which it pretty much is.

The schedule was super busy and fast so I didn't have the time to walk around and take any well-though photos but I snapped a few ones with my phone.

And perhaps we'll get to take a look at the wedding dresses some time later.

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.