Midsummer 2014 and some xmas too!

Let's start with this christmas stuff, no reason really, I just happened to find some pics from my camera I took just before christmas. I didn't know what to get to my brother so I decided to make some Angry birds plushies for him and I told him he can throw them at his friends if he gets annoyed to them someday. So far I haven't heard if he'd done that. :P

These were fun to make!

This midsummer we went to a city near us to spend time with friends. Evening included visit to a carnival, loads of food, sauna (ofc, tradition duh!) and bondfire admiring. In case finnish midsummer celebration isn't familiar to you, it usually includes food and drinks, sauna, some traditional spells where you can try to find out your future wife/husband by gathering some materials from the nature or doing stuff naked (yes, old finnish magic includes nudity) and night usually ends in people gathering around huge bondfire that's supposed to scare away bad spirits and thus bring luck for the rest of the year.

So, our first place was the carnival. This year we went there earlier than last time (we went there about 20 minutes before closing so it was kiinda empty). I didn't take alot of pics at the carnival, I mainly just spent time with friends and didn't bother with the cam. We all went to a ferris wheel first so I have a pic or two from there, not very good ones but mainly I took them to "show off" how high up I went in that wheel.. Worst thing about that darn machine was that you could SPIN the "bucket" we were in! So of course my lovely signifficant other decided to try and spin it all the time.

.

I swear it was way higher than it looks.. I have a fear of heights!

After that we went back at my friend's appartment to go to sauna and stuff our faces with delicious delicious food. And when we were all having food coma of some level, we just hang out and talked for few hours before it was time to go to the bondfire.

We went to the bondfire area early this time so we had front row seats. View was awesome but it started to get really hot soon so we didn't stay there long. I managed to take some pictures though.

There's something about fire, so beautiful.

This years party was a bit different for me since I couldn't go to all the rides I wanted at the carnival and I couldn't do the finnish party thing, aka have alcoholic drinks. This was also the last midsummer we were just a couple.

Next year we're spending it as a family.

I am (2nd time doing this)

Pics from http://andthatswhoiam.tumblr.com/

Still alive (pics later maybe)

Yeah, so...
It's been quite a long time since I wrote here. In the last post I said I was going to the UK and I sure did, twice actually, and came back too. Flying for the first time was exciting and I was slightly nervous too. The main thing that made me nervous was the weather I guess. The day before my flight it's been all over the news that the weather in UK wasn't very good, it was cold and snowing so many flights were cancelled. Before the take-off my plane had to go and have its wings de-iced (which made me giggle a bit: over there people were freaking out over few cents of snow and here they were just like "No worries peeps, let's just spray a little de-icer and we're off").

So I went there, loved every moment, except the day I had to come back home. Few months later I had someone coming from UK to here, and he never left. :) In the summer we went to a little vacation in UK (reaccurring word here that is) and visited Thorpe Park (amazing amusement park near-ish London). If you go there, be sure to go to a ride called Swarm. AWESOME! And just a note: if you go there during SUNNY day, wear a hat. I didn't and I noticed my mistake the next day. I burned my face, chest and scalp. :p

After we came back, I started a job in summer theatre in a town called Äänekoski. The play was called Some like it hot. I worked as a costumer (made costumes, helped the costume designer) before the premier, took care of the costumes during the season, sold T-shirts and did some other little things around the theatre. They were tiring three months but I loved it. Theatre is amazing thing.
After that job we returned to my home town and I was unemployed for about a week or two and then started another job. Sadly not a theatre job this time. I got a temp job as a cleaning lady to cover someone else during their sick leave. Originally it was supposed to be only for 2,5 to 3 months, but the lady I was covering didn't recover from the surgery like she was supposed to so her sick leave just kept getting longer and longer. So now I've been working there for 6 months and next week (fingers crossed) is the last one finally. To be honest, I don't think I could continue much longer. I'm so bored to this job and it's very tiring and poorly paid. But atleast I've had something to do and it helped pay the bills. I now have new respect to cleaners and their work. It's really demanding!

