Crochet beanies and fingerless gloves

We have something new in our store again! This time it is these cute handmade beanies and fingerless gloves made by Finnish Kärpässienikauppa. Each beanie and pair of gloves is unique but if you have special wishes, we are happy to take them into account.

This beanie for kids is of a larger size that fits adults as well

Kids cute striped beanie

Wristwarmers in size medium made from soft mohair wool

Fingerless gloves with pretty flower details

Click to our website to see the larger selection of unique beanies and wristwarmers.

Baby girl nursery

During the Easter holidays I wrote about the handmade soft toys in our store to our Finnish blog. I was inspired by the romantic and classic style toys and search some more inspiration for a romantic baby girl nursery.

I found these lace clouds in Pinterest. Such a cute idea, it must be wonderful to relax while looking at these!

Photo from unknown source on Pinterest

Our handmade bunny soft toy would fit perfectly into the cute baby girl nursery below. Exactly the same classic style don't you think?

Photo from On to Baby

Here baby clothing is organized neatly as a part of the nursery decoration. I love the matching baskets and how white and pink color are present in both the clothing and the little accessories.

Photo from this online store

What are your preferences? Would you decorate baby girl nursery in these soft and romantic white and pink tones, or in more bold colours?

If you prefer rosy pink in nursery decor, you might like the following products in our store:

Handmade wooden cradle / Handmade bunny soft toy

Mother's Day gift ideas

How about beautiful handmade jewelry for Mother's Day? Visit our shop and make your order now, the delivery takes about 2 weeks around the world. All of our jewelry is handmade in Finland.

Felted necklace

Rings made from wooden pearls

Lime color earrings

Wool socks

Our new warm and colorful wool socks will cheer up the spring where ever you go! These blue striped, and the pink and orange toned joyful wool socks are handmade and handknit from durable sock wool and machine washable. The socks measure women's size medium but we will also make custom size socks upon request. Please allow 1-2 weeks to knit the socks.

Blue striped wool socks

Colorful wool socks

Our full selection of wool socks.

Spring garland

What a cute felted garland project for the spring! I found this in the How About Orange-blog written by Jessica Jones. Check out the tutorial here.

Felted geometrical heart garland for the spring

These geometrical garlands have become really popular in blogs all over and I love them! So simple but elegant and you can easily add a touch of color to your home. Can't wait for the snow to melt and this orange color already gives me a bit of hope. :)

Heart pocket to a cardigan

Valentine's Day passed already but this little project adding a heart shaped project to a girl's cardigan will fit any lazy spring afternoon. I like this idea so much! Found it in iCandy, one of my favorite do it yourself blogs. Check out the tutorial with pictures.

Handmade bracelets

We have now more pretty handmade bracelets in our online store. These bracelets make a sweet gift and why not treat yourself with your favourite one? All bracelets and designed and handmade in Finland. Find our selection of bracelets and handmade jewelry here.

Pink bracelet

Dark grey bracelet

This unique pearl necklace that also holds your keys is also designed and made by Aini Design. You can easily attach your office or home key to the strap.

Elegant pearl keychain

A matching white pearl bracelet belongs to this set. You can purchase the pearl necklace and bracelet here.

White pearl bracelet

Handmade wooden jewelry

Lovely handmade wooden pendants have been added to our selection of handmade jewelry. These lovely wooden necklaces are handmade and hand painted in Finland.

Handpainted wooden necklace

The material of the wooden pendants is Finnish birch. The pendant is attached to a cotton string. The length of the string can be adjusted. The size of the pendant is about 47 mm (1.9 inches).

Leopard print pendant

Blue wooden necklace with flower print

These pretty necklaces will make a perfect gift. You can see the whole selection of wooden jewelry here. 

Valentine's activities with kids

Here is a fun activity idea to make a key holder to the wall. All you need is a Lego figure, piece of background and a piece with a hole.

