tiny happy

the sun hours

The light here is so amazing at the moment. Before we moved here, we mentally prepared ourselves for a few months of serious cold and daytime darkness. But, apart from the first week we were here, most days have been clear and bright. This is at about 11am, in our garden. It's light and sunny, but the quality of light is different to that in NZ. Inside, it's really hard to take photos of the things I've been working on- everything has a sort of white glow. So I'll use that as my excuse for not showing any of my finished crafting.

I have been doing some very slow knitting on this brown hat, having continuous small failures with the things I've been trying to sew, and 'wasting' time watching numerous vintage Kate Bush videos on youtube. She's just so good.

In the evenings, I've been trying a bit of wool embroidery, using these beautiful dyed skeins given to me last year by Caireen, stitching onto a store-bought black scarf. I hope to take a clear photo of that soon. It's a surprisingly calming and enjoyable way to spend the evening.

And Arlo and Keira's project: collecting pine cones that drop onto the driveway.

finlandia

Well, that is the name of the bottle of alcohol we bought from the duty free shop in Copenhagen, on our way here. It seemed appropriate at the time. And when mixed with apple juice, it's pretty nice to drink, sitting outside watching the planes take off and land on a clear night.

But I've been thinking about Finland a lot lately, so I think a trip there might be in order while we're living so close by. I'm interested in the landscape, the seasons, and the shopping. I'm not sure how I would get on with the language though. After looking at Finnish blogs for a while, I decided the multiple 'i's in the words are a lot like friendly snow falling over the writing.

I have long adored the blog puhti (beautiful writing + crafting) and today I received a parcel from Katja with some Finnish treats. Lovely cotton lawn (maybe Liberty?) and some vintage trim. Books for A and K (my favourite from childhood) plus a Moomin print for their wall. It's called 'Comet in Moominland.' Thank you Katja! If I had a guitar, I would sew that embroidered ribbon onto the strap. But until then it will make a good headband.

Here are some Finnish sites that I love to visit. Happy weekend to you!

hel-looks

designed-in-finland (textile)

puhti

merruli

only shallow

liivian talossa

pot of rose tea

for the coffee

I decided that our coffee plunger needed a winter outfit, for these chilly mornings. So I made this one for her from that lovely Liberty cord Charlotte sent me, some dark brown wool and thick green gingham as backing. I added a layer of flannel inside, and two vintage buttons with little elastic loops for fastening.

Altogether pleasing. And it really does keep my strong black coffee warmer for longer. Clearly, I'm all about the little things.

I'm looking forward to doing some warmer-weather sewing in the near future. Marcelle very kindly sent me a pattern this week: it's New Look 6725 (she sent it after I admired hers) and has some nice tunic tops and a dress design inside- and I think that making something like that with nice summery fabric will be very good for my mood.

And some very good news this week is that my dear friend Helen is back blogging again after a break. Visit her at  stripy sock studio for some colour and inspiration.

grey outside, fabric inside

Bit of a grey day today. Lots of thick clouds hanging around, with that nearly-snowing-but-not-quite feel to them. It just rained all day instead.

So I sewed some coasters. I know they're not the most exciting things, but we really needed them. The tables in this house we're staying in are really lovely- not the kind you'd want to get watermarks on. And there's always a cup of hot tea or coffee sitting around somewhere. These are backed with brown wool flannel. And besides, i had some (more) great fabric to play around with, because a package from Melbourne arrived...

full of Aunty Cookie goodness. Amazing handprinted fabric, cards, badge, a print. Thank you Shannon! I'm feeling warmer already.

double-points

I've started knitting another hat- this time from some dark brown Norwegian wool, and using the 'Last Minute Purled Beret' pattern from Knit and Tonic. I really like the design (I first saw it beautifully made in Noro yarn on Emma's blog), and lord knows, it's hat weather around here. I figured that because the design was called 'Last-minute', I should be able to finish it this winter. Hopefully.

While thinking about knitting, I also found a wonderful pattern for a hat with earflaps (along with lots of other great patterns)- designed by Kirsten Kapur of Through the Loops. The design is called 'Thorpe' (scroll down a bit- it's on the right-hand side under 'Free Patterns'.) I think I might try this one next- it will be a good excuse to practice crocheting an edge, too.

I'm enjoying doing a bit of knitting in the evenings, even though I'm forcing myself to use slippery double-pointed needles (I feel more comfortable on straights but i know it's silly to use those for hats.) The other day in the grocery store, I noticed that circular and double-point needles were hung up near the checkout in that bit where all the chewing gum and chocolate is lined up. That's pretty great, isn't it? Just for those 'oh phew, i almost forgot my size 6 circular!' moments.

