HAPPY THIRD BIRTHDAY

  We celebrated our daughter´s third birthday with closest family and friends.

  Here´s the dress I made for her, just for the occasion:

The dress was paired with medium grey pants, alike the color of the sewn-in belt here, and topped off with a silver necklace she got from her godmother when she was born.

Besides being pretty, the fabric is also stretchy and comfy. The pattern is somehow pressed into the fabric. They can make neat things these days!

I trimmed the neckline with a strip of the same fabric, stretching it a bit when sewing to prevent neckline from drooping.

The belt continues all across the back too.

I could not resist making myself one too! I lined mine from waist down with nude fabric to prevent it from clinging to my legs when I walk. It shows through here slightly, but when I put the tunic on, and wear a nude bra, the color of bare skin will continue all the way down to the hem, and you can´t see the petticoat at all. I also wore grey pants with my tunic.

I asked my talented son if he knew how to make origami balloons. The answer was an immediate "yes", and he started folding paper right away without looking for instructions! I was impressed.

He first made some sort of a cube and then blew it puffy, just like you would a normal balloon. These look quite artistic actually. Really nice!

The most important part of any party, food! First we served a main course of vegan spaghetti bolognese with small veggie bites on cocktail sticks (a huge favorite among kids!). Then we tuck into this table of strawberries & cream, home made coconut cookies, popcorn, double chocolate cake, and marmalade.

I made gluten-free double chocolate cupcakes for my son and my sister. The recipe was vegan, so it was easy to just switch the regular wheat flour to gluten-free one.

Happy, happy birthday my love!!!

  Funny thing is that, initially I never even wanted kids. Boy am I so glad I thought out of my box and gave it a shot! My life would be so dull and empty without those two awesome individuals! They rock!

CELEBRATE WINTER WITH COOL SNOWFLAKE EARRINGS

  Proud to present to you, the newest aromatherapy earrings! Enjoy and embrace the season in a new and beautiful way, and most of all, enjoy life.

These cute metal snowflakes are adorned with tiny "snowballs" (a.k.a. pearls  =). They complete your everyday look perfectly, making you hip and tuned in with the season. Classic snowflakes are easy to combine with anything, from jeans to blazers. 

For more festive occasions go these bigger and fancier earrings. Rhinestones glisten along with nature´s authentic snowflakes, making the bearer a sophisticated, but fun, classy beauty. Perfect for evening wear, and they go with any colored clothing!

  Add peppermint or eucalyptus essential oil on these earrings, and you feel as cool as you look!

  Both earrings are available on my online shop Nelland Boutique for 20/22e (incl. shipping & handling).

WELCOME 2015!!!

  Yay, the year has changed! Think about it, a whole new year to be happier and more content than ever! What an opportunity!

Wait... let´s see if this new wine is good...

Totally, party on! (For the record, this is my first glass. So don´t blame it on the wine, this is just how I am... life is a party.)

PRE-CHRISTMAS PARTY

  My husband and I rarely go out to parties in town. But the other weekend we did manage to do that, just the two of us! We staid in a hotel in midtown Helsinki, and fully enjoyed grown-up time together. We did a tiny bit of shopping, ate and drank well, laid on the beds being lazy and watching tv with no interruptions, had some wine, and finally went in to the bar downstairs to do some jamming. I met a few of my husband´s colleagues, whom I´d never seen before, and it was so cool getting to know them a bit. You know, to get faces to the already familiar names I´d heard so many stories about over the years.

Our hotel room was right next to the presidential suite, so the view could not get any better than that. (Remember this tunic I made last spring?)

It´s just a shame that at this time of year it gets dark at 4pm, so we could not enjoy this full view for very long. But who cares really, we weren´t there for the view initially!  =)

Learning to take selfies, which I´ve always found narcissistic really. But since everybody is doing it nowadays, it´s probably ok...

Here´s my party look for the evening. I wore a pair of black suede pants with the top (which I also wore a year ago to a girls´ night out).

  The rest of the evening was spent in the restaurant, pub, and bar mingling, dancing, and laughing. We staid up until 4.30am! I can´t even remember the last time I staid awake for that long, let alone in a bar! Good times!

