Happy Friday!

It is a lovely morning.
Bread is rising, sun is shining, Natasha Bedingfield in the background (I'm so in love with her cd Unwritten!!) and my couch came home today.
Re-upholstered and looking good. We missed it!

It looks like our livingroom again.
And no, I don't have curtains on those windows. My grandma used to have thick green velvet sidecurtains and white voile curtains completely hiding the view outside. I could never understand why. (I actually just searched for a photo of them for a good 10 minutes.. I can't remember where I put that pile of pictures!) We have been talking about cherrywood blinds, but that boils down to money... custom size windows..custom blind prices. Ugh.

February!

My birthday month.
One of the reason's I like february is that you can now see that the darkness is fading. It's light at 9am :o)
Oh yes... we are going forward to spring... even if that isn't until April ROFL!

Also in February (the 5th to be exact) we celebrate a poet named Runeberg. We celebrate by eating these delicious (well...for a lack of a better word) muffins. Come to think of it, we are actually celebrating the ingenius concoction of the poet's wife. The legend tells that surprise visitors came by and Mrs. National Poet threw bits of what was in her pantry and whipped up this delicacy.

recipe follows:

Runeberg Tortes

150g (5,3 oz) soft butter, 1dl (1/2 cup) sugar, 1/2 dl (1/3 cup) brown sugar, 2 eggs, 1 1/2 dl (1/2 + 1/3 cup tough measurement to translate LOL) flour, 1 1/2 dl (1/2 + 1/3 cup) fine crumbs ( dry white bread with a few leftover xmas gingerbread cookies thrown in ), 1 1/2 dl (1/2 + 1/3 cup) fine ground almonds, 2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 dl (1/3 cup) cream, raspberry jam.

Mix sugars and butter, add eggs one at a time mixing well. Combine dry ingredients and add to butter mixture little by little with the cream. Divide into muffin pan (lined with pretty paper cups). Make a small hole on top of every one with a spoon and ad a dollop of raspberry jam. Bake at 200C (390F) for 15 minutes. Once they have cooled add a bit more jam on top and decorate with icing (mixture of powdered sugar and water).

I need to bake another batch because these are all gone now.

I also wanted to show you a little something I did yesterday. I was completely inspired by Keisha's/KLCards lovely chipboard art pieces.

I've had these Heidi Swapp chipboard frames for a while, didn't really have a use for them. So I painted them white, added some doo dads and ta-da! Wall art.

I'll be posting these on 2peas with more detailed photos later... it's down right now. Oh the woes of the web...LOL!

Traffic :o)

I noticed I'm getting quite a few views on this little blog of mine.

Would you please let me know who you are? Just give a me quick comment , thanks.

Oh and if any of you happen to be in the neighborhood... drop on by. I have oven fresh oat buns and banana muffins waiting :o)

Thoughts on a Sunday

-nice to notice how a few euros spent at IKEA can make cooking more fun. Just look at how those colors pop up from the black cutting board!

-Going through last year's Creating Keepsakes magazines armed with an exacto knife is therapeutical :o) Found a few ideas I really need to give try. And made space for this year's magazines.

-I really need Natasha Bedingfield's cd. Heard her on the radio the other day and it just made me happy!

-Days like today make me proud to be Finnish. To see 100% of the presidential election votes counted in less than two hours. Now that is impressive business. The sitting president won by only 3%. Means she got 113 000+ votes more than my candidate. After the first round the percentage was 46 to 24, so my guy put up a good campaign. Like I read in the newspaper today: the first male candidate with balls.

-Staying on elections... why do all four major channels have to have their own program? Nothing but numbers on tv all night...

-Glass of red wine and Eros Ramazotti singing... mmm....

-my Dad came for a visit on Friday, with a new puppy I knew nothing about. A cute 2 month old Finnish Lapphund they call Karhu aka Bear. He does have a fancy Sami (language spoken in Lappland) name, but my Dad didn't remember it LOL!
The girls loved this fellow.

Pretty day!

