Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all my flickr friends!, originally uploaded by -syko-.

A very quick post to wish you all a joyful Christmas! And a big thanks to Sally who sent me this sweet ornament in our little ornament swap!

Dance my doll

Christmas gift for E 5 years, originally uploaded by -syko-.

The Christmas craft fairs are all over and now I am doing my best to finish a few Christmas presents before I have to put away my studio for the holidays. It will be great with a break!

My 5 year old girl loves to dance to classical music so I made her a drawstring bag from this Japanese fabric. She will also get a new ballet suit, a Grieg CD and the wonderful ribbon wand I got on etsy from ribbonwands. The golden embroidery on the bag says "dansa min docka" (dance my doll), it's from a Swedish song. I think I accidentally put the pandas head the wrong way so she reminds me of a bulldog, but I guess bulldogs can dance if pandas do so... I will show another gift tomorrow!

Happy Santa Lucia Day

Happy Santa Lucia Day!, originally uploaded by -syko-.

Today we celebrate Santa Lucia Day in the Swedish-speaking part of Finland as well as in the rest of Scandinavia. My daughter was one of three super cute Lucias at Kindergarten yesterday so we have already started the celebration :) Tonight we are going to see our town's Lucia step down the stairs of the old dome, it is so beautiful! Finland's official Lucia is crowned in Helsinki. AND it is not raining, we have wonderful winter sun today! I hope it will stay, I have my last fair in Ekenäs this weekend, and it is outdoors. I look forward to do some serious Christmas cleaning next week!

The Lucia on the picture was made by me six years ago. Check out her striped socks!

small news

The syko robot scarf as seen in small magazine winter 07, originally uploaded by -syko-.

I am back after a five day long trip to Helsinki. It was great to be away on what felt like a holiday, even if I was a the fair from 10-18 every day. I left the kids at home and stayed at my sister's place and we had such a great time! Eating out, chatting away, making plans for Christmas...

A month ago I got this letter from the editors of small magazine, they wanted to feature my robot scarf in the winter issue! So here it is in good company, I am so proud! The pictures and graphics and the stuff displayed, everything is so cool and well made! Please take some time to click your way through it, it's well worth it.

Ornaments for a swap

ornaments for a swap, originally uploaded by -syko-.

In October I thought I would have lots of time to make a few ornaments for a little swap in late November... Ha-ha. Just a few days late these two are ready to fly to their new owners! I hope they will like them! The little house has a surprise behind the door :-) Everything is red and white, my theme song for this Christmas. I like how the angel turned out so now I would like to make her some sisters. But first I really have to finish a bunch of cushion covers I'm working on.

For those of you who are in Finland I would be very happy to meet you at the Christmas fair at the Old Great Square next Saturday-Sunday (1-2.12) at 12-17 here in Turku!

Christmas at home

Christmas curtain detail, originally uploaded by -syko-.

I'm so proud of myself for making these curtains for our kitchen window this morning. It was a great frosty morning and I woke up to see the Christmas lights we put on the balcony yesterday so I got a good start. We are going to have a real old fashioned Christmas this year, twelve people(!) around the table and then you just can't have a poppy curtain in your window, can you? I know it's not even December yet, but I have a Christmas fair next weekend so there won't be much time for decorating. And if there is something I love it is decorating my home for Christmas. Our home is quite a mess usually, I feel I have more important things to do than to run around picking up toys and clothes and stuff, but the month before Christmas I become as much of a perfectionist as someone like me can be. If only the kids would join me, or even play with red and white toys only. It would look so nice....

Making paper bags

Making paper bags Step 2, originally uploaded by -syko-.

What do you do when you want to think green and need something nice to put your products in at craft fairs? You think crafty! It helps out if you have Christmas issues of different home deco magazines from "a couple of years" back. It's simple!

Step one. Collect your mags. Go through them, do you really need to save this issue from 1998? No.
Step one and a half (forgot to take a pic). Cut out the pages and pick out the nice ones.
Step two. Take some red thread and start producing.
Step three. Eco-friendly, cheap and crafty bags!