light feet.

my bday last fall was a day of warmth. a beautiful brunch arranged for me, friends and loved ones around, and a night that turned into soft sleep in a hotel suite. waking up to room service. bliss.

my presents were as warm as the day. a trip to soak in the sun to leave my hectic work behind. my favorite scarf. many more.

and a gift card to a store i love, but realized i had never – no, not ever – bought anything from.

sometimes it is quite strange to note that things slide by you but nevertheless leave a marking: i was quite sure i owned items from there. i had stepped in enough times. the stuff resonated to me. even my friends thought it was a place i frequented...

i made it a point to spend my gift wisely. it proved to be a long endeavor, but finally this spring i managed.

there they were: the softest and lightest pair of shoes. to ease the heaviness of my steps.

moccasins by samuji.

thank you my dears.

resourcefulness required.

my habit of picking and building a devotion to daily essentials regardless of their availability in finland has provided friends and family an endless resource for presents and souvenirs from trips abroad.

it was first my habit with mac cosmetics that was eradicated when they opened a counter at stockmann's. now the store i long anticipated opened in kämp: kiehl's.

my habit was formed in 2004, i wrote about it over two years ago (and a few times after that) and there seems to be no end to my fondness of the white label bottles. although cosmetics play a very small part in my life – i am still very low-maintenance, too low at times, i have to admit – i am picky and consistent with my products... as can be seen from the pic of my shower basket below.

thus, it was always easy for friends to pick up a bottle or two from trips in case they were thinking of getting me a bday or xmas present. i also planned my shopping schedule around finding my "chemicals".

to add to the insult of destiny, i switched my daily facial care to malin+goetz in the fall of 2009 when they were recommended by a friend in nyc, and i was recently told that gaudete will be stocking the line very soon.

hence, i am partly happy and somewhat sad to say that these options are gone. the double edged sword here implies that the benefit i personally get from finland hosting a wider variety of goods is a straight deprivation of my close ones abroad.

i guess this means that i will have to start getting creative around holidays again...

love token.

i hardly use my blog as a wish list. i tend not to want many things and when i do, i have a habit of forgetting them unless i succumb to my desire instantly. my way of being is very much in the moment and i tend to harbor fairly few plans for the future which is obvious in my inability to think about, for example, fashion of the coming seasons. hence, creating lists of fleeting wants or needs seems rather futile and artificial.

i live in the now.

sometimes i surprise myself, though. that is, i give into uttering a wish. sometimes i am surprised by loved ones who read my wishes and follow them.

this time i voiced my wish at another location. and it still actualized on our third anniversary.

my token of love.

customizable jewelry from ideapaju.

staple.

for someone who practically lives in jeans and tees – be they morbidly black and artfully deconstructed but still, ultimately, just jeans and tees – there is a need for something simple to dress outfits up. or, to be quite honest, the need is based on my desire for things to be simple and, thus, a need of my own creation.

as most style issues are, i guess.

a sharp jacket is a self-evident solution, but i find most blazers dull and boring even when they have something quirky going on cut or detail-wise. nevertheless, for some reason during these past few years my go-to piece has been a simple, no-fuss, short blazer with short sleeves.

i purchased it on a whim from h&m and i think it was on sale. i have worn the bargain piece everywhere to smarten casual outfits up or to cover something too dressy for the occasion, like a tiia vanhatapio mamie dress. the short length exposes layers underneath and does not overwhelm or over-construct the look; the look is never your basic office coverall but the jacket provides a frame for the shoulders and bust.

the only problem with my chosen one being the short sleeves has kept me looking for a long-sleeve alternative. i have tried on numerous garments and always found them lacking in some respect: no buttons in front, no collar or the wrong collar, too loose in the back or in the sleeves... you can imagine.

finally for xmas, my sweetie solved the issue and got me a beautiful black alexander wang blazer with super long sleeves and the perfect cut above the midriff. i have worn it everywhere ever since and it has definitely proven to fill a gap i had in my wardrobe.

soon i'll probably have some shots of me wearing it, too. i just seem to avoid the camera these days...

have you got an unlikely staple in your wardrobe?

the sweet season.

these few nights before xmas we spent inside, sipping hot mulled wine and preparing tasty little presents.

my sweetie cooked the special mustard with whiskey with my dad in mind.

fresh in jars.

tagged and ready to go.

i melted chocolate and formed little balls of sweetness in various flavors.

truffles in four flavors: malibu-coconut, cognac, peppermint and vanilla-white chocolate-almond.

little jars of sweetness.

we left the entire apartment smelling of the most fragrant season, and i hope there's some traces of it left when we return in a few days.

i hope you all have a lovely holiday!

forbidden fruit.

i actually bursted out laughing when i saw these.

disclaimer: my blog did not turn into a virtual cutting board showcase, it is merely by chance that clever wooden chopping slabs appear in my posts two days in a row...

carved out of apple tree (buahaha!) to the shape of a macbook, complete with the groove and the lip just like on yer beloved closed laptop, a half-etch of the apple logo on top – surely to avoid legal consequences – and – whopee! – comes in all three sizes, this is the perfect gift for an appletheist.

oh, yes it is.



available from designspray.

santa does not live in the north pole.

