British summer

It is yet again raining.
And I left my laundry out overnight to dry.
I just never win with that.
I hauled back into the basement wetter than it was when I hung it out...

But the title isn't about weather, but the tv shows I've enjoyed this summer.
Since it's been so wet, I've had time to relax on my tv chair.

There have been some reruns, new seasons of old favorites and some rare jewels.
I recommed these all.
Highly.

One of those jewels was a series called Kingdom, the cast included one of my favorite actors Stephen Fry.
Of Jeeves and Wooster fame.
He's always good.

There's also Phyllida Law as a quirky aunt I'd love to have.
It's one of those lovely shows that have great casting, fab characters and lovely settings.

Next week brings the last episode of season three of Foyle's War.

Detective Chief Superintendent Foyle (Michael Kitchen) solves murders in the area of Hastings in his calm manner while the war rages on. The episodes are nearly two hours long, slow moving and delightful. I love a good murder inquiry without all the blood and guts thrown at your face.
And I do love the era.

Aaahhh... Cold Feet.
We've been treated to the rerun of all five seasons.
One of my alltime fave shows.

I have the last two episodes waiting for me on my digi box.
I know what happens... but I can't wait to get my hankie out.
This is another show with fabulous casting.
And real people.
Real lives.
Real problems.
Real friends.

I made a little trip to the 70's with Life on Mars.

John Simms alone is enough reason to watch.
I've watched him in quite a few good shows.
That goes for Philip Glenister also.
A cool idea for a series, the main character is hit by a car and wakes up in 1973.. is he really in the past or a coma..

Then.. this summers absolute crown jewel!
Skins.

A series about teen life I won't let my teenager see until she's 25 or so ;)
But I've loved the ups and downs of Maxxie, Sid, Michelle, Tony, Chris, Anwar, Cassie and Jal.
Highlight of my tv week.
But not for the weak stomached..

Midsomer Murders.
I always wonder how these quaint British villages have so many murders, week after week, heh.

I just enjoy the scenery and calmness.
And the work of John Nettles who I used to watch running around the island of Jersey as Bergerac in my youth.

And while this isn't a British production it was the rerun I think I've enjoyed the most.
Band of Brothers.

I'm a bit of a history nut on occasion.
And something about that era strikes my fancy.
I think what sparked my interest was the wartime correspondence between my grandma and grandpa that I've read.
And packed away.
Safely.

So what have you enjoyed on the tv this summer?

Felt like a Sunday

Just calm and peaceful.
Maybe because I didn't have to go to the shops today.
Of course now as I'm typing this it just turned Sunday.
Ha.

Moving on.
Got my 1st grader to stop for a photo on Friday.
She's soooo happy at school.


And off she ran.

In her new pink trainers.

Every 1st grader gets a 5th grader "godparent" so they get to know some of the BIG kids at school.

Niina was paired with the very sweet Veera.

Love August.
And sunflowers.

Mind you August hasn't really shown us it's good side. Quite rainy. And when it hasn't been raining it's been humid. Blech.
Come to think of it, we had some great summer weather for two weeks in May and one in July. Not a very good summer this one. Maybe September will be nice, what do you think?
I won't be holding my breath.
heh.

Here's my garden.


In a bouquet.

Because I won't show you the real deal. It looks quite bad...

This however looks really nice on the coffee table.


Brightens up the room some.


We do need to change this though.

The lamp just isn't cutting it these days.
For one we hardly ever turn it on.
Mika's already planning trapdoors on the ceiling for the movie projector...
I'll keep you posted.. since I know you can't wait to hear more... sigh..

And this one is plugged off.

The dimmer switch on it broke.
Luckily it still had warranty.
So why is it still not plugged in?
Because the part is being shipped from Italy and the factory is on vacation in August.
Naturally.

My desk is a HUGE MESS.

On the upside, I am creating.

I have to take this lot to work on Monday.

That's a massive bag filled with Barbies and Bratz dolls (some with horsies too) and games for the afternoon club. We have loads of legos and a box of action men... not much for the girls though. Since we had the money to spend and a friend who runs a big toy store tipped me off on their big sale, a shopping I went.
Maybe the GI Joes get some dates out of this....

Last weekend I went to IKEA with my sister-in-law.
She wanted company and since I didn't need anything I went. See my logic here?
And consequently picked up a few items...
Like a new clock.

