The Comet

Taito-lottery

2012-02-09T14:29:00.000+02:00

Hey, here's a hint for all of you who's interested in handicrafts! Finally a lottery with good and useful prices! This is a campaign by the handicraft-magazine Taito, and there's also a pretty good sale on the magazine itself, too! So go ahead and check it out!

More information on the Taito-site.

And I'll be back sooner than you think with a new, spooky project... ;)

Winter

2012-02-06T20:03:00.000+02:00

Here's a few pictures from some time back. They are taken before all this snow arrived here, when all the winter we had was only frost and some chilly air.

Spooky Friday

2012-01-30T19:31:00.000+02:00

On a Friday not so long ago a friend of mine threw a housewarming party. In stead of bringing her something traditional, I decided to knit something. The idea was to give her something cosy to wear when she's just chilling at home. The result was a pair of socks I call "Spooky Friday" -socks (and I really think the cute and funny ghosts somehow suits her personality).

This was a perfect project for a housewarming gift. It's a personal gift, fun and fast to make and it also helped me getting rid of some leftover yarns that have been hanging around ever since I made the cabled socks last winter.

Pattern: basic socks, but I found the spooky pattern in the new Sukkalehti by Novita (Villit Kirjoneulesukat)

Yarn: Gjestal Janne

Needles: 3 mm

In Ravelry

I also made a garter stitch heel to make the socks even more special. Plus, it was nice to try a new way to knit the heel. I have to admit that I liked these funny, yet cosy sock so much I was thinking about making another pair just for me. But we'll see. I have some other projects in mind as well that I'd like to do first.

Needle organizers

2012-01-19T14:47:00.000+02:00

Here's a hint for how to make your own knitting needle organizer! Already last year I got one beautiful organizer for needles, and this Christmas I got another one (the striped one). It's made by Fanciful Belongings and bought in Etsy.

But even though I had these two organizers, I still had a lot of long, straight needles and nowhere to put them. But then I got an idea! And since the idea is very simple, I decided to share it with you:

It started out with an empty Pringles can that I washed. Then I took a sheet of plain white paper and decorated it the way I wanted. After I had glued it on to the can (with just regular paper glue), I wrapped some thin yarn around the bottom part to make it look like some earth. And voilà! I new knitting needle organizer was born!

More babies!

2012-01-11T18:59:00.000+02:00

Another colleague at work was also leaving for maternity leave yesterday, and of course we had something soft for her too. Remember the patchwork baby blanket we made earlier this autumn? Well, for this unborn baby we made a similar one, but with different colours:

Pattern: just basic garter stitch squares

Yarn: we used left-over yarn from our stashes

Needles: 3 mm & 3,5 mm

Ravelry: Patchwork blanket II

Then, since I am actually going to do my colleague's work, I couldn't resist the chance of knitting something else for her and her baby as well:

Pattern: Vauvan lapaset by Sanna Vatanen

Yarn: Novita 7 Veljestä

Needles & hook: 3 mm & 4 mm

Ravelry: Teddy mittens

These are baby mittens, but I guess she can also use them as socks or as handpuppets if she wants. The idea is from a knitting book I got for Christmas. In finnish it's called Neulo. Virkkaa. Kirjo. Jämälangasta! by Sanna Vatanen, but I actually got the swedish version of it. I also slightly modified the pattern by knitting the mittens in a round, casting on 38 stitches and decreasing 2 st every second round in the end.

Lovely book, by the way! Now I finally know what to do with all my waste yarn. I hate it when my stash is filled with small skeins of different coloured yarn. I've promised myself to do something about those before I allow myself to buy any more yarn. And now that promise is public, so I guess I'll have to try and keep it! :)

Frost

2012-01-05T10:25:00.007+02:00

If you want to see more of my photos, you can always visit my Flickr page.

Clear blue water

2012-01-02T12:42:00.004+02:00

My new year began with that wonderful feeling of something warm and small cuddled up beside you. I woke up in the middle of the night to someone feeling me up. It was a cat that pushed her paws agains my legs trying to find the perfect place to lie down on. But I guess she didn't find it because eventually she cuddled up beside me in stead, gently pushing agains my feet.

Also, a new year and a new finished knit. This is a shawl I've been working on every now and then for almost a year now. Have to admit I'm already quite tired of it. But perhaps I'll start loving it again now that I don't have to knit that same lace pattern over and over again anymore. Because it was quite boring - not a surprise though, since it also was very easy.

...or maybe I'll just give it away to someone who wants it? Anyone?

Pattern: Clear water lacy scarf by Tanya Alpert

Yarn: Hjertegarn Play it

Needles: 4 mm

In Ravelry here

I found this pattern in a book called Haiku knits. It's filled with japanese-inspired patterns and I have to say I like quite many of them. Many of the designs was very simple, yet they had elegance and strength in them.

I didn't like this yarn that much because it isn't at all as soft as it looks. But since I had some of it left I also made this brooch to go with it:

Pattern: A rose by any other name

Yarn: Hjertegarn Play it

Needles: 4 mm

In Ravelry here

Feels good to have one project done! Now I can move on to new, interesting projects! Yay! I've also been photographing quite a lot with my new camera, so I'll probably post some of those pictures soon too.

Hope you all had a great New Year's Eve and that you've made some plans or at least have some dreams to fulfill in 2012!

P.S. In case you didn't notice, I've now also added a "like"-button after the posts. So if you like what I do but feel too lazy to comment, you can just hit that button!

Happy owner of a new camera!

2011-12-30T14:55:00.000+02:00

About a week ago, I graduated from the university and are therefor now a Master of Arts. But that was actually only the history-part of my studies, I will still continue to study handicrafts for a while. Even so, it still feels good.

As a graduation present, I got something I've been wanting to have already for a long time: a new camera. And what a camera I got! It's a Nikon D5100 with a 18-105 mm lens. And it takes absolutely gorgeous photos! I don't think I'll ever use my old camera again..

Just to illustrate, here's first a picture taken with my old pocket camera and then the same motif photographed with my Nikon:

I hope you agree that the first picture just looks very, very flat compared with the other one.

Just to celebrate my wonderful new camera, here's a few photos I shot at Christmas:

Next time some more crafts will be seen on this blog. So stay tuned.

Lambs on a field

2011-12-26T18:02:00.001+02:00

I was so incredibly busy this autumn that I actually had time to finish only one knitted Christmas gift. And this is a sweater I started knitting already last spring. So I already started thinking it would never be finished. But eventually it was.

Pattern: Offset Wraplan

Needles: 3 mm & 3,5 mm

Yarn: Anemone by Marks & Kattens

In Ravelry: Lambs on a field

A cardigan for my 1,5-year-old godson. Since I made it a little bit bigger than my godson actually needs at the moment, I also used cotton yarn. Therefor the cardigan may be used during the summer too.

The sheep-buttons I just happened to stumble over in Sinelli the same day I finally finished the knitting part of the cradi. I had intended to sew on some smaller buttons at first, so the buttonholes could actually have been a bit bigger for these. But I hope they'll stretch, because these sheep eventually turned out quite perfect for this sweater, didn' they?

ROAR!

Since this was the only gift I had time to finish, I've now made a pre-New Years resolution: next year I'll start knitting on Christmas gifts already in january! Now I just need to find somewhere to store everything for a year...

Will be back soon with more news from my life lately! Till then, be good, even though Christmas is already over!

My photographic year

2011-12-18T20:31:00.000+02:00

This time I wont say much. In stead I wanted to show you some of my favourite photos from this past year. Let them speak for themselves.

Seagull

Happy couple in 1889

Yellow beauty

Bug

Marmalade

Miserable

Boat

Next time I'll probably have some handicrafts to show you. See you then!

My new sewing machine

2011-11-19T11:16:00.000+02:00

This is actually quite old news, but I finally got around to buy myself my first sewing machine, Pfaff ambition 1.0. And it's brilliant. And very sweet with the pink detail:

I've also attended a course in sewing this autumn. During the course we didn't really make anything for real, we were just practising different kinds of techniques both with sewing machines and with an overlock. And I have to say that the course was very useful for someone like me, who hasn't really been sewing anything since high school. Now I feel much more confortable with sewing. Perhaps I'll even start practising it more.

Anyway, So here's some examples of the exercises we've had:

Then I also used up some of my stash of fabrics by making some small pouches like these:

You see, we live in an old house, and in every old house there's almost always some kind of small bugs. And since I have a lot of yarn, that should be a paradise for e.g. clothing moths. So I made these pouches and filled them with traditional herbs such as wormwood and tobacco (all reared at my work). So now I hope they'll prefer someone elses home in stead.

For someone small

2011-11-10T09:38:00.000+02:00

Since I mentioned the baby boom in my last post, here's still another small knit for a baby. It's for the same soon-to-be-born baby that got the soft baby blanket I showed you in my previous post. Since I happened to have just enough left of some white yarn, I decided it was time to start using it up. You see, a winter baby absolutely needs a lot of woolen clothes!

Pattern: Pebble (Henry's Cobblestone-Inspired Baby Vest)

Yarn: Novita 7 Veljestä

Needles: 3,5

In Ravelry

This was such a fast knit! Yeah! I love miniature-sized clothes! :) At first I was going to embroider something on the vest, but since I got a bit short of time (and became I felt very lazy) I just sewed on a small teddybear in stead. Turned out pretty cute, didn't it?

I also got a new knitting book: Knitted Lace of Estonia. Really love the cover, it's so very beautiful.

So now I'm just waiting for the inspiration to find me. But hopefully I wont get too carried away since I have at least six unfinished projects waiting for me. But maybe after those ;)

Where do all these babies come from?

2011-11-09T12:18:00.002+02:00

As you've probably noticed, I haven't updated anything for a long while. It's just that I've been quite busy (again). But now everything's done and I may start living a normal life again. Three weeks ago I handed in my Master's thesis for an official evaluation. Since then I've also had two written exams and deadlines for two short essays. But if everything goes as planned, those should have been my last studies of history. Phew. Feels great! Now I'll just continue whit my handicraft studies and try to get them done as soon as I have enough time for them.

But then, over to the actual topic for today. Babies. All around. I mean, I know at least seven women who's just had a baby or who will shorty give birth to one. So there's clearly a baby boom going on. But it's very nice since it gives me a reason to knit a lot of small, quick and cute stuff.

For a little baby boy, born a few months ago, I made these very basic socks for the winter:

Pattern: Novita Perussukat, size 22

Yarn: Novita 7 Veljestä

Needles: 3 mm

They are actually too big for the boy at the moment, but maybe they'll fit later in the spring or then next winter. I just figured he probably got a lot of clothes exactly the size he wears right now, so his mom would perhaps be greatful to have something to change up to.

Then, there's another baby soon to be born. The mom is one of our colleagues at work, so when she left on her maternity leave, the rest of us at work decided to surprise her with something that perhaps would provide her family a softer landing to their future life together:

Pattern: just basic garter stitch squares*

Yarn: we used left-over yarn from our stashes, mostly Novita 7 Veljestä, Nalle, TicoTico, Polka and Raita.

Needles: 3 mm & 3,5 mm

Ravelry: Patchwork blanket

I think it turned out really nice although we hadn't really thought that much about the colours. And the mother seemed very pleased with it too. It was also much nicer to give her something homemeade that had been created with the help of all of her colleagues, in stead of just buying something from the store. Now we're all just waiting to hear when the baby is born and if it's a boy or a girl.

* EDIT: If you'd like to make similar squares, you might want to use for example this pattern or this pattern. We used 39, 41 or 43 stitches, depending on the yarn.

And oh, together with the blanket we also gave her a card I made:

I'll be back with more news (and handicrafts) soon!

Legwarmers

2011-10-04T18:06:00.001+03:00

I decided a friend of my absolutely needed a pair of legwarmers for her birthday that she could use with high heels. And these are what I came up with:

Pattern: my own (see below)

Needles: 3 mm

Yarn: Novita 7 Veljestä (maybe half a skein)

More pictures in Ravelry

When knitting the red mug jacket (in the previous post) I fell so much in love with the smock-pattern that I decided to use it again in these. The rest was just very easy: CO 72 st, do a k2p2 rib in both ends and work the smock-pattern in between. Last but not least, I added some black buttons. Et voilà! I think they turned out almost perfect. Now my friend can stay warm and still be elegant during this upcoming autumn.

Mug jacket

2011-09-25T19:08:00.001+03:00

I grew sick of the ugly old mug I drink tea from at work, so I decided it really needed to be cheered up a bit. After scanning Ravelry for a while, I found this lovely pattern:

Pattern: Mug and french press jacket

Needles: 3 mm

Yarn: Novita 7 Veljestä

Ravelry: Mug jacket (for more photos)

But here again I made some modifications to the original pattern. Firstly, I knitted only the sides. I also started knitting them flat right from the beginning in stead of working it in a round. Last but not least I also made it a bit smaller than the original one.

I really feel the cover makes my mug more cosy. Plus, it now feels much more confortable to warm my cold hands on the hot mug when the woolen cover is on. And when the mug needs to be washed, the cover is also very easy to take off thanks to the white ribbons on the side.

