About eating locally.

Good morning!

Couple days ago I took the train to my home town, where my dad lives (also mom, brother and some friends). I got my now working car back home. It's not really a big thing, since we don't use the car that much. And now even less, because of the spring. Riding our bikes is so much more fun.

Well, on my way home I took a detour, just to get to this organic farm I adore. I needed hey and straw for the bunnies, and from there I could get it organic, cheap and what I like the most - in bales. Instead of buying small amount of it in a bag, I got food and play material for them for six months supply! The bunnies love the bales. I don't break them a part, I just put them in their room and they love hanging on top of them. Bunnies are so cute!

I also bought broad beans, peas, and all sorts of flour. And they were all grown on the fields around the farm. I absolutely love knowing where my food comes from! You can't beat that feeling! Once we were in a restaurant (they got their first Michelin star this year! Congrats Chef & Sommelier!) and they told us everything about where the food came from, how they waste very little, pick wild flowers/herb on their way to work and so on, and I loved it! Food should not be just something that comes from the store, wrapped in plastic! (Only Laura Palmer should come wrapped in plastic. ;)

The whole thing around food is just so weird. Why do we have to get our food as cheap, as easy and as fast as possible? Even if it meant hurting others (nature, people in less developed countries and animals) on the way. All the negative images, the bad stuff people don't want to know, or the producers don't want us to know, since it might affect on our actions which I doubt - we know, we just don't care. We think we can't afford it, we think we "can't" live without cheese/meat/crap, we think it's too difficult, we think it takes too much time, we think blah blah blah. And most people don't really give a shit. But back to the negative images, they are hidden behind what ever the ad people have created. They don't post pictures of bruised kids picking cocoa beans on the chocolate bar, the don't post pictures of polluted rivers and lakes on bags of flour and they definately don't post pictures of pigs that can't even turn in their cages on the pack of oh! so very hip and f**ing cool bacon! Oh, no - that might upset the hipsters.

Lol! Can you tell I got a bit carried away, writing about that is like pouring gasoline on a small fire...This was supposed to be happy, uplifting post! Not a guilty trip! Sorry!

The farm was amazing, even covered in snow. The couple who runs it were away, on a vacation (good for them!!) so there was this young man working and he was so friendly and sweet. He smelled heavily to fish, and that smell got stuck on my hay, too! And for a day the bunny room smelled like fish!! Hahaha!

I have tons to do, so I better start working! I hope you all have Tasty Thursday!

xoxo,
Raisa

Vegan food

Yesterday I was asked about the things vegans eat. I'd say everything except for meat, milk, eggs, honey etc. But I guess that's not what she meant. :)

After you get into the vegan world it gets very easy. But in the beginning it can be quite complicated. And being the "weirdo" or the "difficult one" never gets easy. But I guess you get used to that as well.

But lets talk about the food. We eat pretty much the same stuff the average omnivore eats: pizza, pasta, sandwiches, gravy and potatoes, fries, burgers, okonomiyaki, yakisoba, sushi, misosoup, African Peanut Soup and so on... ;) It's all about the ingredients. You make your pizza with vegan cheese (in Finland that would be either a) homemade or b) store bought). The store bought works best if you melt it with a carton vegan cooking cream and then spread that on top of your pizza. And for the topping you can use pretty much everything. Our favorites are fried tofu, fried smoked tofu, onion, pineapple, seasoned TVP, etc.

Pasta is great with sauces made with vegan cooking cream, or tomato sauce and seasoned TVP.

Sandwiches with vegan butter (in Finland sininen Keiju, in the States it's Earth Balance), the best cheese in the world (= Wilmersburger), some seitan slices, bean spread, Tartex pate, sun dried tomatoes, anything. There's even cheap vegan mayo at S-market.

Gravy is easily made with vegan butter and veggie buillon/cubes. Just add TVP for protein. Burgers with vegan cheese and either homemade or store bought bean/veggie patties. Okonomiyaki and many other Japanese foor are quite easy to make vegan as well.

If you need eggs for baking you can substitute it quite many ways. I will not list them here because different methods work for different recipes. You can make omelettes with tofu and chickpeaflour (gram flour), you can make super delicious steaks with seitan flour (seitan is wheat gluten).

