Utility room, before and after

"Utility" room, before.
Utility room, after. I see a difference, a change for the better. And I just simply love it. Now, if I could only get a sewing room...... me want, me want, me want.

Garden and the gardener

I think my little herb garden under the poor apple tree turned up quite nice. I've used a lot to the herbs in my cooking this summer. And we've had THREE strawberries so far (you see the pot behind the sage and oregano bushes?).

Mårbacka pelargoniums which Tuomas didn't rip into pieces, surprisingly. "Rainbow" seems to be upset since he's staring at the corner.
The gardener with his squirt gun. Jaakko was an eager helper whenever I watered the plants.

Flowers

I finally planted some flowers. The huge pots are actually plastic, believe me or not! Both have pink Mårbacka pelargoniums and ivy.

This one is right next to our front door. I'm betting that before Midsummer Tuomas has ripped it to pieces in one of his tantrums "I'll break it with a hammer and tear it down and smash it into pieces and...and... and...." . The cast iron dog has a brush on its back to be used to clean your shoes (hardly ever used for that purpose). When I bought it a couple of years back I asked Risto what should we name it. "Rainbow" was his answer. Hmm.... it's not that colourful.

This welcomes our guests and gives the neighbours something to bump into when they drive past in their cars. BTW, our house number is easy to remember: we're 5 and "A" as in ape house! Welcome!
I planted a white and a blue clematis next to the apple tree. Hopefully they'll climb up quickly to make the poor tree look better. I moved two lavenders next to the clematis to give them some sort of shade.

Apple blossoms are so beautiful.
I don't like this plant (vuorenkilpi in Finnish, I guess, and I'm too lazy to look up the English/Latin name). It's one of the first flowers to bloom in the spring, but the rest of the summer all you get is the big, green, waxy leaves. It's not my favourite, but I guess the flowers are quite beautiful when looked at close range.

One Red Dot

Joanne and Eric, our American grandparents, gave us this wonderful book a few years back. Like it says on the cover, it's a pop-up book for children of all ages. It's almost hypnotic. The idea is to find one red dot on each page.

On the back cover it warns that it's not suitable for children under 3. It is quite tempting to rip the pop-ups.
Three burning baskets.... and one red dot!
One perplexing puzzle box... and one red dot.

This book gave me an idea for our home. Each room should have one red dot. Something that draws your attention in a positive way, not like an acne spot. It started in the living room after Christmas. The room looked colourless and dull after we took the Christmas tree out. It needed something green! We had a long discussion, DH and I, about the red pot, but I managed to convince him of the color choice. He did admit that it looks good. But the poor palm tree doesn't. This picture was taken a month ago and now the poor thing looks even worse. Somehow thinking about watering it doesn't help....

One red dot in our living room.

The next red dot was placed in the kitchen. We asked a carpenter near Auntie P to build us a shelf for our cook books and stuff. I wanted it to be bright red (surprise, surprise), but this time DH said a very firm "no". It's easier to move a flower pot (or accidentally break it) if you don't like it, but a shelf screwed to the wall is another thing. Besides it was me who put it up. So, this blue shelf is the red dot of our kitchen.

You've probably seen those black board walls in magazines with menus, names of wines, herbs written on them in beautiful handwriting. This is far from it.

The idea for my (oops, our) next red dot I got from the blogosphere and DH kindly ordered it from here. This time it's red.
I think it looks great next to the stairs. I wish I would remember to obey the command!
This chair was also bought from the carpenter near Auntie P's. We didn't exactly need another chair, but it was sooooo comfortable that I wanted it. DH said it out loud before I even had the chance to open my mouth:"If you're thinking of painting it red, forget it!" But I want it to be "a red dot", something that draws your attention. I'm picturing lime green or pale pink (totally not my colour!). What do you say?

Decorating

Decorating 0ur home is something I don't do much of. Keeping it more or less (usually less) clean is enough of work. Actually we have asked our friend Outi to re-design our livingroom. I'm hoping to see a change in it. We just haven't had the time to sit down together.

But this is what I did in our guest bathroom! I copied the idea of the golden frame on the mirror from Schiphol airport ladies' bathroom. Just a simple golden frame attached to the mirror so that when you wash your hands you can see yourself in the frame (that is, if you're the same height as me!).

From the mirror you can see a mask that is located just above the toilet bowl itself and the first thing you see opening the door. There was an article in Helsingin Sanomat back in August about a little shop that sells genuine masks from Venice. It took me over 6 months to get to down-town Helsinki, but I finally did in April. And I just had to have one. Not cheap, but definately cheaper than a flight to Venice (and the shopkeeper said that the masks are a lot more expensive there!). Hand made, not plastic with a "Made in China" sticker in the back.

Jaakko started to cry when I put the mask on my face. I admit that it is scary and has a vicious look. But have a look at Casanova!