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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!