So many things can be made vegan, even the most basic and common things you are used to eating. And that's really good way to start, by veganizing your favorite meals. 

The are tons of subsitutes for milk, pudding, cream and ice cream. And they are so much better than the cow milk products. These are usually available at your basic grocery store, but seitan and egg replacer and other specialty products you can find from health food stores/eco stores like Ruohonjuuri, Ekolo, Vegetukku and Runsaudensarvi.

Very good website for beginners and also seasoned vegans is Vegaanituotteet. On that site is listed tons and tons or regular products that happen to be vegan. Products you can easily find anywhere.

Also a good way to start is to borrow a good vegan cook book from the library, like Puputyttö ja Vohvelisankari (for baking), Puputytön Juhlakirja (for all sorts of cooking) or Kasvisseikkailu (simple, child friendly recipes). If you want you can also buy these books, from me :)

Rainbow cupcakes

Chocolate pudding

Japanese cooking

Easy wrap

Dinner at Soi Soi

Home made beer battered onion rings

I hope these helped! Lets get cooking!

xoxo,
Raisa

Golden wedding and bunch of other stuff

Hello! It's me, your lazy blogger! Oh, well! I'm not really that lazy at all. I write a lot on my Finnish blog, but this second-language blog is totally different from that. This morning (I'm usually at my smartest in the mornings, before I get out of bed) I probably came up with the reason why I don't blog more often. It's because of the language. :) No kidding?! Because it's not my native language I tend to make grammar errors (a lot) and some typos. Which is kind of funny, since my Finnish blog is full of typos and maybe even bad grammar. But I couldn't care less. (Not really true, but I like to say that.) And for some reason when I write in English these matter a lot. Everybody who reads my blog in Finnish knows I know the language inside and out, but typos and bad grammar in English might make you believe my skills in English are poor. And I don't want that! And my husband is, for some reason, very sensitive to this. He's a writer and an editor, so proper English is very important to him. That's why he wants my blog to be a free-of-bad-language-zone. Uh... where was I? Husband... Ryan Gosling... no, husband! So, hubby wants to edit my blog posts, to make it more enjoyable for you guys. But that makes me feel like I need his approval for my posts. And I'm not a writer. I blog about silly stuff with my silly "voice." How could he approve that?

So there was the reason for these far apart posts. I even lost a reader during the gap. :(

I didn't wear these shoes to the wedding! just to get there!

Anyways, to the golden wedding! We were invited to a friend's wedding party. It was held after the ceremony, I guess there wasn't any ceremony, just the "thing" with a few witnesses and then few days later the party. I'm not sure if you got the idea of me being very bad with clothes, proper dress code and all that. If you did, you were correct. I'm bad. I like colorful stuff mixed with more colorful stuff. That's my thing. :) So if an event has a dress code it means big problems for me. What is proper way to dress for a fancy-pants wedding? I was supposed to buy a dress from the States, but then I didn't want to do it. I thought of renting one here in Finland. I didn't have to do that either since I accidently found a dress I liked a lot while shopping for school clothes for my daughter. So yes, I found my fancy dress in the kids section... :) I showed the dress to a sales clerk and asked her if that would be a proper thing to wear at a wedding party. I also said that people don't expect that much from me. She said it would be okay.

Later on I showed the dress to a friend of mine and she said: "Black? To a wedding?" Oh no! Was there a rule to not to a wear black to a wedding? Yikes! So after that I started feeling uncomfortable about my dress. And I knew for sure that at least most people attending to the party would be wearing perfect outfits. So I was really selfconcious, and that effected my mood a lot. Bummer!

Anyways I got my hair and make up done by an ex-professional and I didn't feel that bad after that. But the closer we got to the restaurant where the wedding was held the more worried I got. I was sure we'd ruin the party with our silly clothes. But once we got there all worries were wiped away! The bride was so amazingly beautiful with her golden Valentino dress and huge ring that that was all that people were able to look at! Just stunning! Once I got my eyes off of the beautiful couple I notice that at least four other women were wearing black! Yay! And I even got some compliments on my dress and hair! Superb!

