Craft Along with GIY: Pets and bookmarks

Lovely Bane from GIY: Goth It Yourself got a great idea to host a monthly Craft Along on her blog. At the end of each month she'll post her craft project and people participating will post about theirs. Each month has a theme and January's theme was Pets.

I have no pets, so I decided to make pet themed bookmarks. These aren't particularly "goth", but if you want to make these, it is easy to goth up! :) Just choose more goth-y pictures instead of little dogs and kittens.

What you need: 

• some paperboard or another stiff paper 
• a book you are willing to sheard to pieces
• pretty pictures of pets (or what ever it is that you like)
• glue
• scissors
• a pen & a ruler (or some fancy papercutter)
• optional: sticky back plastic to make the bookmark last longer.

How to do it: 

These are very simple to make. Just cut a piece of paperboard, then cut a smaller piece of a book page. Glue those two together. Then glue a picture or two on top of the two layers.

Tip: try different compositions before attacking them with a glue stick! :)

If you want the bookmark to last longer, you can shield it with sticky back plastic. I preferred not to, because without any plastic they are easier to recycle.

I used some vintage pictures, I do not know what they are in English but in Finnish they are called "kiiltokuva" and in Germany "Glanzbild". They were usually made on a slightly shiny paper, and in the old times people (mostly young girls) collected them like some people collect stamps.

These are quick to make and they do not cost a fortune. As you can see from the one on the left, with the same instructions you can make postcards too.

Thanks for reading and do check out what Bane made and what other participants crafted!

Gothic home decor: towels and a hot water bottle

I am currently making two DIY posts and one Creepy Reads Review, but I haven't finished any of them yet (not the doing-myself-part nor reading the novel).

I want to prevent a long hiatus on this blog so I'd like to feature some textiles I bought some time ago.

On a trip to Tallinn, Estonia, I bought these lovely kitchen towels. They are hand printed. They belong to the Kitchen Zoo collection by Anu Kaelussoo Design.

I got those from one of the small designer shops near the old town of Tallinn. It is a lovely city to visit and there is a lot to see!

I've also bought towels for humans, not just for dishes. These are made by Jokipiin pellava, a Finnish company that produces quality linens with the smallest possible ecological footprint they can achieve. In the first photo is actually a kitchen towel but I use it as a hand towel.

I really love that decorative pattern. I bought the completely black version, and it is so dark that you can only see the pattern when the light shines from a certain angle.

These next ones are larger towels (90 x 150 cm or 35 x 59 inches) and I really am pleased with them. They absorb moisture very efficiently and they are tiny when packed. Those qualities are very handy when one goes to the gym.

I myself hate dragging a huge bag, so it is very important for me that my towel doesn't take much room in my gym bag. This roll is about 15 centimeters (7 inches) long. And that pinstripe pattern is goth-y in a subtle way.

That band around it is elastic and is stitched on the towel, so you can never loose it.

Last but not lest, something I got today: a hot water bottle from Day Shop, a cute boutique on the Boulevard in Helsinki.

I adore that cute little skull. Hopefully that fella will keep my feet warm during the remaining winter months.

That's all for now, I hope you liked this little peek into my linen closet!

Behind the scenes

With this tiny post I'd like to advertise that I made three new pages to my blog. In one of them I share some endearing (or just sad) details of my childhood. Do check those pages out and if you want to comment them, write a reply on this post! :)

A Finnish New Year's Eve Tradition

In the end of last year, I entertained you with a post about a rather grim tradition that the Nordic countries used to have close to Christmas time: Nuuttipukki. Now I am going to write about a tradition that is still alive and kicking, and is performed on the New Year's Eve.

The tradition is called a New Year's Tin and it is a way to try to predict the future. Finns have been doing this since the 18th century at least, but this form of fortunetelling was already known in the Ancient Rome. Nowadays it is harmless fun that people in the Nordic countries do. This custom is also known in Germany and in Austria.

