Winter memories

My husband managed to take a couple of photos when it still was cold. Here is one from Christmas day (night). Have a happy new year's eve, never mind the weather!

Don't look up

I had a terrible flu when choosing the paint for the hall panels. I managed to remember wanting them to be a greenish gray and we chose a bit cowardly light green. After buying the paint I told my husband we have to choose the paint for the floor more carefully. And he told me that we had already bought the paint for the floor. I just hope it isn't the same colour as the walls as then we would need to paint the panels once again in a different colour..

The next step is to put up the wall paper - until then either don't look up or try to enjoy the paintings we hung for the while.

More gold

We found a gloden cup from Moko. It keeps company to our golden squirrell.

Present to self

We bought this little bathroom cabinet the last minute before Christmas. I have long dreamed of a cabinet with a marble top and now I have one. The cabinet is from late 1800' s and it has been modified to a 'lavoire' first in 1902 with a grey marble top and then in 1933 it got the green one. How do I know? There was a small note in the drawer telling that the cabinet was originally the writer's mother's teacher's (mademoiselle Thilda Wauke) and the note listed everything the writer knew about the cabinet's history. I love things with a story!

Better than ever

We finally have wall papers and painted panels in the bathroom. No more silver insulation panels, thank you! There is still a lot to do, but I am happy for the time being.

Thank you

We have decided to save all Christmas cards at our attic. Maybe some collector will get a pleasant surprise after 20 years..

The last minute decision

My husband bought the tree the minute the sellers were carrying them away to the trashes. He got us a beauty with 5 euros.

Merry Christmas!

Found these at our local flea market yesterday and just couldn't resist buying them. Welcome home, fellows!

After the party

Thank God for the dish washer. The day after a party would be too depressing without one. In addition, if you use cake papers as a table cloth you can just throw them to the trashes afterwards. You can enjoy the scene set by a bunch of merry people when the cleaning up only takes a few minutes. This one is after our Christmas party last week.

They are everywhere!

Even the kitchen hood got decorated. I don't have much interest in making cookies but I do love the cutters.

Something's fishy here

I love making arrangement and the Christmas is the best time for them. This one started years ago when we bought the fish graphics from an art exhibition. After that more fish has tagged along and for Christmas I just added some silver balls and colourful ribbons. And you'll also find a longtime dream of my husband's: the dog that nods its head - we got it from friends last weekend and I guess it will be taken to our car where it really will do some nodding.

Pretty ribbons

We have glass balls hanging above our dining room table for the whole year. We bought them one Christmas and after Christmas they just stayed in place. This year I hung some ribbons from the balls to make them more Christmassy and I think this works very well.

New order

I hope I'll get this brass measure for Christmas. As I don't quite believe in Santa Claus, I just ordered the measure from Ferm living (link).

Photo by Ferm Living. 

Christmas in the kitchen

Just move the ginger bread (pepparkakor) tin away and you have room to make supper. Everything takes a little more time come Christmas...

Nonanimal

What is a nonanimal -  it is a cute, small and green ceramic figure that kind of looks like an animal. Arni Aromaa (link) who has designed this called it epäeläin in Finnish and my translation for the word is nonanimal.

I found our new pet at Ornamo's design market here at Kaapelitehdas on last Friday.

A winter moment

On Saturday morning it snowed and on Sunday evening all snow was gone. Mind, I'm not complaining, just stating the facts.

Simply the best

This lamp is as simple as it gets. And even though it is really modern, it is a very good fit for the fortie's fan and the old wood cabinet.

Starting small

At the moment there are only a couple of paper Christmas globes on the sofa table. Come Christmas (or next week) I will up the amount of decorations to get more shine and colour.

Christmassy colours

I bought a bunch of flowers on Friday, including my favourites red dianthus. When I said to the florist that I want more green she suggested green dianthus which I have never even heard of before. She was right, they were just what was needed.

