Random Tuesdays 11/29/11

Helsinki, 2011. I took this photo at the Esplanadi park in downtown Helsinki last Saturday night. I love the Christmas lights in the city!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We won't really celebrate Thanksgiving this year, since we're living in Finland and my husband will be on a business trip to Austria during the actual Thanksgiving. Last year we celebrated Thanksgiving at my mother-in-law's place and the previous years I was either in Kansas, Vermont or upstate New York for Thanksgiving, so we've yet to have our very own Thanksgiving. Maybe next year?

This year I will most likely do some Thanksgiving celebrating with the other North American Studies students, if I'm feeling well enough (I've had the worst case of sniffles the last two weeks), but other than that, since my husband won't be here, Thanksgiving will be just like any other weekend.

Since I was born and bred in Finland, Thanksgiving doesn't have a deep-rooted meaning for me. I do nevertheless really enjoy the Thanksgiving spirit. I love the big family dinners and the delicious foods. It's like Christmas without the commercial gifting obligations :) I love everything that has sweet potato or pumpkin (really wish I could have some Dairy Queen Pumpkin Pie Blizzard right about now! Maybe I'll try this recipe instead).

Husband and lil man watching Macy's Thanksgiving Parade in 2010. I went to see the actual parade in NYC in 2005 and I have to say it was pretty cool :)

How majority of our Thanksgiving break is usually spent; driving :)

More on Thanksgiving on Wikipedia.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Random Tuesdays 11/22/11

My friend's grandma cooking a Thanksgiving dinner in 2007. I love Thanksgiving foods, especially the desserts ;) I'm a vegetarian for health reasons and can't enjoy the turkey, but I love the stuffing! I also love sweet potatoes and anything that has pumpkin in it. And I loooove the pies! Pumpkin, pecan, peach, apple, blueberry...you name it, I love it!

New Furniture

We're slowly getting settled in our new place and eventhough I was hoping we wouldn't have to spend a whole lot of money on new furniture, some purchases now seem necessary. We for example need a new rug for the living room. We went to Ikea today and I think we'll be getting one of their rugs, namely the ÅDUM area rug:

We'll be also needing some new lights, but I don't really have a clear image in my mind what kind of lights I'd like. So we'll keep shopping.

One piece of furniture arrived the other day and it was of course the very necessary vanity table for me :) I like to have a place to store my make up and jewelry, so I bought this:

I love it :)

3 weeks until the wedding, eeek! :)

23 nights and I'm getting married (again)

and 19 nights and we'll be on our way to Nebraska. How time flies! I have to admit that I'm more nervous about the traveling than the wedding. I think the flights will go relatively well since we'll be traveling with my parents, so there will be four laps for our lil man to sit on. I'm more concerned about entering the country since the U.S immigration officials can decide just about anything. I've never had any trouble entering the U.S, I've done it a dozen times, but now that I'm married to an U.S citizen, I'll probably be suspicious. I'm bringing proof of ties to Finland, proof of return flights etc. with me, so hopefully everything will go just fine.

My dress arrived a couple of weeks ago and judging by the photos it looks pretty good. A little bit darker than I expected, but I'll have to wait 19 nights to see what it actually looks like :) I also won't know how it fits until a few days before the wedding, so let's hope the measurements are correct!

My mother-in-law and sister-in-law have taken care of most of the planning, so I've gotten off easy this time. I'm sure they've done an excellent job, I'll share some photos later!

Our cake topper from the first wedding, loved it!

Random Tuesdays 11/15/11

Vermont, 2007. Since we're approaching Turkey Day, here's a photo of a real live wild turkey :D I remember walking towards the turkey and my friend was saying how it'll for sure fly away before I can take the photo. Apparently I'm not very scary, since I walked right up to it and took this photo :)

Christmas card photo fail

I'm trying to think of ideas for this year's Christmas cards and came across this Christmas card photo fail from last year. My original idea was to make our lil man a santa, but well...it didn't work out as I planned.

Ei menny niinku Strömsössä.

Anyone have any good ideas for Christmas card photos?

A New Hope...I mean Home

I apologize for the lack of entries in this blog. We've been busy moving to our new house and it has been an arduous little project. My ruptured disc has not been very cooperative, so I haven't been able to sit around all that much. We have, thank goodness, gotten all the stuff moved now and have given the old apartment away. There's still a lot to do, lot more than I expected.

I'm sure most of you have experienced the feeling when you see your new home without furniture for the first time; the in-need-of-some-serious-repainting feeling. The previous occupants were pretty good at hiding all the flaky paint etc. with their furniture and of course our furniture does not hide the flaws. We'll probably have to paint our lil man's room before we head to the U.S (so it can dry while we are there). Also the second floor bath needs a new paint-job. The other problems we noticed were that the previous occupants took a closet with them, revealing an unpainted part of the wall and exposed the concrete (?) floor. Also they had bent the kitchen counter-tops when removing their appliances.

The renovation company came today to replace the missing closet and fix the kitchen counter-tops so this place is already looking a lot better. Here's some photos of the house, pre-renovated.

The living room is pretty spacious. It has a beige wall paint, which we might just keep

Dining area is painted yellow and I kinda like it, so we might keep it as well

Kitchen. The counter-top got fixed today and the cabinet below removed to make room for the dishwasher.

The bedrooms. The master bedroom is painted blue and we'll keep it that way, but the smaller bedroom needs new paint

A nice-sized walk-in closet :)

The entrance

Side yard. There's also a backyard, but both of them need some serious work during the spring.

Lots to do, but I think it'll turn into a nice enough home :)

p.s I'm getting married (again) in less than a month! :)

Random Tuesdays 11/08/11

54th Annual Longford PRCA Rodeo in Longford, Kansas in 2009. Despite the fact that I'm not a big fan of flank straps, I really enjoy the rodeo atmosphere. Good music, good people and good times :)

Random Tuesdays 11/01/11

Fall colors in Burlington, VT in 2008. I can't say I'm a fall person, but I love the fall colors! Vermont and other New England states attract thousands of leaf peepers every fall, who come there just to admire the foliage.