Linnea 'Ea' quilts...

These ones I got from Riikka, when she hosted the craft night. Just thought I should share, since I really liked the design of these pieces. The earrings look heavy, because of the porcelain bead, but they actually feel quite light when you have them on. The bracelet again feels really soft against your skin, since the felt pieces (yes - it's craft polyester felt!) is wider than the beads between them. It also makes it completely silent since it doesn't clink when you move your hand, or clonk when you put your hand down on a hard surface. Functional design, to say the least. I'm envious that I haven't thought of making anything similar myself :) Yet. But I think I'll try, now that I've seen a bit of what you can do with the technique. And I haven't even brought up the topic of Riikka's marble necklace... Mixed findings earrings. Felt bracelet. Since it was so sunny outside today, I asked Micke to take a photo of me with them on.

To briefly comment, since I just have to, about the crafting that went down yesterday. I thought I would come last (I arrived at 14:30ish), but I was first. If Maija doesn't count, because she was gonna stay the night at Riikka's. And I left last (at 01:00ish. And I created most stuff. And I was the one who spread out  and took up most space. In retrospect, I'm not really surprised, but I'm still slightly embarrassed about it. ...but on the other hand, I feed the happy hippo Beethoven fund with 20 euros, so maybe Riikka doesn't hate me too much. The happy hippo Beethoven fund. Along with everyone's empty tea cups. And I really  do appreciate the fact that Riikka and Maija both helped me with the bag project. I had it with me today to the Sunday Nekku meeting :)

... but without the cabbage. It's oh so much better without it. Borstj, with loooots of smetana. And the heart candle.

This Saturday, one of the girls in Nekku is gonna host a sort of "arts and crafts"-party at her apartment. Excluding the obvious fact that it will be fun - hey! what could be better than a crafting party! - she's doing it because she'd like to empty her crafting stashes a bit before she's moving to Helsinki. Apparently, her stash is several boxes worth of 'crafting stuff'. So, the deal here is that you go to the party, you get inspired to do some small/medium projects, you have fun with the participants, and by the end of the evening you pay her a symbolic sum for the materials you've used. Smart, efficient, and fun. At least, I think so. She took a few photos of all the stuff she'd like to "get rid of", and ... well, that was 40 pictures worth of stuff. Now, before you wonder and exclaim "wtf?", I must say that she didn't put up any pictures of her jewelry-crafting things, and that she apparently has at least one more...

I was a little late for today's dance practice, but I couldn't be helped. I volunteered to help Mimi with making a tulle skirt. Which she needed for Friday. Making it took a few hours (4 h...) of experimentation, and I had to run for practice and leave Mimi to finish it. I'll post a picture of it here, as soon as I'll get one. If it's done. Oh, I so hope it looks good. There's a first time for everything, right? Likewise, we had schottische -practice today. Sofi taught/repeated with us the basic moves and some variations. After 2 h of jumping (schottishe is quite jumpy) I was a all hypoglycemic, and so was probably everyone else, too. So the last variation - "Stockholm shottis" - was skipped. But, no worries, I actually found a clip of it on You Tube :) Sometimes, you really have to like the internet. Especially when it brings you videos of people (who're older/more experienced than you) dancing *grins*

Oh dear, oh dear.... She's chosen lace for the next project. And I'm so not a lace-using-kind-of-person. How am I gonna come up with something for this challenge? Let's see... when I think of lace, I see: gothic black lace on a corset lace on undergarments Marie Antoinette-like grand ball gowns Queen Elisabeth-type collars Hand-held fans, painted in gaudy colors 17th and 18th century clothes ... is it just me, or do I seem to just associate lace with clothes? Let's try a bit more: pillow covers with lace on the sides parasols with lace around the brim table cloths old granny bedclothes ... this is getting nowhere. Let's see what inspiration Google can bring me . Lots of interesting stuff, I think I like these shoes and this bag with lace decor, and the wedding cake with a lace pattern the best. Then on the other hand, this dress in kinda nice too. And I didn't know there's a flower named Queen Anne's lace , either. Or how about thi...

