One More Notebook

One more notebook today! Too many!



Re-deco Notebook

This is one of my first DIY notebooks. I feel now it is too simple and less protected.



 So I add one more piece to be the real cover. Looks good!

Notebook Couple

I always like to make a set of two. Sweet couple!

Notebook With Lace

First notebook with lace! So girly!

Notebooks Again

Notebooks again! I so like this checked translucent paper.

Friends and Old Times

I visited my friend who lives in a small city close to Russian border. The city was originally built in the 17th century and was later made into a fortress in the 18th century. The fortress played an important role in the wars between Russia and Sweden. The design of the city is quite unique.

The city has an Orthodox church as heritage from the Russian times.

The old wooden houses are quite typical Finnish style. My friend lives in a similar house next to the Orthodox church.

 Some of the houses are bit more unique.

The city has also one of the oldest buildings in Finland: a church built in the 15th century.

I wish Bubu would have been with me. She would have liked this city very much.

Re-deco DIY Notebook

I always feel these two notebooks are a bit too simple.

Today I added one small piece of paper on the top, they look more beautiful immediately!

Shopping For Food

I did the second shopping for food in Coop Mart. I bought 0.5kg pork, one piece ginger, two bitter melons, two bell peppers, some yardlong beans, two oranges, two avocados, a box of makopa. Totally I paid 4.5 euros!

PS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makopa

Sleepy Plant Is Bigger

We call this sleepy plant because it closes the leaves from 7pm to 7am every day. Sleep quite a lot! It is much bigger than the first day it arrived!

Notebook Again

I bought some wrapping paper in a bookstore last evening. It made a nice notebook cover!

DIY Little Bunny

Little smiling bunny. With eyes open and close. Tea leaves stuffed. Nothing special, but I like the smile!

First DIY Passport Cover

This is quite a lot of stitch job for me! And I will re-decorate it. Need some new materials which go with the fabric.

C.G. Jung on Love and Power

"Where love rules, there is no will to power; and where power predominates, there love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other."

—C.G. Jung in the Psychology of the Unconscious, 1943

Quotation From WALDEN

This paragraph makes me brave! I feel suddenly no more worry about my unknown areas. I believe when people feel confident, everything just goes perfectly good, even better than we expected!

Our village life would stagnate if it were not for the unexplored forests and meadows which surround it. We need the tonic of wildness — to wade sometimes in marshes where the bittern and the meadow-hen lurk, and hear the booming of the snipe; to smell the whispering sedge where only some wilder and more solitary fowl builds her nest, and the mink crawls with its belly close to the ground. At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be infinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature. We must be refreshed by the sight of inexhaustible vigor, vast and titanic features, the sea-coast with its wrecks, the wilderness with its living and its decaying trees, the thunder-cloud, and the rain which lasts three weeks and produces freshets. We need to witness our own limits transgressed, and some life pasturing freely where we never wander. We are cheered when we observe the vulture feeding on the carrion which disgusts and disheartens us, and deriving health and strength from the repast. There was a dead horse in the hollow by the path to my house, which compelled me sometimes to go out of my way, especially in the night when the air was heavy, but the assurance it gave me of the strong appetite and inviolable health of Nature was my compensation for this. I love to see that Nature is so rife with life that myriads can be afforded to be sacrificed and suffered to prey on one another; that tender organizations can be so serenely squashed out of existence like pulp — tadpoles which herons gobble up, and tortoises and toads run over in the road; and that sometimes it has rained flesh and blood! With the liability to accident, we must see how little account is to be made of it. The impression made on a wise man is that of universal innocence. Poison is not poisonous after all, nor are any wounds fatal. Compassion is a very untenable ground. It must be expeditious. Its pleadings will not bear to be stereotyped.

--- WALDEN

Quotation From WALDEN

I totally totally agree with this and this is also what in my mind always! What we need is just CONFIDENCE!

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings. In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness.

---Walden, by Henry David Thoreau, 1845

PS: http://thoreau.eserver.org/walden00.html

 

First Photo Frame

My first DIY photo frame! Paper and thread. Momo's best photo!

Coaster Couple And Notebook Couple

Two little couples! They look so nice under the morning sun! I made them beautiful and they made me happy!

Frangipani In Glass

I picked up several frangipani flowers under the tree downstairs to my office. They look so delicate in the glass! And today's office fruit is orange!

First Coaster

Here comes my first coaster! It took me 2 hours. Fabric is less easy and I am not good at sewing at all. But finally the coaster is beautiful. I am happy!

Bicycle

It was time to switch to summer bike. Coffee and bread on the way to work.

