Sun, Spring, Sun, Summer, and My Garden.

It has been so lovely sunny day, that I am all very inspired about Gardening.
We have tiny back yard, and reasonably sized patio, view to River Thames, and room enough for table and chairs. Problem is: 
We do not have grass lawn. It is just boring ugly concrete yard... it is far away from my dream rose garden with sweet peas, and fountains.. and not enough space. 
 I know already that it will be our favorite place to stay during the summer, and I need to roll up my sleeves and do something about it. 
First I need to plan what kind of flowers do I want to have in my garden. 
Again, my Grandmother and her Garden.. I know I need to have certain flowers just as a reminder of her, since there is no way I have chance to visit her Grave.. it is too long way to Finland and to Joutseno, so I will have some Flowers that remind me of her. I miss her. 
I thought I´d by something that would grow, and hide our little patio so that we can sit, have a breakfast without being too exposed to anything. I think I will have sweet pea up on a patio, it is also lovely, colorful and one of my favorite flowers.  
Water.. well surely we have Thames just next to us, but I need my fountain. I just can not have back yard and not a fountain. It has been my dream since little girl. I don´t need anything big, but I want to keep my style.. I think I have found just what I need.  Little pond with Frog.. I love frogs, I actually collect them 
(but don´t tell any one..). I really want to have little "sofa" to sit on, and read a book etc.  as well as couple of trees.  I have gone through internet searching little pretty things here, so that I have some kind of plan to go ahead. It will be surprise even for me, what I and up having done. 

If anyone have any good suggestions to me, what plants survive well enough in pot, since that is only way to get garden to our little yard, I am open for suggestions.. 

This is what I feel I NEED from Thompson & Morgan ( all is from there) 

Sweet Pea : Astronaut 

Morgan Poppy - Iceland

Aster chinensis

Calendula officinalis Fiest Gitana

Cosmos bipinnatus Sensation

Cornflower Dwarf Blue Midget

Smart Solar Green Glazed Frog Ceramic Water Feature

Ascalon Lut Bench

 

Mouse on the table

You hear little tap tap tap...
And you don´t really think what it is.. you know , old houses, there is all kind of noises that you can hear.

Then little by little you start hearing them more.. they are fighting, since I can hear them. Very close actually, under our refrigerator. Then one evening, sitting in the kitchen, and wrote a blog, when I saw some flashes rapidly over the cabinet and back to the cabinet. I stopped writing and waited.
There is finally Came. Little gray mouse. it was really a pretty little creature, he stole food from a dog bowl and ran back under the cabinet.

Kuuntele

Lue foneettisesti

I decided to test if the mouse Would come back. I cook eggs in the evening, and placed small pieces near the place where I have seen the mouse. Just a few minutes after, the small gray mice came to dinner. Pretty brave when he does not fear even our dog.

A few days quietly stealing food, until I came home yesterday...

 I sat on your computer, and talked on the phone at the same time with a friend. All of a sudden find out that someone staring at me. Little mouse was sitting on the sink, wondering where to go. I tried to take the photo, but it disappeared, and after a while it fell directly in front of the dog on the floor, where a poor thing  ran frightened under the cabinet.

 I must get rid of it.. but how?? I really can not kill it. 

I must find something to catch the mouse alive, so I can free it from a nearby park.

Any good ideas?? I have never had this problem before.. 

I remember my grandparents house had mouses in the basement sometimes, when autumn came. But never in my house. 

Luckily I am not scared of them, I had mouses as a pet when I was a child, but I still don´t want to share my home with them.

These mouses are from fabulous artist Natasha Fadeeva

http://www.fadeeva.com/animals.html

Winter food, traditional Home made baked cheese, the way my Grandmother made it.

This is a dessert you can spice up many different ways. 
Also ideal for ground cardamom,  cinnamon and sugar.  
This is a great winter dessert, because it is warm, easy to prepare, and personable. 
Personally, I think this dessert is best when eaten fresh, cinnamon and sugar, as a snack, or just cold home made rasberries! It reminds me of Grandma's kitchen, and his old white-brown casserole.. 
I wonder where it is now.


