Busy week -> Early weekend

This has been a busy Monday-Wednesday. I am so happy we have Thursday and Friday for "independent studies", which translates itself in my mind as 4 day weekend with a side of homework. God forbid a teacher reads this! 

(In that case, I love to diligently work on school projects at home and I will try not to spend my time doing everything and anything that sounds more fun!)

I have some pictures to share from Sunday and this week, so I may as well get started!

Sunday:

(The Finnish poet) Runeberg's day = Runeberg Torte Day

Runeberg Torte is a kind of cupcake made with cookie/bread crumbs, flour and ground almonds. It's buttery and crumby and delicious. 

They are baked with a drop of (raspberry) jam in the center. After cooling, you add a bit more jam and a ring of powdered sugar/water icing. Traditionally, you are supposed to add rum to this. Unfortunately (or is it?) we didn't have any rum on hand, the only alcoholic beverage would have been hubby's beer.

(Read more about this traditional Finnish dessert  here!, non-Finns!)

These are gluten-free because my parent's were coming over for dinner and dessert! Always fun! :)

Later that evening, inspired by my decision and days of research and thought, I broke out the oil pastels and started practicing. ...This was at 10.30 pm on a school night... BUT oil pastels will be the medium for my self portrait (because they can be used on paper and they dry quickly), which will hopefully aid me in getting into art school, so I figured practice is good practice no matter the time!

I am still obsessed with learning more, and very pleased with how the orange rose turned out, although the colors are something I have to get used to. I looooove oil paints but nothing else is like oil paint! I've yet to see any medium produce the kind of colors and variety that make painting fun. 

However, these are supposed to be the next best thing. I read somewhere online that oil pastels were invented in the 1920s, but perfected by Sennelier per request by Pablo Picasso. Apparently, he wanted to draw but still wanted to paint... Sums them up pretty well. I was using a small brush and small dabs of turpentine to blend the colors. (I just can't let go of painting!)

ALSO on Sunday night (geez, I was hyperactive!), I played around with sock buns, and curls. I will have to show you sometime the before and after, it's pretty cool. I have gotten better since Sunday, at least the curls this fine Wednesday morning were a lot nicer than the  ones on Monday! Lol! I was a skeptic when I first saw this stuff months ago, but it really works! And it's not hard to do! (I'm proof of that!)

I learned about sock curls through pinterest, here is the link to learn more!

Monday:

Monday the moon looked gorgeous, but by the time I set up the tripod etc, it disappeared behind massive clouds. 

Tuesday:

We had fun at school applying wrist and leg casts to each other. I was nervous about it because I get claustrophobic easily (like if I try a shirt on at a store that is too small and I get my arms stuck, I silently panic!). Fortunately, it wasn't so bad and we all had more than a few laughs. 

 I took my body parts home on the bus with me. Needless to say, I got more than a few odd looks! 

 Later Tuesday evening, the moon came out (no clouds to be seen!) but it was being difficult. I couldn't get a clear photo because of the glare that the layers of glass produce...and we don't have a zoom lens so it was a speck.

Fortunately, I got to practice something else and realized I could write with the moon! I contently scribbled away, making lots of shapes and blobs! 

 Of course I had to make a heart! 

Wednesday:

I am taking it easy tonight. I've already got my pajamas on at 5 p.m. and I am making brownies for dinner. I also am going to be very naughty and start yet another crochet project. Ok, so it's now going to be my 4th WIP and we are only in February, but who's counting?! 

I'm envisioning a hat and scarf. This is Novita Puro, the color is luumupuu (plum tree). It is variegated and I have been holding on to some of this since 2010, some since last November. Glad I finally figured out what to do with it! 

So that makes the WIPs

1) pink hexies

2) granny squares

3) baby things... (is the mother to be reading this?!) ;)

4) plum hat and scarf. 

I guess I will be busy this extended weekend... 

Thanks for reading!

Happy Kitchen and Bellies Day

I spent most of yesterday crocheting on the couch (a little surprise gift for Baby H's daddy to open) and enjoying my newly completed granny stripe blanket. 

Yeah, you heard me! That one! It's done! 

Honestly, I could have kept going with it, it wasn't nearly the size I wanted it to be nor did it empty out the blue/green/brown yarn stash as I was hoping it would...but I just wasn't feeling the love for it anymore. It was becoming a kind of stone around my neck and preventing me from starting more blanket endeavors. It's perfect for the couch which is what it was intended for. Therefore, I sewed in the million ends (will never make the mistake of not sewing in as I go again!) and called it DONE! 

Now I'm just waiting for good lighting in the living room to take pictures of it on the couch. :)

But yes, the blanket was completed Thursday, Friday was spent submerged in baby crochet and today in the kitchen. My third favorite place in the house (#1 being bed with my head on a soft pillow, #2 the couch with a good project or gathering inspiration on pinterest!). 

I was inspired to make a funfetti cake thanks to the pin on pinterest which lead me here. 

Pretty, huh. 

I had only ever had funfetti cake from the box before and they obviously don't sell that here. It seemed like something fun to make for a surprise birthday party we had thought of going to (but then lazily decided not to because who could leave a sore Koda Bear behind?!). 

 ...Wait a minute, that's not Koda Bear! Manta has stolen his "recovery bed"!

 (Even she gets pillow face teeheehee)

My plan to make it according to the link's recipe failed though, as we didn't have enough eggs OR butter! So I went a-searching the interwebs and came up with this vanilla cupcake recipe from Martha's website (which I mixed sprinkles into) and this vanilla buttercream recipe (which I halved) from none other than one of my fave's, Annie's Eats.