I've already for quite a while been wondering how to make that beautiful stitch pattern used here, and I have to say I was surprised at how easy it was! So go and try it! I already have another small project going on with this stitch pattern. Photos of that coming soon. Till then, have a look at these mushrooms! There's hundreds of them.

New school

2011-09-18T11:40:00.000+03:00

The past two or three weeks have just been crazy. I've barely had time to sleep in between of running from one place to another. I've started working 3-5 days a week and then the courses at the handicraft teaching program has also started. On top of all this, I finally managed to finish a first version of my master's thesis in history that I last monday sent to the professor for comments and suggestions for how to make it better before I officially hand it in. So, in other word, I haven't had that much time to do anything else than "compulsory" stuff.

So far I've enjoyed the handicraft courses very, very much. It's so different to history that very much circles around books. During the handicraft lessons we actually make something with our hands, that really makes the time fly by. I mean, a four-hour lesson usually feels much shorter than a normal 90 min history lesson. Everything feels so inspiring and I just wish I'll soon have more time to carry out all my ideas in action.

So, what have we done so far? Well, not that much. We've been practising on sewing machines, using different kinds of techniques. Then, in another course, we've studied colours, and that actually feels like being back in high school - but in a positive way! It's very refreshing and relaxing to sit and just mix different colours. I haven't painted with watercolours in years so it was very nice to realize how much more fun it was than I remembered. And not at all as hard to control than I remembered. Here's my humble achievements from the first lesson:

Then, during the time I spent in a bus from one place to another, I did have time to finish this:

A very basic hat for the winter. Not for myself, but for my other half.

Pattern: my own/mix of several

Yarn: Novita 7 Veljestä and some unidentified black yarn I found in my stash

Needles: 3 mm

That's all for this time. Hope to be able to update more often from now on!

Autumn hat

2011-09-01T10:54:00.011+03:00

I've been looking at this pattern for ages already, but didn't have the right yarn nor the right needles at home, so until now, it has only been on my to do -list. But the other day, I finally went to buy everything I needed and started knitting. And man this was a fast knit! I finished it all in only one day!

Pattern: DROPS: Knitted hat with cables

Yarn: Novita Kelo

Needles: 8 mm

You can imagine how nice it felt to knit something really fast after my 2 mm lavender sweater! More big needles for me, please!

Now I also have something to wear with my old yellow mittens. Everything in lovely autumn colours! <3 Also, eagerly awayting next week when my first handicraft lessons start! Yay!

Tender lavender

2011-08-28T08:45:00.001+03:00

One of my, what I thought would be a never ending project, is finally finished! Remember how I've ranted about a project I'm working on with 2 mm needles that never progressed the speed I wanted? Well, here it is:

Pattern: Plain and simple by Veera Välimäki

Needles: 2 mm

Yarn: Novita Princess Baby

This time I made only one small modification to the pattern: since my bodyshape demands it, I added some waist shaping to the sweater. The buttonhole band is exactly the same, but I choose to wear it buttoned in stead of opened as in the original pattern pictures. Then, as a small detail, I embroidered some branches of... something :)

But in spite of the embroidery I would say it stays very true to the origianal name "plain and simple". No fuss at all. Very easy and actually rather boring to knit. But something you could do when you wanted to really clear your head of every thought in it.

Quite pleased with the result after all. And that's good since it took me over a year to finish it. The yarn is by the way some really old yarn my aunt gave me. It's not in production anymore, in case you wonder.

A drawing

2011-08-24T13:26:00.001+03:00

A drawing I made in the beginning of the summer. It's a portrait of Selma Lagerlöf, although her face looks a lot younger than it should. I like drawing when I have a "model", but I suck at drawing straight from my head. And even with a model, the drawing never turns out exactly like a look-a-like.

I've slowly started to knit again, although only a few rows a day. BUT I do have something new to show you as soon as I've had the time to take some photos of it... Meanwhile, you can drool over my new stash of yarn that my parents brought me from London:

Some 800 g of wonderful Purelife Brittish Sheep Breeds Chunky by Rowan. I already know what to do with it and can't wait to start! Then I also got a whole new set of wooden needles. One pair of them got in use straight away as I changed my metallic needles to these in one of my WIP's.

Parisian picnics

2011-08-05T09:11:00.000+03:00

As I said in my previous post, I added one small detail to the picnic bag I made for entrance exams. By this I both tried to personalize the product and take distance from usual tourist information.

One problem when deciding on having a picnic is to decide where to go for that picnic. My sollution for that dispute is to add a "best picnic places" -guide to the bag. Therefor, if you can't decide where to go, you might just lean to the bag for help. My guide isn't a booklet that you by accident might lose or forget at home. In stead I embroidered my guide directly to the canvas: a simplified map of Paris (and a written list of the names of the numbered places, not shown in the photo).

I also tried not to list the same places for picnics as all the usual tourist guides. The basis for my tips were my own experience. Hence, I listed six of my favourite places to have picnics in Paris. Some of them are well-known places, some are places where tourists usually don't go. (The numbers by the way have nothing to do with order of superiority)

The number 1 in this map stands for a small but cosy parc not in such a respectable area in Paris: Parc de Belleville.

During my spring in Paris we went there a couple of times since it was close to where one of my friends lived. This time there happened to be a juggler practising.

The number two is a much bigger and much more popular parc among the citizens of Paris: Parc de Buttes chaumont.

This was one of the last parcs I visited before heading back to Finland.

The third one is actually part of the riverside of Seine, located a little bit futher to the East of the small island Île Saint-Louis: Port Saint-Bernard.

The fouth parc I chose was perhaps the one I frequented the most: Pont des Arts. This one is also known among tourists.

The fifth is simply La Tour Eiffel. I know it's rather a cliché, but you actually felt you were in Paris when you sat there.

Last but not least, the parc furthest away is located right outside the centre of Paris: Bois de Bologne. A huge parc that was very idyllic and calm.

So next time you visit Paris, you might want to try out some of these.

Soon to be a handicraft teacher!

2011-07-31T12:33:00.002+03:00

This spring I decided to apply for the craft teacher program at the University of Helsinki. And I made it through! Even though I was so sure I wouldn't make it this year. The entrance exams consisted of three parts: a test based upon literature, an interview and a handicraft assignement with a report that you were supposed to make at home. I was so busy with studying the teaching program in history that I really didn't have time to even think about entrance exams until a few weeks before the first, written part. After that I had a month to work on my project when everyone else probably had been working on it for three months. And when I saw what the assignment was, I was pretty distressed. The assigment was to make a "Modern souvenir" using textiles and textile techniques. Well, I'm so not an expert in that field. I've mostly been working with yarn lately and haven't even touched a sewing machine in years - not because I don't like sewing but mostly because I don't own a sewing machine and because my mom's machine is just rubbish. But well, I set of planning and doing my best and apparently it was enough.

Well, let me just present what I did. (Remember the sneak peak a few posts back? This was what I was refering to) The choice of country was a piece of cake: of course I chose France since that's the only country except Finland where I've been spending some more time. Therefore I thought I would perhaps be able to see it more through the eyes of a frenchman than of a tourist. Further on I specified my area to Paris and the parisians. My final idea evolved around what I did a lot when I spent my spring in Paris in 2009: I had picnics. My idea was therefor to create a picnic "basket" suited for a modern citizen. An old-fashioned basket isn't perhaps the best equipment to be carrying when the metros are crowded or if you have to carry it a far way. A better choise would therefor be a bag that you can throw over your shoulder.

Other important components where somewhere to but the essential picnic "ingredients": a bottle of wine, the cheese and a freshly baked baguette from one of the lovely boulangeries in Paris. For this I chose to knit the pieces since I wanted to have at least one texture that was compleately different from the rest of the bag. I also made them in garter stitch so that any bottle and bread in any size would fit perfectly. Then the colours of the bag also had to be kind of elegant, something that would suit the streets of Paris and not stand out too much:

I especially like the green and pink cotton fabric I used for the lining. I'll definitely be using the leftovers for something else too. But back to the bag. There was still one detail on it that I made to make it more personal, but since this post already is getting quite long, I think I save the presentation of that one to next time. In stead I'll quickly present the report:

The idea was to present and kind of sell my idea and the project. I had to describe the country or area I chose and present in detail the working process, the choices I made and the materials I used. I also had to present who or what the finished object was meant for and why. Last but not least I had to do a self-evaluation of the whole project and process.

Now afterwards I think it might have been the report that saved me because unlike sewing, this was something I felt I could do. I've written so many reports and essays during my five years at the university that I really think this was something I might have been better at than those who applied directly from college. The limit of the report was 10 pages, but I could easily have written 20. So actually it got a bit crowded and not so esthetic as I had wished for. But I think the content was ok.

Shortly I might say I liked my idea, but I wish I would have had more time and more knowledge to make the finished object more like I pictured it in my head. But since I haven't been sewing that much since high school, I think I'm still rather pleased with what I eventually managed to do.

Tea time!

2011-07-08T13:29:00.000+03:00

During the midsummer holiday, I went to my parent's and took advantage of my mother's garden. I had heard from several sourses that it isn't hard to make home made blackcurrant tea. So I went out, picked a whole lot of leaves from the blackcurrant bush and dried them in the owen at 50 °C for some 3 hours. After that they were so crispy that they broke into small, small pieces as soon as I crushed them once in my hand. Already the smell of the fresh leaves on the bush was lovely, but I was surprised to notice that the leaves kept their smell even after the drying process.

There was enough crushed leaves for filling a small metal tin my mom gave me. And now, every time I oped that tin, the lovely blackcurrant scent hits my nose and it really smells like summer. I think I'll very much look forward to opening that tin in the middle of the winter.

When I got back home, I got so inspired by my new tin and my new home made tea, that I decided to rearrange my stash of loose tea. So far they've just been inside a kitchen cupboard, losing flavour while stored inside simple paper bags. But now, I put all of my loose tea in different tins and jars, put a sticker with the name of the tea on the jar and moved them to this small shelf on the wall:

I especially like the white tin to the left. It's a souvenir a friend brought me from London with the Underground map printed on it. It used to be filled with English breakfast teabags, but now I filled it with loose Earl Grey in stead - so still remembering the origin of the tin.

I also have a lot of teabags in a wooden box made just for them, but perhaps I'll show you that another time. Maybe when I've finished my mug jacket I've been planning to make to prevent burning my fingers on the hot cup of tea.

Petal earrings

2011-06-20T12:23:00.000+03:00

I'm actually still not allowed to do any handicrafts until my wrists are fine again, but since it's summer and I was bored, I just couldn't help myself. Inspired by this blog, I made these crochet earrings:

Hook: 3

Yarn: Novita Tennessee

Pattern: my own

Since they were really easy to make, I decided I might as well share the instructions here in case someone else would like to have a pair of these.

Row 1: 27 dc around the earring.

Row 2: *Ch 4, skip one dc. Insert hook in next dc and fasten the chain with a dc. Dc in next dc* Repeat from * to * 'till the end of the row. Fasten and weave in ends.

During the weekend I went horseback riding with some friends. This was the second time for me, so I was actually a little bit nervous at first, but it went fine. We even went for a small walk following the road. Fortunately all the horses were really kind. They just kept following the leader so all I had to do was sitting there and enjoying the ride. And it was fun! I could have taken a longer ride.

The place where we stayed was very pretty and idyllic, so I also got inspired to photograph. Here's a few of the photos I took during the weekend:

One of the horses at the stable had a foal that was only 3 days old <3

A beautiful oak tree

Rhubarb!

2011-06-13T12:07:00.000+03:00

What's summer without rhubarb? I'd say: not much. At least for me it's an essential part of this time of year. I simply love rhubarb. I like it in pies, in ice cream and in fool. And yeasterday I tried out a new recipe with rhubarb. It was a recipe I found already last summer, but I didn't have time to try it out back then. But yesterday, when it was really warm, I decided it was time for some rhubarb lemonade!

Here's how I made it:

1 kg rhubarb

1 dl sugar

2 dl water

1/2 lemon (the juice of it)

1 vanilla pod

First, mix all the other ingredients except the rhubarb and bring it to boil. Then add the rhubarb (peeled and sliced) and let it come to the boil too. Then take it off the hot plate and let it cool in the fridge. When it's cool, strain and serve with crushed ice. The taste was quite strong but perfectly sour. Really refreshing in the heat. With the left over rhubarb (after the straining) I also made a pie. Mmm, delicious!

Since it's finally summer, I've taken my camera with my outside and photographed a few things. Here's some of the pictures I've taken:

And finally, a sneak peak of a project I've been working on lately. More of that later on in this blog! Meanwhile, enjoy the summer!

