invasion.

my new, tiny apartment has something i fondly refer to as the non-kitchen.

for someone like myself who likes to cook (in order to eat well, mind you, not for the pleasures of chopping, sautéing or doing the dishes) and enjoys a well-equipped area for anything daily, it has come as a shocker to realize that a small dining table acts as my kitchen counter and that i had to extend all storage of utensils, dishes and such to my already small living area.

let me be clear: we're not talking about an open plan kitchen. it really is a nook with a sink and a half of a stove with a cupboard on top.

as i do consider my living arrangement of the moment rather temporary, i did not want to invest into custom furniture or anything disposable. ikea all around was not an option although i did pick up some beautiful things from there, too. it was, nevertheless, important to have a space that i felt comfortable living in aesthetically and functionally: i still want and need to cook even with these challenges in mind. i also did not want to give up or store away most of the items i had accumulated throughout these past years of building a home.

thus, i looked towards finnish design shop and ordered a pretty little set of muuto shelving for my kitchen-out-of-the-kitchen. when i am done with this place, they will serve well as a bookshelf or even to divide space between areas – if i get to such a grandiose apartment as to need a divider.

hay flower pots act as utensils storage. little boxes from ferm living and ikea keep order near the entrance.

it turned out to be a rather subtle invasion, after all.

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.

out with the old, in with the older.

instead of attending the opening party at bar siltanen on wednesday i went shopping in my storage. it was time to store away knits and sweaters and get the lighter stuff out. there prolly isn't a more eco-chic way to shop than shuffling through your own garb...

my closet, as might be apparent from my previously posted pics, is filled with monochrome. i am very much a black'n'white girl in addition to being somewhat incapable of wearing muted wintery colors such as burgundy, plum, browns and navy. if i do color, it's usually very bright. and despite it not showing in the blog, i honestly do color. especially in the summer.

as proof that color ain't all talk, you can see that there are colorful clothes in my boxes. see? by the way, these ikea plastic containers are the salvation of my storage crisis: transparent, large and with lids they store everything from shoes and purses to clothing neatly and accessibly.

no matter how hard you try to invest in classics or trend-defying pieces of clothing, it seems the sincere attempt fails more often than succeeds. i'm sure you're all familiar with the disappointment associated with opening storage boxes and wondering why on earth the stuff wasn't tossed ages ago...

gulping and fearing exactly that my mood was nothing short of exhilarated when i found an entire store's worth of stuff that is still wearable. there are dresses and blouses, skirts and shorts. five pairs of vans slipons (!!!) in the middle of random items. jackets. tees. everything.

i'm starting with greyscale -- hold yer horses, i can't go bright and shiny all of a sudden now can i -- and pulled out a cheap monday stripey jacket from 2006 and a pair of paper bag waist pants from h&m bought two years ago. ignoring the fact that paper bag waist was a fad, i felt comfy rocking these today. add a pair of mean platform sandals and voila! ready to roll. have you found any forgotten beauties in storage lately?

top 5 of the moment.

1. ikea samla clear storage boxes with lids.
2. elevators.
3. bubble wrap.
4. strong friends who love doing cardio.
5. storage facilities which remind you of gnome residences, such as low spaces above bathrooms and basement cupboards with miniature doors.

yes, i'm moving. and i am moving from a top floor flat to a renovated attic loft, from a building with an elevator to one without. running up six flights of stairs repeatedly is no joke.

store yer veggies.

i presume not being alone in searching for my lost cloves in the fridge. i don't like storing garlic on a tabletop, but sprouts galore and the notorious vanishing act of drying garlic cloves keep me wondering what i'm doing wrong. am i just not eating enough of the stinker?

well, ahoy, here comes bruno super deluxe and their veggie storage bags. they're made of cotton canvas which keeps garlic and mushrooms fresh with necessary airflow and protects from light. and they've got cutesy prints, they're reusable and washable. how very cool.