Golden wedding and bunch of other stuff

Hello! It's me, your lazy blogger! Oh, well! I'm not really that lazy at all. I write a lot on my Finnish blog, but this second-language blog is totally different from that. This morning (I'm usually at my smartest in the mornings, before I get out of bed) I probably came up with the reason why I don't blog more often. It's because of the language. :) No kidding?! Because it's not my native language I tend to make grammar errors (a lot) and some typos. Which is kind of funny, since my Finnish blog is full of typos and maybe even bad grammar. But I couldn't care less. (Not really true, but I like to say that.) And for some reason when I write in English these matter a lot. Everybody who reads my blog in Finnish knows I know the language inside and out, but typos and bad grammar in English might make you believe my skills in English are poor. And I don't want that! And my husband is, for some reason, very sensitive to this. He's a writer and an editor, so proper English is very important to him. That's why he wants my blog to be a free-of-bad-language-zone. Uh... where was I? Husband... Ryan Gosling... no, husband! So, hubby wants to edit my blog posts, to make it more enjoyable for you guys. But that makes me feel like I need his approval for my posts. And I'm not a writer. I blog about silly stuff with my silly "voice." How could he approve that?

So there was the reason for these far apart posts. I even lost a reader during the gap. :(

I didn't wear these shoes to the wedding! just to get there!

Anyways, to the golden wedding! We were invited to a friend's wedding party. It was held after the ceremony, I guess there wasn't any ceremony, just the "thing" with a few witnesses and then few days later the party. I'm not sure if you got the idea of me being very bad with clothes, proper dress code and all that. If you did, you were correct. I'm bad. I like colorful stuff mixed with more colorful stuff. That's my thing. :) So if an event has a dress code it means big problems for me. What is proper way to dress for a fancy-pants wedding? I was supposed to buy a dress from the States, but then I didn't want to do it. I thought of renting one here in Finland. I didn't have to do that either since I accidently found a dress I liked a lot while shopping for school clothes for my daughter. So yes, I found my fancy dress in the kids section... :) I showed the dress to a sales clerk and asked her if that would be a proper thing to wear at a wedding party. I also said that people don't expect that much from me. She said it would be okay.

Later on I showed the dress to a friend of mine and she said: "Black? To a wedding?" Oh no! Was there a rule to not to a wear black to a wedding? Yikes! So after that I started feeling uncomfortable about my dress. And I knew for sure that at least most people attending to the party would be wearing perfect outfits. So I was really selfconcious, and that effected my mood a lot. Bummer!

Anyways I got my hair and make up done by an ex-professional and I didn't feel that bad after that. But the closer we got to the restaurant where the wedding was held the more worried I got. I was sure we'd ruin the party with our silly clothes. But once we got there all worries were wiped away! The bride was so amazingly beautiful with her golden Valentino dress and huge ring that that was all that people were able to look at! Just stunning! Once I got my eyes off of the beautiful couple I notice that at least four other women were wearing black! Yay! And I even got some compliments on my dress and hair! Superb!

It was super fancy wedding, with some of the most amazing foods. And yes, for us and two other people there was an amazingly yummy five course vegan menu. We ate for hours. Which was so fun, I never ever eat for hours. I'm always too eager to get to the next meal, so it usually takes 30 minutes at the most. But since it wasn't up to us we got to enjoy for so long!

This wasn't the traditional Finnish wedding. The common way to get married in Finland would be church with lots of old people and the silly white dress, then some rented party venue with not so great food, maybe even paper plates, and tons of booze. Somebody would end up insulting the bride's parents, puking all over, passing out and so on... and it would take the whole day and cost enormous amounts of money. I'm sure this couple used a lot of money, too. But they did it with style. :) In my close ring of friends we've had three weddings, I think. First was 15 years ago (wow!), and then three years ago was mine, and now this. They've all been so different, but somehow they've all had something in common. They've all looked just like us. They have been clearly OUR weddings. Oh boy, maybe I shouldn't even tell you this, but our budget was 5 k's and I spent half of it on my MLP sleeve!! And yet we managed to get the most amazing wedding ever. I guess we just are that cheap. ;)

I honestly don't understand why to put tons and tons of money on one day. If the day doesn't look like you. If it's a copy of all the weddings before. Well, what ever makes you happy :) At least you get nice pictures. :)

Last night we went to watch Kick-ass 2. It was fun, but not special. Lot of funny violence. Which is fun as long as it's not, you know, aggressive violence. As long as it's a kind of a joke it's okay. And also Dexter kind of bloody pulp violence is okay, too. I really can't tell what's the difference with good and bad violence, I mean funny and disgusting, but there definatley is something. I missed part of the movie because my mind was set on this amazing doll that has my name on it. The second Takara Blythe ever made! Mondarian. I've been drooling over All gold in one/Goldie, but with no luck -- I've lost her twice already. But then this beauty suddenly appeared on Dolly Adoption and like a siren she was calling my name and since the price was incredible there was nothing I could've done differently. She now belongs to me :) (sorry mister hubbyman). She's a true beauty. It takes a while to get adjusted to BL beauty. A year ago I didn't understand people who were obsessed over these silly looking dolls. I only liked the "pretty" ones. RBL's. I didn't even like Kenners at all! Now I do :) I have one BL, Kozy Kape and she's one of the most amazing dolls there is. When hubby saw it he said: What an ugly doll. Poor Polly! Fortunately I was covering her ears so she didn't hear what papa said.

