My 2011. what a Y E A R !

Tammikuu 

January is the month you want to stay cozy and warm inside, it's the month you can also eat Galette de Rois!

On 6th of January, we devored this piece of deliciousness.

And I drank lot of coffee, with whipped cream of course!

Home made scones by R's mom.

And we visited Paris!

Helmikuu 

February was on of the favourite months of mine,

 Because we traveled to see my family in Finland.

And on the same trip, we visited Stockholm - Sweden.

Maaliskuu 

Having walks outside..Baking funny things..

Huhtikuu

April was a very good month,because I god a good job as bilingual secretary.

Later that year I started studying again for BTS diploma,to be a Management assistant. 

I like it, as I get full salary for the school part too (3 days a week at work,2 at school). 

Toukokuu

One good month again, my parents visited here. I miss them so much.

Kesäkuu

On 14th of June, Raph took me out for birthday dinner.

And gave me the best gift ever, a trip to Venice!

Heinäkuu

Just before our trip to Cannes and Venice, this little furball did arrive to our life. I had been wanting to take a cat for years and finally R was ok to take it,because I wanted it so badly. And it has been a pure joy to have her around since then!
(even she makes little tricks all the time...)

Spending the 14th July, Fête nationale francaise in Cannes.

And then driving to Italy, Venice! 

Such a beautiful place, everyone should visit there at least once in life.

We will surely go back one day.

Elokuu

 In august we had two quick holiday-weekends, snorkeling and relaxing in the sun. 

We went to Fréjus and La Londe-les-Maures.

 And Léonie was already getting bigger.. and more demanding ;)

Syyskuu

 September.. oh sweet september. I visited home, spend time with my family and seeing friends. This time I went alone, R stayed in France for work and taking care of little L.

Lokakuu

 In november I found out that Léonie wasn't feeling good. I took her to the vet and she was having huge problems..luckily everything went good and she got a surgery later. Her fur is still growing back, we can see a thin line where the fur was cut off.

 Our first Halloween pumpkin!

Marraskuu

 November, I was really busy and didn´t have time to take much photos. And it was raining a lot.

It was the first time I was evacuated because of the rain. For us everything was alright, but many people in France and Italy lost their homes.

Joulukuu

And finally december.. 

This year went really fast. Are you going to make some new promises? 

What are you expecting from year 2012?

I am hoping to find more time for taking photos, to find the joy of sports, saving money for a trip far far away from Europe, seeing friends, visiting home and seeing my family, spending time with friends, cooking and baking a lot of yummy things!

And now you have learned all months in Finnish,too!

Hyvää Uutta Vuotta 2012!

Happy New Year 2012! 

Bonne Année 2012!

Thank you all, my friends.

ps. I got this amazing book as a gift, I will surely make all the goodies soon..

Last week of 2011

One weekend before the real Christmas, we celebrated Finnish Christmas at home.

It was perfect.

That morning we had traditional rice porridge with fruit soup (cold and sweet)

I spend whole morning in the kitchen to prepare the dinner, I made everything (except the ham) from scratch, like I always do.

Léonie likes the taste of Christmas(tree)

Carrot gratin,rutabaga gratin and Christmas ham.

And of course a dessert.. cheesecake!

I can't belive it's the last week of 2011! 

I didn't keep any promises I made, like keeping up with the sport, loosing the extra from the belly and no shopping. That's just me and I'm cool with that. 

Still, I need to get fit before I'm 30..

Two years left to achieve that ;)

Oh and on the real Christmas, I ate much LESS than ever and it's a good start.

Not too many chocolates either!

Have a great week and hope you had great holidays!

See you in 2012!

Hyvää Joulua!

Merry christmas,friends!

a quick hello.

Hei kaikki!

And thank you for the sweet comments, I truly appreciate these. I just haven´t had lately time to comment back, post (or even take) nice photos, or to even sleep enough. I don't have any holidays around christmas, but luckily the school is closed for one week. I still have one exam before christmas, so I should study.

After a long and tiring week, it's finally weekend. We decided to have pikkujoulu, a little christmas this weekend,

putting up the christmas tree, having a traditional finnish christmas dinner (at 24th and 25th it will be french christmas).

As the weekend just begun, I'm still having my pyjamas on, 

just had rice porridge and fruit soup for breakfast.

These photos are from last weekend, when we visited R's parents in Orange. The day was so beautiful with the fog and amazing light.

The winter here looks like fall, we hardly ever have really cold weather or snow.

This year has been different - the temperature in this month has been around +10..+15!

What is quite warm.

Léonie and her first christmas calendar. With cat treats ;)

We finally found the christmas tree, it is beautiful but I couldn't capture its beauty.

And as we have a small apartment, we needed to change the order a little bit that the tree could even fit in.

Last night our dinner was Mont d'or, again these french cheese deliciousness.

 Mont d'or before cooking, looks like molded...but delicious!

With white wine..mmmm.. nice friday night.

I need to start cooking soon for tonight and post a christmas package for my parents (I'm little late heh)

Have a nice weekend and enjoy!

Ps. Frank Sinatra's christmas album is still my favourite.

Early christmas gift

I have been quiet for a while here, just haven't had energy for blogging after work and school.

Still have few school projects to finish,home works and 3 exams before christmas 

[eek, tomorrow accounting AND marketing exams!]

 

And I really haven't had time for photos either, what really sucks. Every evening when I drive back to from work to home, I see amazing sunsets and I wish I could stop and take pictures. I don't stop, because there is a reason why I'm in hurry to go back home.. the traffic. I don't want to spend the evening in the traffic and then trying to find a parking place inside the walls of Avignon. With our car, after 6pm it's getting impossible. So I just drive.

Last weekend, I got a early christmas gift from my parents!

No, they didn't came to visit [and I can't spend the christmas with them either...] but they had agreed with R that he will take me to the store to get the gift already and can start using it immediately.

Kenwood Prospero - it does everything! 

So immediately at weekend, I had to test it. I made quark pie on saturday [aah, again,no pictures..]

and sunday I baked some bread. This time, I did remember to snap a photo!

Now I'm off to get ready for work, it's 6.40am in France and I am tired. Léonie woke me up at 5am, she was so hungry. Since she was sterilized, she is getting little bit chubby. I'm struggling with the amounts of food I should give, she still eats kitten wet food so maybe that's the reason. She gets real meat few times a week,kitty wet food and then really tiny amounts of dry food [I don't belive that dry food is good for cats, but she is kinda addicted already for the daily dose of dry food]. I am going to give more raw meat for her, and order adult wet food when the stock of kitty food is finished. Any suggestions,help or advices?