Birthday card

2011-05-23T17:25:00.000+03:00

Last saturday our lovely little godson turned 1 year old! Unforunately we weren't able to attend his birthday party, but happily we may spend the whole next weekend with him on a cruise to Stockholm. But since we weren't able to wish him a happy birthday face-to-face, we decided to at least send him a birtday card. My head was quite empty at first since I haven't made any cards of any kind in years, but this is what I (with a little help from Hene) came up with:

Hene's only demand was that there should be something you can move on the card, but since I'm not that handy with cards, I decided to go for something simple. Therefore a Stinky looking out from behind the 1 year-"aqaurium" saying "kukkuu". Don't ask me why he's all grumpy, because I actually don't know :) There's also some white bubbles in the background, but you're not really able to see them very well in this picture.

WIP

2011-05-17T17:08:00.002+03:00

Finally I feel free! I had my last lesson already over a week ago and therefore I am now a qualified history teacher. Since then I've just been lazing around, watching TV, reading books and... dreamt about knitting. Unfortunately I've managed to overstrain my wrists and now I have to use these stupid wrist supports. I've had them for two weeks already and still have two more weeks to go before they SHOULD be cured. And the physiotherapist specifically forbid me to knit. Darn. So, typically, once I'd have the time to finally get something done, I can't. I have at least five unfinished projects including one sweater that would be perfect for this weather. Then I also have a half-finished thing for our little godson that I'd like to finish for his birthday this weekend. But I guess he'll have to get it a bit late. Feels quite annoying, actually. I even tried crocheting since the hand-movement is a bit different there, but naa, no good either. So, as a result, one more "Work In Progress":

It was actually quite fun to crochet. I've been mostly knitting lately, so it was rather refreshing to work with a hook in stead of with neddles. Maybe I should start crocheting more. I'd e.g. like to make a Babette blanket someday, but for now, I think it's a bit too big of a project for me.

Last but not least, I had a chance to try my dad's camera and may therefore now end this post with some Easter flowers:

Cats, cats and cats

2011-04-30T16:18:00.001+03:00

Well, a lot has happened since I updated the last time. Among other things, we took care of the two cats for 1,5 weeks before Easter. This was the first time they were outside their own home. They hated the 45 min drive in the car, and once they were let out inside our appartment, the other one (Säikky) went hiding under the bed and the other one (Tollo) kept sneaking around and being scared as soon as someone made a sound or moved too fast. Tollo (means someting like a dork in english...) got pretty used to us after a couple of days and even came to sleep in our bed and purring at us in the morning, while Säikky (meaning someone who is easily scared) stayed under the bed until two days before we had to drive them back home. He only came out during the night when we were asleep. So that probably explains why I only have two fairly good pictures of him:

But then there's Tollo. She was very curious about everything and after the first few days she started to behave almost as if she were our own cat. And I'm gonna miss that a lot. Do you seriously know anything better than the weight of a small animal on your feet when you wake up in the morning? Or the purring sound when a soft, small animal wants your attention and affection? I could really get used to it. Too bad I'm allergic to cats. But since I didn't get too strong allergic reactions when they were here, we might still think about it. But anyway, here's some (a lot) of photos of Tollo:

Chilling with the Ikea-snake.

"Hey, enough work done for today!"

Eating grass. I think she liked it since she kept eating it all the time.

Here you can see her beautiful, blue eyes. I serioulsy think she is one of the most beautiful cats I've ever seen.

"I'm too cool to look sweet just for your stupid photo"

Well, that's all for now. Have a nice Vappu!

p.s. Tollo and Säikky are actually more like nicknames. Their real names are Safira (because of the blue eyes) and Basti.

Baby socks

2011-04-10T20:38:00.001+03:00

Our godson is just learning to walk on his own, so soon he'll probably be outside jumping in small puddles of water in his rubber boots. And for that, he of course needed a new pair of socks since the old ones already got too small. Since my bigger knitting projects really haven't progressed much, it was nice to get an excuse to do something quick and small in stead. One sock I finished during a couple of not that exciting lessons at the university, the other sock was even quicker. I didn't find any pattern I liked, so I decided to - for the first time ever - make the socks entirely on my own. I simply made them up on the way, improvising and inspired by a pair of socks a friend once knitted for another baby boy. Here's the result:

Pattern: my own

Needles: 3 mm

Yarn: Novita 7 Veljestä

They looked really big when I made them and I thought about starting all over again and making them smaller. But since almost everything I've knitted for our godson so far has been a bit too small, I didn't start over with these. And that was a good descision because apparently they turned out quite the right size after all. It's incredible how fast that boy grows!

Two cats arrived to us today. They're spending their time at our place while the owners are on vacation. Can't show you any photos yet, though, since I haven't seen them that much. Right now they're hiding under our bed... Hope they'll come out when they're hungry or when they need to pee.

Chicken pasta

2011-04-04T09:43:00.000+03:00

A very long time and no see. Sorry about that. I've just been so incredibly busy that even the thought of updating my blog while I had some spare time made me even more tired. And all my crafting projects have had zero progress... But now when I can actually see the end of this semester in my calendar, it has started to feel a little better. Only six weeks till the summer holidays start.

Well, since my knitting projects look the same as in the end of february, I though I'd in stead share one of my recipes with you. It's a recipe for a chicken pasta that I have come up with myself, although inspired by some other recipes. Over the past few years this has become one of our favourite dishes. But since I've never written down the recipe, it tend to turn out a little bit different each time. So what I write down here are only approximate amounts of everyting.

Chicken pasta

500 g pasta

400 g chicken

1 big onion

1-2 red bell peppers

1 can of mushrooms

200 g sun-dried tomato Crème Bonjour

4 dl milk

1-2 tablespoon butter or margarine

1-2 tbsp of flour

3 teaspoons of red pesto

grated cheese

salt

pepper

(chicken spice)

If you use "normal" pasta, you need to cook it a little bit first, but for example last time I bought some Barilla whole-wheat Piccolo Lasagnette pasta and but them in the casserole just like that.

For the chicken I usually use honey-marinated chicken slices. Fry them on a pan adding some onion, the mushrooms and the pepper. Flavor it with some salt, pepper and chicken spice if needed.

The sauce: let the butter melt in a saucepan before mixing it with the flour. Then, when the pan is hot, add a little bit of the milk at a time, beating it at the same time to avoid lumps. When the sauce is ready, add the Crème bonjour (unripened cheese) and let it melt into the sauce. Flavor it with some red pesto.

Mix the pasta and the chicken (with the veggies) in a big casserole. Pour the sauce on top of it, add some cheese and mix a bit more. Add some more cheese evenly on the top and gratinate it in the oven in 200 ° for about 30-45 min (depending on what pasta you use, but at least until the surface turnes brown). It is now ready to be served.

Of coure you can make a smaller amount of it if you want, I just usually put some of the food in the freezer to take with me for lunch to work.

Bon appetit!

Out on the ice

2011-02-21T08:44:00.000+02:00

I know some people already complain about that the winter never seem to end, but I haven't actually grown sick of the snow just yet. Nor the cold weather. For some reason I've actually starting enjoying the blistering cold. It's nice to put on a lot of warm, soft and woolen clothes. The only thing that's actually bothering me, is that my skin turnes so dry during the winter. Right now both my face and my hands feel like sandpaper.

The nature is really the best part during the winter, especially now that the spring is coming and the sun is shining more and more. Unfortunately I usually don't have that much time to go outside and enjoy it. That's probably part of the reason I feel so tired all the time. But I'm not complaining about that now. In stead I wanted to post some wintery photos I took already a few weeks back.

It was in the middle of the day, but the sun was still only this high. Although I think the sunshine itself is actually prettier when the sun isn't as high up in the sky as during the summer. The light is somewhat softer.

Kids ice-skating.

Next we went out for a walk on the ice, i.e. the sea outside Helsinki. This is on the way to Seurasaari. I love the way the wind had formed some figures on the snow and how a single rock had forced the ice the burst around it. Like someone who want to be free.

A small animal had been there before us :) I think you were almost able to hear the quiet, small steps it had taken. We were the only ones out there too. Everything was so quiet. You couldn't even hear the sound of the traffic. And even though it was cold, you were still able to feel the sun warming your nosetip.

Lace and cables

2011-02-13T19:30:00.000+02:00

I finally had time to finish, photograph and post my new socks for my winter boots. They've been ready for almost a month already, but I've just been too busy to do something about it. But here they are:

Pattern: Palmikkosukat by Novita

Yarn: Gjestal Janne

Needles: 3 mm

I have to say I really love these new socks. I especially like how the cable turns out much more beautiful when it's a little bit stretched out. And the lace pattern is pretty too, even though it's so simple. The whole pair of socks would have been a really fast knit had I only had the time to really sit down and work on it. Actually, the only think I'm angry about, is that my gauge was a bit different when knitting the second sock, so it turned out much tighter than the first one. I don't think you can see it that well, but I feel it very clearly when I wear them. I just hope the other sock will stretch once I've used it a bit more.

I think the past two weeks have been the most stressfull weeks of my life so far. I've just been running from one place to another, following a tight schedule and counting minutes. The good thing is that I have lessons again, which actually gives me a chance to sit down and relax. I've brought a knitting project with me almost every time and I've noticed that it's much easier to concentrate on what the lecturer is saying when I at the same time have something to do with my hands. If I only sit, doing nothing at all, my thoughts just start wandering and thinking about all the things I should do. I don't know what the lecturer thinks about people knitting during his class, though. I don't know if he understands that I am in fact listening and not just killing time. However, I'm actually not the only one knitting. There's always one other girl who's kniting too. But while I've been struggling with my 2 mm needles, I've jealously been watching how her sweater keeps progessing so fast with her 6 mm needles. Oh, I miss working with thick yarn. With thick yarn and big needles you actually notice you're doing something. But with this thin yarn I have now, my progess was only some 5 cm during three lessons... if even that much. Sigh.

But hey, you know what? Spring is almost here! Even though it's - 17 °C outside right now, the sun has still be shining and I've been able to feel the warmth from it. Only two weeks till March!

Cat in a sauna

2011-02-07T08:09:00.000+02:00

Here's a peculiar little cat:

She likes warmth and one of the best places to be in the house where she lives is therefor the sauna when it's heating up. What makes her even more interesting, is that last time we were in Porvoo, she even stayed in the sauna with us when we were bathing. Just looking a bit suspicious when we threw water on the sauna stove. "If you throw water on me, I'll kill you". And when we had had enogh of the heat, she still wouldn't leave. Just kept looking at us as if she was thinking we were stupid when even suggesting she'd come out from the warmth. Well, eventually she did. But she still amazes me. I've never met a sauna-bathing cat before.

This cat + another one is by the way coming to stay at our places for 1,5 weeks before Easter when the owners are on vacasion. Until then I'm studying this hillarious thing to be sure to spot all the hidden signs for a secret plot agains me. I will be prepared.

Kotitiikeri

2011-01-21T12:09:00.000+02:00

Here they are, my first project from the lovely knitting book I got: Neulekirja by Ilona Korhonen & Jenni Österman. I actually saw one version of these socks on Napit puuttuu at first, and since they looked so lovely, I had to look up the book itself searching for the pattern. Then the book turned out so lovely too with a lot of patterns I'd like to knit, so I just had to add it to my bookshelf.

Pattern: Kotitiikeri and kulkukissa

Needles: 2 mm

Yarn: Hot socks Marrakesch by Four Seasons Gründl

As always, I changed the pattern just a little bit. In stead of making five small holes for buttons, I made three bigger ones for these beautiful wooden buttons I found on (believe it or not) Stockmann. The 2 mm needles were killing me, though... It's so SLOW! I'm actually working on another project too, using 2 mm needles there as well. Who knows when that one will be finished...

Anyway, these socks turned out to be perfect for work since the "official colour" of the museum is almost the exact same shade of red as the yarn I used. So I guess they can't kick me out since I match their interior so perfectly ;)

Yesterday I went to the library to get (hopefully) the last theory books for my master's thesis. "Introduction to social psychology", "Introduction to psychology", "History and social theory", "What is cultural history?", an article about analyzing letters, some book about socialization within a society... Ugh... These books do interest me on some level, but the other part of me would just rather enjoy some fiction. But I guess it's the same for everyone: as soon as you're forced to read something, it starts feeling boring even though it was something you had chosen to study in the beginning. Sigh.

Well, back to work now.

Presents to me!

2011-01-13T09:40:00.001+02:00

Time to show some of the many, many lovely presents I or we got for Christmas this year. Better late than never, right? ;)

First some knitting and crafting related presents:

My aunt gave me this box full of linen yarn designed by Gianni Versace! Forgive me if I now show my total ignorance, but I actually didn't know fashion designers also design yarns. I didn't find this yarn on Ravelry, though. I think it's quite old and not in production anymore. It would be interesting to know how my aunt came across it... Although, she has a diploma in crafts and design, so she probably knows a hell of a lot more of this stuff than I do.

Then I also got two wonderful books:

The bigger one is Martha Stewarts' Encyclopedia of Crafts and it has more than 200 project of totally different kinds. Then the smaller one is the new finnish knitting book I already talked about earlier: Neulekirja by Ilona Korhonen and Jenni Österman, and I will actually very soon show you my first project from that book. Maybe already in my next post, if I have time to finish it.

