Summer thrifting...and jam.

Flea markets, thrift stores... it's like a treasure hunt! I am unlike many my age who partake in the hunt, in that I look for mainly housewares and less for clothes etc. I see cups, glass, mugs, plates, textiles, etc before I see shirts, dresses, shoes, etc.

I think it's because I would rather decorate my home than myself.

And it makes me wish I had a huge farm house to decorate!

This summer has been a nice one, in that I have been thrifting quite a bit. Don't get me wrong, we've made house improvements this summer that were not thrifted (but at the cheaper end of the spectrum - thanks Ikea!), but I've also picked up some stuff that I couldn't leave behind... and for the first time, I've also bought clothes! 

By the way, I will be sharing our updated interiors soon... just need to get rid of one last item!

This little set was at the higher end of the price range I am comfortable paying at a thrift store. 

Not to sound frugal, but this teapot and cup combo set me back 7 euros. ;)

They are worn, tea stained, and gorgeous.

If they were pristine, I would have passed them up.

They have an antique-y feel... stamped with "made in England".

I bought this excellent condition cake tin for 2.50e. 

This little green bud vase (or I'll use it as one) for 2e. 

This following purchase was made a few weeks ago. I about cried when I stumbled upon them. 

A set of two cups and saucers for 1.20e. 

They are the German retro heart set I've been looking out for for about a year now. 

Talk about excitement at the treasure hunt!!

Now I own a little tea set!! ♥

OMG -- I wonder if there is a heart tea pot out there somewhere?!?!

 This summer I've bought 2 dresses, 1 shirt, and 1 winter coat (not pictured, because I forgot!). 

The little summer dress was adorable, perfect print and colors!! Swoon!

The shirt on the left is a loose fitting summer shirt, kind of has a lace peasant collar thing going on.

The shirt-dress is a light blue pinstripe that I love.

My mom bought me this mug, pansies!! AAAAH! LOOOVE IT! It's the new design by Kultakeramiikka ceramics brand.

And my mom and I went halvies on our next blanket project. This one is for my Godmother. 

We're going to add a darker blue to the mix and perhaps a white or black border... Can't wait to see how it develops!

What can I say, I'm addicted to crocheting granny square blankets.

We were in a predicament since our last garden trip... raspberries don't keep well in the fridge and need to get put in the freezer asap. Well, it's not that simple when you run out of containers. 

So we decided we'll make raspberry jam!

And then we realized what goes into jam. 

Pectin, ascorbic acid, etc. 

Google and pinterest weren't helping!

Until I found the recipe for old-fashioned raspberry jam from Epicurious.

Two ingredients: raspberries and sugar.

Great! We had a recipe!

Ok, now for jars... well, we were short on those so we ended up raiding the cabinets and the fridge and emptying out all the ends of the jams, pickles etc we could find. 

Woohoo!

It was a heckuva night, but by midnight, we had jam!

Yum!

This morning, we were giddy with excitement to taste it.

Perfect consistency, perfect flavor.

WIN!

So that's a little story about thrifting...and jam. 

Lol.

But to join the two together, making your own jam is kinda thrifty...and we used recycled jars!

HAH!

Lastly, I'd like to share this moody photo taken a couple of nights ago.

The sunset lit up the apartment with a beautiful peachy light...and then the sky became this:

♥♥♥

Wow!

Thanks for stopping by!

Remember, when life doesn't give you plastic freezer containers --- make jam!!

Neighboring flowers

I feel like a broken record... I love flower pictures.

I think as far as words go, it should suffice for this post.

Ok, can't handle no more words!! I was doing so well! But just to show how AWESOME our camera is, I didn't notice the buggy in the picture below until I was at home looking at the pictures on the computer... So I zoomed in and cropped and there it is!! So cool! :)

Oh, and the shades of these poppies are just too pretty!

Oh boy what a shopping day...

I'll have to share some pictures of what I bought soon. I've been naughty and have bought a lot of thrifted (and not-so-thrifted) stuff this summer and I haven't shown ya'll!

See ya soon!! 

Gardening post 9

Gardening... is food for the soul.

Gardening with wasps... is scary!

I don't know where the heck they all came from, but we have a problem... they're eating my strawberries! :( And thinking the raspberries are all for them! Naughty naughty wasps, they're so mean! My dad even got stung! We must look into some kind of natural wasp deterrent for next summer. We've never had a wasp problem before, so I don't know what changed. Weird and annoying!!

On a bright note, the wasps couldn't interfere with my garden photography... HAH! Take that dumb bugs!!

Let me split these pictures into two groups (essentially how our garden is split in general):

1) Flowers

2) Harvest

Itty bitty zinnia.

I feel like everything this summer is itty bitty since it's been so rainy and cool.

Cornflowers/Bachelors Buttons.

If you don't know what this one is, you have no business being on my blog. ;) 

Special variety of calendula.

