Life is sweet - enjoy the little things

 

This evening, around 10PM I took my dog out and got all the summery feels from the blooming bushes and trees outside. Then I sat for another half an hour at my balcony, eating a cone of ice cream and just appreciating how nice that felt. My home, my balcony, my life. How many people do that? Just sit down, feel what your feeling, appreciate that feeling and try to remember how that felt for the rest of your life? Because I do. I do remember those little moments, I think of them everytime I'm going through something or if I'm sad or angry. I try to remember those good moments that didn't necessarily take a lot. Maybe just the smell of flowers, warm summer night weather, staring at the partially cloudy sky and eating ice cream.

I've been jamming a lot to Justin Timberlake's "Can't Stop The Feeling", which I found out, is actually perfect song for summer in general. Makes me wanna dance whenever I hear it (and yes I've kinda done that in work, my colleagues will prove that).

I have a feeling that this summer is going to be great. 

Last Saturday I hosted my 2nd homewarming party. The first was on April 16th for my colleagues from work and this one was for all of my friends so there was about 25 people packed into my small apartment. We had lots of fun, watched hockey (sadly Finland won all the other games but the final so silver for us... once again) and eventually ended evening in a bar. Where I finally found my courage to sing karaoke.

 

And to other things. I actually got a new camera Canon EOS M, which is way smaller than my #1 camera. However, my Canon EOS 60D is actually so damn heavy to carry around everywhere to actually make it my everyday camera, I decided that it was time to get a second, smaller one but with the same kind of qualities (cause honestly me and pocket cameras are a disaster!). Now I've got it going with me to New York.

I also booked tickets to see WICKED ON BROADWAY. Guys, I'm so excited right now! I'm also gonna see Finding Neverland, but I haven't booked the tickets just yet. And of course I'm trying very hard to get tickets to see Jimmy Fallon bc he's my favorite talk show host ever. Aside from Ellen Degeneres. Oh there are so many things I would want to do and so little time. I booked my accommodation from a very nice hostel in Upper West Side in a dorm of 6 females. So this is really my first time for everything - first time traveling completely alone, first time in New York, first time in a dorm with 5 other people (or less, but we'll see). However, I'm becoming more and more excited about this everyday.

So yes, life is what you make it. I've always been a person who wants to live and explore, even if I've always been scared of doing it alone. But I'm really not. Not anymore. I might be carefree and I don't take life seriously (or like my mom tends to say; you have no clue how life works). Maybe I do, maybe I don't. But I will figure it out. Because after all it's my life and it's my world. And I'm trying to make the best of it everyday. Try it if you haven't. You might be surprised.

love,

Home cold home

So, all good things come to an end and sadly it was time for our little trip to end too. It had been amazing five days really! On Saturday we headed to Venice Beach and Santa Monica. The sun was shining and it was around 25 degrees (C) so it was really hot (for us anyway). We started at Venice, where I unfortunately lost my pretty flower crown :( I think the wind caught it somewhere before we hit the beach. 

I took my shoes off and went straight to the ocean. Well, I only got wet to my calves, but some waves were big enough to wet my dress' hem. But as said, it was really hot so it dried out pretty quickly. It was pretty chilly but at the same time it was just so refreshing. There were surfers all around and it looked so much fun! Maybe some day I'll get to test it too! I certainly want to. 

After we had had our fun in the sun at Venice, we continued to Santa Monica and we walked there. It was about 3km one way and walking in the sun without a hat wasn't probably the best idea. I didn't get a sunstroke and I remembered to put sunblock on my arms and chest, but I forgot to put it on my face so hello a little bit burnt forehead! But hey - at least I got some tan? Wohoo. Also I think I made my first and only celebrity sight at Venice - I'm pretty sure I saw Maisie Williams sitting in a cafe at Venice Beach! I didn't bother to check but either it was her or she has a long lost identical twin.

Santa Monica Pier was great. We actually went to the Ferris Wheel to see the absolutely beautiful landscapes. And we ate some pizza there. After that we walked back to Venice and went to see the Venice Canals. Oh lordy they were quite pretty. I'd love to live in those houses beside them. They had such a cute little boats - one house had this duck boat and another had a self-made gingerbread house boat. That was pretty awesome!

