Sewing, sewing, sewing.. :)

I'm making lots of quilted purses, the hardest part is to choose which colors to use together!

9 finished sides, just need to do the lining and choose a zipper and pocket andandand :P

This is what the "finished" 9 looks like, I have 3 more suggestions that I need to think about before I sew them..

I also need to keep reminding myself that this is fun and that even though I "have" to do it, it's not to be counted as work and hence boring.. I so easily think the wrong thoughts and then everything just feels so negative that I want to go crawl under a blanket! But I'm getting better at staying positive :D

Blog reading

Lately I've been so busy with reading blogs that I haven't had the energy for writing on my own :P and also I've been trying to cope with the back(-related) pains.. The two last weeks I've finally felt even partially alive ;) although not exactly functioning.. I did get the dress for my friends wedding finished, now I just need to find someone to take a pic of me in it as well :)
I've also finished painting the kitchen sofa, finally! Still need to dry before I can move it back into the kitchen, and so as not to kill my back it would be very good to have someone help me move it ;)

At least I finally got to sew a passport cover for a friend, I happened to find the perfect fabric for her :)

Knitting, crocheting, sewing, organizing..

..there's not enough hours in a day! ;) Except now when there's not enough pain-free hours in a day.. still having trouble with my sciatica.. *sigh*
Anyway, a couple pictures of what I've been doing:

New socks, lovely yarn and interesting pattern :)

Trollis has been licking some of my yarns, making them all disheveled and blah.. so I got the idea to make her a mouse that she is allowed to lick! :)

Finished the home-dress :)

I just loove that dotty fabric with the green solid :) and it's perfect, something extra but not too much :)

Lots more pictures I could upload, but I'll save something for another day ;)

almost finished "home"-dress

Yes I know, it needs to be ironed.. but I was so happy about getting at least one pocket on that I just had to take a picture and post it ;) took me some time to decide on the fabric for the pockets.. I wanted something a little extra but not something that I couldn't wear with all moods ;) still need to make another pocket and then I'll make the cord in the same dotty fabric :) and possibly add a cord or elastic under the bust. And about the name, it's a dress to wear at home, so as not to have to change clothes all the time.. I'm so good at getting clothes dirty when I'm home so I thought this might help :)

Apple blanket

I need your help, I have this idea of a crocheted apple blanket but I can't decide which green ones to use.. :)

The red and the light green I'm sure of, but which of the other two greens? Or both? :)

I haven't decided on how or with what colour I'm going to assemble it yet either.. :)
please, please comment! :)

I've been having a really bad case of sciatica this week, so I haven't been able to do as much as I want to.. The kitchen sofa is still waiting for more sanding.. I have been crocheting a little, I have this idea for an apple blanket in green and red, will be interesting to see how it turns out ;) And then I've been sewing on the mock-up for the Dress, see picture.

the blue model (B) but with some changes.. and in greeen :)

I'm going to wear it to a friends wedding in October which fortunately has the theme "Fantasy/Lord of the Rings" and the colours green, yellow, orange and red :) can't be much better than that! :) so my dress will be green and white and it's quite a fantasy-inspired model don't you think :) although I'm lowering the neckline (if you've got it, flaunt it!) and then I'm making shorter (and not so broad) sleeves and it will be open at the front so that the underskirt will show when I'm walking.. :) oh well, you'll see when it's finished :)
At least it's good to have projects to think of when in pain.. I've been thinking up loads of ways to make pretty passport folders (or bags, cushions etc) :)

From now on I'll just write whenever I feel like it and leave out all comments of "I'm back" or whatever.. :) I have been busy though :) sewing, crocheting and doing small home improvements :)

A bench that I've had for many years already but I haven't had space for it so it's been taking up space at the cottage.. :) now I realized I had the perfect place for it in the hall and the perfect colour too ;) I just need to decide if I'm going to use the old knobs or get new ones.. the old ones are brass but I'm thinking of putting wooden ones.. if I can find what I want :)

