Catching up

Delphino and Alphonso Piroletta
they are in the shop

In these days I managed to make a couple of Piroletta Bros for the shop, and I finally have some time to dedicate to my dear blog... thanks to all the nice people that left comments here! :)
I've been away for 5 days and it is incredible the amount of work that was expecting for my homecoming...lots of spring-cleaning, emails, custom orders, meeting friends that are here in berlin only for a couple of days...
and, most of all, I am getting ready for a personal exhibition that will be held in Bologna, Italy, in mid april...so many things to organize and MAKE and think about...but I will come back to this topic soon...
So, last weekend I went visiting my parents and I came home with a handful of pictures of my childhood...some are really funny...my favorites are this two:

me, 2 years old

me, 5 years old

I am very fond of this last one, because it remembers me the beautiful times I had in the mountains when I was a child...we used to go to this place called "Alpone" for a couple of weeks every august. NO electricity, no bathroom IN the "house", cooking on the fireplace, playing with cows and sheeps...some real WILD life, I stayed outside every single minute when I wasn't sleeping...it seems so far right now...
well, now I really have to go back to some sewing. Before I become too nostalgic...
tonight I have some friends for dinner and I am going to cook some BLUE potatoes..we'll see how they'll come out!

tagged in a sunny day

I got tagged! plus here are some random pictures I took around the house, just because it's a sunny day...

my messy threads
(I envy those of you who have that rack for
keeping them all untangled and ordered by colors...
I have to do something about that..)

a lot of work that still needs to be done


I am working on a crocheted pillow
(I am going to italy for 5 days this week,
and I will bring my crochet work with me
...crocheting at the airport...how great?!)

an old crocheted bag I bought years ago


finally sunny after months of grayness

homemade focaccia bread+hummus+salad

this is the landscape I see when I look outside my bedroom
it is a beautiful graveyard with huge trees...

***


and here are my answers to the tag:

What is your current obsession? collecting objects from thrift shops and flea markets
What are you wearing now? dark grey long sleeve shirt, lime green corduroy wide trousers, cream cardigan, plaid socks...

Who was the last person you hugged? my boyfriend

If you were a tree, what tree would you be? an old birch tree

What´s for dinner? hummus+homemade focaccia bread+salad (yesterday leftovers :)
What was the last thing you bought? a bottle of Club Mate (the "ealthy" version of a more famous energy drink)
What are you listening right now? Kamera by Wilco
What is your favorite weather and why? sunny and windy, those days when the light is so bright that is almost painful (and it's like that right now here in berlin!)
Say something to the person who tagged you.

"Thank you for tagging me Outi! I really enjoy looking at your world through the nice pictures you capture, I like your sense for color and I am glad that we found each other among the bloggers world!"
If you would have a house, totally paid for anywhere in the world, where would you want it to be? right here where I am now! I am loving this city so much. maybe I would like it to be 4 or 5 floors higher...

Favorite vacation spot? don't know, maybe the seaside, but for no more than 4 days.
What is your favorite tea flavor? licorice

What are you reading right now? I always start several books at the same time and then I choose depending on my mood...currently on my bedside table:

Anna Karenina - Lev Tolstoj
La verità sull'alligatore - Massimo Carlotto
Pancetta - Paolo Nori
Noisers - Valerio Mattioli
Yukon, arriviamo! - Bill Watterson
What is the landscape of your mind? oh, strange question..probably the woods, crowded by animals, some are scary and some are just funny ones...

If you look out from the nearest window now, what do you see? the street with cars parked and some passing by, two old women strolling with their 2wheelsthing, big trees, a 7 floors high building and a portion of blue sky

now is my turn, I tag Pilli Pilli

The Springtime Surprise Bunch

here I am, as promised, with the little Bunch of Les Monstris for my Springtime Sale!!!
they are available at a super special price: 35 $ each plus 9$ for shipping (in Europe: 27 eu plus 4 eu for shipping)

here you can have a closer look to them

if you are interested just write me an email: tania.patritti[at]gmail[dot]com

a saturday afternoon in berlin

here we are, blurry ready to go...
today we woke up with a few rare sunbeams,
and decided to take a walk from Friedrichshain to Kreuzberg

Mildres took advantage of my pocket to catch some sunny air

the weather was so nice that we decided to eat outside!
(please notice the well-known "stop-taking-pictures-let's-eat" look ;)

...we came home with another glorious thrift find: I've been looking for such a big red lamp live..forever!

YAY!!!

... in this mood for renovation that comes along with spring I want to put some of my Les Monstrìs ON SALE!!!
Seven of them, that have been made in 2008, will be available HERE on my blog from Monday 16th around 3 P.M. CET at a super Springtime Price!!!

stay tuned!

things that make you jump out of bed in the morning

Zoe Pineconehead

Mr.Magma Asinov

here are some of the last softenss that came out f my mind this week..

it is a nice period, I am really looking forward for the most insignificant spring sign, feeling happy and full of energy in the morning, with that nice feeling of wanting to make something new that drags you out of bed...

and there is the little interview I made with super Lisa at loulouandoscar, with so many nice comments from my favorite softiemakers, I am truly honoured and I blush everytime there is a new one.......

and, thanks to the great astulabee I somehow crossed my path with the nicest illustrator, Mon Petit Fantome! his papercut prints are the nicest with the best titles ever...I still have to decide which one is my favorite! this one goes a long way...

