tiistai 30. syyskuuta 2014

Something for everybody

It is nice to collect tin boxes. They are small so you can have lots even if your cabinet is not the biggest one around. And while waiting for new finds you can store other things in the cabinet with the tins (I am referring to the "silver" rabbit dish). And have you thought about this: you could collect stamps, old postcards etc. and use the tins as storage boxes. Collections within collection, great! Double up your collections, I say.



keskiviikko 24. syyskuuta 2014

Traveling light

You have to admire the old souvenirs. They weigh next to nothing and fit even in a smallest of bags. And more importantly, they look much better than for example  awful beach towels in garish colours. Ok, not everything new is bad - the Paris magnet was bought in Helsinki for a month back and it looks right at home with the old stuff.


tiistai 23. syyskuuta 2014

Frost tolerance

My pelargoniums are still in flower but they don´t take cold too well. That´s why I bought some heathers as they usually look almost as good in winter as they did when you bought them in the autumn.


maanantai 22. syyskuuta 2014

Feeling James Bondish

My father´s old sunglasses from the 1960´s are just what a secret agent needs to feel both stylish and a bit mysterious. And they hit the bull's eye as a part of our travel stuff collection.


sunnuntai 21. syyskuuta 2014

Getting there

We have at last chosen the colours for the house and my husband has painted all the new parts of the outer wall (about 3 meters...) and the frames of the door and the hall´s window. The door is a bit of a sore sight as we bought the cheapest door we could find a few years back. Well, we are not going to change it in near future as there is so much other things that are in a more immediate need of repair. I just have to live with the new ugly door and hope that someday it will either be covered with paint or changed to an older one.



keskiviikko 17. syyskuuta 2014

Cheap tricks

Rice paper lanterns are a cheap way to decorate your terrace. I bought three green and three turquoise ones from Indiska a couple of summers ago and they cost around 2 euros each. If you keep the lanterns under a roof and take them inside for the worst of weather they will delight you for many years. I haven´t put any lamps in these, I think they are decorative enough just as they are. And in any case it is so light in summer evenings it would be more trouble than use to provide the lanterns with electricity. If you like more subtle decoration, choose the classic white ones.


tiistai 16. syyskuuta 2014

An original beauty

There are lots of martagon lilies (varjolilja in Finnish) in Vårkulla's garden. Lily bugs love them and most of the early summer went by with me hanging above the lilies trying to catch the buggers. I think we humans won as there were just a few (dead now them too) in July. Before buying Vårkulla I had tried to find martagon lilies in garden stores without any luck. I was really happy when I realised there are lots in Vårkulla - and not so happy last summer when we found the first lily bugs in them.

I am still looking for white martagon lilies so if you have plenty or know where I can buy them, let me know!


maanantai 15. syyskuuta 2014

What happened?

You are bicycling and then you decide to leave your bike in the middle of the forest where there are no roads? My husband took the photo last weekend when we were hunting for mushrooms.


sunnuntai 14. syyskuuta 2014

As promised

I told you a couple of days ago that in autumn every other post is about mushrooms, so here we go again. Today we are going to eat mushroom risotto with parasol mushrooms (ukonsieni in Finnish) and ceps (herkkutatti), green beans, white beans and spinach. Yesterday we ate a pie with sheep polypores (lampaankääpä) chanterelles, rice and cold-smoked reindeer. I love autumn!


perjantai 12. syyskuuta 2014

Made in USA

The American preria flowers are lovely autumn plants. Here are some asters and cone flowers. The pink cone flowers (punahattu) are more usual but these white ones look great too. I need to move at least some of these to Vårkulla to colour our autumn garden.


torstai 11. syyskuuta 2014

Home sweet home

We have been living here for about ten years and this is the first time my husband has taken any photos outside or in our corridor. Our balcony is the second highest in the first picture. I don't clean the balcony glasses very often as vertigo is looming as soon as you even try to think about starting the job. On the other hand it is lovely to live this high - the city dust or noise don't reach us as easily as they would when living downstairs. When younger I used to read lots of Italian interior decoration magazines and cut out pictures of loft apartments and now I am living my dream. For some reason I now cut out pictures of gardens and country houses :)







keskiviikko 10. syyskuuta 2014

The love(s) of my life

Sorry folks, it is the time of the year when every other post is about mushrooms. I just love ceps - they look lovely, taste amazing and are easy to dry for future use. The first ones I fry in butter and offer toast with them or nothing at all. After eating them plain a couple of times I do risottos, pasta, pies etc, anything tastes good with ceps!

tiistai 9. syyskuuta 2014

Cheap and chic

My brother gave us some stuff to sell at our flea market. I found a little pinkish vase in one of the boxes and wanted it for myself. As my brother didn't give any advice how to price the objects and I didn't want to decide the price myself I showed the vase to my husband and asked: How much for this? He answered me 2 euros and I said "sold". He wasn't very happy when he realized I wanted the vase for myself but at least the thing wasn't very expensive :)


maanantai 8. syyskuuta 2014

Carried away

Do you need a small, cute, portable lamp? FollowMe by Marset is just what you ordered. This Spanish delight is surprisingly Finnish in its design. I can see it on any Alvar Aalto table! I myself need one for the cottage to guide gests stylishly through the dark garden in the evening. The pictures were taken in our garden at Vårkulla.



sunnuntai 7. syyskuuta 2014

Sunday morning magic

It was a foggy morning today, and it still is. The colours of the flowers look exceptionally bright in this light.




torstai 4. syyskuuta 2014

Now in forests near you

We went mushroom hunting yesterday evening and came back with these lovelies. Guess what we'll do in the weekend!


keskiviikko 3. syyskuuta 2014

Good ol' days

These photos are from the last weekend. A steam train went by and we had our 50`s shop open for business (flea market). The view from the shop´s door must have been about the same 60 years back.



tiistai 2. syyskuuta 2014

A bit louder, please

As if we were not loud enough, we have this old megaphone at home. The neighbors must be happy we don't (yet) have neither a microphone or electricity attached to it.



maanantai 1. syyskuuta 2014

Heart of stone

There are still some flowers at Vårkulla but soon my garden ornaments will be the only eye catchers left. As it has started to rain a bit, I have no excuses not to start creating new flower beds to move plants from the cottage to Vårkulla. I have decided to move most of the late autumn and early spring flowers to Vårkulla as we usually are more at Vårkulla than at the cottage then.