syko

The story of a bag

I have a bunch of stuff left from the market last weekend so I have updated my Etsy shop!

I am trying to use second-hand fabrics in my work as much as I can, it does not feel wise to keep on buying new in a world that is filled with abandoned textiles in good condition. This means that the fabrics that come to me can be in colours or patterns that might not have been my first preference if I had went shopping for brand new fabrics. However I love the creative challenge that working with second hand materials gives me. Very often it helps me to step outside my comfort zone. 

My friend Tuija was very kind to give me these fabrics in burnt orange and yellow from her great stash of second-hand fabrics when I had run out of cotton canvas for my handbags. One of my favourite colours right now is turquoise, so I decided to combine it with the orange. And dots, of course! I am very happy with the 60's look it got. And I had to make a zippy pouch to match it, a little circus bird. 

What happened...

...while I was away on my unintended blog break. I think I got a bit over-whelmed with this TV thing. The program can now be seen by anyone anywhere in the world, without the copyrighted music: here. Just to keep you updated, here are few things that I have been doing.

I made mead, which is a traditional drink at 1st of May celebrations.

I got myself a new dress for Summer from the Marimekko sale and took a picture of it in a mirror in desperate need of dusting...
I picked some flowers in the forest.

One of my Mårbacka geraniums fell on the kitchen floor, luckily it survived! I love these old geraniums, they grow really tall and are great for people like me who do not like curtains.

I love that pale pink colour of the flowers, so romantic! And I am pretty proud that I managed to nurture the plants one more winter.

I have also done some sewing, these dots were for a set of "mod handbags" I made, I'll try to get a picture of them for my next post!

The sun is shining in Helsinki today, I hope it is shining where you are too!

Recycling factory 2012

This weekend me and my friends from Kimara attended the Recycling Factory market, a sustainable lifestyle event. The event attracts loads of people and it makes you happy to see how many people that are thinking about how they consume today. Everything that is sold in the market can be bought with a good conscious! We built our booth on Friday night, it took hours as usually! I love "before" shots and remembered to snap one!

And this is how our cosy home looked a few hours later, nearly finished...

This is our "candy table". With brooches by me and lace accessories by loru and rings by karuski.

I made a huge pile of word cushions and I still have most left and will soon have them up for sale on Etsy. The pretty white pillows are from tuuni.

It always feels a bit sad when a fun event comes to an end, I began to feel at home in this place!

Do ask if you would like to know anything about what you see in the pictures! If you are curious to see more, please visit us on Facebook!

Thanks to everyone who came this weekend! And to you who were too far away to come - I hope you have enjoyed looking at the pictures!

 

Museum therapy

Yesterday was a dull grey day and it was snowing when we woke up in the morning, though it's mid April! I cannot believe how late Spring is this year! I pity the small flowers that have dared to show their pretty faces, they must be freezing their cheek off during night!

To cheer myself up I went to the National museum here in Helsinki. As you can see it resembles of a church or a castle. It was built in the early 20th century, the time when Finland got independent from a period of Russian rule and it was very important to emphasize Finnish culture and heritage. Can you see the bear sitting by the stairs? I think that is so cool and really makes a statement. It differs a lot from the classical statues you are used to see at pompous official buildings. And it makes me smile! Architects should dare to have more fun!

I did find what I was looking for, but I really can't talk about that just yet :) So I'll show you this cute house banner that I spotted, it's right up my alley! 

I also got myself a pretty, little notebook with lots of blank pages, from the museum shop, to jot down my ideas in. And then treated myself to some goodies at the café. Ah, I feel so much happier today! Reminder to myself: go to museums more often.

 

Designing fabric

Have you seen that fabric manufacturer Robert Kaufman and Spoonflower are arranging a fabric design contest together? It's called fabric8. The theme is the style of pen & ink drawings colored with watercolor paints. Some of my appliqué print designs might have the look they are striving for, but the last two days I have spent some time doodling and am trying to teach myself how to design fabrics the traditional way. I found this great tutorial by Julia Rothman on Design*Sponge on how to make a repetitive hand-drawn pattern. 

So I've been doodling around, problem is, you can only submit one design, so it can't be any pretty fabric, it must be the design, that will appeal to many people. Well, I'm just going to do as well as I can and try to come up with a fabric print that I would be happy to use myself. If it is really good it has to hurt a bit when you cut into it :) That's what I'm striving for. Sounds easier than it is.

What are you up to today?

Felt cake play-food/pincushion tutorial

Tonight is the night I will be on TV (19.30 at YLE TV2), sadly most of you will not be able to see the programme, but I would like to share a little tutorial with you for the felt cakes me and my friends are making in the programme. They both have small kids so I thought it would be a fun little project to take home. All pictures are taken "behind the scenes" at the TV shoot by Viivi Lehtonen/YLE. The pretty felt needle book in the picture below was made by my friend Laurraine.

