Busy busy busy

Wow ... such a very very busy weekend ! I have to admit most of this busy-ness it's my own fault, I have so many projects going on and saturday I decided also to bake some goodies for the following days. And ... And James has started to sleep in his own bed ! I can't believe it. We have been co-sleeping since day one and now it feels so strange ... yesterday he has been in his bed until 1:00am who knows how tonight will be ...
And next friday my youngest doughter ( 11 yo ) will go to her first live concert with dad ! Nightwish are playing in Helsinki and she has loved the group since she was six or seven ... time runs away so fast ... I want to finish my huge amount of projects and then I want to start prioritizing better what I decide to do in my life. I want to enjoy my little people more. And here few pics from the weekend ....

Baked goods

 

Crocheting, crocheting, crocheting away ....

 

My boy is growing !!!

Have a happy new week dear friends !!!!

Makes me happy

Today I'm here to share something that makes me so happy. As someone who read this blog or follow me on Instagram, you might have noticed the slight obsession that I have developed in the latest months about up\recycling, and lately, about my newest passion: baskets ! Yep, few weeks ago I started just for fun to make baskets out of old clothes striped down ( by me )  and hand sewn and I loved it. I find it so creative and relaxing and the idea that something so beautiful comes out from old items destined to the trash, well makes me feel so good at so many different levels. Back to the point. Few weeks ago I had the chance to visit this lovely shop here in Loviisa '' Krinti ''. I immediately loved it. It features only very high quality and high standard items, going from wool to espresso machines, from vintage to handmade, everything from local artists\artisans. Usually I am quite shy when it comes to talk about what I do, but something there made me feel at ease to just ask if it would be possible to bring few of my creations to see if something could fit the lovely atmosphere. Long story short, my baskets now are happily waiting for a new home from their spot in Krinti !!!! I'm so thrilled and excited about this collaboration. I'm so happy and excited that finally my creativity is finding its very personal way of expression. Litterally I let my hands and my soul do all the job while my mind just rests and I love the results ! Here few pictures I took today when I brought few more items to sell.

I'm really really happy.

This gonna be a great summer !

Stripes

Lately all the family has been involved in a major decluttering. With the spring we all felt the urge to simplify, to get rid of 'things' filling our house and stealing our space and time. The good thing is that I didn't forced anybody, I started and all the children followed along. It has been really freeing. We are home and you can always hear someone saying '' ... do we really need this !? ... and you know something will go either on the trash, or in the 'sale' bag, or in charity bag. The only thing I was a bit concerned were all the clothing stuff. Something is too old or stained or damaged to sale or give away, but I always felt guilty to simply throw it. So one day I thought to start reducing those items in stripes and making balls to crochet or knit, but the reality is that I have a quite big stash of yarns and I knew right away that probably I would never choose them over wool or cotton for my projects ... and an idea started taking shape in my mind ... what about baskets and bowl and pot-holders ? But not knitted or crocheted, somethin that is new to me ... so my adventure in sewing baskets started and now I'm addicted ! I love striping down well worn and loved clothes, choosing nice colours and sewing and sewing and stopping and marveling at the beauty that comes out of it . The only downside is that my hands and fingers right now are quite sore but so worth it ! I'm replacing plastic ones with the newly handmade, saving some for making presents and I will sell the others (more details about this later on ). And of course I love teasing my kids a bit ... when they worriedly ask me 'but the dark shirt you just striped wasn't my favourite black one  isn't it ? '' ... well I always answer ... ''who knows ? Did you leave it around ? Because I don't come and pick clothes from your closet ... '' eheheheh (mischief mama face here ).
Before showing few pics of my lovely baskets I wanted to wish all the fellow moms reading my blog
Happy Mother's day to all of you !!!