Traditional Home made Baked Cheese
 
5 dl of whole milk (almost cream)
3 eggs
1-2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons sugar

tin:
1 tablespoon butter

Stir in milk and eggs and spices, stirring gently. Pour mixture into a shallow buttered casserole dish. Cook at 175 degrees for 30-40 minutes.  
Bake in oven at the lowest level.
Check after 20 minutes, if the surface threaten to darken too much, cover with foil.
When the cheese is ready, the surface should be a nice golden brown hue on the surface.Turn off the stove and let stand for about 10 min. if the cheese is too brown on the surface, do not leave in the oven for a longer period of time.


Serve with cocktail piece itself, or as a dessert with jam or cinnamon and sugar. Grandmother often poured on top of cold milk, when the cheese was still hot and fresh straight from the oven.

I love this Golden soft, soothing food.

Cristmas feeling in our house.. even that it is soon starting to be all over..

I LOVE CHRISTMAS.
I think it is starting to be clear already at this point.
I must admit that it is more of a love of atmosphere than really Christian Christmas.
I like cooking Christmas dinner.. but... I am, like my closest people know: Big lover of celebration, since life it self is something we should celebrate everyday.

Here is couple of photos to show you our Christmas elegance.

I love our fireplace..

View to my favorite place

Finally got my kitchen sorted!

Library got a reading chair..

Even coldest winter days are fine here!

Traditional Finnish Christmas elf.

What do you really need to feel Christmas?

Siiri is waiting to see Santa!

I hope you enjoyed even a little.
I loved putting house all wintery and Christmassy!

I must write one receipe for you all to try.
It is again, my grandmothers one, and I tried it first time of my life, and it was perfect!
It is very traditional Finnish Fish: Gravlax!

I have also started to get my self organized with my other hand crafts. So must show you what I have done.. but, now my pillow is calling me. I am too tiered to write more.
My deepest apologies that I have not wrote much lately.
Our little house has been like bommed.. we got tons of boxes full of everything you can , and can not imagine from Finland.. same weekend I got sick, I bought Piano, and we had quests. It was crazy.. But no one, I will be good girl and give you something to read.

Be good!

Finally our housing in Helsinki is empty.. and I have time to write again.

After a great effort we had in Helsinki, my head seems to be totally empty.. I am just waiting something big, like great idea or receipe to eventually appear so that I can share it with you all. 
I have have already (surprisingly) great Christmas ideas but, would like to be little less predictable and give you mind blowing hand craft idea... Just a little patience ( like one of my teen age years favourite band was singing) and we are about to do something fun!
So many ideas, but there is always some part that is on it´s way to London in a moving truck.. and will be here hopefully around 10th so that I have time to spread all my Christmas decorations from former years. 
It is snowing in London, everything looks very atmospheric like in Christmas... almost like in Dickens Christmas stories.. Just like in a picture below.

Royal Wedding announced!

I have been all very Christmas spirited, but I could not help my self but to get exited about big news..
I am so happy about Prince William and Kate getting married.. they are such a sweet hearts.
I have decided to celebrate big day, 29th April 2011 with my friends, and for sure, we need real royal touch for our elegance.. What could be more importent than a crown,  tiara, or diadem, if we want to be sophisticated.  I have run a thoughts and ideas in my head, how to make a cool looking Jewelry meaning crowns etc, from cheapish materials. and this is what I came up..
You need lace, starch, gold paint, fake diamonds or other decorative items you will glue to your crown.

Royal Crown made from lace

You can use any lace you want, I don´t recommend cutting your laces that grandmother maybe inheritaged for you.. fleemarkets are full of old laces or you can just buy new one. I think best lace is not too thin, and fine, so that finish actually could look real. This is similar to what I would use..

Measure size of your head, and cut slightly bigger piece of lace so that you can sew it to circle, to a shape of a crown.
Then,  I would use starch to harden my crown a little so that it stays in right shape. Remember your head is not round.. try what is fitting best for you. This is easier to do with starch than Craft Lacquer, because if you need to try it on, to see that shape is right, you can not do it with Lacquer, but with Starch you can..
When crown is dry, I will paint it with cold paint, you can use also silver if you wish.