On our last day we drove to see the Hollywood Sign. We drove through Hollywood Hills to see the iconic sight and took photos of course. After that we drove to the Grove and I bought myself a very nice wallet/purse from Michael Kors (it was so friggin cheap compared to Europe!). The salesman (I think his name was Rodrigo or something) was just so super nice and super sunny, god it was like the best service I had ever got! Also Sprinkles Cupcakes, noms! They were so good. I've wanted to try them ever since I heard about them. Besides, I've always wanted to try these "REAL" American cupcakes since I'm a cupcakerer myself and I'm always looking for new inspiration.

While we were shopping at the Grove we got a text telling us that our flight to London was going to be delayed by two hours. We didn't have any plans after Grove/Farmer's Market so we just made up a plan to drive to see Malibu. We didn't really stay there, we just drove around and then headed to the airport.

The trip was great, the flights back home... Not so much. I've got to be honest with you and tell a little secret. We had bought the flight with our own cards but we went to the check-in desk together (I prefer the machines but there wasn't any for Norwegian) and thought that of course we'd be sitting together. But NO! It had never occurred to me that the person who did our check-in didn't even ask if we wanted to sit together.

I, as a person who has a terrible social anxiety when it comes to sitting next to strangers, was pretty much on the verge of panic attack but we thought that it'd cost to change places. Another thing is that on a plane or train or bus I always sit on a window seat. So pretty much the worst thing ever happened to me on the plane to London - I got seated in the middle row, in the middle seat AND I had strangers on both of my sides. Later at night when I went to the toilet, I saw rows that had only ONE person in them so I was seriously pissed off. It's nothing personal but I'm just so uncomfortable sitting next to a person I don't know so it was literally the flight from Hell.

It would've been worse if I didn't get any sleep. So I kind of got a bit drunk before the flight by drinking a small bottle of sparkling wine and a glass of long island ice tea (THANK GOD FOR THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF ALCOHOL IN THOSE IN AMERICA) and it helped me relax a bit. Now usually I don't rely on alcohol but this time I kinda knew that listening to music or anything wouldn't help so the couple of drinks took the edge of. I don't usually drink wines so sparkly wine did it's thing for me, haha. It was seriously funny because usually I require at least like 6-7 drinks to get even a bit tipsy. We ate at a restaurant because due to the delay we got $13 meal voucher from Norwegian. The food was really good (I ate a chicken sandwich) and our waitress was really awesome. I actually left her a message on the receipt because I work at customer service myself and I know good service really deserves a praise. And she certainly did (of course on top of the tip).

So I slept like a wee baby the whole 10 hours flight back and only woke up to go to the toilet. I'm currently working on this little problem of mine though so it was also kinda... good that I got put there but I was certainly so pissed off. But I won't bother writing to the airline about this cause I know they're going to appeal to the fact that we should've known cause we bought the tickets separately (like seriously, HOW are we even supposed to know that?!).

But main thing, I'm still alive. The flight from London to Helsinki was a bit better because haha, I got seated in the front row (THE LEG SPACE, GDI!) and on top of that the person who was supposed to occupy the window seat had accidentally taken my aisle seat. I asked him about it and he said that if I didn't mind, I could take the window seat! I was just like "NO, I DON'T MIND AT ALL!" and sat my tushie down. Haha, he was a real British gentleman, he was really nice when we talked a little. Funny enough I've always found it very easy to start a conversation with British people? I don't know what it is but I'm not as anxious with them. Maybe it's because I've lived in Ireland and visited London and met a lot of British people in my life? Go figure.

All in all it was a great trip even though my spirit was a bit ruined by the flight mix up and everything. But I got home alive and well, maybe a few mental scars but they'll heal. Now I've got my first touch of America and I. WANT. MORE. So what's next? New York? Florida (actually Haja promised to go with me one day and we'll do a amusement park run - Disney, Universal, Harry Potter etc.)? Chicago? Seattle? Texas? Las Vegas? Who knows, I'm open minded and ready to go! These boots were made for walkin' (even though resting is also good)!

