I, J., BooBoo and my Valentine's Day Rag Pets Lulu the rag-elephant, Fancy the rag-deer and Val the little rag-cat would like to wish you all a lovely, love filled Valentine's Day! ♡
February 14, 2017
Lovely Valentine's Day!
I, J., BooBoo and my Valentine's Day Rag Pets Lulu the rag-elephant, Fancy the rag-deer and Val the little rag-cat would like to wish you all a lovely, love filled Valentine's Day! ♡
January 01, 2017
Happy happy 2017!
Happy New Year everybody! :)
I am really looking forward to this shiny new year! Last year felt like we were just plodding in place, especially as far as our Big Move was concerned. Even though we did manage to take a few steps forward, like selling our apartment and moving into our little temporary flat, and we did get some prefatory paperwork done too, but the actual move still seems to be just as far away as it was this time a year back. I am really, really hoping that this year will see it all move forward in great leaps, because I am getting rather tired of living in stasis.
Just like our Big Move, pretty much all things Rag Pets have been very quiet last year. Thanks to our little move into our little flat, all the Rag Pets have been boxed up and stored in a closet. Sewing has been a bit of a bother to get to too, as everything has to be especially taken out and set up for it, and then when I'm done with it for the day, everything has to be put away, or at least out of reach of the cat's paws.
I have been knitting a whole lot this past year though! Knitting is much easier to manage here in our little nest, and it's also very portable, so I can do it where ever I may be. I am hoping to keep up the knitting this year and I'm planning on lots of cuddly, cute knits for future Rag Pets to wear.
Oh! And I'm working on getting the patterns for my crochet critters done, so everyone can crochet a cute bear, bunny or elephant themselves. Right now, the pattern just needs a few little additions, checking and some editing, and then it should be done!
I have such high hopes for this year, and I wish 2017 will be wonderful and kind to all. :)
December 24, 2016
Very merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas!
Iloista Joulua!
Joyeux Noël!
メリークリスマス！
Even though the weather is far from lovely, it's grey and raining here, me and the Rag Pets wish you all a really lovely Christmas time!
...It seems that complaining about the weather has become a bit of a holiday tradition for me, with the past few Christmases being decidedly lacking in snow and general wintery weather. So, we're also wishing you all better weather than what we have here now! :)
October 04, 2016
Hey, San Francisco!
I plumb forgot to mention about this in my last post, so here, a whole new post!
We're in San Francisco! :)
We'll be spending all of October here, which give us plenty of time to explore, sightsee and to simply enjoy Autumn in a city neither of us has ever been to before.
We already have a list of places we'd like to see and stuff we'd like to do, but I'd love to hear any suggestions you lot might have for things to do and see in The City by the Bay, and in Oakland too, since that's where we'll be staying for the duration of our trip. Since Autumn is starting to make its presence known here, and I'm hoping that it will have time to be at its very best and most colourful during our stay, I'd love to manage a trip further out too, for example to Muir Woods to see the magnificent redwoods. Although I do rather want to see the redwoods regardless of Autumn's progress.
Having spent 21 hours traveling here yesterday and jet-lag very much messing up our every rhythm possible, we're spending this first day here on the Left Coast just resting and relaxing.
Thanks to travel leaving me a bit discombobulated and loopy, I'll just leave this post at that, and go enjoy the spectacular view from the veranda and a nice cuppa. :)
We're in San Francisco! :)
We'll be spending all of October here, which give us plenty of time to explore, sightsee and to simply enjoy Autumn in a city neither of us has ever been to before.
We already have a list of places we'd like to see and stuff we'd like to do, but I'd love to hear any suggestions you lot might have for things to do and see in The City by the Bay, and in Oakland too, since that's where we'll be staying for the duration of our trip. Since Autumn is starting to make its presence known here, and I'm hoping that it will have time to be at its very best and most colourful during our stay, I'd love to manage a trip further out too, for example to Muir Woods to see the magnificent redwoods. Although I do rather want to see the redwoods regardless of Autumn's progress.
Having spent 21 hours traveling here yesterday and jet-lag very much messing up our every rhythm possible, we're spending this first day here on the Left Coast just resting and relaxing.
