Last year (and year before that) we had snow in October and around this time it was freezing. And we had snow. But this year... well, let's say that the weather has been annoyingly warm, so warm that... let me show you.
Yes, flowers. Summer flowers. And I took these pictures 4th of November. Unbelievable.
What makes warm weather REALLY annoying? All the viruses and bacteria flourish and I am sick all the time. I want my winter! 
First of September and I go from no coat to winter coat and scarf, because it's so cold out there that I can't manage without.
First sign of apparent winter season was that I had to lift my cortisone dose back to prescribed level (1,6 mg) as my lungs just couldn't take the chilliness anymore and the inflammation spread.
I think I am getting old.
...and it's not even April yet.
Her Highness is enjoying her life on top of the scratching pole, breathing soft spring air and enjoying the sunshine. I intended to share a picture of her enjoyment with you, but in the end I thought that this might be more figurative:
Cute tongue though.
...as I am having a nasty itch. I wouldn't have it if I was allowed to take my allergy meds, but as coming week begins with prick test and continues with epicutane I will happily itch and feel miserable until Friday. (Oh yes, another set of tests.)
I have also realised why grains are such a problem: it's all about my pollen allergy. It explains even my corn issues. (And I am not gluten intolerant. It's all allergic: I can eat wheat (without upset stomach, itching stills) if I take maximum dose of allergy meds - this has been tested with an innocent pizza which gave its life for science. Long live scientific experiments.)
PayPal
...or PayPälli as I lovingly call it in Finglish (you can translate it to PayIdiot as pälli is slang expression for an idiot).
They downgraded my account while I was out voting (parliamentary democracy is wonderful thing), I took an advantage of that and withdraw pile of virtual euros. Now... we just have to wait and see will that money actually move to where it's supposed to move. (And, I was pedantic little b*stard and gave whole $FIRSTNAME $2NDNAME $3RDNAME $SURNAME litany to the bank account holder (or what ever) box. Now they can't claim that the name doesn't match. 
Hopefully it happens soon as I Lady P. really needs to buy an external burning drive (my Lady's laptop's CD burner is getting old and blind) as I she needs to take backups of PD's info. (Currently I just move my Lady just moves her backups to bits_2_whole's (nerdy sisters 
Har har. You know what this is?
Yes, it is grass (it is also new header image of Tales from Periphaeria - I like to keep the header projecting my Fairy Realm). Grass which was covered with snow last week...
Sun shone, temperature was +10 C at its best and you could smell the soil - it was also first coat-free day of this year.
Even I still have the migraine it has been a good day. Even there was a disappointment it has been a great day. There has been small idea which evolved to something beautiful, there has been kind words, happy cats and stitching.
I love days like this.
P.S. Thank you all for the comments in my previous entry. ^^
Recent observation: 06.02.2007 11:20Guess who has to go out today?temperature -21.2 °C
pressure 1006.2 hPa
humidity 71%
wind from the north 3 m/s
sky clear (0/8)
Got tagged by Angela.
It's that time of the year again... It seems that life cycle of one layout or colour theme is two months.
Some Serif was pretty, no doubt, but it doesn't fit to what I see from window, or to my new user picture. (Notice the hands? Remember the last fairy? There's certain similarity...)
So, in case you want to know the colours I see mostly, when it's not pitch black, just look at my new scheme... length of day is 6 hours, 2 minutes in this part of Finland... (And northernmost parts of Finland have no daylight at this moment.)
And now, I should get my ass off from this chair and head to Helsinki to do some shopping.
31st of October, first snow which stays in the ground without melting straight away (For curious minds: Last year first snow fell in 26th of October).
Observation 31st of October, 2006 @ Helsinki-Vantaa Airport
Sunrise: 7:41
Sunset: 16:26
Length of day: 8 h 45 min
(Source: Finnish Meteorological Institute.)
And this is how it looked like when there was enough light to take pictures...
At the same time not so far away...
Cats are hibernating (3 out of 4 at least), but my chili plants aren't.
And now, back to our regularly scheduled stitching: second angel is having almost half of its gown already. (No Panda today as I don't think I'm fit enough to hold the frame...)
I've been reading Pamela Kellogg's blog since I found it trough Angela's blog, and even I'm not fish person myself I saw something absolutely stunning today... Go and see it yourself. Makes you want to try crazy quilting, doesn't it?
And btw, her 100 Details In 100 Days project ('fillers' for crazy quilting) is still going on, and series in question has some beautiful cross stitch and blackwork designs. For free. O_o
When it comes to blogs...
It seems to me that 800th entry will be written during coming weekend, and not in September. I've been bit chatty lately, haven't I?
