Holiday Stocking Stuffers

It's that time of year again. It's the season of indulging in holiday meals (hello, mashed potatoes!), sharing gifts with loved ones, attending holiday parties, and enjoying quality time with friends and family. When it comes to holiday gifts, that old saying that the best gifts come in small packages rings true. I love stylish accessories, beauty products, and jewelry as stocking stuffers because they allow the recipient to add a special finishing touch to their look. Whether it's a furry pom pom bag charm, a personalized pendant, or an animal print scarf, there are endless gifts that exude personality and charm (like this cute cat mug for $20) without draining your wallet. Below are ten of my favorite stocking stuffers under $130 plus other options under $35.
Holiday 2015 Stocking Stuffers gift ideas, holiday 2015 gift guide under $150
1. Smashbox 'step by step' contour kit, $45
2. Toms 'Dalston' 52mm sunglasses, $78
3. Wool blend beanie, $12.99
4. Kate Spade initial pendant locket necklace, $68
5. Faux fur pom pom charm, $15
6. Bow sequin pouch, $9.99
7. Artemis ear crawlers, $50
8. Animal print scarf, $6.99
9. UGG suede gloves, $79.99
10. Fit Bit activity and sleep tracker, $129.95
More ideas under $35:
$28.00
$20.00
$24.00
$25.00
$8.00
$10.00

MIDSUMMER SAUNA

The sauna is among the most Finnish things there are. The word sauna itself is a Finnish word. You have the midsummer sauna, Christmas sauna, bridal sauna, the Saturday evenig sauna and the regular everyday sauna as well... Most Finnish summer cottages and cabins will have a separate sauna, and many old apartment buildings has a mutual one, while new apartments tend to have their own small saunas next to the bathroom. I've never been that much of a sauna goer at home really, the sauna at my parents' house was mainly used for drying clothes in . We have a weekly sauna hour in our building that we sometimes manage to make it to. I mostly just go to the sauna when at the gym.

But being in a wooden sauna on an island or by the lake, being able to jump right into the water straight from the heat, is a different thing. This midsummer when out in the archipelago we heated the sauna, which I haven't actually bathed in for a few years, in spite of sleeping in the sauna chamber every time we are over at the island.

The sauna window view.

When we were small gathering pine cones was one of our "duties". It works as a spark together with the wood when you heat the sauna (or any other fire; we mainly collected these for heating the house.)

I like a more mild sauna that is max 80C hot, preferably just a bit over 70. But  it is often heated above that, up to 100 degrees celsius.

(There used to be sauna championships where the contestants tried to out-sit each other in the heat, with very high temperatures. Some years ago one finalist died, while the other got really sick and was in a coma for a long time. That's insane.)

The sauna is something pretty much every one here has grown up with.  Babies under 6 monhts are not recommended to bathe in the sauna though. Kids usually sit on the floor, as the heat is lower there. Women actually used to give birth in the sauna back in the days (it was the cleanest space).

My first plunge for the year! The water was only +12C. That's cold, but it has been colder than usual so far this year.(The sea usually gets around 18-19 in summer, but it can be over 20C as well. It depends not only on the weather but on location as well. Some days during good summers the sea has hit temperatures around 27-28C. Lakes tend to be warmer. In Southern Carelia at my grandmothers cabin the water is often  around +25C.)

Where the harbour opposite of us is, there used to be an island, just in front of the mainland. They blew it away.

Midsummer flowers in newly washed hair.

PART-EY

This year I left out on all of the Valborg- and First of May celebrations and partying. For the first time in my life actually; I have been out in the park on this day since my first ever Vappu as a little baby with a big balloon in a pram! (A couple of years ago it was Dag's turn to be that First-of-May-baby).

