Hakkapeliitta weekend

Old fashioned coffee cart


My mom's booth

Started to write this at the beginning of August, it's now September 15...

before I go all into detail about this weekend I should probably explain the terms and situation... Hakkapeliitta is the term for the Finnish men who fought for Sweden in the 1700's. Every year the first weekend of August there's an event in Tammela (small town in Finland) to commemorate those people. The market place is basically tranferred into the 1700's, people come from all over the area dressed in the clothes from that era, selling goods and foods from that era. there's a king and queen who are very well dressed and their court and they ride their horse carriage, wave and talk to the everyday folk and greet their underlings...the food is amazing and you could spend a small fortune buying some of this stuff. It's all quality goods and most people have made their products themselves so everyone takes good care and pride of it all. So keeping that in mind...

My stepdad Ybi has sold his art there for the past 20 or so years. He's part of the organizing committee and does all the posters and advertising pictures of the events. Most if not all people associated with the organizing are volunteers and it could not survive without their work. I don't think anybody is getting paid for this and it's a lot of work to get everything together. My mom started her business last year (upholstery, repairs, curtains etc) and she just got her own trademark/logo about a month ago so she has been making handbags, shopping bags, maternity bags, gym bags etc to sell there. I am not into the brand name american bags that everybody is raving about in america, but I could have a bag for everyday of the week from my moms collection. I'm not a girly girl so these are perfect for me. Anyway...This is a 2 day affair and both My mom Marja and Ybi had their own booths there. As part of being in the organizing committee Ybi was one of the 3 judges who gave out the "best booth award" so while he was looking at the booths I was covering for him. And from his booth I went to my moms. Felt like by-polar...one minute I'm an artist and the next an artisan. It was hot as hell this weekend and we needed to dress the part so it was even hotter.

There were a lot of people there and I saw some people I went to school with but haven't seen in ages...saw some people from my former job, relatives...My Aunt Minna had her own booth as well. She does animals from wool, she felts them (I didn't know what the word was so I used an online dictionary...which I have told many people NOT to use...so if this is not the real term, my apologies. Felt is the name of the material...it would be huopa in Finnish). She once made a cat for Tiffany from a picture of Sox I showed her...

I saw a lot of old classmates from all the levels of school. People I haven't met in years, people I've lost touch with and people I only talk to on Facebook, if even there. Lot of people came over to talk to me, ask me about my life and catch up in general...Afterwards I got few fb friend requests which obviously let me to see their profiles. There must be something in the water since I feel like EVERYBODY either has kids or is pregnant. And it's not just 1 kid, it seems like it's 3! They have their houses, husbands/wives, kids and most importantly, A LIFE. Which seems to be just outside my reach. I turned 30 few weeks ago and for a long time I have been ready to settle down, get married or civil unioned or whatever the governments give us and have kids, a house, mortgage, bills etc with Tiffany. It just won't happen. I failed to get a job from US which is why we are living separate right now...I've so far failed to get a job in Finland which is why I'm living in my moms living room... not exactly the way I pictured my life at 30.

I have some issues I need to talk about so I will finish this post and go on to the next.