A year on...

I'm moving to central Oxford next weekend (goodbye commute).

I'm two weeks into a new job (hello a lot of travel).

I've become one of those people who checks their work email on weekends.

I'm flying to Finland for a friend's hen do/wedding three days after.

Nick is going back to Cyprus for a month at the end of July.

If Brexit happens, I might lose my job and everything will literally go to shit.

The last month has been a whirlwind of emotions and this week, Facebook reminded me that I graduated exactly a year ago. Things seem to be settling into where I want them to, minus the whole Brexit debate, and it's making me feel calmer, happier and more energised. I've gone from being bored, annoyed and wanting to hand in my notice to being busy, and both excited and nervous about my job. My boyfriend has noticed a massive difference in my moods (I am no longer grumpy as hell when I come home). I imagine this will get even better after next weekend when I can say goodbye Witney and hello to Oxford, and a 10 minute walk to work. When I'm in Oxford that is, since my new job involves a lot of travelling around, and I'll only be working in Oxford 1-2 days a week. But that will still cut 2 hours away in total from my daily commute and it will mean I don't need to survive with 5 hours of sleep if I want to go dancing mid-week and stay until the end.

My new job is still at Waterstones, but instead of being a shop based bookseller, I've taken up a head office role as part of the shop operations team. That won't say much to anyone, but it involves me ensuring that the 11(!) shops that I've been assigned to do all of the operational things right. Most people would probably think it's incredibly dull, but I love it. I was working in operational role as a bookseller as it was, but now I get to go around and make sure everyone else is doing a good job as well. In the nicest possible way, of course. It's slightly scary, because everyone else doing the same job that I have met has almost a decade of experience within the company and has been a shop manager, whereas I haven't even been in the company for a year. But as I keep telling myself, I got the job, not the other people who applied, which means they think I am capable, and better suited for the role. There is a lot to learn and take in, which is why the past two weeks have flown by quicker than I can quite fathom. I'm starting to feel more confident now though, and I'm excited for what the full 12 months of my secondment will bring.

I'm trying to get back into blogging, but I'm finding it very hard to decide on how I want to do it. I don't have problem with creating text-based content, but photos are proving tricky. Photography was a big part of why I started blogging in the first place, so I don't want to do away with it. I don't want to carry my big DLSR with me everywhere, but at the same time I'm not happy with just using my iPhone 5S for photos.

Ch-ch-changes

It's been clear to me for a while now that the way I was blogging during Uni just isn't working anymore, even less so during winter when there's no natural light. I started feeling silly pressure about having to wear nice clothes and take photos every day I had off (when in reality I'd just be chilling in leggings and a jumper, having a Great British Bake Off marathon), and it made me quite unhappy, both with any photos that I rarely managed to take and myself. 

This led me to do some thinking, and I decided that I wanted to have a little shift in the focus of my blog — because I do to continue with the blog. I will still talk about pretty clothes and post outfit photos when I have time and energy, but I'm going to be talking more about the other big interest in my life - books! I've been reading a lot lately, and due to my job in a bookshop, I get my hands on a lot of books and get excited about new releases. I've done a book haul before, so I feel like this is not a radical change — just an expansion of one side of this blog, which is basically all about my big interests. So expect some more book hauls, little book reviews and possibly other book related content in the future.

I hope that taking the pressure of myself, and stopping worrying about what I 'should' or 'should not' be posting about, will also make me more inspired about creating fashion content for my blog. Perhaps not many outfit posts until the days lengthen and the weather improves (because taking photos in pouring rain and howling wind is not on my to-do list), but certainly some wishlists and general inspiration posts. That is after all why I started this blog in the first place.

Still Alive!

I had great intentions for today, which included ambitions about writing up two(!) blog posts to accompany the images I've had waiting for about a month. Sadly, I woke up at 2.41am last night and spent the following hours in agony, lying on our bathroom floor with a blanket and a pillow. In other words, not feeling creative at all right now.

Though I'm slightly more recovered now, I'm left utterly exhausted. What a time to be ill! It's the busiest week of the season at work for me as well, so I'm slightly dreading both the possibility of going to work (a single temp left alone to deal with the workload that requires two staff members running at full-speed all day can definitely lead to a disaster) and the possibility that I might not be able to go tomorrow either (because I know I am needed and will have to deal with the backlog when I get back).

