BLOG HAS MOVED

Howdy!

My blog has moved to here: www.pinkkis.fi There's a tab for Finnish blog and one for English one, as well. Currently they are all combined, though. So all my blog posts are under Finnish blog. Kind of confusing and annoying. It should be taken care of over the weekend, says mr. C. We'll see.

See you on the other side! :D

xoxo,
Raisa

Sew sew sew your boat...

Gosh! You really have to have something "bad" to really be able to appreciate the "good". Now that my time is more limited (the career coach thing that takes like six hours per day)I enjoy my free time so much more! Like I'm all excited about it! I love it! I love being excited!

So, last Wednesday I had private session that lasted 40 minutes (did I tell about this already? If so please skip the next paragraph, if paragraph is not the correct word here please skip that, too - I'm too busy to check.) and after that I was free for the rest of the week! Super awesome!

My session was kind of fun, teacher said after seeing my papers and after we had talked a bit that I don't really belong into that class. But quitting would risk the money so shouldn't do that either.

After the session which was interrupted by one of my very rude classmate (the coach kept asking her to leave, over and over again, but she just didn't listen. So effing annoying!) I went to a store to buy treats for Vappu/May Day celebration. I'm not into Vappu celebration at all, but if there's an excuse to buy soda and chips I don't want to miss it! ;)

I'm not going to give you very detailed description of my long weekend, but there was movies, gardening and a lot of sewing involved. So much fun! I did a lot in my garden, and hubby helped a lot, too! Super excited about all the plants I've planted. Since it's still quite cold outside in Finland and summer is at least a month away I didn't plant outside that much. Only some carrots, potatoes (not sure at all these will work, I used very small potatoes I saved from last year's harvest.), beets and parsley. Inside I planted a lot more! Not sure if it's call planting if it's only the seeds, not really plants I'm planting? That would be too long of a list, so I'll mention only few: zucchini, kale, kiwano(??), onion, lettuce and so on. So much fun! And it'll be even more fun when we get to eat them! I have a friend who doesn't have the heart to eat home grown vegetables, but she has no problem of eating pigs and cows and lambs...people are strange. :)

Sewing! At first it was like a task, I wasn't happy with it at all. I had to finish some stuff before I got to play with my new fabrics and ribbons and it was really unpleasant. I seriously don't like to be forced into anything. I wonder what it's all about. If it was about a friend I would be able to say what's wrong, but when it's too close (me) I can't figure it out. Oh, well! I finally got the task done and was able . God! I have to go! I have 13 minutes to be at school!!

Update

Hello all! Konnitchiwa minna-san!

Greetings from Japan! I had amazing vacation! Very busy, very well organized. Maybe too busy, you might think. And I wonder if that's true. At times I felt like I have to stop. I have to breath in and then breath out. Relax. Live in the moment. But then again, I was too busy for that! Too many places to explore. Too many stores to go to. Too many people to see. Too much everything to have time to stop. And I loved it! Every
second of it.

Tokyo Guide Before

Tokyo Guide After

The controlled chaos. I don't think I'd enjoy chaos in India, or in China, or in any other Asian country. Other than Japan where it's strictly controlled and organized. Japan or should I say Tokyo is like me. There's chaos, there has to be because there's so much of everything, but it's also very controlled. In the case of Tokyo the control comes from outside, in the form of laws and regulations, in my case it comes from the inside. My own laws control me.

Oh, man! That's not what I want to talk about! Sorry!

The trip! That's what I want to talk about! It was all I wanted and a lot more! I was a bit lonely, though. Kind of strange, since I like to travel alone, I'm very used to it. I really needed somebody to slow me down a bit. (I'm talking about my husband, I really wanted him to be there even though I knew he would've hated it. Almost everything about it. My birthday was the worst. I even cried a bit! Lol. Silly me. I wanted to wear "Birthday Girl" pin on my chest but I couldn't find on on time. (the next day I saw one!)

Since I've been there so many times before I could skip all the tourist stuff and focus on the stuff I really wanted to do. I did go to Asakusa, though. To take pictures. And for the first time I saw cherry blossoms in Japan! The season was almost over, actually all the flowers were gone before I left so my timing was really good!

I ate well, in my own room. So strange, but that's the way I chose to do it. I ate out four times. It was a lot of fun and it was a lot of work. To locate the places I knew would be vegan or vegan friendly. Two of these places I've been to many times before, and  one of them was new to me. And that became my favorite. Deva Deva Cafe. I ate Teriyaki "Chicken" burger and a slice of cake. 

