Christmas market in Helsinki

Hello sweeties!

Today I visited Christmas market in Helsinki. In Finnish it's called as "Tuomaan markkinat", in English it would be "St. Thomas Christmas Market"
This year it was held for the second time in Helsinki's Senate Square, which I think is a perfect place for the Christmas market. Now there's more this Central European Christmas market atmosphere than for example 3 years ago. As you may have already noticed that I like Christmas for its atmosphere. And THAT is the only reason.

I went to the Christmas market with my friends, one of them took her 2,5 year old daughter to the matket coz our friend wanted to go to carousel coz she never been one. In the end all of us found ourself in a carousel. Personally I felt nauseated the whole time I had to be in carousel. When we got off this torture device we had something to eat, and that something was bratwurst and sauerkraut. Yes, it sounds very German. But hey, we love bratwurst and especially sauerkraut. I guess I could say we have a good taste. After the little snack we walked around the market. I bought some things there like honey, new earrings and sweeted almonds. Gosh, I love sweeted almonds. So yummy.

 

The Christmas market area.

 





 

Like I said, I felt nauseated :P

 

 



Till next time!

The ugly Chirstmas sweater party

Hello sweeties!

I got this fun idea about having a ugly Christmas sweater party. So I did invinted some of my friends to Christmas party at my place. Everyone had to wear ugly Christmas sweater. It was fun to see what kind of sweaters everybody had made. It was very fun evening. We even went to a local bar wearing the sweaters. People were quite amused when they saw us.
So here is photos the sweaters, I hope you will find them as amusing as we did.

Christmas sweater number 1.

Christmas sweater number 2

Christmas sweater number 3

Christmas sweater number 4

 

 

 



We added all the photos on our FB sites so our friends could vote for the ugliest Christmas sweater. Guess which one won it? Mine. I didn't felt very honoured when I won the competition but hey, I worked hard to make the sweater look ugly :P

Till next time!

A day off

Hello dears,

I had a day off today. In the morning I had dentist, which wasn't as bad as usually. Anyhow, since I had rest of the day off I wanted to do something. I decided to go in Nuuksio. You might remember that I wanted to go there again in autumn. I was a bit upset coz I didn't saw much autumn colors in Nuuksio. It was the one of the reasons why I went there today: to take photos of Finnish nature. Another reason was siberian flying squirrel reflector. It really looks like a squirrel hit by a car. Or what do you think?
 
 

I started my hiking tour from Haltia where I bought the reflector, I also took a couple maps so I wouldn't get lost in the forest. The route that I took this time was a new one to me. I was suprised how hilly it was. There was one moment when I felt like dying...it was really hard to get up the stairs.

My goal was to walk from Haltia to Haukkalampi and back to Haltia.

 

 

'

 

 

 

When I reached Haukkalampi I took a few photos there and then walked back to Haltia.

 

 

 

It enjoyed a lot my walk in Nuuksio. I'm sure I will sleep well at night. Hopefully I won't fall asleep before Champions League match starts. Arsenal plays against Bayern München. When it is possible to see Bayern München playing in Finnish TV I won't miss my chance to watch the match.

Till next time!



 

 

 

 

 

 

 





The evening with the eagle owls

Hello dears,

Yesterday I went to see a football (soccer) match with my friend in Helsinki Olympic Stadium. Huuhkajat (the eagle owls, also know Finland's national football team). It was such a dull match. Most of time I was freezing in cold stadium and hoping to have a cup of Irish Coffee.
 
The match was part of Euro 2016 qualification. Unfortnally Finland didn't maked to the Euro 2016 this time. Actually, Finland has sad history with championships. Once I heard a joke that Finland gets to the world cup when hell freezes over, the same year Finland will also win Brazil 7-1.

Anyway, back to the yesterdays match. Finland played against Northern Ireland.  The biggest excitement was when Paulus Arajuuri made a 1-1 goal on 87 minute. It's a shame that Finland lost their match against Romania. Yesterdays match would have been different if Finland would have won it. But no, their played 1-1 match which meant that Finland lost their chance to be a part of Euro 2016.

 But hey, good thing that there's always Germany. There people actually know how to kick the ball and what's more important, how to make a goal and keep the ball away the own goal. I know who I will support next summer when I will dedicate a month for football.

Here is a few photos from the match.

Till next time!

Happy cinnamon roll day!

Hello dears!

