Oh deer

The new look of white pillow cases! I saw this idea in some shop and shamelessly decided to steal the idea. The pillow cases were from Ikea and I got them with the thought in mind, that I would decorate them somehow and then finally got the idea of what I want.

Plain white pillows would have been too boring, I think, since my whole decoration for the season is rather white. I got some paint from the local craft store and started painting. I used just my old paint brushes, nothing too fancy. I let the pillow cases dry over night before ironing them.

I am rather excited about these, I think they turned out very pretty and I am sure I will use this method to decorate some other pillow cases I might have. Perhaps it's time to go digging through flea markets and see if I can find some material there. 

Himmeli - The Christmas mobile

Perhaps the name would be Yule Mobile? I am not quite sure. Quick googling didn't give me much result on this, so I shall call it how I would, himmeli.

Traditionally it is made from straw and nowadays people usually hang them up during Christmas. We made one himmeli in class many years back. Each kid made their own part and then all parts were joined together to make one whole himmeli. After that, I wanted to make my own himmeli at home and every Christmas I think about it, but for some reason I never got around making it.

This year I saw my friend's new himmeli made out of plastic straws, and then decided this year will be the year when I make my own himmeli.

It was bit of trial and error this one and It sort of looks like it too. It needs a little bit of tweaking. Next time I'll find some smaller straws and use a different thread in them. Otherwise, the more of the parts I made, the faster and better they turned out to be.

We have a saying here, hunger grows while eating and this was the case here. I now want bigger and more magnificent himmeli. I have this whole pattern in mind of what it should look like. This was a very good practice project and I will definitely make more of these! Making the parts come so fast while watching tv.

A little DIY gift

I've always been fond of self made gifts. I started skipping the whole buying of gifts once I noticed I could make things that would make a nice surprise to open on Christmas. Making Christmas cards has been one of my favourite hobbies of all time. I don't make 50 cards per year, more than 10 cards, so the amount to be made is not that big.

This year I have decided to make replacement ornaments for my mother. I made similar yarn elves for her in school and she has hung them up every Christmas ever since. A few years ago, the family got a new addition to the family in the form of a little beagle called Pele. One unfortunate day the other yarn elf fell on the ground and Pele was quick to notice it and found out the 7 Veljestä yarn tastes absolutely amazing. There wasn't much left of the other elf and so the one elf left hung alone. I thought it was just so sad, I decided to remake the elf couple. After all, 3 is better than 1.

What I needed was:

• Some red yarn
• Two pieces of card board
• A little white felt
• Piece of white yarn
• Scissors
• Needle and some white thread

First I cut two pieces out of the card board, one for the body and for the arms. Then I wrapped the red yarn around the card boards to make a couple of nice bulky skeins. It's better to use bit too much than bit too little. After freeing the skeins I tied the head in place with a piece of yarn and under the neck I slid in the skein of the arms. The wrists I tied again with a piece of yarn. Under the arms I tied the waist with a red yarn to keep it in place. On top of it I tied the white yarn as a belt to match the hat. For the elf with the skirt I just cut the foot end of the skein and trimmed the ends a bit to make it neat. For the elf with the pants, I tied the ankles with a string. The hats I sew together and then I sew them on the heads of the elves. I left a little loop of thread on the tip of the head so they could be hung up alongside with their lonely friend.

Stockholm in pictures

Couple weeks ago I took a trip to Stockholm. It was a magical trip filled with chocolate, weirdly flavoured waters, Christmas, shopping, sight seeing and relaxing. Just a perfect weekend getaway. Here are few of the shots I took while there.

Had to take a picture of these hanging ball lights. I found them extremely funny for some reason.

Christmas came early!

I decided to tackle a couple of things off from my wish list. A little trip to Ikea... One well placed order in Anttila...

Once I get some natural light, I will show you what I came up with. Until then, this teaser will be enough.

I am really disliking this time of year. No matter how fast I try to get to home, there is no light left! Everything I want to photograph, I have to do during weekends. Hopefully this weekend won't be too busy, so I have time to get a couple of shots of my Christmassy home.

Lights on!

This is really difficult time of year, since it seems I cannot get home before it all gets so dark to photograph. On the other hand it is a brilliant time to bring out the lights.

I had these 3 stars on the window last year, but I thought they would look better on the wall, by my little chair. First I attached them with tape hooks, but they did not hold. No surprise there. I decided to take out the nails and the hammer then. As I was nailing my stone walls with the force that needed, I managed to hit my thumb. I do not recommend! What I do recommend is to decorate with lights.

The chair is a flea market find. It is apparently from the PS series of Ikea, but I can't be sure. If someone knows the name of this chair, please let me know! It has got a sheep skin blanket and couple of knit pillows for the winter. Lot of other flea market stuff here too, the side table was found at the huge flea market at Kuopio market square couple years back and the silvery tray was found at the church's recycling center. I really love going to flea markets.