Though, I think it has to do with coming autumn, and of course to the fact that there has been few things I've needed to clear up with myself.
At the moment I feel fabulous, though a bit tired, and my sleeping rhythm has normalized from from 3am to noon to from midnight(ish) to 8-9am (Actually I seem to be in such a good shape that my heart keeps its mouth shut even if I drink coffee a bit more than I should (as I can't find completely decaffeinated in reasonable price I use brand which has about half of the caffeine compared to normal coffee). I am not complaining.) and that means I can't be very messed up as insomnia and/or other problems with sleeping are the first things which refer to problems with my psyche (though I wouldn't call heartaches and scarred soul problem of a psyche in that sense, but my aspect of psyche may be a bit different..).
When it comes to autumn...
It smells like autumn outside, evenings are getting chilly (it's still over 20ºC in daytime) and I drink tea in the evenings. All these factors equal autumn.
I don't drink tea during summer, see. Or I do, but it's rare occasion if I do.
Anyway, I've noticed that I apparently may become tea enthusiast as I dug my teapot out from the wilderness of cupboards and I use it for braising my tea. Something I've never done before as I've always thought it's too troublesome to clean...
And I'm planning to make a tea cozy for myself (and one for my mother, but that has nothing to do with autumn. She'd use one), and that's an idea which came completely out of the blue.
Now I just need few good brands of tea so I can enjoy coming darkness in an orthodox way (which is: candles, good tea, good music, sleeping cats).
I think I've, once again, one more reason to dislike spring: I seem to lose my sense of hunger in these months of excessive natural light. This happened last year, and it happens now.
And now it can't be explained with long-distance relationship nor sudden change of diet. It has to be spring.
It wouldn't be such a problem if I haven't got this tendency for migraines. My head has been completely empty last few days, just because my blood sugar levels aren't balanced. Just because I'm to feel hunger at this moment and therefore I simply forget to eat...
And in addition to that
...spring makes me very silly in certain sense... *sigh*
Nothing against having silly thoughts about half of the world's population, but I really dislike my brains subconscious urge to find a relationship.
Though, one would be nice, but for the right reasons and not just because. As I'm getting quite tired with all that hassle...
I know what I want, but it scares most people. And even I know I've no need for anyone who can't accept me as I am... it does bother me. I don't want to be scary because I'm me, because I'm not simple.
I think that we all have faced situation where people around you wonder why you're single and still you just can't seem to be interesting enough... maybe it's being too interesting? Or intimidating, as I've heard.
So, because I think things like this I can say I have got over him. Something good in everything - even sometimes it might be nicer to bathe in heartbreak sea instead of wade in swamps of singledom.
I've been feeling like kid in a candy store lately - even I've been ranting now and then quite much. Not stitching wise, yet, but male wise.
For example today when I sat in train on my way home I saw this gorgeous male occiput, and when he turned his head I saw pair of amazing blue eyes. I could have killed for those... oh.
And then there's this one harshly cute man who is always sitting in same compartment with me in the morning... Ah.
Maybe that's just may way to make my mornings tolerable, as anyway I've to wake up at 4:40... just because I prefer slow mornings.
Maybe it's just spring, even it has never affected like this to me before.
But I don't care about the reason. I just like to do some window shopping.
chanda_m and rosabjarna left me speechless, so I'll get into other things right away...
I think I said in January that this will be wonderful year if I interpret signs correctly. I still think so. Even more than I thought in 1st of January.
This is first spring in years when I haven't had any migraines even sun has shone brightly almost daily. I'm not sure what is actual reason for it, but I doubt that taking huge (well, huge and huge...) dose of vitamins every day (anyway, in my case I've to because of my limited diet).
I used to think that I can't do monotonous work (because I'd get bored) or normal hours (as I thought it'd be too exhausting for me (mentally) )... and today I realized that it's not so. I can even enjoy that monotonous job I get pay from just because I've learned to find pleasure from little things - and having odd work hours help (7-15, so when I get home it's almost like having day off).
And I've surprised myself: I love my singledom.
I don't deny that it wouldn't be great to have someone in my life, as sometimes your cells just need to be touched, and it'd be great to wake up next to someone who's really into me as a person (ok, I could continue with this list quite long)... But then I'm over that phase when I needed a relationship not to be alone. I'm not sure have I ever had such a phase though.
In fact I've been cursing few things lately... It's really annoying to be intelligent, analytic woman with cute face as when ever males see your picture you lose about 50 IQ points in their eyes - and that happens to them too, apparently. Yes, I'm making generalization now. I know all males aren't like that.
And what's that thing of calling every female girl? Why in Earth people have to refer to one's sex in general when it's not really necessary?! Does your sex tell everything about you?
