Linnea 'Ea' quilts...

Craft Project Wednesday is a 2012 recurring blog post where I present a craft project I'm currently working on. So, I've written before about knotting necklaces. And how there's enough tutorials found online about that. Just google it, I promise you're sure to find one to your likning. My "random" Café au Lait necklace, still lacking a clasp but otherwise nearly completed. Hence, the tape and taped together strings. What I, however, haven't written about is how long I've waited and much I've wanted to make a copy of the "Café au Lait"-necklace found in the book  "Mastering the Art of Beading" by Genevieve A. Sterbenz .  Well, the answer is "long enough". Really. That book is one of the best books - if not THE best book - I've read at least so far about making bead and wire jewelry. It's clearly thought through, written in such a way that it's an absolute delight to read, the photo...

After the party my folkdance-group threw last Saturday, I must have forgotten afterwards to stretch my foot muscles enough. Which meant that come Monday, the rest of my body felt okay, but... my feet and calves were in a terrible condition. Especially after Monday's 3 hours long tango practice. Auch. So after I'd gotten home, I took a quick shower and then spent a blissful hour sitting on our couch, thoroughly enjoying a foot-bath. You wouldn't have been able to lure me away, it was so heavenly. It didn't work out all the kinks in my feet, but it came pretty close. Sleeping the rest of the night with a heating pad filled with wheat kernels also kinda helped. Conclusion: must remember to stretch muscles more often.

This post has nothing to do about anything important, and a lot to do with something very random occurring. Well, tomorrow is the day when my folkdance group celebrates it's 39th year, and naturally I've been trying to decide which dress I want to wear for the occasion. So, because I had - like right now - some spare time, I decided to pick out my options from the wardrobe. The first dress I tried on is a purple satin one that I bought second hand for 4 euros this winter. Pulled it on. Started to pull up the zipper. And it got stuck. And then it broke. And I couldn't get it off. No movement, in either direction. None whatsoever . And I'm still wearing it, because even when I phoned Micke and asked him to come home and help me take the whole thing off.... it just wasn't possible. Not without cutting out the zipper, anyway. So now, I'm sitting and blogging in our sofa, waiting for tango practice to come up. In the violet dres...

Craft Friday is a 2012 recurring blog post where I present either a hobby jewelry technique or project I'm currently working on. There is something to be said about the dichotomy that is porcelain and pottery. One one hand it is burned in very hot ovens, used to store everything from food to chemicals in, and  it can withstand the tooth of time for hundreds of years. A thousand even. But on the other hand... Shards from one of Emmis' nice, if broken, green plates. ...it breaks into a hundred (or a thousand) pieces if it accidentally falls on the floor. Which, needless to say, is what happened to a few of Emmis' plates a few weeks ago, as well as to one of mine last Tuesday. Left were a mess of shards, and I managed to scavenged a few before the rest were thrown out with the trash. I know there's lots of things that you can do with pieces of porcelain, beautiful mosaics e.g. , but when these accide...

The Truth about me Thursday is a 2012 recurring blog post where I present one truth about myself. Everyone has their preferences. Such is life, and without people preferring  something over something else  all our lives would be a whole lot grayer. When it comes to sweet things  like candy, sodas and the like, I have to confess myself to be racist. A candy and soda racist. Again, this is something that was funny when me and a couple of friends thought it up back in high school. How I wouldn't eat candy like licorice or salt licorice and not drink sodas like Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Because I was a candy and soda racist . Originally, it was " karkki- och limurasist". The definition kinda stuck, but writing it down now, here ,   I must confess I think it looks absolutely terrible. Horrible, even. The word itself, this loaded word... racist . I would not want it associated with the person that is me . Bec...

Craft Project Wednesday is a 2012 recurring blog post  where I present a craft project I'm currently working on. Finally, after a total of 3 days of sewing, I and Mimi managed to finish off her green "Northern Lights"-dress. This was when I had "just" the zipper and the hem on the skirt left to do. No photo truly does the satin's color any justice. I must remember, if/when I make a dress after this one, that: It's infinitely easier to create a dress for someone else, since you can always try it in the person straight away and do corrections. Trying to sew something for yourself in this way is insane. Always buy the bigger spool of thread. Or two of them straight away if you're unsure. The more carefully you measure and pin everything, the less time and frustration you will have to spend ripping up seams and sew anew. Especially the zipper. Oh my Goddess, the zipper... Thank you, both Mimi and Ida for your ideas, all the h...