Polly (BL) on the right hand corner)

Other doll stuff: I've been sewing a lot! Some nice and some awful and even some great clothes. But what matters the most: I've been sewing! And even some more complicated pieces, not just the same old stuff. I'm so proud of me. So far I've liked it a lot. And I've saved a lot of money, too! Maybe I wouldn't have paid for some of the things, but some of them definately. And I'm getting better!! Yay for me! Yay for sewing! Yay for dolls!

Enough! Gotta sew some more! Before it's time to save the animals again! Tomorrow is yet another Restaurant Day and Animalia (the organization I volunteer for) is having Animal Friendly Cafe. I've promised to help to day with the cooking and baking and tomorrow the whole day with doing the dishes and frying veggie burgers. Yay for animals!

xoxo,

Raisa

Let's talk about dolls!

Nothing much going on in the real life -- so I'll talk you about dolls. :)

Margo Unique Girl, my first "dream girl"

I had a few-months break from them, but now I'm back, or they are. With a venegeance! The Blythe company just released a new translucent "Dream Girl" with pink hair, and I managed to get one! I still need to wait a couple weeks before she's here, but the toughest part is now done: getting through all of the masses that wanted to get her at the exact same time. She was sold out in less than an hour, I think. That's what the translucent skin does. I really think they are the most beautiful dolls in the world! And they are the ones that will cost fortunes within a year. During my last break they released "Margo Unique Girl," and I didn't see her until months later, but I was completely sold -- she was pure magic! And the prices were three to four times higher than the original price. I managed to get one anyways. And now she's valued even higher than that. :)

not my pic! Blythe body on right, the body I ordered 2nd from left

So now I'm back into dolls, but I do have a small problem: my dollhouse is done and I don't want to start making clothes for them, so I don't really know what to do with them! For some reason (I think it's because of the new Flickr) I don't feel like taking pics of them that much either. So what to do with my precious dolls?

As a resolution I bought a Pure Neemo body for my "youngest" girl. At least now taking pictures is a lot more fun because I can pose her the way Blythe body never could. So there's a lot more variety on that! Too bad the body doesn't hold the heave head that well.

Nana's new body

I've also ordered few new clothes for my girls, and am waiting for a trade I made with amazing Eurotrash. I sent her, with a help of a travelling friend, a bunch of pouches for nappies and such, two vegan cook books, and a pouch that was made specially for her. I can't remember if it said Eurotrash on one side, but the other side said: One crafty bitch, and it had embroidered craft-related fabric patches on it. And I've heard that she liked everything and is now looking for materials to make me something special! Sooooo exciting!! Can't wait!!

I've taken some pics of the dollhouse, the way it is right now. I like to look at the old pictures of it and compare it to what it is now. Hopefully one day Ill be able to compare today's (last week's actually) pictures to something I'll take in the future, meaning hopefully there's still more to do with the house. Hubby and I are planning (okay, I'm planning and doing my best to get him on board) to make a smaller, more portable dollhouse. Just two rooms, attic and a porch. If you've seen Camp Ground cottages on Martha's Vineyard, you know what I'm talking about. I'm thinking of making The Pink House in 1:6 scale. :) Quite ambitious!

Hello! I can wave my hand!

A week ago we rode our bikes to the city, and I'm planning to do it again today. Last week we went to a huge fleamarket, but I didn't get that much. Nothing really worth mentioning, except for my two new Tamagotchis! At first I was: Yay!!! And now I'm: blah! They are so much work! I gave one of them to my daughter, but she left it here, on purpose when she left for her father's. And now I'm trying to keep them alive and happy.

Today I'm hoping to go not to the fleamarket butto the city to get some scrapbook supplies. I'm really running out! I'm so bummed that I wasn't into scrapbooking when we were at the States a month ago. I could've bought so much more interesting stuff. Compared to the States we have pretty much nothing here. Or we do have plenty, but it's just so boring. I don't know why I don't order it online. We have a few really great online stores, but I never seem to order from them. And they are located so far away that I can't really go there. The only time I can buy from them is at scrapbook fairs. And that's like once or twice  a year. Woohoo.

