the thought of silent fireworks...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

(please)

things to do with washi masking tape pt. 1

"support houseplants"

shhh...

this door pull i scavenged while taking out the trash a couple weeks ago. someone had dumped a whole door, so i was quick to run back upstairs to fetch pliers and unscrew the peculiar flat bolt, while a neighbour gave me sideways glances. these are original fittings, i've got the same ones, so they date circa 1964. i have an unhealthy infatuation with them. for me, a kitchen is not a kitchen if the cabinets have different hardware. the frugality of the design pleases me. plain and simple.

but what to do with this treasure? none of the twenty-six pulls in my apartment are missing. i couldn't think of a good use, but then it was the book about camilla engman to the rescue! not only was i inspired and delighted when it arrived in the mail, but also filled up with envy hope. perhaps and maybe, little by little, i'm on my way to finding all the pieces it takes to put together one of these:

my grainy photo is a close-up from a page in  
camilla engman: the suitcase series 
© 2009 UPPERCASE

mangostans are the most beautiful fruit i know. they look like old wooden furniture with worn-out paint and carved details. they come from somewhere very far away and sometimes i wonder if that's the reason behind all the patina. they tend to be less on the ripe side and more on the rotten... but if they are good, they're delicious. every now and then i take a bet and buy a few, mostly just to admire them.

one of these came with a large seed. i'm not too confident that one day i'll be devouring fresh fruit from the shade of my own tree but it would be a blast if the seed at least tried.

(on the background of the second photo is a calendar that blows my mind to pieces)

blossoming succulent in dad's stone garden, summer 2009

one of the reasons why i thought i needed to blog again was to rein, somewhat, my insatiable desire to possess every wonderful thing i see. if i post about it, i kind of own it.* it remains to be seen whether this works or not, but since i am trying to simplify and declutter, i'm trying hard to believe it will. "it's greed, not need" i tell myself. yet the want remains:

eternal love in a bottle? yes, please.
my own cloud to wrap into? uh-huh.
wild pigs in the kitchen? why not.
an antique card catalogue? mais oui!

all of the above wrapped in baubles. that'd be good.

*photography has similar qualities. i have a project in mind dealing with this, more of it later.

i think this outfit may have started it all... the fascination towards the colours mentioned in the previous post. i remember seeing this before, and was just reminded, browsing through (the lovely and varied) sea*life*style.

the dress is from nadinoo by nadia izruna. i'm kind of torn between liking and not liking the collections. some things i adore, some i can't stand. mainly the prints, i admit. the cuts are delicious. her blog has wonderful pictures and vintage inspiration, so it is certainly a place to dive into.

there is that something about these cheap chinese ornaments, they've always appealed to me. they are tiny, with fragile bits, and often a little off (just like me!) which just adds to the charm (one hopes). there is something about the combination of grayish blue and orange that is beginning to appeal to me, too. there is also

in sewing little orange toes for a scrappy owl to hold onto a strip of branch.

(toe thread and paper bits courtesy of good company)

US: A CYNICAL LOOK AT SARCASM from laurie rosenwald on Vimeo.

today it got creaky-snow cold! i really hope this keeps up. until march would be fine with me. a steady and proper winter, please. i like the low temperatures despite getting all shivery quite easily. hard to believe it's mid-december since coat-wise i've been wearing only a seemingly magical pairing of a secondhand corduroy blazer topped with an also-corduroy sleeveless bolero, made in fifth-grade sewing class and hated wholeheartedly until a few weeks ago, when i realized it was exactly what was needed to fend off the chill. (i guess i grew into it, finally. although the more honest truth may be that i just haven't grown at all in twenty years.) i'm envisioning a padded, furry version with a hood to tide me over the whole season... hmm... or maybe a capelet?

this is not exactly relevant, but ten years ago i wanted to become an animator. i applied for a school and even went to the entrance exams. i didn't make it in, and who knows, maybe life would be all kinds of different if i had... but, really, i just wanted to become one of those people who make all the interchangeable teeny weeny bits and bobs for the puppets, after seeing a documentary about it.

i still wish i could have that job.

*

i have been whiling away on the computer, not realizing it has been snowing all evening! quiet, gentle flakes are still falling. snow is so good. the sounds of the city go soft, ugly and dreary becomes pure and light. i know i'm happy about this.

it's time to go to bed. i hope i dream of nothing but snow.
i hope i'll sleep.

