Heart mani for the Valentine's

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I Finland we celebrate Ystävänpäivä and the direct translation is Friend's Day and it's not a huge couples Day here as in other western countries. But here it's also hearts and pink everywhere this time of year.

When I was about 10-15 years, in my small home"town" Kempele we always had huge cardboard hearts hanging from our necks 14.2. and the whole day we'd hug everyone that we saw in the corridors and after the hug we'd write our name or signature to the other person's heart. It didn't matter if you knew the people or not, if you didn't get along with them or not, if they were older or younger students, teachers, janitors...

That was so fun. You had the possibility to hug the cute guys all day also :) And the one you especially liked, maybe "accidentally" twice or more :D

I wish that habit would be in every school in the world, it was always such a spectacular day.

Exciting news!!!

I've had the best beginning of a year ever and couldn't be any happier! Look at my finger!

We got engaged with Tommi 2.1.2013 on an island called Bintan in Indonesia :) In a sunset. It was beautiful and whenever I feel bored or cold or anything, I just think about that moment on the beach and it brings a smile on my face instantly. Here's a picture of that place where it happened.

And today we got our rings from the jewelery shop after carving our names and dates to them and this needs some getting used to :) I normally never wear rings on my fingers so it's a new sensation for me. New and a very welcome sensation, I must say.

Our rings are Finnish design, white gold and fantastic. Mine is basically the most dainty one they suggested as an engagement ring. There were more dainty ones also, but I heard that they're not good if you're planning to wear the ring forever, because then a ring must be strong enough. And wearing this one forever is exactly my plan!

And I warn you: I might use this blog as my wedding plan book from now on, so I'll blog about dresses and shoes and decorations and veils and suits and hairdoscakesinvitationsactivitieshoneymoonsetc.

I have 1,5 years to plan so it's gonna be a long and fun ride, at least for me! But not for the wallet! I gotta be nice to daddy and my hubby-to-be :D

THE wallpaper to be

Today I found out the what's going to be the wallpaper for the living room wall that we're redoing next year: Kiku by Romo. I really hope that it's still possible to get it somewhere. Tomorrow I'll find out how I'll get it. Good luck for me! :)

Cross-Stiching Nerd wishes Happy Christmas

Today I finally finished my huge cross-stiching under-the-christmas-tree-mat! I've been doing it on-off for a couple of years now but about a month ago I decided to finally finish it so that I don't find it under the bookshelf still 5 years from now!

I'm a huge cross-stiching nerd and previously I've made a tower with a very gorgeous floral tribal decoration on the bottom. Sounds gay, but I gave it to my dad as a present and he's kept it in the kitchen for everyone to see since :) And this year he gets a little big bigger thing for Christmas. I hope with a hand-made gift like this he'll forgive me for traveling to Bali and Singapore for the holidays :D

I hope one day I'll get to make a huge pile of presents on this mat too, but this year my family in the north can do that for me.

A lot of times when a friend has called me in the past month and asked me what I was doing, the answer was typically "mummoilen" which means something like "grannying" in English. Doing grandma stuff :) And I'm 25!

But what can I say, grannying makes me happy. And I'd be happy to hear about a new hobby now that I think I'll have a at least 10 year brake from cross-stiching. I need something to do while watching TV. Make I restart making clothes.

Pill Mani

No, I was not taking any pills while doing this manicure, nor was I inspired by pills. What this manicure turned out to remind me, is a colorful pill, hence the name :)

 

First I started with Essies Ole Caliente as base color. Ole Caliente is a beautiful pink coral color, shows way too peachy in the picture compared to the reality actually.

Then I cut  round sticker to half. The stickers I just ordered from Staples while I was ordering other office supplies too. But I'm sure small round stickers can be found everywhere.

Then I covered the lower half of nails with the sticker:

After stickering the nails, I applied Orly's Smolder to the upper half of nails. Smolder is my favourite nailpolish shade for the autumn/winter of 2012 because of it's metallic shine.

After applying  Smolder, I took the stickers away and applied Mavala's Top Coat Fixator and voil'a, the pill manicure is ready :D

Next time when I play with the stickers, I'll try a trio, let's see which three colors there will be.

Or maybe just 2 colors: white and blue for the Finnish Independence Day next thursday :)

Have a great weekend everybody! Kisses!

Little Free Library

What makes me happier than cosmetics, is books. I read constantly and normally I have 2-3 books I'm reading: one in the morning, one in the bus and one when I go to sleep.

I normally buy books second hand and then recycle them again by giving them away. Today I ran into a picture that melted my heart and made me think of one day having a free library too!

Here's some more information about the original Little Free Library.

This idea makes me 100% happy :)

Orly Fired Up -collection

After getting a huge amount of compliments while wearing Orly's Rage nailpolish, I decided I'd try their other metallic polishes too. First I thought of getting the normal sized red called Flicker, but then noticed that there's a mini collection where there's a purple and a gold one too so I thought 'Shut up and take my money':

And there was also one non-metallic one, Rapture, which I wasn't so into, but hey, it can't do no harm to have another dark one. As the winter gets darker and darker, I might just as well follow it with matching nails.

Here are some swatches, in the order of how much I like them:

1. SMOLDER

 2. FLICKER (turned out to look so much more orange than in their official swatch picture of it)

 

3. FLARE 

4. RAPTURE (More like the opposite of rapture if you ask me. Look at the color: muddy and dark brown. Rapture?! Please.)

Overall, I really like the Smolder one, and propably will buy the normal sized bottle some day. I give a happy 10 points for it, but some sad grade for the rest of them in the collection.

This collection is not worth buying if you ask me. Just pick something you really like if you know what you like.