It was super fancy wedding, with some of the most amazing foods. And yes, for us and two other people there was an amazingly yummy five course vegan menu. We ate for hours. Which was so fun, I never ever eat for hours. I'm always too eager to get to the next meal, so it usually takes 30 minutes at the most. But since it wasn't up to us we got to enjoy for so long!

This wasn't the traditional Finnish wedding. The common way to get married in Finland would be church with lots of old people and the silly white dress, then some rented party venue with not so great food, maybe even paper plates, and tons of booze. Somebody would end up insulting the bride's parents, puking all over, passing out and so on... and it would take the whole day and cost enormous amounts of money. I'm sure this couple used a lot of money, too. But they did it with style. :) In my close ring of friends we've had three weddings, I think. First was 15 years ago (wow!), and then three years ago was mine, and now this. They've all been so different, but somehow they've all had something in common. They've all looked just like us. They have been clearly OUR weddings. Oh boy, maybe I shouldn't even tell you this, but our budget was 5 k's and I spent half of it on my MLP sleeve!! And yet we managed to get the most amazing wedding ever. I guess we just are that cheap. ;)

I honestly don't understand why to put tons and tons of money on one day. If the day doesn't look like you. If it's a copy of all the weddings before. Well, what ever makes you happy :) At least you get nice pictures. :)

Last night we went to watch Kick-ass 2. It was fun, but not special. Lot of funny violence. Which is fun as long as it's not, you know, aggressive violence. As long as it's a kind of a joke it's okay. And also Dexter kind of bloody pulp violence is okay, too. I really can't tell what's the difference with good and bad violence, I mean funny and disgusting, but there definatley is something. I missed part of the movie because my mind was set on this amazing doll that has my name on it. The second Takara Blythe ever made! Mondarian. I've been drooling over All gold in one/Goldie, but with no luck -- I've lost her twice already. But then this beauty suddenly appeared on Dolly Adoption and like a siren she was calling my name and since the price was incredible there was nothing I could've done differently. She now belongs to me :) (sorry mister hubbyman). She's a true beauty. It takes a while to get adjusted to BL beauty. A year ago I didn't understand people who were obsessed over these silly looking dolls. I only liked the "pretty" ones. RBL's. I didn't even like Kenners at all! Now I do :) I have one BL, Kozy Kape and she's one of the most amazing dolls there is. When hubby saw it he said: What an ugly doll. Poor Polly! Fortunately I was covering her ears so she didn't hear what papa said.

Polly (BL) on the right hand corner)

Other doll stuff: I've been sewing a lot! Some nice and some awful and even some great clothes. But what matters the most: I've been sewing! And even some more complicated pieces, not just the same old stuff. I'm so proud of me. So far I've liked it a lot. And I've saved a lot of money, too! Maybe I wouldn't have paid for some of the things, but some of them definately. And I'm getting better!! Yay for me! Yay for sewing! Yay for dolls!

Enough! Gotta sew some more! Before it's time to save the animals again! Tomorrow is yet another Restaurant Day and Animalia (the organization I volunteer for) is having Animal Friendly Cafe. I've promised to help to day with the cooking and baking and tomorrow the whole day with doing the dishes and frying veggie burgers. Yay for animals!

xoxo,

Raisa

Update -- Shopping!

Hello all!

I'm still alive! Sorry for the long break!

We went to Martha's Vineyard for a week and then to Amsterdam for a day, and now we're back home. I loved being away, but I also loved coming back! Our trip was very relaxing and it did good for all of us. By us I mean the whole family, kids included.

My mom took care of the animals, which was really nice of her. We stayed at my mother-in-law's, and visited all of the relatives who live on the island. And some of my hubby's friends. And of course a lot of other places as well.

Since I don't have any pictures yet I don't feel like telling about the island, but I'll tell you about something almost as interesting. And that is: shopping!

The island itself doesn't have great opportunities for shopping, so we had to take the ferry to get to the mainland. That took about one hour. Then we'd have to drive for an hour or so, depending on the destination, to get to the shops. And then more driving to get to other shops. And then the whole thing again to get to home. Quite a lot of transportation.

Our first destination was Target. We all had gift cards, so it was kind of obvious choice. I didn't like it that much, but the kids enjoyed it. I still managed to buy a lot of stuff, junk food mostly. I don't think American candy is that good, but quite many of it is vegan. They rarely use natural coloring, which they do in Finland, so the use of insect-based colors is very rare. And for some reason they don't use that much gelatin, either. Dunno why.

