Feels like Christmas

No Finnish today, sorry.
Feel like writing in English.
Listening to Harry Connick Jr singing Christmas songs... I need some glögg now.
(that's spiced hot red wine with almonds and raisins)

I got my Christmas cards sent out.
I'll be crafting and sewing tonight and tomorrow.
I have no idea when I'll get around to baking... next week someday. I still have some presents to get, but I have short days coming up. Love Christmas shopping.
And I have to plan Christmas dinner. Need to research a bit, I'd like to add some new twist to the traditional.

But I won't stress.
Remind me about that in a couple days, ok?

The new gallery has been up at AMLT for almost two weeks already.
Here are some details of my pages.




You can see all of them following this link.

I ended up taking photos of my pages as my scanner is on the fritz...grumble grumble.
***

Photo of the day continued:

12.12.

This is what a sink looks like after you blow some powdered green dye in it.

Kinda cool.

***

13.12.

We took the 1st grade to see an acrobatic dance theater's Christmas play.

We got there four minutes late and nearly didn't get in.

But they took pity on us, happily. We had a fabulous time.

***

15.12.

Frost.

But no snow.

Sigh.

***

16.12.

Today we took a little shopping trip to old Porvoo.

Look at this, it's the Moomin family ready for Christmas! A bit odd though.. as they normally sleep through the winter...hmmm...

***

Lots of beautiful houses, windows and things in this quaint place.

Big and small.

That just might be the cutest Christmas tree I've seen in a while.

***

We stopped by a sweet little cafe.

Mmmmmm....

***

The local historical church is still waiting for new tarred shingles.

The church roof burned in November 2005, when a drunk 18 year old decided to have some fun. His little joke cost him 3 years in prison.

***

Then onto some pretties in the shops.

Oh my goodness, I love these candlesticks.

I need to buy my Christmas flowers next week. White hyacinths are a must.

Shiny glass baubles everywhere...
Oooohhh.. glitter....

This image is just for Suzanne.

*grin*

Sweet fox babies!

And we came across a garden elf sweeping the streets.

Now if there only were snow.

Then it would be magical.

An update

8.12.
Visiting the in-laws.
Funny fuzzy photo, but you know what it tells me?
Niina has learnt to read. I love watching this whole new world opening for her.
Mummolassa kyläilemässä.
On sumuinen ja epätarkka kuva, mutta arvaatteko mistä on kysymys?
Niina on oppinut lukemaan. On mahtavaa katsoa kun uusi maailma aukeaa sivu sivulta.


9.12.
Finally a sunny morning.
If just for a moment.
I know it's hard to grasp if you've never lived this far north. Today the sun rose at 9.13am and sets in just a little while at 3.13pm.
If you're lucky, you'll get a little ray of sunshine. If not, it's this dusky grey blanket.
Vihdoinkin aurinkoinen aamu.
vaikka se olikin vain pieni hetki.


10.12.
Ooohh.. this was fun.
Reflection tricks.
You can see my round lights reflected in the window, and my camera lens reflected in the middle of that.
And that odd bit of blue light? My neighbors' horrid Christmas lights...
Hauska efekti.
Valoympyrä heijastuu ikkunasta ja sen keskellä heijastuu kameran linssi.
Ja tuo omituinen sininen välähdys on naapurini ihme siniset jouluvalot...


11.12.
My Christmas cards arrived yesterday. And they were packed in these.
Way cool.
That's the Italian Alps, night time in Europe, Spain and bits of Norway, Sweden and Finland in winter.
I'm so saving these for some future project.
Joulukorttitilaukseni saapui eilen. Ja kortit oli pakattu näihin.
Mielettömän makeita.
Euroopan osia.
Laitan talteen jotain tulevaa projektia varten.
(kuoria saa kun tilaa kuvia Ifolorilta eli entinen Ifi)

And now?
Off to write all the envelopes...
Ja nyt kirjekuoria kirjoittelemaan.

Photo of the day continued...

6.12.
Independence Day.
Our fair Finland turned 90 years old.
It is a tradition to light two white and blue candles on your window from 6pm to 8pm.


I even washed all the crystals in the chandelier for the occasion.
Took them down thinking, yeah.. this is easy to remember where they go, there are only three different sizes.
Right.
Famous last words...
Had to dig out a two year old photo in the end to get it back together again, LOL!


