Day fourty three: hearts and strings

As my birthday celebrations got postponed for a week, I ended up hosting a cosy get-together on St.Valentine's Day. So I thought it would be great to come up with an idea for some sort of hearty decoration for our living room. However, it had to be something simple and straight-forward: like hearts on strings! I knew how to make the hearts, but I still had to figure out the stringing part. After a messy attempt to make a garland, I finally opted for individual strings and I am indeed glad I did this, because now the same hearts can be easily used to decorate a Christmas tree. How cool is that? :) 

If you would like to learn how to make them, give me a sign in  comments and I will prepare a short tutorial.

Day fourty two: till sunbeams find you

My short investigation in the local shop led to a simple conclusion: I'm not buying a single pillowcase ever again! For starters, the assortment itself is just soooo monotonous (huge sizes, plain colours, tedious trims), and even if a person (i.e. me) manages to spot an item that miraculously matches up to one's personal colour-size-frustration preferences, facing the number on the price-tag is yet another reality check. Thanks, but no thanks :) 

So instead of wasting ridiculous amount of money on things I hardly like, I went through my fabric supplies and decided to make my own pillowcases: the size I need, the fabric I love and most definitely NO trims. And just as I expected: this was one of the easiest and most pleasant sewing projects I've ever tried. Even inserting a zip for couch pillows was no trouble at all. 

Yet another item off my shopping list: what a relief :)

Day fourty one: tale of a basket

Once upon a time there was a laundry basket. It lived in a factory shop together with other baskets of various makes and sizes. Nobody could remember for sure how long it had been sitting there hoping to go to a home with actual laundry, until one day a man came into the shop together with his wife. They had arrived with a simple task in mind: to buy a laundry basket in a shop filled with baskets. However, the woman was experiencing a sudden surge of indecision and after a long while of staring and shuffling she still couldn't figure out which of the baskets she preferred. So the man took the matter in his hands and chose the one he found to be large enough and didn't mind too much. The basket was finally at home with actual laundry, but the wife kept gazing at it with great deal of suspicion. For about two years she kept wondering what it was that annoyed her so much about that poor laundry basket until one day it finally hit her: it was the awful white lining with the word "Laundry" on it. It was indeed poorly made and always slid into the basket when it was filling up. That had to go! So in no time the basket got a brand new lining made out of linen, finished with a bit of lace and comprising a string to prevent it from sliding all over the place. Once it was done, they all lived happily ever after.

Day fourty: hold the phone

I have a friend who calls me now and then from work just to say she passed my old office or heard my language somewhere and that she missed me. She keeps calling me up despite being well aware that talking on the phone gives me the creeps. And I  love her for that :) I realize that her schedule is so tight that it's either this or no communication for weeks. So I get a short 'thinking about you' call from a stuffed bus, I don't hear half of it and probably respond like an imbecile, but her trying to reach me warms my heart. We used to work together, in fact we even started on the same day and from that moment on we instinctively took care of each other the way we could and understood. When we meet, we talk for hours, and hours are never enough...

So she called again today and despite me being a total moron on the phone again we somehow managed to arrange a lunch for next week. Miss you to pieces, busy bee.

Day thirty nine: one hundred definitions

It's amazing how the simplest thing in a shop window or a random combination of colours can make us think of somebody. Sometimes it takes no longer than a second to rush through the whole string of associations in our head that induce this sudden sense of familiarity. There must be at least a hundred of things that somehow define each of us in the eyes of other people, and not necessary all of them are true. Or even close. I'm sure all of you have heard something like "Oh, I saw this gorgeous/weird/sweet thing in the shop/magazine/bus and it made me think of you!" And how often have you raised an eyebrow in perplexity and/or horror when you see the thing? :) It's just dazzling! But it doesn't really matter, does it? For me the most important part of the sentence has always been the 'think-of-you' bit. Besides, sometimes these associations are so spot on that I cannot help but feel blessed and wonder at what point did our definitions overlap so perfectly :) I guess this is just how friendships work...

