the meringue obsession continues...and so on.

Oh hey hi there!

I have finally started the come-down and re-boot from what feels like a very busy and draining week.

 Lord almighty.

It finally ended this gray and rainy Saturday morning at about 9 a.m. when I finished transcribing my last interview from yesterday, for yup, my bachelor's thesis. 

I thought 3 interviews would be a piece of cake and thought my teachers were a bit dramatic when they said I'd be exhausted...but yeah, I hate to say they were right! 

Add a few days of intensive CPR and resuscitation practice (also somehow exhausting)... I'm pooped!  

So now that I have the last interview done, I'm not thinking or doing anything thesis related until Monday when I interview again! 

Which essentially means that I am going to spoil myself and only do things I want to do! 

I am going to eat well. 

Not that I haven't been, lol!

People wonder how I stay relatively thin despite all the chocolate and nonsense I seem to be continuously shoving into my mouth...

Well #1, I try to walk everywhere. And I usually end up competing with myself, which means breaking a sweat. When no one is around, I walk backwards. I also clench my stomach muscles especially up hills, it's a killer ab workout if you add a twist. (I am so weird, lol!)

#2, I eat "stupid" meals like this sometimes when I am either too lazy to go to the store or just feeling picky. This is a fridge raid!

It was delicious though, and looking at I am getting hungry! 

So now that you see all that beautiful red and those yellow yolks... Look at this!

Remnants of chocolate pudding (the second one I made this past week, shhh).... 

And since pudding requires yolks, I had egg whites. And where does my mind go when given egg whites? No healthy omelets here my friends, but meringue!! Soft, sweet, pillowy but crunchy, marshmallows-eat-your-heart-out meringue (recipe linked)!!

Ok, so I am a little obsessed. 

Today there will be some more meringue business going on... making a sampling for a friend whose wedding is coming up in June and has asked me to bake something. Of course I can't resist a challenge, and it's for such a good cause and happy occasion! :) I've also been asked (and volunteered) my photography "services". Oh experience how I look forward to gaining you! :) 

Anywho, I want to make some pretty rose swirl meringue cookies for her to test. They are a great dessert for a bit event like that since they are milk-free (--> lactose free), as well as gluten-free. Food allergies and the like are pretty big here in Finland, so it's good to have something for everyone!

Yesterday on my way home from interviewing, I stopped by a little craft shop and picked up some paper... Bunting paper... Atelier bunting paper... 

So obviously that is on my list of weekend stuff.

I've also been working on little Luke's gift. It's going to be a semi-surprise (maybe), but let me say (esp. compared) to the last project I 

a) love it!

b) love the colors!

c) love the 100% merino wool!

d) want one for myself, lol!

Once this gift is done (probably today), I can resume work on those gray border grannies. Yaay! I've kind of missed them! If I remember correctly, I am up to 70!

Hmmm....what else.... 

Well, the usual boring stuff like cleaning... Let me tell you, having a 90lbs dog is no picnic during spring shedding!! I feel like I'd have to vacuum daily to stop these tufts, and we all know I am not the daily-vacuuming type! In fact, this week we've vacuumed already multiple times, yet the hair balls just keep on keepin' on. 

(Would it have been weird if I had taken a picture of our vacuum and added it here? lol)

So, I suppose I am off! 

Thanks for reading... You know, I think once the bunting goes up, the last thing to do before I launch my atelier is pick up my easel from the parents. 

P.S. Isn't it funny how life builds up and gets really busy all at once? I feel like the week before last was a breeze...and the week after next will be a relative breeze, too. It's just these two weeks that I know are SO busy and SO exhausting!! 

Welcome to the world!!

I was  fast asleep last night at 4:07 a.m. when we got the call that this family grew by one. 

Off to skype we rushed, excited to see the brand-new little guy! 

Still partially asleep, fairly speechless and teary-eyed, my husband and I saw little Luke for the first time. 

Absolutely precious! 

He looked really annoyed with all the jostling and bright lights, poor guy! The little noises he was making were enough to melt anyone's heart!

Congratulations to his wonderful parents, I can only imagine how in love and proud you are to finally meet the little boy (who is going to turn your world upside down!) that you have been dreaming of!!

