Spring and the Smell of Fresh Pastry

Sunny day at last and very very cold. I can already see the spring coming, it is in the certain way sun shines on the snow that you can feel it is spring soon. And spring has a smell, it is very sharp and energetic. Spring also smells a bit like tulips and fresh bakery for me.

I love fresh flowers at home and my favourites are always white. But these tulips I got yesterday are a very pretty mixture of red and white.

We went for a long walk and it was a good workout for my legs as Töölö is full of snow and maybe because of the predictable outcome of presidential elections noone cleans snow in Helsinki anymore. Well, challenge taken! On the way back we dropped at Cafe Gottland and bought freshly baked sesam buns and carrot bread. All organic. Smells divine.

There was another fresh pastry in the home oven, very good level of readiness.

Colours of the Rainbow

What a busy day! We met friends, took care of practicalities and barely made it for the afternoon snack.

Meantime, our candles live a very interesting life, I love the way wax has started to flow...

The silver plate is from my grandma, by the way.

I wanted to warn my readers that soon I will start a new mini-decoration project. Leo will most probably move to own room soon and I wanted to decorate it for him. Or potentially decorate for both kids. I would like to get some wall stickers. The room's walls are painted in soft beige, toffee shade. And as mentioned earlier, I am crazy about owls and retro 60s nowadays. So here a few favourites from Amazon.

1. Could not resist this super stylish Red riding hood sticker:

2. The OWLS :)

3. More retro and owls:

4. More Girl oriented owls:

It will be a very tough choice.

Meanwhile I am trying to stick to some sort of diet to reach the magic number of 55. Here some efforts on that side.

The tea works, by the way, detox wise, note sure about weight loss wise...:)

Order, Order and Order

Today I have spent 3 hours ordering my closet. I colour coordinated my dresses and counted the total of 50 of them. Some have to be passed forward, I believe. But I also found many nice things. And one bag of clothes went to the 3rd world countries.

Myself I seem to be getting sick. :( Leo has got running nose as well.

In the picture I am wearing my Zara metallic sweater and the new floral ring, golden nailpolish YSL.
Feeling not too glamorous but hope to be well soon, for the trip at least...

Have been browsing Asos.com a bit for some cool knits. And found two I really like.

Arm Candy

I have gotten a crush for jewelry recently. Love the way it transforms basic clothes. And it is so easy to wear it and it never gets small or big.  I like cocktail rings worn with everyday clothes, stacked bracelets in mismatching textures. They look so personal.

Also, remember my "I wish" post about that Hermes watch? Leather, tan colour, wrap around the wrist fit, lock details...It can be achieved with multiple items instead of one.  I have been a bit hunting for Hermes inspired jewelry recently.

Here are some modest results:

Turqouise and pale gold tone bracelet - Indiska, floral goldtone ring - Accessorize, burgundy ring - Indiska, Leather thin wrap around bracelets in beige and purple - Glitter (look great when you stack them on same arm and they channel that Hermes vibe), Michael Kors leather watch (love the tiny logo charm on it) and snake leather bracelets by H&M.

Not to forget about the hair, which is now all too often in a pony tail, I found these cool pony tail covers in 3 snake print leathers: beige, black&white and purple.

Another nice find is this pyjamas in very Kenzo like print.  Both pieces are by H&M. Thin cotton of the pants and silky jersey of the shirt make this a luxurous treat for those home moments.

And look, my colour candle collection has just grown. I love the mismatching brightness of them, makes me very good mood, and, hopefully, yours - when you look at them now.

HAVE A NICE WEEKEND!

In Grey We Trust

Sales are ending and shops are step by step being filled with spring news - colourful, lightweight fabrics, floral prints, light brown leather. But reality is we have winter here for yet another month (at least). Today, on a quick visit to city, I literally ran through Zara and got 3 great pieces - in neutrals and grey. But they are really, really great.

1. Melange chunky knit black/white sweater (it is screaming style and begging to be worn with skinny jeans and heeled or motorcycle boots with studs and photographed for an atmospheric black and white closeup). Discounted by 60%.

