Bagging around...

Found this little darling in the free section of the Kierrätyskeskus and took it home with me.

It was a bit worse for wear, so I decided to cover most of the front flap with some paint..

And that's what I've been doing for the last few days! Those lines are really hard to draw free hand, especially since the paint and/or brush I used were acting up a bit...

After one layer the colour wasn't even enough,

 so a few careful coats of paint and some de-clumping action were needed.

 I have a few other bags still waiting to be painted, but I have yet to receive an epiphany on what to paint on them... but they're not going anywhere!

Bits and pieces from the past week or so

Went to Seurasaari with my mum, sister and her boyfriend. The weather was lovely! 

We strolled around the island and fed the squirrels and birds (ducks, ravens, geese..) as we enjoyed the sunshine.

On Thursday the 23rd Helsinki celebrated the Night of the Arts. I walked around town with a few friends for 6 hours or so, checking out all the cool things going on. Here's a few pics:

The end of the giant 3 km long dominos at Senaatintori (I took home a tiny piece of one..!)

A hot air balloon that people made out of plastic bags (you could even go inside it!) next to Lasipalatsi:

Minna Parikka meets Jani Leinonen (part of an exhibition at the Amos Anderson art museum)

 Look! There are little baby tomatoes on my tomato plant!! So cute!

I crocheted a little bowl thing:

Went fleamarketing with my mum today and while I only found one thing, 

it was this AMAZING PINK HORSE!!!!11

I'm so in love with this little guy. He is amazing. Look at his mane!

Gitzferald the Fox

Painted the clay fox, named Gitzferald, just now; 

glad I used up the leftover clay instead of just chucking it back in the craft cupboard.

 He's a very smug little fox. Must be the golden nose...

Macrame and hanging things with it aka crockery bondage

Was blog-surfing and found this cute little project from a blog called Transient Expression.

So I rummaged about in my craft cupboard, 

but all my fimo bits are so small that I wouldn't be able to make a vase even this small from any one colour, 

buuut luckily I found some ooooold old clay and a few minutes later my vase was sitting outside drying.

It didn't turn out as pretty as the original, but I like the concretey look of it so I'll let it be.

Then I took some pink yarn from my yarn bowl and got about macrameing. Initially just for the clay clump I'd just made, but I was impatient for it to dry so I thought I'd try out the idea with other small plant pots.
The smallest ones I have in use are teacups. So:

They're hanging by the window for now, I might move them a bit to the side,
but that requires drilling in more hanging, umm, bits to the window frame,
and I'm not in the mood for that.

Then I got carried away and did a whole lot of macrame for some cute cups 

I've had lying around and an old tea pot.

This display of crockery bondage is now hanging in my kitchen. 

The tea pot will be filled with some plant that hangs nicely. 

Like thyme or something. Something edible anyway.

I also made a fox out of the left over clay:

I will be painting him once he's dry. Perhaps in a very very faint orange, with a golden nose...

Things. Walls.

Found this cute alphabet silk paper from a craft store in Germany. 

I already had it framed, but it was so (I can't believe I'm gonna say this) too colourful for the wall so it got replaced by an old school poster on mushrooms.

Now I don't know where to put it. 

 Revamped a wall. Clutter much?

Notice framed poster of mushrooms which replaced animal alphabet. So cruel.

And now that I focused on it myself... it's a bit too big and brownish... is it...? 

Oh I will un-notice it. And from the couch the chandelier covers the poster, so I'll never notice it again.

 Finally drilled a hole in my moon (?!) (free section at Kierrätyskeskus) so I was able to hang it up.

For now it's just hanging out with my chandelier.

 I used a christmas tree ornaments cap thing and some gold chain.

 Found this beauty from Kierrätyskeskus for 10 euros!!

 Tunturin kasvimaailma - Fell flora

 Found a National Geographic from 1955! So I ripped off the front cover and taped it to my wall.

As one does.

 Speaking of geography... maps are cool. 

Chain ch-chain-chain, chain with beads

Here's some prototypes of an idea I'm working on.

So complex and ground-breaking.

Beads. On. A. Chain.

*gasp*

Earrings from a shampoo bottle!

Step 1: Buy awesomely coloured shampoo and conditioner bottles

Step 2: Use them up (on your hair, usually), rinse them (the bottles, well, your hair too) and stick them in your craft cupboard cos 'you might find a use for them some day'...

Step 3: Years later, epiphonize (yes I know that's not a word) about making earrings out of them, rinse the dust off and cut out the more flat areas of the bottles (better suited for earring making at least)

 Step 4: Recycle the bits you don't need!

 Step 5: Admire pretty colours and think about what the heck you're going to do with them and wonder if you should just recycle these bits as well because honestly who's ever gonna want earrings made from shampoo bottles and this probably won't work out anyway...

 Step 6: Decide to try anyway. Doodle some ideas (I doodled some easy-to-cut designs)

 Step 7: Decide what to do

 Step 8: Get to cutting!

 Step 9: Ah, yes, exactly as planned! Except it looks like a transformer.

 Step 10: Drill/cut out holes to attach the pieces (I just use a screw that I hammer the holes with, it does the trick since the plastic I use is quite soft)

Step 11: Make some connectors out of wire or use store bought ones and attach pieces together

Step 12: Realize that initial plan will not work out, so leave bits to sit until come up with better plan or decide to settle for this version (picture below)

Step 13: Make some more, cos it's fun.

Here's some blurry pictures of another pair I made a few years back:

And I guess there's at least 2 people in the world who would wear shampoo bottle earrings since I've worn my pink ones on several occasions and the neon lime green ones I made (same design) we're adopted by a friend of mine, who has also worn them on several occasions. They can be made quite big without them being heavy at all.

So, hurrah for shampoo bottles!