Alive

I really need to write it down, to share it, because it feels so incredibly good that I need to let it out and to give a readable shape to these feelings to remind them in the dark moments that will sure come again ( as it happens to everybody from time to time ). For the first time in many many years I feel alive. Not exactly alive, because it might seem that until now I was numb and depressed all the time, and it not true. I feel like if I found my true self again. Like meeting an old dear beloved friend that you lost any kind of contact with and all of a sudden you meet her again. She aged, she's greying, she's heavier, but it's her, and you're so happy about meeting her that all the changes are not important at all. I'm not really sure how it happened. I started meditating daily and praying daily and most of the time I'm doing both at the same time, Christian meditation that's it. And I tried to just soak in beauty, and to practice mindfulness and to be fully in the moment, whatever moment it might be. And I found myself sitting on the thick carpet of my living room, with a box full of fabric scraps, colorful wooden beads, tiny silver bells and my little one freely ravaging through it all giving me all the freedom to let my mind and soul go and I found myself sewing and arranging and playing and having plain old fun with it all and when i felt it was finished I felt like waking up from a very vivid dream, still a bit dizzy, with a beautiful piece of ... art ... do i dare to call it art ? ... Yes, I can only call it a small, lovely piece of my very own art. My. OWN. art ... So liberating. So invigorating. I read lately, that if God gives you a gift, He will give you the chance to live by that gift.... Maybe ... This is what I'm talking about. Welcome back Flavia, here you are, in your beautiful uniqueness. In your imperfect uniqueness. In your perfect God-made uniqueness. This has been a real Easter for me. I feel I'm born again to a new fullest life.

Creativity

Since I was a child I have always been very creative, and I have always loved drawing, painting and working with my hands. As a young adult I had so many dreams about my life, how to make a living from my real passions and skills and I'm pretty sure I might have succeeded if I didn't give up on my dreams because of other people expectations.
So when I became a mother 15 years ago ( almost) I always tried to nurture the creativity of my children. Their early childhood has been filled with glue, scissors, colors and dough, wool, yarn and papier-mache and whatever else can come to your mind. Now that they are older ( I mean the 4 older ones of course ) they all have an own creative life that of course not always, if ever, matches with my own interests. My children are into dance, minecraft, playmobil. Seldom one of them works with the wood or papier-mache or draws. I have to be honest, a couple of years ago this was very painful for me. Not only because I wished to pass them my knowledge,skills and passions, but mostly because I lost my creative buddies. But then, one morning, after they busied themselves upstairs in their big room for few hours the call you up with the camera, for some mementos of their last effort, and in a leap you realized that it might not be wool or watercolors, but surely you indeed passed them the burning fire of creativity, that one fire, I'm sure most of you know it, that makes you see the world around you in a total different way: a wonderful place filled with opportunities to create, to make beauty happen, to be happy in the work of your busy hands. Here what my camera captured a couple of morning ago ...

 After unbuilding most of their plamobil sets the painted and mixed them with wood and clay and what-not to create a fire station of their own.

 The fire station has many different room, filled with tiny details they build\make.

They prepare tiny food with clay\playdough, sew pillows for tiny beds, make doors and tiny books and newpapers for their firemen.They give birth to a whole world with their hands. It may not be made out of natural material as maybe i wished, but it is indeed a highly creative work.

 And there is the city on the side ( unfortunately you can't see in the pictures ) with hybrid houses made of playmobil houses with wooden roofs made by them and firefighter busy fighting fire, with books about firefighter open on the side to make it as realistic as possible in all the details.

I asked them to let me take a picture of them near their creation, but my boys declined, Milla instead accepted happily. So here she is, on behalf of her brothers Leo and Seba.

Way to go kids !

Upcycle part two : crocheted jar covers galore

Ok, when it comes to crocheting and decorating, things get very easily out of hand. So after my first jar cover I was so excited that I had to make another one, and another one,and another one ... I'm very satisfied, two of the jars are the one I use for flour and sugar. The third one, smaller, doesn't have a use already, but I have few ideas buzzing in my head for it ( and the others I might do ... ups ... ). ut here few pictures ...

Here the four of them on the kitchen cabinet

The smaller one, made with some leftover yarn (baby bamboo, my favourite ) in shade from red to yellow

And the bigger ones, on the left with the pinkish string  for sugar, on the right with the white string for flour. In my opinion they look very nice and give the kitchen a much cozier feeling ...

Do you like to make beautiful things for your home? Let's share few ideas !