What you need

• Tins shaped like a tiny horse shoe (it's actually a concoction of tin and lead to get a lower melting point, and the horse shoe signifies good luck). The diameter of a horse shoe is about 4 cm (1,6 inches) long.
• A scoop designed for this thing
• A stove or a fireplace
• A bucket filled with cool water
• A candle or a flashlight (optional, any good source of light will do)

Notice: Some induction stoves do not recognise such a small scoop and for that reason I am going to demonstrate this tradition with a fireplace. Remember always to be extra careful when you are close to an open fire!

How to do it

Put the tin into a small scoop. Then put the scoop on a hot stove or to the hot fireplace until the tin is melted.

Then, you flip the melted tin into the water bucket. The water level needs to be deep enough so that the tin has time to freeze into a shape before it hits the bottom of the bucket! Otherwise you all get a pancake shaped future.

Every participant has her/his own tin. The one whose future is about to be told must be the one who flips the melted tin into the water.

Pick the tin from the water and now you are ready to find out what the coming year will bring to you!

You examine both the tin and the shadow it casts. This is what you might need the candle or a flashlight for: you hold your tin close to a wall and point a flashlight to it. Then you can examine the shadow more easily.

That's not my hand, btw. It's my lovely assistant (read: a close relative).
We photographed these when I was visiting my family on Christmas.

This is a bit like trying to understand one's dreams: things symbolise different stuff for different people. Still, here are some traditional interpretations:

• A ship or a plane means a travel.
• A bird is a sign of good luck.
• A crown or a key means success in your work.
• A ring will mean a wedding (not yours, necessarily).
• If the tin broke down into several small pieces, you'll be having a troublesome year.
• If there are blackened parts on the tin, it means bad luck and/or sorrows.
• If there is a lot of "scruffiness" in it, it means you'll get a lot of money.

The "scruffiness" is that not so shiny part on the upper part of the tin. I do not know what to call it. :) As you can see from the previous photo, this tin's shadow looks a bit like a wolf. I have no idea how to interpret that. But that doesn't really matter, because this tin was not made on a New Year's Eve, so it's not valid for predicting the future.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Happy holidays!

We are having a lovely and warm family Christmas this year.

Christmas decorations that reminded me of the Alien movies.

An Advent Calendar is a very imprortant part of the Nordic Christmas traditions.

More rather modern decorations. 

Some fluffy decorations. In the middle is a sort of a Santa's elf and those other two are reindeer.

Finally: a genuine Christmas tree.

Happy Yule & Merry Christmas!

Creepy Reads Review: Flavia de Luce Murder Mystery Novels

In the last Creepy Reads Review of this year I would like to feature murder mystery novels by Alan Bradley. Just like Agatha Christie had her Poirot novels, Bradley has Flavia de Luce novels.

As usual, I am not going into the details of the plot nor am I going to reveal who the murderer is. ;)

The intended audience of the novels 

The main character Flavia de Luce is 11 years old and she loves chemistry, poisons, and solving murders. She lives with her eccentric father and two older sisters in the (almost ruins of a) mansion in the countryside of England, in the 1950's. This produces an intriguing mix for various audiences:

• retro fans
• Agatha Christie fans
• other murder mystery fans too
• people interested in historical depictions of the years just after the Second World War
• the age of the reader can be anything from about 8 years to 100 years because the main character is a precocious girl with a witty sense of humor
• last but not least: gothically inclined readers, because the main character Flavia and her family has some similarity with the Addams family and the Munsters. They are not vampires or anything, but their family relations and Flavia's interest to chemistry and poisons and murder do bring some very goth-y undertones to these novels

Witty and funny narrator

The language of these novels is very enjoyable. The narration of Flavia is smooth, her jokes are funny, and sometimes she has a very cynical and mature way of reflecting the world. Sometimes it's so mature that some readers might think her as an implausible character. One might doubt an 11 years old girl could make such analytical notions of the people around her.

But, she does come from a different world than we, the readers. She has lived and is still living some very hard times, just after the Second World War. It is also noted that she is not your average child but has a passion for science and a very analytical mind.

The first Flavia de Luce novel.

Not really a series

Each of the Flavia de Luce novels can be read as an individual, even though they do form a not so tight continuum. I actually do not recommend you to read them one straight after another, because of that. Since each is an individual, they have some repetition: in each novel the narrator must explain her family situation (and some other things too) again and again. It can be rather boring. But, if you read these books with enough time between them (at least a couple of months), they are very entertaining.

