BLUEBERRY BARS

I've been experiencing a lot trying to come up with the perfect raw-bar.

If you are wondering what the hell a raw bar is, it is a snack that is made according to raw food principles; all un cooked natural ingredients. I got hooked on chocolate raw bars when I was pregnant and since they are pretty much the perfect snack (or sweets) I consume quite a lot of them still. And since they are rather expensive to buy I have been trying out variations of my own. Although all raw sweets are ridiculously expensive to make at home too, all those fancy nuts and super food ingredients… Most that are grown on the other side of the world. Sometimes I even get annoyd at maca this and lucuma that. Not that I don't think that those so called "super foods" wouldn't be good for you - but do I really need a root from Peru in my snack bar? We can get true superfoods over here too; the berries that grow in our woods!

So, this is a how-to  for healthy snack bars with blue berries. (And some stuff from the other side of the world too.) Being able to make the perfect raw bar in setup and consistence is not easy and I get different results every time, sometimes they turn out too mud cake like (nothing wrong with that, but I don't always want them to feel like candy), sometimes too nutty, sometimes too moist. I usually always use raw cocoa or raw chocolate, but in this version I'm just going for a purple berry bar, chocolate free.

Use about one part dates and one part nuts.  And some seeds of your choice.

I took mostly cashews, plus some almonds and hazel- and para nuts (next time I'll go for this without the para nuts though) and linen seeds (from our farm, keeping up the local theme). Put the seeds and nuts in water to soak for a little while, about ten minutes is enough.

If  the dates are fresh you don't need to soak them, but as I used very dry ones I had them in water over night.

Then you'll need this: blueberry powder, as in dried and ground blueberries!  I've also done this with dried blueberries which turns out great, even better perhaps, but then again you'll need a lot and that is really not to be considered everyday luxury as the price per kilo is quite scary for such.

I have a small  blending bullet for this which fits about half a handful at the time, and for such an amount of dates and nuts I put one tea spoon of blueberry powder.

So, then you mash it all in your blender/mixer/bullet and put the mix in a bowl. You can sweeten it with honey or agave if you like, but for me the dates makes it sweet enough. Add some cold pressed coconut oil. I also put in some hemp seeds as they taste great . 

Flatten the paste out in a mold and put in the fridge for at least a few hours before eating. If the mix feels very moist you can dry it in the oven on very low heat for a while before storing cold. 

Cut into bars and store them in a plastic box in the fridge. They will stay fresh about up to 4-5 days. I out half of mine in the fridge.

These  make a perfect breakfast or light lunch -which for me nowadays most often  are the same thing- together with a smoothie (and some nice magazines).

A FACIAL FAVORITE

Some time ago I mentioned some beauty favorites of mine, among which was the Melvita rose serum. I got the cleanser from the same floral series and it's great! All-natural and wonderfully smooth.
I bought mine from Jolie.

On another note, this week's giveaway for my Facebook likers is for an organic facial treatment kit. As usual, running until Sunday night. Go and (try to) grab it from my contest tab here!

MORE CAPES FOR THE PEOPLE!

Beret & cape by Fiona Timantti.
Photo by Saara Salmi.

BLACK + CAPE

Today I dressed like a mime with a skirt, wearing a cape.

Wasn't that sentence just totally Hel-looks?

MY TATTOOS : THE SHIP AND THE MONKEY

I had almost forgotten I had this little series going on, about my tattoos and about tattoos in general.
The first posts were, a part from my pieces, about pain and about tattoos in general.
This post however is just about a ship and a monkey. Or well, monkeys.

My left arm turned out to be the sea-themed arm; it's all abut sailor hats and ships there. Not that it is that visible, but when spotted many ask me what ship that is, or why I have a ship. Well - I've been working with freight and ships for over a decade, so hence. Although, this is a container ship while I have been working with ro-ro cargo. You either know what that means or then you don't. But it's not s important here. This is the only one I did not draw myself; it was originally drawn by my former fiance, who was a seaman. And at the time worked at a container ship.

