Today is St. Lucia Day, a celebration day especially marked in Sweden. The celebration has leaked here to Norway since the 1950's and the making of special Lucia Buns are part of the tradition. These buns are a simple yeast sweet bun decorated with raisins, delicious and not too sweet. I made a huge bunch of these buns to take to a group I recently joined in my town, an International Women's Group, a group some 40 members strong representing 14 different countries from around the world, where were share our varied cultural heritage with each other. So to celebrate the day I made these buns to share with this gathering of remarkable women. Dear husband and I had a taste test of the buns--yum! To read more about St. Lucia Day, see here. A recipe for the buns can be found here.
Today dear husband and I are packing and getting ready for our trip across the pond for the holidays. I feel like a child on Christmas morning--the trip home to the States is gift enough for me! We thrill to many days with family & friends! We will miss our Charlie, though, but he'll be in good hands with dear husband's father who will visit our house daily to feed him and make sure he gets enough cuddles.
Yesterday I just had to sit down at the sewing machine for a while and get started on a new bag--had a new idea just burning to come to life. So here is the lovely Origami bag! I love the Japanese flair of the fabric. She will be for sale after the New Year, along with some other new goodies, like the Yo-Yo Flower Corsages shown below. But my sewing machine, Lucy (one gets very close to one's sewing machine with much use, so much so that they get names after a while--LOL!), is already breathing a sigh of relief to be having her own little vacation/break while we're away.
We will be away for two weeks, returning just before the New Year. So until then, I wish you all the merriest of Happy Holly Holidays & Happiest of New Years--Peace, Love & Joy to you!
Happy Days! :o)
Did you hear that? That whoop of delight? Well, that was just me yesterday while doing a dance of joy, because...I FINALLY finished the QUILT!! Yes, at last it's done. For such a relatively small thing, it took me ages to make, mostly due to all the hand sewing. This post is a little late, as I was putting the finishing touches on the quilt on Friday. The over all effect is pretty cute. Of course, now that it's done, I see all kinds of other possibilities I could have done with this project...But that's me, always tinkering, either in my mind with something or for real. The backing piece is a simple red fabric which also has a sleeve/pocket that can be used with a rod for hanging the quilt as a decoration, and also a patch with my name, date, etc. Today I wrapped this up to send to our nephew, Henrik, for Christmas. He actually has his very first birthday today! Happy Birthday, sweetie-pie! 
Not a lot of stitching this weekend, but a lot of baking. Yesterday I made chocolate chunk cookies. These are super with a cup of hot cocoa, and are very rich, so you only need a couple cookies to munch to get a good dose of happy! Today I made two loaves of my Momma's pumpkin bread. This is the taste of the holidays for me, as Momma made this every year when my sister and I were growing up. Now I make it myself. The loaf pans were my great-grandmother's. I use them a lot. A good scrub with soapy steel wool keeps them shining like new. A recent picture of me shows me looking a lot like my great-grandmother. I never met her, as she passed away before I was born, so I only know her from family photos and stories. Momma gave me t
he old loaf pans after I got married along with some of her own old kitchen tools--a mixing bowl, set of measuring spoons, pastry blender. I love using all of them. Small family ties. Because the loaf pans are pretty old, the size of them is different than those used today. I had leftover batter from the pumpkin bread, but not enough to make another loaf, so used these cute mini Bundt pans--they worked great, just took the little cakes out of the oven sooner than the pumpkin loaves. See 
Along with baking this weekend I've been shopping for the last of the holiday gifts, wrapping them, writing cards and a little work on the quilt for our nephew. Unfortunately, I'm not quite finished with the quilt yet--more quilting and the binding to sew on. The hand quilting is progressing slowly. I'm not a fast worker when it comes to quilting, probably because I do not do enough of it and consider myself very much a novice still to the craft. Since I don't have the quilt to share, I thought I would share my very first attempt at quilting. I made this Christmas-y/winter quilted wall hanging about six years ago. It was a kit I bought while on a trip home to the States. The kit came with the pattern, instructions, and fabrics to piece the top of the hanging. Applique techniques make up most of this mini quilt. During the holidays I like to hang it up, and often leave it hanging well into January. It's not perfect. It's very wonky and "rough around the edges," so to speak. It reminds me that everyone must begin somewhere, make a start somehow, and that I am still learning and always will be. 
We have set up some window lights in our little fireplace room. The cozy glow in the evening inclines my heart to nostalgia, thinking of holidays gone by, traditions dear husband and I are making together now, and reflection as these last weeks of the year stroll by. In less than two weeks we'll head to the States-- soooo happy! But in the meantime we celebrate the season a bit here in Norway, where we have no snow yet, just rain, as it's unusually mild. We have yellow and purple primroses in bloom in the garden and a very confused lilac shrub that is sending forth tender, tiny green buds, thinking it's spring again already...It seems the natural world wants to join us in the festivities too!
