Visual Monday

Today I've got a ton of photos to show you. Very little words, but I'm happy nonetheless.

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And finally, a group photo of my sixteen days.

A rainy day of good things

Rainy days have made me more productive. I finally made the cushion I had planned on making for months. The gorgeous fabric is hand-printed by the multi-talented Jesse! Once the sun came out for a while I decided to eat my tomato-mozzarella salad on the balcony and took a photo of the pillow too... and I hope Karen can handle her balcony-envy :)


And this little coptic notebook is about 6"x4.3"x0.8" (15,2x11x2,1cm). Linen+vintage lace. 88 white pages. A friend in natural linen is on its way, too.


Books of good things in new (and old) colors! I hope tomorrow will be a better day for taking photos. I'll try to list the above book and some of these on Etsy some time before Tuesday. I have Monday off work and I'm going to try and not make anything important. I need a vacation from being my hardworking self.


As usual, since I started working, I'm quite a bit behind on e-mails and such. I hope you don't feel neglected! I love all the comments you leave, thank you for all your support, once again!

xo

Paper pops! & lovely people with talent

I have news you probably already know: Paperiaarre is a part of Poppytalk Handmade's Paper Pops market! View my gallery here. I'm so honored to be in the company of some of my favorite artists! Here are just some great galleries you should definitely go see:

kate phillips art

heather smith jones

satsuma press

paulette edition

birdie

blue valentine press

After finishing my Poppytalk handmade listings I've been sleeping a lot and doing nothing. My allergy isn't too bad this year but I'm still really tired because of it. I stay indoors a lot. You'd think that would mean a lot of creative work getting done, but I guess you know me better than that. Some lovely custom orders have deadlines next week and I think I should focus on them instead of the finch family nesting outside our window. Mr Finch thinks he's got a rival in our window and keeps banging his head against the reflection. Mrs Finch knows her priorities and just sits on the eggs. A lovely couple altogether.


Since I'm already gushing about other people's work, I might just as well show you a pic I took of myself wearing my new treasure. Ruth has the most wonderful jewelry in her Etsy shop Contagious, and I had been drooling over these Wing earrings ever since I saw them what seems like ages ago. I don't have my ears pierced so I asked Ruth to make me a necklace. And it turned out perfect. Happy (and very short haired) girl on the window sill with her perfect necklace:

Greens and whatnots

This is my 100th blog post! I thought I would write a special post with lots of pictures of things I've made, but Blogger got cranky and I got tired with Blogger, so there are no pictures of my work. Just some things that have made me really, really happy this weekend!


When I walked home from work yesterday afternoon I noticed something that wasn't there in the morning. It was the wonderful scent of bird cherry! The flowers were really tiny then, but you can see some of them in the photo I took today. Spring has come so fast! It wasn't even two weeks ago that I was still wearing my winter coat (which isn't the warmest imaginable, but still...) and now everything is green. Today it was +26C (78.8F), and for me that's hot!


Here's a part of our balcony. Today we bought some tomatoes and some vine that's going to have blue flowers if we don't kill it first. The plants need bigger pots and more water.


We celebrated the grand opening of balcony season by having breakfast, dinner and whatnots right there in the sun. I baked cupcakes, or was it muffins, and they were great. (Oh dear, can someone explain the difference?) I finished two embroidered brooches too!

And now I remember that I have completely forgotten to let you know that I had a shop update the other day. (Well, I'm obviously not my usual self, but at least I'm happy.) You can find more pencil cases, books and embroidered brooches in the shop. There are also two new light colorways in the books of good things! Seems like a ton of things has happened during my blog absence.

This is a bookbinding blog, remember?

I made a friend for the lonely linen brooch. I think I'll make some more and list them in my shop next week. I'm happy to be making things again. I can't remember the spring coming so quickly ever before. All the light and green outside is making me happy again. I'm not so sleepy anymore and I think I can handle the pollen this year too (like all the years before).


I've made books too, for a change. I made the covers yesterday and finished sewing today. I'm pretty proud of these. I took the photos so late in the evening that there are a lot of shadows and the colors aren't really accurate, but you get the idea anyway. Simple and peaceful journals. Covered with slightly shiny natural linen, hand stenciled. These are larger than my usual books: 6"x8.4"x0.9" (15,2x21,3x2,2cm). 92 white pages sewn with waxed linen thread.


I believe it's getting easier. Combining an almost full time job with full time art making is even more difficult than I thought, but I'm getting there. I'm thinking of not taking any more custom orders this summer. I don't have a summer vacation, but I feel like I need a vacation from something, and custom orders are the easiest solution. (Now I feel like I can do anything I want! How wild am I?)

Your narcoleptic artist is back

Things weren't as bad as you may have thought: I was a bit under the weather, suffering from artistic insecurities and utter boredom. The flu is mostly gone, but my pollen allergy has successfully kept me sneezing. I feel pretty ridiculous right now: my allergy drugs have weird side effects. Slight sleepiness isn't that slight in my opinion as I've fallen asleep while washing my hands. It's like I'm narcoleptic, I fall asleep in the middle of making things, sitting and standing. I haven't fallen asleep while walking yet. I'm trying to see a doctor tomorrow to get my medication changed. I guess you'll have to bear with me and my weirdness for a while.

Wednesday was vappuaatto, Walpurgis Night, and we went to see fireworks and walked through the amusement park. I didn't wear my student cap and I skipped the use of alcoholic beverages too, it was a very un-Finnish vappu-behavior. May Day was spent making and eating falafel, and after that, sleeping. And sleeping.



Today I finally finished something. A linen brooch, that was supposed to be something completely different. Fever and gocco don't work together that well, so I was left with patches of natural linen printed with white only. I added some French knots and finished the edge with running stitch, but this one is just a prototype, I have no idea what I should do with the rest of the patches.

Approx. 1.8"x2" (4,5x5cm)

Malfunction

I'm sorry I have neglected you so long. I'm still recovering from my dreadful flu and I feel like I have no control over my life at the moment. Work, sleep, coughing, blowing my nose; that's about all I can handle right now. I tried to do some gocco printing, but nothing turned out the way I expected. I think I could use some encouragement with my work, but the work being mostly inner work (planning/designing/getting to know myself) I can hardly ask for any advice. Oh I feel so alone with my malfunctioning brain.

(I know I could have at least tried to make a bit of an effort and take a cheerful photo to go along with this rather lifeless post, but I forgot. I think the flu has done some damage to my short time memory.)