Linnea 'Ea' quilts...

Cabin crew... ready for take off! Mom looking like a big question mark at me taking photos. And Dad wondering about something in the tourist guide. "Complimentary seat", what is that supposed to mean?!? But one thing that was cool, was the fact that the TV/monitor showed us "where we were". No one asked "are we there yet?" And clouds from above are ALWAYS so pretty. And never you mind my silly brother, who didn't want to pose for a photo.

Getting to our hotel was exciting, because traffic in Rome is a mess... ... people triple-park their cars (because hey, everyone wants a car but there's not enough room for all of them). And the collective transportation are lacking in so many ways, but everyone still try to manage. Mostly by getting their own Vespas and Minis. More queuing. Morning traffic, gotta love it. Here's someone who doesn't mind. If you triple park there, how are people going to get out from that street?

... cabin crew, prepare to disarm doors... We've landed, safe and sound. Although no one clapped when we landed... Apparently it's no feat of skill to land safely anymore. Oh well. So this is what Italian ground looks like? And it's so...so...flat! And you can see so far!

"Helsinki Vantaa airport, safety check and waiting at gate 15" pretty much sums it up. We got up (way) too early, ate too little breakfast and rushed to airport. We check in ourselves, even though it took 3 min more because I didn't understand that the machine couldn't get the data straight from my passport. Standing at the safety check, the poor man standing behind me in the line pulled out his belt... whereupon his pants dropped! That was ... a first. And now we have to wait 1 h for our flight to leave. *sigh* Oh, well. Well, a pink one-piece isn't something you see every day at an airport. The store names at the air port were... odd to say the least. And then there was the queuing.  My fellow travelers: Mikael, my Dad, Birgitta, my Mom and my brother Harald. Guess what? MORE shops! And special design Teema-cups.at the cafe. Because the lack of breakfast were getting to us youngsters. Me, standing prettily in line. Mi...

Or tea, for me. If I drink coffee I get even more "angst" (or are those palpitations?), so I'll stick to tea, thank you very much. Possibly the last post before we're heading to Kirkkonumi and wait for our flight to Rome.

So, there's always some last minute detail to take care of... This time it was a small piece of sewn ribbon that held the rubbery-tie-down-strap in place on to of my backpack. Good thing I notixed, and sewed it back. And no, that backpack isn't filled with just "my" stuff. It has all of Micke's too. Tadaa! My blue backpack. This is the second time it's going to Italy. This is the strap (or whatever it's called) that broke. I know, I know, the pink doesn't go with the blue but pink ribbon was all I had in my stash. So, tomorrow morning we'll all be in Rome, Italy. First time abroad with the "whole" family: mom, dad, brother and Micke. We'll see how it will turn out, but I'm already guessing that it will be super nice and perfect :)

I think Tove is going to enjoy this post. It's about lists . Notably, the kind you make up yourself. Like for an event, or a trip abroad. We - me and Mikael - got a package in the mail today, you see. It was from my cousin Ingrid . She had sent me, and to my Mom, "travel essentials": me a Moleskin notebook and Mom a travel book. Moleskin!

How on Earth am I going to cook things and bake a cake with my hand cut to shreds? At least I got to experience the effect that EtOH has on raw nerve endings. Not to mention adrenaline rush. And I got to do some first aid. Yay... Yup, oxygenated blood is crimson red. Not lilac or dark red. Check. Keeping your hand slightly elevated will slow down blood flow to the hand. And then you can admire the plasters. Check. Oh, and incidentally, I suck at writing with my left hand. Check.

Okay, first things first with this technique. You'll need a fridge, something to form it with (clay tools or thing you happen to have in your kitchen, like cocktail sticks and your rollling pin), and an oven. The mass needs to be heated up in order to become hard. You can use many types of acrylic masses for this technique, since there seems to be quite a lot of brands around. The ones that seem easiest to find around stores here in Turku are Cernit and Fimo. However, there seems to be a difference between brands, regarding the plasticity of the mass itself. Fimo, at least, is much more temperature stable than Cernit. This means that the mass doesn't "smear" as much and doesn't get too sticky and get stuck to things (read: you, the tools, the sheet of baking paper you use to protect your table...). It also means that you can use it for longer without it becoming too "droopey" and ruin the thing you're creating. It helps if you can put it in the f...