Few items from yard sales, most from heaven.

I don't know where my fellow travelers went after that, but I know where I went: to heaven. In America they call heaven "Michaels." I think it's funny. I'd name it Angelina or Angelica. I had an hour, and $175 worth of gift cards to spend. The amount of time was good, but I had to use some cash as well. :) It was a lot of fun! I couldn't find everything on my list, but I got it even by buying a lot of stuff that wasn't on my list. Among all of the things I bought was a Smash Book for my daughter. I really didn't know what it was. I had actually heard the word the day before we left, and didn't know what the people were talking about then. But it looked very interesting. I also bought some Smash stuff for myself, but not the book. Just some embellishments for my scrapbook.

After landing from heaven, some of us went to Paper Store. It wasn't as fun as it sounded. Mostly crap and cards. But I do have to admit the Americans sure make the best cards. Or they make the Chinese to make the best cards.

Only the robot fabric is organic.

And that brings me to something that was really bothering me while walking down the isles of heaven. The unfairness of all of the items there. Everything, and I mean everything, was made in China. Or somewhere like that, where the rules and regulations, human rights and all that are not so important. 

Some time ago we had scrapbook papers made from (partially?) recycled materials. Some cotton fabrics are organic and from abroad (meaning not from Finland). You can order fleece and synthetic felt made from recycled plastic. But that's about it. No fair trade items, no paying attention to the excess packaging (quite a lot of craft items are way too over packaged!), no more than just a couple supplies made from recycled materials. Dear manufactures! We demand Fair Trade craft supplies! We demand items made from recycled materials! We demand more organic fabric!

After Paper Store we went back home, tired but happy!

The second shopping trip happend a few days later. We headed towards Whole Foods. Before that we stopped at another Michaels -- I had to get my own Smash Book! They gave me fifteen minutes, and went somewhere else. As this was a new store I couldn't find the Smash items, so I was forced to walk down all the aisles. And of course I found a lot more to buy. Eventually I found the thing I went there for, plus some more things I didn't know I needed before seeing them. I spent around a hundred dollars. Expensive Smash Book... even though I got it 40% off, thanks to a coupon I had. I love cupons.

Food/kitchen related stuff

Whole Foods was another kind of heaven. A lot more nicer, actually. Gentler. Tastier. And mostly organic, Fair Trade and vegan friendly as well. :) And expensive!! I had a gift card for there as well. I spent that and a lot more. We ate super yummy lunch there too. The cashier was the first not super friendly person I met in the States.

From Whole Foods to Trader Joe's, because we had cards for there, too! Mine was worth $30, and I couldn't use it all. Whole foods was too much! Finally hubby, who wasn't able to use his card either, combined ours and bought some cashew nuts.

More food/kitchen related stuff

On the island we went to all of the possible thrift stores and yard sales there were. Dind't find any treasures, but some nice stuff anyways. Something useful and something fun. I also spent quite a lot of time at the local grocery store. I love grocery stores! I could skip all clothing and cosmetics and jewelry stores, just take me to a grocery store and I'm happy. :) I found vegan chicken and beef stock powder. Very interesting! I also found freezer paper. For crafts. Don't know how to use it yet, but I have a book saying I will need it. :)

I liked doing some shopping on the island as well. Mostly just to support the locals. I heard their rent is really high and a lot of stores go out of business, so I felt bad for them. But the selection was a lot smaller, a lot more tourist oriented and everything was quite expensive. But I did my best. :) For example I bought these fancy cookies for the dogs.

Here's the other than food or craft related items I bought.

I've already put 99.9% of everything where it belongs. I think that's one of my favorite things to do. Unless it gets too overwhelming. With candy and snacks it almost got out of hand, and now I have yummy stuff everywhere. Which is not good since I'm determinate to lose 6 pounds.

That's about it! Take care!!

xoxo,
Raisa

Party Season's Over!

After celebrating my son's birthday yesterday, I can happily announce that party season is over for now! Oh, no! It's not! Mothers Day has yet to be celebrated :/. Well, at least the birthdays for this spring are now in the past and I can focus on other things.