(my flake is #8912919)

i just wish i could sleep / where the wild things are

sudden detail, a tiny punch-out of lining mull. so tiny it came out a bit out of focus. (it's not something i do these days, anyway, focusing. so there you go.) sitting on my tool pouch, catching the light like some fallen astral body. are you trying to get my attention, bone folder and awl? hole puncher? needles? trying to make a point?

i doubt i'd remember how to.

do

make

bind

book

♡ → ♥

i made this thing (hardly a collage when there's almost no glue involved) a couple nights back, in the vein i'm inclined to call 'insaner art' because i bought the frame first and then had to fill it, and the outcome was rather bleak. but it had to be done, i stayed up for hours to get it right. (and could not resist sticking a piece of japanese masking tape in there.)

in hindsight, the spark must have been ignited by one of the matchboxes my friend kaija has been making. i was hit like a dart by the part about private animals. this certainly is one of those.

darkening

the foggy vasts of sea, and a forgotten

eternal

eternal

"Y k s i n  e l ä v i l l ä  m e r i t u p i l l a   on hermosolmuksi supistuneet aivot, mutta selkäjänne ja selkäydin puuttuvat. Oikeassa ympäristössään meressä, luonnollisessa asennossaan, ne saattavat olla sangen kauniita."

MAAPALLON ELÄINKUVASTO

in a word

_* ^{snow is a winter's joy} _*

i should be feeling it. it's the first real snow day. but i'm like the cyclames out on the balcony, frozen through. the appearance is intact. life, however,
is gone.

i only bought the flowers on monday, thinking it would rain from here on eternally. that's the kind of fatally misguided assumptions i am prone to making in general.

enjoying the small things in life is a sign that everything will be okay in the end, i was told. but between enjoying those small things and merely recognizing them as such, there is a gaping difference.

something rare happened this morning. i got up early. relatively early. then pushed through medicated haze, to go out and take pics. there was actual sunlight. after weeks of rain, a primal instinct kicked in. i was moments late for the best light but i like the colours and how they distribute in this picture. the hue of light too. this is early afternoon, folks! the sun is on its way down fast.

it was also the first frosty day - for me anyway - and i had to keep myself from the clichés. no, not frozen blades of grass.. no, not that shimmery leaf either.. then something bright caught my eye and surprised me. i wish i knew what it's all about or if there is some context. i live so blissfully unaware of most everything these days. laughing lion by the riverbank, you intrigue me. i hope yer a good boy.

i am tired, irritated and fear laying down in bed because sleep has deserted me. i feel like i'm losing my last refuge. my solace from ...this. everything. nothing. whatever this is, it's not right. where is one when lost?

i can't seem to find my way back. i'm not sure i want to. i know i don't. but don't know where to go. rather, i'd stay put, curl up and disappear. sleep. let lichen cover me. forget who taught me how to say the word. laikken.

i'm supposed to cut and grate into a bulb of ginger looking like this, huh?

out of the blue tonight - or should i say the gray rain - this neighbourhood was coming alight with fairy lights. pleased to see cascades of plain little bulbettes, nothing too garish and tacky yet. knowing full well unmentionable atrocities are unavoidable, my eyes rest and feast on this less-is-more view now. hopefully catching a tiny glimmer or spark. been a bit lacking lately.

my own tradition is to meticulously wrap up my balcony railing just in time, and the lights are lit up once the clocks are turned in october. they are winter lights, no relation to the looming big X, no no! so i've been weeks ahead of the rest and most likely ruthlessly ridiculed by some, while the secret envy of others... i stand unwavering behind my winter lights 24/7 as i dare not turn them off, for the rain might then creep into and rot me wee bulbs. the ever falling rain that obviously cannot take a clue of my winter lights.

enoki growing back like nobody's business.

look what i found on my balcony! well, admittedly these babies were found at the grocery store, but i had to air them out for a couple days because they were really fragrant. it's enokitake and really nice in soup:


the potato in this soup i picked up from the ground at the market square, forlorn. they're not something i normally buy or use, so this was quite exotic. which is funny because boiled potatoes are the staple of finnish dinners.