7.12.
Mary is looking good in her new outfit and is busily decorating her tree already.
I'm quite proud of myself as that is the first 1:12 size doll outfit I've sewn/glued together. But she's so very 1940's chic now.

A few days' worth :)

3.12.
I step on this rock every single morning on my way to work.
Took me two months before I noticed it was shaped like a heart!
Astun tälle kivelle joka aamu matkallani töihin.
Minulta meni pari kuukautta ennenkuin tajusin, että sehän on sydän!


4.12.
Slush.
Welcome to my city, the capital of slush.
If your local you's refer this weather as the Helsinki slush sh*t.
Wearing my trusty goretex shoes to keep my toes dry.
Loskaa.
Helsingin taattua loskap*aska keliä.
Goretex kengät jalassa pärjää.


5.12.
Tomorrow this fair lady of Finland turns 90 years old.
We had celebrations at school today.
And to top it all, we got cake!
These were all desings made by the students.
The chocolate cake was out of this world delicious..mmmm...
Huomenna onkin Suomi-neidon 90-vuotis päivä.
Me juhlimme tänään koulussa.
Kaiken kukkuraksi tarjolla oli vielä kakkuakin!
Kaikki olivat oppilaiden suunnittelemia.
Suklaakakku oli suorastaan syntisen hyväää...

One of today's out-takes

2.12.

Oh yes.

Feel free to knock yourselves over with a feather.

This year I'm sending out a family photo.

I just ordered my cards.

Fashionably late.

Heh.

It's white!!!

I woke up to our first official snow of the year.
Official as in, there's enough for the city plows..ploughs.. oh heck, not sure of the spelling... anyhow.. for them to show up.
Yes, really good English.
It's early on a Sunday morning....
Virallinen ensilumi oli maassa kun heräsin.
Virallinen siis tarkoittaa sitä, että kaupungin aurat lähtevät liikenteeseen.

I'm off to the doll and bear market with the girls this morning.
I can't wait.
Olen kohta lähdössä tyttöjen kanssa Nalle ja Nukke markkinoille...
Olen ihan pöhkön innoissani...

Camera, lights...

Welcome to my photo advent calendar.
Tervetuloa valokuvajoulukalenteriini.
(nice long word, huh?)

December 1st.

First photo of the month.

Joulukuun eka.

Kuun ensimmäinen valokuva.

Because it's so dark...

it's all about the light.

Koska on kaamos...

valo on tärkeää.

I've got my Christmas lights all blazing, how about you?

And be honest now, how many strings?

Minulla palavat jouluvalot täysillä, entä sinulla?

Ja ihan rehellisesti, kuinka paljon niitä on?

I've got a total of 80+120+40+40+40+40 outside.

And 80+40+50+50+50+20+50+120+80+20 inside.

Hey, it's dark here!

Every bulb helps.

*grin*

Numerot ovat samat suomeksikin, ensimäinen letka on ulkovalot ja toinen letka kaikki sisällä palavat.

No kun on kaamos!

Jokainen polttimo autaa.

*virne*

Yes yes.. I know...

I get the Bad Blogger Award...
What can I say. It's been busy.
Good excuse, eh?
(why yes, I have been hanging out with a Canadian. On a daily basis...why? Hehehee)

Oh and as this is being typed quite late, this entry is in English.
Can't wrap my brain into translating.
Hard enough catching the typos... you should see me furiously backspacing here...
Plus, I like to mess with your minds. I'm evil like that.
No really... it's 11pm on Friday night. I'll leave it at that, ok?

I am hoping to get my act together for December though.
Last year I had the daily advent calendar banner, but this year I think I'll challenge myself to another round of "photo a day". It'll be a true challenge as it is so flipping dark here. I might even have to [gasp, horror!] turn on the flash...

Onto a little bit of rambling. I'm so good at composing blog entries in my mind while going to work in the morning. However the school computer won't allow me to sign onto blogger so I could type them out while still fresh in my mind. And once I get home it's all about kids' homework, dinner, laundry etc. (I don't know why I threw in laundry... I'm so behind it's ridiculous..) By the time I get online again, I'm too tired to type. It's a viscious circle.

However, this week as we got off the bus and started walking towards the school, I made a decision to find a new thing to admire every morning. Be it an architectural detail I had missed earlier (I walk through a really interesting area), a new set of Christmas lights, someone wearing a cute scarf... Makes my dark walk a little bit more fun.

