orange blobs on wet icelandic horses

umm yep that us .. this picture was taking after about 1/2 an hour of driving sleet. my hair and wet touque is plastered to my face. willa looks a bit better, but then she has always liked horses. when we were kids she was "horse crazy" went to horse camp, drew horses, had posters of horses etc .... me? no. they kinda freaked me out ... ok i should be honest they totally freaked me out esp when they went fast. so willa was pretty excited/surprized when i agreed to a three hour riding trip on icelandic horses. the reassuring thing for me? do you see the size? more like a pony.
We went out with Eldhester they are about 45 min out of town and picked us up right at our hotel/apartment. The horses are really well trained. which served me well. going fast still freaks me out so that was the worst part for me yes even above the stinging sleet and walking thru the river. the mountain trail was beautiful (it had started to clear up then). the staff and whole set up was great. they provided a snowsuit plus the bright orange rain gear along with boots (we had our own), gloves/mitts, and helmets.
today? a little sore .... feels like my bum is bruised. even after the soak at the thermal pool last night.

first stop? .... pancakes

we flew at 9pm and arrived in Iceland at 6am ... it was a four hour flight and neither willa or i slept much. the drive in from the airport took us thru volcanic cliffs and lichen flatlands almost looked like tundra at times but with giant lava boulders. once in town we headed straight to the Grái kötturinn (Grey Cat) for a full plate of pancakes and bacon. it was about 3am our time so bodies demanded food or sleep. sleep wasn't an option so we window shopped and trekked around town. we hit most of the major landmarks. Reykjavík is such a walkable city! everything on the map ended up being closer than we thought. however by 3 we were about to collapse and had to nap! ah well we walked around more after dinner. our place is great! we have a studio apartment right on the trendy shopping street. very amazing. it has an awesome little kitchen and big square windows.


the classic Reykjavík shot ..... right on the harbour. what might not show up here is how windy it was. unreal. super chilly. but as you can see a nice looking day none the less.

Easter Eggs

Jars full of dye, originally uploaded by girl from finito.

I have never been so on top of things. This year I have finished 5 eggs! .. I managed to finish off the last two yesterday while I was waiting to go to the vet.

red background, originally uploaded by girl from finito.

fleur, originally uploaded by girl from finito.

I'm not entirely pleased with how the first 3 came out.. all on brown eggs.

diagonal, originally uploaded by girl from finito.

48 triangles, originally uploaded by girl from finito.

The last two turned out well..I can't believe I had never done a 48 triangle egg before

Ayalah's Egg, originally uploaded by girl from finito.

My friend Ayalah even came over and made one too! I love this. She's defiantly inspired me to do a non-geometric design.

Happy St.Patricks Day

St.Patricks Day, originally uploaded by girl from finito.

An excellent pin from mom and some Guinness for the holiday

Cinnamon roooooollllls

Cinnamon roooooollllls, originally uploaded by girl from finito.

Been doing more baking and cooking as of late. These have been made twice. They are really good and - learning to be a bit more patient - they have risen and worked out really nicely. ahhhh hot fresh cinnamon buns. lovely. They have one extra step which makes them a bit more unique than others - when you roll out the dough you fold in a layer of cream cheese and then re-roll.. oooh so tasty.
The recipe come from Saveur magazine.. yum!

spring's progress

well it is not quick but it is starting to look like a scarf .... and a pretty airy one at that. having this done for copenhagen might be a push. but i'll keep at it

the dropped stitch details are quite lovely -

thrums good to -27C

look what willa made me! the one on the left is inside out so you can see that it is fuzzy on the inside. they are crazy puffy and warm - i used them today (and it was a chilly -27 this morning!)
ooh in case you feel like making thrummed mittens here is a pattern. the thrums are folded bits of fibre knit right into the mitten - and make these suckers amazing hand furnaces

(ps this lovely shot is stolen from willa)