Sun is out and it's a comfortable -3C (26F). Perfect winter day. The kind of day you really want to spend some time outdoors.
We decided to go skating. Sounded like a brilliant plan until we found out Niina's skates were too small. Total bummer.

The only other thing planned was a grocery run. But here's the dilemma:
We want to walk. The store is not far at all... but I need to haul back 4 liters (1 gallon) of milk, 2kg (4,5 lbs) flour, half a kilo (2 lbs) sugar, juice etc... heavy stuff.

Answer?

Toboggan.

And look, I even fit the kid on there!

*grin*

And I do believe it qualifies as a work out, right?

She's five!

Yes, she really is... wow.

What a day yesterday, I really could have done with a little less exitement, LOL!

I took Niina to preschool at 9am, came home to read the newspaper and to have my breakfast in peace before hitting party preparations head on. Guests due to arrive at 2pm.
10.10am I get a call from the school office, Saara is complaining an ear ache. For real? Does it really really hurt? (she's prone to exaggerations, so the question was called for) It aches bad. Sigh. Told her to have her phone handy while I call DH. He's on the mark (for once), he'll hop on the bus, come get the car and take her to the doc. I call the doc, sure there's an appointment 10.50 am. Shit. (didn't say that out loud...) When's the next one? 3.45pm.. ugh... I'll take the first one. Call DH- stay right there, change of plans. I need to jump in the car and go pick up the kid myself. Have I mentioned it's 6km (3,7 miles) to school?
While driving, DH calls me to say he's on the bus stop and to pick him up. What? THIS bus stop??!! Change over three lanes quick as lightning, break and DH hops in. He's called Saara to get dressed and walk down the street. Cool. We pick her up, DH drops me off at home while they go to the docs (yes an ear infection) and get antibiotics.
Me? I'm in turbo gear to get stuff ready. Have to ask my mom to go pick up Niina, since my plan includes a shower before 2pm...

I did get everything done :o)

The butterfly shaped sandwiches were a big hit!

That's a devil's food cake under there. The b-day girl insisted on a chocolate cake and then would have nothing to do with it. Not one bite. Oh well...more for mom...

I had painted these wings in advance, the girls got tiny butterfly stickers, sequins and glitter glue to decorate them. They loooooooved them!

Niina was feeling more than a little cranky at her party. I had to take her aside twice for a little talking to. Sigh.

Even Saara made herself wings. It was actually good to have her home for the party. She was so good in coming up with fun games.

This is one of my fave shots from yesterday even if it is all blurred...

A few hours after the party, Saara comes to say her face itches. She has big red bumpy blotches all over. Just what I needed... she has developed an allergy to amoxillin. Had to call for a new prescription this morning.

Today I have been at the computer picking out photos to get developed. I think I'll make a run to the mall tomorrow.. I need some new inspiration LOL! The kodak booth awaits.

For those of you who asked about the crayon craft, here's a link for you: http://www.marthastewart.com/page.jhtml?type=content&id=channel178245&site=kids

Some photos from yesterday

Our crayon crafting :o)

Isn't it cool when even trash is pretty?

They didn't smell as appealing as muffins LOL!

Finished product.

Still as cold as yesterday. I'm off to vacuum the house to keep warm :oP

Damn Siberians!

They should keep their high pressure fronts from invading us. It was -56C (-70F) in Siberia and -37C (-34F) in Moscow yesterday and -19C (-2F) here today. And folks, it's only going to keep getting colder.

Brrr.....

'Dig out the blanket, wool socks and sit inside' kinda days.
Alas, I had to go to the post office and grocery store today. I walked. Well, I mean it's only ten minutes to the stores. Layering is the magic word. After a lifetime of living weeks of weather this cold, you adapt. I might not like it, but I know what to do. I survived my walk. I even bought ice cream since there was no danger of it defrosting on the way :o)
But you know what was really annoying... the inside of your nose freezing.

