Have Great Weekend!

Sorry I have not been around much these last weeks but things on CDD have become quite hectic. I am working 2 (unexpected) projects that are taking up most of my time and cannot wait till I can share more details with you. The weather here is gorgeous and we are headed to the country cause this girl needs a break. I will be gone next week catching up on some much needed rest.

Have an amazing weekend everyone!

Fashion Diary- Catharina Eden

From the Autumn/Winter 2008 collection

Although the Spring/Summer season is in full swing I couldn't resist introducing this fabulous young designer to you.

Catharina Eden is a Finnish Fashion Designer, residing in London. After graduating from the Lahti School of Design in Finland, Catharina headed for London to work with designer Alexander McQueen in his creative laboratory and designer Ben de Lisi.

After working with other designers a few years she launched her own fashion label in January 2006. Her contemporary designs are elegant and sexy in gorgeous silky fabrics.

Catharina is inspired by iconic women like Elizabeth Taylor and Audrey Hepburn. She admires strong independent women and designs with them in mind.

Spring/Summer 2009

For more information please visit her website here

©All photos property of Catharina Eden

Artek for Lapponia

Artek has cooperated with Lapponia Houses, decorating the interior of the Helmi-Prefab 2009 model house. The dwellings are delivered to the buyer with the external walls, sauna and benches ready to assemble(furniture not included) in a matter of days. For more information regarding Lapponia houses please visit their site here.

Photos: Kai Lindqvist, JMG Studio

©All photos are property of Artek

From Finland With Love

These pictures are from my family album...I love this cabin !

Back steps leading to the lake

It is Midsummer's Eve in Finland. During this day and night a stillness comes over the country like nothing you've ever seen or heard before. I am sure that visitors walking out of their hotels must wonder what the heck has happened to everyone.

It is spooky... all the shops close at noon today and do not open for several days. Everyone heads out to the countryside to celebrate the summer solstice, leaving the cities empty. After this day the nights start to darken once again, although we still have many weeks of white nights.

It's raining today, so I really hope we can have a bonfire tonight...for the kids sake

Midsummer Bonfire

Happy Midsummer everyone and have a lovely weekend!

Enjoy!

Photos taken by Charlie's husband and are property of CDD.
Bonfire photo courtesy of Visit Finland Image Bank permission required for reproduction

True Fabulosity by Reetta Hiltunen

A couple of weeks ago I was visiting some of my favorite galleries in Helsinki. As I approached Galleria Uusitalo and I stared through the window I stood there for quite a while, I did not even try to walk inside. I was mesmerized. The exhibition "True Identity" by artist Reetta Hiltunen took me by surprise, it is fresh, hip, new and oh so groovy. You cannot help but be drawn in by the visual and the happiness the characters exude but also by artist’s message.

Real Sista

"True Identity" focus on the values of the Western lifestyle and consumer aesthetics, multiculturalism and identity in advertising. Reetta approaches, these often times, sensitive subjects from a feminine viewpoint and through humor. All of her collages are handcrafted; she manipulates and fuses drawings and/or photographs. The original image is transformed by placing it in new environment creating a new sense of reality. "

Dolly Klubb

Reetta Hiltunen was born in Joensuu, Finland in 1980. She studied traditional printmaking techniques--silkscreening and drawing aided by digital computer graphics, in London and New York. Ms. Hiltunen graduated in (2005) from Middlesex University in London, with a BA degree in Fine Arts, and a Degree of Arts, (2006), Master of Fine Arts, Finnish Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki, Finland (2007) (plus more on her website)

Galleria Uusitalo

The more you learn about this dynamic young woman the more interested you become. For more information about Ms. Hiltunen's artwork, background and impressive list of achievements please visit her website here.

Solo Exhibitions
This month running concurrently

TRUE IDENTITY
Gallery Uusitalo
Lönnrotinkatu 15
00100 Helsinki
28.5-28.6.2009
www.galleriauusitalo.fi
.......

Reetta opens a second solo exhibition at

Opens this Wednesday
Uusi pakka / Re-shuffle
Finnish Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki
Opening 17th of June 6-8 p.m.
Kasarminkatu 44, 00130 Helsinki
open daily 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.
reettahiltunen@Kuvataideakatemiangalleria
www.kuva.fi

Welcome!

©All photos property of Reetta Hiltunen

I'm A Foodie Guest at What We Eat

Chicken Marbella

The lovely Christy, from the wonderful foodie blog "What We Eat" asked if I could contribute a recipe for her blog, I was so flattered, so of course I said yes. After much thinking, I decided to share 2 of my all time favorites recipes, Chicken Marbella and Ginger Carrot Soup.


Ginger Carrot Soup

These recipes have been a part of my repertoire for a looong (they were served at my wedding way back in the day) and my family and friends absolutely love them and I hope you will too. They are both perfect summer dishes and the beauty is that they can be served hot or cold. Head on over to What We Eat today. While you are there, tell Christy I said hello.

Have an awesome weekend!

Enjoy!

Problem Fixed Baby...I Hope

I have temporarily removed the Blogger Follower and Google Friend Connect Widget, as it appears to be the major cause behind most problems on this blog. As you see I had to delete my old template as well. It was disappointing and terribly sad, but it had to be done. I hope that starting from scratch and removing a few widgets will bring these problems to an end .

If you are using a blogger template and having similar problems you should check out Known Issues for Blogger, as they seem to have known about the problem with these widgets since 2008. Obviously, these are very popular features and blogger did not want to alarm anyone. All I can say is, back-up your blogs on a daily basis, it only takes a second.

Below are a few things I had to do to fix the problem:

1) Changed template to a traditional Blogger template

2) Remove the "Followers" Widget temporarily.

*Please note: CDD Followers are still there, Followers have not been deleted , only the widget has been removed from the sidebar. If you want to Follow this blog you just have to hit the "Follow Blog" link on the "navigation bar" at the top of the page.

3) Changed my comments from "Embedded below post" to "Full page"

It was brough to my attention that when some readers tried to comment on CDD they received an "Operation Aborted" pop-up. It appears that not all readers were affected but enough that I noticed a significant (14%) drop on my stats in a 2 week period.

4) Removed and re-installed the Sitemeter Reader

I hope these changes will help permanently, but please keep me posted- Let me know If you have any problems when visiting CDD, as I don't see what you see on your end.

Thanks to Christy, Margaret, Ingela, Jacqueline, Richard, Bee, Paul and Hamish for pointing out what you where seeing on your end and taking the time to answer some of our questions.

Mikko, Seppo and Katarina for your help in resolving these issues! I thought I was a cracker-jack fixer-upper(maybe not) but then I saw you work....You are all awesome!

© lamas Photography, reproduction prohibited