Photography by maja paja

Since I have been rather lazy and uninspired with my own photography lately, I decided to start showing my inspiration sources here weekly.

I have to start with Maria Gudrun Runarsdottir or maja paja. Her photos draw me in every time. There's something so foreign, so mystical about each and every one of her pictures.

She has a cute little daughter, that she dresses in the most gorgeous clothing:




She lives in Iceland:




And she takes such fantastic photos of people. I always wonder whether it's the light in Iceland that makes the skin of the persons look so pale and ivory-like or if the people do in fact have that sort of skin tone...











Check out her stream. You'll probably spend hours..

mini-model

<3


fun!

my first wedding shoot

My first wedding shoot ever went surprisingly well. Although I was sweating like a pig the whole day long, the weather and light conditions were far from great and I didn't even have time to use the toilet or enjoy a meal, the end results turned out quite alright. The couple was lovely. So in love, so beautiful and so easy to take pictures of.

A few impressions:

my little girl is really not a baby anymore

She turned 1 year old almost two weeks ago. She talks a little, can take a few steps by herself and keeps us on our feet the whole day long. Luckily, summer has arrived, so there's plenty of wonderful things to do. 

changes

The little one moved to her own room and so far it's been working surprisingly well. I've made a few changes to the nursery at the same time.

lovely thrift store and flea market finds.

Red Lentil Curry

you need:
1 cup red lentils (peeled)
3 cloves of garlic
1 piece ginger root
2 shallots
1 large carrot
3 sticks of celery
1 red bell pepper or red pepper
1 cup canned tomatoes or tomato sauce
2 tablespoons of red curry paste
1 cube vegetable stock
¼ teaspoons of cinnamon powder
1 teaspoon of garam masala
1 teaspoon of turmeric
1 teaspoon of curry powder
1 teaspoon of brown sugar
a pinch of salt
2 cups of water or milk
3 tablespoons greek or turkish yoghurt to serve

Mince the peeled shallots, garlic and ginger and fry them in a Dutch oven or large pan with a lid on low heat. Add diced carrot, celery and red pepper and let soften for a few minutes. Then add red curry paste, cinnamon, garam masala spice, turmeric and curry powder and stir well. If you like your curry very spicy, add chili powder or additional chopped chili peppers.

Pour in the canned tomatoes or tomato sauce, add the vegetable stock, sugar and salt and stir for a minute. Finally add the lentils and water or milk, stir once again and cover with a lid. Let simmer on low heat for at least half an hour (check occasionally if you need to add more liquid).

Transfer portions into small bowls, top each with a tablespoon of yoghurt and serve with warm garlic naan and/or basmati rice.

Japanese masking tape & new spice jars

One of my favorite shops in Helsinki, Pino, now sells these fantastic japanese paper tapes. I had seen them before on a few design blogs, but never really got myself to order any, because they were previously only available from japanese and US online shops.


masking tapes

I also found these lovely glass containers at Indiska. Usually I write the spice names straight onto the glass which is annoying when you want to change the contents. So, now i used the paper tape and i love how they turned out. I reckon I'll buy some more of these pretty jars before they are out of stock.


glass jars by indiska

an update

it's winter here. like it's almost everywhere at the moment. just that here it comes with even more snow and even less daylight than in most places. and somehow the days seem too short to do anything. so, really, i haven't had the "time" to write anything her in quite some time now. for now i'll show a few pictures of the last two months.




bucket photo session in the nursery



a day like any other



the chicken and her miniature double



-17 celsius


I'll post more pictures tomorrow.