I should have been doing laundry today, I will still go throw a load in.
But I had a whiny and bored kid at my hands. I have to thank Martha Stewart for sending that newsletter today. She had a perfect craft there. We made big chunky crayons from all those little bits that accumulate. We made fun colors too, mixed four greens and voila- perfect crayon to color grass! It was easy too, if slightly messy. You cut up the crayons to pea sized pieces, mix the colors you want and put into mini cake baking tins. Put into a oven preheated to 65C (150F) until they have melted (about 20 minutes) let cool and pop out. I stuck mine outside for just a bit, but in your case a freezer will do the job ROFL!

And I finished the baby album. I'm so proud of myself to have gotten that done so fast. I'll show you photos tomorrow. Now if I could only get the last 7 entries of that Xmas journal done. Next on my list. Can't leave that hanging for too long or I'll never finish. I know me.

So those butterflies...

Niina will be five next Monday. FIVE! She was just born... I can't believe she'll be five. Five.. it's just not sinking in. Can you tell? LOL!

Yesterday morning she was looking through the Family Fun's Parties book (that book is saving me from some major headaches, thank you Christine!) and then yelled out "MOOOOOMMMMMM!!! I want a butterfly party!" I wasn't surprised, butterflies and fairies are big in her world right now.

So I read it through, decided what to do, still mulling over a few things. Depends on whether I find the right supplies. Boy do I ever miss the party supply stores now. But hey, you gotta work with what you have, right?
Goodie bags for guests have not been a part of Finnish parties for very long. It's nothing as elaborate as in the US though. I always try to think out of the box.
So, I bought the birthday girl these beautiful butterfly wings. Teal, turqoise and lilac. Beeaauuuutiful. I also bought several big sheets of cardstock. I'll be cutting out 7 pairs of butterfly wings out of those and painting them with watercolors to match. The guests can decorate the wings with turqoise and green glitter glue and sequins , butterfly stickers, lilac and pink fabric flowers and ribbons. And the wings will be the favor they take home.
There will also be a butterfly cake, naturally. Atleast that is easy to make!

Last night I played in Photoshop and made the invitation:

The text says: Welcome to a party.

I am looking for ideas for some fun butterfly games however. I will do a flower hunt, I'm probably going to cut a bunch of flowers using scraps from my endless supply and attaching a candy in the middle. Any ideas for something else? Or shall I just let them flutter about prettily? :o)

It just started snowing, it's also getting colder. The cold front is approaching, it'll be well in the teens by tomorrow. Alas there is also wind... I hate wind chills. You end up looking like the Michelin man with all the layers.

And yes Laura, I did mean you. ;o)

Tagged, tagged and tagged once more for good measure!

And just so you know I don't even know how come I didn't come back here all last week. We'll just blame it on the January blaah's, ok?

So I was tagged by Courtney, Robin and Jill. Guess I should get to it...

Four jobs you have had in your life:
Breakfast waiter at a fancy hotel
Salesperson at a gift store
Had my own flowershop for a bit
and my most challenging one: mom :o)

Four movies you would watch over and over:
Chocolat (be warned to have chocolat at hand!)
Any Wallace and Gromit flick (long or short)
Das Boot (the ultimate submarine movie)
...ummm.... need one more...
Oh yes... Silverado

Four places you have lived:
Helsinki, Finland
Olympia, WA
Espoo, Finland
Lake Orion, MI

Four TV shows you love to watch:
(right now)
Everwood
Desperate Housewives
CSI
Deadwood

Four places you have been on vacation:
Sailing on the Baltic Sea
caravaning in Norway
back in '99 we drove from MI to Florida to go to Disneyworld
England

Four websites I visit daily:
The TIPster message board
2 peas in a bucket
several blogs

Four of my favorite foods:
Pasta
love anything with parmesan and prosciutto
Tomato soup
bread, any shape or form

Four places I would rather be right now:
A week from today and have Niina's b-day party behind me LOL
Nosing around Jill's store :o)
Drinking a dacquiri someplace warm
Living next door to my Sis

Four bloggers I am tagging:
Laura
Sharyn (just cause I know you hate these.. hehehee)
Shelby
Tawny

*grin*

I need to run now, but I promise to come back tomorrow to tell you about the party plans.
Fluttering sparkling butterflies.
OY!