It is the biggest carnival day of the year over here (I will leave out any wikipedia and other wonderweb links this time, but they are out there en masse), so it feels a bit odd to just stay at home and do
nothing. Not a drop of mead or bubbly, no crumb of funnel cake or sugar donut, (which is what is usually had on this day. Although that was mostly since I did not make it to the store in time.) To be fair to myself htough; I have not been doing nothing-nothign -last night I held a pilates practice class I have a show to do tonight. It is also pretty cold out there today too, which have not stopped me past years but today I did not feel like putting 'freezing my derriere off' on the agenda. (And every time I think about things like this it feels so strange that I worked outdoors by the sea for twelve years. Shiver. How did I really manahe that.)
However, tomorrow I'll drop the calm vibes and head out to throw and host and perform at our very own recurring club in Café Mascot! This time: Leopardiklubi; leopard themed in honour of the International Leopard Day (which is really just a day for wearing leopard print, although you could of course take a moment and think about and perhaps donate and help endagered felines too).

So if you've been out there for two days, HANG IN THERE until tomorrow and see you at Mascot!

Photo by me.

EASTER IMPROVISATIONS

Easter came and went and I had lots of chocolate, pasha and red wine!

As usual I did not really decorate at home other than with last-minute flowers.

And pussy willow branches.

A lot of them; Eddi went out and got a bunch for the kids- which they need for the Easter witch tour - and got a little too many (add " and ") so I filled all the vases we have, both big and small, with branches all around the house. Instant Easter-feel.

Pussy willow branches are a part of the tradition here, where kids go around houses begging for candy and in return hand over a decorated branch, wishing the receiver good luck for the year to come by saying a rhyme. It is a mix of Eastern (Russian Orthodox) tradition and a more western  (the coastal areas of Finland as well as a Swedish tradition) pagan custom about witches flying to Blåkulla (Blockula or Kyöpelinvuori) during this time.

The branches the children hang out are decorated with feather and crepe paper etc. I don't know how I've managed to not do anything about this previous years, but the same morning I realised we had no feathers or other suitable material to pimp the branches with. I had to get a little creative and improvise decorations; I had a set of glitter gift wrapping ribbons left from Christmas which did the trick.

They turned out rather decent. In the back you can see the ones we received that were "properly" done.  Here in the more western parts of Finland kids go on Saturday, whereas in the city we used to (and they still do) go on Sunday. Sunday is the orthodox tradition for good luck and Saturday is the day of the witches. You can read more about it here for example.)

The Easter witch is most commonly pictured flyhing on a broom with a kettle and a black cat. While most kids dress up as witches you can see bunnies and cats too . It is very much like Halloween in that sense, without the tricks.

I had a face painting kit waiting for the kids to make great faces for the walk but I had forgot it at home in the city. More improvising ahead... my make up bag; lipstick, white and black kohl pencil as well as my eyebrow color had to do.

Meoww!
And it turned out pretty good too! Dag's older brother had the bunny hood I made for him some years back which he always wears. I had promised to make Dag a lion ("an Easter lion" - not that it has anything to do with anything at this time of year, but hey, the kid loves lions!) and we had his lion hat and all but as I did not have the brushes or the colours he got to be the witche's cat instead. Which he was happy with in the end. I did some yet more improvising, this time with a muesli box, a black marker and tape and made hime a pair of ears.

Apart from chocolare and the pasha my mother makes mämmi (memma) is a must for Easter. It's actually a rather healthy treat.  Not that all people see it as a treat... I don't have mine the traditional way with cream and sugar but like to have it with something more fresh. This year I had it for breakfast (yes some people think I'm crazy but hey, it's filling and full with fibres and the organic version has no added sugar) together with fresh pineapple and mango and it worked!
I dare any other Finns to try.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Happy Valentine's Day everybody!
I am contiuing with my tradition of something heart shaped.

The roses are not for me though -Eddi is away in South Africa and I apparently have no secret admirers either ;)  but for our students that will receive them after they have performed (for the very first time) at the burlesque debutant ball tonight.

The cholocate however is from me to me.

CHRISTMAS!

Merry Christmas! Which you know still goes on for more than a week! (Officially, over here and in my book at least.) Hope you all are having a good one!