Craft Friday is a 2012 recurring blog post where I present either a hobby jewelry technique or project I'm currently working on. Depending on what you do with things after they've... well, become "junk", you can either recycle or repurpose  or repair or reuse or  upcycle  them A lot of things can be reused (think: clothes) or repurposed, and some things (like compost, paper, glass and metal) can and should definitively be recycled if you have no need of them anymore. If something is broken so that it can be repaired and continued to be used, then by goddess do it! But truly upcycling stuff... now that's a challenge fit for any hobby jewelry maker. Most upcycling is really just repair and maintenance. Things like broken locks and clasps can be exchanged for functioning ones, frayed strings and knots in necklaces can be cut off and the thing re-strung with new cord/string, and most things can be cleaned and buffed up until they gl...

The Truth about me Thursday is a 2012 recurring blog post where I present one truth about myself. I like to cross-kitchen . It's the term you use for cooked food that doesn't fit specifically into any style  of cuisine, e.g. Italian, Thai, Vegan, Raw, French etc. Simply put, you pair up food that taste and go well together, but aren't that traditional to begin with. Like ice cream with beer flavor. Or banana chips bits on pizza. Something that might sound really odd, but then taste real good when you try it out. Like California rolls. I used to love mixing Italian and Thai, but now that my food allergies don't allow for that I must say that I pretty much do what I can (stomach wise) get away with. But, only from-scratch-things. Never from processed food. And I'm already cheating when I use concentrated tomato purée. Oh, don't worry, I do 'traditional" home-cooking too, but as a foodie ( apparently there's even a name for an am...

Craft Project Wednesday is a 2012 recurring blog post  where I present a craft project I'm currently working on. The 2nd Frostbite Tango Festival is going to be held in Helsinki on the 23-26.2 this year. Workshops, milongas and tangueros all weekend long. They're even going to have a flash mob tango event somewhere in the centre of Helsinki. And oh, the Grand milonga and the Northern Light milonga are sure to be totally splendid. And I'm not going. Instead, I'm going to be truly boring and dance folkdance the very same weekend. My folkdance group is celebrating its 39 years, and I'm gonna take part of that instead. It's really only a question of money. I don't have the money for three wonderful days of tango. Maybe next year. But, again I digressed. Because my good friend Mimi is going. And she needs a dress for the Northern Lights milonga. The theme is... well.... northern light . Bright, colorful, shifting, aurora b...

Last week-end I had my birthday. I'm now officially 29 years old. Mmmm, birthday cake.  In-officially, I've eaten birthday cake(s) since last Thursday. Both "real" cake, and cupcakes. Oh me gosh, I've even eaten "try-out cupcakes" with Emmis since last-last Thursday! It feels a bit like my calorie intake had a 1000 % increase. Sugar is dangerous, man. Especially in the form och innocent cake. I've felt slightly hyper all the time, and my head has been screaming for more! the entire time.  *hurr* Please, no more cake for a while, okay? We can do it again when it's Micke's birthday, and thank the Goddess it's some odd months until then. Perhaps I'd better show you some photos of the sugary creations, mmm? As well as some other ones, while I'm at it. I swear, you feel sugar-high from just looking at a few of them. Pre-birthday cupcakes at Emmis. Extra lemon in the cupcakes and then lots of carrot-cake ...

Craft Friday is a 2012 recurring blog post where I present either a hobby jewelry technique or project I'm currently working on. As a book lover (oui, a real bibliophile, c'est moi) I love the whole thing about paper. Especially printed paper. Just like there's some people who love certain types of food/colors/sports or the like, you can love certain types of papers. I love certain types of paper. Not too thin, not too thick, not smelling of anything else than just the paper and the ink  (because some pocket books smell like turpentine and cheap ink, yuck!), with a nice sort of porous surface that your fingers can just dance over as you turn the pages.... oh sorry, I didn't realize I was creeping you out!  Moving on!  It all brings me to this: Rest in pieces, you poor printed book. Know that you have served me well. If it's of any consolation, the book (bought second hand) was put to rest as humanely as possible. It's book jack...

