Christmas inspiration from the Husband

Panu wanted to contribute to the holiday decor this year. So he sent me this inspirational christmas light video, asking if we could have something similar.

Press and blog features

In the October issue of Divaani (one of my favorite Finnish decor magazines) Saija of Cosy home was interviewed. She mentioned Kootut murut as one of her favorite blogs. Thank you Saija! It's an honor to be in such great company. And if you don't already know Saija's blog, it's definitely worth checking. She is an artist living in Helsinki and she has a beautiful home.



Last week Victoria of sfgirlbybay decided to visit and see what we've been up to. She did an update post of our renovation. You can see the original unexpected guest visit here.



And finally, last Sunday Vineeta of Artnlight did a home tour of... well, our home. Go check out her blog if you haven't yet. Artnlight is so full of rich colors that our home is pale in comparison. It's a amazing trip far from home (India!) for someone like me, living in northern Scandinavia.

Thank you to all you lovely ladies, it's an honor!

Pertti the animation

This animated short film was my thesis work when I graduated, but I had since then almost forgotten about it. I watched it for the first time in ages when I put it up on my work portfolio. It made me realize how much I miss making animations. Especially that kind of traditional, frame-by-frame hand drawn. It took countless hours to complete but we had so much fun. One of my favorite parts was recording the sounds. The role of Pertti, the little boy, was played by my friend's 7-year old son.

The animation is in Finnish, but there's English subtitles. And anyway there's not so much talk. But I'm warning you, it's not for the faint-hearted! :)

Another thing, there's still time to enter the giveaway.

Nerdy or nice?

I'm still undecided whether my new glasses look nerdy or nice.

This photo reminds me that we still haven't made a windowsill in the office. It's been on the to-do list for a year now!

We Heart It needs your help

I didn't know this, but the wonderful image bookmarking site We Heart It is run by two guys from Brazil, working on the site on their free time. And what a great work they have done. I've been using We Heart It for over two years, and I love it. The only problem has been that sometimes the site is quite slow. Today I found out the reason for that too. It has over 4 million pageviews every day! So as you can imagine, it is getting very costly for the guys to run.



Now they are asking for their users to help them. So if you are like me and love the site, click on over to the site to read more. I think we are so used to getting things for free over the internet, sometimes it's good to remember, that somebody always pays for it somewhere. And sometimes it's good to give support and help those whose work we like to keep it going.



These screenshots are some of the inspiring images I have hearted recently. For image credits, please see my hearts.

Three years together and an Elf

Exactly three years ago from yesterday I confessed my huge big crush to my then co-worker Panu. Six months from that he proposed to me, and a year later we were married. Now, I don't know if it's a coincidence, but yesterday morning Panu woke up to an Elf (tonttu in Finnish) next to his bed.

Unlike Mr. Elf who lives on my vanity and takes the occasional stroll in the garden, this one was black. I believe his color to be a clear indication that the Elf has come to live in Panu's music room, where black metal reigns. Surprising - yes - but not totally unheard of. For every house needs an elf or two.



The Elf looks like a gardener, but I'm not quite sure what kind of garden he tends. Maybe we'll just have to wait and see...

Napa Gallery turns into a cafe + Flipbook competition

images by Napa

If you happen to be in Helsinki during August, here's a tip for you. Napa gallery turns into a vintage pop-up cafe, where you can enjoy your cappuccino surrounded by beautiful vintage treasures: classic Finnish glass objects, coffee cups and pots, fabrics... and all of the objects are for sale. The pralines are provided by Chjoko, a local chocolatier.

Saturday 21.8. you have a chance to meet vintage glass collectors, illustrator Matti Pikkujämsä and Eero Mononen. I couldn't find Matti Pikkujämsä's web page, but you can see his work for example in the Kauniste textiles.

Menovinkki kaikille, joilla on mahdollisuus pistäytyä Helsingissä elokuun aikana. Galleria Napa muuttuu elokuun ajaksi Kahvila Napaksi. Kahvittelun lomassa Kahvila Napassa voi ihailla upeaa värilasikokoelmaa, Arabian klassikkokahvikuppeja ja harvinaisempaa kotimaista lasitaidetta. Suklaat tarjoaa Helsingin Kruununhakaan vuonna 2007 perustettu Chjoko-suklaakauppa.

Lauantaina 21.8. on tilaisuus tavata kuvittaja Matti Pikkujämsä ja Eero Mononen. En löytänyt Matti Pikkujämsän nettisivua, mutta hänen kättensä jälkeä voi ihailla muun muassa Kaunisteen tekstiileissä.



