Saving the World with a Toothbrush

My hubby started complaining about how I don't write my English blog more often. I think it's because for some reason I think I need to make sense here and since I don't make sense in the real life either, it's kind of hard to try to do so online. Not sure.

Anyways, today I'm going to tell how I'm about to save the world just by choosing the right toothbrush. I used to have the same toothbrush for a decade, just replacing the head every three months. And then they stopped making them! A year and a half ago I found a store that still had the replacement heads, so I bought up all they had left. But now they're all gone. And since I use my plastic quota on dolls I needed to come up with a new, eco-friendly tool with which to clean my teeth.

First I found a toothbrush that was made out of recycled yoghurt cups - pretty impressive, but still not good enough. Especially after I found out that the pink one only came in medium. It's really harsh on my super sensitive gums :( . It also came with a travel case for the brush, which is kind of silly since you need to replace the brush every three months and you get a new travel case every time.

So I kept looking for something better. And better I found. I found a new brand that also has replaceable heads! Yay!!! No fancy colors, but they were still okay. So I bought one brush plus one set of heads. You were even able to choose from natural to synthetic heads - of course I chose natural :)

I took my brush home, and got curious about what it was made of. And guess what! My new way to save the world wasn't vegan!!! The bristles were pig hair! I was so upset :( So I returned to the store and got new, vegan brushes instead. Whew!

I think it's funny how serious matter this is to me. I was seriously really upset when I found out I couldn't get new replacement heads for my toothbrush and the idea of being forced to buy a new piece of plastic FOUR times a year was just too much! What a waste!! To calm my self down I had to buy me a new Blythe -doll! (made out of plastic, obiously).

It's funny/silly how we decide that this is important and the other isn't. This makes difference and the other one doesn't. Like me stressing out about toothbrushes and at the same time planning our trip to the States. Washing ziplock bags and buying new plastic toys the next minute. Buying only Fair-Trade chocolate and making sure everyone else does the same and then ordering dolls on line, made in sweatshops.

It's hard to be parfect when you have so many things you like. I still think there's hope for me, and others alike. Maybe this is a beginning, and a better me will follow. Later on, maybe after I've got enough dolls?  (To be honest, most of my dolls are bought used. So I'm not really that bad, after all.)

xoxo,
Pinkkis

Doll Madness

I know the few posts I've written have been quite serious. And I do have my serious side, but that's not all that I am -- there's also the crazy side. The part that LOVES plastic. The prettier-shaped the better. And Blythe dolls are at the top of the Pretty Plastic Objects list.

I got my first Blythe just twenty months ago. I had already made her small "apartment," and now just needed to have a doll to live there. So when I saw this red-haired cutie in a toyshop in Tokyo, I knew she was the one. I took her out of the box, took few picture, cut her hair, put her on a shelf and kind of forgot all about her.

Bambi, Simply Bubble Boom

Weeks passed, and then I felt like playing with her a little. I put her in her apartment and played with the string that was attached to her. And boom! Her eyes changed! She was now gazing sideways with totally new eye color! I didn't know they did that! I tried to ask the Japanese woman who worked at the toy store about the eyes, but she kept saying no, so I thought I couldn't get one that was gazing sideways (when Blythe is looking straight, she looks a bit blank; but sideways -- a whole new ballgame!). I don't know why this was so important, but somehow it changed the whole thing. I was hooked. I couldn't help but take her to work, since I just had to show this miraculous doll to everyone.

Bambi's home and a candy store

And I had to get more. So I placed my very first (but not last!) doll order online. Mimi came from Osaka, if I remember it correctly. I also started looking for old Bratz clothing and got seriously into Re-ment miniatures (I had tons, way before I acquired my first doll.) So it wasn't just about collecting dolls (well, having two dolls isn't a collection anyway)s, but about photography, sewing, building miniature rooms. Later on came connecting with other like-minded people.

Mimi and her home

So now I had two dolls and was really into working on their "apartments." I kept ordering more and more Japanese dollhouse furniture, and also made my husband build me bunk-beds. Soon I needed more beds, since the doll bug had really bitten me. I ordered twins, Nicky and Vicky. And then I got my "special" girl, Lola, a.k.a. Ribbonetta Wish, made for Hello Kitty's 35th birthday! (I also love Hello Kitty -- the reason I got hooked on everything Japanese). She was supposed to be my last doll. For a second I felt the family was complete. I had five dolls, all of them very dear to me. And then I realized I could also buy used dolls. So I bought three used dolls just like that (for the sake of enviroment).

