Challenge

I was challenged by a friend to share 10 facts about myself, answer her 10 questions and come up with 10 new questions to challenge others.

So first, the 10 facts about myself:

1. When I’m picking a movie to watch, I usually always want to watch a horror movie. The ones with efffd up people are the scariest, but other wackos like the walking dead and inbred mutants do the trick for me as well. Once the movie starts, though, I always whine that it was a really, really bad choice to get a horror movie and suddenly a comedy would seem like a waaay better option :D

2. When I’m eating rye bread and no one’s around, I tend to put butter on both sides of the bread :D lol!!

3. I didn’t have a TV in 4,5 years after moving on my own, and even though I have one now (and am totally hooked on a finnish soap opera Salatut Elämät), I’m sure I could easily cope without.

4. I am totally incapable of playing soccer. It’s like I have two left feet or something.

5. I can’t go anywhere without music. I always have an iPod or my phone with the Spotify app with me so that I can listen to my favorite tracks anywhere I go.

6. Continued from the previous fact. I see myself as some sort of a music freak. I think of Spotify as a part of my ”online profile” (in addition to the things that I share and publish in fb etc) and I am very specific about the playlists that I publish. Also, every single track on my lists is chosen carefully and I might listen to dozens of new songs before adding anything on my playlists.

7. I love red wine and I always order it when I’m eating out – no matter whether the main course is seafood or meat.

Dinner with a friend

8. I guess this is no surprise to anyone who knows me but I’ve been a HIM fan ever since I can remember.

9. I am planning to go hiking in Lapland to see the beauty of fall colors in their full glory again.

10. As a child I was always trying to find new ways to set up a ”business” of my own, but got fed up with my ideas quickly. It all began with apple chips that my grandpa used to make. I wanted to commercialize his great idea so I put the chips in self-made colorful bags and went to sell them at a market. My goal was to earn money so that I could buy a waffle iron and start selling waffles :) At that time in the 90’s, nobody was interested in apple chips and of course, I got bored soon and started to sell a cartoon magazine instead. But hell, they actually sell apple chips in stores now!! :)) I guess the world just wasn't ready back in the days..

Then to Coco’s questions :)

1. If you didn’t study the subject that you do at the moment, what would you study?

In addition to this so called business sense of mine (lol), my childhood dream was to become a reporter and even in high school I was still wondering whether to follow that career path or not. I was thinking of either studying marketing at Aalto University School of Business or communications at the University of Helsinki. After long talks with friends and family, I realized that it’s marketing that really is my calling. Marketing communications, to be more specific J

So if I now was forced to choose differently, it would be communications, no doubt aboutit. I’m sure it would have been a good option for me too, and I probably could have combined the two interests in the future anyway :)

2. What’s your strength?

Hmmh, this is a bit of a delicate issue, because I’m revealing my ”skills” right here and right now. I love to write and that’s what I think I’m good at. This blog, however, is merely a hobby and I don’t consider these posts as good evidence of what Ican do. This blabbering about shoes, sports and whatever nonsense is just for fun and keeping in touch with L :) It’s all very casual and shallow, plus, I’m not writing in my native language. In Finnish, expressing myself in writing would be on a whole other level.

3. How would you like to develop your skills?

This one isalso gonna be related with writing. I think my grammar is on a pretty good level when writing in my native language, but I would like to improve my skills both in Finnish and in English. It’s an ongoing process :) Let’s just say that punctuation in both and the (excessive) use of the definite article in English need some fine-tuning :)

4. What’s the best music for working out?

This really depends on what I’m doing. If it’s jogging, I usually listen to some kind of instrumental dance music, old and new. I did a lot of jogging last spring in Ireland, and listened non-stop to Levels by Avicii and many tracks by Armin van Buuren. For a gym workout, it has to be something rough, preferably hard rock or even metal. Lately I’ve been listening to Bullet for My Valentine and Prodigy a lot. Oh! One exception though - for some reason, I’ve also been listening to old Finnish electronic dance music by Waldo's People at the gym too (??) :D Ohh the 90's... Cross-country skiing is something that I do completely without music and just enjoy the nature, but for downhill skiing I always have music with me.