Alan Watts

"We do not "come into" this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree. As the ocean "waves," the universe "peoples." Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of nature, a unique action of the total universe. This fact is rarely, if ever, experienced by most individuals. Even those who know it to be true in theory do not sense or feel it, but continue to be aware of themselves as isolated "egos" inside bags of skin."

-Alan Watts

World Is NOT Ours

At lunch time I met a group of people who wear the same T-shirt. On the back of the T-shirt, it says " The world is ours, let's take care of it". It is good to take care of the world, but the world is NOT ours!! It is the most wrong concept we have! This wrong idea is the root cause for our destroy to the world!

New Tea For Office

Today I brought a new tea to office. Oolong tea from Taiwan.

PS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oolong

Notebook Sisters

I made a little sister of the third notebook. They look so beautiful together! Two sexy girls!

Spring melt

Today I went to a forest with a friend. We sat by the fire, had tea and ate some snacks. The forest was full of sounds of melt waters.  I like the spring because it is the time for renewal.

Avocado Smoothie

Avocado smoothie is the best! Very smooth!

Notebook Again

Here comes the third Bubu-made notebook!

Shopping For Cooking

I had the first supermarket shopping for cooking! I bought 7 eggs, 0.4kg pork, 1 green bell pepper, 1 bitter melon, 1 piece of ginger and 4 passion fruit. Guess how much I spent... Less than 2.5euros!

Sun Glasses Holder

Finally I got a nice place for my sun glasses! The bamboo plate was in the cabinet for a long time till Momo saw it and said it was nice. Then the beans are actually sugar apple seeds. This is also Momo's idea. They came from only 3 sugar apples. Very nice color, matches perfectly my sun glasses!

Spring concert and a water mill

This weekend I visited a friend who lives next to a nice spruce forest. The birds of the forest gave us a beautiful spring concert and we made a water mill with the kids.

My First Two Notebooks

My first two handmade notebooks! The small one is the first, I am not satisfied by the binding, maybe I will change it later. But the second one with fabric cover is quite nice!

Sat Breakfast And Lunch

Saturday... I made a banaba smoothie as my breakfast. Bananas, milk, and ice cubes.

And l cooked also lunch. Fried pork with bitter melon. Rice. Yogurt. Sugar apple. Simple and delicious!

PS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar-apple

Meet Friends

Here is one of our plans, to meet people more when Momo and I are separated. Both of us are able to stay home alone, but still we feel the life is more healthy if we spend some time outside with friends/colleagues/relatives. So let's keep tracking! For me, till now, I did 3 times in 5 days. Good score!

Yogi Tea

Today in the office I made a yogi tea. It is the gift from Momo. I miss my sweet Momo!

Breakfast In Jar

I have also a smaller jar at home. Now it replaced the glass. Muesli, yogurt and milk, my beautiful breakfast in the jar!





Bubu's Dinner

Two fried eggs, one piece of cheese, one yogurt and one red apple. This is my dinner! Simple and healthy!

Tea cups

I bought two tea cups from Vietnam and brought them back home. They are just too nice so I let them lie on the cupboard for some time until I dare to use them.

Coke In Jar

I was also thinking about buying a big jar like the one in FLY Garden, but finally I realized also I had one! It is just in the office for already a long time. Today I made a big jar of iced coke! It looks so cool! Together with the hot green tea, the fresh fruits, and small plants, my office is quite a nice place!



Orange Juice

One orange, several ice cubes and sugar. You have a glass of fresh and organic orange juice! Easy, beautiful and healty!

Bring Fruits To Office

Today I brought one apple and eight rambutan to office. They make the office beautiful and make me feel healthy! It is very nice to have a break to eat fresh fruit, and also it is happy to share them with colleagues.

I was thinking to buy a box for food for a while, and finally yesterday I realized I had one already at home! Look, this is brand new and quite the right size. I am happy!

Spring in far north

Momo returned to his homeland which is very far north. The spring is late but many of the migratory birds have already returned. It is very nice to observe them coming, making nests and preparing for mating. Life returns to waters and lands after being covered by snow and ice. Beautiful!

The old traditions of the people of this land say that if it is freezing during the nights of Tiburtius or Suwi Päiwä (12th-14th of April)  it is not a good sign and the cold spell continues nine weeks more. The cold during Suwi Päiwä gives signs on summers berry, hay and crop harvests. This year it was little bit below freezing during all of these nights.

Rambutan Feast

Saturday morning, I bought a big limb of rambutan. I cut them off the branch and put them one by one in the big bowl. So full! Totally 30! Momo in Finland must be very jealous because rambutan is Momo's favorite! I guess Momo will come to Saigon early!

PS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambutan