seven things

It's been fun to read all the Seven Things -posts at different bloggs lately. Well, now it's my turn since I was tagged by my dear friend - thanks, Tanja! And I tag Nuttula!

"Each person tagged gives seven random facts about themselves. Those tagged need to write on their blogs seven facts, as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag one other and list their name on your blog. You have to leave the person you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and need to read your blog".

Well, here are seven random facts about me:

One

Bean soup is my favourite everyday dish. I make it almost every week, at least in the colder months of the year. I got the recipe from Tanja a couple of years ago and have been hooked ever since. The ingredients are simple - potatoes, tomatoes and kidney beans - but the taste is savoury, rich and almost creamy. Yesterday was a soup day once again at our house.

Two

I find ironing the most calming of household chores. The fresh scent of clean laundry is so lovely, especially if laundry has dried on a clothesline outside. Seeing a wrinkled cloth magically turn smooth is very satisfying, too. To add a little luxury to this mundane chore I usually sprinkle some lavender water on the garment while ironing. Today I ironed some of the fabrics I had washed to shrink them before use.

Notice the pretty pincushion in front of the fabrics? It's the one I won from the talented Outi's giveaway. Lucky me!

Three

This stripey creature is a whimsical companion. Oftentimes she's an introvert who keeps by herself, watching us from a far or retiring to a nap into my husband's closet, among his socks. But she has her social moments, too. Then she prefers to set herself on top of anything I'm doing just then, whether it's reading the paper, spreading fabric on the table for cutting or ironing clothes. This cuteness happened on the ironing board right after I finished my ironing.

Four

Linnea Sows And Grows and Linnea In The Painter's Garden by Swedish author Christina Björk and illustrator Lena Andersson were the books I most loved as a child. Like Linnea, I grew scarlet runners on my window sill and decorated my room to resemble hers. I even dreamed of becoming a gardener. Linnea In The Painter's Garden tells about Linnea's visit the garden of Claude Monet in Givérny, France. In retrospect I could say my interest in art and illustration derives much from this book. I truly loved Andersson's illustrations and was fascinated by the way Monet's life and Linnea's journey were depicted.

Five

I do all my sewing with this reliable friend: my Husqvarna sewing machine from the fifties. I bought it from an auction for a very reasonable price. It was in perfect shape and came with all the original equipment, a pretty and useful original manual and an embroidery hoop. It has many benefits like beeing heavy and stable, making a beautiful stich and a nice humming noise. Good looks don't hurt either. I hope we'll have many more years together.

Six

Dresses and skirts are my thing - I like to both wear and sew them. I consider them more comfortable and flattering to my figure than pants. In fabric shops I seem to spot lovely dress fabrics much more easily than fabrics suitable for trousers. Besides, I have an inability to sew trousers that fit.

Here I'm wearing a dress I sewed last summer. It's not quite warm enough for it yet, but I was just so eager to try it on again!

Seven

Old postcards are one of my interests. I look for them in charity stores, flea-markets and antique shops - not systematically to find cards with certain motifs or from certain era but just cards that somehow appeal to me. I love to find pictures of tourist attractions, like these cards from Paris and Biarritz. The card depicting Le Grand Palais of Paris was written in 1926 by a young Finnish woman who seems to have worked as a maid in Paris. She writes to her sister urging her to come to France too, to "a rich American family" and says Paris isn't more expensive than Helsinki. Lastly, she wants to know if the sister is angry because she hasn't heard a word from her. I wonder what happened to them.