Thursday, June 30, 2011

At the Svartå Antique week

I spent the day in Svartå yesterday. It was a VIP day (strawberries and champagne!) of the Antique week. Here are few photos of the day.  =) Svartå is a very beautiful and tranquil place, about 70 kms from Helsinki. The Antique week is organized every summer.








































The Antique week is open: Thursday the 30th and Friday the 31st of June from 12 o'clock to 20 o'clock and on Saturday the 1st and Sunday the 2nd of July 2011 from 12 o'clcok to 18 o'clock. The address is: Hållsnäsintie 89
10360 Mustio, Finland. For more information click here. :)

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Dear 11 old me ;)




























I spent the past few days with the girl next door, age 11. We had fun: we ran in the rain, rode on the horses, swam with the horses and did other cool stuff what you can do in the countryside.

Inspired by these few days I decided to write a letter to my eleven-year-old self.

Dear 11 old me. Don't wait to be all grown up. Your life is perfect as it is. Actually before you realize you will be missing your last years of childhood. You will have plenty of time to be an adult. Run in the rain, talk about horses and other girls' stuff. Have a crush on the boy next door. Get a hobby or two. Do nothing, but don't get bored, because when you are an adult you will be too busy and you will miss the time when you didn't have anything to do. Build a little hut in the forest. Help your little brothers and sisters. Realize that one day people will expect lots of things from you. Now they just expect you to eat well, sleep enough and do your home work. By the time you are 30 the number of things that are expect from you have increased so much it will make your head spin. Swim. Be childish for as long as you can: the most adorable grannies are the most childish ones. ;)

Love xxx





























Yesterday I went to Urban a*-shop and found the Childhood-bracelet. Coincidence? I had to buy it.


World Childhood Foundation’s work is aimed at the most marginalized children, the ones
most often ignored and forgotten. Childhood focuses especially on girls and the main target groups are street children, children living in institutions, young mothers and sexually abused children. The foundation was founded in 1999 by Her Majesty Queen Silvia of Sweden and they sell these cute bracelets and they use the profits to support the kids.  =)


"Let children be children" - and every once in a while be one of them yourself too! =)



Wednesday, June 22, 2011

The Happiness Project




























I am reading a book called The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. I don't know if I should write about it before I finnish it, but because I am enthusiastic and impatient, I will. The main reason why I am writing about it is the chapter "Launch a blog".

I read lots of different kind of books, but lately I have been a big fan of non-fictional sort of self-study books like Eat, pray, love and Committed by E. Gilbert. The idea of The Happiness Project is to explain why waking up early, cleaning your closets, fighting right and setting up a blog among other things will make you feel happier.

I am creative and spontaneous person. I rely on my intuition. I write on the floor and the computer is not a laptop (I think that tells you a lot about me, actually). I admire super-organized, well spoken and tidy people who are always on time. I am always late (except work deadlines). Then again I am worrying if I begin to be more organized, more clean and always on time, will I loose something on the creative side? I mean every coin has too sides: Am I unorganized because I am creative? Can a super-organized and tidy person be very creative and bohemian? Do we always admire those characters in other people that we don't have in ourselves?

I found a sentence that makes sense to me: "The brain is stimulated by a surprise and successfully dealing with unexpected situation gives a powerful sense of satisfaction. If you do new things (travel to a new place for example) you are most apt to feel happy than people who stick to more familiar activities. This is one of the many paradoxes of happiness: we seek to control our lives, but the unfamiliar and the unexpected are important sources of happiness.¨



























I tend to organize my life so that there is room for unexpected things. For example my graduation day/night (college) wasn't that special nor fun and maybe only because I had planned it for months with my friends. I had organize it and I had high expectations. Then again one Friday night in April this year I went to the movies with my friend. We had tea afterwards at a cafe. I called my mum and asked if I could come over for a sauna. When I was in sauna my other friend called me and asked if I feel like going for a drink. It was 10 pm and I had just cleaned my make up. Nevertheless I told her I need 30 minutes and I would be ready. I had not seen her for six months and we had a good talk over a class of red. I love being spontaneous and sometimes I get a bit annoyed when other people are not, but then again maybe they are those people I admire in the end: organized, always on time and whose houses are always clean...

So how does blogging make you happier? Rubin tells you to start your own blog, because it is challenging and we need a good challenge. It also will make you punctual (I am working on it!). You should blog because it is fun and can give you new identity; "a new identity brings you into contact with new people and new experiences, which are also powerful sources of happiness".  Personally I believe blogging can increase the bloggers happiness, if the blogger doesn't get too stressed about updating it. So why don't you try it, it is really FUN! :)

More about the Happiness Project here.



