Autumn leaves and my little Autumn ladies

There have been some signs that the winter is just around the corner. Days have became colder and it has also snowed a little. It still looks like autumn outside, though. There are even some leaves on the trees. Papu is prepared for the winter. She has her coat and her little tube hat. Niila, on the other hand, is not prepared at all. She doesn't even know what winter is. And she doesn't have a winter coat yet. I've been looking for a human coat that I could turn into doggie coat, but I haven't found anything suitable. The time is seriously running out, so I hope I find something before it gets seriously cold.

The girls have been enjoying the autumn too. Last weekend we visited my parents because of my dad's birthday party. We let them run loose in the backyard and they seemed really happy. Viiala is like a paradise for our pups. There's plenty of room to run, indoors and outdoors, and there's lots of play mates too. My mother's dachshund is now also Niila's good friend and she also made friends with my sisters' Labrador retriever, Dachshund and Golden retriever. The Golder retriever is a new acquaintance for Papu too. My sister's family just got her and she was actually younger than Niila.

They also tried out their new sweaters against the chilly autumn weather. The blue sweater that Papu is wearing is knitted by me, and J.R. has knitted the greenish sweater Niila is swearing. 

The ladies don't always manage to look so smart.

Papu is actually shivering from cold in this picture.

Niila is one serious super model.

Sniffing, sniffing.

There is also one new video of Niila on Youtube. They were playing just the other day with a stuffed mouse. Niila got it and she didn't want to give it back to Papu. It seems that our little one knows how to benefit from her smaller size...

Visiting Viiala for the first time with Niila

We just spent some quality time with the dogs at my parents' place! It was Niila's first visit in Viiala and she was only nine weeks old when we got there. We were slightly worried that it could be too big of a change too early in her life, but she didn't seem to mind at all. She was happily playing along right from the beginning. She loved to explore the big house and especially the garden around it. It was hard to keep up with her, though. She was so busy running, climbing on things and eating everything possible.

My family also met Niila for the first time and we got confirmation that she's not shy at all. She was OK with everyone, even with the kids. Papu is still wary with some of my family members, but Niila just welcomed them all. She also made friends with my mom's Dachshund and my sister's Labrador Retriever.

We also took some pictures of the dogs outside in the garden. We let them run and play, but we also taught both of them to come when called. Papu usually masters this skill, but for some reason she sometimes loses both of her gigantic ears when we are in Viiala.

My favorite thing is to watch the two playing together. Niila likes to run after Papu, though she's nowhere near as fast as Papu is. Papu's strong and lean body with long legs makes her an excellent runner, but I'm positive that one day Niila is an equal match.

I think the picture above clearly shows the difference of their tails. Papu's tail is very stiff and straight and Niila's tail is more like a pigtail. I hoped that the tails would be different and it seems that I totally got what I wished for! I think Niila's tails is absolutely adorable, just look at the black end and everything:

The dogs also got new beds! My mom's friend made a bunk bed for my dolls when I was a kid, and I thought it would be perfect for Papu and Niila. Papu can enjoy the luxury and peace of the top bed, because it's way over Niila's jumping capacity, and Niila can feel safe in the lower bed. The beds can also be separated.

We have been thinking about painting the beds white, but we haven't really decided yet. It's certain that something must be done, because the pink paint has already seen its best days. We have also been thinking about writing each dogs name on the side, but we're not sure about that either. Decisions, decisions...

The smallest things make the dog owners happy

It feels really good to be home again. We spent seven days dog-sittering my sister's Dachshund in Viiala while she was on a holiday trip with her family. We lived in their house, but we also visited my parents every day since they live so close. I can't remember when I spent so much time with my family without them driving me crazy. Anyway. My sister's Dachshund is called "Pipa" and she's actually named after Papu. Papu, Pipa and Poppana are the Finnish names of the Powerpuff Girls (they tried to make my mother to name her Dachshund as "Poppana", but she named her "Minni" instead).

