Happy New Year

No promises, just enjoy!

Frosty morning

There is no snow but lots of frost. It looks beautiful but there is no way I'd go out to enjoy myself. My husband was the brave one and took the photos, visiting the stores in the morning was enough outdoor living for me.

One more for the road

You can still take a couple of photos of our Christmas tree, can't you? Well, here they are anyway.

Winter flowers

It is almost impossible to believe, but the violets are still flowering. I just had to pick a couple of them so I can say that we had flowers from our own garden for Christmas.

Green Christmas

It's been an exceptionally warm winter so far. I decided to at last throw away my summer hydrangeas yesterday but they had grown new spuds so I put them in the shed instead. If the winter will be warm throughout, I just need to water them every now and then and they just might survive till spring.

Our Christmas tree is the last of the last that were sold in Loviisa's market place on Christmas eve. My husband managed again to arrive to the place as the sellers were packing their stuff (this happened last year, too). He would have gotten the tree for free but as the money went to a charity, he paid for it anyway, all in good Christmas spirit.

Pets for everyone

As there are allergies in the family we can't have live animals and have to do with porcelain ones. I love this white parrot I bought us as a Christmas present. P.S. The grey 'wallpaper' is in fact a tablecloth from Indiska. The wall is temporary and made from brown paper and I wanted to hide it as I don't like brown walls even temporarily...

Merry Christmas!

Remember to eat lots of sweets, now's the time for it!

Under or over

These porcelain coasters make nice Christmas decorations. And as we have a wooden kitchen top they are useful, too - put a glass or fruit jar on the top of coaster to make sure there will be no marks. Behind the coasters is the perfect oil bottle holder, an old potato measure. The oils don't get too much light and the table top stays pristine. And that the measure is beautiful is a bonus.

As back when

Drinks anyone? We have been collecting trays, ice cube holders etc for some time now. The two carafes we got from my aunt. A couple of stars make the scene Christmassy.

Blanket of snow

No fear of white Christmas this year as it is +10 Celsius now and it seems that the warm weather will hold till after Christmas. Cold or not, it is never too warm to have lovely woolen blankets on chairs and sofas.

What date is it?

As we are in the city for weekdays and in Loviisa (Vårkulla) for the weekends, it is almost impossible to use a traditional Christmas calendar as we would have to move it from one place to another. So this  table calendar with Christmas motive is a perfect solution. And it is ecological, too as you don't through it away after Christmas!

The ribbons are from Tiger, it is the very place to go when you need (cheap) fabric ribbons.

Warming up

It hasn't been very cold this winter but in an old house your feet are always freezing. My mother-in-law knitted these amazing socks for us for Christmas - of course we started using them right away, we just couldn't wait till Christmas. Thank you Marjatta!

Pack them up

Packing bags from the 50's - wonderful that someone had saved these for all these years and then decided to put them for sale in a flea-market. We pressed them under a couple of heavy books and now they are just like new. Perfect for the shop museum!

Too precious to burn

We found a box of old candles in a flea market. These are not for the Christmas tree, we bought them for the shop museum. I would have liked to have a stack of these boxes but one will have to do as there were no more. These candles were produced from 1950 to 1959.

Ladies (and gentlemen) who lunch

I just love our local cafe in Loviisa, Vaherkylä-Ek. We had a delicious lunch there today.

Sans Serif

I didn't know I had it in me to say "I need a new television", but now I really need (want) one! Samsung's new Serif series was inspired by a font and I would love to have a brown Serif for Vårkulla! At the moment we are 'sans serif' (couldn't resist the pun...this means without serif and is a font, too), but hopefully not for long.

Photos by Samsung

Room for more?

Christmas decorating means that my trays and tables are bursting at the seams. Maybe there is still room for a decoration or two...or not.

Merry go round

I have seen a lot of paper Christmas decorations in Swedish magazines and now I finally found some here in Finland, too. These are from Tuomaan markkinat, a big Christmas fair that is held in Helsinki (link). I also bought a set of angels and a set of straw goats.

Does it ring any bells?

