Animal of the week #4

Fear this vegetarian with carnivore body! I present you elephant-tiger!

One Delorean needed, thank you

Yes, time is going way too fast.

Few days ago it was mothers 50th birthday. I sent some money to grandma and asked her to take roses to her grave for me, since the place is hundreds of kilometers away, which kinda sucks. But I get to visit her soon.

Four days till my summer holiday starts. Yeah, it is summer holiday, had one week left from last summer I hadn't used yet and now its a good time to do it. I'm going to East Finland to visit my family for christmas on 22nd day and will stay there for almost a week. Of course its gonna be my birthday party there as well on 23rd day (woo, more cake!).

Really hard to believe that its less than 2 weeks till christmas eve. Seriously. And almost year 2011. Goddamnit, another new number to remember.

And I went to see Rare Exports with a friend. Absolutely great movie! Can recommend it wholeheartedly!

But anyway, life is nice and good and we have lots of snow, yay!

Animal of the week #3

Behold! Anteater-Sloth! (I think sloths would actually look better with that head...)

Animal of the week #2

For Finland's independence day, I present you, cat-beetle!

Parteee

So it was time for traditional birthdaychristmas party. Except that now it was also housewarming party. Unfortunately since my apartment is so little (big enough for me though), I only invited people who helped me move and then few closest friends.

Anyway, I got to make a cake again, this time it was irish cream cheesecake, you can find the recipe from here.

Enjoy!

Before...

Demolishing the cake.

Pew pew pew

No words are needed.

With our powers combined....

Awesome day

So. I wake up in the morning and feel so sleepy. I walk to the kitchen to get something to drink and wonder "Why is it so bright in here..." and then I look outside...

And like that wasn't enough! One month and five days to go to my 26th birthday and they ask my ID at the store. "But you look so young.." "Why thank you!" I walked home, grinning like some crazy person.

Animal of the week #1

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? NO! ITS SHARK-TAUN TAUN!

Weekends and visits

This weekend my cousin and his girlfriend dropped by from east Finland. So, nice evening at Helsinki night and getting him hooked with desperate housewives (yeah he really is a guy).

Also my father called that the socks I made for him were perfect fit, so another great success.

Next weekend is finally such that I don't have any bigger plans, which is nice cause christmas party period is starting as well and feels like time is just flying with all office work and just sleeping over weekends. Usually I have started to listen to christmas songs when its November but now I have sort of skipped it all. I didn't even realize when the month actually changed.

Yes. I really should start thinking about making gingerbread cookies.

Father's Day

So, what to do when sick and you want to go to office and outside but you just can't? You finish making Father's day present! I can post about it even though its not Father's day yet cause my dad doesn't use computer and also, doesn't speak English either.

These socks were made out of 7 veljestä Raita yarn. Blue-ish grey-ish boy-ish. Perfect for daddy.

Dad also had been asking about my shodo work (japanese calligraphy) so I decided to include some of my "work" in package as well. The paper is "bamboo paper" so its very very thin and wrinkles up easily.

Shinpo - progress, development

And of course a nice card to finish the package. Now I will just wait until I am healthy enough to go to work and mail the package, yay!

And now its also snowing a lot outside. Sigh. Better to get healthy soon!

Note-to-self

Winter is coming. How do you know that? When you try to find a pair of wool socks. And while at it, I noticed that two pairs had holes in them, so I guess its time to start making new ones! Good thing I've been buying random yarns and theres this lovely petrol blue I just can't wait to be using on socks! Christmas is coming too so thats also another reason to start knitting ;)

Today would be pro-day at DigiExpo, was really looking forward to it, it was nice last time as well. I got to hug Ratchet, played God of War 3 for first time and got a Pikachu stuffed toy! But.. unfortunately I am now officially sick, so no DigiExpo's for me. Boo. Really hard to stay at home especially when I know that its also busy time at the office.

More napkins and cough medicine please.

Home

So its been already one week in new home, time goes really really fast. But during this week I've learned to like this apartment a lot and the location is just perfect. Even if its single room apartment, it still fits couch, bed, desk, three shelves, drawer, table, tv-set..