I would like to get similar Crown what Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden used when she got married so I use gold.

You may need to paint everything in couple of times to get best result.
This is how they look after golden touch!

Now only thing I need to do is decorate. They are actually so pretty that if you feel lazy you don´t need to decorate them at all.. But I love glitter and glamor so I will add these kind of things that I found from one hand&Craft shop some years a go. I have also old plastic pearl necklace that I will put in to peaces and use single pearls to make my Crown look more authentic.

With this technique you can do anything really, if you add little red stones, and peace of red velvet in to middle it is very similar to real Crown Jewels.. I love it. 

So here is my final result! How do you like it? 

Just joking, this is original, Mine is on it´s way and I will finish it during Christmas holiday and post you photos to show how authentic I could make it look!!!

This is also great Christmas gift for a little girl , 

or bigger one, who dreams of Royal Wedding selebration 29th april 2011. 

With this same tchnique you are able to make great huge "golden" necklaces, 

bracelets, rings, what ever you wish, that is why I love it so much.

All you need really is gold paint, ribbons, 

and lace, and fake diamonds (I really mean plastic ones). 

Even making honour badge is not difficult!

Here is couple of pictures to inspire you!

Snowing in Helsinki, time to have a hot drink!

Hello all of you!
I must apologize that I have had a little pause on writing..
We are due to go to Helsinki, to pack a way our apartment there, and it has been really time consuming to arrange everything.
It will be interesting task since fresh photo from our hoods showed to me that there is real snowstorm going on, and weather forecast says that even more snow is coming.
I wonder what kind of a winter is going to be all and all, when it starts like this, already in November..
Last winter was above anything I have seen before, according official sources, it was coldest winter in 130 years in Finland!
I am happy I wont be there this year, and I really hope it is going to be easier winter here this year than it was last year..
To warm up all of you, here is delicious receipe for you to make Glögi, like we love it in Finland, and I am  sure you will too, after first taste!



Try and enjoy!

Glögi is popular Christmas time drink throughout Finland, it is hot, spiced wine, perfect for cold winter evenings. Just follow this easy Glögg recipe to make your own great-tasting spiced wine. Variations are optional and add great personalized taste to your own "Glögi"!

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 bottle of red wine
• 0.5 Liter inexpensive brandy or vodka
• 10 cardamom pods
• 1 cinnamon stick (broken down)
• 1/2 orange peel (dried or fresh)
• 1/2 lbs sugar (regular or lumps)
• Optional additions: 5 cloves, 1/2 cup raisins, 1/2 cup almonds, 5 dried figs

Preparation:

Heat the wine and brandy spices, fruit, and nuts in a pot (and any optional additions you might like.)Be careful not to boil the mixture; just let it simmer for about 45 minutes.
Then, strain through a cloth to remove all additions.
Serve your Glögi hot, over lumped sugar (or with regular granulated sugar).
Optional: You can also serve the Glögi with raisons or almonds, that is traditional way of serving it!
If you'd like the drink to be stronger, use more brandy.
This Glögi recipe makes approx 1.5 Liter

 Here is another Receipe, it is stronger, and I have made it so that it is used more like snaps.


Christmas vodka
is a winter tradition in Scandinavian countries. It is commonly made with vodka,
It can be served chilled or warmed.
Serves: 8
Ingredients:

• 1 bottle (700ml) Vodka
• 2 tbspn sugar
• 2 sticks of cinnamon
• 12 whole cloves
• 12 whole cardamon seeds
• 1 orange

Method:

1. Gently crush the cinnamon, cloves and cardamon to release the flavor.
2. Put the sugar and spices into the vodka bottle.
3. Cork the bottle and leave for at least 2 days.
4. Wash an orange and slice a long strip of peel.
5. Put this strip of peel into the bottle and leave for a further 24 hours.
6. Strain and discard spices and peel.
7. Serve chilled. (best if taken straight from freezer, icy cold) 

Try on, I hope you enjoy results!! I do, every year...