keskiviikko 30. huhtikuuta 2014

Instead of a real one

As we can't have a real dog due to my husband's allergy, we'll have to make do with pictures and statues. This one is from London.



tiistai 29. huhtikuuta 2014

It's gonna be green

We are on vacation and that means we have time to do things that cannot be done on weekends. One favourite is to visit the local waste tip to get rid of  stuff that gathers when doing renovations. Yesterday we made two trips to the tip to get rid of the shop's floor and wall boards. Both the floor and the walls were in good(ish) condition under the old cardboards and wood boards. 

The nails need to be removed from the floor before it can be painted (green).  It will look great when finished, I am sure. 


maanantai 28. huhtikuuta 2014

Nothing in common

What do these things have in common? They look good together! The "silver" plate is once again a part from an old Singer sewing machine - I am going to buy a black leather string and use the plate as a necklace.




sunnuntai 27. huhtikuuta 2014

Don't play with it

This has been a much loved toy of some little boy - at least it has been played with. There are parts missing and it must have been dropped onto the floor a time or two. Now the plane is retired and not to be touched.


lauantai 26. huhtikuuta 2014

Have a seat

This is an old chair found at our attic. I've shown this before but as it is a beauty,  it deserves another chance.



perjantai 25. huhtikuuta 2014

I don't need to travel

No need to travel as you can pick souvenirs at flea markets. Anything old looks better than anything new.. The Riva del Sole plate (ashtray?) is now an essential part of our souvenir collection.



torstai 24. huhtikuuta 2014

Just try to guess

I won't even ask because there is no way for you to guess where this frame is from:


We were making a table leg from an old Singer sewing machine and my husband took the machine apart and this "frame" is one of the pieces left over. This was under the table board, we don't know what it was originally for and don't much care as it is a very beautiful as a frame for postcards.

keskiviikko 23. huhtikuuta 2014

tiistai 22. huhtikuuta 2014

A peek through the door

The door between the bedroom and the living room is usually closed as we have our TV just behind the door. The view to living room looks nice, maybe we should ditch the TV and start enjoying the view instead.


maanantai 21. huhtikuuta 2014

Violets are blue

And sometimes violets are creamy, too. I bought two flower stands from Stockmann's Crazy Days and just love them! They are perfect for violets as the height gives you a better view to the small flowers.






lauantai 19. huhtikuuta 2014

Waiting for visitors

We started cleaning up our shop yesterday as we want to organize a fleamarket or two during the summer. My husband got a great idea to hang the extra chairs on the wall of the storage. Now we have more room to clean up and store things that are currently messing up the store floor.


perjantai 18. huhtikuuta 2014

Bag lady

The chrysanthemums look as good in a paper bag as in a flower pot, don't they? Well, come afternoon and I'll pot them anyway.




torstai 17. huhtikuuta 2014

Too much time in your hands

When we didn't have a cottage, a country house and two gardens I cut paper from magazines and glued the pieces together into animals. This ice bear hangs in our bedroom, an owl, a tiger and a giraffe are in the cellar.


keskiviikko 16. huhtikuuta 2014

Only the car is missing

We have a couple of pairs of old registration plates that just hang on the wall. Maybe we should get cars to hang them on...


tiistai 15. huhtikuuta 2014

Buying is the new saving?

I have been looking for a rectangular tray and found a perfect one at Kotka but it cost over 100 euros. I didn't had it in me to pay so much for a (beautiful) piece of metal and left the shop emptyhanded. Thankfully, as the very next day I found this one at a fleamarket for only 12 euros. It is not heavy and French as was the more expensive one but looks good enough.


I still need another and bigger rectangular tray as I'd like to have one on the wall behind the stove. I now have a very practical aluminium sheet there but an old tray would look better. The hunting continues...



sunnuntai 13. huhtikuuta 2014

Welcome to Finland

These bigger-than-usual postcards are reproductions of old travel ads - there are posters available too but I like these postcards more. 




lauantai 12. huhtikuuta 2014

In a blink of an eye

If you don't enjoy washing up, don't buy white linen table cloths! We bought a runner for our new table and it took all of 20 minutes before the linen had stains from red wine. Luckily the 95 degree washing machine program got the runner white again - not so luckily I hate ironing and the linen is a pest to iron..


perjantai 11. huhtikuuta 2014

Getting there

The tin box collection has gotten a couple of new members. A few more and the shelf won't be big enough. Maybe I should move the Paavo Nurmi relief or the red A to some other place. Not yet, though, have to find more tins first.


torstai 10. huhtikuuta 2014

Hearing things

We bought a new clock for the kitchen. It tick tocks really loud! We didn't exactly stay awake for the whole night because of it but you can really hear it as it resonates with the wall. If you don't hear this one, your hearing is gone for good - a good way to tell if you are getting old (not yet, folks!).




keskiviikko 9. huhtikuuta 2014

Seal it

I like an idea of a perfume but don't actually enjoy strong fragrances. I bought a couple of scented soaps and put them in a glass jar with a lid. Now I can close the lid whenever the scent gets a bit too much thus having the cake and eating it too.




tiistai 8. huhtikuuta 2014

maanantai 7. huhtikuuta 2014

Live and learn

Even a humble buttercup looked good in the first part of the 1900's. Must have been great going to school and never seeing any slides, only these artworks.





sunnuntai 6. huhtikuuta 2014

Tickled pink

I have great difficulties passing by anything pink...and here we go again. A visit to the local interior decoration shop Vanille home and I had one more pink pot.




lauantai 5. huhtikuuta 2014

A place for your hearts

I bought these metal hearts in sale to decorate the garden next Christmas. As I didn't have the energy to pack them with other Christmas decorations I put them in an old tin pitcher that happened to be in the hall as I hadn't yet found it a place in the garden....one things leads to another and then you have a whole new decoration solution.



perjantai 4. huhtikuuta 2014

Buy yourself a garden

At this time of the year the only way to get some colour in the garden is to buy narcissus and other bulbs in pots. All the decorations have been outside for the whole winter but they start to look a bit sad in the bright spring light - some flowers make everything look better.



torstai 3. huhtikuuta 2014

Chick lit

I can call a blog post chick lit if it is about Easter chicks, can't I? As I already had the Easter eggs out of the closet I thought I can put the chicks on the table, too. It is never too early to start celebrating Easter!


keskiviikko 2. huhtikuuta 2014

The terrace is open

The metal chairs are not the most comfortable ones in the spring -they are always too cold to sit on - you need to have pillows ready if you want to take a seat. We did not yet sit outside but lets hope it is possible on next weekend - even though the weather forecasts threaten that the weather will get colder.


tiistai 1. huhtikuuta 2014

No food on the table

We bought a "new" table for the living room. We had a big folding table but it wasn't very practical as it had three pairs of table legs, which left rather little space for human legs..

I surfed.tori.fi for about six weeks before finding this one. It is extendable and at the biggest it is 250 cm - plenty of room for eight people. With the table we got eight chairs. My husband upholstered four of the chairs with linen I had bought from flea market a couple of years ago. The chairs are now as good as new and we think the linen looks very good, even better than we hoped. We still need to do something to the tables surface as there are a lot of marks on it.