days off = lazy days

Hiya!

On to it shall we?

I have had the BEST two laaaazy days off. Really lazy. Haven't really left the house lazy. And I have l-o-v-e-d it!

I sat on the couch and crocheted on the first day off...and then had pizza for dinner!!

 (note: it's perfectly acceptable to eat out of the box when you don't have a dishwasher and you are in your 20s...)

I had some time to myself so I finally watched Becoming Jane and cried my eyes out. I didn't think it'd have such a sad ending - sorry for the spoiler! But man, James McAvoy gets me...he's not hunky but there's something adorable there, I think it's his eyes, or the characters he plays...have you seen Penelope? Great movie!

Anyway, had a really nice (first) day off.

Today was even more lazy, I didn't even crochet! I slept in late and then took a nap...what luxury. I know I have to savor these moments because one day when there are juniors running around, it won't be possible. Ah yes, late mornings and afternoon naps. The bestest.

To counteract the pizza last night, we had salad tonight. Mmm, salad in the summertime. 

(yes, I know iceberg lettuce has little to no nutritional value... at least it's not chocolate!)

And you know you've been crocheting too much when you wonder if the men working on your patio are excited about doing "the edge" around the concrete tiles...!

See, the edge!! :) Tee-hee-heeee!

So what have I been crocheting, you ask? Well, using my handy-dandy WIP list, I decided to continue with the pillow theme and I FINISHED the blue circle in a square pillow cover!! Well, finished the crochet part of it anyway!

Now I just need to get to those flea markets and find sweaters to use for the backs, so I can finish this pillow and the granny square one too!

It's very much on the agenda for my vacation next week; flea markets, sewing, crocheting, crafting...yes yes yes, how I cannot wait!

But I'm totally throwing some naps in there! ;)

Thanks for reading!

Strawberry pavlova!!

I have fallen for pavolovas. Bad. I had to have them again!

So this time we had them after a lovely Chinese dinner with my parents. 

I love the way meringue looks!

Here they are just in the oven. They grow!

I loved this heart inside the strawberry. It reminded me of that bell pepper we had once in the shape of a heart. 

Ah, heaven. Tasty tasty light airy sweet heaven.

We had a pool installed apparently, just outside our back door! How lucky are we... 

And since our boy has an eye infection and a habit of scratching, the vet recommended using an e-collar for when we aren't supervising him and at night. He has only worn it once though, plus this time when we took some pictures of him looking silly. Gotta love Mr. Bear who is the best sport there ever was. 

We are going to pick some blueberries now, hope we find a good spot!!

Thanks for reading!

pavlova-lova

I made pavlovas. Why? Well, they're relatively easy, cheap and gluten-free. Perfect.

Oh and added benefit is that they are really fancy looking in a simple kind of elegant way...and they're sweet!!! :)

I used the recipe from Joy the Baker. Yes, I am only mildly obsessed with her recipes. I want to make them all!! If you haven't already, familiarize yourself with her recipe index. (avoid doing this when hungry though).

You can find the recipe link here.

I used a filling of thawed blueberries (must make room in the freezer for this year's haul) and bananas. Oh, and whipped cream -- added airiness. 

Don't fear meringues!

Oh and wondered what our patio looks like these days? 

 It's a nice 2-3 feet drop outside the door...

They just now started re-paving the destruction.

For comparison, here are some pictures of how it looked (the last pictures I had taken of the whole patio were from last winter, lol).

I miss our patio. And privacy bushes. :(

Well thanks for reading and happy pavlova making if you are inspired to try it!

Happy weekend!

Patio tragedy

Something awful has happened! 

This is how my sweet gorgeous pansies looked yesterday morning. So I thought ok, they've had a bit too much water (???) so I'll put them in the sun to dry them out. This morning they look the same. I picked up one of the plants to see if they had rotten roots (too much water???) and it looked like this. 

The roots never even spread from their coiled up mess to begin with!!! I am so sad that they're gone! I don't think they can be saved anymore :(. 

These are the ones I lost. At least I got lots of pictures before they died. (Silver lining to every cloud, right).

They are survived by these pansies. The ones in the planter with strawberries (also not doing well, lol) and the pansies of the blue pot. Pictures taken this morning while enjoying my iced cocoa-coffee.

Oh well, I suppose life goes on. 

I must say, I like going in to work at 1:30 p.m. but getting out at 9:30 at night and having to be back the following morning at 7:30 isn't really my cup of tea. 

However, Tuesday is fast approaching!!! :)

And as an added bonus, I got my schedule for the next weeks and I have not one, not two, not four, BUT FIVE DAYS OFF IN A ROW! Woohoo mini-vacation for me! 

To top it off, if we can manage to find someone to watch the big boy for us, we might even take a trip to our relatives' cottage for a few days! Fingers and toes crossed!! 

So um, you wanna volunteer? ;)

Thanks for reading and happy SUNDAY-FUNDAY!

Tulip love and pansy delight

These lovelies came up this week(end) at the garden, so home they came. My mom and I diplomatically split them in half, lol. This color is outrageous, even more so in person. And the fullness and shape is just gorgeous! I don't know what the name of this particular tulip is but I hope we plant the same ones for next year. (Any tips on how to keep bulbs blooming year after year?)

 

I also picked some of the grape hyacinths for the night stand. The little "vase" is actually an empty Japanese liqueur bottle that was so cute, I had to have it. The alcohol itself was faaar too strong for my liking, but I still love the bottle.

Other things we've been enjoying are these blueberry streusel muffins that I baked on Sunday during the nailbiter World Championship hockey game, in which Finland played against Sweden and which the good young men of Finland WON! I was so anxious I had to start baking. That and the first 20 min of the game were a bit boring, haha. The recipe is from Our Best Bites and linked <--- over there. The hubby and his friend (who was over to witness history) liked them. I did too. :)

We also put a 500 piece "Totoro" puzzle together. It's one of the Japan souvenirs we picked up from the insane Bic Camera store. I felt so old when we decided to put it together because I thought of all my friends out partying on a Saturday night and the hubs and I were in our PJs at 9:30 P.M. and starting a puzzle. Hahahah, the irony is somewhere hidden in that. I loved it though, we had a blast. We didn't finish it until the following evening though, right before the hockey game started actually. It was such a feeling of relief (we could stop worrying about the cat or dogs stealing and losing pieces) and a great feeling of accomplishment. Challenge COMPLETED! :) Here is the picture on the box followed by our progress followed by it on the wall followed by what happened to the box when we were done.

Lol, cats and boxes!!

I also picked up some pansies for the patio on Sunday as well as a gorgeous pot that was on sale for 5 euros!! I had to have it, the blue was just mesmerizing! It matches the blue pansies so well, wink wink (not that I was planning on it or anything...)

I love the pansies we have this year! Such gorgeous colors! I had to share even though the pictures aren't the best, it was hard to not get blurry shots with the chilling wind out there! Looks like more rain tonight... Not that I mind, the plants need more and I love listening to it as I fall asleep.

Speaking of falling asleep, it's imminent. 

Thanks for reading, have a happy rest of the week!