HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010!!!

Happy New Year 2010 to everybody and thank you so much for following, commenting and  visiting my blog... I am so grateful to all of you... I wish all the best for everybody... Year 2010 will be full of new postings of life, travelling, decoration, wine and food, but also I wish you will follow my other blog http://www.africanride.blogspot.com/. It is about 12000km cycling race that my husband will start the 16th of January and it will take 4 month to complete it. The race will be from Cairo to Cape Town and on the way they will do charity work...So if you wish to participate by donating a bike for the health care organizations, you can still do it and every cent goes to the bike...1 bike = 100 euros, you can donate even less and we can make up one bike by putting together all the smaller donations. You can find the blog also on the left side of my blog...

DECLARATION OF THE CHRISTMAS PEACE

The Declaration of Christmas Peace has been a tradition in Finland from Middle ages every year, except in 1939 due to the Winter War. The declaration takes place on the Old Great Square of Turku, Finland's official Christmas City and former capital, at noon on Christmas Eve. It is broadcast on Finnish radio (since 1935) and television, and nowadays also in some foreign countries.
We went to the Naantali where they have also the Declaration ceremony, it is closer to our chalet...

"Tomorrow, God willing, is the most gracious feast of the birth of our Lord and Saviour, and therefore a general Christmas peace is hereby declared, and all persons are directed to observe this holiday with due reverence and otherwise quietly and peacefully to conduct themselves, for whosoever breaks this peace and disturbs the Christmas holiday by any unlawful or improper conduct shall be liable, under aggravating circumstances, to whatever penalty is prescribed by law and decree for each particular offence or misdemeanour. Finally, all citizens are wished a joyous Christmas holiday."

Recently, there is also a declaration of Christmas peace for forest animals in many cities and municipalities, so there is no hunting during Christmas.

These photos were taken in Naantali

REMEMBERING THE LOVE ONES

Every Christmas thousands of people visit the cemeteries to light a candle by the tombstones of the loved ones that has past away... Here" the valley of the remembrance" Muisto Laakso, where you can light a candle for a person that did not want to have a tomb or for the loves ones that has been buried far away... This tradition has been appreciated by our foreign guest and I always make sure that I have some extra candles for our friends to have a moment of remembrance for their love ones too...

CHRITSMAS DINNER

This we didn't do any traditional Christmas food, we started the dinner by a glass of champagne and  smoke salmon with blinis (salty pancake), after that we wasn't too hungry anymore so we just enjoyed some good wine...

CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS IN FINLAND...

Finland has a long tradition of Christmas celebrations...Many families cooks, bakes and makes decorations weeks in advance. The 24th of the December starts our celebration at 12.00 a.m. by the declaration of the Christmas Peace...Most of the shops are closed by 12.00a.m.  Everybody has put their gifts under the Christmas tree...In the evening after the dinner we will open all the gifts... And one of the very important tradition is to take a Christmas Sauna, we went to the sauna in the morning...

LOVE...

Love message on the frozen sea...

THE SEA...

The sea between the islands gets frozen very quickly in a cold weather, the large areas takes few days more but during the winter time it is possible to drive your car on the ice if the ice is thick enough.

FROST

After a very cold night the humidity had crystallized in flakes and we found these tiny Christmas tree on the edge of the wooden pier. Natural frozen wonders...

BRAKING ICE

This week was really cold, so the sea got frozen quickly and it was thick enough to walk on the ice... Here our friend is making a large hole in the ice and we will use it for getting a quick dip in to the ice water while taking a sauna...The hot and cold that invigorates the circulation in the whole body and afterwards you feel so good...

MY BEDROOM

Our main bedroom in the chalet is "en suite" with the bathroom and the colours that I have use for the decoration in  the whole area are brown, turquoise and white... Most of the wood is birch wood which makes the bedroom side very light... The bathroom can be seen in the summer posting earlier this year, it has some nice details as well...

BED LINEN

Today is the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice, it is 10.18 a.m. and the sun has just come up behind the forest... These winter periods, when the days are short and it feels like the night never ends, specially here in Finland and other northern part of the globe. The Bedroom has even a more important meaning this time of the year, warmer duvets and good bed linen are important for these frosty nights... My duvet cover and pillow cases are from South Africa and all the cushion covers were made by me. Here some bead details from the double cushion that can be folded behind the back while I read in the bed...

PRINTED LINEN

The bunk bed is in corner next to the kitchen/dining area in our chalet, my brother made the bed and it serves well when we need some extra sleeping place for guest otherwise it serves as a relaxing reading place...The fabrics are from Marimekko, I have made the two duvet covers with a satin print from the Unikko Marimekko collection, it was a limited edition of that fabric and it goes well with the black and beige smaller print of Unikko Marimekko... These Unikko means poppy in Finnish comes in many colours, have a look at the Marimekko website, they really have stunning fabrics. My pillow cases are made of Marimekko's cotton fabric...

PRINTED FABRIC

In the chalet we have one wall which was covered with a printed black, white and grey coloured fabric...I wanted to create a 3D decoration in front of it with some branches in the two vases that has a branch pattern as well... The black and white metal stands are from Ikea, the black one have some silver snow flake ornaments and the white one has shiny black hearts...Because this year we are here just for Christmas time I thought it was better to get a silk flower to bring some colour than by a real one that don't have time to bloom before we leaving again...

ICE CANDLE BOWLS AND POLAR BEAR

I have put the ice bowls down by the pier, they look nice in dark with candle lights and look it is really cold in Finland now, we even have Polar bears...

ICY BOWL FOR A CANDLE

To make a ice bowl: you need very cold weather, a bucket and cold water... Fill the bucket with water and leave it outside that the water get frozen half way... the colder it is, the sooner it will get frozen... Ones you think the thickness of the ice is enough, take the bucket to the kitchen sink and put it upside down and take the bucket of... You still should have a small hole in the bottom that you can take the water out...If you dont, pore some hot water in the middle of the bottom part so it will melt the ice, you can carve the hole bigger with a knife or  use hot water for that, keep still the cold water in so the hot water does not melt too much of your bowl... Then ones the hole is big enough for a candle, empty the cold water and take you bowl outside...

WINTER WONDERS

Winter can be so beautiful with some snow and sunshine, this was taken 1.30 this afternoon so notice how low the sun is...The sea is frozen and our summer table on the pier has a shiny snow napkin and on the table a icy bowl with a candle inside...

MY CHRITSMAS TREE

Here the tree is in the forest, a 20 m high tree...

...And now in our chalet decorated with angels, balls, stars, lights,etc...
It still stands 3.5m high, so quite difficult to get the whole tree in the picture...