syko

What I am doing today

 

Hello everyone! I've got a new table and it makes such a difference! Finally I have room for my cutting mat next to my Bernina! I'm still very fond of the colour of this mat from Fiskars! I have a very compact space to work in so I am trying to find a place for every nick-nack and still create a nice place to be in. With small additions and improvements I'm slowly getting there. The wooden chair is from a charity shop and has a very nice patina. "It looks like something you'd find in the attic, but I guess that's your style" said the dear daughter. My fabric shelves are behind my back when I sit at the table, can't show them today, no time to fold fabric nicely for you, too many tomte, houses and angels to make!

 I like to put the stuffed tomte legs in this pretty Finnish design bowl Flora, designed by Oiva Toikka in the 1970's, good design is supposed to be used, don't you think?

In between sewing and stuffing legs I have been running back and forth to the common laundry room in our house. I like to use this washing machine because it's HUGE and I can wash one week's laundry in 3 hours instead of washing every day. The only laundry I like to hang up to dry though is of the kind above= new fabrics ♥

And then back to sewing! My resellers are waiting for their Christmas items and Bernina Aurora is still working smoothly.

Give the house a loop to hang it in, put them aside and start cutting angel bodies. Just a regular October day in the Syko studio! 

Thanks so much everyone who have bought or pre-ordered my book! If you are making houses or tomte stuffies too or anything else from the book I would be delighted if you'd post pictures of your projects in the Scandinavian Stitches flickr group! There is one tomte looking a little lonely today...

Help I'm in the evening paper!

Who's that geek in the evening paper (Ilta-sanomat) today? Oh my, it's me looking goofy! I had nearly forgotten about this thing, a freelance journalist contacted me some 6 months ago and told me she was doing an article on female craft businesses on the Internet and asked me if she could do an interview  with me. Sure thing, I said and had no idea that it was going to be sold to one of the evening papers,this fact made me a bit nervous about the result, but it does look alright, except for that expression on my face :) And look at all those cards getting all this exposion!

What else is going on in Sykoland? Well, I started making tomte stuffies yesterday, just a little bit later than last year. I quite like spending my evenings in the sofa stuffing tomte legs and bodies. I will make enough to have some to add to my shop later this month. We've had some wonderful warm autumn weather here the last weeks and the colours outside are wonderful, we are happy to live surrounded by big old maple trees.

 

 

Networking irl

Yesterday was the first meeting of a course for local crafters that I'm participating in. It was so fun to meet a bunch of happy, inspired craftswomen in person and I'm already looking forward to our meeting next week. I joined the project to get to know other self-employed crafters in my area, got to do some networking! I really enjoyed the lecture yesterday too, it was all about visual marketing eg. shop displays and although most of the expamples were from big shops the ideas can be implied on a sales booth at the fair or a small table at the craft market. The best part of it was when we got to put theory into practise and rearrange a local craft shop last night!

My group chose a black, white and grey theme with a hint of red. I thought it was great fun running around in the shop collecting lovely handmade items. Made by someone else! As much as you enjoy making and selling your own stuff it can be very refreshing to arrange someone else's work for a change. The pictures are a bit dull since it was late and the lighting wasn't the best and flash is not my best friend so I try to work without him (or is it her...).

My group worked with "the first table". This is what you see when you first enter the shop on the right hand side. We learned that customers tend taking to the right when they enter a shop. We chose to tempt the customer with some neat wrist warmers and scarves. And look at all that yummy yarn!

 

What I learned about table displays was not to mix too many colours if possible, two or three will be enough. Think in squares when you arrange the objects on the table, 'fan arrangements' are strictly forbidden, according to our lovely teacher, because they make the table look busy and hence does not help the customer see what you have to offer at first glance, which is important, because you want people to see what you have to offer, right! Another simple thing to know- always display an uneven amount of items; 3, 5, 7... This was a challenge in a shop with so many unique items! Another thing we did on our table was to repeat round shapes, the round baskets, the angels arranged in a circle, the ceramic bowls and the lovely white glass balls together with the felted balls for babies (they have a little bell inside). So repetition is another word to remember!

I hope some of you found this short report of my new knowledge useful. I know I have to go and rearrange my shelf at this shop that sells my products on consignment, I have feeling I am breaking all the rules :)

Have a lovely weekend!

Angst and joy

It feels a bit unreal that I will have my book in my hands soon, but the lovely write-up today on the stashbooks blog proves that the day will come very soon.

It's more than 1½ years ago since I got the first mail from Susanne who wanted me to be one of the first authors in C&T Publishing's new book concept stash books. If i remember correctly I thought the first e-mail from Susanne was some kind of spam and I hit the delete button quite fast (sorry about that!).  Well, she didn't give up and was very convinced that I should go for it whereas I was seeing all the obstacles in the way, the loss of income during the writing period, the kids home on holiday and me writing a book, disbelief and yada yada... And I had a hard time imagining the process as far as to the finished product. But, then I thought, what the heck, if I could finish half a PhD thesis (that's another story...) it can't be that hard to write a decent craft book! After all it was only going to be my first book, not necessarily my best book (the thought comforted me at the time :). So I went for it. It wasn't fun all the time, I still suffered from serious writer's angst from my previous life at the univeristy, but I did it and I'm proud! And I know it will look awesome because Kristy did such a great job with the layout!