And congratulations to his grandparents, I know you will love every second spent with him! :)

Welcome to the world little man! You have an aunt and uncle all the way in Finland who couldn't get back to sleep they were so excited and in love with you already! ♥

In other slightly related news, I am "frogging" my present to you little guy! Sorry, but I want to make you something I love so that it means that much more!

If you were wondering what it was, here is a link to see it. 

Ah, babies ♥

shhh, it's a sneak peek!

There have been some going-ons over here... 

Remember in this post when I was speculating, planning, brainstorming, dreaming...? Well, I figured I just may as well do it. After all our motto for 2012 was to just "get it done". 

So, a sneak peek here... 

 http://annelisatelier.blogspot.com/

I'm so excited! :)

There has been some progress for sure in my workspace... the launch and pictures to follow... soon!!

WHOOPIIIIIIIIIIE!!!

New hair and more tulips

Who has two thumbs and is rocking a new 'do? This girl!!! :)

It only took  me a year (almost anyway) to get around to it, and boy was it shameful showing the state of my hair to a stranger, but she did a super job and I think I'll go back before too long for a maintenance trim so I can have a shorter hairstyle for the summer. :) I love the bounce it has again, I wonder how it will look tomorrow when all the product has been washed out and the professionally straightened look leaves... I always hope that lighter layers will help my natural curls bounce up a bit, but usually it just gets wavy. Oh well, it will be fun to do more things with a new 'do and not feel like I'm stuck in such a style rut! 

Ooooh, and side swept bangs... she understood exactly what I wanted! :)

 When I came home and asked the hubster to take a few pictures (note my new scarf by my mama, just gotta sew in the ends!), Koda got all excited and jumped up to lick my face! Fun ensued with him alternating kissing and then biting my hands and his own to get down. He's such a silly boy! 

...and a big one!

 And ya know, I can't leave well enough alone, I took a few more tulip pictures the other day since they are opening up and I can't bear not to share! Luuuurve my flowers! I already told my husband that I want tulips for our first anniversary, preferably pink, since that was my wedding bouquet! I never did share any wedding pictures on here, maybe I will for my first anniversary! :)

Thanks for stopping by! I am feeling a million times better now and I see a lot of crocheting coming up since my actual winter/spring vacation started today!  :)

For now though, I have to get back to the Marian Keyes book I started yesterday! I don't read so much anymore, but when I get my hands on a good chick lit book, I can't bear to do anything but read!

Have a superb weekend!

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! 

Elli-mumma

Elli is the name of my paternal grandmother. 

She took her final breaths yesterday, peacefully. With her at the time, her two daughters and my dear sister (one of the eldest grandchildren). 

Elli-mumma (grandma in Finnish) and I were never very close. I spent my childhood only understanding Finnish and by the time we moved here and I learned to speak it fluently, I was too cool for an old and increasingly demented grandmother.

I hope karma will be kind to me despite the fact. 

The last time I saw her, she was quite far into her own world, but she seemed happy. She had a stuffed toy cat and she told me about how many kittens it had had. It was sweet, you can take the farm girl out of Finland but who you are never really changes! As I have been studying nursing and spent a lot of time taking care of the elderly, I have always found peace in the fact, that as you age and the dementia progresses, the more you return to your roots and childhood and what are surely happy times. I regret not asking her more about her childhood, she must have had some stories to tell!

(taken in 2000 at my sister's wedding)

I am happy for her, she was lucky to have children who cared for her till the end, grandchildren who will have fond memories of her. Now she can finally join her husband whom she loved very much (and had to live without these last 23 years!) and her dear siblings (I believe there were 8 of them!) and family. 

She was the last of that generation, she would have been 96 years old in March! 

Sending love her way, another angel in heaven! 

Elli Mirjami

 March 21, 1916 - January 28, 2012

Christmas party catch up

Oh my word, so much has happened to keep me busy lately!

Well, it's the same old 40 hour work week of clinical training (plus travel time there and back!) and same old stress of school work, but as a change (that came with a large dose of crisis), my mom is in the hospital. She had semi-unexpected quadruple bypass surgery!! Needless to say, things of this magnitude ripple throughout the family and pull the rug out right from everyone's feet.

She is doing better now but will still be in the hospital for about another week. I've been spending as much time as I can there, therefore this blog has been neglected. And rightly so.