Napa is also hosting an international Flipbook competition! I think it's great, I love flipbooks. You don't have to have any prior experience, they give you instructions how to make flipbooks on their site.

Napassa on käynnissä myös Flipbook-kilpailu. Aivan mahtava idea, flipbookit on huippuhauskoja. Eikä tarvi olla aiempaa kokemusta, sivuilta löytyy ohje flipbookin tekoon.

Kuusamo part II

It was raining most of the time we were in Kuusamo. The plan was to swim, row the boat and lie in sun, but in the rain none of that seemed like a good idea. The tv went black too. So we spent couple of days lying on the sofa, giggling, reading comics and watching little birdies. We had the most wonderful time.

Suurimman osan ajasta kun olimme Kuusamossa satoi vettä. Matkasuunnitelma oli uida, soudella ja makoilla auringossa, mutta sateella ei oikein onnistunut. Telkkarikin pimeni. Niimpä vietimme pari päivää sohvalla löhoillen ja hihitellen, Roope-Setiä lukien ja pikkulintuja katsellen. Oli aivan parasta.







More Kuusamo photos on Flickr.
Lisää Kuusamo-kuvia Flickrissä.

Kuusamo part I

Here are some of the Kuusamo photos I promised earlier. I have never seen so many reindeers at one time, even though I've been to Kuusamo and Lapland before. Maybe autumn is some kind of wandering time for them, I don't know, but they were everywhere. Luckily the dogs only saw them behind a window. Otherwise I'm sure Mansikki would have chased them all the way to Russia.





The dogs looked so happy. Sometimes Mansikki made us a bit worried. She would disappear into the woods, but came back later.



Our travel itinerary from Oulu to Kuusamo.

And we're back / Kotona ollaan

We are back home. We made a little holiday trip to Kuusamo, north-east Finland. We rented an old farm house near the Russian border, left Monday noon and came home yesterday. Sand in my shoes playing in my head.

The antenna man just left, now we start emptying the livingroom. I will be back with more Kuusamo pics!

Oh, and I almost forgot. I was intervieved for a Chinese blog! You can read the interview over at inthatgarden. Don't worry, it's also in English :) This week our home was also featured on inspire your life-style. Big thank you to both!

Kotona ollaan taas. Teimme pienen lomamatkan Kuusamon seutuville. Vuokrasimme vanhan maatalon 50km Kuusamosta itään, melkein Venäjän rajalla. Lähdimme maanantaina puolen päivän aikaan ja palasimme eilen. Päässä soi tämä.

Antennimies kävi äsken, nyt alamme tyhjentää olohuonetta. Palaan myöhemmin Kuusamo-kuvien kanssa!

Ai niin, meinasi unohtua. Minua haastateltiin kiinalaiseen blogiin! Aika hullua. Ja aika eksoottista nähdä haastattelu kiinaksi. Sen voi käydä katsomassa täältä. Ei syytä huoleen, haastattelu on myös englanniksi :) Tällä viikolla kodistamme oli juttu myös täällä. Iso kiitos molemmille!

Monday Morning Coffee and Sketch + thoughts on creativity

I'm taking part in the Pikaland Artist Bootcamp by the amazing Amy and Jamie. As a freelancer you need to take care of your professional skills by yourself, there is no employer to send you to training. With that in mind I signed up for the bootcamp - and been more than happy that I did. Amy and Jamie have taken the time to give each of us individual feedback on our work. Not to mention the wonderful classmates. It has been a very supportive environment with critique and ideas flowing around.

So last week's assignment was to illustrate a chair that best represents who you are or defines your personality. What a difficult task! I chose Tapiovaara Mademoiselle in coral pink and made two versions. The first tries to portray my daydreaming side. I daydream it a lot. It's propably safe to say my feet are not always on the ground.



On the flip side of that, I feel with so much inspiration around, it's hard to concentrate on only one thing. I have dozens of ideas and get excited to do so many things. Which is good, it's part of being creative I guess. But at the same time, it's sometimes wearing me too thin. Sometimes it would be nice to concentrate on just one thing at a time.

Do you ever get that feeling? I know there are people who start something, finish it, then start something new --- but that's not me. Maybe it's something to learn though. Or would it be restricting creativity? What you think?

Beautiful Blogger: 10 things about me

Lovely Nancy of the super pretty Wolf and Willow gave me the Beautiful Blogger award. Thank you so much Nancy! Now that I shared 10 things about me, I must pass it forward to five new bloggers. So here goes.