Look! How relaxed!

So yes, I'm also into scrapbooking again. I'm even scrapping at home, which I haven't done in years! I'm almost done with the year 2012, which means soon I can do fresh pictures!! Yay!

Salli, first Tama

AAAAAA, pink tama! (I didn't name him!)

Lempi, daughters tama

Kat working at the Super Sweet Store

 xoxo, Raisa

Bambi baking something yummy

Nuppu with nail clippers

I just love to park a small car!

Nuppy with a reflection

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

One Crafty Bitch!

I haven't done anything "serious" this week, so I'm going to share with you my less serious crafts, which I've enjoyed a lot!

I've had many smaller projects this week, and didn't feel (well, do I ever??) like staring time-consuming project. So all that I've done I've been able to do from start to finish in about 15 minutes. All of my projects have been not just time-friendly, but also environment friendly too! Which is such a big thing for me.

First I started with teeny tiny scraps of fabric so small that they were about to end up in the bunny litter box. But I saved them for this silly project. :) Other than that all you need is piece of string (I've saved some short strips that aren't good for anything really), some filling (I used filling from soft baby books that I've bought from thrift stores for my other projects). To be honest, I don't even know what to do with these, but they look cute and they were fun to make. :)

The next project was somehow pretty similar, or at least the supplies were quite the same. Small pieces of fabric, some more fabric (solid colors) or some acrylic felt and double-sided sticker sheet. I have sheets and sheets of felt, so it was good to use some of it. It's one of those things that I end up hoarding in my closets, because you never know, and short strips of ribbon, of which I have a lot thanks to scrapbooking (and I've saved those, too). And double-sided sticker sheet and/or brooch pins, depending what you want to do with your ornament.

And the last one. It's something I've done before, but now I made them a bit different. The original idea was from a book whose title I can't remember. Sorry. Something about miniature crafts. Wonderful book, though! All you need is wooden beads, empty thread spools (I have plenty), strips of old magnet (mine's from a memo pad that had two strips of magnet at the back), fabric, small beads and some sharpies. Once again, there's really not that much to do with these, but they were fun to make and they look cute.

Sorry about the quality of the pictures -- Flickr refuses to work properly -- so they are straight from my camera.

Any ideas what to do with these things I made? I've sent the stickers with Pinkkis orders, as a thank yous, but what about the others?

I hope you all have sunny and beautiful weekend!!

xoxo,
Raisa

The Beauty of Unfinished Things

I have decided to start liking unfinished things. To start looking for the beauty in them. I fucking hate unfinished things! In a way I carry them with me, all the work that needs to be done in/outside of the house, all my unfinished craft projects (PLENTY!), homework, plans for the future -- all that, I can feel it. But from now on I'll cherish them, or at least I'll do my best to ignore the weight of unfinished things on my shoulders.

I do have a tendency of leaving one thing behind and hopping to the next one and not even knowing where I left that thing. They kind of just fall out of my hands and land wherever. And I've always thought it's a bad, bad thing! Not anymore. I'll try to think of it as something to come back to. If I still feel like it. And I usually don't.

Life shouldn't be complete. Like if you collected something, maybe a series of something. You like doing that as long as there's something to search for. But after you've completed your collection, it's done. There's nothing more to do except for the occasional dusting. So you need to look for something else to keep you occupied. But if you never buy that final piece you can keep collecting forever. Beautiful!!

So yesterday, when I was about to finish a project I started maybe a year ago (you know, one of those things you keep pushing deeper and deeper into the closet, because you don't feel like doing it and seeing it would remind you of what a no-good person you are for not finishing what you've started. I had the work with me at school (uh, I know. Doesn't sound good, but it really helps me get through the boring classes and actually helps me to stay focused) and I was about to finish it. You know, the last stitch. And then I felt sad about it. So I left it like that -- waiting for the last stitch.

I've heard one group of crafters here in Finland even arranged a craft exhibition for its members unfinished crafts. And guess what? It was a huge success! So it's not just me!

Oh, well! I should go start something to leave unfinished!

Have a sunny and amazing weekend! I have so many things coming up I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed and can't keep track of everything. But I'm sure everything will be left undone on time. ;) And I'll end up being in the wrong place at the correct time no matter what! So I'm just going to relax about it.

Oh, we were finally able to order the damn flight tickets to the States! Yay!! Now it feels real and worth celebrating!

xoxo,
Raisa
 

Gimme some more color, please!

Hello readers!

I don't follow fashion, nor trends. But I do follow the front page on Etsy, and as far as I can remember it has been so pale, so tame, so grown-up and lifeless. Where's all the color? Is this because of the hipsters? Is it cool to be tranquil and calm and all that? If that's the mainstream, is there still room for crazy color combos, silly animal pictures and glitter? Isn't summer suppose to affect the way people dress? Isn't summer suppose to bring out colorful clothes and showy jewelry? What happened this year? Is it because of the recession? Goddammit, will I ever be trendy again?