I am a sucker for all lights. I have plenty of lamps and I love candles. These three stars are perhaps my favourite lights for Christmas. I rarely have the lights on the chandelier, the other lamps give enough light to enjoy the long, dark evenings.

Something old...

I am happy to show off my newly painted shelf thing. What is that piece of furniture called anyway? I guess the closest thing would be a side table. Or a side shelf. Help table? Here it is. In white and being dressed for Christmas.

I am actually happy to see so much second hand things here. I have bought the side table itself at a flea market, most of the magazines are collected from the same flea market. The picture frame and the tea candle holders are from the recycling center. The picture frame was rather odd combination of grey and green so I took a can of metallic gold spray paint and gave it a new colour.

I remember as a kid we had those tea candle holders every where. Then I remember getting rid of them when I thought they were out of date and ugly. 10 years more and I think they are rather cute and I am glad I stumbled upon them at the recycling center. 40 cents a piece they were not much of an investment.

I chose to put LED tea lights here since this side table is directly under my String System and not to mention the candle holders themselves sit directly on a wooden table. I was worried about my fire safety when I have so many little candles in once place, I thought it was safer to use the LED lights. While I agree that fire is better, I do not think these are that ugly either.

The new addition to my family of greenies is this Araucaria heterophylla, a conifer from Australia. I was looking for callunas for my balcony, but it seems I have missed out on them. So instead I decided to comfort myself with this little Christmas tree look-a-like. I made it a seat out of a paper bag and I will decorate it when it is a bit more appropriate for Christmas decoration.

It is always a bit difficult to contain myself when it comes to Christmas decoration. I should always remember less is more. One thing I won't do is wait until it is week until Christmas. Once it turns December, I shall take them all out. I am rather excited decorating for it. More post of decorating shall follow!

Light in the dark

I was wondering it may be a bit early to bring on all the Christmas lights, even if I have seen a few out there. Who can blame the people? It is the darkest time of year, when the days are getting shorter and shorter and there is no snow to light up the great outdoors. It is just dark and it is just getting darker. Instead of bringing out the Christmas lights, I collected some of my candle holders and tea light cups and made this little arrangement. I want to keep the candles lit all the time. I better go to Ikea again and get a bag of those candles again.

My windows face a park, and on the other side of the park they have lit up the trees again. No, not with fire. Thousands of little lights. They look rather amazing and I am glad that I get to see those instead of gloomy street lamps. And they create a nice little background for my candle arrangement.

Only couple more months and the days will get longer again!

Easier said than done

Most of the DIY projects start with an idea. Idea of what you want. Next comes the question, how am I going to get it? Then usually you start planning, figuring out materials. Perhaps you have thought about it for a while and then bump to the right ingredient to make it happen. Then you tune it up or fit it to your initial idea. Simple as that.

Well, it rarely is that simple, as we all know.

I had been looking for  a nice table or perhaps a drawer to fit next to my work station. If I ever manage to get a new printer, it would sit in or on that said drawer. One day I found that little drawer from a flea market. I liked the shape but it was the wrong colour. Then came the usual thought, I can always paint it...

I wish things would just magically change colour when I whip my magic wand. I say that now, since it took two days to sand. I sanded it more thoroughly than I've sanded anything before.

This is how I left it after day 1. 

The project sat there in use for months when I finally decided that I need a machine to do the work for me, since I wanted the drawer to be bit translucent white. I knew I needed to get all that brown away for the white to really work and I did not want to do it by hand. What I did not take into consideration was that the drawer apparently used to be brown, then it had been sanded and poorly painted brown with this glossy lacquer.

Then came the painting. I made the huge mistake of trying out a paint I have never used before and didn't know anyone who had used it. I went with the cheap paint. Firstly, the guide say it was for unprocessed wood or sanded surfaces. I was confident it would work out. Six hours between layers and 3 layers should give me a result I was after. And why I went on with a brush, I do not know. The first layer took 4 days to dry. Second luckily only a day. After the third layer I am still not happy with it. I am worried I have ruined it.

But I can always sand it and repaint it, right??

Wish list part 1

My livingroom has been the slowest to get into this state where I would be happy with it and could say it is complete. I guess when you have a home, it is never "done", but continues to change through the seasons. There are a couple of things I wish my livingroom still had before it could be the sort of base level where I could start changing it.

There is this one structural thing I would like to change. I want to hide my radiator. It's not this terribly ugly thing, but I still would like to hide it, since it is quite large and not that pretty. I am not entirely sure if building a case like in the picture would make it look any better, it might draw eyes even more to it.

Also the livingroom echoes a little too much for my taste, so I would like to have a nice big wool rug on the floor. I have been looking at other blogs where this Pandora rug is well represented and I would like to at least try it out. It might be bit too busy for my taste, but then again, I don't want plain white rug. I have already discarded one big black rug, because it made the room so dark. Also, a household with a cat was not compatible with the black rug. So it might not necessarily be this Pandora rug, but it is a wool rug that I want.

