Is it okay?

Is it okay if I don't post anything today?

My desk, my mess! One Month Project, Organize Tehdas. Day 9?

Howdy!

.Yesterday was a very good day! I got so much done! Finished the bat, Totoro and a fox carriers, and got a lot of others almost done. And I cleaned my desk! Not the drawers or anything, but now at least the desk is decluttered and a lot more fun to work on!

Here's the pink haired blogger working on some important details. :)

First time for a very long time I took a short break from sewing and organizing and all that "serious" stuff and played with the dolls a bit. Actually just to organize the house, since dolls were just piling up on two of the top rooms, the ones that the doll house doors don't cover. The main reason for doing that, other than it bothered me that my precious dolls were on piles, was that I needed to locate Miki's (the middie doll) other shoe. Honestly that was awful that I had lost it. It was her shoes I liked the most: little red Mary Janes with a cat face on them! Sorry there's no picture. I tried (twice) but it didn't work. Google Zukin middie. So yes, I had lost one of her shoes. Before I decided to keep the doll, I was thinking about selling her without the shoes, so I could keep them. Even though I wouldn't have a doll who could wear them. That's how much I liked them :) And now I had lost one of them!!

I was a bit worried since it wasn't in the dollhouse. I pretty much never vacuum the room, I have too many miniatures and jewelry bits and beads on the floor. So I sweep. So I was quite sure it had to be in the room still. But wouldn't I spotted it along the cleaning?

I emptied my zipper drawers, since they were underneath where I had kept the clothes, and the drawers are open all the time. The shoe was found in the last drawer!! Yay!! I was so happy!! Now I had the shoe and also more organized doll house! :D And inviting desk! Life is good!

Here's the small closet I did couple days ago. The one I didn't post yesterday. Doesn't look that great, not impressive at all. But that's okay. 

 And here's the bat, finally finished! Well, it still needs the zipper pull beads and deco, but other than that - Done! I'm super happy with the way it came out!

I have so much to do today I won't have time to organize or anything. I'll try to do the zipper pulls this morning, so hubby could photograph everything. But other than that, I just can't. I have some four hour meeting and then I need to go celebrate my mom's birthday! I'll try to drive our broken car to my dad's (who can get it fixed by his brother) and that's making me really nervous. It's 35 km's away. :(

I should get started! Enjoy the sunny weather! (in case you have sunny weather! if not, then enjoy whatever you have!)

xoxo,
Raisa

No post today. Well, a short one.

Sorry. I don't have anything to post. I did manage to clean and organize the closet I was supposed to but didn't enjoy it at all. So I don't feel like posting about it.

I want to sew and I just want Tehdas to be clean and the whole thing to be over already. I've noticed that all the things that are without a proper place at the moment are really killing the creativity in me. I don't want to finish the Totoro, since that would mean I'd have to sit down by my desk. And my desk is a mess, not a  inspiring mess, but kind of like an empty mess. The mess boring people make. I want to start making my own messes! I'm starting to hate all the new places where I've placed my items, to make make more sense to the whole room. I know I'll get used to the new places and it's handy to have it more organized, more concentrated. But god! I don't know where anything is anymore. You know those automatic moves you do to reach for a pen or scissors or whatever - I do that and what I get is something totally different. I guess it's good for my old, senile brain to get some excercise like that.

Maybe I should throw away my plan to organize everything in an order and focus on my craft desk instead. To get that functional might do a lot of good for my lack of will to do something other than just sewing (my sewing desk is clean and uncluttered).

Well, it's 9.30 am and I want to get some serious progress done today so I better start working!

Take care! And take it easy.

xoxo,
Raisa

One month bla bla bla, day 6 and 7?

Sorry, I can't keep track. I don't really think anyone cares which day I'm on, so why bother?

I took a day off from the computer, which is why I didn't post yesterday. And also I was one day behind on my too-tight schedule, so there wasn't really that much to show.

I spent two days working on my sewing corner. Not because it was too much work, but mainly because it was so boring and you really couldn't see the progress. Especially in pictures it's quite hard to see if one has dusted or not. So on the first day I dusted everything and on the second day (and that would be yesterday) I organized and cleaned the desk.

