New Zealand photos, part 1

So yes, I've been to New Zealand with Mr Morrgan. The whole thing started out as a family emergency, so we "planned" the trip, got time off work, got tickets and were off in only about 3 weeks.

We're good at panicky surprise travel, it seems. If it isn't work-related or unplanned, it doesn't happen. We still need to go on our honeymoon, for example. Been thinking about doing that for only the past 5 years or so.

Anyway. Fortunately everything ended up going well, so we got about 3 lovely weeks in New Zealand with Mr Morrgan's side of the family. As tradition dictates, there will now be some photos.

Early in the trip, we got the chance to explore Real Proper NZ bush with just a little trail going through it, somewhere near Palmerston North on the North Island. For a Finn, it was odd seeing pines and tree ferns mixed together. How exotic!

Ah, the tree ferns, how I love them. It's not too hard to imagine a big dino munching on the fronds.

More tree ferns! Well, one. We also spent a lot of time among more organized plant life, such as the Botanic Garden in Wellington...

...and the one in Christchurch. Once I'm rich and famous, I want a pond and a bridge like this.

We even went to see the Ellerslie International Flower Show in Christchurch, with such fancy sights as a flower lighthouse...

...a brass band on bicycles...

...and a more peaceful Japanese-style garden.

While in Christchurch, we also spotted this pretty water fountain thingie...

...and this. The NZers have interesting ideas about lawns!

The 2nd part will be all the awesome scenery we enjoyed, mostly from the South Island. Hills! Mountains! Rivers! Turquoise seas! Cows! Don't miss it!

Spring Approaches

One thing I hoped for during the trip to the other side of the world was that when we'd return, we'd be welcomed by the awakening greens of spring and that we'd miss the icky, wet melty-snow part before it. Well, we kinda managed it. Most of the snow is gone, but the greenery hasn't returned yet.

The balcony is pretty grey at the moment, but there's a bit of exitement nevertheless. The second half of this autumn post of mine shows the plan I had for my early spring balcony. The photo on the right here shows the current state of the basket. There are shoots! Yay! Due to the trip I was a little late in digging them out of their winter protection, but I hope that won't be a problem.

Which of the flowers, if any, will appear from these beginnings? We shall see!

Welcome Home

So, we've been travelling. Starting with the train to Wellington at 6 am Tuesday morning local time from Palmerston North, New Zealand, and arriving in Turku, Finland, at about 1 am local time on the night to Thursday. All in all, that's over 50 hours of trains, flights and airports. Over 50 hours. *shudder* Fortunately everything went smoothly, with the main setback being a jar of Kraft's crunchy peanut butter confiscated by airport security (sniffle).

After two days of travelling, with no proper sleep during the whole time, one ends up in a certain zombie-like state. In such a state, we found the last flight of the trip, from London to Helsinki, to be very amusing. Hilarious, even. It was like a "welcome back to Finland" type of thing.

Some background first. On the way over, we went with British Airways from Helsinki (Finland) to London (UK), from there to Sydney (Australia) via Bangkok (Thailand), and finally to Wellington (NZ). Travelling back, we flew with Qantas from Wellington to Melbourne (Australia) and from there to London via Hong Kong. The last bit to Helsinki was with Finnair.

The BA and Qantas flights, especially BA, happily surprised me by actually having good food. For example the lamb and whiskey pot pie, or the nice chicken curry... All served with salad and dressing, bread, dessert and your choice of beverage (mostly wine in my case). In short, food with actual flavour and variety. Even the coffee was nice most of the time.

So, what about the Finnair flight?

Well.

Imagine, if you will, the following "meal". Overcooked, soft pasta. Strangely cooked chicken, with occasional inedible crunchy bits of... cartilage? (Actually, I don't really want to know.) Veggies that seemed to be that cheap kind of thawed frozen peas, carrot cubes and undefined beige "other". Anything alcoholic had a price tag and I don't even know how to describe the coffee.

Welcome home to Finland!

Then getting off the plane and stepping into the Finnish early spring weather; cold, dark and rainy with dirty piles of melting snow... Remembering the pictured warm sun, blue waters and 25+ °C (77+ °F) of that last day in Wellington...