Don't get me wrong, I love parties. I love planning them, I love having people over and I love gifts :). But it's just so much work and it's also quite expensive.

My son's birthday was actually last Thursday, but he was at his father's then and when he came home there was just too much stuff going on (soccer tournament and my Blythe meet), so we decided to dedicate Sunday for celebrating. My hubby brought this very special birthday tradition to our family. It means we cook all of the meals based on what ever the bd boy/girl wants. And we are super nice to that person, too. If he/she wants to watch a movie, then the whole family watches a movie. Same thing with games and such. So much fun! I wish it was my birthday every day!

So my 14 year old son wanted to have scrambled tofu and fried spicy tofu and bread + juice for breakfast, tofu-noodles for lunch (this didn't work out because he went to the movies and ate crap there) and for dinner he chose to have seitan steaks, creamy sauce and fries + Coke. And for his guests he wanted to have pb+jelly bars, which he helped me bake. We didn't have a party for his friends; instead he took one of his friends to the movies, but my dad, brother and his girlfriend and my son's godmother paid him a visit. It was fun! And he seemed happy :) even though he didn't like the movie we watched: The Royal Tenenbaums. He said it was too weird.

On Saturday I went over a friend's for a Blythe meet there :). It was so much fun, not so much because of the dolls (I guess we are having a bit of a break from the dolls right now), but the company and my friend's toys! You don't often get to go over a friend's house and go through their toys, but we did! I love having toy crazy friends. I even got one set of Re-ments for my dollhouse!! Yay!!

But seriously, it's funny how many of my "new" friends are into toys, like the people whom I've met over the last two years. More than half of them are crazy about toys. Usually it's vintage toys or Blythe, but I do have one friend who likes pretty much all toys. Well, not all, but her range of likeable toys is a lot wider from all of the others. And we also like stickers and stationery, and pens and erasers. So silly, but oh so much fun! And the great thing is, that I'm not alone with this silliness! At my bithday party few weeks ago the majority still wasn't into toys and stickers, but us silly people were only one or two behind!

There was one other great thing about meeting my dolly friends on Saturday -- I got sewing inspiration from her kitchen placemats! And now I've cut pretty much all of my fabrics into placemats! Unfortunately I ran out of thick interfacing that would've been great for them :( but I had enough for few. I've already made a really cute hot pad and now I can't wait to make more!

Oh, well! I have some sewing to do!

Have a sunny and amazing Monday!

xoxo,
Raisa

Vegans: What, where, when, why, and how much fun?

I guess I'm not going to answer all of those questions, but at least some of them and and a few others as well.

To me it's really difficult to think of this whole matter as an outsider, because to me it's so obvious. Like if I were seeing a painting, it would be right in front of me and I'd have to explain it to someone who wasn't able to see it, but would be interested in knowing more. And also my envolvement makes this more difficult. I put way too much pressure on this. (Maybe because I'm lazy?) So I will use several online sites to help me to explain veganism to you. With my own words, going vegan will take some effort, but after a while you'll notice it's getting so much easier and soon you'll realize it's giving you so much more than what it takes away. The feeling of not doing any harm to other living creatures is just so amazing. No more quilt, no more shame. But instead, a very happy feeling about yourself. You are doing something! Yay for being active!

Why vegan?
I will not share any horrible stories, that's not what my pink and happy blog is about. But just be aware that the meat and dairy industry is filled with them. Here's a link to Vegan Outreach's site Why Vegan?  My reason for being vegan is purely about animal rights. Even though environmental issues worry me a lot, too. (A vegetarian diet is a lot better for the environment.) I started out as a "pescetarian," someone who doesn't eat red meat or chicken, but eats dairy, fish and eggs, and I kept that diet for nearly a decade. I was around 11 or 12 when I started, and it was about not eating animals that were kept in captivity. As I grew older I dropped the fish off the list of things I'd put in my mouth. I started to become more and more interested in a vegan diet, but found that very difficult and expensive and everything. But then I ran into a vegan cookbook from Sarah Kramer and Sandra Barnard called The Garden of Vegan, and from there it took me about four months until I was vegan. The dairy and egg industry just isn't any better than the meat industry. I didn't want to support any of them with my money.