The monkey one you may remember as it is as new as from last year. And you know I totally love monkeys. I once saw this strange outdoor monkey circus where the unfortunate monkeys were biking in a circle in length order -smallest first and the biggest last- to the tunes of Black Magic Woman and more lucky, wild monkeys were watching them from the trees around. Then one monkey accidentally biked a little too fast so their order got fucked up and they all totally freaked out and started going faster and faster and Santana kept on playing in the background. It was very absurd and very very wrong. Needless to say, this did not happen in this part of the world.

But anyway, back to my monkey. Which was one of my oldest toys. The name of the monkey was -or, sorry, is- Plyti. Plyti Apan. Apan means monkey, so it's the Plyti Monkey. I don't know how I came up with that name really. I know I didn't like it all that much as a kid because it's face was kind of scary. I was never that much for stuffed animals or dolls in the first place, but  I still had Plyti on my bed. It's the only toy I've kept since childhood and it's still somewhere here to be found in the mess of my bedroom. 

THE LADYBUG SUIT

 Ulrika Bachér, around 2 months old, December 1981.

Dag Bachér, about 2 months old, August 2012.

VICTORY!

 Remember this dress?
Most of you won't as it hasn't actually been around for real...


But it's this one! The vintage one I bought in advance, just a few days before Dag was born, that I just had to try on a little right ahead (and posted these haha-funny pics of on my facebook page).



Some weeks after labour we were going somewhere and I was eager to wear just any of my dresses. We were in a hurry and I wanted to finally be able to go for this one but it wouldn't fit me at all, in fact I even broke a seam when trying it on. That's when I realized that my old wardrobe which I had been waiting for for nine months would have to wait a long while still. Very frustrating. I actually thought I would never, ever, be able to wear this dress.



But now only a couple of months later it fits me, yey!
Although it's matching belt will need a few more months still, or maybe rather a corset...

The dress is from Vintage Ansa. I always wanted a candy stripe shirtwaist dress. Although this is not really candy striped when you look up close; it has black pattern inside the striped. But I'll save that for some other post.

FOUR THINGS A LITTLE WHILE AGO

This evening...

I admired my pelargoniums - they are are doing quite well! I am sort of proud of these as I've grown them myself from cuttings. Starting to have quite many by now, there are a lot more in the countryhouse too, and they keep on coming. How will this end?
(Well. I actually do not only know how but also when this will end; it will onyl take one winter and I'll be back at square one...)

 Dag & daddy were watching TV - although Dag mostly watched his hands. Just as interesting!-

 while I made dinner. Roasted butternut squash, mushrooms and fried halloumi with sunflower seeds.
(Btw this is not the final mexican oilcloth I chose for the table . It's temporary. But very nice still.)

Then I drew the winner of the embroidery book.  And that winner turned out to be MrsJ! Congrats!

In a little while I will post a new drawing over at my FB page. If enough people participate, there will be a new give aways each week. As in, once a week one of my page likers will win something. Note however that you still have to participate separatly, as in go to my page and clip my sweepstakes tab and enter by leaving your email (which will only be used to contact you afterwards if you win). This week's will be for a pure mineral eyeshadow in autumn colours from amineral make up brand La Bella Donna. The contest runs until Sunday evening! Enter the giveaway trough the "Weekly Contest"-tab on my FaceBook page.

THE BLUE JEANS

Uh-mazing, isn't it? I am actually wearing a pair of jeans!
Yes, me,jeans. Which I really, seriously, haven't done in years and years. Except for that one time we did some working stuff over at the country house and I wore Eddi's old jeans. (But actual boyfriend- or, to be correct, husband- jeans doesn't count as wearing in this case.) Funny thing is I actually used to wear quite a lot of jeans before as I, along with the harbour and late night freelancing worked in a jeans store "pushing denim".
(Yes, I had three jobs and no, I didn't sleep that much.  But then again I've had three job for the past few years now too. Well I don't sleep that much nowadays either. I do love it, sleeping, but it apparently just doen't seem to be my thing... Well anyway, back to the jeans shall we- )

Jeans, or, at more the thought of them, started feeling so very very uncomfortable at some point so I just kept them in the back of my closet and then sold them away. But lately I've been having a strange urge for denim. (How ridiculous did that just sound.)