Our first Christmas tree, which we decorated last night!

I'm going to be spending the rest of the evening wrapped in a blanket, wrapping up the remaining Christmas gifts for my UK friends and extended family (Finland bunch has now been sent off!). I'm quite sad about not being able to go home for Christmas, as working in retail means I can have very minimal time off during this period. However, I'm loving the opportunity to do all the pre-Christmas things like tree decorating, gift shopping and wrapping, baking and planning with Nick at our first home together. We've also booked tickets to go to Finland at the end of January, so I'll hopefully get to enjoy all the wintery things I love from home, in addition to seeing my friends and family there.

Snowy Finland from last year

There's some exciting content coming up, when I have the energy and time to create it — watch this space! I'm determined to document the creation of my gingerbread house this year, among other things.

What Happened to August

It's been a month since my last post, and while I don't want to apologise, I figured I should write a word or two before my followers think I've abandoned this corner of the internet forever (spoiler: I haven't).

Since my past post, I've turned 24(!), been offered a new full-time position at Waterstones and visited Finland with my boyfriend to see family and friends, with a little cruise to Stockholm (from Helsinki) to finish off the trip. Halfway through our visit to Finland, however, I started suffering from muscle pain around my neck/right shoulder. This has since gone from bad to worse, and is currently absolutely excruciating to the point where I can't actually function without heavy painkillers. I wake up at night because my painkillers stop working and I'm dizzy most of the time. Most recently, today, I also started crying in the middle of Sainsbury's because the pain was too much to bear, despite the painkillers I'd taken less than an hour ago. I had to take my jacket off because it's weight was too much, and I had hard time lifting my arm up. Before you ask whether I've seen a doctor — I have. They told me to take Ibuprofen regularly and consider finding a chiropractor.

A nice sob story, I'm sure you'll agree. But how does this affect my blogging? The honest answer is that I just don't have the energy to take photos and organise the flat when I'm in so much pain. Writing content is mostly fine, but I know that blog posts without photos are a little dull (which is why this post also has a random blurry photo of my face from an outfit shoot I wasn't happy with). Especially considering the topics I tend to write about.

Finally, thank you all who have stuck around through the silence. I hope to be back blogging regularly soon. Until then, I'll be here with my painkillers, planning all the posts I'd like to be doing.

Life, Lately

It's been two weeks since my last post, despite my best attempts. I keep opening Blogger and attempting to put together a post, but I feel like I have nothing new to say. Real life is still taking up all my time and resources, and I simply have not had time to pop out for outfit photos or to compile other kinds of posts. 

Since my last post, Nick and I have moved into our first home(!). Most of the flat is now sorted, but our second bedroom is still a storage area, which is something I intend to work on this weekend — especially since I was given a day off work today because I said I'd been too busy to finish setting up our flat! Another reason for wanting to get the room sorted is the fact that we got a wardrobe for the second bedroom on Thursday evening. The said wardrobe is currently placed in front of our second bookcase in the living room, while also obscuring all the natural light hitting the kitchen table. Basically, very awkward and annoying.

Books by Kaboompics_com. CCo Public Domain via Pixabay.

The moving-in is not the only big thing to have happened since my last post. I have also started a job, quit a job and started another job. Yes, I admit (though it pains me) that I quit after one week in a job. I was offered a position at Waterstones, and as it fitted into my plans of going into publishing much better, was at a much better location commuting-wise and generally suited me better in every single way, I took it. I started yesterday, and I could immediately tell that I'd made the right decision. I suddenly don't have a compulsion to search for publishing jobs every spare minute I have. I haven't given up, but I feel like I can wait for a little while and still enjoy work.

The point of this post was to say that I'm still alive and not abandoning the blog. I feel that I'll be able to concentrate on my blog better after the flat is put together and every room is a usable space, which will hopefully happen by the end of today. Creating a comfortable living space is the priority, as at the moment the clutter and mess of boxes is just making me anxious.

I am a graduate!

Where have the last two weeks gone? I know I say this a lot but I swear time has never passed so quickly! So, what happened?

