Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Dress Done



Finished the dress for our granddaughter. I hope it's the right size.

I just hope to get a picture of her wearing the dress.

It's 1 a.m so good night all.

Monday, September 25, 2006

Day of leisure


I am on vacation today. Back to work tomorrow.

Hubby and I went first to Michaels, and went aisle by aisle, and bought tons of craft stuff. He has a photo design business, and his head is spinning with ideas. I love to see that, because then I get to go to Michaels and really browse, with no rush. I like it, until we hit the cash register. OUCH.

Then we went for lunch, to Harveys hamburgers. I have not had those for eons, and I had mine with everything by mayo and hot peppers, oh, and I also had onion rings, instead of French Fries. I truly enjoyed my lunch. Hubby had a grilled chicken sandwich....with mayo and tomato.
plus fries.

From Harveys we went to Rona building supplies, and finally from there we were heading towards home.

There is a park in the valley near home and sometimes, like today, we go and get a coffee from a drive-in coffee place, drive to the park and have the coffee there. Well, today we also took pictures of the budding fall colors. The colors are not very bright yet, only somewhat muted, but I liked them regardless.

Friday, September 22, 2006

Friday Sky and more ramblings



I might not remember to take a picture of the Saturday sky, so I took one today. It is Friday, isn't it? My day is very confusing, I am living on Saturday, or occasionally Thursday, but not Friday. I decided to take a picture of the sky, to make me live for today.




This picture is of the dress in process for our granddaughter.



A friend of my sister's invited us for breakfast one morning, while I was in Finland. Yeah, I would not go, if I was here, at home.

Anyway, the friend had the chocolate mousse cake, covered with cream puffs, and pineapple fruit yummies, as well as grapes from a nearby store. She had sprinkled sugar on top of them and my sister laugher that they were moldy, hahah. The mini tomatoes were also fresh from the garden. Nice breakfast, indeed. Oh, she also had cheese, buns, and coffee.

Idle rambling



These are shopping carts in a shopping center, somewhere near Helsinki. They look so beautiful, lined up like that. Can you imagine if your kid wants the green one from the middle. Heheh.

I have been lacking any inspiration lately. I go to work, come home, stare at my many WIPs and get nothing done. I did watch Grey's Anatomy and CSI new episodes last night. Oh, and the other night I watched Bones, Criminal Minds and CSI NY. Now, if I could last until next Tuesday, Gilmore Girls are supposed to begin a new season. Not bad for someone who doesn't watch TV too much.

WIP in my knitting basket is a dress for our granddaughter. She's going to be 2 years next week. I am working on the second sleeve. Then to finish the front and back bodice. The back bodice is almost done. I have also been working on some earrings and bracelets. But the dress is now number one project. I hope to finish it today. I also have a paisley portrait to finish by my friend's birthday, which is tomorrow. The portrait is a paisley group project and the deadline is tomorrow. I am off work today, since I still have quite a few vacation days left, and have to use them before this year ends. I have no plans to go anywhere for two weeks. I kind of like taking a long weekend here and there. I am off on Monday, too. This is so relaxing, don't you think.

My home is a mess, but this is a vacation day, so no house cleaning today. Of course, when I get tired of knitting or crocheting, I will tidy up a little bit. Woohooo, like laundry. Get real, woman! I just felt shivers going thru my body, thinking of housework. ICK.

Here is my niece's cat. Isn't she beautiful. My niece has three cats, but I only got a nice picture of this one, the other two were curved up into a ball, and I didn't really feel like taking pictures of furballs, well I did, but they will stay in my files. This cat wanted to show off and was walking around me as if to tell me to take more pictures.

Back to knitting.

Thursday, September 07, 2006

About to go home

We (my sis and I) are leaving early in the morning. It is time for me to go back home. My sister is driving me (nuts)...er... to Helsinki to my brother's place, and then he will take care of me until I go to the airport.

