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,

Looks like home to me

A new post in a while. I apologize for being MIA, but my work schedule got crazy busy and I had no energy to do anything after work. Things are looking much sunnier right now - SPRING IS HERE.

Oh yeah I probably didn't mention - in the end of october I took my friend to a Scooter's gig in Helsinki after winning two tickets from a radio station competition. I actually called in to participate in this celebrity imitation game, where the hosts each imitate one celebrity and usually you have to have two out of three right to win the prize (usually a cd or something like that). It came as a total surprise that they had added Scooter tickets to that prize and this time I had to get all three of them right. Which made me nervous since I heard them practice their imitation earlier that morning but didn't really have a clue on the third. But then it hit me when I heard it the second time. And I won.

Scooter, oh Scooter. God I feel so old since I danced to their songs in school discos when I was in elementary school and so forth. Good memories, good memories.

But, back to the apartment!

Everything is in place and I should be able to move in in no time! The fact that this renovation has been going on for 9 months is ridiculous but two months are explained with waiting for my kitchen cupboards and everything and one month is explained when a water leakage from upstairs damaged my kitchen a bit so we had to take one cupboard off, let it dry and paint it over again plus add new tapestry. Now it's finally done, the only things lagging are the wall decals and paintings. I've been moving my belongings into my new home slowly, but now I've got most of my stuff in there and still some room in my cupboards/closet. Which is kind of odd considering how much clothes and other things I actually have...

Anyway, let's look at some photos (straight from my instagram so you might've seen this earlier):

My kitchen is probably the best room in my home. The first photo was taken a couple of days ago and the second one was taken before I had moved any stuff in. I have this lovely manual kitchen scale (on top of the digital one I have) from this lovely store in Vammala called Casa Rosalin. I also bought a lot of other stuff there. The bread tin is from Click Store in Ideapark (Jamie Oliver) and Smeg toaster is from Gigantti. I'm still missing my stand mixer but it's on its way! Cause you know what? I'm going to have KitchenAid Artisan mixer in pink and I can't wait to get that baby home!

My dog's at home in the chair though. Alright so living room. Sadly my mother had my couch and chair covered since my dog was there and her fur is everywhere. However, I've decide myself that those will come off and I'll just vacuum the chair and couch if she sheds. No big deal.

 

So my living room is green as you might see. My chair is more... purplish than my couch but they kind of fit together. Altogether I wanted to make this room kind of relaxing and energetic at the same time, hence the colors. All the cabinets are white though and all of them are from Laulumaa. The table is also from there. Couch is from Ikea and I was super lucky to get it! There were only two left in that particular color. I didn't want white or light colored couch cause I knew all dirt and hair would show up immediately in it (and well, having a dog that's not really good). So I went with cherry. The curtains are bunny curtains designed by Minna Parikka and I'm in love with them.

 

And then we have the bedroom, which is pink. My favorite color is pink and while I'm well aware that people rarely paint their walls pink or... well any other color but rather just leave them as white/light/with one wall different color than the others, I'm not really that kind of a girl. I love colors. I kinda tried to mix modern and vintage in my decorations in every room. Though my kitchen is more retro than vintage but I have tons of cute tins and everything in there. However, I went with a bit more romantic edge in my bedroom since I already had the crystal crown my grandmother gave me. The bed and side table is from Ikea, shelf is from Anttila. And well, I don't have much anything else in here. Except my clothes in the wardrobes. And my collection of Victoria's Secret body mists and beauty products.

Then the entrance which is kind of hard to get a photo of since it's very small. But I have a bench and a coat rack there, nothing more. The entrance is painted light purple.

And well I have bathroom too but somehow I've managed not to take photos of that but I will someday. It's kinda cute with owls on the walls.

Well, this is my home and I can't wait to move in!

xoxo,

Welcome to my crib: PART 1

So at last I'm able to make this little post about my new apartment. I'M SO EXCITED, OKAY? It looks fabulous already with all the walls painted and floor installed. So before I start, here have some before pictures and before video!

So from to the top to bottom, left to right: bedroom, entrance, kitchen, room 2, entrance to kitchen + room 2, living room. My bathroom is only going to have some very minor changes, such as installation of these walls around the shower so that's a bit irrelevant to this post and therefore I won't include that in here.

Now first and foremost, I'm quite a colorful person (or so I've heard) and it's not really my style to go all white. So I chose not to have tapestry in my apartment but in fact, all the walls in each room are in the same color (so no one wall enhancements either). The only tapestry I'm going to have is going to be in my kitchen and that is for the space behind the tap and so forth (so we're talking about a really small space here).

I have already bought lamps for each room - my bedroom is going to have a lamp my grandmother gave to me for this apartment, but you guys will see that later, when I'm all done. I have ordered my washing machine and my fridge plus my kitchen (and bedroom closet) is on the way but they'll arrive in late August (cause the factories are on a holiday in July :/). There are still some minor things to do, like painting the balcony door and putting sockets on and whatever, but the biggest changes have been made and now all we can do is wait until August.

I already bought a couch too. I was in luck when I went to Ikea to buy it and they only had TWO pieces in my selected color available (the color wasn't in production anymore) and I got 70 euros off the couch too. So I bought it and we took it to the storage in my building. Unfortunately on part didn't quite fit there, nor did it fit the elevator. So I carried it to the 5th floor. My mom helped me for the first floor but I decided that I could carry it on my own (memo to me: wrong move. broke my back and my ankle [again], don't do it).

So now, ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to the apartment 2.0:

 

So yes my bedroom is pink, my entrance is light lavender, my living room is bright green AND my kitchen is light brown (more like "cafe latte" color). I love it and I can't wait to get to decorating. Luckily I've bought the most expensive things already so the only really expensive one I still have to buy is a TV. Other than that I still need a few cabinets to my living room, a bed (already decided on that too) and some minor stuff like tv table, chairs and a bench and mirror to the entrance. But that's about it with the mandatory things and then it's all about the small things (most of which I already have).

Which is good cause I'm going to London! Yes, I already mentioned this on my facebook, but I'm going to London for a week in late August (18th-25th to be exact). We're staying near Hyde Park and we have already booked an Afternoon Tea Cruise on Thames so that will definitely be a new experience for me and I'm so excited. I'm also definitely going to visit Harrod's Food Hall again AND the Ice Cream Parlour because it was so heavenly the last time I went there.

What else is new? Well I bought a new pink dress. I actually just realized that I'm a pink person and I have many accessories in pink but I have only a couple of pink dresses. So yes, this dress will probably make it to London too!

Last weekend I also had the pleasure of being a wedding photographer to a very lovely couple and the photos have turned out so great (so far)! Now I'm just waiting for my vacation in August (I'll start my vacation on 17th of August, the next day I'll leave to London and after I get back, my kitchen will be installed and I'll move my stuff in).

What do you think of my new apartment? Would you have your apartment colorful or neutral?

xoxo,