vintage fabric in a romantic old tin from Australia

It felt like Christmas came early when this beautiful treasure tin got delivered to me after a long journey all the way from down under.

A while ago I was the lucky reader in Rebecca's giveaway. Rebecca blogs over at Naughty Shorts - about her life and small business, vintage cotton prints and the beautiful dresses she designs and makes out of them. Her home, which is filled to the brim with envy-inducing vintage finds, is often featured on her blog too.

I was very lucky to receive a bundle of fat quarters of vintage printed cottons, and some other goodies that'd make any girl jump for joy.

 

Looking at these fabrics together inspire me to make a quilt of some kind - I have never tried my hand at quilting before but I think I'd really enjoy the hand-stitching aspect of it. I'll mull over the idea, but in the meantime if you have any suggestions or even quilting tips for me, I'd love to hear them!

winter solstice and banana bread (with recipe)

Happy winter solstice, everybody!

The thought of slowly lengthening days and more natural light from now on is filling me with warmth and makes me want to dance around the room. I still wish for quietly tumbling fluffy snowflakes to carpet the earth first - because without the white sparkle of snow the winter landscape is as dark and lightless as a black hole. Currently the only snowflakes in sight are tumbling from the ceiling in my kitchen, in a form of a wooden mobile (plus these snowflakes in the social media). So I celebrate the promise of spring and summer in this longest night / shortest day of the year.

We are not going to spend Christmas in our home, but we still felt like decorating a little bit. And we baked a warming, yummy banana bread too. It is a really nice cake, and goes superbly with afternoon coffee - find the recipe right after the pictures!

Banana bread

with cardamom and dates

150g butter (or coconut oil) softened

225g granulated sugar

2 eggs

275g flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon bicarb soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cardamom seeds

3 ripe bananas

a handful of pitted dates (chopped into small cubes)

a little butter (or coconut oil) to grease the tin

a small amount of breadcrumbs

1.) Pre-heat the oven to 170 C. Grease a loaf-shaped cake tin with a little butter (or coconut oil) and dust the greasing with a small amount of breadcrumbs.

2.) In a large mixing bowl whisk the butter (or coconut oil) together with the sugar. Add the eggs one by one and mix well.

3.) In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, bicarb soda, salt and cardamom.

4.) In a third dish, mush the bananas with a fork, and stir in the chopped dates.

5.) Now start adding the flower mix and the banana mix into the butter/egg mixture bit by bit, in an alternating fashion - like 3 tablespoons of flour mix, whisk together, 2 tablespoons of banana mix, whisk together, 3 tablespoons of flour mix again, whisk well, and so on until both the flour mix and the banana mix runs out.

6.) When all the ingredients are well mixed together, pour the mixture into the greased-breadcrumbed loaf tin, smooth down the top and bake it in the middle of the oven at 170 C for 50-60 mins. If baking in a fan oven, reduce the baking time. At about 50 minutes, check the cake by sticking a long thin needle into it (I use one of my thin knitting needles) to see if the cake is cooked through. If the needle comes out without any cake sticking onto it, then your cake is done. Tip the cake out of its tin,and let it cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy! This cake keeps well for 3-4 days in an airtight container.

a warm shawl, an old lampshade, and a festive runner

Hello again! Let's kick off December with some warming, seasonal finds.

Do you remember the vintage Finnish wool blanket that I had thrifted a while ago? I have been dreaming about a smaller version of it ever since, so I could wrap the snug warm woolliness around my neck as a scarf when I go out into the everyday winter wonderland of the Finnish cold season.

Well, what do you know, dreams do come true and I did find a vintage woollen shawl from the same designer in the fleas just recently. It's in the nicest shades of hot pinks, and is in impeccable condition. Now I'm almost always looking forward to braving the blizzard and hail every time I need to walk to the grocery store.

This time around last year, I found my first vintage scandinavian Christmas table runner. This year is luckily no different: my current (barkcloth?) find has really cute elves on it, and the colours are super crisp. 

Could it be that a seasonal thrifting tradition is starting? Well, if every year I find a nice table runner like these, it would be quite alright! 

Sometimes I pick up things from the thrifts that first I have no idea what to do with. One of those things was this old glass lampshade with an intriguing bumpy design. It cost next to nothing, something like 5 cents, so I wasn't too torn between getting it or not. I thought it would make a nice random ornament or a pencil holder as long as we won't lift it...

Well now I'm thinking LED tealights! This particular lampshade won't take a real candle because its plain glass surface is painted red from the inside, and exposed to a flame it would quite possibly melt or even catch fire. However, a battery one will light it very nicely for the festive season.

How is the festive thrifting situation where you live? Have you find some nice things for the holiday sea

soft focus morning

A lovely morning of sleeping in and then knocking about in the softly lit flat, while waiting for the sun to rise (which is a bit after 9am at the moment). Crafting too, in fact putting the finishing touches to a project, which is good news for those of you who have been waiting for your Craft It Forward packages...!

I put together a playlist of soft sounds to share this mellow morning with you lovely readers. Wishing all of you a softly Sunday, and a relaxed first day of a hectic month!