Sneaking a moment...

I'm sneaking a moment to share my latest going-ons... I feel naptime might be running out so I'll make it brief!

 Meal planning.

It sounds boring and tedious to decide what you're going to eat for the next week. I used to think so anyway.

We've been doing this for a month or two and it's changed the way we cook (healthier!) and the way we spend money at the grocery store (less!).

Here's a spaghetti dinner we made. I just love the look of the pasta :D

Pussy willows. 

The first sign of spring. I can't believe the winter we've had and how fast spring has come.

(even though it's snowing outside at the moment, it's supposed to melt by Friday).

 

I haven't gotten around to crocheting or knitting much since last time. 

Unfortunately! 

But my knitting machine Aunt whipped out TWO pairs of baby socks for Elisabeth while she was in town! :)

 

The border is growing. Slowly. 

I made a whole row of sc in the light gray... only to get about 15 stitches from the end of the WHOLE ROW and run out of yarn! GRRRR!

It pissed me off enough that only today have I picked up the hook again. 

Now I'm just going to do hdc rows of green and the dark gray. 

This blanket is already getting used though, even with some ends hanging off. It's perfectly large and thick!

As an anniversary present from my aunt, we got a pot of pansies. 

(I had just complained about how I will miss out on pansies on my balcony this year). 

They are so very pretty!

 

My muffin is growing at warp speed and now she can stand up all by herself against any table or chair that she chooses. 

 

This face is so cute that I can't even handle it.

I have this photo as my background on the laptop and it makes me smile every time. 

Just over a week left until we are headed to Japan... 

I can't handle that either! 

There is so much still up in the air about living there AS WELL AS after we get home... 

If ever, now is the time to just say, what happens happens and hope for the best!

Life's an adventure, right?!

Valentine's recap and handicrafts and so on

Happy belated Valentine's Day! ;)

Ok, so I really did mean to post something for then, but understandably, time gets away from me. I had a great Valentine's Day though, spent with my two most favoritest people eating good food! We made homemade chicken pizza from scratch (including the crust!), topped with lots of fresh veggies. We ate the pizza with arugula (rocket) on top. I've seen it on pinterest like that before and the idea stuck. It was definitely delicious that way! 

Dessert was heavenly fudgy thick peanut butter swirl brownies. Yeah. Yum! (just not very photogenic...)

Obviously Valentine's Day = flowers. 

I bought myself pink and purple tulips this year, since we were at the store a  few days before and I couldn't decide which color I wanted more. Hubby's answer: get both. Ooooooh twist my arm why don't ya! ;) 

  (blue inside the purple ones!)

My sister bought Elisabeth a beeeeeeeeeautiful (and surprisingly a little fragrant) pink rose. Ah. ♥

I've been crocheting and knitting quite a bit when I get a chance... It is my stress/anxiety medication. 

I have made more owls. (check out my last post).

 Not pictured is the blue on blue one I made for my sister.

I've been knitting more of this simple garter stitch scarf. I love the stripe. I love variegated yarn. I love blue. So um, yeah. There's a love thing going on with this, even if I do find it a little repetitive. 

I have all my blues and greens used up for my starburst blanket. I got to 80 squares! My mom and her friend came over last Monday, and she actually crocheted I think the last 4-5 squares while I knit! I have them assembled in piles to be crocheted on... but suddenly I'm stalling! I don't know why. I guess because crocheting them together and sewing in the ends is so dreadful? :D 

I have a major yarn swooning thing going on with these here.

I bought them for my next big blankie. I am so in love with the starburst pattern, that I'm doing a brighter version with a "classic" white border. The white is actually more of a cream but you get it, right. 

Anywho, I am sooooooo in love with these jewel tones. Ah, perfect! ♥

This will be the bright sunny sister to my shadowy blue and green blanket. :)

 We had a sushi night on Sunday with the family... It was super fun and was our late Valentine's celebration and kind of sorta a celebration because we bought the tickets and it's 100% sure we will be living in Japan from the end of March-late June!! 

:) 

(my roll was a little heavy on the rice...)

But yep, Japan. Us three. Three months. 

Spring! 

I'm so thrilled, happy, excited, scared, nervous, happy, excited, well I think you're getting the idea.

A lot for us to arrange but when adventure comes knocking, we aren't the type to tell it to go away. I think there is probably a meme with Bilbo out there that describes this situation right now. ;)

We will be on the North island, Hokkaido and living in Sapporo. I am kind of torn as to whether or not I should 

a)blog about the life there

b) blog about our life there on this blog

c) start a travel blog?

I'm kind of leaning towards option C because I kind of like my personal little blog and I think of this as my (private) journal where I log in all my makes and eats and flower pictures for me to look back on. :D 

And I think I'd like to share my travels more openly (=linking on facebook) and possibly do it in both Finnish and English so that everyone could read it? 

If you have an opinion, leave and comment or send me a message! 

Well, it's dinner time for a muffin I know. I'm surprised I managed to get around doing this to the end, seeing as she woke up half way through! 

I'll leave you on a cutie pie note:

Benjamin the British Blue. ♥ 

I super mega love this kitten and might just steal him when my friend's not looking ;)

Thanks for reading.

Until next time, cheerio!

Yarny post!

Wow what a week!

Monday I felt a little funny but didn't think much of it...until Tuesday I felt a little more funny.

Then started the vomiting. Blah.

I'll spare you the details but let's just say stomach bugs are horrible! I haven't had one in years (although I certainly was reliving my "morning" sickness during this illness...), and I hope I won't for a few more years now. 