Today is cinnamon roll day. (in Finnish korvapuustipäivä) So I decided to make cinnamon rolls (korvapuusti). My version of cinnamon rolls is a Finnish one. This is how we made cinnamon rolls in Finland. I hope you will like them :)

Ingredients

25 g yeast

75 g butter or 75 g margarine

300 ml milk

¹⁄₂ teaspoon salt

50 ml sugar

³⁄₄ teaspoon ground cardamom

750 ml all-purpose flour

 

Filling

100 g butter or 100 g margarine, room temperature

100 ml sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

For Brushing

1 egg, beaten for brushing

 

Then let's get started. This is what you need to do:

 

Crumble yeast into a bowl.
Melt butter, add milk and gently heat the mixture to 37°C.
Pour over yeast and mix until yeast has dissolved.
Add salt, sugar, cardamom and stir; add about 200 ml of the flour and stir.
Add the rest of the flour and knead dough by hand until smooth and elastic, and it no longer sticks to the bowl (this shouldn't take long) nor to your hand (which takes a bit longer).
Mix the filling ingredients together.
Lightly flour the baking board and turn the dough on it.
Roll dough out to a 40 x 60 cm square.
Spread the filling on the dough and roll it up tightly, starting from the longer side of the square.
Cut the roll in 3-4 cm pieces.
Use a finger or a spoon to press down each tip to form ear-shaped rolls.
Place rolls on a parchmented baking sheet, cover and let rise for 30 minutes.
Brush the rolls with beaten egg.
Bake at 225 C for about 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

If you gonna make Finnish cinnamon rolls let me know did you liked it :)

Till next time!

The autumn trip to Nuuksio National Park

Hello dears,

I was a bit worries on Wednesday will I manage to go in Nuuksio coz I got a autumn flu. Nasty thing to have, I lost my voice on Thursday evening. I was freaking' out, I have never lost my voice before. But luckily I got it back yesterday, it's still a bit raspy. Anyhow, I decided to go hiking in Nuuksio with my friend. I think she was more exhausted than I was when I finally got out of the forest. And I was the ill one!

We started our day with a nice breakfast in Haltia. After the breaksfast we went to see the exhibitions. Which I found really interesting. There was an exhibition about why people love the hiking.

                                          A view from Haltia. Looks really beautiful!

                    At the exhibition in Haltia. This jacket is a bit too big for me.


In Haltia we checked the map and decided to walk to Lake Bodom. It wasn't as near as we first thought it would be. In the end we walked about 9 km before we reached beach of Lake Bodom. 

                                                              Finnish forest.

 

Doings of the ice age.

 

The Lake Bodom

 

It was a fun day in the fresh air in a good company! I definitely gonna make another trip to Nuuksio in autumn.

Till next time!

Helsinki International Film Festival

Hello dears,

It's September and the highlight of September is HIFF , Helsinki International Film Festival, or as we Finns call it Rakkautta & Anarkiaa. This festival has been my highlight of the autumn for years. As a movie lover it's great to see other than mainstream movies. This year I am going to see movies from Arfica, USA and Iran. I'm really looking forward the movie from Iran.( A few years ago I saw Iranian movie called as "A Seperation". Some of you might know it won  Best Foreign Language Film in 2012. ) Ever since I have liked Iranian movies.

Next week I am going to see Grandma and Taxi. A week later I am going to see Crumbs.

Here are the trailers all the movies.

Grandma

Taxi

Crumbs

Now I am curious to know, what do you think? Would you go to see those movies? If you would; why? If you wouldn't; why not?


Till next time!

DIY Christmas cards

Hello dears,

I know, I know...it's been a while. So sorry...I was so busy at work that I didn't have any time to update my blog...but now I'm back!  :)


As some of you might know I make Christmas cards early...this year very early. I got an inspiration, and rest is the history now. I wanna share how I made my Christmas cards this year. Maybe, just maybe some of you might get inspiration too! Some people says that making Christmas cards takes a lot of time, a lot of money. I say, no it doesn't. I only needed some buttoms, white ( you can choose the color that pleases you) cards, glue gun and colored pencil.

 

This is all what you need to make a Christmas card

My idea was pretty simple. I glued the buttoms on a row and draw a ribbon so buttoms would look like Christmas ornaments.

            This is what my cards looked before I glued the buttoms on the cards.

                                                            This was the result.



When I have draw the ribbons and bows. I wrote "Hyvää Joulua" all cards. Because I do send Christmas cards to my friends in abroad I also wrote "Merry Christmas" those that I will send to USA or other countries and "Frohe Weihnachten" those that I will send to Germany.

