Thank You

Happy news: My Etsy shop has reached a milestone of 1000 hearts. This is a good progress and makes me happy, giving confidence for my little business. So thank you all my friends and fans for your support!

Last weekend I participated with my friend Vietto at a craft fair in Helsinki. It was under a recycling theme, thus the name "Kierrätystehdas" (translates literally into recyling factory). It was a nice experience so thank you everyone who visited our booth. For my surprise I met some customers who had seen and even shopped at my Etsy shop. I can see that little by little Etsy is becoming more wellknown here too. I also noticed that many Finns find buying in USdollars somewhat confusing (which is of course not a surprise to me). This made me consider setting up my own little webshop for Finnish customers. It'll come, sooner or later! If any of you have suggestions what you would like to see in that shop, drop a line and tell me please.

And I can't resist telling you this: We got a new family member this Monday. She's Kiti who I introduced to you in my Easter post. Exciting!

Winner!

I'm happy to announce the winner of our team's weekly challenge...

She is BINKAMINKA with her lovely linen pincushion with turquoise lace as her entry. I just adore the sense of natural linen with the combination of delicate lace not to forget the beautiful color of turquoise. Quite perfect in my opinion so congratulations binkaminka! We should be getting a new theme announced by her soon...

Weekly Challenge - My Flowers

Last night I heard I had won the weekly challenge game of EuropeanStreetTeam hosted by Gaia. My challenge entry under the theme "delicate balances" was one of my new sakura clutches as seen in my shop. Thank you for this honourable mention!

Hereby I'm announcing a new theme for this week which shall be: MY FLOWERS! Feel free to interpret this as you wish. It's all about your flowers. Your favorite ones, your eyecandy in any form. Fresh, dried, real, fake, imaginative, dreamy, existing or non-existing, you name it.

The entries need to be sent to me via Etsy convo by next Monday at 21.00 Finland time (GMT +3). I'll be adding all entries to my blog as they're coming in. Happy crafting!

And the entries are (clicking the image takes you directly to the listing):

Spring is here-snowdrops felted brooch by ingermaaike

Daffodil-felted flower by ingermaaike

Flower chain and plastic necklace by psarokokalo

Flowers on jade stones-silver earrings by toosis

Cactus flower ring by staroftheeast

Narcissus-needle felted brooch by xbyleinaneima

Flower bracelet by zsbcreations

Crocheted rose earrings by febystan

Idorie and Her Flories by swiedebie

Flowering bracelet by sumikoshop

Roses and Chocolate Cake - 1/12 miniature by petitplat

Fleur bleue bracelet by fleurfatale

My Flowers are Alien-painted fabric journal by kreativlink

Blossom is back-3-digital art print by matilou

My Fleur Love by stemellina

Organza Flower Brooch by alatvian

Enchanted magnolia flowers by enchantedpond

Magnolia flower black and white by enchantedpond

Fairytale magnolia flowers by enchantedpond
Stripes and flowers by vadjutka

Golden Flower Necklace by leelabijou

Linen Pincushion Blue Flowers by binkaminka

Everpink Spring Blossoms by kraplap

Overnight My Pigtails Grew (and Bloomed) by annarubyking

Passionata-Earrings by momochas

Little Sun - ACEO original signed fine art print 1/30 by arctica

Wildplum-shawl by vilte

Vintage Yellow Red Button Flower Ring by amoronia

The Jaqueline Clutch in Teal and Gold by MShandbags, our visiting star from Australia:)

Earrings by antigoni

Blossom-Small shoulder bag with an adjustable strap by helisengezer

Gold sandals with crochet flowers by creationsbyeve
Thank you everyone for your lovely new creations and hard work! I'm in awe how many gorgeous items we have listed this week.

Hello Ladybird

This Sunday was such a sunny but ah, very windy day here. I spent some time in the garden raking leaves and fighting against the first weeds (yes, they're coming early). I saw tulips peeking eagerly, as well as bleeding hearts (lamprocapnos spectabilis) and herbs like parsley and oregano to mention a few. If I haven't been very succesful in growing vegetables in the past years the herbs don't seem to fail on me. It must be because many of them are perennial and don't require that much attention but are happy on their own. And of course they apparently have a proper place with a suitable soil to grow. There were quite many ladybirds in the flower-bed. They were moving so fast I couldn't capture more than one to a picture. Such little creatures. I love them!

