Mulled Wine on a Star

For years I have started to buy mulled wine as early in the fall as it becomes available. Usually I buy non-alcoholic, so maybe I should say "Mulled without wine". Anyway, in Finland we call I "Glögi" -both ways, with or without alcohol. This year it has been different. I have cut down sugers from my diet fot health reasons, so that is why I have not been too keen on buing readymade Glögi. Instead I have read a lot of recepies, and planned to make my own version, with minimum sugar.



This is how it turned out to be:

2dl sugarless cranberry juice  (I used one made in Finland from Finnish berries)
3dl water
a little bit of readymade "glögi" -concentrate
fructose, by taste

Christmas Spices: cinnamon, ginger, Dianthus, raisins, orange peel
2dl Dry white wine

We have a ready made seasoning mix for "glögi" available during the christmas season, you can buy it, as well as "glögi" concentrate from Suomikauppa (a shop for Finnish goods)


At first boil the water, then mix with cranberry juice, fructose, seasoninf mix, and the "glögi" concentrate and keep warm for apx. 45 min. but do not boil. Then filter off the spices and add in the wine. Warm up and serve with raisins and almonds.

The brand new stars under the Glögi mugs are made the same way as the origami stars, but left "two-dimensional". They are made from 3 cm wide linen ribbon and to make the re-usable I sewed a rectange in the midlle of the star to hold the ribbon in place. Pretty.

Traditional Paper Stars

A long time ago a co-worker taught me how to make origami stars from four long slices of paper. I made many back then, my mum even got ten red ones and ten golden ones as a Christmas present. Now I found the instructions again in a Swedish Christmas magazine "101 Idéer" and was suprised, that it wasn't easy at all to figure out how to make these little origamis. I tried and tried, and my friend tried but I had to get a good night sleep, and try again the next day before I got it right. I decided to make so many stars, that it would be impossible to forget ever again. Well, it is easy to say so now, we'll wait and see how it will be next year, or the year after. But this Christmas:  I did it!

"Every Time When the Bell Rings..."

About twenty years ago a got a postcard from a good friend. The card had a poem on it, a poem about an little angel, who got tired from all the work as an guardian a a child. The angel put the the baby asleep in the night and flew up to the heaven to get some sleep on a little cloud and in the morning she was back in business, just when the kid woke up. (Hopefully there was another angel in the night shift :)) The idea to this piece of decorations, however, came from the poem. This is where the Christmas angel left her dress for the night, with a little bell... maybe you've heard it tinkle sometime...

Matching matches

I just love candles.This is just the season to light as many as possible. Every day, on each table. I also tend to forget matches on the table, simple little boxes but little bit dull looking. I solved the problem by matching the matches into other decorations. Now their are cute. With  a little  piece of lace, old book sheets and a wooden button their are brand new looking, and ready to be forgotten on the table again.

The First Gingerbreads

I made the first gingerbreads of this Christmas season. Not very triditional, but still. I am on a sick leave, and I am supposed to stay in bed and only stay up for a short while at time. So I had to make something quick. I used readymade gingerbread dough I found from the crosery store freezer. I defrost the dough and then cut it in sticks 1 cm wide and 8cm long. After baking them in the oven, I let them cool down. Then I dipped each stick into melted milk chocolate and covered the chocolate with crushed peppermintcandies. I took the gingerbreads outside the the terrace for a while, so the chocolate would set and in no time at all, the first gingerbreads of the Christmas season were ready to be served!

My New Garland at the Front Door, version 1/2011

Our family has a summer cottage couple of hundred kilometers north from the south coast of Finland and last week I took a little break from work to spend couple of days there with the kids and grand parents. The nature around the cottage was still beautiful though summer is gone and even the fall is already turning into winter. We took long walks in the forest and I collected natural materials for a new front door garland.




Now that we still don't have any snow , it is easy to find materials from the forest. I used long willow twigs to create a base for the wreath. The leaveless blueberry branches are the main material and they are accompanied by some gray lichen. They were easy to tie together with iron wire, as they are rather light. The last bit was to decorate the wreath with a lingonberry branch, a small cone and a figure of a reindeer.

This is not only for christmas,
but for the wait of the snowy winter

Some thinning was done in the nearby forest and we found a huge pile of fir branches which still wait for my inspiration to make something out of them. They would also be great  material for a garland, but could I think of something else? Ideas anyone?

