Lucia Paper Dolls in shop!

Just checking in to let you all know that these brand new Swedish Paper Dolls are now up in my Etsy shop! This is a new item for my craft fair in just a couple weeks, and I thought I'd add it to my shop in case any of you Lucia lovers out there wanted to order some before December 13 [St. Lucia Day!]! I commissioned a friend of mine to do the drawing (since my drawing skills are quite abysmal) for this and I could't be more pleased with how they turned out!

 Purchase on Etsy here

The finished product obviously isn't printed with the 2014 Copyright watermark. It will come printed out on 8.5 x 11 cardstock, packaged in clear cellophane wrapping. 

Ok, back to crafting for the SWEA Christmas Market in just T-minus 13 days! Ah!

Happy Advent + Fall in Review

Happy Advent season, everyone! It's my favorite time of year! Caryn and I finally finished our Advent calendars that we started at the beginning of the year, and now mine is happily hanging in my front hall. And Ryan has happily been eating the little candy canes that are in the pockets!

A lot has happened this Fall, hence the lack of blogging. Last weekend I turned the big 3-0. Ryan took my to Solvang (an adorable Scandinavian town in Southern California) to celebrate. It was the best! Here we are at Buttonwood Farms Winery:

And the weekend before that, my crafting partner Beth and I took the OC Lucia fair by storm! This was our first year at this fair and definitely learned a lot. We were super busy all of November just trying to get our inventory up. Overall, the fair went well and we are really looking forward to the Los Angeles Lucia fair coming up on December 15. If you live in the area you should really check it out, they do a bang up job with the program.

One of my new projects this year are these Dala Horse chalkboards! I love that I can change the sign for any season. I'm going to hang one that says God Jul for Christmas. I also just added this item to my Etsy shop!

(I know the picture isn't the best, I'll try to get a better one soon)

With work, roller derby, and crafting, this Fall has been crazy busy for me! But I am so excited that Christmas is around the corner! And before you know it the Scandinavian Christmas series will be here! Starting December 13, get ready to hear from bloggers from all over about a great Scandinavian tradition, craft, or recipe. And if you know anyone that would like to participate, I'm still looking for a couple more entries so e-mail me! 

Happy Advent! 

Fika + Crafting

Happy almost weekend, people!!

As you can see in the background of my fika, I've been a little crafting crazy lately! I'm really trying to up my craft inventory for the upcoming fairs...they'll be here before I know it! 

One of the projects I've been working on are these "Kissing Dala" magnet sets. I'll have to share the packaged version later. I've made them in varying colors as well - my favorite is the navy and gold.

Besides the Dala magnets, I've been making a few other versions of magnets and more ribbon headbands. My crafting partner and I recently bought a Yudu screen printing machine and we're stoked to get some new merch out there! We just have to figure out how to use it...it's pretty intense. Ha.

In other exciting news, the Scandinavian Christmas series is just around the corner! I would love for you to participate - please e-mail me if you'd like to submit a post of a favorite Scandinavian Christmas tradition, craft, or recipe. 

That's all for now! 

Fika Friday

Friday!!!

 

 

 

Yes, the weekend has arrived! It has been one heck of a week and I'm quite overjoyed that today marks the start of the weekend, woot!

 

I've begun the crafting craziness for the upcoming Christmas fairs and it's been a blast. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but some of the new things I'm making this year are pretty darn cute. And....I'm finally going to be putting things in my Etsy shop! What?! It's true! So stay tuned!

 

Enjoy your weekend! :)

Craft Fair Success!

Huge thanks to everyone for the kind e-mails and comments about the Kingsburg Festival - it was a success!  We had a great time participating in the fair and had a great view for the Maypole rising and dancing. The parade was pretty darn cute too.

Here are a few pictures from the fun weekend.

My favorite little viking:

Booth setup complete, thumbs up!

The headbands didn't sell quite as well as they did at the Lucia fair, but I also think people weren't in as much of the "buying" mood as Lucia since it wasn't Christmas season.