I had promised myself not to buy too much yarn, but promises are supposed to be broken, I believe. Well, I did. I bought tons of Novita Colori crochet thread, number 800. If you go and see the yarns, mine is towards the end of the page. I did buy some sock yarn, too. Not going to make socks, mind you, but thought that I might change my mind, after all, my promises seem to be just promises.

This one is my sister's dog, Wilma, who is waiting for me to go and throw the ball for her. She will bring the ball back, but it's a game to get the ball from her mouth.

They also have a cat, Julia, who does nothing else but sleep, eat and play with my yarn. My own cat doesn't play with my yarns, and when this Julia lady jumped on my lap, the first time, I thought that the cat was weird. Then I realized that she was not interested in my caressings, scratching her neck rituals, but just my yarn, sheeesshh. Just a normal cat. My own cat is abnormal then?

The cat picture was taken from upstairs. Julia's castle is at the bottom of the stairs. She did not care to pose for the picture, so this one is the best of my attempts. Sure, right after, when my camera was not ready, she came leisurely to see if there was any food for her, and then she disappeared.



I was not going to post more pictures, but this picture of Julia is so cute, I couldn't resist.

Monday, September 04, 2006

Second week in Finland


The morning was not too exciting. We had breakfast and lunch and worked on a crossword puzzle at home. YEAAA. Then, finally, we decided to go for a ride, towards a nearby seashore area, which is about an hour and some drive. First stop was in a small town, where we had a coffee and danish in a quaint little restaurant by the water. Of course we took some pictures. Here we are on the patio of the restaurant.

We went for shopping in one of the discount stores. I bought two balls of sock yarn, a tee shirt, and candies. I wanted to go to the center of that town, because I was there some 12 years ago, and I remembered that there was a beautiful yarn store. It was a red brick building, on a small "hill". There was no such building, no such hills. We drove thru the town three times, and no yarn store. Needless to say, I was miffed.

From there we headed towards my sister's family cottage by the sea. The water was calm, the sun was hiding, hence the pictures turned a bit
glum (sp?). Nevertheless, we enjoyed our little trip to the cottage. We sat inside, had some typical Finnish "donuts" (no hole) called "possu" (piggy), and red lemonade. We pretended to be kids at a summer camp.

From the cottage we headed towards another town, where we were supposed to find a clothing store, with beautiful and unusual garments. We ended up asking directions at a gas station.
I forgot to tell you that we were in the Swedish speaking area, and my Swedish has long gone. I do remember a few words, but not enough to ask where a particular store is. The poor girl didn't speak too much Finnish, and I asked if she wanted to talk English, but she ignored me, which made me think that she didn't speak that language.

We did not find the store, and the closing time for stores was near, so we decided to go back home.

I am not too disappointed about our shopping of today, because tomorrow we go to Keskinen, which is a large shopping place. We are not planning any shopping, it's a therapy trip for my sister, her friend and myself. Of course, if we find something that jumps into the shopping cart, we might consider accepting some items to come back home with us. In my case some extremely yummy cotton thread, which I am going to use for Irish Crochet. I already bought two skeins of it, but now want more. Sheesh.

Another thing, please forgive me if there are any typos that I didn't catch. this keyboard is weird (i before e, except after c.....weird????), and there are some fonts that truly interfere my excellent spelling skills (as if...)
This computer reads Finnish, and does not want to do the spell check in English, or I am too lazy (tired) to figure out how.

Saturday, September 02, 2006

more country






Here some other pictures I took.
I took that bicycle and went grocery shopping. My sister's car is diesel, and there are too many tricks to use that sort of car, so I chose the two-wheeler.


Other pictures are of the farmhouse porch, and that little red house is nearby my sister's home. There are lots of mini houses around here; for one reason or for another. I think that one is for storing sand for the winter. Need I ask?

Friday, September 01, 2006

Greetings from Finland




Here are some pictures I took today, on the way to a farm, to buy home-made cheese. You cannot imagine how good it is. I tell you, it's delishhhhh!!!

I have other pictures, too, but now I am needed in the kitchen. I promised to make a special salad for dinner.

Later.