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!

Saturday to-do

This week has been busy. In fact, I don't even remember what happened this past week (except for my previous post!) -- it's all flown by and was mainly just surviving the routines. I LOATHE weeks like that. Unfortunately, life can't always be amazing, intense, and filled with passion for everything all the time. I wish it could though! It would certainly make school, housework and all that jazz a lot more interesting! :)

I have been immensely looking forward to the weekend and had made myself a long list (inspired by my sister, perpetual list-maker) of things I wanted to get done. I wrote it in 5 minutes and filled an A4 sized paper! Shoot, it's a busy weekend then!

So far I've done 3.5 things from the list, only 7.5 more to go... Lol!

(Manta making faces, lol)

Cleaning the fish tank was first on the list (after boring school stuff) so I tackled that late this morning. It looks WAY better now after its intensive cleaning. Honestly, it took a good chunk of time and effort to do. I'm glad I had the hubby to help, because it sucks doing. Shared misery is always better. 

I'm sure the fish are happy, too!

Manta got a good brushing today. That was another thing on the list. I have thought, more than once, that I will never ever have another long haired dog like her again. Unless it gets shaved! I spent almost as much time brushing her as I did cleaning the fish tank (about 2h!!!) and I only got the main bits of her, not her hard to reach spots! We had to take a break though, she and I were getting tired of the hair flying around! Lol!

She looked so pretty when we were "done" so I finally did my little Manta photo shoot that I have been meaning to do! I hope you like the pictures! :)

 

She is the worst of the kids to take pictures of, she never looks into the camera as nicely as the others do. But I am a smart mama and I realized I can bribe her with a little toy! Teehee, she definitely paid more attention to the camera when I had it on top of my head! (Anything to get the shot!)

She was thrilled when she got the toy in between takes, violently shaking it as usual. The toys in the house sure do take a beating...

The cold weather here just continues... I thought it felt really cold last night, despite the hoodie, jamma pants, wool socks etc. When we went to bed I had the blankets up to my nose, I thought it was all in my head because I know it's cold outside... Well, we woke up and opened the curtains to this:

 

It gets better, here is the living room window....

NICE!

Ridiculous!

At least it was a beautiful day. 

And I sure was tempted to burn my list of to-dos and be selfish and engage in this business. 

This bag has been torturing me all week. Sitting perfectly on the couch, waiting for me. I haven't had the time or energy this week to crochet even one square! :( 

I guess I know what I am putting on my to-do list for next weekend! Lol!

Thanks for reading, I know it was a picture laden post! I even left out all the pictures of Koda that I took! 

Teehee, now you know what to expect in my next post! 

When I think of winter

As I am sure you probably have guessed based on the name of this blog... I love Tori Amos. 

If you know Tori's repertoire, then I am sure it comes to no surprise that every winter, I think of her song "winter". 

Especially the "I get a little warm in my heart when I think of winter" bit. 

(It's a terribly sad song ("when you gonna love you as much as I do" --- weeeeeeep!!!). 

Anywho, it's beautiful here now. -20-30 C depending on the time of day, a shocking -20F! 

I have actually been anticipating this weather, because this is the first full winter with the Canon-baby so I  have been wanting to take some proper frost pictures. Broaden my nature photography scope, ya know!

The weather finally came on Tuesday and go figure, it was a looong school day for me. Which ultimately means that if I get out at 4 p.m., I won't be home until almost 5 and it's surely dark by then. BUMMER!

I considered being naughty and skipping some of the afternoon lesson to get the blue sky with white frost covered trees! However, I decided school had to come first and fortunately, our teacher let us go early so I got home in time to snap these sunset pictures around 4. 

It was painful to take these pictures, my fingers were frozen stiff (or so it felt) and I could have cried putting the camera back in its bag! But these pictures were worth it. I love them all!

At 5:30p.m. I went out again, this time to walk to my friend's house for a nice chat to catch up. I have been so busy lately with school and what-not, I feel so bad to neglect my friends! 

It was darker at 5:30, indeed night was approaching fast. It was an intense dark blue sky and that pink tinge on the horizon. It's beautiful. Pictures don't even do it justice!

I walk through this harbor almost every time I walk towards the downtown area, hence all the pictures from here all the time. It's a pretty place though. 

And if you are wondering, that is näsineula (which I have mentioned before) in the background, the big tower built in the 70s (or so) and Tampere's landmark. 

Summer is a distant snow covered memory.

Perfect street light illuminating the perfect tree. 

This picture marks my walk home at almost 9 p.m. (It was DARK outside!)

I had some regrets of not taking a tripod...

...But with a tripod, I'd still be out there, a frozen popsicle stuck to a camera and tripod...

In this weather, there is no dawdling. I was literally running from picture spot to the next. And constantly worrying about whether or not the camera will freeze. 

The camera and I did just fine though. We're both still kicking. 

I love this picture. However, you see the steam (I hope it's not really smoke, lol) from those horrific towers. That is a city power plant. I think it is. I should probably find out. 

It makes for good sky pictures though! 

White trees. Winter is almost as beautiful as summer sometimes. 

In other happy news, my thesis plan was accepted! The first big step is done! :) (now starts the hard part!) 

Other happy news: the short "portfolio" for the art program I want to get into, released the topics for work. Now I can get started with that, send it in and hope they'll invite me to the entrance exam! I already have some ideas brewing...although I will say, it's not going to be my usual stuff. Lol. 

Thanks for reading! Hope you're staying warm wherever you are! :)

Bits of last weekend

I have some pictures from this weekend that I didn't have a chance to share!

 This was the stunning sunrise last Saturday!

On Sunday, the hubster was doing this! Bottling his second batch of beer! 

This time it is a light ale per my request. I hope it clarifies nicely, isn't as sweet as the last batch (or as strong, phew!) and hopefully we'll have no exploding beer bombs!

Sunday night dinner was chili with onion and cheese on top, alongside a fresh out of the oven jalapeno corn bread. 

Deeeeelish! 

That's all, I'm out of pictures now! :)

Until next time, that is. Tee-hee. 

Thanks for reading!

Winter walk

I took a short walk last Friday to visit a friend... here is what I saw along the way...

 

 If you want to see a picture of this area in July, see this post!

I love this city we live in, so beautiful year round! I just wish it had been a bit warmer (we've had about -10-15 C this past week and it's supposed to get colder!), I could have taken more pictures without my hands freezing! :)

Thanks for reading! 

A room with a view...

A room with a view:

A beautiful sunset:

Night:

There is such a weird yellow tinge at night, from the city lights. I can't wait to live far far away from the city one day, where night is black.

Thanks for reading! :)