i am notoriously difficult to buy presents to – or that's what i am told. it's not that i am ungrateful or throw tantrums, but the truth is that i am picky, to begin with, and it applies to everything as you might have noted. combine selectivity and a careful eye for details with a desire to own only things i love, and you've got a combo ready for gift disaster. it does not help that my sense of detail is not always predictable and what i may have loved last week may not be true the next.

nevertheless, i am sentimental and sensitive and could never whine about getting a present or pass it on or throw it out. i feel terrible for not being able to fully appreciate something i got, especially if it was selected with obvious care and thought. i adore that someone troubled themself to give me something – it makes me feel special. in the end presents for me come down to always pleasing me, but rarely nailing it.

my own reservations also create enormous difficulties when i'm buying presents for other people. i find it immensely hard and stressful.

therefore, i was pleasantly flabbergasted when on saturday i received a gift bag with something in it i instantly loved: a beanie with a clever detail that is just subtle enough to make a statement without being presumptuous. it seems that carefully reading my blog my likings can be determined to a tee. and it seems i wasn't the only one...

beanie by lustwear, longsleeve tee by cos, glasses by chanel.

i, hence, nominate team stella/hanna/anna-maria as my personal santa – thank you sweeties! the beanie has not left my head after i finally opened my lustwear gift on sunday.

love it. thank you.

digg sigg.

carrying a bottle of water with you was a fad some years back even in finland. i remember worrying over the amount of needless waste in a country where the water supply is not only clean but abundant and available and distances between places are short and the weather hardly overwhelmingly hot. people sipping from plastic bottles made me uncomfortable especially because they seemed to do it out of habit rather than need.

disclaimer: not saying that i knew whether they actually did need their water or that there weren't or aren't worse habits than drinking water. just to make that clear.

obviously there are times when a bottle of water is essential, such as sports and hiking and other such activities. my friends in nyc have raved about their sigg bottles for some years now, and although i see their relevance in a city that is hot like an inferno during summer and where you might be stuck in the subway for hours during rush hour, i never considered getting one myself. i just thought they were a little too outdoorsy to my taste.

the aluminum bottle is molded out of a single piece and has the benefit of holding the fresh taste of water considerably better than plastic – i'm sure you all know the foul taste that forms quite soon in a plastic bottle. aluminum is lightweight and durable – siggs have been deemed the toughest water bottles around. moreover, the bottles are 100% recyclable.

the brand has promoted different causes and designers in the past years and new temporary models and designs appear yearly. they have become collectable quite paradoxically for a product that's supposed to overcome the need for several items performing the same task, and have been made part of moma's permanent collection. you can even design your own at siggskins.

there are two reasons i am particularly excited about sigg right now. first, one of their most recent collaborations happens to be with finlandia vodka who are launching a charity water bottle with designs from klaus haapaniemi. quite exquisite and what great promotion of a finnish talent and brand, right?



the finlandia charity bottles will be available on 3 may 2010 from here (the site is still inactive but should be up by that date).

secondly, i wanted one of those until a couple of weeks ago when i was offered a bottle that came accompanied with the magical combo of words "vivienne" and "westwood". as it turns out, i impressed a representative of the bottles with my dj'ing and he wanted to give me one of the limited edition bottles. they will be distributed backstage at westwood shows to promote awareness of more ecological ways to consume water and sold in limited numbers at westwood stores and online. now i've got my own with distinctive westwood slogans.

in case you thought blogging was a productive method to get tons of freebies, i beg to differ to the extent that i am constantly amazed how gracious and generous people are when stumbled upon randomly irl.

thus, although i adore the haapaniemi prints, i lucked out in getting my political fashionista version of the product. picnic time, i'm ready!

do you carry a water bottle with you? what kind?

my precious.

this xmas santa treated me rather negligently – maybe i've been bad or just reckless with mailing my wishlist, dunno really. nevertheless, my little critter, jorma-irmeli, got plenty of gifts and helped rip open every single present under the tree.

her favorites were obviosly cookies from all fur dogz where we sometimes stop for coffee and biscuits, but the perma-frozen pup simply adores her jumpsuit from limbo so much that i got her two new ones: the stripey one here and a brown'n'white polkadot version for her 11th bday. yup, the pup is a senior citizen already! both are very 70's marimekko and make me giggle every time she passes me by.

did you remember your furry friends during xmas?

chococouture.

first of all, with a name like choccywoccydoodah you cannot go wrong. secondly, when the couturiers of chocolate are revealed behind that name, expect nothing but greatness. they make cutesy little animal figurines, but the really impressive stuff are the sculptures and chocolate flowers they produce.

available in brighton and at liberty of london.

beanie.

the arrival of cold weather never ceases to surprise me. i don't like below freezing temperatures nor do i really feel fondly about snow, and every year i whine constantly about winter and how terrible it is outside. therefore, i prefer the indoors, warm drinks (like yogi ginger tea), good books or movies of which i've consumed aplenty these past days (more about the films i saw later, i promise).

if and when i do need to venture outdoors, i'm proud to announce the arrival of my new beanie: my sweetheart made it for me by hand, it's black wool and there's a pompom! tested already, i am happy to say it does keep my knuckleish head warm.