Tea Tuesday, and some Tagging

Another Tea Swapper Melanie was showing her many different English ways of serving tea. Go and see, it is a lovely collection of photos from 2008, with fresh strawberries and all! My tea culture has influences from east and west, and my blog friends in Britain might be shocked to see the way we make tea. My modern way of drinking tea is this:






A mug (Arabia/Iittala Teema, special edition in red, a Christmas present), a coaster from Melanie, and black tea with nothing in it: no sugar, honey or raspberry jam (the Russian way), and for God's sake no milk. Therefore no spoon needed. This is a mid-morning cup, therefore nothing to eat either.


On Saturday we visited my mother, 92, still living alone at home. There was a lot of snow on the trees, so it was not easy to see the lake. You can get a peek in the middle of the picture, above the snow covered rock. The white area is the lake, and the dark area above the straight horizontal line is an island. You can click all my images to enlarge.




Mother had started putting together a 1,000 pcs jigsaw puzzle my youngest sister had given her for Christmas. The picture will be of an old Dutch painting with 12 persons and a dog, but also some dark corners is brown and black.

I have been tagged by Miri. I'm not very good at these things, but let's try.

Here are the rules of the game:
1. When you are tagged you are asked to list eight random facts about yourself and post them on your blog for visitors to enjoy.
2. Tag eight of your blogging friends and leave them a comment that they have been tagged and to join in the fun if they have the opportunity. (If not, that's okay. They can still enjoy the random facts everyone shares :) Be sure to list a link to your eight friends in your posting.

Here are my eight random facts:

1. My "name day" (a smaller celebration than birthday, all names have a day in the calendar, and variations of a name celebrate on the same day) is on my father's birthday. It was a special day for my mother as a teenager when she was already in love with him, and she wanted to call one of her daughters Ulla for this reason.

2. I drink black tea three to four times a day.

3. When I drink coffee, it is latte (1/8 coffee, 7/8 steamed milk) or cafe au lait.

4. I sort everything that needs to be thrown away. In addition to the one real waste bin I have two small containers for problem waste (batteries and medicins), 4 bins for recycling: compost, glass, metal, and packaging materials, and we take fluid cartons and newspapers to their separate recycling places. It goes without saying that we recycle all bottles to be reused, and get our money back (0.40 € for a big soft drink bottle).

5. Fabrics that other people need to throw away I turn into quilts and Unicef dolls. This doesn't happen very quickly!

6. I like old things.

7. I read a little in bed before going to sleep.

8. I have read all Agatha Christie's detective stories.

Here comes the difficult part. I have many blogging friends, and even more blogs I follow more or less regularly, but I don't really know which of them don't like to be tagged. Therefore I leave the choice to you, my reader. If you want to play this game, leave a comment with a link to your blog and copy the rules from above. In this way we can all come and learn a little more about you.

More about thistle, and I've been tagged

After I showed the thistle picture of my domestic carelessness, I have been thinking about the use of plant fibers in felting . I found out that the only natural fiber that can be felted is wool, so the eriophorum fibers from peat are used in the felt for their ability to absorb moisture. This makes the felt feel warmer. The peat felt is mostly used for insoles and wests etc.

Through the Summer Stash Challenge I have learnt to know many wonderful new bloggers. One of them is Messy Karen. I don't know if she really is that messy, but it is easy for me to remember which Karen is which, because Karen from Contemporary Embroidery surely is not messy. She keeps working with white silk all the time, and doesn't need to wash the finished cloth. Anyway, my new acquaintance the colourful Karen has now tagged me to tell six random facts about me, so here it goes:

1. link to the person who “tagged” you. - it was Messy Karen, link above

2. post the rules on your blog. - here they are

3. write six random things about yourself. - comes after the rules

4. tag six people at the end of your post. - well, it can be more or less

5. let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

6. let the tagger know your entry is up. - will be done in a minute

Six random facts about me:

1: I married my husband 28 years ago, 364 days after I saw him for the first time

2: I love flowers but not gardening

3: Recycling is important for me and I believe I have raised my children to think positively about it too

4: I spend way too much time by the computer

5: I have never had long hair

6: I don't drink coffee but about once a week I go to the cafeteria in town and have a latte and a croissant

I will not tag anyone by name, but I invite all summer stash challenge quilters to this game if they are interested. That will be about 50 people. Your names are on the right sidebar.

It just happened that I had a picture of my special treat on the computer and so I had a picture for this post too. In about an hour I will go and have my latte and do some grocery shopping, and of course I will have my recycled shirt Mauritz bag for the groceries.

Progress report, and I have been tagged

This is what I have been doing lately. Last night I finished quilting the blocks. Now I still have the dark blue areas to fill with stitches, four of them on each long side, plus the corners.






The reverse looks like a jiggsaw puzzle, the modern ones where you can put a sky bit in the garden and the shape is a perfect match but you can see it is not. I prefer the old hand made puzzles, where you can choose an interesting empty space and try to find the piece that belongs there.






Something new has happened to me. I have been tagged by Eileen's Attic. Here are the rules:


1. Once you have been tagged, link back to the person who tagged you.

(If, once again, my link in the text is not working, try the other link on the right)

2. Post the rules on your blog.

3. Post 7 weird or random facts about yourself on your blog.

4. Tag 7 people and link to them.

5. Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.



As I'm fairly new in the blogging world I'll only tag five people. However, I'm rather weird so I'm ready to tell all seven facts. Here they come:



1. I don't have a driving licence because I never dared go to driving school.

2. I don't know how to ride a bicycle.

3. I walk a lot and use commuter trains ;)

4. I'm left-handed when I write but use tools in my right hand.

5. My most disliked household chore is window cleaning.

6. I like ironing.

7. I very strongy dislike mice.



These are the people I want to tag:


Kaija from paperiaarre, she is my lovely and talented daughter

Karen from Contemporary Embroidery

Helen from Quilts and ATCs

Susanna from Zen Yarn , she is my niece and busy with her little son

Lise from Norway in Lise's Blog

These are all blogs I visit often, and I would like you to learn to know them too. And of course I'm curious about their facts, too. And, again, if my links here in the text don't work, all these blogs have links on the right and they do work.