Mmmm... this week... dark. And getting darker. Hit me on Tuesday when I was on the bus on my way home from the hair salon. There was the most glorious sunset I had seen in a while. Flaming orange, gold, pink, purple... just blazingly amazing.
And I looked at the time.
3.55pm.
Ouch.
I just wish we'd get some snow.

I am turning on the outside Christmas lights on Sunday. Can't wait.
Now there's a chore though.
It is something I can't wrap my mind around... why is it that lights that are perfectly bound, plugged in for two hours to check and change burnt bulbs, turn into a tangled mess once you start stringing them outside and have three more burnt bulbs in seconds..
Drives me insane.
And another thing... why is it not possible to buy replacement bulbs for the lights I bought two years ago??! That pack of five bulbs is not sold anywhere. Instead, I have to go buy a whole new different set! And in the new ones, you can't even replace bulbs!
Aaaarrrgghhhh.....

Onto other news.
Our new dining table arrived:

Yes.. it is upside down on the floor.
And those legs are right way up. Making sense?
No? I know the feeling... A fairly pricey table and the board has no holes for the screws!
Geeezzzz... we are calling the store tomorrow...
And that tabletop weighs a ton. Or three. I cannot move it. Nor lift it. So I have no idea how we'll flip this table around once those legs are in place... I may just buy floor pillows and call it Japanese style.

I lent this to my cousin today:

It's the christening gown my Mom crocheted for my brother. Two of my cousins and both my girls have also worn it.

We also took this along:

Isn't he just the cutest bear ever?

I'm hoping he'll like it.

That is eight day old cuteness.
And I got to snuggle him today.
So sweet.
Newborn therapy, wipes your worries away in a second.

That time of year

When it gets cold outside, I dig out the yarns... ummm.. read: go buy new yarns.
*grin*

Tähän aikaan vuodesta kaivan aina langat esiin.. siis.. menen ostamaan uusia ihania lankoja.
*virnistys*

This will be my new scarf. I absolutely love this yarn, sooo soft and the colors...

Uusi kaulahuivini työn alla, lanka oli rakkautta ensi silmäyksellä...

And then lets hit the department called are you nuts?

Ja sitten osastolle hullun hommaa...

Yes, those are dollhouse scale snowglobes. Made from medicine packaging.

Jepulis, nukkekoti kokoisia ..jaa.. mitäs nuo ovatkaan suomeksi? Lumisadepallo?

I wonder what else I'll think of today?
Of course what I should do is sort through my Mom's photos... all gazillion of them.
Sigh.
Yeah.. that and laundry.

Mitähän muuta tänään tekisi?
Pitäisi kyllä käydä läpi kaikki äitini valokuvat.. kaikki biljoonasataamiljoonaa.
Huokaus.
Jep... sitä ja pestä pyykkiä.

This and that

The cursives are my Finnish translations :-)
Tänään suomennokset ovat kursiivilla kuvien kohdilla :-)

It's been a while since I shared photos. Just so you know, it is dark and grey here and getting photos without the flash is painful. And there aren't too many things I dislike more than flash photography... cauliflower, peasoup and being late.. but that's about it.

En ole viime aikoina ottanut paljon kuvia, ja se johtuu tästä kaamoksesta. Minä kun inhoan ottaa kuvia salamalla. Se on korkealla siellä inhokkilistalla hermekeiton, kukkakaalin ja myöhässä olemisen kanssa.

But I now have some time to share.

Shouldn't I be at work?

Well, yes... but... I'm home with a little patient:

Mutta nyt on aikaa ladata tänne muutama kuva.

Jaa miksen ole töissä?

Koska:

Niina has an eye infection and has to stay home from school for three days.

She's feeling a whole lot better today as the meds have kicked in and there's no icky goo coming out of the eyes.

Niinalla on silmätulehdus, eikä saa mennä kolmeen päivään kouluun.

Onneksi olo on parantunut eilisestä kun lääke alkoi vaikuttamaan ja inha rähmän tulo loppui.

Lets take a look at this fuzzy photo:

Katsotaanpas sumuista kuvaa:

A few things going on here.

First there's the new scarf I knitted her. The kids at school asked me if I knitting it out of cotton candy heheheee... the yarn was so pink and fluffy.

Muutama juttu meneillään tässä kuvassa.

1. Uusi kaulaliina jonka neuloin. Muksut koulussa kysyivät neulonko sitä hattarasta kun lankakerä oli ihan sen näköinen.

Second:

She's got a goofy grin as she lost both her front teeth. And a genetic glitch has left her without the number 2 teeth (next to the front teeth) on her upper jaw, so she now sports a vampire look. And a cute lisp...

