moomin matters

It may have had something to do with the fact that the Moomin characters turned 65 years old last year, suddenly there were even more adorable Moomin-items overflowing certain shops around Sweden and country of origin Finland.

I haven't read the books since I was little - but they are certainly on my to-read-again-list - and even if I have neither been collecting, like so many, the seemingly endless numbers of Moomin mugs nor buying everything Moominish I stumble over, I am indeed charmed by the stories and the characters. I think they're brilliant, cute, thoughtprovoking, there's something, someone for everyone in those books, no matter age.

So admittedly, there were lots and lots of irresistable Moomin-stuff around, especially past winter, and yes, some of them happened to scream "get me!" more indefatigably than others. So after last summer's great find of a Marimekko tree T-shirt and fabtastic dress - which are neither technically Moomin-made or labeled, they still oozes Moominish style - and the scissors - which has been of great use and limited to yarn and fabric matters only - and met a real life Moomin, here are a few things I picked up during autumn/winter.

I've found that for my new comfortable pillows my old pillow cases are way too small, I was so pleased when it turned out that these Moomin cases (from Finlayson) were not only sweet looking but also larger in size, fitting the pillows comfortably. Thus it was absolutely acceptable to get (and wish for) more than a couple.

same pillow case, two different sides

And yes, there are still some more pillow case motifs out there screaming my name.

Not that one exactly needed another pitcher, but you have to agree, magnetic. Picked up on the ferry when we had out little winter outing to Åland. Much much better price than in stores. Well-pleased.

Ah, Moomin cookie molds, where have you been all my life? Have yet to actually bake with them though. But I'm sure the cookies to be will taste better Moomin-shaped.

Then, there's this little piece of plastic, that, apart from the pillow cases, have been the best Moomin investment so far - a ticket holder (made by Popomax) for the Stockholm transportation system's Access ticket. The re-usable magnetic refill tickets are the ones hanging to the right - these days you can even design your own motif on them, which I have to say I find rather cool and a perfect, reasonable priced gift for any Stockholm commuter - and the free, boring looking plastic holders hanging to the left.

Obviously having a Moomin ticket holder makes all the perky difference, any day, when using the public transport. Even if the gateman thinks that when refilling an Access-card in a holder like this one is buying a card for a child, clearly he has no imagination. Clearly he isn't a fine Moominist specimen.