Linnea 'Ea' quilts...

... the Independence day ball at December 6th, I've bought a pair of real dancing shoes. That is, shoes made for just dancing. They're supposed to support and not chafe your feet. But... they're practical, not decorative. What to do, what to do? Well, run in to Tiimari (Finnish arts & crafts store) and Blingi (local dress jewelry store here in Turku). For 5 euros, I got enough things to make the shoes a little bit prettier. Tiimari + Blingi + shoe box with booring shoes becomes... ... some slightly prettier shoes. Tadaa! While I was at Blingi - I had Mimi with me, because I badly needed her advice on buying the dancing shoes -  I found they had these cute decorative shapes cut from wood. I bought a pair of black "butterfly"-inspired ones, along with some ear-ring-pieces. They turned out quite alright :) I might actually go back and see if I can get some in violet as well, because they hardly weigh a thing and still look quite elegant. At least, I...

... last Friday, and came back with tomatoes, books and yarn. Not to mention borrowing 2 x 10 liter stainless steel cooking pots, and lugging them home. Had a nice chat with friends at Biocity too, and got some glögg and baked goodies for "special price" (read: all the odd cash I happened to have in my wallet... 35 cents). This snowy quest took me from Biocity, to the open air market, to the library, and to Lankabaari . Lankabaari is one of my favorite LYS here in Turku. (For all of you non-knitters/crafters, LYS stands for l ocal y arn s hop...) But I still can't wait for Menita in Espoo/Helsinki to finally launch their web shop. So, it was a busy weekend. I think I spent most of my free time on Saturday in the kitchen, doing all sorts of things. While things were simmering on the stove, I opened one of the books I had borrowed from the library, and it started out just as silly as I had expected it to be. Even so, I read it until Micke went out with the boys to t...

... but when you bring it inside, it quickly turns your clothes damp and makes your just dried and straightened hair revert back to it's original curly form. You guessed it, I'm talking about snow. Today, it's been snowing like crazy. Quite nice for a Wednesday. The Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) actually issued a warning about snow squalls yesterday, for both people inland and out at sea. Still, the temperature ain't that low yet (only -7 degrees Celsius), and the wind here in Turku ain't that strong yet either, but I guess it's getting there. Yesterday, some (idiots!) were still brave enough to head outside without headwear, but today everyone has headwear and scarves on. And I'm glad that I have glasses, beacuse they allow me to walk with my eyes open outside. Getting snow in your eyes stings. Really, it does. You actually have to admire the suckers that go out WITHOUT mittens/hats/coats to stand 10 min in the wind and smoke their stupid ci...

So, this past weekend was a busy one. As well as a one filled with activities. And slightly aching muscles, with a side dish of sweaty feet. Tippsund is 65 km from Turku; about one hour by bus. The buss for the camp area in Tippsund, Taivassalo left on Friday at 16 pm., and we got back to Turku on Sunday at 15 pm. The camp is owned by the city of Turku, and they rent it out to groups/associations/schools who need a place for extracurricular activities. There's one big house, surrounded by 8 small cabins (with room for 6 persons each) and the sauna. The area itself is nice, sea and all, but we spent 90% of our time indoors in the big house, and I just about managed to snap some quick pictures of it all before the buss left (on Sunday). The theme for the whole camp was to learn foxtrot, cha-cha and bugg . Of those, I already knew a little foxtrot, but I must say I do feel more confident dancing it now. Cha-cha was fun (as well as easy to learn if you already know rumba), and ...

... I'm gonna help Mimi put up the rest of her paintings. We'll have to drill a few more holes in the walls for that, though. My dear friend Mimi is currently living with two other girls in this huge apartment, and since they're going to celebrate her moving in this weekend, she's been a bit frantic about getting her room in order. I've helped her fix the curtain rods, and because she's been all "woe and whine" about her poor paintings never getting put up on the walls, I thought it high time we got around to do just that. I mean, if you're an Art-history major, and you can't get your own paintings up on the walls...? Luckily, it's pretty easy if you have a steady hand and a drill that can drill through concrete. - later addition -  The new curtain rods, aka the new room separators. Above the door are 3 of the paintings that needed to be put up. We put up these IKEA curtain rods last Saturday. Mimi's room has no "real...

   And I got both WIPs done :)

I have this "princess type dress", which I bought in February of 2004. I've used it on 6 occations, and taken it to the dry cleaners twice (second time because SOMEONE spilled vanilla ice cream down the front of it). Once upon a time, when it was new, I payed 280 euros for it. But, sadly, it doesn't fit me like it used to, once upon a time. Why? Well, I'm too tiny for it now. I requires a girl (or transgender person!?) that's a size 36-38 and about 170-175 cm tall (even when you're not wearing high heels). Me... I'm still 168 cm, and if I take a too wide step backwards I sometimes trip on the hem. And, I'm not a size 36 anymore. I'm a 34-36. So, if anyone of you knows someone who would like to borrow a slightly bigger dress for, say, the Independence day ball this year, let me know. I'll gladly dress swap, because otherwise I'll be going in this: Which is a dress me and my mom bought for me to use at at an event when I was stil...

