BodyScrubSoap

I did HandMadeSoap in 2021. Now I did it again. This time I used -again- rose petals but also broken Sea Buckthorn seeds. Both herbs origin from my award winning garden. I used rose petals for balancing, calming, healing and refreshing. Sea buckthorn seeds I used for scrub effect of course but also for skin care and skin healing.

You can see small bubbles on the bottom side of the soap. The soap is upside down in my molds and the extra air bubbles born during the process rise up. I could cut them off but I let them be. They really don't matter if they are there, after the first use they'll be washed away anyway. 

It is very interesting that during the process -because of chemical reaction of soap and plant- rose turns out green, not red in soap making process. It scents like rose and buckthorn but looks like green because there is not used chemical dyes. 

I wrap them into baking paper and secure the pack by paper cord. Looks pretty indeed. The little one I will take to work as a sample work later in autumn when the schools start out again.

PlantPress

This year I received PlantPress as a Mother's Day gift. I have desired it all my life and been pressing plants between book pages. Now I find it reasonable to have a proper plant press because of my new job. I need to make sample works for the next autumn term start. If I use pressed plants it will be unfair not to press extra plants because it will be autumn when the lessons will begin and all the plants faded. This summer I am going to press extra plants for the students just in case. Using a plant press is more reasonable for bigger projects than doing it in the old fashion way: spread the books all around the house.

It is Rico Design Plant Press size S with extra pack of blotting paper. It is made of brown MDF and comes without decoration. I used decoupage to decorate it and make it to be one sample work for the coming courses. First I painted the base by white and only once the make it to look a bit old. Then I used special stickers I've received from a dear friend to decorate the surface. These decoration stickers have glue on the back side but to secure their permanent position I used decoupage glue over them.

I needed several hours and sleep over the night to arrange the flowers over the base. I am very satisfied with the result. I need to sew a storage pack for this so that I can carry it with me in the nature when seeking plants to be pressed. They stay better if I can place them in the press right away instead of carrying them home and do it later. 

If you don't have the plant press you can carry a small book with you and place the plants immediately between the book pages and make sure the book stays tight closed in your bag.

TimeToGrow

On Valentine's Day 2023 I received a gift from a friend. She had plant some Violet Queen potatoes which were quite popular trial in Finland on summer 2022. On Valentine's Day she shared some of them with me. My arctic garden is far too cold for them and it was not very succeed trial on my property on summer 2022. But my friend solved out the problem by studying a bit about the subject and tried to create enough time and warmth for them to grow. A week ago she brought me some more. I am very happy!

They are like a bucket of flowers to congratulate me for the new job! At my old work I will close  the spring term as planned but have already started at new work with tiny steps. I will start full time on the begin of May 2023. In the future I will be working only at Tornion kansalaisopisto. I will work as an art and craft coordinating teacher. 

I will return full time back to my 1st profession. I have enjoyed at my old work and love the students. It will be a pity and sad to leave the students and some co-workers but it is time and possibility to go and grow something more permanent. The old students will be allowed to pick up the courses also at my new job but in practical it might be a bit far for them because the job will be in the next town. 

The spring is the time to sow and grow. I am happy to be allowed to have long farewell with my old students so that I can take care of them all the way to the term end and we all can get ready for the change, be able to wait the wind to arise, to spread our wings and fly. We all will be just fine, I am sure.

My blog stays the same and this is not farewell to me and you. I will be here also in the future! See you soon! Meanwhile sow your own seeds, if you have not done so yet, and see them grow. In these difficult times beauty of the nature gives us comfort and pleasure. It also empowers us.

HandMadeSoap

This year I tried out soap making which I have wanted to try out for years. Well, it was not that special nor difficult or fun as I imaged but now I know.

I used herbs (lavender, rose) of my own garden and coffee bean crumbs to scent, dye and make scrub soap. The only noticeable thing I learnt is that you actually can use the normal stamps to decorate the soaps. You don't need to buy any special soap stickers, stamps or decorations to be able to make the figures on the soap. After all, it is just soap and your stamps are even cleaned during the process.