Here we have a plate of naan breads I made tonight (okay, Tom kneaded and rolled the dough. He's good like that.) I was cooking some rice and a lentil curry for dinner, and just happened to be looking at blogs at the same time (ha) and came across this post at angry chicken and knew I had to have some naan. I have tried making these in the past, but I think the recipe linked to here was far superior because I remember my previous effort being a bit disappointing. I used this recipe and halved the measurements, because we I was worried about running out of flour. It made about 7-8 breads though which was perfect. Also, I skipped the rising step due to lack of time, and fried them in a hot frying pan instead of a grill, and they worked out really nicely. I rubbed some chopped garlic and butter on the cooked naans just to add to their health-giving properties.

Lastly, here are some pictures from a walk we took yesterday in the last of the afternoon light. We went to the end of the peninsula near where we live, and it was beautiful, rocky and dramatic. The kind of rocks that look like whales sleeping near the shore. The kids paddled a bit in the ice-cold sea with their snow boots on.

 

kindness from far away

On Friday afternoon Tom brought home from school a package from New Zealand. Inside: such lovely things to help us feel more at home here in our new house. Thank you, dear Charlotte. She sent this amazing 50's suppercloth, one of her butterfly gocco prints for our wall and the most excellent 'daisy mould' cake tin. Still in its original packaging! How did she know that we didn't bring a cake tin with us? (She also sent us a teatowel and a perfect lemon-yellow milk jug- I think she could be psychic.) She sent six balls of the yarn above, in soft heathery colours- each with the purchased date hand-written on the label: 1962.

Some special fabrics to add to my fledgling collection: the piece on the left is a lovely soft brushed cotton. And she even included some of her precious Swedish linen (the apple print.)

This is fine Liberty cord. It could be my most favourite thing in the package. It has me dreaming up bags to make from it (don't you think it would be perfect for walking through Norwegian woods?), and, even better, planning secret weekends away to the Liberty shop in London. Sigh.

searching for birds

In the morning: a bird over the fjord.

In the afternoon: hoping she'll follow the breadcrumb path to our garden.

early mornings in the kitchen

This week, Tom's brother Nick and his girlfriend are staying with us before they embark on a new job in the UK. I'm really enjoying having them around, as they are both gentle and warm people, and seem to be happy enough spending their days here the same way that I do: reading, knitting, drawing with the children, walking in the woods and sitting around drinking coffee.

They've come here for a bit of rest, too, after a long year working demanding jobs. So in the mornings while they're sleeping, A and K have been enjoying dreaming up possible 'party ideas' for when they wake up. Yesterday, they had the idea for a 'waffle party', so we spent the morning setting that up. It's a wonderful time to be in the kitchen, because we can watch the sun come up slowly through the glass doors.

I feel very European making and eating waffles. We never made them at home back in NZ but a good friend of mine who came from Austria would always make them when we visited, so they remind me of her. We like them with yoghurt and fruit, or butter and jam.

And I have been experimenting with my lovely new Bernina machine. To start off with, I made a mat for our kitchen table, so we could put hot plates down on it. I used some vintage cotton from Emily and some dark brown corduroy I brought from home. I also faced it with thick flannel for extra thickness, and did a wee bit of machine quilting around the edge. It feels nice to be sewing again.

 

a winter table

It doesn't seem like long ago that the children and I were setting up a little table in the entrance of our old house laden with things from the park and our garden that reflected the summer we were experiencing. So, it made sense that we set up a winter table last week in celebration of this amazing northern season.

I packed away a little collection of my favourite cards, drawings and letters to bring to Norway and found that a few happily fitted the winter theme. (Thank you, kind bloggers who have sent such lovely things to my letterbox in the past.) The card on the right is an Applehead collage/drawing by Marianne that I adore:

It was snowing when we made this display so the children gathered together some pinecones (different from the ones we know), twigs and branches for the table. We've since added some pieces of moss and lichen that we found fallen from trees on our walk yesterday.

And the tablecloth underneath? It's my first piece of Norwegian-embroidered linen. (After that I found my second piece in the basket of fabrics from Emily.) Tom bought it for me from a small antique shop he found near his work. It's so perfectly 'here', if you know what I mean.

I love it.

lunch, and a sewing machine

Over the weekend we were lucky enough to have a visit from Emily and her lovely family, who caught a 2-hour train from Oslo to bring us lunch. That's no mean feat with two small children, especially when, along with the cooked lunch, you're transporting a stack of kid's books, a basket of fabric, and...

a mint condition, beautiful (but quite heavy) Bernina sewing machine.

I can hardly believe it! I am still slightly shocked that someone I didn't know at all was willing to travel to our house and spend their Saturday with us. And cook us lunch (an amazing whole-baked salmon and vegetables). And share their books, fabric and spare sewing machine with us. I can't think of a warmer way to introduce a new family to Norway. Thank you, Emily.

A and K were very excited to play with their new Norwegian friends. And I loved chatting with Emily and her husband, and playing hide-and-seek with the small ones. An altogether perfect day.