Home, Sweet home!

After several problems on uploading photos from our house.. I might have solve the problems..

 Finally, here is start of which hopefully turns to great Christmas celebration house!!
 

This is when we still had an ugly TV above fireplace,
and not so stylish shelf on a corner, behind the fireplace..
Photo taken from stairs.

This is sight of our window from street. 

Here I have taken TV down,
 got rid off that ugly shelf and
painted walls all ower again.
Floor looks nice too, it took 4 days to wash it to
get real color out of there, it was so dirty.. after
people who lived here before us.

Grandmothers recipe for Cardamom buns.

I was talking about my Grandmother  which I always called Mamma, in my last posting.

She was great at doing many things, among, crocheting and cooking…  and baking. 

Surely she had time to learn all kind of things since she lived long and interesting life before fallen to eternal sleep last summer at the age of ninety. She was very close to me, and these cardamom buns, that we call Korvapuusti (slapped ears)  in Finnish, remind me of her where ever I see or smell them. We had a joke that I have nose that can smell her baking cardamom buns no matter how far I was. The smell of cardamom and yeast that fills our house when the dough is rising instantly takes me back to childhood – that is the fragrance of a true home in my mind.

Your kids will stand in line for Finland's version of "slapped ears": cardamom buns filled with brown sugar and cinnamon. This recipe is really worth of trying!! 

Prep Time: 2 hours, 15 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours, 25 minutes

Ingredients:

• For pastries:
• 1 cup lukewarm milk
• 4 Tbsp. melted butter (room temperature, if it is too hot, it burns yeast)
• 1 pkg. dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 Tbsp. freshly ground cardamom
• 1 beaten egg plus 1 beaten egg for final glaze
• 4-5 cups all-purpose flour
• Pearl sugar or rock sugar for dusting
• .
• For filling:
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 heaping Tbsp. cinnamon

Preparation:

In a large mixing bowl, combine milk, 4 Tbsp. melted butter, yeast, and sugar. Allow to sit 10 minutes until yeast begins to bubble. Stir in salt, cardamom, and beaten egg, then gradually stir in 4-5 cups flour until dough pulls away from the side of the bowl. Kneading by hand, work the dough until it is smooth, shiny, and has lost most of its stickiness. Place in a greased bowl, cover with a towel or cling wrap, and allow to rise 1 hour or until doubled.  Remember, softer your dough is, softer your buns are in the end.

Punch down dough, then divide into two equal halves. Roll each half into a 8x14 rectangle; brush each half with melted butter then sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon ( don´ t save ingredients at this point..)  Starting from the long side, tightly roll each half into a long "snake"; with a sharp knife, make diagonal cuts every 2 inches to make 7 triangular rolls (14 total).

Place each roll, point up, on slightly greased cookie sheets, then use a finger or a spoon to press down each tip to form ear-shaped rolls. Cover with clean towels and allow to rise another hour, until doubled.

Preheat oven to 400°F. Brush each roll with beaten egg, sprinkle with pearl sugar, and bake on center rack for 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown.

Yield: 14 large korvapuusti.

Here is useful image to visualize baking process!

Drawing was found from axis-of-aevil.net


I love eating these with cold skimmed milk, or huge cup of coffee.

 

Crazy about paper doilies.. and glassware.

Just wanted to write little note..

This pretty set of six glasses from Ikea I bought already. They go so well together with my paper doilies..

I know there are people who would never by anything from Ikea, but I like it.. if you don´t fill your whole house with it.
I might have a second thoughts what comes to our guestroom but.. these glasses I really like a lot.
They actually remind me of something
from my grandmothers house.
She loved doilies as well, and was brilliant at crocheting.

Inspirations for christmas!

 It is so rainy and windy weather in London that 

I wanted something to lift my spirit!

I have always loved doilies, real ones, as well ase paper ones, 

specially paper ones, since they are like made for hand crafts!

above is very pretty decoration idea for christmas, from: never-without.blogspot.com

I am tempted to put paper doilies all over the house... 

windows are first on a list, but this was also  lovely idea! I found it from bhg.com!

