NordenBladet – Today I opened up the health drink “Havupuu-uutejuoma” bought from Finland from Rouhonjuuri health products store. It is an ecologically produced 100% herbal elixir / coniferous tree extract. The beverage is made from the bark and sap of the young pine tree along with spring water and it is a potent antioxidant. We are taking this with our family every morning before breakfast until it lasts.

I revised the winter menu and realized we could eat more fresh stuff. In winter you need the same vitamins and so I brought to the table more fruit, vegetables and herbs – tomato, sweet pepper, sprouts, lettuce leaves, dill, basil, tangerines, bananas and pineapple. All colours were represented and the breakfast table looked amazing. It tasted luxurious and thanks to the handmade ceramics I guess it also looked royal!

I really like to serve meals on handmade unique and original tableware! Me and Ivanka Shoshana have created several clay kitchenware. Also today we went to the clay class with Ivanka and once again many beautiful products are in progress. My current favourite is a freshly made multicolored vase and a small bowl that suits it. I don’t know how well the picture brings out their nature but they are exactly such warm simple cottage style kitchenware.

Today I stumbled upon Dick Carlson’s book “The Able Person” that began with the sentence, “The world gives way to the man who knows where he is going.” This sparked interest and I kept browsing the book and found a nice table describing the traits and habits of a pleasant and attractive person. I felt happy because it is exactly these traits that I have been consciously trying to cultivate in me (not for the reason of being, so to say, attractive, but in order to become a better person). The better a person I become the more happiness in me grows and it is a good feeling.

I will summarise Carlson’s study results for you as well. In attractive personalities the following traits were brought out:

1. joyfulness
2. friendliness
3. tidiness, cleanliness
4. coziness (hmmm… what does this exactly mean? :D)
5. helpfulness
6. unselfishness
7. sense of humor
8. thoughtfulness
9. eagerness
10. stability

I would personally add three points:
1. Avoiding judgement. I don’t like to judge people, we are all here to grow and make mistakes, and then, hopefully, to learn from them.
2. Cultivating a positive attitude in you (a la “It’s worth thinking that people are rather good than bad”)
3. LOVE – a person who is in love and loving is everything that D. Carlson brought out. Fall in love, and love and then you will be the best version of yourself!!! ❤❤❤

For dinner I made my “famous” sea cabbage salad. I posted today in NordenBladet’s GOURMET section the recipe, too (HERE). Once before I have shared this recipe in my blog, but then I chose strawberry and primrose blossoms instead of dill-basil and buckthorn for garnering (see the blog HERE).

Garnering and serving the meal is the best part of cooking – in spring and summer I always like to add fresh edible flowers and plants to the food! In wintertime I also use lots of frozen or dried plants and berries to garner the food.

Yesterday after a while we went real life shopping (lately I mostly order the food over the internet because the store is quite far away and it saves a lot of time ordering online), and we could easily have stayed in the store forever, so many cute things!!! Just the napkin selection might take an hour. We shopped for about an hour and a half and returned with a good supply. Besides all kinds of foodstuff I bought a super cute warm-bag with bunnies and a wonderfully soft bed for the cat.

There was a joke as well. In the self checkout section there was a family beside us and the husband said at the last moment: wait, I forgot something, and headed towards the alcohol shelves. It was so funny.. I thought to myself that we had forgotten the same thing but then again thought: ahhh…

So we drove home but what didn’t give me peace was… the alcohol shelves. ??

We unpacked everything, then I petted the cat, but still what doesn’t give me peace… those alcohol shelves ?? hahaaaa

Very normal… we went back to the store and revisited those shelves. I like it when there’s a good supply of everything at home. PS!!! And drinks NEEDN’T ALWAYS BE with alcohol. I like it when there is everything at home, but in our house the non-alcoholic beer is surprisingly popular, also the non-alcoholic champagne, etc. It’s kept me wondering for a long time why they don’t sell six-packs of non-alcoholic beer??? Anyway, we went to the store, we are now well equipped, the mood is good about not letting it be…. So me! ????

Help! Now it’s enough of chatting. Allan will be home any minute, I’ll continue with the chores. Now there will also be a short pause with the blog, since I need to work for a while, too ? If it goes well then next week I will open a rejuvenated OHMYGOSSIP Estonian site!

All for today, hugs!!!! ??

I love y’all!

xoxoxo

NordenBladet – Today has been spent in Scandinavian “hygge” style, meaning in a comfortable and cozy way! I heated the stove, petted the cat, ate some gingerbread, listened to the radio and spent the day reading as well as cooking in the kitchen.

