Vegan food

Yesterday I was asked about the things vegans eat. I'd say everything except for meat, milk, eggs, honey etc. But I guess that's not what she meant. :)

After you get into the vegan world it gets very easy. But in the beginning it can be quite complicated. And being the "weirdo" or the "difficult one" never gets easy. But I guess you get used to that as well.

But lets talk about the food. We eat pretty much the same stuff the average omnivore eats: pizza, pasta, sandwiches, gravy and potatoes, fries, burgers, okonomiyaki, yakisoba, sushi, misosoup, African Peanut Soup and so on... ;) It's all about the ingredients. You make your pizza with vegan cheese (in Finland that would be either a) homemade or b) store bought). The store bought works best if you melt it with a carton vegan cooking cream and then spread that on top of your pizza. And for the topping you can use pretty much everything. Our favorites are fried tofu, fried smoked tofu, onion, pineapple, seasoned TVP, etc.

Pasta is great with sauces made with vegan cooking cream, or tomato sauce and seasoned TVP.

Sandwiches with vegan butter (in Finland sininen Keiju, in the States it's Earth Balance), the best cheese in the world (= Wilmersburger), some seitan slices, bean spread, Tartex pate, sun dried tomatoes, anything. There's even cheap vegan mayo at S-market.

Gravy is easily made with vegan butter and veggie buillon/cubes. Just add TVP for protein. Burgers with vegan cheese and either homemade or store bought bean/veggie patties. Okonomiyaki and many other Japanese foor are quite easy to make vegan as well.

If you need eggs for baking you can substitute it quite many ways. I will not list them here because different methods work for different recipes. You can make omelettes with tofu and chickpeaflour (gram flour), you can make super delicious steaks with seitan flour (seitan is wheat gluten).

So many things can be made vegan, even the most basic and common things you are used to eating. And that's really good way to start, by veganizing your favorite meals. 

The are tons of subsitutes for milk, pudding, cream and ice cream. And they are so much better than the cow milk products. These are usually available at your basic grocery store, but seitan and egg replacer and other specialty products you can find from health food stores/eco stores like Ruohonjuuri, Ekolo, Vegetukku and Runsaudensarvi.

Very good website for beginners and also seasoned vegans is Vegaanituotteet. On that site is listed tons and tons or regular products that happen to be vegan. Products you can easily find anywhere.

Also a good way to start is to borrow a good vegan cook book from the library, like Puputyttö ja Vohvelisankari (for baking), Puputytön Juhlakirja (for all sorts of cooking) or Kasvisseikkailu (simple, child friendly recipes). If you want you can also buy these books, from me :)

Rainbow cupcakes

Chocolate pudding

Japanese cooking

Easy wrap

Dinner at Soi Soi

Home made beer battered onion rings

I hope these helped! Lets get cooking!

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

Blythe Fashion

This is kind of funny - me writing about fashion. I don't know anything about it. Not that much about dolly fashion, either. I like what I like and that's it :)

But what I do know about is sewing. And I guess my post is not so much about fashion as it is about the amazing talents behind the doll fashion.

Sewing doll clothes is basically the same as human clothes. But then again it's nothing like that. I know the basics of sewing human clothes, and I know the basics of sewing doll clothes, too. But to make the fabric obey me - I don't know how that is done. I've mastered sewing pouches and am now on my way to mastering sleepsack carriers as well, but dolly clothes - no. Seams are never straight enough, nor are the stitches in place. Everything is just so small it makes it impossible to get it neat. The fabric must be thin enough to look good on a tiny doll, and the thinner the fabric the more difficult it is to make it obey.

So I make the occasional doll clothing, mostly dresses for my own fun. Then I don't have to worry about them being less than perfect. But when I want something perfect--and trust me, I do love perfection--I'll head for a seasoned doll seamstresses. There are some amazingly talented people out there that have the skills to tame fabric, make it work for them, and not the other way around. They can add amazing details to their clothes that never stops amazing me!

Some of my favorites are Eurotrash, whom I've written about before, I think. Maybe it was on my Finnish blog, not sure. Her seams and stiches are close to perfect. And she has incredible eye for details. Just check her supersweet helmets (made out of wool, so no-no to me ;). Look at these dresses! Aren't they superb?!

Another favorite of mine is Pommepomme. It's fairly new brand for me. I know it's been around for a lot longer, but I just got my first dress just a couple weeks ago. And I have to say that the stiches are perfect. Ah! I could spend hours just admiring them! Perfection! And the dress looks so cute on Kevin, too! And just yesterday I saw another Pommepomme dress, and that also was so well made, and with very thin (which means it's difficult to work with) fabric. So beautiful!

For different reasons I also like BA. Button Arcade. I don't like these because the beauty in the very careful stitching. No. I like these cause they are so much fun!! All of the ones I have now are second-hand dresses, but I have two dresses that were made just for me somewhere above the Atlantic, heading for home! I'm also about to get two tutus, made by BA. Note the pockets, which are kind of the whole point! So cute!

And for the same reason as BA, I like Megipupu's wraps because they are so goddamn cute! Just look at these. Megi, the sweet lady who used to make these makes the most amazing crocheted seam on all of them! So much work! Too bad she can't make them anymore. :( But that's what happens when you get old and your fingers won't do magic tricks that easily anymore.

Some of my first dresses were from Devout Dolls. Sara, who makes these super cute dresses, is very talented and I'd hope to see more of her work out there, worn by pretty dolls!

Some other favorites of mine are HOP, House Of Pinku, Sweet Crochet by Leshan, Biscotti Vintage and La boutique de Lupi. The last one I really don't know that well, but I'm a bit obsessed with re-creating a scene from a post card and it has one of her dresses on it, and the cat dress pictured is the closest I've gotten so far. She still makes clothes for Blythe, but not these dresses anymore. :(

Okay, that's about it! I hope you enjoyed reading a bit about these talented people, and looking at pictures of their creations!