First, my boyfriend and I spent a blissful week doing pretty much nothing expect enjoying the sun, walking his parents' dogs and figuring out things for our imminent move (less than 2 weeks now...!). We also went to Cotswolds Wildlife Park, so stay tuned for cute animals and probably less cute outfit photos.

The second week went in a blur because bright and early on Monday morning (I mean like pre-6am) we hopped on the car and drove up to Aberdeen for my graduation, which was happening on Tuesday. That's an 8 hour drive folks. Without traffic.

My family also came for my graduation, which was lovely. But as I'm sure you guys will know, sometimes seeing your family can be really stressful. And with a language barrier, six lost suitcases, a seven person group, a memory loss-prone grandma and two pre-teen kids, it was even more so. It was certainly eventful — almost comical! The suitcases arrived after my ceremony (cue half the family missing my ceremony and everyone wearing yesterday's clothes), my boyfriend left my camera and his two lenses in the taxi on the way to my graduation (we got them back the next day), there was a fire alarm (my grandma was in the bath and my sister were in pyjamas), and my family left one of the suitcases at the airport on the way back (I hope the airport security didn't have to blow it up). All this in the span of 5 days.

Amidst all the excitement and stress, I never actually got any photos of my outfit underneath the silly (but sort of cool) gown, hood and hat combo. A pity, since I hardly ever have an excuse to dress up for an occasion. We were only allowed to wear black or white, and since I didn't want to wear all-white, finding a suitable dress was quite a challenge. In the end I did find a very pretty Little Mistress number from House of Fraser (on sale no less!), which you can see glimpses of above. For my shoes I chose Polly by Minna Parikka, gorgeous white heels with gold-detailed wings on the sides, which I also wore to my high school graduation 5 years ago. I'm terrified to wear them because they are white. Silly of course, as there is really no point in paying 275€ for a pair of shoes that you only wear once every two years.

Some decorations from the marquee where we had the graduation lunch after the ceremony

We stayed in Aberdeen with my family until Friday morning, when we yet again took off pre-6am. But this time it took us about 10 hours to get back, which was obviously great. When we finally got back, we mostly just rested until Sunday... when we went for a 7 mile walk across the Cotswolds! As a city girl, I should have trusted my instincts and worn wellies and long trousers to shield myself from the cruel nature. Instead, I wore trainers and short running leggings. There were a lot of nettles. You do the math.

So, that's pretty much it. Now I am an officially unemployed (and panicking) graduate. Wish me luck (or employ me)!

Personal: Hello England

It's been just over two weeks since I said goodbye to Aberdeen, loaded a frankly ridiculous amount of boxes in the back of a moving van and hopped on a 9 hour train to Oxford, England.

Since then, I've been staying at my boyfriend's parents' house near Oxford and commuting to Oxford for my work experience. I've also been flat hunting (which proved a success!). The two weeks have gone by unbelievably quickly, and to be frank, it's also been exhausting. This past weekend I made a little trip to London to visit a friend (and raid the Oxford St Lush store, shhhh) and now I finally feel a little more relaxed and like I can sit down and write. I haven't actually even opened my laptop on multiple days, and if I have, it's usually to use Google Maps for journey planning. This is unheard of for me, who usually spends about 5 hours a day staring at their laptop screen. But yeah, it's been that busy.

Hopefully it'll be less busy from now on and I will be able to take some photos for posts (surprisingly difficult when you're living out of a single suitcase and generally home after 7pm). I've got another week of work experience left, after which my boyfriend will be back in the UK. Then I'll start looking for a full-time job, go back to Aberdeen to graduate on the 15th of June and on 6th of July we will move into our flat!

Regarding the flat... Despite my previous plans to find us a place within a cycling distance of the Oxford city centre, we ended up deciding to rent in the same town that Nick grew up in. It's half an hour from Oxford, so not very far away, but still not quite what I planned. But we decided that being able to have 2 bedrooms in a lovely modern flat right in the centre, a couple of minutes away from the bus stop, for the same price as a grotty 1 bed in Botley, was a pretty good deal. Even if means living 20 minute walk away from his parents and grandparents – something which I definitely did not plan. And no, I don't dislike them — at all. I like them, and I'm very grateful for their support so far and in the next few weeks while we wait for our flat to become available. But I'm 3.5 hours away from my family by plane and have never been closer than 30 minutes drive to any family member previously, so it feels a little too close. And not living in a city is not something I ever wanted either.