I just wish I'd graduate from the university soon, because for some reason I imagine that once I don't have essays after essays to write and exams after exams to study for, I'll suddenly have lots of free time to do all sorts of handicrafts. Still I know that once you start working full time, you become a slave of "nine to five" in stead. But the evenings and weekends will still be free, right? If not, please don't crush my hope, because that's what gets me going right now. I haven't done almost anything else for the past two weeks than writing on my masters' thesis. And it actually goes better than I thought it would. I'm already on page 51, so only some 20-30 pages to go! Plus all the corrections. Plus all the extra reading. But still. I can already see the end. Yay! :)

And from these happier thoughts, let's move on to me showing off two of my/our collections:

This year two cups were added to our collection of Moomin cups. And now they are 21. But believe me, I don't have all of them yet. The two new ones this year was the two cups on the lower shelf on the left: the Muddler (Hosuli) and the Skiing Competition (seasonal special 2010). I think my favourite cup (at least at the moment) is Mymble, the pink one, because it's just so sweet and girly.

Then my other collection:

Disney cartoons! Now you must think I'm crazy, but I actually have 37 Disney movies (some are Disney-Pixar, though), almost all of them on DVD. So the shelf in the picture is only 1/4 of the movies I have. And this years' new ones: Robin Hood and the Beauty and the Beast <3 So if you gave kids that needs a babysitter, bring them to us! At least here there will always be something to watch ;)

Last but not least, we bought ourselves a new pet this year, just so our old one (the bigger dark brown one in the video) would have someone to talk to when we're away. Like a baby sister. Or brother. We actually don't know yet. But anyway, they wanted to say hello to all of you! :)

Snowflake mittens

2011-01-05T10:27:00.002+02:00

This is the last Christmas present I had time to finish this year. Hopefully I'll have more time next year.

I promised already over a year ago that I would knit a pair of mittens for my friend, that would match her winter sharf (which is somewhat orange-pink-ish). And since this winter has been sooo cold, I decided that now it was really time to get it done. So here is the result:

Pattern: a mix of several ones

Yarn: Marks & Kattens Carolina Tweed

Needles: 3 mm

I call them snowflake mittens since I happened to stumble over those big white buttons and thought they looked just like snowflakes. Not more complicated than that :)

The other day we noticed that we had way too much milk, so we decided to bake a little.

This is only 1/5 of all the buns we made, all with cinnamon and sugar, because those are our favourites! Yummy.

The same day I had also been to the supermarket and picked up the newest Pirkka Ruoka -magazine (it's a small magazine filled with different recipes) and I decided to try out a recipe for bread that I found in there, just because it was made out of milk, too. But as I am horrible in following recipes, I had to make some small changes. I chose caraway in stead of fennel and mixed in some rye flour too to make it a bit darker. And I have to say it turned out delicious! Probably because I like caraway-bread so much :)

Winter wonderland

2010-12-30T21:23:00.000+02:00

Here's some photos I took one morning when I went to work. They're all from Espoo, more precisely from Glims.

Gingerbread elf

I know I've already said it, but I absolutely love this winter with all the snow <3 Everything's just so, so beautiful.

More Christmas presents, part 2

2010-12-27T21:16:00.001+02:00

My mom got to choose her Christmas present herself, all the way from the pattern to the colour. She has an old hood, but I thought it's time she'll get a new one. So I suggested I knit this for her:

Pattern: Luxury cowl / Hood by Lion Brand Yarn

Yarn: Novita 7 Veljestä

Needles 6 mm

It was an quick and easy knit, maybe even too easy since it got a bit boring in the end. And since the pattern is called luxury cowl, I decided I had to do something to make it even more luxury: sew on some pearls around the edge. I actually added one more row of white pearls after taking the photo, mostly because I was at work at the museum and didn't have anything else to do since it was the day before Christmas Eve and NOBODY had time to come and visit a museum. But that was even better for me since I got my last presents finished AND had the time to make some small cards for the wrapped gifts.

I think Christmas went by awfully fast this year. I hardly noticed it. Although it was really nice and all. I just wish it would have lasted a bit longer. Maybe the problem is that I actually didn't get that "Christmas feeling" before Christmas Eve. There was just too much stuff to be done, that I just kind of took one day at a time. Perhaps I should buy some more decorations for next year, maybe that would help. This year we only had a small Christmas tree from Ikea, some lights in the bedroom window and then a lot of candles everywhere, like this:

But here's at least one thing we got as a present this year that we may use as a decoration again next year (although it doesn't tinkle like the one my parents has):

Some presents, part 1

2010-12-26T17:28:00.003+02:00

Finally I can start posting some of my latest finished knittings! Here's at first a Totoro hat that I made for my lovely little godson:

Pattern: Top Down Bonnet with Anime Character

Yarn: Novita 7 Veljestä

Needles: 3,5 mm

I actually made it already during the summer when I had lots of time to knit. But now during the autumn when I've been watching him grow really fast, I've been afraid it'll be too small, even though I made the biggest size available! And, well, he did grow too fast. I just hope the hat will stretch a bit.

Then we also found a cute onesie and a childrens book about cars and other vehicles. Although I don't think he'll be reading the book until he's a little bit older :)

I also had the time to finish a phone cover for Hene. He just got a new phone with a big touch screen, so he wanted something to protect it from scratches.

Pattern: my own

Yarn: Novita Tennessee

Needles: 2 mm

I decided to improvise the pattern, and it wasn't even that hard. I just started with an invisible figure 8 -cast on with 13 + 13 stitches, and then increasing 2 stiches on both sides. After that, I knitted in stockinette stitch until it was big enough to fit the phone.

I'm back!

2010-12-21T21:56:00.001+02:00

And so is the winter, yay!

This is just a quick post before I have to go to bed. I just wanted to tell you I'm really sorry I haven't posted ANYTHING for almost two months. I know, I'm horrible. But I do wish there's still someone reading this blog even though it must have seemed like I'm never coming back. I'll tell you more about everything I've been up to lately in my next post (which I promise will be soon!), but right now I'll just say that I've been very, very, very busy. Sorry.

Anyway, as you can see from my first sentence, the winter is here! Hurray! The first snow came already in the beginning of November, but back then, I never thought I would see Helsinki covered in so much snow as we have right now. There's more than 60 cm of snow! In Helsinki! And I'm so excited about it! Everything is so beautiful and white and shining and I'm so happy it's actually a REAL winter for once even here so that I don't have to use my red rubber boots for half a year as usually. I know we had a lot of snow last year too, but that's the reason for why I didn't expect this now. And I know everyone's complaining about how cold and dark it is, but for some reason those things don't bother me at all this year. I haven't had any difficulties getting up in the morning, which is strange, since I'm usually not a morning person. Perhaps it's our wake-up-light? I think it actually works. And the darkness just makes everything look so... mystic. And it gives me a good reason for burning candles.

Well, as you can see, I'm just so excited about the weather that I can't seem to stop rambling about it. So I'll post a few pictures in stead.

I snapped these with my phone on my way to a morning lesson, so the quality isn't the best, but I think they turned out pretty nice anyway (as loong as you don't make them too bog). Although the park, of course, was so much prettier that it looks here. They're from a small park outside the old church of Helsinki.

And now, good night and see you soon!

Some autumn photos

2010-10-24T15:35:00.000+03:00

I almost finished the essay I had to get done today, so now I'll finally allow myself to have a free afternoon. And guess what I'll be doing? This:

Chilling on the sofa, drinking tea and of course planning what to do with all my yarn. And then I'll try to finish a pair of mittens I promised to make for one of my friends already long ago. But better late than never, right? :)

Then I also managed to take some autumn pictures before all the bright colours rained away. I was a little bit dissapointed with the colours my camera showed me, though, so I have to admit that I slightly brightened them on my computer. The last pictures is taken with my phone, so I blame the weird colour (even after the first-aid session on the computer) on that.

But still they do look a little bit flat. I've been looking at photos taken by other people, and I've finally understood how important it is to have a good camera if you want to take nice pictures. Our small camera is ok if the light and everything is perfect, but if it's a little bit dark or the light is too bright, the pictures can turn out horrible. So next on my wishlist: a new camera. Let's see when on earth I can afford that one...

Puma cap

2010-10-22T16:26:00.002+03:00

I finished one smaller knitting project again. It started when we saw a puma cap in a store last winter, and I were actually pretty chocked by the price they want for sports products. And I said to Hene, who was there with me: "Do you know how cheap it would be to knit one of those yourself?" while he replied "Well, why don't you knit one, then?". So I promised to do it and here it finally is:

Designing the figure was the part taking the longest time. It's surprisingly hard to figure out how you make the edges look round only using small squares. Fortunately, I managed to get some hints by looking at the charts made by Jessica Tromp.

For the hat I used a pattern called Turn a square (found in Ravelry), but I skipped all the stripes suggested. I started and finished the cap knitting it in a round, but the middle part with the puma, I devided in half and worked back and forth. I figured that would be the easiest way. And since the yarn is dark (I used Novita 7 Veljestä dark brown and beige), you can hardly see the seams anyway. So voilà, a fake homemade sportscap.

The autumn has really brought back my inspiration to knit. I have at least 10 project in queue, but I just don't know when I'll have the time to do anything about them. My teacher training or internship or whatever you want to call it starts next week and lasts until christmas, and I've heard it's usually pretty rough. But hopefully I'll still have at least some spare time.

Seeking inspiration

2010-10-19T13:39:00.000+03:00

The past few weeks have been so hectic that I haven't really had the time to do anything else than sleep and run from one place to another. All the spare time I've had, I've just been spending in front of the TV. Haven't even felt like knitting. All the project I have in progress felt so dull. But now I've finally found my inspiration again, and that is thanks to these:

I went to the library for no particular reason and a few moments later I found myself at the crafting section. Most of the knitting books were pretty old and didn't really have anything that interested me, but these books are different and I just had to borrow them and take them with me home. My aboslute favourites are Haiku Knits and Neulekirja. Haiku Knits has beautiful japanese-inspired knits and Neulekirja is a quite new finnish book with lovely, happy and slightly different patterns. I immediately had to start knitting on a pair of socks. I hope I'll be able to show them here soon.

Then I also did something I had promised not to do until I've used most of the yarn I already have in my stash: I went to the lovely Lankamaailma Nordia. It's the biggest yarn-shop in the Nordic countries. Therefor it's very deceiving and dangerous for my wallet. But now that I saw they had an autumn sale, I just couldn't resist. But I'm actually really proud that I managed to stick to yarns I already knew I needed for some specific projects. Here's what I came home with:

Looks so soft and lovely, doesn't it? Oh, I can't wait to see how they turn out in real, finished projects :) The yarn with the beads I actually got for free, so I don't yet what I'll use it for, but I'm sure it'll find its' place.

Now I have to study some more again, but I promise to catch up soon!

Vanity?

2010-10-13T11:46:00.000+03:00

I went to Hullut Päivät (the Crazy Days) at Stockmann's last week. There were a lot of stuff on sale that I could have bought, but somehow I managed to stick to only the essentials. But then I also bought this quite unnecessary thing:

It's a jewellery stand. Even thought buying this might be considered an act of vanity, I'm still pretty pleased with it. So far, the jewellery I use the most has been all around my bedside table even though I also do have a jewllery box. I'm just too lazy to put e.g. my earrings back there in the evening when I'm tired and when I know that I most likely will be using them the next day again. In stead, the pile of jewellery on the table usually just gets bigger and bigger until I at last decide that it's time to reorganize them again. But now I have an aesthetic thing to hang my favourite stuff on. My bedside table looks nicer and the jewellery is kept in order. So, rather than calling it vanity, I'd like to call it rationality or to kill two birds with one stone (which by the way is a horrible idiomatic phrase in English. I think killing flies as we do in Finnish and Swedish is much better...). Therefor I won't allow myself to feel guilty for wasting my money on something this silly. I'll just sit back and enjoy. And perhaps do a few hours extra at work ;)

The owls are hooting in the morning mist

2010-10-02T20:38:00.000+03:00

You remember the knitting project I started in July while I was at my parent's place? Well, I did finish the knitting part itself only three weeks from there, but then it took me ages to find the inspiration to "decorate" it. I've been working on it on and off every once in a while, but this morning I finally sewed on the last pearls. So here's the result:

The pattern is called Owls and I found it so cute that I just HAD to make one for myself. And I really like it. It's soft, warm and sweet :) Although the knit itself turned out a bit too loose, but I don't actually mind. At least the size fits perfectly. The original pattern suggested just buttons for eyes, but after looking at some other versions of this sweater, I decided to take it one step further:

Although these two owls are a bit special. There's one girl owl with eye-lashes and then a guy beside her that can't seem to believe his eyes :) The rest of the owls are just basics with eyes pointing to different directions. And then there's one owl with a beak.

The weather has also been lovely autumn-ish today. The mist never cleared, but the sun was still shining. I actually love this time of the year when the sun is getting a bit lower. It brings so wonderful colour-variations to the nature when the upper parts of the trees are coloured by the yellow sunlight while a shadow is covering the lover parts. I think it's really beautiful. And the mist makes the lanscape so mysterious. Lovely.

