OWOH came and went

I visited all over 900 blogs, participated in about 60 draws and won - nothing.
Yes, I'm disappointed and sad about this fact. *sigh*

Life isn't very good right now.

I better count my blessings :-)

It's the time of the year... OWOH

One World - One Heart happening

I am to give a gift to someone visiting my blog and leaving a comment. You can live anywhere in the world, be anyone, if you'd like to receive a package from me, leave a comment.

I don't know yet what will be in the package... at least some warm socks, as last year, but perhaps something else too... Let's see what I will manage to create during these 3 weeks to the day of the lottery. I will be updating this blog entry, so that you'll be able to see what you will win.

Update 1. I went through my things and found a small paper giftback, pink, with silver dots; a tiny notepad with the same pink silverdot paper cover; a small stamp with pink inkpad and a pair of very Swedish cookie cutters in shape of Dalahorse, one small and one big, and I intend to bake you a batch of cookies using my cutters in the same shape :-)
I'll add pictures tomorrow. It's almost midnight here now, a bit too late to do anything about it now.

You may enter the draw until 11th of February, midnight CET - that is Central European Time.
I will draw the winner February 12th and post the package the very day with Swedish Valentine's stamps :-D

Good luck and hugs

Comment on 30th January:
Thank you for all the comments :-) It's really lovely to read what you have to say :-)
I have sent cookies to USA, and it takes about a week to arrive, and the cookies have been fine, so I think the cookies can be sent all over the world without getting bad.
I also don't think the customs will stop the package. At least I hope so. Last time I sent cookies was last year, so if nothing special has happened since then, they should arrive.

The socks are finished and I will be posting a picture soon... or maybe not ;-) That could well be a surprise :-D At least they are pink, wool, with hearts and about European size 40 - It shouldn't be a problem to remove a couple of rows from the foot to make it fit a smaller foot, or you can use other socks inside :-D The yarn is old, from my stash, and I don't know anything about it - except that it is wool. It might be dyed by me, it might have some man-made fiber in to strengthen the sock. I wouldn't wash them in a washing machine except in a wool wash program, but you can always see what happens... If they shrink a lot, you get a pair for a girl, or perhaps Yule ornaments :-D

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Edited 12.2.2009

And the winner is...

Julie!

Congratulations :-)

yarn-hamsters

In Finnish "hamster" is someone who collects or "hamsters" things, "for the rainy day". You are not a hamster, if you collect stamps or vintage dolls, but if you collect things to be used later, "just in case", like for example canned food, because one never knows when one might need it, or craft material, because there was a sale and, well, one can use them some day for some project. Yarn hamsters are naturally people who have been "hamstering" yarn, either there's been some yarn over from a project, or one planned on doing a project that never happened, or... there was a sale in the local yarn shop and one could get really nice yarn, a lot, cheaply, and even though there wasn't an immediate need for the yarn, one never knows, and you get the picture :-D
Anyways, the Finnish knitters' blogging society organizes "yarn hamsters" February, now for the 5th time. The one who manages to use most yarn without buying any new yarn wins a prize. (Or something like that. Close enough to me.)
I think I'm going to join, as in a training month, or so. Let's see if I can manage to diminish my yarn stash a little.

I also "hamster" patterns... I have like 10 kilos of print-outs and books and ideas and plans I need to do. There's another thing going on about this in the net too. I don't remember what it was right now, but I think the idea was to finish 10 patterns from stash before one gets to buy a new one - magazines and books counted.
Alan Dart has put the lovely Siamese on his site... the Leprachaun isn't bad either. I really want the Hanukkah Hiram and the Witch and Cat too, and... The problem is that I already have four patterns by Alan Dart waiting to be finished... the Springer Spaniel, Pearl the Knitter, Devilish Dragon and the Yule gnomes.

But I have finished my cardigan. I am knitting my spider scarf, but I didn't have enough yarn for the whole thing, and now I have to decide what to do with the rest... perhaps just use some yarn that fits, somewhat, and dye the whole thing black. It's wool, and disgusting color, and black would be nice, because the thing cannot be used as a scarf, but only as a Halloween decoration. Or then I give it to my niece, who doesn't like the ugly brownish spider color anyway, but would prefer black.