Anyway. Expect some homeware hauls, wishlists and probably a little tour in late July/August when we've settled in and I've had the chance to decorate a little bit. And hopefully outfit posts soon.

Outfit: Back in Your Own Backyard

Oh you can go to the East go to the West,
But someday you'll come weary at heart back where you started from,
You'll find your happiness lies, right under your eyes,
Back In Your Own Backyard

Billie Holiday - Back in Your Own Backyard

Top: H&M | Necklace: Topshop | Jeans: New Look Petite | Shoes: Dorothy Perkins

I never thought I'd buy anything with peplums but here we go (and this is my second peplum top)! I spotted this rainbow-dotted piece from H&M sales a few weeks back for mere £5 and decided that I absolutely needed it. I've since seen a pair of trousers in the same print and been tempted to try them on every time I walk past them in the shop — but I'm afraid that I might end up buying them if I do haha.

I only have 2 weeks left in Aberdeen before I move to Oxfordshire. I have no flat and no proper job waiting, so it's quite scary. I will, however, be starting on 3 week work experience placement at Oxford University Press and I'll be staying at my boyfriend's parents' house until I find us a flat, so it's not too bad.

Before that, however, I have a presentation, an essay and a lot of packing to do (already started on that!). I'm trying to clear out my wardrobe a little bit, so if you're interested in having a peek, you can find me on Vinted (swingmeout) and Depop (@swingmeout)! I'll be posting a few more bits in the next couple of days.

There are no words to express how excited I am to finally be living in the same country with my boyfriend again, and even living together this time! It's been nearly two years since he got posted abroad and I must say, it's been tough at times. It feels almost unreal that we have finally got to this point.

Freedom (and Other New Things)

I feel like a fairy tale expert now (this is about a quarter of my books)

It's been over a month since my last update and a lot has happened since then, so I thought I'd write a little catch-up post before returning to my usual content.

Terrified graduate-to-be handing in their dissertation after much drama

The reason for my lack of blogging has been my dissertation, which I handed in yesterday. The final month was very hard, as not only did I get sick twice (currently still in recovery), but we also had our annual 3-day swing dance workshop and the University's dance society's annual dance showcase, which both took place in mid/late March. During the final two weeks before the show, I was spending about 10 hours a week at dance rehearsals. Amazing, but exhausting. And probably not great when you have a dissertation to write! I was determined not to miss the showcase, however, as this year was my fourth and final year participating. It felt very special, especially since I was co-choreographing our swing dance performance! I was so proud of our little troupe!

Today is the first day of Easter holidays, which means glorious 3 weeks with no University or deadlines (besides a few job applications). I'm still working, but my hours are so small that it hardly counts. I'm jetting off to Cyprus next Friday to see my boyfriend for the first time in over 3 months and to celebrate our missed anniversary (3 years!) and his birthday. I must admit, a trip to warmer climate sounds absolutely heavenly in itself too. Aberdeen has been absolutely dreadful. +6 degrees, and on 1st of April I got caught in snowstorm on the way home from work (wearing ballet flat, cropped trousers and a blazer, as it had been sunny all day until that point). The sky is obscured by grey clouds on nearly daily basis, I can't remember a day when it hasn't rained, and often I can't tell the difference between 8am and 3pm.

My plans for the coming weeks include (besides boring things like internship and graduate job applications) lots of crafts (maybe finally learning to crochet?) and relaxing. I'm looking forward to having time to spend blogging as well, I've jotted down so many blog post ideas over the last month! Anyone else get all the ideas when they have no time to execute them? Cyprus should also be great for outfit photos, because a) boyfriend (camera man), b) sun (nice clothes) and c) pretty sights (nice backdrops, unlike the stonewall at the backgarden)!