Weeruska!

2010-10-01T19:36:00.003+03:00

I'm sorry that I haven't updated anything in two weeks, but I've just been so busy with studies, work and other stuff. And then, most of my freetime I've been working on my new knitting project. The minute I saw it on Jatta's blog last spring, I hoped she would write down the pattern for it, and finally, in August she did! So I've been knitting on it since then. Especially for the past week I've just been knitting, knitting and knitting as often as I had the chance, because it felt that since I was so close to finishing it, it was almost impossible to put it down and go to bed in the evening. But now, after hours of "hard work", it's finally finished! And I aboslutely LOVE it! It's wonderful!

It's not too hot since it has short sleeves, yet it's not too cold either since it's made out of woolen 7 Veljestä yarn by Novita.

Although, it ended up a few centimetres shorter than I had intended (I don't know if I miscalculated it or if my gauge was so different to Jatta's), so even though I wanted it to be a dress, I think I'll mosly use it as a tunic in stead. I don't like showing as much of my legs as I do now with it. But there's nothing wrong with a new knitted tunic either! Maybe I'll knit another version of this later and then I can make it longer.

This colorwork I actually had to redo once, since I knitted it too tight the first time. It felt horrible to rip it, but now I'm glad I did. It fits much better now :)

But in short, this Weeruska dress is most likely my favourite knitted project so far! It's aboslutely marvellous! <3

Music video

2010-09-17T09:07:00.004+03:00

I found a recording in my iTunes that I almost had compleately forgotten. It's me playing the flute a few years back at a small practising consert at the musical institute where I was studying. It's Mozart's Rondo in D major played by heart, and the one playing the piano with me is one of the piano teachers. I just thought I'd share it with you :)

Unfortunately blogger can't process just music files, so I had to make a stupid music video out of it. But never mind it, it's just a photo of me when I was little. And sorry for all the mistakes I make too! :D My flute teacher just thought it's a good practise to listen to recordings, since it makes you notice the mistakes better, and she's probably right, because I think it sounds horrible. Well, anyway, enjoy!

Edit: Still, I do wish that I'd someday play the piano as well as I play the flute... But piano is just so much harder and requires much more time that I actually have... *sigh*

Crazy plant

2010-09-11T16:50:00.000+03:00

Maybe working next to a museum of modern art for the past three years has made me see things in an artistic way. Or then not. I just found this thing very interesting and amusing and in the same time also kind of beautiful. It's a photo I took already in August, but I haven't remembered to post it here until now. And what is it then? Well, on the yard outside the museum there's a big statue, lit up with lights in the evening. And inside one of these lamps on the ground, there was a plant growing sideways! A quite big plant, actually! So I was really surprised to find it there, because how can a plant survive in such surcomstances? And why does it even WANT to survive? So I simply had to immortalize it by taking a picture of this brave and though little plant. It really gets my appreciation.

First sock!

2010-09-08T22:24:00.000+03:00

Hehe, I finished my first sock ever! And it's knitted entirely at and for work. You see, at the Finnish Toy Museum they once in a while have these workshops for children where we make hobby horses (you know, a horse head on a stick), and for those workshops we need a lot of socks since the head is made out of a decorated sock. So, when somebody actually pays me to knit at work, it didn't take me long to grab some of the left over yarn and start my very first sock.

Since the yarn itself wasn't that pretty, I couldn't resist making a small heart-pattern above the toes, just to make it slightly more girlish :)

(And this, too, is a phone picture. Sorry)

I know it's a bit weird that I've knitted so many other things, but never socks. But the thing is that I've always had enough socks since my grandmother gave me a pair of those every Christmas, so there hasn't really been any reason to knit such things. But now that the first one is over and I noticed it wasn't hard at all, I might just knit some more socks. It was much easiler and faster than I thought. And now that I think of it, I would actually need a pair of slightly longer socks for my rubber boots... Preferably in a nice, autumn colour. Hmm...

A present!

2010-09-05T18:53:00.000+03:00

Well, you've probably noticed that as the autumn's here, I don't have that much time to blog anymore. My lessons started already last Monday and even though it's been hard to wake up for 8 a.m. lessons, I've really liked pedagogics so far! It's so nice to feel that I finally, for probably the first time during my four years at the university, study something that feels important to me and that I'm really interested in. It's amazing that I actually have something to say during the lessons! Usually I've just been sitting there, partly dozing off and not giving a damn about the discussion around me.

Then there's also been a lot going on at work. Our new exhibition about Ötzi opened last friday and yesterday I had the first guided tour for children. And it was far more popular than I had thought it would be. I think there were 25 children and as many parents with them. So it wasn't the easiest first guided tour I've ever have, but it was still fun and very exciting in a way. I had no previous experience to lay back on, so it was just to keep on going even thought some things didn't go exactly as planned. But I think it went pretty well after all.

I also got a small surprise earlier this week. You see, I took part of a lottery on the lovely blog I've told you about, Annan aarteet, and even though I nowadays NEVER win anything on lottery, I did win this time! And this is what I got home with the post on friday morning:

Sorry for the bad quality of the picture, I took it with my phone because Hene has our camera as he's out traveling till next sunday. But anyways, it's a l-o-v-e-l-y small purse! I fell in love with this design the minute I saw some similar ones on her blog and when I saw that she was giving one away in lottery, I just had to take a chance. And it payed off this time :) Then I also got a congratulations card and some candy. I.e. a really good present!

Well, that's all for this time. Now I'll probably have another cup of tea and some chocolate and then I'm going to enjoy Dance on TV. I'll try to catch up soon again.

Turquois!

2010-08-29T20:39:00.000+03:00

I made a new necklace again, this time with turquoise and white pearls. I think it'll suit my black dress perfectly, since there's some embroidered turquoise flowers on it. And then I also already have matching earrings: the ones I made before the baptisme in july.

But here comes some photos of this new creation:

Autumn?

2010-08-26T22:12:00.000+03:00

I think it really must be autumn now... Lessons at the university starts on monday and yesterday I was occupied with these the whole evening:

Chantarelles! More exactly two litres of them! Man, there was a lot of work to get them cleaned... But I think it was worth it because now I can make chantarelle-sauce during the winter :)

Then last sunday we went to visit some of Henes' friends who had just moved to a big rowhouse with a big back yard. And on that back yard, they had some bushes filled with gooseberries. And since they had already eaten so much of them, they asked if we wanted to have some too. "Sure", I said, without guessing they'd give us this much:

I seriously don't know what to do with all of them, but I started by making a pie and then putting the rest in the freezer to wait for more ideas. This was a recipe I found on Helsingin Sanomat. I liked the dough very much (it was with oatmeal and wheat flour) but on top of the berries they just suggested eggs and milk mixed with sugar and some Maizena, and I found it a bit weird. Not bad, but... very different. But I think it was still worth trying something new.

See the clear autumn colours in all pictures? :)

Hurray for feedback!

2010-08-24T21:45:00.000+03:00

Today, when I came home from work, there was a letter waiting for me. It was from the lady from whom I've borrowed the material I use for my Master's thesis, i.e. some 200 letters from the 1940's. For you who didn't know, my thesis will be about the parents of finnish warchildren. And by warchildren, I mean those 70 000 finnish children sent to Sweden during the second world war. What I have as my material is letters written by the parents of some warchildren to the directress of three different wartime children's homes in Sweden. Then I'm trying to analyze the different feelings they had to go through when sending their children away to a foreign country. That's about it in a nutshell.

Anyway, back to todays' letter. I sent her the text I've written so far already one and a half months ago, and only yesterday I was wondering if she'll ever answer me in any way. Well, finally she did! With three pages of comments! First I was like "Oh no, now she's probably very dissatisfied with what I have done with the material", but it was actually quite the opposite! She made some good remarks and discussed some optional point of views. And even though she didn't make any professional remarks, it was still the first real feedback I've got for this thesis. Because our prof never has the time to say more than a few sentences and the lecturer at the institute of behavioral science at the university that I THOUGHT would be the most important person for me since she's the leader for a huge research project about warchildren, haven't yet said a word. Every time I see her, she's like "Oh yeah, I should read your text! Could you please send it to me again and I'll promise to try and have a look". But so far, she hasn't. So I've been feeling quite alone with this project. And after reading those 250 letters all summer, rambling about the same things all over again, I was also starting to feel pretty damn sick of the whole thing. But now, when I finally got at least some feedback, it feels much better again. If I have time tomorrow, I might actually sit down and write something...

Speaking of books

2010-08-23T14:11:00.001+03:00

Speaking of Ensemble, c'est tout, there's also a movie based upon that book, and I actually happened to see that one first, before reading the book itself for the first time. And the weirdest thing is, that even though I usually like the book-versions better (like in Harry Potter, for example) it's actually quite the opposite with "Ensemble, c'est tout". I'm not even sure if I had liked the book at all if I hadn't seen the movie first. Because I love the movie. Even though it's compleately different from Amélie, it's still, in some way, very similar to it. Especially the "feel-good factor" in it. And those same feelings are present also in the book, and I think it's thanks to them that I now read it a second time. But as an author, I'm not that convinced with Anna Gavalda. I've also read another of her books, Je l'aimais, but I didn't find that very good either.

I by the way happened to find a new book (and some pearls) on sale:

Tee itse upeita koruja (in english Vintage-style Beaded Jewellery) is just l-o-v-e-l-y! It's full of wonderful ideas and instructions for beautiful crafts, like this flower decoration made of pearls:

And what perhaps makes it even better is that it used to be 35€ but now I bought it for only 10€! :)

"Relax, Take It Easy"

2010-08-22T21:22:00.000+03:00

I took this photo already a few weeks ago but it suited my mood, I decided to post it anyway. It's been pretty hectic lately, especially at work. We have a new exhibition opening in only to weeks and there's a lot to study for it. And since today was my last longer work shift before the opening, there was a lot of stuff that had to be finished. I actually finished everything of importance only 5 minutes before the museum was closing, but at least I didn't have to stay overtime. But once I get back home, there's always a lot to do here too, so sometimes I'm really exhausted when I finally go to bed. Days like that it really feels good to just sit down, read a good book and why not have a glass of wine with it :)

...even though reading in french (like the Ensemble, c'est tout by Anna Gavalda) is almost like studying, but whatever...

According to my mood, I also had to post a video by a singer I like very much: Mika. His music is so easy to listen too and it has a really positive tone to it. Anyway, this one is called "Relax, take it easy" and you've probably heard it a hundred times before on the radio, but I hope you still enjoy it!

White pearls!

2010-08-21T17:22:00.000+03:00

More pearls! :) I actually finished another necklace too:

(Note the panda looking over my shoulder ;))

The white pearls are actually rather old. I think they used to belong to my great grandmother Katarina but then she or my grandmother gave them to me already when I was pretty young. Then they've just been in my stash for years, waiting to be used for something. I'm glad they (or at least a few of them, I still have some pearls left) finally did find a new home.

Then I also used some golden and silvery sweetwater pearls, and they have a compleately different kind of story. When I worked at the Mustio Mannor a couple of years ago, we sold these bracelets made out of sweetwater pearls in different colours. The problem was that they used to break quite easily, making the pearls roll all over the room. Of course, we tried to gather all the pearls and send them back to where they came from, but there were always some pearls left behind. So, occasionaly, when I a few days later found one lonely, lost pearl on the floor, I put it in my pocket :)

Necklace in red

2010-08-20T09:59:00.000+03:00

Yesterday I was reading some handicraft blogs again and found especially one that I liked very much. It's called Annan aarteet. She's got a beautiful blog, where she presents all her different crafts. Mostly jewelry and cards, but also some sewing and knitting.

Once again inspired by all the lovely things I found around the web, I finally finished my first pearl necklace.

It's mostly made out of old pearls I found in my stash. I actually have quite a lot of them. When I was a teenager, I was really into this pearl-stuff so my mom bought me a lot of small glass pearls. Unfortunately I think my inspirations flew away after making only a few bracelets back then, but lately I've had some use for the pearls again in a lot of different crafts. Like this one :)

In case anyone's wondering, the music sheet underneath the necklace is Mozart's Fantasie in D minor :) I love playing that tune. It's really beautiful! But I really should practise it more... I never seem to learn some parts of it.

Cherry-berries

2010-08-18T18:57:00.002+03:00

After surfing around on different handicraft-blogs, I got inspired and made a new pair of earrings. They're very simple and not at all like the fabulous creations on the blogs, but I like time anyway. They suit me. And I call then Cherry-berry earrings :)

I also started making a necklace, but that one isn't finished yet. I guess my inspiration just flew away...

Then I also got a (in my own opinion) splendid idea! I want to start a hobby-club! When I was out for a walk with a friend this afternoon, I told her about my idea, and now I already have one member! Yay! The idea for the concept is simply to have an excuse to meet friends more often. Everyone could bring some of their hobbies with them and then we could gather somewhere, maybe eat some good food and just spend time together. And as I'd like the club to be very liberal, a hobby wouldn't even be compulsory. Or you could bring a movie, or a book, or whatever! The most important thing would be to bring yourself. Tell me, isn't this a good idea? :)

Now, what could be a good name for the club...? Hmm...