1. Pilvitarha from Pilvitarhan paja 2. Suki from Varpunen 3. Georgianna from Georgianna Lane 4. Janine from Jardino 5. Minna from time of the aquarius

4th of July piknik

Kiitos vielä miljoonasti kaikista kasvomaalausvinkeistä, joita sain keväällä! Niitä tuli melkein 40 ja harjoittelin kaikkien maalaamista. Lopulta valitsin 16 sellaista, joiden maalaamisen uskoin sujuvan parhaiten ja tein niistä malliston, josta valita. Eilen sunnuntaina koitti OSAYn 4th of July -piknik ja pääsin (jouduin?) tositoimiin. Päivän selviä suosikkeja olivat Hello Kitty ja hämähäkki verkkoineen.

Thanks again for the facepainting tips I got last spring! There were almost 40 of them. I practised each one and chose 16 for my "collection". Yesterday the Finnish-American Society of Oulu celebrated their 50th birthday with a 4th of July picnic and it was time for some real face-painting action. The clear favorites of the day were Hello Kitty and a spider with web.





Tässä vielä jotain tunnelmia päivältä.

Here are some snaps of the day.



VPK:n pojat tulivat esittelemään kalustoaan.

The boys of the volunteer fire-brigade came to show their equipment.



Yksi piknikin kohokohtia oli North Hill Country Dancersien rivitanssiopetus.

One of the highlights of the day was the line dance lesson by North Hill Country Dancers.



Kaikki seurasivat opetusta keskittyneenä.
Lopuksi opettajat näyttivät, miten homma tulisi hoitaa.

Everyone was focused following the lesson.
In the end the teachers showed how it's really done.



Päivä oli muuten oikein onnistunut, sään jumalatkin suosivat. Tuuli vain oli niin kova, että se melkein vei pallopojan mukanaan.

We had a wonderful day, even the weather was great. Although the wind was so hard, the balloon boy almost flew away.

Kesästä ja lomasta / Summer, oh summer

Ulkona on kuuma ja sisällä vielä kuumempaa... Mutta en valita, tulin vain pikaisesti sanomaan hei. Minulla on nyt niin paljon töitä ja muuta tekemistä, että bloginpito jää vähän vähemmälle.

Onko teillä jo loma? Minulla ei ole varsinaista kesälomaa tänä vuonna ollenkaan. Mutta elokuussa yritän pitää pari viikkoa taukoa, että saamme remonttia eteenpäin. (Ehkä se lasketaan lomaksi.) Olisi hauska kuulla, mitä lomasuunnitelmia teillä on. Vaikka itse en pääse mihinkään, voihan sitä aina haaveilla :)

It's hot outside and inside even hotter... But I'm not complaining, I just came over to say a quick hello. I got a lot of work and other stuff to do, so I can't blog as often.

Are you already on holiday? I don't have a proper summer holiday this year, but in August I try to have a little break to renovate. (Maybe that counts as holiday.) What about you? What kind of summer plans you have? I might not be able to go anywhere, but one can always dream, right? So I'd love to hear what you have planned for the summer :)

Ihanaa juhannusta! / Happy Midsummer!

Mietin juhannussuunnitelmia ja taikoja yhtäkkiä tajusin, että taikojen aika on minun kohdaltani ohi. Eivätkö ne kaikki tähtää tulevan aviomiehen näkemiseen? Mies on löytynyt, vaikka ei kyllä ilmaantunut uniini yksikään juhannus. Ei tainnut kukaan muukaan ilmestyä, vaikka monena juhannuksena keräsin kukkia. Onkohan kellään juhannustaiat käyneet toteen? :)

I was thinking about Midsummer's Eve, the plans and the magic. You know, there's lots of magic you can do on Midsummer night, but for me the magic is over now. They are pretty much all about seeing your future husband in dream. I have my husband now, but he never showed up in my dream. In fact, no one did. I wonder if anyone's Midsummer magic has come true.

Ihanaa juhannusta!

Happy Midsummer!

Pikku tipuja / Baby chicks

Siskon maatiaiskanoille on syntynyt tipuja! Vanhemmat ovat jo vähän kookkaampia, mutta nämä ovat vasta muutaman päivän ikäisiä. Ne ovat vielä niin pikkuisia, etteivät tarkene ulkoilla. Aivan megasuloisia, jos minulta kysytään.

My sister's native breed chicken got babies! The older chicks are a bit bigger already, but these are just a few days old. They are too small to even go out yet. Mega-cute if you ask me.