What is wrong with the Blogger today?

Darlings, I have not forgotten you. It is just that me and Blogger don't seem to be friends today. I am trying to add some photos to my post, but for some reason Blogger refuses to do so. I will try to post later today. :/

Saturday, June 18, 2011

The Mad Hatter

I went to a tea party last night and look who was there: The Mad Hatter! ;)


 Would you like a little more tea? 
Hmmm, will this "tea" make me larger or smaller again?

Friday, June 17, 2011

Starbucks is in Finland, sort of...

Yesterday I went to the local super market and what did I see: Starbucks ice coffee! I got super-excited, because unlike other big worldwide food/restaurant companies, I really do like Starbucks. Me and my sister went to the Starbucks to get coffee every morning in New York few years ago. And then we walked to the Central park to enjoy it. :) The Starbucks logo brings up lot of good memories: I use to drink it on the beach in Dominican Republic as well. So I bought this ice coffee and tasted it immediately: it was not good at all! I was disappointed and started to be even more so when I read what was in it: Three different kind of food additives plus aromas! :( So disappointing! 

I happened to taste the real Starbucks coffee last weekend, because my Canadian friend had it and that was as good as in NY. So YES to the Starbucks, but NO to this ready made ice coffee!





Thursday, June 16, 2011

About the journeys



This Louis Vuitton's ad is the most charming I have ever seen. Angelina is a beautiful woman and the video is so well done that it makes me a bit emotional. The video is melancholic yet full of life. It reminds me of my own journeys and how they have changed me, especially the first one.

The text that belongs to the final cut version goes like this:


"In 2000 Angelina Jolie made her first trip to Cambodia

It was a journey that would change her life forever

A single journey can change the course of a life".



In 2004 I made my first trip to Dominican Republic. It definitely was a journey that would change my life forever.

I was there only for four months, but that time changed me. Several things happened that opened my eyes. My tiny apartment was on the street behind the police station in Puerto Plata. There were black-outs because the government wanted to save money so they turned the electricity off almost every night for many hours. It was hot and no air-con. No tv, no fan, just candle light. There were the President election coming up, hence there were protests going on around the government buildings including the Police station. There were bonfires and even gunfires on my street. I spent a week on my friend's couch because it was safer there. I also had a spider size of my fist in my bedroom one night, but I was too exhausted to hunt it down and take out of my place. In the morning it was gone. There was an earthquake and a massive mudslide. I did not notice the earthquake, because I was sleeping too tight. I was luckily in another part of the country when the mudslide happened (it killed hundreds). I saw how people lived out of only 60 USD a month. They had few chickens and a shabby hut without a floor, yet they were happy and willing to invite friends over for dinner anytime. I met a 7 years old shoe-shining-boy, whose shoe shining box had been stolen and he couldn't work, but he was still smiling. Dominicans are warm-hearted and open-minded people, as most of the people in less developed countries.

Although I saw lot of things that you see only when you are living in a foreign country, to me the most life changing thing was when I realized that I can make my own happiness. I learned to appreciate health, money and the kindest of a stranger more than I could ever had if I had stayed in Finland. After realizing all this it took me five years to settle down: I went back to Dominican Republic (only to understand that prices go up, good places go bad and bad places go bankrupt. Nothing stays the same) , I studied in Australia, dived in Pacific ocean, had terrible flu in Central America (might had been a swine flu, who knows?). I saw people dying in Varanasi, India. I had a date in Venice. I traveled in Europe.

For those years I hardly spent any money to anything else than traveling. Yes, I bought lots of clothes too, but traveling was definitely the biggest investment and I am very happy that I got to experience all that. I have been lucky: I have seen the world. It is a privilege to be able to travel.

I am also glad that I got the travel bug out of my system finally. I still travel, hopefully always will, but not in that way: months and years living out of the backpack is tiring too.


After said all that I couldn't agree more when they say:

"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end"

I could have never figured out that I want to be a journalist and photographer without my travels.