A little announcement to finish: I am moving to Oxford(shire) on the 9th of May! I'll be doing a work experience placement with Oxford University Press and househunting for a flat for my boyfriend (who'll be moving back to the UK at the end of May) and I. I am beyond excited and can't wait to start this new chapter of my life. I have one essay due after the holidays so I'm moving out straight away after it's done, and then I only need to come back to Aberdeen for graduation in mid-June. Hurrah!

Goals for 2015

I was sitting in my room, listening to the last chapters of Catch-22 (which I've tried to finish for about two years) and I suddenly decided, after reading all the looking-back and goals-for-new-year posts over the last couple of days, that I wanted to list some goals for 2015.

I'm a list person, and I find it easier to keep up with things if I share them or track them. I like updating my Ravelry and Goodreads accounts, both so that I can look back to what I've made and read over the previous year and in order to motivate myself to do those things. Lists are a similar thing, even more so when I make them public — it's like a declaration, giving me motivation when it's hard to find. I hope I can look back at this at the end of 2015 and say that I've achieved what I wanted.

GOALS FOR 2015

Be braver with my clothing choices
If I like it, I should just wear it. I never used to have a problem with not blending into the masses — why am I so nervous about standing out now? I feel like I've got stuck in my striped tops, skinny jeans and skater skirts. I need to branch out. Also, prints.

Improve my photography 
Or in other words, learn to take photos of yourself. I did a lot of photography when I was younger but self-portraits were never in my repertoire. I'm fairly happy with other things — though I might invest in some lights and something to use as a background, because my cave of a room just isn't cutting it.

Be more productive
This is not just for my blog. My last semester of Uni is starting and I want to make sure that I finish it off with results I can be proud of. End of Uni also means beginning of a new chapter in my life — a job (hopefully)! I've made some great connections in the field I want to work in and I want to continue building on those and improving my chances of securing a graduate job.

Be more active
Like everyone else, I spend too much time staring at my laptop and phone screens. Paired with my studies, which consist of hours spent reading (usually hunched over), I spend far too much time sitting down. I need to get back to exercise (even if the gym is so far away now). I want to take more walks, to dance more and just do more things in general (not restricted to exercise). Particularly while I still have my student discount to use (Scottish Ballet tickets for £11!).

It's ten minutes past midnight now (in Finland), so happy new year! I hope 2015 proves at least as good or even better than 2014 for all of you!

Do you have any New Years resolutions or goals?

More musings about not blogging

12 days again, dear me.

I have no excuse other than that if I have nothing to blog about, I don't blog. I didn't want to post gift guides, gift ideas or wishlists — I'm all shopped out and the idea of browsing more online shops made me shudder. I've been frantically knitting Christmas presents, buying Christmas presents, wrapping Christmas presents and doing things in aid of one day securing myself a Career in my Chosen Field. I also flew to Finland a few days ago and after a grueling 10 hours of travelling, I slumped into my 7 year-old sister's bed (she took the sofa bed in my other sister's room so that I could have a room to myself — which is nice even if it means sleeping on her miniscule bed) and haven't done much since, apart from More Christmas Presents and going to a friend's graduation party.

I'm tired. Again, and already. The only positive things I can scrape up to my mind at the moment are snow and friends who I'll be seeing more of in the coming couple of weeks. I know everyone loves being home with their family at Christmas time, but being very much moved out (I own 4 boxes in the basement and generally do not call this place 'home' anymore), I find Christmas time far from relaxing. It's a busy and loud household with my two stepsisters (7 and 9 year-old) and being used to quietness and a lot of personal space, it's a little bit of a struggle.  It's been about 4 days and I still have 16 to go.

I was going to take outfit photos, but I couldn't take my tripod with me. I still have no one to help me with photos and I've been feeling pudgy (and hence uncomfortable and terrible on camera). I haven't been to the gym properly in a few weeks, and the mix of freezing weather and festive season has meant little exercise and too much indulgent food. To top everything off nicely, today my mother pointed out that I'd, as she put it, 'gotten myself a bit of a tummy'. At the moment, I wish that I'd packed my trainers despite the possibility of overweight luggage and icy roads. Too much sitting is accompanied by not only weight gain (which I can deal with), but also with restlessness, aches and frustration (which I cannot deal with). I just want to do something.

