Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

  14 December Christmas Countdown #25envelopes - tonttu Of all the places where I’ve lived , no other country does Christmas better than Finland ... today’s envelope features tonttu which is a mythological creature from Nordic folklore associated now with the winter solstice and the Christmas season. They are generally described as being short, having a long white beard, and wearing a conical or knit cap in red or some other bright colour. My tonttu is free motion stitched with coloured pencil and collaged with other fabric . Best wishes to all my Finnish friends and host families - hyvää joulua PS. Some readers  may know of these little folk as tomte ( Swedish) or nisse (Danish) 

A little Finnish surprise for you today.....  T is for tonttu  A tonttu ( or tomte in Swedish)  is a mythological creature from  Scandinavian folklore  today typically associated with the  winter solstice  and the  Christmas  season. It is generally described as being no taller than three feet, having a long white beard, and wearing a conical or knit cap in red or some other bright colour. They often have an appearance somewhat similar to that of a  garden gnome . [1 ] from Wikipedia.  In the past, i n Finnish households  there were guardian spirits known as elves (tonttu) Each type of building had its own sort of elf.- household elves, sauna elves, stable elves, storehouse elves, barn elves and mill elves. When treated with respect, they brought good fortune, but if they took offence, there was no predicting the consequences. All commonly were active after nightfall,but individual tonttu were often notorious for thei...

Everyone knows that Santa Claus lives in the north of Finland, so it would be remiss not to include a Finnish Christmas treat during the Christmas Countdown. I discovered these  rich and delicious pin wheel shaped, jam filled  pastries fairly late in life - I think  it was  Christmas 2000, a few months before I first went to Finland. They not only taste good, they look beautiful - the golden pastry star pinwheels with a rich, dark coloured prune jam filling.   Here is  some   information from  " arousing appetites " blog.  What is Joulutortut? While the name for the Finnish joulutortut now translates into English as “Christmas tart”, many of the traditions the Finnish have pre-date Christianity’s influence and come from a rather older Viking heritage. In the pre-Christian times, the Vikings in Nordic countries observed hjul, or “sun wheel,” a celebration of the winter solstice that brought back the sunlight to the darkened regi...

A funny thing happened on the way to the laundromat   I discovered another arty place  - BSW OY ( Birch Sewer) in Helsinki, Finland. . from a magazine article  On 5 June, it was a wet, fairly cold and grey Tuesday and we had lots of dirty clothes and the unthinkable prospect of another week of  wearing "smelly" clothes before we reached our friend’s home in Oulu .  Determined to locate a laundromat (about a 25 minute walk from our hotel)  we started off with a map, and found some wonderful little streets with quaint shops, formidable buildings and a Swedish designed Gothic revival   Church! One of the shops I spotted was worth further investigation, once I saw the sewing symbols and the beautiful cheerful orange pansies in the window boxes. I boldly entered and then realised that I couldn’t even pretend to be a customer, as this was a dressmaker’s studio for custom made clothing. But not just any dressmaker! The delightful , talented and ex...

Coffee and Pulla in Finland , a photo by empresswu designs on Flickr. It's been 11 years since I've been in Finland. Coffee and pulla ( something like a brioche, but better - either plain, with cardamom, fruit filling....) is still one of my favourite memories! This was at a little outdoor cafe set up for the summer months in a small market place in Helsinki. I was attracted by the decor - rough hewn tables, assorted chairs, candelabra ( in the daylight) and vintage props - typewriters, motor scooter helmets, Singer sewing machines.... I was just filling in time here waiting for my washing to be done at a nearby laundromat where the owner gave instructions "go and have coffee and pulla and come back for the laundry in an hour" .

Riikka Uusamaki from Finland has come to stay with us for a few months. We are delighted to host her as part of the Rotary Youth Exchange Program and will try to ensure that Riikka has an enjoyable year in Australia. I am particularly happy to host a Finnish student as I had such a wonderful time in the south west of Finland in 2001, as a Rotary Group Study Exchange leader, and have such great memories of everything Finnish. We have also had such positive experiences from hosting students from other cultures in the past and love having such special young people as part of our family even for a little while. We met Riikka when she came to Australia last July, and have taken her on a whale watching cruise from Nelson Bay (only one whale sighted that day) and spent time with her at various Rotary functions and meetings. Many thanks to our friend, Pam, who was Riikka's first "host mother ' for organising so many things like school, bank accounts, health card etc for Riikka in...