Yup. Home sweet home. *sigh*

Life happens

Sometimes I delude myself into thinking I've got life under control. When that happens, it doesn't take long for life to laugh at my silly notions and pull a few moves to show me how things really work. Unexpected event after unexpected event piles up in a matter of a few days until I'm pulling my hair out trying to make it all fit together with how I'd expected my near future to be. Oh well. It keeps me on my toes.

As always, it's a bit of good news and a bit of bad news, plus a few pretty neutral things that nevertheless need some attention. This is one reason why the blog has been so quiet lately, and quieter it will be, for I'll be closing my Morrgan's Creatures shops on March 3rd and will reopen in April. (So, if there's anything in the shops you'd like before then, now is the time to place the order.)

I hope you have an inspiring spring, see you again in April!

Tuesday Finds: Circles

Red Hoops with Red Heart by
aysetugrul.etsy.com

Dandelion ring by
ashhilton.etsy.com

Octopus Lace necklace by
cMaille.etsy.com

Trio of Soleil earrings by
lunaticart.etsy.com

Happy 5th!

Barely have we recovered from Christmas and the New Year, when the wedding anniversary sneaks up on us! Eek! It's really been 5 years since our wedding. Where did the time go?


Well, in any case this calls for celebration! And celebrate we shall, by making a delicious dinner together (including the white chocolate panna cottas with layers of coffee pictured above, and fried goat cheese with pear slices and roasted pine nuts) plus having nice drinks and fun co-op gaming with our anniversary present to ourselves, Borderlands. Perfect!

Tuesday Finds: Winter White

Happy New Year! It's my first post for 2010 and as it's a Tuesday, it's time for some fine finds.

There's been a lot of snow this winter, snow and cold, which makes me a happy girl indeed. This week, the white has been everywhere. Snow on the ground, ice on the river, snow and frost on the trees making the branches white, frost on buildings... Even the sky has been a solid white. On top of all this, the fog was so thick this morning that everything just faded into white in the distance. It felt wonderfully strange, like we were walking through a true magical winter wonderland, something not quite real. Such a fantastic feeling.

Two White Swans by
lapomme.etsy.com

White Seashells Clutch by
EightSeasons.etsy.com

Interstice Bracelet by
nervoussystem.etsy.com

Frosted Sprigs Earrings by
sarathomas.etsy.com

Tuesday Finds: Merry Christmas!

You may have noticed that the Morrgan's Creatures shops are now closed. It's time for me to take a break and enjoy Christmas and New Year with family. I'll be taking a break from blogging too (and the internet in general - at most I may tweet occasionally), so enjoy the holiday of your choice and see you again in January!

To get into the mood of things, I'll leave you with a selection of fine items suited for the occasion. Tired of the usual Christmas tree and other decorations? Try one made of felt (owls optional), decorate it with chain ornaments, place it next to a deer sculpture and enjoy the whole scene while writing the last few holiday cards!

Oh, Deer - Sculpture by
ArtMind.etsy.com

Chain Christmas Ornament by
SpokenStitch.etsy.com

The Tree of the Owls by
Intres.etsy.com

Christmas Mouse Cards by
TheHouseOfMouse.etsy.com

Introducing Hannibal the Man-Eating Plant

Introducing Morrgan's Creatures is an ongoing project to introduce all the creatures that gave my shop its name.


Hannibal the Man-Eating Plant

Ack! It's a man-eating plant!

Don't worry though, there's no need to run just yet. This little guy called Hannibal is still a small sapling and doesn't even have real teeth yet. So he'll just look really adorable as he tries to chew on your arm.

Hannibal is quite a friendly little guy, despite the ferocious reputation of this particular species of man-eating plant. He'll do very well on ham-and-cheese sandwiches, with the occasional fly thrown in for extra protein - just look at his chubby stem.


Hannibal the Man-Eating Plant is available as a pattern via Ravelry (or click here to buy now - no Ravelry account needed) and from my Etsy shop.

