Cloth Napkins and a Dispenser

Every time we go out to eat to a diner, I lust after those napkin dispensers. They are so cute and practical. Well, the other day I found a dispenser at the flea market for 3€! Joy!

I’ve been using cloth napkins for over a year now. At first it was really hard, but now I’m so used to it, it seems really silly to buy disposable napkins. Money down the drain! It does cause some confusion when I have guests, and one friend calls them affectionally “pillow cases”. But they are ecological, cheap and easy. I made them from an old sheet, and wash them with towels, so they cause no extra laundry.

Anyway, I stuffed the napkins into the dispenser. The patterns don’t really match, but, really, who cares! Now, I can easily take one when I need it without having to go look for one in the closet. Also, the dispenser is magnetic, so just add magnets and you can put on a grocery list or another important note. Love it!

Butterfly Magnets

My Internet connection was cut from Thursday evening until yesterday. A computer without Internet is so sad. What do you do with it?

I have no TV, but instead spend my days sitting in front of my laptop. Without Internet what do I do? I sit in front of the computer and wait for the Internet connection to come back. So sad.

More magnets:

Stamp Magnets

Here are the magnets made of old stamps, I mentioned in the last post.

I used to collect stamps for years when I was little, and have a few albums full of them. It was fun hobby at the time, but after I stopped, the albums have been pretty much a waste of space. Until now.

Here are some that I chose to make into magnets.

 

I'd love to make magnets of all my collection, but it might not be practical or cheap.

The magnets are made of self-adhesive magnetic sheet and self-adhesive film. And stamps, obviously.

On magnets

My favourite craft after amigurumis is making magnets. They are quick, they are cute, they are very useful! I have two magnetic notice boards, filled with postcards and photographs, all held with magnets I've made. I'm going to add magnets as a new label, but in the meantime here are the magnets I've posted before.

Coin magnets

Picture magnets

I've also made magnets out of stamps, which I used to collect when I was little. I'll post those too once I have a change to take good pictures.

Anyway here are the once I was planning here, but only got around making now. They are quite large, about 7cm x 5cm.

I think they look like vintage toys!

Magnets to Be

Today is the first day of my vacation! And it's overcast and dreary...

My apartment faces north, so in this kind of weather there is absolutely no light to do any kind of photographing. Sad.

Anyway, here are some pictures I found at the flea market the other day. On one hand they look cute, on the other - sort of retarded... :) Regardless, they are going to be made into magnets later on! Maybe it's just the baby chicken (and also the colors), but they look like Easter magnets to me... Hmm, theme magnets...

Coin Magnets

Lately I've been trying to declutter my apartment, and throw away everything useless. While cleaning one day, I came across some foreign coins that I had saved from my travels. I was feeling a bit sad about throwing them away, even though they just sit in a jar and I hardly ever look at them. Then I realised - just like those pictures, these coins could be made into magnets as well!
These are made of Chinese coins and some self-adhesive magnetic sheet. On the left you can see what the back of the magnets looks like.
I think it's great the way something that I considered clutter became something pretty and useful. Now I'm reminded of my travels everyday! And have some free space in my closet.
It seems like you can make magnets out of almost anything that you have lying around....

Picture Magnets

I'm not sure if these pictures are even a concept in English, because when I tried to find a translation for "kiiltokuva" the only word I could find was "a glossy picture". And when I tried googling that - nothing. Anyway, these are pictures I collected as a child.
One of my mothers favorite TV-programmes is called Strömsö. In this show they make all kinds of crafts, food etc.. I was in the library leafing through a book based on the series, and I saw that they had made magnets out of those glossy pictures. I thought how I have loads of them collecting dust at home, and how it would be so much nicer to hang your grocery list on your fridge with a pretty magnet rather than with a regular grey round one.
I chose the pictures I liked the most, placed them on a self adhesive magnetic sheet, topped it with self adhesive plastic film and cut them out. Easy.
The magnetic sheet is quite expensive (for my budget), but I really like the result. And they'll probably last forever! More importantly they are cute, and allow me to display a part of my childhood in a way that is also useful.