Happy holidays!

Merry Christmas to you all. I hope it will be relaxing and fun!

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Nyt meillä alkaa joulun vietto. Rauhaisaa, levollista ja hauskaa joulua!

Early gifts

I got some really classy gifts from some dear friends

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Jotkut lahjat vaan ovat yksinkertaisuudessaan niin tyylikkäitä!

Stripes part 2

Here comes decorating with stripes, part 2. I made these big 'Christmas candies' from cardboard roles with some white paper and red masking tape.

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Lisää raitaa, jatko-osa: Superhelpot joulunamut syntyivät pahvirullista, kopiopaperista ja punaisesta teipistä!

Stripes part 1

This Christmas will be striped! I've been making these crocheted ornaments during the evenings for some weeks now and start to have quite a collection. I will give them as presents to friends and save a few for the tree.

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Tänä jouluna meillä on raidallista! Olen virkannut näitä raidallisia joulupalloja iltaisin telkkaria katsellessa ja nyt niitä on jo mukava kokoelma. Annan lahjaksi ystäville ja säästän muutamia kuusen koristeeksi.

140 years of Arabia

This blue and white plate series illustrated by designer Johanna Kunelius has been designed to celebrate 140 years of Arabia porcelain factory. The plates are meant for every day use and each one is named after women who have worked or currently work for the company. Plates are available separately or in the set of eight.

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140-vuotias Arabia juhlistaa merkkipäiväänsä julkaisemalla niin herkullisen lautassarjan, että saatan sortua ostamaan pari heti uuden vuoden kunniaksi. Lautaset on kuvittanut muotoilija Johanna Kunelius ja kuvitukset on tehty Heikki Orvolan 24h-lautasiin. Jokainen sarjan lautasista on nimetty Arabialla työskennelleen tai työskentelevän naisen mukaan. Lautasia voi ostaa joko yksittäin tai kahdeksan kappaleen settinä ja kaupoissa ne ovat heti alkuvuodesta. 

Easy cardboard mobile

Here is a DIY-mobile suitable for any season. It's made from geometric cardboard shapes that are attached with strings to two plywood sticks. You can find the instructions for the cardboard ornaments in here. When the ornaments are done, drill holes to plywood sticks (ends and middle) so that you can pull the lines through and hang the geometric shapes. 

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Tässä on joka vuodenaikaan sopiva mobile joka on myös helppo toteuttaa. Ohjeet geometrisiin muotoihin löytyvät täältä ja niitä voi tehdä omien väri-ja muotomieltymysten mukaan. Itse teki mieli tehdä tällä kertaa pinkki. Kun pahviset kappeleet on liimattu kasaan ja niihin tehty ripustuslangat, tarvitsee vain porata reiät vareristen keppien päihin ja keskelle. Sen jälkeen muodot voi ryhmitellä haluamallaan tavalla ja solmia kiinni pujottamalla langat reiästä ja tekemällä kunnon solmun kepin päälle. Keskimmäinen lanka kiinnittää samalla kepit toisiinsa ja toimii ripustuslankana. Ja ta-daa, valmista tuli!

Love for paper

Beautiful wrapping papers, gift tags, posters and more at shop called Oi Paketti.

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Oi Paketti on pieni suloinen nettikauppa joka myy kaikkea ihanaa paperista, kuten lahjapapereita, kortteja ja teippejä. Paketoijan paratiisi!

Pastel cameras

Lovely wooden toy cameras in pastel colours by Twigcreative.

Tray tricks

It's easy to be a tray designer these days. Poster Please offers a service where you can make a round or rectangular tray from your own photo. It's very simple: Just send in your photo, choose a shape and size and the tray will arrive in the mail. Great present for friends and family.

Winter's saviour

Vitalis cream saves my dry winter skin. I also love the product's beautiful tin designed by Paola Suhonen.

Knitting season

I only knit during the winter so now is the high season. In just three evenings I made these super nice and easy caps for the kids. You can find instructions for the cute hat by Tiina in her lovely blog Muita Ihania.

Mhy's new colours

Muuto's Mhy-pendant lamp has now two wonderful new colours, pale pink and mint green. The only place to get these fine colours at the moment is Finnish Design Shop. Now it might be the time to let Mhy move in to my house...

Christmas by Polka Jam

Polka Jam has nice new postcards and an online Christmas calendar in their shop with special offers each day!

Let's wrap!

All these beauties are wrapping papers. You can buy them from Wrap which is also a super good looking magazine introducing the very best in illustration and design. Every issue also includes sheets of wrapping paper from most talented illustrators at the moment. The latest issue is inspired by the Nordic countries and  many Finnish illustrators such as Janine Rewell and Klaus Haapaniemi are well represented in the magazine.

Mr.Printables

I keep introducing more Advent calendars since it's the hot topic this time of year. If you don't know the site called Mr. Printables yet, now it's time to take a look. They have a great printable calendar and many other DIY-paper projects -and it's all free!

Herschel bags

This is one of those 'dear Santa, please bring me...'-things. The classic rucksack by Herschel is on the list!

Soon we start counting !

Today I fixed our other Christmas calendar ready for December. I found this cardboard house from Dutch by design last year and it happens to have just perfectly 24 boxes. Originally, it came without numbers but today I made small numbers to each box with rubber stamps. Boxes will contain candies, stickers and other small surprises.

Fingerprints by Anu Tuominen

Anu Tuominen is one of my favourite Finnish artists. She collects everyday objects such as knitted socks, wooden utensils, school crafts and potholders, traditionally thought as women's crafts. In her work, she re-organizes her findings and makes interesting installations combining used and new and powerful colours. Ordinary and familiar turn into something new.

Anu Tuominen: Fingerprints, The Craft Museum of Finland in Jyväskylä, 31.5.-2.12.2012

Winter in Mongolia by Alexi Lubomirski

Absolutely gorgeous photography by Alexi Lubomirski in December issue of German Vogue. Styling by Christiane Arp.

Found via Trendland

24 days

This no news anymore, since this room shaped Christmas calendar was published last year. However I never did get one, so I was pleased when I saw it in the bookstore again this year. Now I have a Christmas room of my own and it sure is pretty!

Made by Muku

Nice clothes in great earthy tones for both mothers and children made by Lithuanian design duo Muku.

Wishing for wood

If I would be Santa shopping for me, I would do all the Christmas shopping at cb2.com. I found several nice things there like Hanno the gorilla (1), Bruno task lamp (2), shuffle calendar (3) and Ben holiday house (4). And good news is that Cb2 now ships to Finland too (unfortunately the shipping is still quite expensive, so might be better if Santa gets all in one package....)

Keep me warm

It's getting cold and I'm dreaming of this Tammela-winter jacket by Globe Hope. It's made of old army sleeping bags so it must be warm...

Raw beauty

November is usually ruthless with endless rain and cold winds. It is also my month. I was born in November and I have always loved the beauty of nature before it surrenders to winter. Shades of brown and grey can be so pretty and so calming.