Mostly I've been sewing. I have to say I love cotton -- you know, the non-stretchy one. I absolutely love working with it. After all the stretchy and fluffy and furry materials, basic cotton is a dream to sew. I'm getting better and better with my sherpas and faux furs as well, but nothing is as easy and comfortable to sew as cotton is. Sorry! That was my little love letter to cotton. :)

But yes, I have been sewing a lot. I have a lot of custom orders I'm (still) working on. While trying to figure those out (like how to make a bat-shaped carrier?!?) I have learned something very strange about me: I enjoy the mental challenge. I hate it when things go wrong, but this has been fun and it's given me strange, reality-based trust of my skills. (That might sound strange, but trust me, it feels even more so! lol!) I think I'd be great at designing things and creating the prototypes. I like to solve problems, I think.

I've also tried (and re-tried, and re-re-tried) finishing my t-shirts for the secret project I've mentioned earlier on. I'm afraid I'll never get it finished, and one reason for that is that I'm afraid it'll fail. (I've done some serious soul searching over the weekend ;) .) I just don't like stretchy materials. Or my sewing machine doesn't like them. But I'm not going to give up. Not yet!

Back to the project! My goal, among packaging and shipping tons of orders, (the code is still valid for today! PINKKIS300 will take 30% off of your order! Expires today!) is to organize this closet. It's a small space, so there shouldn't be that much to deal with. But all those papers! What am I going to do with all those papers!?! This closet also contains most of my stamps. But my inks and rest of my stamps are somewhere else and I want to keep them all together. So I have to do something to fix that.

Last night hubby and I started watching awful, awful movie called 12 Years a Slave. So far it's been just so depressing and sad. Somehow it has made me think about the animal slavery, too. The way we are used to live, all the well being, it's all based on slaving somebody. We couldn't have "it all" if the prices were fair for the other part as well. Animals are paying with their freedom and with their life, and it's just so unfair. People making our clothes, toys and growing our food pay with their health and sometimes with their freedom and life, too. But how can we settle for less? Less toys? Less clothes? Less electronics? Less exotic food items? Just look at my craft space! I have it all, and I just keep wanting more and more!

Not the ending I wanted for this post. Enjoy the colorful picture my daughter took yesterday.

xoxo,
Raisa

Still working on my One Month Project :), Day 5 (spell checked, safe for Finnish Rock Stars and alike to read)

Huge Celebration! Pinkkis has 300 sales on Etsy!! What do you think of that? I think it's amazing!

I've had that store up for years. I think I started in 2008, but I'm not sure. The sales were so slow and it was quite frustrating, so I focused on Finnish markets only. I emptied the whole Etsy store for years. Until the online store in Finland had some major changes. Then me and my hubby decided to try Etsy again. And I'm glad we did. :D

However, I don't want to celebrate alone! I want you guys to have some fun too!! I'm feeling really generous so I'm giving you a coupon code for 30% off of your next order! That's an awesome sale, I think!! This offer is valid until Monday 24th of February. The code is PINKKIS300. It's never too early for Christmas shopping. ;)

Enough of that!

My organizing project is going great! Last night I calculated that I should be done in two weeks... hmm... what should I do with the rest of the time? Or maybe I shouldn't be this effective. Maybe I should take baby steps?

Yesterday my main project was the small blue shelf. It took quite a lot of time to get it right, but I'm pretty happy the way it is now. :)

I also gave one of my tiny display sortcases (god! what are they called? the wooden thing on the wall with lots of small items in it?) to C and replaced it with bigger one that was hidden behind a door. I'm so happy to have San (Princess Mononoke) where I can see her. She was a bit too tall to fit on my other display cases, so she had to be on the one that was placed behind the door. Not that it's a lot better place. (I'm sorry I'm talking about it since you can't see it from the picture.)

And behind the door I placed two Pippi Longstocking collector plates. I'll take pictures when the whole thing is done.

Last night I got bitten by a sewing bug and I didn't feel like stopping at all. But sometimes Mr. C is quite persistent... so I had to come downstairs to help him cook. And then we watched the last episode of Sherlock Holmes and also the Wikileak movie. For dinner we had popcorn and smoothies... (kids are with their father). But as soon as I'm done with this post and then one email, I'll rush back upstairs to finish what I've started. I'll give you a hint in Japanese: Tonari no Totoro. ;)

For today I have decided to clean up my sewing area. It doesn't require that much organizing, mostly just dusting. All those small Japanese figurines on the wall...

