Mission accomplished!

My decluttering/organizing/cleaning project is now DONE! Over the weekend I emptied the doll closet and took bunch of crap aside and oraganized everything else and put them back and here are the results:

Before

At one point I couldn't even get the door more open than this!

To get here I had to clear off the floor in front of the closet.

After

I still have too much stuff for that closet, so it's not perfectly organized, but so much better!! I have the same problem with my fabric storage. I simply have too much fabric for my storage space. Sometimes I love my problems! :D

In the dolly closet there's still plenty of items that should be organized better. Like now all food is in one box, and I'd like to have fruits and veggies serated from desserts and so on. So next time I'm super bored instead of coloring my Twin Peaks coloring book I'll sort those.

Once again I've been sewing a lot. (still not that much progress, I'm afraid). Couple days ago I started to wonder if I work too much. That sounds silly. Of course I don't. But still, I'm working all the time. Everything is related to Pinkkis somehow. Online searches, fabric shopping, designing new pouches, sewing, cutting, stamping, packing, emailing, ironing. Seven days a week, hours and hours a day. I love it, but should I force myself to take it easy? To avoid burning out? I thought about that, slowing down. But I can't do it. As a person I can't "pace my self" if you know what I mean. I know there's a better word for it, kind of like portioning, but not quite. I go full speed and then I crash. But this also gives me so much.

Okay, what I wanted to say is that on my To do -list, I wrote Play with dolls! So after I got everything else done (and some extra, too) I had time to play with my precious dolls! I honestly haven't played with them in ages. I just use them as my models for the pouches. Poor things! The dollhouse was a bit of a mess, so I started putting things back on their places. But I was so tired I just kept dropping things and I think I ended up making more mess :( . So I left. And now I need to go back sewing again.

I ordered hand-held luggage scale! And flight socks :D I', really happy about the scale. Even though I have an extra luggage I'm still afraid I have extra weight. This way I don't have to worry about it too much! I can weight my bags every day! Tehee!!

One more thing! My school stuff is all done now! I had my last two major tests last week, that's why I haven't written that much. Not because I've been studying, but because I've been at school working on those tests. I went there totally unprepaired, but I'm sure I'm smart enough to pass. And at this point that's all that matters. I'm so done with studying for now!

Okay, bye!!

xoxo,

Raisa

Fight against boredom.

I do get bored pretty easily. I'm also quite bad with serial work (not sure if that's the correct term, that's how I'd say it in Finnish. And actually it's not even what I mean.). I don't like doing the same thing over and over again. Well, who does?

But I'm a master of divinding things/work/tasks into smaller, easier portions. Like cleaning - I never clean the whole house, wash all the windows (I never wash the windows anyway), empty the whole dishwasher. I do it in small portions. I take out all the forks. Then all the spoons. All the glasses. And so on. And usually I'll end up emptying the whole load. Or whatever I was doing. One small piece at a time. Usually getting something small cleaned/organized makes me want to continue. But don't you dare to force me to do anything! I don't know why but I'm really awfully bad with stuff I HAVE to do.

So of course I use this method when working on my pouches, too. I have to admit I don't love it all the time :) Sometimes I enjoy the "sweat factory" feel of it, I like the rapid moves, I like to pretend I'm in a factory sweating my ass off, sewing the same seam over and over again, and then passing the product to the next table, where somebody else (actually that would be me, and the table would be the same one) would sew the next seam over and over again. But even then I keep looking at the clock. Making excuses to do something else. So I keep making these deals with my self: 10 seams and a tea break, then back and another ten seams and a piece of candy and so on.

Instead of making all of these in a one sitting I made five at a time, and then five more...

I think it makes life a lot easier and more pleasant if I get to do everyday tasks and my work this way. Instead of doing 10 sleepsacks I attach 10 zippers, sew 10 flaps, and so on until it's done. Or I keep changin the fabrics, do things in different order - anything to make it "new" somehow.

