Cruising to Stockholm

First of all, welcome new readers! It always makes me so happy to notice there are some new faces in my members section. Hope you'll enjoy my scribblings! :)

We visited one of my dear friends, whom I met while studying in Vermont, in Stockholm a few weeks back. I think I've been to Sweden way too many times to appreciate it enough, but here are some photos my husband took during our visit. We went there on one of Viking Line's older cruise ships, Mariella.

Calm sea on our way to Sweden.

Old Town, my favorite part of Stockholm

More Gamla Stan

The Royal Palace

Getting a bit overcast

Royal Swedish Opera

Dark waters on our way back to Finland

Gorgeous sky

Viking Line Mariella

Some more dark waters, love the sky in this photo!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week!

Random Tuesdays 09/11/2012

Some fall colors in Chicago, IL in 2008. I'm not really a fall person, but the colors are beautiful!

Raffle Prize: Vera Vala's book!

I won a raffle prize from Vera Vala's blog Vera(n) Italia, which was Vera's own detective novel Kuolema Sypressin Varjossa, thank you Vera! 

I'm a big fan of detective fiction, so I'm really looking forward to reading Vera's book. I have yet to dive into the book, but you can read a review of the book from Savon Sanomat (in Finnish).

My prize, yay!

I have another book waiting to be read as well. I'm not really into this genre, but everyone and their cousin is talking about it on facebook, so I thought I'd give it a chance.

Perhaps you've heard of it ;)

Hope everyone is having a sunny Monday!

Visiting the Moomins - a trip to the Moominworld

Husband had a week's vacation from work a couple of weeks ago and we decided to do something fun with our lil man. Since he likes the Moomins, we figured a trip to the Moominworld in Naantali would be in order. We were also being a bit calculative, this is the last summer our lil man gets into Moominworld for free.

Bridge to Moominworld Island. The weather wasn't the best, but despite being overcast, it didn't rain. And the good side was that Moominworld was not completely crowded like it often is.

Checking out the Moomin house from a "Conestoga wagon". Our lil man loved this wagon so much, he didn't want to leave :)

The Moomins doing a Wild West Show. They spoke in three languages Finnish, Swedish and English, which was great for the English-only husband :) All of the actors did converse in multiple languages, if someone didn't reply to Finnish or Swedish, they switched to English.

The Moomin House, which I thought was really well done.

Moominmamma's kitchen inside the Moomin House

Dining room

I loved this wedding portrait!

Lil man checking out Moomin Valley from the house

The Bathing Hut

Hemulen's House, I thought it was adorable!

Moominworld was a delightful experience, although a bit pricey. It was 46e for two adults, under 3 year-olds get in for free. We went there by car and parking would have been 8e, but we found some free parking spots on a nearby street. The food was outrageously priced, but this was to be expected, so we brought our own lunchboxes. Other than that I was pleasantly surprised how well it was done and how good and interactive the actors were. They often came and asked how our lil man was doing etc. We will definitely go again in a few years.

Hope everyone is having the most amazing weekend! :)

Shabby chic bedroom

I'm not much of an interior decorator due to the lack of time and funds, and most probably skills. Our home is mostly a collection of random furniture we've received from friends and family. 

When we moved to Finland, we moved with seven pieces of luggage for the three of us. Obviously my husband had nothing in Finland and I, not having lived here for over 5 years, hadn't much more. We were low on funds since my husband had no income before he got his degree and I was a stay-at-home mom. We made a few purchases from huuto.net, the Finnish free auction site. I got us a dining room table for 1e and dressers for 10e etc. But there were also things that I wanted to buy new, like our bed. After living in the U.S, I've heard so many horror stories of bed bugs, I prefer to buy my mattresses new. I know bed bugs aren't a real problem in Finland, it's just in my head :)

When we moved into our current house from the apartment we live in first, we did a lot of painting and started thinking about the layout a bit more. I've previously showed how our kitchen turned out, but here are some ideas for our bedroom. If I did have the funds, I would decorate our bedroom in blue shabby chic style with maybe a touch of coastal decor. I probably would have to tone down the usual shabby chic style to make it comfortable for my husband as well :)

My dream bedroom would look something like this:

source

or maybe like this, but with a few wall hangings:

source

Here's some more inspirational photos:

from google

Right now our bedroom is a bit plain. We have our olympic queen bed, a dresser, a night stand, my vanity table set and my thesis writing desk. The walls are already painted pale blue and we have one wall hanging. The curtains are dark navy blue.

Here's the wall hanging from Ikea. Unfortunately the glass part broke when moving, but it works without it too :) And you can see the wall color, painted by the previous inhabitant. We still have a can of even paler blue paint and might paint one of the walls with that. I've ordered some new sheets and other stuff for the bedroom, so once they arrive I'll post some more photos of our bedroom.

