I will conquer the world!

Well, maybe not during this lifetime, but maybe the next one. Anyway, I've had such a great week so far. Actually it has started last Saturday, if not even before that. On Saturday I took my hubby out on a date. This is something that amazes my son, who doesn't understand why we go on dates since we are already married. We do it for fun, to keep our relationship fun. :)

But that's not what I'm writing about. I'm writing about my business, my passion, my funtime. So, before meeting my spouse in the city I went craft supply shopping. I got some miniature wood for my dreamhouse (it'll be awesome once it's finished - dunno when that's going to happen though), ribbon and fabric for my sleepsacks. And I absolutely enjoyed every minute of it. Even the cold weather and other Saturday shoppers.

The rest of the day was very pleasant as well, with nice dinner in a nice restaurant and then to see my daughter's band performing for the very first time! So awesome!

Sunday I sewed. I had to stop occasionally to cook, since weekends are my turn to feed the family. But since I made a list earlier during the week, even the shopping list was done according to what I planned to cook, which makes it much more pleasant. My daughter made muffins, I made macaroni cassarole and a huge loaf of bread. And then back to sewing.

All pictures courtesy of Nelli

At the moment I have such amazing fabrics it's been difficult not to sew! I had eight sleepsack I was working on, and finally a couple days ago I got them finished. Then we took pics of them and uploaded them on the store and enjoyed the sound my hubby's mini computer makes everytime I sell something. :D It's like an old fashioned cash register. :) I sold everything in less than 24 hours! Except for one that was reserved for somebody who can't buy it just yet. And now there are three people on the line for new pouches.

The whole week has been like this. Not that I've sold like a pro, but I've had this weird sense of confidence or something. Like I can make it. Even though I know I can't with Pinkkis. It's just not possible in Finland, with the products I have. But still. Maybe if I combine all I make and know and use that?

The main reason for this post is still yet to come - Etsy Meet! I'm a member of Etsy Team called Finland

Handcrafters Team. I used to be quite active on it, but then I got really busy with school stuff and all. So I became less active. And then I felt so left behind I stopped checking the new stuff all together. But maybe a week ago or so I got an invitation to this meet and I felt like going. Now that I don't go to my Spanish class anymore I even had a chance to do something else during evenings!

I met 8 other Etsians in the City. I was late, as always. I was supposed to be early to go to the fabric store (= my fave hangout), but life happend and I ended up running and sweating. Everyone else were there already. But I wasn't too late to miss the introduction or anything really. All the girls seemed so nice and so talented and so ready for success. :)

Big Goals!

I missed almost half of what was said, thanks to my lousy hearing and the noisy location, but what I heard was very inspiring. We made all sorts of open plans, nothing too strict yet, but discussed some ideas for workshops and so on. But the best part was really meeting all these amazing people. I also got my first "Pay it Forward" present. :) Very nice soap from Paloni. Thank you Nelli!! I will pay it forward!

After the "official" part of the meet we went to a cafe. I had quite a nice cup of Fair Trade Jasmine tea. I hate being fussy about my food and drinks, since I think I'm very easy to please, but I guess in the real world I'm a nightmare.  Being vegan and only liking Japanese green tea, preferably organic and fair trade... But this tea was really nice. We were at Coffee House on Sokos.

From there I had to leave early to go to the fabric store. Once again I had to run. Eww. I don't like running with all the heavy clothes and shoes and the air being so goddamn cold and dry. I found a piece of fur I liked but not the one I was actually looking for :( I had a piece of it with me so I was able to ask for help, but even the two women I asked from didn't know what it was called or where to get more... great!

Oh well! I must go. I have some biology to read and pouches to sew.

I hope you all have an amazing weekend with full of nice surprises and magical moments!!

xoxo,
Raisa

Happiness Project

I'm reading a slightly silly book from Gretchen Rubin called The Happiness Project. It has some good stuff too, but I'd have to admit it's a bit shallow. Anyways, I've gotten one really good piece of advice from it: If it's something you can do in one minute - just do it! Meaning if you have something on your hand and you don't feel like putting it back in its place but feel like leaving it on the counter or where ever. If it takes a minute, just put it where it belongs. I'm a master of creating chaos. Just because I leave everything unfinished, hanging around the house. But fortunately I'm also the queen of taming chaos. But this new "rule" has really helped me a lot. And it doen't feel like something I couldn't follow for a long time, maybe even the rest of my life :).