Back to real life

Schools started today. It's nice and quiet in the house. For another hour until I pick up Niina from preschool anyway.
I'm sooo tired. The entire vacation I've been back to my night owl ways, hardly once going to bed before 1am. Last night I'm in bed at midnight. An hour later I'm still not sleeping. And at 1.30 Niina pees in her bed. Ugh.
So I wasn't ready for my alarm a bit past 7am.

I enjoyed a nice breakfast (tea, half a grapefruit and 2 pieces of rye bread) reading the newspaper and right now I should be paying bills, but instead found myself surfing online and ended up checking out the Mark Messier tribute pages on the New York Rangers website. He is the Captain of course and my all time favorite hockey player.
But I should pay those bills though.
In just a bit.

It's still nice and quiet here.

Getting unstuck

I got stuck on my journal and have been falling behind day after day.
Today I finally got three pages done, hoping to get the rest done soon also.

I recycled the hearts from gift tags I made. The middle tag is one my DH made for me (although I did cut out the heart LOL)

I got stuck on this page for the longest time, just didn't know what to do with it. Still not sure if I like it much.

Give me light. Candles, strings of tiny bulbs, a roaring fire...

I've been working on LO's and schtuff for the next AMLT gallery. I'm pretty hyped about this, you'll be seeing some fun things with our theme for next month! Totally worth the wait :o)
I've been named Creative Team Leader with Courtney Kelly, we'll be issuing challenges for you to take part in. If you haven't already signed up for the A Million Little Things newsletter, go do it now: http://amillionlittlethings.com/index.php

What are you waiting? I said now ;o)

On sale...

...two girls.
Dirt cheap.

I'm so ready for school to start on Monday.
*sigh*

Yup, that's me up there

Too much of a papers and scissors gal to ever turn a digital scrapper, but I do play a little sometimes. I have fun making new banners every month!
This photo of me and my mom was taken when I was 5 or 6 months old.
I just realized looking at it, that the small tree behind me is the big chestnut tree in my front yard. Wow, it's grown a lot in the past almost 37 years!
You can see the tree on this layout: http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/pg.asp?gallery=1&cmd=display&layout_id=332317&show=2

And I did take a photo to ring in the new year, took a shot of the one flower I buy for myself every Christmas, a blue hyasinth. Love the scent. And it has to be blue. Just has to.

It's a blustery kind of day here, dark...since the clouds are hanging low. Occasional snow flurries. Mika is back at work, the girls still have this week off school. I think we might have a scrapping day today. All of us.
Sounds good.

Carte blanche

It's almost an hour into 2006 in my nook of the world.
January 1st.
Clean slate.
Carte blanche.

I wish you all a happy one.
Onnellista Uutta Vuotta my friends.

Almost the new year already!

I hope you all had a lovely holiday!
We did :o)
I might even go to detail one of these days, but with the kids home and even DH off work this week (it's his birthday today!) my computer time is limited.
I will share this photo from Christmas Eve. Not your typical Christmas photo, but one of my favorite things.

This is a shot taken at the biggest graveyard in Helsinki at 8.30pm on Christmas Eve. The tradition here is to take candles to your loved ones graves at Christmas, it is an ocean of flickering candles where ever you look. I only wish I had taken my tripod along... this shaky shot was taken leaning to a tree and holding my breath LOL!

I've fallen behind on my journal again, not surprisingly though. But here are days 21-25.

Photos of my home that day. And yes... we were not supposed to use red and green...but ROFL... call me a rebel.

My to-do list that day. I only missed one thing then....and that was ironing...

Our stockings, not part of Finnish Christmas, we adopted them during our years in Michigan. We also adapted the tradition to fit, ours are dug into already the morning of Christmas Eve.

The big day for us. Family, food and gifts galore.

Christmas Day for us is lazing around and playing with our new toys :o)

And if you haven't figured out my format... the same square and rectangle shapes, white journaling around the edges, ribbon tab and a transparency on every page. And sticking to a color group.

By popular demand...LOL!

