Well, I thought and thought a name for my new Journal thread, and as is so usual, the best candidate came to my mind just as I logged in.

I haven't been around in other threads much lately, so I take this opportunity to say Happy New Year to everyone who reads this.

My New Year was wonderful. At first it didn't look that way though- it rained, and the warmest December ever recorded in Finland was just as black and ugly as a November. I and T made sausage and cheese pastries and potato salad, our traditional New Year food,  had homemade plum liquour for a dessert and watched Battlestar Galacticas. Then, suddenly, I noticed lots of cars going down our usually quiet street. We went to the kitchen window to see what was happening and just as we peeked out, the fireworks started. Big ones! We both had thought that one thing we would have to give up when moving to countryside was the big fireworks arranged by the City. But, it turned out that our new City (of which our village is a part) has fireworks at two places- at downtown and yes, at the field right behind our backyard! So there we were, munching cheese snacks and looking at beautiful professiona fireworks comfortably from our own kitchen.
Later, the rain stopped and we went to the garden with our own fireworks. We ran around like two kids, and after there were only empty shells and a smell of gunpowder in the air left, we agreed that it was the best New Year we had ever had.

Today, however, is a very different day. I woke up to realize that during the night, the horrible flu had had one more evil trick in sleeve still left for me: conjunctivitis! But I got a doctor visit arranged soon and it seems that I will be mostly ok by Sunday. I had planned to go to Helsinki, but after the doctor visit decided to postpone that until tomorrow.

Wedding preparations: More or less under control. One of our guests has a gluten-free diet, I am still trying to find a catering service (we need a waitress and to rent dishes). And, of course, we have been so ill that the house is a mess. I still think though that somehow, it will be all right. After all, we do get things accomplished every day.

Sewing: My most expensive pants that I bought in the spring were not a good buy- on the third time I wore them, the zipper broke. So, I decided to try and replace it. It turned out to be a difficult job. The broken zipper was inserted in a very complicated way- almost as if the manufacturer had wanted to make sure that one would give up hope replacing it. But, after a while of careful work, I succeeded. Because it was so complicated, I didn't get a perfectly neat result. But it works, and since it is not in a visible place that is enough. I think that after two fights with replacing zippers I am quite ready to try sewing something that requires inserting a zipper into nice and easy fabric!
On another note, I visited the biggest fabric store of Lohja today. Among other things, I asked whether they carried poly-cotton broadcloth. Solid color, good for most everyday items. A basic product, right? Wrong. They did not carry it at all, not in one color, and said that it is unlikely that they will get any anytime soon because it is not a curtain fabric or a fashion fabric. So, as unbelieveable as it may sound, I probably have no choice but order most of my fabric online. From US or UK, that is. I don't mind the price- fabric is expensive here and cheap there so I may even save a little. I just prefer to buy as locally as possible. But, dressing simply in Finland obviously isn't that simple!
 Interestingly enough, during the past week I have spotted a few articles about dressing and fashion, and reading them has just cemented my desire to get rid of all that. My New Year's resolution was a necessary one. Luckily, T supports me thoroughly and has been very encouraging.

Hair: Well, I didn't end up doing that SMT treatment- I had ran out of aloe vera gel. I will try to remember to buy some tomorrow from Helsinki.
 I realized that lately, I have had a clip season- almost all the time I wear buns with fakkares or instant bun clips. Maybe this is a signal that real Ficcares should once again enter to my shopping plans..?

Good that you tell me about how difficult sewing zippers is only now that I have already managed to sew two. No wonder that I have felt that sewing just about everything else has magically become much easier lately.
I am still working on finding reliable online fabric stores that have modest shipping prices. But I am fairly confident that I will succeed, as well as learn to plan my sewing projects ahead so that shipping times won't become a problem. It seems that online stores I have visited are quite the opposite to RL stores, carrying more basic fabric and a smaller selection of fancy fabrics.

    Today I'm having a Baking Day: My goal is to bake all the sponge cake type cakes needed for the wedding reception today and freeze them. Six cakes, that is.  Everything else gets done pretty much while a cake is in the oven: preparing for my trip, finishing my speech, other housework and having a little free time.
Otherwise, wedding preparations are going well. Tomorrow and on Saturday I'm going to bake pies, and after that I think I have managed to reduce my workload into a size I can manage after I return.

Hair: I have been pondering how to wash my hair while I'm in Scotland. Since I think it's safe to assume that the water in there is harder than here, my plan at the moment is not to take shampoo bars with me. Instead, I plan on using the hotel's shampoo- after all, it's probably mild and designed for all hair types. It's just one wash, anyway. I am going to take my body soap though.
   Of course, I have also thought of good traveling hairstyles. I think that a scarf bun is the most comfortable and neat option for flying. I will just have to make the bun under the scarf with plastic pins instead of my usual Amish pins. I am not going to take any of my LL hairsticks, but I am going to take a pair of MT hairsticks for congress dinner. Otherwise, I think I'll rely into buns with ficcares/fakkares and segmented ponytails. My goal is to be able to travel with as little hair accessories as possible, yet be able to maintain my usual neat as a pin- appearance at all times.

I'm back!   I hope you all have been well and have had great hair growth  .

Me, I don't know where to start! My trip was wonderful. I had great time, met interesting people and got some very positive feedback about my work. Had too little time to do much sightseeing or shopping...and sleeping, of course. When I came back home, I was immediately buried with wedding preparations. But, as the clock neared 1 pm on Saturday, things just clicked together, and we ended up having a great wedding reception.