So, these are the 50's blue jeans from Vivien of Holloway. I'd seen them look great in pictures but as always with pants I had my doubts of them on me. And when I first got them I wasn't sure if they were retrotastic or made me look like a soccer mom. But they were super comfy so I thought I'd go for them either way. And then Eddi actually made a comment on them saying they were thumbs up so I decided to believe him :)

The little retrotastic knit top is form Indiska.

MIX N' MATCH

Dag and I are pattern clashing mixing and matching.
Well, OK, he is not really doing it no, as it is me that dresses him up of course. He is just all 'yeah, whatever!', as you can see.

On another note, funny how sometimes the things you get more by chance turn out to be the best ones. It usually happens to me with shoes, but sometimes also with clothes -  I've worn this dress so much now; it's the most practical home/day dress I've ever had. Loads of pockets and a fabric that does not show whatever spots it. Plus good for breastfeeding too.
The pinafore dress is from Marimekko, this season.

TIMES FOUR

Some fours of my past four weeks via instagram:

4 x apples

4x Dag

4 x smoothies

4 x breakfast

4 x while on a walk

4 x in the kitchen

4 x random

You can find me on Instagram as turrrbocherry.

PS. you still have a few hours - to be exact, eight and a half for the moment - to enter the organic hair care set giveaway for my Facebook likers.  Enter HERE.

OUT WALKING, POSING WITH PRAM

(Yes you saw correctly! Flat shoes -used to dance Lindy Hop in them, when I still did. I've been wearing such more now than since my pregnancy; I've been taking long walks with Dag in the pram.)

THE CLASSIC AUTUMN COAT

 
I have a new jacket for autumn, one that should go with basically everything, any time: a classic mac. ...which I actually got as a present! After my little first world dilemma of having a cute but oh-so-unpractical-for -Finnish-weather cape while having sold away my old trench coat I was sent this coat instead. It came from the chaps over at a store called Big Dude's Clothing, and in return I was asked to give them some commets on their site from a woman's point of view. Ummm yes please and merci beaucoup.

(The coat is from asos and that's Dag's little apple-tree to be in the background in case you were wondering.)

Also a little FYI - I'm having a new give away! Not here this time though, but via my FB page. One of you (or, well, one of you who like the page, and page likers only) will win a set of natural luxury hair products from a brand called EVOLVh!  The giveaway goes on until Sunday evening. If there is enough interest there will be more frequent giveaways, exclusive to my likers. Free stuff! Yey! So, if you want to enter and have not come to reason and liked my page yet you still have time, do it here: Freelancer's Fashion Blog Sweepstakes  :)
(PS. I am not paid or sponsored to host these giveaways. I just do it because I think it's fun to be able to offer people a chance to win something nice!)

DOUBLE PORTRAIT

When Dag was one month and two days old he participated in a portrait photo shoot The IBTC had with artist Asko Rantanen. I took my portraits with Dag. Here are our pictures!

I posted the original ones on top along with the edited ones as I really like the colours in the plain shots too.

You can see the other portraits and a little 'making of' over at our Bitty-blog.
Asko will turn these into large works, with the post production and vintage tines done by hand, but that's for later.

FIRST WORLD JAM

I made jam of apples and rowan berries form the garden!
Although often keen on it, I've never used rowan berries in cooking or jam before. Not that I've actually ever made that much jam myself before either. I've often felt bad about the fruit and berries just going to waste, but I've never had the time to do anything about it. This year, as you may notice, I've finally managed to get a lot of cooking done - jams, mash, juice. Actually turns out it was also rather easy to do once getting started.

