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!

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!

Molla & Postcard

We've been searching for nice postcards to send to my family, but all shops had the same cards that I sent last time we were here. After a long day of roaming around and eating a few cheesecakes, we bumped into this studio, that makes postcards from your own photos. Now when I have the traditional bulgarian costume, I thought to make paper doll cards.

 

 Pretty old buildings in Varna.

Street art by Фарс и маус. Info and more photos here!
 

It's Holiday Time!

This year we celebrate Holiday Time together with Mr. Strong. We went to near forest in the middle of the night, and cut nice looking christmas tree. For dinner we wanted to hunt a rabbit, but we found something more delicious, a reindeer.

In a local restaurant...

Some restaurants here in Sofia have menus in english. I thought to try something new and order in bulgarian, the dish was called пилешка супа. -"Delicious", said the waitress and smiled. I had to believe, though in the corner of my eye I saw her winking to Mr. Strong.
Well, I waited for some 45 minutes, got my dish, and there it was. A bowl full of chicken hearts, local delicacy. Next thing I remember was lying in a ladies' room floor.

A small mistake

Few days ago we went walking downtown Sofia with Mr. Strong, when I saw this poster. It was about russian children's character called Cheburashka. I got so inspired, it's a Cheburashka costume party!

The history of Bulgaria is still a bit unknown to me, but I realized the poster was about the exhibition, which again was about soviet socialist times in Bulgaria, seen through the eyes of youngsters of those times. I think I need to learn this language, but at least I have a Cheburashka costume for cold winter days!