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?!

Home decorating explosion post

Holy moly! TWO posts in ONE week!? Wow, this hasn't happened in a loooong time! :)

I'm off work tomorrow since I (unfortunately) work the weekend... therefore, I am super inspired to do all kinds of amazing things on my day off. Oh my goodness me, the length of this to-do list!!

Pinterest, you're not helping!

In addition to the not so fun phone calls I have to make... I need to call some florists about a friend's wedding (I'm a bridesmaid! First time since my sister's wedding in 2000!)... We've brainstormed and being the flower-oriented person I am, I've even started a pinterest board for mainly wedding flower ideas :) Go check it out! 

In addition to phone calls, I need to clean. Actually, hubby is off to so I should say we need to clean! I know having a baby is going to mean I will have less time to keep this place in order (or well, the new place!), but I still firmly believe that the disarray that befalls our home when I work all the time will be mostly avoided while I'm on maternity leave. I found this helpful spring cleaning checklist on pinterest and I figure if I  we do as much on this as we can, it'll be a good head start to the final big clean before we move. That, and this place is... gross.

I suppose this would also be a good time to start really packing (!) !! 

I can't wait to be moved and settled in again.

Which brings me to decorating. Oooh, how I love this topic!

I've been obsessed lately with how we are going to set up the new place. I have the furniture situation pretty well planned, but oh those walls and textiles. It's the funnest but hardest part. We've been smart and acquired or bought only neutral color furniture (white, black, wood) so we can really play up the color with textiles (curtains, rugs, pillows etc), and we have a whole boatload of things I'd like to hang on the walls. It's the themes and arrangements that get me, the colors too. I have enlisted the help of my newly graduated designer friend to help me out when it's time for the final touches, because I feel like I get too excited and just throw stuff up on the wall and rush the process...leaving the house looking, well...rushed and unstylish.

So to assist my brain and my friend, I've been avidly pinning home decor ideas and hopefully it will keep me focused on what I like and what I want to do. Actually, all these pictures are from our Japan (honeymoon) trip from 2011 and ones I would like to hang on our living room wall in some kind of frame arrangement like on my pinterest board linked above. I can't decide on curtain colors or even options as of yet for the living room though. We have a lot of black furniture and there is currently a lot of green going on, but I'm thinking adding blue might be nice since it's my favorite color. Oh the choices!

Another focus point of decorating is the dining nook. We actually will have one for the first time since we lived in the States (feels like FOREVER ago!), so now I'm super excited to make it special. I will hang my giant apple painting on one wall, but I have no idea what I should hang on the opposite wall. We've been thinking about some simple arrangement of color or black and white family photos. Maybe? I definitely want a gorgeous orchid to go in the middle of the table, because I have serious orchid-envy of the clients I visit daily and their gorgeous orchids. :D

The second bedroom is going to be a girly pink and country-esque guest bedroom/atelier. Yup, not giving that up! I am getting all the furniture for it (almost anyway) from my mom and I'm super excited about having my uber-girly room.

I saw this knit strawberry bunting on pinterest and would love to figure out how to crochet something similar.

(since I can't knit)

I'd also love to find time to crochet some gorgeous pastel and pink pillows for the day bed. Ah ♥

Our bedroom has me the most stumped of all. All I know is that we have a white romantic style bed set and we have to fit a crib in there. Other than that, I'm really confused about what I want to use for colors (since I have a pink room, we're going to try some other color...hubby's happy!). I may or  may not have blogged about it, but I got a gorgeous vintage quilt from my godmother on our trip to New York and it had a lot of colors in it, but mainly yellow. I am also having an inexplicable love affair with all things yellow at the moment (which is so not me), so I don't know if I should try incorporating more yellow and use the quilt as my decorating inspiration. Decisions, decisions.

I'd also like to blow up some of my flower photography and hang it, but we'll have to see about that...

And my maybe favorite room... the bathroom. It may seem weird, but I have a slight bathroom fetish. Not only that, but I love any "modernized" bathroom 100x more now that we've had a really icky old bathroom (that always looks dirty no matter how much or how often you scrub it! UGH!). 

I saw this idea on pinterest today for double shower curtains and I must say, I'm intrigued. I've also fallen in love with this idea for DIY ruffled shower curtains, but I doubt my level of sewing experience could pull it off. Sigh...

Either way, I'm super duper excited about having proper bathroom storage (a whole closet!!) and generally a cleaner and newer bathroom!

