Animals

I visited Fallkulla domestic animal farm in Malmi, Helsinki on Sunday. I remember visiting Fallkulla when I was a child and now I got the idea to visit it again with Mats. The animals are so beautiful. I can't imagine why some people would want to hurt such amazing creatures.

I got an interesting book for Christmas present called Syötäväksi kasvatetut by Elina Lappalainen (Raised to be Eaten could be the translation). It's about the meat industry in Finland. I think every one who thinks it's okay to eat meat should read this book and also visit Fallkulla farm or some other farm to meet the animals. Fallkulla is very far from a farm where the meat industry animals live but I think it's important to actually see the animals you're eating.

I saw this very interesting BBC document called Super Smart Animals. It was telling how intelligent animals can actually be, how alike some animals are to humans and how animals also have feelings and can feel pain. Animals can learn the most amazing things and do a lot of things that humans can't. Until this moment I've been eating mostly vegetarian food but occasionally chicken (maybe once a month) and also fish, but from now on I want to eat only vegetarian food.

Many animals are carnivores and I'm not telling anyone that they should stop eating meat. I'm just saying that everyone should find out the facts about the meat industry, how the animals are treated and what kind of life is good for each animal. And if you're still okay with eating meat, then it's your decision. I think it's quite amazing how meat eaters just close their eyes and don't even want to know how the meat ends up on their plate. On the other hand, maybe most of the people need to close their eyes to be able to keep eating meat.

I'm well aware that with this post, I might get some enemies, but isn't it the idea of blogs to share your opinions and your life? I welcome all constructive criticism and opinions. In my opinion living ecologically also means caring for the animals on our planet, and in many cases becoming a vegetarian. Here are some pictures of the beautiful animals I met in Fallkulla.

Christmas Preparations

Oh, what a lovely day! I woke up early because I wanted to hit the shops before everyone else would. Just when it started to look a bit crowded, I was ready to go home, and ready for lunch. For lunch I had delicious spring rolls, and of course some chocolate. After lunch it was time to do some Christmas present wrapping, and for that I needed to find suitable materials. I used wallpaper, a brown paper bag, jute string, old book pages, and anything that looked good. I think I made very nice recycled packages!

I also decorated the Christmas tree while listening to Christmas music. This year I didn't buy any new decorations, I'm very proud of myself! We have a small fake tree and the old decorations were just perfect for it, I don't actually even need more.

In the evening it was time for sauna, red wine and some more present wrapping. I could wrap only two presents with the brown paper bag so I had to wait until Mats came home and brought some brown packing paper. Viiru wanted to be close to me and was sitting on the chair behind me while I made beautiful presents.

A New Life

I've found a lof of ugly items in flea markets and transformed them into somethin new. I like to think that I'm giving them a new life so that also other people can see the beauty in them. Many items have an interesting shape and for example with some black paint it's easy to transform an old-fashioned item to look very modern. In this post I'm showing you how the items looked before and how they look now. Enjoy!

Christmas Shop Käpy is Open!

Finally the Christmas shop Käpy is open! In Käpy you can find perfect and unique presents for Christmas. The Käpylä area is also worth visiting, the wooden houses covered with snow look so beautiful. The building where Käpy is located is also very cute with its big windows. Now it's the time to do some shopping in Käpy!

Pop-up store Käpy

My friend is opening a Christmas pop-up shop Käpy on Monday 17th of December in Käpylä, Helsinki. I'm also making some products for the shop. I have found all the objects in flea markets, and most of them are made of wood. I look for wooden pieces because wood is a perfect surface for the decoupage teqhnique. Here are a few examples.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday...

This week I've been home almost the whole week. I've had a flue and I've been very tired. Today the pictures will tell you what's been happening lately. Have a nice weekend!

December

It's December already! The days go by so so fast. It's been snowing awfully lot during the past days. The atmosphere outside is magical, there's snow everywhere and it's so quiet. The snow mutes the sounds effectively. In the morning the sidewalks were covered with snow and there were only narrow paths going through the white city.

In the summer I didn't feel like we would need curtains, but now that it's cold outside and there are no more green leaves, I started thinking about having curtains. Yesterday I started with my curtain project and managed to sew one curtain for the living room and hang it up. My initial thought was to have curtains made from recycled fabrics but I got tired of waiting to find the perfect fabric so I just bought this fabric from the shop.

Whenever I can't use recycled materials, I avoid buying synthetic materials and go for natural ones. I bought beige linen fabric for the living room and light grey linen fabric for the bedroom. I wanted to emphasize on the height of the room and made the curtains reach all the way from the ceiling to the floor. That's why I couldn't buy any ready-made curtains because the room height in our flat is 270cm and all the shops sell 250 high ready-made curtains. It's amazing how our living room looks totally different by just adding one curtain!