In the middle of everything we moved to new appartment, because the landlord from the previous place sold the house so we had to find new place. This new one is nice and all, but I miss the old place. It felt so.. home-y.

In other aspects my life's been okay I guess. I've felt kinda lonely because I've had no time or energy to meet friends or do much anything because I've been so tired after looong workdays. Also last few months have been emotional rollercoaster but that's not something I'm gonna share here much.
I was also going to celebrate the ending of my work by booking a surprise weekend trip for two to Estonia, but like it usually happens when I plan something, it goes bad. They had other plans I wasn't informed about. Good thing I didn't book them tickets yet. So silver linings I guess (yay). For now my plans for "celebrating" the end of the slave work is to sleep alot, start making a hoodie I promised to a friend in Sweden and then just.. look for another job. I give it a week and I start going crazy with nothing to do. Damn work-a-holic genes from dad. >.< (you see I've been using skype quite a lot because all the smileys.)

Okay this post is going on a bit too long already so I'm gonna go now. I might add pics to it later when I find suitable ones. Well this have been the long over-due update on stuffs that's been happening to me. If you made it to here, Good job!

See ya later (hopefully)~

Life is never easy for those that dream
                            -Robert James Waller

I'm leavin' on a jet plane..

..to the place with that kind of flag!

(I might be slightly excited)

I am..

http://andthatswhoiam.tumblr.com/

Merry Christmas!

This year christmas seemed to sneak up on me all of a sudden. I clearly remember it being summer just few weeks ago. Anyways, one reason christmas is kinda weird this year is that I'm not really waiting for it and kinda just wish it goes fast. What I'm waiting for is way past christmas and new years celebrations. But since it's apparently holiday now, let's try to enjoy that shall we?
(this is when I spent ages trying to find my camera because I'm...organized... *cough*)

Merry Christmas all and happy New year!

Ps. It's decided, this is The Christmas movie from now on.

*heart*

Long time no see

Whoopsie, it's been a while since I posted anything here. Well, let's see what's been happening while I was on my "blog break".

I (finally) graduated from school.

Now, looking back, those five-ish years just flew by. It was probably the best time I've had so far with all the amazing people, interesting subjects and projects and also the whole Living alone in my own apartment was pretty sweet. I'm so glad I decided to go to this school, I've had so many doors opened for me in the costuming and theater world and I've met many awesome actors, directors and other people that share my love for theater. <3

Then I got a sudden little project at the theater I've worked before. "Sudden" as in about a week before the premiere I got a call:
Caller: "Hi, I heard you're doing this project now."
Me: "I am?!"

Turns out that director from previous year had recommended me for the work and someone did forget to ask whether or not I can do it... Well, it was quite stressful but I managed to finish the project in time. I made/modified some costumes for the play "Jaakko Teppo goes to Mallorca".

Picture from  http://www.menokatu.fi

Then I started working at my local 2nd hand store. It's pretty nice work, thought in future I want to work with costumes and not so much in customer service type work. My boss and other people that visit there are very cool and no two days are alike at the shop, so I like it. (And I also get free stuff from there, like fabrics and such.)

Then, in my free time I have, among other things:

• Drawn a bit: 

Sephy

Zack 

(I kinda also created a DA account: http://risaha.deviantart.com/)

• Got a new car and glued buttons on its side (finally! I've wanted to do that for years!):

<3

• Made some plushies/soft toys:

Peco from BoF3

Prinny from Disgaea games (all hand sewn since I couldn't bother to set up my sewing machine)

• And I've also met awesome new people and made new friends in the interwebs and I always feel so welcomed when ever I talk with them in the chatrooms. <3

Well, I think that's all for now. See ya later ^.^

Again with the theatre!

Since my graduation day approaches, I've been thinking of all the things that happened during those four (or more like five) years of studies, so that's the reason for so many theater themed posts lately. Here! Have one more of those.

