Saturday, December 21, 2013

DIY Hama Bead Snowflakes

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I’ve always thought Hama Beads were a bit, I don’t know, tacky maybe, but then I saw these snowflakes on Pinterest. So cute. Now I’m obsessed.

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I had a bit of trouble getting started. You are supposed to construct them on the plastic base and then iron them through a baking sheet to melt the beads together. It took a few tries to figure out what to do. The first one I melted a bit too much and the second one I somehow managed to tie into a knot! Alright then. After that I was a bit more careful.

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These two I made with a circular base.

And these with an hexagon.

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I actually think I could have melted these a bit more, because they feel a bit fragile. But I hung them up on the kitchen window with sewing thread and they look very pretty and wintery.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

DIY Pom Pom Pillow

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I’ve been making so many pom poms lately! This time on a pillow.

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I saved a picture of this pillow from Living with punks ages ago on my DIY board on Pinterest and finally decided to do something like it.

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I’m not much of a sewer, so instead I crocheted the pillow. I used the same pattern I’ve used for the bows in my wreaths, just on a larger scale. I also decided to sew the pom poms more tightly onto the pillow than in the original. It just seemed like a sturdier option.

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I just love how it looks. I used a wool yarn and the combination of white crochet and pom poms makes it look so wintery and cosy.

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Wednesday, December 11, 2013

DIY Crochet Snow Lantern

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We live in an apartment so we don’t have a yard, just a balcony. So, I had this amazing (in my opinion, of course) idea that I’d make a snow lantern, like the once we used to make when we were little, only instead of snow I’d use yarn and polyfill and then I could keep it inside! Using a led light of course, this thing would catch fire like nobody’s business.

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Crocheting the balls was the fun part, just make a basic amigurumi ball in the size you want. Trying to assemble it or even trying to pile it for a second, so I could see how it was coming together and estimate how many more I still needed to make, was the part where the balls kept rolling on every direction and I lost my temper. Whew. But I managed it! And I think it looks so nice. I like how it is minimalistic and even quite sophisticated as far as Christmas decorations go, but also cosy and fun. I can see myself pulling this out every winter for next 50 years, without it looking tacky.

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I sewed all the balls together, and it is really sturdy. I could throw it across the room and not do it any damage. But if I were to do it again… I’d use a glue gun. And just try to control my throwing impulses. Also, I love crocheting, but definitely the easier route would have been just wrapping Styrofoam balls with yarn and gluing them together. Ah well, all that ends well!

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Friday, December 6, 2013

Happy Independence Day!

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Today is the independence day here in Finland and, being on a bit of a wreath kick, I decided to make an (independence) wreath for our door.

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I was inspired by this tutorial on Bleubird blog. For colours I chose three different shades of blue and two different shades of white. I didn’t have a wreath base, so just cut two rounds from a pizza box and wrapped them with blue yarn to make the base more sturdy. Once I had a mound of pom-poms and was running out of yarn, I started to tie them onto the base. Then realized that I didn’t have enough and had to make some more. The wreath takes a huge amount of pom-poms, but they are so much fun to make, I didn’t mind.

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I’m already thinking about other colour combinations to try. White and different shades of red, with a green bow. Or all white with a red bow.

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I know that in some countries independence day is a huge party with fireworks and stuff, but we are just going to burn candles, eat cream cake, visit the graveyard and watch the president’s independence day reception.

Happy independence day!

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

DIY Spruce Pom-Pom Wreath

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As a first step in my Christmas Spirit project, I decided to make a huge wreath for our front door, so you would feel a bit festive every time you came or went. I had seen this adorable pom-pom spruce wreath on Pinterest and wanted to do something similar.

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The pictures are a bit washed out, especially the bow for some reason, but I think it turned out very pretty.

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I bought a fake spruce base, then made a bunch of pom-poms from left over yarn. While watching YouTube, pom-poms are a great mindless project. I chose a pastel colour scheme based on what I had. I crocheted a striped bow for some extra interest. I fiddled with the placement a bit and then when it looked about right, sewed everything in place, to make sure that every time someone slammed the door there wouldn’t be a cascade of pom-poms. Though a cascade of pom-poms does sound lovely.