Papu and Pipa didn't get along so well at first and I was a bit worried how the week would turn out. It turned out that I had no reason to worry. Even though the start was a little bumpy, the dogs actually became friends really quickly. Papu even learned new ways to play while being with her! She didn't know how to play tug of war when we got there. She just tried to take the toys away from the others and didn't understand that the battle is actually part of the play too. We thought that she could still learn, so we gave Papu and Pipa some tug toys and encouraged Papu to tug them instead of stealing them. She got the idea after a while and once she learned she seemed to play really nicely with the others. We didn't have to worry about her being too aggressive anymore. We were so proud of her ability to learn new ways to behave.


They are almost identical. The other one is just fatter.

We weren't actually sure if Pipa was allowed to go on the sofa. I asked my sister if she had any specific rules and she said no. And since Pipa climbed on the sofa by herself, we thought that maybe she was allowed to and let her be there. Besides, it was only fair because Papu is allowed to go on the sofas too. And we were smart enough to take the white sofa covers away before the dogs started to wrestle on it...

I also finally finished Papu's rain overall! I started to sew it over a month ago, but I didn't manage to finish it because I didn't have metallic push-button. I knew I had them at home so I didn't want to buy new ones. And my sewing machine that I have at home doesn't sew this particular fabric.


"Today I'm wagging my head instead of my tail."

The rain overall was really hard to sew. Once again I had problems with the pattern. Even the most smallest size was for a bigger dog than Papu, so I needed to resize it dramatically. It took one whole day before the pattern was in correct size. And even after I got the patterns, the sewing instructions were hard to understand. Even my mother didn't understand how the overall was supposed to put together. It turned out pretty good after all, but I'm not particularly happy with the sleeves. They fit strangely and I'm worried that Papu might find them uncomfortable.

I also have great news for Finnish dog owners! Best Friend has replaced their regular dog waste bags with degradable ones! I have wanted to use degradable waste bags since we got Papu, but since they cost over twice as much than the regular ones, and because they were made from see-through material (who actually wants to see the poop after it's been picked?!), we decided against it. But these new waste bags by Best Friend cost exactly the same as the regular ones used to, and they are totally not see-through! And they even come in two different sizes!

With carry handles.

Totally not see-through. Hello invisible dog poop!

And do you what else in these dog waste bags makes me so excited? The fact that when you go to the regular grocery store to buy dog waste bags, you can only buy degradable ones. That means that within months almost all the dog owners are using degradable dog waste bags... How awesome is that?!

I sew all these together

We spent the weekend visiting my parents in Viiala. We went there on Thursday and it was raining all the way there, but the rest of the days were really sunny and quite warm too. Papu definitely enjoyed her time in Viiala, sniffing around outside and running around inside, and of course playing with my mother's dachshund. I didn't take so many pictures of the dogs this time, but here is one shot of Papu on the top of the rock:

Big rock, small dog

Papu was actually able to jump on that rock. She didn't even hesitate once, so I guess she believes she can fly. If you need evidence on Papu's big jump, I have uploaded a video to Youtube. For some unknown reason Papu really enjoys high places and she loves jumping. Maybe I should teach her how to rock climb?

On Friday I visited some flea markets with J.R. and my mother, like we usually do when we are in Viiala. That's the only type of entertainment we can have. Anyway. I always scan the tables to find items for my collections, though I don't collect many things and my collections are small. I basically only collect some particular books, some particular Finnish table wear and old board games. Usually I go home empty-handed, but this time I actually found something cool:

Happy families traveling towards retirement

It's a boardgame called "Game of Life". This game is originally from the 60's, but this one here is actually a remake from 1999. I'm really pleased with the condition, since the game has obviously been played more than once. There were around 20 of those mini people missing, but that doesn't effect the game unless there are all six players in the game and they happen to have like four kids each.