Upcycle - crocheted jar cover

I have a soft spot for decorations and beautiful things. No. That's not true. I have an obsession for decorations and beautiful things. I love to take care of my house and during the years I made decorations for every season and festivity. It's january but the longer hours of daylight already made me think of springtime. So last week I realized this little upcycling project. I'm pretty happy the way it turned out, basically what I had in my mind became true before my eyes and that is great, when it happens.
But let's start from the beginning. Along with my oldest doughter, we have started some heavy decluttering with the new year ( I'll write more about it in the next days ). In a kitchen cabinet we found a half empty jar of instant coffee that we brought here from Italy when we moved here almost four years ago. Yep. FOUR YEARS AGO. So we decided it was time to get rid of the content but not of the glass jar. After few days of watching the jar and letting my mind wonder I had the right idea for it. With my favorite yarn ever ( baby bamboo sirdar ) I started crocheting in every ( rare ) spare moment as I couldn't wait to see it finished. Here few pictures ....

I LOVE IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And here it is in use, with colorful tulips in it, over my old sewing machine, near my most lovely music box in the most beautiful corner of my house.

And you ? Any project you're especially proud of ?

Baking with Jimmy

Today we woke up in the snow wonderland. It has been snowing all night, with strong wind. So after lunch we all headed out for some outdoor fun. Jimmy enjoy a lot to be pulled in Seba's Stiga sledge and it's always a problem to bring him back home ( or I should say drag him back home). So Milla and I started walking back and forth in our street pulling him. The first time we passed in front of the house he declared ' Not inside mom, lt's walk for a little while more '. So we walked back and forth two more times. At the third he called me ' Mom, let's go back home for a while now .. I'm frozen ' eheheh so veeeery sweet.
But of course inside we went, and to warm up I thought that it could be a good idea baking something. As usual James is eager to help me...

 Woderful, the world covered in a soft blanket

He is such clever and sweet helper, learning everyday something new, but mostly learning the meaning of being a family : togetherness.

So after a couple of hours we had several goodies ...

Shortbread cookies (before and after cooking )

And two loaves of bread, one of normal shape one braided ( my first attempt, it turned out well in my opinion )

This time I cooked the bread at a lower temperature for longer time (180C for 50 minutes ) and the result was a super soft bread with a delicate crispy crust .

Delicious !

Have a nice week !!!

Finished !!!

Just a very quick update, it's very late, but I'm so happy about my new finished project that I really want to share it :) ...

As I was working on this little project of mine I couldn't help but stopping from crocheting every now and then and admire the colours and the pattern that was freely flowing out of my fingers. I treated the yarn as I treat my watercolours, I chose them one after the other as they pleased my eyes and played with them, creating an appealing pattern ... which I wouldn't be able to repeat since it was just a spontaneous occurance.

But what was the purpose for this ? ...

Can you get the hint ?

Here it is !!!!

And I LOVE IT !!

My little black travel journal was in need of an upgrading heheheh ... I grew tired of its black and plain look and now it's fabolous don't you think ? 

p.s. If there's anybody out there, might you be so kind to drop me a line here ? The blog is rather new and I'd love to have some feedback about it :)

Thank you,

mamaF

Two of many

I could describe myself as a craft-addicted ( and pictures addicted, painting addicted, writer wannabe ... you got the picture ahahah pun intended of course ) but in this right moment of my life I'm kinda working to make all those passion something 'more'. So at the moment I have litterally dozen of projects going on and I happily jump from one to the other without negletting none of them. Of course it may take a week or two before coming back to one of the projects ( depending if I'm finishing one, in case I just concentrate on that one ) but I'm quite satisfied to see all of them progressing somehow and most of all having quite clear in mind where I am going and what I want to achieve. Here two of my WIP.

This is part of a looooooong term project. I need it finished for may and I hope it will turn out as it looks in my mind. I'll try to update my WIP while it progress also to keep track of my work.

This is a colourful blanket I started more then one year ago. I almost forgot about it until few weeks ago when I started a de-cluttering camp and got hold of this lovely basket filled with woolen goodies and included it in my 'stop the pity party and roll your sleves up' plan to better my life.

I can't wait to see it finished. 

:)