Today my reading list included two magazines (Estonian travel magazine “Traveller” and Investor Toomas’s magazine “Investor”) and two books. Right now I am reading two books at a time – Seppo Saario’s “How I invest in stock shares” and Robert T. Kiyosaki and Sharon L. Lechter’s “Before You Quit Your Job“. Besides, I found a new interesting blog – https://stineskoli.blogg.no. This is a nice perky Norwegian blogger (Stine Skoli Ommedal) who mainly blogs about house renovation and building, sewing, and food. I got lots of inspiration and decided I need to make sewing a daily routine again.

Hahaaa.. “All that is worth doing is worth doing poorly (an excerpt from the book). Taking it out of the context makes it a good joke, but as an entrepreneur I have reached the same conclusion. No need to wait, give it a final touch, make it perfect, mend it, and then again give it another try and omit making it public. I have made this mistake many times. When you seek perfection you omit doing, you don’t attain the goal, and in the end of the day nobody likes perfect. Everyone wants to see the work in PROGRESS, they want to witness the MISTAKES YOU MAKE.

There’s a good saying that what matters is not the goal and getting there, but the journey towards the goal and the people we meet on the way. The only impossible road that there is, is the one you never start. It is not without a reason that there’s the proverb “Those who begin boldly have already won half the prize”

Ah yes… for a long time I have been meaning to say it but have forgotten. There’s this one nice “prize” we have won!

??? Drums, please… TADAAAA:

NordenBladet and OHMYGOSSIP sites are being archived digitally in full extent in the Estonian National Library’s National Info Units Maintenance Centre, with the purpose of preserving info resources that are published online, for the Estonian Cultural Heritage and safeguarding the national maintenance and acessibility for the current and succeeding generations!!! How cool is that? 😛

But now a bit about today’s food. On our last trip to Finland we bought several bags of food to get to know new products and new tastes. My new favourites are for example Leksand’s crispy bread, Pirkka tube herbs and Dr, Oetker’s “The Taste of Christmas” sweet decorations (I decorated today’s ginger breads with those!) For a long time already I have had a taste for many Valio and Fazer products.

BREAKFAST

For breakfast I made coffee and crispy bread with cheese and herbs. Nice and long breakfast with two cups of coffee and Vikerraadio or Äripäev radio brings a good start to the day.

DINNER

I spend relatively much time in the kitchen because I like to pamper my family. A good homemade meal is an important part of a cozy home. For today I made plum-buckthorn and red currant fried cabbage, mashed potatoes with minced meat sauce along with crispy cheese plate (ingredients: yeast puff pastry, ketchup, herbs, unseasoned yoghurt and at least three different cheese) Yummmmm!!

For me also the ginger bread season has started early. Today’s ginger bread decorations came out extra pretty! 🙂

SUPPER

For supper I boiled vegetable-macaroni-meatball soup and for dessert once more, ginger bread! I packed the blue handmade ceramic plates with lilacs up for winter time and put them in the cupboard, and brought out the Nordic nice brown ceramic plates. Ceramics that has been handmade by myself is so amazing… it’s just… that there is soon no more free space for anything at home – everything is filled with our paintings and our ceramics. The plates on the picture have been made by Ivanka and the soup bowls (King’s and Queen’s bowl) have been made by Allan.

Have a nice evening!

Hugs! xoxoxox

NordenBladet – The winter has arrived and yesterday we ploughed the snow for the first time. A nice workout in the open air and the results are immediately visible! ❄?☃? I’ve said this a million times, but living in the countryside is a real luxury!

Yes, it’s basically true that in the countryside you can live if you are very poor or very rich, but if you get the chance, I recommend it either way – to go down that road being rich or being poor. Move to the countryside! The land and nature are a wealth that gives you energy , good emotions and health, and you cannot measure the last one in money.

For me life in the countryside is wonderful and very inspiring. I have created many paintings inspired by home and life in the countryside. One of my favourites is an acrylic painting made for my children’s book “His Highness Mouse the First” where the mouse is ploughing the snow. 🙂 This painting was ready after some of my mice paintings had already been at an exhibition in the Estonian National Museum, and therefore it lacks a frame. This is a fault that must soon be corrected, and a slot on the wall must be found for it! You can read about this painting from my art blog/web store ElishevaShoshana.com site HERE.

It seems that growing up surrounded by nature also inspires the children. Ivanka Shoshana who is a child with special needs – an autist – loves to gather herbs with me for the Elisheva & Shoshana brand, to make herbal cosmetics, to make wonderful clay ceramics, and she is also skilled on the computer. Under her supervision two short films were prepared in her school’s digital class (“The reflector saves you” and “Glasses/headphones off”), both of which were acknowledged. At home she likes to try different music programs. It is difficult to raise an autistic child, but there are BRIGHT moments too 🙂

Last week there were events almost every day. I already wrote about the comedy evening in my last blog post HERE. From the more important events I could mention Allan’s festive opening of their office on Wednesday and then Sunday’s concerts – Estella Elisheva’s performance in MUBA and young Ukrainian musicians’ symphony orchestra’s “Lords of the Sound” concert “The music of Hans Zimmer” in Alexela concert hall.

