Home improvements and charity knitting

The picture above illustrates the past week pretty well. I've discovered that doodling something with my Wacom often helps me get past the worst lack of inspiration - it's something about being able to zoom deep into detail that I find reassuring. Being able to forget about the daunting bigger picture and concentrate on something seemingly insignificant. Yet when I pull back, suddenly everything falls into place. That angry cloud does not fall into this category though, as I treated it as a "how about I finally learn to use Illustrator" experiment.

Another thing that I've found is that chaos around me = chaos inside my head. Sometimes just cleaning up helps. So, today, that's what I finally did. And since it's a sunny day outside, I decided to capture some photographic evidence of Order as long as it lasts, i.e., until my roommates decide to overrule my home decoration decisions, probably tonight when I'm sleeping. Somehow just because I feed, groom and cuddle them they think they make all the decisions in this household.

This is why I cannot have nice things, the tablecloth edition.

I like to store things on tables and shelves - they'd rather keep things on the floor. It's a constant battle. There is, however, one item that never gets messed with: the doggy that lives on the windowsill.

Don't mess with the doggy - he will fuck your shit up.

The doggy has lived here longer than any of us, I found him covered in sawdust in one of the storage rooms. My first housemates thought he was creepy and warned me to not remove him, but I thought he would much prefer to live somewhere he can see outside rather than lie in the sawdust. But they were all a bit chickenshit anyway - can you imagine that they were even creeped out by the lonely child's shoe that appeared from nowhere in another storage room doorway weeks after we had already moved in? Psh, city kids.

I'll freely admit that I have a thing about old toys.

And maybe books.

Perhaps even octopi.

My mantelpiece is a fine example of a place that looks nice for approximately five minutes before it all ends up on the floor. Bluetack? Super glue? Or maybe I can find a way to attach the items on the mantelpiece instead.

That cross stitch there, by the way, I found from a flea market (for 2€ like everything good, it seems?) and tried to replicate but it was going to take the rest of my life so now I just appreciate it all the more. The black on orange is awesome for a rococo chick.

I also finally hung that new cross stitch of mine. I have almost as little wall space as I have bookshelf space, but I think it goes well with my cock. What? My measuring tapes are always AWOL, so I have a cock.

There is a joke in here somewhere.

Well alright, I may also have a thing about cocks.

This used to be my favorite mug until a tragic accident that for once was my own fault. I still haven't found one to replace it. I have Moomin mugs for tea, but they are too small for hot cocoa. I'm also on the lookout for a new small teapot since the cats destroyed the one you can see in the background there. In fact I found the perfect pot to replace it, but can't really justify spending over 20€ for a teapot I don't exactly need. Still, it's so very pretty, isn't it?

Okay, so, now that the pretty pictures are out of the way I can get down to the business of what makes this post more than "lookit my stuff!" There are two different Finnish charity knitting projects that I find extremely supportable, so do take a look and if you feel like advertising or contributing, please do so:

Villaa ylle -keräys collects hats, socks, gloves etc. mainly in men's sizes to hand out to the homeless next October. The knits must be sent off by the end of September.

Kotosukka, on the other hand, collects hand-knit socks to make asylum seekers feel more welcome. There is no organized send-off or time limit, and all sizes are welcome. It can only be found on Facebook atm, but if you're not on it and want the address, let me know in the comments.

Both the homeless and asylum seekers could probably use some warmth and love that comes in a hand-knit and while a pair of socks doesn't solve many problems, at least it's a nice and personal gesture.