And for those of you who have been thinking that you could as well make one of those tomte stuffies all by yourself (much cheaper) I can pop the news that the pattern will be in the book for you! There he sits on the stove enjoying Christmas (I know I promised not to talk about Christmas in my last post, but I admit it was a mistake so can you forgive me, please?). If you'd rather just look at the pretty pictures in the book I will also be listing some tomtar in the shop soon for those of you who are patiently waiting. I've got some really yummy vintage Christmas fabric waiting in my stash. The lovely picture was taken by my very talented friend and photographer Sanna Peurakoski.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! I have promised myself to sort out my craft corner today, what are you up to?

A fresh new start

Hello! I'm back to blogging after a long break. I hope you have all had a great Summer! I felt I needed some time off during Summer and now I feel ready for a fresh new start! Even though I am pretty exhausted today after three days at the Forma fair here in Helsinki.The fair is open only for people working in trade and I went there especially to find new resellers. I did meet some very nice shop owners that wanted to carry Syko stuff in their shops, so I guess it was worth the €€€ after all!

This is my favourite time of year, the end of Summer and the beginning of a new school year has always felt more like a new start than a new year. I really need to do some kind of exercise to be able to spend all this time in front of the sewing machine and the computer so I'm going to a Zumba class! My lovely neighbour said she had been laughing the whole time when she went to her first class and I figure that any sport that makes you laugh is worth a try... I can name quite a few sports that have the opposite effect on me...

I am a little sad today anyway because I just decided not to rent a workspace in the most charming little house in Helsinki ;( I wanted it so badly, but after giving it some serious thought I came to the conclusion that it was too small for me. I really need more space and a room that is big enough for two since I would like to have a trainee some day soon. So I will rearrange my space here at home, invest in a new table and make the best of what I have here right now and wait for the right place for me. I know I will find it eventually.

Talk to you soon again! I want to show you what I've been working on and do something about my poor neglected Etsy shop!

 

 

Happy Valentine's day!

Today I am sharing some craft fair tips over at the Craft Friendly blog, so please head over there if you're curious about what I have to say!

 

The sun is shining and we are going ice-skating with my sister, it will be fun, but I have to say that I am still so ready for Spring and Summer so I'm leaving you with this little strawberry pouch and hope that you will have a great day in the company of good friends.

 

Today I have...

...baked cinnamon rolls with little e, who had a day off from Kindergarten.

 
 

...used the thrifted cross-stitch tea towel I bought last weekend for the first time.

 

...taken the blue sledge, the boy and a huge amount of books to the library.

...showed off my Syko stand in the relocated Pulu shop to a good friend of mine. If you come to Helsinki you won't miss this, it's right next to the tourist information in the heart of the city. The sweet owners of the shop asked me if I would be interested in building my own display in the new shop. Well, yes!! I'm so happy!

Luckily my flu didn't last for more than 2 days and as soon I felt better I finally started to work on a set of new Syko cards for Spring. More about that later! Have a great weekend!

 

Moody Monday

I thought I could fool the post Christmas mood, but it's been here all weekend and I am not liking it. I have things I should do and things I would like to do, but somehow I can't seem to get into the flow. A personal assistant to keep me going would be very nice, but I guess I will have to do it myself at this point of my career (one day, I tell you...). So it is probably time for some serious list writing tomorrow morning. Considering how well I know it works, it is strange how bad I actually am at writing lists. Probably because I haven't got those nice Syko-to-do-lists printed that I have been planning for so long... Being your own boss isn't always a pleasant assignment, I've got noone to blame! I hope that the new fabrics I have ordered will do the trick and point me in the right direction when they arrive!

This is the produce of today. And of course I am not content... The roof is too busy, I think. And the leaves, hm... Or is it just me? I hope your Monday is better than mine and that Tuesday will start a new trend. I am an optimist after all. Always.

 

Happy new year!

I hope you all enjoyed the holidays! I wasn't planning to take such a long break from blogging, but I guess I needed it! The children got back to Kindergarten and school yesterday and I am so inspired to get on with new projects again! I am relieved to feel like this because after the eventful Autumn and the ten day long Christmas fair (it ended on the 23th December!) there wasn't much left in my brains at all... But now I feel recharged, energetic and creative and I hope you do too! Chocolate, sleep and nice people (not necessarily in the mentioned order) can do wonders to a worn-out soul.

It will take a week or so before I have any new fabric creations to show you, but I do have some new prints and notebooks up in the shop! Can you spot the apples there above our sofa? And what I am most excited about is this really nice memory game with my birds that my brother designed for me for Christmas (will find the way to the shop this weekend)! Which reminds me of the fact that I have the best Santas in the world (or at least in Helsinki :) This lovely cup now holds my morning tea and this towel from Dutch PiP studio is nearly too pretty to be used!

  I wish you all an inspirational new year! I've heard that 2010 will be a really good year ;)

Glad to be back

This Autumn has left not much time for blogging, but I have missed it a lot and hope to get back to regular posting now! Last weekend was spent in Tampere at the craft fair here in Finland. I think I was quite lucky being there alone and having to watch my stall all the time, otherwise I would probably have spent too much money on craft supplies. I did manage to get my hands on a few delicate pieces of quilt fabrics though... Here are some pictures of how it looked, next time I need to bring more lights, the overall light in the hall was awful. I was however very content with the shape of my booth. There are more photos over at flickr, if you're curious. You might spot some new things, I will take some pictures and hopefully even update the shop tomorrow! I'll be back again this week. Promise!