Living room and patio

What's the deal, Blogger?

I literally had apartment pictures uploading ALL last night... and basically these were all I got to upload.

So below you can see the corner of our living room. Hubby's handmade coffee table, our Ikea Ektorp couch and chair, Ikea Lack table, Ikea Expedit bookcase, Japan pictures in Ikea frames, flea market find rag rug, and my humble first crochet blanket. 

So what if we like Ikea? 

It's student budget friendly! :)

Those Japan pictures are supposed to get hung on the wall above the couch. But we ran into a slight problem of sheetrock walls --> we'd have to drill to put them up --> I hate drilling for so many reasons.

So for now, we have stark white walls. 

And I'm kind of ok with that. 

This is the window and patio door corner of the living room. 

More Ikea furniture. 

The TV stand (Ikea Hemnes) was bought from a sorta friend though when they moved...so techinically, not from Ikea! ;)

Hubby loves having his game consoles in little cubbies and drawers to put his games and controllers in. I like not having so much visible clutter. (Although in this picture, it seems there are some wii remotes on the shelf with our ipods...)

I wanted new curtains for this room. These actually (from Ikea, LOL!), but hubby doesn't like them. And we already got into a huge argument over the dining room curtains, so I figured I will pursue my curtain agenda another time. ;)

Oh, are you wondering what that wooden stick in front of the TV is? 

It's hubby's pretend kendo sword that he made. :) Geeks!

So out the door to the balcony.

Here's my potted pansy collection. Part of it anyway. :)

And here is the set up next to the table. 

My going-away-present herbs. A long box full of nasturtiums and sweet peas that I am hoping will eventually grow up the trellis. Seedlings that have since been taken to the garden (where they wilted, froze, dried, and died in the matter of a day -- UGH!). And the tomato and chili plants that hubby wanted. At the base of the tomato, I planted some arugula seeds that have since sprouted. Yay!

There are still some things I want for the balcony, like a hanging pot, lavender, and some solar lanterns. But all in all, I'm pretty pleased.

So there you have a glimpse into our home. The rest is nothing too special and I'm sure you'll see glimpses if you follow the blog. 

I can't be bothered to fight with Blogger over pictures when I feel like the house is ever-changing anyway. ;)

Also because I have pictures from the arboretum to share (uuuh daffodils!) and there is always something to share from the garden. 

Thanks for stopping by!

2013: Garden post #4

(For fear of falling behind in sharing pictures and events, here is the second post of the day! :))

 

For Mother's Day we went to the garden. 

Note to future self, this was May 12th. 

While we women were having fun at the baby shower, hubby and my dad went to the garden to plant the potato starts that my dad wants each year. These potatoes will be ready by midsummer! :)

The peonies have gotten so much bigger since last time!

 

These are lily of the valley... They spread by nature but haven't really done so in the years we have been growing them. This year, however, is entirely different. They've popped up in numbers everywhere. Which is good of course. :)

 

Tulips...

 

We made a slightly raised bed with the rocks I wrote about in a previous garden post. 

And here especially you can see the spreading lily of the valley. 

The bit further in the back has been infested with weeds, so it's going to get the same treatment our daffodils got last fall: rip up, tear apart, re-plant. 

 

Tiny green leaves on the currants. 

 

And glorious daffodils!

 

Here are some of the little tete-a-tete narscissi I planted last fall. 

 

 This is what that thorny gooseberry bush looked like. Much improvement indeed. 

 

We already ate some rhubarb! So juicy and fresh!

 

Can't resist a good picture when I see one. :)

 

My mom and I were busy at work weeding. Her maybe more so than me, but ah, weeding ♥ 

Nothing more therapeutic than seeing your handiwork and having your hands in dirt.

 

The herb bed, needing more herbs. So far it's just parsley, chives, and in the back, garlic.

 

I was going insane with all the large seedlings in the house so we brought out the pumpkins to make room in our apartment again.

It was maybe a bit premature, but ya gotta do what you gotta do sometimes and just hope for the best. 

 

I will be honest though and say I am not 100% sure are these all decorative gourds or if they are the "baby bear" variety of pumpkin that I planted. 

I think somewhere along the line, I might have fudged up the little cards... I guess we will find out come the end of summer...

Lol!

 

Well, that was the FOURTH garden post already, we're just half way through May.