What I am missing from my livingroom is a good side table and I have been eyeing these food trolleys/carts. Especially those old ones people have upcycled. I have been keeping my eyes open at flea markets, but so far the carts I have seen have not been what I would like, size wise or shape wise. Colour could always be changed and a little fixing could be made.

My walls are white. Too white. I need something to my walls. I have a trip to Stockholm coming up and I have been looking forward to visiting Moderna Museet and their shop. They have a lot of nice looking prints I would like to check out. I have a feeling I need one bigger one to stand against the wall and one smaller for the little space that currently has nothing. The prints I might get are not necessarily these, even if they both appeal to me. I shall see what I find.

Then there is the whole thing of my rear speakers. I made a quick solution for them and cut my old Billy cd tower in half so I could get the speakers up, but it is too clumsy looking, too black. I want something more airy. Perhaps lift them up to the ceiling! I have to ponder this.

Posters are from Moderna Museet webshop and the Pandora rug from Anttila.

I will tell about the rest of the wish list, the more expensive side of it, later on.

Girl with the grey hoodie

One of my friends has this favourite story about my life. She can't help but laugh every time it is even mentioned.

Do you remember those Fruit of the loom hoodies in every colour of the rainbow back in the 90s? (Or was it very early 00s, I cannot remember) Most of my friends, and what seemed to be the current world, had those hoodies in many of their favourite colours. I begged my father to buy me one as well. As a good single father he agreed to buy one. Just one. Why would I need the same hoodie in more than one colour, you know. One was enough. So what do I do? From all the colours, I pick grey.

Everyone had pinks and reds and greens and yellows. I have a grey one. And I was not allowed more. I remember thinking that black is too dark and you can't see the logo on it, so a grey is good since it goes with all my clothes. Very good thinking of me, at that young age I must admit. So there I was. A girl with the grey hoodie. Father thought it was a good hoodie. It served its purpose and did not break. The only way I was going to get a new one was if the old one would break. It did not. Damn quality clothes.

I've gone back to that story many times in my adult life. I grew up with things that served their purpose. Some of them were DIY, most of them mended by hand, everything very cost effective. That is how it is when a man is in charge of the household. It does not need to be pretty, if it works, it is good. When I grew up and had a little space of my own to use as I please, I thought, is it good? Or could it also be pretty? Could it be functional and pretty? A little research later I found my answer. YES!

I want all of my every day objects to be pretty. This has now resulted couple of problems. For example, my bathroom does not go together with the soap dispenser I got. Less problematic things I've found are my all black dish washing equipment.

Why shouldn't it all be pretty?

The dream that came true

It was perhaps around 2006 when I had found my first home, after moving out of my childhood home. It was this beautiful, spacious apartment I had spotted online for rent. I loved that apartment. It had the most spacious kitchen I've had in my life. It had a big bedroom and a balcony that bathed in the rays of long summer evening sun. It had hideous floors though. Very worn-out grey plastic floors. I remember thinking, if only this was my own, I'd redo the floors. I would have redone the walls too. The kitchen had a baby blue wall and I would have liked to paint it. I couldn't though, since it was not mine.

As life would happen, I had to move out from that home and I then decided that next time I will be at home, it will be my own and I do not want to leave it unless I myself want to. Sure it took me plenty of years and some sacrifices and plenty of compromises to be able to get to my home.

It was a year ago, November 2013, when I was browsing new listings online one Friday, as I had done for the past two years, when I saw this little apartment in an area I wanted to be in. It had nearly the same layout as this apartment I had fell for a year earlier, but wasn't fortunate enough to get. They had an open viewing on the following Sunday. I remember it being one very damn long weekend just looking at the pictures of this compact, smart apartment. I could see the potential in it. Just paint the walls and wax the floors and I could move in and then renovate it little by little.

On that Sunday evening, me and my father drove up to the building and I already saw a lot of people outside. When they let us in, I counted 5 groups and us in that little apartment. They were all investors looking to rent it out. I was the only one who was looking to buy one for myself. It did not take me long to decide that I wanted it. I whispered to my father that I will place my offer tonight. I waited the other people to leave and talked to the realtor and gave my unofficial offer. The realtor called the owner and gave a green light. We agreed to make the official offer on paper the following morning.

My offer was accepted on Monday morning 11.15.

Two weeks later I was knee deep in debt, keys in my hands and happy as a child on Christmas.

This is the first picture I took in my apartment. 43m² of my own space.

First things first

It's been a while since I've blogged, but somehow the time felt right.

Life has been more or less of a roller coaster and keeping me busy for a long time, but now everything has cleared up and I have had time to enjoy my life a bit again. Now I feel like I might even have time to blog more than the 140 characters a week.

The topic for this blog brew for months before I could actually figure it all out, but now that I am actually blogging, it is all pretty clear.

Home.

My home, to be exact. What is my home like and what I do when I am at home. Home was my dream and it took me a while, but here we are. So, for anyone, who might read this blog, this is a glimpse to my home and perhaps sometimes the homes away from home.

Phew, first post pressure gone! Welcome to my blog.