Now when I am done with Christmas cards I am planning to make necklaces of pines as Christmas presents to my friends.

Till the next time!

Matcha cheesecake

Hello sweeties!

I know, I know, it's a while of my last post. I'm very sorry about it. Yesterday I made matcha cheesecake. I wanna share the recipe with you. It's my own recipe so that's why I added a lot of matcha powder so if you aren't familiar with the taste of matcha don't add it as much as I did. You might not like the result. Now matcha cheesecake is my favorite cheesecake. I definitely gonna do it again. I think it's prefect dessert for hanami festival picnic.

Matcha cheesecake:

1 package graham crackers, crushed
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted                                                                    

3-4 tablespoons green tea powder (matcha)

2 tablespoons hot water

200g white chocolate

3 leafs of gelatin                                                   

2 packages (400g) of cream cheese

2dl whipping cream

1 teaspoon of vanilla sugar

1 teaspoon of stevia ( you can also use white sugar)

 

 

 

Put the graham cracker crumbs in a mixing bowl. Drizzle in the melted butter and mix until evenly moistened. Press into the bottom of( a 20cm ) springform pan. Put the pan in a fridge until the topping is ready.

Put leafs of gelatin in the cold water. Whip the cream. Combine cream cheese with matcha powder and vanilla sugar. Melt the white chocolate and it with cream cheese-matcha-vanilla mixture. Add cream on the mixture.

Boil the water. Press the water off from the leafs of gelatin and add them 2 tablespoons of boiling water. Add the mixture to the cream cheese mixture and mix.

Take the springform pan off the fridge and add the cream cheese mixture on it. Put the pan back to the fridge and keep there 2-3 hours or over the night.

 

 

                                               Matcha cheesecake served with matcha latte.

 

 

You can serve the cake with coffee or tea or with matcha latte, like I did. If you are curious to know how to make matcha latte let me know. I will post the recipe ;) It's also super easy to make.

 

Enjoy!

 

Till next time!~~

 

 

 

 

Sauerkraut & bratwurst casserole

Hello sweeties! Lately I've ate a lot sauerkraut so when I saw sauerkraut & bratwurst casserole recipe on Facebook I wanted to try it. The recipe that I gonna share with you guys isn't the same one as I saw. It's my own variation of it. This dish is perfect when you're having guests. It's easy and fast to make. What is most important it's very tasty! Next time when I host board game evening I definitely gonna make this dish.
So here is the recipe, I hope you'll like it as much I do.

Sauerkraut & bratwurst casserole

Ingredients:

1kg sauerkraut
1 package of bratwurst (6 big sausages)
2-3 tablespoons of mustard
2dl of sour cream (smetana)

Preheat the oven to 200C. Put sauertkraut on the riddle and let it drain for a moment. Slice the sausages and fry in a pan until sausages gets a little bit of color. Mix all the ingredients together. Pour into prepared baking dish. Bake about for 45 minutes.

If you want, you can serve the dish with the green salad.

I promise this dish is really easy to make. And it's tasty, even on the picture the dish doesn't look tasty. Let's just say, if you like sauerkraut you will love this dish!

Until next time!

Wedding invitation

Hello sweeties! I'm so excited! I got wedding invitation today. My cousin is getting married on June. So great! I never been in wedding so that's one of the biggest reasons why I'm so excited now. For the same reason I don't know wedding etiquette. Bad me :( So now I have to learn more about it.
So I made DOs and DON'Ts lists for wedding guest.

Wedding etiquette:

The first, when you do get the invitation, do reply to it as soon as possible.

DO list:

Do buy a wedding gift early. Couples spend a tons of time of choosing the items on their registry- and they picked them coz they actually going to use them. So do them and yourself a favor and buy a wedding gift from their registry. ( The gift won't be a problem to me, they only want a little money for their honeymoon.)

Do be on time! True fact: weddings tend to run late. But that doesn't mean you should. Plan to be at the ceremony 20-30 minutes early.

Do pay attention to the dress code. You don't want to be underdressed for the wedding. Even if it's casual, always wear dress, skirt or suit. ( Definitely dress, I just have to buy proper one for the wedding. )

Do stay out of the photographer's way.
 
Do congratulate the family.

Do sign the guestbook.