Sorry to the folks who follow this for crafty reasons... Summer is my time of flowers and dirt. 

 I have been crafty still, mind you!

I have the mobile that is just a suitable ribbon away from being done... Argh! 

Why are there only ugly shades of ribbon when you need beautiful muted pinks or greens?! 

I will be back soon (ok, so I will perhaps schedule a post so I'm not the loon who posts 3 times in one day) with the pictures of our humble home. That I've promised to share for probably 3 weeks now! 

Eeek!

My Baby Shower

This past Saturday I had my baby shower. 

Wow, insane that I had a baby shower. OMG, I am having a baby?! :D 

Just kidding, but sometimes it's still surreal...!

The theme I came up with was girly tea party and I envisioned lots of prettiness and details. Here is what I pulled together!
(The pictures were taken by friends, how weird to see other people's perspectives via your own camera and memory card! Thanks for the photo help, Friends!) 

Well, for me food is pretty high up there with most important things at a party. It's gotta be good and there should be a lot of it!

I had some help from my Aunt who came to town for the occasion. She made this vegetable quiche seen below. Behind it is a pasta salad that rocked my socks. The recipe for it is here, Penne Fresca Salad.  I used fusilli and I doubled the recipe which was totally unnecessary, I could have easily made 1 1/2 and still had leftovers.

I had a "Salad Bar" with a big bowl of lettuce and smaller bowls and dishes of toppings. We had cucumber, tomatoes, bell pepper, broccoli, crutons, olives, cheese, boiled eggs, and salad dressings. I wanted to get fancy and make my own, but I just didn't have the time or energy in the end. 

To accompany the salads and quiche, the other salty option was fresh bread and flavored cream cheeses, as well as good old frozen garlic bread. 

I've yet to go to a party where the frozen garlic bread wasn't one of the first things to disappear. Stuff is delicious!

(And I got off so easy with it!)

Once the savory options were eaten, we started serving coffee and tea (from my pink fancy tea cups) with dessert.

My favorite were these sugar cookies. Which is odd, since I really have only ever liked store bought (if I am really particular Publix Bakery) sugar cookies and have been disappointed with many a recipe. 

This recipe: perfectly chewy and soft sugar cookies. 

Here is the link to the recipe at Novice Chef.

I decorated them with Wilton's pink sanding sugar. Ya know, since I'm having a girl. ;)

The cake was a huge disappointment for me.

Lemme just say... I prefer the flavor of Swiss buttercream, but when it wouldn't stick to my cake... I kinda lost it. I was only able to pipe the top and the sides were such a disaster that my mom had to take over since I threatened to throw the cake on the floor in my frustration.

Lemme just say, thank you Äiti for being there to help me set up!!

The cake itself was my go to chocolate cake recipe, Lucinda Scala Quinn's busy day chocolate cake.

I made two cakes and cut each in two to make a four layer cake. I filled it with Finnish vanilla "rahka" (like a sweetened flavored sour cream/creme fraiche) that I added a liberal amount of Bonne Maman cherry jam to. 

So it was a chocolate cake with vanilla cherry filling.

Yum.

My Aunt made some super tender "marble cake" although I like the Finnish name of "tiger cake". 

In the left corner you can see the macarons I slaved over.

Um, good thing the pictures not the best to showcase them because they didn't look at all like they should. People raved over them though and I guess the flavor was ok. I filled them with orange or raspberry marmalade.

But I was not a huge fan. I don't know if I liked them enough to attempt making them again.

But they are one of the ultimate baker challenges in my mind that I might have to one day, just for the challenge.

I used Martha Stewart's French macaron recipe and I think next time, I might stick to the more detailed Annie's Eats version.

This is a Finnish style blueberry pie. Again, used that rahka to make it. :)

After food, the other important design element of a party: decor.

This was the most liked idea, hanging a clothesline across the living room and displaying all of her pretty dresses.

I also made a paper doily banner like this one from pinterest, and we had some store bought shiny pink "it's a girl" decorations hanging. In some of the food pictures you could see the pretty table cloth and felt runner my mom brought. And like I said, we had the nicer pink china out for use.

We played some fun games at the shower. 

This was a guess the baby in the picture game. I had each guest bring a photo of them as babies and they had to guess who was who and the winner won a prize (chocolate bar and a face mask). 

