Spring in a new home!

So after what has been a hectic and crazy-busy February, March has brought better weather (even though it's still sooooo cold!) and a new home! 

With these two wonderful things, I am also finding more time to do things I want to do again... and so much energy and inspiration! 

Now if only that pesky job would end so I could really focus all my time on crafty endeavors ;)

The day before we moved we went to see The Killers in Helsinki. 

Yeah, I know, who goes to see a concert when moving stress is at it's peak? 

Funny how things work out though when you buy tickets months in advance, you never really know what will happen! 

Here is a picture from my phone taken from the Killer's concert. They are amazing live by the way and I highly recommend seeing them if you are the least bit a fan. 

I was hoping they'd play this song "Be Still" (because I'm obsessed with it being prego and all), but as expected, perhaps it was too slow of a ditty to perform live for a party crowd. They did play a lot of my favorites like "Dustland Fairyale", "For Reasons Unknown", and "Smile like you mean it". 

Ah, and Brandon Flowers has such a beautiful, powerful, and conveying voice... surely one of the best in music today. ♥

Is that enough fan talk? ;)

Wanna hear more about the new apartment?

Well I love it for starters!

 We have the furniture in its maybe permanent spots... Still working out the kinks from a few rooms...

I'm just blown away by how awesome a walk-in-closet is to have for storage! Wow, we have near empty closets in the bedrooms thanks to it! :)

Lots of kids live in this area... so our courtyard has several snowmen :)

That's my breakfast view. Urban scenery complete with trains passing. Thankfully, they aren't loud!
And speaking of breakfast, I've been on an oatmeal kick lately. This morning, I ate it with banana and red currants from last summer. What a surprisingly good combo!

I've had lots of flowers to keep me happy in our new home.
My friend brought us these beautiful red tulips last weekend. Thanks! :)

And last Saturday when we went to Ikea, I brought home this orchid and a pot of narcissi. 

And while we were out today shopping, hubby bought me pink tulips to enjoy for our anniversary (two whole years on Monday!!)

There were so many, I was able to take a few and put them on my nightstand. Having flowers on one's nightstand is a total quality of life measurement for me. :D
Aww, you can kinda see us in the background on our wedding day. Oh the happy memories ♥

I've been really into spring and Easter since the stores are suddenly full of daffodils and Easter chicks and chocolate eggs.

I'm loving having a proper dining room/nook now and I smile every time I walk by and see it :)

I'm having so many thoughts on decorating as far as themes and colors go... just kind of taking my time thinking though. I feel like we always rush into putting things together and then get tired so quickly, so maybe if we take our time, we'll enjoy it longer. :)

As is, I'm pretty tired most days when I get home from work. I think it has something to do with working a lot and growing a person inside. 

Here we are at 26 weeks and change. 

She's a kicker, a mover, and a shaker.

And she and I are getting bigger by the week!!

(especially this past week, I've really felt my clothes getting tighter!)

 

Well, I am itching to crochet since I am having a glorious 3 day weekend in honor of our anniversary and since daylight is slipping away, the cozy corner of the couch is calling my name. :) 

Ooh, and I bought some new yarn today which is always the motivator to finish any projects, because well, what's better than starting a new one? :)

Thanks for stopping by and hope spring is finding you where ever you might be! :)

Happy Valentine's Day! ♥

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!  

If you're reading this you are awesome, and I thank you humbly for reading my little nonsense of a blog :) I may not be as active on here as I once was (ugh, life always getting in the way!), but I do cherish this little venue of thought and creativity. And it is nice indeed to know some people stop by!! 

So  here, for you, some flower pictures. It's what I do best! ;)

And not just any flowers, but tulips. Pink tulips. 

They were what my wedding bouquet consisted of.

They are the definition of spring and romance. ♥

And I rewarded myself for getting through a tough work week and weekend on Monday.

Then proceeded to take a ridiculous amount of pictures of them on Tuesday when I was off work. 

:) 

I tried the penny in a tulip vase trick I saw a looooooooong time ago on pinterest and you know what, it works!

These have stood so tall and proud instead of toppling over like they usually do. 

I recommend trying it if you bring home tulips this spring!

And of course, no Valentine's Day is complete without chocolate.

So here's a plate full of mini chocolate cupcakes with whipped chocolate ganache frosting.

Lemme tell ya --- deeeeeeelish!

 

Thanks to my MIL for sending me mini cupcake liners for the tin I bought at Christmas. And thanks for the colorful spring sprinkles, love them!!