DON'Ts list:

Do not assume that you can bring a date. Unless it days "a guest" on the invitation, only you should be attending. And no, don't call to the bride and ask if you can bring a date either. If it were on their budget, the bride and groom would have extended the extra invitation. ( It won't be a problem. After all, I'm not seeing anyone. )

Don't bring a large wedding gift to the wedding. Well, I think it's pretty obvious why...

Don't forget to turn off your phone. Again, pretty obivious.

Do not wear white. This one should go without saying.

Don't get wasted. Enjoy the bar, don't abuse it.

Don't talk forever. Make a point of saying hello to bride and groom, but keep your conversation short.

I hope my DOs and DON'Ts list helps you even a bit. At least my research helped me a lot :) Now my problem is to find proper clothes to wear to the wedding. I don't really own anything fancy :S

Until next time!~~

To fall in love

Hello sweeties! I read an interesting article today, link here. It was about falling in love. According to the article you need to ask 36 questions to your partner. Is it possible that falling in love can be so easy? I don't know, but it's worth to try. At least it's a fun way to learn to know a person who you're dating. After reading the article I got interesting about the test. I really love to try it next time when I have a date. Hopefully somebody asks me out soon coz I'm eager to try the test. And after all, I want to fall in love and be loved back. Don't we all? Everybody needs somebody to love. What do you think, is falling in love to somebody that easy?

Here is a song for all the singles, I hope you will appreciate it.

Until next time!~~

Filled peppers

Hello sweeties! I made filled paprikas today. I have wanted to make them quite a while and yesterday I got an idea of new filling. So now I'm gonna share it with you. I also wanted to use spices that my mother brought me from Thailand. The chili is really hot! And that's why I like it. It gave a little kick to the dish :)


Ingredients

3 large red peppers
400g minced meat
200g flavored cream cheese ( I used pepper-chili cream cheese)
100g grated cheese
Olive oil
Onion
2 garlic claws
Salt
Chili

1. Cut the sweet peppers 'hat' and remove the seeds.
2. Sauté the onion and garlic in olive oil.
3. Add the meat to the pan and season it with salt and chilli.
4. Mix the cream cheese mixed with minced meat mature.
5. Fill the peppers with the mixture and sprinkle with grated cheese.
6. Put the peppers if desired hats stuffed with sweet peppers and cook in the oven at 200 degrees for about 20 minutes.

The filling is really good, the cream cheese was perfect choise to the filling. I'm pretty sure I gonna make use the filling again. :)


Till next time!~~

Nothing makes me happier than a new hair...

Hello sweeties! Actually there are things that makes me happier than a new hair, but the feeling when you have a new hair it's just something ah so great!
When hairdresser does a good job, she/he also makes her/his customer happy person. A good hairdresser is a miracle maker. If you haven't guessed by now, I went to the hairdresser today. Now I have a bang, which I absolutely L-O-V-E <3 A little change can do a lot, change your appearance etc. I must say that I'm very pleased to my a new hair. Now I'm thinking should I dye my hair with some nice shade of brown to give a little boots to my hair. New color can also do miracles. But first I need to get used to my bangs :)

Here's a photo of the result. What do you think? Pretty, isn't?

 

 

Until next time!~~

Shaun the Sheep

Hello sweeties! I went to see absolutely hilarious movie today; Shaun the Sheep. The cinema was full of parents with their kids. That's why I was suprised that mostly adults laughed to all the jokes on the movie. That sure tells something about the movie. I found it very funny. I have always liked Shaun the Sheep. Such a cute little thing.

The plot simply is that the film follows Shaun, Bitzer and the flock into the big city to rescue the Farmer, who gets lost after Shaun's mischief.

Here is the trailer of the movie:

 

 

 

Until next time!

Winter holiday

Hello Sweeties! I've been on my winter holiday whole week. Today is the last day and I gonna end my holiday by seeing "Shaun the Sheep" movie. I had some earrands to do in Helsinki today ( like trying to find something nice for 13 year old girl, funny how hard it is think to like 13 year old girl, I don't remember anymore what I wanted on that age.) Anyway, since I have earrands to run in Helsinki I thouhgt I can go to see the movie too since it happens to run on afternoon, it's good to have a little break of everything ;)

My holiday started with a nice dinner in Italian restaurant called Vapiano. I had delicious dinner with my friends there. I must say that tiramisu there was just delish.
 On Tuesday I went in Tampere for a couple days with a friend. Tampere is such a lovely city. I very much like to visit there again in summer. I loved the old town there. There was craft shops. I found there birthday present to my mother and a couple nice cards. But the best part of the trip to Tampere was that I got to spend time with my friend. We don't see that often anymore so it's always great to see her.
 On Saturday I had a day cruise to Tallinn (capital of Estonia). I went there another friend. The idea was to go there and do some shopping. After all I only found a new shirt from Bershka. So woohoo! (note being sarcastic) But I did found lots of stuffs from tax free shop of the ship. Like a new bag of Guess. I had to buy it coz it pretty much was screaming my name :P I also bought cosmetics, hand cream and perfume of Victoria's Secret and a new mascara of Sensai. Sensai's mascara 38°  is pretty much the only mascara that doesn't make my eyes to itch.

