There’s a Marimekko store about a mile and a half from our apartment, in Huron Village. We’ve driven past it several times but have never ventured inside. This weekend, though, as we were on our way to Sofra for lunch, I noticed a huge “Final Sale Days!” sign in the window, so I convinced Stephen to stop on the way back and browse with me.I’ve never been a huge fan of the classic Unikko fabric (sacrilege!), but I fell in love with this pink-on-pink version when I saw it in the Scandinavian shop we visited in Portland in June. I couldn’t reconcile myself to the price then (this stuff is not cheap), but I steeled myself this time and got enough to make a couple of pillowcases for the bed. We really don’t need any more pillowcases, but the fabric is so lovely and summery that I'm sure they'll be used frequently. I got this little glasses case in the same fabric, rationalizing that I’ve been carrying my sunglasses around in an old sock for the past year and am ready for an upgrade.
We got some birdy fabric, too, to make throw pillows for the couch. And then I saw this plywood tray, the same one I’ve long coveted in one of the pictures in this book (scroll down), and decided to be completely reckless and buy that, too. The staff seemed grateful to make a sale—they said business has been slow lately, but they’re encouraged that it will pick up soon because there are more smudgy noseprints on the outside of the windows when they arrive in the morning lately. Some of those noseprints, no doubt, were from me, although I didn’t admit it. Oh, Finnland! Oh, Scandinavia! How I love your homegoods.