My crafting partner, Beth, hand-etched these awesome vases, glasses, and more.  Check out that sweet viking glass!

I made some last-minute garland for decor from some jute webbing (which I think looks Scandinavian!) from Joann's for only 79 cents a yard!

I dressed up in one of my mom's Swedish costumes. [I didn't get a picture of the entire outfit, unfortunately] Ryan was quite the good sport to dress up himself. I'm such a lucky gal.

And along with the hand-stenciled viking and Dala onesies, I stenciled some children's aprons too. 

The town of Kingsburg was so cute...even the McDonalds had a Dala in front!!

Overall, we had a wonderful weekend! I'm so glad we got the chance to participate in this great fair and will definitely be back!

Be sure to check out the Midsommar festival in Vasa Park here in the LA area if you live nearby...we will have a booth there on June 23!

Pacifier clips

A few of the pacifier clips I've been cranking out...my favorite are the vikings. It's from ByBora Designs...isn't it adorable!?

 

I'm selling these this weekend at the Kingsburg Festival.

 

I will probably be off the bloggin bandwagon until next week. We leave Friday right after work to head to the fair.

 

Have a great weekend!

Headbands

Just wanted to pop in and show you all how the headbands are coming along!

 

Here are some of the headband designs I have made so far:

All of my ribbon for the headbands I either been bought on Etsy or my mom has found at various Scandinavian stores over the years (thanks, Mom!). I backed them with a solid color ribbon and add elastic to loop them together.

My favorites are the Dala horses on blue and the red hearts with blue flowers and green vines. After all of the craft fair craziness I will post a tutorial on how to make them!

Hope you're enjoying your weekend!

Coasters to the max

With the Kingsburg Festival just around the corner, I've spent the majority of my weekend creating! It has been wonderful! I am really enjoying the creating process for this fair, more so compared to the prepping/creating for the Lucia fair. I think I'm not putting as much pressure on myself for this one and going into it with an attitude of, "Hey, if I don't sell it, I can keep it for myself!" 

My newest project has been tile coasters. They're a little tedious to make, but I think they're turning out pretty awesome (not to toot my own horn or anything...). I transferred different images onto kitchen tiles, coated them with polyurethane, and still have to add a layer of cork to the bottom. And voila! Neat little coaster sets. One of my favorite sets by far are the vintage maps of Scandianvia (shown below). And seeing as Ryan is quite a geography nerd, I will definitely be making us our own set after the craziness of the fair.

Other favorites include these whimsical designs I got from a modern Swedish cookbook I own.

And, these images from a vintage Swedish cookbook I scored at a second-hand store for 50 cents at a fair a couple years ago!!

I'm loving the crayfish.

I couldn't help but think while I was making all of these how handy they will come in for Fika Fridays!

All in all, it has been a very productive weekend. I am feeling great about the progress I've made and am now trying to brainstorm ideas for decorating the craft booth itself. We have to provide our own tables and such, so I am trying to figure out a good layout along with some cute decor. Any ideas welcome! 

I hope you had  a great weekend!

Fika Friday

One of my favorite fikas of the week consisted of this mess:

It was a non-traditional fika of sorts, but a fika nonetheless. Caryn (my older, wiser, and very helpful older sister), helped me get some crafting done for the Kingsburg Festival in just a few weeks! The table was covered with all sorts of crafting items, but we made room for our impromptu fika of Dr. Pepper and chips and salsa. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Thanks again for helping, Caryn!!

What did you do for your fika this week?

My fika rundown:

What: Dr. Pepper with chips and salsa

Where: My apartment, at the kitchen table

With: Caryn, myself, and a ton of crafting items

Best part: Enjoying a late-afternoon fika break from the crafting craziness

Midsommar crowns

Here is a quick peek of what I've been working on lately...

 

 

These Midsommar crowns are made from silk flowers and floral wire. From some readers' suggestions, I'm making some to sell at the Kingsburg Swedish Festival (in less than a month! ah!). I think my favorite ones so far are the blue and yellow ones (shown below on the right).