Off she goes! Bye! Stay sweet!

xoxo,
Raisa

One Month Project: Organize Tehdas, Day 4 (?)

Enjoy it while it lasts! I'm still writing every day!


I'm still sick, but I managed to go to the post office to collect my two dolls who had been in a spa, in Spain. I wouldn't have done it but I had to mail few packages and I had missed the four o'clock pick up, so I had to go to the post office for the five o'clock pick up.

I also walked my daughter to the train (to go to her father's) and pre-paid my son's hair cut he's having today. So I had my daughter with me. We were waiting for the train and I just couldn't wait to get to home to see the dolls, and of course I had to show them to her as well. So I unwrapped the pretty box right there, in the middle of everything.

The dolls were amazing! Magical! And the package didn't just contain the dolls, it was filled with gifts! And I love gifts! But the train was arriving so I had to wrap them up and kiss my daughter good bye. And go home to play with my dolls. This is what I got

 She had even taken pictures of my dolls and printed them - real photographs! And the hat!! I got the hat, too!! Isn't she amazing?! Most amazing of course are the dolls! She did such an amazing job on them. The pink haired is my mini me. She used to be called Sugar Kane, after Marilyn Monroe's character in "Some like it hot" (feel free to correct if it was some other movie instead, I'm really bad with titles.) But now I see her more as Cherry Fox. My middle name is cherry (in Finnish) and my last name is fox (also in Finnish)

 Isn't she amazing! Even all the "beauty marks", actually moles, match!

 

These two are both Disco Boogie's. I'd say DB is one of the least liked dolls out there, but she makes such an amazing custom! The one on the left is made by Friends with Blythe and the other one is the one I just got. I asked her (Dafnery, who customized my two dolls) to make her look like the other doll's sister, but not a twin sister. I didn't want her to copy the work of FWB, and I'm sure she wouldn't even be okay doing so. Pola, who's also named after MM's character (on How to marry a millionare, I think) is now Astrid's big sister. And I love her to bits! Before she was like this :

Lol! So, if you are into dolls and would like to get a really great talent to customize your doll/s, I'd suggest you contact Dafnery. She was amazing to work with, her prices are very reasonable and most of all - her dolls are pieces of art!

Okay dokey, back to more serious business. My craft space. Even though I'm still sick I've gotten somethting done. All of my fabrics are now organized! I'm still short of two shelves, one is enough for doll clothes storage, and also one's not enough for unfinished projects, the one's I'm more likely to finish. I do have two shelves for unfinished projects, but the one at the botton of the closet are less likely ever to get finished. But I work on them if I feel like it. So I can't really put them away, either. Maybe a better solution will come up along the rest of the organizing. 

I got some great progress yesterday, other than finishing the fabric closet. I got all of my scrapbook stuff in a closet, and it wasn't the doll stuff closet. I'm pretty sure this will be their permanent storage place! I also got all doll stuff stuffed in the doll closet. It's not a pretty sight, not at all. Actually I'm afraid to open that closet door at the moment. But at least everything is in one place and my floor has a lot more space and rest of the cleaning and all will be now a lot easier! I might save the doll closet for the last. 

For today I have this small shelf to organize. I know it doesn't look that intimitading, but it's actually worse than it looks. It's the shelf I use when I don't know where else to put stuff...and it's also serious storage for items I use on daily basis, such as zippers and ribbons.

I also came up with (maybe) amazing solution for my lack of proper cutting space. I use this white smooth piece of coated wood (actually a shelf from a wide closet) as a base for photographs. It used to be downstairs, but I brought it up when I got mad at the person who used to take my pictures so now I do the pics myself and I do it upstairs. I had the piece on top of my ironing board for some reason and it was great extra desk for packing. So I might use that when ever needed. It should be easy to store between a wall and the doll house. If I can fit it in there. I emptied that space yesterday, but also found out it was a great way to store my bigger papers. So, well see. And if it turns out to bee to much trouble I'll keep cutting my fabrics either on my too low desk, or on the too narrow ironing board. 