(Suzanne, note my green scissors!)

And a see through box that carries the chosen handwork of the day to and from the tv chair.

This one will be a sweater for me.

Once I had vacuumed and hung up a load of laundry it was time to sit back and watch the men's javelin olympic final.
Our guys ended up on places 3, 4 and 5.

Not a bad day at all.

Is there a reason for this madness?

What is it about the age 39 that makes you do insane things?

Like getting in shape?
Going back to school?
Forfeiting all free time until May?

Since the start of July I've been taking my nordic walking seriously. Instead of just planning on going out three times a week, I actually do. Sometimes 4 times. 3km (that's 1 3/4 miles) pounding away with loud music on my iPod and coming back tired and sweaty 25 minutes later.

Looks like I'm starting night school in two weeks. I need a degree to work at the school afternoon program as the as the.. oh I don't know the title in English. Not really a teacher, but.. anyways... the person who hangs with the kids and does fun things. School once or even twice a week from September to May.

Hence no free time. Or rather, I have to start planning my free time.
How sad is that.

I'll come begging for motivational boosts when needed, ok?

Cuteness

1. springtime hearts, 2. Night trees postcard, 3. 2 house postcard, 4. Elephant with hearts., 5. cat's house, 6. another playing doggy, 7. owl, 8. a tale about little bear learnig to fly, 9. fly and candy, 10. Gingerboard House!, 11. papier mâché, 12. not available at iwantoneofthose.com, 13. straw hat, 14. Two x Two, 15. Woodland Crown, 16. P7160032

It's the little things...

...that make a huge difference in the classroom.
The new valance ( the old one was a greyish blue with animal pictures fit for toddlers), new plants, colorful pots for them...


..cozy rugs to sit on (we're floor people *grin*), a cool green throne for the teacher (hehee)...


... and covering the dingy, yucky the-entire-back-wall-notice-board with cotton fabric.


I brought in my foam alphabet stamps that the kids used to stamp their nametags.
It was a short day for the kids, but a long day for us adults as it was staff meeting after staff meeting after staff meeting...
I feel like my head is exploding with all the info.

At home I have an eager beaver first grader all exited about school and a whatever middle schooler horrified over her schedule.

Me?
I just need a walk to get this buzzing out of my head :)
Over and out.

Ready for school

This week went by so quickly.
It was busy fun at work getting the classroom ready.
As the school had inside walls painted, floors renewed etc we decided to give our classroom a little facelift also.
That involved a trip to IKEA (I said we had fun) and some sewing.

This is the new valance.
I'll take my camera with me tomorrow and get some shots of the entire new look.

I had my broken filling replaced on my anniversary... the problem of having a dentist you know really well is that they tend to ask lots of questions when you have your mouth full ;)
And apparently I produce way too much saliva.. geeezzz... [eyeroll]

I had another US visitor on Friday. My sweet friend Adrienne dropped by.
Good times.


Mika and I saw The Dark Knight later that day. The new Batman movie.
By chance we happened to go to the same theatre with my brother and sister-in-law :)
I had my doubts before.. yet another Batman movie.. how many can they make?
But afterwards we agreed that as long as they make Batman (and Bond, for that matter) this real and rough around the edges, please continue.
Heath Ledger deserves all the hoopla. He portrayed quite possibly the best evil wickedminded meanie ever.
So deliciously messy... down to his fingertips...

In other news.
I mentioned I'd be sewing myself a new bag.
It started as a pile of fabrics.


And ended up like this.



I completely winged it.
No pattern. So not every corner is perfect, but I love it.
These are all Marimekko fabrics.

And then I made a little purse for the stuff that'll get lost in there, like keys, lipgloss and such.




They look pretty good together.


Work starts for real tomorrow.
That's when we let the little hobbitses in...
(yeah, we've been calling the kiddiwinks hobbitses after we saw the Lord of the Rings musical)
Hobbitses... kiddiwinks...kidlets..monkeys...
It'll be good to see them.

More faves

1. toilet, 2. hey-hi, 3. horrible harold two, 4. technicolor dream nest, 5. Ant and chick of "The secret Life of Six", 6. stripey digger, 7. Camera camera case -HOLGY green, 8. Camera camera case "Degi-came" spring green, 9. stack of knitted trees, 10. She loves the wool forest, 11. Ring-ring! Ring-ring! Ring-ring!, 12. Bird and trees., 13. kad-b-6, 14. “8 months”. get used to be used to., 15. Frida Kahlo's Studio., 16. first amigurumi job

I'm a bit partial to those silly cats...