Anyway, the point to this post is happiness. What it is? Where does it come from? And how to keep it? In the book Gretchen says there are three kind of fun (and fun brings in happiness, right?): Challenging fun, accommodating fun, and relaxing fun. Challenging fun is the most rewarding (I can still remember the "high" after super amazing and challenging jumping (horseback riding class), but it's also the one that requires the most. The second is accommodating fun, something you kind of like do for others. Like taking the kids to amusement park, it's not something you'd do just for yourself, but you do it for others and that makes you happy. And the last one, relaxing fun, is the most common of these three. It's a bag of chips and no-brainer movie. It's fun, but it won't last long (unfortunately this chips last long on your butt/hips). And it's the last one we most likely go after. Why are we so into easy, but not so into rewarding fun? I guess because we are lazy. Whatever we want we want it now, as easily as possible. When the happiness is still in the things we need to achieve.

Like my kids -- they need to save money for our trip to the States this summer. I'm not paying for their tickets. (Though I guess I would if I could afford it.) The poor things have to save months and months to get enough money for that. But in the end there will be the reward, and I'm sure it tastes sweeter than anything they could've gotten for free. This will make them appreciate and cherish the trip so much more!

Even though I'm this smart (like I know all these things) I still go for the fast satisfaction. Why???!!!

There's one more thing, that's really hard to swallow. You can't keep/own happiness. It comes and goes. It's not your to keep. That sucks. I don't even like sakura/hanami that much, because it's just temporary. I want things to stay!! I know that's the beauty of it. I know I should learn (I'm trying!) to like things like that. I mean I do like things like that, I love rainbows and birds and squirrels, and they are something you'll see for a moment, and then they are gone. But if I could I'd take the rainbow and put it in my pocket and take it out when ever I needed to look at it... Same thing with the squirrels in our yard. I wish they were my friends and would come inside and drink tea with me and then we'd cuddle all day long.

Oh! There's a magpie nest on our hedge! We had one last year, too. They made a little baby magpie, but she/he died :(. Heartbreaking. This year it'll be different. The little baby will grow into a beautiful grown-up magpie :)

Okay, I need to go. I have a life to live, you know.

Watching these two napping dogs makes me happy.

What makes You happy?

xoxo,

Raisa

Thank you, Welcome and HappyShinyPerson Post

First of all, Thank You so much Lara for the amazing post on your blog!!! Thanks to her, I got some new readers!! Yay!! Welcome! I hope you like it here, in my little pink corner!

Lately I've been struggling a bit with myself. Like what to do with my life and all that. I have to admit, I might have been a bit down because of it. Until yesterday -- I read about a young woman quitting her well-paying job and actually starting to live. A quote from the book The Anti 9 to 5 Guide: "Still others like Kate Greenen of Detroit, who's twenty-five and has worked in what she calls "the lucrative world of financial planning" since the age of twenty-one, find themselves asking with alarming frequency, Is this all there is?  -- I started really hating getting up. Life lost color -- I was always searching something fun to do or I was out shopping. Earn, consume, die." I too would rather be poor and happy than waste my life in a office where I hated every minute of it.

Life is so much better now than what it was a year ago, when I still was in work-hell. Being unemployed sucks, I'm not denying that. But it's not as bad as wasting your life doing something from which you get nothing but misery (and money, of course).

So I don't feel like complaining about my situation any more. I'm actually quite damn happy :) Thanks to the Finnish society, I get to have my "gap year," during which I'm able to think about what I really want to do with my life, where to aim next. And I get money while doing that. Not much, but enough.

I've been really determined to have "wind under Pinkkis' wings." I've even overcome my phobia of all things related to computers and social media. Now I'm on Pinterest and reading blogs about small businesses, trying to be more active on Facebook and on Flickr as well. It's a lot of work to keep your head above the water!! But as long as I like it, it's okay thing to do :). But it's funny how much on-line stuff can take up your time! Like time I could spend on sewing or watching bad movies :).

All this, all new opportunities and possibilities, and yes! the sun! are making me so happy I could just dance all day long! Dance and sing, but since I don't live alone I guess I'll just settle to jump around a little ;).

Have a great and sunny and succesfull weekend! Hubby, my great computer related stuff help will be adding a lot more treasures on Etsy over the weekend, so be sure to check that out!

xoxo,

Pinkkis (well actually my name is Raisa, so I guess I should use that instead).