Ohjeet suomeksi ylen sivuilta.

What you'll need for your cake:

• basic sewing supplies
• felt (we used craft felt, but wool felt would be lovely)
• cardboard (a cereal box will do fine)
• embellishments, like buttons and lace
• wadding 

You can  either sew the cake on your sewing machine, or by hand, if you have a lot of time! 

1.Start by making the card-board circle. This will make the base for your cake and will prevent the needles to go through the bottom of the pincushion. You will need a circle with about 10 cm (4'') in diameter. Draw and cut it out.

 

2. Cut two circles from the felt. Use the cardboard piece as a pattern and add a 0,5 cm (1/4'') seam allowance. Then cut a 5x38cm (2''x15') strip from the felt. 

3. You can either embellish your cake now, or when it is stitched together. I stitched on some lace cream to the side strip of my chocolate cake at this point.

4. Now stitch the top piece to the side strip. The ends will overlap generously so the side seam does not have to be sewn. Stitch the other circle to the bottom (right sides facing) leave a gap big enough for the cardboard piece (stitch about half way). Turn your cake inside out.

5. This is Tuija's pink marzipan cake. She will now start to fill it with wadding. And then close the gap by hand.

6. And the cake is ready! To eat? Päivi's cake does look tasty!

I made a chocolate & cherry cake! What's your flavour?

 

 

 

Happy Easter!

Chicken lovingly handmade by my daughter Elsa ♥

This week I have been stitching up a bunch of happy word cushions from vintage fabrics and neon thread. Now I am waiting for Elsa to come home from school, I will take her shopping in the Spring sun. We want to put the winter clothing away soon! And tomorrow we are travelling to see my family, I look forward to the break! Happy Easter holidays everyone!

Kimara pop-up shop at Kinuskilla

Image credit karuski

Last Sunday I was very happy to spend the day with my friends from kimara. We had been asked to build a pop-up shop at Kinuskilla (page in Finnish), which is a charming café and shop in a converted old mill. I am the one climbing the ladder, I made a bunting from old, embroidered napkins that we are mounting to the roof :)

The owner of the café had lots of old doors, ladders and other props that we could use. It was very inspiring! I am so happy with how my cards look against the old door with the fading paint and my birds look so pretty flying on the wreath in the old window!

I also made a little bird bunting. And I finished my dream cushion.

Pretty lace earrings in candy colours from loru, vintage earrings from karuski and chalkboard plates from tuuni.

Rosa Viola, the fairy-angel, came along and was very excited to climb this ladder!

Prettyness from tuuni.

Jewellry from repurposed spoons from beloved.

Image credit Kinuskilla

And there's the whole gang: me, Päivi, Susanna, Tuija and Minna! Do like us on Facebook if you want to make sure to know where we pop-up the next time!

All pictures by tuuni/flickr, unless otherwise noted.

16 seconds of fame

 

A reminder to those of you who watch Finnish TV: Blogistania (I've talked about it here and here) starts tonight at 19.30 with Outsa-pop. I know that most of you wont be able to see it, but if you're curious, you'll find some short teasers on youtube to watch. It all goes in Finnish though.

The programme about me and my blog, will be broadcasted 11th April. You can watch my 16 seconds of Youtube fame above! I am showing my Batboy card that I designed together with my son and telling you that in our family superheroes always wear wellies :) All in Finnish. My mother-tongue is actually Swedish, so it made the whole thing slighly more challenging. I am a bit nervous to hear how I sound when I speak Finnish, a language that I imagine that I am fluent in, except for when I'm very tired... Even if it sometimes can be frustrating to belong to a minority (6% of the Finnish population speak Swedish) I feel quite fortunate to have grewn up in an bilingual country. Today I use three languages every day  and have even written a book in English! I think knowing languages not only helps you to communicate with people, but also broadens your understanding for different cultures. So all I can say is: encourage your kids to learn languages! Or take a language class yourself, your new knowledge can take you to surprising places!

Bad and good news

 

 

This morning I got a very disappointing call from the estate agency, to make a long story short, we will not be able to buy the house we wanted to. Crappiest crap EVER. Since I am me I had already decorated the whole house in my mind... I guess we will just have to keep on looking, I am hopeful that we will find the house this Summer! So that was my bad news.

And the good ones? Obviously I was feeling quite down about my broken house dreams and it didn't help that it was raining wet snow outside. And then I got an e-mail! I got a grant from the Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland for writing my next book! Woohoo! 

Oh, and if you're wondering who that is in the picture, it is Rosa Viola, another one-of-a-kind fairy angel. She is a true romantic and refuses to wear anything else but a dress, by the end of the day she often ends up with green grass patches on her knees and tends to lose her gingham hair-bands. She loves to climb in trees too! Right now she is hiding in my Etsy shop.

What a very strange day! I hope there will be no more surprises. Any happy or bad news you would like to share? I'm all ears!