2. Hassu hymy. Yläetuhampaat lähtivät. Ja genetiikasta johtuen puuttuvat yläkakkoshampaat kokonaan. On ihan vampyyri meininki. Ja äshä shuhishee...

Third:

She wanted her hair just like Saara's, who got it cut two weeks ago. So on Friday she lost half the length of her hair. We all love her new cute look.

3.Niina halusi hiukset samanlaisiksi kuin iso siskolla, jonka hiukset lyhenivät pari viikkoa sitten. Joten perjantaina jäi kampaamon lattialle puolet hiuksista. Uusi tyyli on tosi kiva!

Winter is knocking...

Talvi tuloillaan...

It looked this pretty for one day last week.

Then it melted away. It is slushing again today. Too wet to stay on the ground though.

Oli se viime viikolla näin kaunista yhtenä päivänä, kunnes suli pois. Nytkin sataa rannikon räntää.

Last week we had a charity project at school that kept the 6th graders out of trouble, heh.

Viime viikolla oli koulussa hyväntekeväisyysprojekti, joka piti 6s luokkalaiset kiireisinä.

We had asked for donations and got plenty! We packed Christmas packages for little boys and girls. These packages will be sent to poor children in Moldova.

Olimme pyytäneet vanhemmilat lahjoituksia ja tavaraa tuli! Pakkasimme joulupaketteja köyhille lapsille Moldovaan.

This pile of over 70 boxes filled with goodies gives me warm fuzzies.

Yli 70 laatikkoa lämmittää mieltä ja sydäntä.

Today, I planted a garden.

Tänään tein pihatöitä:

More photos of the yard for Saara's dollhouse can be found here. Along with some other mini projects of late.

Lisää kuvia löytyy täältä, kuten myös muita miniprojekteja.

Toimiiko kursiivi paremmin kuin kahtia jako?

On ainakin mulle helpompi kirjoitella....

The 5 Colors of Me

A mini album I made a little time ago.

Fun fun fun.

Moving on

Because you cannot dwell in sorrow.
It will make you ill.

Our Thursday at school was busy. Luckily the little ones were much less affected by the Jokela school shooting than us adults or the bigger kids. Everyone got the support they needed however. We had the school nurse, psychologist, religion teachers and the parish priest offer crisis help to who ever needed it.

Myself, I decided to only watch one news broadcast and read the newspaper. And leave it at that. My heart goes out to those families who lost children and to the kids who will have a hard time returning to those same classrooms.

What warmed my heart was the little interview in the paper of the priest who accompanied the police that dark night bearing devastating news to the families. He said that so many people in midst of their own sorrow said to give their sympathy to the shooters family.
One can only imagine the guilt and confusion those parents feel.

no. here? never... can't be...

Those thoughts were going through my head as I sat in rush hour traffic and listened to the bus driver's radio.

Today an 18 year old boy, went to his high school (middle school + high school) and shot the principal and seven kids. He is in critical condition himself after turning the gun on himself.

This 30 kilometers away.
Here.
This is the kind of thing that happens in Columbine.
Or Virginia Tech.
Over there.
Far away.
Not here.
Not at home.
Not in our safe secure corner of the world.

Needless to say our secure safe corner feels less safe tonight.

I have a scared 12 year old.
She is so lucky to have great friends and caring teachers at school tomorrow morning.
It'll be a tough morning tomorrow.

Now go and hug your kids.

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Ajatukset ovat Jokelan koulun tapahtumissa.
Eiköhän kaikki halata muksujamme tänä iltana.

New gallery up at AMLT!

Here are three of my five new layouts. You'll find the rest and sooooo much more when you click this link!

Enjoy.

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AMLT:n galleriassa on jälleen paljon uutta! Mm. nuo kolme sivuani, mutta lisää löytyy tuon yläpuolella olevan linkin takaa.

It's the official WHOOO HOOOO Elizabeth Day!!!

Lets hear it for my buddy Elizabeth Dillow:

HIP HIP HURRAA!

Elizabeth's book is released today.

I don't know about you, but I'm eager to to have this one!

For those of you not familiar with this very cool and talented scrapping chick, you can go visit her blog or hop and skip to the Simple Scrapbooks site to see some of her fabulous work.

And E, I hope you have a fantastic day today.
You've earned a party.
*grin*