That's it for now! I hope you all have a mazing weekend ahead of you!!

xoxo, 

Raisa

One Month Project, Organize Tehdas, Day 3

Howdy!

Yesterday was supposed to be the worst day of my sickness, after that I was planning to start feeling better. But then I forgot to rest and I still feel like shit :( I don't like being sick at all.This is quite bad start for my ambitious project. I know I can make it though. Just as long as I don't lose the excitement of it!

I still got quite a lot done yesterday! I even found my camera :) Except for two shelves all of my fabric is organized! Can you believe that! I'm most proud of my thick, bulky fabric closet. I think it looks really great, and what's the best part is that it actully works really well! Yay! The cotton closet doesn't look that great, there's still the two shelves I haven't organized yet, but also something else that makes it look messy. I really need to start sewing doll clothes more to get rid of some of the fabric ;)

I also attached the blue thing I got from the thrift store. Well, my hubby did it for me. I'm really getting a lot done, but everything is "in between" places, so it's still quite a mess. I'm getting a lot more space on my desk, which is awesome since I've been cutting fabrics on top of my narrow ironing board. But I'm afraid my desk is not high enough for cutting. We'll see.

Before I felt I was ready for bed I managed to sew two pouches that had been ordred long time ago. I even took pics of them and uploaded them on Etsy! Before I got all that done I think part of my body was a sleep already.

Now that my fabric is neatly organized (almost!) my biggest challenge is the doll closet. Not the doll house closet, but the "extras" closet. Where I keep doll clothes (two overflowing suitcases), extra furniture, male dolls (not Kevin!!), extra Re-ment, cars and also small pieces of thin wood to build stuff with. In that closet there's only three shelves and the floor, so everything is just huge mess. I also keep some of my scrapbook items in there. And I'm actually planning to put it all there, to have it all in one place. This means I really have to down-size a lot on my dolly stuff. I have tons of items "just in case". Some of them have to go. Maybe. To be honest I think it's justified for me to have tons of that stuff since I like to create scenes and temporary dioramas. And you'll never know what you might need. So I should keep it all :D

Mr C went to work meeting so I'll give you all the typos and grammar errors and all - Enjoy! Silly thing I want to share: A Finnish rock star said big tits and deep cleavage make him click and typos make him mad. It was about his online habits. I'm afraid my blog, either in Finnish or English would make him furious. Luckily I don't have rock stars reading my blog, or do I? Probably not, since there's no big breasts or deep cleavages to make them interested ;)

Must go! Bye!

xoxo,
Raisa

One Month Project: Organize Tehdas, Day Two

It's actually day three, but since I'm writing about day two then why not name the post according to that?

Like I said yesterday, I'm sick. And that sucks. I can work full speed for a couple hours and then I'm done for the rest of the day. I also walked to a thrift store, which didn't help either. But I bought a super awesome letterpress printer's tray. Like the one in the picture. Mine is huge, with tons of different size compartments, and it's painted blue. When I saw it I decided I wouldn't pay more than 20 euros, and then I saw the price tag and yelped a bit -- FOUR euros!! I also bought really cool deer sweater, for 3.5 euros. :D

I know it would be nice to share pictures, but I've lost my camera! I mean it's not gone, but it's buried somewhere in piles of crap at Tehdas... not funny! The room is an awful mess at the moment. It has never, ever been this bad. But! I have almost all of my fabrics neatly organized not by colors, but by use. Now I have all of my fabrics in three places: two closets, one for cotton and one for the bulky fur and fleece; the third place is an old pull out box that was meant for wood (to heat the house). Now it stores the fabrics I don't really use, but you'll never know when they might come in handy... and also all of my stuffing. I'm planning to make more decorational pillows for our living room, and stuff the pillows with all the clippings from Tehdas. And there are a lot!

I've been focusing on the fabric storage, but also cleaned and decluttered other places as well. At the moment I have piles everywhere, and even the piles have other piles on top of them!