Making Hannibal involves both knitting and little bit of crochet. The knitting is done both flat and in the round, with the stitches knit, purl, lifted increases, knit/purl 2 together and slip stitch over. The crochet stitches are single crochet, chain and slip stitch.

Want to see more creature introductions?

Tuesday Finds: Winter Sky

Remember me saying how it's currently dark when I go to work and dark when I get home? Well, one nice thing about the office at work is that it has a big window, overlooking a nearby park. I don't see much from where I sit, just the tops of some trees and the sky, but in winter time it gives a chance to enjoy what little sun there is.

The best part? The sky. Now that the proper cold and snow have arrived (yay!), the sky ends up showing these beautiful pastel hues - pale blues and turquoises, occasionally a bit of yellow or purple. These colours are the inspiration for this week's Tuesday Finds.

First Snow Soap by
catherinefilippelli.etsy.com

Gift Tags by
thelightgarden.etsy.com

Chickadee in Snow by
NatureMandalas.etsy.com

Harara tribal earrings by
fleurfatale.etsy.com

Introducing Hubert the Grumpy Unicorn

Introducing Morrgan's Creatures is an ongoing project to introduce all the creatures that gave my shop its name.


Hubert the Grumpy Unicorn
This is a grumpy little unicorn called Hubert. Why grumpy, I hear you ask? Well first of all, this particular teenage boy unicorn happens to be very pink. Just how is a poor unicorn supposed to impress that cute pegasus girl when he's as pink as can be? AND named Hubert? Seriously, what were his parents thinking?

If only he was a cool steely grey like his uncle Reginald, then things would be different. Or at least had uncle Reginald's name. Now there's a proper noble name for a mighty unicorn, sure to impress any cute pegasus. Not at all silly. Unlike Huuuubert.

But no, that wasn't to be. This little guy is pink Hubert. A very grumpy pink Hubert.


Grumpy Hubert is available as a pattern together with Tony the Lazy Pony via Ravelry (or click here to buy now - no Ravelry account needed) and from my Etsy and ArtFire shops.

Want to see more creature introductions?

Introducing Morrgan's Creatures - a new series of posts

Most of my creatures end up with a story or a personality. It comes naturally as a part of the process of making them - while my hands are busy there's plenty of time to just think. Often my thoughts are preoccupied with what I'm making at the time and, in the case of creatures, eventually my mind gives them a personality and sometimes a little story. Occasionally it happens that the story comes to me first and I just have to make the creature it's about. (My knitty notebook has pages full of such stories - I hope I'll have time to make all the creatures too!)

It occured to me that it'd be fun to share these stories. Starting today, I'll be presenting my creatures one at a time in the series "Introducing Morrgan's Creatures" and I aim to post a new profile every week. I hope you'll enjoy!


Click here for the creature introductions.

My Creative Space

One word to describe the current winter here: dark. Dark when I wake up and look through the window, dark when it's time to head home from the day job. There's no snow to brighten everything up yet.

This explains why the photo I took early this morning of my workspace is so dark.


One of the main joys of the new apartment is that I have a desk of my own for packing up orders. Yay! All the packing materials in order in one place, ready to go. Lately my morning routine has been to grab the obligatory big cup of coffee and sit down to check my online shops. If there are orders, I pack them up before I head off to work, having a sip of my coffee now and then, so that I can drop them off at the post office on the way home. This morning there were two orders to take care of.

(As a little related factoid, my "desk" (or actually a chiffonier according to Wikipedia) is a special piece of furniture to me, as when I turned 18 it was handmade for me by my uncle, on the request of my grandmother.)


Want to see the creative spaces of others too? Head on over to kootoyoo's blog!

Tuesday Finds: Tired

I could really use a nap right about now. *yawn*

Barefootin' Balm for Dry, Tired Feet by
mountainmamachic.etsy.com

Sleepy Piggy by
talitka.etsy.com

Tired Paws by
shesaphotographer.etsy.com

Rowan Tree by
krisblues.etsy.com

The only thing better than carrot muffins is carrot muffins smothered in cream cheese icing

So, I've been baking again. We got some neat silicone muffin moulds recently and I wanted to test them out. Then when grocery shopping I spotted a picture of a carrot cake with cream cheese icing on the cover of a magazine and thus it was decided what kind of muffin to bake.