Place the Lego figure onto the top part of the background piece and slip the key into the piece with the hole. Then you can easily snap the key and the holder into place.

You can make several of these for example for Valentine's with kids. If you can't find suitable pieces with a hole, e-bay will help.

Picture from Pinterest

Picture from Pinterest

Ceramic garlic grater

These bright and colorful ceramic garlic and ginger graters are handmade in Finland by our artisan potter. The ceramic grater is available in eight colors; black, white, mint green, dark grey, yellow, pink, red and turquoise blue. The grater measures about 2.6 x 4.7 inches. 

Ceramic grater

Kitchen tip: You can grate garlic gloves instead of mincing – less work and easier to do! And the taste of garlic is fresher when you grate (or mince) it instead of pressing.

I love using this ceramic grater in our kitchen. It is very practical and it looks so pretty that I don’t have to hide it when I’m not using the grater. I think it also makes a perfect gift for friends and relatives of all ages, and for everybody who loves cooking and pretty home decor. 

Mincing garlic with the ceramic grater

The ceramic grater was originally invented for grating garlic but it can be used to grate ginger as well. It is easy to grate both garlic and ginger without cutting your fingers, and it’s very practical to swipe the grated garlic or ginger off the ceramic grater to the pan.

The ceramic grater is shipped from our online store within 1-2 days and delivery takes about 2 weeks at maximum to most parts of the world. Since the garlic can be shipped in a regular size envelope, it usually ships even faster.

Check out the ceramic graters in our online store and order yours!

Happy New Year 2013

Happy New Year 2013 to you all!

Happy Holidays

We wish you a Merry Christmas and relaxing time with friends and family!

Felted jewelry

You find lovely and high quality felted jewelry in our online store. Now we have added beautiful felted bracelets to our collection. Matching felted necklaces and earrings are also available. This jewelry will make a perfect Christmas gift! We love the felted jewelry especially in the winter time when the wool feels lovely and warm next to the skin.

Orange felted bracelet

The felted jewelry sets are available in eight different colors. The color options are orange, white, pink, baby blue, dark teal, greyish green, red and lime.

Baby blue felted necklace

The felted bracelets, necklaces and earrings are all handmade in Finland. The jewelry is felted from Finnish high quality wool.

Dark teal felted earrings

Click here to visit the felted jewelry selection in our online store.

Handmade wool socks for men

We are happy to have these traditional Finnish handmade wool socks available in our online store. The wool socks for men are knitted from durable sock wool and machine washable. The pattern and colors are classic, and these socks are guaranteed to keep the feet warm during the colder months.

Light grey wool socks for men

There are three sizes and two different shades of grey color available for the men's socks. If the color or size you'd like is not available at the moment, you can make an inquiry about the exact delivery time. Usually we are able to make and mail the socks within 2 weeks.

Dark grey wool socks for men

If you're looking for wool socks for women or for children, please check our full selection of handmade wool socks. Each pair is handmade in Finland, and of high quality.

Summer shopping handmade gifts

It feels like summer has finally arrived to Finland! The beginning of the summer was so chilly and rainy, now we are enjoying some sunshine and a bit warmer weather. In July and August, Finns head out to their summer houses, 'kesämökki', for sauna and swimming in the lakes. If you ever visit a Finnish family at their summer house, you might want to bring something little for the sauna, like this ceramic thermometer or home elf (suitable for the heat in the sauna as well, but not to be put on the stove). To make a perfect Finnish gift wrap these nicely together with a bag of coffee, the most traditional Finnish gift when you visit someone.

And of course, these are suitable to decorate homes and saunas all over the world. :)

Ceramic thermometer

Ceramic home elf

These handmade woven linen washcloths would fit nicely together with the sauna ceramics...

Handmade linen washcloths

Check out our selection of sauna and bathroom products behind this link.

