Another winter wonderland post

This morning is SUNNY,  but COLD (-11C = 12F). 

Yesterday was SUNNY, COLD (not quite -11 though) and WINDY. 

Oh no! It was terrible. We had horrible windy days after my last post and all the snow has fallen in chunks off of most of the trees.

However, there was still beauty to behold in our local woods. Walk with me! :)

This is the stump that had all those cute mushrooms and moss growing on it during the fall.

It was such a mild fall that some of nature got tricked into spring time. Look at this silly bush...

Ah, the pretty house. <3 These people don't even know how much I want to uproot it and put it in the countryside and call it my own! Lol!

I took a lot more pictures yesterday, more about that next time. (Flower photo fun!)

Thanks for walking with me! ;)

This and that -- AND CUPCAKES!

We've been up to a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Ya know, life. 

Fall is in full swing; complete with cold walks with the dogs followed by hot tea and crochet time. It is typical as well that I have an awful cold. 

"Will jump for treats...or stand"

One of the houses I wish I lived in...

I have been baking. As one does with looooots of time off. I should have been studying, but I am facing the usual lack of motivation as I do every fall. Something about this weather, the end of summer, crocheting, artsy-ing it up and all that -- it just doesn't want to make me study or work on my bachelor's thesis! There has been a lot pinteresting stuff going on too. ;) I love to be lazy! 

I baked these cupcakes (recipe here) with plain cream cheese frosting just to test out the recipe and just because I felt like baking. I love those days!

 Then I made them again for our housewarming party this past Friday! That time though, I made them with orange flavored cream cheese and they were a HIT! We only had 2 left out of about 30!! These were too easy too, I have a new party food favorite!

We also served a bacon pasta salad, dips with chips and carrot sticks and nutella meringues. Somehow this seemed to be enough and it wasn't even that expensive! 

 I've been spending time with my Kissa. She is just so darn pretty! However, she has been naughty as well this week...and a cliche with the whole cats and yarn thing... I wasn't happy but I couldn't help but laugh! 

 

 It was wrapped around the fish tank, couch, table legs, chairs and back again. Multiple balls of yarn...

Be jealous. (and yes, I agree, we do have hideous floors!)

She's been cute and cuddly as well, too. :)

We are also pretty darn excited about our trip to the US -- NEXT WEDNESDAY! Woohoo, that means we just have to get through today, Monday and Tuesday -- then we are ooofffff! :) I am so excited, haven't been back since 2009! We're only gone for a really quick week, but we have all kinds of stuff planned, family time, a wedding, shopping and my most favoritest thing ever (other than family of course): EATING! :)  

The only sad thing about the trip (other than the length) is that our fuzzy ones are going to be at their grandparents' and I am going to miss them sooooooo much!

I am looking forward to being a tourist in my old hometown. It's always interesting.

That's it for me folks. Thanks for reading, have a LOVEly Sunday!

forest walks

Happy Saturday!

Well, I am moving on past my phase of tension and stress, I need to just let things go sometimes and relax. I know I have a habit of trying to control things beyond my capability and I get so darn frustrated when it doesn't work out exactly like I wanted. Argh. I'm still mad, but ya know. Life will go on and I will move on too. 

We have enjoyed taking longer walks here, the area really is so beautiful. I snapped these earlier this week on our morning walk with the dogs. Fall is here! Most of the trees are still green but I have seen branches on quite a few that are solid yellow and some colorful maple leaves on the ground! I can't wait for the real burst of color, we have a large maple tree we can see from our windows - it should be beautiful!

The pictures above and below are growing out of a stump! It's mushroom heaven apparently, all those little dots have opened up into mushrooms too!

Birch leaves above!

Dew drops in the morning!

We have also been enjoying walks through the residential  area here. All the houses are old and beautiful, brick foundations and wood homes. The yards are gorgeous too! From a quick google search, I read that the area's home are mostly from the 30s and were the small homes of factory workers. I have been so tempted to take pictures, but it's kind of rude I think so I don't think I will.

I baked this blueberry crumble to make some room in the freezer for my mom's homemade apple sauce! :) 

I finally had the time to sit down and crochet and as always when I start again after a long break, I wonder why I haven't been doing more of it! It's really so therapeutic. I crocheted an Irish rose and a mushroom from Lesley Stanfield's beautiful books here and here.I will share pictures soon perhaps. I am working on a "wreath" to put on the front door. I have been reading up on some feng shui techniques (because while I am skeptical, I could always use some luck!) and it says you should make your door welcoming. I would have put something on it anyway though, lol. 

