In eyes of a photographer

It`s been way too long since my last blog post! Time just seems to fly by. I wish I had more time to share my projects, crafts and ideas with you, but I try to be thankful for these posts I`m able to write! After all, it`s the positive things in life we should concentrate on :), don`t you agree?

Yesterday was a positive day full of excitement for me and my whole family! In my last post I wrote about a photo shoot and yesterday on 25th of November in a Finnish magazine called Kotivinkki the article was published! Due to a post office worker`s strike we didn`t receive our own copy of the magazine so my husband went to buy one today so I could share the photos with you! As I have just photographed the magazine the photos don`t do justice to the original ones, with were taken by Tiu Kaitalo, but they give an idea how our Christmas home looks like :).

The headline here is freely translated Peace on mind by the fire. It refers to my favorite spot in the house: the fireplace room. Actually we all enjoy sitting or laying in bed and watching the fire. There is something so magical and primitive in it.

Under the headline is a black text: "In Jenni`s home even Christmas ornaments are the same colors as the rest of the decor. Making things by hand take the focus away from chronic pain." 

Those two sentences pretty well sum up the essence of decorating and crafting and the meaning they have in my life.

That little house box introduces us, tells who live in this home. "Our home. Log home built in 1975 in Riihenmäki, Mäntsälä, 128 square meters home with 4 rooms, a kitchen and a fireplace room. Here lives Jenni 33 years. Mauritz 33 years and Oskari 5 years old. Jenni is a textile/craft teacher and Mauritz teaches philosophy and psychology."

I love that photo of me and Oskari! Tiu, the photographer even managed to get a smile out of Oskari, who is normally intimidated and frightened by these kind of social situations as he has selective mutism. 

Our old coffee table felt too big and now as we search for the right one, that movable bar chart has served us well. We love the fact that it has wheels, so it`s easy to roll away if Oskari want to play on the carpet or pull it closer if we are eating evening snacks by the tv watching movies. It may well be, that I have to find something else there where the cart used to be ;).

Here is the second spread with a lovely family photo. Oskari wanted to hold my hand to feel safe and even got to eat one of the ginger bread cookies we made and decorated. I love that they added a photo of our fireplace room / guest room, but I would have preferred they would have added a photo with the bed ! It`s so cozy to curl up there with my men and watch the fire <3.

My love for crafting is seen on the way I love to make every gift as beautiful as I can. And really you don`t have to pay much, I used free things from nature and sime ribbon and a free printable! 

On several years I have made some ornaments to our three, like those paper stars. They are cut from a wall paper, bought from Ikea! Do you wonder what is that numbered tag? It`s a part of our advent calendar. Each day we open one, with some kind of a fun activity we all do together. It can be anything from playing a game to baking. Before advent time we sit down and think what could be nice thing to do and I`m in charge of the execution. Lovely family tradition of our own.

This photo of our living room is so gorgeous! You can really tell, that the photographer is talented. It was fascinating to watch how a professional photographer works and how much you really need to do for a photo like this! There were four lights and a reflector in use to make everything look so light and dreamy. I really admire photographers talent in capturing something beautiful.

Here you can see one of the gifts I made for the photo shoot. Easy, simple and natural. And of course they are made to match the decor <3 

Third spread is dedicated to our bedrooms and craft room. I like how "our" colors flow nicely in the photos and really make everything look cohesive. 

Our small bedroom is mainly for sleeping. We installed those wall mounted bed tables to make cleaning easier in a small space like this. On the left side there can be seen curtains and behind them is our small walk- in closet.

What it comes to decorating Oskari`s room, he has had a lot to say about it! He wanted to pick the colors and textiles while I kept in mind the whole picture and the practical side of things. To store his growing lego collection we hacked his Ikea Kura-bed so that there is space under the bed for storage crates with wheels. Oskari also wanted to have curtains over his bed, under them he feels safe. In fact he would like to have two more curtains there, so he could put them all around the bed making a bed tent for himself. #kidswithideas

My, sorry our craft room is also one of my favorite places. I love sitting in my chair looking out in our garden and crafting. Ob the table you can see more presents all wrapped up and ready for Christmas. Too bad that they were only empty boxes as I didn`t have any presents ready then yet ;). I was given a lot of positive feedback on my styling. I had this little wrapping table set up with some unfinished gifts, ginger bread cookies ready to be eaten and little thing like that. They were able to start photographing right away, which isn`t the case in most cases.

Hearing those compliments really boosted my confidence, because even though my family and friends probably value my skills, they are MY family and that`s why biased. But hearing something like that from a professional - it totally made my day!

The fourth and last spread concentrates on our kitchen. Like many homes here in Finland, we don`t have a separate dining room, but rather open plan layout. From the dining space you can see to the living room. In fact the first shot is taken from the kitchen. We didn`t renovate the kitchen ourselves and there are many things I would like to change, but it`s functional.

Here is a closer look at the last page. Sadly we didn`t get snow so we would have had a snowy photo from our back yard as an icing on the cake, but that`s life here in Southern Finland.

I even set the table and used my "go-to colors" turquoise, gray, white and green. On Christmas Eve we normally have family here with us. Our table can seat at least eight people, but normally we keep our table smaller to have more space around it. We used to have a cabinet over the oven. It was mainly unused, looked heavy and blocked light so we finally decided to take it down. It involved some electrical work, so we had a change to get a pendant over the counter top. Having a task light there has been my dream for as long as we have lived here ;).

  

I love simple table settings where you have room to move without a fear of dropping something ;). On Christmas day, though, I might add a flower or two and some greenery in the mix.

So, here it is. I saw no point in translating the text completely and tried to explain some of the things there are mentioned and more. If you have any questions, please ask! And remember, I always value your comments <3

See you here again! Have a great time preparing for Christmas and relax. Things don`t have to be perfect, you can embrace this Nordic saying: Less is more! 

Warmly,

Jenni