The plot of the game is quite silly actually, and the playing is mostly based on luck. In the beginning you can choose whether you want to start your career right away or go to university first. And then you move on the board like the "dice" tells you to and live through your life. There are some points in the game where you can effect on things, but nothing major really. And the winner is whoever has the most money in the end. Despite the silly plot, I'm still happy to have this classic in my collection. It's a fun game to play to and it doesn't take too long or too much brain work either.

I also got something really fantastic from my mother: she finally bought a new sewing machine and I got the old one. It's still working, but it refuses to sew fabrics that are too thick (like zippers for example). When sewing normal fabrics it should work properly.

I'm not so good at sewing though, but on the other hand I wasn't so good at knitting either. I have sewed things in the past, some clothes and smaller things, but I have always asked my mother to help me with the difficult things so she has sewed them. I basically know how to work with fabrics and different stitches and sewing patterns, I just don't know how to do things neatly. I'm really excited to learn this new skill, though I need to wait until Hannes comes and fixes the sewing machine's plug for me. The sewing machine is so old that is has a different kind of plug than newer electrical devices, and newer sockets don't match those old plugs. According to Hannes the changing is not a big operation, so we just have to set a date and then I'm ready to sew. I have already decided that my first independet sewing project will be a pin cushion, because I really need one.

PS: There is a Cuddly Crochet book giveaway in our knitting blog. You still have time to enter.

What's new in Amoena's exciting life? NOTHING!!

Every week I decide to blog more. And then I end up posting less. I should decide to blog nothing at all, and then I would probably post every day. I have all the time in my hands but yet nothing to blog. Nothing interesting, I mean. It sucks to have a such a normal life. I wonder how other, normal boring people deal with blogging. Is there some trick that I'm not yet aware of?

Anyway. We spent the last weekend in Viiala at my parent's place. Papu was super excited to meet her best friend, Minni the dachshund again. They play-fought through the whole weekend. Their fights can look quite rough sometimes, but they're both still in one piece. We have to watch them constantly while they play together, though.





We also let Papu to run free so she could sniff everything as much as she liked. And she liked to sniff a lot. And I think Papu looked gorgeous with the autumnal background. She's just so beautiful sometimes. I'm so happy that we have her and we can watch her everyday.









We also took Papu to a walk one warm day and borrowed my sister's dog retractable leash. There's not much traffic there so we wanted Papu to be able to explore things more freely. Here in the city we keep her on a short leash. There's too much people and cars here.



I sewed a Barbie doll dress while J.R. was picking mushrooms with my mom and aunt. I would like to sew Barbie clothes more often, but my niece doesn't really play with her Barbie dolls so she doesn't need so many clothes either. I'm not so happy with this particular dress, I've definitely made better ones. The fabric was very forgiving, though. I literally sewed it on the doll and it still turned out OK.





We also visited few flea markets and I found and bought a really cool board game, Bombay Bazar. It cost only 5€ so it was a real bargain. And we played it many, many times during the weekend. Even my aunt and mom liked to play it. It's a shame we don't play board games so often at home.



And that's pretty much it.

Puppy picture overload

Hello! It's Amoena and Papu and we are blogging in Viiala. Papu actually sleeps on my lap right now. We've been at my parents' place since Friday and boy, this feels like a vacation. Things are so much easier here. We don't have to worry about the food. My mom cooks it. I don't have to do any housework (though I know I should) and it's so much easier to take Papu out for a pee. I can just open the door and let Papu run free. I love the life at the countryside. And so does Papu.

And guess what? Since I'm on a vacation, this is pretty much all I'm gonna blog! Hooray for puppy pictures!


Here's Minni. She's my mother's dachshund puppy.


She's obviously best friends with Papu.


Really. They like each other. They even share the same bed sometimes.


And here's Pipa. She's my sister's dachshund puppy. She's from the same litter as Minni.


Many things happen when three puppies meet.


We also took Papu to swim. She's not into it. Yet.


She's all wet. But at least she looks quite happy.


Papu's not digging it.


Papu's sitting on a flower. Good girl. They're weeds anyway.


Obviously she needs plenty of sleep after the long day.

