Picking my jaw up from the floor...

I just won a dollhouse.
I mean...
I WON A DOLLHOUSE!
I WON A HUGE DOLLHOUSE!!!!!

Let me refrase that.

I WON THIS GORGEOUS DOLLHOUSE!!!


Eeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!

Holy crap.
I can't believe it.

All I can say is GREENLEAF ROCKS!

ugh...

Ignore the look of the blog.
While trying to learn this blogger beta crap and uploading templates I did something and out the window it went.
I had saved by old template but now it's telling me something's not right.
arrrrgghhh.

I'll try to get this sorted in the next few days.
I have to get it looking nice again.

**edited**
I've gotten most of my links back up and my banner (and now it looks like it shoulds too LOL)...
Now if someone can tell me how on earth I'm able to push my sidebar to the right side? And how to make my slide fit? It's chopped off now...
Oh the joy of coding...
yuck.

Happy Halloween...finnish style ha!

The view outside my window at 11am:






It's been coming down for 30 minutes.
The forecast is for 20cm/8inches in 24 hours.
Hello winter!


It's cozy up with hot chocolate kinda day.
Of course the kid in that photo there was jumping up and down for joy when she got home from school.
Me?
I have a sneaky suspicion I need to shovel snow still today.

But before that I had to do this:

It looks like the ghost is smiling... there's a dimple in the pumpkin.

As for my view...
This was taken 5 minutes ago:

Certainly more white.

Who cares?
Because

• I bought the last needed winter gear on saturday
• I have candles and firewood
• winter tires are on the car
• left over goulash in the fridge
• and some red wine in the cupboard

Life is good.

Anyone for irish coffee?

Really yucky weather today.
Cold, windy and wet.
And cold.
Takes a while to get used to the cold again.
Dug out my woollen socks.
Now where's that whisky...?
Heh.

It was a perfect day for visiting the evil place though.
I'm talking of IKEA of course.
Went in to get hangers and candles.
Sigh.
They had their Christmas stuff out.
So naturally I had to get these:


I can never walk out of there with just what is on my list.
Never.
Simply not possible.

Not that I was complaining...

boo.

Meet the corpse bride.
She can't find her groom anywhere.
I wonder why.
*insert evil grin*
(last year's ghost cape, my graduation dress, my mom's old veil and you can't see but she's wearing pantyhose with painted bones)

She won the scariest outfit award in her class :o)
Oh and her homeroom teacher Steve said her groom must have taken one look at her and fled for his life.
Yup.
That was the look we were going for.

Then something a bit sweeter.


The flower fairy.
All fluttery and glittery in teal and turqoise.
(The dress I sewed up yesterday, still had to do last minute revisions this morning)

I just love Halloween.
Wish we'd celebrate it here.
I suppose I'm lucky to have the school celebrate it.
Boo.

Coming up for air

Drowning in Halloween costumes.

Have to finish the flower fairy outfit and think of the makeup for the corpse bride outfit.
School Halloween party is tomorrow.

I'm going back under.
I'll surface tomorrow with photos.

I'm back!

I finally have my new glasses!
I'm loving these.
Sorry about the shaky shot. Not so easy taking self potraits on a very grey day.

And check out my new highlights. Cool huh?

Last week was fall break and also as it turned out a unannounced blog break week. It was a good week. I get to have my night-owl schedule of staying up until midnight and getting up at 8 instead of the 6.30 as it is was once again this morning.
On wednesday the girls went to stay with my in-laws (they came home yesterday) and I was able to get out all the secret stuff I'm working on.
And I can't show you. Until later. Sorry.

I also had my cousin here for the weekend. I love having her around. She just lives too far away (2,5 hour drive). On saturday we had a fabulous shopping time downtown. And then she helped me with my secret stuff. And we did a lot of girl talk.

And on the Greenleaf Miniature Forum I won this:

A mini village kit. Those houses are about 5wide x 4deep x 6high. In inches. I think this'll be a Christmas village. This was just so cool. I never win usually.

Friday the girls have Halloween parties at school and I have costumes to finish. Wish me luck. I also have to finish my AMLT scrap projects by the end of the week. Not to mention clean Niina's bookcase (again... ugh) and the basement shelves. Oh and go buy new light switches to the sauna as my bro with his magic fingers (he also broke my mom's microwave...) broke one. Well he claims he just turned it on and nothing happened but I say his fingers were in a bad mood :oP

Aaaahhh yes and then there's laundry. And those secrets.

