finnish blueberry pie

A few years ago, I went to visit a dear friend in Finnland - on of the first things she made me was a finnish blueberry pie. I loved it so much that she gave the recipe. She told me she used all kind of berries for this pie and I when I make it, I just use whatever I have in my fridge: raspberries, blueberries, rhubarb and sometimes a mix of those things. It´s not a typical pie - and some people might even call it a cheese-cake - but the most important thing is how delicious (and easy to make) it is! Yummi!

Here you have this wonderful recipe in english below - enjoy!

pie dough/crust

100g soft butter
3/4 dl sugar (I use brown sugar - demerasykur)
1 egg
1,5 dl flour
1 dl whole wheat (heilhveiti eða spelt)
1 tsp baking powder

Mix those things in your stand mixer (hrærivél) and put it in a pie dish (I use my fingers to spread it).

filling

200g blueberries (I never weigh them - I just put as much as I want to... most of the time a lot more) 
200g Greek yogurt
0,5 dl sugar (I use brown sugar - demerasykur)
1 egg
1 tsp  vanilla extract/vanilla sugar (venjulegir vanilludropar eða vanillusykur)

Spread your berries on the dough, mix the rest of the ingredients together and pour over the berries.

Bake for 30 minutes (200 degrees on Celsius)

bottle cap crochet-flowers

I improvised those flower-brooches for my girls 

during a girls-weekend in a cottage on the countryside

I used icelandic lace (loðband,einband) and bottle caps for the center 

and léttlopi for the flower pedals

one more thing: I´m starting to miss "the word of the week" photo-challenge so I'm starting with that one again next week...  next weeks word "outlines" is chosen by my sister Guðrún

Have a wonderful weekend ya´ll!

crochet blanket

I´ve been creating so many things for other children than my own lately, so I decided it was time to make something for my boys. My older one loves Icelandic wool - he want´s to cover himself with it, swim in it, dig in it... he loves everything about it, even the smell :-) So.... why not make him a crochet blanket of his own, big enough to wrap all around himself? 

Details: 

I decided to use the traditional granny square pattern for this blanket. What I like about this blanket is the simplicity&at the same time "happiness" of the colors. It only took me 1 week to make it since each square only has 2 colors.  

I didn´t make an edging because I want to be able to add some rows around it when he grows...

hook: nr. 7 

material: icelandic unspun, 2 strands (tvöfaldur plötulopi). I mainly used wool from my stash.

Do you recognize the system behind the color-arrangement?

dig in...

my big boy enjoying&loving his new blanket

 

Beautiful Westfjords

I´m dreaming of last summer... 

 

Súgandafjörður

 

 Bolafjall

Arnarfjörður, Stapadalur

most adventurous&most beautiful drive of my life: vegurinn fyrir nes, Arnarfjörður

can´t wait to go back there next summer...

pillowcases

Many years ago, I covered my pillows with fabric I have now grown out of - meaning: I really don´t like them anymore. I have been thinking about new pillowcases for a while now and during a visit in  IKEA the other day I got some really nice fabric on sale and some lace curtain-scraps for almost nothing. The best thing about the fabric probably was the color: curry/mustard/crazy-yellow/greenish. 

This is what I made out of it:  

Nr. 1.

IKEA fabric and curtain-scraps: 

it was a bit tricky to sew the two fabrics together but it was worth the effort...

I really love the way the yellow/greenish shines through the white lace curtains

(p.s. my older son likes this one too and want´s one of his own to sleep with in the night)

the back: my cases are open so it´s really easy to wash them

Nr. 2.

An old doily from my favorite thriftstore and IKEA fabric

 - what a nice way to use/recycle old doilies -

the two together, waiting for their brothers and sisters I´m currently working on...

a cozy weekend

Last weekend we went to my parents cottage near Skálholt - it was wonderful... 

Our amazing view

my parents interesting stone-collection

another self-portrait :-) 

pictures of my mother art-work

I couldn´t believe it when I found some growing green kale, at the end of january - but I really did and made myself some yummi "kale-chips" in the oven

What a cozy weekend - can´t wait to go again...

Filters in Photoshop

I was playing around in photoshop the other day, testing different filters. 

I used a picture I took of Hallgrímskirkja at 101 Reykjavík on a beautiful&really cold day:

Before: 

 

cyan 70 saturation -100

deep emerald 70

deep emerald 70 saturation -100

red 35 - saturation -100

  

 red 50

 yellow 45, saturation -100

sepia 70

 

sepia 70 saturation -100

underwater 60

 

 warming filter 50

 

What a difference a photoshop-filter makes...