Some of my decorations... You have already seen my tree :o)

- Diningroom -
The table still needs a tablecloth. It was there, but DH managed to spill milk all over it, sigh. A grey cloth covered with a white organza with silver squares. I promise to take another photo...with fresh roses too LOL!
My favorite ornament is the angel dress I bought a few years a go. I attached some feathers to it, it's place is on the chandelier among the glass ornaments.

-Livingroom -
The tree naturally. Lots and lots of candles. Our stockings, handmade by me. And my happy "tonttu's" aka elfs. One bought, one made by Niina, the candle wax stained yarn ones used to hang in my grandmother's tree. They like to team up with the horse my uncle played with as a kid. On my tree hang two sugarplum fairies, the blue is Niina's there is a yellow one for Saara. I made those some years back. I love my 'snowballs', clear glass balls, I inserted a white feather. The beaded star is this year's find.

Some yummies from yesterday's baking. I love these Target bought Snickers tins from '96, '97 and '98. Do they still have Norman Rockwell paintings on them? I'd love to have just one more.

- Kitchen -
The Merry Christmas sign was a gift from my new friend Anna. I have my Christmas quilted wall hanging up, extra ornaments in a jar on top of my oven, and our advent candelabra doubles as a card holder :o)

There is never enough light. Never.

Peace

I'm baking all day today. Wanted to send a Christmas wish of peace to all of you.

These are some traditional Finnish star shaped prune jam tarts (don't be scared by the prune bit, I make my own jam and add a bit off brandy in it, makes all the difference!)

Don't you just love your mailman...

...during these days before Christmas? I do! He brought me a fabulous secret santa package from my TIPster gal Karen. I'm grinning here!

I got some great stuff to play with and the girls got some Pepperidge Farm goldfish and Cheetos!

Another thing I'm really impressed with the way our new neighborhood grocery store owner is making an effort. They held a kids concert the other week at the store, 20 minutes with a favorite crocheted teddybear Titi-Nalle (big as life, think Barney, but white and 500% less annoying LOL) which ended with goodie bags for the kids. These two weeks before Christmas you have been able to get a cup of hot coffee or glogg (Scandinavian Chrsitmas time drink) and gingerbread coookies when you go shopping. Today they had gingerbread decorating for kids (no age limit heheheee) plus tonight the doorbell rang and I was given a bag with a Christmas card and bread as a present.

I said it was impressing.
wow.
All this just a 300 meter (about the same in yards) walk away.
Gotta love that.

About the 'Journal Your Christmas' class I'm taking:
I signed up for the class here http://www.shimelle.com/ . Check out some of the classes starting, there are some interesting ones!
I get a daily email prompting me to journal about something specific that day. Also included is an artistic challenge, some days I'm able to incorporate it, others not. I'm just glad that isn't a big deal, after all it is an art journal and there are no rules.

And TA-DAA!!!
I'm caught up!!!! Here are days 17 to 20.

The journaling is about giving out the perfect gifts, as in the recipient is 'getting' it too. I have a tradition with my dear friend that every year I make a new ornament for their tree. And every year they speculate what I'll think of this year.

Christmas dinner. OK, I wasn't able to do the artistic challenge, but I did include a photo of the bread I baked... does that count? And I had to edit that Shakespeare quote just a bit :oP

My letter to Santa. Yes, I've been extra good this year :o)
That Santa ding is one of my faves.

mail. *grin* I had saved that moomin stamp for something special. This was it.

Our tree is up!

I let the girls have free range this year, they said they liked the pink ornaments (surprise). Mika does not like the results, but I've told him to shut up and just live with it. He's more of a monochromatic guy LOL!

I've still got lots to do this week, still haven't figured what to get my in-laws...

Aaahhh... the mailman is here, looks like he'll be running a good three hours late this week!

I've also been working on my xmas journal, I'm hoping to actually get caught up this week. Here are days 13 to 16.

Handing out presents rituals. I painted the Santa transparency from the back.

Favorite Christmas song (It Must Have Been Ol' Santa Claus), I blame my sister for this LOL!

OK, so I didn't use the words visitors, or company...or keep it simple.. so sue me heheheeee...

Kiitos= thank you. Among the things I am grateful for are a working oven, the mailman, hugs, candles and love.