Week 21

Hello Shanon!
I hope you've had a lovely week! We've had a really warm and sunny week, which has of course been lovely. I realized however that there was still a bit of "can this really be true" going on in my mind. Even though the thermometer showed relatively warm weather at 7 am and the forecast had predicted that it would be a warm day, I was still hesitant to wear the really summer-like clothes. This resulted in me being super hot (as in sweaty, not good looking!) two of the days, which was not pleasant, let me tell you. I have some sort of strange fear when it comes to walking around in clothes that look like they're too summery when everyone else is wearing weather appropriate garments.
Due to the warm weather flowers and trees are blossoming everywhere. The other day when Martin and I took an evening walk I suddenly felt a familiar smell, and when I looked around I saw a bird-cherry that was springing into bloom. Apart from lilacs, bird-cherries are my favourite bushes/trees, they have that lovely smell that makes me want to stick my head into the blossoms and keep sniffing. My postcard this week is of a tree with pretty pink blossoms that's growing just outside our apartment building. I don't know what kind it is, it may very well be a pink variety of bird-cherry, but it hardly smelled anything. Anyway, with these pretty blossoms I want to wish you a happy week 21 - let's hope it's a good one!
xoxo
Moa

Hiya Moa!
I hope you had a wonderful week! I bet you are super busy with "end of the year" teacher duties, but with all luck I will receive a postcard from you. =)
This week we began the task of painting all the trim and all the cupboards (and drawers) in our kitchen. It was an unpleasant wood stain color before and just made the room dark and dreary. Ben's mom was here a few days to help me, she has lots of experience doing this sort of thing. And it just wouldn't be a very fun thing to do alone. (We painted while Ben was a work. He really would be no help anyhow. I wouldn't trust him! Haha)
Unfortunately I'm not done. After the coat of primer and first coat of paint it became incredibly humid here. I just don't feel right continuing when the weather is so gross. It probably only means that everything would just take twice as long to dry, but I don't feel like tempting fate. Considering the last coat will take 7 days to cure, I don't want to do anything that will mess things up. It's expensive fancy oil based kitchen paint and I hate sanding. So for those reasons I'm just going to wait until this weather passes.
On a positive note, the weather has been great for our garden. Our flowers are growing like crazy. The clematis vines are to the roof of our garage, the peonies are starting to open, and the irises are out of control! Haha It was too windy this weekend and several large stalks from an iris called "Perpetual Joy" broke off. They were about chest high on me, so quite tall for irises, and they just couldn't handle the wind. But now I get to have them in the house, which I wouldn't have done if it weren't for them breaking. So, it's been really nice. I thought they'd make a nice postcard to you, with a hint our painted kitchen trim. =)
Wishing you "Perpetual Joy"!
xoxo,
Shanon

Week 20

Hi Shanon!
Happy week 20! Can you believe we'll be halfway with this project in a couple of (or six) weeks?!
I have to start by telling you about the amazing changes in weather here: we're having summer right now! All of a sudden the weather snapped and it's been around +23C (73F) for several days. Needless to say I'm super happy about it! :) It's amazing how everything has just sprung into action in the nature too, all the leaves have burst out in just a few days... Between the sunshine and warmth, however, we've had thunderstorms and heavy rain, so the weather has been acting out so to speak :)
On Thursday evening we had my sister and her husband here for some dinner and mah-jong. It's just lately that I've been "bitten" by mah-jong and I find it very entertaining. The weather was just starting to get warm that night so we had the door to the balcony open and enjoyed the mild breezes while playing the game (and having chocolate cake, fresh pineapple and tea). We all got the feeling of warm summer evenings and the thunderstorm that night reminded us of a particularly extreme one that took place about 15 years ago. It was just one of those lovely evenings that makes your heart warm. This weekend has been really lovely, it's almost been like summer in miniature: everyone is free from work and the weather is perfect. The downside is that it'll probably swing back to +10C really soon, but I'm going to enjoy the warmth as long as I can! :)
Hope your week will be sunny and delightful!
xoxo
Moa
PS. This weeks postcard is from one of the sunsets this week. I stood on the balcony and enjoyed it. Even though the setting isn't the most ideal with the ugly office building, I think the amazing sky makes up for that :) DS.

Hello Moa!
First of all, I didn't expect that I'd have another postcard that involved shoes! Haha But I thought you'd like to see my sweater and round-toed buckle shoes that I wore on our date night this past week. They have a really high (but thicker) heel, and I was wearing tights so my feet kept sliding forward in them. I felt rather Cinderella-ish, because I kept feeling like I was going to step right out of one. =) (That's a nice way to put it, right? Instead of, "Argh, they were so annoying!)
Anyways, back to our date night. A week or so ago we decided to get tickets to see the musical South Pacific as it stopped on it's tour here in town. I'm fortunate that Ben likes doing this sort of thing. I think his mom introduced him to the theatre when he was young, so he's probably seen more shows then I have! It's nice to be able to dress up and go out on the town, even on a random Wednesday. =) We went to our favorite sushi place in St. Paul called Sakura, which just so happens to be in walking distance to the Ordway, where we saw the show. It was raining that day, so I had a black umbrella with multi-colored polka dots. It stopped raining while we were eating however, so I didn't get to walk romantically to the theatre under it, but it was better on the hair-do that way!
Since we were rushed that night, I took the shot for the postcard on Sunday. The weekend weather was a different story-- gloriously warm and sunny!
Happy week 20 Moa! It's been 20 weeks of gorgeous postcards from you. I can't wait for more!
Xoxo,
Shanon

