Linnea 'Ea' quilts...

Craft Friday is a 2012 recurring blog post  where I present either a hobby jewelry technique  or project I'm currently working on. After I had had the courage last autumn to take an arts and craft course at Turun Työväenopisto , I got emboldened to enroll in a second one this spring. The first course was about "sculpting different types of jewelry from assorted clays and doughs", and I originally enrolled because I wanted to try out working with polymer clay and see if it would have been as awful as I thought it to be. Like I wrote about it back then: "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 tools while I do it. Plus, I don't have to grime up my desk. Always a plus.If it's one thing I don't like. It's. Getting. Grime. And. Needles. Under. My. Nails." I still sooooo...

The Truth about me Thursday is a 2012 recurring blog post where I present one truth about myself. I'm one of those (slightly insane?) persons who just assume that some friendships will never change . Now that I've actually gone and written that down, it looks really stupid. I mean, come on, everything in this world is constantly changing, so of course friendships also do. But still... ... I assume that even though I last spoke with you over the phone in 2005, you'd still be willing to continue on exactly as we did then. After a slight update session, but still. I'm assuming that you are still as easy and jovial to talk with, that our major interests haven't changed, and that we'll be able to continue on from exactly that same relationship we had back then. I might let loose a little " oh! " when I hear that you've so suddenly (to me at least) gotten married/had kids/traveled the world/gained 100 kg/have a firm of your own.... bu...

Craft Project Wednesday is a 2012 recurring blog post where I present a craft project I'm currently working on. Inside us all, no matter what we look like on the outside, there is a sugar-dependent brain screaming for more glucose. Okay, for it's also screaming for a lot of other things, but trust me about the glucose. We're all sugar addicts. Now, the craft course I'm currently enrolled in is inspiring in a lot of other ways than just about the  polymer clay  millefiori -technique. Take a look at the photo here under: Except for the "raspberry mousse cake" in the upper left corner, which 'typical' finnish cookies do you recognize in the photo? Did you get a sudden craving for cookies? Or chocolate? Or both? Or nothing? Damn, then you're mentally stronger than me! Well, YOU just go ahead and TRY making miniature food out of polymer clay and we'll see who's managed to NOT be desperately hungry for sugar afte...

Craft Friday is a 2012 recurring blog post  where I present either a hobby jewelry technique or  project  I'm currently working on. One of the oldest forms of making necklaces is to just string beads on a cord. I think the oldest necklace I've seen a picture of was from a book I borrowed from the Turku City Library, and that one was a simple leather cord with some hollow sandstone beads and a few seashells. It was Stone Age old, from Europe, so it was about 5 000 years old. And the same principles are still being used today by modern jewelry makers. So, to make a "traditional necklace" all you'll need is just "cord" and "beads". I'm writing "traditional" here, because some think the most archetypal necklace is still the pearls-on-a-string. In many way it is, because that's what pops up in many people's heads when you say "necklace", but there are as many variations to be found on necklaces that t...

I must admit that I've become increasingly bad at concentrating. Talk about procrastination all you want, but in my case it's all because of my decreasing concentration. It's at the stage now when I find it more than just plain annoying. Somedays it's downright scary. My Mom says that when young people start complaining about "bad memory" it's okay, because your somehow allowed to be forgetful when you're younger. And she also says that when you get your age, you start to get increasingly paranoid about your memory, to such an extent that you can  never  immediately admit that you've forgotten something due to your "bad memory". The ghost of Alzheimer's, anyone? But about me. And concentration. It's like your head just keeps on presenting you with other thoughts, while your desperately trying to solve the current task at hand. And no, it's not like " hmm... while this task is currently doing this, I ...

Craft Project Wednesday is a 2012 recurring blog post  where I present a craft project I'm currently working on. Blue jeans are actually not always blue. Who could ever have guessed... I've been working slowly, but at least semi-steadily, on this jeans quilt. The progress is more tied to the amount of donated old jeans I've managed to get people to kindly enough gift me with. All of the pairs have been so worn down, or have such huge holes in them, that you can't donate them to any second hand store. So far, I've managed to scavenge together : 4 pairs from our own wardrobe (2 of mine, 2 of Micke's) 1 pair from my friend Elli  (once again - thank you Elli!) 1 pair from my Mom (although she did have more pairs, but they weren't all blue) This is a project that may take however long it wants itself to take, because I really refuse to go thrift shopping for "good" jeans only to cut them to 10x10 cm squares. I'd rather wa...

Craft Friday is a 2012 recurring blog post  where I present either a hobby jewelry technique or  project  I'm currently working on. The finished yo-yo necklace. Totally my own design, since I didn't like any of the ideas I found online. This one wasn't actually that hard to do, in the end, but it went through at least 3 change-in-design phases. It was more trial and error than anything else, but once I finally figured out how I could make it fall neatly around my neck and not have any itching parts, it was easy. My reason for making this mixed media necklace: First , if you google " yo-yo necklace ", or search on Etsy , you'll mainly see the design that have the "flat" variant with the hole on the front. I -really- don't like that variant. Not at all. They look look like barnacles , and I don't want that. Secondly , I wanted the yo-yos in the finished piece to be more like beads, which meant that they had to be very ...