After accomplishing all this and doing the absolutely necessary work for this week I've finally had a chance to rest a little. And now, I hope, my life will finally normalize for a while.

Today was the first day for a long time when I went out wearing my bonnet. It's a cute little thing and I feel almost bad for not wearing it for months. But then, it hasn't really been a winter. We got a little snow just for Saturday, but today's heavy rain has washed it all away again. Let me say it again: I HATE, hate, truly hate this greenhouse effect thing!
I also did my first exercise for Light knows how long. I am ready to resume my four times a week exercise schedule again, though with a new program that is a little lighter. My goal is now to get back in shape I was two months ago when the flu season started- it's not too long until March comes and I need to be ready to the challenges involved in cutting all our 26 apple trees...and from then on, the spring draws closer and it's time to get back to garden work. By then, I just need to be in good shape!

Hair: During the trip, I took care of my hair just as I had planned: washed it once with the hotel's shampoo. The water in Scotland was not drinkable (at least as far as my spoiled Finnish taste buds could tell), but my hair turned out just fine. As for the styles, most of the time I wore a bun with fakkare or instant bun clip. Not very imaginative, but easy and lasting. Just one evening I let my hair down for the cocktail party. It was great, my hair felt soooo long! I felt so special, as besides having the longest hair in the whole party I was also the only true blonde around.
At the wedding, I wore the same style as I did at the ceremony. Of course, I couldn't find the pearl pins I had used the first time, but luckily (as I was in a hurry) I found nice enough replacements.
   Now, I'm back with my simple haircare routine and also back with my everyday styles.

New Year's Promises: Well, I have thought about them! After the trip and the wedding, and my grant season nearing end, my budget looks pretty tight in the near future. But it has its bright side too- nothing helps in developing new, good habits as well as true need. So, I hope I will be able to come up with some good habits as well as abandon some bad ones.
   On the dress issue front, I have finally made a breakthrough. In the beginning of the year I wondered, how is it possible that the contents of my wardrobe look really quite sensible but at the same time I felt I have a lot more clothes than I need. That was a strange equation, but during the trip I got this heureka feeling. The problem is... pants! For example, I can wear my plain gray skirt almost anywhere: at work, at home, when seeing friends etc. Really, everywhere. Pants are not nearly as versatile: I need twill pants, jeans, neat trousers for work...you name it. And for each pair, I naturally need a complimenting top. And so, I have ended up having a wardrobe that is almost bursting out of its seams with sensible-looking clothes.
   So, I have decided that the pants will have to go. My first move will be to gather all my "everyday pants" (meaning every pair except gardening and exercise pants), put them into a box and see if I can do without them. I hope I can but we'll see.

Dresses are not that hard to make, but I would suggest starting with separates - making skirts and blouses.  Once you are comfortable with them, combining them into a single garment is easy.

Bias stitching is tough.  Make sure you are not pulling on the fabric when stitching, this will distort the fabric.  When I was doing custom sewing that required a bias ruffle or such, I found that putting a thin sheet of paper (newspaper worked well) under my fabric when stitching.  The paper will then just tear away after you are finished.  I will caution you however, sewing thru paper will dull your needle. Keep some emery paper handy and you can re-sharpen you needle easily.

Another week seems to have passed by. We have been busy, busy and depressed. Our older rabbit, Liina, died. The vet decided that she was strong enough to endure surgery, but in the operation it turned out that the small lump we had noticed was just the latest development of an advanced stage of cancer. So, the kindest thing to do was to put her to sleep. *sigh* It was quite unexpected, after all, as she was so happy and participated in family life up until her last day.

I measured my hair today. It seems that the growth spurt is really gone- my hair is now 71 cm/28 in long, only 1 cm/0.5 in longer than in November. There was this small trim though before the wedding. In any case, it looks as if I'm going to meet beautifully my "goal" of reaching 30" before the summer.
   The weather is really cold now- we have a real winter   . Moving to the countryside and developing an interest to things like observing stars, has necessitated some changes in my winter headgear department. In the city, a bonnet, hood and earmuffs were all that were needed. But now I am a lot more active and that means the need to dress as warmly as possible. So, wool caps have made a grand comeback- usually combined with a hood.
This combination keeps me very warm, but knowing that I usually end up wearing warm clothes during the day does decrease my creativity with hair. A bun made with Amish pins and a heavy hairnet is my new favorite. When I'm indoors, I usually make a scarf bun of it as the hairnet isn't too pretty IMO, when I go out I just take off the scarf and have a perfect little bun that is easy to tuck under a cap.
Speaking of scarves, I sewed a new scarf out of fabric left over from an apron, and it turned out well. I am certainly going to make more- this looks like a good way to use leftover fabric.

I am sorry to hear of Liina's passing.  Tell "T" to give you a hug from me.

Braided buns!!  How exciting.    I can hardly wait until I can do one.

A suggestion:  for your braid, try a mini scrunchi.  Even if you perceive that your tail is thin it will look better with less fabric above it.

Thanks, Trisha.

Then, some pictures!



Length today...
...needs washing. But it's growing!



I need to stop thinking these things as braids and start thinking them as I have crocheted the scrunchie myself.



What greasies? What thin hair? Once again, the stupendous SCARF BUN has saved the day. This scarf is the one I sewed from leftover apron fabric.