An inspired morning

It all came together this morning - plenty of wool, hot soapy water and elbow grease and these appeared. Very happy I was too! I hadn't actually planned anything but then things happened and I was on a roll! I love doing the needle felting, managed 2 smalll and 1 rather large tonttu (gnome) hat whilst I watch Man U v Chelsea, but I love it when the wet felting projects all come together. A good day!

Organised Chaos

My workshop aka the spare room looks like an explosion in a wool factory! As much as I try and sort it out it just gets messy again - sounds a lot like my daughters bedroom. My 4 year old son is really good about tidying his room but Elli has other ideas. Wonder where she got that from :)
I have managed a bit of creating, lots of little bits - scarves, hats and noses for snowmen, a couple of candy canes and the odd gingerbread man. I have had a gazillion ideas for caricatures and have been scribbling little pictures to remind me. I so often have the best ideas at the most inopportune moments so have started to carry round paper and pencil! Looking forward to a creative day tomorrow - I hope!

A Perfect day

Yesterday was Mothers Day in Finland and what a lovely day I had. The Flags were flying and I enjoyed a lovely breakfast in bed with cards and presents, enthusiastically delivered by the children. We then head of to the coast and in a lovely secluded area had a picnic followed by a walk through the woods, admiring the blueberry bushes laden with flowers( bodes well for this summer). Back home I managed a few chores in the garden, namely digging out the compost box, ready for the summer! The lawn has been cut and the garden looks so good. A BBQ of chicken Tikka was devoured in the evening sunshine and with a glass of bubbly in one hand I managed to snatch an hour doing a jigsaw puzzle while husband watched the ice hockey( and Finland beat USA!!) A perfect day!

Spring has well and truly sprung

What a glorious day - the trees now have tiny bright green leaves, the bulbs are blooming(those not eaten by Mr Hare!), the squirrel has got his russet red coat on , the grass has been cut, along with gazillions of dandelions(bizarrely adored here in Finland - well they are about the first flower to appear after winter so anything that isn't white or brown looks good!) The kids had a lovely day playing in the garden and we had our first supper outside. Things are looking good!

The Highs and Lows

Life has been a rollercoaster these past few weeks and it is only now showing signs of slowing down. On the up side I was approved for a business start up grant which means that for the next few months at least I have some money coming in and I can really get to grips with making FeltFinland work. My business is also now registered so it is official - I know own and run my own business!
On the down side my father in law passed away - he had been unwell for quite sometime but it was still a shock when it happened. Fortunately we saw him that morning and he got to see the children one last time.
But as they say (without sounding callous I hope) life goes on and it does. I am in the process of needle felting 26 snowmen's heads and bottoms and numerous tonttu (gnomes) hats! I have a load of wet felting ideas in my head and hope next week to get my hands soapy! I can't wait - I really enjoy needle felting but you can't beat the satisfaction of turning a load of fuzzy wool into (hopefully) a beautiful creation with just soap, water and one's hands.Brilliant!

All creatures great and small

I love them - we have a family of red squirrels in the garden who demand peanuts, magpies who have stand offs with the squirrels over the peanuts, a couple of pheasants who potter around doing their thing then there is a ruddy great big hare! He is huge, twice the size of my cat! It is great to have all this wildlife in the garden BUT dear Mr Hare has just eaten my glorious display of crocuses. They had just bloomed in the spring sunshine and gave a great splash of yellow and purple in our currently brown garden. Now they are gone, munched, no more - I am devastated! However my son saved the day by coming up to me in the garden as I mourned my crocuses and with a gentle pat on the back and a big hug he said 'Don't worry Mummy, it doesn't matter' It's true - it doesn't matter and far worse things will happen that we will have to deal with. Sometimes we need 4 year olds to remind us of that.

Extremes

They say variety is the spice of life - well we have experienced both extremes of the spectrum these past few weeks - starting off with having to drill a hole in the lake to get water to wash with, collecting logs for the fire early morning in -17 degrees C and hunting for Easter eggs before they got buried by more snow! Then having flown across the pond we sat sipping cold beer by the warm pool, splashed in some great waves and ate huge pancakes for breakfast! Of course we met Mickey and had many a ride on the carousel in glorious sunshine. We loved it all!