malinmaskros

As some of you might know (....), I´ve got a huge crush on Japan, and all their cuteness, and my dream above all else, is to go there, preferably on a massive shopping spree. But I basically don´t speak a word Japanese, and I think that would make a Japan-obsessed life much easier. All I know are the words for some fruits/vegetables, hello, thank you, and kawaii of course. I should have taken a course in Japanese instead of archaeology (which I have a hard time to muster up even the slightest enthusism for at the moment). Konnichiwa, y´all. 

I got my Cram Cream tape yesterday, and must confess that I got a bit disappointed, it had a bit of a used feeling to it. But - it´s Cram Cream, and I love it never the less, especially since it´s the only one I´ve got until xmas, and until my finances have improved and I can order me some. Want deco tapes, tote bags, purses, passport cases, and just about everything else there is.

Got busy last night, and refurnished my bedroom, flipped the furniture so to speak. Everytime I do it, I think the new way is better than the old, even though the new was old before. There are basically two ways to furnish my bedroom, so I don´t have a lot of options. This way feels good, anyway, and I moved some other things around, and removed some, so I have more room for my crafty stuff. I´m thinking of a way to display my Hello Kitty/kawaii collection, I saw a transparent CD/photo-wallhanging-pocket-thing on Lagerhaus last weekend, but the bigger one was sold-out. That would otherwise be perfect, I think. I´d like some Cram Cream tote bags to store yarn and stuff, too, kind of like this:

Another Cram Cream link:

Peppermint Pig

   

I just found out, that I won an auction on Tradera (kind of like eBay), I got some Cram Cream tape for 14 SEK ($2). Sweet! I didn´t want to tell you before, because I wanted to keep my find for myself. Does that make me a bad person?

If you´ve read me for a while, you know me - I get really obsessed about something, and then I get tired and let it go. My Cram Cream find a few days ago really got an obsession started, so here´s another post on essence of cuteness - Cram Cream that is. I think that it´s even better than Decole, so that´s really cute!

Ok, here´s what I found today:

There´s a flickr-group on Cram Cream.

    

There´s a "We love Cram Cream"-community.


Actually, there´s a whole lot of people out there loving Cram Cream, I can tell you! Anyone who knows where to buy the stuff in Sweden (except on Skansen, of course...)?

I´m sending some packages today, and of course, I forgot the addresses at home, and now I can´t get into my hotmail-account, to reach the addresses there. And I don´t want to carry the packages back home, and then back to the postoffice again. So I´ll blog a little, and then try again.

I´ve been taking some pics today, so if you scroll down a bit, you´ll get to see them, there´re some swap pics, and some finished stuff.

I´ve almost finished my felt toilet, the only thing missing is the towel, and I think it worked out quite nice. It´s a bit crooked, but not too bad. It looks like this, what do you think?



Can you tell, that pink´s my favourite colour? How are you doing on yours, Pei? Did we say that it´d be finished in october?

I took a picture of my felt pastries, too. I don´t really like the choc chip cookies, mostly because they don´t look like it.



And a picture of my lovely alpaca mittens:

I get my money on Thursday - yay! That means: I can buy food, I can pay bills, I can repay loans, I can send packages, I may even shop (a little, anyway...). I´m a happy camper!

And - yesterday I got some great books from YesAsia. Goody!

The toilet is doing well, I´m actually more than half way done, but I need to buy some felt before I can continue, and that will hopefully happen in the end of next week. But my toilet will look a lot diffrent than the original, I´m going for a more luxurious, budoarish feeling, with black/white checked floor, pink walls, and I´d like to make the towel rack and toilet paper holder in gold, but felt don´t come in gold. Maybe they´ll be black. Or white. But it´ll look good. The toilet on the floor, with the pink rug, already looks great. But I´ve got no idea where to put it when it´s finished, I don´t have that much room for knick-knacks, however pretty they are. If I had any shelves in my bathroom, that would be perfect, but no shelves, not a single one. Over all, I need more shelves in my apartment, and I definately need another book case, the two I bought a year ago is full, and that´s not even all of my books.

Made myself a black-and-white tote bag yesterday, pomegranatey things on the outside, dots on the inside, and then I hang a crocheted scull on the handle. Very nice.



Which got me thinking about Christmas presents, I think I´ll make a bag and matching scarf for my little sister, my step-mum is getting a scarf and mittens, my dad gets socks - I need to start working, if they´re going to get it for Xmas!

I just had my hair cut, am not totally sure I like it. I wanted it wild-in-the-woods-y, and it came out way too close to frumpy and middle aged. I´ll have to see how it turns out when I´ve had a go at it at home. Now I´m not so sure... It may have been better before the haircut, even if I had some issues then too. But frumpy it wasn´t. Here´s a glimpse of the do. It´s dark and it´s curly, and that´s all you get to see...




 

Ok, I´ve officially started, the toilet-along is on. I spent this morning tracing pattern, cutting pattern, cutting cardbord and cutting felt. All before I could even make one little stitch. But then I made a couple of lids, and now it´s becoming a toilet. I think I found cardboard a bit on the wobbly side - too thin, that is. Or maybe I worry over nothing, I guess I´ll have to wait and see how it turns out. It´s supposed to turn out like this:



How great is that?! But the only toilet museum I´ve found isn´t Japanese (how strange is that?!), but Indian. The only thing I´ve ever heard about Indian toilets, are that they are more like a hole in the ground than anything else. But I can be wrong, that has happened before (believe it or not!).

