Craving for a white blazer

For some reason I feel drawn to white blazers at the moment and since there are no items like that in my wardrobe, I would love to include one in it. The sooner, the better. My sensitive sensor has spotted a lot of jackets and blazers and there are a couple of pretty candidates among them.

Zara - Blazer with golden buttons

The first one is from Zara, pretty and fits the criteria. The seams have been left halfway done which is not exactly what I'm looking for in a blazer like this, but otherwise I love it.

Zara - Fantasy  fabric blazer

The second one, also from Zara, is a bit longer and I'm sure I could wear it outside too if I paired it with a warm scarf. Not for too long, though. The previous one would probably not be ideal for the Finnish fall, unfortunately.

Gina Tricot - Tracy jacket

The third one, 'Tracy jacket' from Gina tricot was actually a lot prettier in the store where I spotted it. The fabric was warm and this would be ideal for everyday use since it's not too fancy. The picture is blurry, though, doesn't show the details at all. Also, I would not roll the sleeves up like that if I had it on.

Vila - Mosata blazer

The fourth and last one is not exactly white but has a hint a of golden and beige shades to it. But I like it and I'm especially fond of the golden details.

I'm terrible at shopping in the internet, I think I've never bought any clothes online. Even in stores I have to have several sizes of one item in the dressing room since it's difficult to tell, what size of a specific model would fit me. The same goes even if it's a familiar brand. So if I bought something online, I would have to order two or three sizes of one single piece of clotting and naturally also return the ones that were of wrong size. Ugh.

Too much trouble so I rather do my shopping irl to see which of these pretty blazers I really like on me ;)

One man down

I've been sick for a couple of days now and thought it was just the flu. Today, when I went to see a doctor, I got antibiotics for an ear infection plus I will have to stay at home for three more days. Ugh.

I hate being sick. It's a waste of time and I'm already bouncing off the walls. Three more days of this?? Are you kidding me? There are a million things that I should be working on at the moment but because of the fever, I can't think clearly :D I mean, I have thoughts, yes, but they're disorganized and I can't do any rational thinking. I'm only able to stress out and panic. And sleep, blow my nose and read blogs.

If I was feeling normal, I would just sit down and figure out a plan and be just fine. But I'm not. So I keep calling to too many people, bother them with stupid questions and get even more frustrated because no one else can make these decisions for me and I don't have the answers. What is stressing me out is the fall. And my plans that I happen to have zero at the moment. Ok ok, I have alternative plans but none of them seems ideal for me. I keep changing my mind every hour, which is not smart, because I should have a clear plan by the end of this week.

Originally, I was supposed to write my master's thesis in the spring 2013. That was a good plan and I organized my schedule around that. About a week ago I heard about an opportunity to write the thesis already in the fall and got all excited. Now, after finding out some facts about the very tight schedule for the fall, I keep thinking whether I should stick with my original plan and write the thesis in the spring. Bahh. I'm not sure what to do.

The thing is, I might be doing the work for the same company that I worked for in the summer. We just have to have come to a mutual understanding about the subject and the objectives of the project, and it's not gonna happen just like that. The schedule for the fall is very tight and we need more time to get something out of this. I would have to hand in a plan for the thesis by the end of this week and we were supposed to have preliminary discussions with the company about the topic only in September. I want to do a good job with the thesis and it has started to seem that the spring would be a better timing for the project.

I think I need to get some more sleep and think about this when I have more energy. What I can do during my sick-leave is read articles and write a suggestion of what the research could be about and ask for comments and opinions on how to make the plan better and prepare for the project. By the end of the week I need to make up my mind. A lot of pressure on an exhausted patient.

Newbies at home

We're taking baby steps for what comes to decorating and furnishing the new place. We've already lived here for more than 3 weeks but haven't got much done, unfortunately. We have a bed and chairs here, but basically everything else was missing for long.