I also have this pretend thing I use quite a lot. If I have to clean I pretend I'm a cleaning lady who works for some celebrity, if I'm cooking I pretend I'm in a cooking show, and like I mentioned before if I'm sewing I pretend I'm underpaid (hahah! I don't have to pretend that!) factory worker.

Do you  any tricks to share how to make your everyday life any easier, or more fun?

xoxo,
Raisa

Self pity post turned into something else.

I feel like poop. But enough about that! Lets focus on what I bought instead!

As you all know I'm going to Japan in

• 2 246 400 seconds
• 37 440 minutes
• 624 hours
• 26 days
• 3 weeks (rounded down) 

And I''m pretty well prepared for the trip! I have bought tons of food (for three reasons: 1) eating out 3 to 5 times a day is damn expensive! 2) Eating out 3 to 5 times a day is quite a challenge for a vegan who does not speak the language! 3) Finding a restaurant that serves vegan food 3 to 5 times a day will take up a lot of time! I don't have a lot of time. I'll be too busy shopping! ), I've booked my extra suitcase, or room for one on the returning flight. And I've contacted three travle agencies to get a trip to Studio Ghibli. I still don't have it, but I'm waiting for a response from the most recent company I contacted. Keeping my fingers crossed! I really want to go! I've been there twice already, but I love the place. I love it even though I'm too old/big to play in the Catbus! :( 

I also have a small Smash Book album for the trip! And I have big plans to actually work on it during the trip. Somebody told me that won't work but I want to prove her wrong! It's different when you travel alone! I also have my travel journal, the same I've had for almost a decade! My first entry on that journal was written somewhere between Helsinki and London, on my first trip to Japan :D But! Last night I was reading my business book and it had a picture of a website, and on that picture there was a picture of a Bon Voyage Travel Journal from boygirlparty. And I wanted that journal!! So I went to Etsy looking for travel journals. Didin't see any I liked. Checked the boygirlparty site. Couldn't find the journal there either. Googled it. Found it! On Etsy and also on the actual website. Hmmm...I must've missed it.

Super expensive shipping, but I had to get the journal! And now you want to see the journal, right?

Picture taken form the boygirl Etsy site.

 Isn't it pretty! I love filling pre-printed stuff like that! I like doing things "right"! So yes, I ordered the journal and now I'm hopin it will be here before I leave.

Before all that I was in the city, dressed as a bunny. We had like handful of us, "terrorists"/animal activists, and we were raising awerness of animal tests, collecting money, handing out leaflets. The usual. I wear the bunny suit at all of our events, if appopriate. I hate to talk to people. Well, not really hate but I just don't get it if they don't get it. I honestly don't think there's any justification towards animal cruelty/abuse. Period. And if they don't agree I don't feel like explaining, I feel like -beep-! It got censored 'cause I'm also against violent toward people.So when I'm wearing the bunny suit people won't expect me to talk to them. Bunnies don't talk.

I rode my bike, total of 30+ km. :D I loved it, but was very tired when I got home. On my way home I went to the post office to pick up my latest purchase: More fabric! Yay! But unfortunately there was an error on my order I they sent me faux fur I have no use for, and I didn't get something I had ordered for. :(

You probably can't see it, but there's toy animal -like fur on top of the pile, the brown fabric. I want to make "moon bear" sleepsacks with that and donate all the profits to Animals Asia! The fur is really great, like I said it's more toy animal like, smoother that the fur I usally use for my sleepsacks.

Need to get something done! Did I tell about the dresses? I cut some patterns out two days ago, sewed some of them yesterday, not convinced yet, but getting closer! The pattern is nice, but need to find the parfect fabric for it! Sorry for all the bad grammar/spelling. Can't bother busy Mr C anymore with my silly stuff.

Bye! (ps. Talk to me. I like it!)

xoxo,
Raisa

Happy Mail Day!!

