Lithuania is an Amber country, we call amber Lithuanian gold, wear it on all occasions, consider it our national stone. There are historical facts about Amber trade road starting in this region.
So I wanted to start from the very beginning -- the legends, folklore.

The most known one is a legend about Jūratė and Kastytis:

A sculpture of Jūratė and Kastytis in Palanga, Lithuania

 Now this took me a while :) We had a Christmas swap in Lithuanian Etsy team and this is what I received:




 I was sooo happy! Felted slippers are perfect for my constantly cold feet and even colder floors in my house in the winter. Thank you so much Egle!Check out her Etsy shop for more lovely felted slippers.

Last weekend I took my little girl Zerika Karmino Cat to Warsaw.
We had great time there, made a lot of new friends and got some nice pictures taken. See for yourself:

I have been looking at air hardening ceramic clay for a while and thinking it would be nice to try it out -- it is so different to all the other things I already know, should be fun!
But you know how these things go :) -- I never found time for it. Then during one of my visits my mother was showing her Japanese bowls and plates collection and mentioned that she did not find any chopstick rests that she liked and sort of hinted that it would be a great Christmas gift.
Hah -- what a great opportunity for me to try out the very thing. Upon my return home I got myself a pack of the ceramic clay and sat down to make some designs (not really :) it took me about 2 months to finally get around to it, good job, there was time before Christmas).
So here they are:

 And of course with all the joyous things come gifts -- for me that means learning a new craft technique -- I realised that this became a tradition for me for the past 3 or 4 years :) 
This year it is kimekomi -- this is the ancient art of decorating dolls from Japan. It has been adapted to decorating Styrofoam forms for various occasions - Christmas included. You can get Styrofoam balls, wreaths, eggs, cones, etc. There are many beautiful examples of kimekomi decorations around and having accidentally stumbled upon some of them I decided to try this technique out.
At first seemed quite a daunting task and I already started thinking about a different technique to learn, but turns out that I just needed more practice!
Here are some of my creations:

Soo just 3 months and a week after they arrived in this world, only one kitten is left! Hurry up, do not miss your chance!

The Lithuanian Post office finally relented in the face of official warnings, request from a parliament member and countless complaints from clients. They are "temporarily" suspending the changes:

http://www.post.lt/lt/apie-mus/naujienos/view/lietuvos-pastas-laikinai-netaikys-matmenu-ribojimo-korespondencijai

Here is a more detailed description of parliament member address to LP:

http://www.15min.lt/naujiena/verslas/bendroves/jurgis-razma-kreipesi-i-susisiekimo-ministra-del-pasto-siuntu-apmokestinimo-didinimo-663-382218


All the pictures are taken by me unless mentioned otherwise. If you fancy a piece of soutache jewellery with any of the stones on my website or a piece of soutache jewellery in general -- send me a message or convo me on etsy.