Cookies!

2010-08-15T10:13:00.001+03:00

Yummy-yum-yum. This is even better than homemade muesli: homemade cookies! :P This is by far the best cookies I've ever tasted! American chocolate chip cookies. Ever since we first tried this recipe, we've seriously become cookie-monsters. Gräyr :D

(Almost) 100% homemade!

2010-08-14T18:00:00.001+03:00

Inspired by a friend at work, I made som homemade muesli and I have to say it turned out delicious!

It contains four-grain flakes, cornflakes, hazelnuts, pinenuts, raisins, dried cranberries, dried bananas and some brown sugar. I roasted the nuts and flakes along with the sugar in the owen and then just mixed them up with all the other ingredients. Especially the cranberries where actually quite expensive, but I decided I could afford a more luxuary muesli-version this time. Maybe I'll make a cheaper version of it next time :)

Then we also made homemade hamburgers a while ago:

I even baked the bread myself. Homemade hamburgers are just so much better than what you get in e.g. McDonald's. There's no extra fat (or other suspicious stuff) and you can choose exactly what you want to have in it and how much of everything. Then we also made some spicy potato wedges as a side-dish to the burgers. Yummy. Cooking at home is just so great. ...As long as everything goes according to plan...

From wider views to close-ups

2010-08-08T20:15:00.000+03:00

Just thought I could show you one new thing and one old thing in our home:

Here's our new painting in our bedroom. My parents brought it from Vienna and I'm so happy we finally have something on that big white wall above our bed. It's been bothering me ever since we moved in but now I am at last satisfied. One more finished detail! Now I can start focusing on a next one ;)

And here's a Tiffany glass decoration that my dad made a few years ago. It's been hanging in the kitchen window ever since he gave it to me. And I love it! It brings some colour to the otherwise small and dark window. And I like watching how the different colours are reflected on the walls and the table.

Korkeasaari - Högholmen

2010-08-07T11:42:00.000+03:00

Last Monday it was my dad's birthday, so mum and dad came to Helsinki to celebrate it here. First we had lunch (at first we tried to eat outside, but there were too many bees buzzing around, so went inside in stead. I hate bees!) and then we went to the zoo on Korkeasaari. It's been a while since I've been there the last time and this day turned out to be a really good day to visit all the wild cats. Usually you never see the lions etc, but today they were awake! Unfortunately the bears and the monkeys were asleep in stead :( But I thought it was a good trip after all! It was nice to hang out with my parents for a little bit longer. But my ears were annoying me the whole day. During the summer I always have my ears locked due to the humidity in the air, and that's sometimes driving me crazy! I can't stop yawning and that also makes me feel tired even though I normally wouldn't be. And feeling tired, makes me cranky which means I'm not such a good company. I wish the problem would go away...

But anyway, here's some pictures I took that day:

This is and old house right down by the entrance. I just thought it was beautiful :)

Here's the leopard, getting ready to attac a bird!

Enjoying the meal up in a tree.

Perhaps my favourite animals since I have two red panda plushies in Virkkala. They were my favourite toys when I was little. Unfortunately these real pandas were so far away from the fence that it was hard to get a good picture of them.

A snow leopard looking all bored.

Kangaroooooos!

And a beatiful peacock wandering free on the streets.

I think this is the closest I'll ever get to a lion. It was asleep right beside the safety glass.The paws are HUGE!

Hihi, small bunnies. Not that they are very exotic to me, there's hundreds of city-bunnies in Helsinki! You see them every day playing around on our back yard :)

In the evening we went to have dinner at a fairly new spanish restaurant in Helsinki, called Nuevo. And after eating a three-course dinner there, I think all of us will recommend it! The food was so tasty and totally worth the slightly higher price. Yummy!

Angel

2010-08-02T09:40:00.000+03:00

Speaking of colours, this is the second part of my birthday present that I also chose myself:

It's a new apron. Lovely, bright colours, aren't there? :)

Then to something completely different. I've recently found a new artist I like very much. Or actually I've known of here existence for quite some time already, but I had only heard two or three songs by her. But yesterday I finally looked her up on Spotify, and now I'm so in love with her music! She's called Sarah McLachlan and the song below is perhaps my favourite of them all. It's actually also an old acquaintance. I think Em sent it to me already a few years ago. It's called "Angel" and was in the movie "City of Angels".

Favourites!

2010-07-31T14:25:00.000+03:00

These are my favourite earrings:

These earrings are handmade by a finnish-brazilian couple that calls themselves Pau Brazil, and most of their pieces of jewelry are made out of real dried seeds from Brazil. They represent one of my few contributions to the eco-shopping :) If they weren't so expensive, I'd probably buy more of them. I especially love the dried orange-earrings and the "Pitsiluu"-earrings.

And some of my newest favourites are these:

This necklace and matching bracelet was actually a birthday present from Hene, but I chose them myself. As you can probably guess, they're from the kid's jewelry section, not the adult :P I just think it's really unfair that the kid's sections in stores most of the time have much nicer things than the similar sections for adults, both in jewelry and clothing! Don't they (the designers, I mean) understand that there actually are some people here in the world that like to dress in a lot of colours and that love happy accessories? I mean, black is good for some occasions, but in my everyday life, I'd like to give a more "positive" appearence.

Summer!

2010-07-28T09:47:00.002+03:00

Now, here comes the pictures I promised already a few days ago

I had planned to do all of this quite evenly while I was at my parents' place. But in stead of doing the most important thing, i.e. study the old letters for my master's thesis, I ended up knitting for most of the time. I think mt newest knit will be ready in just a few more days, yay! I'm so excited about it. I think it's going to be my favourite so far!

Then I also made a summer drink. It's a Pirkka-recipe (Hunajainen mansikkabooli) and was really easy to make. Just 1 l of apple juice, 1/2 dl of honey, 1 lemon and 1 l of strawberries cut in half. Then I put the whole thing in the fridge for a couple of hours and then added 1/2 l of sparkling water with the taste of forest fruits and some ice right before "serving" it. The next time I think I'll add a bit more lemon, because it was maybe too sweet like this, but nevertheless refreshing.

As the sun was shining on Sunday, I went out to take some pictures in the garden.

This is a some kind of a self portrait in the garden :D

But now I think I'll just let the garden speak for itself. First up something I think is like a small zen-garden, then just a lot of flowers :)

Coffee in the sun

2010-07-26T00:19:00.000+03:00

I spent the weekend at my parents' house since they were away. Had planned to get lots of stuff done, but in the end, I didn't do that much. On Saturday I had a friend over and we made dinner together and talked for hours. Just like in the good old days. Then I also spent both friday and sunday afternoons with my grandmother. On Friday she made lunch at her place and then we just sat and talked. I think it's the first time in ages I've had a real conversation with her and it was nice. She said it was nice too and that we should meet more often. Maybe we'll do. At least I hope she'll call me the next time she comes to Helsinki to shop. And then on Sunday we went out for a little drive to Inkoo and had coffee there by the sea. The weather was absoluetly lovely!

I had actually planned to stay until Monday afternoon, but then after two nights alone in the big, dark house, I had enough :) It was too scary in the evenings so I wanted back to my safe, familiar appartment in Helsinki. I hate sleeping alone here too, but it's at least better than out there... I know, I'm such a coward. Scared way too easily. But what can I do? That's just how I am.

Well, better get some sleep now. I'll publish more photos tomorrow.

Summer means knitting for me...

2010-07-14T13:02:00.000+03:00

...or at least kind of. During the summer I usually have more time to knit than during the winter when I have all my studies, so no wonder I finish more projects now. Here's the latest finished knitting project; a black shrug. I'm a bit unsure about the sleeves, I might redo them later and make them long after all.

It was a quick and easy pattern, really easy to follow and the size fits perfectly.

Then to some other news. As I told you earlier I applied for the class teaching program here at the University of Helsinki. The results came yesterday and unfortunately I wasn't accepted. I was 7 points away from the minimum 203 points needed. Of course I'm dissapointed but I guess I just have to try harder next year. At least now I'm prepared for the tricky interview. It's just that there's so much to read for the written exam, that I don't know how I'll make enough time for it next year. This spring I only had a few lessons and even so I felt I didn't have enough time to prepare. But next year it's full-time studying again so it'll be even harder. But there's no point in being miserable. The weather has been so wonderful in Finland this summer so I refuse to let it pass me by. I know some people already complain about the heat, but I think it's great. I'm glad it'll continue like this at least for a few weeks more. The only bad thing about it is that it's so hot inside too. Last night I woke up several times because of the heat and was sweaty all over. Yuck. Air conditioning would really be a great thing...

Well, better get back to work again :)

A summer window

2010-07-09T19:54:00.001+03:00

I finally cleaned our windows! It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It actually felt quite summerish :)

Nothing special

2010-07-07T14:27:00.001+03:00

I played the piano today for the first time since the end of May when my neighbours complained about it. And since I still felt a bit uneasy about it, my practise didn't go that well... And then it was also like beginning all over again with the pieces since my fingers had forgotten what they learnt in the spring. But I shall try to play more often now. Maybe the awkward feeling eventually goes away.

It's incredibly hot inside at the moment. Almost +27° in the bedroom, and the humidity in the air is up to 65 %. It's like being in the tropics. Even though it's usually even hotter outside, it luckily helps a bit to open the windows since then, at least, there's a slight breeze going through the house. But don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining! At least it's summer for real this year even in Finland :) If you're feeling too hot, just think about this: ;)

Champagne taste

2010-07-05T17:02:00.004+03:00

Phew, it's been hot today. But it's nice too. I have this week off from work (except for tuesday and saturday) so I'm trying to get some work done on my master's thesis. It's just not that inspireing to sit inside by the computer when the sun is shining outside and it for once is warm even in Helsinki. I was outside for and hour and a half, but then I had to come inside again to prevent buring my skin. I'm still too white for this kind of weather since I've been working most of the sunny days so far.

I've had time to finish another handicraft too:

I'm not sure if I like this white purse or not. It's sweet but the shape is a bit... I don't know... Not like I pictured it anyway! But maybe I get used to it eventually.

You can also get a glimps of an impulse buy I made a couple of weeks ago, but here's a better picture:

It's a painting I saw in the shopwindow of a tiny, little shop a couple of blocks away from where I live. I love champage! :) Just haven't figured out where to put it yet, though. Maybe the kitchen? Or the bedroom since it's yellow? Hmm...

Baptism

2010-07-03T18:09:00.004+03:00

I was to the baptism today. I think the hero of the day behaved real nicely even though he was a bit cranky in the beginning of the ceremony. But no wonder! I would be angry too if someone woke me up during my nap and then poured some water on my head :) Here's the little cutie when he was still asleep:

And here's our godparents' certificates. I actually never thought I'd get the chance to be a godmother since I don't have any siblings. But luckily I now have someone to spoil after all.

And now I think I also can reveal what I made for the little boy:

Of course he also got a silver spoon, these small bootees were only like a small bonus. I found them on Ravelry and couldn't resist them. I thouht they were so cute. I just hope they're not too small. The boy grows really fast, so there's a good chance he'll never have time to wear them... But well, no can do. I had fun knitting them anyway! :D

New old dress

2010-07-01T18:20:00.003+03:00

I'm going to a baptism on saturday, more precisely my godson's baptism. However, I was a bit stressed since I didn't have anything suitable to wear for the occasion, but then last weekend I remembered I had this old dress, I haven't used for ages. Mostly because it's a full-length dress, and there's hardly ever any occasion for that kind of a dress. Then it has also been way too big for me.

It really looked horrible on me when I tried it on. So I had to make some modifications, and this is the result:

I have to say I'm pretty pleased by the result. The biggest modification is the length, I now made it knee-length. And then I also had to make it a lot smaller around the waist. Last but not least, I also put on a white silky sash to accentuate my waist. But that part is removable, so I can wear the dress without it too, if I want.

Then I also made a pair of earrings that suits the dress:

With them I think I'll have the necklace I got for my own baptism: a silver locket.

Something about my neighborhood

2010-05-31T18:57:00.003+03:00

This is what I love the most with the part of Helsinki I live in. It's close to the city centre but still it's very green and quiet. And only a 5-10 min walk away, I have this wonderful, modern area:

It's almost like being somewhere in the south. I mean, if you compare it to the first photo in this post and the third photo in this post, it's not THAT different, is it? (Ok, I know Normandy isn't really south, but it's not as up in the north as Finland)

Today has actually been a pretty good day. I was out for a walk in my lovely neighborhood with a good friend. I also got a letter from the university that told me I got accepted to the history teacher program. So now I'm one step closer to my final goal. Last week I also got to know that I passed the first part of the matriculation exam for the class teacher program. The second and final part is in two weeks. Hope I'll pass that one too! :)

Missing the summer

2010-05-08T14:39:00.002+03:00

Oh how I wish it was summer already. I'm so sick of studying. I just want to be able to do my own stuff, like reading good books and knit. I haven't knit anything for months now. But I hope I'll have more time for that during the summer, even though I have to work on my thesis too. But I've promised myself that I'll do something nice at least once a week. And I'll allow myself to eat ice cream as often as I like because that makes me happy :)

We've started thinking about buying a flat of our own soon. Hene wants to buy one as soon as possible, but I'm still sceptical, I don't wanna do anything hasty. It depends on our work situation and Kela (the social insurance institution in Finland) and of course the bank. We haven't even talked about a loan with the bank yet. But at least we've been looking at flats on sale, just to know what we can expect to be able to afford.

