Amigurumi

I found a perfect way to use my leftover yarn! I saw an article about amigurumi (crocheted or knitted stuffed creatures) in Kotoliving magazine. It's a new lifestyle magazine full of ideas for handicraft, homing, cooking and everything that's important in life! It's my new favourite magazine! But sorry, only in Finnish! This magazine gives a lot of ideas how to use materials you already have without the need to buy more and more.

In the newest number there was an article about Jennifer Ramirez and her amigurumi and I decided to try to make my own. She has an amazing blog The Sun and the Turtle about her own amigurumi patterns. There are some patterns for free and some you can buy, and the page is in English. I fell in love with The Owl Girl and decided to try and make it with the instructions I saw in Kotoliving magazine for a different amigurumi called The Squirrel Girl. I had to do a bit of improvising, and the pattern for the owl the girl is holding, I just made up myself. I think it became so cute and I got a lot of compliments on it when I published the photo on Facebook. Many thanks to Kotoliving and Jennifer from The Sun and the Turtle for giving me inspiration to make my own amigurumi. You can find The Sun and the Turtle and Kotoliving also on Facebook.

I fell in love with amigurumi so much that after finishing the Owl Girl I had to make an amigurumi I had designed myself. My amigurumi is named Dreamy Rebecca and she's a real winter girl holding her snowboard and enjoying the snow falling from the sky!

Valentine's Day

I hope you've all had a wonderful Valentine's Day! In Finnish it's Ystävän päivä (Friend's Day) and in Swedish Alla Hjärtans Dag (All Hearts' Day)! I think it's great how the name of this lovely day is a little bit different in each country. Here in Finland we celebrate friends and loved ones. In America the day is more about couples, lovers, girlfriends, boyfriends, husbands, wives...

Mittens from Leftover Yarn

I have a lot of extra yarn, and since I'm getting rid of things, I'm trying to think of something to do with all of this yarn. My first project was making a birthday present for my mom, and I decided to crochet a pair of mittens. I used two different shades of grey, and made some snow flake shaped decorations to make the mittens match my mom's woollen hat that she'd knitted herself earlier. My old doll got the honour to pose as a hat model. Now that I look at the doll picture, I think it looks a bit creepy!

Here are some photos of the yarn and the mittens, and also some wintery photos of our dog that I happened to take the other day.

Buying, buying, buying

I'm so sorry, my lovely readers, for being away for such a long time. I've been sick and haven't had the energy to write my blog! At the moment I can't promise to write very often but I'll try my best, that I promise!

My life is all about simplifying things at the moment. I'm learning to give things up. I've been living in an environment where consuming has a very big role. Now I'm trying to question the thought that, in order to keep the world going, we need to buy more and more things. Isn't that just crazy? Our lives are surrounded by adverts, commercialism and consuming. We are told that in order to survive these economically challenging times, we need to keep buying and buying. At the same time we are destroying the planet by consuming too much.

I've decided to do my part and stop buying things I don't necessarily need. I already have everything I need, and more. That's why I'm also selling a lot of things that have been just lying around for ages. I found out that my friend owns a flea market and decided to sell my things there. She bought the place last autumn and is transforming it to a very nice and cozy flea market. Visit the home page of Sisustustori (only in Finnish) and find out more.

I'm very happy that flea markets, vintage, and retro are such big trends and it feels like they just keep on growing. People are realising that it's not necessary to always buy new furniture, new curtains and new decorative items in order to make your home look different. Flea markets and recycling centres are full of old furniture, and anything you might need. I've found a lot of cool dining chairs in flea markets. My chairs are all different shape and colour but if you want yours to look more like they belong together, just paint them with the same paint and you get a totally different look!