So a single journey can truly change the course of a life.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Big hair

As most of the Finns my hair is not very thick. I have found a perfect way to make it big, huge even: A dry shampoo! I add it two days after I have washed it and BUM my hair is big and clean! It also makes my blond hair blonder, so this one doesn't work for brunettes. I guess there is a dry shampoo for brown hair as well (?). These photos remind me of old movie stars. ;)





Tired, but HAPPY

Ooohhh sorry sorry haven't updated my blog for few days! I have a good reason though: I went to the best wedding ever and also to our summer cottage where updating this was impossible, because the Internet and my computer refused to be friends over there.. :/ So after this loo-ong weekend I am tired, but HAPPY and look like this:





Friday, June 10, 2011

Off to the City

After spending a week in the countryside I am off to Helsinki for a night. Then I will travel in Finland for a bit so I need to figure out what to pack: I have a wedding to shoot and will also visit our summer cottage. Oh boy I don't like packing at all! The good news is that this summer you can wear same clothes in the city and in the countryside. Check what it wrote about it here. :)

Dress, shoes & sunnies from Zara, belt is my bf's

Thursday, June 9, 2011

A little something

I got this cute charm from my boyfriend on Monday night, when we celebrated our two years together at Kulosaari Casino (it is a restaurant, not a casino and the food is delicious, I recommend!). It is a Thomas Sabo charm. I have always looked at them and wanting to buy one, but the problem has been so far: which one?? There are hundreds of them so I just could never make my mind and pick just one. This one is a flipflop, a thong as they call it in Australia, and I love it! =) It is adorable and very summery!

Oh and what did I give him? A mixed cd! Mixed by me of course. Isn't that classy or what?? Do you remember when you were 15 and how excited you got when a boy you had a crush on gave you a mixed tape? That was the best feeling ever. I don't think people do those anymore and that's a shame. ;)










Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Tepa in Wonderland

Here is the new set of photos called 'Tepa in Wonderland'. Enjoy the photos & the story behind them ;)



"I think I'm going mad. I keep seeing a rabbit in a waistcoat."
"There is a place. Like no place on Earth. A land full of wonder, mystery, and danger! Some say to survive it: You need to be as mad as a hatter."

"What an idea! What a mad, crazy, wonderful idea!" (to drink this thing)

"Lost my muchness, have I?" 

"I've been shrunk, stretched, scratched and stuffed into a teapot! " (I even made a dress from a napkin!)


"Sometimes I believe in as many as six impossible things before breakfast." (I just hope this will make me grow to my normal size)

"Oh, I'm not particular as to size, only one doesn't like changing so often, you know" (Oh dear, it didn't!)

"It was much pleasanter at home, when one wasn't always growing larger and smaller "

"It would be so nice if something made sense for a change" (how much more can I grow?)
Photos by me and my bf, quotes Alice in Wonderland

A Sneak Peek


We took some very odd photos today. I can't show them to you yet, but will do later, so stay tuned! :)

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

These two years

Me and my boyfriend have been together for two years, so little celebration was in order. :) Yesterday we had a lovely, lovely picnic at the Botanic Garden in Helsinki. This is a rare treat, because we both run our own companies, hence we are very busy and there is not enough time for relaxing, especially in summertime when he is super-busy. That is why I cherish every single moment we spend just two of us without work and other obligations.



Bubbly and strawberries. Life is so good ;)




Photos by him

Monday, June 6, 2011

Everybody's Free to Wear Sunscreen! (Original + English Subtitles)



Tässä kaikki parhaat neuvot elämään! ;) Here are the best pieces of advice you will ever get. ;) You will get the English subtitles if you click the "cc" button below the video.  

Aurinkovoiteista


Kesän tultua kaikki naistenlehdet ovat täynnä juttuja rusketuksesta ja sen vaaroista. Olen Australiassa asuneena hyvinkin tietoinen auringonoton vaaroista. Itse luonnonkosmetiikkaan hurahtaneena (se onkin toinen nyt lehdissä ja mediassa pinnalla oleva aihe) haluan, että aurinkovoiteenikin on luonnonkosmetiikkaa. Ainut ongelma on se, että täysin luonnollisesti tehdyt aurinkovoiteet ovat todella paksuja, jähmeitä ja jättävät ihon valkoiseksi. Olen kuitenkin löytänyt hyvän mahdollisimman luonnollisen aurinkovoiteen: Frantsilan aurinkovoiteen, joka on vieläpä suomalainen tuote. :) Siinä on vain yksi lisäaine ja verrattuna aikaisemmin käyttämiini aurinkovoiteisiin se on aika vähän, joten tätä tänä kesänä!

Aurinkoista kesäpäivää kaikille! =)


Tässä aurinkovoiteessa on käsittääkseni vain yksi lisäaine eli ei luonnollinen aine. Se levittyy ja imeytyy hyvin. Hajukin on ok.




Friday, June 3, 2011

What a Lovely Light

Hello darlings!

What are you up to this weekend? I am spending it at the country and just admire the scene: everything is green and fresh! And the lovely light! The sun doesn't set before 10 pm!! I took these photos last summer. I am having some problems with camera-laptop connection here, so can't update any new photos. :/