Merry Christmas and happy New Year

Each year I have bought or made a Christmas tree decoration, last year I made himmeli inspired ones and the year before that I made a pearl garland. This year I bought one or actually three. Three glass mushroom shaped decorations, that do not hang but are clipped on to the tree. I think those are fun and sweet and I love that there is three of them, I feel that those represent that there are now three persons in this family.

Also to let you know, I will have a blog break for almost two weeks. We are off to celebrate Christmas with our relatives. I plan to let our relatives entertain Likka as much as possible so I can consentrate on crafts. I'm taking few knitting projects along and hope to finish them soon.

Hope you have really nice and enjoyable Christmas time and cheerful New Year! 

See you back here on the 3rd of January.

Christmas preparations

The second set of Christmas flowers were bought and so the old ones moved into an old coffee pot. The tree is decorated and most of the gifts are wrapped. No theme for wrapping, no cohesive colour scheme, I'm merely trying to use up the wrapping paper and ribbons we have.

Today me and my sister will make some gingerbread houses to give as presents and then I'm all set in the gift department. Sunday some food shopping needs to be done and then there is nothing else to do than celebrate Christmas.

Christmas porridge

There are some disadvantages being on maternity leave, like that the rice porridge/pudding served in the canteen at work is not available for me. But I can make it myself. I also made plum kissel to eat with the porridge. This is a very traditional dish to eat here in Finland around the holidays, but usually the kissel is from dried plums.

 

 

I really like the waiting of Christmas, I think I like the waiting even more than the Christmas day itself. And I like to prepare for Christmas, like decorating and such, but I like to keep things simple still. For example a simple flower arrangement does it for me. Tulips are from the local market and the blueberry and lingonberry branches are from a near by forest.

 

Holiday sofa pillows 2013.0

Some holiday decorations in the living room.

 

I sewed on the red pillow covers I usually use around the holidays some lace. The crocheted corner laces are, if I remember correctly, made by A's mom's mom. These were made for bed sheets but had never been used and A's mom gave these to me. Now I'm using these as holiday decorations. Those are very loosely sewed on so those can be removed later and used in some other place later.

 

In 2011 the pillows had ribbon decorations.

 

 

Holiday baby booties

 

For the holiday season I made Christmas inspired baby booties for Likka. I couldn't find a pattern for these so I made my own. It didn't really work out that well. I wanted the tip to be curled, but the booties ended up flat, so I adjusted the tip by hand sewing few stitches on the top. And I made the booties too small to begin with, they hardly fit Likka. Maybe I'll make new ones later.

 

The bells are so cute though because those jingle when she moves her feet. But she doesn't yet understands that she can control the jingling.

Is it echoing here?

Hello...hello...hello

Am I hearing an echo from last year or actually from two years ago? Again I made a wreath for the front door. I over estimated how much material I have and used too much first and had to then ration it for the remaining parts so the wreath is now a bit bottom heavy, but I don't care.

I found the material for the wreath while on a walk with Likka. I know some of you have wondered where I collect all the natural materials. Well, by the side of the roads, this time the city (I assume) had done some logging by the side of one of the ring roads of Helsinki. 

There is always branches and other logging waste left over, so I collected some from there. Also parks and road sides have often fallen branches that I take with me if I need them. The road sides are also really good places to collect flowers.

Candy cane cable

The kitchen corner where we have the coffee maker, toaster and the electronic water heater has always looked really bad because of all the cables that are needed for the appliances. I have tried to hide the cables with not much success. Since hiding didn't clearly work, decorating should do a better job.

Sometime ago I saw a cable tuned with electric tape on some blog and later I have seen tuned cables everywhere in the blog world. Such a cool idea, I wish I knew who started this.

So inspired by all the blogs and the coming holiday season I pimped one of the cables candy cane red. I love it and amazingly I'm not annoyed by any of the cables now.

Anti winter depression lantern

These are NOT Christmas lights, this is a keeping-away-the-depressive-darkness lantern.