I haven't gotten anything in th email recently. Mr C has gotten a lot more, which is really annoying! I'm supposed to be the mail order person in this household! Mail order bride. :D But yesterday this got fixed, and it got fixed good! Even the delivery guy said (to my hubby who opened the door) that this is like Christmas!
                                                             What do YOU think?

I got "rose fur" I ordered for a very VIP pouch/sleepsack, a book (I'm addicted to small/craft business books), striped fur (to make a tail to a lemur pouch which was requested, to make a bee and cheshire cat), zippers and alphabet beads. Very happy!! The rose faux fur is amazing! I thought the roses would be a lot bigger and that got me a bit worried if I was able to sew it. But they are rather small so sewing in the middle of one doesn't "ruin" the whole pattern.

Other than admiring my new supplies I organized the "package" closet. I really didn't do that much-no more taking everything out and sorting stuff and wiping the shelves and walls and all that. I just organized the stuff that was in there and that's it. It doesn't look very impressive, but it's functional!

I also did get a lot of sewing done! Everything that was on my to do -list! Good girl! And on top of that I cut at least four dresses. Hopefully the pattern will work! Also figured out my vest problem! Finally gave up on one vest I've tried to make to work for ages. I'll try something else!

I was supposed to go to school last night. But I forgot. Not sure if I'll take my biology test again after all. My grade wasn't really that bad, and I haven't read at all in two months, I think. So why bother?

Need to go, tons of stuff to sew!

xoxo,
Raisa

Dusting Kitties

Hola! I slept till 9  o'clock! I don't know when was the last time I was able to sleep that late! I guess I woke up around 7am, and almost got up. But then decided to stay in bed. I'm glad I did. I was really tired yesterday.

Too tired and bore to actually sew. I did sew something, vests and shirts, but I had to force myself to do that. I colored my Twin Peaks coloring book :) And also sewed a mattress, a duvet and a pillow for my "Dream come true" doll bed. I liked that. Also took a picture of my newest doll, wearing my newest outfit (bought as a reward for myself for well done job on the sleepsacks!) on the bed (which was also a reward, for the same reason).

I did get something "real" done, too. I dusted my Hello Kitty (and few others) plush toys! Boy, were they dusty!

I took bunch of stuff off the top of my cabinets, and placed something else on top of there instead. Now I have more space for the important stuff close to my desk. And that's a good thing!

This morning, before I got up I was thinking about my upcoming birthday. Since it's the last one before I turn to "really old" I wanted to have a party. Well, since it's me I'd want to have a party anyway. I like parties. :D Okay, so I was thinking about who to invite. And from there I started to think about who has invited me to anywhere during the last 12 months. If I only invited those people I'd get maybe two or three people to my party. That made me so sad. Is it us, or is it me? Is there a partying world out there that I'm not aware of, or is it that we're "too old" to throw parties? Then I started to think about why do I keep inviting people who never invite me to anywhere? Why don't they invite me? Don't they have anything to invite me to? Or do they think they know I wouldn't come anyway? (I probably wouldn't, so I guess they'd be right with assuming that, but wouldn't that be a bit rude?) Or is it just that they don't want me to their parties? (how awful!)

But then I decided I'm not like that! I can invite who ever I want, I can consider whom ever I want as my friends, and if they don't want to invite me for their parties that's their loss!! Not mine! And most of all - I don't have to feel guilty for not inviting everybody I know! Right?!

Enough of that! I have life to live! We've been invited (or was it me who invited us to come over?) to a late lunch at friends' house. And before that we want to stop by at Kierrätyskeskus.

And I need to fix some pictures before I can add them on Etsy. There's one more observation I've made I want to share: Life is weird.

Happy Women's Day!!

xoxo,
Raisa

The organizing project, what ever it was called of. Day xx

It's all my hubby's fault - He told me not to write my blog since he's about to move it to somewhere else. And it's taking forever. A month ago I asked how long the whole new website thing is going to take, and he said two to three weeks....yeah right!

