Life's a bitch!

Life is tiring at times... I'm losing one friend to cancer... she's in Rome and won't see her again
another friend is battling , chemo and such, in Finland... hope to see her next summer...
Oliver is not well... we're battling together...

I wish the sun would shine...

19 years!

My oldest son was born at 04:43 on the 23rd of January 1992... 19 years ago!

Happy birthday Luca !

        Chocolate cake and chocolate frosting, because he remains the same little boy as always! =)

Friend

When your vacation has passed worrying about your cat and trying to be there for all the kids coping with their feelings, and your family has gone back home and you had to stay behind because the cat cannot fly too soon after his operation, then arrives a friend from hundreds of kilometers with a train and cheers you up: Red wine, junkfood, internet, 'Sex In The City', wool and knitting... till the morning!
And she brings along lovely gifts too... and makes you forget your woes... thank you Mari, for existing! =)



                                               A beautiful box full of buttons!

                                  Two incredibly soft skeins of ecological wool in a perfect grey:

                                                  And three balls of yarn to try out:

Christmas books

Christmas gifts:

Housecleaning with elegance!

Another package waiting for me on my return from the holidays... From a dear schoolfriend who is in Cornwall and is an artist, made by her for ME!!!!

Flowers and ribbons and tulle and satin... =)

Makes me happy!

Seeing this sort of thing makes me happy! Such a fun idea, to change a lamp's look for a period of time...

LOVELOVELOVE

LOVELOVELOVE this new Schacht wheel, the SICEKICK!!!

I must have been very good...

    When one has been very good, one may receive a package like this in the mail!!! =)
    This was waiting for me here at home and it is GORGEOUS!!!! Alpaca-silk yarn to be precise...
    Thank you Ilu!

Vacation?

They call it vacation but it really was an ordeal and a roller-coaster of emotions... more on that later, but this is Oliver this morning... in the sunshine with the Mediterranean behind him... all I ask for is LOTS of happy days in the sunshine with my darling cat!

The Way We Were... young and beautiful!

                                   Calpe Spain August 1978... Tea, Lucio, Sandra

One more week

One more week and we're off for our Christmas vacation... Finnair gave me a scare with the stewardess' strike which lasted 8 days, but luckily the strike ended last night! They have a week to get things back on track because I'd rather not have delays and things...

Oliver, our dear cat is not well... He's been to the vet here but even though he's better and has stopped losing weight, but somethig is a little wrong and I'm worried sick... He has an appointment at the cat clinic in Finland as soon as possible... and I worry and buy him chicken breasts and things that I know he likes... worried worried... =(

And on a happier note... I received a lovely photo of Luca... Can't wait to see him!

This year's Advents Calendars

A calendar with illustrations by Rudolph Koivu...

One that represents the Villa Hakasalmi where Aurora Karamzin lived in the centre of Helsinki...

And one that Finnair sends to all it's little Finnair Plus clients...

And today is the first of December... we get to open the first window!!!!

The magic of making yarn!

It started with a gorgeous fibre dyed by Tuulia from Knitlob's Lair...

                   ...which was so easy to spin that even I made yarn-looking yarn...

     ... and then I knitted a simple cowl from it!!! (Better photographs when I can get someone to pose)

                                              
                                           Makes one feel very... capable!   =)

Scarf/Shawl

Scarf/shawl... beautiful pattern... Cinnamon Grace on Ravelry... beautiful yarn... Posh Yarn Martha (the pictures don't do the colour justice) ... I'm very happy with this!!!

Do your kids dress up???

She's 21 and she really enjoys make up and horror movies... =)

I sent a little box of goodies to a friend who always remembers me and my family and who has had a little rough autumn, and asked Minerva ,my 9 year old, if she'd like to make a drawing to include in the box. With her usual determination she sat down after doing homework and started drawing.

She didn't ask me what to draw or for ideas, and next time I looked she had filled a sheet of paper with birds!!! I almost wanted to keep it for myself , but it had been drawn for Merja so we took photographs and sent it along! Now that the packet has arrived at destination I can show the drawing...

Shawls

This is my first Ishbel from some

time back... I washed it again and

took some more pictures... The

 Posh Yarn cashmere just gets

softer and softer...

And this is my Alina II... in Posh

Yarn cashmere: Soft as a cloud

and light as air! This one is for

me... (until someone wants it)

My mother stole my tent!

Remember Oliver in the Ikea kid's tent? Well, we took the tent down today, so that we can get the room a bit organized, and you should have seen Oliver's look??? Like... WTF??? He looked so lost and disappointed that I had to open the wardrobe drawer and let him return to his favourite sleeping place ... as you can see, I knit garments for someone's pleasure!!!

ANOTHER Great Mail Day!!!!

Yet another incredible mail day! I could get used to this!!!! =)

An exchange with the Kahelit-group on Ravelry... the idea was to give away something from your stash that didn't speak to you anymore... I have some doubts that these don't speak to someone, they're gorgeous!!

2 skeins of Drops Alpaca in blue, with beads to go with them... maybe I'll finally tackle beading? =)

2 skeins of Sisu in a deep brown...  some Sisu is always needed (look it up in the dictionary...it's finnsih!)

And a lovely pink skein of Kainuunharmas hand-dyd by Ilu ... I LOVE this yarn!

A bag of blue beads, some buckles and a little torch and... SALTY LICORICE!!!!!

Thank you KIRSI!!!!!



Then... there was a package from Marjut... a very funny book with personalized autograph!!! Lucky lucky me! THANK YOU!!!

And then... there was a little Extra package, just to keep my weight up! 4 , yes 4, Fazer chocolate bars ... my very favourite, and three boxes of ... yes Sisu, only this time it's not yarn but licorice!!! =) You see... we finns are very proud of our SISU! Kirsi, the family thanks you!

The mailman is always so happy to bring me packages... to thank him I ordered his little daughters a letter from Santa Claus, straight from Korvatunturi... =)

GREAT MAIL DAY!!!!

First a huge box from my dear

dear friend Merja... Lots of

yummy rye bread and chocolate

and salty licorice and dried

berries!!!

Then some yarn from  Ilu ...

gorgeous wool...

And last but not least, Minerva, my youngest, got mail from the future Queen of Sweden, Princess

Viktoria and her husband Daniel, with a photo and their autographs!!! She had sent a card drawn by her  in June when they got married and now she received this! You can imagine that she was rather happy!

My friend Heli was the one to suggest sending a card, because when she was little she had done the

same at Viktoria's parent's wedding and had received a letter from them... Forever thankful for the tip...

my daughter will always remember this!  <3