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

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

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 ;)

Update -- Shopping!

Hello all!

I'm still alive! Sorry for the long break!

We went to Martha's Vineyard for a week and then to Amsterdam for a day, and now we're back home. I loved being away, but I also loved coming back! Our trip was very relaxing and it did good for all of us. By us I mean the whole family, kids included.

My mom took care of the animals, which was really nice of her. We stayed at my mother-in-law's, and visited all of the relatives who live on the island. And some of my hubby's friends. And of course a lot of other places as well.

Since I don't have any pictures yet I don't feel like telling about the island, but I'll tell you about something almost as interesting. And that is: shopping!

The island itself doesn't have great opportunities for shopping, so we had to take the ferry to get to the mainland. That took about one hour. Then we'd have to drive for an hour or so, depending on the destination, to get to the shops. And then more driving to get to other shops. And then the whole thing again to get to home. Quite a lot of transportation.

Our first destination was Target. We all had gift cards, so it was kind of obvious choice. I didn't like it that much, but the kids enjoyed it. I still managed to buy a lot of stuff, junk food mostly. I don't think American candy is that good, but quite many of it is vegan. They rarely use natural coloring, which they do in Finland, so the use of insect-based colors is very rare. And for some reason they don't use that much gelatin, either. Dunno why.

Few items from yard sales, most from heaven.

I don't know where my fellow travelers went after that, but I know where I went: to heaven. In America they call heaven "Michaels." I think it's funny. I'd name it Angelina or Angelica. I had an hour, and $175 worth of gift cards to spend. The amount of time was good, but I had to use some cash as well. :) It was a lot of fun! I couldn't find everything on my list, but I got it even by buying a lot of stuff that wasn't on my list. Among all of the things I bought was a Smash Book for my daughter. I really didn't know what it was. I had actually heard the word the day before we left, and didn't know what the people were talking about then. But it looked very interesting. I also bought some Smash stuff for myself, but not the book. Just some embellishments for my scrapbook.

After landing from heaven, some of us went to Paper Store. It wasn't as fun as it sounded. Mostly crap and cards. But I do have to admit the Americans sure make the best cards. Or they make the Chinese to make the best cards.

Only the robot fabric is organic.

And that brings me to something that was really bothering me while walking down the isles of heaven. The unfairness of all of the items there. Everything, and I mean everything, was made in China. Or somewhere like that, where the rules and regulations, human rights and all that are not so important. 

Some time ago we had scrapbook papers made from (partially?) recycled materials. Some cotton fabrics are organic and from abroad (meaning not from Finland). You can order fleece and synthetic felt made from recycled plastic. But that's about it. No fair trade items, no paying attention to the excess packaging (quite a lot of craft items are way too over packaged!), no more than just a couple supplies made from recycled materials. Dear manufactures! We demand Fair Trade craft supplies! We demand items made from recycled materials! We demand more organic fabric!

After Paper Store we went back home, tired but happy!

The second shopping trip happend a few days later. We headed towards Whole Foods. Before that we stopped at another Michaels -- I had to get my own Smash Book! They gave me fifteen minutes, and went somewhere else. As this was a new store I couldn't find the Smash items, so I was forced to walk down all the aisles. And of course I found a lot more to buy. Eventually I found the thing I went there for, plus some more things I didn't know I needed before seeing them. I spent around a hundred dollars. Expensive Smash Book... even though I got it 40% off, thanks to a coupon I had. I love cupons.

Food/kitchen related stuff

Whole Foods was another kind of heaven. A lot more nicer, actually. Gentler. Tastier. And mostly organic, Fair Trade and vegan friendly as well. :) And expensive!! I had a gift card for there as well. I spent that and a lot more. We ate super yummy lunch there too. The cashier was the first not super friendly person I met in the States.

From Whole Foods to Trader Joe's, because we had cards for there, too! Mine was worth $30, and I couldn't use it all. Whole foods was too much! Finally hubby, who wasn't able to use his card either, combined ours and bought some cashew nuts.

More food/kitchen related stuff

On the island we went to all of the possible thrift stores and yard sales there were. Dind't find any treasures, but some nice stuff anyways. Something useful and something fun. I also spent quite a lot of time at the local grocery store. I love grocery stores! I could skip all clothing and cosmetics and jewelry stores, just take me to a grocery store and I'm happy. :) I found vegan chicken and beef stock powder. Very interesting! I also found freezer paper. For crafts. Don't know how to use it yet, but I have a book saying I will need it. :)

I liked doing some shopping on the island as well. Mostly just to support the locals. I heard their rent is really high and a lot of stores go out of business, so I felt bad for them. But the selection was a lot smaller, a lot more tourist oriented and everything was quite expensive. But I did my best. :) For example I bought these fancy cookies for the dogs.

