ONE WEEK!

Within a week I'm already in Amsterdam, waiting patiently. Add couple more hours and I'll be on a plain that's about to take me to Tokyo! So exciting! But also so scary. I'm not a huge fan of flying. I can take it pretty easy, thanks to little help from a doctor. But still...I'm afraid I'll start to think about all the things that could go wrong and also the fact that I'm trapped inside that metal box for hours and hours doesn't comfort me at all. Trapped. No way out. Kind of like when you are getting a tattoo, you should not think about the skin cells breaking, and all the actions the cells are taking from preventing more damage. But the needle just does what ever the tattoo artist wants and your cells are screaming for help...One should not think about that when being tattooed...

Okay, I need to go! I have a fabric printing date at the city at 10am!

Pictures!

Take care!

xoxo,
Raisa

Can I change?

Can a person change? For good? For real? I strongly doubt it. Of course you can stop smoking/doing drugs/drinking and/or start exercising and so on. But do we really change? Like maybe you've heard of life changing moments, but is it really that one moment can change the way you are? The way you think?

Oh, well. The more I think about it the more convinced I am that a person can change, and that the change can be "over night". Like images of abused animals can change a person for good!

The reason I'm talking about that is that last night when I was thinking about how happy I am with Mr. C. We've been together for five years and it just gets better  and better. But then again there are times when I absolutely xxx him. When I can't think of anything good about him. Then I wonder what on earth did I see in him in the first place. But last night I some how realized that the strong negative feelings aren't really about him. It's more about me. How I get very strongly annoyed if he doesn't behave/act/think the way I want him to behave/act/think. Do you follow? I'm not sure if I do.

But you know, when I'm all in love with him and everything is just perfect then it's most likely that way because of the way he makes me feel. He makes me feel safe and more balanced, and so on. It's not that I love him bacause he runs fast or is so goddamn handsome. umm...hard to explain. I love the way he looks because I can see it. I wouldn't love it if he was handsome but I were blind. I don't care if he runs fast or not because that's not something for me. Unless I see him in a race. So why would be the negative feelings be about him? I xxx him because of the way he makes me feel. Damn! I'm into something! So next time I feel like chopping him into pieces I should focus on me! Why do I react to his actions this way? What does it tell about me?

Interesting.  So the question about the change was about this. Can this knowledge (about the negative feelings being about me) change me?

It's early, I've been awake for three hours already. I feel like doing some serious sewing today!

I'll soon make a post about the whole organizing project. Kind of like before and after thing.

Bye!

xoxo,
Raisa

My travel journal came yesterday! It's effing great! (pic taken from the website!)

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

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

About eating locally.

Good morning!

Couple days ago I took the train to my home town, where my dad lives (also mom, brother and some friends). I got my now working car back home. It's not really a big thing, since we don't use the car that much. And now even less, because of the spring. Riding our bikes is so much more fun.

Well, on my way home I took a detour, just to get to this organic farm I adore. I needed hey and straw for the bunnies, and from there I could get it organic, cheap and what I like the most - in bales. Instead of buying small amount of it in a bag, I got food and play material for them for six months supply! The bunnies love the bales. I don't break them a part, I just put them in their room and they love hanging on top of them. Bunnies are so cute!

I also bought broad beans, peas, and all sorts of flour. And they were all grown on the fields around the farm. I absolutely love knowing where my food comes from! You can't beat that feeling! Once we were in a restaurant (they got their first Michelin star this year! Congrats Chef & Sommelier!) and they told us everything about where the food came from, how they waste very little, pick wild flowers/herb on their way to work and so on, and I loved it! Food should not be just something that comes from the store, wrapped in plastic! (Only Laura Palmer should come wrapped in plastic. ;)

The whole thing around food is just so weird. Why do we have to get our food as cheap, as easy and as fast as possible? Even if it meant hurting others (nature, people in less developed countries and animals) on the way. All the negative images, the bad stuff people don't want to know, or the producers don't want us to know, since it might affect on our actions which I doubt - we know, we just don't care. We think we can't afford it, we think we "can't" live without cheese/meat/crap, we think it's too difficult, we think it takes too much time, we think blah blah blah. And most people don't really give a shit. But back to the negative images, they are hidden behind what ever the ad people have created. They don't post pictures of bruised kids picking cocoa beans on the chocolate bar, the don't post pictures of polluted rivers and lakes on bags of flour and they definately don't post pictures of pigs that can't even turn in their cages on the pack of oh! so very hip and f**ing cool bacon! Oh, no - that might upset the hipsters.