Autumn Inspiration

Because of the social isolation recommendations we get visitors very rare now when my garden is landing on chilly seasons. This autumn I decided to put up a flower setting decoration to welcome us -who live here- into home after hard working days on these special times. That's why I went out to seek some sale items at garden center.

I bought 4 Callunas for 10€. That's quite a fair deal on my area. We have one hawthorn growing in the garden. I picked up some branches to match with Callunas to get a great setting with winter and Christmas spirit. I have never used hawthorn for decoration so I am quite interested to see for how long it lasts.

Have I ever told you how I love lavender? If not, I tell it now. I 💜 LAVENDER !!!! At the garden center I found lavenders at final sale. They cost 1€/plant. I bought all; they had 3 left. They had seen their best days but it was worth of trying. In my experience everything always just wants to live and grow. You just need to put up the changes for it. that's why, if you are at budget, late autumn is an excellent time to do your garden shopping. It didn't take many days from these lavenders to boost it out again.

After having them a fortnight I cut them down. I took the blossoms (dried and fresh ones, all of them) and leaves and put them to dry out. The lavenders really made a good scent harvest. Now I have the cut down lavender plants in the pots and I am waiting the right time to move them into my cellar to sleep over winter and see what will happen to them at spring 2021. Will they wake up again?

If the COVID-19 allows, we'll have a celebration to come at spring 2021. That's why I have bought some bulbs. I plant them in pots, will move into the cellar and see will they pop out next spring at the right time. Flowers settings are creepy expensive. If you know -early enough- you have a party to come, you can try out to make your own ones. 

 

SummerFeelings

  

First of all I want to make an official announcement about it that we have finally had bits of summer here up in TheNorth. What a luxury it is to have your lunch on the terrace in the garden enjoying about the +22 Celsius heat wave!

I am enjoying about MyGarden and its new flowers I plant last autumn. It all survived over the winter and weird cold spring.

It seems someone else loves MyGarden too. But that's ok. They all do an important job. To be honest - the spring was so cold - we all were so afraid of what had happen to all the insects. There seem not to be many this year but the ones that survived seem so busy that they really have no time to chat when visiting. Sometimes they are so overloaded that they fly confused around seeking a place to rest. MyDog would like to eat them as candies because they taste so sweet but I do my best to let the bees and other important creatures to rest and then fly away to their homes only to come back. Their work seems out like moms' who are trying to get rid of the everlasting laundry pile!

But who cloud resist these rare moments in Finland's year when all the colors pop out instead of just being white, blue or green?

Lately MyCat has been very helpful. She is soon 10 years and has finally learnt there is no need to eat insects; they make Her only to feel sick and vomit. Finally She has found other amusement for herself over the summer days!

She has got bite of the weaving bug! She is very interested especially about the moments when we need more weft. She seems to hang around just in case I need more! I've been nagging at Her it is not very nice when She bites it and it gets wet! But She says it will dry out soon, just keep going on!

So, we've been weaving RagRug. I use old VHS tape (black), curtains (green) and old unused fabric I inherit from my grandmother (blue). I make this RagRug for our outdoor stairs. The old door mats I bought from IKEA several years ago were so worn out that I needed to throw them away already.

1,9 meters is done by now. I need for about 1 meter more before it's long enough. It is my own design.

I know (and She knows) that nothing heavy (She is not heavy She says, just 3,2 kg) should be placed over the warp because it stretches out the warp threads! (She says She stays there only to watch out MyStuff so that TheDog won't steal nor bite anything.)

Season is changing

Good morning to everybody. How are we all today? Ready for the spring that has just started? Or autumn if you happen to live in Australia (cool greetings to there DearJ 💙)... Sometimes people say there is no spring in Finland. But there do is. How is that possible if the snow is there all the time? I show you.

Above is a pic taken on the winter time in February. The sea is frozen but the sun can be seen. It is just setting here. The light is blue and it is freezing cold with a promise of warmth.

Usually you don't see this kind of pic about the snowy arctic world. It is after a storm. Storm is needed to start the process; to change the winds, the world and season.

