Pick your favorite X-mas DIY by Anu Harkki

Today I will take you to the home of Anu Harkki. She is full of ideas and talent so you will find out few good ecological gift ideas and wrapping tips. I also photographed her animal family. She has horses, sheeps, dogs, cats, chickens, rooster and of course so adorable mini pig Bruno. Well, I don't know how mini he really is...haha. I photographed this story to Finnish ecological lifestyle magazine Huili but here you can see something that you didn't see in the magazine, so come along!

To me the best thing in X-mas is the time befre it. Why? I love the feeling of excited waiting. I use to buy a lot of things and planned my presents well but nowadays I don't do it so much any more. I think we have already too much things at our homes. When I buy something it have to be something that can be used or enjoyed or something that the person have hoped for and I prefere handmade and design by talented people. I try to avoid random somethings for X-mas present. That is not my thing anymore. Ok, two thing is what I can't resist. Vintage and handmade. 

Let's get back to DIYs. I will show you first candle present by Anu.

She has used the original box of candles - without package plastic - and made it pretty with washitape. Then she used thin natural colored silk paper and some cotton string, brown cardboard and old key with crystal. Voilá. Looks quite nice, doesn't it! And everybody use candles. 

How to make Granola + X-mas present DIY Jar

X-mas in my mind. I have planned so many times to make granola...almost a year...that means also I'm not the first one who blogs about it. Actually I'm quite late, haha but still I decided to make a suggestion for you. Make a lovely DIY X-mas present for your beloved ones. There aren't anything that one can throw to the trash bin. You can eat the granola, use the glass jar in your kitchen as a storage item and making granola is easy.

There are plenty of choises you can make your granola. I made it of those I've written on the picture. But I added only dried figs after I had baked granola in oven. You are free to choose your favorite berries, and fruits. But be careful that you don't burn your granola :) I did it once because I had too high temperature in oven. You don't want to do it because all those precious almond and other peanuts and seeds aren't cheap and of course I use organic products.

You can decorate your glass jar with handwritten text. I used Illumigraph pen. You can always wipe it off. It's waterbased pigment ink. You can decorate your jars, windows etc. with it. 

Illumigraph pen is great tool to make DIY X-mas decoration like Anu Harkki in new Huili magazine did. I actually went to photograph her lovely X-mas present DIY's and you can see all those ideas in the newest Huili magazine. Huili is THE Finnish ecological lifestyle magazine. Only in Finnish but you can always see the pics :) 

This week I also took part in Sugar Helsinki blogger X-mas evening. And look what I got! So adorable small X-mas tree. It's a perfect decoration for my workspace. Thinking of decorating it but somehow I like it as it is...small and pure. Will see what I do. It can be planted too but to do that I have to keep it alive through winter. It is sponsored by PEFC Finland.

I will get back to Huili magazine in my next post.

But now I wish you a beautiful weekend my friend!

xo

Kreetta

DIY - X-mas Calender Cube

I get bored easily. I like to find new ways to do things like traditional X-mas calender. December had already started and I didn't have a good idea for it. I was thinking that it would be great not to buy anything but still have surprising X-mas calender. I couldn't totally avoid buying new things. Actually my idea came after I had bought Dymo. But remember you don't have to buy it for this DIY X-mas calender - you can write the words even with basic pencil or what ever you have at your home.

We have these wooden cubes because I have another DIY on process. Or being truthful - I haven't even started yet, haha. The cube doesn't have to be clean and wooden, it can be what ever cube you find from your home or you can make it from cardboard box or from paper in origami style. The most important thing is what you write on it. 

So this is how it goes. I decided that because we have been together about 10 years it's nice to go back a bit and remember the times we met and life together. I chose the words kiss, hug, memory, poem, dinner and my husband chose a word purple. The cube has 6 sides so only thing I had to do was to print with Dymo the words and glue them to the cube. Ready. And the rest is about your imagination and memories and acts. We have only one cube so every other day is his or my turn. These things goes to both directions so I think it works better with shared cube.

If you have kids and you are making DIY X-mas calender cubes for them you can choose things that you think are exciting and great with your children. Baking together, reading a fairy tale, going out and have ice cream - what ever you have in your mind and what works best in your family. 

So the most important thing with this DIY is what happens when you use it. A good time with your beloved ones. I hope you find this worth to try! Now I'm a little bit late with this, I know - but maybe next year! And today I got the word dinner...so I guess, I know what I'm doing today, haha. 

Have a lovely Sunday!

xo

Kreetta

 

X-mas Calender Day 6

I'm sure you remember how exciting it was to open X-mas calender for 24 days. This year I made my X-mas calender on my blog's Facebook page. I will reveal one piece of the pic every day. Some might think it is childish but I think it's good to have a little bit funny habits - we can have fun as adults also, don't we?  I've made one DIY X-mas calender two days ago but you will hear about it later this month after I've photographed it. 

I hope this year you and your family have lovely X-mas time together and I hope no one have to stay in the kitchen too long time and feel tired of cooking. Or spend too much time with X-mas shopping. 

Less is more.

Today we are also celebrating our independence day in Finland. My husband and I are going to have a lovely gathering with our old friends. It's great to see them. We should see more often. And finally I want to have a silent moment for one person who has changed the world. Nelson Mandela. Rest in peace.

xo

Kreetta

Handmade presents - one coming up - Käsintehdyt lahjat valmistuvat

You might have the same phase at the moment as I. You might feel happy that you've made present for your beloved one that you also really like! You can't wait to hear does she/he like it! I guess giving presents is more exciting than getting one. I'm already counting the days.

Omat lahjat eivät jännitä ollenkaan niin paljon kuin ne lahjat, jotka olet itse tehnyt ja odotat innolla tai kauhulla mitä saaja niistä tykkää! Hitaasti mutta varmasti ovat lahjat melkein kaikki jo paketissa...ja siitähän sitten se varsinainen jännitys alkaakin.

I got inspiration of course from Pinterest. Ideas comes and goes and we are recycling the most of them again and again. But everytime the idea gets something new with different maker.

Ideat kiertävät ja polkupyörää ei keksitä uudelleen mutta toteutetaan kyllä monella eri tapaa. Inspiraation tähän kangaskassiin löysin Pinterestistä. 

Season's greetings - Työn alla joulu