(no subject)

Say. Who wants a Christmas/winter card? Drop me a PM if you do. Yay for December! \o/


I'm back home in the countryside again.

During the past few months, parents started cleaning out and renovating the little cottage by the house. When my grandparents were still alive and well, they used to live in the main house that my parents now occupy, and so me and my siblings more or less grew up in that cottage. It's been a fixer upper for as long as I remember, so I hadn't taken either parent very seriously when they've been talking about getting it cleaned out.

As it turns out, I should have. It looks amazing now.

We've filled about three more bookshelves in the main house with books mom found in the cottage, along with several boxes of our old toys and - BEST OF ALL! - almost all our old children's books. For a children's lit geek, this was striking gold. I wish I could somehow post some of them here. They are fantastic! We have Elsa Beskow books, and Mauri Kunnas books, and they're so pretty and they bring back so many memories.

And then there were pictures. We already found a suitcase a while back, but mom came across a whole new box. After flipping through them for two hours or so, I can conclude that

a) I did not like wearing clothes as a kid, and my parents were way too bohemian to argue the point.
b) brother was an ugly baby! But a beautiful child.
c) my parents should have hid their 70's pictures. O.o They partied, like, a lot.
d) There is an endless supply of pictures of brother, aged 5-7 holding me, aged 0-2. Mom says I was his whole world back then, and that he was never jealous. The photos are so goddamned sweet. It's like having concrete evidence that I can wave under the nose of whatever random insecurities I have and go look here, bitch, you are loved!
e) My 12-year-old self was right to have body issues. ._. I was in no way a joy to look at as a pre-teen. Ugh.


Two of my cousins are coming over tomorrow, and we're going to hang around and catch up and do nothing except sauna and relax. After, sister and me will go pick up cancer cousin's(*) kids, and we'll make gingerbread. I haven't seen them in over a month, and it'll be great to see them again. (It sort of warms my heart that Sumu, the younger one, has been telling everyone for a week already that he's going to come to our house this weekend. "Sitten me leivotaan Jutan kanssa pipareita!" I'm not sure if I need anything else from life, now that I'm considered cool by the standards of a three-year-old.)



(*)I know that's a horrible thing to call him, but I honestly don't know what else to go with. >.< I have like 30 cousins, I doubt there's any point using their names or initials.

(no subject)

OMG, you guys! I'M GOING TO AMERICALAND!

In June. For a month. I'm going to go to the States next June for a whole month. How awesome is that? We've been planning this trip for aaaaaages, and we weren't sure if it would happen, but we got our tax returns yesterday, and then we blew them all today on plane tickets. There! It's happening! We're going! Me, and sister and lillannan and nirith! (And maybe brother, if it turns out he has the money.)

The plan is to stay in New York for one week, and then rent a car for three and go... somewhere. Maybe down the East Coast. Probably.

If you who're more familiar with the area can come up with things like "oh, you should totally go see X and Y" or "do NOT go to X, whatever you do" or "event Y is taking place, you should go see!", I'd very much be interested in hearing it. Essentially we can go anywhere, as long as it's not so far that we wouldn't have time to drive back to NY at the end of it. So many choices! So little knowledge!

My life is so awesome sometimes.