A knitted heart

I bought Christmas magazines and got hundreds of new ideas. That was bit of a promise, 'cause one of the magazines was called "101 Idéer" which is "101 Ideas". So this beautiful hearth was introduced in the magazine. It was knitted from different yarn and felted in the washing machine. And as the magazine was written in Swedish, I could not completely understand the instructions, so with a little help from my best friend I made my own version, which I think is even more cute than the original. I used needles sized 3 1/2 mm and the wool yarn, which I usually use for thick stockings.

This is how I made it:
1. Cast on three stiches.
2. Knit st stiches during the whole heart. Increase 1 stich in the beginning and in the end on each right side row by working into front and back of the first and the last stich. Continue untill you have 38 stiches.
3."Bubbles"
Knit bubbles by making five stiches out of one. (knit the front and the back loop in turns to create five stiches before letting the stich fall of the needle. Knit these five new stiches back and forth three rows and then knit all five together on the right side. You have created a bubble. Continue knitting st stiches until the next bubble. I made bubbles on every fifth row,  approximately after every 7 stiches;  1-2-3-4-5-6-5-4 pcs.  as shown it the picture.
4. When you have 38 stiches in the row, knit 12 rows without increasing and then decrease in the beginning and in the end of every right side row by knitting two stiches together until you have 30 stiches. Knit st stiches four rows.
5. Bind off.
6. Make the back piece of the hearth likewise, but without the bubbles.
7. Make a handle by knitting st stiches with 8 stiches until you reach the lenght you wish.
8. Sew the pieces together on the back side.
9. Sew a small bag out of a fabric (f.e. flannel). Sew it inside the hearth like a lining. Fill the extra space inside the heart with cotton wool before sewing the lining.

10. The hearth is now ready to be filled with candy, small gifts or ginger breads to greet your friends or family, or even the postman at the front door!

Angels, angels...

To continue my series of sinple, easy and beautiful decorations I add a paper angel. It is simply made of a sheet of old newspaper (or an old over read book), and a glossy angel picture with a vintage feeling.
This is how you make it:
1. Fold the paper back and forth to create an "accordion".
2. Use paper glue to create on shape of a semicircle.
3. Glue the picture in the middle.
4. Stick a ribbon or string in the back so you'll be able to hang up your new piece of decoration.
The size can be modified to fit the picture, and the angel can be used to decorate you Christmas tree, presents, Christmas flowers or anything, eved around the year, if you home needs a guardian angel. This is quick to finish, so make some to your friends as well.

Flower arrangements for Christmas

It has happened to me occasionally, that the flowershops have run out of white hyacinths before I managed to buy them. Well not last yeat. I bought them well in advance. The problem is, that I love them when they still bud. These little beauties grew too big before Christmas Eve, but luckyly they not the only flowers we had. These simple hyacinths have been the traditional Christmas flower arrangements  in our home for many years, and I know I will make some this Christmas as well, but I already have so many ideas fot the flowers that I think of making something whole new this year! :)












On a great Christmas Market at Vanha Ylioppilas talo (The Old Student House) in Helsinki last year I found small moss hearts made by Ideapaju and they match perfectly with the other decorations. I also added same cinnamon sticks and golden string among the dry gras. Unfortunately the scent can not be added to a blog post, but enjoy the pics!

Forests gifts

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

Last autumn I collected loads of cones with my kids, just the day before we got snow. I made little cone angels of them. Simple, again, but cute. Later on, I hang them outside in a small fir, to fly among the snow. I also made a little crowd of angels for my friend and they got their place in a Christmas tree.

 
To make Cone Angels, you need:
*fir cones
*String
*white feathers



Today I went to the forest to have a little walk. The intension was to be sporty, but I ended up collecting "flowers". This is what I made of them. A little forest for my "basement elf", who has been living on top of a old window frame the whole summer. It will again go to the basement, because as much as I love Christmas, the elves are not a part of our decor in October. :)





I used:

*fir branches
*lingonberry sprigs
*moss
*stones
*a old piece of wood
*ling strigs

Flowers on ice

As the weather in Finland might get freezing cold in the winter, the only way to make your garden bloom is make frozen flowers. Easy. Put water on empty and cleaned milk, juice, soup... cartons. Put the flowers head first in the water and cover to keep the flower on the bottom. (Otherwise it will float.) Leave in the freeze for a day or so and then rip of the carton. You can make theese also in you freezer and then carry them outside when ready.  The flower may last for several weeks, some of them better than others, but in the end, you still had a blooming garden in the middle of winter. With candle light, they sparkle together with stars, making your season bright!