The Truth about me Thursday is a 2012 recurring blog post where I present one truth about myself. I always imagine that things take less time to do than what they really do. There, now that it's official, written down and everything, are you happy now Micke? You know about the whole "never ask for anything, because you will most certainly get it"? Well, I asked the love of my life to tell me some truth he thought about myself, this was one of them. I'm not so sure that it's procrastination, so much as naive optimism, but I must admit that it's a correct statement non the less. I really DO think that I can make more in the time I have available. I actually DO think it's possible (well not scientifically, but maybe more mentally...) to do everything. At. The. Same. Time. Maybe this can also be on reason behind the Giant Creative Mess that I nearly always have going on. No wonder that my desk/our house is always in such a mess. We...

Craft Project Wednesday is a 2012 recurring blog post where I present a craft project I'm currently working on. Reading through what information can be found online regarding beads made of paper, I think it must have come into fashion when the intrinsic value of paper got lowered. Which must have been when there was so much paper available that even 'poorer' people were able to own and buy books and pamphlets. Or didn't think it a 'waste' to reuse/upcycle them. If the whole thing make you itch for a tutorial or the like you can take a peek at  Paper University's page  (but I'd forgo using straws in that tutorial if I were you), or even better, read through this summary of tutorials in  Pearl's post about it at her page "the Beading Gem's Journal".  It's a treat, I promise. There is even some charity work program in Uganda done with making paper beads. It's called Bead for Life , and I've seen their sales perso...

....  photos of Ikea 365+ teacup . I think mine look rather dashing at 5th position. This is because of my post about t-t-tea . ...  photos of IKEA Tolsby frame.  Here, I found a photo from the post were I did some IKEA-hacking of the Tolsby frame into a earring display . It was on the 6th google-page. Now I'm beginning to wonder. Should I feel proud here, or become thoughtful? Because the other search words on the blogger statistics page (you can check your own via your own blogger-page) just doesn't make any sense. At least not to me. And Goddess knows what google thinks makes sense here on my blog? Have you looked through your statistics page yet? Or is it just good for laughs, in your opinion?

Well, this certainly is a truth about me, but it's not such a huge one I thought I could get away with it on the Thursday post. I have dragon hair. Dragon hair is when you have normal hair that's secretly dreaming that it's a DRAGON! This is exactly like I picture what the artist Edward Monkton  (uuh, check out the Madness Hamsters and Pinguin of Death) means in this card that he's drawn: Edward Monkton's "Hair". So, pretty much every morning, I wake up to this: Proud dragon parted in the middle. Dragon hissing with raised hackles. Dragon after calm flight. Dragon on the side. Tired and squirmy dragon. Yes, that's 100% morning me. In the last photo I could barely keep my eyes open and mouth shut (yaaaaawn!) long enough for the phone to take the photo. Dragon hiding in plain sight. There's always the last photo that makes you surprised. Thank you Ida for lending me your straightening iron! Now,...

Yes, I got asked about the how I got the idea to make the jeans quilt in the first place. Okay, silly as it is, the story is as follows: the Story of the Quilt Idea My brother (Harald) has a cat. He's allergic to cats, but that's besides the point. The name of that cat is Camca, and I have never met him, but his name is supposed to be a Russian word. Even though my brother have no idea how to spell it, it's supposed to mean "meat pie". Anyway, little meat pie Camca was served  (by one of Harald's room mates) some milk. Cats are lactose intolerant. At least, they are after they've been weaned. So anyway... Camca had an "accident" in Harald's bed. Apparently, it was a HUGE accident. And very smelly. He had to throw away the coverlet. (Apparently, the stink just didn't wash off...) But, all was well in the end, because he got to borrow the above mentioned room mate's extra coverlet. And now to the moral (?) of the sto...

The hand out and this year's paper entry bracelet. The " Helmiplaneetta ja Leimailutaivas "-fair is a small fair arranged by a few craft shops that deal in beads and scrapbook supplies. Held in Masala, which is about 8 km from where my parents live, it's one of the perfect  excuses for a beader to head homehome for a visit. Last year , me and Emma went to this fair for the first time. We had no idea what to expect, and since Emma's back was really  bugging her back then, we just went to see what all the fuss was all about... ... and then Emma sat, waited patiently and crocheted while I wanted to look at everything  at least twice, and waited/crocheted some more while I asked people about this technique  and this type of jewelry finding ... I got a lot out of it. Truly, I did. Emma got at nearly three crocheted apple circles out of it, so she had a good time too. And we had a great discussion with some nice ladies from Lahti (150 km from Mas...