 

Christmas greetings can be simple plain cards, 

with pretty handwritten poem or simple greeting written on it, 

if you wrap it to paperdollies! 

I love this idea.. might need to use it. 

These are from  www.i-do-it-yourself.com

This Christmas I might wrap my cinnamon bun´s to these kind of things.

They are from intimateweddings, but I would use it... for christmas.

...And what would be Christmas without gifts...

I have always liked just plain brown wrapping paper, 

it looks somehow so real, elegant, and nostalgic...

I like to think it as a base for greater things to decorate it a little. 

One year I was using old postcards, 

and little peaces of lace, this year.. paper dollies.

 Papertastebuds has executed christmasgifts just like I would do it. 

I really love this vintage feeling! 

Specially thin paper yarn in red and white add great effect. 

It reminds me of those old fashioned mint caramels...

 It seems that our little house is filling with paper doilies very soon, 

I will show you what I have done, closer to Christmas. 

This was very inspiring indeed, to go through these great ideas that are all over in internet. 

I just love it. I hope you got little from my inspiration. 

Thank you for those people who wanted to share these photos with us in a first place! 

Do you think these are enough for me for a start?? 

Guests, welcome!

Guests are always welcome in to our little house in London.  
Therefore, I want to decorate our guest room as inviting as possible.  
Because guests are using the room only sometimes, we would like to create a space where you can sleep, as well as, read, and work when you feel like it.
I dream that I could find the perfect writing desk that would be sufficiently small, and antiques, but I think I'll have to settle for a less expensive solution so far.
We also need a room for the books that we have too many. Ikea offers a wide range of options for a small library room, but I want to stick to the nostalgic look, even though it would happen at the expense of a shelf space...
I'm trying to come up with a solution on how to get into a small space sensible and good-looking desk where I could organize a large space on the computer screen, keyboard, etc.
 I've noticed that children's furniture are less tedious and boring, and more what I am looking for.. so this is what I am thinking of using!

 
 This would do a great table for computer screen and all that I need for a work, and it goes perfectly together with similar one, that comes without tabletop, and is just shelf, similar to this.
I would have three of them side by side to create a feeling of little library. 
Must see if I would be able to glue wallpaper to the back wall of the shelf, it would be great looking instead of white boring laminate.




 Since all furniture I have chosen seem to be white, I would add a little color with great fabric  from Roberto Cavalli, that I bought already couple of years a go from Helsinki. It has red, yellow, and little touches of gold, sounds very gypsy like, but it has actually eastern feeling, and very luxurious look. I would make pillowcases from that.
I have saved it for right place, and I think this is it. I want to leave space for colors, and thinking, and creativity, this is why it is all looking so boringly white..  I do have a tendency of adding a little color here and there, until things end up looking like Circus, I love colors. 

To outer seamline in pillowcases I would like to use this kind of "pompom" decoration, I have always loved it, yes, I know it can be little tasteless, but they are my pillowcases and I want them to have a taste of humor as well as nice finish.

 Sleeping solution I try to solve with sensible sofabed, since we want place to look tidy and spacious in everyday life. Sofabed needs to be good, so good that I could sleep my self in it... then it is good enough for our guests!
This particulary one, is good to sleep in it. It is long enough and easy to use, and it really feels like proper bed. 
I liked it.


To avoid too artificial, and shiny feeling, I try to find lamp that is real antiques and adds a little spirit to my otherwise too much Ikea like room. Maybe something like this.. I love it even if it is little ower the top, and too big to my little room.. thinking this more as an inspiration photo!

I found this one from another blog, I really like this one!


http://myshabbystreamsidestudio.blogspot.com

A House on the Thames, our little home!

It was really love at first sight, even that our start was little bumpy...
Our little house is bathing every morning in sun, it is so warm,
and friendly that it gives no other option but to wake up in a good mood.
Rosepetal red walls in reception room, yellow in our bedroom, and Victorian fireplace are all what I have dreamed for years. So it seemed like dream when I found this house while looking for a place to live.
I find this surrounding very very inspiring ,
and since Christmas is on it´s way, my aim is to make this real Christmas dream!
I´ ll show you a photo so you have idea where do I start my journey!