"Cheese"-pesto sandwiches. Nom nom. Fast and simple.

What do vegans eat?
We eat everything except for animal-based things! And most of my vegan friends are almost obsessed with food! There are so many blogs and websites about vegan foods. And very often when I meet my friends, we end up talking about some new flavored soymilk or new vegan products in "mainstream" product lines or just whatever is new and food-related. We love food and we want it to taste good. This is something that quite few (Finnish) restaurants know/understand. (Eating out is pretty much the only difficult thing for a vegan when it comes to food, but I know this is not the case in the States, where you have so many restaurants to choose from - lucky bastards!)

But to the actual things we eat. We eat pretty much the same foods everyone else does, too. We just use other ingredients. Some of them might require  little practise, some not. Here's how Vegan Outreach puts it: 

Many people believe that eliminating all animal products will greatly narrow their menus. But according to most vegans, quite the opposite happens. Once you start frequenting your local health/natural food stores and co-ops, perusing a few vegan cookbooks, or just following some of the suggestions in this guide, you’ll soon become familiar with the wide variety of options that weren’t a part of your previous diet. Over time, you’ll also discover you can follow almost any recipe – old or new – by substituting ingredients.

For those who prefer not to cook, vegan meals are usually offered at Chinese, Italian, Indian,
and other ethnic restaurants, as well as at many chains, such as Taco Bell and Johnny Rockets. Plus, there are lots of cruelty-free convenience foods to choose from: frozen dinners; canned and dehydrated soups, stews, and chilies; items of all sorts for quick and easy sandwiches like vegan dogs and burgers, deli slices, bacons, sausages, untuna and unchicken salads, and soy and rice cheeses; and delicious desserts including soy yogurts and ice creams. You may even find that your local health food store has its own deli counter, stocked with prepared foods.

The variety of vegan products is growing each year; and supermarkets are carrying more and more products that used to be found only in specialty stores. If meat and dairy substitutes aren’t plentiful locally, you can also order them through online catalogs, such as Pangea or the Mail Order Catalog.

Simple Meal Ideas

Here are just a few examples.

Breakfast

Oatmeal or cold cereal with fruit and nondairy milk
Toast, bagel, or English muffin with fruit spread and peanut butter or vegan cream cheese
Tofu scramble with hash browns and veggie sausage
Fruit smoothie made with nondairy milk or soy yogurt
Pancakes or waffles (many brands of prepared mixes and a variety of Van’s frozen waffles are vegan)
Fruit-filled toaster pastry

Lunch

Veggie burger or dog with fries
Faux lunchmeat sandwich with chips
Veggie pizza
Bean burrito
Falafel pita sandwich with hummus
Peanut butter and jelly

Dinner

Pasta with faux meat sauce, faux meatballs, or faux sausage
Veggie chili
Faux meat tacos, burritos, or enchiladas (click here for cooking tips on vegan tacos and chili)
Stir-fry with tofu, tempeh, or faux meat (see tips)
Faux meat with gravy and mashed potatoes
Vegetable tofu lasagna (see tofu ricotta recipe)

Right: Pasta and tomato sauce topped with Tofurky Italian Sausage (photo courtesy of Turtle Island Foods).

Snacks or Dessert

Nondairy ice cream or frozen soy yogurt
Vegan cookies, pie, cake, or pudding (see recipes)
Fresh or dried fruit
Nuts or seeds
Trail mix
Pretzels or popcorn
Chips and salsa
Energy bar (vegan Clif Bar)

Right: An assortment of delicious dairy-free desserts (photo courtesy of PETA). Keep in mind, though, many popular snacks and other convenience foods are also vegan – see “I Can’t Believe It’s Vegan!”

Going vegan is a project. You shouldn't dive in head-first without knowing anything about nutrition. But it doesn't mean you have to know everything before you start. You just can't omit meat and dairy and eggs and not replace them with vegan sources of protein and calcium. But if you eat a good variety of beans, legumes, fruits, vegetables, and grains, and don't stuff your face with too much sugars and (vegan) butter, I'm sure you'll be okay with your quilt-free diet! 