 



 

Pricing things is always a bit tricky for me. How much do you think I should sell the crowns for? At the Cal Luthern Swedish Festival last weekend, they had a "make your own" Midsommar crown booth with fresh flowers (carnations, greens, and baby's breath) for $3. The crowns I made cost about $3-$4 in supplies, not including time spent on putting them together. Suggestions? 

 

In other news, I think I am finally going to bite the bullet and get a "real" camera! I'm saving up! So hopefully in the semi-near future my pictures on this blog will start looking a little better. :)

 

Happy Tuesday!

Kingsburg Swedish Festival 2013

Exciting news, everyone! The annual Kingsburg Swedish Festival is only 31 days away! There will be a Dala horse trot 5K, a pancake breakfast, a parade, craft booths, and much, much, more!

 

 [photo from Kingsburg Swedish Festival Facebook page]

 

Just yesterday, I signed up to have a craft booth at the upcoming festival and I am racking my brain for ideas of things to make...any ideas?! I have a few leftover items from the Lucia Festival last Christmas, but many of the items are Christmas-realted and I'm not so sure how those will sell. I'm trying to come up with some cute, Scandinavian, spring-y/summer-y crafts...any and all ideas welcome!

 

So far I will have: Swedish ribbon headbands, stenciled-onesies (with viking hats and Dala horses...same as Lucia fair), and prepackaged sets of gift tags. I'm toying with the idea of getting some T-shirts printed. Thoughts on what it should say/look like if I do order some? What kind of stuff would you buy?

 

 

 

Lucia Festival in a nutshell

Well the big day was yesterday and it went great! My friend Beth and I had a booth at the Los Angeles Swedish Christmas Fair and we had a blast!  We named our booth, "The Swedest Thing".  We will be uploading items from the craft fair, as well as new items, into our Etsy shop soon.  

Since it was our first year at this fair, Beth and I were definitely nervous going into it. We learned a ton and now we know what we will do differently in the future. We also didn't get much sleep the night before as we were frantically putting things together and trying to get more crafting done...lesson #1 learned: start making this earlier.  

Me and Ryan in front of our booth (Ryan is very excited about the day!):

Here are Beth and Dave in front of our booth.

A full picture of our booth with Ryan the viking behind it.

The Lucia processional and program happened twice throughout the day.  Here was one of the only pictures I got to take of Lucia.  They sang a medley of songs after they processed, it was beautiful!

Here is a picture of more craft booths from the fair.  There were all sorts of booths there this year.

 Here are a few more shots of our booth up close and personal. We had double-wine tote bags, aprons, hand-stenciled tote bags,  hand-etched glass items with Swedish words/decals:

And we had various ornaments, headbands with Scandinavian ribbon, lingonberry headbands, hand-stenciled onesies, and more!

These hand-stitched felt Dala ornaments were a huge hit and sold like hotcakes! Beth made them in a variety of colors and did an awesome job:

I got to walk around a couple times and check out other booths and the token item I bought this year was this second-hand, hand-embroidered runner.  Isn't it beautiful?!

Overall, we had a great turnout for our booth and we are so glad we got the opportunity to do it this year! We are already looking forward to next year's fair when we can have more time to prepare and have a wider variety of items.  We had such a great experience and are so thankful for all the support from our friends, family, and husbands!

And I definitely couldn't have done it without the help of my sister, Caryn, and her wonderful daughter, Hannah, who came over all afternoon on Saturday to help me finish up last-minute projects.  Isn't she just precious?!  

So that about sums it all up! Thank you to all of you out there who helped me with ideas for the fair and all your support.  You guys are the best!

Also, get ready for this Thursday, December 13, as it is the kickoff to the
Scandinavian Christmas series 2012!
You won't want to miss all the awesome guest posts about the best Scandinavian Christmas traditions, crafts, and recipes!

Happy Monday!

We're in!

Great news! Beth and I are officially accepted to the 2012 Los Angeles Swedish Christmas Fair (aka Lucia festival)! Woooooo!  We are so stoked and have been frantically creating and brainstorming things to make.  