Day thirty eight: collect a whole set

Sometimes I wonder what it is about women and constant pursuit of 'matching things'. I'm not very good at this myself, mainly because I find the whole concept a bit troublesome. This might not sound very ladylike, but there are just too many fantastic things and colours in this world for me to stay consistent :) In nine times out of ten I would choose three different things over three matching ones. Or if I really like a piece of clothing (which doesn't happen too often) I'll just buy it without making a fuss over the contents of my wardrobe and chances of finding anything there that might actually go with the thing I'm about to acquire. As said before: not ladylike at all... However, when it comes to sewing there's no fuss at all. If the fabric has inspired me I'd easily make a set of matching things in a heartbeat. Maybe this is the first step towards appreciating match-making after all?

Day thirty seven: underneath the Christmas tree

Here we are. Welcome to 2015 - a year of blue goats, changing winds, and huge potential. I've been away for a while travelling and celebrating, and visiting people and places I missed to pieces. Now I'm back all refreshed and inspired and my creative spirit is getting restless after spending three weeks in glorious standby mode.
 However, before jumping into the unknown I still have a couple of projects left undocumented from last year. For instance, these simple and handy linen totes I gave as gifts to my friends and relatives. By now all the bags have reached their new owners and I hope they will find them useful. The only one left is the dwarf bag which I ended up using myself throughout Christmas and liked very much. There is something about these totes that makes them immensely comforting and reassuring: I guess it's the size and simplicity. I'll certainly make more for summer season :) We'll get there sooner or later.

Day thirty six: favourite things

A friend of mine brought me a pair of jeans. She told me they are her favourite ones, which unfortunately have served their time and now are just taking up space in the wardrobe as she doesn't have a heart to throw them out. I'm quite familiar with the concept of sentimental attachment to all kinds of things and letting go of those has always been an issue for me. Therefore I sometimes come up with alternative uses for my favourite things, so I shouldn't part with them. I guess, this puts me on the same page with my friend and that is why her request didn't surprise me. "Maybe you have an idea for a project," she said. And I did, dear emf :)

Day thirty five: here to stay

When I was 5 or 6, I wanted to become a painter. Teaching seemed like fun, too, but drawing was the one and only path I was willing to pursue (right until my first drawing class at school when I was suddenly told what I was supposed to depict in my artwork. Gosh! A tree bark? Seriously?) Anyway, while I was still into art, I once drew a greeting card featuring a rather decent hill, some jumping/flying animals, gigantic flowers and a sun with a huge smile on its face (I can’t believe I still remember this). I was supposed to bring the card with me to a friend’s birthday party, but I was so overwhelmed by the success of my creation I just couldn't part with it. I might have even cried a little over it, when my mum finally suggested that I could draw another picture for my friend and keep the first one if it's so precious to me (mums rock!) 

Yet 25 years later it happened again. I made this green linen zip-pouch for the Christmas market and fell hopelessly in love with it the very instant it was finished. Somehow I managed to convince myself I'm not a child anymore (oh yeah?) and placed the pouch in a box with other things for sale thinking to myself that it would be a bit sad to let it go, so I should hope I will like the person who gets it. Imagine my surprise when people were browsing through the basket of purses, some buying a thing or two, but nobody - not a single person - even touched the green linen pouch. So this is how mental earmarking works! Finally, I gave in to my inner child: YES, I love the things I make, so why not celebrate it? The green pouch stays with me : ) 

Day thirty four: heart of Scandinavia

I'm in love! With linen :) What a remarkable material it is: so classy and sturdy, decent and predictable, just like a perfect gentleman :) I ordered 1.4x2.2 m of Avignon Linen in October and it's all gone. Working with this material is a pure pleasure since it's very neat, easy to cut and irons really well. Sounds like a dream, right? To make things even better, the same kind of fabric comes in different colourful prints. For example, the one with heart pattern I used for this project is among my favourites: it is called 'Scandic Love' and looks really lovely. This particular name is another reason why I chose this fabric for a present to a very dear and special friend of mine who is now residing in Scandinavia (Moi, moi, Anda!) She is a fantastic lady, such a brave and generous soul with terrific sense of humour and a real knack for crafting: she's making amazing things using just a crochet hook, a thread and handful of teeny-tiny pearls. I hope my parcel reaches Anda soon and I can finally tell her about this blog without risking to spoil the surprise :) 