  A night out with my husband, staying overnight in a hotel (with him =), and spending a lazy next morning is what I call luxury. When you have small kids, it is easy to just go by their demands, serving them, and forgetting about yourself. It is crucial to a good relationship to get some time alone with your significant other, preferably away from home. Because you´re not just mommies and daddies, you are also "girlfriends" and "boyfriends" who do have that spark there. And that spark needs to be lit up every now and then to strengthen your love and appreciation to each other. At least that´s how it works with us. The roots of a good family lay in the good relationship between mommy and daddy. It should not be valued less important than the kids´ needs. We should all be equal, kids and grown-ups. That´s what I teach to my kids too.

FUNERAL DRESSES

  We attended a funeral recently. Funerals are never fun, but it is fun to plan what to wear to the occasion. Overall I try to keep a positive mind on funerals, thinking it is the last party thrown to the person, and we´re there to celebrate having known her/him and all the good things shared together.

  In the past four years we have been to four funerals, and I thought it was time to make myself a new outfit. My daughter doesn´t have such dark clothes in her everyday wardrobe, so I knew I´d have to make her something in any case. So why not make matching dresses? She is still so small, that it counts as cute. =)

  Here´s the one I made for her:

Instead of all black, which is too harsh and sad for a little girl like her, I chose a more subtle print in grey and black. The fabric is nicely soft, stretchy, and warm for the weather. Even party wear needs to be comfortable to wear, so one can concentrate on partying, not worrying about clothes.

The pattern is a casual one, not complicated. For example, I also made the Bad Piggies dress with it. Raglan sleeves are always comfy.

To avoid dullness I added pompoms to the hemline. And by a great coincidence I found the same kind, but in larger scale, to my own dress.

Like mother like daughter. We both surfed through the ceremony with comfort, ease, and style! And rose a few smiles on the guests´ faces on the way. =) In addition to that, I eased my own sorrow by wearing aromatherapy earrings with bergamot essential oil on them.

I gotta to use this opportunity to share an idea I came up with for the flower bouquet. I wanted to make one myself to show respect for the deceased. Usually the arrangements are directly from the florist´s, are quite pricey, and don´t last long  (especially now that it´s so cold outside). So my innovative own idea was to make a wreath-based arrangement with a center piece in the middle. Here I chose a spruce twig garland and placed a lantern in the center hole. To top it off I added red roses to circle around the lantern. The whole deal is placed on a plywood round to keep it all together. People liked it, and said they especially enjoyed the calming flicker of the candle flame. This is something I will definitely redo in occasions to come, always altering the design according to who´s being celebrated.

OLD-FASHIONED BABY BLUE DRESS FOR A LITTLE GIRL

  When I design styles for outfits, I don´t need to look through inspirational magazines, movies, or surf the net. The visions rise up straight from my mind. I guess they are combinations of all the images I´ve ever seen and have been registered in my subconscious. This dress is a good example:

A combination of old-fashioned nautical style and -beachwear, made more simple and modern. But in more light and delicate colors, which suit my daughter the best. I love the fact that the dress has little sleeves to protect the shoulders from the burning sun. I prefer using clothes instead of lotions as sunblock.

Two rows of decorative buttons give the garment it´s nautical flavour.

The fabric is pure cotton. I added a slip of contrast color to the hem to give it some detail and depth. But nothing too bright or strong.

The dress closes with a zipper, which is not old-fashioned at all, but is much easier to use than buttons. After all, this dress is for real-world use, not just a decoration.

She loves her new summer dress! And I love her happy little face!

  My daughter wore this dress today at our summer cabin, when we had her godparents and great-aunt come for a visit. The second "occasion" will be the coming weekend, when the schools end. After that party the dress will become a staple play wear, especially when vacationing at our summer cabin. It suits the sea landscape so well!

P.S. The sewing pattern for the dress is from Ottobre Design Magazine 3/2011.  A similar pattern can be found here.

GOLDEN PARTY TOP

  As a stay-at-home mom my life is full of lazy days and hard parties... I wish! But tonight I did get to go out with a friend, without the kids!