I also need to finish my Horseshoes cardigan and Mapleleaves socks. I want to knit more shawls. I have Luminaria pattern waiting, because I'm really interested in Estonian lace knitting, and the Spring Equinox Shawl.

Hmm... what else... I have done more this year than can be seen, but - hey, it's already February, who remembers old things? ;-)

The Toy Society

I found this delightful little society :-)

http://thetoysociety.blogspot.com/
The Toy Society at Flickr
The Toy Society at Facebook
"The Toy Society is a small project spreading the love throughout the streets. Nothing to it really just a bunch of handmade toys looking for a nice home. What started as a small street art project in Australia is slowly spreading around the world." "So, you'd like to be part of The Toy Society? Maybe make a toy, leave it somewhere...you know make someone happy. Sure, everyone's welcome!"

Here's more info

Give away some joy to people :-) I think I'm going to crochet another cat for someone to be found :-)

I just wanted to leave something small inside a book in a library for someone to find, like a bookmark or a picture or scrap or something :-) I love it when I find things like that inside books :-)
I also thought of bottle post, and binding something on a helium balloon and let it fly somewhere...

Still haven't learned anything...

I was just going through my blog, to collect some of the ideas I've got and presented in this blog, and found this: 2007 projects

"It's totally impossible for me to have time to do everything I want to do - especially when I keep surfing online most of the time - Especially when I just get more ideas to do..."

Blogsurfing

I finally managed to write my 101 things in 1001 days list. It's mostly about things I wish I had done, not about things I think I should or so. It's quite possible I have been overestimating my time and possibilities, but on the other hand this is not something I MUST do, it can just as well be used to see what I actually am prepared to do and what I actually manage to do. Some kind of a reality check.

Anyway, there's a couple of points on the list I'm doing right now.
78. I want to become a better blog pal - visit at least 10 blogs every week of which at least 2 new, and leave comments.
I like comments on my blog :-)

91. I want to "click for free" every day.
Care2 has free clicks, then there's the breast cancer site with other clicks and free rice...

So 10 blogs:

1. February started "a thing a day" anew.
2. There I spot "cold weather woman" and les plus beauxx
A thing a day reminds me of the fact that I want to start drawing again, making art... and that I really would like to become more active with art journaling. Which leads us to
3. Michelle Ward's Green Pepper Press Street Team Crusades.
I have been really bad girl. And not in a good way. But - as long as there's life, there's hope :-) Last year I managed to create an altered book - sort of - because of "changing to do into - ta da - today". I also managed to finish quite a lot of craft projects last year. Not bad.
But I needed to visit a blog entry of mine to find Michelle's crusades, and I spotted
4. iHanna. I actually visited her blog yesterday, because I was bored and tried to procrastinate, and not do things on my list... What is it with lists, anyway? I write a list with things I really, REALLY, want to do, and when they get on the list, I'd rather do anything else but the things on the list. *hmm*
To her blog I got from
5. Gingerbread Snowflakes. It's one of my favorites, and I love the blog list there.
6. One Pretty Thing is really nice... What was the word... enabler?
7. Polliwog's Cakewalk - sounds like my kind of girl :-)
8. which reminded me of Cake Wrecks... I was surfing yesterday and found this blog, and laughed so that I cried :-D Especially the Kwanzaa entry... which lead me to
9. Ultra Fine Flair...

Then... I visited a lot of other blogs, but there just wasn't anything that caught my eye... So go and visit "What Not to Knit". It is still wonderful :-)

P.S. Viva Woman has a "bejeweled giveaway" right now. She could have joined OWOH too, I'm sure she'd had a lot more attention that way :-D

Happy Imbolc, everyone!

It's monday, 2nd of February, and Imbolc. We made an early start and have celebrated the whole weekend :-D I have gained like 5 pounds or so... :-(

On Wednesday is Runeberg's day. There's a certain type of pastry that should be made to celebrate that day. Johan Ludwig Runeberg is Finland's national poet, lived some couple hundred years ago and his favorite pastry, they say, was a sort of a "clean the tables" cake - with bread and cookie crumbs in dough. It is really good, but I am not going to bake those this year.

On four days is mister's and mine 10th wedding anniversary... I can't believe we've been married in 10 years! I hope we'll get a day off, just him and me. :-)

There's other stuff happening in February too, that would be a cause to eat carbs... birthdays, Valentine's, Mardi Gras... But I am going to be strong!

