Throwing the cold stone

One of the things that often suprise people moving to Nordic countries from other parts of the world is that every day of the year is dedicated to to a specific name or a couple of them. These vary from country to country but the idea is the same. For example in Finland Laura's name day is the January 18th.

More interesting is that there are heaps of old beliefs connected to certain name days. For example it was believed that if you wanted to have a good crop the next year you should not do any work on the day of Martti in November.

One of the beliefs that still survives is that the waters start getting cold on the day of Jaakko. It is said that Jaakko throws a cold stone into the lake. As it happens, my boy friend is called Jaakko and his name day was yesterday. I hope he didn't sneek out to throw any stones because I still intend to do a lot of swimming this summer.

Tomorrow is also special but for another reason. It is called "unikeon päivä" which means the sleepy head's day. The person in a household that sleeps the longest will be the official sleepy head. Since I'm on sick leave because of my flu, I'm afraid that will be me.

Cushion project

For about a month now we have had cushions that I made out of Marimekko fabric Elsa. I fell in love with it when visiting a Marimekko store and since it was on sale, I just couldn't resist. How ever, I haven't been able to get over how christmasy the bright red, gold and silvery gray feel to me. (You can see the fabric on a cushion lying on the chair in the picture.)

So, when I was visiting a drapery in Helsinki one day and saw a nice light blue Laura Ashley fabric (also on sale) I thought it was time to do something about the cushion situation. When I got home I started to think that the fabric might be too romantic for my taste after all, as most of the stuff from Laura Ashley usually is. How ever, I had some pink left over fabric that I could mix in. I thought that then the cushions would look more exotic than country side. I don't really know why I thought that.

The end result, I feel, looks more Slavic than anything else. Still I think they look quite nice and are going to go well with the pink and blue quilted bedspread that I'm working on. They certainly go well with my Russian matushka dolls, don't you think?

The chair in the picture, which I'm using as a night stand for the time being, is one of my dearest pieces of furniture. It was made by my great great grandfather for his daughter (my mothers grandmother, that is). The lamp foot is from a charity shop near by while the shade is of my own doing. I used Japanese news paper, clear laquer and some glass beads.

Saturday Fleamarket

Last saturday I wisited the Hietalahti fleamarket in Helsinki. It is propably the most traditionaland famous fleamarket in Finland and is located by the Hietalahti market hall.

In the hall there are several antique and second hand shops and I actually would have liked to look at some furniture. But, like almost everything in Finland at this time of year, the shops were closed. From the fleamarket I still found these plates. They are a nice addition to my collection of mismatched blue and white china. There are two of each, since I try to buy most of my china in pairs.

The nightless night

These pictures are from the Midsummer night three weeks ago. I was with some friends in one of the small islands that are scattered in front of Helsinki and surrounding cities. It was wonderfuly peacefull and the boat ride there was so much fun.

I took these a little before midnight and as you can see it's still quite light. The darkest hour of the night is of course at 1 am because of the daylight savings and here in the southern parts the sun does set every night.

I just wanted you to see how beautiful Finnish summer can be. This is also an excuse for the very slow posting. Before long it will be dark when we get up and dark when we come home, so I'm trying to enjoy the light while it lasts. I will keep posting through out the summer but probably the pace will be slow. I promise it will get better in the September at the latest...