  I "accidentally" made myself a new party top this week. =) I say accidentally, because I did not intend to make anything new for the occasion. But during my last visit to the store, this fabric caught my eye. It is perfect for my skin tone, and to be worn year-round in little unofficial parties. How could I have resisted it?!

A cool, crinkled, beige base tinted with shimmery gold. The material is so interesting in itself, that it does not need any gimmicks or hassle around. A plain kimono-sleeved pattern is just perfect to bring it forward.

I paired the shirt with mellow yellow aromatherapy earrings, and added a drop of essential orange oil to set a happy mood for the evening. The golden theme continues in my makeup. On the eyelids I applied shimmery light gold eyeshadow on the inner 2/3 of the lid, and to give depth, greyish brown on the outer 1/3. Blush is beige, and on the lips I used yellow/golden gloss.

  This has been a happy Women´s Day. Women rule!

FIREWORKS

  Each New Year I´m equally excited about fireworks. Both seeing and photographing them. We always get our own, and shoot them at midnight in our yard. Last night I thoroughly enjoyed them once again.
  Here are my best shots (with my ordinary, non-fancy snapshot camera):

This one is my favorite!

YULE FASHION: BALL DROP IN NEW YORK CITY

  This New Year´s  eve I will be wearing a custom made outfit, just for the occasion. I got it finished yesterday, right in time for the party!

In reality this outfit is just another one for the office for Yule time, post X-mas that is. But it works well as a party look for tonight too. The reason I call this "The Ball Drop in NYC" is because of the print in the fabric. It is just perfect for New Year! In fact, I bought it over a year ago because I fell in love with the sky scrapers pictured. I´m a nature gal, but like a bit of city too. In my youth I lived in New York for a while, and this dress reminds me of those awesome times too.

The sketch. Like often, this dress looks better in real life. More interesting I might say. But it is sooo important to have a design in paper to start off by. I wanted to keep the end result more modern, so I omitted the blue ruffle in the hem. On the other hand I did not want this look to be all about modernism. So I added the long pearl necklace, earrings, and a classic satin bow in my hair to bring some good old-fashioned glamour to the look.

This dress has a bolero top. I can take if off if it gets too hot, and continue with short sleeves. Handy!

The dark blue here and there around the outfit brings it alive. The pearls, the nails, the eyeshadow, and the bow in my hair tie the whole together neatly. I made the lining for the dress of the same blue fabric shown in the neckhole. So if I dance hard, it just might show too!

I´m still psyched about being able to sign my work with these tags!

  Instead of hanging out at Times Square, we are having a family party at our home. That includes good company, fireworks, and delicious food and drink of course. What else is needed!?

  Happy and fun New Year 2014!

NEW YEAR`S NAILS

  It seems so soon, but it is time to get ready for New Year´s already! I started by doing my nails.

Time to ditch the red & gold of X-mas, and make way for blue & silver.

The brighter the dark blue, the better. It resembles the night skies of this season, and silver is for the twinkling stars of course.

This chocolate candy brings me good memories of my childhood X-mases. We only stopped eating them right before puking! Good times... but I would not go that far anymore.  =)

  I don´t do fake nails. They look a bit too claw-like to my taste. Instead I do my nails myself, and thus get more variety in my looks as well. Sunday is often my nail day, and I make them once a week, which is enough. I have found that Inglot has good quality nail polishes, that last quite well throughout the entire week.
  Nails are a fun way to play with style and the sabbats!

HAPPY X-MAS!

  Wish you all the best of holidays!
  Here are some glimpses of X-mas in Nelland.

Hyacints are a must every Yule.

I try to remember to eat these during the holidays too...

X-mas morning tradition.

Honey Crunch, my absolute favorite.

Another favorite of mine.

Some more mulled wine...

Everything tastes it´s best outdoors.

It was well worth the trip!  =)

No snow, but party lights look lovely just the same.

The tree turned out beautiful!

Brand new decorations this year.

Our sauna. Built after the WW2.

No electricity in the sauna. That´s what brings a good old-fashioned atmosphere!

Santa made it to greet us!

  Very merry Christmas!