Here's the other than food or craft related items I bought.

I've already put 99.9% of everything where it belongs. I think that's one of my favorite things to do. Unless it gets too overwhelming. With candy and snacks it almost got out of hand, and now I have yummy stuff everywhere. Which is not good since I'm determinate to lose 6 pounds.

That's about it! Take care!!

xoxo,
Raisa

Travel fever and grocery shopping

Hello! I've been sick for few days but now I'm as good as new! I had a short computer break, and to be honest it felt good! Nothing evil happened; I focused on books and movies instead of being aware of what's going on around the world.

Vicky is there to give you perspective.

I've gotten a lot of packages in the mail. My first Middie came. Middie is a medium-size Blythe doll, in case you didn't know. She's still in the box she came in, and I'm thinking of keeping her that way. Maybe. I also got my zippers! My hubby said they are boring, that once you've seen one you've seen them all. I think he's totally wrong. I love zippers. Well, not just one or two, but dozens and dozens of them. I got approx. 150 of them in all beautiful colors.  I also got some jewelry parts. I'd call it a great mail week!

Since I was sick I didn't go to school at all this week :( And I didn't feel like studying at home either. I've lost most of the study inspiration that kept me going on so well. It really suck. But I don't really know what I want anymore. I mean if I really want to go to the university or not. Two days ago I felt it really clear, I knew what I wanted to do. It's something I've wanted for at least ten years, but it's also something I've feared equally as long. To have my own store, to sell Pinkkis, cool vintage items and cute stuff from around the world -- that's what I'd love to do.  And I'm sure that would be something I'd love to get out of bed for. But I don't have the courage!

That was kind of a heavy start! I wasn't even suppose to write about that, based on the title for this post!

So about travel fever - it's been really bad lately! During my great mail week I also received a Tokyo Guide booklet. It's filled with lovely and some unusual places to visit while travelling in Tokyo. Not all places where I'd go, but a lot of hidden treasures, places I'd never ever know existed, but now I know, thanks to this booklet. :) Last night I went through all four albums I have from my previous trips to Japan and seeing all those familiar places and the amazing stores and kawaii people and everything Japanese - it was almost too much! I have to get back there! I've heard they are celebrating hanami right now, meaning that the cherry trees are blossoming. Record breaking early! I've been there four times but never seen the cherry blossoms :( Maybe I should get my own cherry trees here. Well, I wouldn't mind going there no matter what time of the year. I would even take  a week or two in the hot, steamy summer! I'd prefer spring or fall though.

While I was sick we watched a documentary about a filthy rich American family that didn't do that well during the economic crisis. The poor family had to sell their private jet and couldn't finish their new home (which was the most expensive and biggest one-family house in the States), but they were still able to go shopping like there was no tomorrow. She came home with two or three cars filled to the brim with crappy Xmas xifts for the family. One thing that really made an impression was how she bought a bike for her son, and two of their nannies could see right away that the bike was too small for the boy, and then one of the nannies carried one of the shopping bags through a garage filled with piles and piles of bikes... That was kind of disgusting. And it's not just the extremely rich people who do that. I guess there's some of that in all of us. How we want new stuff on top of the stuff we already have, so that the things we already own lose their appeal/worth/meaning and the new thing is all we want, until something bigger/better/brighter comes along. That made me think of two of my dolls, that I know have been on the floor (okay, left on top of a barbie size car in the corner) of my craft room for at least two weeks. I really don't feel like buying a new doll now. I should take better care of the ones I already have, cherish them. Take more pictures of them. Dress them nicely and all that.

But this is not about just the a bit more expensive stuff, also about the make-up, clothes, cellphones (okay, I'd put them in the expensive stuff category), CD's - even food. Maybe even more with the smaller, more meaningless things. We just buy that crap without a second thought. We see it, we want it, we can afford it - so what the hell! We buy it. And a day later we toss it out, throw it in the pile and go get a new one. Something better. Of course it works differently with food. But since it's rather cheap (especially with the animal products and non-fair-trade stuff, we don't have to pay for the suffering of other living creatures) it's so easy to just forget it in the fridge/cabinet/on the table and let it go bad. Who cares? Just throw it out and go get a new one from the store! So sad! And frustrating! I'm not saying this to blame others, I'm just as "quilty" as everyone else. It's just that we, Westerners, are so used to get everything we want, without giving any value to the things we already have. I'll try to do better!!