Today I have to clear off my work space. I have to get back to sewing! I have to! And also I want to. I've had customers asking for new animal shaped Sleepsacks and I absolutely love trying to figure out how to make them work! Which is kind of weird, since I'm not big fan of solving problems and learning by "trial and error." But this is fun. Until I encounter the first animal that I can't recreate as a Sleepsack. :)

It's Wednesday! Yay! Enjoy it!

xoxo,
Raisa

One Month Project, Organizing the Tehdas (Factory), Fabric

Wow! This really is a great start for this project, third post in a row! Good job Raisa! But still, don't get used to it. I can't keep up with stuff, I'm like that. I get excited and then the excitement dies and I no longer care. At all. But now I do care, so lets enjoy that! :D

So, yesterday was the first day. I paid my son 2,5 euros to move all my craft related things from downstairs to upstairs, to Tehdas. So now my room is even biger mess than what it was before I started...

But that's a good start. Now I have everything in almost one place. At least I have everything upstairs! In the attic,in the bunny room, inthe kid's room, in a small foyer, but hey! I do have a lot of stuff!

Okay, so I was supposed to start with the fabric storage. I did a lot yesterday, shipping and finishing orders and so on, but I kind of forgot or maybe it was me running out of time? I didn't get to do any organizing, until late at night. Hubby, who wanted to watch True Detective, gave me 15 minutes. So I ran upstairs, emptied the top shelf of my main fabric storage closet. I decided to dedicate that shelf  to lining fabrics. In my case that's thrifted kid's bed clothing (is that the correct term for sheets and stuff?). So now I have one shelf all nice and organized. And then the timer went off. I had to leave.

Today I have to do some more packing and shipping, and sewing, too. To get some action going on in Tehdas I really have to clear my desk off the junk that's on it. I also want to get at least two more shelves organized.
I also have two boxes set aside, one for items I want to keep, but stored away. Like keepsakes. And the other box for donations. I gave away my thread spool collection! I've been collecting empty spools forever, thinkin one day they'll be used on some amazing project. I think now is good time to give them away, since I can't think of anything to do with them, other than this.

So off they go! Along with some fabrics I definately won't use, or shouldn't use since they are not my, or Pinkkis style at all. So bye bye clutter, welcome room and space for more important stuff! Did I mention I'm going to Japan in one month and 21 days? With one extra luggage ;) No more space to spare after that :D

To make life more complicated I'm getting sick. Being sick sucks if you work at home. If you work for somebody you don't like it's sometimes fun. But when you are supposed to get shitload of stuff done...no fun at all.

Must go now. Be good!

xoxo,
Raisa

One Month Project: Organize Tehdas (Factory) Day 1, FABRIC

Not that I'm able to write this every day, but here's a good start anyway. Day One.

This is silly, and so like me. I took tons of pictures yesterday and now that I'm uploading them I can see that I didn't have the autofocus on and most of them are really blurry. I switched it on after taking few pics of the bunny that I noticed were really unfocused. But I thought the Tehdas pictures were okay. Until now. Now I know they were not okay. And I don't like doing things twice...so I have the blurry pictures to share. Maybe that's for the best ;) The room is quite messy at the moment...

So, I took the pictures yesterday and tried to make some sort of a plan. I'm still in the process of trying to figure out the plan. I just don't know how to do it. I do have this book called "Inside The Creative Studio," but so far it's been more like inspiration and not really helpful ideas. But there are still few good articles for organizing, too. The first one was about fabric.

And fabric will be my starting point! I think it's the most difficult part of this whole project, the most time consuming, and funnily - also the one I'm looking forward the most. I love fabric! And it's always fun to learn about all of the fabric you actually own! There must be many I've totally forgotten about. Yay! So exciting! But uh! So much work!!

Should I have all of my stashes at the same place? One closet won't be enough, so should I have less-used fabrics somewhere else? Should I bring my Elna Press iron upstairs, and bring all fabrics from downstairs to upstairs? So far I've been doing the pressing (attaching interfacing to small pouches) while watching movies. But then we have to have the lights on and sometimes I don't get to focus on the movie if I'm working at the same time. Should I stop doing this and focus on relaxing while I'm supposed to relax? But working relaxes me. I think. I enjoy getting things done. If I brought it upstairs then what should I do while working on the interface? Maybe I could focus on my Japanese lessons. I listen to a Japanese Language Course on CD while I work, and when sewing I miss most of it. Maybe I should start listening to music again and leave the language studies for when I can actually hear it?

