Linnea 'Ea' quilts...

~ "My husband has admitted that the way he remembers my birthday is that he knows it happens when it's warm - so one night when it's warm, he waits for me to go to sleep, then checks my drivers license. Is that charming? I think so."   - Stephenie Pearl-McPhee, knitter and writer, aka "the Yarn Harlot", on her blog ~ There are times when I'm so glad I'm literate. In fact, that's pretty much every day. It's nice to get to snigger when you read peoples witty comments. "Knowledge costs, or not". Thanks Emmis for letting me play with your poem-magnets!

"Sorry that I've been away. I am a bad blogger." - Neil Gailman ( ~ ) Why do people apologize when they haven't posted something on their blog for a while? It isn't at all like when people ask other peoples' forgiveness for their tardiness. Or make excuses for their own existence. That last one is seriously despicable. It's your blog. No one else's. Why the stress? o_O On of the authors of a blog I  really truly very much  enjoy to read only posts about once a month. I think it's both the wait and the way he writes that makes it - truly - enjoyable. Henceforth, I will never apologize for such behavior. Likewise, I won't apologize for this photo. Something I think the person who placed this sticker (on the Theater bridge here in Turku) won't be doing either.

Do you ever write blog post that are to be published later , as soon as you've added some things (photos, more text etc.) to them? Well, as the dedicated Post-It girl of my family, I must say that there are soon too many blog post in my "to be written list". I need to finish writing and just publish them, but since most of them don't seem  to be so in the now , I've kept putting them off. And thus, the list has grown. This simply will not do. I need to get the amount of 19 unwritten posts on this list down to 0. Seriously. Life is made out of lists.

A while back, I came across a really cute and simple design for  a pear pin cushion  on the blog of April Moffatt Design. However, since I've already made a ...few * ... pin cushions for myself and really have no use for one more... I only made one. To try out the pattern. * I think I've made 9 pin cushions in total. So far, I've given only 2 away, and I'm currently using 4 myself... *sigh* But we did need to door stoppers. Because the old (read: shabby) ones were not that great to begin with, and since these seemed like it could function as a door stop, I wanted to try and make 2 sturdy ones. Materials : I used fabric I had gotten from IKEA, I think it's the one called "Lenda" or "Minna". Anyway, 100% sturdy cotton. I sewed the seames with the tripple straight seam, so it should hold. The leaf is made from a rest fabric I got from Riikka. The "twig" part is made out of brown satin cord. The "stones" I used to fill...

Helping someone move on a HOT summer day can be both fun... and tortorously sweaty. It was 30 degrees C (and more in the sun!) the whole day, and both the moving van and the caravan we had for driving all the stuff to Helsinki was hot as a sauna. At our first stop (about 50 km down the road) I had already drunk all of my water. Had to fill my bottle with tap water from the restroom at the ABC-gas station. That water wasn't the greatest. Not that you're the least suprised, I bet. Have you seen a caravan full of stuff moving down the Turku-Helsinki motorway? Thought so... but here you can see me wiggle my red-painted tonails in a caravan full of stuff moving down the Turku-Helsinki motorway . Bet you haven't seen that, eh?

.... and with it an increase in the outside temperature. Goddess, it's HOT outside. I know, I know - not only could anyone in Turku deduce that from reading friends blogs' and Fb-status updates declaring the same thing - that I shouldn't whine so much about it either. You could whine, or you could do something about it. Like this; I painted my toenails red.  Or, like this; Me wearing a gray knitted cap, and a long red scarf. Yes. I have gone bananas. Or so you would think. But I haven't. Instead, we started to have the ceiling fan in our bedroom on during the hottest hours of the day, as well as during the night. Hence the fancy flamingo outfit above. I don't want to wake up with my shoulders cramping, or head or neck aches. Micke laughed at it first, because he isn't disturbed by the rotating air at all. It's weird to think that 30 years ago most workplaces didn't have and didn't need AC. Now, nearly every place do. We spend more ...

