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Dear, dear friends!

A week (a whole week!) has passed since our wool-trip and I haven't reported a single line. Or told you how wonderful it was on that craft show. I apologize. But as stated, it was great - on both. I bought wool to last a lifetime (read: a few months), and didn't buy that much at the fair but it was still so good. Inspirational, refreshing, fun. And company I had was simply the best. Thanks, Sis.

And what on earth has kept me from telling you the wonder-tales of my travels? Nothing too serious, just too many piles of almost-there, to-be-finished and this-is-urgent's.

The following months will be the busiest of the year (yippee!), and I have tried to find a balance between an existing orders, holiday-stock and new products. I am ahead of my usual "I-cannot-believe-it's-December-already" Christmas-stocking, but not quite there to show you anything concrete yet.

So I need to apologize again, especially you, who I warned from C-crafts grand reveal here this week: it has been postponed to the next. I am still heavily tangled with my special Christmas-colored-tweeds...

...but next week, I am already thinking of next week (and enjoying the weekend in the meanwhile), and believe it or not, it will be November then already!

See you then!

Yours,
Mia

On the road again

It's been a year since we did this trip! It feels impossible that it was a whole year ago, but on the other hand so much has happened since. Tomorrow we're hitting the road again, and it'll be followed by the craft fair on Saturday too.

I have been playing with the idea of attending the fair as a seller instead of buyer, but haven't yet gotten the courage/funds/stock enough to fill in the form. And I love the fair as customer, I can wander around, look, touch, feel and enjoy it instead of sweating behind the desk wondering if anyone should buy my product.

The holiday season is just around the corner, and after a hard thinking and no-but-yeah-but-no-but-yeah'ing I decided this year I will not be able to make the Christmas-blog like last year. There simply is not time enough to prepare the posts. Or maybe I am just thinking there isn't but... I have many cute/crafty/delicious/fun things to show you about the holidays, but I just cannot promise 25 posts this year. Makes me little sad but I am sure there will be many fun posts around the blogland for each day of December still.

There is a (great/big/close/happy) family celebration coming in beginning of November (more of that closer the date), and Sis&I will be hitting Helsinki again in beginning of December. Then it'll soon be Christmas, and The New Year, and...We're going to make it through this dark and gloomy, aren't we? Let's just hold hands (and chocolate bars), enjoy the cozy evenings and light a lot candles. Sounds like a plan, huh?

I randomly chose here some birdies I have made this autumn. They have absolutely nothing to do with the text ramblings but they're quite pretty and that's what we need sometimes. Just pretty.

I'll be reporting about my wool&craft-journey next week, and in the meanwhile:

Wonderful weekend, everyone!

Yours,
Mia

Professionals do it better

It's the time again. Time to rake, rake and rake. And some more still. We love our yard but it's a leaf-playground, there are a lot of them. And as the raking wouldn't be enough, after it there are millions of big mountains of leaves to be picked up and carried away. What can one do except rake her hands into blisters? Hah, hire a professional help of course.

Just one phone call, and a very professional -looking vehicle arrives...



... and in no time he gets to work. I like that!

And you can really tell he is a pro. Not only he uses the top-of-the-range equipment but also he wears high quality safety devices, check out those earphones, very impressive. And talking about the equipment, take a look at this:

That clearly is not for everyone. But it works, because in no time:



Ta-da-dah! Money well spent.

Wonderful new October week, everyone! It's a autumn-holiday-week here, and that little-pro will be helping me in many projects this week! Lucky me!

Yours,
Mia

Equipment, equipment, equipment

You know how the real estate gurus keep saying how it's all down to location, location, location? When it comes to crafts, it's all about the equipment. It's where it all starts.

I have fear for hooks. Crochet hooks that is. But when something comes in pink, dotty and pretty, all my troubles seem so far away. Even when it comes to hooks.

I mean really, how scary can something that beautiful be? Robin, you've cured me!



You see? I CAN do it!

And no, I didn't over-do it by starting a granny square-blanket for a king-sized bed (would have been so me), but instead I started with something small and pretty (and used my beloved wool to keep it near to my comfort-zone a little). I go through several pairs these cheap-ish gloves during the winter, I misplace them a lot (and there's always one there and its pair missing). So I started with pimping them up with some pretty flowers. Which I started with a pattern and finished with inspiration. So me, that too.



Hooray! I love it! It may need a few more flowers but oh boy am I proud?

Yours,
Mia

The credits:

• The beautiful set of crochet hook, matching pretty pouch and little needle to finish your work came from Robin's Nest - please go and take a look. She also blogs here, enjoy!
• The book I used for guidance is Susan Cropper's Vintage Crochet in Finnish. Beautiful book, lot's of inspiration!
• And last...May you have been wondering the most beautiful fabric on the background this photo shoot, it's one of my most treasures finds, almost vintage (1997) linen piece I spotted in a local thrift-shop. It's going to turn into pretty tote-bags soon, but that deserves an another post. Seriously.

