Markets and fairs

 This Saturday I went for some craft supply shopping. The biannual Helsinki Handigraft Fair was in Wanha Satama (a lovely old harbor building made out of red bricks) Saturday and Sunday and it happened that on Saturday there was also the Eye, stitch, stitch, jacket - Kitchen entrepreneurs crafts and craft supplies market (Silmä, pisto, tikki, takki – Keittiönperäyrittäjien käsityö- ja käsityötarvikemarkkinat) in the Kiseleff House right next to Senate Square, so there was plenty of great reasons to go. The weather was nice, atmosphere great in both places and company the best you could imagine. Here are few photos I took during Saturday.

Before noon we enjoyed a lovely late lunch at Ciao Caffé at Kiseleff House. So good fresh buns they had!

First at the Kiseleff House. It felt like piece of the old Kiseleff bazaar had returned from the day
when watching the stands from above. The atmosphere was so lovely and relaxed.

The Wanha Satama was much more crowded but it was still fun to see all the the different craft supplies and finished products sold at the different stands. It has been quite a long while since I've last been at one of these Handigraft Fairs.

There were many clever and beautiful displays of products at both places.
One of my favorites was this earring mannequin at the Plan B stand.

And what did I buy, you may ask? Here is what I bougth:

A Schacht Hi-Lo Spindle (I can't remember from whom I bought it from tough...) and some wool to spin from Lahitium ex machina. This lovely color dye is called Cipher North American. I have never spun any yarn but when I saw many of the sellers spinning yarn at the market and as my shopping partner promised to teach me I decided I want to learn that too. You'll be the first to know when I start to do my own yarn!

I also bougth some yarns from Lahitium ex machina. The top two are basic wool-nylon mix sock yarns and the green-purple one is actually called Lothlorien. A LotR geek approves! They had also other lovely names for their yarns/dyes, but unfortunately non of my other yarns had a special name. The lower two yarns are 100% wool and were actually a free gift as I bought three things from their stand. That was super generous from them!

At Wanha Satama I stopped by the stand of KOTOliving and bought the first number of their magazine because I missed it when it came out. I almost ordered it too, but then decided not to do it yet. Maybe later tough as this is definitely one of the most interesting Finnish magazines I've seen in a while. And the people at the stand were very lovely too. :)

Last but not least I got some washi and masking tapes from Teippitarha. It was definitely one of the most crowded stands in whole Wanha Satama and it took me two attempts to actually get close enough to see their products! And then it took me ages to actually choose what I wanted to buy. These were some of my favorites, but I'm sure I'll have to order  some more in the future.

So there, that's how the shopping part of the day went on Saturday. The rest of the day was spent with friends playing boardgames and WiiU so that wasn't bad either. In general it has been an all around weekend.

PS. I've done all first three pages for the March my journal challenge, but I have decided not to post each days page separately here. Instead I'm going to post them in batches and I think I'll do the first of those posts in few ways. Oh and remember, it still isn't too late to join the challenge and catch up if you would like to do that!

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Lauantaina oli käsityöshoppailupäivä ja kävin sekä Käsityöläismessuilla Wanhassa Satamassa että  Silmä, pisto, tikki, takki – Keittiönperäyrittäjien käsityö- ja käsityötarvikemarkkinoilla ihanassa Kiseleffin talossa. Mukavassa seurassa ja hyvällä tunnelmalla varustetuissa paikoissa päivä sujui mitä miellyttävimmin ja mukaankin tarttui niin kehräysvälineitä eli värttinä ja villaa, villalankoja, kuvioteippejä kuin ensimmäinen KOTOliving-lehtikin. 

PS. En viitsi postailla Muistikirjamaaliskuun sivuja tänne yksitellen vaan teen sitten yhden keskitetyn postauksen, kun niitä on vähän usempi valmiina. Ensimmäinen sivupostaus tullee varmaan jo lähipäivinä. :) 

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.