As part of our advanced special studies me and my three classmates designed and made costumes for a musical called "Rockville" at Rantasalmi youth theatre (I've mentioned this briefly before).


"Brian Carr, a worn-down rock star, is killed by a bolt of lightning while playing at Lollapalooza. The next thing he remembers is stumbling out of an elevator and being greeted by 2 distinguished gentlemen in white. They inform him that due to his dissolute lifestyle he must go save himself and a town called Rockville that has been devastated by a natural disaster and is being run by corrupt politicians. What they don't tell him is how. Brian Carr has no intention of saving anyone. He never would have thought that the faith of a child, a grandmother and a town full of people would teach him that through his own love of music, Rock would save Rockville."
 

Brian Carr and city's youth

Brian Carr and arch angels

Bad guys

Arch angels and Carr as angel

To learn more about original, Austrian production, go check their site.

More theatre stuff

As a part of my education, I had to carry out two practical trainings. At the first practical training (in 2009) I was working in fabric store (for about a month) and at dressmaker's shop (also about a month). Second practical training was kinda part of the advanced special studies. During this training we (costumier students) could familiarize ourselves better with what it's really like to work in theatre. At this second training (in 2010) I was working in Hasaniemi theatre as a seamstress in two different plays: "Uncle Fedya, His Dog, and His Cat" by Eduard Uspensky and "The Howling Miller" by Arto Paasilinna.

For "Howling Miller" I made few hats (nurse's cap and shop owner's hat) and a shirt from scratch, but mostly I did just some modifications to costumes and some accessories since most of the costumes were pulled out from theatre's costume storage. For "Uncle Fedya" I made most of the costumes from scratch and made alterations to ready-made garments.

Villagers and rural police chief

Howling Miller in mental hospital

Dog, Cat and Fedya getting ready for treasure hunt

Jackdaw, squirrel, bunny and "indian" cow

Fedya's mother

Fedya's mother and father (that bright pink dress was hiding under mom's black coat dress)

And apparently I didn't fail too much because at the end of the practical training I was asked to be a costume designer for next year's play "Rollo and the Woods Sprite" (which I did as my thesis).
 

Something I'm kinda proud of

Last summer I designed and made costumes for a summer theatre play Rollo and the Woods Sprite (Rölli ja metsänhenki in finnish). It was my "final" school project, thesis, which is kinda thing to show teachers what you've learned over the years and such. It was my first "solo" designing project and OH MY it was demanding. Play had 26 actors, lots of dancing, wire tricks, etc.
The whole process of designing and making all those costumes was stressful as h*ll, I had to work long hours and keeping director and actors AND myself as a designer happy with the costumes was (and always is) difficult. But in the end it was all worth it and I would do all that again without a doubt. The feeling you get when you see your own creations on stage for the first time is priceless.

Anyways, here's some pictures ((c) Noora Pasanen and Carita Huttunen). Looking through them always makes me happy.
"I made them"

There's another person under the skirt, she's not really that tall. (shhh, it's a secret)

School work, take 2 (Warning: picture heavy)

Earlier I posted some pics of my historical gown which at that point was still in the making. Now it's ready so here's some pics of all those billion layers that goes into that outfit. Note that a dressform isn't as curvy as humans are, so clothes look a bit meh. If I someday get good pics of somebody wearing it (most likely me), then I'll probably add them to this post.

So, what goes into this outfit:

Put on a chemise..

..a corset..

(same corset from behind)

...hoopskirt...

...petticoat...

...kirtle (not ready in this pic)...

(decorative trim on the hem of the finished kirtle)

...main gown...

...foresleeves...

...some bling bling...

...girdle (a.k.a. fancy belt thingy)...

...and Voilá! oh, and don't forget French hood (that hat thing)

All pieces made by me, including jewelry.
It takes a long time to get into that gown and you need somebody to help you get dressed, but it's a lot of fun to wear anyway.