My Dear Creche

This is my Christmas Treasure!!! I found it several years ago on a flea market. It was a bargain compared to its size and beauty. The barn is wooden and the Holy Family and other figures are made of porcelain. I got a lift home from the market, the husband of the owner drove me. I hade the big box on my lap and it said: "Handle with care!" That is what I have been doing with this treasure from that day on. The creach has survived our changes of residence, out kids and my brothers dog. Only the hand of Virgin Mary is broken, but that was long before I found this beauty.


Among the years I have collected some things of my own to be added to the creche. The candles are lightening the stable, there is a little brown sheep, that is bought from a smallest shop in the Old Town of Naantali, at the west coast of Finland. My husband brought me a little boy figure, whose sitting on a bench playing flute.(Unfortunately not it the picture) He will sit on the side and play for baby Jesus. That is the figure, which I identify myself with. Just as in the Christmas song "Little Drummer Boy" we can all bring our modest gifts the Holy Child.  I often put real straw to the stable.

In the middle of all my dear Christmas fuss and hustle, the Creche reminds me of the most important message of Christmas!

Door Wreath 2010

Something Christmassy you can keep the whole winter: my wreath. I got the idea from a Christmas issue  (2010) of a Finnish interior magazine called Avotakka. It's very simple, but somehow mesmerising, like a winter wonderlans fairytale. The wreath is made of juniper and the decorative animal is a childrens toy, which I have sprayed with white paint.

The garland with a deer and frost.

The hardest part was to find the toy. The shops were full of farm animals, jungle animals, dinosaurs; everything else, but  not anything, that can be described as at least somehow Finnish forest animals. Apparently kids are not interested in domestic nature :).  At the end I managed to find this deer, with the price of 12 dinosaurs, but I was satisfied. It's a Schleich product and was beautiful when colored, but all white would it still become. And the wreath turned out to be just as wonderful I imagined it! I planned to hang it inside, beside the fireplace,  but the heath would have made it  crumble in no time. So I hang it in our front door and kept it there until April! The deer has spent its summer on top of a photoframe in our livinroom, and it is now waiting for a new garland. It will also have "brothers and sisters", as I just found a couple of new animals on my last shopping trip, with a lowered price!

Inspired by the Frozen Flowers

Inspired by the frozen flowers, I made a necklace! It is made of wool and glas pearls, with a silver lock.  The woolen "balls" are felted over a wooden pearl, with hot and cold water and tea tree -handsoap. That is probably the easiest way to make equaly sized pearls.

The Old Pictures of My Family

My aunt has made a big effort on scanning our old photos. I got a collection by e-mail, and could not wait to make something "christmastly" out of them. So I made this piece of art.

When our house was about to be built we had to take down an old sauna -building from our lot. That's when I got loads of old windowframes. I wanted to make some use of them, so this was one idea.






 

 


I knocked around nails in the back, then put a paper string between them. The photos are clipped to the string with traditional Christmas tree candle holders (for real candles), which still are a bit shiny, but hopefully will darken in time.

To accompany the photos, I hang some Christmas decoration, but fell so much in love this thing, that it has been in my hobby room the whole year. That is my Christmas Wonderland!

Hearts, Hearth, Hearts...

These simple but beatiful soft hearts are made for my dear friends last Chistmas to substitute a traditional Christmas flower or card. Again and again, every Christmas to come, they can be used as decoration and a reminder of our friendship. The heart sablon was drawn on a paper, ad the cot out of romantic fabrics. Then sewed with a machine (lines and decoration laces) leaving a small hole for the filling. The rest was sewed by hand.

Again easy, quick and beautiful!

I still have a whole bunch of hearts ready made, and to be honest, I don't remember who I geve them to!! Someone might get an extra hearth. Maybe I should have a list of presents I've given. :)

You also find a beatiful picture of the hearts on my best friends blog  Taijan tekeleet , which is full of the most beautiful knits, jewelry and other handicrafts. Go check it out, all though it is in Finnish!

Making Christmas Cards with Kids

The easy way to start Christmas preparations is to make Christmas cards. These we made together with my kids! Does not look like a work of child, does it? Choose matching materials: papers, stickers, strings and laces, and the kids will love to glue them together to make a beautiful card to send to grandparents, neighbours and friends.




We used:
*old newspaper
*Golden Christmas tree - stickers
*decorative strings
*coloured paper
*decorative papers with matching colours
*laces
*coping scissors
*glue
*scissors

Easy and beautiful! Merry Christmas!

"I'm dreaming of the white Christmas..."

If I would publish a blog, Christmas would definitely be the subject that would inspire me again and again every year. That is why you, my dear reader, will have the opportynity to enjoy my Christmas preparations: cooking, handicraft, decorations, presents and the whole season atmosphere. Wellcome to Christmas With Marilla! Make yourself at home!