I love Christmas.

Three more days, and it is Christmas Eve. Since our household consist of equal amounts of Finnish and Americans, we are celebrating both days. Works for me! On Christmas Eve, we have invited our American friends for a traditional Finnish Christmas dinner. I am going to make lanttulaatikko (rutabaga casserole), porkkanalaatikko (carrot casserole), makaroonilaatikko (macaroni casserole), rosolli (beet salad with potatoes, carrots, pickles, onions, and apple), potatoes, and of course, ham. In Finland, joulupukki (Santa) comes to your house on Christmas Eve and delivers the presents personally. I don't personally like seeing Santa in my house (I was scared enough as a kid), so I thought it would be nice to each of us buy a present for each other and exchange them on Christmas Eve. On Christmas morning, we will do the American tradition. We have our stockings ready and Christmas tree is set up for Santa to bring presents over night. Since I love Christmas, I love both traditions, and I am happy to teach it all to my daughter.

I have been busy getting ready for Christmas this year. I have done some baking and sewing. I am super happy how much I have gotten done...and, there a few more projects waiting in my sewing room.

One of the traditions that I have from home is to bake gingerbread cookies on Finland's Independence Day which is December 6. When I was growing up, my mom would make the cookie dough the night before the 6th, and we (my sisters, my mom and I) would bake and bake and bake the following day. All day. We made enough cookies to last through the whole Christmas season. I have continued to do the same thing here in the U.S., and I find that it is now even more important to me that I have my own child. I give many of the cookies as gifts to friends. And, I, of course, think that these are the BEST gingerbread cookies there are in the world.

Sadly, most of these cookies are already gone. I am considering making more...but, it may not happen this year.

I am super excited that we got bunch of snow a few weeks ago. (It's all gone now thanks to 60 degree temperatures) O even had a snow day from preschool a few weeks back. We took an advantage of the snow and built a snow man, and I showed her how to make a snow lantern. This is also what we used to make as kids in Finland. We would have lots of them on the yard, and once it got dark, we would put a candle inside. It made me happy to see one of these on my own yard this year.

Another traditional Finnish Christmas food item is joulutorttu. It is puff pastry with prune sauce. Since I don't know where to buy prune sauce (thick paste like) in the U.S., I always make my own. It's super easy. I just put a bag of prunes in a pan and add some water and then I let it boil. I add water if needed. Once the prunes seem soft and cooled, I use a hand blender to make it into a paste. Yum! Today, in Finland, you can buy puff pastry that is already cut into shapes of the pastries, but since I don't have the privilege of finding that in my grocery store, I use my own traditional mold. I bought this mold this past summer while visiting a consignment sale with my sister. I paid 20 cents for it. The woman who sold it for me no doubt was happy to get rid of it, and I was thrilled I no longer needed to make the cuts myself with a knife. Yay!!!

Here are the pastries all finished. Some people sprinkle them with powdered sugar. Yum!!

When I was growing up, my mom and dad would bring a Christmas flower and/or box of chocolates to their friends and relatives. This was a way for them to say Merry Christmas (Hyvää Joulua) and thank them for another year of friendship. I remember driving around town and delivering these Christmas thank yous with my parents and sisters. I find that I do the same with my friends now. Many think that I am giving them a Christmas present, but it is not a present. It is a way for me to say thank you for being my friend.
This year I made some hearts that my friends can use as Christmas tree decorations. I also made a little house ornament.

I also did some Christmas pillow cases. I used thick linen and red fabric paint to write Merry and Joulua (Christmas). I have another fabric on the other side. I closed the pillows with zippers. 

I made a little fabric star for our front door to wish everyone Merry Xmas! The idea for the pillows and little hearts came from my mom who has made them in previous Christmases. Kiitos ideasta, äiti! 

I made more of the fabric stars that I posted about some time back. Here are pictures of the Christmas fabric stars. I got all the beautiful fabric from a local quilt shop. Totally worth every penny. They are so pretty. I gave one star for each of O's preschool teachers and the director of the school. I kept one for myself. 

I want to wish you all the happiest Christmas!! Oikein Hyvää Joulua myös Suomeen!! 