Deva Deva Cafe

Brown Rice Cafe 

I did a lot (and I mean a LOT!) of shopping. I bought fabric, dolls, toys, washi tape, stickers, books, kitchen stuff to name some.

Books!

Day 2, Nippori/Textile  Town/Paradise

Birthday presents

Nakano! Another kind of paradise!

I liked it a lot! I went to small art galleries, Studio Ghibli Museum, craft shops, big stores, small stores, stores that sell used items, stores that sell brand new items, I went to shrines, and I got lost every day many times. I walked holes on my socks and I talked Japanese!! So proud of my self about that! Not much and definitely nothing complicated.

I had two full suitcases to bring back home, it was a bit of a nightmare to get all that stuff to the airport, but I managed to do that. I kept dropping a Blythe helmet and people had to help me to pick it up, two or three times but other than that it was pretty okay.

I was really happy to go home, I had done everything I wanted, I was broke and eager to see my family.

On my first morning here we celebrated my birthday, I got a laptop! :) I had asked for garden fork but I guess my hubby thought I needed a new laptop more than a garden tool.

I've been very jet lagged for a week and a half, but finally getting back to normal. Yay! 

Okay, need to go back to work. I've had very little time to sew, I've been sleeping a lot more than I usually do, I've been very tired all time, and I have this two-month course I need to participate,  6 hours a day, every day. :( So I really haven't been sewing that much at all. And last weekend I was at Tampere, scrapbooking. 

Take care!

xoxo, 

Raisa

Advice/opinion needed!!

This is completely theoretical question...or not.

Lets say I have a son who's a teenager. We get along well, but only if I don't mind little annoying things he occationally says, like "Shut up", "Stupid mom" and so on. Nothing major, but bad behavior anyway, and something I wouldn't want my kids to say to me or anybody else. If I let it go, he'd let it go, too and soon he'd be saying things I like to hear, like "Good night, mom" or "I love you, mom". But if I get mad at him for calling me stupid he'd get mad, too and this could go on for days. In this theoretical situation we would both be very (read extremely!) stubborn. And we would end up both saying things that should not be said outloud. 

Life's a lot easier if I let little things just pass unnoticed. But I don't want my son to think it's okay to say Shut your face! to anybody, specially to a grown up. To his mother!

If this was the case in our family, what do you think I should do? Just let it go and wait if it gets any worse, or get stuck in every little word he says that I don't like and start a small war?

(You guessed it right, I'm really talking about me and my son.)

I have been extremely lazy with sewing lately, I've decided to finish at least two sleepsacks and two bags I've never made before, so I better get to work!! But before I go I want to tell you what I did yesterday!!!

A friend of mine had invited me to her work place since they have all these incredible machinery there, like vinyl cutter and 3D printer. With the vinyl cutter you can cut images to be pressed on fabric! I've probably mentioned about how important fabric and everything related to fabric is to me. I really love it! Fabric printing is something I'd love to do, but I really don't know how to achieve a good quality results, fast enough. I'm used to making stencils, but they take forever and the risk of ruining the fabric you are working is too big: the paint leaks under the stencil and ruins your work way too often. And cutting the stencil is a pain in the butt!!

But with the vinyl cutter you let the machine do most of the work!! Wohoo!! You only need to pick off the pieces you don't want to print on your fabric. And the vinyl stuff is so amazing, the colors are great, it feels good, not plastic-y at all, or maybe just a teeny tiny bit, but not bad at all.

So, I was printing some simple images yesterday at Kaupunkiverstas. I had some unfinished pieces of fabric with me (our old table cloths from our wedding :) and a memory stick with couple images. I will post more about this once I get the bags finished, now I'll just show you the result of the printing. I was supposed to be there two hours, but ran out of time so we booked me another two hours :) It was so much fun!! Now I can't wait to go there again, with more ideas to print!

I made two of these Candy vs. Animals, and bunch of Blythe con Europe bags, for customers who buy two or more sleepsacks! 

Of course I had to stop by at fabric store. Look what I found!! Cute! And so weird! I even dreamed about some of the characters (a nightmare).

Bye!! Don't forget to leave your opinion/advice on my problem!!

xoxo,
Raisa

ONE WEEK!

Within a week I'm already in Amsterdam, waiting patiently. Add couple more hours and I'll be on a plain that's about to take me to Tokyo! So exciting! But also so scary. I'm not a huge fan of flying. I can take it pretty easy, thanks to little help from a doctor. But still...I'm afraid I'll start to think about all the things that could go wrong and also the fact that I'm trapped inside that metal box for hours and hours doesn't comfort me at all. Trapped. No way out. Kind of like when you are getting a tattoo, you should not think about the skin cells breaking, and all the actions the cells are taking from preventing more damage. But the needle just does what ever the tattoo artist wants and your cells are screaming for help...One should not think about that when being tattooed...

