SPLAT!

The other morning I was in the kitchen when suddenly I heard a giant bang from the living room.
The window to be exact.
What the...

I went to look and found a dazed looking grey dove outside, shaking its head and thinking "What the..."

Later in the day in a certain light, I saw this on the window:

Take a closer look:

That bird had some speed when it went SPLAT!

It's one of the freakiest yet coolest things I've seen.
I haven't had the heart to wash the window yet.
:oP

water, ice, fridge, antarctica

Trying to think cooling thoughts to keep my brain from frying.
snow

Have you checked that little flashing gizmo on the sidebar that shows the temp here?!
chilled white wine
It is hotter than he** here!
ice, ice, baby
The 30C/86F mark will be passed today.
freezer
The house is sweltering.
No a/c.
ice cream
All that equals no energy.
Lethargy.
freezer aisle at the supermarket
No brain function.
Bickering kids (yes they came home yesterday)
snowangels

Oh fun.

The thought that most comforts me at this hour is that Mika has been rowing a boat for 5 hours now. I do not envy him one bit.
cold shower
All I'm up to is doing laundry, making ice pops and sweat.
ice pops, yeah

There's no end to the heat in sight.
winter

Giggling

I was fixing myself something to eat and started looking for something to read (as I was dining alone... I've always loved reading at the table....yes got into trouble too...).
Looked in the kitchen bookshelf, leafed through a pile of magazines and finally went to the living room bookshelf.
After a bit I looked to the top shelf.
WHAM.
How had I forgotten those books?!

I have five books by Robert Fulghum.
I picked "Uh-oh" to read.

It is impossible to read his books and be grumpy.
I find myself giggling all the time.

Such powerful truths.
Like this one:

Uh-huh + oh-wow +uh-oh +oh, God = ah-hah!

Now go read.
I will.

He's certifiable

Completely nuts.

And it's apparently incurable as this is the fourth time he'll be doing this.

Doing what?

This.
Yes folks, a rowing competition.
60km/37miles rowing.
That calculates to 6+ hours.

Yup, that's right, the fourth time the company is putting up a crew.
This time they have some international resellers in the boat too, I bet they didn't read the small print...

You want to know the best part?
Supposed to hit 29C/84F on saturday.
The heat is ooonnn...the heeeaat is o-ooonnn....(burning, burning, burning...)

Thank goodness I have some sense in my head.
He's learned not to ask me.

So yesterday was relaxing.
Even got the window washed.
While I scrapped I watched the Germany vs Italy football match.
Whoa.
Some finish.

And there's got to be a trick to make unmounted (red rubber) stamps stick to the block, right? Obviously I haven't figured that bit out yet, as last night ready to stamp it goes PLOP into the middle of my page. Not the spot I wanted it at. Not by a longshot. No way to hide it either...
Damn.
I just planted that stamp in two other seemingly random spots and called it funky design.
Ha!

Heat, scrapping, football and a little hockey

Another hot day here, supposed to hit the 27C/80F mark.
I know for some of you that isn't really hot, but for me it is too hot.
Remember I'm a northern girl.
22C/72F is what I call perfect.
My head can't handle heat.

But as is it so hot, it's a perfect day to be in the cool house catching up on emails, I just submitted a bunch of pages flooding inboxes (LOL), scrapping and doing laundry. Oh and washing the livingroom windows..alas I can't get out of that one.

I have finished a couple pages lately.
You get an exclusive preview, I haven't posted these elsewhere yet.

-Sassy-

Pink and KI.
Need I say more?
Check out her cool new highlights!

-Read-

I had so much fun making this. Mixing up loads of stuff. Rhonna Farrer's pp, heidi Swapp & Lil Davis tapes, Gin-X alphas, Scenic Route chipboard, MM sparkly jewel brads...
She's reading Anne of Greengables btw.
Good book.

New month, new tricks.
The July gallery at AMLT is packed with fun ideas.
I always look forward to the 1st of the month to see what the team comes up with.
The Heidi Swapp challenge is my favorite.
All the pink.
This is my page: love U


How many of you are watching the FIFA World Cup?
I've been enjoying the football.
I'd like to see France win.
Zinedine Zidane is my kind of a footballer.

Last week they dropped Brazil, the reigning champions.
Tomorrow they play against Portugal in the semifinals.

Hockey?
But it's July...
Yes..
But for true blue hockey fans and wingnuts it's a sad day.
Steve Yzerman, aka The Captain, announced his retirement.
I lived 30 minutes outside Hockeytown (that's Detroit for you non-hockey people) from '96-'99.
Good years to be in town.