Last but not least, before I left for my trip, I made a Facebook page for PPD! Go like it ->> HERE

xoxo,

Sunshine is a state of mind

Good morning from Los Angeles! It's currently 8am and I've been getting up around 7am every morning even if I don't have to. Damn jetlag. Or something. Well anyway. I've had wonderful time in Los Angeles! On our first day we took off to Universal Studios Hollywood. That was truly a great trip and I sorta kinda returned with about 5 shopping bags. Woops. I think my 2nd bag came in handy, although Marshall's next door had really cute and really light bags for traveling too. 

At first we headed to Studio Tour because it would've been crowded later in the day. It was rather cool or so to say though I must say that if I had any money to spare, I would've taken the VIP tour cause then you would've gotten to walk on Wisteria Lane etc. VIP tour costs around $300 so it's kinda pricy. But it also includes so much more than just walking in the set on Studio Tour. There's like... everything. 

After that we went to the Simpsons ride, Jurassic Park River Adventure (GDI I didn't know it was a wet ride and I hate wet rides... luckily I'm quite small so the bar covered me quite well even though the hem of my dress got soaked), Minion Mayhem, Shrek 4D and we also saw the Waterworld show and Animal Actors (omg can you come and train my dog too please?). It was so awesome and Waterworld was rather inspiring if I may say. Lots of ideas, if not for my book, then for something else.

Also I FINALLY GOT SOME TACO BELL AND IT WAS AWESOME. Can we please bring this to Finland? I mean wow it was so good. I had promised my friend that when I'd travel to America, I'd try Taco Bell. Still need to try local hot dogs (pink's or something else, idk yet). But yes. So good.

After we got to the hotel, we took a little break and then went to Hollywood Boulevard to do some shopping. Found myself lots of stuff from Victoria's Secret and some other shops as well.

 

On our second day, we took a hop on/hop off bus ride to Beverly Hills and Downtown LA. We hopped off at Rodeo Drive to go stroll down the famous street as well. I found a cute little candy shop called SUGARFINA and oh my god they even had this box of Finnish liquorice. Psst, they deliver internationally ;) Another great candy shop is IT'S SUGAR that we found at Universal, but there's more of them too. I was literally like a kid in a candy shop in these two.

After we had walked down Rodeo, we took the bus ride back to Hollywood and saw some awesome places. Then we hopped on the Purple Line and sat 2,5 hours in that bus and saw many sights in Downtown LA. Apparently there was also something happening since we got stuck on Broadway and the police had shut down one street from traffic. Three squad cars went through though. I'm not sure what it was but apparently there had been a middle school stabbing further away (though it was literally further away, not sure why they had closed that street?) :(

Today we're actually heading to Venice and Santa Monica. Sadly we'll be going home tomorrow, but it has been truly awesome here! I could certainly move here. I mean come on Californian sun vs. Finnish snow? Not a hard choice!

See you all later!

xoxo,

Good morning Los Angeles!

Good morning from LA! We arrived yesterday evening, our flight was a little bit late but not too much. I was surprised that our airline had also sockets so I could use my computer freely, YAY!!!

I was so friggin nervous at customs, not that I showed it or anything, I just hadn't been through that before so it was something new! Got my bags and got to a shuttle bus to get our rental car, then drove 1hr and 30mins to our hostel.

It was already 8.30 pm when we got here so we just went strolling down Hollywood boulevard and got some food (subway, shame on me but it was the closest soo...). Found Disney's star too and of course I had to take a pic.

This morning I woke up to +11 degrees (C) and to the landscape in the first pic. Quite nice, eh ;)? Can't say I miss Finnish winter and snow and rain so much. 

Today we're heading to Universal Studios to avoid the freakishly big masses on weekends, tomorrow we're probably gonna go to Venice and Santa Monica and on Saturday it's a hop on hop off bus ride + shopping in Beverly Hills and here at Hollywood. 

I'm having such a blast already!

xoxo,