I'm so GRATEFUL that my little muffin didn't get sick and that hubster only got a very mild case of what I had. How fortunate!

Needless to say, not much has been happening here this week.

I have however, today, gotten around to taking a few photos and I figured I'd better do something with them before they just sit around. If pictures could sit. 

Ugh, it's one of these days.

 This amaryllis is from a bulb that was supposed to only have two stalks and dutifully bloomed around New Year's and after. Then it produced a surprise third and I was tickled! However, the plant itself is pale and pitiful, so I just chopped it off and put it in this little vase. Cute and sooooo vibrant!

Almost makes me like red more. ;)

I'd better get on to yarny stuff because I called this a yarny post!

Here is all that is left of my blue and green stash that my stash-busting sunburst granny square blanket is supposed to use!

It's dwindled quite a bit if you compare it to this post from (ahem) 10 months ago HERE, you can see that I have used quite a bit of yarn. I will say, I discarded two yarns. One because it was just too thick, the other because I wanted to make the scarf below in this post. :D 

I don't know if I'll make it to 88 squares, but I'm up to 50 now! 

Oh, and pictured above is not the 3 skeins (150g) of the gray border yarn. I bought quite a bit of it since it was just on sale and well... If I run out of color perhaps I just make a decorative border?

Oh, and below are only 40 squares. I haven't sewn the last 10 on, and think  I won't until I'm done. I'm worried that the blanket will then end up lopsided because I ran out of certain colors or something.

 

Ah and this project.

This is a Drops design pattern which you can find here. 

I really like this but I'm stumped as to how I've managed to add stitches where they do not belong... I need to:

a) unravel until I find the culprit

b) ask my mom. 

:D 

 

Oooh crawling baby getting into trouble.

That's my cue!

Ta-taa and cheerios!

I hope you're staying healthy despite the bugs going around! 

Oh, and a picture of my cuteness before I go! Almost forgot :) 

Silly muffin says "what?!"

Some things are certain.

What a strange year this is turning out to be!

We have had NO SNOW since mid-December or so. Very weird and made for a strange Christmas and New Years. Now, we have snow again which makes me so very happy as there is reflected light --> even cloudy days aren't so gloomy anymore. Today however (this picture was from yesterday), we have actual blue skies and sunshine. It's lifted my mood a lot and now that I think of it...when was the last time we even had a sunny day?!

One characteristic of this year is that it's totally unpredictable. It increases my anxiety levels but makes for a sense of adventure too. Who doesn't love spontaneity and adventure?!

The last time I had an unpredictable year like this was when I was about 19... And choices I made then, still affect me today (mostly in a good way!), so let's hope that the same can be said later about this year!

Adventure? What adventure?

The possibility of going to Japan again! (lots of reading this book and drinking tea and coffee at the moment)

Adventure of becoming an entrepreneur! It's in the cards and is my resolution. Although, I really don't do resolutions. Hubby and I do mottos. This year we haven't decided on it yet totally, but I think it's getting financially stable. Something definitely related to that! 

One thing that isn't uncertain: we eat well.

This gorgeous cinnamon rolls were consumed in honor of the new year. With cream cheese frosting of course!

This cake was my mom's birthday cake. It was a gluten-free sponge cake with a layer of meringue on top. And in between the layers and on top, a creamy coffee chocolate filling. And on top of that, ganache!! 

Oh. My. Word.

This was totally improvised. Totally delicious.

And it hasn't all been desserts. We've made yummy curries, savory casseroles, and there's a high consumption of these below at the moment. 

We really need the vitamin C now, since we are all a little sick. Poor muffin has her first cold. ;(  

She's still mostly in a good mood.

And no cold is going to get in the way of learning how to crawl!! 

She's 7 months and rocking on her hands and knees. 

We are going to be in mega trouble soon! :D

Another certainty: I will always be taking flower photos. 

This amaryllis has been blooming since New Years. First one stem. 

Now the one below. A nice little surprise too, a THIRD bud is coming up!

:)

For the first time this year, one of my all time favorites: tulips.

I don't think I've ever bought them so early in the year before, but I'm not one to argue with sales. ;) 

And my favorite, flowers on the nightstand. ♥

I got a cute Vera Bradley tote from my sister for Christmas, in which I've been stashing my yarny crafts. 

I gave up on the mittens since hubby broke my bamboo needles! 

So instead I started knitting this thick and chunky basic scarf.

My mom gave me some gorgeous yarn, so after long debate with myself and ravelry, I decided to make another south bay shawlette. I made 3 or 4 of these a few years ago as Christmas gifts, but never with a variegated yarn. I love this pattern and I love how it worked with the yarn!

It's quite big but super cozy.

The last pictures I wanted to share make me giggle. 

The aftermath of taking down the tree a month after having it.

:)

It runs in the family...

The love of yarn runs deep in this family...

I've spent the day at my parent's house enjoying the company of my mom and aunt. My aunt is an avid knitter and has helped me build my yarn stash quite generously since I started crocheting in 2010. 

(WOW! Has it really been two years already?!) 

Her favorite thing to knit is socks. And believe you me, this woman is a sock knitting MACHINE! 

She knits a lot for different local charities for all ages and reasons. 

These are the socks she's worked on/finished while at my parent's house this week. 

Amazing, eh? :)

These are little girl socks. Cute!! 

I spent my time crocheting a few squares, helping my mom remember how to work pinterest (lol), and making and early dinner (roasted chicken with roasted sweet potato chunks and brussels sprouts). 

Hello weekend!!

...oh and guess what...

I RETURNED MY THESIS!! 

☺☺☺

hope your weekend's off to as good of a start as mine! ;)