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I have to add, I had to pluck a few spruce bits away after I hung it up on the door as they were blocking the peephole a bit. Something to consider if you are making one.

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

DIY Lip Balm

How to make your own lip balm, it’s very easy!

DIY Lip Balm Imaginary Wardrobe

I’ve been making my own lip balm for a few years now. Mainly, because of my allergy to kathon cg and my atopic eczema, I couldn’t find one that suited me. When you make your own you can really tailor the ingredients for your own needs. The recipe I use is from Design Sponge and it has worked very well for me. I usually make half the recipe, which makes about 4 tubes.

I ordered some new lip balm supplies last week and decided to try them out. And while doing so I thought why not document it a bit, so next time I can remember what I did and what to do differently.

DIY Lip Balm What You Need Imaginary Wardrobe

WHAT YOU NEED:

  • 1 tbsp. coconut oil
  • 2 tbsp. beeswax
  • 3-5 drops essential oil of your choice (optional), I used tea tree oil
  • flavourings and sweetener to taste (optional), I used vanilla and honey
  • grater and a cutting board
  • a heatproof cup, I like this because it has a handle and a spout
  • a tablespoon
  • empty lip balm tubes

DIY Lip Balm How To Imaginary Wardrobe

  1. Start by grating the beeswax. Measure it by lightly patting it into the tablespoon, don’t push or the lip balm will be too hard. If you grate too much, that’s ok. Just put it back to the bag and use it next time!
  2. Add grated beeswax and coconut oil to the heatproof cup.
  3. Warm the mixture in the microwave. Keep a close eye on it, because the coconut oil melts in a few seconds. Stir so that the beeswax melts faster, then heat and stir more as needed. I’d say about 30 seconds total.
  4. The mixture should look like even honey coloured liquid when it’s ready. There should be no beeswax chunks floating there. Now is the time to add you extras if you want to. I use tea tree oil. This time, I also added vanilla and honey flavour oils and some sweetener. I’d never used those before so I only added a few drops each, and I have to say I can’t really notice them at all. Next time I’ll add more.
  5. Pour the mixture into the empty lip balm tubes and let them cool for a bit. They should be usable in about a minute, at least if you live in a cold country like I do. There might be some overflow, but just put the caps on and wipe them clean.

DIY Lip Balm Imaginary Wardrobe

You’ve just made your own lip balm!

DIY Lip Balm Imaginary Wardrobe

Friday, November 15, 2013

Blueberry Quark Pie

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Jake and I have been dating for three years today! Is three year dating anniversary a thing? I’ll spare you all the sappy talk, but I did make this blueberry quark pie (Jake’s favourite) to commemorate this occasion. Woohoo!

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Blueberry Quark Pie

Crust

100g butter

3/4 dl sugar

1 egg

3 dl flour

Mix together butter and sugar. Add the egg and mix well. Add the flour and mix until smooth.

Grease the pie pan and pat the dough in.

Filling

500g quark

1 dl sugar

2 eggs

4 tsp vanilla sugar

Mix all ingredients together.

250g blueberries (frozen or fresh) + some sugar to taste

Spread the blueberries evenly on top of the crust. Pour the filling on top. Bake for about 30 minutes in 200° Celsius. Sappy writing with leftover dough optional.

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Saturday, November 2, 2013

Italian Apple Cobbler

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I have no idea if this actually has anything to do with Italy, but that’s what the recipe called it. What I do know is that this is the easiest, the very best apple pie I’ve ever eaten. It’s soooo good. The recipe I’ve linked to is in Finnish and I don’t know if I’m allowed to post a translation on my blog, if you want it just send me an email.

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I made this last night and asked Jake if he’d like some? His reply: only if he could have a piece that had neither apples nor almonds. Well then. I’ll just eat this all by myself.

WP_20131102_004Super good with some vanilla ice cream. And coffee.

Side note: speaking of ice cream, in American movies they always eat it out of a jar type of container, I think it’s called a pint? Straight out of it with a spoon mostly too, which to me seems very unhygienic, sort of like drinking milk straight out of the carton. Over here ice cream mostly comes in square shape and you cut pieces with a knife. Just thought I’d share that!