Allan’s new Tallinn’s city center office reception – a festive partly fourchette, partly cocktail reception. It was a pleasant and cozy stand-up event where most people came with their families.

Estella Elisheva’s MUBA performance on 29.11.2022.
She performed Paganini’s sonata no 12 E-minor, with Olga Kulikova on piano. Info about the public concerts of Tallinn Music and Ballet School soloists and creative groups is accessible from MUBA events page /performance calendar HERE.

Sunday night was filled with German composer Hans Zimmer’s film music. The symphony orchestra “Lords of the Sound” was conducted by Shahroh Fathizadeh.

A bit about food now, too (more precisely food pics) regarding yesterday’s homemade dinner… 🙂

Menu:
Boiled sweet potato, minced meat -cucumber cream sauce, stew beet, olives and cottage cheese.
On the table Fazer’s Dumle oat drink with Nestle Cini Minis cinnamon squares had also been seen as well as Fazer’s Moomin chocolate.
The drink was water and/or Refresco Finland OY made Moomin straw juice.

That’s all for today!

Hugs, and I wish you warmth and peace to your homes! XOXO ❤❤❤

NordenBladet – While on the way back from Finland, driving the car I once more realized that the street signs seemed foggy. I had been ignoring that for a long time because I thought: “Ah, I probably haven’t slept enough, have been watching the computer screen for too long, etc.” Then Allan told me to go check on my eyes.

We booked an appointment for eye examination at Rocca al Mare shopping center’s “Eagle Vision” glasses store and after the optometrist checked my eyes it was clear that I had a slight minus, meaning that I need glasses to look at objects that are far away. My right eye was -0.50 and my left eye was -0,75. For an hour I then selected the proper glasses frames and finally settled with blue Prada glasses with a strong frame, sunscreen was added to them, and also Dolce & Gabbana glasses with a brown-golden frame. The bill for eye examination, the glasses and the frames was 643.25 EUR and I received the glasses within 1.5 weeks. Wearing either of the glasses I was supposed to look like a hot teacher ? hahaaa.. (Estella’s words)

By the way – I’m not 100% sure but I guess I am not as tired after I got the glasses and started wearing them, and I have no headache which I used to have every once in a while. I believe the effort of looking with my minus eyes has put a lot of stress on my body.

Yesterday I was wearing glasses in public for the first time. In the evening we went to Keila for Comedy Estonia “Autumn Tour”. Like last year (see HERE), the event was super cool. The culture house was packed and the jokes were hilarious. Several new stand-up comedians also performed. After the comedy evening I joked a bit in the car. I said, whenever it comes to marriage, first the lasagne gets burnt, and then you don’t bring me flowers for “our day”. Here we go.. Hahaaa. Allan replied that I should know he got very busy at work but still wanted to bring the flowers. Then he drove to Laagri Maksimarket and asked me to choose the flowers for our day myself. Awwww****
I chose 21 dark pink roses! ???

A few more explanations and another joke to conclude today’s blog.

Last night I launched the NEWS BOMB that me and Allan are getting married.. Allan was a bit mad saying that we might have told the “inside circle” at first before telling the whole world, but such a secret is indeed difficult to keep. Well, it wasn’t exactly a secret but instead it was our joint decision. But ok..

Allan then decided to call her mother and tell her in person.. And a few seconds later he gave the phone to me….

Allan’s mother congratulated me and suddenly asked something like:
“Did Allan propose or did you ask him or how did you reach the decision?”

OMG HELPPPP… I really don’t remember what I replied but when the phone call ended I burst into tears and said to Allan:

“Listen, I am now thinking that you really didn’t propose ???????.”

Allan replied: “How did I not propose when I did. What are you saying? I am not taking a wife like I take a puppy, we are partners, we have long been talking about marriage and you know I love you and want you as my wedded wife.”

Me: “Well yes, but your mother asked me how this beautiful moment happened and now I feel weird. I had nothing to reply to her and I got the feeling that I am pushing this on my own initiative. Even now I am thinking that usually it takes going down on one knee and proposing.”

The conversation took place when we started dining and all of a sudden Allan springs to me, slides to one knee (there was still some of the burnt lasagne in his mouth), looks me in the eyes and gives me a kind of food-filled kiss and asks:

“Honey, will you marry me?”
And I responded: “Yes!” and then a moment after the kiss continued: “Hmm, this lasagne is quite good ?.”
So our style of romance ????