My old kitchen sofa, finally getting repainted! The biggest part of it is sitting in my hall now and waiting for me to finish with the sanding and then paint it.. :) luckily it's a water-soluble colour that stinks only a little bit ;)

And when it comes to sewing I've been making passport covers and started on two dresses.. one of the dresses needs to be finished by October as I'm going to wear it to a friends wedding! No pictures of that yet, it's just a lot of pieces of pattern and heaps of fabric :)

First one, inverted application :)

Second, just two fabrics to make it stripy and not too flowery :)

Third one, I just love love love looooove this fabric! :)

I need to get more pictures taken.. and I need a camera that is better at taking pictures indoors/in less light.. :)

And I'm back! :)

At least I'm going to try to blog again.. :) Autumn is here so maybe there will be more time to sit by the computer, especially July went by with very little computer time. Most of July I was at the cottage where the internet connection is sooooooo slow but I didn't have very much interest of sitting with a laptop anyway. I spent most of my time swimming and picking blueberries and just generally enjoying summer!
I did miss my sewing machine and oven a tiny bit, but as I said, there just wasn't time :)
Now I've been going almost double speed instead :P especially as I had an order for a wedding cake for tomorrow, it's delivered already so I can breath again ;)

Raspberry mousse cake á la me ;) and roses, roses, roses.. took some time to make them all.. but for once I didn't start at the last minute! :)

I actually started my sewing at the cottage, mum had both her sewing machines with her (she's got an overlock/serger too *envious*) so I made the mock-up for a shirt/blouse. I think it turned out quite nicely and I already used it once! I wanted to finish it in time for our family reunion and I did.

More roses! But I didn't have to make these by hand :P

I've also made a purse for a dear friend, and I have some more ideas to try out.. a passport cover for one.. and some new ways of sewing that I've found when reading heaps of blogs! :)
I found the tutorial (that I actually followed almost completely) for my friends purse here: Pink Penguin isn't it a lovely name too :) oh yes, a pic of the purse:

That was it for today, let's see when I'll post next :P

Blog-lazy ;)

I've been quite active otherwise :) I have started to knit amigurumi :) lots of fun and a little bit of swearing :P

First! A small bear.. cute huh? :)

Then a dragon.. but it doesn't look like the one in the book.. not as cute ;) although if you look at the head in the book it doesn't look like it would according to the pattern.. I'm wondering if there's been some mistake in the translation (I have the book in Finnish).

Second dragon, way better! I made the spikes a bit differently too and the wing :)

Poor little one only has one wing so far.. it was quite a lot of job with that one :)

Right now I'm crocheting a turtle :) but again I have to do some improvising when the pattern is strange.. ;) I have to see if I could get my hands on an English copy of the book to check if my surmising is correct.. :)

I finished knitting the shawl some time ago already.. turned out quite nice :) and my friend seems to like it which is the most important thing :)

Btw, I opened a paypal account today so now I can sell stuff if/when I want to :) or get enough ready..

I've been reading Economics even though it some days has been such a pain! Especially Mondays when the assignment is due :P This week though I have already read both chapters and listened to the first lecture and it's only Friday! I also finished the assignment due today already on Tuesday, yay! Sorry procrastination if I seem to neglect you.. :D

life..

