Surrur! I'm making a maja!

Do you remember my Juju-book? Here is another thing of beauty from the same authors:

Maja, the Imaginative Children's Room Book, is not about interior design but about children's own space and letting them participate in creating their own kingdom. The authors write: "You can get more breathing time for yourself if you sow little seeds of stories around your children. They can use them as starting points for their games and plays."

When I started planning this post, the first thing I encountered was a feeling of disbelief upon not being able to find a satisfactory translation for the word maja. How is it possible that the exact translation for such an important phenomenon doesn't exist in the English language? A maja is some kind of a tent, play house, or hut, something you hide and play in, and most importantly something self-made. It must be such a universal experience of childhood that there should be an exact term for it in every language!

Instructions for the royal cupcake maja...

... and the mattesses of a true prince.

This spying cheese is made of an old mattress and some fabric. The text says something like: "The best and most mysterious spying place is where no one would ever think to look - in a cheese. A mindlessly scurrying spying cheese will make even the most scrupulous food inspector chuckle."

Mari Savio and Kati Rapia have just published their third book, which was made in co-operation with the institution of Finnish design, Marimekko. The big news is that while Juju and Maja are only available in Finnish, Surrur - Make Your Own Marimekko is also available in English! You can read Marimekko's own press release here and browse through some pages here. (In case you wondered, surrur is what a Finnish sewing machine says. Hey - that was easier to translate than maja!)

By the way, remember that I accidentally said something about maybe (or maybe not) having a fourth child? Amy gave me permission to quote what she commented on that via e-mail:
"Are you kidding me? Are you Finns trying to singlehandedly overpopulate the planet? Who do you think you are, the Chinese? I will only support a worldwide Finnish takeover if it means that Marimekko fabrics will become affordable even to the worthless dollar!"

If that's how you feel about Marimekko, Amy, I think you may need a copy of Surrur. I think I may too. I would probably be wise to postpone getting it, though. Ideas, instructions and patterns to more than 60 projects is the last thing I need right now!

(You can visit Juju books & stuff here.)

Oldies but goodies...

Lara, do you have our grandmother's peach cobbler recipe?  I actually have a few of her recipes that I should pass along to you.  This one I made last fall, and since I didn't have enough peaches, I threw in some blueberries and plums.  The first step is to melt a stick of butter in a cast iron skillet...what you do after that doesn't really matter!

I should have married a weatherman...

Well, look what we did today!  (Oh, and by "we" I mean the person we hired!)  The weather forecast is now calling for rain all week....so the question now is, to seed or not to seed?  Do I really wait until June?  Will the rain wash all my seeds away if I plant tomorrow?  I wish someone would just tell me what to do!

Äitienpäivä continued

And then it was my turn to get sick. So all you are getting from me this week is another Mother's Day retrospective. (Just trying to remember some rewarding moments of being a mom.)

Äitienpäivä

Amy, thanks for keeping the Friday routine rolling while I had my hands full of children with runny noses! When they are sick they don't sleep, and when they don't sleep I get nothing done.

Since life is such hard work and almost nothing but work right now, I was really in need of a Mother's Day and these lovely gestures of appreciation! My husband knows that I love hotel breakfasts (which in Finland are abundant), but this was even better. The essentials were fruit salad and eggs, something I would like to have every weekend but never seem to have the time for. There was also organic whipped cream (there really is a difference between organic and ordinary), French Chartreuse liquor (it was supposed to be mixed into the whipped cream but that never happened because of the children), savory pastries and chocolate bébés (if you're not familiar with bébé pastries, you can check out what they look like on Finland's most popular food blog, Kinuskikissa).

My eight-year-old daughter had made the best Mother's Day card ever! We speak only Finnish at home, but she learns English from relatives and at school. And yay! The card - which was made in school - says Mom, not Mum! (I still remember my frustration when my elementary school English teacher thought I was making a mistake when I pronounced balloon in perfect American English!)

I was going to add another set of pictures from our visit to the in-laws later on in the afternoon, but those are going to have to wait... Someone is again waking up too soon!

Hard workers

A few days of sun and warmth has allowed us to get a few outside chores done - mowing, sweeping, planting, but never fear, the rain is supposed to return tomorrow.  And it will be back in the 50s by Sunday.  But who am I to complain about the weather?  I am so lucky to be somewhere that is not under water or blown away right now.  I am safe and cozy, watching my little guy plant "trees" just like mama.

Huumassa

Sprung as is spring sprang sprung or as in tipsy? I came to the conclusion that you meant the latter, to be intoxicated by spring, which could perhaps be translated keväthuumassa (kevät = spring, huuma = ecstacy, ssa = suffix, inessive case).

Besides kevät, spring can be translated into Finnish as liikkeelle paneva voima, motiivi, hypätä, loikata, juosta, lehahtaa lentoon, ilmaantua, nousta (maasta), or putkahtaa. To mention a few. Which in return could be translated back into English as mobilizing force, motive, to jump, leap, run, fly away, appear, arise (from the ground), emerge, or pop up. What a dazzling word! I'd call this an ahaa-elämys - the experience of aha! Doesn't that sum up the spirit of this time of year pretty well?

I wasn't able to easily find the etymology of the word kevät, but I did learn that it's at least 2000 years old. Those of you who know Finnish may find it interesting that it, however, isn't the original name for spring in Finnish language. That would be touko. A name best known from the word toukokuu (the month of May and also a boy's name).

But if I ever have a third daughter (oh, help!), I would like her to be called Vuokko, the ultimate natural spring flower in Finland.

Happy happy happy sprung! Amy, I wish I could stop by for some salsa and beer! (Hmm... I wish I could have a beer in the first place. Oh well!)

Sprung

Maybe that's what they should call it.  Kind of what it feels like right now!  It's finally happening, after we have all managed to survive yet another cold, drizzly, gray winter.  Whew!!  Farewell, hot soup and red wine!  Hello salsa and beer!  And happy Cinco de Mayo, while we're at it!

This first picture is of our little trillium patch, which is my favorite treasure of this yard.  This native flower likes to be left alone - picking them prevents growth in future years, and they require deep shade.  They are in a part of the yard that never gets walked on, and was protected (and probably hidden) for years under a thick layer of ivy before we moved here.  Plants that need to be ignored do really well in this yard!