Blustery day

But still warm, above average for the time of year.

I've been busy today.

-worked some photoshop magic on my friends travel photos.
-made Saara's present (can't tell you more as the kid reads this...)
-finished those flags
-I'm off to the grocery store in just a bit
-there's also the parents' evening at school tonight

I also need to plan the order of events for saturday. And how can I be the host and photographer at the same time?

I did promise to show some pages a while back, right?
I haven't had a chance to submit yet (why is it such a pain to do?) but I'll show you here before I post them publicly anywhere else ;o)

Just click on the pics to view them bigger.

-gasp-

-friendship-

-on the hill-

-acrobatics on the lawn-

-jewelry and I-

-love imusic-

-moscow circus-

As for journaling translations...well you'll just have to patiently wait until I get these submitted and I'llpost the journaling on 2peas. I'll give you links. Promise.

Susie. you ROCK!

I feel like the Statue of Liberty...heheheheeee...all covered in glitter too.

Susie promised to make me a hat to celebrate the 10 000 views on my blog.
That was 865 clicks ago.
This is the coolest crown I've ever owned.
Thank you.
(and no, I most certainly do not think you are the Queen of Dorks! The crown is on my head!)

On that note, Heli will you email me your address?
susanna.tunturi @ dlc.fi
Just remove the spaces :o)

Here are the flags I made.

I used a hawaiian name generator to translate Saara's name.
Came out as Kala.
Which quite funnily means fish in finnish.
Do you know that finnish and hawaiian are both pronounced exactly as they are written?
That means I could pick up any text written in hawaiian and read it perfectly.
Now that would be even cooler if I'd actually understand it too.

Anyone have a good recipe for a chocolate cake?
That's Saara's choice.
And it needs to be a recipe that doesn't include shortening, as I can't get that here.
It's all margarine, butter and oil for us, baby.
Feel free to link me.
I have one that I'll use if you can't show me a better one.

Wicked cool

You'll never guess what I found yesterday while slicing a lemon.
Look at the photo.

Want a closer look?

Yes, roots and all!
I've never seen this before.

Needless to say that since this was one determined lemon seed, we planted it.
The girls are already looking forward to lemons.
I hate to burst their bubble...
but seeing as we don't live in California, I don't see anything but store bought lemons in our future, LOL!

Orange and turqoise

I'm painting team flags for Saara's Survivor party.
I'll hopefully resurface tomorrow.

I can see!

Blogger was wonky for me all weekend.
I couldn't see my own blog.
How very annoying.

We had a lovely thundery weekend.
I love a good thunderstorm.

Saturday afternoon we went to Linnanmaki, the local amusement park. Loved taking shots of the park details.
Photos like this.
Can you see me?

And the staple curly fries.
mmmm....
love amusement park junk food.


Details from the park.





And finally the new and bigger ferris wheel appropriately called The Bagel. Or Rinkeli in finnish.



Yesterday I had a class reunion. Though you can't really call it that. There's a core group of about 10 that gets together twice a year. We invite everyone, and sometimes we have a new person show up, but most years, like this, it's just us.
Eight of us yesterday.
And yes, old friends really are the best ones. We've known each other since we were five. For 32 years. There is no need for pretentiousness. It's all honest. Down to earth. And we have a very twisted sense of humor.
I haven't laughed as much in a long time.
I'm talking side splitting, tears down your face laughter.
I'm on a high still this morning.
I better go text a few messages...

Have a happy monday.

Friday, YESSSSSSS!

I'm so relieved.
I can actually sleep in tomorrow morning.
Anyone have Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" at hand?

Today I got my hair done while Niina was in school.
You know what I hate?
When my mobile starts ringing when I have haircolor gunk all over my head.
A chick will get the 'can't talk, color on my head'.
But a guy 'oh, so you've got a few minutes, good'.
Dude.
No I don't.
I'll call you back in one hour, ok?
This is supposed to be relaxing...

