a mirror, a clock and some starbursts and polkadots on the side

Oh how I like finding quirky vintage stuff in the thrifts! It's one of my favourite pastimes and hobbies after all. But to prevent acute hoarding I do set limits and follow a count-to-ten discipline when out hunting. I still allow myself to collect certain things that I don't necessarily need, if they come very cheap and if they really speak to me. Otherwise I want my vintage finds to have a useful purpose in my home, in my wardrobe or in our everyday life.

This group of finds belong to the latter group - they have the age, they have the look, they had a cheap pricetag and they found a good home with us, being used again to their purpose.

This mid century modern mirror is a huge find for me - for a long time I've been wanting a good vintage mirror with teak details and a nice shape, but prices always prevented me to acquire one. Then one day I happened upon this example. It was buried under a whole lot of uninspiring junk on a lower shelf. The teak bits were dried out and faded, but I do like a little restoration project. So even the few small nicks on the edges couldn't spoil my joy. It cost a fiver. It's up on the wall now in our apartment, the teak has been fed with almond oil and polished. It is enjoyed every day, for example when I do my hair in the mornings.

Doing my hair usually involves tying a scarf into it - it tames my fly-away strands and allows me to forget about bad hair day, which I seem to get a lot... I'm pleased to have found a new favourite head scarf for a single coin, in such a happy polkadotty colourway. It is a good non-slippery matt rayon weave, and it was made in Japan sometime in the 60s.

And then, a ceramic wall clock of vintage dreams. Just like the mirror, I have been after a good vintage wall clock for yonks. In fact, we bought one last year, a 70's German plastic one in a fun brown and orange colourway, but after an hour of having it installed on the kitchen wall it stopped working. After tinkering with it a bit and running it on a new battery, it was clear that the motion was broken. I'm still looking for a replacement motion for it - have not found the right one yet.

I don't need to hurry with the search because this gorgeous green Vedette keeps the time in our home now. Vedette seems to be a really cool French vintage brand. Amongst all the covetable examples online, I haven't come across this particular green model - could it mean that they produced each design in small quantities? Or could it be that the lovely but breakable materials didn't survive the test of time? Could be either or even both. Mine is missing its glass dome cover, but I don't actually mind that much - its looks and inner workings survived the test of time and it came to us cheap cheap cheap.

Good vintage tins are also always welcome in our home - we like using ones with spotless interiors for storing dry foodstuffs. Remember this and this? As well as our coffees, now our granulated sugar is also in a vintage tin. I like that it features a doodle starburst pattern, and the word sugar in both Estonian and Russian. My affinity for vintage Soviet stuff is very pleased with this tin!

a Don Freedman-esque wall hanging

We LOVE a nice vintage wall hanging, be it tapestry, rya rug, fibre art or school maps.  So when we see a real beauty at a low price, we buy it. Real beauties are normally very expensive which is kind of lucky from a hoarding-prevention point of view... Sometimes however, a rare opportunity comes by when it's possible to snatch up a real beauty for very very cheap, which is also very lucky.

This Don Freedman-esque autumnal landscape is amongst the examples of such rare opportunities. It cost less than a cinema-ticket but gazing at it gives me more joy than most current productions in the movie theatre. I'm very happy to see it every morning as I sit up from bed.

Isn't it nice, in all of its 1970s chunky textured, hand crafted glory?

long time no see

Three things which I have not seen for a while:

- blossoming ice on the windowpane
- my shadow
- and clear blue skies...

At last, it's sunny, bright and very very cold!

seeds in the post

Unexpected gifts and nice mail are the best stuff in the mail box, in my opinion. I have been lucky enough to enjoy both just recently, courtesy of Steph from the Mini Matriarchin blog.

She sent me one of her lovely handmade postcards and a secret surprise, which was revealed once I opened the card to read.

I'm so excited at the prospect of growing heirloom tomatoes from seed this summer!

Sometime last year I was admiring Steph's roof garden and especially the striped tomato - how very nice that she sent me some little seeds!

Thank you Steph! With your letter and the enclosed surprise, springtime feels a little closer!


Do you think sending flower of veggie seeds in the post is a nice idea?

cocktail napkins, a cake stand and a Nokia surprise

Aha, so where is the Nokia brick phone, I hear you say upon seeing my little still life photo up here - we'll get to the surprise bit soon, not to worry!

This batch of finds go back as far as last November. The reason for showing them off only now is that I tend to get unhappy with low light conditions and the less than crystal clear image quality they promote...Well, between now and November there's been barely a half hour window when it was other than grayscale light...grumble, grumble.

But hey-ho, onto the finds.

There were a couple of things I didn't necessarily need, yet both things proved irresistible in their vintageness. As usually, my buying decision was reinforced by the cheep price tags attached. Besides, they are useful and usable objects - both the orange melamine cake stand and the a couple of 50's cocktail napkins in emerald green. I like how these mini tablecloths were printed in a way to give the impression of tipsy double vision.

