5 things that make me smile : Rovaniemi/Lapland 2014

This year's christmas was snowing in Finland! 

I can't be more happier since last year we didn't get any of it (in here we called it "musta joulu"  lit. means black christmas). 

But we got a lot more of snow since we (me and husband) traveling to Rovaniemi - Lapland. It was -25 in there and it was my first time to go here, so it was exciting. 

We went to a *small version of ice hotel* and Santa claus village also (that they claimed it is the original Santa Claus). The entire trip took 3 days 2 night. I must admit it was too short! ;)

1. The scenery on the road
White, white, white everywhere! Everything are frozen solid also. We went with car and it took *only* 8-9 hours drive (ouch!my butt >_>).

2. This super cute - alaskan husky sled trip
They are so cute, fluffy and really friendly. I was hugging and petting almost all the dogs. I want to take them home! The ride was fun and super cold when they running really fast. I could felt a thousand needles prickling my face Ö_ö

*Fun fact - the guide said that they only use siberian husky and alaskan malamute usually just for advertising purposes...uhm..ok :p

3. The color of the skies was awesome
It was breathtaking seeing those skies changing color every time. And seeing the northern light in there was really nice experience. I could say that I unlocked one of my life achievement, yay!

Unfortunately I didn't catch the photo of aurora since it was hard...well next time :p

4. This trip with snowmobiles to the frozen forest
Not the most pleasant ride since it was super freezing cold, super bumpy ride since I was in the backseat :p

Nice experience driving around Lapland's frozen forest. Its almost dark at that time but the scenery and color still fabulous.

5. The speciality stuff from Lapland
Tried reindeer meat stew, I finally found the handmade Kuksa cup (Lappish wooden birch cup), We stayed at really nice cabin and I got my own reindeer's antler also* :p

*Reindeers shed their antlers occasionally, so there's no harm for retrieving these :)

5 things that make me smile : 29072014

Here in Helsinki we have a really HOT weeks.

We have over 30 degree Celsius with the sun shining brightly more than 12 hours.
Oh please don't throw shoes to me, i know for some country 30 degree are normal lol. I have been living in Indonesia and i know this *hotness* is normal in there.

But in Finland its really rare opportunity to get this hot. Though many of the Finns (the Finnish people) are rejoicing for this (you can spot the beach are super crowded) i'm not really keen for this since i like coldness more. Though honestly the half-naked-six-pack-guys strolling in the streets are ok for me...whooopss! *hubby-stare-at-me*.

*Ahem*, anyway I try not to complain too much since the summer is short in Finland. Soon the autumn come and the cold-darkness is here (People who live in Finland will understand this). But hey what I am blabbering about, let's just go straight to these pics that i took recently in my daily life :)

1. Japanese cherry blossom's trees in Helsinki. 
When my teacher said there is a small Japanese garden in Helsinki i was thrilled. She said they have this sakura trees blooming on this day (spring) so i went there right away after school, dragging my husband also.

2. Museums! 

A visit to a museum is always a good things.

3. Flowers, flowers, and more flowers!
This is called "lumipallo kukat" literally translated "snowball flower". My parent-in-law's have this cuties in their backyard and it is huge. The entire plant is bigger and taller than me in comparison. I think it is really cute and they all look like a perfect snowballs that i want to hug it ( not that i can hug a plant for real, they'll be dead crushed :p )

4. My corner - update
I have been trying to make my "working station" in the corner more comfy and green. I have a bit hard time to find a perfect plant for it since in this corner the window is quite small. I decided this ZZ plant is the perfect one (it have a "balls" that act like a water reservoir in the roots). I've been told that shopping malls and hotels often have this inside since it is really strong plants.

I found some thrifted whimsical wine bottle ( can you see there is a small grape shape inside? ), an unique vase and reindeer figure from IKEA ( that i think it looks like something from minecraft...probably :p ).

5. Gift from Indonesia
My dear friend sent me this tote bag from Indonesia. How cute is this? and it is a one of a kind since it is a handmade. She bought it from this talented person here and sent in to Finland. It is for my belated birthday gift since she was really busy but i appreciate it. Love this so much thank you! :D

organizing fever - accessories.

I hate cleaning. 