But here's a pair of love birds

a wonderful "100 things I love about you"

and an all edible candy box to those who will eat candy :-)

And happy Imbolc to you :-) May the spring be bright and light and may your seeds grow :-D

Imbolc calendar day 32

Feed the birds

fan hearts

love rocks

knitted toy box

sugar shacks - or igloos

Imbolc calendar day 31

It's hard to believe January 2009 is almost over... Imbolc is only two days away.

I have been quite involved in the OWOH happening, visiting blogs and wishing to win things :-D The blog world is full of wonderfully talented, creative and active people, and it's such a joy to visit their blogs :-) I find it very inspiring... I get all kinds of ideas, would like to have a giveaway once a month or so, but I'm not so generous a person... I'd like to get things too :-D I'm not that enlightened and evolved human being and not so good either. >:->

One of the participants was giving away a "flip flop album". I don't even know what it is, it looked very interesting... I got an image of an album with secret pages that flip to reveal even more surprises, pockets and boxes hidden in the album, a sort of a pop-up book...
Here's how to make a flip flop album

Some time ago I talked about a tatting group that was tatting a shape a day or something similar. With this years OWOH I found "Ornament Thursday". One could crochet a motif, a shape, a flower a day and end up with an amazing Irish Crochet thing...

I have been reading through my papers about Imbolc, and found a picture of a mother and daughter, and how they were decorating for Yule - the mother told that she made over 300 white Christmas roses to the tree while she was pregnant with the daughter, and how they still form the base of the tree decoration.
It's really simple: you cut from white tissue paper 3 flowers with six rounded petals and curl the edges. You cut a circle of gold paper and another of cardboard as backing. You make a small, loose pompom of gold yarn and sew all the layers together with the same gold yarn - the cardboard backing, three layers of white petals, golden center circle and yarn frills. Instead of gold yarn, you can use golden present ribbon too and curl it for the center.

Here's a curly package bow, but it looks a bit like a snowflake... Here's a boneflake... Not really Imbolc theme, but really funny :-D

Here's some Imbolc inspiration; red and white, and stones. I love the framed stones she has made.

You could make "Frozen Nature Collages"

or make "Star Windows" or "Rose Windows" of construction paper and tissue paper. You could cut several snowflakes out of the tissue paper, different colors, same size, and clue them on each other. Very pretty ornaments.

Here's really pretty faux stained glass lanterns
Here's star shaped paper lantern
Paper bag luminary
You can make faux stained glass paper lanterns by making a paper box of construction paper or thin cardboard and then cut the "stained glass" pictures on it and glue colored tissue paper inside the box.

You could also make Sky lanterns... several floating in the black February night would be very beautiful...

Imbolc calendar day 30

Three days left.

Here's a button heart pillow

I like this cropped cardi - I think other girls like it too. Boys might think it looks like something a granny would wear... ;-)

Very nice felt things

Imbolc is also a dragon feast. Dragons are familiar to both the Celtic world and to the Chinese New Year's celebration.

Here's a simple paper dragon

Here's a couple of demos of not at all simple paper dragons... chromatic and metallic - you can buy the patterns from penguin labs

Canon's papercraft lucky dragon

Dragon illusion paper craft - it will keep looking at you, where ever you go ;-)

Make a dragon piñata

dragon table topper

Fierce but friendly crocheted dragon

crocheted baby snow dragon

crocheted dragon

knitted dragon - Norberta

dragon hand puppet

phoenix and dragon finger puppets
fairy tale finger puppets - dragon, prince, princess, horse
pig and lion finger puppets
"pocket potter puppet pals"
witch finger puppet
farmyard finger puppets - cow, chick, duck, dog and pig

knitted dragon bookends. Education is also an Imbolc theme... ;-)

Imbolc calendar day 29

I'm sitting here and listening to John Doan. A man with a 20 string harp guitar... One gets a bit dreamy :-)

Now, there's two needle mittens with snowmen

lacy crocheted snowflake

Very nice "beige set"

Valentine's Day dishcloths :-)

Imbolc calendar day 28

Great Imbolc wreath idea.