Jag trivs bäst i öppna landskap

I've been neglecting my blog, both of them actually. And Twitter too. But I have a pretty good excuse, just wait until you hear it. My laptop, my lovely, lovely laptop is broken and taken away. I've had a problem with flickering screen since forever, but that's not the main reason why it's taken away. It didn't boot anymore. No BIOS, no nothing. Now I have to rely on my old laptop, my old, not so good laptop with a very, very crappy Linux distribution. I shouldn't complain, though. At least I still have a laptop. I just don't really enjoy working with this thing, because this thing doesn't really want to cooperate with me. Like seriously, how hard it is to tweet?

Anyway. I just spent a long weekend in Viiala, sans my laptop of course. I didn't miss it though, because I had J.R. and Papu with me. They kept me well entertained at all times. And Papu had so much fun! She made two new dog friends and she was also able to run around free. I had no idea that she might have so much energy. She doesn't really show that side at home, because we don't have enough room to run at home and outside she has to wear a short leash. I think the weekend made wonders to her socialization.

Because it was raining almost all the time, we didn't take many pictures of Papu running outside. Luckily on Sunday, which was our last day there, the sun started to shine again and we were able to took a few nice shots of her:





Yesterday we learned that Papu has been traumatized before she came to us. Or at least that's what the vet suspected and we have no reason to question that since it makes sense. So, yesterday we took Papu to the vet to get her vaccinated for the first time, and everything was fine, until the vet took out the microchip reader to read Papu's microchip. Papu didn't like that. She didn't like that at all. I think she surprised us all. The vet had to muzzle her and to give J.R. some first aid because Papu bit him. The vet said that it's a common problem nowadays because puppies are microchipped when they're still... well... puppies and it doesn't always go so well.

I wish I had known that. I would have asked the breeder not to get Papu microchipped. We could have get her microchipped later. It's so obvious now why Papu doesn't like when strange people try to pet her. She allows them to get closer, she sniffes them, she takes treats from them and she plays with them... But if they raise their hand to touch her, she backs off. I thought she was just timid and I gave her space. I never pushed her into anything since, after all, she showed interest toward strangers in a very positive way. I thought she only needed time, but no. She needs therapy too, some positive experiences and lot's of practice.

The cake is not a lie when you're in Viiala.

I just had a wonderful weekend in Viiala! I'm so glad that J.R. likes to visit my parents too, so I don't have to go alone. It wouldn't be as nice. And I like the fact that J.R. gets along with my family very well. My mom seems to like J.R. a lot, and not only because he's a good guy and in love with her daughter, but because J.R. is interested in gardening and cooking. They have plenty of topics they can talk about.

We usually visit several flea markets with my mom, and this weekend was no exception. My mother is a collector and she's always searching for something. And what does she collect...


... she collects My Little Ponies...


... and glass birds...


... and Russian souvenir dolls...


.. and Matryoshka dolls (and other wooden stuff from Russia). Just to mention some of her collections.

She managed to find nine new My Little Ponies and one really pretty glass bird during the weekend, but we found something really nice too. We've been hunting for a silvery two story server (I don't know what they are called. Tell me if you know!) for months, but now we found something even better. It's not silvery, but white with golden linings. It will go well with our fine coffee set, it's white with golden linings too. I still want a traditional silver one too, though.


Just waiting for some chocolate muffins and cookies.

We also found a fourth Kosmos tea mug by Arabia. And it was cheap! I've seen these mugs with 25€ price tag, but this mug cost only 1.90€. Kosmos is usually pretty expensive, but some people don't know that they're valuable and give them a very low price. After all, it's just an "ugly" tea mug. Anyway. I think that four mugs are enough now. I don't even use them often, I just like the way they look. I wouldn't mind one big Kosmos plate, though. It would be nice to have a matching plate for the serving.