Not everyone brought a picture (I kinda let people know last notice), but it worked well as a kind of ice breaker because there were a lot of people from different groups of friends so they kinda got to know each other's names and stuff.

I'm #5. :)

We played the traditional "guess how big Mama is" with pink yarn. It's a hard game but we had two people who were so close I had to go back for a re-count! 

And pictured below is the little card idea for her baby book. Each guest was asked to fill in the blanks and people came up with really cute answers as well as funny ones. 

E.g. "I hope you laugh at bad jokes, because it's polite". :D

Mama's midnight diapers were fun too!

Each guest could write me a message for midnight diaper changes. 

I got a lot of encouraging ones "you're a great mama" etc.

As well as advice: "wake up the hubby"

And phone numbers for people who are willing to babysit. :D

I also had a friend record hubby answering the questions from  link below. We played the video on the TV and paused after each question and I had to guess what the ol' hubster said. 

I got most of them right. :) And he got some of his answers wrong. ;)

The ideas for the games were found from this blog Driven by Decor via pinterest.

I don't have a picture of it, but we also had a calendar template on the fridge that I decorated, where guests could guess the baby's birth date, weight, and height. 

FOUR people guessed she'll go slightly over her June 11th due date and come June 13th.

Other than that, dates varied from June 1st (impatient me) to June 19th. 

Fortunately no one put her as a full two weeks overdue!

You can find the free template here.  

I got lots of presents, even though I had said we were really only missing diapers and children's books. People went nuts with diaper cakes (we got 3!) and I felt spoiled and special. :)

Many thanks to everyone!

My friend's 5 month old son picked this out for Baby Girl, his future girlfriend. ;)

Isn't that creative? Baby spelled with the sparkly star wire! :)

Lots of cute details.

Love the thought people put into their gifts. And the effort, I know those diaper cakes aren't easy!

And at the bottom you can see our Beatrix Potter book. :)

Like I said, spoiled and special.

My parents got us (another) pretty dress and the car seat (which was awesome!). 

We also had a baby shower in a box that my mother in law threw for us. She sent out invites to family and friends stateside and we got so much (much needed) stuff for the baby, it was awesome!

It's wonderful to be so supported by loved ones. ♥

So after the party was over, I took the camera out myself and took pictures of the design element no party is complete without: the flowers.

We had hot pink roses in several small vases.

I'm still enjoying them today. 

So thank you to everyone who was a part of welcoming the little one into the world!!

Kissa was happy the party was over! ;) 

2013: Garden post #3

On Monday, we went to the garden. But how we got there was a little different -- by boat!!

On the way to the boat, we saw some little woodland anemones in the woods. A sure sign of spring here in Finland.

We had a great time at the garden. 

It was sunny and warm. Lots of stuff to do!

The little Easter narcissi from last year that I planted in the fall have not only risen, but are the first to bloom...

The daffodils aren't too far behind. 

I am not one for yellow, I've mentioned my love/hate relationship with the color before... but I really really really like daffodils. Like they could possibly even be on the top 5 list of favorite flowers.

Tulips are ranked probably at #2 or 3. :)

Hubby built us a humble terrace (which was quickly covered in dirt from muddy boots). We are making a little patio of sorts and will have a bench + small table and chairs to sit on and picnic at. The edge seen in the back is the currant bushes (which will provide not only privacy but snacks) and the side facing the road will become a chicken wire wall with vines growing up it. For privacy, snacks, and prettiness. We need prettiness in this life!!

This delightful thorn bush is what I assume to be gooseberry. It's on our new plot.

And the rhubarb is rising so nicely. 

We have sooo many currant bushes now with the plots combined. It's just never-ending!

My dad's second favorite thing to grow after raspberries, is potatoes. 

Now that the raspberry situation is under control (still waiting on those new shoots), he went ahead and planted the seedling potatoes.

One perennial I've always wanted but never had: poppies. These gems are on the corner of the new plot. 

I can't wait for them to bloom!!

What's this? More daffodils? :)

The peonies have risen! Hopefully we get some blooms this year!!

This Saturday is my baby shower and I've been busy prepping and planning. 

I've also been working hard on a little strawberry mobile for my little summer strawberry. :)

Oh, and building my container garden on the balcony. Pansies galore! ♥ 

(For those who don't know, they're the absolute #1 favorite flower o'mine!)

Pictures to follow of all of the above! 

See ya next time! :)