Merry Christmas

Today is a December day at its best: snow on the ground, no wind, minus 10 degrees and the sun is shining for a little while. No more waiting, it is Christmas Eve, and we get to open the gifts tonight already!

Happy Holidays for all my readers!

December 24 - Christmas Eve

Here ends my Advent Calendar 2017. Merry Christmas and warm thanks to all my readers!

December 16 - Once more Villa Cooper

 When I made the camera tour in Villa Cooper about a week ago, we didn't have much snow and it was early afternoon, so the lights in the garden didn't look like much to see either.

Now we have snow, and this Wednesday when we had our Christmas coffee and glögi party for the members, the place looked magic:

A last glimpse before saying goodbye for now!

December 12 - Toys in Villa Cooper

Christmas is a time for giving, and children receive the most gifts. The talented ladies and gentlemen of Villa Cooper have created unique toys for little ones.

One the shelves are many softies for babies.

The hobby horses or stick horses are a huge success among girls at any age. They have races and competitions, and the phenomenon has been internationally noticed as an example of girl power.

Rag dolls as a fundraiser for Unicef, and octopus softies for babies. These are also made for premature babies and donated to the hospitals.

Welcome again tomorrow to the next room.

December 11 - More of Villa Cooper

We have come to the other end of the dining room. The beautiful cupboard is filled with angels.

Blue wreaths - our theme is Blue and White Christmas this year.

More of the blue and white things. Many of these participated in our "My gift for Finland" competition.

Little Christmas trees for the tree or table.

Fabric hearts in many colours.

To be continued ...

Happy Christmas!

This is the final post of my Advent Calendar this year. It is time to concentrate on the family, traditional foods and celebrations. Drive safely if you need to go somewhere, remember your loved ones, feed the birds, have a rest, read a good book. Thank you all for coming by, thank you for your comments, thank you for being there and writing your lovely blogs. I wish you all a happy Christmas time and best of luck and craftiness to the New Year!

Christmas Market 3 and playing in the snow

So nice to find a place to sit down after a long walk. Maybe she was put here waiting while her parents buy her a toy for Christmas in the stall behind her back.

After skiing and playing in the snow the children have such rosy cheeks, wet mittens and runny noses!

Christmas Market 2

I thought you wanted to see more of the miniature Christmas Market in Jyväskylä.

Here is a craftsman selling traditional items woven of birch bark: baskets on the bench and on the ground, the little girl is wearing shoes called virsut  and in front of the bench is a woven rucksack. the little bundles of twigs are whisks. None of these are really used nowadays except for maybe the baskets, but antique ones may be seen as decoration.

Welcome to Villa Cooper

Some of you have been waiting for this Christmas tour.

The big dining room. This building is on the list of the museum authorities so the lights are about as they were when this was a family home. For a Sunday treat I give you a second picture, the Tiffany glass work and the elves on the right above the fireplace:

Christmas Eve

We have a tiny Christmas tree after all! I added my smallest glass baubles to decorate it with memories.

 

The last window in my Victorian style Advent calendar is open, and this is the end of my blog Advent calendar too. I'll be taking a holiday break and come back after it with new crafty posts. I wish you all a peaceful and happy holiday season!

Christmas tree

... but no snow at sight. The little cabins look almost out of place on the market place in Järvenpää, but their Christmas tree is big and beautiful, especially after dark when the lights are shining.

 

Today is the shortest day of the year, Winter solstice. The darkness lasts for 16 hours and 15 minutes here where I live, and we have 58 minutes of dawn and dusk. At the top of Finland the last sunrise for the year was on November 25th, and the next sunrise will be on January 18th next year. This is a long country! But we'll be catching up rapidly, and in three months our day and night are the same as yours, wherever you are.

Baubles in a jar

No Christmas tree in the house for us this year, so I put my baubles in a big jar.

Welcome to Villa Cooper

It is too dark for a better photo at six o'clock in the evening, but the lights look welcoming. Join me in a little tour in Villa Cooper. This is a home museum but also a showplace and shop of Järvenpään käsintekijät.

 

 

Elves and angels represent the two sides of Christmas.

 

I could think about replacing the traditional Christmas tree with something like this.

 

 

Even the potholders have changed for a Christmas look.

 

Come back tomorrow for more pictures from Villa Cooper.

Craft Olympics - all my thimbles

Finally the secrets are revealed, Christmas gifts opened and I can show what I have been doing to get all those thimbles from Melanie's Craft Olympics. My first thimble was for a secret knitting project, toe to top two at a time socks for my daughter Kaija, and the rest of the yarn was enough to make wrist warmers for her busy hands. The yarn is hand dyed Araucania yarn from Lentävä Lapanen, the Flying Mitten knitting cafe, very lovely to knit. I'm also beginning to learn the idea of the toe to top heel!