Normal tap water . You know, the thing you - at least in Finland an in Rome - can drink as normal table water. One of the life-important things (right up there with solar energy and air) that we who're living on this planet just have to have. I hate drinking it. No, seriously, I really do hate drinking it . I suspect that it comes from growing up in Kirkkonummi, where the water we got in our tap have this slightly chalky taste. I hated drinking that, and I still do. I drank milk/juice/carbonated water, but not that. Not unless forced, and then very little. I remember this one time, when me and a couple of neighborhood kids were playing water poker and other card games. You know, where the loser of the game must drink a glas of water. After a lot of games, where I like lost a lot of them, I had to run to the bathroom an simply puke up all that water. Good memories? Not so much. The water here in Turku sometimes tastes like mud in the spring, when the snows starts to melt...

Craft Project Wednesday is a 2012 recurring blog post  where I present a craft project I'm currently working on. Yo, you yo-yo's! I've been sewing these stuffed yo-yo's now for a while now already. What first started out as an idea "that I just wanted to see if would work" has now become a full scale jewelry project spanning different colors. I already have one finished "thing" that I made using these, but you'll see more of that one on Friday.  You can hold on for two days, right? It's not like you HAVE to know immediately or anything. It's relatively easy to sew these slightly more special yo-yos, as long as you have the materials and the patience. And the acceptance. Because unless you're in possession of a yo-yo maker they won't be exactly  the same size. Or the same weight, depending on how much you filling you stuff into them. Like the crochet squares, yo-yos are small projects that you can carry the m...

Craft Friday is a 2012 recurring blog post  where I present either a hobby jewelry technique or  project  I'm currently working on. Okay, scrapbook-techniques can be used to create jewelry, but this post is not exactly about that. I'd just want to point out something. Since every piece of jewelry usually starts to be designed inside the designer's head, I will be bold and propose that every design is 50-50. 50% of the design is based on your inspiration, and the other 50% is based on your own skill and materials. Without inspiration there can be no design, and even though design can come from the materials one has at hand, mostly it's more about the idea . My ideas, they pop up all the time. This is somewhat exhausting. No really, it is. If you're not really truly careful, you'll be in a constant state of "being inspired" and you'll have a 100+ projects that will forever be UFO's and have the attention span of an an...

I usually dream very vividly. Lots of people do, and I'm one of those. And most of the time, my mind thinks that these mini-movies can skip things like "plot line" and "things that normally occur". Most of the time though, I have no idea that I am actually dreaming. While I'm dreaming, that is. Which means that no matter what happens in the dream: it's perfectly right as rain to me. However crazy or fantastic it is. Flying, dragons, magic, space, mysteries, all right as rain. My brother dubbed these type of dreams "seko-drömmar" (eng. crazy-dreams) when we were younger.  Why? Because they make you go totally "seko" when you wake up. Last vivid dream had a basic plot of Earth is going to get destroyed, follow these brave men and women on their quest towards the space shuttle that will (?) get them to safety : Buildings were falling down, fires were everywhere, and me and a bunch of others (Micke, and weirdly enough some folks I...

Like I mentioned in the previous post, I have thought about writing blog posts somewhat regularly during 2012. I've seen that lots of people do this, so maybe I'm just finally just giving in and joining the hipsters. Or maybe I just want to force myself to write, hmm? Anyway, the posts I thought about writing are going to be posted on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The Wednesday post  is going to be about some arts and craft project that I'm currently working on . It doesn't have to be a finished projector anything, more of a short presentation of it. I was thinking it can be of a certain technique or material, or some notes I've jotted down about just that project. It will also serve me as reference posts for the future. The Thursday post is going to be about the truth. More specifically, the truth about me . Why choose such a topic? Well... I've actually thought about this quite long and hard. About over-sharing, "netiquette" and how som...

I started making hobby jewelry back in the winter of 2008. *calculating in head* That'll be three years and some odd days ago. In three years, you learn a lot. About what works, and what doesn't. Where you can cut ends, and where you definitely can't. That'll definitely be tools... not using proper tools is the dumbest dumb thing you can possibly do. I originally took it up because it was one arts and crafts area I hadn't tried any technique in before, and since people have adorned themselves using everything from stones to plastic since the Stone Age... well, I just like using jewelry too. Then I got hooked on it, but I realized quite quickly that I just hadn't got the money/space/time to try out every little technique you can do within in. There's such a lot of craft literature that has become available during the last 10 years, which means that the companies that started out originally with just making tools and materials for the proper gold- an...