Really good years.
He's a class act. On and off the ice.
There will never be another #19 playing for the Red Wings.
And whoever will be captain next season, has some mighty big skates to fill.

I've been working on this blog entry for two hours now... well... my bro dropped by... had a cup and a good chat.
But now laundry calls.

Happy 4th of July to my stateside friends!
Go set off some fireworks.

Handstanding..almost...

Over the weekend Saara had a friend for a sleepover.
Ronja has been taking gymnastics for some years now and it shows...

That girl was throwing flips all across my lawn...
She got Saara and Niina determined to learn how to do handstands.

See, it can't be that hard...

Can it?
Yes it can.

And you know what can happen when a cartwheel goes wrong?
This picture says it all:

I have to admire their persistance though.
They never gave up.

This is my favorite photo from the weekend.

A few bruises on her legs, one really good shiner on her chin, scrapes abound and those red marks under her knees are huge mosquito bites.
She's my fearless one.

Right now they are both at my in-laws. I have child-free and mostly even husband-free days this week.
I was so enjoying the quiet house today, I didn't even turn the radio on.
I might just do the same tomorrow.

Sensory overload

This is the one week of the year my fence looks beautiful.
People walking by stop.
Just the scent is enough to stop you.
This is the country cousin of jasmine, the one that survives our winter.
But the scent is pure jasmine.

I never tire of it.

Now meet the undeniable queen of my garden:

The pink peony.
She rules alright.
I never have the heart to cut any to put in a vase.

I think I need to buy a couple more and then I'll be able to enjoy them indoors as well.
I did buy some new perennials yesterday, so a-planting-I-will-go very soon.

When inspiration hits...

...strange things can happen.

First, your floor can turn into a huge mess:
(please ignore the uglier than ugly rug)

Why?
Because four years after I took my wedding pics out of the crappy original slap-them-on-here-and-be-done-with-it-album, I actually did something with them.
[gasp]
I'm making a 8x8 album from all the snapshots and later on a separate portfolio for the professional shots.
Here's the intro page:

The album will be kraft cardstock, assorted papers in tans, blacks and reds, hand-cut inked hearts, 7 Gypsies stickers and all the rest of my Basic Grey rub ons.
Yes all of them.
They better be coming out with new cool ones at CHA summer is all I'm saying...

I can't believe I wore that poofy dress...so very early 90's.
I mean I had a huge bow on my butt...
Beautiful though, my sister's dress.
Handmade.
Stunning.
Tawny, you have it packed up right?
I wonder if we can make any of our girls actually wear it...heheheee....

A tidbit of info on my wedding...
You have no idea how hard it was to find pink sweet peas for my bouquet the first week of August.
I had to order some and hope they got them.
Not quite the flower in season....

I also did something else yesterday.
I picked up my oil paints.
Well, new ones really since I haven't painted in ..what...18 years? 19?

First installment:

There will be a second one to go next to it.
Painted using a spatula (I think that's what it's called), so there's cool texture. That doesn't quite show in the photo.

I'd forgotten about the paint and turpentine fumes though.
A natural high.
heeeeeeeeeeeeee...

Rain, jewelry, a chair and magazines

Long post.
You've been warned.

We did head out downtown yesterday. Carrying our umbrellas that turned out to be dead weight as it never did rain again.

Browsed the sales. The girls got pants, undies and socks. It might sound boring but they were taking their time choosing the undies...lol..
I'll wait until the girls are at my in-laws next week to go look for something for myself. I have no patience for two girls whining while I'm trying clothes on.
Saara and Niina got to choose two, yes I was feeling generous, new Schleich animals (see a couple posts down) each. Niina got a mama panda bear and a mama brown bear. Saara got a elephant mama and baby.

McDonalds for lunch. That was a treat. We go maybe once a month.

We stopped in at a jewelry store I've been meaning to go check out. Designs by Efva Attling.
I'll sidestep here a bit if I may (it's my blog so you can't really stop me...heeee).
This is my wedding ring:

By Kalevala Koru.
My favorite kind of jewelry.
Silver. Always silver for me. But my stone is clear, a rock crystal.
During the last almost 13 years the stone has suffered, it needs to be polished or replaced.
As I mentioned this to Mika, he asked if I'd like a competely new ring.

Now there's a thought.
I don't go for gold or diamonds.
Very low maintenance.
Really, you should see me right now.
Glad you can't.
That ring cost him maybe $60 way back when.
Yes, he got off cheap.
For me being married isn't about the ring. The thought of having a another one does not sound weird to me at all.
Hence the visit to this store.
I love the silver rings with text.

Carpe diem.
Seize the day.

or

Amor vincit omnia.
Love conquers all.