Cinnamon buns baked for Vegan Bake Sale

Veganism is not just about food--it's a whole new way of living. Sooner or later you'll probably want to start using only cruelty-free cosmetics, cleaning products, clothes and so on. And all that adds to the great feeling of cruelty-free lifestyle! And you might want to do more--you might want to participate in animal rights events. Or you might not. Anything goes. Some of us don't want to make "too big a deal" about our diet, and some of use want to dedicate our lives to animal rights. Whatever makes you happy :)

Vegan Rocky Road Bars for sale

I hope this helped to "clear the smoke curtain" away from the intriguing way of living known as veganism :)

Hop in, you'll love it!!

xoxo,

Raisa

 

Travel fever and grocery shopping

Hello! I've been sick for few days but now I'm as good as new! I had a short computer break, and to be honest it felt good! Nothing evil happened; I focused on books and movies instead of being aware of what's going on around the world.

Vicky is there to give you perspective.

I've gotten a lot of packages in the mail. My first Middie came. Middie is a medium-size Blythe doll, in case you didn't know. She's still in the box she came in, and I'm thinking of keeping her that way. Maybe. I also got my zippers! My hubby said they are boring, that once you've seen one you've seen them all. I think he's totally wrong. I love zippers. Well, not just one or two, but dozens and dozens of them. I got approx. 150 of them in all beautiful colors.  I also got some jewelry parts. I'd call it a great mail week!

Since I was sick I didn't go to school at all this week :( And I didn't feel like studying at home either. I've lost most of the study inspiration that kept me going on so well. It really suck. But I don't really know what I want anymore. I mean if I really want to go to the university or not. Two days ago I felt it really clear, I knew what I wanted to do. It's something I've wanted for at least ten years, but it's also something I've feared equally as long. To have my own store, to sell Pinkkis, cool vintage items and cute stuff from around the world -- that's what I'd love to do.  And I'm sure that would be something I'd love to get out of bed for. But I don't have the courage!

That was kind of a heavy start! I wasn't even suppose to write about that, based on the title for this post!

So about travel fever - it's been really bad lately! During my great mail week I also received a Tokyo Guide booklet. It's filled with lovely and some unusual places to visit while travelling in Tokyo. Not all places where I'd go, but a lot of hidden treasures, places I'd never ever know existed, but now I know, thanks to this booklet. :) Last night I went through all four albums I have from my previous trips to Japan and seeing all those familiar places and the amazing stores and kawaii people and everything Japanese - it was almost too much! I have to get back there! I've heard they are celebrating hanami right now, meaning that the cherry trees are blossoming. Record breaking early! I've been there four times but never seen the cherry blossoms :( Maybe I should get my own cherry trees here. Well, I wouldn't mind going there no matter what time of the year. I would even take  a week or two in the hot, steamy summer! I'd prefer spring or fall though.

While I was sick we watched a documentary about a filthy rich American family that didn't do that well during the economic crisis. The poor family had to sell their private jet and couldn't finish their new home (which was the most expensive and biggest one-family house in the States), but they were still able to go shopping like there was no tomorrow. She came home with two or three cars filled to the brim with crappy Xmas xifts for the family. One thing that really made an impression was how she bought a bike for her son, and two of their nannies could see right away that the bike was too small for the boy, and then one of the nannies carried one of the shopping bags through a garage filled with piles and piles of bikes... That was kind of disgusting. And it's not just the extremely rich people who do that. I guess there's some of that in all of us. How we want new stuff on top of the stuff we already have, so that the things we already own lose their appeal/worth/meaning and the new thing is all we want, until something bigger/better/brighter comes along. That made me think of two of my dolls, that I know have been on the floor (okay, left on top of a barbie size car in the corner) of my craft room for at least two weeks. I really don't feel like buying a new doll now. I should take better care of the ones I already have, cherish them. Take more pictures of them. Dress them nicely and all that.

But this is not about just the a bit more expensive stuff, also about the make-up, clothes, cellphones (okay, I'd put them in the expensive stuff category), CD's - even food. Maybe even more with the smaller, more meaningless things. We just buy that crap without a second thought. We see it, we want it, we can afford it - so what the hell! We buy it. And a day later we toss it out, throw it in the pile and go get a new one. Something better. Of course it works differently with food. But since it's rather cheap (especially with the animal products and non-fair-trade stuff, we don't have to pay for the suffering of other living creatures) it's so easy to just forget it in the fridge/cabinet/on the table and let it go bad. Who cares? Just throw it out and go get a new one from the store! So sad! And frustrating! I'm not saying this to blame others, I'm just as "quilty" as everyone else. It's just that we, Westerners, are so used to get everything we want, without giving any value to the things we already have. I'll try to do better!!

