Crafty Weekend. Mystery Angel thank-you Card.

This weekend was all about relaxing. The weather has gone bad again - it's wet and cold and we've stayed indoors. I've been making cards, cross stitching, reading books, sipping cider and watching The Big Bang Theory and Avatar on telly :) 

I've made 5 folksy cards which I'll show next time in a separate blog post. Additionally I've made a Mystery Angel thank-you card. There is this ongoing Mystery Angel fun play at our workplace, for all teaching staff - someone is nominated to be your Mystery Angel, you don't know who it is and you find yourself receiving all sorts of goodies from your anonymous Mystery Angel. This lasts all working week and at the end of the week the person reveals him/herself if you can't guess who it is. Everyone else is supposed to keep it secret as well. So I've had my Mystery Angel this week and this is a thank-you card for her :)

I keep it simple, just as I like to. The central piece is obviously a card topper with a stamped image of an angel. I really like this Inkadinkado angel design - not too Christmassy yet light and heavenly.

On the cross stitching front line, this is my current project. It's going to be a cross stitched card with a teddy for my colleague's new born baby girl. I started with stitching the pink shades first. It's quick and easy so hopefully I should finish it by Friday.

Reading is what I've been doing a lot recently. A new ordered book arrived last Friday from the Pl online bookstore. It's the most recent book by Corinne Hofmann, a Swiss lady who married an African Samburu warrior. If you don't know the story of the White Masai yet, I strongly recommend that you do so. It's a fascinating story of a white woman becoming a Masai wife and living among her African family. Corinne has written 4 sequential books about her life and this one is the 4th one :) Check Corinne's books on Goodreads website for some more information and English editions. 

At the moment I'm reading this interesting story of Denis Avey - a British soldier who out of his free will broke into Auschwitz to see for himself what atrocities were happening there and who saved a life of a Dutch Jew. 

Well, no more news at the moment. I guess, I'll back to the kitchen now - it's a pie day today and my bf can't wait! :)

St Lucia Day. Nordic Julekuler 51, 52, 53/55.

Hi all! 

So, the day has finally come - St Lucia Day. I'm a great lover of Nordic art and culture and basically all things Scandinavian so I just couldn't miss an opportunity to celebrate St Lucia Day (first time this year!) when Heather came up with this lovely idea of organizing St Lucia Blog Procession. Such fun to prepare for and a great opportunity to share your Scandi-interests with others. Thanks Heather! 

On this special occasion I decided to bake something Scandinavian and it was well obvious it would "Lussekatter" buns. My first try at Scandinavian baking and first baking experience with saffron and cardamon. I used a recipe from the "Scandilicious" book. With the proportions suggested in the recipe, the buns came out very spicy but spicy in a different way than gingerbread normally is as no ginger or cinnamon here. The freshly ground cardamon mixed with saffron gives a powerful bursting flavour to the buns and at first I found it a bit overpowering. 

Then I tried the buns with a bit of butter and some spiced orange jam on top, accompanied by a cup of milky coffee - nice! 

My another make for St Lucia Day are the next 3 knitted balls (by the book of Arne & Carlos - Scandinavian knitwear designers) I rushed to knit those quickly as their motifs fit perfectly into today's theme - "light". Each ball has been given its name by the authors. There is an angel with a candle, a girl with a lamp  (perhaps St Lucia herself ;P) and "the light of the three holy kings" - referring to Epiphany. (Sorry for the quality of the photos - taken when dark outside and so hard to make a good photo in an artificial light. Hoping to change these pics over the weekend for some better ones)

 ("Angel with Candle 51/55)

 ("Christmas Light" 52/55)

("Light of the Three Holy Kings" 53/55)

I even started making St Lucia Christmas cards for today but unfortunately in this pre-Christmas rush I didn't manage to embrace all of it. Perhaps I'll finish them over the weekend and add the photos later on :)

I've been fascinated with the Scandinavian culture for well over 2 years now and I love to celebrate it in various forms of craft - I (cross) stitch, I knit, I paint glass and make cards in Nordic style. It just give me immense pleasure to translate the Nordic theme into many pretty things :)

Now looking back, time to sum things up and here is an overview of the Scandinavian-themed things I created in the past:

 (Some of) My cards:

My cross stitch projects:

(currently being stitched)

My knitting: Julekuler 

(in Norwegian: Christmas balls)

My glass painting:

Pretty much, huh? ;) Hope you enjoyed looking :)

Now, since it's well past midnight in the UK and it's a long day ahead I'm off to bed. I shall be visiting your lovely blogs and leaving comments tomorrow, or I should rather say... tonight. Stay "Scandi-tuned" and thanks for visiting my blog.

God Jul everyone!