My eleventh doll was a "mistake." She wasn't all that charming and special and somehow kind of broke the charm. I didn't feel like buying anymore dolls, since their house was way too crowded anyways. At that time I thought it was very important that all girls actually had their own beds and spots around the kitchen table. And that made the whole dollhouse a one big mess. So I put them aside.

Months went by. I kept thinking I should do something for them, but there was so much going on and I didn't feel like taking them out... until a blog reader asked for pics of my dolls. BOOM. I was hooked again. And this time it was really bad. With in six weeks I was the proud owner or seven new dolls and tons of new clothes, miniatures, shoes, etc. I tried to keep it all a secret to my husband, who wasn't very supportive about my insane hobby, but then I started feeling sick every time the mail came. I was worried that something would arrvive and he'd see it and complain. New dolls and clothes didn't make me happy anymore. Just the opposite. So I had to tell him all about my dolls, how many where there and how much they mean to me. I know he still doesn't like them at all. And that's not what I was asking for, either. But now he understands they make me happy and what makes me happy makes him happy :).

Recently I've noticed the insanity around dolls have been fading away. I still do organize their apartments. I'm planning on making new clothes, but I don't really spend money on them. Except for one big exception. I finally was able to buy my "Holy Grail", Margo Unique Girl. Can't wait for her to come home!

Will it be a complete family now? Time will tell.

Have an insanely dollfully happy week!

xoxo,
Pinkkis

Naked Truth

Long time no see!

I've been busy with studying and sewing and stuff, and I guess you could say I'm not that efficient now that I'm not working. I used to be able to do million things at once -- I worked eight hours a day, wrote two cookbooks, baked for events and parties, ran my own business (PINKKIS), took care of the kids, dogs, bunnies, house, rode horses, took cardio-boxing lessons, Japanese lessons, scrapbooked... now I barely have time for the basic stuff and some studying. I do have to admit that I've never studied so seriously than I do now. I mainly study biology and chemistry and for a pink-haired airhead like me, it's not that easy. But I try hard, even though it's just to get into the school at which I really want to study. My main goal (my only goal) is to get into Helsinki University to study nutrition. So I'm motivated. Otherwise, I couldn't do it.

Ok, onto "the naked truth." It's kind of funny, and then again, not funny at all.

I've been thinking about how it would affect everything if ads and commercials, product packages -- everything related to the things we buy -- would have to show not only the good sides of the products and services, but also the not-so-nice ones. What if the next time you bought a t-shirt there weren't pictures of super perfect people wearing the clothes, but underpaid Indians, Pakistanis and Moroccoans spraying the cotton with poisonous chemicals, young women working in sweatshops and big fat white men grinning with pockets full of money?

What if the meat section didn't have pictures of ready-cooked foods, but very graphic images of slaughterhouses, factory farms and underpaid immigrants taking their frustrations on animals? What if commercials for candy bars didn't show the velvety texture of the soft chocolate, but little children climbing on cocoa trees with machetes, with cuts on their hands and legs, working for hours under the hot African sun, or being beaten by their employers?

What if pet stores showed you images of all the casualties -- all the dead animals in the trash cans, the ones that didn't make it due to lack of water, heat, food, etc.? What if the milk carton didn't have a drawing of a cow in a pasture, but pictures of cows with serious udder infections (cows are milked just twice a day, which is insane! It hurts like hell when boobs get too full of milk!), or even better pictures of veal crates?

What would you buy?

http://thefrogblog.org.uk/tag/child-labour/

We CAN make a difference! Buy Fair Trade, go vegan, buy local, spread the word, contact the big companies, tell them why you don't want to buy their products anymore, tell your friends to do that as well. I know it might sound naive, and it probably is, but I really believe that what I put in my shopping cart will make a difference, for better or for worse.

More horror stories next time! (We're having a Halloween Party Saturday ;)

xoxo,

Raisa

Simplyfying our food closet

Variety is the spice of life, right? We deserve all the yummy things in the world, right? We work hard, we party hard, so we need our rewards, right? Especially if you follow a certain diet, like veganism, where you cut out animal products. That alone is a lot of  "no thanks, I don't eat/can't eat that." Or consider those with allergies, religious diets and so on. So why on earth would you cut out anything from the foods that suit your diet?