For all of you reading this through an rss-reader, or the like, this post is slightly more for you. I just wanted you to notice that I changed the over-head banner of the blog. Yes, I know, that wasn't any kind of huge news at all. New year, new banner. The one I had before was just the "Ea" in the middle, and a small rant underneath. I sort of chose to keep the "idea" behind the old banner (easy to make, simple layout, nothing photo that takes 10 sec to load...)  but still making it look like a fresh coat of paint on the blog. Yes, I know lots of people change their blog's layout after New Year. Yes, I joined the hype, stop giggling! Just admire the patchwork of words, will you?

Sometimes a lot can be achieved just by doing a little. I finally got inspired enough to re-position the posters (that we have in those huge IKEA-frames) that have been bugging me for so long. We have three of them in the living room; two on one wall and one above my desk. It took some measuring, because I wanted them all to hang 123 cm up on the wall, and since I think that Ette still have our combination square  tool. I'm not sure, but I couldn't find it among all the other tools, so I have to remember to ask her when she gets back. It's much better now, in my opinion. Add to the fact that the TV is gone, and suddenly our living room feels huge. Anyway, as soon as I was done with that, I cleaned up the mess that was my desk. I filled the small black boxes my Mom and Dad brought with them when they came over to help us with our (now ex!) car. It felt good to finally have some small drawers to put stuff away in. Yes, yes, still lots of clutt...

Two girls walk into a bar... ... and pretty soon they're playing Magic the Gathering. Such nerds. What. A. Waste. Of. Perfectly. Good. Estrogen. On this normal Saturday ( also the same day when I got stamps at 20:45 from the store around the corner, which apparently isn't that common, the way people looked at me in the que ) Ida and I played MtG at one of Turku's busiest bars. Funny thing is, there was only one guy who DARED to approach us and ask what we were doing. And he was a MtG-player himself. Only an "online" one, but still. A glass of red, your handbag safely tucked away towards the wall, and a bunch of cards. But we had fun. Which is really all we wanted.

We're currently on the 5 hour train ride from Bennäs to Turku. It's totally midnight black outside the train car's windows. The car we're sitting in is crowded to the max, lots of people seem to be heading home southwards. It got me to consider "firsts" of the new year. First train ride, first grocery shopping, first load of clothes that needs to be washed. Lots of firsts, and more of the like are sure to come up. Today is also the first time well be home and get to sleep in our own bed. No sleeping in the guest room at Micke's mom anymore. My back would be dancing with glee like a little loony toon, but as it is it just wants to go and have a lie down. Have a lovely new year, everybody!

Today we've spent a fairly typical Christmas at my parents: ate a LOT of things, played some boardgames and then ate some more on/off. Good thing I wore my new dress! It was suprisingly comfy 'to eat in'. I think I have to figure out a way to take it in even more or add shoulder straps, because it almost falls off me! My brother Harald, Micke and then Birgitta. She's one of my family's oldest acquaintances. Harald - very typically - can't behave on a photo. This is all the LEFTOVERS after we'd finished eating... Like my dad said; "[He] doesn't know how to cook for any less than 25 people at any given time". So... this year's Christmas dinner left leftovers for at least 20 people. Dad still had more "lådor" that could be put in the oven... For those of you unfamiliar with the Christmas buffé of our family, then I can say it includes A LOT of EVERYTHING. The years that me and Micke have spent in Turku - just the two ...

Finally - it is ready! My Eorme blanket. Since I am like everybody else that crochets and just hate to join done crochet squares, it felt like it took friggin forever  to make. Hello, my name is Eorme. She made me wear fringes, even though she hates fringes. In retrospect, the most funny thing about this project is that it actually started out as a tunic. Yes, a tunic. But about halfway through (or up, as you were suppose to knit it from down to up) I just got fed up with the project, frogged the whole thing and put the yarn aside. This was during the winter of 2010. Then, I read the book “200 crochet blocks” by author Jan Eaton , and thought that it had been some time ago since my last crochet block blanket. Thank you Linda for recommending it ! The pattern I wanted to use is called " Fudge ". So, off I went to buy more yarn, and typically enough the Novita yarn company didn’t produce Novita Luxus Cotton anymore. It's like my Mom has always told me:...

Ponder the phrase "..., if you want to." I've been homehome (meaning, at my parents) the entire weekend. I spent some time with my parents, some time with Emmis, and some time with my own thoughts. Me and Emmis went through the Arts and Crafts fair like two crafters who suddenly realized that there wasn't a whole lot for them there. I searched for some very specific thing, and not finding them left me slightly feeling like a sail without wind. Since it was Friday, there were a lot of teachers with their classes. I think there were both kids from elementary and secondary school there.  Either way, there were a LOT of people. Best thing though, was that they DID have small workshops with different themes. This was about using a potter's wheel. This one was - I think - about different techniques when spinning yarn.  One thing I did notice, was that a lot of booths had "ethnic" inspired crafts. The more color, the better. Quite a c...