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 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, 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

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

Where the magic happens

I know I'm kind of an underdog here, with my incredibly cluttered and colorful style. If you even can call that a style. I know that the incredibly beautiful houses that are presented in magazines are all very minimalistic, very white, very clean, airy and very much not like me at all. Even the Etsy frontpage is always very sterile (except for today! At least in Europe it had some touch of color in it! Woohoo!) and I never like it. And I know for sure I'd never ever get my treasuries on it. Mine are always very colorful and messy. :)

 I have tried to declutter, and I've done pretty darn well at it! I've gotten rid of a lot of stuff, but then at some point it starts to get very difficult. For a long time I got rid of one item per day, until recently. Now it's more like one item per week. The question I ask myself is: Would I buy this again? Like if I didn't already have it, would I buy it from the store. It's funny how often the answer is no. But not anymore. My craft supplies are kind of sacred. I mean I don't need to justify them - I use them to make my crafts and even if I have something I haven't used for a year (another thing to ask yourself, if you haven't used it within a year, you should get rid of it) I still might need it eventually. And I almost always do! I love that feeling, when I use up something I've had for years and never thought I'd end up using. 

But what about the silly stuff that I "collect"? What about all the little trinkets and toys that I just can't

stop buying. The stuff that fill my closets and most of all - my wall space. Occasionally I go through some of them and decide I'll only keep the really cool ones, but still I have hundreds of small items in numerous wall display shelves, mostly in my craft room, but some on the stairway and in my bedroom as well. And in a way they make the already wonky house look even more like a toystore. And not necessary in a good way. 

Sometimes I dream of a elegant white house, with white airy drapes, just few pieces of white furnitures,

tranquility, the sound of whales singing (from a CD), spotless walls, spotless everything. And then I realise I'd get an allergic reaction from all that space and would shiver from the lack of colors. Guess what! No matter how unfashionable it might be, how uncool, how against Etsy's policies -- I like my silly, non-matching colors, broken and dirty toys (actually only few of them are broken or dirty, it just sounds better if I say it like that ;) and my cluttered craft room. My desk (and the whole room when I get really good/bad) works as a indicator for how creative I feel: When I'm just working on something less exciting the desk stays in pretty good shape, but when I'm feeling super creative and super amazing, the desk and the whole room, from floors to the walls, is really cluttered and filled with piles of fabric and beads and papers and what not. And that is great! Sometimes it gets so bad I have actual layers of projects on my desk. And then I usually end up making some horrible things, like cutting through something I really shouldn't be cutting etc.

At the moment I'm working on Blythe Sleepsacks. They are so much fun to make! They take a lot of time, but I'm learning how to work faster. Like just few days ago I started gluing the ends of a string I use for zipper pulls, to make it sturdier for the beads. It used to take me forever to get the small beads on the string, but not anymore! And for this project I was able to use fleece that I had tons of just laying around, left from some previous project I didn't feel like finishing... Last Saturday I had to buy more, though. I've made over 30 sacks already, so it was predictable that I would run out of it. 

The sleepsacks get the room only mildly messy, so I've managed to keep it pretty clean. So I felt comfortable enough to take pictures. And I actually cleaned it up after that. And made some more mess with fabric spray paints, but that's another story.

I also like to organize, it's just that it won't stay that way for long :)

Oh! Before I go, I'd like to say that no matter how messy and cluttered it might seem, I still know pretty well where everything is. 

 “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?”Albert Einstein.

 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

xoxo, 

Raisa

Pinkkis Factory

We've had quite a lot of renovation going on in our house recently. We've redecorated the kids room walls and all of our old floors, except for one room. And that one room is my Pinkkis Factory. I think our house is starting to look the way it's supposed to and it feels really nice. Of course all of the walls downstairs are really crappy, but we're so used to it so it doesn't bother us that much.

But back to the Factory. Now that everything else is starting to look a lot nicer, and after my husband moved his computer downstairs (we used to share a room), and after I gave his old desk to my son, my room started to look really awful. I'd post pictures if I wasn't so embarrased.

I didn't even feel like doing anything in there, 'cuz it was such a sad, messy place. But then few days ago I decided to do something about it! Hubby helped me to move the heavy furniture back and forth (I just couldn't decide! So many options!). Finally  I got it all settled so I could start the annoying/lovely part - putting everything in its place. I'm still kind of working on that. But I got a really good start. I'd say 90% of everything is in their own place now and I got a lot sorted out as well.

So now I just can't wait to go upstairs to either sew, cut some Barbie dolls into pieces or play with my lovely dolls!

Here are pictures of the new, improved Factory!

Crafting desk, now facing the window. I'll definitely get a new mat (pink from Fiskars) for the desk.

Details

Sewing desk

Sewing corner. Will add some pictures or something to the wall.

Details. Above craft desk.

Framed postcard from the amazing Mab Graves. If I just could find more of these frames I could frame the two other postcards I have from the Dolly Collector series.

Old Lego animals that I collect.

Just some misc. toys and stuff.

My Hello Kitty plush collection

Some of my collections (I collect pretty much everything)

Hello Kitty and some other plush toys I also like, plus my one and only Monster High doll. I do NOT collect other dolls other than Blythe. So I do not collect MH's, Barbies or anything else. Sometimes I forget and buy them anyways : / .

I've sewn a lot of the new fabrics I got before Xmas, and I have some pictures to show you!  I've also made some new earrings and have plans for new stuff so I guess I could say I'm having a very good phase with Pinkkis right now. I've also asked that main squeeze guy if we could re-open my Pinkkis store on Etsy. Madeby, where I have a small store is completely dead, has been for ages. So I'd be more than happy to move back to Etsy. It's just that the competition is so hard there! But at least it's not dead!

Okay, here are some more pictures and then I want to go create something!

I hope you enjoyed them!

xoxo,

Pinkkis