Thanks for reading, I'm off to do more therapeutic crocheting. Have a wonderful weekend! :)

Moving on...

We finally moved on Thursday and it was a bittersweet affair, as I imagine it is for most sentimental folks. Although the old apartment had some definite cons (location in the building, size, rent) it had some great pros (built in 2002, clean and white and close to downtown). Our new apartment has great views, is almost twice the size of the last (for almost the same price!?) and amazing potential...it's just old (70s everything!) and the previous tenants didn't clean...making the whole moving experience terrible. Not much is worse than leaving a happy and immaculately cleaned home to having to stay in a place where you are scared of the toilet and have to tippy-toe because the grime is just EVERYWHERE! I had some major temper tantrums and melt downs but I plan on complaining someone's ear off to be compensated for the work we had to put into cleaning this place. Not that we wouldn't have cleaned before unpacking our stuff, but we shouldn't have had to clean feeling disgusted that we have to put our things in the closets etc. Argh, enough of my whining. It doesn't change anything anyway! I try to just look out the window when I get really frustrated and remember, this is going to be a beautiful and happy home. How could it not be with this view! :)

 (bedroom window)

 (kitchen window)

(living room window)

We do really love the area, the lake and forest are literally 5 minutes or less away and it's been great to walk the dogs out there... They love it too! It beats our old boring little park loop. There is so much more to look at now especially with the changing seasons! Fall is well on it's way, the amount of mushrooms is mind-boggling!

We've  been so inspired by the red mushrooms, the hubby is inspired to make a mushroom coffee table with the guidance of my dad! Let's hope it happens, I think it would be highly unusual and right up my silly ally. Lol!

I'll leave you with the angel from a mobile I found in a box, no idea how it got there, haven't seen it in years. In fact, I think it was my sister's at some point in time. Thanks E!! I love how the angel on the cloud is lit when there is blue sky behind it. It made me smile the first time I noticed it. I wonder if this is what the designer intended.

I am so grateful my life is heading back to normalcy after this tumultuous move. Happy I can blog again -- and check out what I've missed out on pinterest! Hahaha!

Computer geek.

Thanks for reading!! :)

Forests and gardens.

Hello!

What a week we've been having here in Finland! 

Today is a scorching hot +30 celcius (way too hot for Finland!) and yesterday and tomorrow are thunderstorms. I love me some good lightning and thunder...except of course when I am working (like tomorrow) and have to go from place to place in the rain... Oh well, only 9 days left till VACATION! Yay!!!

We went blueberry picking (ok, it was just a lot of walking around, no one had the attention span left to pick berries) and mushrooming on Wednesday evening. The Koda bear came with us to make sure we didn't get lost (he runs from each one of us the next to make sure we're still together, herder much?) and in general be a cute bear.

I spent my time taking pictures of the scenery and moss.

Pictures below. :)

 I love that everywhere you go in Finland, you'll find huge (granite) boulders. I was so impressed in middle school to learn that these are all remnants from the ice age. I've always found history magical. 

Here you can kind of make out the ant road back to their massive hill. I like the Finnish word for ant hill, it's "keko".

The moose that doo together, stay together apparently...

Wild heather!

This is a "vanamo" or Linnaea Borrealis. They bloom earlier in the summer, but I managed to find one with a flower still on it!!! I think they are super pretty and feminine flowers. A jewellery company that is popular here in Finland has a line called vanamo, check it out! 

A slightly larger ant hill...

Me taking shadow portraits of myself in the moss, complete with berry picking bucket.

Yesterday was a productive day off from work on the crochet front (mainly because of the stormy weather), but I am not going to share what I am up to until tomorrow or Sunday, because I am trying to piece together a unfinished project post like Amanda Makes. So stay tuned, I finally have crocheted granny squares to show you!

Today after work, we went to the garden to see what the raspberries were up to... and my were there raspberries!

We are under strict orders from my mom not to pick the currants until August 1st. So I just took pictures of them instead. If you  haven't already seen this post by Sue at The Quince Tree, do check out her white currant pictures and the tart she made -- gorgeous!!!

Like rubies!!!

Sorry, I am never going to get tired of the rose/pansy/flower pictures! 

I loooooove summer! Even when it's too hot for comfort! (the Florida girl in me I guess...)

Thanks for reading and I will try to be back this weekend with my crochet post!!!

Have a happy Friday!!!