Take care!

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 ;)

10 facts about me

There was this fact-thing going on on Facebook. I wasn't tagged (I'm not that popular - LOL!!) but since one of my favorite things about my life is about being me, I wanted to share some facts about me. I tried to check if I had written about that (about me!) earlier, but lost interest around April so I'm not really sure if it's there or not. But even if it is, I'm sure the facts would be at least slightly different this time. So I hope you don't mind in case I'm repeating myself.

These are not in any particular order.

1. My middle name is Kirsikka, which means Cherry in English. It wasn't given to me as a baby by my parents, I actually (officially) added it myself when I was old enough to do so. Reason: I was/am able to knot a cherry stem in my mouth.
2. It takes me at least an hour to eat my breakfast. It's gotten really bad. The first 30 minutes I don't even eat anything. I just can't get myself started. I don't have this "problem" if I'm having bread for breakfast. Only with raw porridge.
3. Often in the morning, when I'm not like really woken up, but neither in sleep anymore I wonder where I am. And I'm trying to figure out which way I am in the bed, without opening my eyes. Like honestly sometimes I think I'm still at my childhood home.
4. My pinky nail is twice as long as my other nails. I left it long after cutting all others short. It'm my secret tool. And actually it's quite damn useful. And it's getting so long I sometimes secretly admire its bird-like clawness.
5. Ever since the first Sherlock Holmes movie it's been the movie series I've anticipated the most. Like some people wait for sequels for Hobbits, others Harry Potter. I wait for Sherlock Holmes. It wasn't even my fave movie, but uh.. .dunno.
6. I often think what kind of idea/image people would get from me if I died now and they would go through my stuff.
7. I've created for myself a "thing" that makes it impossible to answer phone calls from unknown numbers...
8. There are five female pheasants in my back yard right now.
9. Often when I see my hubby heading to the bathroom I get the urge to rush in before him. I have no idea why.
10. I get a bit too excited and go to extremes a bit too often. Sometimes I wish I could be the person who stays in the middle of the road, but then again - I'v e tried that (w/the help of medication) and it wasn't any fun. Or at least it wasn't as fun as I thought it would be. So I rather go from side to side.

xoxo,
Raisa

Some new dolls:

The one on the left is new. Red Delicious. Doesn't have a name yet. Has to be something juicy and moist.

Momoko! Bought her from a friend. She doesn't have  name yet. The doll. Friend has a name.

Not here yet, but paid and on her way :) Amazingly cute, eh?

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

Effin' cold out there and in here!

I love living in Finland. I love all the little things that make this country so unique. You know, being grumpy nine months of the year, not looking strange people in the eye, avoiding neighbours and so on. I like that. But I fucking hate the cold weather!!! The only thing good is the fact that it kills pests and other stuff so we don't need to use that much chemicals on farming. But that's it. Everything else - just go away, please!! I don't even like burning candles!

I hate winter clothes, I hate their stuffiness, bulkiness, I don't even like the fluffyness that much, nor the earth toned colors.

I hate the dry winter air. It makes my skin super dry and when it's dry it gets scratched so easily. For six months I look like I've been fighting with a cat every day. I also feel super bad for my daughter, whose skin is even worse than mine. Hers gets so dry it hurts to even look at it. Poor thing. Also the annoying dry air will make everything so freaking static! And when you are into dolls with plastic hair...static is not something you want! The flyaway hair makes me crazy!!

I don't like the lack of Finnish products on the veggie isle at the grocery store. Other than root veggies, everything seems to be imported. It's quite a challenge to eat locally when all you have is carrots, beets, potatoes and cabbage.

Walking the dogs becomes a challenge. First you need to get dressed warm enough to be able to go outside. And that takes time. During that time the dogs are whining and crying non-stop by the door, and that's something that drives me crazy, too! Once you get outside you need to be really careful not to slip on the icy ground, which is nearly impossible, with two big dogs. You're also supposed to keep your fingers and toes wiggling at all times, so they wouldn't freeze. And with the clumsy mittens you always end up getting dog poop on you, goddammit!

Riding my bike is no longer fun. My bike freezes and my hubby doesn't know how to fix it (note from hubby: does know how to fix it, but because Raisa treats her bike like a wheelbarrow and leaves it in the rain all year, the cables freeze, so whatever). So I have to take it inside five hours prior using it and make it sure I won't be using it outside too long, or it'll freeze again and I have to walk it home! Happened so many times last year, I rode it to school and walked it back. Grrr! Also dressing up for a long bike ride is not easy! First 20 minutes you are going to be freezing, but after that you wish you wore nothing but a t-shirt and shorts. And hat, thick gloves and warm winter boots.

But the worst part is inside our house. It's cold. Starting from yesterday we'll be cold until at the end of April. The house is so old and leaky no matter how much we heat it the heat escapes almost as fast. Okay, it's not that bad, but bad anyways.

And you can't even take nice pictures of the dolls outside, because it's too cold! You just run out there, click, click and then have to rush back in with frozen fingers.

This pic is still funny, the story behind it is :) Polly just moved to F-land from sunny Australia and is very pissed.

So, today is the second freezing cold day. How many are left? Brrrrrrr! I don't want to think about it!

Stay warm! I know five people who are keeping at least their dollies warm with Pinkkis sleepsacks ;) First sack sale on Etsy last night! Feels so great! So, what are you waiting for,  go ahead! Make my day, buy a tote for your dolly from my shop! :D I guess I should go make more, sincere there is just one in the shop at the moment.

xoxo,
Raisa