And before I run out of battery (on my laptop which I dropped on the floor and cracked -- damn it! Should be more careful and treat the items I already own more carefully), I'll say few words about grocery shopping. As of being a vegan I like to be with like minded people. That gives me false feeling of "a better world." Last Saturday I spent the whole day with like minded people, and not just few of them but maybe 20 to 30. The whole day! Eating vegan, talking vegan, everything vegan. Oh! What a feeling! I wasn't the creep, I didn't stand out, I was just like all the others. Yay! And then we went to the grocery store yesterday, to get groceries for the long weekend (I'm planning to make super yummy stuff! Couple recipes from the Conscious Cook and few from my second cookbook. nom nom nom) and it kind of hit me that I was the freak after all. Seeing all the pieces of dead animals, chopped and slices and packed neatly inside plastic containers. The world wasn't that good place after all, not if you weren't born as a white, Western human being. All the others, watch out -- you are ours to exploit!

Even though almost everything that was sold in packages had some sort of animal products in them, we we able to fill our cart with super delicious, cruelty-free produce. I guess I should do a post about the things we eat, just to show how lovely things there are for conscious consumers!

Small Easter gift for you! Picture of Risto, under cover dog.

 Anyways, happy Easter!!

xoxo,


Raisa

Greetings from Jäähalli Fleamarket!

A few weeks ago I noticed that Jäähalli Fleamarket was still active. I used to go there every weekend more than ten years ago. I don't know if they've been there the whole time or not, but it doesn't really matter. So week ago I took hubby with me, and we went to see if it's any good.

And it was! Well, not really good, but pretty ok. Lot of sellers, but the set up was a bit confusing. We had to walk back and forth to see everything. And occationally we ended up on the wrong side of the tables. Like we were among the sellers, and that was a bit confusing ;).

The first The first time, I got this pink car and exercise bike for my dolls. I love them! Especially the car. It's missing a windshield, but I was wondering if a glass shop (window glasses kind of place) could make me one out of acrylic. Hubby got himself a purse ;). I'd say it was a good trip, not compared to some of the greatest fleamarket days, but overall it was worth the trip.

I love fleamarkets, btw. Most of all, I like the weird and unusual stuff they have. Or might have. I guess it's the chance of finding something special that's most thrilling. And on top of that it's a lot more ecologically friendly than buying a new things from the store. And a lot cheaper, too! Well, not always. Sometimes the seller doesn't realize that they are at fleamarket -- they seem to think they are at antique store or that they are selling stuff that's somehow pimped to be even more expensive than the exact same thing at Ikea... I hate that.

Most of the time I look for toys. And I know pretty well, just by looking at the seller and her/his merchandize, if it's going to be ridiculously overprized. Eight euros for a messy-haired barbie? No thanks. Five euros for new-generation My Little Pony? No thanks.

It's kind of funny how I'm at my strictest at fleamarkets. Sometimes when I'm having "too much fun" on ebay, I try to think about whether I'd be willing to pay the same amount of money on something similar at a fleamarket. And the answer is always no. Like 20 to 25 euros for Blythe-sized typewriter. No effing way! And on ebay that wasn't a consideration at all.

Kind of funny.

Anyway, yesterday we went there again. There was some of the same sellers as last week, which to me is always a sign to avoid them. "Professionals" who are there to make money, not to get rid of their unwanted things. This time I wasn't that lucky with toys. I got something, but nothing worth mentioning. But I got some clothes! I usually don't look for clothes that actively. I don't have any kind of problem with second hand clothes, not at all. But I don't like to go through of piles after piles of clothing. But this time there were few tables that said small clothes, so I got interested. I got something black -- I have no idea what it would be called. Kind of like a dress and cardigan mix. Also got bright green top from the same person. I think I paid 2,50 euros for those. :) A few meters further, a white top with french bulldog on it was on display. To me it looked really expensive. I was trying to keep myself from getting too interested. But I really liked it. I couldn't find the size tag, and the seller wasn't sure. And it looked like you'd had to have big breasts to fill it. And to be honest, I even asked if that was the case. And she said no. Then I asked for the price. Fifty cents!! Whoa!! As you can see ----> it wasn't too expensive ;) That's a very special treat, since I'm really photo-shy. I even asked hubby to take a headless pic of me, but as always, he didn't listen and did whatever he wanted ;).

Thanks to that top, I was really happy with the trip.

Last summer I had probably one of the best days at a fleamarket. I rode my bike (alone, hubby didn't want to ride almost 20 K's to the other side of the city - lazy ass bastard!) through the city, to Hietsu Fleamarket. Within a few lovely (actually it's quite annoying place with all the masses of people) found all this --> Sindy kitchen units!!! Sindy arm chair!! Beauty, Barbie's dog!! My Little Pony trinket box!!! Super great! And I managed to get it all home piled on top of my bike.