I got nice news today. Nei had put up a lovely article about Karuski on her greenfashionfreak blog. Thank you. Kiitos!

Sakura Inspiration

During the Easter I came up with a new design. The best part is that it happened by accident. I was cutting fabrics for other purse and something went wrong. I guess my mind was wandering around and I wasn't concentrating. But happily this resulted in something new! I'm glad to say that the first one is sold by now, another one is available here.

The linen here is something I found in Tallinn, Estonia a couple of years ago but didn't use until now. It's not recycled but I consider it quite eco-friendly though. I'm matching upcycled sakura and other flower prints with the solid color fabric. Blue, light & charcoal gray linens + floral print patterns. I never get tired of flowers, no matter if they exist in the nature, photo or fabric. Maybe you'll also get inspired by the picture of blooming cherry blossoms I took back in Japan? I hope so!

Kitten Talk

This is Kiti, the kitten who's been visiting us from Saturday and will stay here until tomorrow. She's just about 9 months old Norweigan Forest Cat. Such a fluffy and flexible young lady! She's so fearless, I have witnessed her jumping several times from floor up to fireplace which is about 1,50 meters of height. She likes to experience new tastes too. I had to move my spring seedlings from our kitchen to my studio because three sprouts of the runner bean (phaseolus coccineus) were already cut by her teeth. This has been an interesting baby-sitting for us, I think we'll miss her company after she has returned back home tomorrow evening.

Another thing. I want to thank Madelene from Merry Go Around. She was so kind to feature my earrings on her inspiring blog. Tack så mycket!

Happy Easter!

Do you have any plans for Easter? Are you having a holiday or are you working? I'll stay at home, take a little break but sew and craft in small bits too. I wish to:

-go through my bookshelf for a little inspiration
-make a nice dinner with my boyfriend (I bought a salmon today)
-get some ideas how to decorate new gift boxes and make a booth display at the upcoming craft event
-visit many nice blogs for a joy and enlightment
-sow some more summer flower seeds
-spend time outdoors, the weather forecast is promising!

I almost forgot, we'll get a guest coming on Saturday and staying for four days. It's Kiti, the kitten of my boyfriend's sister's family. I hope we'll get along well. Happy Easter!

Poppytalk!

I got really nice news this week: I got accepted to Poppytalk Handmade! Mother's Day & Kids Market will take place April 13 - May 8. This is my first time to be there, I'm pretty excited. I can't wait to see all other artists and labels who will be there. Of course I will hope for sales too, that's for sure. But the best thing is to be seen there. In a good company. Come to visit my showcase next week. And don't forget to visit their blogs here, here and here. Good for your eye and brain, me thinks!

Spring & Sprouting

Two weeks ago I did sow a whole bunch of seeds. Happily I can see most of them sprouting now! I even found some forgotten spaghetti squash (cucurbita pepo) seeds from my storage, package showing the best before date December07 but they're going strong as well. It's always worth trying, really. Soon I need to divide these into bigger planting holders.

And there are still plenty of more seeds to be sown in April. I need to find more space for them somewhere in our house, the kitchen is getting pretty crowded. It wont be before late May or early June I can plant all of them outside but I can wait. Oh, it feels like a spring now!

Feeling Connected?

These days the mantra goes: Get connected via social networks if you want to exist. Some years ago I didn't feel like doing this, in some ways I am so old fashioned! But what happened?

When I moved away from Helsinki some 3,5 years ago I left all my friends there. It's not that I wouldn't ever see them anymore but for sure the contacts are fewer now. In this tiny town I feel I'm an outsider and things wont probably change much in this sense days to come. My crafty soulmates are located all over the world within the internet connection. I need my Etsy friends e v e r y day: to say a quick hello, ask a question, listen to someone with good or little poor news, share your feelings and what's the most valuable; be assured I'm surrounded by people who share the same passion and are willing to give feedback and encourage each other. No matter where they are located, what's their background, age etc.

So thanks twitter, facebook, flickr and etsy. You fullfilled my needs. I ♥ you all!