Rag Pets

Summer plans

(Photo & New York pigeon feather souvenir by Alyssa Zygmunt/BROOKLYrehab)

After not having a proper summer holiday for years and years, we're finally taking a bit of time and we'll be jetting off to New York for a week in August! This will be our third visit to the Big Apple, and I'm super excited to be going there again. There's something about the city that feels... well, familiar, even though it's very different from any place I've been to before. And I have to admit, I have a big soft spot for the kitschy, touristy stuff: I've skated at Rockefeller Center, we've had a horse drawn carriage ride in Central Park, photographed pigeons and spent a day at Coney Island, eating Nathan's hot dogs. ..OK, the photographing pigeons bit might not be on every tourist's list of things to do. :)
Still, despite the feeling of familiarity, I'm still totally in awe of the city too; everything is so big and grand and there's so, so much to see and do!

We're eagerly making plans for our trip, although so far all we've decided is that we don't want to spend much time at the hotel and that we might make a day trip over to New Jersey, as our hotel is 2 blocks from Grand Central station.

And on that note, if anyone has any ideas for places to go and things to do in New York, we'd love to hear them! Also, suggestions for good fabric and craft stores to visit would be greatly appreciated (by me, I'm sure J. isn't as interested in them) as well.

Walpurgis Day & a rag-cat

Today was Vappu, or Walpurgis day. Here it's a big carnival-like celebration with people taking to the streets to party with balloons and streamers a plenty. Vappu is a celebration of spring coming, although I think most people seem to have forgotten that and tend to just use it as an excuse to go out and party. Since we're not much for partying and huge, wild crowds, we celebrated today by staying home, drinking Sima (sweet mead) and watching movies instead.

The Rag Pets celebrated the holiday too, with Polly taking care of the decorations.

Polly likes celebrations and parties of all sorts, and she's a champion at making balloon animals. She's also a really good party planner.

(Click on the pictures to see them bigger.)

Polly is made out of grey wool fabric and she's stuffed full of rags and batting and fun. Her nose is embroidered and her eyes are tiny little buttons. She has a grey plastic button as a belly button and sweet blushy cheeks.

Polly wears a fun lime-green bubble hemmed jumper skirt with big white buttons and stripy mismatched socks. The dress closes in the back with a hook and eye.

Happy Vappu to you all! :)