I WISH YOU HAPPY NEW YEAR...

With these two photos I want to wish you a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

This is our summer terrace by the pier and in the middle is the barbecue and the spoors in the snow are from a visiting fox that lives somewhere in the neighborhood...

...And now I have to just wait for the next summer to arrive to enjoy sitting by the pier...Meanwhile I am just dreaming about a warm summer...

GREETING FROM WINTERLAND

This statement works for me...And now at this point my home is in Finland where the winter and cold weather started so early that I could make these ice decoration for winter. With the help of a old metal chocolate box with the shape of the heart and cold winter day some berry decoration and water turned to a heart that is hanging now on the entrance area of our holiday house.

In this one I used a gingerbread mould ...

SEASON GREETINGS

I want to wish everybody a wonderful Christmas if you are celebrating it and to the others enjoy the Holiday Season...I am so grateful to have all of you following my blog(s)...
This Holiday Season has been really cold in Finland, we have lots of snow and yesterday morning it was
-22 Celsius here in South West of Finland... This photo was taken few days ago and as you can see the sun is not very high but this is the midday sun...And here in this photos you can see the frozen sea, we actually can walk on the sea...

Warm Greetings to everyone from Finland
Jaana

SEASON GREETINGS

I want to wish everybody a wonderful Christmas if you are celebrating it and to the others enjoy the Holiday Season...I am so grateful to have all of you following my blog(s)...
This Holiday Season has been really cold in Finland, we have lots of snow and yesterday morning it was
-22 Celsius here in South West of Finland... This photo was taken few days ago and as you can see the sun is not very high but this is the midday sun...And here in this photos you can see the frozen sea, we actually can walk on the sea...

Warm Greetings to everyone from Finland
Jaana

CHRISTMAS DECORATION

This is a very simply way of creating a Christmas decoration. Take what you have at home or buy some more of these Christmas balls that you normally hang on the Christmas tree and then you need  a set of led lights and a vase or a glass bowl. Start by adding balls in the bottom of your vase or bowl and your light should be put in the vase in the way that you can see most of the lights. It will make the balls shine and this makes a very effective way of Christmas decoration. 

LOVE... A Message on my Bedroom table

  

                                                                                              

NEW COLOURS IN MY BEDROOM

 Seasonal decorating can be fun. Just by changing part of the soft decoration, curtains, cushions, sheets, duvet covers, carpet or rugs can change the whole look of a room. I don't keep any curtains in my house and I don't even have carpets or rugs due to the under floor heating. Wooden floor don't like rugs while you using the under floor heating. So my way to change my bedroom on suite bathroom was to change the colour of the duvet covers and cushions and in the bathroom the towels and few bathroom items and candle holders. Then actually my husband made me a lovely LOVE message for our bedroom. See the next posting...

It is very easy to change the look of your room with few good ideas. if you don't have any, have a look of the list after the last photo of this posting. You can find some book that gives you lovely ideas for your bedroom...It is fun and you will have lot of joy to create something new...

Bedrooms: Creating and Decorating the Room of Your Dreams (The Small Book of Home Ideas series)

Joan Kohn's It's Your Bed and Bath: Hundreds of Beautiful Design Ideas

Sew Your Own Soft Furnishings: Step-by-step projects for beautiful bedroom, dining and living room furnishings shown in over 300 stunning photographs

The Practical Encyclopedia of Soft Furnishings: The Complete Guide to Making Cushions, Slipcovers, Curtains, Blinds, Table Linens and Bed Linens 

Your Dream Bedroom: How to Plan & Style the Perfect Space

Judith Miller Guide to Period Style Curtains and Soft Furnishings

SOME OF MY FAVORITE BOOKS...GET THEM FOR CHRISTMAS

I LOVE BOOKS! Yes in this virtual world I still love the real books. One of my favorite pastime in town, where ever I am is to go and visit local book stores.
Christmas is soon here so why don't you give this yeah a nice book as a present to someone. I have put together a list of books that I like and you can purchase them here online dirtily from my blog. Ok I agree it is not the same than browsing through a bookstore but I must say most of my books I by them by amazon.com depending in which language I want to get them... I read books in English, French and Finnish and amazon.com is so much more than books...

So I have really start to think about my list of favorite books...I guarantee there are plenty... but at least I can tell you something about each book...

Here are some Marc Levy's books in English. I like to read his books in french because I like his French writing and it makes me to keep up my French. Yes I know I speak French everyday at home mostly to my husband but I also need to keep up my language skills so this is a good way. The following books are written by Marc Levy

Et si C'etait Vrai

La Premiere Nuit (French Edition)                    
Ou Es-Tu? (French Edition)
Le Premier Jour (French Edition)
Vous revoir (French Edition)
Mes amis, mes amours (French Edition)
Les enfants de la liberte (French Edition)
Just Like Heaven Movie Tie-in: A Novel
Toutes ces choses qu'on ne s'est pas dites
If Only It Were True
The Children of Freedom
All Those Things We Never Said

If you are interested in wine and French countryside these books are for you. A real life story of the English lady making wine in France. I have met her ones and her wine is really good. Her story is outstanding and you learn about the life in French countryside. 

The Ripening Sun: One Woman and the Creation of a Vineyard

La Belle Saison: Living Off the Land in Rural France

RAISINS DU BONHEUR -LESBelle Saison

Belle Saison

So here are some lovely reading for holiday season and I will post more about lovely coffee table books and decoration books soon. I just need to think all the books I have here in Finland, in Andorra and some still in storage, that I just got back from South Africa...

CHRISTMAS MARKET IN TURKU, FINLAND

 

I was born in Turku, Finland and Turku is still a very important town for me. Turku has been keeping up old Christmas traditions and the Christmas Market is one of them. Like during many years, it has been opened yesterday again and you can visit it every weekend until the last weekend before the 24th of December.

On the market you can eat, drink and do some Christmas shopping. Here some locally made sausage, roasted almonds and lots of small "huts" selling Christmas decorations or gifts which are all hand made. 

                               This is an old typical Scandinavian Christmas goat made of straw

                  Here some home made bread with smoked salmon sandwiched for sale on the market

Here some felting wool in beautiful colours...

DELICIOUS ITALY

Italian pastry for breakfast with your cappuccino...

Local wine from Irsina area...something between wine and grape juice...

Tomatos drying in a garage....

Figs from the garden with ham and creamy cheese

Entrance to the old part of Irsina...