I've been meaning to write for a couple of days but then I've either forgotten about it or something else has come in between.. I've been a bit more down in the dumps again for a couple of weeks.. and not really had so much energy.. but I managed to lift myself up a bit already yesterday :) just in time so I could read 3 chapters of Economics and make the assignments that were due..
I've also decided to raise the dose of my medicin a bit again, I've been trying to lower it but it went too low now.. just waiting for the doctor to write the prescription.
On Saturday I felt a bit like I was drowning.. drowning in all the pressure from living.. there's so much all the time! Even just staying at home there's so much that needs to be done.. house cleaned, food cooked and eaten and kitchen cleaned afterwards, bills to pay, stuff to organize.. I know most of the population can't realize how hard and big even the smallest task can be if you're not fully functioning.. I do feel lots better than I have in years past, which makes me realize how depressed I really have been.. definitely don't want to go down that road again..
Btw, didn't get the last job either.. but there's one for me somewhere, just have to keep looking and looking and try not to get too depressed... ;)
The best thing though is that I have managed to cut back on my chocolate! I also realized that I can be a chocolate lover even if I don't eat huge amounts every day :P yesterday I didn't eat any chocolate, just didn't feel like it.. I've developed a new feeling, sort of like I don't want to eat chocolate when I'm really feeling down or angry or something.. :) now I'm still battling against my more or less constant sweet tooth :) although I'd say that one has been surprisingly quiet too.

Still knitting and crocheting :) the shawl for my friend is almost finished! I'm on the last row, but of course I ran out of yarn so I have to go and get some more today.. but it's such a lovely blue color that I don't mind at all having some extra :)

I haven't forgotten you..

I just haven't had the energy/interest to write.. it's been so cold here lately that I just want to curl up under a duvet ;) but today I found an interesting job that I called about and now I have an interview on Friday! wohoo! :)
Maybe I could go out a little in the freezer today.. the new ice age I think.. well, supposed to get warmer at the end of the week.. I hope that's going to hold! :)

I've spent quite a lot of time on my Economics course too, trying to understand! I think I've finally managed to understand at least something, but still way too little.. at least according to myself ;) I know I need to sit down with the book and pen and paper and really draw diagrams and count stuff and think, not just read.. oh well.. will do.. one day... :P

Now I'm just a bit fluttery because of the interview on Friday.. Friday evening too so even longer to wait :D just keep everything crossed until then... :)

Swimming and knitting

Yesterday I bought myself a pair of swimming goggles! I don't know if I've ever even owned a pair before.. probably as a kid.. anyway, I went swimming with them on today :) and goodness, I could concentrate even better on swimming :) and it felt good! Although at first it felt a little bit more like choking ;) I swim breast stroke most of the time and with my asthma and stuffed nose it's not so easy to breathe "on command".. but I did it! :) and got better while I swam :) I even stayed almost for 45min, instead of the 30mins I've managed to keep my interest going earlier times... and gosh it feels so good now again! body and soul :D

Yesterday I also managed to finish the mittens for a friend, wohoo! My first ever! And I finished them on time to so they'll get to travel with another friend to Belgium instead of having to travel by post :P

Sorry for the crappy picture.. They are a dark green and light grey :)

Today I'm soon going to my sister and niece to have dinner, I'm bringing the dinner :) I love cooking and I love seeing the big smile on my niece's face! She's such a cutie :) I love seeing my sis too, but she gets a bit overshadowed by her daughter :P but who wouldn't love a smiling 1-year old :D

Culture and what not :)

Les Misérables trailer from Dirtstudios on Vimeo.

This is what I did on Friday evening! It was so great! Fantastic! I've been listening to the music more or less non-stop since then.. :) and I'm going to borrow the book too :) I have wanted to read it before but I've never gotten around to it.. now I'm in love :D I want to see it again, and again, and again! It helps of course that there were a pair of eyes (and a smile/face) that I fell a bit in love with :) it's nice once in awhile to have something more "real" to dream about :)
About the music, I got the English Original Cast version, the French and one Swedish from Stockholm.. :D just wish that Åbo Svenska Teater would make one too.. :)

I went swimming twice last week too, Monday and Friday :) I was longing to go swimming Tuesday-Thursday :P might go more often than twice a week soon :) unless I happen to get a job.. I'm going to call about one tomorrow.. I really have to.. it's one I actually want :P I just don't particularly like making calls and especially not when dreading a "no"..