I've had more calls than usual lately.
My class is getting together on Sunday.
We're a tight bunch (together from kindergarten to 9th grade) and meet up once a year.
Atleast.
Fun fun fun.
Looking forward to it.
But why the guy organizing it this year chose a sunday is beyond me.
He'll be hearing from me...
Cause I have to get up at 6 grumble grumble 30 monday morning.
The least he can do is buy me a G&T.

I have layouts to share.
Hoping I'll have time to submit some first before airing them for public viewing.
Soon, I promise.

I need to go put on a load of laundry.
Not quite the weekend yet.
sigh.

I give up..

Sooo...
I printed out the Survivor invites (as seen above) yesterday. Saara gave them out today.
She just came home and informed me I forgot to add the address on them.
DUH.
Sing with me:
...if I only had a brain...

I have very limited brain function right now.
This morning I thought it was wednesday and sent Saara to school with no afternoon snack or money. Her longest day of the week.
I feel like banging my head to the wall, but I think that might limit my brainpower even more.
I blame having to get up at 6.30 every weekday. My body is in denial.
I AM NOT A MORNING PERSON.

Maybe it's good we're not playing party games on here.
Who knows what would happen LOL.

The picture above is of my magnetic strip on the wall.
My happy finds this week from IKEA are these:

BIG metal boxes with a strong magnet.
I like to keep my sparklies close at hand.

I'm needed to help with homework now.
See ya!

Happy birthday little blog of mine!

Anyone have any good party games?
*grin*

When I started this blog a year ago, I honestly didn't think it would last.
I'm grateful it has.

Humor me today (and tomorrow, seeing as timezones are what they are...heheheee...yes a TWO day par-tay!), let me know who's around. I love knowing who's reading. (and yes that means YOU Tawny!!!)

I'm in a party mood.
I baked a blueberry pie if anyone wants to drop by.

I've also been printing out b-day invites for Saara's 11th a week from saturday.
We've decided on a Survivor party.
It's the one hit show her class loves. We're a couple seasons behind over here, we're watching Survivor Palau now (season 10), dont tell me who wins, ok? We were rooting for Stephanie but since she's gone our money is on either Ian or Tom.
I came across some great ideas for the party online today. It should be a a BLAST! We'll have team bandannas, obstacle course, puzzle solving, scavenger hunt, gross food etc. The works. Teams gather points to see who wins and nobody gets voted off.
All in the name of good fun.

I've also washed some windows today and ran to the store (well not literally!) for some milk.
What's in your plans for today?

What's your trick?

How do you get your eyes open in the morning?
I would be in trouble if I didn't have a little something stashed in the fridge ;o)

It's like those roll-on lipglosses, only for your eyes. Specifically for those nasty bags under mine... I keep in in the fridge so it's cold and works a tad better on the luggage.

PS. Lumene is make-up for us Nordic Beauties..heheheeee....

Using up scraps part 2

This by the way is one of our themes next month at AMLT.
You'll see atleast two scrap related projects from me on September 1st.

I'm a self-confessed scrap hoarder.
I need a 12 step program.
Not that I'd take it.
Heheheee.

I hold on to the smallest pieces of pretty paper.
Usually I make good use of them on cards.

Like these flowers made out of tiny KI Memories paper pieces.

Or the sun for my bro's b-day:

My anniversary card:

Baby card:

Birthday card:

And yes, it does have tiny squares from 50 different blue papers.
Sigh.
I said it was bad...

I also used some scraps to make business cards:


And if all else fails, give the scraps to your kid.
Niina made an entire family:

Using up scraps part 1

One of my favorite things to do.
Doesn't matter if we are talking paper or fabric either.
Today's episode is fabric.

Meet some new buddies.


I found these cute little purses while browsing those dangerous crafty links ;o)
My girls walked in and started pointing out which one they wanted.
What's a mom to do?

The ballerina piggie is made of an old scarf and houses Saara's bus pass.
The cute tiny elephant holds my house keys so I don't have to do a frantic search at the door.

Niina's panda. Just for fun.
I used bits of fabric I had taking space.
So much fun.

Stay tuned for paper scrap stuff tomorrow...

Young love

Oh come on, give me a kiss.
Nope.
Please?
Nope.

And then I completely messed up the photo of the actual kiss as I was laughing my ass off.