Well, my project is not doing any better. But I have a real reason for that:  I've been really busy with sewing! Sewing and drawing patterns and all that. I've managed to organize a "bunny room closet". And that had a huge impact on the whole room, since I got all of the boxes that were lying on Tehdas floor put in it! Awesome!

I know it doesn't look that great even after I cleaned it, but at leats I know pretty well what's in it. The bottom shelf, the one on the floor, I left that for the bunnies. I rarely keep the door open, but when I do Hyrrä, our other bunny likes to go in there.

I've also organized few smaller closets. Not sure if I've shared the first picture already. 

I kind of feel embarrased of showing this stuff to you. I've seen too many picture perfect craft spaces and then seeing these pictures on the screen....not so cool. Pretty much everything I have is from thrift stores and flea markets. I just don't like matching furniture and clean white surfaces that much. It's nice in the pictures, but I need more "action" in my surroundings :) Maybe I should pay more attention to the pictures I take, try to make them look prettier.

My next mission is to organize this:

It's not that bad, at all. But the shelves themself are a bit of a struggle. It's actually dish drying cabinet (fab Finnish invention ;) and the shelves are a bit weird. It's got quite a lot of space, so it's quite valuable. I wish I was still making soap - it would be perfect for drying them! :D I've empitied it quite a lot already, it used to store my glitter, plastic animals, fabric for doll clothes and some unfinished projects.

Uh! 10 o'clock already! Need to go!! The sun is shining and I have pack of bats to photograph!!

I'll try and write more often!! One month and two days till my trip!!! Wohoo!!

xoxo,
Raisa

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

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!

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

Spring!

Okay, spring is not here. Yet. Not even winter. If winter means freezing cold weather and tons of snow. But my mind is already set to spring. Some of you already know why, and for the ones who don't know yet let me tell you that I just booked a ticket to Tokyo! Also booked a tiny flat in Shinjuku! How exciting is that!?! 123 days till the trip :D

So let me warn you, I do get very annoyingly excited about super awesome stuff like this. I'm sure the never ending winter will bring me down a little, but from now on this will be my major topic on all of my post. Okay, I try not to drive you crazy. But no promises. ;)

Okay, so now I need to start saving money. I know how it's done in theory: you spend less than you get. And that mean no on-line shopping, no dolls or doll clothes, no fabrics, no letter sets, no washi tapes or glitter glues.
But what I don't know is how people do it. How can they be four months and two days without having any fun? I can't put my life "on ice" for that long and just wait for the trip. How can one be four months and two days without buying any dolls at all? How do you do it? What are you excited for?

My dolly friends here in Finland and I made a deal for not to buy any dolls for a month. I would tell you if my husband wasn't reading this, that I bought a doll on the last minute (okay, not really a minute, I had few hours left) of November. I had to. But I'm not telling you that, right. So it didn't really happen, right? But now I have FOUR months to take it easy. How am I supposed to do that?

So, I decided to allow myself to use the money Pinkkis makes to buy dolly stuff or more needed things for Pinkkis. Like Pinkkis can't spend more than it makes. And if there's any left, then that money is for me to spend on dollies. Sounds like a good idea? I like it a lot, but not really sure how to stick to it. I thought by telling it to as many people as possible would make it more difficult for me to break my "promise". So I'm telling you now; keep an eye on me!

I still have quite good stock of fabrics, so no need to buy more. Other than the furry material for the sleepsacks, but I just ordered tons of that. And zippers, too. So I should be okay for quite a while. And when I get to Japan, I'll buy enough cute fabrics to cover a small country! To be well stocked for the super exciting Blythecon EU 2014! Did I tell you I got chosen to be one of the vendors!

I have a Xmas Fair coming, and I'm not done sewing yet so I better get working! There will be one new sleepsack added at the store today, a very cute fireman for all the little dollies who need to be protected.

xoxo,
Raisa

ps. Sorry for all the typos, misspellings, weird/wrong words I might've used, I didn't ask my hubby to proofread  it :) So this is the "real" me writing ;)

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