Fall hydrangea.

Ooh, and  what's this little pretty flower?

Oh it's the Manta.

She loves gardening (which she considers eating dirt and strawberries). 

Then she follows me around until she gets bored...and then she naps in the shade. 

Could there be a better dog? 

(Good thing Koda can't read!)

As for harvest...

These babies are like rubies waiting to be plucked.

We've been eating zucchini as it grows... 

The pumpkins have little starts, too.

Ok, let me say that this row of peas is utter craziness.

And intertwining pea spiral bits holding on to each other... cute!

And on to the main crop... Well, we're still drowning in it. 

We've probably picked about 15-20 liters already since last week...and there is no end in sight.

Missing from this picture is my dad's 3 liter bucket. These containers all held 1 kg of nectarines before they were put to this use. The furthest container holds the last of the strawberries (what we could salvage from the wasps, that is.)

Here's one of the zillion naughty wasps. 

When we first took on the allotment, there was a little raspberry patch. I remember that first year going to the garden store and my parents buying different raspberry starts... I believe the big raspberry variety is one of the ones we bought, the smaller was the original variety on the allotment. 

Um, yes, juicy, yum!

It's funny to think back to the beginning of this all. I was in high school and very uninterested in the whole place. Honestly, the raspberries were good..,but everything else was just tedious and boring.

My how people mature.

We had only the one plot, which my parents planted full of roses and peas. I think they might have had a row of beets or something, too. 

Now we have 3 of the allotments, tons of crop! 

The garden has really developed over the past 9-10 years or so... Can't believe it's already been so long!

We've been doing a lot of overhauling the past few years since I moved back to Finland...and brought a capable and willing DIY hubby with me. ;)

We've put a lot more effort into variety of crops and general esthetics...and I feel like it's just going to keep getting better.

We're ripping up the daffodil and grape hyacinth row. It's pretty overgrown with weeds once the daffs die, and hasn't really produced flowers as well as it once has. 

Hubby took the job on yesterday...and no wonder it wasn't producing!!

The soil was just clumps of bulbs like this... waaaaaay too overcrowded!

He just started tossing them in a pile... Wow, that's a crazy amount of bulbs!!

We definitely need to make another daffodil patch or find something to do with these! It'd be a shame to just throw them in compost...or maybe they would bloom in the spring on the compost? :)

Oh boy that is a lot of work.

Hubby is going to build a couple of raised boxed in beds to replant them in.

Also on the list before fall, is to re-do the wilded-out chive and garlic area (probably raised beds there too), and re-plant some of the strawberries. 

Still so much to do before fall!! I hope we get it all done!

Well, it's off to the thrift stores and flea markets for me!

Wish me luck hunting!!

 ;) 

I took some more flower pictures of neighboring garden allotments... will post soon! :)

(YAY, "vacation"!)

*toot toot*

Forgive me dear blog readers, for you are about to read me toot my own horn *toot toot* and give myself a good ol' pep talk! :)

Happiness is having survived and persevered through a less than ideal situation that you didn't want to, but you did because you knew you should and you said you would. 

I don't even care if that didn't make sense, because it sums up how I feel.

I chose nursing because it seemed like a good idea at the time. I knew I had some of the basic qualifications covered (people skills, half a brain, steady hands, etc). I wanted to go to school, nursing was easy to get into and the bonus was it being a job that pays decently well and is needed. It was a decision of the brain, not of the heart, and I have paid dearly in a sense of self. I quickly discovered in my first year of school how much this was not for me, but I had moved across the world to do this, brought my soon to be husband with me, and set up a life plan based on it. So I couldn't quit, I had already sacrificed a year...which became two, then three... all with the thought in my head of "this is so not for me, I hate this job". I was holding out hope for finding a niche of it that suited me, only to find after each clinical training in different fields, that I really didn't like the general aspects of the entire profession. What a bummer!

But let me tell you how good it feels to have survived 11 weeks of nursing at an old folk's home doing mostly basic care. One of the reasons I hate nursing so much, is because so much of nursing here in Finland in any institution or hospital, is basic care. And I did it for 11 consecutive weeks, hating mostly every day of it, but I did it anyway because I said I would. 

I couldn't be more proud of myself. I know that the road I want to be on as far as photography goes is not an easy one, but I am so wanting to have the same perseverance on it as I have shown myself in nursing. I am not business savvy, I kind of suck with money, and I'm really critical of all my photos. BUT, at least being behind a camera and seeing beautiful things everywhere I go, is something I am rather good at, and if you ask me, something I have developed at warp speed. Ultimately, everything else as far as I'm concerned is a necessary evil and something that can be learned. 

Regardless of how much putting yourself out there creatively sucks (talk about feeling vulnerable!), I want to persevere and be as be as proud of myself as I am today. This was an amazing hurdle in my opinion! 