Giraffe

A few years ago, I bought this book "Cute Creatures to Knit and Crochet." It has many cute toys, but the one I absolutely loved was a giraffe which was a puppet. My niece was just born, and I thought making her a giraffe was a fantastic idea until I started the project. I decided not to make a puppet but just a soft toy. That was the easiest part. The most difficult part was the pattern for the giraffe which was in chart form. I had never followed a pattern like it, so it took me awhile to figure out how to read it. Once I had that settled, I realized that all the parts of the giraffe are made in individual pieces. Phew!!! It took a lot of time and patience. And, I don't usually have the latter when it comes to making things. It needs to be done NOW! :) 

Anyway, I finished the first giraffe for my niece, and she loved it. This summer while visiting my sister I looked at the giraffe again and decided it was time to make one for us, too. I guess I had forgotten how much I hated following the charts and how looooooooong it took to finish the first one. However, I was too excited about my new yellow and tan cotton yarn to remember any of that, and I couldn't wait to start. I started the giraffe in July. I finished in November. And, I still hated following the charts (although it was much easier the second time around), and it took me a very looooooong time to finish my second giraffe. I told myself multilpe times during the project, "never again." Give me a few more years in between, and I will probably make another one. ;)

The giraffe (still with no name) is SUPER cute and huge! I don't have the measurents but here she is sitting on O's arm chair and is basically filling the seat. 

Her face. I was supposed to make the nostrils and mouth, too, but decided not to do that. I didn't think she needed them. 

Side profile. 

Peeking to the other side of the chair. You can see that she is as big as the back of the chair. 

I'm happy I made the giraffe, but it will be a looooooooong time before I'll make another one. :) 

Monsters in jeans

Months ago, my friend showed me on Pinterest these monster patches for broken jeans. She has  4-and 2- year-old sons, and she tells me that they have many ripped jeans. Once I saw the picture of these patches, I was intrigued. I was ready for a challenge, and I was super excited to try something new. After months of patiently waiting, I got them done. And, my friend and her sons were all very excited about their "new" monster jeans which made me happy.


After I had said yes to the project and gotten the pants, I suddenly realized that 2T size pants won't be fitting into my sewing machine for me to be able to sew the patches on. And, even if they did fit, there was no way I was going to be able to turn the jeans to sew around the patch. Hmmmmm....so after discussing it with other sewing  friends, I came to the conclusion that I would need to open one of the seams of the pant leg. This worked well. I undid the seam on the outside because it does not have a decorative top stitch. And, I was able to sew it back together without anyone ever noticing that I had undone the seam.

The post that my friend showed me had used felt for the patch. I thought it would wear off quickly, so I decided to get red denim from Joann Fabrics. I also bought black and white flannel for the eyes and teeth because it was cheaper and seemed softer/nicer. But once I started working on the patches, I realized that felt would be a better option for the teeth and eyes. Reason for that is that flannel frays and felt does not. Next time, I am going to use felt.

I first cut the red denim to match the size of the hole. I made it a little bit bigger since the pants were worn out around the hole as well. I pinned it well and added the teeth.

I sewed around the patch (from the outside) multiple times. And, I also sewed around the hole so that it would not rip more. And, this also helped me to get the teeth in place. I kept sewing back and forth to add extra stitches around the teeth and the patch.

This is how it looks inside.

I then cut the eyes and pinned them on the pant. These jeans had a perfect hole that worked as a nose for the monster. :)

I zigzagged around the eyes (both white and black), and I also zigzagged around the teeth. I am hoping this will help them stay on for longer. I am not sure how the flannel is going last, but I guess we'll find out.

And, here is the patch again from the inside. Looks pretty cool, huh?

And, once I was finished with the patch, I sewed the seam back together. I made sure to zigzag the edge as well. I have a serger, but I did not want to change the thread, so I figured this would do.

I thought that two monsters in one pair of jeans would be too much, so I just added a red patch to the other side.

Below is another pair of pants. Instead of using the red denim, I used thicker cotton fabric with cars on it. I bought this fabric from Purl Soho this summer. It is super cute, and I thought would make a nice monster mouth for a little boy.

I did everything exactly the same with this patch as with the first one. I just added one eye to this monster, and I put his teeth on the outside.

To see more examples, you can go on Pinterest and type "monster jean patch" and bunch of pictures will show up. This is not my idea, but I did make these monsters for these two pairs of pants.

