malinmaskros

I just made some bids on Tradera, on some deco tapes and a couple of bento boxes. Fingers crossed! Especially since at least three will become gifts if I get them.

I had a lot of hits on my blog yesterday - what happened?!

I´m working on the knitted dog clothes/human accessories book I started working on a year ago, it´s about time, I´m afraid I´m too late to jump on the "clothe your dog" bandwagon, but I´ll give it a try nevertheless. And I haven´t seen any books on my idea yet, so fingers crossed that I will get it published. Otherwise, maybe I´ll try to publish patterns in knitting magazines.

Knitting is fun again (could it be the winter that´s finally here?), I´m reading knitting books/magazines, I´ve got ideas for patterns, my fingers are itching to knit. A change from the felt softies, amigurumis and sewing that´s occupied my fingers for the last year. Unfortunately does not my bank account allow me to buy the loads of yarn that I want to buy, and my stash is getting rather empty, only containing yarns not to be used, those who are to special to knit with, mostly yarns I´ve got in swaps.

I´ve sent Jody in Singapore her package, she´s got it, and she says she like it (yay!). Take a look at what she got: http://celebrationguns.blogspot.com/2007/01/parcel-from-sweden_28.html. I´m still waiting for my package from her, but since I know it´s filled with great stuff, I don´t mind waiting (that much...).

I just mailed Yurippe her package too (I kinda lured her into swapping.... Shame on me!), she should have it in a couple of days, and hopefully I get lucky soon as well.

My bento package should arrive soon, maybe this week!

I bid on a vintage Hello Kitty box on ebay, and for long it looked like I would get it for peanuts, but it ended up being sold for 32 USD (but not to me), so that´s too bad. But wasn´t it cute, though:

This weekend my sister and I went thrifting (she got really hooked, let me tell you!), and I was very financially sensible, I didn´t shop much (for about $3!), and I packed a bento lunch and brought along. Very simple, very yummy, very healthy: A fried egg sandwich, some broccoli, mini carrots and cherry tomatoes, and some physalis and orange. I felt very happy with myself!

I´ve got some half-packed bento´s in the fridge too, one of them will be eaten for lunch today. I´ve decided, that if I commit to eating bento sized portions, I can eat pretty much whatever I want, and I should still be losing some weight, since I usually eat too much (food is a good thing!). Clever, huh?

Found this, with a bunch of bento realted links: http://cookingcute.com/linksandresources.htm

I just opened my etsy shop, drop by and take a look! http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=26022

I´ve been drooling over all of the amazing bento stuff on flickr, and now some is heading over to me! I ordered a bunch at ebay, one box, and some accessories, and I can´t wait for them to arrive, they should take 10-14 days (which is very decent, actually!). And than I will make bento lunches, and they will be pretty, and they will be healthy. Or they will be like today´s lunch, which was crap. But at least they will look good! Here´s a little taste of what I´m getting:

  
 

Cute, huh? And now, when I look, there´s a lot more stuff I want, only since yesterday. Gaaahhh!

Today I got two great packages, one from Kellie in Kentucky, filled with kawaii stuff, which I will tell you more about when I post pictures.
I also got the books I ordered from Bokus, scroll down and see how much I loved them.

Now I´m going home to enjoy my goodies, because they are exacty what I need, with my recently evolved cold and all. A cup of tea, naughty knitting books, and some chocolate. Nice....

This cover doesn´t lie - there´s some truly naughty knits in this one! Undrewear, absolutely, but also little gadget for all of you into S&M and bondage, clever hiding places for your toys, dress-ups to spark up your evenings... And the pictures are so great, all in the 50s pinup sprit, just like the one on the cover. I love this book, and if you´re not the shrinking violet, I´m sure you will too!

I really like this book, I love it´s lay-out and I love the knitting projects, this is definately the knitting book for the crafty goth, or for you who´s tired of Martha Stewart-land. There´s also a big how-to-section, for the beginner, and everything is wrapped in an all together lovely book. Buy!

After only two days, I got my muffin boxes from Yurippe, and they are so great! Until I´ve posted pictures, go look at Yippe´s pics: the Christmas muffin box and the halloween muffin box. The bat cutter is a bit like this. If you want to buy something from Yurippe, go look in her shop!

You may have noticed a new kathegory, with my newfound obsession for bento´s, I had to make somewhere to put them, and since my obsessions usually end up in shopping sprees, well, there´s bound to be some bento writing and pics!

This is what I already got (can someone tell that I like pink?):
  
(click to see the bigger picture!)

Here´s the promised picture of the wonderfulness I got from Shikin:

My muffin box from Yurippe is on it´s way (and it´s not one, it´s two!), my letter to her took two days, is it possible that my package takes two days also? Could I have it tomorrow? Fingers soooo crossed!

My package from Kellie in Kentucky should be here next week, I´m so excited to see what´s inside! Jody sent my package from Singapore too, but it should take a month or two, so I´m not expecting it for a while.

Next week I´ll shop some bento accessories on ebay, weee!

I haven´t bought any knitting books for a while (definately not since I´ve discovered Jap craft books), but I couldn´t resist ordering these:



Especially since I´ve thought of making a book on knitted underwear, Naught Needles looks perfect, and all I´ve got to do is enjoy it, I don´t have to make the patterns myself or anything.