For  the Mama-haaste nr 3 , I came up with the idea of making a heart-themed candle. The things I used I listed previously . Now, I've never done any sort of candles before, but I've saved a lot of 'stumps' from old candles. Why? Well... because some craft techniques use paraffin , and because I'm a slight craft hoarder . Ask anyone, they'll tell you the same. (Oh! Here's another one , too.) Anyway, I started with melting the old stumps to get rid of the impurities and the wicks. This was done with a water bath (big glass jar in a pot with hot/boiling water). Since some of the candles were red left-over ones from our Valentine's Day dinner last Monday, the result was... pink :) Next, I made I wick out of cotton thread, put it in the cleaned jar, and poured in the liquid candle-soup. I let it set (good thing it was cold outside!), and then painted the lid white. For decoration, I used red window-paint and drew hearts and lines on both the lid and th...

A change! This challange wasn't about using a specific material, instead it's a theme. Looking at the title, I'm sure you were able to figure out that the theme is "hearts". So... this time, I just ransacked my arts and crafts stash, and found an old mustard jar with screw on lid some stumps from old candles some cotton thread white acrylic paint red window paint Now, you'll get too see what I did with them in the next post :)

If you aren't familiar with the term IKEA-hacking , IKEA hack or similar terms, then I recommend that you either try searching for it on google or visit the lovely site www.ikeahackers.net . I've been a following the site since 2008, and so far there are a few things around our house that have come into existence because of a hack I saw on the site. Hacking here means using one or more products (found at IKEA) to create something other that what the original product was meant for, or using raw materials (found at IKEA) to create something unique. This "personal review" is not going to be a review of hacking in general, just a photo collage (with links to the 'original' hacks) of all the things I've personally made that are hacked. My own IKEA hacks. Since I've already posted about the earring display , I'll give you: Lion-USB-holder Original hack found  here . So far, I've made two of these. The first one was for my brother,...

Purses, purses, purses today... Closeup on it. Teresa at Art of Crochet  shows how to make the crocodile stitch, and I learned it from her.  I must say, however, that I modified the endings of row 3 and beyond, because I thought her method wasn't that consistent. And anyway, once you "get" a certain technique, it's up to you to use it in your own projects anyway.

... and for some strange reason, it's mainly been purses and bags. Main reason: I got to borrow Sally's sewing machine. One of these days I'll take mine to be repaired, but for now Sally's is more than adequate (it's divine , actually!) for me to occasionally borrow. Pins! A world filled with pins - and small pains, because I just keep on pinning and pricking myself... Since I'm definitely the wrong person to ask for a sewing tutorial, I'll just be kind and post some photos and comments regarding this. A picture does  say more than just just words, and if you're interested, then the girls at  the purl bee and   Rebeka at artsy crafty babe have brilliant tutorials :) One pattern I'll readily admit to have used is the Derek bag pattern . Another is the  Back-to-school lunch bag . Otherwise, the deal is pretty simple. All it takes is: a (working...) sewing machine scrap cotton fabrics, bought cheaply, from IKEA I've been using 1 (...

Since Sunday's knitting event I've been like a bumblebee on sugar. No concentration, and just buzz buzz n' buzz. So annoying. It might be because of all the sugar I stuffed myself with during the weekend and on Monday though. Maybe I'm having the sugar-DTs? Not likely though, that would be awful. I'd asked (read: begged) Micke not to play any of his silly games on Monday, because I wanted us to celebrate Valentine with a romantic dinner and some quiet. Oh, we had dinner, a really good dinner. So good in fact, that we both had to lie down for a while afterwards. Maybe a huge sallad, oven-baked salmon and potatoes (yes, potatoes...) and the panna cotta for desert was a liiiiittle too much. At least my stomach felt like a bar on Friday: too much happening in a too small space. Floating red and heart-shaped candles. Mmm... dessert with pink/lilac heart-shaped gumdrops. Salad, salmon and oven-baked potatoes. Served with chilled sparkling wine.