I by the way always forget how the nature really exploads during spring. I mean, the grass has turned green really, really fast. And you can already experience that summery smell of wet grass when you go outside in the morning after a rainy night. Just like this morning. I actually felt the summer is almost here. But before that I still have to focus for a few weeks. Two entrance exams next week and one last essay to write after that. Then, finally, it's holiday time!

Vappu!

2010-05-03T17:41:00.004+03:00

Soap bubbles on Walpurgis Night, the day before the 1st of May. Love this spring celebration!

Sleepy...

2010-04-28T17:21:00.006+03:00

At work again this sunny wednesday afternoon. Had lunch with my mom earlier today, but like always, I was feeling very, very tired as I sat down in her office. And feeling tired makes me bad company, even though I don't mean to be. I think there's some kind of gas that makes you sleepy in there. It's the same thing with work. I almost always feel really sleepy over here.

Actually, I've been sleepy the whole spring, which I think is weird. I mean, usually people tend to wake up after the long winter, but in stead, I fall asleep. I walk around yawning all the time and I don't feel like doing anything. But still, I have to study for the entrance exams coming up in two weeks and after that I still have one last essay to hand in. Especially the etrance exams stress me. I haven't had enough time to really prepare for them, so I have a very strong feeling I won't make it this year. But well, then I just have to try again next year, I guess.

Entrance exams where, you might wonder since I don't think I've told it here. Well, I'm applying for the class teacher education here at the University of Helsinki. So that'll make me a teacher in the primary school.

There's some other things stressing me too, like my master's thesis. I have this great material but now the owner of the material called me and said she'd like to have it back soon. And I've only started with the whole project! I thought I would have a lot more time to work with it, but apparently I'll now spend most of my days off from work during the summer working with my thesis... That can't really be called a holiday :(

But enough complaining. At least it's spring, and that means the summer is almost here! I was so happy the other day when I saw the first common hepaticas (blåsippa) and coltsfoots (tussilago) of the year. That means the winter is really gone. Finally.

A late Easter post

2010-04-21T21:08:00.003+03:00

As always, I'm late with posting. There has just been sooooo much to do. I've been working a lot, at least two or three days a week, and last thursday it was the deadline for handing in the text for the thesis tutorial. That text had to be around 30 pages long, complete with footnotes an everything so it was a lot of work to do. But I finished it in time. Actually, even a bit early! :)

But well, while I've been busy, the weather an the nature has changed dramatically. I mean, till the end of march, there was still a LOT of snow, but already around Easter it looked like this:

You can compare it with the other photo I took of almost the exactly same place in the end of january. And right now, there's hardly any snow left. It's incredible how fast it has melted! I seriously thought it would stay till june.

During Easter we visited both Hene's parents and mine. In Virkkala I again this year painted an easter egg. It's already a tradition in my family. I've been painting one or two eggs each year since 1992, i.e. since I was 5 years old. Here's the big bowl with every egg I've painted:

So I had to continue this year too. Here's what I came up with: (sorry, the pictures aren't really sharp)

I tried to show how compleately different this Easter was compared to last year. So on one side I painted an Eiffeltower with green grass and a big sun. Underneath, I wrote "2009". Then on the other side I painted a slushy and grey nature with my red rubber boots in the middle. And there I wrote 2010. Have to say I'm pretty satisfied with this year's egg. Not my favourite, but one of them.

And here's one last thing we did during Easter:

We officially opened the barbecue season! Have YOU ever done it with that much snow on the ground?! ;)

New job!

2010-02-26T21:18:00.005+02:00

Or not exactly. I'm still working at the Espoo City Museum as well, but now I've started doing a few shifts per month for another museum too: The Finnish Toy Museum. It's actually located in the same exhibition center as my old job, so very little have changed. Since I've already been working at the Espoo City Museum for over two years, it's actually very refreshing with some new routins. And I've always loved the toy museum and also loved the idea of working there. I definitely think that giuding kids is the best part of being a museum guide, and they actually have almost only groups with kids at the Toy Museum. So I'm looking forward to it. My first group arrives already next tuesday, so I had to learn the new stuff really fast :)

There's a few other things I really like about the Toy Museum. One is a such a strange thing as the toilet. But seriously, have you ever seen such a cool toilet before?!

All the walls are painted as if in a jungle and I especially love the lamps around the mirror!

Then another thing I like a lot is my new working outfit:

I feel so... I don't know... So wonderfully childish in this outfit. Like a troll. I'm almost thinking about buying myself a jacket/dress like that. It's a Marimekko clothing, so it's probably very expensive. But I'll certainly think about it ;)

Unnamed poem

2010-02-07T16:38:00.003+02:00

Haha, today my friend sent me a poem I wrote using the magnetic poetry words on her fridge when I visited her the last time. Back then I thought it was pretty good for someone who never writes poems, especially when I only had a limited number of existing words. I even ended up late for the bus when I wanted to polish it just a little bit more. But now that I read it again, I can't help laughing. It's almost ridiculous! :) But here it is anyway for you to read (unfortunately in finnish), so you can make up your mind on your own whether I'm a hopeless case or not.

hunajainen huokaisu
pumpuli tunne
kuin uninen suudelma matalan sateenvarjon alla
hiljaisuus
vaahtoava kaipaus
enää tunti ja aamu kirkastuu

To my only defence I can say that it was really hard to find the right words ;)

White and red

2010-02-02T11:41:00.002+02:00

More snow! Yay! :D

It's getting pretty deep! The rescue people in Helsinki has actually ask everyone to help clear the roads etc to make their work easier. I think that's a bit strange, since they should be used to this kind of winter. We live, after all, in Finland, not in Spain. And even though we haven't had this much snow in many many year, you would think they'd manage to organise the plowing anyway. But perhaps everyone has forgotten what a real winter should be like. Hopefully this winter will wake them up again.

I also finished another scarf, this one is for myself and is knitted from pure wool. And it's almost the same colour as my naalbindning mittens and my elephant beret, so now I have a matching set to wear :) "Never forget to be elegant in every possible situation"

Winter wonderland

2010-01-30T20:53:00.006+02:00

I think the pictures below speak for themselves. This winter has just been so lovely. I can't remember the last time we had such a winter wonderland, at least not in Helsinki. Helsinki is located by the sea, so usually we don't have that much snow over here. But this year it's different. This morning our car was almost compleately covered in snow. I know that some people are already getting tired of the cold weather and wishes the winter to be over soon, but I just can't help wishing that it'll last for a bit longer. It's just so beautiful. November and December are usually so dark that it feels hard to be happy, but in january and february everything changes, the sun is shining a lot more. The other day, when it was almost -20° in the morning, I didn't mind the cold at all. In stead I was very pleased with the sun shining from a clear blue sky and I could feel it warming my dark blue jeans while I was waiting for the bus. And that's what I love the most about this season: the contrast between the blistering cold and the gentle, warming sun.

The following pictures are an attempt to catch on camera at least a small fracture of the winter wonderland in Finland this year. The first one is from Turku and the other ones from Virkkala where my parents live.

Lovely winter!

2010-01-04T21:23:00.004+02:00

Warning, there's a lot of pictures again! :D

Today the weather was so nice that I couldn't recist going out for a walk. The sun was shining from an almost clear sky and it wasn't even that cold, only -4°. And the landscape was so incredibly beautiful with all the snow. Unfortunately, I didn't take my camera with me outside, but tadaa! Thanks to my new phone, I still had a camera with me! Yay! :D I have to say, I'm very pleased with the quality of the pictures taken with the camera on the phone. Not bad at all.

Well, here's what I saw:

It seems like this car hasn't been anywhere in a while...

I walked through the Central Park in Helsinki since it's close to where I live. I love it when the trees are covered in snow! It gives it a sort of a mystical look.

And since I was so close, I had to go and say hello to the horses too. Hope they had a nice Christmas and weren't too scared by the fireworks at New Years.

Here's a close up of one of them. They always seem to be hungry since they follow you around while you walk, hoping to get a treat :)

A sculpture in the forest.

I felt like going ice skating too when I saw these people. Maybe tomorrow?

Oh no, a road block! :D Which actually was much bigger than it seems here in the picture...

I really love the winter this year. It's for once a real winter! And now the best of it even lie ahead: january and especially february then the sun is shining more and more but there's still (usually) a lot of snow. I hope there'll be more beautiful days like today. I don't even mind the cold weather. Of course it felt cold when it was -20°, but in the same time it felt so amazingly refreshing! It was as if it purified my whole body, including my head. I felt like a new person. Nothing felt impossible!

But I'm sure I'll appreciate the summer too... :)

Happy New Year 2010!

2010-01-02T13:20:00.006+02:00

Very long time since my last post. I was so busy the whole of December with my studies, a lot of work due to several others being sick and... well, just a lot of stuff. Right before my last exam I really felt like giving up and just stay in bed, sleeping the whole day away. But fortunately Hene was home from the army and he kicked my up :) But the Christmas holiday was really, really welcome this year! And I think it actually was (is) the first real Christmas holiday since I started school. There's always been essays to hand in or exams right after Christmas. But not this year. This year I finished everything.

So that was probably why Christmas felt so good this year. It was also the first time me and Hene celebrated Christmas together. We went to my parents on the 23rd and spent the Christmas Eve there. Then on the 25th we went on to his parents and over there, it was almost like another Christmas Eve, since we got even more presents. And the presents I got were so nice! I think it must have been among the best years ever! Santa Clause was really very nice :)

Here's by the way our real Christmas tree, just the right size for us ;)

New Years wasn't bad either. Hene started the morning by bringing me breakfast in bed, complete with coffee, sandwiches and a chocolate chip cookie. In the evening we had a friend-couple over for dinner and at midnight we all went outside watching the fireworks while drinking champagne. There was apparently two neighbours competing about who had the nicest show, because I've never seen such fireworks by ordinary people. It was almost like an official show. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos so you just have to believe me. I also managed to persuade the others to play Disney Trivial Pursuit with me. It's always so hard to persuade people to play, nobody ever wants to play it with me... :)

Here one last picture: it's the view from our bedroom window the day before New Years Eve. Of course, it doesn't look as great as it actually was. The snow looked magnificent! Like a fairytale land.

Elephants marching home...

2009-11-17T17:26:00.002+02:00

This is another thing I finished a while ago. It's an elephant beret. The pattern for the beret itself I found from this wonderful knitting blog Jatta Soheltaa but after searching and searching and searching the web for a nice elephant chart, I gave up and designed it myself. And I have to admit that I'm pretty satisfied with it :)

What else? Nothing, actually... Same old stuff... I've almost started to miss Paris, especially the spring over there. The weather in Finland is just so dull. It's dark and cold, but still not cold enough for snow. So in stead it's just raining all the time. I'm sick of it! But at least you have a good reason for sleeping 10 hours per night and stay at home, drinking hot chocolate every night. And watching movies! :)

My new piano!

2009-11-10T15:47:00.004+02:00

I got my new piano today! Oh YEAH! Finally! I've been waiting for a real piano for so long! And now it's here! I can't even believe it, it feels so surreal! Isn't it beautiful?

It's a Yamaha U3, i.e. a really good piano. And even though it's secondhand, it's in almost perfect condition. When you look at it, you would think it's new.

I've already played it for one and a half an hour this afternoon, and it really is wonderful. I was so sick of my old digital piano. That's never the same as a real one. The sound and the feeling is like from another world. The only bad thing with a real piano is that is has to be tuned once in a while. And my new one actually should be tuned almost right away. It has come all the way from Italy to me (secondhand pianos are so much cheaper over there than in Finland that it's even worth the costs of transport) so I knew it wouldn't be perfectly tuned. So I guess the next step is to find a good and not too expensive piano tuner. And to buy a real piano chair.

Yay, so happy! :D

...but poor neighbours! *lol* That was a nother good thing with the digital piano, you were able to control the volume. But well, I'll try to play really nicely so that they wont be too annoyed.

Only seven weeks till Christmas! ;)

2009-11-08T12:15:00.003+02:00

I've never had such a strong Christmas-feeling as early as this year before. It was so strange. Today when I woke up and wandered to the kitchen to have some breakfast, I was struck with such a Christmassy feeling, that you would almost have thought it was Christmas Eve! And it's not even close yet! :) It might be because I've been drinking some mulled wine for the past few days since it was the only red juice I had home and that I wanted to drink warmed up. Then we've also started to sell Christmas cards and Christmas tea here at work. And most of the shops have already started to sell Christmas decorations. So Christmas is really everywhere already. Usually it bothers me that the consumers Christmas starts in the beginning of November, but this year I actually felt kind of happy when I saw the Christmas lights.