My mom sent me some awesome supplies to get me started (thanks, mom!), including the adorable fabric you see below (direct from the motherland) and that cute ribbon too.

And she has the really cool cookie stamps in different Scandinavian shapes that I used to make ornaments with.  Below is one of St. Lucia.

She also sent stamps of a Dala horse, snowflake, advent candle, and heart.  I used them to stamp into a preservable dough (tutorial to come later), then cut them out with an antique biscuit cutter Ryan and I found at an antique shop in Paso Robles a month back.  I will get better pictures of them later to show you all.  After the fair, I will put some up in my Etsy shop too, so stay tuned!

And I also made these little guys from some cinnamon dough.  I used my IKEA cookie cutters and poked holes with a straw.  They smell amazing!

I've made a few other things too, but haven't had time to take photos yet.  More to come!

And speaking of Scandinavian Christmas things, I still have a few slots open for guest bloggers for the Scandinavian Christmas series this year if you'd like to join! Or, if you know of someone who would like to, please have them email me.  

Happy Friday!

Swedish Christmas Fair: the loot

So let's look at the loot that I picked up from the Swedish Christmas fair. There was an amazing booth of secondhand books in Swedish. And the best part...they were buy one get one free at $1 a book, so 50 cents a book! I got a Swedish cookbook from the 70's, I just love the cover.

And for the free book I got this Jan Guillou novel. I read part of his trilogy on the Knights Templar for my senior seminar class in Swedish and want to brush up since my Swedish is fading, fast.

These homemade little tomte were made by volunteers from the Swedish Church of Los Angeles, so cute!

Ryan and I bought 2 straw ornaments to expand our very small collection so we can decorate our tree!

And this original design Lucia card shouted my mom so I picked it up for her.

This linen calendar was from the same booth as the secondhand books. It was only 50 cents!

I know it's from 1992 but I thought for 50 cents I could make something with the adorable pictures surrounding the calendar part. I love the old Swedish coffee pot picture.

And the pots and pans.

And last, but certainly not least, I bought a yard of this precious fabric. It will make an adorable Christmas runner once I hem the ends.

So, as you can see, the fair was a raging success! I am quite thrilled with my purchases and can't wait to apply for a booth next year. I feel good that I got a few gifts and am feeling almost ready for Christmas! :)

Swedish Christmas Fair: the program and craft fair

Well, it's no surprise that the Swedish Christmas Fair was a smashing success! Ryan and I stocked up on semlor (Ryan's first time having one!) and lussekatter and later had some glogg. There were many a craft booth and I am determined to be one of them next year! So much cute stuff there! I'll share my finds in another post and for now I will share a few pictures of the fair itself.

The booths were tons of fun to browse and see cute Swedish ornaments and other creative Christmas decor. They had booths for linens/textiles, books, jewlery, shirts, and other handmade beauties.

And there were some traditional Swedish dances during some of the fair!

And, the food. Oh my. Ryan had never had semlor before so we made sure to get some.

Ryan clearly loved the marzipan middle, he ate it right out. :)

But he loved the whole thing and finished it all! They were quite scrumptious.

We met up with some fellow Swede fans from my college (North Park University, go Vikings!) and watched the Lucia processional together.

Sorry for the following dark, fuzzy photos. They turn out the lights during the processional and I took a few pictures but they didn't turn out amazing...

They sang a medley of Swedish songs and it was so good!

Ryan and I drank our glogg while we waited for the Lucia processional to begin.

Ryan loves his glogg.

A bird's eye view of the fair.

The front end where they setup tables to eat. And in the corner was the cutest crafting corner for kids! They were making paper Lucia crowns, precious! I not-so-secretly wanted to make one for myself...but the chairs were a bit small. :)

The other side with all of the craft booths.

The happy couple enjoying a fun day shopping, eating and glogg-drinking at the Swedish Christmas fair! Stay tuned for the loot post later, I scored some awesome stuff!