But. The thing is that I don't normally even eat that much jam, as I try to avoid sneaky sugars (you know, if I am about to consume a lot of sugar it may as well just be all Boom! at once in the form of a cake or so).

The other thing is once I now have these jams I'm not really sure when to even consume them. You know, not wanting to just make them and eat them all up at once, but rather just enjoy having the fridge full of them. Getting greedy. Hello first world issues!

But then again all lifestyle &  fashion blogs and such pretty much have one big First World label on them anyways.

So, maybe it's good to remember not everyone has their fridges full of luxury jam or chill and do ebay vintage finds at nigh, very few do in the end:  The annual Operation Hunger Day(s) is organized September 13-15, when you can see the familiar Red Cross boxes around town collecting money for charity. This year the Finnish Red Cross has a tool to help bloggers and sites be part of the fundraising. I set up my Piggy Bank here. You can also see a benner for it in my sidebar.  Otherwise you can donate straight to the Red Cross catastrophe fund by bank; Finns also by telephone or SMS; info can be found HERE. You can participate with as little or much as you want; a few cents already gets one portion of vaccine or water for example, five euros a blanket. I just spent 170 euros on my son's name cake (bakery cakes aren't cheap), that gives half a ton of millets, or ten mother-care packages. Something to think about.
Good night!

SMALL AND BIG EMBROIDERIES

When Dag got his name he was wearing the same frock Eddi and his family has received theirs in. The tradition is also to embroider the name of the new family member into the frock. A very nice tradition yes, although the embroidery part has given me a wrinkle or two between he eyes. Not my favorite thing to do, as I hate to have to be so precise.  Which is something that works fine for me when drawing on the computer, but less fine with anything by hand. Although, I did do some nice butterflies in different coloured yarn with pearl applications on some of my dresses and pockets back in the days when I was 17 and an art school hippie girl. But that was then and back then was a long time ago.

Quite suitably, I received a present - an embroidery inspiration book by Karin, crafting glady extraodinaire. I remember visiting her blog earlier and being impressed by her cute and pretty embroderies applied to all sorts of things. "Små och Stora Broderier" is her second book, and as the name says, it consists of ideas and how-to's for both small and bigger embroideries.

This was sent as a personal gift to me but I was later contacted by her publisher with a copy and asked to review it.

 (Bonus baby feet)

 The book features decorating traditionals items like cushions as well as more modern and funny items too.

 If you do not want to draw the patterns yourself everything featured in the book is available for copying.

And also explanation to how the stitching is done. (See, this is what I need! I only ever knew how to make those loop-stitches. And had sort of forgotten about them too. Not that this will help me get those name letters any more precise or neat, but at least now I have more ways to try out now:).

I mainly thought the book would be enjoyable from an aesthetic point of view for me with nice pictures and so (which it is and it has, with a clean and pretty layout) but it actually made me want to try and do some embroidery too...that also is one of the ideas of the book; to serve as ideas and inspiration both for those who have never touched a needle and a thread, and those who already know their way around decorating items with those, but mostly to awake the lust to start doing something with your hands.

So, to share the joy I have another copy to give away for one of you!

I will ship the book anywhere to whoever wins, but note that the book is in Swedish, being of most use for Scandinavians. However, the pictures and instructional drawings also take you quite a long way even if you would not understand the text.

To enter, it's the usual : leave me a comment on this post. (You don't have to be a follower of this blog, but then again, isn't it a little, well, embarrassing just wandering around the internet participating in giveaways?) I will draw the winner randomly so please leave me only one comment. Really, one. It will screw things up otherwise. And, make sure you are reachable to me trough that comment, as in trough a blog or (working!) link, contactable profile and so on, or leave me your email. 

If you share this you can get another entry by commenting again and leaving me the link to your post.

You can enter until next Tuesday; September 18! I will draw the winner shortly thereafter.

IT'S OFFICIAL NOW

The boy got his name!