I always look at the reverse side of an object as a rule of thumb - it helps finding out the maker, determining true age and origin, just to mention a few amongst all the factors important when you are trying to find genuine vintage articles. Sometimes the reverse side reveals hidden surprises too, like faults or signatures.

Luckily both my items were faultless, even on the reverse side. The textile napkins proved to be of age, showing off that typical weave of utility cottons from decades ago when this type of strong fabric was used quite often in tablecloths and curtains. I cannot think of the actual term or name of this weave - any ideas? It's the same weave as seen in the cute elves table runner I picked up just before Xmas. The cake stand revealed a stamp that told me it was made in Sweden.

So that Nokia surprise - well, it is not a phone. Did you know that Nokia used to make gumboots? In fact, they still do.

In November it was raining so much and I was so fed up with getting wet toes in wet-through shoes that I started to hanker after a pair of their supercool wedge-heeled gumboots, which is, alas, priced well above what my budget can afford.

Next thing you know, I spot a pair of factory fresh 70's Nokia gumboots on a quick dip into a charity shop on my way home. I'm not the type who'd normally buy rubber boots from anywhere, let alone secondhand, but these have been never used, they are in as new condition and by far the best gumboots a tenner will buy me, like ever. Plus they have very comfy, well-balanced, supportive medium high heels, and they are le couleur de melted chocolat (ie. lush deep brown). No wonder this model was named City. Beyond looks, they are virtually indestructible - they are of vulcanized rubber which withstands subzero temperatures up to - 40 degrees C.

As well as on my feet on a rainy or slushy day, they can also be seen here in the museum in Tampere.

Craft It Forward 2013 reveal

It's time to show you what has been made for the Craft It Forward challenge I swore to complete last year - and I did complete it so, just before the year expired. I took my time, but I was rather enamored with the idea of making everybody a perfect little needle case for their 'idle' needles, so I exercised my precision stitching and my love of tiny handstitches to the max.

Here are the results below:

What else was in the packet? Here is Helene's, Anna's and Evdokia's example. I know that most of you have received the parcel and I'm so glad you all liked it too, and I trust that the others did so too.

It was a fun project, I'm definitely tempted to do something similar sometime again. I also really like both the sending and the receiving aspect of snail mail, I'm set on finding ways to enjoy it more!

happy 'neigh' year!

Being the Year of the Horse according to the Chinese - and me being an Earth Horse too according to them - I could not resist this, and the title... So with this silly, fun first post of the year, I'm wishing all of you a brilliant, happy, healthy and prosperous New Year 2014! Here's for all the newness and all the goodness it will bring!

vintage fabric in a romantic old tin from Australia

It felt like Christmas came early when this beautiful treasure tin got delivered to me after a long journey all the way from down under.

A while ago I was the lucky reader in Rebecca's giveaway. Rebecca blogs over at Naughty Shorts - about her life and small business, vintage cotton prints and the beautiful dresses she designs and makes out of them. Her home, which is filled to the brim with envy-inducing vintage finds, is often featured on her blog too.

I was very lucky to receive a bundle of fat quarters of vintage printed cottons, and some other goodies that'd make any girl jump for joy.

 

Looking at these fabrics together inspire me to make a quilt of some kind - I have never tried my hand at quilting before but I think I'd really enjoy the hand-stitching aspect of it. I'll mull over the idea, but in the meantime if you have any suggestions or even quilting tips for me, I'd love to hear them!

winter solstice and banana bread (with recipe)

Happy winter solstice, everybody!

The thought of slowly lengthening days and more natural light from now on is filling me with warmth and makes me want to dance around the room. I still wish for quietly tumbling fluffy snowflakes to carpet the earth first - because without the white sparkle of snow the winter landscape is as dark and lightless as a black hole. Currently the only snowflakes in sight are tumbling from the ceiling in my kitchen, in a form of a wooden mobile (plus these snowflakes in the social media). So I celebrate the promise of spring and summer in this longest night / shortest day of the year.

We are not going to spend Christmas in our home, but we still felt like decorating a little bit. And we baked a warming, yummy banana bread too. It is a really nice cake, and goes superbly with afternoon coffee - find the recipe right after the pictures!

Banana bread

with cardamom and dates

150g butter (or coconut oil) softened

225g granulated sugar

2 eggs

275g flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon bicarb soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cardamom seeds

3 ripe bananas

a handful of pitted dates (chopped into small cubes)

a little butter (or coconut oil) to grease the tin

a small amount of breadcrumbs

1.) Pre-heat the oven to 170 C. Grease a loaf-shaped cake tin with a little butter (or coconut oil) and dust the greasing with a small amount of breadcrumbs.