Wow, that was an explosion of decorating...

Funny where typing takes you when you just let you mind run. :)

Let me know if you have any awesome ideas!! 

 :)

We're moving!!

Yup, moving! Again!

We are moving into a slightly larger apartment which is closer to my parents and my friends...and is so much newer and nicer than our current apartment! The only drawback is losing our wonderful views and being so close to the woods we love, but honestly, we're gaining so much more that moving is more than worth it! YAY!!

Speaking of the view, what a pretty sunny wintery springy day we had!

So now that I've calmed down from my crazy garden planning, I can now lose sleep and be more than excited about moving (packing, eew!) and decorating the new place (woohoo!!)! One of the things I'm most excited about is decorating the balcony -- what to plant out there!?!

Ah, so many plans. :)

So this is what I've been up to since the last time I visited my blog... Oh, and working. I've been working again, and man, it's nice to get a paycheck! 

(funds those decorating plans, wink wink)

Anywho, that's a quick update.

Had a hankering for funfetti cupcakes (as you do if you've ever been pregnant and on pinterest) so hubby and I made some the other night. Yum! Easy recipe, too!

Playing around for a few minutes taking this picture made me suddenly fall madly in love with my camera again and so inspired to get back into taking pictures regularly.

I guess I was taking a much needed break. That, and I think with the increased light (and sunshine!) and general spring state of mind I'm in, I think I'm re-energized creatively. 

Ah, brain! Don't get me started on creative ideas! I'll never get to sleep tonight if I start dreaming up projects! 

:)

Hope you've had a wonderful weekend! 

From dreams to action

I was so inspired by my summer dreaming that I took the next step and started planning the garden! Days of reading up on organic gardening, crop rotation, companion planting, soil pH, plant varieties, seedlings etc etc via google and pinterest... I spent an entire evening on seed websites searching for the perfect varieties for our garden and could have spent SO MUCH money. Thankfully, I kept in mind the limited space we have and only bought probably a little too much. ;) 

But when you look out the window and see this, can you blame me for immersing myself in summer plans? Lol!

Actually, in defense of the weather, it has been cold but sunny (except for this weekend) and absolutely gorgeous with the crisp white snow.

But back to the garden!

I spent another evening reading old gardening magazines from my mom. Super inspirational and quite educational!

The cover of the one on top makes me swoon. Roses ♥

And I've been taking notes. Of everything. And very roughly sketching the first draft of my plan.

So what seeds did I buy? What are we growing? Here is the list with links to Finnish descriptions and a picture:

Edibles:

Sweet corn 'Early King'

Watermelon 'Sugar Baby'

Green onion 'White Lisbon'

Sugar snap pea 'De Grace' 

Pea 'Onward'

Snap bean 'Prelude' (a kind of green bean)

Pumpkin 'Baby Bear'

Decorative gourd mix

Lettuce 'Red Salad Bowl' 

 Lettuce 'All Year Round'

Cucumber 'Rhensk Druv'

Dill

Brussels sprouts 'Groninger' (from last year)

Flowers:

Zinnia 'Sunbow mixed'

Asters 'Princess mix'

Snapdragon, color variety

 Sweet William, color variety

Cornflower, color variety

 Sunflower 'Sungold Dwarf Double' (picture below!)

Peony poppy, color variety
 

Those are just the purchased seeds... In addition, I still want to get:

Calendula 'Pink surprise' (we grew this last year)

Marigolds (for their pest control properties, not their beauty - yuck)

Sweet peas (duh)

And from the outdoor market:

Zucchini starts

Squash starts

And I want to try growing celery from scraps like on pinterest here.

 And you know, we have quite a few perennials out there. 

Raspberries

Currants

Rhubarb

Mint

Chives

Strawberries

Roses

AND ON AND ON.

I'm hoping to make an incredibly detailed plan of the garden and plant accordingly!

Also, hoping to grow as much as possible indoors seedling and starts wise.

(friends, start saving me yogurt cups in April!)

I hope I can do as much as I have done in past years, although I know it might be harder in my condition :D

Another inspiring thought: the balcony in the next place!

Uuuh, all the things I can plant out there... 

Hope you've had a wonderful weekend!

Next week I start work in my beloved home care. 

I will be working until the end of April, just in time almost for my maternity leave to start! :)

Yay! Things do work out the way they are meant to! Stress and worry are pointless!