Scandinavian Christmas: Day 7

Welcome to Day 7, everyone! The series is flying by! Today my bestie, Jessica, will be sharing this adorable little gnome lovie! Perfect for any little baby or kid your in your life! Last year, Jessica shared this wonderful Danish heart cozie tutorial and when I went home we drank coffee out of our matching cozies. I can't wait to see her in just a few short days!

Hello! I'm happy to be back for Kathryn's Scandinavian Christmas Series! My name is Jessica, and I'm Kathryn's BFF. I am of Swedish descent. I chose to make a Gnome Lovie this year. My son is just over 1, and has really started to love his little stuffed animals and things. 

What I did was cut 2 pieces of white fleece into this shape:

Next, sew around the edges, leaving a small opening to turn it. Clip the corners, then turn right side out. Put some stuffing in the head part. Next, take some white floss and wrap it around the neck. Make sure it is really tight and knotted well - you don't want your little one to get a hold of any loose string! Then do the same for the corners of the lovie, making hands and feet. Use some floss to sew on a couple eyes. Put the knots on the back of the head, where the hat will go. Now take a triangle of red fleece, and sew the hat. Turn it right side out, and sew it onto the head by hand, using red floss. Now for the cheeks, I just used blush. If I end up making more of these, I will probably use fabric paint, as that will be a more permanent solution. 

My nephew, Stuart, likes it better than my son! He loves chewing on the hat =)

 Merry Christmas!!

Jessica

Weekend Getaway

Ryan and I just got back from a whirlwind trip to Chicago! We were there for exactly 24 hours. Red-eye flight on Friday, followed by sister-hangout-time, followed by an awesome wedding, then trip back to the airport to catch our 5:00 AM flight back home on Sunday. Phew. We. Are. Tired. But we had so much fun!

Got to have some sister hangout time! It was so good to see her sweet face. 

And then got to see these crazy kids!

It was so great to spend some BFF time with this girl. Wish we lived closer!

We also got to play some bocce ball! The reception was at Pinstripes, a really neat venue that had outdoor bocce ball courts and everything!

Bocce action shot!

The wedding was perfect. The ceremony was beautiful, the reception was so much fun, and seeing your friends get hitched and so happy is priceless. I just love weddings. I can't believe I forgot to get a picture of the bride and groom! What was I thinking?!

It was quite the trip! And it was so worth it.

Always remember: Memories > Sleep

So much alpaca fleece!!!

It happened guys, alpaca fleece galore!

Beth and I each bought 3 small fleeces of our own, then we bought a few more to split. I'm researching drum carders and spinning wheels so I can start making this gorgeous fleece into yarn! I enjoy my drop spindle, but with this much fleece I would be spinning til the cows come home! Any carder or wheel recommendations?

I wish you could feel the fleeces...they are so so so soft.

Pure alpaca joy!

2014

Happy New Year, everyone!!! 2014 is going to be a grand year! 

Christmas was a blast! We got a good taste of the snowy coldness of Michigan: 

Drank plenty of glögg and ate delicious, homemade pickled herring.

Watched Christmas Vacation and had some eggnog in a moose cup.

Got to hang out with my bestie and finally got to meet this cutie pie!

And I was able to finish the sheep baby blanket I've been working on forever for this little dude! (sorry for the terrible photo)

All in all, we had a raging good time. We had quite a good 2013 and I'm excited for what 2014 has in store!

Scandinavian Christmas: Day 9

Day 9! Today you are all in for a treat, my best friend Jessica is sharing today! Jessica is actually the one who introduced me to the art of sewing! Not only can this girl sew, knit, bake, and cook, but she has even been known to do a metal art project or two! She is seriously talented and I'm so glad that we're friends. And I'm counting down the days until I can see her in real life again (only 5 more days!!). I'm thrilled she is participating this year and I know you'll enjoy her adorable, crafty tutorial!

Hello! My name is Jessica, and I am so pleased to be doing a guest post on The Pickled Herring! I love the Scandinavian Christmas series that Kathryn does, and am honored to be a part of it this year!

A little bit about myself: I am Kathryn's BFF!! We have been pals since our time in the womb! Our mothers are friends, and we have been besties since birth. We were even called Siamese twins by one of our grade school teachers. My family celebrates our Swedish heritage every Christmas by having a Smorgasbord at Christmastime. We bust out the herring, rice pudding, and korv. We even have one of the girls dress up as Lucia and serve cookies.

Kathryn is coming home to Michigan for Christmas (yay!!!) and we love to fika. So I decided to make Christmas Cozys! I'm so excited for her to see my new house and my new baby, and to catch up over a cozy cup of coffee! I have actually been working on one of those felt embroidered stockings, kind of like this, and it inspired me to add a little pizzazz with sequins.

Here's what you need: green, red and white felt, green, red and white floss, sequins, seed beads, a little bit of stuffing, and a button. (Ignore the velcro in this picture - I ended up not using it!)

So what I did first was make a template. Use a piece of paper for this. 

Once you have the template made, cut out 2 of those guys from the green felt. 

 Next, you are going to make the Scandinavian heart. To do this, you take a square and add a semicircle to one side. Then cut out a white one, and a red one of these. Then cut the square part into thirds.

Then you basically weave the strips of felt to make a cute little heart!

Embroider the heart onto one of the green felt pieces, adding some stuffing beneath the heart to give it some dimension. Then add some sequins by tacking them on with seed beads. 

