WELCOME TO MY WORLD

CREATIVE FUN WITH BEADS...

2011-03-24T15:53:00.000+01:00

New version of my old bracelets... I bought these ones last summer and I have been waring them quite a lot, so some bead got damages and the elastic lost it elasticity. So I took everything a part and made new ones by adding few new beads from my bead boxes that I showed on the previous posting...

At the bead or craft shops you can find all kind of nice beads plus these flower shaped metal parts that you can add on each side of your beads, they will make the bead look nicer and also they will hide the big holes that some beads has. This 1 mm thick elastic is excellent for the bracelets, if you have thinner ones make then a double string with it.

...And these are the results of a creative afternoon... I can ware this mixing colors or just separately by one colors...Nice accessories for many occasion...

BEADS... AND MORE BEADS

2011-03-12T15:19:00.000+01:00

Few days ago I found these nice wooden boxes in an art shop and they were ideal for all my beads that I had been keeping in a simply plastic containers. These boxes can actually be on the top of the table as a decoration. I think they would even look nicer if I will paint them with a nice colour.

RUTA DEL FERRO - Iron road

2011-02-24T10:16:00.001+01:00

Iron road of the Pyrenees. A cultural itinerary of Europe

This Ruta del Ferro is a easy walking trail starting just few kilometers from were we live. It is a nature walk along a small river and on the side of this walking trail there are many artist that has express their own ideas about iron...At the end of the first part of this route there is an old iron mine as well

As you can notice the bottom of the river is looking all rusty, due to the iron in the stones and soil

Art by the trail

More Art...

...And suddenly there are some figurines in the middle of the nature...

...Ok lets go and see them closer...

These guys are my favorite art on this trail...partly made of stone and the metal is from the manhole covers....

This one is from the commune of Massana

Mix of stone and metal

Meet the Mexican...

LOOKING FOR NEW IDEAS

2011-02-17T21:25:00.000+01:00

At the moment I am looking for new country style ideas and I was going through all my old decoration magazines and found plenty different country style photos...so after cutting the images out, I glued them into my visual diaries...

MOUNTAIN LAKE WALK IN ANDORRA

2011-02-12T17:04:00.000+01:00

Welcome to the nature walk...Lake of Engolasters 1620m altitude, few minutes away from Andorra- La-Vella the capital of Andorra...

On the way up by car we past this small but beautiful church of Encostelars...

...And here is the lake on the Saturday of February... The ice was making weird noises under pressure of the water level changes... This water is use for production of the electricity and they say that one part of the lake is 80m deep...

Nordic walking around the lake...

... View towards to France...

Down in the valley Andorra-La-Vella...In the air some moist air from Spain...

Northern Spain, Barcelona, Pamplona & Andorra
Andorra
Secrets of the Seven Smallest States of Europe: Andorra, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City

NEW DOORS OPENING SOON

2011-02-08T20:06:00.000+01:00

This is an old door but for me it will be a new experience soon. In few weeks time I will open this door to a new adventure...

I will then also open these wooden window shatters, letting the sunlight in...

Even this door that has been closed for quite sometime will be open soon...

MAISONS DU MONDE

2011-01-26T18:55:00.000+01:00

I am in France at the moment visiting some friends. Yesterday I went to the town of Perigueux to do some shopping and visited the Decoration and Furniture Shop Maison Du Monde, they have an online shop as well.

...Today I am creating a blog for my friend...They have a Real Estate Agency in Dordogne, South West of France...www.aremeconseils.blogspot.com, they have beautiful old stone houses for sale, in the country side of Dordogne and Haute Vienne...

I WISH YOU HAPPY NEW YEAR...

2010-12-30T16:16:00.000+01:00

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

2010-12-30T16:09:00.000+01:00

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

2010-12-25T11:33:00.002+01:00

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

2010-12-25T11:33:00.000+01:00

CHRISTMAS DECORATION

2010-12-19T13:53:00.001+01:00

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

2010-12-05T16:22:00.001+01:00

NEW COLOURS IN MY BEDROOM

2010-12-02T17:07:00.001+01:00

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

2010-11-28T21:54:00.001+01:00

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 -LES Belle 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

2010-11-28T16:58:00.002+01:00

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

2010-11-25T18:02:00.000+01:00

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...

BEAUTIFUL DAY IN ANDORRA

2010-11-17T17:34:00.000+01:00

Living in Andorra gives you spectacular views. And this time of the year it's starts snowing. There are nothing more beautiful than a walk in snow when the sky is blue and the sun shines. A real moment of enjoyment.

We still need some more snow before the skiing season can start, but meanwhile I enjoy these post card views while walking...