Christmas market: two days in Dragontown

After a whole month of intensive sewing, stitching, baking and planning I finally made my debut as an elf in the Christmas market in a nearby town guarded by the loveliest dragon I've ever seen. The market itself was a two-day event that took place outdoors (yep, long hours in freezing temperatures certainly calls for more than one glass of Glühwein if you plan to survive :)) and it was a fantastic experience for a newbie like myself. The choice of the event could have been better though, since two thirds of the stands were filled with foods and drinks and people were clearly in party mood, meeting friends and having good time, not thinking much about shopping. Also the tradition of gift-giving for Christmas apparently is not very popular in Luxembourg. From what I've seen, people don't exaggerate with these things and don't regard this custom as a must. Being aware of all the above-mentioned, I kept an open mind and did a great deal of observing and learning. It's only fair to admit that not all of the conclusions I made were the most flattering ones, but I really see no reason to dwell on those, because there were far too many beautiful and special moments I experienced and those are the ones I will be carrying in my heart. 

  

While watching my work through eyes of my friends and loved ones, all the grannies who smiled the warmest smiles and children who dragged their parents to my stand to show them the colourful Christmas stockings, this event quickly transformed into my personal thanksgiving. And I do have so many things to be thankful for: this time in life I am given to explore sewing, the chance to work well with my hands, my mum who has taught me so much, my wonderful and supportive husband who was out with me in the cold for most of the time and helped with all the logistics and spoke German with customers and for my fantastic friends who lent me tables and baskets and showed up just in time to cheer me up and did some Christmas shopping themselves :) 

Finally, despite the cold and all the Glühwein (and the fact that all my things smell of smoke from fireplaces) I am glad I gave this a try. Sure, the overall sales could have been better, but as far as the first attempts go, I'm happy with my trading experience and I might actually try this again.

Day thirty three: steady heartbeat

I know. Judging from the frequency of my posts it may seem that I have given up on the whole sewing idea when in fact it's the exact opposite. I've been sewing like a maniac for the past few weeks :) My creative frenzy has resulted in many nice things and it will probably take me two days to take photos of each and every item I've finished so far. The reason for this bustle is the upcoming Christmas market, which will be my first attempt to sell my creations. That means running a stand for the whole weekend with a very vague idea on how it might go, but it's certainly keeping my hands busy and mind bursting with new projects, and I must say I'm enjoying this process immensely. My living room looks like Santa's workshop with fabrics, bells and ribbons all over the place and happy me in the middle :)

Day thirty two: 96th birthday

Today is the National Day of the Republic of Latvia: the 96th birthday of my country. Lately, I think quite a lot about my home country, the place I come from and places I might be going to, the importance of culture I understand and feel part of and general sense of belonging on top of it all. I feel how these topics become more essential with every year I spend abroad and I might be coming closer to the point where I figure it all out. Or not :) 
While waiting for this moral epiphany to occur, I'm taking part in the birthday celebrations from a distance by sending my love and sewing this lovely make-up bag in the colours of Latvian flag. Cheers!
Daudz baltu dieniņu, Laimiņa, dodi...

Day thirty one: summer breeze

 
So I sat down one morning to make a tiny gift for a very dear friend of mine [ciao, Aija!] to remind her of summer during the dark ages we're stuck in until March and to say grazie mille for her creative support :) Love towards nature and a dream of owning a garden one day is among the many things we have in common, that's why I chose the plant theme for this little project. The pouch was quickly done, no hiccups whatsoever. After measuring the rest of the fabric (yes, leftovers is my sweet spot, what can I do...) I realised that it was just enough to make another purse. Of course, I couldn't resist.

Day thirty: red cheeks and air balloons

I made this zip-pouch a while ago, only didn't have a chance to post any photos. In fact, this was the very first scrap bag I made: the apple fabric is just too lively and juicy to let any bit go unnoticed. Since we were blessed with yet another sunny afternoon, I immediately took the bag out on the balcony to make a couple of photos. After spending a quarter of an hour stretching, turning, bending, and kneeling I suddenly heard a strange puffing noise. Instinctively I glanced up and there it was: a hot air balloon just above my head! What a beautiful world... full of wonders, apples and balloons :)