Gingerbread men

I had a panic attack; Christmas is only 5 weeks away! In my mind I'm still living in October...hmm... This also means I'm only 5 weeks away from gingerbread men, cinnamon buns and chocolates...You can not eat them before, as it only spoils the Big Days! So on 24th (yes we celebrate Christmas for 3 days by Finnish tradition), on Christmas Eve, one starts to enjoy, and by 26th one can not face another gingerbread man for another year!

Hereby I offer our family tradition for your service, make them and enjoy, just follow the lead of Lukas (shown on picture making them)
The Recipe for the Best Thin Gingerbread Men

You need:
200 g butter
2.35dl of sugar
1.5 dl of syrup
1 dl cream
7.5 dl of flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp of cinnamon
1 tsp of cloves
1 tsp of allspice
0.5 tsp of ground ginger

Melt the butter in the same bowl you'll mix the dough in. Mix the baking soda with small portion of flour. Add the seasoning (ginger etc), sugar, syrup and cream to the cooled down butter. Mix the ingredients well together, to make sure none of the seasonings are clamped together. Add the baking soda mixture, as well as rest of the flour by gently mixing or even rather spooning the flour in to the dough. Cover the dough and the bowl with clean towel and plastic bag and leave it in a fridge to set until following day.

Day 2: take the dough to room temperature, put oven on to 190 degrees. Start moulding the dough, portion at the time with rolling pin, to a thin flat disc, press gingerbread men out with the mould of your choice, add men on oven tray and bake for 5-10 minutes until dark golden brown. Decorate if you wish, with icing sugar mix when men have cooled down.

Hint: moulding is easier when the dough is still cool

Hint 2: once baked, lay the hot gingerbread men on flat surface, on uneven surfaces like plates etc they’ll just turn wonky...

Hint 3: Eat plenty and enjoy!

Also, some knitting pictures as attached- latest customer orders, skull mittens and pink slippers.

Living with polar bear

This week has flown by! This is because it's been the first week since our move to new house, and we are all trying to find our bearings, and the tricks there is in the older houses. Also partially because I’ve really tried to study, and concentrate to this course about accountancy, with no luck I’m afraid…It has become clear that me and mathematics do not agree with each others.
I have managed to grasp the basics, but every time I try a new exercise I get confused. Why mathematics can not be as simple as on knitting or visiting the bakery- one chocolate cake, two chocolate cakes…. If you have any ideas how to help me with basics of accountancy, please feel free to contact me!


I have also finished off a few new orders, white ones made with traditional style, with Novita pattern, and brown ones with Garnstudio pattern and Novita yarns. I have concentrated all my efforts on these knits, as my dear husband, who has been a valuable asset (read a hand model for men’s gloves) has stopped smoking. This has meant that our 1st week in new house has been as pleasant as living in a zoo with wounded polar bear. Bless him, he is trying really hard, week 2 is nearly done, but I’m ready to attack him with 10 nicotine patches while he is a sleep, just to make our life easier...So if there is anyone out there who knows tricks to accountancy and grumpy husbands, please contact me urgently!

Greek lightning!

Just when I thought my lige was settled after previous uprooting and relocation, we're hit by Greek lightning!Ou landlord gave us 5 days to move out; his brother needed a home, our home. After four sleepless nights and attempts to find a new home we finally, on last minute found one (finding a new place which would accept a family with pets, and also one that we could actually afford was not an easy task)! Praise the Lord!

Our new home is actually better what we've had before, and after all the hassle with broken heater, knackered hot water boiler and no cooking facilities, we've managed to conquered the move and settle in! I missed last weeks blogg update, as I did not have access to internet either, obviously due to the move, so please accept my apologies re this.

Anyhow, I've attached a picture of our new drive/path into our new home. Poor Charlie the Dog gets tormented by local cats- they keep appearing behind our windows just to drive him potty!!

Amongst all these manic circumstances I've unravelled my stress levels with knitting, and here are my new items for our shop, Merry Berry Christmas socks, Clever Blue mobile phone case and also latest customer order for brown gloves, made with Garn Studio pattern Z-434, and Novita Nalle yarn.

p.s:When checked into Etsy, came across this seller InspiredbyMarie and item wood burned sign: Welcome to Nuthouse! Brilliant, that's what we need!!

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=32164599

New orders

This is my latest handy work, a pair of felted slippers which were made for my good friend Sirpa, as a birthday present. My plan was to decorate these orange beauties with gold, silver, and diamonds (all mentioned being authentic materials of course….hmmm in my dreams…and hers…) to match her beauty queen like appearance, but after a thought I decided to stick with more common material, wool instead, to match with the real world. She did like them, so mission accomplished!

I also received my first Alchemy requests-custom made requests, via Etsy. Hooray! I’ll keep you posted, but so far requests include gloves, mittens and few slippers. Brilliant! I’m also waiting for new stock to arrive. There will be new yarns like Puro, Huopanen, and Luxus Cloud to arrive to my shop listing!

I love making presents and orders, as whilst knitting stitch after stitch I also weave part of myself to them too. Orders are also fun in a sense, that the requested item my not match my taste and style at all, which sometimes is like opening my eyes to the world I did not know existed. One becomes so accustomed to daily routines and colour schemes one is used to, that getting an order with different view, with new colours and shapes becomes a learning curve. I also believe that in a process of doing anything artistic, hand made items, writing etc one becomes blind to the results and therefore to make the item, it’s better to stand away from it, so one can clean the act and open the eyes again for finishing touches. These are my words of wisdom for this week, take care and God Bless!

Knitting with Vampires

Hello again, and my apologies for late update!

We have all been ill; we have suffered in the fangs of one of the nasty flue bugs which has been popping around amongst our holidaymaker visitors and work colleagues. So beginning of last week was spent nursing husband (read: suffered from Extremely Lethal Man Flue) as well as son (read: The One Who Learnt from the Best Man Flue Sufferers), as well as friend who was here on holiday and of course last but no means the least, Me. I spent my illness-hours feeling guilty of not being able to knit until good friend passed me a book that just swiped me off my feet! And this happened totally against my agreement and better knowledge! Anna Karenina and Dorian Gray just flew out of the window as there were replaced by teenage vampires! So here by I confess: I’ve read all four of Stephenie Meyers Twilight series, and I’m completely hooked with them! This is embarrassing really as I’m not a teenager anymore, even though I wish I would be one if it would be an advantage in the eyes of Robert Pattinson, the one who plays Edward in the badly made film. Yes, I’ve seen already gobbled up the film too. And yes I've also visited the fan page.

After fever, snot and vampire filled week, I’ve returned to my true form as established mother, wife and knitter and I have finished another order for slippers, this is the one with new Novita Huopanen mix-yarn, as well as fingerless gloves made with Novita Nalle Marjaretki. Both orders just flew by- both yarns are such a pleasure to knit with! I can also proudly confirm I’ve made my first Etsy sale, my shop is http://www.knitkitbox.etsy.com/, as well as I’ve received some new inquiries about custom made items, cardigans, slippers and gloves!! I like knitting the orders; these will keep me so busy my affection to Twilight has to stay at bay. At least until the new film is released…