Midsummer

Seems like all celebrations pretty much revolve around food. The Midsummer tradition for me is new potatoes, herring, salmon... For my au pair, the tradition is a pavlova cake. So this year we combined our traditions and had a nice little feast to celebrate the summer solstice.

Our table setting with flowers picked from our backyard, and a nod to the motherland with the Marimekko table cover and napkins. 

My go-to appetizer in the summer is a bruschetta salad with fresh sliced french bread. 

For main course, new potatoes with butter, herring, salmon.

The dessert was heavenly! I never had a pavlova cake before, but it was super yummy. 

And of course, we finished out with our own "kokko". 

Happy Father's Day

Your father is the first man against who you judge all other men. I am so happy that my daughters have this man as a role model. He is hard working, he never gives up, he has a great sense of humor, and he always puts his family first. He's the one getting up in the middle of the night when someone is crying, and he's the one these girls manipulate to get them anything they want. He is a rock and I'm so happy I picked him to father my children.

Happy Father's Day to all the great dads out there! 

Witches Brew Again

I can't believe that it's almost two weeks ago already that we went back to the Witches Brew Cafe in Hempstead to take my lovely cousin there to enjoy the atmosphere (and the goodies!). As I'm looking at these pictures, my friends in Finland are getting ready to celebrate Juhannus (i.e. the Mid-Summer, or the Summer Solstice). I feel a bit melancholy since I remember the celebrations from my childhood. My au pair and my oldest daughter are planning to bake some Mid-Summer treats for us, so that may help a bit :-)

Museum of Modern (F)art

Last week I went to MoMa with my darling cousin visiting from London. MoMa was in between exhibitions, but they did have Yoko Ono's one woman show, which she at one time had titled "the Museum of Modern (F)art". I didn't expect much, but it was a pleasant surprise, humorous above all. Here are some of my picks from the show.

Allstars

I've got a lot of pictures to post, but let's start with something as simple as OOTD. I bought this Project Runway All Stars winner Dmitry Sholokhov maxi dress a while back, but just got around to wearing it this weekend. And then I liked it so much, I wore it three days straight. (Well I did take it off at night...). I paired it with my Tory Burch espadrilles and Michael Kors basket, which I both take out every summer.

Recent Instagram Photos

The summer is off to a great start! 

More to come when I have a chance..lately I've been too busy... Either working or having fun! 

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Southampton

On our way to Montauk we stopped at Southampton to ogle on the amazing mansions. I didn't actually take any pictures of the most opulent houses, because I was afraid that if we stopped the car, some invisible security agent was going to come and confiscate my camera... after all, the roads we drove on were not even marked on the map (I guess money can buy you seclusion, and block those google map satellites).

These houses were nice, but definitely on the smaller side. 

The most famous address in Southampton. 

These look like the roses in Finland. 

The beach was beautiful white sand. I guess it still is ;-)

But forget about actually going on the beach unless you live close-by. 

Or like my hubby so eloquently put it "they're trying to tell any poor f*****r to stay the f*** out". 

When I win the lotto, I know where my beach house will be. (in Montauk!)

Montauk

Last Sunday hubby and me escaped to the tip of Long Island, i.e. the East End, for a 24-hour mini vacation. It was my first time in Montauk, and of course it was love at first sight. I mean, the ocean side is my happy place, and in Montauk, you can never be too far from the ocean. Driving through the Hamptons you can see a big difference between Montauk and the other towns. Montauk is much more down-to-earth. It's a bit more hippy, a bit more surfer-dude, and if not completely devoid of the "Hamptons vibe" it's much more relaxed and less of a scene.

We stayed at the Montauk Yacht Club. 

The marina of the yacht club was nice, and there were some nice yachts to admire. 

The room had a maritime theme. 

We had an early dinner at the Navy Beach restaurant. 

I loved the relaxed vibe. 

We lucked out because the weather was a bit on and off, but it was gorgeous during our dinner. 

The other clientele was quite young.. city folks out in Montauk for the weekend. 

It wasn't quite warm enough for a swim... 

We drove out to the Montauk Point to see the lighthouse. 

It's one of the oldest in America, built in 1796.

The Montauk Point beach was full of surfers. Yes, those black dots in the water are surfers. 

At this point the weather started to turn really windy. 

This guy was coming back with his paddle board. He must've fallen a few times, he was so full of cuts and bruises. Ouch! 

An interesting rock at the beach. Wonder what caused that crack...

It was a very nice little get-away, extremely relaxing. And it was good to have some time with the hubby without having to worry about anyone else or being constantly interrupted. We slept like ten hours! But I'm not sure if I'd want to stay away from the kids longer than a night or two. It may be pathetic, but I really miss them when away...