Sunday thoughts

* I start work tomorrow...


* Wish you could smell this... my one and only climbing rose.


* I need more hollyhocks. They make me happy.


* Picked these from under and around the playhouse. They have been brought from sailing trips in the archipelago years ago. You can see all the colors of granite and gneiss this country is made of.

* It's raining today.

* I was eating my breakfast yesterday and wondered if I had sand on my toast or something.. kept getting this grinding feeling. A bit later same thing happened with my gum. Took it out of my mouth, looked at it.. and darn it.. pieces of a filling. Luckily I have a former classmate who's a dentist and she'll fix it up next week.

* Did I mention I go back to work tomorrow???

* The house is quiet. Mika's taking Niina to his parents' house for the week. Saara's at a friend's summercabin still today. She'll be taking the train tomorrow.

* It's our 15th anniversary next Thursday. A conversation like this went on a few weeks ago when Mika was booking tickets for a work related trip to Germany:

-You're going to Germany?
-Yeah.
-And you'll be gone on the 7th?!?
-Aha.. why?
-The date doesn't ring any bells then?
-Nope. Should it?
-Yes, hon, it really should...
-How come?
-...sigh...

So I get to spend that day alone. I'm thinking of kidnapping a friend from work and going for a drink and quite likely seeing a chick flick... either Sex and The City or Miss Pettigrew. Or maybe Once.

* Nine weeks of vacation is really not enough... funny isn't it?


* I took out the sewing machine last night. And some pretty fabrics. Plus two UFO's (that's UnFinished Objects).



Finished this one.. you'll see it eventually, but for now I'll just give you this glimpse.

Made headway with the Marimekko-picnic-quilt-to-be.

Odd pieces of Marimekko fabrics I've picked in the -50% bin-of-pieces and some embroidered sheets of my grandmother's. From the 1940's and 1950's.


Her initials.
(now who else is thinking "Call home"? Hehee)


I still need a white border around it with nice mitered corners. Maybe I should embroider something in a few of those white squares.. like these handkerchiefs on Flickr. Something unexpected...

* This was my last batch of scrapping goodies I ordered:

Truly inspiring. Seeing that after they arrived, I scrapped for three straight days and have 15 layouts to prove it.

Keep your eyes peeled on that page slide in the sidebar :)
You'll see new pages pop up. You'll also see some at the AMLT gallery and blog ( I hope you've been checking out the blog for great ideas and fabulous give aways. Jill is giving out some really awesome new CHA goodies!!! And you know what, Finns are allowed to join in too. In fact it doesn't matter where in the world you reside, AMLT contests are open to everyone!)
And the Finnish Inspiroidu blog also.

* I think I'll go dig in my fabric boxes to see if I can find something I can sew myself a new handbag out of. Because, let's face it.. I'm going back to work tomorrow... A new bag might help me to adjust :D

Book inspiration

I've bought several books this summer.
Crafty books.

Books that make you want to run to your fabric stash and sew until the wee hours of the morning.
Books that have you counting days to the next excuse to bake a cake. Not that you ever need an excuse...
Books that make you go ooohhhhh and aaahhhh.
Books that make you wish you had a huge studio (just for you).

This one I had debated ordering from Amazon for a while.
Then I saw it at a local bookstore and it promptly came home with me :)
I do love it.

I just have to make myself this bag.


I ordered this because you can never have too many books about cakes.
Plus it was cheap.
A combination you can't beat.


Now this was an impulse buy.
The author is Danish and this craft style called Tilda has taken Finland by storm.
It's all a bit too pastel colored to my taste, but it is sooo pretty.
I can see myself making gifts from this one.

Who could resist a pear that has Une Poire embroidered on it?


These last two just arrived in my mailbox this past week.
This one is just dreamy...

I love old file cabinets. I want a wooden one..sigh..


This one is probably my favorite out of all.
Favorite crafty bloggers all wrapped up in a pretty package.

I know a friend who'd love this felt desk organizer...
In fact I'd love one too.

Maybe when I have that nice big studio just for me...