And before I run out of battery (on my laptop which I dropped on the floor and cracked -- damn it! Should be more careful and treat the items I already own more carefully), I'll say few words about grocery shopping. As of being a vegan I like to be with like minded people. That gives me false feeling of "a better world." Last Saturday I spent the whole day with like minded people, and not just few of them but maybe 20 to 30. The whole day! Eating vegan, talking vegan, everything vegan. Oh! What a feeling! I wasn't the creep, I didn't stand out, I was just like all the others. Yay! And then we went to the grocery store yesterday, to get groceries for the long weekend (I'm planning to make super yummy stuff! Couple recipes from the Conscious Cook and few from my second cookbook. nom nom nom) and it kind of hit me that I was the freak after all. Seeing all the pieces of dead animals, chopped and slices and packed neatly inside plastic containers. The world wasn't that good place after all, not if you weren't born as a white, Western human being. All the others, watch out -- you are ours to exploit!

Even though almost everything that was sold in packages had some sort of animal products in them, we we able to fill our cart with super delicious, cruelty-free produce. I guess I should do a post about the things we eat, just to show how lovely things there are for conscious consumers!

Small Easter gift for you! Picture of Risto, under cover dog.

 Anyways, happy Easter!!

xoxo,


Raisa

Simplyfying our food closet

Variety is the spice of life, right? We deserve all the yummy things in the world, right? We work hard, we party hard, so we need our rewards, right? Especially if you follow a certain diet, like veganism, where you cut out animal products. That alone is a lot of  "no thanks, I don't eat/can't eat that." Or consider those with allergies, religious diets and so on. So why on earth would you cut out anything from the foods that suit your diet?

Being a vegan is a great thing. And I don't just mean the ethical part of, the clear consience, but also the surprising impact it had on my diet. Now that there are fewer choices for what to buy and eat, I cherish the produtcs that fit in my diet a lot more than before. There actually has been small hand-clappings and jumping-up-and-downs at a grocery store when I've located new yummy things to eat.

If you eat treats every day, you won't be able to enjoy them as much as if you only eat them once a week or so. Same thing with food: if you eat your favourite foods every day, how are you going to reward yourself?

I think we should take one step backwards when it comes to eating. We should eat more simple, locally grown, in-season foods. The majority of our diet should be based on that, while treats and sushi should be saved for the weekend :). I'm quite convinced that this would save us from a lot of food waste, too, if we mainly bought items we will actually use, instead of buying things we'd like to use but that end up in our compost heap. Women are said to do that a lot -- we buy healthy fruits and veggies, and end up throwing them away because they go bad. But I'm not saying we shouldn't buy fruits and vegetables either! We should simply buy only what we need, even if it means more bike trips to the store to get that last lemon.

So I'm trying to simplify the way we eat. We don't have to have nine different kinds of legumes in our closet the way we do now (soybeans, broad beans, peas, black eyed peas, black beans, green and red lentils and mung beans). Three to four would be enough. But then again, I love having full dry food closet. It makes me feel safe. And by eating a variety of foods, I'm making it more sure we get to have all the nutrients we need. And it's really hard not to buy interesting looking novelties, like purple cauliflower :)

Other than being obsessed with food, I've been working on one of my doll's bedrooms. Here's the result. I think it's really charming!

 And here's how it was before.

Quite an improvement, huh?

I've also been sewing a lot, and just finished a Halloween-themed triangle-banner for a kid's room. I guess my kids are a bit too old for that, but I actually thought of putting it up in our bedroom. No picture of it, since the kids room is not very photogenic, with too many unfinished remodeling projects in there. I also sewed a lot of Pinkkis pouches. Need to have a lot for the upcoming X-mas season! And some more Blythe stuff under constraction, pics later.

I guess that's all! What do you think about my plan to simplify our diet? Pure madness, or is there a way to achieve some balance with it all?

xoxo,

Pinkkis
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