Calendar for social life losers

I was really excited when school started this Fall. Fall means new calendars, and I absolutely love calendars. They make me feel oh so important. I just have one teeny tiny problem... I barely have life beyond school, and school projects don't really fill the calendar. Empty days, weeks and months make me feel depressed and like a social outcast. And besides, I couldn't justify buying a new fancy calendar just to write down one or two exam dates.

So I came up with somethind different. I call it a "calendar for social life losers".

It's just a thin notebook which I have covered with violet paper. The stickers on the cover say "Calendar etc 2010" in Finnish. Not very fancy or original, but in the same time it suits my style. Every spread in the notebook represents one week; I have handwritten the number of the week and the names of the months including the specific dates.

The basis of the calendar is really simple, but it works for me. I just write down the day and what is going to happen, and I can use pretty much as much space as I want to, because there's no fear that I'll manage to use the whole spread... J.R. complained that my calendar is hard to understand because the days don't follow any logic. It doesn't bother me. I think it's easy to scan because I only have 1-4 events marked for each week. And hey, there's still room for occasional to-do lists!

When I go through my calendar now, I don't feel depressed. My calendar covers all my needs and makes me feel like I have a life, because there's no empty days. Yay!

The smallest things make the dog owners happy

It feels really good to be home again. We spent seven days dog-sittering my sister's Dachshund in Viiala while she was on a holiday trip with her family. We lived in their house, but we also visited my parents every day since they live so close. I can't remember when I spent so much time with my family without them driving me crazy. Anyway. My sister's Dachshund is called "Pipa" and she's actually named after Papu. Papu, Pipa and Poppana are the Finnish names of the Powerpuff Girls (they tried to make my mother to name her Dachshund as "Poppana", but she named her "Minni" instead).

Papu and Pipa didn't get along so well at first and I was a bit worried how the week would turn out. It turned out that I had no reason to worry. Even though the start was a little bumpy, the dogs actually became friends really quickly. Papu even learned new ways to play while being with her! She didn't know how to play tug of war when we got there. She just tried to take the toys away from the others and didn't understand that the battle is actually part of the play too. We thought that she could still learn, so we gave Papu and Pipa some tug toys and encouraged Papu to tug them instead of stealing them. She got the idea after a while and once she learned she seemed to play really nicely with the others. We didn't have to worry about her being too aggressive anymore. We were so proud of her ability to learn new ways to behave.


They are almost identical. The other one is just fatter.

We weren't actually sure if Pipa was allowed to go on the sofa. I asked my sister if she had any specific rules and she said no. And since Pipa climbed on the sofa by herself, we thought that maybe she was allowed to and let her be there. Besides, it was only fair because Papu is allowed to go on the sofas too. And we were smart enough to take the white sofa covers away before the dogs started to wrestle on it...

I also finally finished Papu's rain overall! I started to sew it over a month ago, but I didn't manage to finish it because I didn't have metallic push-button. I knew I had them at home so I didn't want to buy new ones. And my sewing machine that I have at home doesn't sew this particular fabric.


"Today I'm wagging my head instead of my tail."

The rain overall was really hard to sew. Once again I had problems with the pattern. Even the most smallest size was for a bigger dog than Papu, so I needed to resize it dramatically. It took one whole day before the pattern was in correct size. And even after I got the patterns, the sewing instructions were hard to understand. Even my mother didn't understand how the overall was supposed to put together. It turned out pretty good after all, but I'm not particularly happy with the sleeves. They fit strangely and I'm worried that Papu might find them uncomfortable.

I also have great news for Finnish dog owners! Best Friend has replaced their regular dog waste bags with degradable ones! I have wanted to use degradable waste bags since we got Papu, but since they cost over twice as much than the regular ones, and because they were made from see-through material (who actually wants to see the poop after it's been picked?!), we decided against it. But these new waste bags by Best Friend cost exactly the same as the regular ones used to, and they are totally not see-through! And they even come in two different sizes!

With carry handles.

Totally not see-through. Hello invisible dog poop!

And do you what else in these dog waste bags makes me so excited? The fact that when you go to the regular grocery store to buy dog waste bags, you can only buy degradable ones. That means that within months almost all the dog owners are using degradable dog waste bags... How awesome is that?!