Okay, I need to go! I have a fabric printing date at the city at 10am!

Pictures!

Take care!

xoxo,
Raisa

Can I change?

Can a person change? For good? For real? I strongly doubt it. Of course you can stop smoking/doing drugs/drinking and/or start exercising and so on. But do we really change? Like maybe you've heard of life changing moments, but is it really that one moment can change the way you are? The way you think?

Oh, well. The more I think about it the more convinced I am that a person can change, and that the change can be "over night". Like images of abused animals can change a person for good!

The reason I'm talking about that is that last night when I was thinking about how happy I am with Mr. C. We've been together for five years and it just gets better  and better. But then again there are times when I absolutely xxx him. When I can't think of anything good about him. Then I wonder what on earth did I see in him in the first place. But last night I some how realized that the strong negative feelings aren't really about him. It's more about me. How I get very strongly annoyed if he doesn't behave/act/think the way I want him to behave/act/think. Do you follow? I'm not sure if I do.

But you know, when I'm all in love with him and everything is just perfect then it's most likely that way because of the way he makes me feel. He makes me feel safe and more balanced, and so on. It's not that I love him bacause he runs fast or is so goddamn handsome. umm...hard to explain. I love the way he looks because I can see it. I wouldn't love it if he was handsome but I were blind. I don't care if he runs fast or not because that's not something for me. Unless I see him in a race. So why would be the negative feelings be about him? I xxx him because of the way he makes me feel. Damn! I'm into something! So next time I feel like chopping him into pieces I should focus on me! Why do I react to his actions this way? What does it tell about me?

Interesting.  So the question about the change was about this. Can this knowledge (about the negative feelings being about me) change me?

It's early, I've been awake for three hours already. I feel like doing some serious sewing today!

I'll soon make a post about the whole organizing project. Kind of like before and after thing.

Bye!

xoxo,
Raisa

My travel journal came yesterday! It's effing great! (pic taken from the website!)

I love riding my bike!!

Boy, I had such a lovely day yesterday! I really haven't been feeling that great lately, but yesterday as I was riding my bike to the city, and stopping to take pictures of my sweet little Astrid I was so happy. The weather was perfect, I wasn't too cold or too hot, I was just perfect, the water I had brought to drink with me was the perfect temperature, my bike was light to pedal, the wind wasn't blowing too hard and even though there were other (annoyingly ignorant of the "walk on the right hand side of the road" -rule) people out there they didn't drive me crazy.

During my trip I got so much done, like picked up a fabric from courier company, bought some other fabric from fabric store, bought ribbon, sold gold chains and a bracelet (lol! I'm sure I got ripped off big time!) got some Japanese yens (again, not very good deal. Usually stuff like that bothers me a lot. And I mean a LOT! But I decided not to care! I got it done and that's all that matters! And don't tell me about withdrawing money on my bank account while there instead of transferring money here. Last time in Japan I couldn't find one single place where my card would've worked, and I had problems with my CC also, luckily I had enough cash! And also last time in the States I followed this advice and ended up borrowing money from my mother-in-law! Since I couldn't get money from my account. I feel safer when I have the money in my hand thank you very much. I'm old and old fashioned.) and also sold my old school books and got money to buy treats for my trip. I went to Ekolo and the first time ever I didn't like th eperson working there! So strange! Usually they are so nice and friendly, but this one was just distant and not "warm" at all. Also didn't like the person at the craft store I got the ribbon from. But I barely ever like the staff there, too young to understand anything about customer service. She was organizing some shelves and there was a line at the counter (me and somebody in front of me). We waited and she didn't show up, so I had to ask her to come to the register and I felt like saying sorry to bother you since she looked upset she had to serve us instead of organizing the shelves. Even that didn't bring me down!

My ride back home was nice, too! Even though I was getting tired and my backbag was so full I kept hitting my gigantic ponytail holder on it :)

I cooked and watched some of The memoirs of a geisha -movie. And went to bed. No sewing. Well, couple seams but thats' it. And I felt good about that, too :)

I really enjoyed the "quality time" with Astrid, I know this sounds silly. But I really enjoy the dolls and I haven't done anything with them for so long and yesterday I got to take pictures of them and even continued Molly's story! I have some great ideas for her!!

Look! Spring veggies!

Holly, the kleptomaniac.

Okay, must go working! But before I go I want to show you my food stash for my trip (that's in two weeks!!!)

 Have a superb Tuesday! I'm sure you deserve it! I do!

xoxo,
 Raisa