Thanks to travel leaving me a bit discombobulated and loopy, I'll just leave this post at that, and go enjoy the spectacular view from the veranda and a nice cuppa. :)
September 20, 2016
Hello September!
It's been a long, long, long time indeed since I last updated here. Since my last post in February, such a lot of stuff has happened!
First and foremost, the biggest thing is us selling our apartment and moving into a lovely little flat in the heart of the city, last Easter. We'll stay here in our Pigeon's Nest (as I've named the place) until we get our emigrating-to-Canada-things all done. We've all settled in nicely, and even though the whole moving process left me frazzled and rather out of sorts, I've been loving living in the city proper again. Everything, and I do mean everything, is so near and cleaning a tiny flat is so, so, so much easier and quicker than getting a big apartment tidy. :)
Asides from the move, there's been a lot of little happenings in the, gosh, over half a year since my last update! I went on a day trip to Tallinn with my friends, spent a fun Midsummer at a friend's cabin, my cousin got married (the wedding was absolutely lovely!), I and BooBoo Kitty both turned a year older, and I volunteered at the Helsinki Comics Festival, and had the chance to meet one of my plushie idols, Felt Mistress, there. And in-between all of this, there's been a lot of spending time with J. and BooBoo and friends, indulging in my knitting addiction, and even getting a bit of sewing (made myself some clothes) done.
In actual Rag Pet related news, not much has been happening because I just haven't had the capacity to concentrate on rag-petting very much, but I did get this very handy stamping thing-y, so I can now label Rag Pets quick and easy!
I know I always say I'll try and update this blog more frequently, but I think this 7 month unplanned hiatus kind of shows that such plans will fail regardless of how much I'd like to keep them. So, I'll just say thank you to everyone who's still keeping up with me and the Rag Pets despite my very sparse updates, and that I'll post next whenever I can and get around to it. :)
February 14, 2016
Love, love, love
Valentine's Day, or "Friends' Day" (Ystävänpäivä) as it's called here, is about celebrating love in all its forms, and I would like to shower all of you who've shown love to the Rag Pets and me with as much love as I can muster! You are all the reason I work on the Rag Pets and share them and my life here on my blog. I am constantly amazed that so very many of you like what I do!
It's so lovely to get to share the joy of crafts with others, and I've been really super lucky to make many a new, dear friend through our shared love of crafting too. You all bring so much creativity and fun and inspiration into my life, and I hope you all know how grateful I am for every single one of you!
I really wish I could give you all a hug, a high five or a cheery wave (depending on what you like) in person. Instead, I guess all I can do is to wish you all a truly lovely Valentine's Day filled with love and happiness and I hope this little love letter of sorts from me to you will bring a smile to your face and warm your heart a little. :)
January 18, 2016
Toronto tidings
We spent a week and half in Toronto (or "Totoro" as I keep wanting to write it) at the end of December, before we headed to New York for a while.
I really, really enjoyed Toronto, how it's a very big city, that still feels small. Everyone we came across was really polite and kind, and even though the weather was unseasonally warm (at best it reached +15°c, that's like Finnish summer!) and not very wintery or Christmassy at all, it was still nice to have nice sunny days to explore the city in.
We didn't really do a whole lot of touristy stuff during our Toronto time, because we're sure to visit all the sights time and time again once we settle there, so there was little point in seeing them now already. Mostly we just puttered around getting a feel for all the different neighbourhoods and the city itself. I did visit the City Of Craft, holiday craft fair, and met up with Tina, a super nice Torontonian Rag Pets friend there. The fair was brilliant, and I wish and hope I could take part in it as a seller this year, or maybe some time in the future.
Oh, and we did eat poutine and had some yummy Timmy's doughnuts! :)
We also took the CELPIP language test (a required test for immigration), which was a bit nerve-racking, if ultimately not as awful as my anxiety had built it up to be. The language test was also our first concrete step in the immigration process, which is now slowly, very slowly, rolling forward.
I didn't take all that many photos in Toronto, since I didn't feel a whole lot like a tourist there, more like a potential future resident. The few photos I did snap can be seen in my Flickr, here: my North American Adventure photos!
