Christmas greetings

My DD Kaija has been making matchbox art for her Christmas calender. My long-time readers may know that she is a master bookbinder and a very talented creator of things. Her little treasures have interested other bloggers in different parts of the world, and you can read Kaija's interviews about the matchboxes here at Missouri Bend Studio and on Anca's blog here. This December's 23 pieces of art can all be seen on Kaija's blog paperiaarre, the last box will be revealed tomorrow. It seems that the boxes could become collector's items. That made me think how sometimes the early works of an artist can later be of great value - I have seen a drawing by Picasso  when he was only 8 years old, in a museum in Malaga, Spain. I have some early works by Kaija, and I will cherish them even more carefully now that she has become an artist and not just my daughter. I tried to find her earliest piece of altered art, a tiny box of My Little Pony fruit drops cut open to look like a magazine holder, and filled with notebook sheets cut to size, to be used as very small shopping lists, but I couldn't find it. Here is my collection from the 80's to very early 90's:

Kaija is staying with us for Christmas and I asked her about the origins of these three boxes. The silver one with a chocolate wrapper is very probably by her elder brother, and the big one with red and yellow stickers could also be by him. Anyway, it is a Belgian chocolate box and not a matchbox. The last one is certainly by Kaija. Let's have a closer look:

She has used some treasures of her own to make this beautiful box for me: a shiny sticker with a toaster with one slice of bread, and another sticker with a salt shaker, also with the metallic shine (which made them first class stickers, naturally).

Tacky tape was used to keep the paper wrapping in place. She definitely had her ideas already when she was a little girl. If you jump to her blog and see my favourite box of her present production, you can see the huge development in her skills.

OK, I think I have boasted enough with her qualities and it is time to come back to my real life. Stephanie gave us a good idea for a little gift for someone like the mail carrier here, and for a man here. I combined these ideas to make gifts for our regular taxi drivers:

A mug warmer and a coaster made with flannel plaids form my recycling stash, and a mug filled with portions of instant coffee, cappucino, hot chocolate and tea bags.

Two female friends received the same set but with a more delicious fabric:

I can show one more handmade gift as it goes to a non-blogreading friend:

The gold prints on both sides of the paper-pieced tree of this little table topper are the only "new" fabrics used here(bought in Germany in October), the rest is from my old stash.

Now I will start concentrating on Christmas preparations and my family. I wish all of you a peaceful and joyous time with your families during the holidays. Drive carefully, keep warm, stay safe. Santa is coming from Lapland, Finland, not North Pole.

Merry Christmas!