2.) In a large mixing bowl whisk the butter (or coconut oil) together with the sugar. Add the eggs one by one and mix well.

3.) In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, bicarb soda, salt and cardamom.

4.) In a third dish, mush the bananas with a fork, and stir in the chopped dates.

5.) Now start adding the flower mix and the banana mix into the butter/egg mixture bit by bit, in an alternating fashion - like 3 tablespoons of flour mix, whisk together, 2 tablespoons of banana mix, whisk together, 3 tablespoons of flour mix again, whisk well, and so on until both the flour mix and the banana mix runs out.

6.) When all the ingredients are well mixed together, pour the mixture into the greased-breadcrumbed loaf tin, smooth down the top and bake it in the middle of the oven at 170 C for 50-60 mins. If baking in a fan oven, reduce the baking time. At about 50 minutes, check the cake by sticking a long thin needle into it (I use one of my thin knitting needles) to see if the cake is cooked through. If the needle comes out without any cake sticking onto it, then your cake is done. Tip the cake out of its tin,and let it cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy! This cake keeps well for 3-4 days in an airtight container.

a warm shawl, an old lampshade, and a festive runner

Hello again! Let's kick off December with some warming, seasonal finds.

Do you remember the vintage Finnish wool blanket that I had thrifted a while ago? I have been dreaming about a smaller version of it ever since, so I could wrap the snug warm woolliness around my neck as a scarf when I go out into the everyday winter wonderland of the Finnish cold season.

Well, what do you know, dreams do come true and I did find a vintage woollen shawl from the same designer in the fleas just recently. It's in the nicest shades of hot pinks, and is in impeccable condition. Now I'm almost always looking forward to braving the blizzard and hail every time I need to walk to the grocery store.

This time around last year, I found my first vintage scandinavian Christmas table runner. This year is luckily no different: my current (barkcloth?) find has really cute elves on it, and the colours are super crisp. 

Could it be that a seasonal thrifting tradition is starting? Well, if every year I find a nice table runner like these, it would be quite alright! 

Sometimes I pick up things from the thrifts that first I have no idea what to do with. One of those things was this old glass lampshade with an intriguing bumpy design. It cost next to nothing, something like 5 cents, so I wasn't too torn between getting it or not. I thought it would make a nice random ornament or a pencil holder as long as we won't lift it...

Well now I'm thinking LED tealights! This particular lampshade won't take a real candle because its plain glass surface is painted red from the inside, and exposed to a flame it would quite possibly melt or even catch fire. However, a battery one will light it very nicely for the festive season.

How is the festive thrifting situation where you live? Have you find some nice things for the holiday sea

soft focus morning

A lovely morning of sleeping in and then knocking about in the softly lit flat, while waiting for the sun to rise (which is a bit after 9am at the moment). Crafting too, in fact putting the finishing touches to a project, which is good news for those of you who have been waiting for your Craft It Forward packages...!

I put together a playlist of soft sounds to share this mellow morning with you lovely readers. Wishing all of you a softly Sunday, and a relaxed first day of a hectic month!

little lights

Still fascinated with the dramatic change in light conditions in this country. I feel I'm a little better armed this winter than last year.

I finally joined in with the tradition and obsession of lighting candles on the dark balcony at 4pm, and letting them burn in their jar as long as the wick is. In the kitchen the oil lamp is on, and we started to make room on the wall for the string lights. Of course we use our normal electric light fittings, but it's somehow different in effect. Darkness already begins just after 4pm and lasts til 9 in the morning. Its presence seeps thickly into the rooms whether you keep the shutters closed or open. Either way it is quite heavy on the mind. It's really soothing to light little fires outside and in the kitchen in a way that we see it from the living room.

I went to an interesting exhibition recently, and there was a neon installation that captured me with its glow. The two words mean 'I am' in Finnish.

Neon art by Marja Pirilä (I AM/LIGHT)

in two minds

I like being close to nature. In natural nature more, than in a museum.

I like animals better alive. Seeing them stuffed in a Museum of Nature is convenient (for personal safety), interesting and saddening in the same time. We were assured by the staff that they arrived here naturally dead or dead by regulation. Some were donated by a zoo, after the death of an old or a terminally ill animal. Some were donated by a forester whose job is to survey the forests and the seashore, and to cull certain species according to law.

So there. Feeling conflicted, interested, controversed and intrigued, I examined the exhibits in the still life set-ups like a good museum punter, respecting their fragile beauty and deadness by resisting to pat their fur, boop their nose or tickle their paw. Looking at the beautifully preserved dead animals, I couldn't help but wish that all the taxidermy was still alive running around unseen by me in the wild. I got out of there just before those silent, life-like glass eyes started to seem too alive.

No beauty without pain, no rose without a thorn, no museums of nature without dead animals... I'd be lying if I said I wasn't glad to get back home to the little plastic zoo that I keep in a jar.