Sadness...

Woke up to sunshine..

And a message that a good friend had died yesterday.

A friend so positive, vivacious, happy.

A friend who will be sorely missed.

I'm so lucky to have known her.

Dark...

[for my reflections photo series]

I'm not fond of switching back and forth with daylight savings time...

So I get one hour more of light in the morning... I lose one in the afternoon...

Besides that one hour of light disappears pretty darn fast this far north.

It's the time you start wishing for snow and that people would wear loads of reflectors.

I took a little trip to Stockholm over the weekend with the Dollhouse Assocoation folks to visit the miniature fair there. We had a fabulous trip, fun was had by all. We had workshops onboard and shopped to our hearts delight. (photos on that on my dollhouse blog)

I did have a daylights savings time incident however...

Before going to bed saturday night, I set the clock on my phone two hours earlier, to compensate both the time change and time zone change. So my phone asks if I'm changing time zones, I hit yes, and find Sweden. I notice it now says it's GMT +2 hours.

I wake up a few times during the night and at one point look at my phone and notice it's 3.15ish.. I thought i slept some, but when i look again it's only 3.30ish... hit the pillow again...

When we wake up, my friend says we should head for breakfast, I look at my phone and say but it's only just before 6, it won't open for another hour.

Umm...no.. it's 7..

Can't be..

Take a closer look at my phone, click click... hey this now says GMT +1hour.. what the heyyyyy... I hate having a smart phone... switching to daylight savings all on its own..hmmpphh...

Lesson learnt.

From now on I'll change just time zones and compensate for nothing...ha!

I've been home with two sick kids for two days now. Unexpected free days with pay.. I can live with that... we've played yatzee, watched movies (I even sat through Hannah Montana the movie..), needlefelted, scrapped with Niina... all sorts of things. She's now feeling better and the two of us will be heading back to school tomorrow. Saara's staying home for one more day.

The first thing I'll be doing tomorrow is to make the decorative tablerunner (from paper) for the teachers' room for our Halloween treats tomorrow. Our American cook is making pumpkin pie.. yummmmyy....

Oh, and nobody ventured a guess on what I'll be for Halloween... think hearts..

And I need a sceptre.. :D

Another set

1. chick cupcake, 2. Special Winter Bed Bug, 3. Miniature Witch/Wizard Book, 4. impressionist cake, 5. Drunken mice, 6. thought of the day., 7. ginger-skeletons, 8. Shall I change my career to button washer?, 9. Halloween Wreath, 10. Rainbow Bento 1, 11. still playing, 12. Carrot Heads, 13. Miniature red velvet cake 1:12, 14. Apple, 15. IMG_0207.jpg, 16. build a ROBOT cupcakes!

I'm particularly fond of the winter hats for keys :)

Time for some more Flickr faves!

1. A party for you, and you and you!!, 2. Mythbusters: Jaime and Adam, 3. Ministry of Silly Walks Stenciled Tee, 4. Trees etc wip, 5. Embroidery, 6. Still sewing by hand..., 7. Spambroidery, 8. Mobile phone man, 9. Nightstand Makeover, 10. alice in wonderland card guard, 11. irish stones, 12. mad hatters hat, 13. gorgeous kid's room., 14. flowerbird - AVAILABLE, 15. Tigerskin with teeth, 16. The whole Cute-tip family

The third row could give you a tip of what I'm planning to be for Halloween...

Monday

Just so you know

*grin*

(credit where credit's due!)

I love days like this...

...when you notice the beauty of the last flower.


...when you can admire colors.


...when you get to enjoy the sunlight through the leaves.

...when you can find nature's treasures.

...when you can hear the leaves falling.

...when you find your patio table has grown a frosty fur overnight :)

Just chillin'...

We had white stuff falling from the sky yesterday.
Didn't stick though...

I've been surfing on Etsy a lot lately.
The other day I came across this lovely store called Wunderkind's shop.
I saw this cool DIY kit and a lightbulb went on above my head.
I wonder if I could manage... how cool would that be..
And I headed off to to Wunderkind's Flickr gallery for more inspiration.

You see I have been holding onto these two vintage spools not knowing what to so with them.
I finally figured it out.

I even had the wood parts I needed.