I hope your weekend was filled with great finds, too!

xoxo,

Pinkkis

Sunshine, finally!

So far the whole winter has been so cloudy! Awful! And now that we're having few sunny days it feels like the whole world is smiling. And I feel like smiling as well.

I've felt a bit low lately. Usually I don't envy other people, but recently that feeling has been driving me crazy. It looks like everyone else has their shit together and I just can't figure out my life. I'm getting older every day and I don't have a clue what I want to do with the rest of my life. I thought I wanted to be a nutritionist, but now I'm having doubts about it. I'm much more interested in ecological stuff, like consumerism (don't laugh! I didn't mean in the shopper's point of view, but the consequenses of our extreme consuming, and stuff like that). So I might aim at that. But for how long?

Oh, yeah. About the envying part. I don't envy anyone particulary, but just everyone who seems to have stable, balanced life. People who'll stick to their plans, who can save money, have routines and you know, all that normal stuff. Like excercise! I go running for two or three months, and just when I'm about to see some progress I stop. Way too boring. I'd rather collect stamps than run one more meter. So I quit. And try to find "a new love." Even when I'm super bored and down, I can get a kick from the idea of knowing that something new will come up. There will be something I fall head over heels for. I just wish it would be something smart, something useful. So far the good, smart things has been losing weight, saving money, and obsessing over Martha Stewart. Just to name few. (But I never really do even these "the smart way" --> I lose too much weight, I open up too many bank accounts, I order too much MS crap.)

But when I'm not into something I get very bored, I eat too much (candy and other treats), I watch stupid movies, I read stupid books, I don't get things done, I don't study, I don't sew or do crafts. I just suck when there's nothing sparkly in my life. Oh, well. Anyways, I've gotten the envy thing chopped into smaller, bite size pieces and I'm able to understand it more and maybe even use it to make myself feel better. And so now, also thanks to the sun and all, I feel a lot more energized and I feel like doing something, like maybe even studying. That's always such an energy boost if I manage to do something like that, something like homework for chemistry. It's so silly. I know so many things that would make me a lot better, but I just can't get myself to do those things. Instead I make things that make me unhappy. Like being on the computer for hours and watching stupid movies. I hate wasting time! I like being useful.

Enought of that already! So the sun is shining, I got some energy to actually do something! I've ordered a lot of (way too much, actually) jewelry parts for my PINKKIS projects - can't wait for them to arrive! When they come I'm sure there will be a lot of creative energy around the PINKKIS Factory! But meanwhile I need to focus on the materials I already have. 

 What I'm trying to say the spring might be coming and she's seems to be carrying a bit of restless energy in her arms. Please, stop by! Share some of that with me!

Had fun day at a fleamarket yesterday w/hubby! I bought a car for my dolls!! A very nice car! Pics coming soon. But before that I'll share some pics I took this morning!

 Have a great start for the week!

xoxo,

Pinkkis

Pinkkis Etsy Store!

Ladies and gentleman, it's here! My PINKKIS Etsy store is back in business! And you are among the first people in the world to hear about it! Woohoo!

***Pinkkis on Etsy*** Check it out! My husband has done a great job picturing the uniqueness of my creations! Hopefully a lot of people will find my store, and most of all will like what they see and maybe even purchase something!

Please help spread the word: share pictures of my jewelry (and eventually pouches) and link to my store on your blogs, Facebook pages and where ever else :). All help is highly appreciated! Etsy is a huge place and my store is still a tiny place, so I need you :).

I'm not sure if I have even shared pictures of my newest creations yet. I have gotten really into making miniature scenes in pendants. I think they are just amazing!

So far all of my information and thank-you notes are in Finnish, so I need to work on those, too. But that's something I really like doing paper: crafts, adding stickers and stamps, etc :)

Hubby and I went to the post office to check all the shipping options and prices. What a bummer! Finland is a much more expensive country to ship from. Hopefully that won't scare customers away!

Yesterday I ordered some new fabrics, even though I don't really need more, but there were so many cute ones I just couldn't resist. And I'm running out of Blythe fabric. Too bad I'm also running out of zippers and don't feel like ordering more right now. I'm trying to leave it to when we go to the States and order them to my mother-in-law's in order to save on shipping. We'll see. I also ordered some stickers, which is super silly. But I want to be able to add something cute to all of the packages and letters I send out. And I was running out of stickers. So it was okay. And they were rather cheap.

Dollhouse's getting a lot better, too! Pictures? You bet!

Okey dokey, gotta go! Take care!

xoxo,

PINKKIS