Work is more busy now but nothing special there. And now I feel like continuing some of my crochet pattern designs, its about damn time already!

Just a small update to let people know I am still alive and kicking, but will post soon when I have something else to tell.

Funeral

It was a long weekend but it feels like worst is over now. Mom's funeral.

It was great to have support from all the people there, friends and family.

Thank you for all.

R.I.P. Mother 9.12.1960-14.8.2010

R.I.P. Mother

49 years is not enough.

Experiments

Now lets see how this thing starts out...

Storm

Yesterday I just heard balcony door slam open, I ran to see what was happening and the sky was just flashing with all the lightnings.

Awesome.




Also the main street was flooding with water. Cars pulled over to the pedestrians side cause it was just too difficult to drive on the road.


Mind your step!

Lisää lomailua...

Viimeinen lomaviikko menossa (tosin käytännössä ei viimeinen, kun säästän yhden viikon joululle), mutta onhan sitä tullutkin tehtyä vaikka mitä. Melkein viikko Savossa, Lintseilyt, Korkeasaari ja muutama päivä Tampereella kylpylähotellissa (ja tietysti Särkänniemelläkin piti käydä).

Avomiehellä alkoi työt jo tällä viikolla, joten olenkin sitten vain ollut kotona ja pelannut Bluria online. Yllättävän hauska peli, vähän niinkuin Need for Speed yhdistettynä Mario Kartiin. Tosin kun pelaa 20 pelaajan peliä niin hyvä, että näkee minne ajaa, kun ympärillä vain räjähtelee.

Aloitin kirjankin pitkästä aikaa, Dan Brownin The Lost Symbol. Vaikuttaisi ihan hyvälle tähän mennessä, mutta yksi asia kirjassa ehkä vähän häiritsee. Se hehkutus että "No it can't mean this.. Is it really this?" "This only means that..." ja sitten ei kerrotakaan mitään. No, ehkä ne asiat tulevat ilmi sitten sivulla 500. Tämän kirjan lukemisen jälkeen voisi vihdoin ja viimein aloittaa tuon Sookie Stackhouse-sarjan. Kovana True Blood-fanina ihme, että ensimmäinen osa on vielä lukematta. No rehellisesti sanottuna ei se mikään ihme ole, en vain ole viitsinyt aloittaa, jotta olisi enemmän aikaa pelaamiselle ja hanjieille.

Asioita, joita olen saanut tehtyä kesälomalla:

• Katsoin Täydelliset Naiset kauden 5
• Pelasin God of War I ja III läpi
• Olen pelannut Bluria (ehkä vähän liikaakin
• Reissannut
  
• Ja ehkä on tullut oltua ulkonakin pienestä rusketuksesta päätellen

Joten ainakin on tuntunut lomalle :)

Pretty thing of the week #5

Isä tekee itse paljon puusta esineitä, tuoppeja, veitsiä, lastoja, kirnuja, melkein mitä vain oikeastaan! Eikä hän käytä niiden tekemiseen ruuveja tai nauloja ollenkaan, kaiken tekee itse puuta vain käyttämällä.

Kuvassa siis yksi isän tekemistä voiveitsistä.

So my father makes a lot of objects out of wood, pints, knives, churns, basically almost anything! And he doesn't use any screws or nails, he just uses wood to make these.

On the picture is one of the knives made by daddy.

Savo

Loma alkoi ja matkasimme Savoon. Hellettä piisasi, mutta kuka sitä nyt valittaisi, että lomalla on lämmin. Vietimme aikaa isäni luona ja kävimmepä tädin huvilallakin, jossa uitiin ja saunottiin ja syötiin itsemme ähkyyn. Järvivesi oli kyllä uskomattoman lämmintä.





Kävimme myös kokemassa paikallisia nähtävyyksiä, kuten Hojo Hojo ja Seinävuoren rotkolaakso.

Isän takapihalla oli myös siili!

Mutta keskiviikkona oli jo sukuloinnit hoidettu ja palattiin takaisin "sivistyksen pariin". Tänään kävimmekin sitten Linnanmäellä! Ja sää oli aika loistava siihen, ihmisiäkään ei paljoa ollut, joten jonotella ei tarvinnut. Ja juuri kun pääsimme takaisin kotiin, alkoi kaatosade. Ihan hyvää vain sadekin tekee välillä ja eipä tuo kauaa edes kestänyt, mutta tuli sitä vettä senkin edestä.