This is what you usually see on winter pics. But can you see the trenches from small spruce to right. They are old (from 40's) but still there; covered by the snow now.

Look at the pic carefully, for sure you can notice them. Snow can hide many things.

Do you see it better now? On the left?

TheBay! See, the light is gone, blue or white.

The Spring has turned in! The Sea is still frozen but the air has changed. It makes hares, squirrels and birds chase each others  for some weird reason called

S ❤ P ❤ R ❤ I ❤ N ❤ G.

Still the wind may feel hard at open places like on the sea ice.

But in the forest the wind dies if it is not storm. Snow is still hiding something (Stones, I can tell you, from the ice age.)

The light is sometimes very hard and hurts your eyes. The snow doubles its amount so everyone should protect their eyes!

The arctic animals have their special ways to cope with the snow. One of them is to spread the toes. That makes the snow carry her better. She does it by instinct.

But if you are not sure is the nature showing you the spring or not, this is the certain mark about it. The mail brings the 1st mail order catalog of flowers! I had forgot I plant a new flower bed last August! I got very curious about it now but can not help the case at all; there's still 1 meter of snow over it!

OneMoreRose

One more rose has moved into my garden. Now there are 5 different of them. The other four I pictured before. This is Rosa majalis; known as CinnamonRose. In Finnish we call it "metsäruusu" which literally means "forest rose". So, this summer MyGarden has got two more roses and we all hope they will survive.

You can find free chart of Rosa Majalis designed by me.

Roses after Rain

Perhaps you remember my Burnet Rose? This is that weak stem and tiny piece of root which I planted on summer 2013. Three years ago. But here it is. More than survived. It still is approx only 50 cm high but has become bigger year by year. Today it opened first blossoms and there is more and more to come! It wants to live! I love it!

This is something I planted this summer. If you plant a rose you should not let it blossom; that's what they say. But what can I do. This is a very special rose for a very special occasion. Because of YoungLady I need to let it show its beauty. But I believe in this rose. It is related to Burnet Rose. I will pamper and cherish it and do my everything to make it survive over the arctic winter. It has the same abilities for that as Burnet Rose so we have good changes.

This rose is original for the property. Perhaps planted on late 40's when the building started. I have let her live since we moved in on 2009. She has been very satisfied and slowly turned out to strong rose fence on the NorthSide of the property.

And this my love, this, this is that disappointment that surprised me. I planted her in tears because I didn't know it was her. I desired something else and got her. Today she is almost 2 m high and lays needed shadow on my green house's WestSide wall which is today actually even more important because it is My BunnyHouse now!  I have decided to let her grow even bigger and wider.

I have had enough of our Siberian pea shrub. It forms out original fence to the East Side. The problem with is that it falls down easily... because of the rain, the wind, the snow... I have decided to create a rose fence also to that side of the property. It stands better the arctic weather if you pick up the right one. It seems roses never let you down.

GardenFlowers

I have an old house with an old garden. After moving here 2009 first years passed by cleaning the garden. On our early years here I planted just few things. Most of the time I was just picking up all the rubbish and weeding. I wanted to see what is under it all. These were the first loyal plants who lifted up their stems and repaid all the trouble.

Slowly also these have started to live again. I want them more!

There were many old rose bushes and I have planted more; like these.

I plant also pansies every year. I just love them.

I never stop amaze the shades the nature paint all over them.

These are new ones from this spring. They supposed to blossom 2 monts after the planting (= in May!!!) but it has been such a chilly spring & summer so they blossom now; when ever they wanted & desired. That is just fine with me.... To be honest I thought, after moving them out at late May, that they froze to death.

These are the same set with previous ones. I will plant them all into flower bed at late autumn time to see will they survive over MyArcticWinter. They should, but it really is a bit cold out there...

We live by the sea so it is a bit challenging for the garden. There are bushes between us and the sea, but the nearest shore is just 200meters far away. The wind is not very nice when it rises up out there and hit my garden.

But still it can be sunny and warm! This year daisies arrived in. I never planted them... Thank you who ever it was!