Oh and the baby and I indulged and have found the chocolate ganache to be particularly irresistible. It tastes like chocolate ice cream!

She's the size of a grapefruit apparently.

I wonder if it's a large or small grapefruit. 

Either way, she's making me look bigger by the week...

23 weeks now. 

17 weeks to go.

Hahahhahahaha

I love the awkwardness of my face after taking a MILLION self-portraits with the camera remote and tripod. Talk about a challenge! :D 

Ah, I'm loving this spring!

Now if only the weather would cooperate and get a little more sunny!!

Anywho, best start packing since I have a little time before work! 

Thanks again for reading and hope you get spoiled today! :)

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!

Summer dreaming...

Oh how I wish it were May/June...! 

Not only then will I start my maternity leave, but I'll be waiting to meet my baby girl (who is active and kicking these days) for the first time!

 

All of the flowers in this post were taken during May/June last year... I can wait to make bouquets and posies and put them all over the new apartment. (Hopefully, and very likely, we will have moved by then!)

 

I know for me the gardening season may be too much/too hard considering what this body is going to endure... but I can't help but hope I'll be able to pitch in at the garden and do my favorite things (planting, weeding, and planning!). 

Well, the planning bit I've already started in my mind... ;) And on my pinterest gardening board.

And I will definitely be able to help grow the seedlings. Oh my...all the possibilities!!

 

 

She will be born during a most fragrant time of the year... lilies of the valley, lilacs...

Oooh and all the pansies to come next year! ♥♥♥

Our next apartment will have a balcony, so you can only imagine what I will have in little pots out there. ;)

(Especially if you followed the blog before this, A Sorta Fairytale, when we had a little patio decked out in pansies for the summer!)

Ah, those colors. ♥

Only a few more months to go... ;)

♥ Home again ♥

 MERRY BELATED CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

We are finally home again and boy, does it feel it good!! 

I loved our three weeks in Florida and we got to do and see and eat a lot of good stuff in addition to much wanted family time... but home is home. Ain't no getting around it. :)

So basically I've slept almost the entire day... not really jet lag per say, just happy to be in my own bed and enjoying cuddling with my big Koda bear and sleeping off three weeks of being on the go. 

I guess now that I've come clean to all my friends and family, I can post it here as well... 

This family is growing by one little girl as of June!! :)

.........so not sure if that explains why I was a HORRIBLE blogger last fall... talk about all day every day  "morning" sickness!!! Luckily that went away just in time for our trip and I was able to enjoy the time there to the fullest! :)

We had such an eventful trip (mainly shopping, lol!) but here are some highlights. 

Honestly, I didn't take many pictures. What can I say, I've seen it all a million times before so not much there seems special to me. Therefore, I passed on plenty of touristy shots. :D 

We celebrated Christmas Eve in South Florida Finnish style at my sister's with her family and my brother and his family. :)

Before the evening's festivities, hubby and I got up early and went to the beach to watch the sunrise. 

 

We celebrated Christmas morning in Northern Florida with my in-law's. It was our Baby Nephew's first Christmas and everyone outdid themselves with the presents! I think we all got pretty spoiled! :D 

After Christmas hubby headed for a mini trip to Maine to see relatives and I met my sister in Upstate New York to see my godmother. Here are a couple snapshots from where we stayed as well as the granny square blanket completed!!!

This picture doesn't do the colors and justice, but as you can see, it was a gray day. She loved the blanket as well and I think as a sometime crocheter, she understood what I meant when I said I crocheted it with her in mind and love and well wishes put into every stitch. 

 

After our respective trips, we continued spending time with my in-laws in Orlando.

I took lots of pictures of my nephews, including the furry one, Harley. :)

And I was amazed by this crazy huge flock of birds at my mother-in-law's house. They were some kind of little bird and there were soooo many of them swooping around in a cloud! Here they just look like little black specks, go figure. :D

And that's it. All the photos I took that weren't people pictures. I guess it was just one of those vacations. Like I said, it's hard to take pictures of things that are so ordinary to you. Especially when Florida is not a naturally beautiful state (besides the beach of course!). 

Ah, so back to daily life. 

I've graduated. Should probably get a job. Ick! ;)

I'm pregnant. Should probably start crocheting some girly stuff! (YAYYY!)

And I'm home... which means things are as they should be. :)

Hope your new year is off to a great start and only good things are to come!!

I think 2013 has a lot of good in store for me!! :)