On Wednesday I finally found lamps for the hallway and yesterday we got the new table, yay! I was hesitating at first, because I thought the glass was supposed to be see-through, but it wasn't. Now that we put it together and it's on its right place, I know that this was the right choice :)

Living room

The new table in front of the bay window

Hehe, one little thing is missing though. The table was supposed to come with a chrome leg and I was wondering why the bottom part is all black. It turned out that there was a cover for the leg in the package but it was somehow left aside. Now the table has to be re-done, because the missing part cannot be put in its place without dismantling the whole thing :D

Almost done

There also two new lamps in the hallway, but they still have to be adjusted on the same level. For all this, I need to thank my dad, the handyman, who helped us putting everything together and to the right places :)

"Heat" lamps

The hallway

In the last picture you can also see the new closet with sliding mirror doors. It's very practical since there's not that much space for storing things in the apartment. Luckily, the hallway was wide enough for a big closet like this.

Visiting grand mom

Our granny really is a super granny. When we got to her place on Saturday evening, she took us to the dining room and set the table with all sorts of delicious home made pastries. We had coffee and freshly baked blueberry pie with vanilla ice cream, buns, cookies and white chocolate (I think my sister never even knew that there was white chocolate in the jar on the table, I was too fast for her ;).

Grand mom's 'a little something with the coffee'

On Sunday we had such a lazy day. We slept late like we always do when we're on holiday and had a very Finnish breakfast: lots of coffee and rye bread and carelian pies with a spread made of eggs and butter, yummy! The weather was awful so the original plan of going to grand mom's garden to pick berries was postponed. Instead, I started with a new crochet project. My grand mom's favorite potholder is, of course, the green one that I made for her a year ago ;) She says that it's the only one that she doesn't burn her hands with - yeah right. Anyway, I decided to make her a new one.

The new potholder with ends that still need some fine-tuning

My sister used the time well too. She is such a talented kid for what comes to baking - in less than one hour, she had baked two sets of multi-grain bread rolls for us. God they were good!

The dough

My sis making bread rolls

15mins in the oven

Fresh, steaming hot bread rolls

Café Kaila

On Saturday evening we drove to Heinola and visited one of the most beautiful cafés I've ever been to. Café Kaila is located right by a lake and when standing on the bridges that go across the lake, you can see rapids that flow like crazy. There's a lot of traffic by the water and despite the fact that the cafe was only recently founded and that it doesn't even have a website yet, it was all crowded.

On our way to Heinola

My sis taking pics of the view

The rapids

Pretty scenery on the cafés yard

The café was spread on a wide area that had ponds, beautiful sheer white bridges, flowerbeds and terraces for customers to sit down and enjoy their coffees outside. We walked around the area and were like.. really?? They have this in Heinola?? Wow. Why haven't we heard of this before?

Terraces

Stream connecting the ponds to the river

Flowerbeds

In May I went to our cottage for a weekend with my boyfriend. I had just come back from my exchange and we really enjoyed our time there. We also got the random idea to go visit Heinola for coffee and cake but didn't find anything nice there. I think it was a late Saturday afternoon and everything was closed. Eventually we found one cafe but it was more like a pub :D Ohhh if café Kaila had existed already back then.. Next time I'll take him there as well.

Cafe Kaila

One little corner inside the caf'é

The four of us trying to choose cakes

The weather was nice and warm so we decided to go sit outside in the sun. We ordered cappuccinos and two different cakes. My mom and her fiancé shared tiramisu and me and my sis chose chocolate cake with berries. Mmmmm :P

At the terrace

Chocolate-berry cake

Sis

Enjoying the view

Pond and terrace

They also had an ice cream kiosk in the café area and since we only had one piece of cake for the two of us, me and my sis had another round of treats and went to get some vanilla-cookie ice cream :P

Little piggies with their ice cream

The sunny pier

After the coffee break we had to say goodbye to our mom. We hopped into the car and took off to another destination, grand mom's! :)

Kitchen problems - solved?

I've ran into trouble with many things that have got to do with the kitchen. One of the biggest problems is the lack of drawers. I have no place to keep my cutlery and kitchen utilities. I was thinking of getting a bigger cupboard that I would place in the living room, between the kitchen and dining table.

I already have a glass cupboard but it's not suitable for the new apartment. It has to have space for both the kitchen utilities and my fancier glasses. After browsing some websites, I came across with this simple white cupboard that has glass doors and shelves on the upper side and drawers on the lower side where I could hide all the stuff that don't fit into my kitchen.

