Happy New Year 2018 and hope your year and has started well! It has been a while since my last post while my making has been directed towards the new home these last couple of months. Apparently a lot of time has been spent making new textiles of linen, curtains of different sorts and other textiles. Perhaps a bit of a linen overload and modern style kitchen meets my kind of old furniture here, but it doesn't matter to me. Things are still going around here and finding their places and it is always about learning, when I see better, I do better step by step. It has of course been also a lot of fun to get to make a new home, there is a lot of gratitude in that. I have been buying new pieces of furniture as well, on a budget and out of necessity, since I had either sold, given to charity or sent to be recycled most of my things before moving here in the middle of November.
I am especially fond of the old wooden chair I got from a shop called Welmans here in the old city as well as the rattan chair. It is the kind of lovely kitchen and home ware shop I have to stay away from, since I could treat myself with just about anything from there. An the service is really lovely, an hour from the purchase both of these chairs arrived to my door.
So often in life things don't come to us the way we hope or want, but it can be good anyway. This story is just about a piece of furniture, but I had been looking for a cabinet for a longer time and when a neighbor wanted to get rid of an old one I thought that perhaps it is here, I could see some crocheted critters in it. This 90´s cabinet was originally dark green and with drawers which had glass panels I wasn’t fond of, so I changed the look to make it compatible with the old long cabinet I’ve had for 20 years. I got wooden shelves cut in measurement and instead of legs I put wheels under it so that it is now also easy to move as the other one and can be used for storing craft supplies or kitchen supplies or both. It was a somewhat proud moment when I was able to put the wheels on all by myself with Bruce Springsteen in the background, silly me. All these little victories in life :-). Curtains for the cabinet are made of the old linen table cloth which started to come to the end of its journey and I was happy to find a nice ribbon from a lovely old time sewing supply shop called Nappi-Aitta to add a little detail and perhaps to tie these two pieces of furniture together.
I have also made a crochet spot for crocheting rugs on the floor with some cushions. There is eventually a small sofa or arm chair coming there, but I let the right piece of furniture to find me with time instead of looking anything actively.
After having been to a fabric store in Helsinki four times already I thought that I better come up with a curtain for the bedroom of existing materials, so I threw all the linens I had left on the floor and started combining. I am really happy with the three color result (as it often is, when you have limited resources you have to get creative and end up making something more unique and interesting for your eye). I think I will add dark blue linen under the pale blue fabric so that the curtain will go all the way down to the floor and also flows more nicely and perhaps a touch of pale pink in the middle of the beige part of the curtain.
There are also a few books in these pictures I have been enjoying and been inspired by. In the first picture a book about homes of the Danish creatives I got from a shop called Retro Villa in Copenhagen in September. Friend was waiting for me outside and said that I looked so refreshed when coming outside with this book in my hand after a long day. Perhaps there is a message of a direction or something, at least a dream for me. Cooking and testing with gluten-free flours have also been high on my making agenda lately and eating foods with the color of sunshine during these dark winter months (not sure this theory really works). Anyway, nice to get back to normal every day life and routines and back to crochet as well after some tumultuous months. A new rug with an old design is nearly finished, hope the recipient will be pleased. Little mouse has also been napping all by himself for many months now so I finally finished one of his friends I've had half-way finished from October. They seem to have color coordinated they outfits as well ;-).
And the city I moved to is called Porvoo, an hour away from Helsinki and with a beautiful old town. Sorry for the bad picture though, but it was nice to watch the ice quietly pass by on the river. So I think I really can’t complain when it comes to a creative environment now. There is also a yarn shop here in the old town ten minutes’ walk away from my home and a chocolate shop just across the street :-) so I think I am well equipped for some making this year. So we shall see what kind of creative projects are ahead.
Wishing you many happy creative moments with your projects in 2018!
Pirjo