So, only three "lessons" left in the course I'm taking. Weird to think it's soon going to be over. It feels like it just begun. Today, I got to varnish most of my 'beads', and some buttons I had made at home last week while I was ill. Trying to stay still enough - I was shivering like a crazy person! - while painting small details on a surface that drank it like *snap* Needless to say, you got some interesting "splashy" areas on some of the buttons... But, the artwork aside, I think it's been fun trying to design something usable with the clay. Even though I'm clearly not a "clay person". I can understand the fuss, because you get to see very clearly how good you actually are at designing something with your own hands, but I don't think it's for me. Painted, dry and ready to get varnished. If you look really closely at the photo, you'll notice that the teapot leans slightly to one side. The bottom isn't ...

I spent yet another busy weekend in Kirkkonummi with my parents and Emma. Got to experience - yet again - how knitting on a train can make you tune out a lot. Like the screams of small children wanting to ride the mini train in the "childrens car". Yes, once again I just had to get tickets for a seat there. Thank you, VR. Those are times when my mantra is playing overtime in my head. "this will teach me patience...this will teach me patience..." I had the same mantra playing sing along today at the police station, too. Oh, yes, some jerk or another nicked my wallet last Friday, and I've been having somewhat of a Monday riding my bike around town to "fix" this. Hence the headline if today. When I lost the wallet, it had a total of 7 euros in it. That might get you a cheap lunch somewhere, but not much else. So that wasn't so bad. What was, though, was getting replacement cards for all the lost ones. Kid you not, I've spent the last 6 ho...

Pumpkins, nectarines and oranges. So much orange :) My autumn is different shades of orange - sienna, burnt, golden, bronze and pumpkin. Coupled with gray skies and yellowing leaves, it's not a bad color scheme. What's your autumn colors?

The saddest thing you can see, in my dad's face when he realised that I couldn't eat anything on the lunch menue. After he had already paid for it. But the kitchen chef here at the lunch restaurant, called "Lounas mania", was super nice and made food for me that didn't have paprika in it. Here's a photo of Mom eating dessert.

Today, I'm traveling by train to Kirkkonummi. The Finnish railway company VR has launched a new ticketing system, and so far a lot has been chaotic about it. Look, you even get HUGE tickets! Apparently, they're only made for the interim period, but still.

For those who don't know it yet, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London is one of the worlds museums devoted to design. In 2007, they held an exhibition titled The Golden Age of Couture -  Paris and London -  1947 - 1957 The name makes it quite obvious what the exhibition was about, but what relevant here for us is the fact that V&A Museum keeps the sites devoted to past exhibitions open after the event itself is over. Thus, you can enjoy  the free pattern  of a vintage couture dress - written by the museum's designer. [later edit: the link above is broken, but you can find the pattern for the skirt  here  and the pattern for the body here  - than ks Chelsea Ridenour  for posting it in the comments!   I put it up on my G Drive, but all the credit and copyright goes to brilliant designer Juliana Sissons who made the pattern for V&A in 2006] Using the pattern made me able to create the following dress (see the photos)...

 ...and it's called " Modelling Jewellery ". It's held by the Turku Työväenopisto, and is going to be held on every Monday until the 17th of October. In the course description, it says that it's about " The basics of three-dimensional plasticity, modelling unique ornaments and jewellery from different modelling clays and learning to combine multicolour clays. " This means I have 15 minutes to get by bike from this course to the one in Argentine Tango. Mondays are gonna be busy days for the following weeks. I noticed that it only takes me about 5 min (by bike) to get to tango practice from the house that this course is being held in, so it wasn't as bad as I thought it would have been. I mean, stressful. Why did I want to take this course? Because I wrote on my "Non-faves of 2011"-list  that cernit-clay sculpting is a non-fave of mine. This way, I get to try out different types of clay/polymer modelling, and get to use more borrowed to...