I'm going to start with just one shelf, and continue from there. I can't have all of them piled in the middle of the room. Even though I kind of like the idea of Mount Fabric. :) I'd be the first one to counquer it. :) And I could make my own flag to declare it's mine! All mine!!!!

I guess the most challenging task will be parting with the less appealing pieces. I have many of those, too. It's fabric, and I just can't throw it away. Don't worry, I'm not actually throwing anything away, but donating it. But what about the old, torn apart clothes I've saved for project X? Gosh! This will be hard!!

To get it done, and also tons of other stuff, like mailing my first order to Brazil (yay!) and finishing five Sleepsacks, I should get started!

The main fabric storage

New shelves, stuffed with "everything"

Messy cabines above the sink

Less messy cabinets below the sink

Side view of the sink counter

It doesn't help to have a bunny eating the walls...

Sorry for the awful pictures! I'll take better ones along the way. In a month I should be able to show really nice pictures!!

Have an awesome Monday!

xoxo,
Raisa

One Month Project: Organize Tehdas (Factory)

As some of you know I have my very own craft space -- a whole room dedicated  to my crafts. It's a luxury, I know. I used to dream of my own space, where I could leave my unfinished projects safely, knowing they'd be there when I get back to them. But what I didn't dream about was the constant mess, the lack of space (how can that happen when you have tons of closets  and shelves??!) and the endless piles of just about everything.

I know I'm not the cool minimalist with white walls and three super awesome pieces of art on my desk. I'm messy, loud (but only around people I know and trust), chaotic, and most of all, I'm the opposite of minimalist. I'm hoarder. I love stuff. Having a lot of stuff around me makes me feel safe. And beautiful things are, you know -- beautiful things and the more the merrier.

I've gone through phases where I want to get rid of stuff and I still think that's very important, even though in my case it always ends with me buying even more stuff to replace the things I gave away. But at least I go through my closets and then have better knowledge of what I have and what I don't have.

As a crafter it's okay to have big stashes of everything. You'll never know what you'll get excited about the next day! It could be something totally different from what you've been working on for weeks. So it's vital you have all the right tools and supplies ready.

I think all this is okay. It's part of my nature to be hoarder. But what's not okay is to have fabric around the house (mostly in my room, but I have stashes downstairs as well). Actually I think I have fabric scattered in six different places. And that's at least four too many. I don't have closets big enough to store them all in one place, but six is too many!

I have packaging material (bubble wrap, padded envelopes and so on) in four places, ribbons in four I think, doll stuff all over the place, beads and stickers everywhere, jewelry parts here and there... I might look like I'm well organized, since the room is quite small and I have so many drawers, some even labels on them (but the labels don't make any sense anymore). But what friends and visitors don't see is how everything is everywhere. Like I said, fabrics in six different locations.

I pretty much know where to find what ever I'm looking for, but to save time and to be more efficient and to get more space I have decided to organize the whole room all over! Everything! Hubby said I should take some of my toys away and use the space for my craft stuff, but I'm not sure if I'm willing to go to such extreme measures. But we'll see! I might even do that! Not all, but some. Maybe. Maybe not. Probably not. Most likely not, but I'm not saying definately not. Not yet. :)

I don't have any pictures just yet, but when I go upstairs I will photograph every single closet and drawers and everything. The way they are now, so you'll now what I'm talking about. Let me warn you, it won't be a pretty sight! I have at least dozen (ha! Who am I kidding! At least two dozen!) projects going on over there and everything is just scattered around my room. I had to do some cleaning before my hubby came in to help me with some cutting, but there's really not that much I can do in just few minutes.

So, my goal is to organize all my storage space, desks, cut down on toys, get rid of unused stuff and clean up the whole dusty room (even my Hello Kitty plush toy collection!,

Here's some old pictures to give you an idea of the hoarder I am.

