Christmas in November

RCP made it back yesterday safe and sound from his 10 day European trip.  I think you could also loosely refer to it as a vacation since he got to visit his ancestral homeland (he's half Swedish for those who didn't know) and then got to spend a weekend gallivanting around Amsterdam with our friend Marco. That being said he did say they had very good meetings regarding the current project (foreign investment in Korean real estate). His 10 day, 4 country trip did yield some very exciting goodies: Dutch cheese, summer sausage and licorice (the Dutch LOVE licorice) and for me, a gorgeous Swedish hat and mitten set. Maybe the hat and mittens actually came from Santa's gift shop. He was very close to Arctic Circle and Land of Reindeer. Hmmmm....

From RCP...maybe.
It amazingly matches my red coat,
which really makes me think Santa was the one who picked it out.

 RCP would not have remembered the color of my coat...and he's colorblind.
Santa knows all and can see the color red.

Lovikka Yarn

The name Lovikka orginates from a small village 100 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle.

More than a century ago, a Lapp woman invented a method of knitting the special Lovikka yarn into mittens that had extraordinary qualities. This brand follows the old Lapp traditions by using very soft and thick wool yarn to make mittens and hats that are thick, windproof and warm. 

The colorful decorations are the traditional Lapp colors.

Love the reindeer.

The Indians are Ready

My framed pictures were supposed to be ready today. On Monday, I took my handmade collage, along with some 5x7 prints of photographs from the Edward Curtis photography exhibit on the North American Indian  to my frame guy in Itaewon, Mr. Lee. The Indians were ready, the collage was not. I'm thrilled with how the photographs turned out and I plan on taking two more to have framed. Mr. Lee let me take home the two prints and pay for everything tomorrow. I'll let you know how the collage turns out.

The shop has a plethora of artwork for sale as well.

Mr. Lee.

I don't think he understood that I wanted to take a picture of him, not a picture of the picture.

I think they turned out really great and look like the real photographs from the exhibit.

The other two I'm going to have done include horses and teepees.

A Christmas Miracle

I guess RCP had an early word with Santa while up in Sweden

because after not being connected for two and a half months and left to my own

devices and a paper map whenever leaving the house, this little present arrived today.

I hear this little thing is life-changing, 

but at this moment I'm not really quite sure what to think of it.

All I'm really excited about right now is that it's white and matches my ipad.