I finally got the change to go to a fleamarket and oh boy, did I have some fun. I even managed to keep myself calm and be rather selective with the things I purchased. I came home with only two pieces of 60's fabrics instead of the normal stack of fabric.

So far, my winter holiday has consisted mainly of wiping the runny noses of my daughters, cleaning the house and knitting. I might report the knitting part of it later this week, after my husband has arrived from his business trip to States.

A Day at Home

My toddler caught the flu on Friday and was still today recovering at home. Yesterday my husband worked from home office and took care of the little one, today it was my turn. Luckily she was feeling a lot better today.

I enjoyed as much as I could our day at home; the late wake-up, time to do some postponed chores, seeing the sun and my kid play around the house and reading blogs. Even the postman had something nice to offer; I received the seeds i ordered weeks ago. I didn't bring myself to crafting, but I shopped some yarn for spring and summertime knits. Perhaps I'll get them before the next week's winter vacation. If so, I might even find time to start the projects I'm planning.

A House of colour

Today I made in our flat a little tour in search for orange and green colours and I was amazed with the results. There are definitely more of those colours around here than I had realized. I guess, I will have to give up and state that we are a family for colours. I keep on admiring all those beautiful, serene houses with all things white and pastel in magazines and blogs, but I think that is never really going to happen in here. Do you find these colours in your home?

Vitamins for the weary

Dear reader, you might have noticed that lately I have had a thing with orange and green things. Well, it seems to be going on. Now the orange has taken the form of smoothies or fruities in our house. My smoothie maker gets usually a nice holiday during the months from October to December, but spring is on its' way and vitamins are on the menu, so the smoothie maker has to serve us in order to deserve its holidays later on.

We have a habit of buying or picking up fresh berries in the autumn for the freezer. Last fall we put 15 kg of strawberries, 5kg of lingonberries, 5kg of blueberries and almost the same amount of rasberries for the winter in freezer. The first two months I never use anything out of the freezer in the fear of eating too much of it and being left with nothing for the spring time. When the February comes I usually notice there's plenty of berries left and I start using them on daily basis. Making fruitie smoothies is a very good way of eating those berries and getting those vital vitamins we need for the last of winter months.




Working has already reduced my crafting time dramatically, mostly because now I have to use the time for sleeping I earlier used for crafting. I need to get up at six o'clock, so you can't find me sewing or knitting in the middle of the night. However, I have started to knit a pair of socks with cables for Elsi. I can't get myself ripping the leg part I have accomplished so far, even though there are too many purls between the cables. My daughter needs new woolen socks and I know she'll be happy with these, even when the cables are not the prettiest possible.

Laskiainen

Most of us Finns have been today sledging, playing with the snow and eating whipped cream-filled buns i.e. laskiaispulla, that's at least what we've been up to. I was planning to take the easiest way with my laskiaispulla, and buy some ready-to-bake buns and just do the stuffing with cream, jelly and marzipan by myself. However, I was forced to change my plans as all the shops were out of stock with freezer buns. So, I had to bake my own. Luckilly this time around I'm happy with the results of my kitchen efforts. That's not always the case while baking buns. I often make the mistake of comparing my buns with those of my mum's and mostly I just can't compete with hers.



Tomorrow I'm heading for work. Part of processing that fact, was trying to make my teacher's diary to look a bit more alluring. The original design of the book is completely boring.


I sew for it covers out of my favourite print from Marimekko, called Afrikan kuningatar. I put a thin padding into the covers, quilted some pictures of the fabric with a running stitch and added a couple of vintage buttons for eyes. Now I can bear to look at this diary and the fabric is so bright and vivid that I should be able to find my book in any pile of books. I guess, my pupils will immediately notice those staring panther eyes. Maybe I'll tell them that when I'm not looking after them, my panther will...

Seeds of summer

Some of us get ready for summer by planning travels, others searching for the ideal summer cottage. When you find me dreaming of summer, you'll most likely see me browsing through seed catalogs, garden books or my vegetable garden notes. While the travelers are hymning words like "sea view", "piazza" or "all-inclusive" my chant consists of "carrots", "tomatoes", "basils" and occasionally of "roses", "annuals" or "hardy-annuals".


My vegetable garden doesn't boast with size, but even over-filled it has brought our family lots of tasty veggies. I find it simply delightful to be able to put together a delicious salad with totally home grown ingredients. In winter you rarely see me eating salad, because the green-house grown stuff or the unthinkable Spanish cousin of a salad, don't have any taste, not at least a good one in my opinion. One of the most hilarious things our vegetable garden brought with it last summer, was seeing my daughters harvest quite freely peas, sprouts of broccoli, basil leafs and tomatoes. With the younger one that part was a bit challenging, because she soon widened her new found skill of getting her own food to all plants growing in our yard. For once the older daughter was getting broccoli every time she wanted and eating peas with pods on.

The difficulty lies in setting boundaries for one's garden dreams and well, ordering seeds. My garden is not in the shape to be presented in garden magazines, perhaps not even in this blog, but the garden found in my imagination is phenomenal. Let's see what tiny part of it, can be brought into reality next summer.

Hmm, there seems to be some problems with the photos of this post. First they were to be seen and then not. I reloaded some of them, but now there are extra frames visible. I'm sorry for the mess and for not knowing html-code.