Apparently this blog is turning into my space of clearing my head of all the negative thoughts that whirl around in there. I didn't want it to, but it seems I can't help it. Sorry. Hopefully the new year will bring more positive thoughts in its wake.

Tired

At this very moment, my thoughts should all be in the two 3000-word essays I have due in a week, because I am a) working all weekend, b) I am seeing my boyfriend for the first time in 4 months on Tuesday and essay writing will be impossible for at least 24 hours from that point.

I should not be blogging, yet here I am. Why, you ask?

I needed an outlet for talking about something that has been part of my daily life pretty much since my fourth year at Uni started just over a month ago. Namely, tiredness. This is also why my blogging has dropped to almost-zero since Uni started. So here I am, sharing the reason behind my quietness.

I didn't think having a part-time job and studying would be this time-consuming. But then, last time I did this, I was working 8 hours a week in high school. At this moment, I am routinely given almost 10 hours above my stated availability.

But balancing my studies and work are not the worst of it. I've been feeling very weak ever since I got sick, even after I recovered. Today, I got home from work and thought my legs were going to give out. My hands were shaking and I felt lightheaded. And while I was hungy, I had had a small fruit salad less than 2 hours before, so my blood sugar can't have been that low.

I'm constantly cold. And while I could attribute this to our flat being cold, I'm cold even when the heating is on, and no one else is as cold as I am. I can only type, or read, for short periods of time before I need to sit on my hands to warm them up. I hold a warm mug or a jar candle while I read online articles to keep my fingers from going numb with cold.

My recovery time from exercising has lengthened, and when I get tired quicker when I am exercising. It's third day since my Bodypump class, and my thighs are still so sore and tense (despite stretching and hot showers) that I find it hard to walk normally.

I am tired all the time, and the shortening days and constant rain are making it worse. I wish I could point to an easy culprit for my symptoms, but I do regular exercise, walk everywhere, sleep minimum 7 hours a night (and usually find it hard to get out of bed with anything less than 8) and eat a fairly healthy and balanced diet (and I only say 'fairly' because I succumbed to buying a pack of biscuits this week...).

Could this be just the lack of sunshine, or stress? I really don't know.

I'm Back (And I Went To London)!

It's been almost a month since my last post! I have no other excuses other than that life happened. I moved a few days after my last post, which meant all the usual things: packing, stressing, cleaning and unpacking. To add on to that, I started my fourth year of Uni two days after moving, and also got the mother of all colds which kept me in bed for 3 days solid and I have still not entirely recovered. In short, the beginning of my final year of Uni has been a little bit of a nightmare.

This past weekend, I left all the stress and mess (I still hadn't finished unpacking!) in Aberdeen and headed down south to London to visit a friend who recently moved there after graduating. There was a lot of food involved, as well as catching up, laughing and just chilling around.

My friend was working everyday, so I occupied myself by doing a little bit of shopping, exploring and wandering around. I left my camera home, deciding that I didn't want to carry anything heavy around this time, so I just took a lot of photos with my phone.

Here's some photos from my weekend — you might have seen some of them if you follow me on Instagram, but hopefully that's okay! 

 Morning selfie! Everything started well — good hair, good face, decent eyeliner. The moment I stepped out of my friend's flat, I realised I'd left my wallet in my suitcase, I had no keys, no idea where she works and no way to contact her until her lunchtime. I saved the situation by playing Sherlock, aka staring through the windows into every cafe I found on the main street until I found her.

Liberty! I just love the black and white Tudor-style buildings. Like, so much.

I popped into Ladurée in Covent Garden. I've been to Ladurée three or four times, but never actually had their macarons. I know, I know. But I rectified my mistake this time and purchased salted caramel, liquorice and gingerbread macarons to enjoy with my friend later in the evening. They were delicious. Gingerbread was voted the favourite.

 Cookies & Scream is a must when in Camden. I had been looking forward to trying their Cookie Dough shake, but since they were out of cookie dough when we got there, I went for Peanut Butter Chico (aka cookie) shake. It was amazing. I also bought Peanut Butter and Jelly Chico (pictured left) to takeaway. Because.

I bought sparkly shoes from Dorothy Perkins (here), since they had a very exciting 30% off shoes offer going on (and still continuing!). I was rocking them with my tartan dress (Primark, last year, you know the one) while exploring the markets on Sunday.

