Arboretum - foliage

I have lost myself in this botanical beauty today.
These photographs are a tribute to my dear friends;  She knitted me this BEAUTIFUL apricot botanical cowl and she sent me the whole arboretum in an envelope.
You made me so happy. Thank you both!!


with love,
Anu

ps.

Hi! I am just taking a little peak... :)

Gratitude Sunday

Today I am very grateful for:

• my dear mother feeling so much better after her surgery! She is already laughing and knitting too :)!!!
•  having dear warm hearted friends!!

I am overwhelmed by the generosity and kindness of Vibeke and Anna who both made me feel very special this week. This September I seem to have my birthday all over again (it is in May really :)) so many times!
Anna knitted me a beautiful cowl (I will show you later) and sent me also many wonderful surprises like this fabric with little flowers on it and Vibeke sent me this wonderful yarn combination and many other lovely  things like this Kusmi tea. My soul is singing from gratitude. I have met warm hearted and beautiful souls here in this wide blog world. I am so grateful for that.
I love presents and surprises, I really do, but do you know what I love even more? I love the kindness of a soul who is sharing from her own and wants to make someone else happy.

I am also grateful for:

• chocolate cake I had today with the tea called "starry sky"
• a little grocery store opening near our home- a perfect shop a perfect distance from our home. I can walk there, it is not too far :)
• beautiful gifts I have received this week - THANK YOU!!!
• having a lovely photo shoot outside
• my knitting projects - two cardigans...I started a second one...
• my visit to a yarn shop and for finding pretty yarn for my friends :)
• a new pair of winter shoes I bought this week. I really needed a new pair from this special shop (shop for people who have leg issues)
• my son's laughter and my husband's twinkly eyes 

love,
Anu

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I really enjoy my visits in inspirational blogs. One of my favourites is Vibeke's A Butterfly in my hair and it was there where I found this idea of a Gratitude Sunday a while back. Vibeke wrote that she tries to join in on Gratitude Sunday with Taryn and all the others over at her blog Wooly Moss Roots. I am thankful for this lovely idea for Taryn and for Vibeke who brought this to my attention.

 I started listing things I am grateful for some weeks ago here in english (In finnish I have done that on and off for years in my diary). Those most important things in my life like my family and faith are the same as mentioned here. I have so much to be grateful for. We all do.

Teachers best friend

is a warm heart, I think but good notebooks - classical paper versions (this lovely one from Anna) and electronic - come if not second, at least among those very important things. Me and all of my colleagues got new tablet computers to be used at school. Those all look alike so I knitted a little "Kermit green" pocket for my tablet. Now I will recognise immediately which one is mine. I think it turned out quite qute with this large wooden button on it. Now I am all organized for work :)

ps.Elizabeth sent me LOTS of goodies. Thank you again dear Elizabeth!

- Anu

Dream hat in the sunlight

I visited one of my favourite clothing shops in a nearby city and bought a cute chocolate brown hat for those  oncoming rainy autumn days. Hat love, no doubt!

"Once I read a story about a butterfly in the subway, and today I saw one. I couldn't believe it. It got on at 42nd -- and got off at 59th, where I assume it was going to Bloomingdale's to buy a hat that will turn out to be a mistake. As almost all hats are." You've Got Mail

I think my hat is an exception :)

My mother's pretty, pretty flowers. During the day time it is still quite warm here and some flowers are blooming but nights and mornings are already cold. I like these chilly mornings. Somehow I can think clearly when the air is crisp.

Happy day to you my dear friends!

- Anu

Sunday moods

 

Today

• bisquits with truffle flavoured filling- aren't they beautiful?
• delicious white tea with melon and peach from the other side of the world - thank you so, so much Elizabeth!
• e-mails to dear friends
• one finished hat from that luxurious yarn Anna sent me :) - pattern is the result of my imagination but inspired by this white hat in a book I ordered from Etsy a while back

Anu

Some really big and scary things have happened this week. A fear of losing a loved one is horrible. Everything is all right  now, better than all right actually. I am so grateful for that but at the same time I am so very tired. The cure for my exhaustion is this: tea, Oreos and a little knitting. Unfortunately I can rest only a few minutes because I have so much work to do for tomorrow (reading essays) but I think that even a short pause can make the difference :) I have started to knit a hat from that yarn my friend Anna sent me. It is so fluffy and soft - I love that!

- Anu

Ps. I adore that oak tree. It is one of my "everyday trees", trees that I tend to admire daily. Can you see how beautiful it looks right now?
PPs. Thank you so much for your comments for my last post ♥

Gratitude Sunday - These are the paths I am walking along

I would like to be able to run. Run really like the wind blows, occasionally fast and then suddenly very slowly. But run, just run. I would like to dance, learn to dance without my legs just stopping to work. I would like to be able to work like other people do in my profession standing all day long easily, not having any problems with that. I would like to climb the stairs at my workplace without thinking will I make it upstairs, and I would like to be able to go to a supermarket after work and just walk through it, buy those things I need rather than those I can reach that time. It is always the farthest corner where the milk is and sometimes it is just too far. I would love to be able to play with our son easily, without having to say "mom can not do this or that right now", I would love to play football and other sports with him. I would like to sleep without pain and just would love to live without painkillers. I would like to be a thirtysomething woman without all these health issues.