Something new for Christmas

I must warn you...many of the posts from now on will be about Christmas. So if you don't want to start the celebrations just yet, you'll just have to stop reading for a month or so.

I already have lots of Christmas decorations but a couple (read tens) of new ones still end up at our home. These small bigs are the latest, cute aren't they?

Delicate ornaments

Don't you just love glass balls - they are clear and beautiful and somehow they seem to create Christmas atmosphere without any colours. The red bird pops out nicely with all the white and glass.

The shortest winter ever!

If this is all of the snow for this winter, I am happy. The view from our bedroom window is from Saturday, today there is no snow left, great!

Snow whites

I love lace for Christmas. I have had these starched  lace decoratins for a couple of years. I guess you could do them yourself and maybe one day I will - I am dreaming of a stiff lace curtain. We saw one at an art exhibition, there were two of these in a corner, creating a room within a room and it looked amazing. Photographing was prohibited but luckily I still see the installation in my mind's eye.

Everything is black and white

Where are all the colours? I want summer and I want it now! Ok, maybe I want to celebrate Christmas first but after that, summer straight away, please.

It found its place

I moaned a while ago how I hate buying things from webshops as I can't get everything right away. But to be honest, Ellos surprised me positively - this rug arrived in just a couple of days and I got it before we went to the country for the weekend so I really have nothing to complain about (except that I still would like to have everything I ordered the minute I order it :)

The last of the last

It is very hard for me to see everything die before winter, thank God for sedums.

And then there are lots of weeds that look great even after flowering, e.g:

Go get them

Christmas is coming! Just go and get your decorations and put them out for all to see!

Missing it already

The sun shone on Sunday. It seemed it last shone months ago, lets hope we don't have to wait for the next time very long!

New as good as old

When you combine old and new stuff, the new seems older than it is. Only the mirror and the candelabra are old for real. The "wall paper" is an old tablecloth from Indiska and the other decorations are from here and there. I especially like the black iron vase in which I put a ceramic ball. I bought the vase for the garden but at least for now it can stay inside.

The newest of the new

We went to a decorating outlet yesterday. There were lots of stuff to be had very cheaply and here are some things that happened to catch my eye (and wallet)

If you happen to visit Helsinki, read more at Kotikaupunginlaidalla.

A short visit

I bought the old turqoise vase from flea market last weekend. It got to stay on the side table for a couple of hours. Then I decided to start decorating for Christmas and the vase went to a box to wait for Easter. But it is beautiful! I love both the colour and shape. The seller had put a sticker saying the vase is old Arabia - and it might very well be as Arabia did the same shape around 50's and the vase is very well made. But whatever, if looks good and that is the main thing.

Oh deer

I am kind of wild about glass domes. This is the newest one, I just had to buy one especially for Christmas.

More stars

I am puzzled...I found this Doris Day puzzle in flea market for 4 euros. It is in mint condition and my guess is it was never used. If you don't know who Doris Day is, shame on you!

Almost there

I started decorating for Christmas. I haven't yet put all the decorations out. I just changed some of my table arrangements, changed some pillow covers and put the most summerish stuff in storage. I have bought some new decorations: some paper stars, globes etc. In addition I am going to bring everything I have in storage in the city. This Christmas will be the most colourful ever!

Sparkly eyes

Darling, your eyes look like diamonds! This is what you could say to this pink 2 euro ice bear eraser that got my small diamond studs as eyes.

Gotta do something

As there are no more real flowers to cut in the garden one hast to find another way of bringing flowers in. I could of course buy some cut flowers but as we only are at Vårkulla on weekends I seldom have the heart to buy flowers and leave them to die for the weekdays.

Loving enamel

I found the first old enamel jug last summer and now I have three. The latest (in picture) I bought last weekend. I use them for flowers outside but as it was raining and there are no flowers left, we took the photo inside. The jug is a bit rusty inside so it cannot really be used for coffee.