I by the way bought an Advent calendar card that I'm going to send to my grandmother. I hope she'll be happy. She actually said to my mum last week that she should tell me that it would be nice to see me again before my hair turns grey :D So with this card I can at least show her that she is on my mind.

Then this morning, me and Hene also discussed at the breakfast table how we should celebrate the holidays this year. Last year we celebrated them apart since we both wanted to spend Christmas Eve with our parents. But it would be so nice to spend it together too. *sigh* Life is full of decisions that are too hard to make...

But well, back to work. Since it's Father's day, there's a lot of dads with their children at the museum today. They get in for free :)

First snow!

2009-11-05T21:27:00.002+02:00

Last night we had the first real snow here in Helsinki and for some reason, it lasted the whole day today! So here's some pictures I took when I came home from work. They're both taken just outside our house.

Even though there wasn't that much snow, it was still enough for the kids :)

I have to admit that even I was a bit excited even though I'm not in general a fan of the winter. But snow is always snow, it makes you feel happy in a very childish way. At least in the begining of the winter, that is...

Some finished handicrafts

2009-11-04T20:27:00.004+02:00

I don't know if you remember that I earlier showed you a picture of a scarf I had started knitting. Well, now it's finished! And looks like this:

Oh, what a lovely autumn day it was when we took that picture... There were still a lot of yellow and orange leaves on the trees. Now it's just dull outside.

I also finished another scarf that I use when I'm working, because it's always so cold in the museum. And where we sit when we don't have any guided tours etc, there's the air-conditioning right above our heads, so all of us guids who's been sitting there, always have a stiff neck and shoulders. Anyway, that one looks like this:

I don't like this one that much... There's too many errors :) But well, it was my first lace-scarf, so I guess you have to start somewhere...

Then I also managed to knit my first mittens ever! Yay! (No, I didn't even knit mittens in school. I know it's strange, but it's true. It wasn't compulsory for us) I'm actually very pleased with the result, even though they turned out to be a bit too big for me, so I'll give them to my mum in stead. Maybe the next pair I'll make will fit better.

Ok, there was a lot of handicraft-news this time. I hope you, who aren't interested in handicrafts didn't mind. But for you guys I have one thing to say: You don't know what you miss! Doing handicrafts is just so relaxing. And you feel so pleased when you've successfully finished something. You should try it! :)

Family

2009-11-03T16:14:00.003+02:00

...And I wonder where this other month went, too? But perhaps it's only a good thing that the weeks pass by so quickly. I guess it's a sign that I have a lot to do. I'm not as sure, however, if I get all the things done that I should... But as faster the time passes by, the sooner Hene will also be back home again :) He only have 9,5 weeks left of the army now. That's not much at all!

Anyway, speaking of Hene, we went to see his parents last saturday. While he was making the car ready for the upcoming winter, I was alone with his mum and his sister. And it felt strange. I mean, I've come a very long way from the shy person I was back in high school. I'm not afraid of meeting new people and I can have a decent conversation with almost anyone. Except with his family. And that's so weird, because they're all very nice people and I really, really, truly want to get to know them better. It feels important to me to be part of the family. And I really would want them to like me. They are, after all, my boyfriends family so I'll probably have a lot to do with them even in the future. And maybe that's the actual problem? Maybe the fact that they're not just any other family I know put too much pressure on me? Or perhaps it's simply because their family is so different from mine? I don't know...

What I do know, is that since my own family is so small - I don't have any siblings nor have I ever been very much in touch with my cousins - I'd love to be close with Henes family, I'd love to feel comfortable with them and I'd love to spend more time with them, especially with his siblings. I hope that will happen, once I give it some time. I understand that things like this doesn't happen over a night, it's the same with really food friends; it takes time for a strong friendship to develop. And the fact is, that me and Hene have both been so busy the past two years, that we haven't visited neither of our parents very often. But hopefully that'll change. Another thing I know, is that I'll also try my best to let my own kids get to know their cousins better than I have. If they're about the same age and don't live too far away, they could perhaps be almost like best friends. That would be so amazing :)

Well, enough serious thoughts for now. Take care, everyone!

Where did the last month go?

2009-10-18T22:05:00.004+03:00

It's hard to believe it's aleady mid-october. I can't understand how the days and weeks can pass by so fast. Ok, I know I've got a lot to do. Sometimes I leave really early in the morning and then come back home late in the evening and go straight to bed. But the weird thing is that I don't feel tired. And not very stressed either. But I really have tried to make sure I'll get enough sleep. I know I just don't work well when I'm tired, so there's no use in even trying. The only thing that's really bothering me is that I don't seem to have any spare time left over for practising my hobbies and doing exactly what I want to do in stead of always doing what has to be done. Like handicrafts. Or just reading a good novel. Or playing the piano.

Speaking off... My livingroom will soon be even more crowded! Because there'll soon be a real piano! Yay! I'm so happy! I've been thinking about buying one for so long, but especially now, after I only played a real piano in Paris for half a year, I've really started to get annoyed practising on my electric piano. Not that the electric piano isn't good. Quite the countrary, actually, it's one of the best. But it's just still not the same as a real one.

What else? Then me and Hene also decided to finally buy a Wake Up Light when it was on sale. I hope it'll help me through the long, dark winter mornings. I've already tried it a few times and it really is wonderful to wake up with it. It's so smooth and especially if you choose singing birds as an alarm sound, it's just like waking up in the middle of the summer. You actually wake up with a smile on your face. The only bad thing about it, though, is that it's perhaps a bit too smooth. There's no cick of adrenalin when there's no sudden sounds. And that can sometimes cause problems. Because in stead of really waking up, you just feel happy and then kind of forget why the sound even started. And then you fall back to sleep again. I guess I should try the other alarm sounds and check if they work better. I can save the singing birds for a morning when I'm not in a hurry :)

Well, that was all for today. Good night and I'll try to catch up with you soon again!

Sunshine in september

2009-09-23T20:58:00.003+03:00

Phew... Wednesdays are really horrible days. I have lessons practically from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. only with a two-hour pause in the middle, but later this autumn, I'll probably have a lesson there too. *sigh* But well, at least the lessons are interesting. And today I actually spent my two hours in a very nice way. I took a book (actually one I'm reading for my gradu, but it's still really, really interesting) and sat down on the yard at our university-building. In the middle of the yard, there's a fountain with some benches around it, and it's actually the best place to sit and relax in the whole city-center! As long as there's no clouds, the sun is always shining there and you can hardly hear the traffic at all. In stead you only hear the calm purl of water from the fountain. So there I sat enjoying the autumn sun while reading. And after that, it felt almost ok to continue having lessons. Breaks like these are therefore highly recommended! :)

Fireworks

2009-09-04T22:51:00.005+03:00

Each year a Finnish championship is arranged in fireing fireworks. And each year all the five different performances (that is one performance per company) are so beautiful you can't describe them with words and photographs are useless too. But even though I knew they wouldn't be any good, I still tried to capture some moments with my camera:

This was the best I could do... Hope you can catch at least a small glimpse of the real feeling that night. This was the third year in row I wandered through Helsinki to see the spectacle and there were only two things that slightly turned down the atmosphere: Hene wasn't able to come home from the army to watch the fireworks with me this year, and naturally that sucked. And then, halfway through the show, it also started raining. But it still managed to amaze me, just as much as before. The fireworks were simply fantastic! I'm definitely not going to miss them next year either!

Enjoying a rainy day

2009-08-17T19:22:00.009+03:00

"Rainy days and mondays always get me down" - The Carpenters

I think it has been raining almost every time I've had a day off from work this summer. And the sun has been shining when I've been at work, inside a bunker with no windows. Usually I'm very pissed off about it, but not today. I went to the centre of Helsinki already this morning to talk with my professor about my studies this autumn and then I also found my way to the new library to borrow all the book I'll need for the exams. And gosh, there's a lot of them! *sigh* But so far, I've just put them in my bookshelf. I chose to continue ignoring them for a little bit longer :)

In stead, I'm actually enjoying myself this rainy ray. I know it's still a bit too early during the year to burn candles. There's still too much light. But I burn some anyway. Then I drink some lovely fruity tea called "The Sun of the Caribbian" from my favourite happyhappy-teacup. Using my new coasters that fit my interiour perfectly ;) Soon there's my favourite TV-show, House on TV. And when I look out the window, I notice that the rain has stoped and the sun is shining. Could it be any better?

Busying myself

2009-08-13T21:35:00.004+03:00

As I said in the previous post, I've found knitting again. But the funny thing about knitting is that it's both relaxing and stressful at the same time. I mean, I like just sitting down, perhaps with a cup of tea beside me, and knit for an hour before going to bed. But when I make a mistake... Well, that's when I get very angry with myself and I can't just let it be, in stead I waste a lot of time trying to fix or at least camouflage it somehow. Then there's also the thing with new projects and ideas popping into my head. There's just so many things I want to do, it feels like I'll never going to have time to finish them all! And the projects I work on at the moment, sometimes they just never seem to end! Aaargh!

...but knitting is still mostly relaxing. And I like it.

Here's one of the project I'm working on right now:

It's a lace scarf with leaves that I'm doing for my grandmother as a Christmas present. I hope she'll like it once it's finished :)

I was over to my best friends place yesterday and she told me she's started crocheting too, so we actually decided to start having some handicraft-evenings along the autumn. But knowing us two, I'm afraid it's going to be more trying to organise these evenings than actually having them. But if there's someone reading my blog who would like to join our little attempt, you're very welcome! ;)

Since we quite often have some friends over to our place, and since those friends for some reason very often tend to have a glass of wine (the only way to stand our furnishing? or perhaps our company?), I figured it was time to make their life a bit easier as our guests. That's why I also made these:

They're decorations for wineglasses to make it easier to recognise your own glass :) I've seen them in a lot of places but I've never bought any since I think they're usually way too expensive for such an easy thing. So then I came up with the idea of making them myself. And then it was just to dive into my stash of pearls and other related stuff and try to be creative. Don't know if I managed or not, but I least I have a few now. And luckily they're easy to take to peaces again and start all over again once I get tired of them. I even tried to think geeky to make some suitable decorations that Hene could use when he's having some of his geeky-engineer-friends over, but I guess I didn't do that well. When I showed him my best attempt (that is the four coloured ones on the left) he just laught at me and said "Oh dear, it's nice you try but there's something you have to understand: you can't become a geek no matter how hard you try, you're born as one". I'm gonna take that as a compliment.

New old hobbies

2009-08-10T20:59:00.006+03:00

Long time, no see! I've been home in sweet, sweet Finland for almost two months now, so what have I actually been up to during this time? Well, mostly work, actually. I'm still working at the same museum as before I went to Paris, but now there's a new exhibition so that meant a lot of studying for me in the begining. Apart from that... I'm still a "war widow" so I have to figure out different ways of keeping myself busy when I'm home in the evenings all alone. And this is what I've been up to:

I finally finished the hat I started in Paris. I call it the happy bonnet :)

Then we got a new, dark green sofa, so it needed some new pillows to make it nicer.

The light green one I found in Indiska, but then I didn't find the kind of violet I wanted for the other pillows. For a few days I was a bit sad about it, but then I happened to look inside my stash of small pieces of fabric I have left from different works. And there I found some violet fabric. It's not exactly the shade I wanted, but it's better than nothing. They'll do for now until I find something better :)

I also found knitting again. I remember I liked it very much in school, but then I've never really had time and inspiration for it until now. I brought all the yarn I had left back home with my parents, bought a big, new basket for them and filled it almost directly with different colours.

There they are, waiting to be knitten. And they will be. Very soon ;)

...and yes, I wanted that picture to be exactly like that :P

J'adore la Finlande!

2009-06-23T15:25:00.003+03:00

Home, sweet home! Oh, it feels so great to be back in Finland! Everything's so beautiful and calm and... well, simply the best! Much better than I remembered. Or perhaps I've just too overwhelmed about everything... Maybe it'll pass soon enough :) A few times I've thought about my time in Paris, sometimes perhaps with a small sting in my heart. But most of the time I've been too busy to think back. I'm just enjoying being back home.

The last five days in Paris with my friends were wonderful! During the weekend we rushed through all the main sights and then chilled and shopped during the last two days. And even though I had seen everything before, it still felt so different seeing it with my best friends. Even though I had spent the last 4,5 months living in Paris, the last days still felt more like a short holiday than showing my friends around. And I think it made it easier to leave too. Perhaps I'm gonna start missing Paris more later on when I've gotten more used to Finland again, but right now I only have one more thing to say:

Been there, done that. Goodbye Paris!

Happy! :D

2009-06-12T14:44:00.003+03:00

Yay! My friends will be here in only a few hours! Hurray! We're going to have so much fun these last days in Paris. It'll be the best farewell party ever! :D And it'll feel so much better to fly back home with someone else in stead of just sitting all alone in the plane. I'm so excited!

See you soon back in Finland! :) This girl is off to have fun now! Ciao!