After a long time of non-knitting, I´m starting to feel the urge for two needles, not one. I might do some knitting in the near future. Maybe I´ll get some work done on the books I started working on a year ago, one on dog clothing (with matching master´s stuff) and one on knitted accessorys. And I´ve been thinking about a generally crafty book, knits, crochet, sewing and stuff, maybe I´ll start on that one too...

PayPal is working!

This morning I hung the last painted cabinet doors in my kitchen! They are all white, and it´s so pretty! I´m doing a little touch-ups on my wall, so it´s a bit plaster-spotty, but after I´ve finished that too, it´ll look white and bright and so nice. All I´ve got to do then, is to do the floor, but that´ll have to wait for a while. Pink thinks will look so good in there!

I´ve made two black/white patchwork cushions too, and they turned out quite well. It´s so much fun to make things for my home - a little really goes a long way!

Packages from Kentucky, USA and Singapore is on their way.

Hello Kitty deco tape from Tradera, payed for and all, hasn´t come yet, even thought it´s quite a while since I payed. 

I´m buying a bento box from Yurippe in Italy, shaped like a muffin, really pretty.

I was supposed to post pics yesterday, but my sister wasn´t at home, she had to take her son to the hospitale, nothing too serious, fortunately. But no pics for me, though.

I had to work today and tomorrow. Crap.

I made and sold a shawl, the buyer liked it, so that was good, that gives me a little extra money. Somehow that always seems to come in handy.

I forgot to ask - what did you all get for Christmas?

I actually got more then I thought I would (and I´ve heard, that there´s more on it´s way!), I got some yarn, a mohair mix called "Malin" (I understand why my sister had to but it, since it´s my name too...), a very chocolate smelling hair conditioner (I can smell the chocolate as I speak, sorry, write), candles in pin-up holders (I love pin-ups, no wonder my icon is Dita von Teese), Cram Cream trays, ear rings, "crystal" lights (I will try to paint them, pink perhaps, or gold, since the light is very blue, and I can´t stand blue light), and if I forgot something, my apologies. Thanks, everyone!

And now it´s your turn to share - tell me about your goodies!
And then I won´t say a word about xmas, until that time in the end of the year, I promise!

Somehow, I always seems so need more cushions for my couch, and have a hard time finding ones I like and can afford, so it usually ends up with me making them. I just finished a cushion with black/white patterened patches and a black felt deer, very nice, if I might say so, and there´s felt enought for another deer, so there will be another black/white deer cushion. 
 
But what I really ment to say in this post, is that I´m finally crocheting a skull cushion,black and white of course, using the potholder pattern from Happy Hooker, looking like this:



Nice, isn´t it? And one can´t have too many skulls, right? I´m thinking of actually making potholders too, in pink/white or pink/black, or maybe pale pink/bright pink. I do need some pot holders...

I get my money this Friday, goody! I´ve got a package for Kellie in Kentucky to shop for and send in the next week or so, so that´s perfect. Oh, and a small thing called "paying the bills".

Jody in Singapore sends her package to me this week, fortunately I don´t have to send mine for another month, which gives me plenty of time to shop and sew for her. In a month is my second swap with Charlene in California also due, why give up on a good thing? And another month after that is my second swap with Catherine, also in California. I think I´ve got it all covered, and that means that April is open for a new swap. I´m so glad I´m back at GYS! Swaps really light  up my day, it´s fun to shop and to recieve, it´s great to get to know people all over the world, and I also get to know all the fun stuff that´s out there (mostly Japanese catch my eye, if anybody hadn´t noticed...). If it wasn´t for GYS, I wouldn´t know there were Cram Cream, Decole or Re-Ment for example, and that would make my life much less kawaii. And how would I live, if not kawaii?

After a couple of weeks break, I´m at it, painting cabinet doors in my kitchen again, I dared not to, while I had cats visiting, I didn´t want paw prints all over. But now, I just did the two remaining big doors, and there´s only four small doors and a drawer left, and then I´m done! Then, I need to start looking for cheap black and white vinyl/linoleum tiles for the floor, and I was thinking about covering my fridge/freezer with pink plastic, I saw it in a magazine yesterday, and it was very pretty. Actually, the whole kitchen was exactly what I want, only I´m doing the cabinet doors white, not mint, what do you think:

The holidays are officially over. My sister´s cats, who have been staying with me when she has been away, have been collected, and it´s a new year. I put away all of the advent decorations, and managed to step on one of my stars, which was made by my grandfather (grief...), but I´m trying to patch it up. The tree stays a week or two, usually it goes around new year´s too, but I really like my white plastic tree. Unfortunately, so does my cat, who love to chew on it, so that´s definately a reason to put it away soon - I´m getting tired of chasing him away from there. Hope for money on Thursday, I have some swap shopping to do, and need to buy winter shoes (preferably on sale). Fortunately this is the warmest winter (so far) in decades, perhaps centuries, so my sneakers works fine for now, but they´ve earned their place in the garbage by now. Rest in peace. Oh, and

HAPPY NEW YEAR!