Better late than...

Thank you so much everyone for participating my little coaster giveaway! I am not wasting any more precious time on apologies or any explanations for being some hours late from the 9th - here we go:

There were sixteen of you, yippee!



Into the pretty bowl! Lid on tight... and some vigorous shaking!



And the pickety-pickety-pick:

First winner: Pam! She said: "Love those stripey ones Mia!" - so number three, the Russian doll-striped ones will go to you, Pam!

Our second winner: Sue/Crafts@home! She said:"...no 2 for me I think.... if I win!" - that's wonderful: happy hoots will start their journey to you soon, Sue!

And the third: chrissie! She said:"...the order is 2,3,1. But any one would be gratefully received." Oh my... The squirrels were third on your list, chrissie! So ta-da-daah: I am making you an extra pair of happy hoots-coasters (as I am sure I'll find a home for those squirrels too)! Your owls-set will arrive as a surprise to you, but I promise they'll be just as pretty as the originals !

Congratulations, ladies! I have your details already, Pam, from last Christmas. I also will contact you soon, Sue, via e-mail I found it in your fantastic webpage. So chrissie, please e-mail me your shipping details handmadebymia at gmail.com - so I can send your little parcel to you asap! With that chocolate, of course!

Happy new week, everyone!

Yours,
Mia

So last century

Once upon a time in a tiny thrift shop a pretty green jacket was put up for sale. It was beautiful autumny-colored wool, but with larger than life padded shoulders and very dated boxy-shape it wasn't drawing that much of an attention even the colors were really, really beautiful. Until one day...

I spotted the jacket and couldn't resist it. I saw past the dynasty-shoulderpads, the nametag with word game on it (how 80s is that?), and focused on its beautiful wool, the impeccable condition and to the fact that it's made in Finland. But to be honest I wasn't loving it as a jacket as much as...

...perfect material for my autumn-collection to grow! You may remember these pouches, and more happy tweets with big pumpkins and leaves here!

So far I have made a pretty tote bag:



and a cute birdie&big pumpkin key ring:



and a set of pretty birdie&leaf coasters:

And there's still a lot of material left for yet some more beautiful creations. I am one happy girl!

Happiness to your Thursday too!

Yours,
Mia

P.S. It seems that I am posting this week more than last two months together, and these new posts keep pushing the giveaway post further and further down, so a little reminder here: If you haven't yet posted a comment on my coasters-giveaway post, there's still plenty of time! The winners will be picked on Sunday October 9th! Thank you!

My colorful trees

The birds are supposed to be leaving for warmer countries as we speak, but I had some surprise visitors in my autumn colored trees today. They were very lively, tweeting and hopping around, and very, very hard to photograph.

I haven't seen these little tweets before, but I have a pretty good idea who their father is, the family resemblance is just...clear.

These little birdies seem to be coming all colors imaginable, and they also have pretty feathers mixing hand knit and felted wool and happy reused cotton scraps. They all have also passed a hard training-period recently, and they are ready to work as keymasters (taking care of your keys all day long) or the bag-brighteners (autumn bag just needs a happy tweet). They also would love to just sit on your lap and sing all day.

The photo shoot itself was an experience also, it was shining, raining, storm-winding, still, gray and bright withing those fifteen minutes! So some more detailed portraits and other significant information can be found here.

Happy Tuesday!

Yours,
Mia

Take away, please

Hello!

It's October, Sunday and sun shines - is there anything better? Some might say that sunny Sunday in June could just top this day, but I'll try my best to prove them otherwise: it's a time for a teeny weeny giveaway!

I was fortunate enough to receive a pot of gold from my dear friend last weekend (fabrics that is), and I just wanted to share some of that with you guys. There were some small yet very pretty scraps and I sew them into three sets of funny coasters!

There are two in each pair, and I just hope they would make that morning tea/coffee/cocoa a teeny bit brighter for you. So if you think you or a friend or even a colleague would need cheering up for this autumn, please leave a comment on this post! It would be wonderful if you could number the sets 1-2-3 as your prefer them, so when the winners will be picked in a weeks time I could try to choose the most loved sets to each person. This might not work out perfectly, but... Who knows? Here are the sets:

1. Happy squirrels, pretty flowers and berries in brown&yellow-set



2. Happy hoots, some flowers and cheerful dots in purple&violet-set



3. Smiling matryoska aka Russian dolls and pretty stripes in pastel shades-set



Wishing you happy choosing, and I will be randomly choosing the three winners on next Sunday, October 9th! Oh and yes, these sets (after some serious ironing, I promise) will be shipped anywhere you live and the envelopes might also include some super smooth Finnish chocolate. Just in case of emergency aka rainy day, you know!

Sunny Sunday!

Yours,
Mia