On Thursday I was to a friends exhibition opening in a café. I was expecting nice paintings, but I came away with a whole feeling of happiness :) nice paintings, lovely colours, great café! I'm going to drag Mom with me there too (well, she doesn't seem to need much dragging) :) The best with the paintings was the positivity and happiness that the text about them

And suddenly it's less than a week before I go to Stockholm! Shopping! Yey! :)

Lots of stuff! :)

My life has really started moving now :) I got acceptance mail to a course on Economics on Thursday so now I've got the book and read the first chapter, it's sooo interesting! :) the course is only quite a short one but it's definitely better than nothing.. so far I haven't got a job.. Although I write a couple new applications every week :) sooner or later something will come.. in the meantime I'll continue with sewing and knitting and some other crafting :) I've started on a new mitten, the very first one got a bit too big so I had to draw a new, smaller, pattern for it.. goes a bit slow though as I try not to get sore fingers again.. so now the shawl is going even slower.. The mittens got higher priority again as they're going to Belgium and I'm meeting my friend who lives there in about 2 weeks.. hoping to be finished by then :) and then I've also promised to make her a skirt.. of a fabric we/she bought perhaps 4 years ago :P it's that Just-do-it.. :)
Anyone got a better idea for a name for go-get-it or just-do-it? I don't especially like using Nike's slogan and go-get-it doesn't feel exactly right ;)
I was swimming again yesterday, on my own :) swimming feels so very nice! And I feel so very good for doing something that is good for me too ;) So far I've been swimming 4 times in January, should be a 5th on Monday :) Then I'm planning to go twice a week in February, we'll see how that goes :) depends of course on my employment situation, it won't be as easy to go swimming if I work 8h a day.. but I might be enthusiastic enough by now to do it anyway :)

What else? Well, I realized yesterday that at some point I will be able to stop going to therapy! Might not be this year or the next, I don't know.. but I am really alive again! I get stuff done! I do stuff I like! I don't eat chocolate ALL the time! :P I'm planning to start plan dinners ahead.. sort of make a menu for the week and then (more or less) follow it :) that way I don't need to think about what to eat all the time and I can buy the weeks food in one go :) this week has otherwise been assigned to tasting different kinds of beans :) I haven't been such a big bean eater, mostly chick peas, so I thought I'd start. So far I've tried big white beans, borlotti beans, black beans and black-eyed peas :) still have some brown beans to try.. and then soy beans in their real bean form or mung beans are still to be bought.. kidney beans I already know and am not especially impressed by.. :)

I just did it! :D

I just started today with cleaning, and cooking a lovely lunch and sewing and knitting and oh my! :) I'm actually a bit tired now from all running around :) vacuuming this place is quite the exercise!
Then I knitted some, the shawl looks something like this now:

Unblocked of course so it doesn't resemble the pattern very much :P and the colours are a bit off too.. but it's growing :)

I also finished my "first" curtain! wohoo! :) I usually just hang the fabric up without any sewing :P so getting this done was a huge step :) and it's looking great :) and I'm just proud of myself for 1. starting on it and 2. finishing it! :D
Yesterday evening the inspiration became too strong for me again so I made a heart, I love hearts of fabric :) or knitted/crocheted/whatever :) I'm not that much into hearts, but they're so easy to make in a lot of different colours.. :)

I need to make the next one with a bit more attention to detail.. but I was in a hurry before heading for bed :)

Mostly knitting..

I've lost some of my GO somewhere.. but I've still managed to sit on the couch knitting :) so now the shawl I'm knitting for a friend is half of it's length (154st of 309), but still a lot left of the width (row 50something of 160).. :)

This is what I'm striving to do, photo courtesy of mwaa

It will be interesting to see how mine will look when ready.. :) and it's going to be three colours, dark brown, sky blue, light brown and sky blue :) I'm not sure if this shawl really will be at it's best as multicoloured.. but that's the way I want to do it :)

More sewing :)

I seem to have developed a passionate relationship with my sewing machine this week ;) another purse done for my sis and finally finished the embroidery on my nieces fleece muffler :) I did the embroidery by hand, not the easiest thing to do.. but so fun! :)

She ordered green or brownish so what better then to do a green with brown decoration :) I need to get more ribbons, so nice and easy to use them for decorating :) This one is closed with velcro and has a lining of simple white..