Have a great and organized Sunday! It's Ravintolapäivä (Restaurant Day) here in Finland and I'm in charge of Vegan Restaurant Tour, so I can't really start organizing today. Or I could, but I HAVE to sew. Seriously. Don't know what's happend but I haven't gotten anything done lately. I've sewed a lot, I think, but I can't seem to finish anything.

xoxo,
Raisa

Recycled Crafts - Gift Containers

This post was first published in Finland Handcrafters Team blog, but I assumed not all of my readers read it. So I post it here as well. Since I think it's a great idea :D

 

It's always nice to bring small presents when we're invited to a party or event. But it's not always nice trying to figure out what to bring, especially if we're not into buying something useless, such as a decorative item that will end up in the trash, or if our host already has just about everything. Something edible is always a good choice -- everybody likes to eat! But we might not feel comfortable bringing food, as it might look silly. But! If you place the gift you are bringing into a nice container it's a totally new ball game!

What will you need:

Empty and clean cylinder shaped food containers

Old gift wrap and/or newspaper

Glue, brush and small container

Scissors and craft knife (optional)

Paper ribbon or twine

First you need to cut the paper to match the container size. It doesn't have to be exactly the same size, as you'll trim it later on. But make sure the bottom line is straight and that your piece is big enough!

Then we're going to glue it on. There are two methods to do this, depending on the look you want. If you want it to be smooth (good for smooth wrapping paper) use a glue stick. Spread glue on the seam of the container, and then around the top and bottom edge. Make sure you get all the edges covered, but don't spread the glue all over, since it will make the paper wrinkle.

Starting from the seam, wrap the paper around the container. Make sure you get the bottom part straight. Let the paper overlap a bit and secure with glue.

If you're after the more rustic look, use liquid glue and an old paint brush. Spread glue all over the container.

When wrapping the paper around the container, don't pull it too smooth. It's supposed to wrinkle a bit!

After the glue has dried, you can trim the edges with a craft knife. You can use scissors too.

Tie the ribbon/twine around the container. Now it's ready to go! Fill it with candy, nuts, muesli...just about anything you can fit inside. :)

 Happy Crafting!!

A week in the life of Raisa

What a great week I've had! Okay, ther have been some down's, too. But mostly up's and even higher up's! I did break my winter jacket. I'm not able to buy a new one right now. Not when I'm deep in the middle of saving money! And new jacket is not what I'm saving for. So that was very, very bad time for my jacket to break. Damn zipper!

Luckily while looking for my awful spare jacket I found almost brand new jacket that was purchased for my son but that he never wore which fit me just fine! Yay!

Soon I'll have a zoo!!

I've been feeling a bit tired lately and a bit down, too. But nothing that a little praise on FB or Etsy couldn't fade away :) I've made some new pouches, and they came out great! I've also been working on some secret project, which has been really fun. Except that I sew bunch of seams -wich I randomly selected, having two options only - in the wrong order. I hate when that happens. And I do it quite often, that I choose the wrong one. Well, it wasn't anything major and now I know how it's done :) I've had quite strict plan for each day and I've been following it very strictly :) No time to fool around! And I want to have new stuff available when hubby is done with my new website, which should be soon!! Exciting!

The best part is that I've been loving it. Seriously. I enjoy what I do. That is the best feeling there is! I'm still trying to figure out how to make it a serious business. But maybe I wouldn't enjoy it after that? Don't know.

Okay, my To Do -list for today is rather long, I better get started! (I have some amazing ideas I want to work on today! I found some latenight scribbles on my bedside notebook this morning and I want to try those ideas out :D

Miki and Alex.

Oh! One more thing! I "had" to debox my Middie!! Middes are the medium sized Blythe dolls. I bought one almost a year ago. And I kept her in the box. I just wasn't sure if I liked her, so better not lower her value, in case I wanted to sell her later on. I don't really like middies. But the I saw some really nice pictures of this particular doll (the same as I have) and I was very tempted. But no. In box she stayed. Until a customer asked for middie sized teddy bear sleepsack! Yay!! There was my reason! So off box she comes! And it was so exciting! She's so different from the dolls I was used to. The eye mechanic works differently, by rolling, not by pulling. And her head tilts!! Yay! Very cute. And the thing that I had feared the most did happen. I liked her. I think she's really cute and I think she deserves a friend. a real friend. Not just Kevin who hangs out with her just to see glimpses of her super beautiful big sister Alex (MUG). So Miki, the "new" doll (she's not new! I bought her almost a year ago!) has to have Puchippu Chappu Pepa as her best friend. And she has to have more clothes! Now she has just the dress she came with plus a dress from MLP Megan, that fits her pretty well. This is very dangerous hobby when one is trying to save money! But I have decide not to buy anything before the trip. If the Pepa girl is still available when I go to Japan I'll buy her, if not then too bad.