This year turned a splendid one over here, with much awaited snow falling just a couple of days before. We've been out in the countryside and altough it's beautiful and cosy it also gets rather hectic, with dinners and family gatherings and lots of to-do's. The middle days in between Christmas and New Year's have always been my favourite as those contain a lot of taking it easy.





And eating chocolate. And having wine. Plus lighting candles everywhere.


This year I made our Chrismtas tree to resemble the one's the Moomins make when they once wake up at winter and experience Christmas. Dag is a huge Moomin fan, and I am a big fan of Tove Jansson.



The tree has random items like sea shells (I got huge ones from a masquerade shop and cut them a bit smaller and glittered them over the course of a few days) and spoons and cups and pearls. Altough I used pom poms instead of pears.

Instead of a star it has a huge rose on top.

Quite suitably they read the chapter about the Moomins on Christmas on the radio earlier during Christmas Eve.  Here's what the original looked like from the books:

I noticed I have now apparently reached that stage of adulthood (that some have been in all of the time, I know, but not me) where one changes the textiles at home according to season. I made this table cloth for the holidays, consisting of different bits of red-and-white fabrics - X-mas points to the maxxx!

On Christmas Eve my whole family and Eddi's parents came over to us -four generations all-in-all.


My youngest guest -my new nephew- was just two weeks old!

Dag was a little eager to start with the Christmas dinner. (He's too young still to know to be eager for the gifts. Well, that will propably change nexgt year already...)

Then Santa Claus came over!
I remembered being scared of him when I was very young but this year, being the first Dag met Santa, he was very brave and only a little shy when he shook Santa's hand and introduced himself.

He had been a good boy and got lots of toys.

Calm Christmas Day morning.

EASTER-Y THINGS

 Easter and time off! We're spending ours mainly out at the farm (although I will be doing a quick stop back in town on Saturday evening for a show.)

 Right now it's warm enough for no tights and small shoes! Well, for a while at least, on the sunny porch. A few more layers are required still if actually going somewhere...

One of Dag's older brothers bought home Easter decorations he made in school. I put them all on a tray along with his Easter grass and some flowers he picked me himself, as I don't like to spread small stuff out here and there in the house.

Otherwise I don't have any Easter decorations, but I like to buy home lots of colourful flowers for the holidays instead.

(Btw. Most Finnish houses will have an Aalto vase I think. I find it hard to fit anything and look good, but tulips. Tulips will always fall nicely in it.)

And my old test-tubes got some for them as well, and some tiny ones from the garden. Give it a week or two and there will be lots more to tube!

Mämmi in a Moomin bowl, could it get any more Finnish than this?

Mämmi (memma) is an old traditional Finnish dish eaten around Easter that with very little chance will ever be found somewhere else in the world. It is made of rhye and malt and sweetened. I prefer to get the organic version that is sweetened by itself (by letting it sit, sort of), but this year the supermarket was out of it (damn you, likeminded people!) so I got the regular one with molasses. Mämmi used to be such a big disappointment for me when I was little as you kind of expect it to taste like chocolate fudge or so, judging by the look of it. Well the taste is nothing like it; it is rather strong and perhaps a bit bitter too. But I like it! Traditionally it is eaten with milk or cream and sugar, but some spice it up with vanilla sauce or whipped cream, and I heard that a few drops of whiskey on top would be great.

I make my own version and eat my memma with fresh fruits, often apples and bananas, this time with pear and pineapple. And here's a little tip for my fellow Finns, especially those of you who don't consider yourselves to like it; do that, with fruit, and have it with some lemon quark (sitruunarahka)! Woohoo! I mean really WO-HOO!


I bought some big paper eggs to stash candy and eggs in for the kids. My grandparents had old paper eggs like this when I was a kid, and I was happy to stumble upon these.


I had to choose those with the most horrific motifs though. Seriously, does not this bunny freak  you out a little?

(Old easter bunnies -in some ways old anything costume related- do tend to be damn creepy, I mean, have you been around the internet lately?)