Outokummussa ollaan ilmeisesti kehitystä edellä...

Holiday!

Finally the summer holiday started. So from tomorrow, I will be travelling the mysterious routes of East Finland. Wish me luck!

Hauskaa Juhannusta!

Juhannus on siis taas. Tällä kertaa se menee aika rauhallisissa merkeissä kotona kaupungissa. Parin viikon päästä on kuitenkin lähtö Savoon, joten turhaan sitä nyt menisi ruuhkaan parin päivän visiitin takia. Varasin myös hotellihuoneen Tampereelle kylpylään ja ehkä vihdoin pääsisi Särkänniemellekin, viime vuonna yritys oli kova, mutta tyssäsi siihen, kun parkkipaikat olivat varattuja parin kilsan päähän itse huvipuistosta. Joten se kertoo aika paljon siitä ruuhkasta mikä siellä oli.

Sain mummon synttärilahjankin pingotettua

Ja postissa tuli yksi lempparianimeistani! Kanon <3

Postissa tuli myös toinen levy...

Täältä löytyy lisää infoa aiheesta: Chaos & Evolutions

Observation

My sincerest apologies.

Dr Jekyll ja Mr Kakku

Noniin, ensimmäiset marsipaanikokeilut kakun kanssa tehty. Joten ehkä aloitan alusta miten homma sai alkunsa.

Mazdan hankkimisesta oli tulossa pian 1 vuosi täyteen, joten mikäs olisikaan parempi syy tehdä autonmuotoinen kakku! En ollut ennen kokeillut marsipaania kakkuun, mutta minulla oli niin selkeä visio asiasta mitä tehdä, joten enpä sitten vaivautunut edes googlettamaan apua. Kakun kasaaminen meni ihan hyvin. Tein suklaakääretorttupohjan ja sitten leikkelin siitä sopivat palat. Täytteenä oli hasselpähkinävaahtoa. Kostutukseen sopi sitten maitokahvi, missä oli hieman Pentikin hasselpähkinäliköörimakukahvia (mikä yhdyssanahirviö). Noh, se marsipaanikokeilu olikin sitten hieman erikoinen. Mittasuhteista minulla ei ollut mitään havaintoa, mutta tiesin kuitenkin, että tomusokeria tulee käyttää apuna, varsinkin kun minulla ei ollut mitään silikonileivonta-alustaa. Joten, kakun pinnalla ehkä hieman näkyvä valkoinen jauhe on sitten sitä tomusokeria, oikeasti!


Toinenkin projekti ehti valmistua, syntymäpäivälahja mummolle - tuo liina siis, jellyfish tuli tehtyä joskus avomiehelle. Pitää vielä vain pingottaa se, jotta sisärenkaassa olevat pylväsryppäät näyttävät enemmän terälehdille.

Aika kone!

Vaihteeksi taas postaus suomeksi..

Ei ole ollut oikein aihetta postata mitään, ja aikakin mennyt pelatessa Final Fantasy XIII:ta. Nyt kun vihdoin pelin sain korkattua, olisi siellä vielä Bayonetta ja Assassins Creed II pelaamatta. Ja postiin tulossa God of War III. Huoh. Liikaa hyviä pelejä, liian vähän aikaa.

No viikonloppu hurahti aika hauskoissa menoissa. Ensin oli naapuriravintola Oivan 70v synttärit ja piti niitä käydä juhlistamassa. Oli hyvää kakkua! Avomies ei vain hirveästi arvostanut meininkiä siellä, mutta jokin savomainen fiilis siellä on mikä minuun uppoaa. Pari kaveria tuli siinä myös käymään ja sattuipa pöytään taikurikin. Hauska tyyppi, ja kaiken v***uilun ja ankaran kritiikinkin jälkeen hän osasi tehdä taikatemppuja. Vaikka ei se mielestäni kovin matemaattista pohdintaa ole jos näytetään kaksi palloa ja laitetaan ne käteen ja kysytään miten monta kädessä pitäisi niitä olla. Ei se vastaus jotenkin vain tunnu olevan 12 vaikka näin olikin tässä tapauksessa.