Tässä ylpeä isä. Pelotti vähän valokuvata, jos hän vaikka olisi hätistänyt minut pois. Mutta oikein suopeasti hän katseli touhujani linssin takana ja jopa poseerasi hieman.

Meet the proud father. I was a little intimidated by him, worried he might chase me away. But he looked kindly upon my endeavours behind the lens, and even stroke a couple of poses.

Tonttu ja kilpikonna / Elf and the Turtle

Herra Tonttu ja ystävänsä kilpikonna ovat partioineet kampauspöytäni aarteita jo reilun vuoden, siitä asti kun löysin heidät vintin uumenista.

Mr. Elf and his friend the Turtle have patroled my vanity for over a year, ever since I found them at the attic.



He ovat palvelleet tehtävässään varsin ansiokkaasti, mutta spray-maalien houkutus ajoi minut suihkuttamaan heidät vihreäksi. (Moni muukin juttu meidän kotona on saanut spray-käsittelyn, niistä lisää myöhemmin.)

Mutta kun näin tämän tontun, minua alkoi vähän kaduttaa koko maalausoperaatio. Olisiko herra Tonttu sittenkin pitänyt jättää luonnolliseen tilaansa?
Toisaalta...

They have performed their duties in a most distinguished manner. However, the allure of spray paint drove me to spray them green.

But when I saw this elf, I kinda felt sad about painting them. Should mr. Elf have remained au naturel?
On the other hand...





Nyt hän maastoutuu paljon sujuvammin sekä ulkona,

Now he's much better camouflaged both outside,



että sisällä. Vai mitä mieltä olette?

and in. What do you think?

Kiirekiire / Busybusy

Minulla on niin kiire töitten kanssa, että en ehdi kunnolla päivittää blogia. Siispä tämä herra saa pitää teille seuraa. Ja jos Color Me Katie ei ole ennestään tuttu, käykää ihmeessä katsomassa. Se on aivan mieletön hyvän mielen paikka, aina alkaa hymyilyttää kun siellä käy.

I'm too busy with my work at the moment to properly update my blog. But I leave you with this gentleman, so you won't be lonely. And in the meanwhile, if you are not already acquainted with the amazingly creative Color Me Katie, I suggest you hop over to her blog. Her photos always make me smile.

Iloista vappua!

Iloista vappua!

Happy May Day!

In Finland 'vappu', the First of May, is a big celebration. Originally it was about the workers, but now it's mostly a big student party.

Hyvää pääsiäistä! / Happy Easter!

Pääsiäinen on päässyt aivan yllättämään minut, nyt se on yhtäkkiä täällä. Emme ole tehneet mitään suunnitelmia, mutta tuskin teemme mitään kovin ihmeellistä. Ainakin käymme kissavahteina ja paikkailemme Mansikin hampaiden jälkiä listoista ja ovenkarmeista. Ehkä kunnon suursiivous ja järjestelyurakka olisi myös paikallaan. Puolet alakertaa on ollut pois käytöstä remontin vuoksi ja jotenkin kummassa sitä rojua vain kertyy ympäriinsä. Ihme kasoja, joskus tuntuu että ne kasaantuvat itsekseen.

Mitä suunnitelmia teillä on? Lomailua, remonttia? Kevätsiivousta?? Kevätaurinko on kyllä aivan käsittämättömän armoton. Olen ehkä ensimmäistä kertaa todella ymmärtänyt kevätsiivouksen käsitteen. Viime keväänä meillä ei ollutkaan puoliksi lapinkoiraa karistamassa karvojaan joka paikkaan :) Niin ja hei, käykää ainakin Pilvitarhan pajalla kevätarvonnassa! Siellä on varsin asenteellinen ja hulppea kesäkassi arvottavana.

Joka tapauksessa toivotan teille kaikille ihanaa pääsiäislomaa, nähdään ensi viikolla!

Wow, it's Easter already, all of a sudden. We haven't made any plans yet, probably babysitting cats and fixing some damages Mansikki has done to the moldings and door frames. And a proper spring cleaning would be in order! You know, the winter is quite dark in Finland, but as spring comes there will be much more light. Which is nice, I love it, but it makes all the imperfections of your home very visible. I don't know if it's a global thing or if it happens only in countries such as ours, but at least a lot of the Finnish blogs have been full of spring cleaning. And I don't think I fully understood the whole concept until now. But now we have a half arctic dog that sheds her hair (and I mean LOADS of it) everywhere.

What about you? Any plans for the Easter holiday? Traveling, relaxing? Spring cleaning?? :)
Whatever your plans are, I hope you have a wonderful time. See you next week!