THE LOVELIEST GIRL IN THE WORLD

2010-10-06T11:56:00.000+02:00

This is not only a book about these girls, it's book about all us "GIRLS", young or old. It is about how lovely we all can be. And we all the LOVEliest Girl in the World. This book has the most beautiful photos and graphic art, some parts looks like you are looking at a wall paper or a fabric. Last weekend I went to a book fair in Turku, Finland and I had the opportunity to meet Miina Savolainen the author of the book. What a marvelous lady, she has manage to bring these girls souls in to the photos. Her long term work has given confidence and courage to these young girls. And it shows us all how empowering photography helps many ways. The text in the book is in Finnish and English. This is a type of book that every mother should buy to her daughters. It gives something good for all us girls with our growing pains in life even we are older already.

This award winning book looks like a fairy tale book. The girls looks like fairies in a mystic environment but they all are real with a real life story behind each of them. It is a real art book for the whole family to read about how these girls went through the process of growing up without their parents. If you want to get The Loveliest Girl in the World book you can order it on the www.voimauttavavalokuva.net you can find on the link the English version as well. It will also give for all us girls something to think about ourselves. We all are lovely...

DECORATE WITH LETTERS...

2010-09-30T12:43:00.000+02:00

There are so many different ways of using messages and letters when decorating your home... in these following photos I will show you what I did to the entrance area of my holiday house in Finland...

In 2006 when we signed the contract with the company that was going to do the base and the wood part for our house. And while busy going through the contract the house builder asked, how would we like to call our house... we had no ideas and in the same time four cranes flu over us so, I told him that the name for the house should be the "FLY OF THE CRANE" and since that our house was officially called "Kurjenlento" meaning the fly of the crane in Finnish. For quite sometime I wanted to have a sign outside of our house and finally I found some letters that could make the text for the sign... But they were white and bright...too white to hang up on a black wall of our house. So I have to find a way to change the letter to "grey" looking colour and the way, how to hang them up nicely, because the word was quite long.

To paint these letters, I used black spray paint and the way I did it, is the following: I just sprayed small amount of the black spray paint on the cardboard and then with a clean small paint brush took a small amount of paint and the brushed the paint over the letters. If you want to do something like this and you are going to use spray paint you have to work quite fast. The paint is drying really fast. Other wise you can also use normal paint but it will take much longer to dry.

I have bought a long wooden board, and I painted that in light grey and it was one of those paints that gives the colour to the wood but leaves the natural look of the wood not covering it too much...

If you do something like this and want to keep it outside you have to use nails to attached the letters to the wood surface. I was first thinking to use a glue, but the weather conditions, from the warm summer to cold winter will not keep the letters attached for long on the board... The best way is to nail the letters with a nail gun and use very fine nails. You can't see the nails at all.

...And here is the result of it... with some other details that we added in same time to our entrance area...

...And here it is...hanging on the wall...

A black board that I found in IKEA is fun to use for different messages...

DESIGN HOTEL IN MILANO

2010-09-19T15:47:00.000+02:00

A week ago when I was visiting Milano with my friends, one of them had made a booking for one night at the NHOW Milano Hotel. A real designers quarters. Here is the photo of the drive way to the hotel...Very promising already...

This is the room door, it looks like a real tagging, the corridors are painted in black and the atmosphere is really dark.

The entrance hall is huge and the place is a real heaven for colour therapy. Most of the furniture are made of plastic and the huge chandeliers too...

I took these photos while eating my lunch at the hotels restaurant

I told you colour therapy, as you sit on the coach like this you feel happy straight away...

MADONNA DEL GHISALLO - MADONNA OF THE GHISALLO

2010-09-12T19:24:00.001+02:00

The Madonna of Ghisallo is the Saint for the cyclist... Most of the famous cyclists have been visiting this small chapel near by Lake Como in Italy...

Next to the Chapel there is a Museum of cyclist, which is very interesting to visit...

Few interesting detail from the cyclist museum

Our Friend who did Cairo to Cape Town with my husband this year was just cycling at his "back yard" around the Lake Como

POSTCARD FROM LUGANO

2010-09-12T19:02:00.000+02:00

Greetings from lovely Lugano... I will be back...

LOVELY LUGANO

2010-09-12T18:58:00.000+02:00

I have visited Switzerland many times but I have never have a stop over in the Swiss Italian side. It was really a nice surprise. We flu to Milano and an our later we were in the Swiss side visiting a friend in the evening. Next morning, we walked by the Lake Lugano and the city centre of Lugano it was still really warm.

Lago di Lugano - The Lake of Lugano

ONLY IN ITALY

2010-09-07T18:10:00.000+02:00

Only pedestrians...Italian style

They need two signs to tell...not this way...

Italian way of fixing car windows????

Recycling Italian way...