 

 

 

The yarn was so lovely I bought another skein and knitted socks and wrist warmers for my daughter-in-law-to-be as well.

Second thimble is for this stitchery, where I learnt some new stitches.

 

My third thimble came with this Granny Square quilt I made for my sister, who is a granny. The grey and pink outer rounds of the blocks are from our Granny's old summer dress.

 

All the fabrics came from my stash as usual, and 90 % of them are recycled garments or bed linen.

My fourth thimble was a change of plans: I had no time to make the wool applique I had planned. Wreath making is crafty too, so this will be within the rules.

 

The fifth and last thimble was for a new skill, needle-turn applique. The pattern is one of Kaaren's freebies on her blog The Painted Quilt. My work is nowhere near perfection but I could give it another try, hoping for better results and rounder circles. Sorry for the poor quality of the photos, the days are really very short and dark at this time of the year here.

The applique is on the front of this bag I made for Melanie as a Christmas gift for her knitting projects.

The Craft Olympics has been a fun challenge at the end of the year, not too demanding as we could choose our crafts and change our plans during the Olympics. Go to Melanie - she always puts the kettle on when visitors arrive! - and see who else has been a crafts athlete. Melanie has links to all the finished projects on her sidebar.

Merry Christmas

It has been a long and dark Autumn and an early Winter. Not much has been done, but I hope to come back to blog reading soon. Thank you all for coming by, thank you, my special friends, for the thoughtful gifts I have received. Take some chocolate or dried cranberries, or almonds and raisins if you prefer, and smell the Christmassy scent of the hyacinths. Coffee and gingerbread are waiting on the other table.

 

Have a happy and peaceful Christmas!

Craft Olympics 4

Change of plans - my fourth Craft Olympics craft will not be wool appliqué but this Christmas wreath.

 

 

It is hanging on our newly (last Summer) painted wall by the door. The red wall makes a better background to the green fir twigs, and I didn't want to hammer a nail to the new door. The green needles remain fresh for quite a long time outdoors.

 

My last CO project is also finished but it is a Christmas gift so I will show it later. It has been fun making these small projects at the end of the year. Melanie's thimbles are nice trophies for the sidebar.

 

We have lots of snow so Santa's sleigh will have a good chance to reach every house on time next week. Be nice, the elves are watching you!

Merry Christmas

This is the last Advent Calendar post. Thank you for following me through the 24 days of December until Christmas Eve.

Mr. K. brought this tiny tree from our back yard, as I only wanted a tree to place on a table. We decorated it last night, and then I opened the gifts brought by mail. Thank you sweet friends, you know who you are! The gifts warmed my heart. I will be on a holiday break for now but try to find some computer time too.

I wish all my readers a lovely Christmas time and a Happy New Year! Thank you for your visits and comments; let's make nice things together in the coming year.

EDIT Dec. 27th: The above post was supposed to come out on Saturday morning at 8. I'm sorry I didn't notice it as I have been on a break and also having power cuts and no internet at all yesterday.

Christobel the elf girl

Christobel the elf girl has found a perfect place on the round window. Melanie sent her last year for me as a Christmas present, and her place was on top of our fireplace. The problem was that it was a bit too warm for her, and she is such a nosey little girl who wants to see and know everything. From her old place she could only see the back yard, and not even the bird feeder, so there really was not much to see. Here she sits next to our front door, and can see who is coming and who is going in the street, and she can see the sun rise and birds in the apple trees (if she turns her head just a little). Christobel can see the Finnish elves sneaking around behind windows and making notes of the behaviour of the children, and most important of all, she can see when Santa brings his gifts behind our door so we can go and take them in. Santa is so busy that he will not stop at houses where there are no small children, so we will not get a real visit from him.

Place for cards

This is where I put the Christmas cards from friends and relatives. I used to collect them in a bowl, but I really like this mail bag I made many years ago for my parents. It came back to me last summer.

A simple tree with red candles, cross stitch in wool.

Christmas Cards

Yesterday I spent the entire afternoon at the kitchen table crafting. I used three kinds of scissors, lots of glue, rubber stamps and many different papers.

Finally I had the Christmas cards we need. Today I will sign them and take them to the post office. Usually we send self-made cards, but sometimes we buy them from Unicef or the Red Cross, or the children's school fund raising. I think people like home-made cards, and they like making them. In November I was even asked to show a group of young mothers how to make nice cards. It was a fun afternoon, but I didn't get any cards made for myself then as I was busily helping the ladies.

Have you ever made your Christmas cards?