I'll try to get here atleast every second day this week, ok?

Photo coming next week

Of my new cool do.
Not much different, just more stripes than before.
I'm loving it.

Also because I'll be needing a new profile pic.
I should get my new glasses by wednesday.
A whole new look.
Want to hear something funny... my hairdresser has the exact same frames. I only noticed yesterday when I walked in the salon.
I'll be so happy to get rid of these old ones. My right eye has gone from -3.25 to -2.50 so the lens is too strong, it is really bugging me.

I never did get around to scrap last night.
I found online magazine versions of my favorite miniature magazine.
Dolls House World.
Happy time.

But today is rainy so I'll be cutting paper.

Marie: the beta blogger refuses to remember me. I have to log on every single time. Bugs me to no end, LOL. However it does publish posts in an instant.

Karen: Thanks for checking on the tulle. I didn't have any luck online either...long sigh.
My lovely white pen has disappeared!!! I even tied a pink ribbon on it, so I'd see it instantly. I'm thinking one of the girls borrowed it and isn't fessing up. I've been trying to find it for weeks...grrrr....

Breakfast tea... yeah... that sounds good.
See ya!

Odds and ends

-First something fun in mini size.

I got my knitting magazine yesterday and saw this:

This was meant to be a pin, but omit the pin part and voila!

They were so simple to make. I made some for all of us girls in the house.

All you do is cut a small piece from a straw and needle the thread until you can see no straw. I used a tiny piece of paper for the band.

-I just dug out my scrapbooking stuff. A bit over a week off has done good. And by off I mean not a single scrapping thought.

-I love good tv.

Both "The Sopranos" and "Six Feet Under" (last seasons on both, so you who have watched better keep those lips zipped) started this week. The latter is one of my all time favorite shows.

Also for a few weeks I've been enjoying "House MD".

Now I really enjoy hospital shows. And detective stories. Combine the two AND throw in Hugh Laurie... what's not to love.

Hugh Laurie has made such an impression on me. We get a lot of British tv production here and on my list of favorites is "Jeeves and Wooster". I loved the books (by P.G. Wodehouse)before I saw the show. Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry were such a perfect fit.

And 13 years later?

Oh so much more charisma.

-Getting my hair done today. Yay!

-Guess what it said above before I corrected the typos...ugh...

-Chilly morning. Had to dig out my gloves and scarf.

Nadine, I have no idea why it is warmer here. We've had an unusually warm fall. Not normal at all. We still have green leaves in the trees...go figure.

-I switched over to the blogger beta version earlier this week. I preferred the old. But now I can't go back...waaahhh... and hmmpphh.

-Petra and I went looking for wedding gowns again this week. And found THE one. Gorgeous. White embroidered top and copper dress. The moment she pulled it on and looked at herself in the mirror, we knew. It's now been ordered.

Now all we need is copper colored soft tulle for the girls' dresses. CANNOT find it here. Not in the right shade or the soft kind. All the colored tulle here is the rough kind, what's up with that?

I might have to look online, unless a stateside friend has seen any and would be willing to mail some for me? The good thing about tulle is it rolls into a small space and weighs next to nothing.

-OK, these Heidi Grace papers are calling my name. Did you know they come flocked? They feel like velvet...

Have a good weekend everyone!

Good deed

New scissors.
In pink.
Love supporting a finnish company and a good cause.
All wrapped up in pink.
How can you not have pink scissors?

In one week I'll have new glasses.
Yippeeee!
And my right eye sees a lot better.
Nice.

Niina's dollhouse is almost ordered, just waiting on the confirmation from Greenleaf.
Ended up changing the house though.
I had failed to look at the size of The Laurel and it was quite big.
That would have been unfair to big sis.
As she loudly proclaimed...
So, we're staying in with the cottage theme.

The Arthur it is.


Still has a porch.
I'll have a busy December building this puppy up.
Aren't I lucky?

On my mind today

It wouldn't be a bad thing to light a candle today in memory of Anna Politkovskaya.
A brave woman not afraid to speak the truth.
Refused to be afraid.

Her funeral was held today in Moscow.