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Another Granny Square Blanket

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Nothing much to say about this except that I love it. And that I think I must make another. These are so much fun to make, even if they take forever. It’s both a small project: crocheting one square takes no time at all and is very portable, and a huge one: sewing all the squares together takes forever and takes up half the sofa, or the floor.
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Here’s my first ombre one. And the original idea is from Muita Ihania.
EDIT: You can find the pattern here.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Crochet Pumpkins

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We don’t really celebrate Halloween here in Finland and I’m not even sure pumpkins like this grow here. Autumn is associated with yellow leaves, apples and rain, but not pumpkins. So I guess these go under the influence of too much Pinterest.

However, aren’t they cute? The pattern is from here. I didn’t use a styrofoam ball, but filled them with polyfill. The pattern didn’t include a pattern for a stem, so I just winged them. I wanted each to have a bit of a different kind of stem, to make them look slightly more natural.

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Sunday, October 20, 2013

Striped Yarn Wreath

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I’m so surprised how nicely this came out. I just had an idea and went for it. I started it late one evening and just used what I already had at home. The base was two circles I cut out of a cardboard box for frozen pizza (tuna, my favourite). I drew on them a few guidelines to see about where I wanted the stripes to be and then just started wrapping black and white yarn over the cardboard. First I did a thinner layer to see how it looked and then did another layer over it to make it thicker and even out the stripes a bit. They aren’t measured, but I think they are even enough. Perfection is boring, right? :) Plus, I knew if I’d to try to make it perfect, I’d never even get started.

I wanted the bow to have some texture, so I threw “Crochet Pattern” in the Google image search and chose this one. I think it has just the right amount of interest, not too plain, not too complicated. I crocheted the pattern until it looked long enough, then just wrapped yarn over the middle to make a bow. I sewed it on the wreath and forced my boyfriend to admire it.

I’m so happy with this! I think it would be easily customizable for different seasons and colour  preferences. White and green stripes and a red bow for Christmas, for example.

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Tuesday, May 21, 2013

How to Crochet an Amigurumi Beetroot

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The reason I started this blog was that in 2008 I discovered amigurumi. There was so many wonderful free patterns all over the Internet and once I got the hang of it I wanted to give back by sharing my patterns in return. I haven’t done any amigurumi for a long time now, but for some reason I got into my head yesterday that I wanted to crochet a beetroot.
And I did. And it was awesome.
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PATTERN (I had to browse through the blog to see how to write a pattern, it’s been such a long time!)
I used wool yarn and 1,75 hook.
  1. sc 6 in magic ring (6)
  2. sc around (6)
  3. *sc, sc inc* around (9)
  4. *sc in the next two, sc inc* around (12)
  5. *sc, sc inc* around (18)
  6. *sc in the next two, sc inc* around (24)
  7. *sc in the next three, sc inc* around (30)
  8. *sc in the next four, sc inc* around (36)
  9. *sc in the next five, sc inc* around (42)
  10. sc around (42)
  11. sc around (42)
  12. sc around (42)
  13. sc around (42)
  14. sc around (42)
  15. *sc in the next five, sc dec* around (36)
  16. *sc in the next four, sc dec* around (30)
  17. *sc in the next three, sc dec* around (24)
  18. *sc in the next two, sc dec* around (18) (you should start stuffing around here before the hole gets too small)
  19. *sc, sc dec* around (12)
  20. sc dec around (6)
Cut yarn and stuff the last bit. Sew shut.
Now the leaves. (wool yarn: it’s hairy)
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I just sort of winged it. For the smaller one I chained 11 with the beetroot colour and then changed into green yarn. I slipstitched into second chain from the hook and the next few and then just randomly sc, hdc, dc, tr around in a way that looked good to me. For the larger leaf, I started by chaining 16. I finished the ends and used the beetroot coloured yarn to sew them onto the beet. Let me know if you’d like a more detailed leaf pattern, I could try to whip something up. You could make as many leaves as you wanted of course, I just made two.
Beet from the back.
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Beet from the front.
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The end.
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