10 things I need

If you could have just 10 things (furniture, items of clothing, tools or other objects that are not disposable commodities), what would you need to get by? This was a question asked by the top Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat bit over a week ago. A very interesting question I'd say and not an easy one to answer. 

The whole question was inspired by an article written about a new Finnish documentary called My Stuff (in Finnish Tavarataivas). The documentary is about a 20-somehting man, Petri Luukkainen, who decides to put all the things he owns to a storage unit starting from the beginning of the year to try out how much he really needed to get by. According to the rules he was allowed to get back from the storage unit only one item per day.

I haven't seen this documentary yet, mainly because it only has it's premiere tomorrow (January 23th) at DocPoint film festival, but I'm definitely interested. The project documented in the film is obviously very extreme, but already the articles I've read about it have made me thing about how much stuff I have and what do I actually need. I guess this also hit me at the right point of time as I was already doing some decluttering at home, but it also gave me more ideas to chew on.

How many of these things do I actually need?

Oh, and what were those 10 things I chose for the HS quiz? I based my choises on the idea that I should be able to do the most important things in my daily life such as domy job and to keep contact with people. Basically to be able to keep up some level of normal life. Here are the items I chose:

• pants
• a shirt
• shoes
• a jacket
• a bra
• public transportations travel card
• eyeglasses
• a computer
• a mattress
• a blanket

So, which 10 items would you choose?

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Helsingin Sanomat kysyi verkkosivuillaan, mitkä kymmenen tavaraa valitsisit, jos et saisi käyttää mitään muuta. Ohesta löytyvät ne vastauset, jotka itse annoin tähän kyselyyn.

Challenge: Those wonderful small things

 I got challenged by my friend Inari (who writes a wonderful blog called Ikomi) a while back (way before Christmas) to make a list of ten things that are my favorites at the moment. I made the list back then but just never got around posting it (wanted to add more pictures), but even tough might list some other things right now, I'll keep the old one just because it's a good list. I'll just few time references so it won't be super confusing. 

The original instructions where in Finnish (I've copied them to the end of this post), but I'll translate them for you:

1.  Make a list of ten (10) things that are your favorite things right now.
2. Tag at least five (5) blogs you like to the challenge and let them know they are tagged.
3. (Then there is a part about wanting to take part in a shop installation in Moko shop in Helsinki, but it's long so I don't bother to translate it now.)

My favorite things  (in no particular order)

Photo by George Mathew (CC, source)

Color yellow
I've had a strong yellow period for a while now and it doesn't seem to be fading out any time soon.

Book Puluboin ja Ponin kirja by Veera Salmi
The funniest childrens book I've had the pleasure to read in a while and still it manages to be touching and deep at the same time.

Poems by Tuomas Timonen
I don't read a lot of poems but I love the writing of Tuomas Timonen. And as I do not own his books, I keep borrowing them from the library at least once a year. And now is that time of year again.

 

Rachel Wiley
Speaking of poetry, Rachel Wiley is my newly found favorite poet. Such powerful words.

Photo by Myra Khawar (Source)

Sequins
I bought a skirt with sequins in the hem a while back and the comment I got from the roommate was "That doesn't look like you at all". Well, I don't care and I'm still very fond of it. And I made a beanie from a yarn that has sequins in it. So maybe it's the new me. 

Textile art
This is an artform that has been intriquing me more and more lately. The combination of techniques and materials can result into beautiful things. I even bought the book in the picture few weeks ago as an inspiration.

Rico Design Essentials Merino DK yarn
I bought this yarn a little while ago and what an excellent yarn it is! A 100 % merino wool that actually feels like soft cotton. This is something even my easily irritated skin can handle with no problem.

Christmas lights

I'm usually not a huge decorator at Christmas time, but I during the darkest time of the year, any light is a good thing. I especially love my own Christmas star. This year I'm also planning to get some kind of lights for my bedroom window, just to make it feel big more festive.

DIY Chirstmas balls
Notice how I said usually not in the previous one? Well for some reason I've been very intrigued about alk kinds of home made Christmas balls this year. Time will tell if this interest will result into any actual balls tough...

Photo by Nauska. (source)

Janne Westerlund

Last autumn I hadn't heard of this wonderful Finnish musician but in October I saw him live and am pretty much hooked.


I'm not going to challenge anyone because I am so late with posting this and because most of the blogs I read have already had this. But if anyone reading this feels like joining in, you can consider yourself challenged. :)

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Inari haastoi minut mukaan listaamaan pieniä ihania asioita.

Oheet/säännöt:
Tässä ohjeet haasteeseen osallistumiseen: 

1. Listaa tämän hetken kymmenen (10) lempiasiaasi (voit halutessasi kopioida haastepostaukseen yllä olevan blogihaastekuvan ja/tai käyttää omia kuviasi)


2. Jaa haaste vähintään viidelle (5) tykkäämällesi blogille ja ilmoita siitä heille


3. Voit halutessasi myös osallistua Mokon myymäläinstallaatioprojektiin sekä Mokon lahjakortin arvontaan lähettämällä oman lempiasiat -listasi osoitteeseen mokomarket@moko.fi otsikolla: Minun lempiasiani. Ilmoitathan meilissä yhteystietosi. Kaikista lähetyistä lempiasioista valitaan osa ja nämä valitut aiheet tulevat olemaan osa Moko Marketissa järjestettyä esillepanoinstallaatiota, jota päivitetään viikottain teidän lähettämillä lempiasioilla. Jokaisen esiteltävän lempiasian yhteydessä mainitaan lempiasian kertojan nimi ja paikkakunta. Voit seurata myymälän installaatioita Facebook-sivuilta. Kaikkien osallistujien kesken arvotaan 3 kpl 50€ lahjakortteja Moko Markettiin (arvo yht. 150€). Teidän lempiasioiden mukaan elävä Lempiasioita -näyttely rakennetaan viikolla 41 ja arvontaan voi osallistua 3.10- 2.11.2012. Moko Oy pidättää oikeuden muutoksiin.


