YULE FASHION: THE ELF

  Yule would not be Yule without elves. Santa´s little helpers, who work their butts off for a year, so that Santa has something to give to the nice children of the world.
  The kids and I have searched for elves´ footprints in the snow, but have not yet found any. Perhaps they know already how good we´ve been throughout this year!?

  To show gratitude for their uplifting and good-promoting existence, I made this Yule outfit:

Once again balancing between stylish and costume-ish... but I think I/style won, big time! The shapes of the garments are such common streetwear, that they adapt well to my elf-world without going overboard. I think this particular look brings to life, to reality, a piece of magic usually seen in the movies. Magic that we allow ourselves to believe in, when watching the show. Magic that makes us happy. I love that magic.

The design. Originally I intended to make grey pants with red pom-poms, but reality does not always comply. This time there was no grey fleece available, and they had run out of red pom-poms. One has to be creative. I think the finished outfit is just as good with green pants. Somewhat different and more colorful, but just as good. I´m totally happy.

I´m always curious about side profiles myself, so I want to include it here too. This is often where many market items fail me. They hang loose like a tent. The key is to make the waist tight enough to sit well on the hips.

The headband was actually and accident, I confess. Exactly that length was left over when making the leg hems. I pondered on where to put it, and then it hit me. I had a few extra head bands in my stash, for moments like this, so I first glued the strip on and then hand-sew it in place. I think it is so much fun! The jewellery I made last year.

Finally I can "sign" my pieces with a designer tag! I wrote the text by hand, and had the labels made at Lifestyle with Love. Now my work looks as professional as it feels great to wear. My nine-year-old son was puzzled about the labels and asked why I wanted to add them to my clothes "because now they look store-bought". I took that purely as a complement!  =)

These pom-pom ribbons make the outfit fun. And fun is what dressing up, and life, should be! I banish all seriousness from my wardrobe! The shoes I found over a decade ago in a second-hand store nearby, and could not believe they fit me. I´m a "big-foot" so nothing usually fits me. I don´t know how old they are, but the model was originally designed for cross-country skiing, ages ago. These shoes rock.

  When I wore this outfit for the first time, a few days ago, I had a stranger come up to me in the mall, and complemented me on my style. It was a lady, who said she did some handicrafts herself, and had noticed my leg hems and head piece (I had a coat on at the time, so she didn´t even see the whole outfit). The incident made me so happy! It is so cool to be able to spread good mood and lift up spirits! In return I can live in a happier world. 

"They see you when you're sleeping. They know when you're awake. They know if you've been bad or good. So be good for goodness sake!"

HIBERNATING KITCHEN GARDEN

  Snow has taken over the lands here. It is nearly winter solstice, and I can feel it in my bones too. It is so dark in the mornings that it is difficult to get up no matter what the time is! And so dark again at 4pm, that it is hard to resist the soft comfiness of the living room couch...

Sometimes I wish I could just sleep off the entire dark and cold winter. Like nature does.

My small and humble kitchen garden is covered with snow. It has earned it´s rest after surviving last summer of neglected care... =)

The other day, one of these short and dark ones, my daughter (who loves food) found the last stems of kale still standing up from the ground in my kitchen garden in our back yard. She must have remembered eating them in the fall, because she went straight up to them and took a big fat bite of the frozen and snow covered curly leaf! It was so hilarious. She was perfectly happy for the next ten minutes chewing on the fibrous mouthful. What a cutie. =)

Raspberries are only a faint memory by now.

Think I went overboard with the rabbit fence? Yes, there is a small cherry tree inside, somewhere... We got it from my sister two summers ago, and I´m so terrified something might happen to this tree. It would be soooo embarrasing to kill it!

The only thing alive still in the garden is my compost.

Never before have I been able to keep it going this well at this temperature. Usually it freezes as the snow falls, but not now baby! Outside it is 10 Fahrenheit (-12 Celsius) and on the inside 86 F (+30 C). Yipee! I know it will not last through the entire winter, but the further I can go tossing our bio waste in here, instead of the trash, the happier I am.

Yum yum, food for my kitchen garden in 2015. I´ll take the mass out in the spring and dump it into another bin, where it can further decompose over the winter of 2014-2015 . Then it will be ready to be used as fertilizer in my garden. Honestly, I´m sure my daughter and I produce 90% of this material. The other 10% comes from my husband´s coffee brewing. What is it with the male sex, why won´t they eat their vegetables?!

  Rest in peace, I wish I could too! (On second thought, it is X-mas soon, and I would miss out on all the chocolate, and the excitement in my kids´ eyes before opening the presents, and seeing Santa, and watching "It´s a Wonderful Life" on tv. I take it back. I´d like to hibernate through the dark and cold, but set the alarm clock for X-mas, New Year´s, and sunny days. =)
 

ANGRY BIRDS- TUNIC FOR A TODDLER

  It is not me to imitate. I innovate. But this time I made an exception.

  My daughter LOVES Angry Birds´ Bad Piggies. I don´t know where she got it from, we don´t have the games or anything, but for some reason she is crazy over the Piggies. So what is a mom to do but make her a Bad Piggy tunic/dress?! It is all my own design, but obviously the Piggie had to look like the original Piggie, there´s no way around that. Like this:

Let me introduce to you Ms. Bad Piggie! I don´t know if they have girl Piggies, but I wanted to make one. The expression on it´s face is also something I´ve never seen anywhere, but have drawn on paper loads of times, whenever my daughter has demanded me to draw her a Piggie.