This test taught me two things.

1. Silicone moulds are all kinds of cool. The muffins didn't stick and they were easy to kind of fold out of the moulds. Plus to an easily amused person, a floppy mould is way funnier than a metal tin.

2. I really dislike grating carrots. Like, seriously dislike. Broken nails, scratched fingers... Ugh. (Yeah, so it kinda sounds like I'm doing it wrong. Next time I'll delegate that task to Mr Morrgan in any case.)


Carrot Muffins Smothered in Cream Cheese Icing (makes 12)

The more carrots you put in, the juicier they are. The less you mix the batter, the better they'll be.

3 1/2 dl (~1 1/3 cup) flour
3 dl (~1 1/4 cups) sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
3 eggs
5 dl (~2 cups) grated carrots (or 2 1/2 HUGE carrots - more than I intended to put in at first, but the muffins came out oh so juicy!)
1 dl (~1/2 cup) vegetable cooking oil (like Canola, I believe it's called?) or melted butter

Cream Cheese Icing
100 g (3 1/2 oz) cream cheese
50 g (1 3/4 oz) butter
1-2 dl icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla sugar

Mix the dry ingredients together. Whisk the eggs, then add grated carrots and oil or melted and somewhat cooled butter. Fold the wet ingredients into the flour mixture. Divide the batter into 12 muffin cups and bake for about 25 minutes at 175°C (~350°F).

Let them cool down completely before attempting to apply icing. Whip together all the icing ingredients, then spread liberally onto the muffins. Enjoy!

Tuesday Finds: My EST Secret Santa

The European Street Team on Etsy is playing a fun game for Christmas called Secret Santa, organized by the lovely ArtMind. Each participant is the Secret Santa for someone else and make a gift for them, and also receive a gift from their own Secret Santa. It's all very hushush and exciting. ;) I really enjoyed making a special present for someone (who it is is still a secret!) and it was fun waiting for a surprise to appear in the mail. And a few days ago, it did! And what a sweet little box it came in. :)

I was too impatient to wait for Christmas, of course (naughty, naughty me), so I opened the box and found this! A delightful ring, made with a mysterious-looking red jade. Santa sure knew what I like. ;) And who was my Secret Santa? Pinar, a.k.a. Toosis from Istanbul, Turkey! Thank you, Not-So-Secret-Anymore Santa! ;)

I want to use this week's Tuesday Finds to show off some more of the beautiful jewelry Pinar makes. Take a look below for a small selection and be sure to check out her shop for more!

Silver Cuff Viking Bracelet by
toosis.etsy.com

Pink Drops of Joy Earrings by
toosis.etsy.com

Drops Of Red Ruby Ring by
toosis.etsy.com

Pearl Necklace, Bracelet Set by
toosis.etsy.com

Some obligatory Christmas-time whine. But also good times, sharks and chompy hearts!

It's Advent Sunday, but the Christmas frenzy in the shops seems to have been in full force for two weeks or more. It really seems like shops start with the holiday decorations and music earlier and earlier every year, so that by this time of the year I get an allergic reaction whenever I see a plastic Christmas tree full of shiny stuff or hear another "cheerful" song about Santa's reindeers. *shudder*

There are a few Christmas traditions I enjoy though. One of them is the Advent Concert by the Florakören and Brahe Djäknar choirs and the Academy Orchestra. We went to hear them yesterday and it was just beautiful - this year was even more enjoyable than usual. Also, my brother joined the Brahe Djäknar choir this year, so that made it extra special.

Today I've been trying to keep the faint holiday enjoyment going by making what I think are suitable decorations for the season: hearts gone wild! The sharks may be in the forefront of the photo, but it's mostly the hearts I've been working on today. Those red and white pieces in the background have become four wild, chompy hearts (and the orange ones are now a couple of foxes). Not a bad way to spend a Sunday, all in all.

Another fun Christmas-related event I've taken part in this year is the European Street Team's Secret Santa game - I'll post more about that next!

Happy 500th to Morrgan's Creatures!