On Saturday we celebrated my older big sister's birthday. I didn't know it was her birthday until we were in Viiala, so I had to improvise a little bit with her birthday gift. I crocheted an apple cozy for her and I also bought her a set of Aino Aalto drinking glasses by Iittala. My mother told me that she collects them and my sister seemed pleased. But I should totally update my calendar so I wouldn't miss all these birthdays! I also played with my niece and nephew. I like kids for being so easily amused. I did nothing but threw balloons to the air, but they seemed to have lots of fun.

My mom also cut my hair on Saturday. It's short-ish and weird now, but I like it. She's definitely not a professional hair cutter, but on the other hand her services are free of charge. I rather choose her than costly barbers or hairdressers.

It was very nice to see my family again. I usually only visit my parents, but my sisters keep visiting them too because they live so near. So I always meet my sisters too when I visit my parents. Though I wish I didn't have to meet my younger big sister so often. She's mean and bad-behaving, and she has zero respect toward others. I'm tired of hearing her nasty comments every time I see her. I can't understand why she's so awful when the rest of the family, including me, is completely normal.

End of the winter break report

It feels so good to be home again. It was frigging cold in Viiala. And I don't mean it was cold in the outside, it was cold in the inside too. My parents live in an old house and they don't have electric heating. They're used to it, but I'm always freezing when I'm visiting them during winter time.

So... Onward with this winter break report.

On Friday I met J.J. I know he doesn't like to be blogged about (I don't know why he's so concerned. He doesn't even read my blog!) so I'm keeping this story short. He's still talented. He played some beautiful pieces to me with his new digital piano, even though he can't even read sheet notes. He just memorizes everything. He also played some acoustic guitar and showed new knife tricks. Yes. He has skills and he's not afraid to show them off.

I also visited Assembly Winter 2009 quickly with J.J. I knew there wouldn't be much to see, but a free entrance is always a free entrance. I was surprised to see how young the gamers were. I certainly didn't play MMORPGs when I was a kid, because I didn't even have a computer! Not to mention broadband. At that age I read books. And wrote poems. By hand! And we didn't had shower or hot water in Viiala. The kids are so spoiled and pampered nowadays!

On Saturday I just slacked with J.R. We read Glamour magazines together (Hannes, no comments here, please) and ate pretty much everything eatable. Free food is so irresistible. My mother also dyed my hair, so now my roots are blond again. Hooray!

On Sunday I had to study for my "Data Networks at Work" exam and J.R. had to work again. But we had little time to visit my brother-in-law's birthday party. He turned 29. He collects Lego sets and my sister collects everything with the Moomins on. My mother collects My Little Ponies. And I would collect Pez candy machines if only I had time... It seems that my family loves toys. Anyway. They had cake.

So... I had a pretty awesome winter break. Thanks to J.R, Elina and J.J. for making it happen!

Winter Break @ Viiala

I decided to have a little winter break while J.R. is working at Assembly, so I'm visiting my parents at Viiala. We arrived here together yesterday, but today morning J.R. continued his journey to Tampere where the event is held. I went with him though, because I was going to meet Elina, who also lives in Tampere.

And it was very nice to meet Elina! Last time I saw her was on last summer, when she spent few days at my place. She had some conference thingy at Helsinki. Anyway. Her apartment is still one of the most coziest I have ever been and I really enjoyed sitting on her old armchair. Of course it was also very enjoyable to chat with her. I didn't take any photos, which I regret now. It would have nicer to post this thing with pictures. Maybe next time. Hmm... I guess she liked the legwarmers I made her.

Tomorrow I'm going to meet another friend who lives in Tampere. I'm excited to meet him too, since he's one of my oldest online friends and I don't get to see him often. I'm going to spend some time with him and later we are going to crash Assembly, because J.R. is getting us in for free. And then I'm going to snatch J.R. to myself and go back to Viiala with him.

And now I'm going to spend some quality time alone, smoking cigarettes and listening to Lenka. And reading some old Glamour magazines that Elina gave me!

Learning by doing some other stuff

I was really ill yesterday. First my eyes started to ache and I decided to take a little nap. I slept for few hours and when I woke up I had the most terrible headache. But I took a pill and ate some banana cake that J.R. baked and I started to feel better. Though I'm not sure if it was because of the pill or the delicious cake. Anyway.