4. Muista nauttia listaamistasi lempiasioista mahdollisimman usein!

Finished: Mrs. Zoé

It's probably about time I actually posted about something I knitted, don't you think? This is a project I actually made last autumn. I even wrote about it before Christmas. But I just didn't get around adding the picture before now. So here you go, the first crafty project for this blog. :)

Pattern: Mrs. Zoé (Slightly modified) - circular scarf with button
Yarn: Zitron Nimbus, colorway 01
Buttons: Old buttons I had at home, probably from the collections of my great aunt.

Why I made this: This scarf was made for my sister. I gave to her and her family (and my brother and his family too) a knitting gift card as a Christmas present in 2011 and am slowly fulfilling all the wishes. My sister wish was to get a scarf similar to a scarf I'd made for her few years back. That scarf was a circular scarf that went around her neck three times so I went for a hunt to find a nice pattern for a circular scarf.

What I liked in this project: I really liked the yarn. It's very soft and fluffy but no roving yarn so it was easy to handle and it didn't break easily. I also very much liked that even tough the pattern was pretty simple, it had an interesting texture. The third thing I was very happy about were the buttons I happened to find and that in my oppinion fit to the yarn and pattern perfectly.

What I didn't like in this project: I was bit bummed out that I kinda run out of yarn and the scarf goes around the neck only two times instead of three. I found it kinda hard to figure out the chart in the pattern instructions. In general I work better with written instructions.

What I learned: In theory there wasn't a lot of new technique in this for me, but I actually learned a few new tricks while doing this scarf. 1) I figured out what is the right way to do holes when you are doing lace knitting. (For some reason I have had lot of trouble figuring this out) and 2) I learned a nice new way to do the edges of a flat object. Not big things but nice things to learn.

Was I happy with the end result: Yes. In the end the cowl looked really nice and more importantly like somthing I could imagine my sister using. I have already given it to her, but have not heard yet what she thinks about it so I'll probably update her comment here when I get them. Update:  My sister likes her cowl very much, as does her daughter. That is to say that the daughter almost stole it from my sister. :D I made her an own cowl instead.

Project page in Ravelry 

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Neuloin ihanan napitettavan rinkulahuivin siskolleni. Lanka oli ihanan pehmeää, ohje simppeli mutta mielenkiintoinen ja nappeina pääsin käyttämään pois vähän vanhoja varastoja. eniten harmitti, kun lanka ei ollutkaan niin riittoisaa, kun olin kuvitellut. Myös sisko piti huivista, kuten myös hänen tyttärensä, joka miltei varasti sen omaan käyttöönsä. Kaikin puolin siis onnistunut projekti.

The city of Lux

This weekend (and still tomorrow) there is a light art even in Helsinki called Lux Helsinki. There is different light art pieces all around the city center and yesterday I went to see most of them. It was horribly cold as I didn't dress up properly, but also very beautiful to see and experience with a lot of other people.

Here are few photos I took of the art.

Emergence at Senaatintori is a wonderful video and music piece where the light/video is reflected on the cathedral.

In the entrance of Baana is Memory of Stone.

Sodium Sun at Kansalaistori. I really loved the long shadows it created when people were standing there and walking by.

Little Spirits at the yard of Hakasalmi huvila was truely beautiful and somewhat hypnotic. This is the one to visit if you want to visit a fairy tail.

An other magical experience was the Lantern Park in Hesperia Park. How ever it was also utterly impossible to photograph as it was bunch of lanterns hanging from trees around the park. This was the best shot I got out of many and even this isn't particularly good...

The last one I visited was Cosmogole at Finnish National Opera Amphitheatre. This might have been my favorite of them all.

I also saw Reveal at Baana, which was nice, part of Kehrä -Disk at Kiasma yard and Linear Array at Kiasma. And I know that Variant Spectrum 2 at the Olympic Stadium is great too. So if you haven't checked these things out yet and have some time tomorrow, do go and see them. It's definitely worth it.

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 Kävin kaupungilla ihastelemassa Lux Helsinki tapahtuman upeita valotaideteoksia.   

13 for 13

I make no new years resolutions but here is 13 goals I give to myself for the coming year.

2012 I visited Barcelona. What will be the next adventure?

1. Do a big knitting work such as a blanket or a cardigan.
2. Write to this blog regularly. I'll aim to once a week, because I have to get over the idea that the posts need to be big and great.
3. Get my drivers license. I signed up for the course today!
4. Photograph more. I have a lovely new camera and nice older cameras and none of them get to be used as much as they'd deserve.
5. Learn new things in the kitchen and try out a new recipe at least once a month.
6. Get into the habit of doing some kind of exercise at least once a week. 
7. Read 52 books in a year. (A goal I have every year, but it doesn't make it any worse.)
8. Write every day a small note about something good that happened to my "The very best of 2013 every day" jar so I have lot of good memories to remind myself of one year from now. (Inspiration)
9. Loose some weight. I'm overweight and for health reasons would be rather happy not to be.
10. Travel. Somewhere. In Finland or abroad. Or maybe even both.
11. Lear some new type of grafting, quilting for example.
12. Go to see a movie, play, concert or something like that at least once per month.
13. Get my own kitchen herb "garden" on the windowsill.

There. Lets see how I'll do.

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En tee uudenvuoden lupauksia, mutta ohessa on lista 13 tavoitteesta, jotka asetin itselleni tulevaksi vuodeksi. Saas nähdä, miten näiden kanssa menee.