Had to mention that because for some people putting up Christmas lights in middle of November is just too early, but since these are not Christmas lights so this is ok. Do not pay attention that I've labeled this post to "holidays". Ignore that.

This lantern I used to have in the conservatory, but now since there are already the circus lights, I felt there would have been too many different lights if the lantern would be there too.

It's always tricky to run those cables for the decorational lights, there is no socket outside by the front door so the cord runs inside under the vestibule rug then behind the yellow metal cabinet to a socket by the toilet door. I think I did a good job hiding the cable this time.

Merry Christmas

I wish you all peaceful Holidays.

In Finland the Christmas is celebrated today. Me and my sister will go to my parents. Also my grandparents will join us. We will enjoy dinner together this evening and open some presents later.

I might make a post before the New Year but if I don't I hope you have a happy New Year 2013.

Christmas flowers

 

I took a Christmas flower workshop on Monday evening. One fellow student from a Simplify 101 workshop had took a similar flower arrangement class few years back in her own town and country and said it was one of the nicest ways to get in the holiday spirit. Inspired by her example I found a flower workshop in Helsinki in Gardenia. I signed up for the workshop already in the end of October.

We were allowed to take our own pots and decorations with us. I took one pot and one vase, I figured I will have time to make only two. In the end I had time to make three so I had to buy one more pot from the workshop, which was a bit dull, because I really don't need any more pots. There was not much teaching on the workshop, the teacher told the very basics but nothing deep. I think I could have been interested in bit more knowlegde about the actual arranment making, but I think most of the student were just interested in doing. But what was very excellent on the workshop was that there was a big variety in plants that we could choose from and there were huge amounts of different ribbons and wires and pine cones and all types of decorations. In home I could never have such a variety.

I tried to make a bit more modern arrangements, many there made very traditional ones which of course were really nice, but not so me. Also it was really good that on the workshop the plants didn't cost awfully lot. So the cost of the material and flowers didn't really turn us down. I really like my arrangements, especially the one in the white pot and the one in the concrete pot. The one in the vase is maybe a bit too simple, but I love the Christmas rose and I had to have one for this holiday too.

Geometrical tree ornaments

I mentioned these tree decorations last week already. These ornaments were inspired by the Himmeli. When I googled some inspiration for the Himmeli I found also modern geometrical art installations that had used plastic straws, glass and metal pipes. Those were big things, which were magnificient but I wanted something smaller. It occured to me that I've seen in craft shops long bugle beads, those seemed like the perfect material to make himmeli style tree ornaments.

So I made three tree ornaments, I started with one where I used a standard octahedron shape as a base and added to it with even longer bugle beads a triagle on all the sides. On the pyramid shape I have five octahedron shapes on top of each other. Finally I made the star. It's not my favourite, it does not seem to stay in shape that well, but it's still quite nice.

Dipped candles

We made candles with my sister. I've previously made candles using molds but those have never been a huge success. Those were not difficult to make but they did not burn well, they smoked and the melted wax run everywhere. This time we made the candles by dipping and I must say that even though it was bit more laborious to make them this way it was worth it. They burn really well and don't run.

First we prepared our dipping settings. We covered the floor with plastic and old sheets. We took two dining chairs and placed two brooms on them. Then we used flower stakes for the dipping, which we hung on the brooms. The dipping vessel, which I got from cafereria at work, was placed on a stool that I covered with an old T-shirt.

I had collected leftover candle ends and candles that had killed them selves by melting so much wax that the wick drowned. We divided these to almost white ones, red ones and lilac ones, because those were the colours I happened to have most of. I read from the web that making candles by dipping is slow, but I assumed the dipping itself would be slow, I never realized that the dipping was quite fun and time seemed to fly, but waiting for all the leftover candle ends to melt was really slow!

The candles were on a metal bowl on top of a pan of boiling water. I think it took almost a half an hour for the first batch of candle wax to melt. At least felt like that, it was so boring. But once it did melt we poured it through cheese cloth to the dipping vessel which was almost full of hot water.