Whatever the type of cleaning i hate it. I have an allergy with dust, but it's not my main excuse why i hate it. For me its just wasting your time when you can do something else more nice. 

Let's face it anyway, you need to do cleaning in daily basis, except if you want to see your home or room fill with dust and spiders! ( yuck! ).

So i tried to find way to minimize cleaning. After sometime browsing internet, talking with friends, and family, i found the answer for it.

Organizing.

When you do organizing, it will help to minimize the time you spend for doing cleaning. 

For this time is my accessories that got the ooohh-rrr-ganized. I am a big fan of accessories. I think its more nicer than clothes and shoes. You can enhance your look just by wearing different accessories even if your clothes are simple or boring. And before i know it i have ( quite ) a lot stashes of it.

Pinterest is really helping me for finding some ideas of organizing. This is the outcome of it, i bought  a push-pin board and hanger rail.

Did i tell you that its more cheaper to DIY than buy some fancy-pancy-expensive accessories storing ?

To add more space without buying too much pushpins, i used thin wire to make some wire-line so i can

hang my dangle earrings. I connected it to each pushpins and twisting the wire so it looks more artsy :p

Its easier to take-and put it back also, plus its a neat decorations for my wall also! :D

For the other accessories, my husband helped me to installed a hanger-rail into the cupboard and bought some S-hooks that you can add more later. This is for storing and displaying my necklaces.

Then i got plastic cups from pudding that i turn for storing my bangles and bracelets. Plates for stud earrings, small boxes, foam board, and even clothespins. I used whatever at home that i can turn for storing accessories.

Lastly, i remembered i got some portable LED-lamp ( bought from LIDL ) so i installed inside. 

Now its easier to take and put back, no more mess and if i want to clean the cupboard i just need to take the boxes and cups out. 

Love it! :D

the colors of autumn.

Mother nature are the super-artists of all who create most of the beautiful artworks ever. Like i've been mention before, this is my first time to experience autumn in here and it was gorgeous!

Many times i read in some fairytale or books talking about how pretty is the autumn color. I never imagined i can see it until now.

Here's some of the pictures i took to share for you all :D

Enjoy! ; )

What i've learned 24022012.

Some week ago, i have an urge to eat chinese potsticker ( jiao zi ). I want to make it myself but get scared of failing it.

Then i push myself at last to make it, and it turns out well and nicely even the look of it not so promising i think, here's the evidence ;

The taste are pretty same with what i remember when i still in Indonesia. I really happy that i tried it, it's not too hard actually, i will make more of this later.


#Life, is the same. 


We always afraid to do new things for the first time, after you try it and experience it yourself, you eventually gain more courage to do it more and making it better. 


Learning from your mistake in the past and move on into new challenges.


Sometimes we scared at first before even try it because see or hear other people said it is hard. But until you try it yourself, how do you know if it really hard? who know if it really easy?


It's like when you open one door, 


the other will open also for us. 

nailart addict.

Much of all my obsessions and addictions i got, this is so far one of the tricky addiction i have. 

It's always hard to do this for my right hand even though i'm quite used to it, i need to wear mask to prevent my nosey-allergy, need time to wait ( for them to dry ) and try not damaging them by touching and doing stuff, and most annoying part is you *accidentally* break them after all your hard work!

Having a cooking hobby are not a good idea pairing with nail art hobby. You tend to break them somehow, most of the time get a cut when chopping foods. House chores also break them even though you already try as careful as you can ( or is it just me :p ).

Thats why now i don't grow my fingernails too long anymore. Actually it's not that bad with short nails ( yes i'm comforting myself, lol ) they can be look sexy also depend on how you make the design.

Here's are some of my nail art that i made this past year, probably i won't have this longer nails again. 

This year christmas design, i love this China Glaze Red-Pumps look on the nail. Too bad my camera can't show too much of the sparkle. In the reality it have more glittery-sparkle looking. I bought this one and fell in love with it ; for my chinese-theme engagement party which suit my red-gold cheong-sam dress.

Kitty design! 

i'm using some gel paint pen for making this. It took some time and hard to apply. I think this was my first time painting something on my nails.