 I'm looking forward to graduation in December with open eyes and a happy heart.

It's the final push that starts now, I've done well to come so far and see the end in sight. 

*pats self on back*

Plan A, turned Plan B.

Funny how life works.

:)

...apricots getting my color-loving juices flowing... tiny roses ("fairy") in a vase from the garden making my heart skip a beat...

Life is a good thing.

P.S. now accepting portrait practice sessions, friends. ;)

Flower "fields"

When I was at the garden this weekend, I took some photos of the neighboring potagers flowers. I can't resist a good flower picture. (as I'm sure anyone who has read this for a while knows...)

On to it!

Sweet Williams in a variety of colors

Cosmos

Orange and yellow calendulas

Have I mentioned how much I love, L-O-V-E, looooooove my new lens?

Because I do!!

:) 

Off to work I go....the final stretch -- woooohooo!

Late July gardening (garden post 8)

I have had a better schedule, combined with better weather, which means I have been to the garden. :)

By the way, wowwee the weather! We've had some crazy (awesome) thunderstorms the past few nights! I have woken up to thunder and lightening, and the hubby and I have been down memory lane of our childhoods in Florida. I think real tropical thunderstorms are something we both miss, strangely enough. There is just something thrilling and beautiful about a proper storm! I've been so happy to get a taste of that here so far North! :)

Back to the garden... Please note the weeds were out of control when I went the first time. It seems I am the only one able/willing to weed regularly ---> it looks bad when I am away for a long period of time. Then again, I love weeding when it's bad and seeing the direct outcome of my work. 

Silver lining, people, silver lining! :)

But yes, let's ignore the weeds in the pictures, because the pictures were mostly from a few days ago, pre-weed control.

 Clematis... we planted it in the fall last year, with no expectations of it making it through the winter...but lo and behold, it's proven to be a hardy little plant!!

This is what we call "Sally's flower". This is some kind of forget-me-not that blooms late in the summer and once it's done blooming the seed pods are little sticky buggers. My parents often bring their dogs, long haired coton de tulears, to the garden with us...and Sally (the less intelligent one) has a knack for getting herself tangled every year in the sticky seeds. Hence the name, Sally's flowers. (My mom has actually saved seeds she's pulled from Sally's hair and planted them the next year). :D

I think we might try to eradicate this flower this fall and plant more roses in its place. It's kind of a shame since the bees love it so, and the color is just so amazing! If only it weren't a pain in the butt with those seeds!

Hubby's corn has really taken off. They haven't gained much height, but all 4 plants have multiple ears of corn developing. Can't wait!

Um yeah. Raspberries. By the bucket load. 

We are practically drowning in them! 

Not that I'm complaining! I feel so lucky to get to eat them for lunch. :)

 

My mom's friend gave us some special flower seeds this spring. One of them was this uniquely colored  cornflower. There are some pink ones on the way, too. I can't wait for the photo opportunities to be had when the whole row is a-bloomin'. :)

Our cucumber patch is doing a bit better. It's still slow growing compared to last year. Today, I saw some flowers on it finally! 

Our pumpkins and zucchinis are blooming like crazy, too. We actually picked and ate two of them tonight! :) Yum!

We've been eating a lot of the greens we planted. Above is some of our spinach, below our lettuce. It's so green and lush, I love it! Too bad the snails do, too. I hate competition.

A definite must for next year's garden is to plant a wider variety of lettuce.

And look into natural snail deterrents. I've heard egg shells and coffee grinds help. Hmm...

 

Remember these little brussel sprouts? I started them about a month late indoors, took a chance bringing them outdoors and planting them, lost about half of them to the elements...but some still persisted. 

I doubt these will have time to produce anything, but it gives me immense pleasure to see them persevere. 

And hope for next year! I will definitely try to start all the seedlings on time!

Oh and the peas. Oh the lovely green peas. So lush, so beautiful, so tasty.

The currants are just about ripe. They're a little tart still, but have managed to stay safe from bird attacks. :)

.....And the other big producer (after strawberries and raspberries) is our potatoes. Lots of them! Our favorite way to eat them is baked in the oven like steak fries. I looooove my homegrown french fries! 

I've been preserving some of our berry harvest by packing them in the freezer. 

I like to make mixes of berries and fruit. We had some fresh apricots and nectarines that were just a tad too soft for our taste, so I cut them up and froze them with some raspberries. That will make a delicious cobbler later in the fall or winter. I think I will freeze some more combos like that while they're in season and cheap!

I also like to freeze strawberry-raspberry mixes. They're delicious eaten in any which way later. 

I only have FIVE days left of work this summer.

I still can't believe I've survived and adapted, lol!

After that, thesis time must start, followed by 7 weeks of clinical training. 

Even still, I can't wait for August, I have a  good feeling about it! :)

Thanks for stopping by!