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,

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.

Rose garden filled with thorns aka. birthday

Another year older, again. Where have all these years gone? What have I achieved in my life? Where am I going? I bet everyone actually thinks at least one of these when they turn yet another year older. That happened to me yesterday. Gladly, I don't really stress out that much. Within the previous years I've arranged a birthday party, rented out a space and invited all my friends over to have a good time. This time I spent my birthday with my two best friends - the ultimate crew as I named out Whatsapp group - Haja and Miss H. 

I spent the morning at work, running along, trying not to sweat much so I could actually look representable later. I had bought a new pink dress (I think I mentioned that in some of the earlier posts, yeah? Well that's it in the pictures) I've been dying to get out and what would be a better occasion to dress in pink from head to toe than a birthday? 

After my shift was done, I headed for Hatanpään Arboretum, which has become my go-to location for all kinds of photoshoots and festivities. It's just so pretty and I had heard that the roses in the rose garden were now in full bloom (or had been for a week or so). And I have a slight obsession to take pictures with flowers (no kidding?!) so it had to be done.

Sadly it was raining when we got there. But the rain never bothered me anyway, right? I even had my pink umbrella (from Ikea, of course) with me! So I gave my camera to Haja and she began shooting photos.

And talking about photoshooting - it's not all that serious, not with me in front of the camera at least. I mean look at these silly behind the scenes -photos!

Yeah no, I just can't be normal all the time. Well most of the time anyway. 

After we were done shooting, we headed out to pick Miss H and drove to the city centre to have a nice birthday dinner. We had chosen to dine in New York, which I can gladly recommend to anyone - good food and reasonable prices too! I ate my regular dish - Broadway Chicken and it was damn delicious. And a cheesecake cause on birthday you're supposed to have cake too (I did make one it just failed magnificently).

After eating we walked a short distance to a surprise I had arranged for me and my friends - ROOM ESCAPE. I had really dreamed of going to one so long I decided to give one to myself as a present. We booked "The Office" and started playing. Those of you who don't know what a room escape is - you will be locked up in a room full of possible clues and you have to get out in an hour. Sadly, we didn't quite make it, we had one lock left when the time ran out. But it was super fun, we worked really well together and I was so proud of us all! I really recommend that to everyone cause it's not only fun but also builds up very good teamwork skills!

And well, that was the day. I had just lots of fun (I also might have bought a long-craved Michael Kors Jet Set Travel Tote so I'm full-on pink in London. At least on one day). 

So yes, I have a weekend off and I'm starting my summer vacation NOW! The weekend includes lots of packing and when I get back from London, my kitchen has been already delivered YAY! They just have to install it too so that takes a little time and then I get to cleaning and dragging my stuff in there. I just can't wait. It's going to be glorious!

xoxo,

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,

Summer is here!

SUMMER IS HERE. I've had the weekend off and I've done some amazing stuff. Yesterday my godson's mother came to visit with their new dog while my godson and his father are on a fishing trip. The day was so lovely all around - we bbq'd, watched the dogs play and went to our local market.

Today I packed up my camera and drove to Tampere to have a little photoshoot with Haja. She needed me to shoot a couple of dresses she had made with her own hands (and they were gorgeous!). I picked them up and we drove to Tulitikkutehdas, which is an abandoned factory full of very nice graffitis and rustic feel - perfect for the dresses. Her little sister Giko was with us too, wearing the other dress Haja made.

After we finished shooting them in the match factory, we headed to Arboretum to take some pics - this time me in front of the camera. They turned out very pretty and I finally got the chance to wear the flower crown I've been dying to take out for a photoshoot. And well, we finished that photoshoot off by having Giko take photos of me and Haja, goofing out (yeah, it's not even possible to have decent non-goofing pictures of us - or well, it is, but it's so rare you might have a better chance of seeing an unicorn).

And today had the most perfect ending with us going to see my new apartment - which was now empty as the previous tenant had moved away. I took some before photos and some video material I'm going to release later on. We have good plans going on, I already know how my new kitchen will look like (and I love it!) and I'm just so excited to move to my new apartment in the fall.

But for now, I say goodnight and LET THIS SUMMER BE AWESOME!

with love,