It's hard to keep my bro from being a total goofball.


We will be having a proper photoshoot soon though.
He did promise.
These were taken on their balcony just after a thunderstorm.
Sweet.

phew

Saara really enjoyed her first french lesson yesterday.
Her name in class is Solange.

Tout est bien.
(I think, it's been a while since my french classes!)

Today is my bro's engagement party.
Here's the card I made.

I'm hoping to get some cool photos.

I'll be short and sweet today.
I'm still feeling a bit under the weather, sore throat, no voice and really tired.
But I won't crash until the party's over lol.

I'll leave you with this shot I took this morning.
And what I'm most proud of-
no photoshop editing.

None.
However it did involve five shots being taken while sitting on the dewy grass in my jammies.
I don't even want to know what the neighbors think.

I'm off to contemplate vacuuming.

Miffed.

Just received this letter in the mail:

Dear Parents of Class 5,
Last spring you and your child made the choice of optional subjects/clubs to be taken in class 5. Unfortunately on the forms German language was incorrectly marked as A2-language, when it should have been a language club. Altogether seven pupils from this year's Class 5 had chosen the German language. The minimum number to start a club/an optional subject is 10 pupils, and for this reason German language is not offered in class 5 this year. The final decision on the optional subjects and clubs to be offered in the academic year 2006/2007 was made in the board meeting in June. We apologize for the fact that we failed to inform you about the situation before the start of the school year.

Did I say miffed? I mean pissed off.
This basically means that even if we'd get a few kids to change their minds, it would be useless. The decision has been made and that's that.

Now how do I get Saara to be enthusiastic about reading french when all she's wanted for the past two years is german classes.
I'm so sad for her.

Yes, it is SO UNFAIR.

Long post, be warned...

I have a lot of things on my mind today.
Stuff that stinks, cute stuff, fun stuff, happy stuff.
So go grab a cup of coffee, quick.
You'll be here for a bit, heh..

This stinks.
Saara started 5th grade on monday. Last May they had been asked if they preferred to study french or german come fall. Saara automatically chose german, no question about that. Monday she came home all confused, there was no german marked on the schedule. So I called her homeroom teacher, he had no idea what had happened. On tuesday the class was told there would be no german group. Yea, WHAT?! Some extremely unhappy and seriously disappointed kids in that class.
This morning I popped by the principal's office (poor guy, he just started) to ask why this happened. Turns out they have 27 kids in the french group and only 9 in the german. On June 15th the school board made a decision that only classes with 10 kids will be taught. And not one person thought of informing us parents. Not cool. Very not cool.
I've just sent an email to all parents in the class for a plea that one kid switch from french to german so they could start classes.
Because 9 kids who couldn't care less about being in french class has to be a teacher's nightmare.
I'm hoping someone will bite.

Isn't she cute?

All excited to start her second school day.
Yup, that's right... I FORGOT to take a photo of her very first day.
How bad is that...
Just hand me the Bad Scrapbooking Mommy award.
(hanging head in shame)

Want to know what I was up to while it rained yesterday?
Just what do you do with small empty pineapple tins, bamboo skewers, some cotton stuff (I really don't know another word for it...it really is the epitomy of stuff) and old candle bits?


You melt the candles and pour into the tins and you get:
ta-daa!

Outdoor candles.
My favorite kind of recycling.
That was my fun bit.

Then for happy stuff.
Goooooood mail day.

The new IKEA catalog.
I'm making a list.
Just remind me not to drive there before payday, ok?
Or I might just get slapped..heheheee...


..mmmm.... my order from AMLT.
I've been in a scrapbooking slump (nothing done in the last 10 days, major slump) but this just might get me out of it. Some very cool stuff.
The one new product I'm really excited over is this:

Transparency frames by My Mind's Eye.
Just look at them!

Go get yourself some.
Yes, feel free to blame me.

And finally:

THANK YOU CHRISTINE! YOU ROCK!
I picked these up at Devery's hotel today.
I'll be slipping pages into these tonight :o)

You can now return back to your regularly scheduled programming.
I'm going outside to hang laundry, seeing as it isn't raining today.