Lol! Can you tell I got a bit carried away, writing about that is like pouring gasoline on a small fire...This was supposed to be happy, uplifting post! Not a guilty trip! Sorry!

The farm was amazing, even covered in snow. The couple who runs it were away, on a vacation (good for them!!) so there was this young man working and he was so friendly and sweet. He smelled heavily to fish, and that smell got stuck on my hay, too! And for a day the bunny room smelled like fish!! Hahaha!

I have tons to do, so I better start working! I hope you all have Tasty Thursday!

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

:D!!

Good morning! I started my day like never before - I drank Sakura Sencha! So what's the big deal you might ask. Well, let me tell you!

For five years we used to have a small cafe called Manga Cafe. They served the best tea ever, Sakura Sencha. Green tea flavored with cherry blossom flavor. I don't usually like flavored green teas, I prefer the plain Japanese green tea. And genmaicha (lesser quality green tea with toasted rice - very yummy!). But at the cafe I was brave enough to try something new so I had my first cup of Sakura tea. And ever since I've been going to that cafe just to get the tea. I never tried any of their other flavors, always the same sakura. It was that good! (The cafe itself was quite...um...not very cozy, and they didn't have anythng vegan, and even their non-vegan treats were quite awful looking, not like freshly baked treats, but store-bought, ones that stay edible for ever). So, after five years they closed. And I no longer got to drink my favorite tea. I was stupid enough not to ask where they got their tea. But yesterday on my FB wall there was an ad for a teahouse called Thehouse. I contacted them, asking if they knew what was the Sakura Sencha I enjoyed so much - and it was that very same place where Manga Cafe bought their teas!! And now I have it at home!! Life couldn't be any sweeter!

I got so much done yesterday! I drove my broken car to my dad's, who'll get it fixed (perfect timing for that, it was still very nice spring day yesterday, and now there's tons of snow and more coming non-stop!). I had a massage, got to hang out with my mom, and dad also. Then I came back to Helsinki, bought my tea, bought fabric for an albino bat that was requested by a customer, I met bunch of friends to whom I had bunch of stuff to give to. We had lovely tea and even a vegan sandwich!! at a baby friendly cafe in the middle of the city. I was so surprised to hear they had a vegan option, and they even said it was vegan on purpose!! If you know what I mean.

And then finally after a long day I got home, to have my very first home brewed cup of Sakura Sencha. It was perfect! And it still is :) I'm very happy!

Yesterday, while meeting friends, I traded two of my cookbooks to two hand made notebooks. And now I'm in love! I had ordered one notebook for myself, and one for Mr. C. He got to decide what kind of he wanted, and of course I got to decide what kind I wanted. I wanted pink dots, and he wanted orange triangles.

  

They are made by super talented and very sweet Russian girl, named Sasha. She has cute store on Etsy, called PaperPlane Stationey. Sasha also has a blog! 

 

My notebook had the most amazing pages! They were made of three different types of paper (all leftovers from the printing house she works for - very eco friendly!), and every now and then there's a pink sheet! Love it!! The notebook I'm using at the moment for my To do lists is about to be full, so I'm very happy to have such an amazing replacement for it! Thank you so much, Sasha!

So much to do today! Sewing, cutting, drawing patterns and then later on we have 90's party! Not sure if I'll dress up or not, because of the weather...

Take care! What do you think of my new notbooks?

xoxo,
Raisa