A few weeks ago, Morrgan's Creatures on Etsy reached 500 sales!


For me, this is a significant milestone. The little shop I started just to see if I could do this selling-on-the-internet thing has become a successful one, something that gives me pride and joy. A big happy thank you to each and every one of my customers for making this possible!

A big happy thank you goes to Mr Morrgan too, who made the most excellent picture of Freddie and Oliver above and took me out to dinner to a Nepalese restaurant to celebrate this event. Morrgan's Creatures would not be what it is today without his help and support. <3

(By the way, in this restaurant I had pistachio and cashew nut sorbet. It may sound like a crazy idea, but it is a thing of genius. Delicious, delicious genius.)

So, what's next? Well, another 500 I hope! Design-wise, I've got all sorts of neat plans and ideas for Morrgan's Creatures. Hopefully I'll find the time to realise them all!

Oh, and while we're talking about the shop, note that the holiday shipping deadlines are up. There's still a few weeks left to do some shopping before Morrgan's Creatures goes on a Christmas/New Year's break!

Tuesday Finds: Black & White

Peacock by
WireDreams.etsy.com

Coal and Ice by
paintedmetal.etsy.com

White Nuno Felted Clutch by
Crafts2Cherish.etsy.com

White Rings Clutch Purse by
retrospettive.etsy.com

Thar be sharks about!

A few days ago, shark pups were born in an unusual way at Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World in Auckland, New Zealand. A grumpy shark took a bite out of another, which ended up being a Caesarean delivery of eight baby sharks. Quite a surprise, as noone knew the attacked mommy shark was pregnant, and lucky since both mom and the sharklets survived the incident. The little ones were moved to a "nursery", the mother has been stitched up and as far as I know, both are doing well. Quite incredible.

This story inspired me to finally get around to making a tiny shark magnet, as I'd been planning to do for a while. This little guy was made with a combination of knitting and crochet and I'm very happy with how he turned out!

The Magnetic Knitted Shark
Considering the voracious appetite of the common knitted shark, it was no wonder that a magnetized form would appear, making it easier for these sharks to stay close to the fridge and its delicious contents.

Tuesday Finds: Green

Tuesday Finds, remember them? I used to do them some time back, but stopped due to lack of time and whatnot. I liked them though, so I thought I'd try to bring them back in a slightly abbreviated form - I'll just show off a few items that have caught my eye the past week. No babbling, only photos and links. I'm hoping that this way I'll be able to do it even when my time has been sucked away into some black hole of work and such. No promises, but hopefully you'll see them more regularly from now on.

I'll still choose a theme each time and this week it'll be the colour green. Autumn may be my favourite season, but I do miss the green stuff. The greener the better!

Secret river 3 by
kittynel.etsy.com

Felt Beads by
StemellinaSupplies.etsy.com

Grass by
kyleannemetals.etsy.com

Green Christmas Notebook by
susanholland.etsy.com

Where have I been? No, seriously.

Oh man, where did the last week or two go? I try to think back and I can honestly not remember what I did on Wednesday, for example. I'd like to think that this was due to me being abducted by aliens and going on wacky adventures in faraway galaxies, only to have my memory erased when I was brought back to protect mankind from knowing too much, but that seems unlikely, alas. It's more probable that a combination of too much work, too little sleep and not enough guilt-free fun is the culprit. The recent days have been so mind-numbingly dull that they've all blended together into one long, boring afternoon of tapping on a keyboard at work in my mind. *sigh*

Anyway.

I've decided to fix that this weekend by sleeping a lot, starting some neat knitting projects that I've had in mind for a while and watching silly funny stuff (such as half a dozen episodes of Arrested Development). Gaming, fine crusted port and icecream may also be involved. But mostly, I'll just be sleeping. Brain. So. Tired.

However, as my brain is currently buzzing with too much caffeine to sleep, I figured I'd get things started by making a knotwork headband. I'll be making a few more soon too. This is a style I've done before, as I figured it'd be smart to start with something familiar. I've really missed knitting something intricate like this, few things are more satisfying to do.

So, here's hoping for a relaxing weekend!