 

 

Here are some stuffs that I bought yesterday. I'm so happy about the bag. I act like the Gollum; "My precious!" haha. I know, I know, it's only a bag but sometimes there are little things that makes women happy. Like pretty bag ;)

 

Till next time!

Fifty Shades of Grey

Hello sweeties! It's been a while of my last blog update. I've been quite busy lately. Work, work, work...

Yesterday I went to movies with my friend to see "Fifty Shades of Grey". I absolutely love the books even it's not well written book but it is damn entertaining book. And hey, I'm sure anyone who has read the books has fell in love with Christian Grey. Personally, I do find it damn hot when guy is wearing a suit :P

So, about the movie. It was; entertaining, funny...and hot. It's one of those movies that you should go to see with your girlfriends or your boyfriend. I did liked the movie. There wasn't that much sex involved. It's a bit amusing that the promotion of the movie is based of the sex. There was like 10 minutes sex in the whole movie. Still I wouldn't let anyone who is under 16 years old to watch it. I heard in France 12 years old can go to watch it. Not sure is it true but so I have heard.

All I'm saying; GO TO SEE IT! 

 

 



Till next time!~~

My favorite scarf

Hello sweeties! Yesterday I wrote about how to wear scarfs. Today I gonna continue about scarfs. My favorite scarf. Let's face it, my all time favorite accessory is scarf. At the moment my favorite scarf is from Orsay http://world.orsay.com/  I found it on sale last month. I was suprised that we have stores of Orsay in Finland too. I found so many pretty clothes of their store in München. Love to visit there again so I could do a little shopping ;)

 

On the photo I am wearing the scarf that I bought from Orsay. I'm also wearing my favoirite coat from Mango http://shop.mango.com/preHome.faces And some of you might already noticed one of my favorite shoes too ;)

 

 

Till the next time~~

 

 

 

How to wear a scarf

Hello sweeties! Lately I have been looking for different ways to wear a scarf. I love to use scarfs but it's a bit dull to wear it the same way every day. That's why I made a little research and found this great video "25 ways to wear a scarf in 4,5 minutes" And now I gonna share this video with you.

 

 

 Have a happy scarf day!

Till the next time~~

Matcha smoothie

Hello sweeties! Lately I have fell in love with matcha. Matcha is japanese fine powder green tea. It has many health benefits. I gonna list some of them for you.
Health benefits of matcha:

• Boosts metabolism and burns calories
• Detoxifies effectively and naturally
• Calms and relaxes
• Enhances mood and aids in concentration
• Provides vitamin C, selenium, chromium, zinc and magnesium
• Fights against viruses and bacteria
• Is rich in fiber
• Lowers cholesterol and blood sugar
• Does not raise insulin level

I like to use it because I’ve always liked it taste. I didn’t knew about the health benefits until last weekend. But hey, it’s better late than never
Jonna’s matcha smoothie:
1 liter of turkish yoghourt
about 1-2 dl whole milk
1-2 tea spoons of matcha
small about of hot water
2 bananas
If you wanna sweeten the taste you can add teaspoonful of honey.
Mix all the above ingredients in the blender and blend until the mixture becomes smooth. You can also stir if necessary.

 

Till the next time~~

Low carb diet

Hello sweeties! 2 weeks ago I started to follow low carb diet again. Mostly because I feel much better when I don’t eat carbs.I have noticed that when I eat carbs I feel sort of puffy. I also started to go to the gym. I’m really glad that my back isn’t aching as badly as month ago. So hurrey to that!  That’s why I keep going to the gym 3 times a week. 

Anyway, I gonna share with you my low carb pizza recipe. It’s really good, personally I think it’s even better than normal pizza. And it’s super easy to make!