Since I went dancing yesterday, and then stayed up until 4 a.m. after that ... drinking tea and talking crap with the girls :) ... on Sunday morning, needless to say I've been all butterfingers today. Today has been such an extravaganza in being clumsy, it's almost embarrassingly funny. I've managed, in no particular order, since the dance event, to: spill tea on myself about four times, mostly on my right pant leg dip the yarn I was knitting with into my tea cup tea undrinkable after that, the acid color in the yarn hadn't bonded that well (apparently) giggle stupidly at everything that went wrong today comment on the fact that it's the third time I've eaten cake in three days get the comment "you had your birthday, it's allowed" sew a bag, but leave a pin inside. I had to cut a little hole to get it out. get thrown out of a restaurant/bar leave my debit card at home (makes for a cheap evening out) open up my purse while it being upsi...

Today, I'm officially turning 28 years old. *hooray! singing and dancing in the streets!* We're gonna have my birthday party at this café I like, it's called Bossaliina. And I'm so happy that I'll be able to have cake and tea and don't have to do the dishes afterwards. And I hope that people will have a wonderful time with me there - it might get a liiiiiittle crowded, but where there's love, there's also room. I haven't asked people for any presents, mainly just that they attend and have a coffee or two, but since I'm trying to save up for a dishwasher, I'm collecting cents/buttons/wallet lint for my "Dishwasher fund" (it's a little pink piggybank with the word  Diskmaskinsfonden on the side). I'll post some pictures here after the party :) later edit: I think my party was a success! The cake was very sunny (lemon cheesecake with yellow topping), and I got candles on it, too. I asked people to take a few pictur...

I know you all know about the concept 15 minutes of fame , but I'm still proud and very glad that the small knitting circle Nekku (which I'm a member of) is in today's paper. Local Turku free press paper, Aamuset, but still. I'm in the paper! On a picture! Quoted! *takes a deep breath* Inari (co-founder of Nekku) wrote about the article on both Nekku's Facebook wall , and on Nekku's blog . I found it hilarious that she'd written, and I quote (translated): Now I can officially (really!) quote myself, and with references: "Kakut ovat iloinen asia." - Inari (Aamuset 9.2.2010.) (cakes are a happy thing) Now I can, too, quote myself from the paper. I find it really funny that I can do that now, in FINNISH. :) It's good that the journalist wrote that I'm knitting with the girls also to improve my Finnish language fluency. It's still true, so why not comment on it? If you want to, you can find the whole paper online at Aamuset...

Last night, the sky suddenly decided to give us a huge gift of water. In the form of snow. It looked so pretty while it was still fresh, and it feels so fluffy under your boots. This snow is the perfect snow for making snow castles and snow men. Welcome to Turku, we got snow :) Vårdberget, with the Observatory in the middle. Klockringaregatan. King of all that he sees: Per Brahe and the cathedral. Snow on the cathedral steps. Biskopsgatan. Hello, huge elm by the cathedral. More cathedral. Feels like they're looking down on me,

For this challenge , the theme was "wool". And I was at first at a TOTAL loss. I simply had no frigging clue as to what I was going to craft. My whole creativity went *poof* and flew out the window . I mean, there's just so much you can do with wool. Wool, as an animal fiber, is extremely versatile. But, for once, I didn't want to knit or crochet something. Maybe because that would have been... too easy?  Too simple? Perhaps? Oh, later on I had all these thoughts about making: a companion cube (tunisian crochet + felting) door stopper a chess board (knitting + felting) with felted chesspieces a brooch (again, felt), typically a sunflower or then sunflowers needle felted onto something decor on a wooden photo holder from IKEA turn a little IKEA-lion into a yellow dragon (again, needle felting...) something for jewelry, but felt or wool is not so nice against your skin, so... And somehow, I still couldn't come up with something smart/funny/nice to crea...

The following is not a true hobby of mine, but it's starting to become one. You know that if you press a 'bad link' on a web page, and it doesn't take you anywhere, you get an error message. Sometimes it's just plain regular "Error 104 (connection failed)". And sometimes, your browser just inexplicably crashes. But at other times... You might get: When your feeds in Google Reader don't have anything new for you. When Zynga's Farmville crashes. This is an old pic I took while I still played that game. On Ravelry ('the' site for knitters and crocheters) it appears as if a sheep has something to do with it. Oh, and you just have to lurv the "Well, this is embarrassing..." message you get when Firefox crashes. So... what types of error messages have you come across?