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.)
2 comments:
I think the word you are looking for is 'fort'! It's obviously not the first definition for that word, but I think most American homes use that word in that way! And by the way....where did you learn the other million English words you know? You are amazing!
I actually remember you using that word here in that context! It's a pretty good candidate, but could you say "royal cupcake fort"? There are a lot of possible words for maja, but they have different nuances, while maja sounds to me like a general umbrella term for all kinds of different imaginative play places!
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