Finnish Christmas

Hullo Honeys!

This day of the year is always one of the busiest, because in Finland we celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve, 24th December. We continue celebrating on 25th and also 26th, but the Eve is the main day for us. Every family has their own traditions of course, but some of then are the same in all Finnish homes.

1. We have christmas calenders, which start on the first day of December (except one specail calender which starts already on the first advent) and every 'window' has a picture, chocolate or a small gift

2. We decorate the house to Christmas spirit

3. We put Christmas lights outside, not super much but still some

4. We bake gingerbread and Christmas tarts, which are specially shaped sweets with plum jam and drink glog

5. We give christmas presents to our family, friends and neighbours and open them on Christmas Eve somewhere around the Christmas tree (or the couch more often)

6. And we also send cards and packets to the ones who are too far away (my family also sends a Christmas letter to all our foreign friends, but that's not typical in Finland)

7. On Christmas Eve morning/day we go to Church

8. We eat rice porridge and hide an almond in the kettle, the one who gets it onto his/her plate gets to make a wish

9. There's this TV show called ''Santa's Hot line'' where kids can call to talk and sing to Santa Claus, which is also a tradition to watch (and try calling!) almost in every house. After that they show Snowmann on TV which is a traditions as well as the 'Announcement of Christmas Peace' which they show live from Turku, Finland's former Capital.

10. We eat a big Christmas meal including casseroles, ham, different kind of fish and turkey, plus whatever the family chooses.

11. If there are kids in the house, santa Claus comes in the evening of 24th to give the presents. The Finnish story (read: the true one) goes that Santa -Joulupukki- lives in Korvatunturi, Lapland, and comes from there with his sleigh and reindeer and knocks on people's doors and asks 'Are there any good kids here?' - Onko täällä kilttejä lapsia? -. Finnish elves wear red an white costumes, sometimes with grey.

12. We buy or go to the forest to find a christmas tree and decorate it on Christmas Eve (my family) or before that (many other families)

13. On Christmas day we also have a big Christmas meal with family, and the same on Boxing day.

Many Finns go up North for Christmas, me and my family just stay at home or go to central Finland to visit our family, this year it's our turn to host. 

I wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and / or Happy Holidays!

Love, Anna

DIY Last minute Christmas Gift - Peppermint Bodyscrub

Hullo Honeys!

Now we're really close to Christmas! But I can't be the only one who still has some presents to buy and make, right? I think that it is a every year tradition to get the present stress some time of the month! But I'd like to get rid of that tradition and help you get rid of it too, so I'll share this simple and lovely last minute christmas present idea. It's perfect for girl friends or moms or whoever lady in your giftlist, or why not for a guy as well who prefers his skin soft.

The only things you should actually go to store for (if you're an ordinary person with the basic ingredients in the kitchen already, if you're a person like me a.k.a. someone who's always missing flour or something important, check the full list) are glass jars with lids, peppermint essential oil and candy canes. And this is rather fast to make, so it's the perfect present to make on the last day!
I found this idea on Popsugar and made my version f it almost absolutely the same, thank you person behind it!

What you'll need:

4 cups of sugar

1+ cup olive oil (or almond oil/ sunflower oil) 

About 15 candycanes

20-40 drops peppermint essential oil

Glass jar(s) with lids

 + a bowl and spoon for mixing (and a sushi stick if your glass jars are thin) 

 This makes about 4 cups body scrub, I got 7 tiny bottles, and this takes about 20 minutes plus the putting to the jar- part.

1. Crush the candycanes until they're almost powder. It's easiest to do inside a plastic bag so the pieces don't fly all aorund the kitchen.

2. Pour the sugar into a bowl (to a different one than the candycanes!) and make sure there aren't any crumbs.

3.Add the olive oil (that's the best choice when thinking about skin amd doesn't smell as storng as almond oil, but the other oils work just as well) and mix. The mixture shouldn't be too oily but still wet enough, so add just less or more than a cup, depending on what it looks like. You can try the oiliness also with your hands.

4. Add the peppermint essential oil, enough to make it smell good but not too strong.

 

5. Mix the whole thing and start putting it to the jar with a spoon. If your jar is very thin, you can try to make it more condensed by pressing it with a sushi stick. Haha that's the way I did it :D

6. Make thin layers wiht the candycane-powder between the sugarmixture, I did two of them in the jar. The powder isn't the actual scrub so don't overdose it!