But still

I am SO grateful I can walk, I can take small walks, some days even longer ones, feel the wind on my face and hear the quietness that only a forest can offer. I am grateful of music I can listen to and rythm I can feel and those occational steps I can dance with my broom while sweeping our deck at the backyard or in our livingroom sometimes. I am so grateful to have a job that I genuinely love. I have an opportunity to be invited in my students' lives, they plan the future and I have this priviledge to be a part of all that. I love the fact that I now have a classroom of my own and an office of my own at my workplace. I have started there in 2001 but only recently got my own classroom. It is upstairs but I can manage. My own classroom feels nice and cosy and I have decorated it with a few plants. It is not a beautiful space but then again it is so very beautiful because beautiful things happen there - young people get ideas, they learn and they share their days with me. And about shops, I actually love the fact that I can visit small shops where I can come across the same people almost every time and I do not have to walk half a mile to get what I want. I LOVE the fact that I have a sporty and beautiful little boy and I can watch him play. And I am grateful of this medicine I have. It really helps my life. I LOVE to be me, thirtysomething woman with my problems but also with ALL these blessings!

There are two sides to everything and I want to see my life through gratefulness. It is not always easy but I still think it is absolutely neccessary to try. I have been given so much to be grateful for!
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I really enjoy my visits in inspirational blogs. One of my favourites is Vibeke's A Butterfly in my hair and it was there where I found this idea of a Gratitude Sunday a while back. Vibeke wrote that she tries to join in on Gratitude Sunday with Taryn and all the others over at her blog Wooly Moss Roots. I am thankful for this lovely idea for Taryn and for Vibeke who brought this to my attention.

 I started listing things I am grateful for some weeks ago here in english (In finnish I have done that on and off for years in my diary). Those most important things in my life like my family and faith are the same as mentioned here. There are also lots of smaller but yet very important things I am grateful for today. Today I wanted to remember that there are two sides to everything even to those painful things in one's life.

Now I am going to knit a little and then have pancakes for breakfast :)
I hope you have a day full of inspiration. Happy Sunday!

- Anu

HAPPY!!

I have had the JOY of getting two special packages from dear Anna this week. Thank you so much my dear friend!! I am so, so happy and grateful for getting to know you and for all of these beautiful gifts you sent to me. I wore that necklace today at work and it made me happy the whole day long. I also enjoyed my new cinnamon and chocolate (yes chocolate!) tea and drank at least three cups in one go :) And this yarn - it is pure heaven. It feels so soft  and that colour is intense and rich. Can you see how well that yarn goes together with a piece of fabric I bought this week (after one very unhappy dentist experience)?
Now I will put a kettle on and have some more chocolate and cinnamon tea with a piece of apple pie and whipped cream. Does not sound bad - or what do you think? Well, it is Friday and that means one can go a little overboard, I think :)

Special thaks to dearest Anna!
Hugs,
Anu

September joys - Gratitude sunday

I really enjoy my visits in inspirational blogs. One of my favourites is Vibeke's A Butterfly in my hair and it was there where I found this idea of a Gratitude Sunday a while back. Vibeke wrote that she tries to join in on Gratitude Sunday with Taryn and all the others over at her blog Wooly Moss Roots. I am thankful for this lovely idea for Taryn and for Vibeke who brought this to my attention.

 I started listing things I am grateful for some weeks ago here in english (In finnish I have done that on and off for years in my diary). Those most important things in my life like my family and faith are the same as mentioned here. There are also lots of smaller but yet very important things I am grateful for today. Today I am grateful for many joys!

Todays joys:

• I got to wake up in a clean and organized home. Yesterday I just wansn't up to cleaning because of this flu but my husband did everything  ♥
• Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice - first published in 1813. I bought this special 200th anniversary edition from Helsinki on Friday. It is a lovely yellowish paperback full of witty words.
• Our son's singing! He hums and we have to guess what is the name of the song he has chosen ♥
• This new yellow woollen carpet of ours. It is designed by Kazuyo Nomura (for Ikea) and I just adore that curvy kind of surface and richness of the colour. 
• My everlasting knitting project, a cardigan up to my knees.
•  Reflection in my tea cup here (picture) - can you see that? 
• My camera. I love taking photographs!
• The fact that I have connected with beautiful souls here in this blog world
• I am expecting a parcel from Spain!! I am so curious about it's contents :)
• View from our kitchen window. Leaves are turning yellow and I just love that!
• A New pair of shoes and a Noa Noa belt I bought to be worn at work (with that pencil skirt, mentioned in the last post). I very seldom have heels. It is not that I do not find them beautiful but I am such a clumsy person and heels do not go together with that plus I have these ill hips - heels are not good for my well being.
• White chocolate with hazelnuts and black tea with peach and orange. I am having those right now.
• That plant of mine - do not know the name of it but I find that fragile lushness very beautiful
• My flu being a little better today.

I hope you are having a good day. Hugs!!

- Anu

Morning mist

Yesterday I went to Helsinki by train. I had my knitting needles with me and enjoyed a peaceful moment in the train admiring morning mist, knitting and drinking tea. I had a piece of Scotland with me (a scarf I bought this summer) and something lovely that reminds me of  beautiful friendship (a tote bag from dear friend). My trip was work related so I barely had any free time in Helsinki but still stole a moment for myself to have a nice cup of tea and "Ellen Svinhufvud" cake here. On my way back to the train station in the evening, I popped in a tiny, little book shop called Pocket shop and found a kind of special edition of one of my all time favourites. I will show you the book later this week end.
I have catched a cold...so I need to rest a bit this week end. I am still in my pyjamas and me and my pyjamas are now going to go to a little pizza party (pizza, pepsi and free time) our family has in the living room :)
Sending happy thoughts,

Anu

ps. I am happy, happy, happy about this skirt I found some time ago. This picture is far from good quality but just wanted to show you. It is so nice to find something lovely.