With my older sister we had the following dialogue:
Me: We are getting married
Sister: Well it was being hoped for a long time. Did you get the ring?
Me: No I didn’t. I don’t wear rings. I’ll be wearing the wedding ring.
Sister: But the engagement party?
Me: We’ll be skipping these phases.
Sister: Beasts.
???

Ok, once more I need to conclude now. This afternoon Allan has a festive reception in the office. I’ll start preparing.

Hugs!

NordenBladet – It is our day again (mine and Allan’s). Today marked 2 years and 7 months of a perfect relationship! I also have a news bomb – we’re getting married ❤❤❤ You all are the FIRST to hear that (besides my daughters Estella Elisheva and Ivanka Shoshana)! They say that perfect things don’t exist but here you go, mine are! The only thing not perfect is the lasagne that was made today, because keeping in mind the stock exchange and entering my orders it was left in the oven for too long and as sad as it is, it burnt a bit on top.. Ouch.. I opened up a beer (non-alcoholic) after that… and then another one (with alcohol). Iccccc..

Top is today’s lasagne and bottom is last month’s “Love´s Day” lasagne…

I love to take care of my man, it gives me great pleasure and it is very important to me. Household chores, ironed shirts, warm homemade meals are all a part of it (on the following pics there’s yesterday’s healthy and very tasty homemade stew – with sweet pepper, cauliflower, beans, onion, sweet potato, tomato and meat). I make a great effort so that my home could be a cozy, pleasant, peaceful and nice place to be. As a rule, the meals are a success 99% from 100, but lately there have been so many things to do. I often multitask + delegate some of the chores to others. Besides, for some time now I have not used external help – housekeepers and Ivanka’s support persons.

Today morning included some of the chores (I heated the oven, vacuumed the rooms, cleaned the bathroom, did the dishes, folded the clean laundry), baking, compiling some news for NordenBladet pages, building a new design for the new Ohmygossip.ee page (soon there’s a new site up!), keeping an eye on the stock market and the crypto platforms, trading, and now blogging. The last one would be a lot easier if I did it on a daily basis… a couple of sentences, a few pics, and voila.. ready. Actually I believe that this (a shorter blog more frequently) would be more suitable for the readers. But ok… it is as it is.. ?

Some of the more significant events in a chronological order:

In OCTOBER there were many pleasant events:

1. Children traveled to Paris with their dad (Disneyland, the Eiffel tower, Louvre, Notre-Dame, etc). It was a dream-come-true for Ivanka, since she dreamed about a trip to Paris for a long time!

2. We had a trip to Finland
We went on a trip to Finland with Allan and the kids and his brother’s family. It was a road trip from Helsinki to Turku where we stayed at Holiday Club Caribia SPA-hotel, then spent a day in Turku and Helsinki and got back home on Viking Line.

3. October 26th was my mother’s birthday! ? I made her a nice homemade whipped cream cake and as a present she got a nice bouquet, a brown clay vase made by Ivanka Shoshana, and my acrylic painting “The tree of Wishes” that was created in 2020 and that has been at an exhibition in the Estonian National Museum.

Today Ivanka Shoshana went to stay overnight at grandma’s and grandpa’s place, Estella Elisheva will stay in the MUBA dorm and Allan will be home soon and then we’ll go to Keila for a comedy evening. I’d love to write more about what has happened meanwhile but there’s no time for that, I’ll be in a hurry..

That’s all for today! Hugs!

NordenBladet – It came out that October is renovation month in our house. While last year me and Allan renovated the hallway and children’s room then this year the kitchen and the toilet got a fresh look. Kitchen renovation began in quite an interesting way…

…Namely we bought a new refrigerator and when it arrived I thought we might paint the wall at the back of the fridge with some light colour before installing the new fridge. Allan liked this idea. When the corner got painted we thought “Ah, we better paint all kitchen walls then” and thus the kitchen got a new interior decoration outside renovation plans.

If some of you would like to renovate the home but are afraid that it’s too complicated, then read my last year’s renovation blog (HERE) and never again must you worry where to find a normal renovation worker or be annoyed that the renovation worker is incapable of doing a good job. Start all by yourself and you’ll be surprised what you are capable of!

Lately I have watched a lot of HGTV! My absolute favourite! HGTV is an American channel that belongs to Warner Bros. Discovery and it broadcasts mainly home development and real estate related reality programs. A lot of inspiration regarding interior design, home decor, landscape design, rebuilding, all kinds of renovation and real estate buy-and-sell transactions. After watching the program I always feel like doing some renovation myself.

