Old Porvoo dressed for Christmas

You might remember the photos I took there last December, well if you've been coming by that long :) Click on the sidebar on last year's December, it's the entry on the 15th.


Love the old town this time of year.

Of course I had to take a photo of it.. there's a camera!

Mika and Saara checking out the menu on a restaurant that specializes in snails...

Now is that inviting or is that inviting???

Every store had lanterns outside...

Yup, still in love with those candlesticks.

Lanterns of magical shapes...

..in Swedish.

Hyvää Joulua in Finnish.

And to you: Merry Christmas.

Shimmering...

..and shining...

..so lovely...

..the patina..
(one of these came home with me)

Such a simple sign.
But the message...
Våga is swedish for..
..to dare.

Dare to be unique.
Dare to be different.
Dare to be you.

Brunberg...equals..

...chocolates!

It's another Moomin Christmas (do go see my photos of last year!)

They have again the cutest tree!

It was Dec 13th, Lucia Day :D

Cobblestones..

We finally stopped for some pasta.

I hand Mika the camera.. and fix my hair...click..click...

May your Christmas time be filled with plenty of goodness...

..and wee little snow folk :)

Tomorrow I'll show what we bought.

More scrappiness

Some more pages I've managed to scrap together . Some have been on either the Inspiroidu-blog or at AMLT's blog. Others are making their debut ;)

The one photo of this past year that Saara approves of. So I played around with it in photoshop (fun actions) but kept the page simple.


The counterpart page about the hat.


Niina and I have matching shopping baskets.


Yeah... that pretty much sums it up.. pirates and brickwalls. Nuff said.

Still putting together pages from last May's trip to England. Rest assured you'll be seeing more...

Lovely architecture in Bath.

Some cool details of London.

In Oxford Christchurch College we visited the dinigroom that inspired the film version of Hogwart Castle's Great Hall. It was only missing the enchanted ceiling.

Traffic in London is horrid.. three blocks in thirty minutes.. and we were already late.

Scrapping is planned for the two and a half weeks off for Xmas vacation :)

A tree is up and my eyes are itching

Notice I said a tree, not the tree...

Couple days ago at school, I was trying to find Xmas crafts to do with the kiddiwinkles in class and came across this waayyy cool craft by, who else, Martha Stewart.

That is a bunch of newspaper squares on a wooden skewer, sprayed with glue and generously sprinkled with glitter (Martha's of course..).

I LOVE it.

Soo glittery.

And pretty.

The star is a ornament I cut down in size to fit the tree.

While I was skewering newspaper, I was watching President Ahtisaari receive the peace Nobel prize. I was very impressed by his speech.

Why am I home in the afternoon?

Make a wild guess...?

Sick kids. Again.

Had to get Saara some meds finally as she was not getting better, she hasn't been at school this week at all.

I also had an appointment as I've had allergic reactions in and around my eyes.

Yes it is indeed December, snowy and cold and I don't usually suffer from allergies in the winter.

Only that problem I mentioned at work, turned out to be mold in the classrooms I've worked at, and I'm reacting to that. Those rooms have now been shut off, we've moved ourselves and the kids to safer rooms. Lets see how much that helps.. for now.

I already showed you my lights, but now there's pretty snow behind them :)

That's still all I have up.
I will get more decorations up this weekend, but that means dusting needs to take place...
I was hoping to to some tonight, but I have a test I have to study for. Blech.

But I do have candles.

I really like this one I got from my cousin a few years back. The reindeer motif is on the metal cup and it wavers in a lovely way when the flame moves.

I better go vacuum glitter now...

It's December..

..when did that happen..?
Oh ha ha.. yes a week ago..
Let me refrase that:
Where did the first week of December go???

I mean there are just too many things to do this month.
Today I need to write my psychology paper I've been putting off until now, and now I cannot put it off any longer, bah.
I also have to make Christmas cards.
So you overseas friends.. they are late already :)

*** Tawny dearest... I was hoping Mark would make it to the postoffice in time for the girls to get their package before Christmas.. did he manage to mail it? Or is he also having a hard time finding the place? I can have the girls recording abusive messages for him in no time.. heheheee... ***

I did get the lights up last weekend.

If I have time I might dig out some ornaments and wreaths today.

But there is that paper to write, a doll's skirt to sew, page to scrap, photo editing, cards to make..sigh.

Last month I made some Christmas themed projects for AMLT.

This one will hold the cards we get.

There's a water leak at school where our classrooms (1st and 2nd grade) are that has escalated into a major problem. We are changing rooms, which in a already too small building is cause for creative thinking. I'll probably able to tell more details in the nest few days.

Here's a little thing I made for a friend who is a big Marilyn fan:

Magnets for her fridge to brighten her day.

OK, so that was random...

Kinda the way my mind works right now.

I better get some breakfast and start on that paper, so I'll finally have it off my list.