While I don't mind not having more photos of the city, I do wish I'd taken photos of all the black squirrels scuttling about all over the place, but the little critters were very camera shy and I didn't manage to snap a photo of a single one! I even saw an albino squirrel, and lots of fat pigeons, but I didn't catch sight of a racoon in the wild, even though they are ubiquitous in everything from shop signage to tourist souvenirs.
We flew out of Toronto and headed to New York a few days before Christmas, and while I was sad to leave Toronto behind, it is good to know that we'll be back there, and hopefully soon! :)
January 01, 2016
Bye bye old year, hello new year!
2015 was quite a year! It brought with it so many huge big changes, like starting the process of moving overseas, getting married, making wonderful new friends and reconnecting with dear old friends, having the Rag Pets for sale at an actual physical shop here in Brooklyn (at the Brooklyn ARTery, for those who might be in the neighbourhood), learning to crochet and getting into knitting again, and many, many other little things too.
I've been super lucky to be able to travel a lot this past year, visiting places both familiar and new. We had a lovely honeymoon in Amsterdam, explored Toronto, which will hopefully be our future home city, and now I'm rediscovering all the amazingness of New York.
Unfortunately there hasn't been very many new things, asides from being sold in a real store that is, for the Rag Pets, since they, and pretty much everything else too, has taken a backseat to the whole Big Move thing. And the poor dears won't be getting a whole lot of attention for a while to come yet, since The Big Move will keep on taking up most of my time and energy. I'm hoping to get back into the Rag Pet groove once we've gotten settled into our new life. I've lots of plans for new Rag Pets and other rag-things, so even though things aren't really happening right now, there's something to look forward to after the upheaval of The Big Move.
2016 will be an even bigger and huger year than 2015 was. It will be full of changes and challenges and I'm hoping that despite all the tumult, it will see us get through The Big Move swimmingly, and that the new year will once again bring with it lots of new adventures and new friends and new skills and all sorts of nice things.
I also wish all of you amazing adventures, super new skills and friends and nice things and that you all have a wonderful bright new year filled with happiness and cheer! :)
I've been super lucky to be able to travel a lot this past year, visiting places both familiar and new. We had a lovely honeymoon in Amsterdam, explored Toronto, which will hopefully be our future home city, and now I'm rediscovering all the amazingness of New York.
Unfortunately there hasn't been very many new things, asides from being sold in a real store that is, for the Rag Pets, since they, and pretty much everything else too, has taken a backseat to the whole Big Move thing. And the poor dears won't be getting a whole lot of attention for a while to come yet, since The Big Move will keep on taking up most of my time and energy. I'm hoping to get back into the Rag Pet groove once we've gotten settled into our new life. I've lots of plans for new Rag Pets and other rag-things, so even though things aren't really happening right now, there's something to look forward to after the upheaval of The Big Move.
2016 will be an even bigger and huger year than 2015 was. It will be full of changes and challenges and I'm hoping that despite all the tumult, it will see us get through The Big Move swimmingly, and that the new year will once again bring with it lots of new adventures and new friends and new skills and all sorts of nice things.
I also wish all of you amazing adventures, super new skills and friends and nice things and that you all have a wonderful bright new year filled with happiness and cheer! :)
December 24, 2015
Merry Christmas!
It's a bit rainy and a lot warm here in New York, with frankly summery temperatures (it's +22°c today!), but it's still Christmas and we're having a cozy celebration with Die Hard and The Snowman on the telly, some yummy food and even yummier desserts in the evening and even some twinkly Christmas lights and candles to bring some light and Christmas cheer.
I and the Rag Pets wish you all a merry and bright Yule time, with all the things that make the holiday season great for you in abundance.
Merry Christmas!
Iloista Joulua!
Joyeux Noël!
メリークリスマス！
I and the Rag Pets wish you all a merry and bright Yule time, with all the things that make the holiday season great for you in abundance.
Merry Christmas!
Iloista Joulua!
Joyeux Noël!
メリークリスマス！
December 01, 2015
Restless feet
Oh my, it really has been a very long, long while since I last updated here! And it's not that I've been too busy to whip up an update, but that there hasn't been all that much to write about, really.
