Seen in София

We've been in Bulgaria again with Mr. Strong, having a holiday full of work. He's been writing dozens of mysterious papers, I have been mostly enjoying local chocolate and crochetting. Oh, how I love crochetting! I wish someday I'd have a collection of custom made hooks made from carbon fibre. By the way, I've got something interesting going on in that field, it has something to do with South Korea. I'll tell you later about that.

Here's some photos we've been taking, what a difference between Helsinki and Sofia! This city is full of colors and small curiosities, and everything is already blooming. City of Sofia is very charming in its own way.

Informative signs seen in София. The Catwoman neon light is my favourite, also the sign of running kids whos hands are glued together was interesting. There's a similar sign warning about horse carriages in the streets!  

Old and new posters, they're everywhere!

Beautiful old postboxes inside an apartment building, red door to a hippie shop, weird looking chimneys, house painted in mint-strawberry ice cream colors, old characters from Soviet times saying Robotics, and gorgeous architecture from the turn of the century.

This ceramic Lego-sculpture was seen in an art school student's exhibition in Национална Галерия за Чуждестранни Изкуства (Museum of Foreign Art). It's made by bulgarian artist Красен Троански. Me and Mr. Strong made the conclusion, that the idea behind this was to represent the reality of growing up in Bulgaria. I don't know anything about it, but I guess I have to agree.

In the Priest Garden I decided to have a little monologue. The place is an abandoned outdoor theatre from 1910. It haven't been used in decades anymore, what a waste of beauty!

More Cherry brooches

One of my cutest accessories is this Cherry brooch. It's made from Czech wooden pearls with black and brown velvet ribbon. Last winter I made these for sale, but they got sold out, so now another set is finished and waiting for new owners to pick their favourites. These are gonna be sold in Tokyo Spring Market in Aalto University in the end of this month.

Sunaga Design

A while ago, when I was sitting in a shop window at my work and crochetting, a japanese couple saw me and came to ask what I was doing. -"Crochetted handbags from a very thick cotton yarn", I told. They were owners of Sunaga Design, a design shop in Nagano, and they were looking for new scandinavian designers. We changed emails, and after a short while I got my first order; grey and black handbags.
The small kodomo there in the photo is my little niece Emili. She is half japanese, and the most cutest thing ever. Some day I hope she'll teach me Japanese, but firstly she has to learn it herself. I'll can then teach her how to crochet.

 Here's the bags I made. Simple and practical, and can last quite a lot of weight. The tag is a small origami made from a cotton ribbon.

Enough of Winter Sleep

Incredible amount of snow here! I wonder where did it all come from, is there any left for polar bears. Hmm, let's see if I can find Mr. Strong's footprints somewhere here, a week ago he left to south again. I'm planning to travel there soon too, just have to finish the pile of homeworks. Before that I'll make snow tunnels!

Valentine's Heart

For Valentine's Day we were planning on going to Lemmenjoki to Lapland with Mr. Strong. Lemmenjoki is a national park in north Finland, and goes on all the way to Norway. It's one of the biggest uninhabited forest wilderness areas in Europe, the name means Tender Love River. Today's weather forecast said it's -30 degrees there up north, so we decided to stay home and eat heart shaped cookies.

I wish lovely Valentine's Day to all friends!

Adorable heart shaped things and tattoos.
1. Love-brooch from Hetty and Dave, 2. Tattoo by Nowhere Fast, 3. Rusty wire heart by Gunhild & Svenning, 4. Lovely heart tattoo by unknown artist, 5. Heart bag by Lipstick Diaries, 6. Cute vintage Valentine's Day card from 1940s, 7. Moschino purse and sunglasses, 8. Moschino pumps.

Heart shaped rocking chair by Moroso.

Chocolate dreams

I had a weird dream, it was about Super Mario bros and chocolate. Beautifully packed milk chocolate is my weakness, I just can't help wanting to have a small bite from all of them. In my dream I was jumping from a chocolate bar to another trying to save the princess Peach, in my dream her name was Truffle. This is how it went.

Here's some pretty packages!

 1. Chocolate packaging designed by Sissi Edholm & Lisa Ullenius, Sweden, 2. Chocolate by Mast Brothers, US. 3. Hush chocolate, package by Laura Alejo,  4. Unknown Valentine's day chocolate

5. Chocolate by Mail, design by Fernando Medina, 6. Russian Алёнка chocolate, the package always has the same symbol; the girl in a mottled kerchief, launched 1966, 7. Kitzbuhler Horn chocolate by confiserie Manfred Wiegand, Austria, 8. Meiji Rick Strawberry chocolate, I wonder how pink the package would be... 9. German Stollwerk chocolate package from 1890.

Paper, Scissors, Hammer

Today was the best day to stay inside, and do some paper crafts. It's been rainy and gloomy, all snow is melting and streets are covered in ice. So I took my tools and started crafting.
Since Mr. Strong is almost 1,95cm tall, I decided to make a real size figure of myself. It's whole 65cm tall, but I'd rather call it cute than short. The figure is made of thick cardboard, and it's put together with love.

 Cutting and gluing, taking Molla home wrapped in plastic, we're sitting on a bus.

Molla at home!

Molla does Nomi!

Now when Mr. Strong is travelling in Balkan, I can do some experiments. I've been crafting things with my hands as long as I can remember, being a designer came naturally to me. But who knows if it's really my calling, I could be something else. I could be like Klaus Nomi, brought up to this day.

Klaus Nomi was a German born stage person, born in 1944. He was really an amazing character, way ahead of his time. He sang avant-garde New Wave opera, dressed up in futuristic clothes, and had a face like a comic character. Several fashion designers have been influenced by his style, he was one of real icons of 80s New York. When I first saw his video Lightnin' Strikes, I didn't know how to react. He was weird, funny and a mix of different subcultures in a same time. I had to watch documents and learn more about him,  so I could know how to Nomi.

More about Klaus Nomi here!

Going Home

On saturday morning Mr. Strong called a cab, he was about to take me to Sofia airport. My vacation in Bulgaria was in its end, I had to leave back home. Mr. Strong would follow me in few weeks, he had some unfinished business to do.
We arrived to airport exactly 1.15pm. I had booked another kind of flight, that would leave in fifteen minutes, so we said quick goodbyes, and then I had hurry to catch my balloon!

Street signs

It's so funny trying to guess what these local street signs say, I always spell cyrillic letters wrong. Mr. Strong knows the language like he's been talking it for his whole life, he's having fun while I spell the words aloud. Some day I will surprise him, and say something smart in this language.

This sign we located in Utrech last summer. The ones after this are from Sofia and Varna.

These street sign-photos got me so inspired, they're made by amazing british photographer Tim Walker. More about Tim Walker on his website and here!

2011!

So nice to start a new year again! We have so much work to do with Mr. Strong, I don't even know where to begin. My vacation here in Bulgaria is soon ending, work and studies are waiting me back home. I have to admit I'd rather continue the hunt with Mr. Strong here, it's been so nice to see the country again, and meet all the nice people here.
Here's some new photos we've taken in Sofia and Varna. And of course, best wishes for New Year!

 Molla Cattie, original design from Soviet times' candy paper.

Tiny red sewing machine, shop window decoration. Skeleton window decoration, Farenah. Just Shoes- light ad. Some nice looking poster.

My favourite floor in a shoe shop, Sofia. The oldest Happy- fast food restaurant in Varna, awesome blinds! Striped service car and a garage door, Varna.