Ilta sitten huipentui Aikakoneen keikkaan! Vähän vain epäiltiin, että paikalla olisikin vain miesstrippari kun nimikin oli kirjoitettu Aika Kone. Hienon keikan kyllä vetivät, olisi vain voinut olla pidempi, snif.

Ja kuvatodiste matkalta..

(c) Pasi Piiparinen

Mayday and other nonsense

Lots has happened since I last time wrote a blog entry.

First it was Mayday, which Finnish laborers usually celebrate drinking cause they get a day off. Unfortunately it was Saturday and it was raining. People also start the celebration on Mayday eve. But this time I didn't! Just stayed at home and had a few beers. On next day me and my boyfriend went to have brunch with my friends and the food was just delicious! Usually when you order á la carte meals you only get really tiny steak, so we ordered appetizers and main course. Well as it turned out, both meals were huge, atleast to me. So in the end I could only eat half of the main course, sorry chef!

I bought this Tinker Bell balloon from work

Later my friend came over and we drank and ate some more and played Band Hero and Singstar... And then the next day wasn't so nice. But it was great Mayday nevertheless!

Two days ago I also saw my friend from Netherlands. He was in Finland as an exchange student when I was studying and he visits pretty regularly here.

Oh yeah and hockey season started! I'm not really into Finnish championship games or NHL but world champion competition is a must. So, today, Finland vs. Denmark. I wonder which one will win ;)

Also today is my friends house warming party and I finally get to meet their kittens, though they are probably grown up already.

Well.. Now that you think about it, nothing much has really happened. But it was an excuse to update anyway!

Pretty thing of the week #4

So its time for another pretty thing!

This thing keeps at least some things organized and I like the fabric a lot. I got it as birthday present from my boyfriend <3

Here its closed and doesn't take much space...

... and here it's rolled open and fits many many hooks!

Kebab

We've been eating duck for past two days. It was very delicious but today it was time for junk food. My boyfriend brought us some kebab from next door and it seems that they are pretty artistic!


The text of course indicates whether the kebab has french fries or rice to go with it. It was delicious nevertheless!

Soon its Mayday again. I don't really have any big plans for it, going for a brunch with friends and then later drinking some sparkling wine at home. But it still sounds nice to me.

Pretty thing of the week #3

Okay, this pretty thing is my crystal Tinker Bell from Disneyworld. I love Disney so it was like a dream come true when I finally visited Disneyworld last autumn. Sorry about the bad picture, crystal and glass aren't exactly easiest things to photograph.

Mallorca!

Joten ohessa pieni yhteenveto, mistä voitte lukea Mallorcan reissustamme.

Unfortunately this is not in english.

Volcano

So yeah, me and my boyfriend were going to Mallorca today 7:05 am. But due volcano eruption there's a little change of plans. I didn't want to spend my holiday just sitting at home and we have a week free time so a new glance at options was needed. It took a lot of hassle today and we got all sorted out finally by the evening BUT! we are leaving tomorrow Finland, and be back on the 23rd day. Where are we going? Well, I will post about our trip later ;)

To be continued...

Pretty thing of the week #2

I love coffee, I drink at least 3 cups a day. Milk, no sugar. I also drink cappuccino when its available and good. Therefore I have many coffee cups, and since coffee is important, so are the tools for drinking it.

So I present you, another pretty thing of the week!

Kutojapuput by Heljä Liukko-Sundström

Sunny Day

Today was a great and sunny day, I put on my skirt and went for a walk (aka shopping) with my boyfriend. I bought a few books - Heräämisopas, comic album by Arktinen Banaani and Retkidikter. Heräämisopas and Arktinen Banaani were both comics, first one made fully by my favourite Finnish bad humour artist, Pertti Jarla. And I also like to support some of the Finnish comic artists, though really rare of them actually are good (sorry - but the fake-artist-emo-s**t isn't really for me). Retkidikter was a great palindrome poem book made by Simo Frangén and Pasi Heikura. I will post one of their poems here as a teaser, unfortunately its not in English and probably wouldn't make any sense even if I tried to translate it:

Gin Tonic (by Simo Frangén and Pasi Heikura)

Aa.
Viinaa sitruksilla.

