Friday, friday

I've been a total blog slacker this week.
It's just been a ordinary boring week. Nothing exciting going on. I'm in a bit of a funky mood.

I did visit The Body Shop, haven't been in one for ages. Saara wanted to pick out something smelling like strawberries for her best friend's birthday. While there I gave her a few hints for my birthday. Their shea (nut) body butter and almond oil hand rescue treatment would keep me happy. And at another store I found a scented candle to die for.. I know my sis is fainting right now, she knows I don't like scented candles... but this one... cafe caramel.... oh man...divine. I need to take my camera along next time to this store, the candles are pure color inspiration. I did find a few shots online just to give you an idea:

I always feel like a kid in a candy store there.. I want one of each please and thank you :o)

Sometime during the week I got lost on the Pottery Barn kids website (I blame Courtney as she tortures me by telling about her shopping trips, man oh man do I miss that store!). Is anyone willing to mail me the kids and teen catalogs? I need those for purely inspirational reasons and the buggers don't mail overseas... The pictures online are soooo small it really bugs me. I love the fresh colors and they have some great ideas I want to use when I do up Niina's room this coming summer. Niina and I were really partial to the colors in this room:

Doesn't it just look inviting? And look, BUTTERFLIES on the pillow! Me, I love the green (what is that, celery green?) and the rug. I might just have to paint Niina's furniture white, they are whitewashed now.

I also just looooooooooooooved these sheets... not hard as I'm a total ribbon nut. I think I need to use the idea for a bedcover...or curtains.


Niina's fave thing was this basket:


I'd also like to have a few hooks on the wall to hang her pretty butterfly wings from.

Well, as it is friday, I need to go show the vacuum some love, scrub toilets and stalk the mailman (I'm expecting two boxes, they better come today because I simply cannot wait until monday! waaahhhhh...)

Just lovely...

...do you know what happens when you walk outside in -22C (-8F) weather?

You take that first breath and start hacking like a chainsmoker. Basically your lungs are screaming at you "ARE YOU INSANE?". But they do recover. In a few minutes.
Then, after you've walked those few minutes, tears start streaming down your cheeks. Making your cheeks freeze even more. Then the tears start freezing in your lashes, so every time you bat your eyelids, the upper and lower lashes get stuck frozen together.
I know Courtney knows what I'm talking about...

I'm so over winter at this point, LOL!
Although it does look pretty through the window.


Sorry, it took me longer to finish our tour. I took Saturday off and we had a lovely lazy day. On Sunday we visited my in-law's, came home late, tired and over fed. Heheheee...

So up the stairs-

This is the upstairs tv/play room


Niina's room right ahead.


I'll be doing some painting here this coming summer. Pretty pinks and greens with a dash of yellow.

Quick look into the bathroom


Next up is Saara's room.

A boxed IKEA shelf waiting to be hung up and my my... she did make her bed this morning, although all the furry toys were left in a huge pile on the floor :oP

Through the double doors into our bedroom.

No bedpread... LOL.

Another room waiting for a facelift. After 6+ years of blue we are thinking chocolate, to warm it up a bit.

This is what the cold weather does to the window. Pretty... and telling us new insulation tape might be a good idea...

Hi! Come on in...

...you are very welcome to take a look around my home. Click on the photos to make them bigger.


(these pics were taken a couple summers ago, the yard looks more inviting in summer)

The house was built by my grandfather in 1952 on a servicemen's plot. The state issued plots of land for the soldiers who fought in WW2, my grandfather Jorma being one. He was a contractor by trade so he new what he was doing :o) We renovated the house in 1999. MAJOR renovations, lifted the roof higher..lets put it this way... the basement level, outer walls and fireplace are original...
The grey tiled house you see is my Mom's house.
And the smallest house is the playhouse.
Our frontdoor is right where the two houses meet, behind that bushy tree there, LOL.

Step in, step in... but please take off your shoes now. House rule. You'll find this applies to pretty much all Finnish households.

Thought I'd show you this curious detail... pay no attention to the overflowing baskets of scarfs, hats and gloves :oP My builders calculated the floor a tad wrong... when the new stairs arrived we realized there was a big gap between the railing and the floor. Basically, one step and you'd end up in the basement... flying. I had found this shelf in the attic and we bolted it to the wall as a temporary thing. Six years later it's still there, we've grown to like it.

Shall we go to the livingroom next?

I didn't even try to merge these photos...sorry...
I love this room. The ingenious built in bookshelves were made by my grandfather. It's a long and narrow room. And very much still a work in progress.

There's an odd empty corner behind my recliner (yes, mine..all mine!) that houses the Christmas tree for a few weeks. We are planning on a nice big floor lamp. We also need to find a new chair to replace the red one peeking from behind the fireplace.
Now let's turn around in this doorway (no doors though) and face the diningroom.


This room faces north. Doorways lead to the kitchen and the office. The furniture has been in this room since the 60's, even the chandelier.


The grandfather clock was a 50th birthday present for my grandfather (naturally), it has stood in that corner since it arrived in the house. The cool huge photoframe was a going away present from my friends and neighbors as we left Michigan.
Oh and please ignore the green couch... It belongs upstairs, we brought it down while our red one was being repared. It's going back up tomorrow.

Off to the office and my scraproom, aka disaster zone...

DH and I share the long desk, everything to the right of the lamp is my area :o)
The cupboard (actually opens to a desk) houses most of my scrapping stuff. Stickers etc are on the top and papers are in a IKEA cube on the floor behind my chair. The rug is old and dead ugly. I hope to be rid of it soon... same goes for that horrid lamp hanging from the ceiling.

An unfinished wall hanging and a unfinished quilt on the green chair...sigh. You'll also notice my pile of ironing, Saara's pillowcase project on the floor and an empty canvas and tubes of oilpaint waiting for a revelation...
The room is also screaming for paint.

Quick peek into the half bathroom .


There are photos of our trips to lighthouses along the walls.

OK, kitchen next.

Another long and narrow room.
The granite countertops RULE!


My fave detail. The old name plaque from the door and an old coffee tin and sugar cutters from my grandmother's kitchen cupboards.


The other end of the room. And Niina hauling stuff upstairs LOL.

Kitchen shelf for cookbooks but mostly for my collection of comic books. Classic stuff like Tintin, Asterix, Piko & Fantasio, Lucky Luke and bunches of the weekly Donald Duck magazines. And my Calvin & Hobbes books :o)

This is what I sorely missed in the US, the drying cupboard!
And ok...go ahead... you can look in a few other ones as well :oP



So that is the downstairs.
Maybe tomorrow I'll let you climb up the stairs
*grin*