I got out the paints and when painting the eyes, realized it would have been wiser to pick up a smaller brush (you know one with three hairs), but I'm still so very happy with these two spool girls.

The bigger one wears a collar made from a bit of umbrella I found on the street and picked up. She's also wearing my favorite bit of ribbon :)

Thanks for the inspiration Wunderkind!

Want to take a walk in the woods with me?

I took my camera with me in Saturday so I can give you a look-see to what I have just across the street.
I'll just take you with me.. like it or not.. LOL!

It is a city owned little forest.
I spent many a childhood day playing in here.
You can't get lost in it, there's a road on every side.


Nothing like walking on fallen leaves.


This maple leaf looks like it's rusted :)

We are heading up this path and then taking a right turn at the silver birch in the middle...

Ooohhh.. pretty colors..

This is why I brought you here.

These are defensive trenches built during WW1 to protect the city.
They were never used.

But they still remain.
We used to come an play here all the time.
There even was a time when a classmate of mine and I snuck out of the window at midnight to come jump over these.

Hey, we had a Vampire Club. We were on grade 4 I think...
Why we used the creaky window instead of the non-creaky door, I'll never know.
Made sense at the time :)
My parents never knew what we did....

Now these stone trenches have been beautifully taken over by moss.

In fact there is lovely soft, lush, green moss everywhere.

And this... makes you wonder..

Many of the paths are now overgrown with new growth... very irritating..

But this little forest still has it's moments for me.

I can still find pussy willows, woodland anemones, lily of the valley, blueberries and raspberries here.

Did you enjoy our little walk?

Who would have known?

Last spring when I complained about my chronically sore heel to my doctor, he told me to get myself a pair of Crocs for the summer.

Crocs?
Is he serious?
The ugliest shoes on the planet?!?
Nope. No way.
No how.

And I had some painkillers, rested my foot and moved my nordic walk route from asphalt to sand.
And you know what, my heel wasn't all that bad over the summer.
Until work began again.

Two days of those stairs and I was in pain again.
Damnation.

So I gave in.
Went downtown and bought myself a pair of ugly shoes.

The sales lady tried to get me to buy those decorations that go on top...
I looked at her and said that my 8 year old likes those.. personally I just want my ugly shoes to be as unnoticable as possible.
Oh but the decorations add so much character, she says.
Yeah.. I'll go with the basic black, thanks.

One day at work with these shoes and I decided that maybe my doctor in fact knew what he was talking about... ha.
There was such a difference.

And a couple weeks later I went and bought another pair, so I have one pair in the classroom and another at the afternoon club premises.

I sill think they are ugly.
I wish they made a cuter style...
But as far as work shoes go, they are the best I've ever had...

Happy half birthday!

My niece is six months old today.



Yesterday they dropped by to pick up our trusty Tripp Trapp chair for Julia.
We had to test it right away.

She was so excited to sit at the table!

..umm... auntie...what's with the camera?
I'm trying to eat here...

It was so funny how she kept tilting herself to the left.. a couple more weeks and she'll be able to sit upright through a meal ;)

Think I have enough?

Bracelets...

It all started with these two I made as a part of my studies in the spring (we had a theme night with all sorts of crafts)


Of course after that night I went out and bought glass beads to make myself a green one.

I have to have my green fix.
You all should know that by now...

And just a couple of weeks back all these happened....

Oooh yeah.

Earrings too.

I like the heaviness of the glass on my wrist.

The way it absorbs body heat.

The way it catches the light.

And best of all.. I get unique jewelry.

It's dark out there...

There was a storm last night...rain and wind..

Woke up to beautiful clouds.

Then it started raining again... pouring in fact.

All day long.

A really dark day.
I've been on the computer much of the day, writing an article for the Finnish Dollhouse Association's magazine. Mary's house will be featured. Quite exciting.

Making dinner...

I rescued the last sunflowers from the frost yesterday.
The olive oil bottle is upside down in a hole in the stone counter (the holes are there so the heat from the radiator isn't trapped) so I can get the last drips.

Potatoes, cherry tomatoes and chicken in a pan... yum....

Nice Italian red wine..
And I'm baking cinnamon rolls in a bit too :)

loving it

The angle of the sun.

Frosty mornings.

Colors.

And woollen socks ;)