My phone´s not working. How typical is that?

I made Pei her Moomin pin cushion, all I need to do now is figure out the rest of her package. There´s no hurry, we´re not swapping again until november sometime. I found fabric for Tanja too. Actually it is a vintage fabric from my stash, which I´d forgot that it was so nice. It will begome a pillow for a birthdaypresent for a friend, too. And there´s still some left for me! Some will become a bag or two, some maybe a big pillow, maybe something else. I like the fact that it´s laying there, waiting for a good idea or two.

I re-read one of my Jap craft books yesterday, this one: Everytime I read it (that is look at it, I don´t read Japanese, though I really want to) I find something new I simply love, and I know I will use several of the ideas one of these days. Fun thing: on the first spread, there´s a fabric hanging in the top left corner, that´s Swedish. See what you notice when you look thouroghly at all the pictures!

I got some un-expected money today, not much, but a nice surprise!

I got to clean my apartment when I get home, partly because the cats make dustbunnies (dustdinosaurs!), mostly because my family may drop by at any moment, from tonight and througout the weekend. My dad´s a fussy visiter - he wants his coffee (he´ll get instant) and he want a clean apartment. It´s always tidy (more or less - it´s craft stuff and magasines all over every table), but since I don´t mind dust, well, out comes the vacuum cleaner. Actually, I don´t mind a freshly cleaned apartment either...

 

Actually, this is just for the one´s of you who may be interested in what I´ve been sending out to people, you´ll find links here:

Anjali, Kwoozy and her birthdaypackage, Charlene, Catherine, Babs and Lizzy.

I´m sending Alvina´s package to Singapore today, it should arrive next week. As usual I´m a bit nervous, hope she´ll like it!

I´ve started on Tania´s package, though we´re not swapping until the end of October. I see, I forgot to tell you, I´m doing a swap with Tania from Portugal. I´ve seen what she´s sent, and there´s some nice stuff there!  Anyway, she´ll get a Moomin pin cushion, but not like the one Anjali got. Anyone knows where to buy Moomin-stuff in Stockholm? I know there´s some at Junibacken, but anywhere else?

So far, the only bdaypresent I´ve got is from Pei (birthdays suck when you´re older), but sister Linda has promised me money to shop Japanese craft books at YesAsia. Yay! Sometimes you actually DO get what you wish for!

Kwoozy got her bdaypackage just in time - perfect! She says she likes it, which is also perfect. And she sent me mine, which is even better. Lucky me!

I very hastily throwed together a bday present today, a croched scull keyring, for my friends son, who´s ten today. Hope he´ll like it! I like the fact, that I can bring a present, despite my empty purse, I guess thet´s the wonderful thing about being a crafty person...

Anybody´s got any ideas on something to serve on bday, without flour, eggs and such things? The only thing I can come up with is fruit salad, and that´s so done!

I definately need to go felt-shopping again! Those felt pastries takes their fare share of especially brown and white felt, and I´m practically out of it. Unfortunately, the package I bought contained very much red felt (it was a Christmas package, but I don´t use red even for Christmas, since my Xmas is white an pink), and I don´t know what to do with it. You can only make so many strawberrys...

I had dinner at my sister´s last Saturday, it was a genuine girl´s night, with good food, some drinks and lots of fun. Everybody went out afterwards, but me, I went home to my bed, a book and my cats. Don´t in any way pity me, it was my choice, I can´t think of any better way to spend the night. Party animal is not my middle name! But I had a nice evening, so thank you sis!

I can´t believe I´m turning 32 next week... I liked 30 better, 32 sounds so much, then I´m soon 35, and then 40 is knocking... can you turn 30 every year, until you retire?

Oh, did you see - I´ve posted some package pics! Scroll down, and you´ll find them!

I´m going back to school this fall, I´ll be studying archaeology, a life long dream coming true. I hope it´ll be as fun as I hope. But now it seems huge, and I don´t know where to start. I printed out studyquestions, which have to be sent in by the last of this month, and there´s an assignment, looking for archaeological museums on the internet, that will have to wait, at least til next week. I haven´t studied for several years, and not even back then did I do much of actual studying, I´ve always had it too easy in school, so when I had to do real work, when I went to Uppsala Universitet, I couldn´t cope. I´d really like to work as an archaeologist, so this have to work. I may not become Indiana Jones, but I may have an education, and (do I dare to dream) a job, with a decent pay.

I thought I´d have some pics to post today, but the computer said no. Hopefully I´ll fix it in the weekend, if little sister haven´t erased my pictures. But she´s not usually that effiicient, she shouldn´t start now. I hope. What she did, however, is get me a VISAcard of my own, and allows me to use one of her bankaccounts for my internet shopping. Unfortunately, since my bankruptcy, they don´t let me have a creditcard of my own. It´s not enough that my whole economy and my whole life was turned up-side-down, then they won´t let you get back on your feet again. Fortunately, I have a very kind sister!