Week 19

Hello Shanon!
Today you're getting a glimpse of our new living room curtains. I bought them on Saturday when I was walking all across town in search of the perfect handbag. I didn't find a bag, but at least I got some pretty white curtains. I always love thin and airy curtains that sway in the breeze from the open balcony door, there is just something so soothing about the soft swooshing of the fabric.
My search for the perfect handbag, on the other hand, was a huge fiasco. I ordered a leather handbag online a couple of weeks ago, that I had been admiring for months and that I was sure would be perfect. It cost a lot more than I usually spend on bags but I SO wanted it. When it arrived I was very disappointed, the colour wasn't a pretty brown but a very reddish brown that I didn't like at all plus the leather felt dry and sad. I sent it back and thought that I would try my luck in the stores in Umeå instead. I walked around for about two hours yesterday (in unusually hot weather), visiting every single store that sold bags, without finding anything good. I had no problem finding nice handbags in synthetic materials, but I really wanted a genuine leather bag this time. I did find one great bag, but it was about double my budget so that didn't help at all. It just made me think about the fact that ordering online can be a great thing when it comes to certain things, but it can be difficult with clothes and things like that. It makes you realize that such a big part of liking a sweater or a bag is that it feels right when you hold it - not to mention how distorted colour information can get before it reaches your eyes! Well, I'm just hoping that when I try again in a couple of weeks either the stores will have gotten some new bags or that super nice and expensive one will be on sale :) Well, that's enough about my shopping adventures and mishaps...
Have a happy week 19!
xoxo
Moa

Hiya Moa!
This week we had some nutty weather, but I'm gonna concentrate on the beginning of the week when I finally got over to the lake to exercise. I'm terrible at running, in fact I can probably walk faster than I run! But it was so nice to do whatever you call what I do around a tree lined lake. I shot my postcard for you after my workout, as you can see, my running shoes are sneaking in the shot!
Now to the unfortunate news-- later in the week we had snow! Haha Well, not here in Minneapolis, but a few hours away up north. We did have frost, and I didn't get any of my flowers cover, so hopefully everything made it. But I thought you might enjoy hearing about it, so we can shake our heads in disbelief together. =)
So, here's to warm weather and to becoming a better runner! Okay, I'm not that excited about the running part. I just thought it might be good luck to throw that in there. ; )
xoxo,
Shanon

Week 18

Hello girl!
Happy week 18! Can you believe it's finally May? I'm counting down the days and the weeks until the summer holiday now, it's 5 weeks and 3 days :) We do have a week of teacher stuff left after that, but still... summer is near!
This week was filled with work stuff and I didn't have time to do much else. We did manage to squeeze in a little trip though. My husband bought some new tyres and rims that are apparently much cooler than the ones we had. They happened to be in my hometown so we visited my dad at the same time, which was a bonus. On the way home we stopped halfway and visited some dear friends and ate pie and talked. They have a very beautiful home and it made me think about how nice it is to be inspired "live". Usually I read magazines and blogs and see lots of photos of gorgeous homes and pretty details, but it's even better to walk around in an inspiring home. It made me long even more until we buy a house of our own and can arrange things precisely as we like them. Not to mention that we'll be having a garden...
Another inspiring thing is finding pretty colour combinations around your home. The other day I found my favourite notebook lying on top of a magazine, and I so liked how the colours matched. Pink, white and turquoise - it doesn't get any better than that in my book! :)
Hope you'll have a great week!
xoxo
Moa

Hiya Moa!
I had a weird predicament this week. I was lonely. Ben was out of town 3 days for work and I turned into a big baby! But isn't it nice to miss your significant other once in awhile? It's romantic in it's way. When we first got married he was in the military, and so we were apart more than we were together back during those years. I think because I couldn't indulge myself in loneliness and tears back then (cause you just can't expect to get through nearly a year being sad every day!) I think I have delayed effects from that every once in awhile now. But then he comes home and I snap out of it! =)
I thought I better get a postcard of our tulips for you before they are over for the season. The purplish ones are much more grayish blue in real life. They are so interesting! They almost look like feathers in the way that each petal has veining through it and ruffles to it's edge. And I don't remember planting the orange ones. I'll have to check my packaging from last fall, I save it especially for this sort of moment!
We are having an earlier than usual spring here, and I had planted many more tulips than ever before, so it's been a really pleasant spring. I'm wishing this for you, if spring would hurry and warm up Sweden for you!
Lot's of warm wishes to you!
xoxo,
Shanon