Since the renovation energy is still high and we got lots of paint from the previous renovation, I thought I’d surprise Allan while he’s at work, I taped and painted the bathroom all by myself.

The DIY project even included repainting the bathroom lamp.. Haha.. Later I thought I might even have repainted the lower tiles, but maybe one day I will! I watched on the internet some videos about renovation and when you use the right type of water proof paint then you can even paint the ceramic tiles (various wall tiles).

We now also have IKEA in Estonia! Naturally I, too, couldn’t help but visit it. A cool big store, very nice. Besides, by the exit they sell nice soft machine ice-cream for just 50 cents!! I also got many great ideas and when I got back home I made an order from their web store. I bought for children and for the guests’ room 16 packs of bedsheets. The sheets, extra to being Scandinavian style Hygge, cozy and nice, came with very positive service, more precisely transportation speed. The sheets arrived the next working day after the order was completed!, I’d say it’s very normal!

NordenBladet – I still dwell in August with my blog and the reason for that is the abundance of events in August due to which the time for blogging was lacking. While in my last post I wrote that my older daughter Estella Elisheva moved out from home (to MUBA student dormitory) and partly started leading an independent life, then it wasn’t all about August.

This year we have been working on the house and on the garden. Like it is with old houses, everything is falling apart and needs caring and renovation. Therefore we have done a lot of renovation and innovation plans.

We started with the elementary – insulation of the house. (I wrote about the building’s energy efficiency upgrading HERE). The plan was to insulate the windows as well as the basement and paint the house before winter. Unfortunately that wasn’t how far we got this time. Partly because I jumped from one project to another and created new duties on the way a la :

“Listen honey, I´m sorry but can I disturb you for a sec, what do you think about taking this apple tree out,” etc.

The windows were insulated, new fresh slats were placed, but the insulation of the basement and the painting of the facade will remain for spring. We have already got the materials – nothing will happen to the basement insulation materials but I hope that the paint will endure the winter time.

There are also many modifications in the garden. While last year we took down the entire buckthorn plantation, then this year we took down “only” two apple trees, an old pine tree, many berry bushes, a small aronia hedge and half of the big lilac hedge. A lot of branch cutting, a lot of branch carrying and burning and hell a lot of taking out the roots and making the ground even. Hereby I would like to say many thanks to Raido and Marie – doing it all together it all went a lot faster and was more fun!

The toughest was the lilac hedge, since that is one real underwood, The lilacs already took almost 6 meters of garden space, now there is more space. We cut the lilacs near the roots, sprinkled a natural compost accelerator and covered the place with plastic. We hope this will help “suffocate” them. We’ll see next year if and how we can get hold of the roots and if it is still necessary.

I ordered from Hortes more than a hundred trees of life (100 Brabant and 8 Smaragd) and planted them near the fence where the lilac hedge used to be. Gosh how the garden devours plants! Just trees of life I have bought for the garden over 400 plants. Extra to that I have ordered soil (a pile as well as in bags the rodo as well as coniferous soil) and from Isekallur.ee also some tarmac.

In August I took out most of the herbs and salad materials (chives, salad leaves and onion) but still it is so good to have your own garden! It was only yesterday that I took from the garden some peppermint, oregano and thyme. Herbal teas and herbs all come from my own garden and field (starting with linden blossoms and finishing with primula and all that is between them.. I just love life in the countryside!). Besides, I dry herbs for winter and grind them into jars and my home’s witch kitchen is advanced step by step. This year there were also plenty of apples. We have very good sorts of apples, some of them remain edible for several months I believe.

From bigger events I should bring out my father Jüri’s birthday and Allan’s family’s annual fishing tradition that began with Allan’s father Rein’s birthday. Although Rein himself is not with us anymore, the tradition of sending away the summer still lives.

I, too, had a birthday in August but this year once more I did not celebrate. As a matter of fact I have not celebrated for a long time already, I don’t even know why. In the future I will begin to celebrate because for some time already I have the new attitude – and this is: DO NOT FORGET YOURSELF!

Below you can find pictures from the tiny celebration of my father’s birthday and also from the fishing event.

Until the next blog! Hugs!

NordenBladet – A brief answer to this heading would be – who could possibly remember all of it anymore, but some events and affairs I try to revive based on the photos that I have taken.

My life circles, similarly with most common people, around four key words, which are my man, children, home, and work (lately precisely in this order), and besides also around keywords that are not so common among common people – time for myself, and investing.

The major event in August for me was that my older daughter Estella Elisheva (16) partly moved out from home – to MUBA dormitory.