Papu's new winter coat

Papu has a very thin fur, so if it gets really cold, she definitely needs a winter coat. And it can get really cold quite often, because we live in Finland. You know, we have polar bears and penguins and other stuff here. But dog coats are expensive here. Like ridiculously expensive: I saw one nice that I liked, but it cost 60€ in Papu's size. That's almost more than I'm willing to pay for my own coat! Though we never planned to buy an dog coat in the first place. We wanted to make one by ourself.

And for this project we needed material. And since fabrics can be quite expensive too, we decided to be environmental and recycle an old coat. We went to a flea market with this project in mind, and we find this nice coat:


The "before" picture.

The coat cost 2€ (that's like 3 US dollars), which is already a lot cheaper than 60€. The fabric was in good condition and it had a nice silvery lining. Not to mention the fake fur and some small details we definitely wanted to keep. We had a pattern for a dog coat, but it was made for a pug so we had to modify it.


The buckle in the back was the first detail we wanted to keep.


The coat looked less warm after I cut out all the pieces.


Only three pieces and the original fur collar.


Things sewn together.


Velcro is handy. No buttons for this coat.


We wanted to keep the original label too.


Opening for the harness. Made like a button hole.

I'm quite pleased with the coat. It wasn't the easiest to sew and sometimes I had to ask my mother to help me. She's good at sewing. And it took the whole Saturday to make the coat, but I think it was worth it. It doesn't fit perfectly, but I blame those stupid fat pugs. I didn't realize that the bottom part should have been adjusted too. We tried it on, but it looked OK until it was already sewn. Though it doesn't matter so much, because Papu seemed to be comfortable in it. I actually expected her to fight against the coat, but she was perfectly OK with it from the first moment. She didn't even mind the fur collar.


She looks so proud in her new coat.

I would like to make another dog coat in the future, one that fits her perfectly. I also think that Papu might need a rain coat, because she hates the rain so much. I would also like to get a sewing machine of my own one day. I'm not (yet) into sewing clothes, but I would like to sew smaller things and make adjustments and customizations. All that cool stuff.

Papu's Piggy Treats

We are going to Viiala for the weekend, so we decided to bake some doggie treats for my mother's dachshund. Papu has eaten almost all the treats I baked her last time. I thought they were too hard, but after all they weren't. They were just hard to crack into pieces. I bought a smaller cookie cutter so the size shouldn't be a problem anymore. J.R. also rolled the dough thinner this time, so they should be easier to crack too. And now it seems that we have a perfect, simple doggie treat recipe, so why not to share it with you? Here it is:

Papu's Piggy Treats

Makes 25-30 small treats

List of ingredients:

• 30 grams of minced meat (that's not much)
• 1 tbsp of vegetative oil (quite optional if the minced meat is not low-fat)
  
• 0,5 dl of consommé (about 0,2 US cups)
  
• 1,75 dl of wheat flour (about 0,7 US cups)
• 0,75 dl of cooked rice (or barley or a mix of both) (about 0,3 US cups)
• 1 tsp of oregano

Doggie treats before baking.

Making:

1. Fry the minced meat.
2. Use a hand blender or similar to chop and mix the minced meat and consommé.
   
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Add the flour little by little until you think it makes a nice dough.
   
4. Roll the dough (0,5cm thick is OK) and cut the cookies.
5. Bake in 170°C (338°F) for about 30 minutes. After 30 minutes turn off the oven, open it a little and let the cookies dry in the after heat.

If preserved in an airtight jar or similar, the cookies should stay good for months.


Doggie treats after baking. They still look the same, no surprises here.

They don't look so yummy to me, but Papu is crazy for them. Maybe she knows that we have baked them with love. They don't really smell that much, and I'm not sure if they taste so wonderful either, because I have not tasted them by myself (though I could, they're not poisonous).


She wants it. She wants it really bad.


Outside the picture Papu's tail is wagging like crazy.


FINALLY!