It's been snowing! And much, if you ask my opinion. Sadly, nearly all of it will melt during the day and freeze during the night, so all the pavements will be horribly slippery. But, even if it's not snowing anymore today, I'll still show you some pictures of how it was yesterday. Turku market square Outside the city library

Extra time = more time available for making nom nom food in your kitchen I thought it would be possible, but... Sadly, but I didn't manage to find a whole turkey, so that we could have a "real" Thanksgiving dinner today. We had to make do with two chickens instead. What's this about, you ask? Finns don't celebrate Thanksgiving! Well... no, we don't - but I've always wanted to try to bake a whole turkey in the oven. For when I will need to know how to do it in the future, when I'll say "blah" to traditional finnish Christmas-ham, and bake turkey instead. And we celebrated All Saints Day instead.We lit a total of six candles. Before you scroll down to the photos, I must lamnent the fact that none of my food pictures ever look like those in the cookbooks. Thanks to Emmis, and her comment that Cookbook food is still raw and has stuff in it to make it look bigger. You would NEVER want to eat cookbook food! I'm confident that even tho...

I'm so glad I decided on giving up all those games! It really proved beneficial, as it enabled me to bake without stressing out. Now, I know this ain't paleo, so don't lynch me. The receipt is from Tina Nordström's lovely book, in the chapter about tapas and snacks. Anyway, I needed something to take with me to this dancing event, and since I needed something that was both cheap, yummy and relatively fast to bake, this was perfect. Only thing you need is: puff pastry (swe. smördeg) coumin (caraway) or rosemary seasalt one whisked egg One thing I decided to do however, is make them okay for vegans to eat too. To do that, I bought "butter dough" made out of plant oils. No lactose, no eggs, no milk. And instead of whisked egg, I coated them with rapeseed-oil. And they still tasted quite okay, even if they didn't look so yellow and nice as they could have. Ready to be put in the oven All done!

As of 11:30 a.m. this lovely Thursday, I no longer have the applications Farmville or Frontierville on my Facebook profile. I gave away all the tiny pixel things, or at least all the one that were gift-able, to friend still playing both/either game. I sent a last "gift" from both a applications to said friends, telling them sort of that "This is the last gift, enjoy it while it lasts". In Farmville, this was a "mystery gift", in Frontierville a "ribbon". mystery gift ribbon Now, I think I will reminiscence about these two application games a bit... Farmville, FV, or the game where "I'm gonna come to bed just as soon as I've harvested my crops" My avatar, or at least 'her' last incarnation. Personally, I would never be caught wearing these type of coveralls. I started playing Farmville ... close to 2 years ago, I think? I remember being semi-bullied into it by Sally and Daniel at a party at their place,...

Since I didn't get anywhere playing PetVille, this will be about CafeWorld. My avatar. Picture me in a Gordon Ramsey Hell's Kitchen type of chef outfit. I wouldn't mind having a real outfit like this though, but my own aprons suit me just fine. They're black, too. Awh, and I even used to change the color of my avatar's hair to match the one I had had mine currently colored in. The Green Dragon. My ex-café in CafeWorld. Alas, no more. And I did have a little green dragon, breathing fire on the guests. I got halfway to level 66 out of 100. I had (as you can see) too much fake-money (3 583410 cafe money) , and 17 of their "real" money. You got one "real money" from advancing one level, as well as for "cooking" dished 7 days in a row. My best streak of "days cooking" were 37. 37 bloody days of clicking on teeny tiny stoves.  *sound of head hitting keyboard* I also managed to get, let's see: the coffee ma...

...is taking up far too much time in this little family! Together, me and Micke are spending more time playing games online than what we're spending with one another (since I don't count "sleeping together" spending time with one another... duh, you're ASLEEP). To start combating this, I'm terminating all my Zynga game applications on Facebook. Hopefully this will mean that my spare time will be filled - once again - with more physical activities. I've found that, since playing more and more online games, I've lost the time for e.g.: taking the time to cook properly spending REAL time with my friends - not possible if you're glued to the screen excersise do chores around the house What I on the other hand have been doing is loosing muscle tone, increase my back pain, and gotten a funny ache in my tailbone. gotten sick and ill more often (duuh! gaming and not doing chores gives this to you instead) getting stressed out over the games, thu...

In Finland, the later in the year it is, the darker it gets earlier in the day. Somedays, if you're lucky, you can get up to 3 h worth of gloomy sunlight. But, since we're not there yet, and it's still only really dark-dark at night... Can you guess which balcony is ours? ...I'll leave you contemplating a picture of the house me and Micke lives in. The picture is taken at 23:30 on a Tuesday . Out of all the apartments, there's STILL light in ours (and in a few others). Isn't it nice to come home to a house where someone is still waiting up for you? (Not minding the fact that that certain someone is up playing World of Warcraft...on a work night....still) So, Halloween is something new to finnish culture. We do celebrate All Saints day (which will be on the  6th of November for us this year). Never the less, I'm always ready to try out new stuff, especially food+culture stuff. So, for the second year in a row now, I've made pumpkin pie. Last year...