Estella was admitted to Tallinn Music and Ballet School MUBA (more on that I wrote HERE) and started her studies on the four year study program with the major in classical violin, in vocational secondary education studies. She will be, so to say, the first set of MUBA alumni. SUPER beautiful and top level school! Estella is sharing the room with two other students.

I would have so much liked to attend school in that fashion that you can go to class in your slippers if you wish. Living in the school building saves so much time that can instead be used for learning and practising. Besides, now she obtains the skills of financial literacy and managing her finances. Three nights she spends at home – from Friday to Monday, and the rest of the time she plans her own schedule. I give her 150 euros monthly for food, her dad Margus adds to that another 100.- and from home she gets a proper food supply when she leaves for school. The extra costs – pocket-money, clothes, events, hobby classes and unexpected costs etc I pay together with Allan separately.

Unbelievable, just lately I did not allow her to go further than the home alley… Just lately she was so small yet so matter-of-fact…

I have been very liberal yet super caring and pampering mother – children were so to say „the kernel and meaning of my life”, until their teenage years – I took children to school from door to door, drove them back home from door to door, warm meals were waiting at home, then I took them to hobby classes, during hobby classes I sat in the car and waited, then we would spend a planned evening at home which largely accommodated „raising their egos”. I have never been counting praise, also I never emphasized children’s grades, because from early on I have told them that all that they do they do for themselves. I believe that such education works, because my kids are quite reasonable (ok, Ivanka Shoshana is a child with special needs, living with autism, sometimes she digresses from the reasonable… but still… give your children freedom to decide, encourage and praise them, and they will be reasonable)…

Estella Elisheva has been super good / an exemplary economizer. She doesn’t make up her costs and spendings and she is good at saving. I really appreciate that! Instead of telling her: „But you have sums in your bank account,” I tell her: „I’ll cover the same sum as what you have saved, you are a good one that you don’t waste money, you are a good one that you honestly discuss your costs with me!”

Besides, I must admit that at her 16 years of age she is a lot wiser than I used to be at the age of 30. She gave me 950.- euros and told me to invest it into shares. The condition was that when I don’t do well and cannot make her money grow, I must return the original sum that she trusted with me for the investments.

Should you be interested, then I took such a conservative position regarding her money, different from my daily tradings that include quite a big risk and are so to say venture transactions. I decided to invest her money in the home market – Nasdaq Baltic stock exchange shares of Tallinn Harbour (TSM1T.TL). Today, the 12th of October the shares are at 1,384 and I am rather convinced that in the long run this is a good investment. Firstly, the shares are well-priced right now, and secondly, it has a favourable history of dividends. If I am proven wrong, then at least we support the Estonian economy.

Hugs, I’ll soon continue with what has been happening meanwhile. ? Love youuu!

NordenBladet – Estonia has definitely turned into a welfare state and the cost of living is not insignificant as compared to Switzerland and Scandinavia (rather it is higher than in those countries). We are an IT country where a unicorn is born every once in a while. The digital lifestyle is more and more rooted. Today it is normal that food gets home with the help of delivery. I couldn’t even imagine otherwise anymore. Yes, certainly I sometimes go shopping myself but it’s very convenient to make a few clicks and everything is delivered to you. It spares a lot of time. It is still a bit annoying that the delivery sometimes arrives not on the same day but only on the next day.

I remember distinctly that our usual food basket used to cost 60-70 euros. Today one order is 260-350 euros, however, now I order a larger amount. Anyway, I do not know how come we spend so much money on food. It’s plainly horrible. Estella Elisheva would say that buying normal food costs 4-5 times more than eating junk food… and she is right.

In the morning I went with Ivanka Shoshana to Saku, Hedwig’s pottery hobby class. Now she is already for the third time in class making various interesting vases. In one class she models and also colours the vase that has already been in the furnace and in the next class again she creates a new thing and then colours the vase that was prepared previously. And so every time – creates one thing and colours one thing. Earlier for many years we used to go to Saku Manor for private classes but now Hedwig has moved the studio to her home. I also dream about a home studio! I could have as many as four studios – one for knitting and sewing, one for painting, one for ceramics and one for drying herbs, storing them and preparing natural cosmetics. Hahaaaa… Why can’t I be like a normal person? How come I always have such grandiose ideas? So annoying… I always get the feeling that I have too little of everything. 😀 😀

Today (August 4th) is Allan’s mother’s Sirli’s birthday. We made her a surprise gift and invited her over to the countryside for several days. I prepared potato salad and also made the traditional cookie-whipped cream cake. My present to her was a 30×40 cm acrylic painting His Highness Mouse the First, the painting has also been up in the Estonian National Museum (ERM) for half a year.