Let me just tell you, licking the bowl of this cupcake batter...it was so delicious I could cry remembering it. The cupcakes. Delicious. Airy, fluffy, sweet...perfect! The buttercream is ridiculously sweet (as it should be, ya know, funfetti cake!) and together...it's just amazing. 

As the husband put it "you're a dangerous friend". Apparently to not only to his mental health (teehee) but his physical health, too! 

My one complaint though, is that my sprinkles melted in the cupcake so they don't stick out like in the inspiration picture. Boo! I guess I have to buy the crazy industrial strength ones from the US next time we go, because the sprinkle selection here is pitiful! 

So after this crazy sugar high, we were hungry for something salty. We had a lot of beets left over in the fridge from Christmas so we boiled a few for the Finnish Lindströmin pihvi (Lindström's "steak") and roasted the rest in the oven with a few potatoes and onions (and garlic, oil, salt and pepper) at 225C for about 45min. 

It took a while to make everything (why do beets cook sooooo slooooowly??!) but it was well worth the wait. Hubster and I agreed this is a make-again meal FOR SURE! 

Here is how you make it:

2-3 medium boiled beets tossed in vinegar (or pickled beets), diced

1 onion, diced

1 dl bread crumbs

1 dl cream (we used low fat veggie cream)

salt and pepper to taste

400 g ground beef (we used 7% fat)

splash of cream

Mix bread crumbs and cream and let them soak a bit. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix (by hand works best). Make patties or meatballs. We made 10 smallish patties/large meatballs. 

Fry in a pan with butter until cooked through. Just before serving, pour some cream into the pan and let the patties soak it up. I tossed them gently in it. (Use cream especially if you have dry low-fat beef like we did).

Serve with the roasted beets and potatoes. (Dijon mustard on the taters was deeelish!).

Now I am full and satisfied and wondering what on Earth I am going to do with all those CUPCAKES! 

Thanks for reading!

Ah, the NEW year

2012 welcomed itself with quite a celebration, we certainly have never thrown a party quite like that before! Lots of people, lots of fireworks, lots of mess to clean up the next day... But it was fun and everyone seemed to have a good time. 

Here's a few pictures of the food! :)

I made "apple-blue cheese bites". I looked for recipes with blue cheese with something like this in mind, but couldn't find any (even on pinterest!) so I made it up as I went. They were super easy to make and everyone loved them! 

I had 1kg of puff pastry (thawed), cut into small squares (we had 80!)

2 egg yolks for the egg wash

2 apples cut into small bits

about 200g blue cheese, crumbled

I baked them at about 200C until golden and yummy looking! 

I also baked some chocolate cupcakes using the Annie's Eats recipe. It was AMAZING! A bit more fiddlesome than other recipes but soooo worth it. They turned out perfectly and the batter as well as the cupcakes were to die for! It was definitely a recipe I'll use again!

I frosted them with the Our Best Bites cream cheese frosting and then shaved some chocolate on top with a veggie peeler. It turned out really nice!!

We also had some chips, carrots and cucumber with dips. And some folks brought some chocolates. It wasn't as much as we've done in the past, but I wasn't really feeling up to days and days worth of preparation. Ah, lazy party hosting. :)

The weather has slightly improved as of New Year's Eve... Snow again! In fact, yesterday it snowed almost ALL day! But sadly, today it's kind of wet slush again. Argh! Where is our winter?!

This week is my second to last week of vacation but I'm kind of considering it my last because I will try to get some school work done next week. Boo! 

Therefore, I have started a few projects. I am making some baby stuff for my sister-in-law who is having a baby shower at the end of the month! I am hoping to get it all done in time to make it through the mail! 

And to top it off, a new project for myself: pink, white and gray hexagon blanket. I'm going big (or trying to anyway) and hoping for enough hexies to make a queen size blanket for the bedroom. :) I have all year, ya know! I made 7 hexies last night, the first ones took forever to wrap my head around! I used the Attic 24 pattern but I'm not joining as I go. I prefer to sew them together. I always worry that if something comes undone with the join as you go method, the whole blanket will unravel.

I'll try to share some pictures next time, at least of the hexies! They're GORGEOUS!

Thanks for reading, hope your year is off to a good start, too! :)

Thank you and goodbye 2011!

I had a great year. It fizzled towards the end (my mom's illness, school stress etc), but man oh man, it was mostly good. This was also the first full year of this blog! I love that I have kept up with it, it brings me pleasure to go back sometimes and visit posts (esp the summer month pictures). :)

My highlights of 2011 were:

1) getting married 

2) going to Japan for our honeymoon (check out that blog HERE)

3) going to Florida and seeing my family and sister-in-law get married

4) the beautiful summer we spent gardening -- and the photography!

Yes, I think I've enjoyed the photography bit more than the baking or crocheting. (?!?!) My new year's resolutions actually are to:

1) learn to use my trusty friend Rebel t2i better...and Adobe Lightroom

2) apply for vet school as well as art school (gee, split personality gemini much?!) Lol!

3) finish more WIPs (ahem, that granny stripe blanket...) and start more! Hahahahha!

and 4) keep blogging! :)

I already posted my 2011 crochet goodness, but since photography has almost stolen the spotlight, here are my favorite pictures this year. Ahem, this is a long post. Ye has been warned!
If you don't like flowers, click away now!
(or don't) :)

 Ahahahha, this isn't even close to all of them!
I cut down on a lot of pictures, all though you might find that hard to believe! You see, this doesn't even include ALL of my favorite Japan honeymoon pictures! For that, you'll have to check out the link above. :)

Thanks for reading, whether it's your first time or if you've been following all year!
Wishing you an awesome and fantabulous 2012!