It's so weird when you realize that even if your whole world is like this, it's not that for everyone else. The way you see the world isn't the way everyone else sees it. I don't understand why, day after day and week after week, the Etsy front page is like that. I don't understand why on earth the most succesful blogs are about food and fashion. I don't understand why the whole world is not vegan. I don't understand why people buy puppies from breeders when there are countless numbers of dogs waiting for a better life in shelters all around the world. I don't understand why not everyone isn't into Blythe dolls. I don't understand why Chocolove's Almond's and Sea Salt in Dark Chocolate isn't sold here in Finland. I just don't get it. Why are you so different from me? Why don't you think being funny is fun? You people are just so strange. I don't think I'll ever get you. *rolling my eyes*

Maybe I'm just way ahead of my time. :) Like I was with my obsession with Hello Kitty and Japan. Or even with skulls. Five or ten years ago they put skull prints on everything! And at first I was happy: finally I could have skulls on my kitchen sponge! But after the first wave of skulls/Hello Kitty I grew bored. It became too easy. Too mainstream.
(This didn't happen w/Japan though, I'm still obsessed. Just like every other person I know).

Maybe one day silly, girly jewelry and bright colors and childish prints will be on the front page of Etsy. Maybe my favorite bloggers will start blogging about their daily lives again. Meanwhile, I'll be lurking here in my bright pink corner. Just like the main character in the book Parfum, he turned into some critter and just waited for someone to walk by. Or something. Usually I never, ever remember any details from the books I read, so that's pretty damn good from someone like me. (Quite strange book, though. Read it.)

I need to read Kafka for my Finnish class. I was sure I'd hate it, but actually I like it a lot! So far it's been very easy to read and very interesting. We also need to read Kalevala. Not the whole saga, but parts of it. Ewww. I don't want to. I hate it when I have to read. I love reading, just don't force me to do it!

See ya!

xoxo,

Raisa

Party Season's Over!

After celebrating my son's birthday yesterday, I can happily announce that party season is over for now! Oh, no! It's not! Mothers Day has yet to be celebrated :/. Well, at least the birthdays for this spring are now in the past and I can focus on other things.

Don't get me wrong, I love parties. I love planning them, I love having people over and I love gifts :). But it's just so much work and it's also quite expensive.

My son's birthday was actually last Thursday, but he was at his father's then and when he came home there was just too much stuff going on (soccer tournament and my Blythe meet), so we decided to dedicate Sunday for celebrating. My hubby brought this very special birthday tradition to our family. It means we cook all of the meals based on what ever the bd boy/girl wants. And we are super nice to that person, too. If he/she wants to watch a movie, then the whole family watches a movie. Same thing with games and such. So much fun! I wish it was my birthday every day!

So my 14 year old son wanted to have scrambled tofu and fried spicy tofu and bread + juice for breakfast, tofu-noodles for lunch (this didn't work out because he went to the movies and ate crap there) and for dinner he chose to have seitan steaks, creamy sauce and fries + Coke. And for his guests he wanted to have pb+jelly bars, which he helped me bake. We didn't have a party for his friends; instead he took one of his friends to the movies, but my dad, brother and his girlfriend and my son's godmother paid him a visit. It was fun! And he seemed happy :) even though he didn't like the movie we watched: The Royal Tenenbaums. He said it was too weird.

On Saturday I went over a friend's for a Blythe meet there :). It was so much fun, not so much because of the dolls (I guess we are having a bit of a break from the dolls right now), but the company and my friend's toys! You don't often get to go over a friend's house and go through their toys, but we did! I love having toy crazy friends. I even got one set of Re-ments for my dollhouse!! Yay!!

But seriously, it's funny how many of my "new" friends are into toys, like the people whom I've met over the last two years. More than half of them are crazy about toys. Usually it's vintage toys or Blythe, but I do have one friend who likes pretty much all toys. Well, not all, but her range of likeable toys is a lot wider from all of the others. And we also like stickers and stationery, and pens and erasers. So silly, but oh so much fun! And the great thing is, that I'm not alone with this silliness! At my bithday party few weeks ago the majority still wasn't into toys and stickers, but us silly people were only one or two behind!

There was one other great thing about meeting my dolly friends on Saturday -- I got sewing inspiration from her kitchen placemats! And now I've cut pretty much all of my fabrics into placemats! Unfortunately I ran out of thick interfacing that would've been great for them :( but I had enough for few. I've already made a really cute hot pad and now I can't wait to make more!

Oh, well! I have some sewing to do!

Have a sunny and amazing Monday!

xoxo,
Raisa