Currently, from the large speakers, Horoskoop’s songs’ volume has been tuned up. Korraks vaid / Just once (Uno Loop), Need on need laulud / These are the songs (Kalju Terasmaa), Meie kaks / The two of us (Helgi Sallo), Mul tihti nukker meel / I often feel sad (Toomas Jõesaar), Lõppenud on päevad / The days are gone (Helgi Sallo), Urjala jaaniöö / Midsummer night in Urjala (Voldemar Kuslap), Mustamäe valss / Waltz of Mustamäe (Voldemar Kuslap), Kaunid baleriinid / Beautiful ballerinas (Heli Lääts), etc, etc… For those of us that don’t know, „Horoskoop” was a musical show in Estonian Television during the years 1968-1973 🙂 We are creating a birthday atmosphere for Sirli..

The weather is so fine.. I wish this beautiful weather could last forever! Super chill and good vibe… Sirli is preparing and frying fish, Allan is painting the boards, Ivanka is swinging and Estella is doing yoga. I just told Allan that life on Earth in the countryside is soooo nice, doesn’t he agree. He laughed and replied that he couldn’t imagine living on the Moon… hahaaaaa. I came inside to take a look at tha laptop… writing this blog and peeping at the stock market for a second. The markets have risen 15-30% — nice! (read: sour grapes). I can let you know next time I am offline and not trading, then it’s for sure that the markets are skyrocketing… ? ? ?

Have a nice evening! Hugs! We will start eating the whipped cream cake any minute ? ?

Do read also my previous blog posts (all posts are available in four languages – Estonian, Finnish, Swedish and English!)

Recent blog posts:

Helena-Reet: Allan 37 (ideas for the birthday table snacks) + 5 free days that were very actively used for four noble and pleasant purposes
Helena-Reet: A surprise from Allan, current favorite shares, making the home more energy efficient and July in the garden!
Helena-Reet: 11 BITS OF WISDOM THAT today I would recommend for myself before the 19th birthday.. AND the answer to the question: „Would I choose you or 10 billion euros?”
Helena-Reet: STOCK EXCHANGE enterprises’ collapse & my THREE golden rules of day trading + a bit of random summertime talk 🙂
Helena-Reet: In Tartu, Saadjärve, Räpina and Viljandi
Helena-Reet: Allan’s mother visiting + Midsummer with parents
Helena-Reet: Estella Elisheva’s graduation from Tallinn Jewish School’s 9th grade + GALLERY!
Helena-Reet: Enjoying life has become more and more important to me + a few pictures from children’s birthdays and a tiny gardening blog!
Helena-Reet: Ivanka’s 14th birthday, Love Day, Ardo’s birthday and LOTS OF GARDENING TALK and PHOTOS!
Helena-Reet: Two years with Allan! + Estella’s admission to MUBA, performing with Georg Ots Symphony Orchestra and 16th birthday!
Helena-Reet: Summary of March and April

NordenBladet – On July 27, among a small family circle we celebrated Allan’s 37th birthday in our garden. I prepared the snacks and food for 5-6 hours, since I wanted to lay the festive table 100% myself. Homemade food prepared with love is simply so good 🙂 The most exciting part, to my mind, is the serving and gernering part! I like it when food can be enjoyed visually. From me, the main present was the festive table, and as a so-called actual present a big, 1000-laser-token luxurious poker game set.

Every time, before a birthday or another big event, tens of ideas related to preparations cross a woman’s mind: what to put on the table? How and where to lay the table? What should be the budget? Should there be catering or should the food be homemade? Is there something to choose for someone expecting a hearty meal as well as for someone watching their weight, etc…

This time I made up new recipes for snacks. For example I filled “Flora” salty minisize salad baskets with feta cheese, sweet pepper, olive and basil, and also a success was “Linkosuo” little crispy bread snacks with pate. I garnished them with cherry tomatoes, chives and dill and pickled cucumber, dill and red currant. Yummy.. By the way, such tiny crispy bread baskets, when you order them, will cost you ca 1.20-1.50 eur each… Gosh, it’s either that I am poor or way too greedy to give out such money for just a bite.. hahaaa. (Not that preparing the snacks by yourself would save you a lot of money… but still they will be handmade and what more) 😀

(blog continues after the gallery of the birthday menu)

The children spent 5 days and 4 nights on Saaremaa (29 July – 2 August).