My trusty bear modeling my niece's muffler, it's a tad too big on him :P it's probably quite big on L too, but it's got velcro in the back for fastening and it's sewn in a way so it should be usable for quite a long time :) that little red dot is the apple I embroidered on it :) could've been bigger, but that's for another time.. :)

So, what next? I've been knitting on the mittens and they're coming along nicely :) And tomorrow I'll be going to one of those lovely yarn stores and get some yarn to use for a Christmas present! Yes, Christmas present ;) I was smart enough to give a gift certificate to my friend A for a home-knitted shawl :) and now it's time to start on it. I've been looking through ravelry for patterns and I found a whole lot that I like ;) I've chosen one, that I just hope isn't going to be too hard for my beginner-skills.. I'll report when I've started and know how it's going :)
I also want to do something of all the lovely fabrics I've got and that I already have, maybe some bags coming next.. and then I'm going to order name-tags, that you can sew onto clothes, although I'm going to have a penguin and of course "Pingevin" on them and use them on my products :) just have to decide if they should be any special colour.. hmmmmm :D
That's about it for today, tomorrow is another lovely day! :)

more purses!

I finished a purse for a friend today :) turned out quite ok, although I'm going to do some things a little different next time.. now I had to do a little bit more sewing by hand than I'd like to..

Done! I had to sew the whole ribbon on by hand.. next time I'm going to sew it on before I sew the whole thing closed :)

Two compartments so you can find stuff a little bit more easily :)

A small flower.. with a handmade button of polymer clay :)

I've been doing some knitting too, started on my first pair of mittens :) Green and gray ones with the selbu pattern, for a friend :) so far it's going surprisingly well!

Perhaps 1/3 done.. of the first mitten :P

slooooow

I've been feeling kind of slow the last days.. or week(s).. I guess life just feels slower sometimes..
I sewed a kind of purse for my sister, started yesterday and finished today, yey! :) she needs more of them so I have stuff I can do :P I'm just slow in getting my ass dragged anywhere..

I know it's blurry, but I couldn't get it sharp.. no daylight to talk of today.. just grey and foggy.

Saturday was cold, but wonderful, sun all day! :) And I was awake when the sun rose and showed all it's beauty in a lovely sunrise :) It doesn't rise until after 9am so it's not much of a feat, but still :)

Just looking at the sky it looks like it could be spring or something! :)

The sky is on fire :)

Book sale :)

I went to the book sale and found a couple of nice books :) surprisingly I bought only 6! And apparently all in English :)

- A huge book about Castles, I have to get inspiration for the one I'm going to live in when I've become a millionaire or married one :P Castles just fascinate me.

- Two books on knitting: the Sock Knitter's workshop and the Knitter's Stitch collection, both will be very useful to find information in.. how to turn a heel or different toes and then all the million different stitches there are! :) As I usually let my creativity fly on it's own it's good to have a bit more knowledge of how to do different things :)

- A book on Origami with both some history, basic folding and a lot of models :) I've already tried out two, pic later in the post :)

- An Old Captivity by Nevile Shute. I've been looking for this book for many many years, I read it as a teenager but for some reason the title never registered and I wasn't even 100% sure about the author! Looking forward to reading it again :)

- In Defence of Food by Michael Pollan. I can't say very much about it yet as I haven't read it :) But the author seems to be against diets and fads and that's enough for me to want to read it :)

First butterfly and (peace) dove :) I'm thinking of maybe hanging peace doves in my tree next Christmas.. :) I prefer it to angels..

