Ahoy ahoy!

top & dress: modcloth shoes: sievi purse: michael kors

I spent the last weekend baking and visiting Helsinki. My godson celebrated his seventh birthday on Saturday and on Friday I baked a cake for his party. I've baked a cake since he was three or four I think. Last year it was Teddybear's Day Out, year before that it was Mickey Mouse and before that it was Cars. This year he requested a princess cake on the inside, him and the family dog as decorations. And I delivered. Now I'm not nearly as professional as some home bakers but I enjoy it and I think I'm getting better each time, especially since I usually tend to make cheesecakes and cupcakes. Cakes... well not so much. Sugarcrafting is also super fun and I enjoy it a lot, but I'm really hoping to take a course one day.

 

Even though it wasn't 100% what I wanted (like how the green cover wasn't smooth and non-wrinkled), I liked how the characters turned out to be. I was a bit nervous since I had never crafted humans before. In the end it turned out better than I expected really. And the only thing that mattered was the sparkling eyes and wide happy smile on my godson's face when he saw the cake. He was really adorable going all "look at my awesome cake" to the guests. Yeah I might've been a bit proud too, but it's still not perfect. Perfect doesn't even exist.

On Sunday I woke up in the morning and started driving towards Helsinki. I was meeting with Kipa there (you know, the blonde girl from London post ;)!)and attending Viini, ruoka & hyvä elämä (wine, food and good life) fair there. I was particularly interested in the cake decorating championship competition. The cakes were superb, and one of the two of my favorites won the whole competition. Such talent!

After walking around the fair we headed out to the city centre, visited Lush (which is like my ultimate downfall because of the pretty soaps and smells <3), Forum and Fazer before heading to Vapiano to eat. Vapiano has been kind of our tradition for such a long time. Good food, excellent company and oh god the desserts too! We both were so full before leaving towards her apartment where we spent a little while before I headed to my car and drove home.

Such a lovely weekend, I can't say anything else.

Rainbow hair!

 

So I just did what people have been doing a lot this summer (or this year I guess). I went to the hairdresser and got myself my own rainbow hair. Or ponyhair. It's not actually a real rainbow per say, but it has different shades of purple and pink and it's only the half of the length of my hair. But I love it. This awesome color was done by Elina @ Parturi-kampaamo Rasta.

Wow it's already August soon! The last day of July is on hand and tomorrow we'll be on August. Really? Oh god. Time really flies. Soon I will be celebrating my birthday and starting my four week long summer vacation and head to London and come back to move my things to my new apartment. When did the year go by so fast, just tell me?

 

On other things. About a week ago we went to this berry farm with my mother and we were supposed to just go buy strawberries (they have like... ten types of strawberries and I wanted specific ones). Unfortunately, my type wasn't pre-picked and so we headed to the picking area. In just an hour and a half me and my mother picked 12.6 kilos of strawberries for the winter. Most of them for me really... Haha, I'll be heading to the berry farm again after I come back from London since I'll go pick some raspberries too - I've used almost all the ones I had picked on a year or two ago. They've been frozen in my grandma's big freezer but god they're good. I'll also head for the forest very soon to pick up some blueberries too. Hopefully I'll have lots of them too so I'm able to bake pretty much anything berrylicious in the winter!

 

I baked some Oreo cupcakes! Ugh they were so delish! I usually dislike chocolate in baking cause it's just too sweet for me and I can never eat it a lot in desserts and pastries (and I really dislike white chocolate, that only goes with some selected ingredients). But it's fun to do it from time to time. I also placed one Oreo at the bottom of the cupcake and it was surprisingly good, but also very filling. The original recipe was from Cupcake Jemma, but I just modified it a little (since we don't have all of those products here in Finland).  

And oh, last saturday I agreed on helping in a music festival, mainly serving at the bar. I had such lovely co-workers there (and I volunteered since I was thinking of going to the festival to listen to one of my fave artists anyway so I got in "free") and it was just so much fun. I'll definitely do that again sometime.

Last but not least, oh dear I can't wait to get to London. I've been there two times before (one time with my current travel company though we did quick tour in a day). We have booked an afternoon tea cruise at Thames BUT we're looking for some cheap/free activities in London, so if you have any suggestions for us, please leave a comment below. I would also love to hear your recommendations for nice "photoshoot" locations just in case I get very artsy on my trip and manage to coax my friend to snap some cute outfit pics!

I can tell you that we have Camden and the usual sights in our tour already, but what are the hidden gems in London? What is your ultimate favorite place in London?

with love,

Rewind: 2014

So it's that time of the year. When people post their memories from 2014. I also happen to know that people usually also remember the negative parts easier. Or well, at least I do. My year has been rather normal. I've gone to work, I've had fun, I've traveled, I've spent time with my friends and family.

Most of all I remember the worst thing that happened in 2014. I had to let my horse go. She was already 24 years old and she started to have trouble with her legs so it's understandable. So I made the decision to let her go. The day was a blur, because we took her to the clinic in the morning and then left. Suddenly my beautiful horse was gone. The only thing that remained was this aching pain in my heart.

Not even two weeks later I left to Paris with my best friend. Somehow I got a little bit better. Disney made everything better. It has always been my saving grace, really.

The most affecting movie of the year was certainly The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies. Even though I loved the movies, because my favorite actors were cast in great roles, it left me with lots of feelings (relationship status: crying over fictional characters) and pretty much broke my heart. So yeah, I'd definitely say it was the movie that had my feelings going up and down. I still cannot quite watch the movies or listen to the soundtracks without major feels. But well, someday.

What else? I got two more Disney tats this year. My chest was finished in 2013 so I don't count that in as one. But I got Mickey head outline and Olaf.

I got a few photography gigs as well. Wedding, two confirmations, engagement.

I was drowned into Ice Hockey World Championship games in May. Even though we didn't win, we were just great. I still remember how the judges were seriously uncool and playing the game for Russia and so forth.

I became a restaurant manager in March. I won VIP ticket's to Daughtry's gig in Helsinki and I almost passed out when the radio host said that I won them. I got to meet and greet them. Oh the day!

I've had lot of shitty days this year but I'm lucky to have such great friends that always make me smile. And even though I might feel that this year has been just full of stress and crap, I know it's not all that. It just feels like it. Especially now since I just watched all the Hobbits and the feels.

I don't usually make new year's resolutions but this year I'm going to make one because my lovely bff Haja already agreed to help me on this quest. I'm going to finish writing my very first book. I've had it in the works for years and I've only written one chapter because of my writer's block. Honestly, I'm amazed I've succeeded to write that one chapter. But I decided that I finally need to do something that I know I can do if I just try.


So goodbye 2014, I certainly hope that 2015 will be great.


Last but not least: my latest creation, lemon-liqorice cheesecake.

with love,