Valentine tea bags

No sew heart garland - you can use any shape

Polymer clay pebbles - really beautiful, and stones are Imbolc theme

stamped candy bag

K's mom's family valentine traditions

Whimsical knitting designs - a lot of patterns for socks for guys :-)

Imbolc calendar day 27

Internet is not working well... I suppose my computer is full of all kinds of cookies and tracking thingies... it's like working in syrup. Blah.

So, not so many links today:

It's Obama fingerpuppet, but why limit yourself? Make yourself a whole set of Imbolc puppets, Brigid, angels, wolves, bears, Lucia...

Wastepaper basket

Aurora Borealis - Northern Lights shawl

Northern lights doily

Shining lights washcloth

Midori scarf

Imbolc calendar day 26

Now just a week left. Are you ready? ;-)

Some paper heart doilies

chili cacao Mayan cupcakes - very imbolcy - black and white, chocolate, vanilla, chili...

penguin pins to crochet

beeswax heart garland

stones are also Imbolc theme - here's a tutorial to how to cover rocks

Also, it's the groundhog day in USA - the groundhog will peek up from its burrow and check if it can see its shadow...
so silhouette cutting is a great activity for this day

Imbolc calendar day 25

Print your own t-shirts

Nice art case

Happy everything banner

I spy pillow and bottle

heart shaped pompom

Ariosa wrap cardi

Brigid larkin

Brigid socks

Brigid cross

Vine lace belt and cuffs

Cup cozy

Imbolc calendar day 24

9 nights left to sleep...

Someone said the newest Popknits has been published. Nice.

Make your own wool dryer balls - to replace both tennis balls and dryer sheets filled with chemicals. Will keep the things dried fluffy and free from static electricity.

How to sew a fabric bowl in the native rootwork technique. Nice way of using rags and leftovers.

Mizuhiki heart knot - either cards or decoration for packages or ornament

Bleeding heart cupcakes and pie

I really like this picture with crocheted hearts, old rose china and pastels... Sweet :-) I wonder what my hubby would say if I decided to decorate our kitchen in this style?

egg carton heart - and if you turn it the other way around, you get 12 little holes you can fill with stuff, like the heart icecube form or... something else I saw recently... what was it? Yes! Someone had made a calendar out of the grey, dull stuffing/support/what-ever in computer boxes by filling the holes with things!

More on "modular crochet" - I mean... GEESH! It's called Irish Crochet, not "modular"! Why invent new "fashionable", "hot", "cool", "hip" names to something that has existed hundreds of years?

sea glass mosaic candlesticks - there's something fascinating in these...

festive felted garland - more snowballs... now with Imbolcy red details

make your own vanilla extract - vanilla is a very imbolcy spice. It comes in pods and you use the seeds, it's black and aphrodisiac...

Imbolc calendar day 23

St. Albans Valentine cable scarf - with Xs and Os - hugs and kisses :-)

Soup can sleeves

Fan mail dress

Flowers, vines and hearts shawl

recycled card kitty pad

pompom scarf - made with white yarn and get a snowball scarf
pompom rug
pompom wreath

heart shaped marbled polymer clay cane

Heart pops

Scrapbooking ideas... I especially like what she did with the heart icecube form

a little Valentine idea

Make and takes - ideas and crafty tidbits for home, family and fun - an inspiring blog.

Imbolc calendar day 22

needlefelted hearts

paper stars garland

coconut delight

recycled sweater snowmen

ms felted slippers

Pixie Kittens rubberduckie, Love and I-heart-U

Imbolc calendar 21

a cute handbag

"to grow hope" - or love, or anything you like

Nice idea - you can make a huge heart on your wall, or snowflake, for Imbolc

Desk calendar out of an old CD holder.

Make your own board games

Baby shower ideas - fit well for Imbolc

Imbolc calendar day 20

Darn, I feel bad... just had an asthma attack. I hate it, but I hate even more the fact that I will be totally off the rest of the day. No energy to do anything, no interest either.

But - I love these little Koi Noboris :-)

This little display of snowglobes is lovely

I like the look of this shawl - I can easily imagine Anne of Green Gables wearing it :-)

cocoa butter massage bars

snowman cookies

snowflake oreos

snowy crafts from Better Homes and Gardens

melting snowman cookies

lace and ice - very beautiful lacy decorations for outdoors - perfect for cold days

Whimsical little knits