Canvas Clutch

I couldn't sleep last night, drank too much tea ( I sound like my mum), Went online around midnight, bought a simple canvas clutch from Death and Texas at Brook farm General store

Cards

I tried to make my own holiday cards this year, a bit shy to admit, I actually quite like them. And then I saw the Yellow Owl worshop's LCD write you own message card, I thought how brilliant that it! I have to have those.

Back to normal

Our Finnish family left this morning, the house feels so empty. Past few months, we had quite a different life, 2 months in China, visitors in the house, lots of good food, music and pies every night. Not only Landon needs to get used to only seeing grandparents via Skype, mum also needs to get back to her old routine.

My husband and I used to be those people never remembered to send out Christmas cards, always the last to pick whatever leftover - tiny - sad Christmas tree we could find, always busy, always traveling until the last minute before holiday starts. Both our families are far away, holidays for us used to only means a day off from work. But now it is different, we have a son, I think when you have a kid in a house, holiday must be celebrated. A kid transfers a house into a home. I made a couple of cards this morning to be sent out, also took out the beautiful cotton yarns I bought yesterday and dreaming I could turn them into some beautiful gifts.

Birch Tree and Mushroom

My husband's family is visiting from Finland, they love the birch tree in our front garden, my mother-in-law calls it : the Finnish tree. They also found some edible mushrooms under the tree that are the same kind you can find in the Finnish forest. For a city girl like me, I would have never known those are edible, the first thing that came into my mind when I saw those mushrooms is that the gardener didn't do his job well while we were away...

Back home

I have been away in China for two months with Landon, didn't know I was not able to access my own blog, the whole blogspot.com is blocked by the Chinese government's great internet firewall, so was Facebook. I was very much disconnected from my life in the West, luckily they still allow the use of Skype, but then I was there to reconnect with my life in the East...

There is always so much change in China, always construction, always traffic, there is always so much contrary in China, modern vs tradition, new vs old, east vs west. But there is always so much warmth in China, always family, always great food, always memory.