I Do Not Know Where We Are Going,

But At Least We Are Together

and, I like the fact that there are so many different ways of discovering the work of a person...like with Tacka for example...we kind of found each other browsing through flickr groups, and even though we make very different things I believe we would be very good friends in person...she is a serbian young girl who makes superbe portaits in B/W and color, often using FILM, for godsake, and you can really see the difference...she makes me want to take the dust off my old zenith and start to put some money aside for film+developing....we'll see...
here is a little example of her portraits:

busy bee, crowded head...so, this is going to be a crowded post...

today I made some other 'OH! Spring' Pillows
they are in the shop!

my first dress
it's the model E from the "stylish-dress-book"

I finally managed to make a dress out of a pattern! It took me about 5 hours....give it a try, it's less difficult than I expected, once you figure out how to cut it on the paper the rest comes quite easily: no zips, no buttons...uh, and...I got the pleats in the front wrong, so I added the ribbon to cover it ... ;)P now I like it even more!
some helpful advices from here

I nice tablecloth *thrifted*
perfect for a tea and crochet afternoon

my first "granny squares"!

yesterday my friend Caroline was here at my place: we had ginger tea, a lot of chat and then she taught me how to crochet these!! I've been wanting to learn crochet since forever, but I've never found a patient teacher until now...the beginning was a pain in the butt, I was there with the tongue out of my lips just like Peppermint Patty when it's about commitment:

...but after a few rows ("arches" and "columns" ) I manage to understand what I was doing...
it is such a nice happy feeling when you got something right at the first try!!! but I have to admit that after Caroline went home I "cheated" with the loose beginning-end threads..I just knotted them very thight and the n CUT them straight away..eheheh...I hope they will not fall apart...

***

this week I've been quite busy getting ready for this:

(click on the image to enlarge)

it's the first time that I take part to this craft show: Trendmafia is becoming quite popular around Berlin, I've been there before christmas just as a customer and it was quite packed with people and objects...let's hope that it will work out well and that I will enjoy that also as a vendor...
(so if you're a berliner or just here for the weekend come to say hAllo at stand 11!)

I was slicing up an avocado.....

it's so fun to see all the people around the net and outside the window, literally craving for some springtime... but: you wont fool me this time, Berlin Weather, hell NO, I know that you are a traitor and I wont be feeling springy until....uh, May? this said, so I can't be disappointed...

anyway, these days I couldn't resist making something with a lighter twist, using some of my favorite fabric combos and little experiments that I am doing with some machine embroidery on linen... and so, up they are, some pillows and two notebooks, in my shop, for a little spring (shhhhhh!) update!


(listening to: Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala)

ninon proudly presents: Paola Colombo

Mr. Gustavo Biscotti

Gustavo Biscotti from one of his triptics

from "Il Dolce Lo Porto Io"

so, look at these pictures, aren't they awesome?!? are you aware of the skills that are needed beyond each shot? and the time, and the patience....
Paola Colombo is an italian artist devoted to the creation of little worlds where she puts to life her whimsical characters...
I just asked her to tell us a bit about her project, and here's she goes:

"I've always loved puppets. Since I was a little child I loved making my own puppets, especially really small ones. I was kinda obsessed by everything that was really really small, a miniature reproduction of somenthig real. I never stopped making my own puppets and playing with them so, right now, here I am keep wasting days and nights with needles, yarns and felt.
My best friend right now is called Gustavo. He is an overweight little kid and he lives in some tiny dioramas.
Gustavo is obsessed by food and that’s everything he thinks about. He thinks about, eating it, cooking it, avoid it, forget about it.
No matter what he does, cookies, spaghetti and all that kinda of stuff keeps coming into his life.
Gustavo and the sets where he lives are all hand-made by me.
Gustavo is made with felt and his sets, furnitures, etc, are build using a lot of different materials: polymer-clay, wood, paper and recycling old things.
Beside the dioramas reproduction I want to tell Gustavo’s story by taking pictures of him. I usually take 3 pics in different set-ups trying to tell a story, the story of Gustavo and his good/bad relationship with food.
Gustavo is a really sociable kid and he recently met my friend Silvia. Silvia aka Milvia(lovesyou) is a great cook and she makes the yummiest cupcakes in the world so Gustavo immediately felt in love with her. So me and Silvia decided to collaborate on a project that features our felt friend.
I made some Gustavo puppets and put them inside a house-shaped box like some Barbie toys. Gustavo holds in his hand a polymer-clay cupcake and inside the box you’ll find a Silvia’s recipe for making and baking the same cupcake for real. For now we did seven different boxes with seven different recipes like pumpkin cupcakes, coconut-lime cupcakes, green tea cupcakes and my fav one: cappuccino cupcakes. Me, Silvia and Gustavo love animals so every recipes is vegan."



I haven't met her in person yet, but I am sure it's going to happen soon, as our paths have crossed many times lately and we have many friends in common.. I think she must be the queen of little details and crowned with patience, and she also found a supernice way to spread some vegan love...
uh, and for the non-italian speakers among you, "Gustavo Biscotti" apart from being a marvellous name, it also means "I Enjoyed Cookies"... yes!
Paola's website is coming soon, I can't wait to see what she'll be making next!