Recycled denim quilt

I love browsing crafty DIY ideas online. These days Pinterest has made it so easy to bookmark the best projects with illustrative photos. Are you already using Pinterest and what do you think about it?

This week I saw this lovely idea (and illustrative tutorial) how to recycle old jeans into a cool denim quilt that can be used for example as a picnic blanket. The project is definitely not very quick to do, this one used 64 denim squares that were first each individually padded. The project was introduced in iCandy handmade. Such a lovely blog by the way, and fantastic tutorials!

Old jeans into a denim squares quilt, iCandy handmade

I would love to take this quilt with me for a picnic in the park or to the beach in the summer. Old jeans are already washed so many times that the fabric is perfectly soft and I'm sure the whole family would enjoy this, seeing their old pairs of jeans reused in the quilt.

My thoughts are definitely already in the summer time. This weekend is going to be another one full of gardening and preparing the home for the sunnier and greener season. The weather is not too warm in Finland yet, how about over there where you live?

I hope you're all having a great weekend and enjoying whatever you are doing. Sunny greetings from Finland! :)

Visit to glass art shop

Over the Easter holidays I visited Ossi Palmu, our shop's glass artist. Ossi’s creations are truly beautiful and polished to the last detail. You can see the selection of his works here. During the visit I took some photos for you to get to know where he works and what the glass art process is like.

Ossi’s ornaments are all hand cut and finished individually, to special one of a kind gifts. The small fisher boys and all kinds of pretty flower ornaments for the home are one of his most popular items. Here is one tiny Cherry Flower piece on its way. 

Cherry Flower

Lately Ossi has also been  trying out and making some glass jewelry. The jewelry is very detailed, see for example the gorgeous reindeer figures in the middle. 

Glass jewelry trials

Here are some glass plates made in Ossi's workshop. The first one is made from mosaic like glass pieces and the second has a tree branch reaching over the plate. Even though it's wintery, I find the branch plate quite stunning. Ossi told me that lately the mosaic type fused glass plates have been a popular project among his students.

Mosaic glass plate

Fused glass plate with a branch figure

Ossi also teaches students who want to learn tiffany technique, and fused and melted glass technique. I have been trying myself every now and then, too irregularly to really get good at it! I have made some tiffany flowers and small birds. For a beginner, fused glass seems to be easier and at least faster method! This time I made these Tree figures. The trunk of the tree is cut from one piece and the leaves and the grass are made from tiny glass pieces that are glued to the square glass that forms the back of the glass work. So this one is not ready yet, it is still waiting to be fused in the specialty glass oven.

Fused glass art piece

Making these fused glass and tiffany technique glass works is quite interesting and rewarding. I really recommend trying it out yourself if you get a chance and find a good teacher! As gifts, I like to pick out the pieces made by Ossi though, the quality is quite a lot better than in mine. :)

Happy Easter!

Wishing you a relaxing and peaceful Easter weekend!

Easter bunnies all over!

I realized today that Easter is just around the corner, sooner than what I have thought! Time to start cleaning the house and to put up decorations. In Finland we have a tradition of growing 'Easter grass' (rairuoho) inside in a small dish. Typically the grass is not yet green outside, so the little dish reminds us of the spring that is coming. Tiny Easter bunnies and chickens are then placed among the grass.

Typical Easter decoration in Finland, the photo is from here

It would be interesting to know if this tradition exists elsewhere!

In our shop we have a few small Easter decoration that fit perfectly for this purpose. Check out for example the cute ceramic bunny couples and the felted little chickens.

Ceramic Easter bunny couple, find them here

Felt tiny Easter chicks, find them here

What I'd love to get for my house is also a cool Easter print to the dining room. I did some research on etsy and found these, what do you think?

White Rabbit art print - Where's Alice?

Yellow Bunny art print

Sunny Bunny with basket full of eggs

Little things mean a lot in bringing the holiday mood and feeling. Do you have special Easter traditions or things you like to put up around this time?