The polkadots design are the most easiest to make and it looks cute, i don't think you will be bored with this design. I'm using the dotting tools, although you can just use any tools you have currently. Just be creative with it :D

So far this is the most *complicated* time-consuming design. But the outcome are satisfying don't you think? 

Mostly, making the gradient effect are annoying, i need to use sponge for it and be patient. I'm trying to make a fresh-lemonade-lemon-ice effect for this one.

While most of the nail lacquer's bottle usually have normal design, this one i think is the most creative from most of all brand ; the Nfu-Oh. They transform the a boring bottle into a women's sexy-bust like :D

This brand have a lot of unique colors. Like the glittering effect for this one can make a *mermaid-scales* effect ( Nfu-Oh 52 ). One of my favorite also, although hard to apply if you didn't use any base color first because of the translucent liquid. Applying this into scale effect might take 4-5 layering for me.

5 simply heaven for me : 06122011

Today is the Finnish independence day so almost all the shops and public places closed. It's a nice experience also for seeing the first snow today. It still not huge snow, but it's still great to see all turns white here. My partner said it was quite warm and unusual this year since it should be already snowing more and more colder.

So, let's continue shall we to the list?

1. it's beginning to look like christmas, my first time seeing the real winter!well, the beginning of it. I really can't wait for more :D

2. heart-pattern-by-tires, i'm surprise when i saw this in the parking lot. It was made by the car tires accidentally. how cute is it? :D

3. lappish ( lapland's ) bread, or they call it rieska ; this is new for me. I think it looks like a indian pita bread or mexican tortilla. This was made from potato ( perunarieska ; peruna means potato ). It was really nice with the tomato-basil-shallots-salad i made. :D

4. game addict this month ; dungeon defenders, we can't stop playing this everyday! we even stayed overnight just to play this. I even got a dream about it quite many times, still playing this in my dream, OMG. It was fun that my partner is a *serious* gamer also like me. For all gamers out there, try this game for sure. It was super-awesome!

5. big-bad-(but tasty)salmon, this maybe sound exaggerating but this is my first time handling such a big salmon to clean and cook. It was awkward and puzzling, took quite time to do it but the end result are *tempting* so i need to bear with it...lol ;D

greenery babies.

Now its almost winter so there's no way you can plant anything ( except if you want to torture them to death-freeze ) outside the balcony. So i bring this awesome babies inside.


Why I want to keep this babies?

For me, it give you tons of benefits ;

like *relaxing* mood to see them around, they are cute, pretty, unique ( like this venus flytrap of mine ), a bad-ass as it cleaning the air inside ( yes, they happily do it for you ) and you can even get source of foods ( like fruits, herbs, veggies ).

For now i keep myself only an indoor plants. The nice things about them, they don't need extra-hard care that you need to struggle with. Next year in spring i will try to keep more *harder* plants outside. I'm thinking of making some small veggies garden for fun.


oh my, aren't they are such an awesome buddies to keep? ; )

sushi party girls.

Once upon a day, there's 3 girls who works in the same company. 

They always work together as a team of designers and when they not working they have fun time hanging out for culinary adventure ( other things like shopping and more eating, of course ). 

°picture : trivia ; somehow they always spent +/- 150 thousand for 3 of them 

Some people told them they were look alike and though they are sisters. They have a different style and taste, but somehow they can still enjoying doing things together. One of them love drawing a lot, the other love fashion and socialize, and the last one love travelling and cooking

The last sister always making breakfast for the other, especially japanese foodie like sushi. Everybody know that she'd be happy to make something for them and always put a lot of effort to do it. She like to experimenting on anything ( who know she'd probably make the other some guinea pig for her cooking...whoopsie :p ) like making this cutie crabby-style-sushi ;

This are typical-normal-breakfast for them in the morning. A full set of fancy sushi, along with the wasabi, sushi soy sauce and set of hot tea plus 3 doggies that always waiting ( looking with puppy eyes-mode ) for some snacky-snack dropped. 

Currently they separated by situation, each of them choose a different way for life. It's a really sad situation to be. But a day later when they can met again ( corrected ; a must :p ) it will be the same like the ways they usually do ; culinary adventures, shopping, gossiping, etc. 

After all they are soul sisters.

The end, for now...or should i say, to be continued : )