Our wedding anniversary is August 7th.
I have a plan to take him shopping.
Hey, it was his idea to start with...

So, just pants, socks, undies and toy animals?
Oh no.
Niina got cute slippers from Accessorize for school.

And then there's this chair...

The Corona.

Cool, huh?
We have been trying to decide on a new chair for the livingroom for..oh..three years now.

The scene usually goes like this:
Mika leafs through design magazines.
Shows me a picture.

"How about this one?"
"ugh"
"Or this?"
"You're kidding me right?"
"OK, this one?"
"Hell no!"
"You have to like this one?"
"Yeah, that is cool!"
"Shit... 3500 euros"
"Wasn't so nice anyway"

So the other night while leafing through a Danish design magazine called Bo Bedre (live better) he saw the Corona chair. Designed in the 60's. It was chosen to Stanley Kubrick's Space Odyssey 2001 movie because it looked so futuristic. It hasn't been manufactured since 1992 though. Except for chinese copies (and we know how well those last...).
Mika found three for sale at a place called Tomorrow's Antiques.
I promised to stop by.
Test sit if you wish.

Man is it comfy.
Love at first sight.
Got the price down by 300 euros.
Still pricy.
But it's a classic.
And we love it.
The girls totally dig it.

Needs to be re-upholstered.
That blue clashes a bit... a lot actually.
I'm thinking something to match the couch.
I'll be hunting for fabric next week.

Danielle asked about he magazines on my banner. See that pile on the table in the above photo?

This pile:

Mostly interior design mags.
The ones on my banner are the the finnish Avotakka and the swedish Skona Hem. (The o should be an umlaut, but blogger doesn't like my fancy letters...hmmpphh...)
There's a big variety there.
US mags, UK mags, german mags, scandinavian mags, finnish mags.
What can I say, we like magazines.
It's an addiction.
And yes, my hubby likes interior design.
He can name you the designer of any classic piece of furniture.
But he can't remember where he put the shovel.
(yes, still missing the good shovel...)

And I like Susie's idea of a 10 000 party hat!
Maybe a challenge with a prize too....
Putting on my thinking cap.

Online source for the Haba wooden food in the US: Oompa Toys.
Tell me what you get Tawny.
We can spoil Nolan more :o)

oh crap

You know what bites?
The fact that I missed the weather forecast last night.
And woke up to the sound of pounding rain at 3am.

Falling back to sleep.

Waking up in the morning and realizing I had three loads of dry laundry on the line that I forgot to get before I went to bed.
Operative word being had.

I now have three loads of wet drippy laundry drying in my basement.
sigh.

I was planning to go downtown today with the girls.
We might just grab our umbrellas and head out anyway.
What else is there to do on a rainy day?
Shopping the sales sounds good to me.

Ooops...

How did I forget to change a new banner for June???
DUH.

I present you with the July banner a bit early in compensation...

And just so you all know...
I'm keeping my eye on that counter in the sidebar.
8221 right now.

I might have to throw a party when it reaches 10 000.

I also like hearing from you.
No need to comment every post, just every now and then.
See you around!

To infinity and beyond!

I'm a big Toy Story fan.
*grin*

I thought we'd talk toys today.
How about it?

What is "in" at your house?

The girls have their regular favorites, the Barbies, Bratz, legos and the American Girl dolls.
That is a given list with girls in the house.

Then there are a few special favorites.

Like the Schleich animals. They started collecting them last year.

I love the fact that they are so detailed and well made. Sturdy to play with.
I might just treat them to a trip to the store tomorrow...
Don't tell them.

Playmobil toys have been big here since Saara turned 3.
We have quite a collection.
Starting with the remote control train set...
Huge thing. We'll never get rid of it though.


The girls will set up the trains tracks, cars, gas station etc.
And the piece de resistance:

the supermarket.
It is so cool. I found some discontinued playmobils a couple years ago and now we have a market style fish monger and flower seller to go with it.
And naturally they want more...
They have their eyes on this bakery.

If only we had room for more...
Might have to talk with Santa about this...

By far one of the absolute favorites is the wooden food we brought back from Germany some years back. Can't find any locally.
None.
So when Saara goes to Germany in August, she will have a shopping list.
These are made by Haba and Erzi.


Aren't these great?
Yes, pasta.
And fish sticks in a tin.

On our shopping list so far:




Would you like fries with that?

Our list gets longer every day.
I love the fact that not everything is made of plastic.
And I'm ready to pay just a bit more for that.

What are you willing to spend a bit more on?

Taste of summer

In my book it tastes just like this... blueberries, raspberries and black currants.

Happy Midsummer everyone!