Sometimes I struggle with ideas what to blog about - if you have anything in mind, anything at all please feel free to contact me, either here or by e-mail pinkkisfun(at)gmail.com.

Take care and have fun!!

xoxo,
Raisa

We had our 4th Anniversary this week!

My new favorite!

A tiny surprise!

Rooms full of FUN!

I belong to this Etsy Team called Finnish Handcrafters Team, FHT. I met some of these talented girls (gosh, did I talk about this here already? Having two blogs does not make your life easy!) couple weeks ago and ever since I've been really active with all things Etsy and networking and all that. (Sometimes I feel it's all out there just to keep you occupied, to give you some sort of [false?] hope, like the stuff they do at the unemployed office - all these classes and courses and meetings. And then again I love the energy it gives me. I do get the feeling that "I can do it!". And I like that feeling :D )

As one of my dreams is to be the fly on the wall, just to see other peoples homes, the way they live and most of all to see where they do their magic. So I asked my group members to share their craft rooms with me and well, you :) Here we go!

 Dimitra, from LooneyDimitraCrafts. This is what she says about her craft space:
Living in a small apartment in Helsinki may create problems in keeping up a small crafting business, but good storage solutions help.
My yarns are stored in bags in the closet, other supplies are kept in drawers and boxes and the coffe table is covered with colorful creations every evening.

 I am using the coffee table as my work space while Iraklis (our black cat) is taking naps or observes me carefully.

I photograph my products on sunny days by the window.












Here's Alba, from  MadeOfSundays! Alba makes very cute wall decals and stickers.

"I combine Made of Sundays work with my projects as a graphic design freelancer.

What I like the most about my “office” are the outside views (I can see squirrels jumping around that tree!) and my green mint wall. It is really important for my creative process to be surrounded by color and cute stuff. 

Gary Cooper takes care of the Quality Assurance department and my good friend Totoro makes sure that I do no miss any deadline :-)"

 Here's Yini, from Kotona. This is where she creates her handmade bath acessories and home decor.

Firstly I do my crocheting and computer stuff on the couch as my husband has completely taken over the dining table. Also I found I work better this way. In the day I'll me on my comp and at night my comp is used to watch movies so I will crochet then.

Next is my sewing and cutting station. I only cut small amounts here and do the bigger stuff on the floor. It is actually suppose to be a breakfast table but we eat breakfast somewhere else. It's a bit uncomfortable as only my toes reach the paddle when I'm sitting on the stool, but it works.

Last is the make shift photo area. It is a small kitchen caddy which I pull closer to the window when I need to take pictures. This window is southwest facing so it doesn't get hit by direct sun in the day time.

Lucky my husband doesn't mind my mess, but it becomes a problem sometimes.

Here we have Sasha, from PaperPlaneStationery. 

Sasha makes very beautiful notebooks and other paper goods.

"I work from a room in a tiny student apartment I share with my husband and our cat.

The extra room we have is a combination of a guest room, a storage room for our small record label and my craft space.

The long white table is my favorite piece of furniture as it works as a working surface, supply storage space and photography studio at the same time.

 I also use a vintage table-type Singer sewing machine I got from my mother-in-law (not shown in the pictures unfortunately).

It's not a big space, but I'm really happy to have it as it inspires me to create.

Last, but not least we have Simona. Simona has two shops,  ColorfulSimone and SEscarves.

"Here is my studio! I paint my scarves on one high table in the kitchen :) And that`s it.

We live in a really small apartment, so this is my only place to paint during winter. During summer I paint on the balcony! :)

 Since I just got a new doll and I want to show her off here's the most recent picture of my favorite work place.Virginia, the new girl in the one on the right.

 I hope you enjoyed this little tour on some of my most favorite crafters' magical places!!

xoxo,
Raisa