'Hemnes' cupboard

The 'Hemnes' cupboard comes in many colors but I'm thinking white would be the best match with our apartment. This option is absolutely worth considering ;)

EDIT! Found another alternative. I'm pretty sure this one would be a better match with the other new furniture because it's more simple and modern compared to the one above.

'New York' cupboard

Family business

On Friday we took our dad's convertible and took off to our cottage in Vierumäki. It's a short drive, one to one and a half hours and on a sunny weather like on Friday, it was a blink of an eye and we were there. Mom had prepared a nice dinner for us, and the only thing we had to do was to just sit down on the terrace and enjoy. Not bad, eh? :)

Our cottage

My sis by the terrace

View from the terrace

For starters we had mozzarella-tomato salad with basil, pesto and balsamic and we also had some rye bread that was from some local small bakery. As the main course, mom and her fiancé grilled beef so we had to have a glass of red wine ;)

I was so hungry that I never took picture of the main course :D

Sis <3

It got a bit cold after the sunset so we got back inside and lit candles. We had the dessert in the cottage; all kinds of cheese and biscuits. Could it get any better? Yes it can. Mom had also bought some fine chocolate.

Haha, the next morning I really felt like I need to do some sports after such treats, so I went for a jog in the forest. I've always taken exactly the same route and I thought it's supposed be 45mins in total. When I got back to the cottage after my jog, I noticed that I had only been away for 25mins!! I guess the fitness classes that me and my sis have taken in the summer have done some kind of trick here :D

So after my very short run I had breakfast and we started talking about the day's program. I really love it that on holiday I can do all those things that I keep missing during the week. Sleeping late and going for a jog in the morning - such luxury! My whole family also plays tennis and in Vierumäki there are several tennis courts that are free of charge and usually available without a booking. So we decided to go play tennis, yay :) It's been months since the last time that I played so I thought it might not go too well. But we had a good game going on and it really felt like a proper exercise!

After the games we grilled at the terrace again and got an idea that we could go visit the nearby town Heinola and have coffee there in a recently opened cafe. My mom's already been there and she really wants us to see it :) From Heinola we'll leave to cottage for now and take another destination. More family time ahead :)

From the grill on Saturday

One happy girl

Flow - part 2

On Saturday we had a nice dinner at a local cozy restaurant in Töölö and got to the festival area a lot earlier than the day before. We met up with our friends at the entrance and went to the Black Tent to see Huoratron, a Finnish electro-house artist. We really wanted to hear $$ Troopers but had to leave before he finished because the Black Keys were already warming up at the main stage.

The Black Tent

Huoratron and the audience freaking out

The area was decorated with hundreds of lights and there were all sorts of tents for people to hang out and have some drinks. Me and my sis were supposed to meet some friends at the champagne tent after the Black Keys finished their gig but somehow missed our friends and randomly decided to continue our evening at nightclub Teatteri. Haha, she really is the best, we had such a fun night dancing there :)

Snapshot from the festival area

Decoration

Tents

The Black Keys

The perfect dining table - found!

I've been looking for a round dining table that I would place right in front of the bay window. I've browsed through dozens of websites but there are not that many options that would fit with my criteria. There are a couple of beautiful tables but they all have a horrific price tags, all somewhere in between 1000 and 3000 €.

Now I came across with something that I honestly cannot say no to. This table is also something that doesn't quite fit with the budget but it's gorgeous. Dark glass and and chrome, pure love.

Dining table 'Moon'

I have a set of black chairs with chrome legs so I'm convinced they would go nicely together with the Moon table. Something new might appear in our apartment soon.. ;)

Snapshots from Flow

We arrived at the festival area late in the evening and obviously didn't get to see much. Epic fail. Me and my sis had such a good time at my place that we were completely lost track to the time. Also, we were trying to think of alternative solutions to my not-so-convenient kitchen but it seems to be a tough cookie. It's not that I don't have enough space for what comes to cupboards, but their shape and positioning makes things hard. There are no drawers and I can't think of any other options e.g. on where to put all the cutlery and kitchen utensils. Grrrr! Oh well, we just need to keep brainstorming :)

So after showing up late to the festival area, we only got to see the Swedish Lykke Li. But she was awesome! The festival area itself was also a sight worth seeing and I should have taken more pictures yesterday. I have to do a better job today ;)

Flow at night

Some buzzing