7. Pack the jar nicely and maybe add a note saying the ingredients and how to use it ( I mentioned that shower or someplace other where you can rinse and dry it well) and voila you're done!

Hopefully you and the receiver will like this!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Love, Anna

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Getting good while doing good

Better late than never!

But, yep, it would be better not to live by that all the time like I do.. Heh

I got an e-mail from Cutey some time ago, asking if I could help them with their campaign called 'Bags for breasts' as it sounds, it's a campaign for helping with breast cancer. Cutey donates 10% of all profits to Women Breast cancer Charity. My close relatives have had breast cancer and I know how common it is, so I really take this seriously, and I'm always happy to see that really many companys are helping with the case and was really happy to receive an e-mail from this company.

Cutey has really lovely bags and they're all made of good quality leather with girly details and lots of color choices. I personally love classic piees the most so I really liked this Florence bag, but I also fell in love with the heart one! Here are my two favorites, go see them all and find your own here !

Parempi myöhään kuin ei milloinkaan!
Joskus pitäisi kyllä ehkä osua myös vähän aikasempaan ajankohtaan.. Mutta siis, sain joku aika sitten sähköpostia Cutey:ltä, koskien heidän ' Bags for Breasts' kampanjaa ja josko voisin tehdä osani sitä varten. Kampanja on sitä miltä kuulostaa, eli rintasyövän ehkäisyn auttamiseen. Cutey lahjoittaa jokaisesta ostetusta laukun hinnasta 10% Women Breast Charity- järjestölle. Läheiset sukulaiseni ovat sairastaneet rintasyöpää ja tiedän kuinka yleinen se on, joten otan sitä koskevat asiat vakavasti ja olen aina tosi iloinen kun törmään yrityksiin yms jotka jollain tapaa auttaa. Ja olin toki tosi iloinen myös kun sain sähköpostia heiltä!

Cutey :llä on ihania laukkuja, jotka on kaikki tehty hyvä laatuisesta nahasta ja koristeltu tyttömäisin yksityiskohdin, ja laukuista on useita värivaihtoehtoja. Ite tykkään eniten klassisimmista laukuista joten tämä kamelin värinen Florence oli ihan mun makuun, mutta rakastuin myös Rome- pikkumustaan! Tässä mun kaksi lempparia, käy kattomassa muutkin laukut ja eti omat suosikkisi
täältä ! :)

Florence

Rome

This would be a perfect Christmas present for someone, because it has more receivers than just one. And Christmas is the time of thinking others!

Tällainen oisi täydellinen joululahja jollekkin siksi, että sillä on useampikin kuin yksi saaja. Ja joulu jos mikä aika vuodesta on muiden ajattelemisen aikaa!

Have a great weekend, the second last one before Christmaaas!

Ihanaa viikonloppua, toka vika ennen jouluaaa!

Love, Anna

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Alone at home

Hullo Honeys!

Soo it's Christmas time, a.k.a. the time of secrets. Secrets about the presents that are waiting inside the giftwrap, about the elves behind the trees looking for good kids and grandmom's secret planning of the Christmas dessert.

I personally always keep my presents as surprises until the very end (or, atleast try!) and I love the surprises myself as well, but there's this one secret that I don't think you would mind overhearing and that I would love to share with you guys. Self timer, that is.

I kept my blog as a secret from my friends for really long and even though that nowadays I share it with them, I still fel very shy about taking photos. I often ask my mom or my sister to help if I need outfit pics (which is part of the reason why I post them so seldom) and even then I feel kind of shy. Seriously, I don't know what is wrong with me! Or I do know, but I don't know how to fix it. Slowly but surely, I guess! And tips are appreciated ;)

But that brings me to the point. Since I prefer to not show my oh so professional poses in practise, empty street/house and a camera with self-timer is the perfect solution for me. Yes I know that this is totally what a blogger is not supposed to do and that pics taken by an actual person are a lot better and a lot more interesting, and if  happen to succeed with self timer I might not go shouting about it, but why bother. Most of my photos still are by  humans - or a sloth when I find one who could and would liketo take photos- , but sometimes I have to yell my battle shout, Go self timer!

The topic by the way also refers to the Alone at Home - movie, which is an absolute Christmas must-see! This year no less. But until waiting for it to show on TV I'm enjoying my Transformers advent calender and the christmas lights and smells and everything, I hope you are too! Have a wonderful weekend!

Ja hyvää itsenäisyyspäivää jo etukäteen!

Love, Anna

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