Books.. :)

Tomorrow the book sale starts here, yey! :) I'm actually planning to drive to town tomorrow :P not going to drag all the books I know I'll find home from the bus or train :)
I've been thinking for some years that I want to catalogue all the books I have.. Title, author and so on.. well, I recently told friend S about it and now suddenly I've started! :) S is one of those who gets stuff done at once and I think some of it might be rubbing off on me :P
I decided to just do an easy excel table and add books as I read them. Yes, it will take forever and a half but if I feel I'm in a hurry at some point I can do more at one go :) but I've started! :D
I'll tell you more tomorrow about what books I found :)
Just a pic of the cute penguin stuff I found when I was shopping on Monday, and some flowers to adorn my hair :)

Christmas is over..

I threw out my tree today! I realized it was felling needles a little all the time.. some of the ornaments had even started to drop out of it :P *sigh* Christmas is officially over for this time.. although I still have a lot of the lights and my little Gingerbread village :)
After throwing, yes, really throwing, the tree my apartment looked like it had been ravaged by a green haired monster, shedding hair everywhere :D I swept up most of it but will have to use the vacuum too. And I'll probably find needles until next Christmas :)
Still, I'm glad it's over.. now I don't have to decide about that anymore :) just clean everything away.. all the ornaments too.. ugh.. Until next "year", time that is :)

Hihi, I just found some needles in the pockets of my sweater :P

FO (Finished Objects)

YES! I have finished the fluffy muffler AND dads wrist warmers! So now I'm all out of ongoing knitting projects, oh no! Although I have a couple ideas to start on next :P

It's really warm I can tell you! at least indoors :P

looks almost stylish worn like this too :) but doesn't exactly keep your neck warm.. :)

I just baked a bread too, very much an experiment.. :) I used sourdough and then I just added flour, yeast, water, salt, and syrup in what felt like appropriate quantities ;) I am a bit curious how it will taste, I think it has cooled enough sort of now :)

NEWSFLASH! The bread was absolutely fantastic! I impressed myself! And when it comes to baking that is definitely not an easy thing to do! :) I need to bake bread like this more often.. sourdough is lovely to use too :)

Knitting

I have been knitting, almost every day! :) I managed to finish one wrist warmer for dad before Christmas, but it was still way too big although the thumb was much better :) so I decided to knit from the beginning, again, and smaller :) I have almost finished those, just the last bit of rib on the thumbs left to knit :) I'll see dad on Thursday so I'm going to get them ready until then :)

another UFO is the fluffy muffler.. not much left but it has to be done.. :) but tomorrow I'll be sitting in a train almost 3h so I'll have lots of time to knit :) might even finish it, that would be nice! :)
I am so much looking forward to starting on something new! I want to knit something for myself for once and then I want to knit my first sweater.. for my old Snoopy :P

Forgot to write that the camo sweat suit he's wearing was made by mom, by my "orders" :) but I don't remember how old I was then..

 I did finish one UFO today, FO now ;) the flower socks that I first finished already in November! but now they are all done and waiting to get to their owner tomorrow :)

2011

A new year, new possibilities :) actually I believe there's new possibilities every second.. :)
Today has been a tired day, but still I've got quite a lot done :) I've almost finished dads wrist warmers (Christmas gift, version 3 was finally acceptable to me) and I started to re-knit the foot on the flower socks I otherwise had finished in November :P and I got the leaking tube for the dishwasher unscrewed, but then I haven't yet found the sealing tape so it's just waiting now.. I also went for a walk this morning as I felt like I was just falling asleep on the couch all the time.. :) almost an hour and now I know how to walk to another bus stop :D if I ever need to get off or on there instead.. it's always good to know these things in advance :) especially if I have to use that stop in the dark.. I don't think there were any street lights on the way, most of it was like a broad walkway through the woods :) very beautiful though :)
Other than that I've just mostly read today, and tried to stay awake.. I really hope I'm not getting sick again, my stomach has been "rumbling" some today :P
So far though, I like this year ;)