Monday, March 7, 2016

What Happened Last Year

Usually I have in the beginning of the year, like in January, recapped the previous year. Mostly the purpose of this is for myself, to go through pictures and remind myself of everything that has happened and to be thankful. So I have decided to uphold this tradition, even if it is already March, and share with you some pictures of 2015. I know, this purpose could be done also by just going through pictures to have some printed, but as that seems to be an eternity project for me I'll just stick to this. Though seriously, I need to remember to get some pictures printed!
Probably the most exciting thing about the year 2015 was the upcoming wedding, all the planning and crafts related to it. I have a ton of pictures of that process, so I decided to perhaps make its own post at some point in time. But the year started off with visiting the potential wedding place with its gorgeous views. I guess the new year is always one for trying to eat healthier etc.. I also set out on a nail polish challenge, that ended after two attempts. haha.. We have this tradition to order things from VS, before we got one in Helsinki, and in 2015 I decided to order some well make up bags, but they ended up being in my purses to collect all little items.
Chinese new year was during February, and besides trying out some new dishes to make I also tried for the first time ever to make baozhi. Baozhi, dumplings of a sort are one of my favorites. When I was visiting China, I had my first kind with a egg filling of sorts and it reminded me so much of home and pulla that I was sold. Panda though persuaded me to make these with meat, so I still need to try out my own favorite. Hopefully some day soon. I have also planned to share some of my favorite Chinese recipes that we make at home, but I don't have good lighting in our kitchen right now. 
Yep this is where it gets repetitive.. Wedding planning, working out, enjoying nature and resting enough.. Mostly reading blogs about weddings and cosmetics. haha..
I got a new lens, the nifty-fifty and went bananas with it. I also finally got around to buying new pants as my beloved jeans wore out in the crotch of all places. I did later on fix the beloved jeans, but luckily I had some sense and got new ones.. haha.. But hey first pic from the wedding process, I was making wedding invitations.. Oh the lace, purple sparkly paper and silver sashes. How I miss the excitement. 
Yeah more nature, new pants, getting excited about summer.. making plans... watching bunnies lay around in grass, laying in grass myself.. walking around aimlessly. ah it was relaxing..
PANIC.. my car got a bit small for the ever growing zoo of us, so my car became our car and we added a little dog to the mix.. Now there are an Owl, Panda, Tiger and Dog.. what a zoo we make. Also note the absolutely fantastic make-up I had, rehearsal for the wedding. 
THE MONTH. Ah the memories.. the below to pics are from the locations that was unbelievably perfect. There were many bumps along the way to this day, and sure there are things that weren't perfect.. But I wouldn't change a thing.. well maybe I would go on a honeymoon, but that is something planned for a later time. Hopefully sooner than later. Also a small trip to Stockholm and Tallinn, since we couldn't go anywhere else. Oh yeah and my birthday month, got some awesome gifts like the raybans.. 
August was mostly about enjoying the summer, being sad about no wedding to plan and getting excited about moving to Turku. We also got to enjoy some nice flowers, that were related to the wedding. Also now that I am rambling so much, I guess a good question to ask is would a post about Finnish wedding traditions be interesting?
The fall season is always full of peoples birthdays and of course we moved to Turku. The tiny apartment we live in is just so beautiful. Also Turku as a city has so many old buildings and it feels like living in some European city rather than in Finland. But there will be more about this lovely place later on, I hope. It was also so exciting and overwhelming to start studying, but oh boy I had no idea about how overwhelming it would be. 
Busy busy busy... study, study, study. Thank goodness there was an exam week, and that I didn't have any exams. I really needed a week to rest back home. Also lately I had made some hat discoveries in the children's department in H&M. They have the best stuff.
More studying, a little bit of getting to know Turku and a whole lot of Christmas mood. But at the same time soo few pictures. I had an intensive course this month that required us to set out of our comfort zone and it was interesting but I felt that I could have done more. Story of my life? haha.. but it has given me some good perspective to consider. 
Puuh, finally at December the best month ever. Christmas time is just my thing: the food, the decorations, the lights and the magic! Ah I even had some awesome outfits for Christmas planned out, though the lovely red dress turned out to be bigger than me. Seems all this walking in Turku has made my waist soo much smaller. I have totally forgotten how much more efficient walking to school is than walking around in the forest. Especially when you leave too late and have to half run. haha. Alright is way later than it should be and I have to get up early for class tomorrow, oh how I hate Mondays..