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.. 

She's Alive

Yes, indeed I am still very much alive and well with pictures from today. I have stacks upon stacks of pictures to share, ideas to put into words and motivation for all kinds of projects. So what's the problem?

Well, TIME! I have no time... At this moment, I am trying to complete my first year of my Master's
degree, survive and occasionally also sleep. There is very little time for those things that used to be so precious to me. I can barely manage to do my nails, which used to be a very basic thing for me. Sure at the same time I have become much more efficient with the time that I do have, and am somewhat better at prioritizing. Yet still most days I feel like the day has gone by and I didn't do anything just for myself and relaxation. I guess its just one of those things that belongs to this part of my life, and I can enjoy my free time when I'm old and grey but boy is it exhausting all the same.

On a positive note, yes there is such a thing, I am happier than ever. Sure at times I feel a tad lonely, since I don't have much time for friends either hope they still exist, but most of my days go by in a flash and when my head hits the pillow I feel content. Its like this saying about finding something you never thought you wanted, what I have now is something I didn't really think about that much before but I am glad my life shaped out like this. I have to say, since graduating high school my life has gone more on the flow rather than according to a master plan. I guess thats why I relate to this quote:

"Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans"

At this moment my biggest concern is my Master's thesis, that yes I am already forced to think about and write but I suspect that there is a good reason for that. Its probably also one of the reasons I am back here, I'm trying to enhance my writing skills again. Of course writing academic English is a tad different than maintaining a blog, but at least getting used to the momentum and amount required would be nice. Also I suspect I have way too much bottled up in my mind, in the form of little projects that I want to complete, so I feel I need a place to unload all the excess of thought from my brain here. This could of course mean that at times, my texts will be so out of my mind that they will be hard to follow but its a calculated risk I am willing to take. So to anyone reading this, I'm not as crazy and sad as I seem, I just have a lot on my mind. Also I am quite aware that I have been off and on again kinda blogger for quite some time, but hopefully I can establish a better allocation of time for this little hobby of mine as its still always on my mind.

Wedding Look

Its June already?? Are you kidding me, haha. So much has happened yet it feels like time stands still and then suddenly you snap out of it and realize how much time has passed. Have to say my stress levels are suddenly higher, the approaching wedding makes me nervous.

Anyway I came quickly to post these pics to show off my wedding make up, well not the real one but a trial round. I thought I wanted something really natural but in the end I wanted something more dramatic. Its your wedding day, at least one day you can look different than normal. I'm really happy with this though when Panda saw it he laughed at me. Men really don't know how to react, luckily he said that I look good just if he hadn't seen it before the wedding he might have thought he went to the wrong wedding. :D

Now I just can't wait for the actual day, and well have to figure out what to do with my hair. Especially those nasty little ones. More to come soon ;)

Shades of White

Happy Midsummer! So wow where have the days gone? Time just speeds on by and I don't even notice. In a way I don't mind but also I just want to enjoy all the little things. In a way I have had plenty of time to read blogs and intake inspiration but have limited time to actually to create. It really makes me sad but I guess it's just about time management. It's the battle between the me I used to be and the me I am today. I'm still learning and hopefully I can keep learning all my life.

This has been an interesting post to write, I have been writing it during three different times so what I want to tell has changed several times. We changed our car and I had my bachelorette party, but now all I can think about is midsummer and sauna.

Anyway we had to change our car to a bigger one. It was much more emotional than I was ready for, even though I have been preparing for this for a year.. I had eight great years with my little car so its no wonder, but I suspect that if I had kept it longer it would have broken down on me. Its not really realistic to fit into a two door car with three people. So now I have a shiny white car in the yard, I hate white in cars but I guess I will just learn to love it. I hadn't even realized how old my car was until I saw all the new cool tech in this newest version. I'm just in aww over it, and I think the color is even growing on me. There are also posts about the wedding coming up, hopefully before the actual wedding day.. Yaay it's so close, finally!

I'm so in love with this lace shirt from Bik Bok but it seems to make me look so big, white has this effect on me. Also notice my absolutely clean hair, haha I wanted to take these pics coz I had my super nice wedding trial makeup on but didn't have time to wash my hair before. I also can't believe how much tiny new hair I have coming out in the front, some people say this is some kind of breastfeeding effect? Dunno but its bothering me, can't wear my hair on the side anymore :D 

Light purple dreams

You know that feeling when you notice that your favorite pair of jeans is torn? Sure if the tear is for example on the knee it doesn't really matter but the crotch! That is the worst. No actually the worst is to find out BOTH of your favorite jeans are torn in the crotch. Luckily I've been able to find some instructions on how to fix it discreetly so I have yet another thing on my to do list. I think my to do list keeps growing more than I can take things out of it. haha.

So in the meanwhile I had to figure out something else to wear, I did consider buying a new pair of blue jeans but inspired by a few bloggers and some pinterest pins I went in search of colorful jeans. I found some from Bik Bok and had trouble choosing a color so I got a dark purple and coral. I haven't yet matched the coral pants with anything. I have been waiting from warmer weather. The dark puprle ones were easier to incorporate during this weather and this is how I looked. I have to say I'm quite satisfied with these pants, BUT the material seems to gather all kinds of dirt escpesially hair! My hair is going through a stage of falling out so I'm picking out the hairs all the time. My light brown or dark blond hairs are quite visible in the dark purple pants. Though in the first pics of it they look more burgundy than purple. 

I guess this is that "hey take a pic of my accessories" pic, haha. Not to mention my uneven fingernails. Haha this is as real as it gets. 

Looking back at these pictures I have to wonder what is up with my hair? It was a windy day but still I really should book an appointment to a hairdresser. Sure I have been trying to grow them longer but my hair is so thin, though I have plenty but it just won't grow evenly through out the length. I have no idea what is up with that. Maybe I need some kind of supplements or maybe I don't drink enough water, etc. I only wash my hair twice a week at most and use a lot of oil, so I doubt its the products I use. Anyway I have been thinking about getting extensions for the wedding, but we will see what happens.