This time was very efficiently used for four noble and pleasant purposes:

1) Reading

I bought three new books from the Apollo book store, and have started reading and working them through. Two books have been issued by Äripäev book club, one is authored by an Estonian origin professional stock trader, instructor and psychiatrist Dr. Alexander Elder “Trading for a Living” (38.95 EUR) and Burton G. Malkiel’s “A Random Walk Down Wall Street – The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing” (41.95 EUR). The third book is from the authors Kristjan Liivamägi, Tõnn Talpsepp and Tarvo Vaarmets, they are running the webpage Rahaedu.ee and are inspiring and super talented in the fields of banking, finances, financial markets and investments, the name of the book is “Principles of Successful Investments” (39.95 EUR).

For easy reading I took something that today’s youths read. I wanted to see what Estella Elisheva (16) borrows from the library. I read through Colleen Hoover’s “Hopeless” and started reading Holly Black’s book “The Cruel Prince“.

2) Working in the garden

We mowed the lawn, trimmed, pulled out the weeds, took down several trees (an apple tree and one old pine), we also took down several bushes and an aronia hedge from the middle of the garden. There was a load of material to be burned, plus we would like to make some of the branches into mulch, the larger trunks we laid out for drying so that one fine day we could make our own handmade wooden garden furniture. Allan cut into suitable pieces and immersed the wood meant for the window surroundings of the house. We want to insulate the surroundings of the windows and afterwards we will install new boards around the windows. A lot of work was done and a lot of new duties were created – for example a load of stumps that need to be pulled out from the ground. Currently I am contemplating whether to rent or to buy the branch chopper that helps make mulch for the garden from all the branches.

Shhh! Life in the countryside is extremely pleasant but also time-consuming and expensive! A large garden requires great deeds 😀 hahaaaa…

3) Peaceful trading

The stock markets are very fascinating… still… Unbelievable what the news can do, for example that of House of representatives’ speaker Nancy Pelosi visiting Taiwan. The markets fell, then there was silence and anxiety and then after her arrival the markets skyrocketed again.

The biggest trading was done with Roku, Inc. (ROKU), Intel Corporation (INTC) and both with USA NasdaqGS (COIN) as well as German Börse Frankfurt’s Coinbase Global, Inc. (1QZ.DE). Many waves were done with Intel and I currently have it for 850 shares – tomorrow it has ex-dividend day. Usually I prefer speculation, i.e. Gain from exchange (I buy cheap and sell expensively). The day before determining the dividend the shares usually rise and I mostly prefer to sell them before the dividend (provided the market is as usual… today the market is, however, anything but normal). Then again, the risk is dispersed – you either sell expensively or take the dividend. Intel pays 3.95% this year.. it is better than nothing 😀 Through Yahoo Finance I took a look at the Uniper (UN01.DE), Avantor, Inc. (AVTR) and through CoinMarketCap.com at a great deal of crypto.

I lack earlier experience bargaining with crypto. I have invested into crypto platforms but not crypto itself. Now I decided to start with it. I created for myself a Coinbase Pro account and for a start bought the following crypto money for 1500 euros: ApeCoin (APE), Dogecoin (DOGE), Filecoin (FIL), Shiba Inu (SHIB), EOS (EOS), OMG Network (OMG), Chiliz (CHZ), Polygon (MATIC), Cardano (ADA), Gala (GALA), ARPA Chain (ARPA), The Graph (GRT), SKALE Network (SKL), XYO (XYO), Rally (RLY) ja Stellar (XLM). Unmet orders are pending here: Polkadot (DOT), Tether (USDT), Liquity (LQTY) and Mirror Protocol (MIR).

4) … and for several other pleasant activities
That’s all for this time! Hugs!

Do read also my previous blog posts (all posts are available in four languages – Estonian, Finnish, Swedish and English!)

Recent blog posts:
Helena-Reet: A surprise from Allan, current favorite shares, making the home more energy efficient and July in the garden!
Helena-Reet: 11 BITS OF WISDOM THAT today I would recommend for myself before the 19th birthday.. AND the answer to the question: „Would I choose you or 10 billion euros?”
Helena-Reet: STOCK EXCHANGE enterprises’ collapse & my THREE golden rules of day trading + a bit of random summertime talk 🙂
Helena-Reet: In Tartu, Saadjärve, Räpina and Viljandi
Helena-Reet: Allan’s mother visiting + Midsummer with parents
Helena-Reet: Estella Elisheva’s graduation from Tallinn Jewish School’s 9th grade + GALLERY!
Helena-Reet: Enjoying life has become more and more important to me + a few pictures from children’s birthdays and a tiny gardening blog!
Helena-Reet: Ivanka’s 14th birthday, Love Day, Ardo’s birthday and LOTS OF GARDENING TALK and PHOTOS!
Helena-Reet: Two years with Allan! + Estella’s admission to MUBA, performing with Georg Ots Symphony Orchestra and 16th birthday!
Helena-Reet: Summary of March and April