All the materials I used to make the applique are something I found in my stash at home. That´s why the snout has dots, not because the Piggie has caught a disease. =)  I begun by sketching the snout, then the eyes, mouth, eyebrows, and finally the ears. One by one the face took form. When I asked the judge (a.k.a my daughter), she immediately recognized it as a Piggie. So as far as I´m concerned, I did a good job. =)

Although the applique was a lot of work, I still felt like the garment needed something else before it was completed. I had these mini buttons in my drawer leftover from a previous project. What a perfect color match! I added them around the sleeves so that they´d resemble bracelets, sort of.

This bow will be switched to something else after X-mas. I plan to change this detail according to the Sabbat, for as long as this tunic will fit my daughter.

View from the back.

Thank goodness we still let our kids (girls that is) play and have nearly limitless fun with their clothes! We tend to judge grown ups, who wear artistic or playful outfits, as weird or naive or at least mental in some way. Luckily we are still more tolerant with kids. Therefore I dared to add this pigtail in the back of the dress, as a final touch up to uplift spirits. =)

P.S. The pattern I used to make the tunic is from Ottobre Design´s 4/2013 issue.

INDEPENDENCE DAY

  This weekend we celebrate the independence of Finland. It is also my son´s name day. That all calls for a celebration!

  Snow fell just in time to beautify our yard for the occasion:

This is a sneaked a peek to our neighbor´s. We don´t have a flagpole, so I had to "borrow" it from them. Thanks!

Our backyard. An apple tree, gooseberry bush, pond, and sauna.

  I hosted a small and intimate dinner party to our family and a couple of friends.

I set the table with only little decoration. I honor the ending of WW1 and WW2, and there was not much to set on to the table back then.

Pure well water and (less than pure) diet lemon pop for drinks. Diet pop is on the menu for kids because it can be freely consumed by diabetics too.

Salad of course!

My special treat: cold smoked tofu (straight from the market shelf  =). I love it cold, simply sliced, perhaps with some mustard. Yum!

Plain veggie bites for the kids.

Loads of delicious mashed potatoes!

For dessert something I´ve been wanting to make for years: chocolate & prune cake. I soaked and puréd prunes, then seasoned the mixture with shredded fresh ginger, vanilla, and cinnamon, and filled the cake with it. Then I sprinkled small bits of orange marmalade all over, and covered the treat with whipped (vegan) cream.

Shredded dark chocolate gives great contrast on top of the cream. To crown the whole thing, I snapped a twig of juniper.

 After some twists and turns our party ended up consisting of two grown-ups and three kids. Never before have we celebrated independence day together, so this was a lot of fun and kinda exciting!

After stuffing ourselves, we went outside to play and enjoy the party (and X-mas) lights I had put up.

This year I put lights not only on the outside, but also on the inside, of our garage.

In the end of the evening we all built together this lantern of snowballs, and lit a candle inside it. It is still flickering beautifully outside, reminding us of a wonderful day spent together.

   Happy 96th birthday Finland!

PURE HOME FASHION: 100% NELLAND- TUNIC

  This is the first tunic in my Home Collection. The simple reason for a tunic appearing in my homewear is that I can wear it with a pair of leggings, which are just perfect when hopping outside to play with the kids. It is so cold that I always put on warm and thick skiing pants when going outside, and they slip easily over my leggings. Plus there is no need to fold and tuck leg hems inside my boots. Handy!
  But back to the tunic itself:

My own, always a favorite, pattern is perfect for any look. Here I made a camel brown version, spiced up with pale pastels and dark brown. I never wear makeup at home, so my homewear needs to be subtle in color. I have a pale skin and light eyes, so soft and warm colors are the best choice for me "in the nude". =) The skirt hem is too very short, and I would never wear it to work, but at home it is okay. I can be totally relaxed and won´t have to worry about clothes, when wearing this.

Our house was originally built in 1830. We made dramatic extending to it, but respected the old, and kept the atmosphere as original as possible. This wood burning stove for example is new, but made to look like the previous one. My tunic is designed to match our old-fashioned home. How cool is it to be able to custom-make clothes this specificly!? I love it. I have never taken a single lesson in sewing, so I can honestly say to all non-believers that sewing is quite easy, not difficult! Just get a pattern with instructions, and start making your dreams come true!

Who can resist the lively flickering  of candles? Always a must in winter.

Notice the elbow patch, a small but important detail in this overall plain look. There is one on the other elbow too, but made of diffeerent color. I wanted to create a rustic, cute-ish, fairytale-like feeling. Handmade stitches here and there around the tunic also add to that.

The lable is meant to give this garment a potato sack-like feel. (Last spring I made my first version of this outfit, but was later disappointed by the fabric stretching out of limits. =(  But I like this look so much, that I want to keep it in my wardrobe!)

A detail of the ribbon running across the tunic hem.

The jewellery is something I made a year and a half ago, right after having my second baby, but have not yet been able to wear it much. My daughter is still very interested in everything dangling, and would destroy these pieces in a moment! But the time will come when I´m able to fully enjoy my "art"!

GIRLS´ NIGHT OUT

  As Samhain is the party season of the year, we had a "girls´s" night out with my sister and Mom. We met at my sister´s, and gossiped our hearts out while dyeing our hair, doing our nails, and munching on goodies. You know, the usual awesome girl stuff.

  Later that evening we headed to town and hit a beautiful river boat restaurant.

I´m the only one of us who´ll touch something stronger than tap water, so I enjoyed a relaxing glass of sweet perry cider.

Naturally on the menu, as the main course, was dessert. This is a creamy Tiramisu. Instead of going for a drink, we usually opt for desserts.

The view from the boat was fantastic.

I´m wearing my Goth outfit. It is fancy enough for a night out in this cold weather. I only needed to apply a lot some more makeup.

  Our night continued in another bar, but there was nothing special there worth mentioning here. All I can say is that nights like these are far too rare these days. But I´m so glad we do get together like this at least once, if not twice, a year. I´m so lucky to have such a wonderful Mom and sister!