A part of the "Turku - Culture Capital of 2011" event is the appearance of all these festivals, lectures and musical performances that - at least - a lot of people in Turku has been blogging/writing/updating people about. Now that it's summer, all sorts of events are taking place. Like the  ISD , for example. Held at the new congress center " Logomo ", which is actually a renovated giant warehouse that used to belong to Turku train station,  we (me, Micke, Mimi+her boyfriend Tommy, and we met Pernilla once we got there) spent the morning and most of the afternoon listening to seminars held by some really awesome quantum physicists and artists. ISD home page. The seminars were a collaboration between the University of Turku, the Heriot-Watt University ( Edinburgh, UK), the École Normale Supérieure (Paris, France) and the University of Sussex (Brighton, UK), and it was sponsored by the Finnish Cultural Foundation (Science Workshop on Entanglement)...

I know I haven't written anything lately, but I've read a lot instead. I like reading. Hope you do too. So, to commemorate my return, I'll just post a little more now, and take up writing again next week.

When I add books to the collections in my Librarything -account, the books pop up on  my Facebook-wall and here on my blog (in the left column). I think it's nifty that I can check which book I borrowed last from the library here on my blog, but I'm not so sure about Facebook. Or, if I'll be more precise, it's the "box" *  I find somewhat lacking. In settings. But I guess they're working hard on it, and Facebook isn't the friendliest platform to build software for. *   or whatever they want to call it, there's too many names for different parts of social network and databases nowadays. Gadgets, widgets, apps, boxes.... give me a break. On another book-related topic, I finally finally finally! got the book I'd requested from Turku city library. About that book... it's a pattern book, authored by this crochet designer whose designs I really like. Her name is Kristin Omdahl, and if you're on Ravelry you can find her and her designs ...

*sound of vacuum cleaner* Hey - what's this? A button. Some popcorn. And a size 10 mm crochet hook. The things you find between the cushions in your sofa define who you are. So... if this is what I found, then I must be a " Person who eats popcorn while crocheting on the sofa. Ate so much, in fact, that she popped a button from her pants. " ;)

This IKEA hack is one I've been dying to try out. It's the "Tolsby"-earring display by a woman named Jen in Sydney . It looked so simple. And it was cheap to make too - one page/piece of the mesh is enough for ~4 of these. A "Tolsby" and a piece of mesh I bought in the craft store Presento . Only need this much of the mesh... ... as much as will fit the frame. Tadaa! Thank you, Jen :)

In Finland, for those of you who don't know, there's this department store called Stockmann . Twice a year, they have this "special event" called Hullut Päivät (in Finnish) or Galna Dagar (in Swedish). Translated into English, it's "Crazy Days". And it's a really really aptly named event. From Wednesday to Sunday, you get to shop things for "special" prices. But only on certain of those days, and they only have a finite number of those "special" prized products. For example, this year (that is, last week) my dearest Micke wanted to buy himself one of those Sodastream machines (actually, a lot of other people wanted to buy them too), because they had them for only 49 euros ("normal" price being between 59-99 euros). They were available only on Thursday, and when I got there at 12 p.m., the guy behind the counter told me they had sold off all of them before 10 a.m. Such is life. Crazy, that is. Nevertheless, I...

Put the ingredients in your blender. I'm having an orange, a banana, some strawberries and some blueberries. Vrooom! ...or as they say on ROSMT , "vispa skiten". Now drink! And look, even Micke approves :)

Inspired by these guys... Be careful when you watch the video, and remember to turn down the sound if you have sensitive ears, because these Swedish men are kinda violent in the kitchen :) But, I think everything that promotes people cooking from scratch is good. Even when, like in this case, it's not paleo. And do go ahead and see the rest of their videos on YouTube. ... I decided to do this: Ingredients. You need a lot of stuff, but whipped cream most of all .   Hey! Who stole my Smorgascake?!

There's something I'm wondering about... Here, it's easier if you let me show you. It's in the cabinet above our new dishwasher... ...wait, I'll just open it for you. Here we keep the coffee and the tea... ... but why on Earth, I wonder... ... has our friend Tatu gone and put his name on the coffee bag? Naah, actually he hasn't, but I'm nevertheless wondering why it says "Tatu" on the bag?

There's something weird to be found here... just wait and I'll show you. Cupboard above stove. *cue theme music from Jaws* Look, it's in the lower right corner. No, not the cayenne pepper... ... but this! "Only for washing machines". How quaint.