 

Jonna’s low carb pizza:

pizza base:

150g of mozzarella cheese

2dl curd

1 egg

3 tea spoons if wheat brans

3 tea spoons of rye flour

toppings:

ham

pepper (red, green or orange)

pine apple pieces

slices of onion (half of it)

2 tea spoons of tomato sauce

150g mozzarella cheese

sprinkled oregano

 

Preheat the oven to 200C. Mix mozzarella, curd, wheat brans, rye flours and egg. Make base of the dough and put it on the oven for 10 minutes. After that add the toppings on the base and put pizza back on the oven for 10-15 minutes.

Enjoy!

 

If you are interested to know more low carb recipes let me know!

 

Until the next time~~

Paddington-what a cute bear!

Hello sweeties! I had a day off from work today and coz I didn’t had any plans for the day I decided to go to see a movie. I saw  Paddington ( <- see the trailer) is running on local cinema as original version. Perfect! I really can’t what dubbed movies, there’s always something missing when film is dubbed. Besides on Paddington one of the actors was amazing Peter Capaldi. Some of you might know him as twelfth Doctor. Anyhow, I liked a lot Paddington. It was very funny movie with some of best actors in UK at the moment. Like Hugh Bonneville from Downton Abbey.
Here is a little about the movie; A young Peruvian bear with a passion for all things British travels to London in search of a home. Finding himself lost and alone at Paddington Station, he begins to realize that city life is not all he had imagined – until he meets the kindly Brown family, who read the label around his neck (‘Please look after this bear. Thank you.’) and offer him a temporary haven. It looks as though his luck has changed until this rarest of bears catches the eye of a museum taxidermist.

I think Paddingto is a bit like me. I also love pretty much everything British. Especially the accent. It’s so….hot. Well, Scottish accent, to be precise. I have always liked more British English than American English coz British English sounds prettier, sophisticated and to be honest more intelligent. Not so into marmelade yet but I do love British biscuits with cup of tea.
O yes! I finally got the wellies that I won on Chill Out! wine’s competition. Hurrey! And the color is yellow as I hoped. I so gonna hear that I own hipster wellies but hey so what! I like them. That should be the main thing, not what other people think of my wellies

 

Alright! That’s all for now. I’m off to make delicious Baileys coffee and read a book.

Till the next time~~

Traditional dresses

Hei! Hello!Hallo! こんにちは!
Today I gonna write a little about traditional dresses. I think them are beautiful and they tell a lot about the country. Unfortenally I don’t own Finnish traditional dress yet, but it’s my dream to own one someday. But I do own yukata (from Japan) and dirndl (from Germany) As some of you already know I am interested of both countries so it’s not a suprise if I own something from both countries   First I gonna talk a little about dirndl, and then yukata.

Dirndl
A dirndl is  traditional dress worn in Germany – especially Bavaria, but also in Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria and South Tyrol, based on the historical costume of Alpine peasants.).A dirndl skirt generally describes a light circular cut dress, gathered at the waist, that falls below the knee.
The dirndl consists of a bodice, blouse, full skirt and apron.
The dirndl is mostly worn in Bavaria and Austria. It is used as an everyday dress primarily by older women in rural areas. Other women may wear it at formal occasions  and during certain traditional events. It is hugely popular also among young women at the Oktoberfest ( I  love to go in Oktoberfest some year so I could wear my dirndl in there and drink beer, haha)  in München (and similar festivals).

 

 

Yukata (浴衣)
A yukata  is a Japanese garment, a casual summer kimono usually made of cotton or synthetic fabric, and unlined. Traditionally yukata were mostly made of indigo-dyed cotton but today a wide variety of colors and designs are available. As with kimono, the general rule with yukata is that younger people wear bright, vivid colors and bold patterns, while older people wear dark, matured colors and dull patterns. A child may wear a multicolored print and a young woman may wear a floral print, while an older woman would confine herself to a traditional dark blue with geometric patterns. Men in general may wear solid dark colors. Yukata are worn at outdoor summer events such as hanabi (fireworks) festival.  Yukata are also worn at Japanese inns ryokan after bathing

O my, both photos of me are quite old. I’m glad that I found them on my laptop. Anyhow, I love to have a new apron with my dirndl. I also like to have tsuke obi. Tsuke obi ( 付け帯) or tsukuri obi (作り帯) is any ready-tied obi. It often has a separate, cardboard-supported knot piece and a piece that is wrapped around the waist. The tsuke obi is fastened in place by ribbons. And I like to have coz it is easy to wear with yukata.
Till next time~~