After these two experiences with DIY doggie treats, I'm very positive that I will bake them in the future too. Like why not? Papu loves them more than she loves her commercial doggie biscuits, they're cheap and very, very easy to do. Just make some Chili con Carne or any other food with minced meat and rice and take some aside and bake the biscuits later. So ridiculously effortless!

Crochet calendar

J.R. crocheted a fluffy calendar cover for me:


There is a notebook...


... there is a calendar...


... it's unique and it's all mine.

Wanna play cards?

I got bored so I decided to do a little crafting. I'm allergic to cash so I use my Visa Electron a lot, especially when I'm buying groceries. So I thought it would be an excellent idea to make a nice pocket for my cards. Now I don't have to carry my wallet with me all the time.





"If you have thirty dollars, then give me half that will do alright."

My Little Pony: mane and tail grooming

My mom is, among many other things, a My Little Pony collector. I guess it's my fault. I told her once how my Surprise Twins Pony (it's a mommy pony that gives birth to two tiny baby ponies. It's sick, I know) is worth some money since there are actually people who are seriously into these toys. And suddenly she was into these toys too.

She buys all her ponies from flea markets so they're usually looking old and dirty. But there is actually one simple trick that can transform even the dirtiest pony to a real beauty. If your pony is clean but having a serious bad hair day, you may want to try this:


You need an iron, some water and a thick comb.


This is how the tail looked before my magic. It's frizzy and dry and not shiny at all.


First I wet the tale thoroughly.


I work with small sections flat against the ironing board.


I keep the sections tight as I iron over them. I add some heat if the tail is not hot after I've ironed over it or if the ironing doesn't seem to make any difference.


When I have ironed all the small sections I start to iron the whole tail as once. I keep ironing it until I get bored or until it looks straight and shiny enough. Then I do the same with the mane too. If the hair looks too uneven I take my scissors and cut them even.


Here is my model, Curly Locks, with wet hair.


The hair will look as good as new when dried.




Here's my pretty pony with a shiny mane and a shiny tail!

Happy Birthday

Today is J.R's birthday but since he's doing his military service and is therefore unavailable during weeks, I gave him his gift yesterday. And that leads to a thing you probably didn't knew about me: I love to give birthday presents. It's not only because I like to give presents, but because I really love to wrap them.

Gift wrapping has been my hobby for about three years now. It all started on one Christmas when I was reading a newspaper and thought that some of the ads could make an outstanding gift wrap. I've always been a fan of recycling so I decided to give it a try. And to my surprise those gifts turned out really nice when I finished them with paper strings.

It's easy to make an extraordinary gift wrap, so I wonder why so many go for boring printed wrap papers and cheap plastic ribbons instead. You only need these three things to success:

1. Handmade paper. It's not easy to get for free, but if you keep your eyes open you will eventually end up with a nice collection like I do.
2. Paper string: It's cheap, so go get some. And have a little practice to make a nice bow. It doesn't behave like a plastic ribbon so it can be a bit frustrating at first.
3. Some cheap paper that looks like recycled: I personally like white see-trough paper you get when you buy something fragile. Remember to get loads of this when you visit Ikea! I normally wrap the gift with some heavy print first, and then use one layer of this, so the the print sheers through very nicely.

I was a bit out of material when I wrapper the gift for J.R. but I think I did OK anyway. I wrinkled some brown paper (originally from flower shop) to get some texture. Because it was so thin I used some Christmas wrapping paper under it, but I turned it upside down first. The paper ribbon is something very cheap from Tiimari, but I think it works with this look.


Not so much blingbling since this was for a boy.

I also made the Birthday card myself, but I don't have picture of the finished card. But I do have some pictures I took while the process:



I'm not an artist so I like to trace pictures and then to modify them. In this case I used only the ribbon and Tux the penguin. I tried to make Tux to look friendly, but I think it still looks a bit "arrogant" to me. I should have modified the eyes to be more rounded.


Yep. My friend is super old.

This is how the picture turned out. If you click to enlarge you probably wonder if I draw it or paint it. But I did both. When I was a kid I got these super cool Derwent Watercolour Pencils you can first draw with and then wet the drawing with a small brush to make it look like painting:


It's funny how I still use them. It's been like ten years since I got them. Unfortunately I lack the color black, and that's why my Tux was more greyish than black.