J.R. and I spent the last weekend in Viiala. This time we had no particular reason to visit my parents, I just wanted to visit them and J.R. had no better plans either. OK, we had this one reason: my mom wanted to take J.R. to pick mushrooms with her. I had to go with them too, though. My rubber boots were too big and they make my toes ache. I didn't complain much, though.


And now our fridge is filled with trumpet-shaped chanterelles.

And my sister commented my weight. She said that I should watch what I'm eating because I'm getting chubby. She's so polite, isn't she? She's right though, I'm getting heavier. But in my opinion I'm just getting healthier. Couple years ago I was like anorexic. I wasn't eating much and I lost a lot of weight in a short time. It's good that I'm actually eating nowadays and it's only good that my body is taking its natural shape again. I was not born to be thin and it doesn't suit me. My current size is OK and I hope my sister stops makings comments about it.

I thought that I should write something about my school too. I have now studied three weeks in Laurea University of Applied Sciences and I'm still not sure if it's what I really want to study, but it's not bad either. For example we have had some interesting data network architecture lectures. And our school is actually quite nice looking in the inside:



Laurea has this fancy thing called "learning by developing". It means that we are forced to work in groups. A lot. And I'm not a fan of group working so it might become a problem. Our last project was ten page report of the history of the telecommunication. I wrote about smoke signals and homing pigeons and stuff. It was actually quite interesting. And today we gave a short presentation of the subject to the rest of the class. I think our presentation was the best of the bunch. There were better performers but their presentations were too long and too heavy in the details. So I could congratulate myself for doing a good job.

I almost got killed by a mink. So fuck lung cancer.

Every member of my family smokes. They just don't know that sometimes I smoke too. I know that my parents wouldn't be mad at me and that they wouldn't even lecture me. I'm not sure if they even cared really. But it would totally ruin my reputation: I'm the good girl here, the white sheep, the one who does everything right. And I really like keep things this way. Though my brother-in-law probably knows because he reads my blog. Or at least I think he does. Anyway. If he knows then he could sometimes offer me a smoke. That would be nice.

I know it's quite weird that I keep on blogging about my lame occasional smoking habit but I just like smoking so much. And I consider myself lucky that I'm not addicted to it. That would be really nasty. I like smoking mostly because it makes me feel good. But I also like it because it makes me feel a bit rebellious. Like I said, I've always been the good girl. I don't drink and I don't even swear (I swear only when I'm writing because writing lacks facial expressions). I'm old enough to smoke legally but I still feel guilty while doing it. I guess it has a lot to do with Hannes. He's strictly against smoking and he's the one giving me the lectures. He makes me feel that smoking, no matter how rarely it's done, is definitely the most horrible thing in the world.

But there is actually a real reason why I'm blogging about this...

I'm in Viiala visiting my parents. And since my family doesn't know that I smoke, and I really wanted to smoke, I said to my parents that I'm going for a walk. So I could smoke in privacy. There is a nice little lake nearby so I went there and sat on the dock to enjoy my smoke and the lovely view:




Smoking can harm you but more likely it just makes you look really dumb.

And I saw a mink! And it was quite scary actually. I had already finished my smoke when I heard some noises behind me. I turn to see what's making them. And I see this brown thing that looks like a cat. Then I realize that it's not a cat. It's a mink. I go closer to take a picture and I expect it to scare away. But it doesn't. And I get closer and closer and then it starts to hiss! And I realize that it's blocking my way out. It's too close to the dock and it looks like it could actually attack me! I walk back to the end of the dock and jump up and down to make some noise but it won't scare way. But then after a while it just swims away and I'm free to walk back home. Hooray!

Unfortunately my camera phone really takes crappy pictures so I didn't manage to get a decent picture of my mink. But I'm posting one anyway:


Click to enlarge. It's the brown thing in the middle!