Being a vegan is a great thing. And I don't just mean the ethical part of, the clear consience, but also the surprising impact it had on my diet. Now that there are fewer choices for what to buy and eat, I cherish the produtcs that fit in my diet a lot more than before. There actually has been small hand-clappings and jumping-up-and-downs at a grocery store when I've located new yummy things to eat.

If you eat treats every day, you won't be able to enjoy them as much as if you only eat them once a week or so. Same thing with food: if you eat your favourite foods every day, how are you going to reward yourself?

I think we should take one step backwards when it comes to eating. We should eat more simple, locally grown, in-season foods. The majority of our diet should be based on that, while treats and sushi should be saved for the weekend :). I'm quite convinced that this would save us from a lot of food waste, too, if we mainly bought items we will actually use, instead of buying things we'd like to use but that end up in our compost heap. Women are said to do that a lot -- we buy healthy fruits and veggies, and end up throwing them away because they go bad. But I'm not saying we shouldn't buy fruits and vegetables either! We should simply buy only what we need, even if it means more bike trips to the store to get that last lemon.

So I'm trying to simplify the way we eat. We don't have to have nine different kinds of legumes in our closet the way we do now (soybeans, broad beans, peas, black eyed peas, black beans, green and red lentils and mung beans). Three to four would be enough. But then again, I love having full dry food closet. It makes me feel safe. And by eating a variety of foods, I'm making it more sure we get to have all the nutrients we need. And it's really hard not to buy interesting looking novelties, like purple cauliflower :)

Other than being obsessed with food, I've been working on one of my doll's bedrooms. Here's the result. I think it's really charming!

 And here's how it was before.

Quite an improvement, huh?

I've also been sewing a lot, and just finished a Halloween-themed triangle-banner for a kid's room. I guess my kids are a bit too old for that, but I actually thought of putting it up in our bedroom. No picture of it, since the kids room is not very photogenic, with too many unfinished remodeling projects in there. I also sewed a lot of Pinkkis pouches. Need to have a lot for the upcoming X-mas season! And some more Blythe stuff under constraction, pics later.

I guess that's all! What do you think about my plan to simplify our diet? Pure madness, or is there a way to achieve some balance with it all?

xoxo,

Pinkkis
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Welcome to Pinkkisworld!

Hello all!

Welcome to the English-language version of my blog! I maintained a bilingual blog some years ago, but I got so bored with the English part and kept writing in Finnish. Yes, I live in Finland. Unfortunately we don't have any polarbears or icebergs here, but we do have reindeer, northern lights and Santa Claus. And lots of saunas. Everyone seems to have their own sauna. We don't. We have a nice bathtub.

I blog about my life and things that I'm interested in -- you know, stuff that people normally write on their blogs. This will not be about: outfits I wear (super boring), product-of-the-day (actually I've heavily cut down on my consumerism), nor am I focusing on just one subject, like the vegan food I cook or the renovations on our  house. This will be more like life, about everything. I make tons of typos (literally!) and since English is not my first language, I make mistakes. BUT... at least for the first few weeks/months my hubby, who's American and an editor (lucky me!) will be fixing my posts. So if you wonder why everything is so damn perfect, it's because of him. He makes my life perfect :)

I'm not talented with computer stuff, I don't know how to create interesting backgrounds or flashing pictures for my blog, so just focus on the words and pictures, okay?

A little about me (and what's this blog is going to be about): I have pink hair (first thing first, right?), I'm married (to that hubby guy), have two kids, two rescue dogs and two rescue bunnies. Animal rights are big thing in my life. I'm vegan, unemployed (I worked for an awful company for way too long, then resigned when I just couldn't take it anymore), I love Blythe-dolls, sewing, Dexter, crafts, Halloween, photography, baking, reading, tattoos, movies and so on.

I study at night, dream of getting into the university next fall (to study nutrition - I'm obsessed with food!). I've written two vegan cookbooks, "Puputyttö ja Vohvelisankari" and "Puputytön Juhlakirja", and I'm working on the third one at the moment.

I have my own business, Pinkkis. I mostly make jewelry and pouches, and other stuff when I feel like it. I don't have very active on-line store at the moment, but hope to have more products listed soon.

Hopefully you'll like my blog and will stick around. I plan on writing in English once or twice a week. I write my Finnish blog more frequently, but writing in English takes a lot more effort :).

xoxo,

Pinkkis

Me, with my red-haired dolls.