Old metal objects are nice to have for garden decoration as they can be left out for the whole winter. I found this old bell last weekend. I just changed the plastic string to a jute one and hung the bell outside our door.

Have a nice independence day!

An old map from the attic, a couple of candles and a linen cloth - perfect for the independence day.

No cutting the fish

This "Nämä by Ruth Landesa" cutting board is only for decoration -  it could of course be used as a cutting board but I don't want to. Instead it will have a pride place at home on top of a drawer in the hall where there are other fishes (decorations and a framed picture) to keep it company.

BTW, Krinti (link to a Facebook page here) is a small shop in Loviisa that sells artist's and craftmen's work (like the Nämä board) and in addition a selection of old stuff. The artist was just dropping these boards to the shop when we visited and I instantly fell for the 50's style.

Around the world in 24 days

It is a long way for little biggies to travel, all around the world and only 24 days to do it.

I am not complaining

There is now snow and no sign of frost yet. All the Christmas decorations are in place but it doesn't look very Christmassy when you look out of the window.

Gems for old houses

There is a new shop in Helsinki, Domus Classica (link). It's a wonderful place if you have an old house! From there you'll find everything you need...e.g. a replacement vent for an old one that your clumsy chimney sweeper broke.

Putting things on the table (or not)

I have been on a lookout for a cover for our sofa for a long time. All the blankets I have seen have been either too small or too big. Now I found an Austrian table cloth that is just the perfect size. The cloth is of heavy cotton so it is well suited for a sofa cover, too. I would have liked the cover to be in a warmer shade but as this is from a flea market, there wasn't any choice.

It's all about Christmas

We have been collecting cigarette tins for a some time now. My husband asked me yesterday if we should put all the red ones on the show for Christmas. A good idea, even cigarette tins can be Christmassy if they are red :)

Violets are forever

I can't believe it is the end of November - the violets are still flowering in our front garden!

Still trying to find its place

When you get something very cheap, you just have to buy it even though you don't quite have a place for it, don't you just? This Kupittaan Savi vase was a real find for 10 euros. They usually cost around 30 to 40 euros. So if I decide to sell this, I would at least triple my money back, not a bad investment (I am not selling it, though).

Green leaves

For home I love the 1960's muddy colors. We found this Uppsala-Ekeby plate for a song in a flea-market in Kotka. It is by Sven-Erik Skawonius.

Short visit to the cottage

All was well at the cottage yesterday. There was some snow when there was none at Vårkulla. The snow is good news as the plants will survive the winter better. Let's just hope the snow will not melt again - the worst thing for the plants is a wet winter! Its been a couple of difficult years already, now I'd like a normal Finnish winter.

Waiting for the first advent

I started decorating for the Christmas yesterday. We don't yet have a Christmas tree but otherwise everything is in its place.

I found two copper pots last summer and they are perfect for Christmas flowers. As we have an old wooden table I have to have pots that won't let any water come out and you couldn't get safer ones than these two. Ceramics have been shown to be unreliable, I bought two really thick ones and still they seeped water on the floor.

Fly me to the moon

I just love anything from the fifties: music, dresses, interiors, prints and now...I didn't even know that space theme 50's Christmas tree decorations existed before I saw these three in tori.fi. Sold, in minutes. We fetched these from Kotka and now we are dying to find more.

After dark

Don't you just hate garden lights that are so bright that they blind you instead making you see where to put your feet. No problem here, my Carpe Noctem lights are just wonderful, they look beautiful even when they are not on and they give just enough light for safe journey in the garden.

Reconsidering the faith of the maple tree

As you may have noticed, we have large gravel areas in our garden. The autumn means a lot of raking as we also have a big old maple tree. I couldn't have guessed how much work this combo means. I don't want to reconsider the gravel as I just love it so it might mean that the maple is doomed. Well, not yet. Maybe I can take the about two months of work as the maple drops its leaves rather late and when they start to fall off, they all fall rather quickly.

Where's the amaryllis, then?

I don't know if people put their red vases for sale as the Christmas is coming or if this was an coinsidence, but on Sunday I saw several red Kupittaan Savi vases in the flea-markets. I bought this one as it will be great for long stemmed amaryllis, don't you think?