Nestled In

It’s been a great productive morning. I woke up early with Minna (she had work) even though it’s my day off and I had no plans to go anywhere. I haven’t been much of a morning person before but I think I’m having a change of heart. Once the hard part (waking up) is done with there’s so much potential in every morning and I feel more productive than I do in the evening. So this morning I’ve been making small collages on the covers of old books and doing household work and enjoying my day off.

I’ve spent this morning listening to good music and doing some crafts. Made these little giraffe friends for a birthday present for my cousin who turns two in March.

I’ve never been into handicrafts that much - I don’t really know how to sew or knit or anything. I’ve always appreciated handmade goods and admired anyone who is good at making them but I’ve never really had an interest to learn for myself. That is until recently. All of the sudden all I want to do is to learn how to make patchwork quilts and learn to do embroidery. But as usual for me I have a hard time being patient enough to practise and learn. I easily feel like if I’m not good at something right away it’s not the right thing for me and I should try doing something else. But this time I am determined to give myself time and learn and not to expect everything to be perfect. I have found that learning to do embroidery is a good practise in patience. Above is a picture of two hearts I made tonight while watching TV.

Finally, here are some ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures. Although we finished painting before we moved in last month we just now got around to post pictures. Here is the bedroom before painting. The walls were originally painted a very light beige.

Below is the bedroom now. We painted the walls with a nice greyish shade of blue. The bedspread is from Minna’s old apartment and it’s too small for the bed. We’re thinking about getting a nice white bedspread and white curtains for the room.

In the picture below there are three new pillows Minna made last night from Marimekko fabrics Solu and Lumimarja. I especially love the small Lumimarja pillow! The two large pillows underneath have pillowcases also by Marimekko, I found them on sale before Christmas.

Our cat Lissu can’t resist a good photo op!

 

I don’t usually make New Year’s resolutions but I was inspired by Holly at decor8 asking her readers to write in their goals for the New Year. For some time now I’ve thought about the importance of finding more joy and happiness in little everyday things and ordinary days. I need to learn to focus not on my worries and stress but on things (big and small) that I enjoy and I’m grateful for. So for the year 2008 my goal is to remember to laugh more, to learn, love, read, blog and create more than I did last year. Above are pictures of two small mixed media works I made this fall, it’s a completely new world to me and I hope to learn more about it this year.