At the gym with mom :)

5. If you started a new sports hobby, what would you choose?

Lately I’vebeen crazy about Body Combat classes – that kind of workout just makes me feel so energetic and full of power! :D I know that there are many things I could improve in my technique and I’ve been thinking of participating those combat mentoring sessions that they provide us at my fitness center. Since I already have this spark for the sport, I could imagine myself starting with Thai boxing, kickboxing or some other martial art.

6. What kind of an advice would you give to the 17-year-old yourself?

I wouldn’t change anything that’s happened so I’d just say trust your instinct but have the courage to take chances.

7. Have youset some sports-related goals that you wish to achieve?

I think I’mpretty much the same as the majority of women – I’d always like to be more fit and a little thinner :D This is also an ongoing project in my life. I do sports 3-5 times a week and try to keep a balance between aerobic and weight training exercise. I go to fitness classes and to the gym, ski, jog and occasionally also play tennis and badminton. One specific target that I have is to get those ”abs” back that I’ve had :D

8. Is there any sports equipment you could not cope without?

I’m not exactly the type who’s obsessed about sports gear. I don’t even have a proper drinking bottle, I just grab whatever bottle’s at hand (coke, spring water) when I hit the gym. Also, my favorite top for working out is and old piece that I have borrowed (stolen) from my sis a long time ago :D Some day I will buy a nice sports bag made of genuine leather. It has to look classy enough so that I can take it with me whatever I’m wearing, but be big enough so that I can easily make everything fit in. That kind of a bag would be so practical that I bet I couldn’t cope without after acquiring one.

9. Why do you blog?

The reason is already written in the side bar of my blog: ”I met one of my best friends in 2009 during my exchange in Mannheim, Germany. We keep in touch as much as we can, but decided to set up blogs in order to better share the silly little things that we have in common”. So that’s how it got started, but I guess today there are other people reading my posts more actively. I’ve been thinking about starting a new blog that I’d write in Finnish, but so far the idea hasn’t lead to any action. Since this blog doesn’t really have a specific theme, I have a hard time thinking that I could come up with something smart to blog about in Finnish either :D

L. <3

10. Could you quit drinking coffee?

I’m such a coffeeholic that it would literally be a pain to quit on coffee. If I don’t get my daily dosis of caffeine, I tend to get a headache, just like my grandmom does. This addiction runs in the family :D But of course, if I was told that drinking coffee would be bad for my health, I would quit right away.

Here are the 10 questions that I came up with and I challenge Laura and L.

1. What music are you obsessed about at the moment?

2. Where do you see yourself in 5 years from now?

3. What new language would you like to learn?

4. What’s your biggest dream at the moment?

5. How do you like your eggs? (lol)

6. You just won the first prize in a competition organized by a large traveling agency. You get to take your best friend with you and travel to whatever destination you wish. Where would you go and why? How would your friend’s preferences affect the choice of the destination?

7. What would you cook for a dream date?

8. What’s your relationship like with chocolate?

9. Light or dark shades in nail polish? Why?

10. Let’s say you’re going out with your friends next weekend. What kind of an outfit would you put together?

So girls, give me 10 facts about yourselves, answer my question and come up with 10 new ones to challenge others. 

Good luck with the new questions! I had a hard time thinking of what to ask (eggs...) :D

Walking on ice

What a nice ending for the week. First, me and my friend went for brunch at Karl Fazer Cafe in Kluuvi. What they served there was ok, but nothing special compared to other places that I've been to - except for the pan cakes :P Yummy! Tried them with chocolate sauce and strawberry jam & whipped cream, but to my surprise, the latter won. No question about it. Anyway, my company couldn't have been better and there was quite a lot of giggling coming from our table the entire time.. :D

