tori.

there are little girls who love barbies and ponies, but who are anything but barbie-like and fear real live horses.

there are adolescent girls who, instead of dressing up in frilly costumes and riding to the sunset their hair flowing wild, hide in the attic reading edgar allan poe and crime scene depictions.

there are ripening girls who build their soundscapes around faerie dreams and wild yelps.

there are grown girls who find the boxes surrounding them tangible and mutilating, but fight back with redefinitions and the full strength of their mind.

wednesday night i relived 20 years of what a life as a girl like that can be.

pic courtesy of tori.

a musical timeline facebook cannot even dream to provide...

fall barlotto.

the best purchase of this fall has without a doubt been our vegetable dryer.

yellowfeet + trumpets of death. gotta love the names of these delicious little fungi.

with limited freezer space, a flourishing garden and a shared love of mushroom picking, our stocks are overflowing. drying shrooms and veggies feels almost like cheating: vast piles shrink into diminutive heaps that promise a year long pleasure.

all dried out: mushrooms and leek.

since we had not dried anything previously, i had to make sure everything turned out all right. hence, i took a bag of organic barley – local, nutricious and much smaller in both carbon and water footprint than rice – and simmered it with dried leek and mushrooms until a creamy "barlotto" decorated my plate.

barley, veggie stock, leek, mushrooms, butter, salt and pepper. that's it.

simple and delicious.

35.

about a fortnight ago i entered the company of people who can round their age up to the four-oh. yes, i turned 35.

needless to say, i do not feel any different nor am i in any way obsessed with age (or lying about it, as you can well see).

i guess i should believe that i have reached a point which somehow sums up my life's direction: i am definitely on the adult side of things and past certain points of no return. i guess the stress is on the "should" since i might feel all grown up, but am too much of a ditz and way too preoccupied with my happiness to consider any path unalterable.

i still have the insecurities and strengths that come together as the personality i am, and i remain quite convinced that growing older will hardly eradicate any part of my persona even if i mellow out.

dress by rodebjer, earrings by chao & eero.

nonetheless, bdays are always a good excuse to get some happiness action going and that is something i was excited about.

therefore, i threw a brunch party at shanghai cowboy on a bright saturday. beautiful food, a bit of bubbles and the company of friends is all a bday girl really needs.

glass noodle, tofu and chillies.

goat cheese, raspberries and rocket.

omelettes.

when the restaurant opened for other clients, we fetched the doggie from home and walked over to glo hotel.

i had booked a corner suite to enjoy the weekend uninterrupted by mundane matters, and continued partying with a small group of my closest ones. i fell asleep on the sofa with jorma on my lap still surrounded by happy chatter.

Lisää kuvateksti

in the morning the sun was bright and i woke up in soft sheets to the smell of room service brekkie.

perfection.

***
p.s. in case you're not following oo on facebook, go clickety click. since i am, despite my firm intentions, slightly too busy to update as often as i'd like, i post links and all sorts of stuff there in between actual blog posts.

soft darkness.

last week i briefly visited the opening of ida pimenoff's exhibition at photographic gallery hippolyte.

each work is from the series and her first monograph, a shadow at the edge of every moment of the day, the title of which so readily and accurately embraces what you see. soft darkness, shadows filled with warmth.

the defense – and proof – that the edges of life as we tend to conceive it are not harsh or cold.

untitled, 2011.

the door, 2010.

two windows, 2010.

crabbie festing.

warm fall weekends are the time to enjoy the company of family and friends, lanterns, a little vodka and lots of fresh crayfish.

our transportation.

stella.

a beautiful summer day.

jorma having a dip.

what little dogs dream about...

the tradition of crayfish parties is something rather novel for a vegetarian of two decades, but i've grown into dealing with the massacre, peeling and cracking the shells and enjoying my toast with a shot and some singing. i am not sure whether i should worry about my moral development or continue oblivious.

crayfish!

watch dog.

lanters watching over us.

islands receiving the fall.

this past month i had the chance to escape outside to the islands near sipoo. first with close family, second with plenty of friends.

in surroundings like these, it ain't half bad. gotta love the finnish archipelago.

gotta love life.

life in pop.

well now, i usually do not do competitions. i hardly ever take part in them myself since i am not too into random free stuff and i find it rather awkward to bother someone with postal services in case i do win.

i am also butt lazy and cannot be bothered with mailing stuff myself which also prevents me from selling my surplus gear via interwebz...

it is not that i do not appreciate you, my dears. i do. other bloggers say that it's a cool way to reward readers, and sure, i agree.

but still preposterously like to think it's the content that draws people to read a blog. or merely the need to sneak into the life of someone they know – or do not.

here's the story: i gave in this time because it really is no bother to me (no mailing involved) and i think you guys might actually appreciate this. that is, i presume that you share my taste in music, even partly.

since you're quite an international lot, my dear readers, this little competition will not perk most of your lives. but the better for you locals, then.

now i feel the obligation to provide a competition to international readers. oh chucks, the slippery slope i just tapped my toe with...

but yes, to the point.

a new regular club night is launching this friday called poplife. it is the child of positively notorious club hosts that were behind the tavastian lauantaidisco and misf*ts, and they cater great music. you just have to trust my word on that.

ok, the official release says it's pop, rock, indie and tiny bit of dance music. but if that ain't the official definition of great music, you've officially got poor taste in music.

now, i've got 5 tickets for two courtesy of tiketti to the opening party. it's soon and you should polish your dancing shoes, but before that, you need to enter by leaving a comment below.

i guess this is where i come up with a funky little question you need to answer... here goes nada.

in your comment, tell me which shoes you'd wear to dance to your favorite tune. describe the shoes, name the tune, please. (finnish is more than ok if you do not want to write in english.)

and of you feel the need to say you'd dance barefoot to some hippy tune, please leave. 

i will then use the random number generator and pick five lucky winners – if enough of you leave a comment. make sure you leave your email-address in the comment section – unfortunately blogger does not allow hidden email-providing as far as i'm aware. in case do not want to share your email, you can also just send it to me at stellageezer [at] gmail.com with your nick. but do leave a comment, nonetheless.

and yes, you will need to be 22 years of age to participate. and you've got till 11am on friday (finnish time) to participate.

whoah. ok. good luck!

you can like poplife on facebook here.

see ya on friday!

hope in pink.

the imagery of japanese born new yorker fumi nagasaka so completely captures the visual world that i have grown into from my teen years that i sometimes find the photos and videos almost too familiar.

this is not to say that i consider her images alike the reality i live in, but rather that they embody everything i find beautiful and aesthetically pleasing in the world. her romantic colors suggest a softness that surrounds her consideration for awkward beings. beauty is not about symmetry, or when it is, there's a suggestion of frailty and impermanence.

a contributor at dazed, she created a short film with model du jour, andrej pejic, about her experience in japan when the earthquake hit and how people kept expecting good news in the midst of all the pain and suffering. and then the cherry blossom season begun...

 

flip through her website and blog for photos and film.

exquisite.