Being female is great, but I hate to be treated Z just because I'm X. And anyway, I'm androgyne by gender, damnit.
Would it be so difficult to take people as human beings, as persons, individuals etc. and forget those completely unimportant things like one's sex? (One of these days when I don't wonder why people often assume that I'm bi - or anything else than straight (which I'm not if we interpret gender wise - androgyne can never be completely hetero-/ bi-/ homosexual because of one's lack of having traditional bipartite gender experience).)
Off from my soap box for now (and into bed. Having hot date with Mr. Sandman. 
Spring Surprise
I'm still fighting with this one. I've always been slow when stitching huge blocks of colour and it seems to be the thing with our little bunny too...
One more reason to dislike spring... It seems to me that every spring my body prepares to make a copy of itself, or at least it has an urge to do so.
About a month and a half (or a bit longer, I really can't recall) I've had this odd thought of making something for a child. To a child I don't have, and who I wont have in years with latest odds.
In certain sense I'm afraid that if I stitch something it'll be bad omen. And what if I never get kids?
To be honest that thought is much more scary than thought of not finding lasting relationship - which is really odd when you're talking about me as I'm so called relationship person (Even I'm QA) - hard to guess from a person who got married when she was 19?
I don't know have my (apparently) stabilized hormones something to do with this (I'd say it's very likely so), but it has never felt like I feel now. I've had similar feelings years ago when I left birth control pills, but after it nothing even close to it, and it was not this intense feeling...
I've to say that idea of being a single mother has never been very fascinating, but lately my opinions have changed. Who says that I can't enjoy family life if I don't have a man on my side? I don't really want to give that much power to anyone when it comes to my life and my dreams.
If there aren't males who can take me as I am does it have to mean that I've to live childless life? I don't really think so.
But the problem is... my PCOs. And fact of wanting relatively good genes for the child so I just can't pick up some random bystander... Not to mention it'd be against my principles anyway.
One medal for me, thank you so very much, inner pages are finally finished:
(Romance in Bloom WIP pictures)
I think I've to modify my goals and say that I achieved my bronze with this. Therefore silver will be Romance in Bloom + finished Topiary Sampler, gold will be RiB + TS + RiB finishing.
Mad cats and slaves
I think that spring has come to this house. Cats have been running around the house since yesterday and I got sudden cleaning mania which has lead to book piles on my sofa, on the floor... yes, I'm going to rearrange here.
Rearranging is always sign of spring, or good phase in my love life (Love life? Does it bite? Sounds dangerous.). Maybe I've just gone mad.
Maybe it's all because of my migraine yesterday (which is gone now, thank you for support. Found good cure, chatted with a friend)
I got replacement monitor yesterday and... I want new monitor! I can't live with 848x480 resolution! I want 17" flat-screen (= byebye ~220 €)! 
Btw, Angela, it really depends. I like comments of my stash hauls as I always need some emotional support when I shop 'til I drop. I like comments on my WIPs and finishes, as it's always rewarding to know that you're not only one who likes your work. And it's always rewarding to read comments/ get feedback of my ramblings about my life and (sometimes even a bit odd) thoughts.
It's bit funny how summer and that much praised light affects to me.
Nowadays, when autumn is behind the corner, and days are getting shorter and shorter I can sleep. Ok, not exactly sleep but I get tired in "normal" time. (I went to bed before midnight and woke up at 3:30, so not very normal rhytm yet, but it's getting there.)
No wonder I love winter.
Sonneschein.
This good thing in my life is always an issue, and it seems that there's always something to say about him.
Well, I'm silly when I'm in love.
Anyway, his moving is getting closer. We don't have any exact dates yet but it's getting close. I just hate not letting myself enjoy it, not yet.
Though there are moments when I'm so overwhelmingly happy because of it that it may be better to try to keep my mind cool.
Then there's this 'letting stranger to your territory' thing. Ok, he's not a stranger, but I'm very protective when it comes to my home. (May have to do with fact that my ex mother-in-law tried to get us evicted few years back...) And I'm bit worried, without meaning, that my little oddities are something to laugh at, that I'm not accepted as I am.
He has never lived alone or with someone else than his family. It includes a huge risk for me. I know that he has domestic skills but how good are they in the end? Is he able to learn allergy cooking? That list is endless, beginning from "right" places of dishes in cupboards.... No, I'm not a control freak. 
I just want this and I'm afraid of that for some reason I can't get it. (Btw, I played that song quite much in January.)
Of course I want to be able to give that to Sonnenschein too, and to be honest, I'm bit afraid that I can't. Maybe I just demand too much from myself.
It would be so much easier just to get him in here asap and see how it goes. This waiting is worst part in this.
(And I just need him....)
