Happy New Year!

I wish you all the best for 2009!

Let’s finish the year with some pictures of our new year’s eve dinner – home-made sushi =)
Delicious!

Hanging Bed Organizer

For my brother’s birthday I did sew a hanging bed organizer, following a tutorial on Sew,Mama,Sew! by Beth. Great tutorial! Very easy to follow with a great result! And the best is, that not a lot of materials were needed.

It was the first time I used seam binding and I have to admit I like the result. It is really an easy, no-hassle way to finish up all the seams.

I used fabric by Ikea and I really like the way the pattern worked out – it wasn’t that easy to get a bird with all its plants to the center of the organizer. =) My favourite though is the right pocket with the flowers coming out of the side seam.

I used a non-skid rug pad from Ikea, though not the standard one but the felted one as it appeared to be easier to work with. And it worked fine.

To know for sure if it really doesn’t slip with a heavy workload, I’ll have to ask my brother in a few weeks from now. See you then.

Getting Organized

Taking inspiration from Anna Maria Horner’s wonderful Blog I started to organize my sewing threads in glas jars (purchased @ Ikea).

I’ve still only got enough of them to half fill three of those big jars, but I am getting there

Hobo Bag

Finally, it’s done! I finished my hobo bag (tutorial by jcaroline creative!) =)

With all the Christmas crafting to be done I had to put it aside for a while but some days ago I had a few hours to sew and quickly finished the bag.

P.S.: The next project is already chosen: The Hip Mama Diaper Bag by A Mingled Yarn. I’ll use it as a normal messenger bag though – no diapers to carry around for me

A Look Back: Christmas Crafting (4)

Felt snowflakes, created following the tutorial by purl bee. The tutorial is great – so beautifully presented!

A Look Back: Christmas Crafting (3)

Aren’t they just lovely? Following a tutorial by applehead I created two little felt boxes to hold a few small gifts for friends of mine. They are quick to make and the instructions are very clear. And I really, really like them. I think I’ll make a few for myself too To hold my threads or so…

A Look Back: Christmas Crafting (2)

I just realised I don’t have a nice, non-blurry picture of this but I’ll show one to you nonetheless. Just ignore the quality of the picture – I really liked the idea for a fabric ornament by whip up and had to produce my own one. So easy to make and looks really nice! The post on whip up includes a great tutorial with step-by-step instructions accompanied by lots of pictures!

A Look Back: Christmas Crafting (1)

Now, after everyone received their present a little look back at all the crafting done for Christmas.

First of all, for a friend of mine that collects thimbles I created little felted bags to hold the thimbles I collected all over the world over the last year.

First I cut out little stars, then little squares to hold the stars in a contrasting color and then a rectangle in the star’s color for the bag. I then sewed the star to the square and the square to the rectangle. I did sew the rectangle together along the long sides and closed the top with decorative garn closed with a bow =)

Merry Christmas

I wish you all a very merry Christmas and happy holidays! =)

Korvapuusti & Cupcakes

Remember when I told you about the Finnish speciality I tried at an international dinner party? The korvapuusti, a kind of cinnamon / cardamom bun were my favourite that night and I vowed to make them myself one day.

Well, I did. And completely forgot to take any pictures… We were all too occupied eating them…

I can just recommend again this recipe: Finnish speciality – korvaapuusti by On the way. I followed the instructions and it worked beautifully! So tasty – especially warm out of the oven!

I also tried another recipe over the weekend: Apple Banana Cupcakes from Barbara on Allrecipes. I altered the recipe a bit after reading the comments on Allrecipes. I substituted the shortening with butter and the buttermilk with vanilla yogurt. I also added finely chopped walnuts for a bit of a crunch. And I didn’t shred the apples but finely chopped them.

The cupcakes were delicious! Very tasty and moist. And I think the walnuts added that extra bit of yumminess