This was a super fun little project. The first pair of pants took me about 2 hours to complete, but the second one I did in 45 minutes. I think it will get faster once you made a few of them. I highly recommend trying this out if you find holes in your pants....or, somebody else's. Next I will be patching O's preschool teacher's jeans. :)

Fabric Star

I've been wanting to make a fabric star ever since I bought one last November in Finland. I was visiting my BFF in her hometown of Joensuu, Finland, and we went to a local arts and crafts event. There was a woman selling all kinds of cute crocheted and sewn items. I fell in love with her fabric stars. I bought one, and it has been hanging on my sewing room window ever since I got back. Here it is.

A few months ago, I found a  fabric star tutorial at Pinterest that had a great picture tutorial how to make one. It has sadly taken me that few months to think about how I'm going to put it together, and today I finally made it. It was SUPER easy. Now, I want to make hundreds of them. :) Watch out! You might be just getting one. 

Here is my fabric star

I'm thinking about sewing a button to the middle. I think it will look nicer just like the one I got from Finland. I just need to go and buy a pretty button. 

I (heart) NYC!

One of my favorite things about living in Central New Jersey is that I am only an hour and 15 min train ride from New York City. I love visiting the city. I love the energy. I love the shops and restaurants. I love the yellow cabs. I love that I am all alone when surrounded by hundreds of people. I love exploring the different neighborhoods. I just love the city. I think it's beautiful.

Every two months or so, I like to take a day for myself and visit the city. I try to do something new each time. This time the plan was to visit the East Village. So, last weekend, my friend and I took the early Saturday train to the city and spent the whole day exploring. F U N !

First visit was the absolutely gorgeous Marimekko flagship store on the 5th avenue. LOVE it!!

Next we walked (while sipping our ice cold Jamba Juice) to Union Square Green Market where we enjoyed the bounty of beautiful farm fresh items and Finnish rye bread by Nordic Breads . Yum!! And, we almost saw Ted Allen from Food Network. (He was going to be doing a demo on canning, and, although we were interested in seeing him and the demo, we did not want to wait 45 minutes.)

We continued our walk to Washington Square Park where we found a street fair and bought some yummy fried dough, and took a well needed rest.

Our journey then continued to Soho where we happened to stumble upon this crazy looking doorway that was spray painted all over and had the neon orange sign "Kiosk" also spray painted on the sidewalk. I got super excited. I told my friend, "Oooooh! I read about this place. It's supposed to be really cool. Want to go in?" The trusting friend that she is, she followed me through the doorway into the staircase that looked nothing like a cool store nor a place where two young-ish women should have been without bodyguards. As I walk up the stairs determined that I knew exactly where I was going, I kept telling my friend, "It's OK. Just follow me. I read about this online."
And, sure enough, at the top of the stairs was the store called Kiosk. It is not an ordinary store. The items in the store are displayed like in a museum with a cool little description or a story of each item. The items are collected and brought to the store from all over the world. I was able to find few exciting items from Finland. If you are ever in Soho, you should definitely stop by Kiosk. It's super cool store.

After Kiosk, we finally made it to Purl Soho which was one of the main stops of our day. I just love going in there. I always buy something, but just being there is awesome. It was my friend's first time, and I think she fell in love. And, how couldn't you when they have green belt material with white polka dots on one side and white stripes on the other. Sigh!! Beautiful. 

By now, we were starving so we walked and walked and walked through Soho to East Village past BabyCakes Bakery to Ludlow street to have lunch at Katz's Deli. My new favorite at Katz's - brisket sandwich. Yum! Yum! Yum! 

On our way back from East Village and Soho to Penn Station, the day was starting to get darker, but we were still in search for some ice cream and maybe some shopping. We found Haagen Dazs store and had ice cream to keep us going. And, I also got to take my friend to another favorite store of mine in NYC. Fish Eddy. Super fun. Super cute. Super reasonable.

One of the funniest items in the store were plates that said things like "for the love of god stop eating" and "big mistake." LOL!

I bought one of these (pink) for O. So cute!

We had a great day exploring the city even after walking about thousand miles, and we can't wait to go back. And, one of the reasons is that we found this place on our way back. Chocolate fondue. Chocolate drinks. Chocolate desserts. CHOCOLATE.

Oh, how I love this city!