The last post is from January, so maybe it's time to update a bit. What happened then? No renovation whatsoever. We have been busy with building our jewelry brand viilu and with our company Koivisto Studio. Biggest change might be, that we have a cat called Luigi now in the house. He has a big heart and lot of patience. He has taught us, how to relax and to be happy with the things we have. His favorite thing is to smell the fresh air. It's mesmerizing, that such a small thing can make him so happy.
Sorry about the winter photos in the middle of hot summer, but the winter was this year so beautiful and really cold, that we have to share a couple of views from our backyard. We had lot of sunny days and snow here. The photos are taken along the river side. At the coldest days the Nuijajoki river was almost completely frozen.
A tiny bit happened to our restroom. We updated it by adding there a new mirror. Tobi used an old mirror glass, but build a new frame for it. The mirror gave the room a feel of a bigger space than the restroom actually is.
The whole spring time we were busy with creating and producing a new collection for our viilu jewelry. This new collection is called valo & varjo, it means light and shadow. Eventually it took us to the Talents show in Frankfurt, Germany and brought us our first design award the Form 2018. So the effort and the work was worth it.
The photos were taken in our forest, because one important aspect to our brand is to show the environment where we live and work. We go also back to the roots, where the material comes from. It gives an understanding and respect to the wood. In trees we trust! You can find more information about our jewelry brand from here: www.viilu.fi
A little vegetable garden is a must, when living at the countryside. This is the second year we have it here. Everything is growing really fast and well, because the spring and the summer has been hot this year. Also the flowers we planted are blossoming in powerful colors.
Last but not least we have some good news. The next post is about renovation! We are continuing it by making our bedroom and living room ready. Until then, we wish all the best for your summer. Enjoy the blossoming nature and life!
And other Aronia treats. The last berries are now in good use just before the first snow, which arrived yesterday. It's really pity, that this berry is at least in Finland so underestimated. Maybe this post will open the eyes. The aronia bushes are quite common in the gardens, because they are beautiful and they can manage in the cold atmosphere. Furthermore they are also healthy and tasty. We wrote already earlier in the post Delicacy from our garden and the forest about our aronia jam, which didn't quite fullfill the expectations. Afterwards we have been drying them and made juice out of it, which both worked well. But definitely the best creation was Tobi's aronia pralines, which we named Koivisto praline.
This is the leftover from the berries after we made juice out of them. We mixed them with sugar and dried them few weeks. First in the oven and then just in the room temperature. The berry plate was drying so long till it turned firm, but remained moist.
We cut the plate in small square formed pieces and covered them with white and dark chocolate. The dark makes the taste of aronia even stronger, whereas the white makes it softer.
The newest version of the pralines is with our dried aronia berries on top. They turned out tasty and also beautiful. Maybe we should start a delicacy shop at this farm!
Despite the promises we are still keeping the renovation update to ourselves. We will show the updated situation very soon. We just thought, that these treats were more worth to see. And if you are around, come and taste the juice and the pralines before they run out. Probably the best sweets in this town!
The sauna building by the river has been working as our bathroom now over a month. We wanted to make little changes to the surroundings. The bushes around the house had growed too much. When the plants are growing too close to the house, in the long run it might cause some damages to the building. As we were taking the old floor out of the basement, we found beautiful and big stones under the concrete and so the idea was born. We removed the plants and build a stone wall. We wanted to keep it pretty natural, so we used stones with different sizes and forms. The finishing touch was made with plants, wich made the house look appealing.
To avoid the coldness and greyness, we added some plants between the stones. They are originally from our garden and because of the new wastewater system they needed a new place. So it was also a rescue to the plants. We hope that we made a successful work and the plants will grow there the next year even more beautiful.
We added small stones to the front of the sauna so it will be nice to walk on them. Some of them we brought from our forest and some we collected from the sea. Now when we are cooling us from the heat of the sauna, we are picking the stones and wondering, how cool they look.
We'll be continuing this garden project along the way and the next years to come. And we promise to post new things soon. There has been a lot going on lately. But now we're heading to the sauna!
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