After brunch it was time for family business. Me, my dad and sis plus their better halves went for a walk on ice right at the coastline near to my place. Even though it was cold as hell, the walk was nice and refreshing. I'm not joking!! Finally some fresh air and SUN, which has been hiding for quite some time now. The weather was strange though - there were tiniest snow flakes floating in the air, making it seem foggy by the sea. We also had some hot chocolate with us to keep us warm :P

Getting on ice

Dad wearing some bright orange :))

Sis & her better half

Hot chocolate and a bun :P

"Paddle buddies" - not even nearly as fun as the name is in Finnish.. :D

Foggy Lauttasaari

On our way back

My new plastic bag

I've always hated sales. Everything's always messy in the stores I visit and the crowds of people fighting over same items simply make it impossible to find anything. Even if I've managed to spot something nice in the sale chaos, they don't have it in my size. Ever. But to my surprise, I did come across with an interesting piece of clothing the other day. The blouse was on 70% discount and they even had it in my size so I had to go try it on.

I've actually never seen a material like this in clothing. The blouse really looks like it's made of thin, shimmery plastic, but it doesn't feel like plastic at all when I have it on. I have no clue what this material is but I like its shiny look. So when I was there in the dressing room, trying the blouse on, I started to like it more and more. I had these cool ideas how I could pair it with my other clothes, so I had to give up and admit myself that gems can be found in sales too.

Sisley

Another item that I just had to take home with me is this simple black skirt. Pretty much all the skirts that I've had were all worn out and I had to get rid of them already last summer. So my wardrobe had been missing this cornerstone for long. It's not a pencil skirt, but slightly shorter, and looks nice with thicker black tights. I've been thinking of combining the two this weekend for my cousin's house warming party, but I have to try the outfit on before making any decisions :))

Companie's

Would you wear a blouse that looks like a plastic bag? ;)

Newbies in action

So like I thought, the new top and necklace became key pieces of my outfit for a friend's bday party today :) Newbies immediately in action!

My friend has recently become a sports freak so I thought I'd get some gear for her as a present. Like always, I was in a hurry and had to get creative with the gift package. I had bought a gift bag but didn't have anything suitable at home for the bday card, so I used scissors, tape and a pink page from some brochure - voila! ;)

New pieces

Yesterday I randomly hit some shops and came accross with a perfect top that I can pair with so many different outfits. At the same time the top is very simple and plain, yet catches the eye with the busy black&white pattern in the fabric. Me likey. For more formal occasions, I'd pair it with black pants and blazer, but I can also see myself wearing the peplum top just like that for going out. With leather pants or a pencil skirt and high heels, of course ;)

H&M

Another item that caught my eye was the silvery necklace that soon found it's way into my shopping bag as well ;) I think the two newbies are a good match and I'm planning to wear them at a friend's birthday party this Saturday :)

H&M

Cross-country skiing

Today I woke up early, packed my stuff and headed to my mom's place. We had planned to go skiing, but before that we made some coffee and had breakfast together :)

I haven't skied in a long time and it's a tough sport so I was a bit afraid that I wouldn't be able to ski like I used to. But to my surprise it went well! I had a pretty good pace and the 12 kilometers felt like a piece of cake. Ok ok, we had a coffee break there in between, but still ;)

The next time our route will be longer and I hope I can keep up with (beat ;) ) the others. So let's see what happes on Saturday morning..

Favorite black & whites S/S 2013

The forthcoming chilly months will continue to determine the way we're supposed to dress ourselves for quite a bit still - the freezing temperatures guarantee that the streets will be filled with Michelin men look-alikes. I'm enjoying myself, of course, but it's still fascinating to take a sneak peek on the trends for S/S 2013 and see what I could replace the thick coats and warm winter boots with.

Two Yetis in the snowstorm <3

Out of the many cool looks and ideas, my favorites are the classy combinations of black&white. I'm no fan of graphic prints or colorful patterns that also play an important role on the catwalks, but stripes I can take, as well as checkered patterns. I gathered some of my favs here:

Balmain

Balmain - the pants!!

Alexander Wang

Oscar de la Renta

Dolce & Gabbana

Pictures: http://www.vogue.co.uk

What do you think? What are your favourites for the spring? :)