Kallis kurtisaani ivaa.

After our walk we went to Oluthuone Kaisla, one of the best "beer houses" in Finland. It serves my absolute favourite beer at the moment, Ola Dubh. Its damn expensive but you can enjoy a bottle every once in a while. On this weekend is also the Helsinki Beer Festival 2010. Unfortunately I won't be there, have to sort things out before leaving to Mallorca on next Friday. Bye-bye whiskey clinic, maybe I will see you next year!

Tetris

Today I saw some foamy material and had all sorts of ideas what to do with it. First I imagined it would be perfect for blocks which made me think of Tetris and that my boyfriend is a big fan of that game. I made some blocks, attached them on the wall next to his workspace. And since he approved it and didn't tear it down, I guess I can post a picture of the result in here as well!

Mini vacation

Easter really felt like mini vacation. And since it wasn't really sunny either, we just sat at home, watching movies and gaming. Time well spent! But after long time, I finally felt well rested. Usually weekends just fly by so you don't even notice them but this time it really felt like weekend. Though I got really confused about the days, it felt like it was Sunday everyday.

But! I actually did something else than watched TV all the time. I found that my sketchbook cover was a bit too dull so I cut and glued some dull single coloured origami paper on it. The result:



Basically what I did was just cut paper without really thinking what I was doing.

I've also been trying to hunt down a blender, haven't yet found one that's just for me. Oh yeah, and almost finished a pair of wool socks. Spring is coming but there's never too many wool socks.

Pretty thing of the week #1

I have seen this idea in many other blogs too and I just thought its so great I wanted to steal it for myself too (since I cannot come up with anything as unique and cool).


So in this picture is a mouse pad I got as christmas present from my boyfriend. I am a big fan of Disney and I spend most of day at computer so this is probably one of the greatest things I have.

Happy Easter!

Picture is related.

Finished!

Yesterday I got some lovely presents from "mother-in-law"! A nice origami set with new book and equipment (yes I love origami but my boyfriend really doesn't like it when I flood his table with little boxes and cranes). Also a really cute Harley-Davidson purse, can't wait for a reason to use it (should we go to bar later?)! And.. YARNS! Pretty colored yarns! Theres never too many yarns. I especially like the lime colored, it makes great brainslugs.






I also finished something nice, pair of crocheted gloves. I found a pattern for them in a finnish craft magazine - Suuri Käsityö. I used DMC 8 pearl cotton for it. I just bought 40 grams of it, just like the guideline said but apparently I only needed about 25 grams. Well, 15 grams of that yarn to spend on something else. Maybe some small doilys?

Harmony

Yesterday was the last day at my japanese calligraphy lessons. Well it was last day for me since I will be in Mallorca when the last lesson is and eventhough I like japanese calligraphy, I don't like it that much I would skip a week in Spain. Well, I just have to wait till autumn for next lessons! Aww.

Yesterday I finished something else too! First crocheted glove. It was much more fun than knitting, you just have to worry about one loop, and they are gonna be awfully spring-like. I will post some pictures when I am finished with them.

And today I was going to work a bit later than usually, I spent the morning entertaining myself with a nice project called Harmony, go ahead, try it, its really addictive. I will show the picture I made and the story behind it:




First starting from left lower corner begins the universe which is expanding. In the middle of it all is sparkling tinfoil star. Above the tinfoil star is lonely sperm that's struggling to find out which egg it should fertile out of three. Below the tinfoil star are two tapeworms playing and in the middle of them is a lonely conch, wishing it was a tapeworm too. Sad.

The Beginning

I've been planning on making a blog for ages, the problem is that I already have one where I collect my dreams, and second problem was that I couldn't think of a name or how to start it.

How should I name it? By my name? All taken. By my nickname? All variations taken. What about something I like to do? Well I like to do crafts, but I also like geeky stuff like games and computers. I also would like to include my everyday things in it. How should I name something like that? Well surely random should do the trick.

And all this random talk should also do the trick for starting the blog.

Name decided, first post up, finally.