The newspaper didn't have too many good news this morning.
Don't you just hate that?
Whatever happened to reporting about the good stuff?

What's good in your life today?
I am interested to know.

Me?
-I have an appointment with the eye doc so I can get my new glasses soon.
-Niina's taking a nap.
-it's a tomato soup kinda day, mmmm....

-and I realized a little break from scrapping can be a good thing

My dear Laura, I keep forgetting to thank you! Niina loved her shimmering bike gear! You are the best!!!!

It's done! Now the fun starts...

I get to start decorating.

But before that...

I think a happy dance is in order!

It's friday? Really?

Where did the week go?

(Thanks Sharyn for reminding me I have a neglected blog)

Yes, I have been busy working on Saara's dollhouse. Re-glueing, wallpapering, painting. Takes surprisingly long as you always have to step away to let stuff dry. But one more wall to wallpaper and one wall to re-attach and it's done.
Except for the floors, but that can wait a few days.

Here are a few shots of this project.


...weighing down a warped floor while the glue dried...

I'm also looking at the possibility of ordering Niina's dollhouse online. The cost could be the same and the house so much cuter.
Or how do you like this one?


It's two kits. I think it looks adorable. Plus it is easy to build. Plus it's from the same manufacturer as the two we already have.

I've been spending time offline this week as my shoulders were getting pretty sore again. I got a massage yesterday, mmmmm.... My nordic walking routine got screwed when I was sick and I spent too much time on the computer. Not a good equasion.

I also visited an interesting place this week, the new mormon temple. They had two weeks of open house. So we went. Simply out of curiosity. One of my favorite religion class subjects was other religions, it never hurts to know a bit more. I had no idea what a mormon temple would look like, I found the visit informative. Even being the atheist I am. Knowledge is a good thing. Besides the temple was beautiful.

Not much going on here...
Planning Halloween costumes (the girls have a party at school).
One more week of school before fall break.
Still unseasonally warm.
I haven't scrapped all week.
But I did get a box yesterday... filled with new stuff.
So maybe...just maybe I could get something done this weekend.

That and raking.
It really is fall.

It's a never-ending vicious (if fun) cycle!

What is?
You'll see...

Just read on.

Our visit to the miniature store was a huge success on Friday. A very small store but we managed to spend nearly an hour in there.
New treasures every place you looked.
Lucky for us it started pouring outside (and we didn't have umbrellas) so we were forced to stay a bit longer.

I stayed true to my budget and got only the items badly needed.

Mary now has some lovely cream colored furniture in her livingroom. A couch, a chair, a coffee table and a magazine rack. I'm told she's not happy with the pillows and prefers needlepoint... sigh.

We also found a perfectly sized side table for the kitchen.

And a shelf. Still need to attach it properly..it came crashing down... in the middle of the night. Have I mentioned the dollhouse is still in our bedroom? Yeah...that was fun...

Saara bought a new stove and sink for her kitchen and has assigned me to start renovations on her dollhouse now.

Yes..it is kinda bare inside.
I'm starting today by glueing the downstairs wall properly as it wiggles. And we can't have that.
And I think I'll start painting the outside walls.
She picked a happy color, I'll let you guess...

So onto the vicious cycle bit.
Niina has announced that all she wants from Santa this year is her own dollhouse.
She's going to be extra good and only wish for this one thing.
Oh boy... I mean.. oh girl...
See, her bunny family is in desperate need of a home.

They got the discarded kitchen furniture Saara doesn't need anymore...


So, I'm told Santa is looking into this:

The front and roof are hinged and open up.
You notice of course that Santa has some major painting to do...
Not to mention to gather all grandparents and godparents together to make this dream come true.

Santa better get started...

Oh, I've also been told that the advent calendar this year, should be mainly in miniature.
I think I can live with that.

PS. My banner is looking funny... I already tried fixing it. I think it's all photobucket's fault. It shouldn't have that odd stripe on the right...

Challenge page #4

Had to include: something blue, at least 4 brads, handwriting, a heart and at least 3 types of ribbon.
If it isn't obvious, the title is made of MOD stickers on brads.
I also a used a sheet of old KI rub ons for a 'make no sense what-so-ever' border.

More on our moniature adventures (yes, the saga continues) tomorrow. I need to get offline again. We've had thinder storms circling us for the past 4 hours.