Our Big Move is still plodding in place, as everything moving forward hinges on us getting our apartment sold first. All that's happened so far, apart from putting our apartment up for sale, is that we decided to head off to Toronto for a spell before turning our sights to New York some time down the line. So Torontonians... Torontoners? What's the collective noun for people living in Toronto? Any ways, people of Toronto, us and the Rag Pets are going to be relocating there some time next Spring, if everything goes well! :)
Having everything stand still for now is taking a toll on me; it's very draining not being able to do anything but wait and not being able to really make any plans for the future as it's all very uncertain yet.
We have had a bit of a respite from the sluggish house selling and seemingly endless state of being in-between things, though. We had a wonderful honeymoon in Amsterdam a month back, filled with sunshine and lots of gorgeous views and so much delicious food!
We really did have a grand time in Amsterdam, neither of us had been there before, so everything was new and exciting. The weather was nice and sunny and the views were really truly gorgeous, and we both very much enjoyed our days spent in art museums. We spent a whole day meandering around Rijksmuseum and they serendipitously had on a little exhibition of Dick Bruna's, the creator of Miffy, work, which I'm a big fan of and hugely inspired by. We also visited the Van Gogh Museum, which was a brilliant place! Even though they didn't have "Starry Night" there, they did have a super collection of Van Gogh's paintings from when he was first learning the art to his last few pieces before his death.
Our amazing Amsterdam honeymoon isn't the only trip we'll take this year, as we're jetting off to Toronto and New York next week! First we're spending a few weeks in Toronto, enjoying Canadian winter wonders and looking at future neighbourhoods where we might want to live in there. Then we're off to New York for Christmas and New Year's, to see Van Gogh's "Starry Night" at MoMA ... and a bit of work for J. too.
Along with my skates, I am packing my camera and computer, so I will hopefully be able to post about our North American adventures "live", as it were, and thus keep up a little bit better with this whole update thing. :)
Our Big Move is still plodding in place, as everything moving forward hinges on us getting our apartment sold first. All that's happened so far, apart from putting our apartment up for sale, is that we decided to head off to Toronto for a spell before turning our sights to New York some time down the line. So Torontonians... Torontoners? What's the collective noun for people living in Toronto? Any ways, people of Toronto, us and the Rag Pets are going to be relocating there some time next Spring, if everything goes well! :)
Having everything stand still for now is taking a toll on me; it's very draining not being able to do anything but wait and not being able to really make any plans for the future as it's all very uncertain yet.
We have had a bit of a respite from the sluggish house selling and seemingly endless state of being in-between things, though. We had a wonderful honeymoon in Amsterdam a month back, filled with sunshine and lots of gorgeous views and so much delicious food!
We really did have a grand time in Amsterdam, neither of us had been there before, so everything was new and exciting. The weather was nice and sunny and the views were really truly gorgeous, and we both very much enjoyed our days spent in art museums. We spent a whole day meandering around Rijksmuseum and they serendipitously had on a little exhibition of Dick Bruna's, the creator of Miffy, work, which I'm a big fan of and hugely inspired by. We also visited the Van Gogh Museum, which was a brilliant place! Even though they didn't have "Starry Night" there, they did have a super collection of Van Gogh's paintings from when he was first learning the art to his last few pieces before his death.
Our amazing Amsterdam honeymoon isn't the only trip we'll take this year, as we're jetting off to Toronto and New York next week! First we're spending a few weeks in Toronto, enjoying Canadian winter wonders and looking at future neighbourhoods where we might want to live in there. Then we're off to New York for Christmas and New Year's, to see Van Gogh's "Starry Night" at MoMA ... and a bit of work for J. too.
Along with my skates, I am packing my camera and computer, so I will hopefully be able to post about our North American adventures "live", as it were, and thus keep up a little bit better with this whole update thing. :)
Rag Pets by Eerika Valkonen
Eerika lives in Helsinki, Finland and makes Rag Pets. They're 100% handmade and filled with rags, love and personality.
You too can get yourself an adorable Rag Pet! Enter the Pet Shop »
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