Final conclusions

I enjoyed reading the Flavia de Luce novels very much. Though maybe the first two (The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie & The Weed that strings the Hangman's Bag) were a tad better than the rest of them. Partly because in the later novels the family relations of Flavia get more space. I do not find her family relations interesting mainly because of one reason.

Flavia's sisters are quite horrible to her and hence she as the narrator doesn't depict the sisters (nor other members of the family) in an emphatic way. Thus the reader gets a rather resentful picture of them. For me this resentment results in the way that I do not care for the characters, and I am not interested of what happens to them. So, I find those parts that depict Flavia's family and their problems a bit dull.

Luckily there are other characters, not just sisters and aunts and fathers. The character of the local inspector Hewitt is very interesting and has multiple layers. The dialogues between him and Flavia are superb.

A list of the Flavia de Luce novels can be found via Goodreads, for example.

Personal update and a review of Demeter's perfumes

The "How are you?" -part 

This Autumn was awfully busy for me. I had 4 posts planned but did not have time or energy to actually write them. Is it just me, or do people in general have very hectic lives in October and in November? I feel like every year my Autumn is so busy I do not really have time to enjoy it.

Partly the reason for the recent silence in this blog is that about every Autumn I get an awful flu and one or more sinus infections. It's hard to try to write witty posts if your head is full of snot. :)

The Autumn leaves just before the first snow.

I had a birthday a week ago but did not have time to plan a party to celebrate it. I have this feeling that for the past 7 years I've been so busy in November that I haven't really had time to celebrate my birthday properly. Year 2014 being an exception, because that year I managed to have the werewolf themed party.

Even though I have not written this blog for a while, I did manage to participate into a couple of projects that involved writing. I wrote a scientific article about a French short story L'insecte by Claire Castillon. It was published in a web magazine Metalepsis by the Literature students from University of Tampere. The magazine is in Finnish. I also started to write more fiction myself and I noticed I enjoy it very much.

Demeter Fragrance Review

A couple of months ago I ordered some perfumes and colognes from the Demeter Fragrance Library. I was intrigued by their product called The Funeral Home and the scent series inspired by Elvira. Of the Elviras I decided to order Zombie. They also had Vampire but the description suggested it would be much sweeter than the Zombie, and I do not like to wear very sweet scents myself.

A photo of me without any real reason. 

Demeter has a vast scent library and the idea is that the user will make their own cocktail of two or more scents. The scents are layered on the skin and thus one can create a unique personal cologne/perfume. Unlike most of the products, the Elvira perfumes are ready-made and they include several ingredients.

I did not order just two products. I also got several ingredients from the scent library. They were: mahogany, licorice, snow, thunderstorm, sunshine and riding crop. I also got another ready-made cologne that was inspired by New Zealand.

Testing perfumes and l'eau de toilettes is tricky because
a) a scent will smell a bit different on different people and
b) one gets used to the smell of perfume on their skin and will not necessarily notice it after a couple of hours. Hence it is not easy to actually know, what the final scent will be.

For me another problem was that I've had a common cold for almost two months now, and that effects the way I can smell things.

My first impressions of the Elvira's Zombie

It smells nice but not as earthy as I thought it would be. I imagined a zombie fragrance to be a bit more edgy. It is sweeter than I imagined but not too sweet for me. It has lovely, slightly spicy undertones and I use it on casual events and at work.

My first impression of the Funeral Home

It smells exactly like the name suggests: white flowers like lilies and a hint of mahogany and oriental carpet. In that sense, it is a great product. Unfortunately it is a tad too floral for me on its own so I have to try to mix some heavier undertones to it. It already has some mahogany in it, so I just add some more when I use it.

Final conclusions

In general, the scents are lovely and/or intriguing and none of them were a disappointment to me. I feel that the scents do not change radically nor disappear after an hour, which is great.

What I really like is that when one sprays the perfume, it gives just a small doze. This way it is easier to use the correct amount. It's awful when people have huge clouds of smell surrounding them. You are not supposed to smell another persons perfume from the distance of 2 meters!

All in all, I can happily recommend the products of Demeter Fragrance Library.