What do you think of the example photos, anything you'd like in your bedroom?

Random Tuesdays 09/04/2012

University of Vermont campus, fall 2006 in Burlington, VT. Love those fall colors!

Fall tv shows

Fall is almost here! Tv-wise at least. I never used to watch this much tv, but since I'm still having issues with my back, I have a lot of time on my hands. Here's what I'm planning on watching this fall.

Returning shows, 

most of which I've introduced before:

Hart of Dixie, my current favorite, returns for season 2 on October 2nd (Tuesday) on CW and I couldn't be more excited! 

Bones, one of my long time favorites, is returning for season 8 on September 17th (Monday) on Fox. I was not too impressed with season 7, but here's to hoping season 8 will be better!

Castle is returning for season 5 on September 24th (Monday) on ABC. Season 5 should be interesting, since at the end of season 4, we saw Castle and Beckett take their relationship to a whole new level. Let's hope the writers can keep it interesting!

Glee is returning for season 4 on September 13th (Thursday) on Fox. I'm super-excited for Glee's new season, since the kids (well, some of them) are heading to college!

NCIS, also another of my long time favorites, returns for season 10 (!) on September 25th (Tuesday) on NBC. Who doesn't like NCIS? :)

Once Upon a Time returns for season 2 on September 30th (Sunday) on ABC. I'm really curious how the season 2 will turn out as, since, if I understood correctly, the characters will now realize who they really are.

Revenge returns for season 2 on September 30th (Sunday) also on ABC. Revenge is my guilty pleasure, I hope season 2 will be as surprising as season 1!

I didn't really watch The Mentalist last season, but the new season seems to interest me again, possibly due to lack of interesting new shows. The Mentalist returns for season 5 on September 30th (Sunday) on CBS.

New Shows

I have to say I was not too impressed with the new fall shows, but here are some that I plan on at least giving a chance :)

Elementary premieres on Tuesday September 25th on CBS. I'm really curious how this modern version of Sherlock will turn out. I like Lucy Liu and the reviews have been in general quite positive, so I have high hopes!

666 Park Avenue premieres on Sunday September 30th on ABC. "The series follows a couple who learns that the Manhattan building complex that they just moved into, including its upscale tenants, might be possessed by a mysterious demonic force."  I was too scared to watch American Horror Story, but perhaps this won't be as scary :)

photos from Facebook

Emily Owens, M.D premieres Tuesday October 16th on CW. This might surprise me, or it might just be another CW show that won't interest me for very long. We'll see!

What do you think of my fall tv show line-up? Have you had a chance to look at the new shows? What do you think about them and is there something you think is worth looking into?

Bracelets from eBay - Confessions of an online-shopaholic, pt III

My sister-in-law asked me to tell about the bracelets I bought from eBay. I have to admit that I've bought close to a hundred bracelets through the online auction site, but in my defense, I usually don't pay more than a $1 for a bracelet :)

Crystal stretch bracelets, available in multiple colors, about $1 each

If you plan on bidding on bracelet on eBay, here are some things to consider before placing a bid:

"Jade" stretch bracelet, $0.80

- always check the shipping fee, they vary a lot! I usually only purchase free shipping items

Pink crystal bracelet, $0.99, one of my favorites!

- don't bid on the first item you see, check if the same seller has that particular item for cheaper. The sellers usually list the same bracelet many times and most of the items are on sale through several different

 sellers

Three row "pearl" bracelet, $0.79

-if you really want the bracelet, be sure to be online when the bidding ends, I often lose bids when last minute bidders outbid me

"wood" stretch bracelet, $0.99

-I avoid buying anything with too much metal parts, since most likely they are not hypoallergenic.As a gentle advise, here's some trinkets NOT worth buying:

photo from eBay

The two top ones have metal parts that pinch, painfully (trust me haha), and lower one has metal parts that can cause allergies to some and also, the flakes brake easily when mailed in an envelope.

-The bracelets are often tiny in size, but vary quite a bit. I have really narrow wrists so most of them fit me perfectly. Sometimes, however, the bracelets have been so huge I haven't been able to wear them. Luckily they don't cost that much, so I've just given them to my friends.

Crystal stretch bracelets, about a $1 each

-last, but not least, remember "you get what you pay for". Since the bracelets are cheap, they are not real amethyst or pearl even if the listing says so. They are cheap trinkets, so keep that in mind :)

"pearl" stretch bracelets, sold in multiple colors, about $1 each

Here's some more bracelets that I bought and liked:

Crystal stretch bracelets, available in multiple colors, about a $1 each, my favorites!

Plastic stretch bracelet, $0.99

Wooden stretch bracelet, $1.15

"Tiger eye" crystal bracelet, $0.95, my newest purchase and I love it!

What do you think about these bracelets? Have you purchased jewelry from eBay?

Hope everyone is having a great week!