a baby shower in the woods ♥

to celebrate our friend tanja and the upcoming arrival of her baby girl, a few of us friends and the grandmother-to-be arranged a 'woodland' themed baby shower ♥

knowing tanja's love for the outdoors and given our forest-like and beautiful scenic venue, we wanted to bring it all indoors.

the grandmother-to-be, sirkka, and i brought anything and everything that we thought would suit the scene and combined them to make small vignettes and sweet details throughout the space. some old mason jars were filled with moss and craft butterflies and others had pine cones. (that was a funny story: lucy and i noticed tons of pine cones at our local school. so one evening we went to collect them and a lady there noticed and asked if i was getting an early start to christmas decorating! but it's true... i don't ever remember finding pine cones in the spring - normally i've picked them in late-fall. anyway... ) galvanized trays and a plank of old wood were in the center of the dessert table with details such as nests and eggs, antlers, glass birds, woven finnish birch baskets, lily of the valley, vintage model dears and acorns all around. for a modern touch and a hint of spring green (one of the tanja's favourite colours), paper garlands of birds were hung here and there. the marimekko napkins had a pattern of mushrooms on them - perfect for the theme and tanja's love of mushroom picking in finland. the colours of the napkins were complimented by colourful vintage stemware.

the dinner menu consisted mostly of italian foods as a token to tanja's husband's background. relatives and friends prepared a variety of salads including 'insalata caprese' with adorable classic finnish flag picks to hold them together. authentic italian lasagna was ordered from a nonna nearby in the neighbourhood.

the dessert menu on the other hand was made up of classic finnish desserts: mini toskakakkut (almond cake), korvapuustit (cinnamon buns) and täytekakku (strawberries and cream cake). we added a few other funny little details such as acorn cookies (mini chocolate chip cookies with a chocolate kiss and butterscotch chip attached), woodland animal cookies (using these cutters) and strawberry mice (with almond slices as ears and black licorice lace as tails).

we mostly enjoyed our time mingling with each other and watching tanja open gifts. but for a bit of entertainment we played a few games: at the beginning of the shower everyone was given a little wooden bird necklace (the birds were bought from the dollar store; i just drilled a hole through each bird and strung them onto linen thread) and if someone caught you saying the word 'baby', 'girl', 'vauva', 'bambino', or 'shower', they got to take your bird and the person with the most birds at the end of the shower won a prize. since tanja's a bit of a 'foodie', we tested her taste and everyone else's with a baby food game: jars of mystery baby food were labeled a, b, c, d and e and everyone had to guess what the foods were based on colour, scent and flavour (there were toothpicks in a shot-glass labeled 'clean' and one for 'dirty' ones) and wrote their answers on a sheet. throughout tanja's travels she has gained a 'love' for kareoke (!) so i of course wanted to include that quirky little detail in her shower: she sang with the friends into 'pine cone and stick' microphones 'isn't she lovely' and 'can't take my eyes off of you'. lastly we played a game where independently everyone had to match woodland animals with their babies (e.g. dear - fawn) - that turned out to be quite tricky - yet educational - ha!

it was a lovely shower and i just can't wait to meet the little baby herself ♥


(we found out i was pregnant with lucy in the fall and so she was called 'baby acorn'... planning this shower reminded me of my own baby acorn ♥ i'm so glad she'll soon have a new little girl friend ♥)

karva & eija's home sweet home ♥

like uncle like niece... we're both avid 'collectors'... 

my uncle 'karva' and his wife eija have some really great finnish design pieces in their home. ok... so they actually have a *lot* of great pieces... and although it all looks like a million-bucks... i have to tell you, he hasn't bought a single piece at regular price... i think they've all been bought at thrift stores, auctions and even taken from the side of the road and from dumpsters... he's has some really good places where he regularly finds the goods... but of course, i can't tell you where... (!)

aalto 401 armchairs, aalto 45 armchairs, aalto mx800b table, aalto stools x601 aalto stool x600... that's a lot of 'aalto'

aalto's tea trolley 900 and maire gullichsen's table lamp m510

muumi puvut - moomin costumes ♥

these are the muumi costumes i made for lucy's birthday party.
they were super easy and inexpensive to make:

-for muumi, niiskuneiti, muumimamma and nipsu i wrapped headbands in scraps of ribbon, cut out some ears and hot glued them to the headbands... headbands: $1 for 2; ribbon: i've taken the handles off shopping bags; wool ears: leftover scraps; nipsu's ears were scraps of brown jersey fabric (from another costume) stretched onto wire; niiskuneiti's hair was left over scraps from lucy's doll.

-all the tails were made using the same shopping bag ribbon and left over wool. nipsu's tail was made from the jersey fabric.

-lucy had a perfect bracelet to use as niiskuneiti's golden anklet and i had a little black purse for muumimamma that i've had since prom.


-muumipappa's hat and cane came from thrift stores: $2 for the hat and $3 for the cane.

-nuuskamuikkunen's hat was made using a wool vest that i had shrunken down and felted a few months ago - i literally used the whole vest: the rim was made with the bottom hem of the vest with a wire passed through it to hold the round shape; the arm holes and neck hole were sewn shut and that became the body of the hat. the vest cost $2 or $3. i then stuck a feather in the hat. i already owned a green scarf and the harmonica came from the dollar store.

-i bought a t-shirt from a thrift store ($1) and made pikku myy's classic little bun and used a scrap of fabric for her bow-tie.

-it was a funny little moment when i realized i was cutting muumimamma's apron using my muumimamma scissors ♥ the striped fabric came from ikea: half a meter made one adult-sized apron and two child-sized aprons (the second was given as a gift to lucy's friend 'm')

i loved dressing up in costumes as a kid... and so far lucy enjoys it as well ♥

curb appeal in the city: front doors

here are a few exterior doors from around our neighbourhood...

i like them for different reasons... mostly because of their colour, style and character.

great shade of blue. i also love the tiny brass knob on the original screen door.

bright green that ties in with their surrounding plants... love how the one on the left is original to the house yet painted in the same green as the new and modern door on the right.

such a yummy shade of red... not too dark, or bright, or pink, or orange... just right

yellow doors on white houses... and of course yellow flowers to match (!)

 classic black and white

trendy mint

i think it's great how they've 'beefed up' the height of this door 

to work with the existing original windows

i love these old original wooden doors with horizontal panels of glass and wood.

an old screen door paired with an old exterior door... i love when homeowners maintain them and are able to keep them rather than trading them in for something new and 'shiny' 

i love how elegant yet simple this door is with it's round beveled window

although i absolutely love all the old original doors, i'm just as happy with some of the new ones with plain horizontal windows, either frosted or clear.

what would be your 'dream door' for your own home?