But then the dipping started. And it was a lot of fun. The candles got bigger and bigger so easily. We dipped ones then left them on the rack to harden, dipped another one and that is how we proceeded. When it seemed like there was not enough white wax on the vessel to make all the candles thick enough, we consentrated only on few candles and dipped them until they were nice size. Next we melted the red candle ends and added them to the vessel. We dipped in the red wax the rest of the white candles that were not yet thick enough.  Once in a while we added hot water to keep the wax warm and to keep the wax level high.

Of course we immediately had try out one candle. It was suberb. It burned so well. I've got to say we were pretty pleased with ourselfves. The pointy end of the candles was cut of to the wick. One tip: the pointy end is easiest to cut off while the candle is still bit soft, once it has hardened the cutting gets much more difficult. Once that is removed the candles can be again hung to harden.

Once we had done those colours we still decided to make the lilac ones too. It was maybe a bad choise, since there was so little of it that we were only able to make four candles from that and it was really dull to make because after each dip we had to wait for the wax to harden in between dips. Also the water in the dipping vessel had got bit colder and the surface on the candle got a bit wrinkly and bubbly. One time we dipped the candles too quickly and the wax started to slide down from the wick because of the heat. Also because the lilac was mixed with some other almost lilac wax and there was still some white wax in the dipping vessel the colour of the lilac candles did not end up to be very pretty. To tell the truth the lilac candles remind a bit of a certain manly body part. So I decided to burn them away immediately. But if one ignores the assosiation those too are very functional candles.

Welcoming wreath

Again I made a wreath for our front door. I made it exactly like I made it last year. After the snow storm few days ago I went to the near by park and searched for fallen branches. It was a bit difficult to find them since there were so much snow but I was able to find two biggish branches and few tiny ones. They were just enough to make one wreath. In the wreath I have now fir and pine, I like the combination. Again I have no decorations in the wreath. I was thinking of searching some pine cones, but had too much trouble finding the branches already so I sort of forgot about the cones.

There is some renovation underway in the front yard, in case you are wondering about those planks. We had the front yard open and some pipes were replaced. Now all the holes are closed with gravel but the front yard is still a mess. Because of the snow the workers will return in spring to finish the landscaping work. It's bit dull to have the front yard so messy, but it's not a big deal.

Snow and lights

It is snowing as a I write this post. Snow is the ultimate reminder that it is now winter. And since it's winter it is appropriate to put up some decorational lights and light the candles.

I've usually hung a string of lights to the livingroom, but since there is already the himmeli, glowing orbs and other winter decorations I thought of adding some ambiance to the office. I was planning to hang the string of lights better, but I placed it on top of the floating shelves while I was pondering how to attach it to the wall, but then I kind of liked the lights just randomly placed there on top of the shelves. So I left it as it was.

I must mention that I have spent a lot of time in the office after the renovation there was finished. I love the office. I'm really pleased with it, I'm really happy I can do my crafts there. Also the livingroom is easier keep neat when my craft stuff is not on the dining table but in the office. So redoing the office was a huge success.

Himmeli holiday decoration

Himmeli is a traditional Finnish holiday decoration. It is a mobile made from natural straw that is kept together with thread. It has been also modernized and now days Himmeli can be also made from plastic drinking straws or glass pipes and other decorations can be added to it.

I had wanted to make a himmeli for years and I even had bought a packet of straw long long time ago. This year I finally did it. It was not difficult to make the himmeli. I had assumed it would be more difficult since here those are thought highly of. This particular one took me only two evenings to make. In this site is a good picture set showing how to make the basic octahedron shape of the himmeli.

I needed to get more straw in the middle of my project, but the new straw I bought was a lot more thick than the older one. I'm a bit disappointed by the quality of the straw I got. The old one I had was beautiful and slim and the himmeli in those parts is light and airy. But the parts made with the newer straw are thick and heavy looking, nothing as nice as the slim parts. Next time I make a himmeli I need to be more aware of the quality of the straw when I buy it. Still I'm really happy I made one, I think it's beautiful.