Cold New Year!

We spent the weekend in Lappeenranta. The girls are staying with their grandparents until school starts on Thursday. I had planned on taking walks and lots of pictures, but it was -25 C cold and I figured I'd better keep my nose indoors.... It was very beautiful though - in small doses!

Happy New Year 2010!!!

Here are some pictures of jewelry I made during the holidays. The first one has ceramic pieces by Mary Ann Carroll (pendant, beads and toggle), copper bead caps and amber nuggets.

Ceramic pieces from Chinook Jewelry, copper and brass findings, seed beads, champagne glass beads, crystals, blue lampwork beads with brown flowers from Jane Myrsky, desert canyon lampwork beads from Sue Beads and single bead in the dangle from Kelley's Bead Studio.

Ceramic pieces from Chinook Jewelry, copper findings, wood beads, snakeskin jasper, yellow turquoise, green garnet slices, root beer disc beads in the earrings from Sue Beads, crystals, single lampwork bead from Jerri's Glass Art Beads.

Ceramic pieces from Chinook Jewelry, copper and brass findings, imperial jasper.

Ceramic pieces from Chinook Jewelry, honey comb swirls lampwork beads from Kelley's Beads, tiger eye, crystals, brass and pewter findings.

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I WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010!

My best Christmas gift

Look what my husband gave me! I got a shiatsu back and shoulder massager with heat. It's absolutely fantastic!

Yesterday we bought new skiing equipment for Ronja. She's grown so much that she can't use her old skis anymore. We don't have this much snow in the South of Finland every winter and it's not always possible to ski here. Usually the girls get to ski when they're in Lappeenranta with their grandparents. There's always lots of snow in Lappeenranta.

We also went to a hockey game. I haven't been to one in over 10 years... It was Blues from Espoo against SaiPa from Lappeenranta. The game was 2 - 2 after the third period and ended 2 - 3 when SaiPa made a goal on overtime. That made my husband a happy man!

Our Christmas Tree

These are some of my favourite ornaments in our Christmas tree.

Thank you for the star LeAnn, it's lovely!

The most wonderful thing about the tree is the smell.

Santa brought presents on Christmas Eve. I'm not sure if the girls really believe in Santa anymore or not. We've had the same Santa for several years. He's really good with kids.

The best gift was Nintendo Wii. The girls have been playing sports games all Christmas.

What I enjoy most about Christmas is being at home, relaxing, doing as little as possible, just being together.

I've read a lot: "Double the Heat", "Skinwalker" by Faith Hunter, "Tasting Fear" by Shannon McKenna, "Luke" by Cheyenne McCray, "Night Life" and "Pure Blood" by Caitlin Kittredge and some others.

Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!

Sunny Saturday in Porvoo

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Fourth Sunday in Advent

We went to Porvoo yesterday. It was almost -20 C cold and sunny. Absolutely fantastic weather to be outdoors. I took some pretty pictures here in Espoo in Aurora Park and in Porvoo too. It was really great to visit with my parents and my grandmother. Today we went to the traditional Christmas fair in the Old Town. It wasn't cold today, but it was windy and it was snowing like crazy. That made the drive home really horrible because the visibility was terrible. Luckily we made it slowly but safely. I'll post some pictures later.

I hope you all had a good weekend!

Pictures © Porvoo City Tourist Office