Next, place the other green felt piece behind the one you've just embroidered, and use a running stitch and the white floss, embroider around the edges. After you've done this, you can clean up the edges by cutting away the excess (I suppose you could avoid this step by making sure the green pieces are exactly the same size, but I'm no perfectionist). 

Then all you have to do is add a cute little button and cut a buttonhole!

And here is your Christmas Cozy! Now, just make sure you have 2 for when your best friend comes home for Christmas!!

Oh, and here's my Christmas baby!

Thank you, Jessica!!! I can't wait to fika it up with you in just a few short days! Come back tomorrow to hear from another good friend, Kate!

A blast from the past

In an effort to orgnanize and back-up hundreds of my photos, I came across a few crafty projects I never got around to blogging about.

 

This is from almost 3 years ago. Holy cow. They're bottlecap magnets that you use a circular hole punch and decorative scrapbook paper then glue them to the bottom of a bottlecap. Then, you pour this apoxy-type substance over and fill it to the top of the bottlecap. It hardens and dries clear and you are left with a cute little magnet!

 

 

 

One of my favorite ones:

 



 

 

I made this with my BFF, Jessica! I think we made these together right before I left for Japan? And my awesome friend, Kimberly, made Jessica's adorable bow headband! [etsy shop here!]

 



So here's to crafty throwback days. 

 

I hope you're having a wonderful week! Happy Wednesday!

Fika Friday: Michigan edition

I got to have fika last Friday with these two crazy kids!

It was a quick trip back to Michigan, but SO much fun! I did some serious fika-ing with my parents, obvoiusly. And drank out of my mom's Shelley cup collection, which is tradition when I'm home. We really packed a ton in while I was home! We even made it over to Holland to do some shopping! It was so wonderful to be home and see my mom and dad - good times had by all! 

Cheers!

 [I had been awake for approximately 30 hours at that point...thank you, red-eye flight]

Another highlight of my trip back to Michigan was seeing this sweet girl! My BFF since birth! Speaking of birth, she's preparing to give birth this Fall - woah baby! I got to attend one of her baby showers which I had been hoping I would be able to, and I got to feel the baby kick! She is going to make one great mommy.

My Fika Rundown:

What: Coffee in Shelley cups, pepparkakor and shortbread cookies

Where: in MICHIGAN

Who: With my Mom and Dad! :)

Favorite part: Being able to chat in person with my parents and see their cute little faces! I miss them already!

Happy Fika Friday, everyone!

Fabric galore!!!

I was in a little part of heaven this weekend.  My sister and I had our 3rd sister craft day and we ventured to the fashion district of LA to track down some seriously cute fabric. Mission accomplished. 

My good friend, Jo, told me about the amazing fabric store known as Michael Levine. Holy cow is it amazing. Overwhelmingly amazing. I only wish I had remembered to put my memory card back in my camera so the pictures below would do it justice.

Look at all that fabric!!! And that's just one section of the store!

 Caryn with our bolts of red fabrics for the advent calendar.

 Jo starting the decision making process with her fabric choices.

 Me realizing that not only do they carry a vast amount of fabric, but yarn too!!

"There's nothing like the feeling of fresh cut fabric!"

And here below are the final five that made the cut:

And what's a girl to do when she sees some blue and yellow (the picture makes the yellow fabric look a little green-ish, I promise it's yellow in real life) adorable fabric that coordinate so well?! I already have a few projects in mind for this color/pattern combo...

All in all, the day was a raging success.

Time to get some crafting on. Happy weekend.

Los Angeles Lucia Festival 2012

Last year I posted about the annual Lucia Festival held here in Los Angeles.  In the post, I mentioned how I was hoping to get a craft booth there this year.  In just a couple short weeks, I will find out if my application gets accepted!! My friend Beth and I applied to share a booth and we are crossing our fingers we get accepted to sell our homemade goods! 

Wish us luck! :)

I'm brainstorming ideas of what to make/sell.  What would you want to buy? 

Because this is a Christmas-y type fair, I'm planning on making ornaments for sure (I've already made a few I'll share in a later post), I'm going to try my hand at freezer paper stenciling on onesies and totes, and I'll also be making a few versions of the Lucia crown for kids (sans the candles).  I am debating if I should make some needle-felted Lucia figurines; they are very time-consuming to make and I'm not sure if they'd be a big seller?  Regardless of if we get to participate this year, I'll definitely be shopping there! 

Have a great week!

Party party!

The newest member of the family is here - wooooo!!!  My sister gave birth a week ago to this beautiful new girl, my new niece, Hannah.  Doesn't she just melt your heart?  

She arrived a little early, so early that the doctor didn't have time to get to the hospital and a nurse had to deliver her.  Woah.  But I am SO glad she's finally here!  I already love her to pieces.

While nothing this summer will top the arrival of Hannah, Ryan and I have been trying to soak up the CA summer by getting to the beach more.  Here we are at Santa Monica beach in the evening awaiting the sunset.

Here is the said sunset.

And tonight I tried a new pickle recipe - pickled fennel with orange zest.  I got the recipe from my friend, Jo.  She has an awesome blog all about knitting and eating, check it out.  I love fennel and I can't wait to see how this turns out!

In other summer news, Ryan is job hunting like no one's business.  I think he applied to almost 50 jobs yesterday, no joke. So if you live in LA and happen to own a thriving company, please hire my husband.  

Happy August!