2. Snake print skinny riding pants (at ridiculous 19 eur).

3. Cotton light cream sweater with lurex. It can be worn with a belt and it fits those snaky pants, I think. And it is 90% cotton. There are numerous number of clothes I have rejected for the fabric. Nowadays a rare knit is made of pure cotton or cotton mix. Polyester is everywhere: and I do not accept it. Not for any discount. :) Lurex is very subtle but it is more visible than in a photo.

 

More grey in my Karen Millen outfit: the waterfall knit and a bag I got from the web store discounts.

Knit- Karen Millen, green top - Zara, Right hand bracelet - Indiska, Left hand leather bracelet - Dimacci, Bag - Karen Millen, Nailpolish - YSL.

And some more guilty pleasures: tea at home with fresh "potato" mud cakes and chocolates from Fazer cafe in Mikonkatu brought for my sick husband. We are the potato cake maniacs. ;)

YSL: new favourites

During weekend in the city of Riihimäki (ouch, what a place, navigator showed 0 places of interest!) we dropped by at the local shopping mall to have dinner and there at the beauty store I found shelves full of discounted Chanel, YSL, Dior...Pity I was not really in a need of cosmetics right now. But a few things came along to Helsinki. Makeup removing milk with divine smell and texture and nail polish duo in dramatic Plum and Gold colours.

I have not had YSL beauty products except Touche Eclat (biensur!) so far, so this was a positive surprise. Wearing plum polish today. :)) lovely very dark shade...

P.S. I have booked a trip for the 2nd week of February. Very happy about it! Try to guess its destination. If you have been reading this blog, it should be very easy. 

In the Kids World

Today was the kids party day at little Vanessa and Jasmin's place.

 On the photo i am wearing my Sonia Rykiel dress which you can not see, Just Cavalli watch and Tous bracelet.

I was trying new capabilities of my camera. My photographer's eye got attached to the big bowl of colourful plastic tubes with which one can create colourful fugures on the plastic boards. I loved the texture of ready pictures/figures.

It actually requires quite much patience to handle these tasks. Ouch...

Btw, have been wearing my new Juicy Couture wallet for a few days now and really happy with it.

It is a bit childish as well, isn't it? ;)

"Picasso" for less

My Ikea adventures continue, as does the snowstorm in Helsinki.

This time it was living room's turn to go for a spring makeover. I selected two fabrics from Ikea range and 2 frames to update the look of our fireplace. Fabrics cost around 6 eur / m and 1 meter was certainly enough if not less. it was just important to find the right swatch of the pattern. I wanted the Fuji like mountain and a girl with the green eyes to be  central points of my "paintings". The right one does look like Picasso's creation, doesn't it? Except its total cost was 15 eur.

Picasso, "The Dream":

Along came trendy Marimekko-ish pillows. And i didn't pick them for the print only. I like the mid size of them and non-slidy thick cotton covers. Total cost 16eur.

The print on the pillows reminds me of Marimekko's "Puutarhurin parhaat"  ("Garden's best") fabric.

So, here we have living room makeover for under 50 eur!

Childish Behaviour

Colour keeps coming to my home. This time I got inspired by the owl theme (as seen on Blafre), colours and design of 60s.

Today we drove through a terrible snowstorm with Leo and Laura to get this owl:

Owl pillow and Laura pillow  - Finnish ebay, or Biggest online auction, muffin pillow from ages ago from british ebay, bed spread - Marimekko, 2008.

More owls here:

Then we went for a failure proof lunch at IKEA and got inspired by colourful budget frames and beautiful print textiles at ridiculous prices. Here is the result. :)

Kept us all busy for 2 hours. And I think these are not only for kids room, really cool retro vibe pictures. For all white design - absolute perfection.

Spring @ Home

I am bored, bored, bored of snow. Can not complain about the window view, it is really pretty snowy:

But still...i would like to see more colour. Today we had a quick walk in the city and stayed for a tea in the favourite Marikahvila, a cafe at Marimekko store in Kämp. I love the cafe for relaxed homey colourful design, comfortable sofas, good tea and NO music except bird's singing. And it is always empty.

After recharging our batteries at Marikahvila we got some pretty cool candles from H&M home. I love the texts on them. Love and Joy.

For more colour I got inspired by Blafre designs. They make kids and home products with cute owl, elefant etc prints in retro colours and style. I love everything. Here are some cute cards i got.