 

I made my first visit to Columbia Road Flower Market! I did not buy anything, for obvious reasons, but it was still an experience.

I had the best cupcake of my life from Flavour Town in Old Spitalfields Market. It was called Pumpkin Spice and I have no words to describe it, it was just amazing. I wish I could have bought everything. But I will be back.

We had dinner at Comptoir Libanais! I wasn't too hungry that evening (must have been all the cupcakes) so I chose to have another starter as my main, but it was all delicious.

I had been fawning over Petra's majestic fluffiness online before our visit to Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium and was not disappointed in person. She was so incredibly beautiful (and soft)!

Last but not least, The Harry Potter Studio Tour! As a huge Harry Potter, I've been wanting to go since it opened, but somehow never had the chance. I flew on a broomstick, had butterbeer and fangirled over all the small things.

The ultimate mirror selfie, right?

I'll be sharing more about my visit to The Harry Potter Studios and Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium in separate posts soon!

Moomins and things

So last week, I flew to Finland. It had been over 7 months since my last visit, and I was beyond ecstatic to spend 6 days gorging myself with Karelian pies, blueberry soup, salmiakki and my mum's cooking and baking.

Usually when I go to Finland, I don't really look forward to it that much, besides the prospect of seeing my friends. I do it out of necessity, a sense of duty: I need to see my family, because I know they miss me. I never seem to miss them. I know this sounds cruel. It's not that I dislike my family, I just tend to be quite busy with my own life, and content to see them when I go back twice a year. But this summer, I've really missed Finland, and Helsinki in particular. It was obviously nice to see my family, and I missed my friends, but what I really missed was my home country.

I set roots in the UK pretty much immediately when I moved to Aberdeen. I never had any intentions of moving back to Finland, and UK felt like home. Or home enough (I think it's complicated word). My needs for all things Finnish were satisfied with my biannual visits. This time however, I felt absolute joy at going back.

I didn't take time to blog while I was away, since I only had 6 days to spend with my friends and family and my schedule was packed. But I took a lot of photos with my brand-new iPhone 5S, so I thought I'd share those with you. Some were posted on my Instagram (here, if you're interested!) already, so you might have seen them already.

I went to Tove Jansson art exhibition at Ateneum. It would have been her 100th birthday this year, and there are events all over the world to commemorate her. I'm a massive Moomin fan, and I absolutely love her illustrations and artwork, so it was an incredibly inspiring visit for me. I wish I'd had a notebook to do sketches, as no photos were allowed. I did buy this tote bag as a little souvenier though!

I also managed to get my hands on the Finnish edition of The Hobbit, illustrated by Tove Jansson. So happy. I'm a big Tolkien fan as well, so it was lovely to finally get this edition. Even if I prefer the books in English. ;)

I also visited the Moomin mug exhibition at Arabia Gallery. As a Moomin mug collector, I was quite excited about this, despite it literally just being a room filled with mugs. ;) 

I managed restrain myself and only bought a single Moomin mug and two candleholders at the Arabia-Iittala shop. And they were all on sale too! The Moomin mug and the red candleholder (which is called Kivi, aka 'stone', by the way) were both half price or under so definitely bargains, and the blueish Kivi was a dye-experiment outside the normal colour charts so it was only 6 euros (the blue shades are normally about 15 euros each at full price).

As three out of seven in my group of friends from high school celebrated birthdays in August (myself included), we decided to go and have some cake. At Kakkugalleria's cake buffet. That's right, a cake buffet. We all managed about 6 slices (we shared some, thus the photos of more than 6 slices).
Cake > Lunch. Considering that I had just visited a cafe at a nearby department store where a slice of cheesecake was 8eur a piece, the 11.90eur we paid for the buffet (including a massive cup of tea or coffee) was a downright bargain!

Apart from adding more homeware to my collection and indulging my Moomin obsession, I also filled my suitcase with tea from all my favourite tea shops (but the best one will always be théhuone, pictured above), a lot of yarn, ryebread and Finnish confectionary. You know, the important stuff.

Sorry for the very text heavy post, I hope it wasn't too boring!

Until next time,
Jenni