However, I have missed what has become such an important outlet for me. It is usually cathartic even though it's mostly laa-di-daa stuff about the day to day here. 

So let me finally catch up  (beware, this has all the potential of being a long post!).

Last Saturday was the Christmas Party/Class Reunion that I have been planning since October. We had a really great time, a lot of people showed up and every one was grateful for the opportunity to see people that meant so much at that particular wonderful and horrible time called high school. At least, that is how I felt!

I wasn't really in the mood for partying, I actually found out about my mom's bypass surgery as the party was starting, therefore the pictures are rather unimaginative and completely lack focus (literally and figuratively). I was so grateful for the party to take my mind off things, it would have been a very different night if I had no distraction from my own thoughts.

The menu was:

Green salad (in Christmas colors): lettuce, bell peppers, tomato, cucumber

with feta cheese on the side 

Ham-leek-bell pepper quiche

Herbed popcorn

Nutella meringues

Regular meringues

Gingerbread cookies

Vanilla cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting (hazelnut garnish)

Taco sour cream dip

Garlic sour cream dip

Carrot sticks

Chips

Glögi (concentrate) with almond slices (I forgot to buy raisins, too!)

And a guest brought a delicious apple bake with vanilla sauce, unfortunately I forgot to get a picture of it!! 

(Many thanks to J for lending us her electric kettle!)

I was really pleased with how things turned out, how it came together that morning and afternoon (thanks to the hubby for being a HUGE help with cleaning!) and I was happy to get good feedback. I love hosting parties, I hope the guests always notice! 

So that was the party, I have been working on my last Christmas present (crochet gift) that is going out in the mail on Monday. I have a few other handmade gifts in that package that I would love to share now, but they will have to wait till Christmas! 

Until then, there is a lot of using this new electric kettle we got as an early Christmas present (our beautiful Hackman stove top kettle is no longer due to an accident by my husband!). I love this kettle, I can tell we are going to be using it a lot this winter! 

Thanks Isä!

Thanks for reading! Go give your mothers a hug and have a happy weekend!

Busybusybusy

I hate being too busy to sit down and enjoy life and laze about. I really really dislike being too busy for that!!!

Unfortunately, this is the case! I just started a 4 week clinical training period and man, my schedule is going to kick my ass -- it's already ruined a lot of plans! 

And this Saturday is my big(ish) Christamas party, so all of the little free time left is going to preparations. And I have so much to blog about in these creative endeavors! I will try my bestest to find time on Sunday when things die down a bit to catch up and share! 

Thanks for reading and Happy Thanksgiving, if you celebrate it!

I'm coping, how about you?

We've been discussing mental health for the past few weeks at school, and I have learned some really valuable but also worrisome things about my own mental state.

I'm easily overly-analytical so I should take my own thoughts with a pinch of salt sometimes I think (and chill the fudge out!), but what I have also learned is how I have started to use this blog as a coping mechanism in my life. I find that when I feel stressed, overwhelmed or just down in the dumps (mostly about school), I end up blogging. I realize, it's because I can focus through the blog on things that make me happy and things I am good at. 

I saw a pin on pinterest (I realize this cheapens anything I say, but oh well) that was one of the vintage style ladies saying something along the lines of "I'm good at a lot of things, unfortunately none of them generate income." 

That blows. It's exactly how I feel. 

I feel like I am hitting my head against the wall repeatedly with this choice of profession because I honestly don't enjoy it as much as I would like to enjoy something I should be doing for 40 hours per week, every week, year after year. Yet, I have come so far in my studies (only 1 year left to go!), that it would be a shame to turn back now. It's been a sinking feeling in my stomach for over a year and now that we've come to the final push of starting our bachelor's thesis, the sinking feeling has become all out despair. It seems like so much work to even bother with, especially since I have no intention of doing the work for long (in a dream world less than 1 year) once I graduate. 

I really would like to do work that I can enjoy. But what do you do when you want to just work from home and crochet, paint, take pretty pictures and bake all day...with no market for anything you produce...and being a housewife isn't an option either?

Fortunately there is hot tea, cozy pajamas, puppies that love me, and half of this chocolate chip cookie pie left. Those are my coping mechanisms, what are yours?

Thanks for reading, I'll try to be in a better mood next time. 

(I have new curtains and stuff from Ikea to share!) :)