I Have Been a Very Good Girl

...or so it would seem, because I got so many awesome presents for Christmas!

A super cute (and warm) loungewear set from my fiancé. I mean, unicorns? Hell yeah!

Kalevala Jewelry's The Heart of the House earrings in bronze, to be worn with lolita, of course. I prefer silver or white cold in jewelry, but warmer tones often go better with lolita outfits. These are from my fiancé as well (he spoils me rotten but hey, I'm not complaining). The handmade earrings with glass beads are from my Mom, and I like them very much also. They'll add a nice pop of colour to any dull, black outfit.

The tube scarf, "ear warming" headband and mitts are from my Lil' Sister, and the most awesome wool socks ever from fiancés parents. The socks have the logo of my childhoods favorite candy, the Kettukarkki.

These are from my Sister also. A pink bath mat, and guest and kitchen towels with beautiful prints.

A spice set for spicing our own teas from fiancé (this will be a new mutual hobby or ours), and the napkins and cupcake cups from my Sister.

Besides these I got some cosmetics, Electrolux Expressionist tea kettle (we can now choose the correct temperature for each tea, it's so great and we already named it Mr. Carson after the butler in Downton Abbey) and so much chocolate that I'll have to invite a lots of friends for tea to get rid of it all. :D So, if my friends are reading this - you are warmly welcome for tea and chocolate. ;)

Well, yesterday we were quite busy, as we had breakfast with my family and the Christmas dinner with fiance's, so I didn't have time to do my traditional Merry Christmas post. But I'll say it to you now, my dear readers; Merry Christmas a little bit late, and I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and got a lot of nice presents! ♥

Something New, Something Old

Good afternoon, lords and ladies!

It's almost Christmas, isn't that exiting? To me, it still is! I love Christmas - and not the least because for us students it means a long holiday! Summer holidays are not counted because most students work during Summers (and that includes me, too), but I like to keep my Christmas holiday as a real holiday. Hopefully I'll now have more time for blogging also.

This time I decided to blog a little bit about home decor. I am a great decor enthusiastic, but as a student I don't have the funds to purchase all the things I would like to. And when I finally managed to drag my fiancé - not so much enthusiastic - to Ikea, he was the voice of reason and said that there's no point in buying any new furniture to this apartment, as we are soon going to move out anyway. I have to admit he was right, and so we only ended up buying some new textiles. But even so, it's far better now! And as my fiancé graduated, we have real flowers in every room. ♥ The Villeroy & Boch bowl is his graduation gift also.

So, I changed the colour theme in the living room & kitchen area a little bit. I've been having a crazy dark blue period, and I still love that colour, but it made our little home look a bit gloomy. Now the colours are mainly white, light grey and just a little bit of dark blue. I like it very much, it's a really calming colour combo. The lace curtains are from Ikea, but the curtains with the grey flower pattern are Luhta Home's, a second hand find of mine.

These pillows are so old I can't remember where they are from, but they finally found their rightful place.

As you may already know, I'm very happy with our bedroom, which has been a pet project of mine (as fiancé agreed I can express my girly tendencies there, I have been able to decorate it just the way I like).

The mirror table is an ideal place for flowers (and candles too), because the mirrors create an illusion of many more flowers.

The next two things aren't actually new, but I just took them out after a long time of not using them and that makes them feel all fresh again! First, the cow alarm clock (it has an alarm sound of a cow mooing).

Second, these colourful lanterns. They are adorable and give a nice, festive athmosphere when lit.

Some Christmas decorations my Mom gave us (Stockmann, Perfect Home).

And our teeny tiny, totally fake Christmas tree with pink and silver ornaments. My view on the matter is that if one goes for a fake tree, it might as well be fake all the way, and thus I chose white over green, because the green ones never look real, either.

Okay, I guess that was all for the time being. What are your thoughts on decorating, dear readers? Are you an enthusiastic as I, or not so much? What are your favourite colour combos when it comes to home decor? And if you happen to celebrate Christmas, do you have a tree, real or fake? Feel free to discuss in the comments! It will be nice to see if there are other decor freaks amongst my readers. :3

Ice Girl

Good afternoon, lords and ladies!

So, as I promised, here's some pre-Christmas party outfits.This time my camera was actually working, but it was so grey and gloomy (again) that the pictures still look like this. Sigh.

Well anyway - I got the Dessert OP by Baby, the Stars Shine Bright last Summer, but it was so hot (or if it wasn't, I was too busy with my work and maid of honour's duties) I couldn't wear lolita during the Summer. I know Dessert OP is a Summer dress, but I couldn't wait that long and decided to see, if it works for Winter-y coordinations as well. Turns out it does. I have dreamed of this dress for so long and now I'm super happy to have it. ♥ I liked this outfit a lot - until my headdress caused me a head ache.

{Dress, boots - Baby, the Stars Shine Bright / blouse - Dear Celine / headdress - self made}

A close up of the headdress.

And another, more casual outfit, with the camera not working and thus, phone quality. It's a good thing my fiancé's phone actually has a quite good camera in it.

{Dress - Pinky Girls / shoes - Minna Parikka}

Some Shoppings, Some Outfits, Somebunnies...

Good evening, lords and ladies!

This is a huge picture spam about some of the things I've been up to during this Autumn.

Let's start with an outfit for meeting with Tiia. This was one of the days my camera was not working, so phone quality it is. My hair has gotten very strange recently; it's almost straight and more silky than ever. I think it's almost in too good condition now, after the visit to the hairdresser and loss of bad ends. This IW blouse I'm wearing is also a recent purchase; I think it's quite elegant even thought it has a Peter Pan collar.

{Dress - Juliette & Justine / blouse - Innocent World / bow - Baby, the Stars Shine Bright / jewelry - Kalevala, souvenir from Manchester / boots - second hand}

I've been also trying to improve my so called everyday style, which is a little bit boring sometimes. I mainly wear black, grey and dark blue, so I've bought mostly colourful pieces (the skirt that appears to be black is actually dark red). The shorts I bought to be worn under lolita dresses during the Winter - they are very soft and warm. Of course I can also wear them as room wear.

Here are some of my new clothes in action. I wore this outfit to the VIP premiere of The Hobbit - The Battle of Five Armies movie. The movie was awesome, of course, though not my favorite from The Hobbit trilogy. The VIP premiere was a great experience all over, the athmosphere was very special as the audience started to spontaniously applaude before, during and after the movie. (Of course I'm not complaining about free food and drinks, either.)

This pajama set is a birthday present from my Mother. I like it so much, it's the cutest pajama I have ever had! ♥

These are also gifts; Kalevala Jewelry's Little Bird bracelet and a key ring from the same brand which represents the four winds of the world (also known as East, West, North and South) and is supposed to be a guarding, good luck symbol. The bracelet is quite old, so it's more red than Kalevala's copper nowadays, and I suspect it might be quite rare also; to my knowledge these were never sold, but were made to be given as exclusive business gifts. I've been wearing this bracelet quite a lot with my lolita outfits recently.

A tray I bought from H&M Home. I couldn't resist it. It's mint green and it has budgies. Though only two of them are actual, existing colour combinations and two of them are imaginary, it's still very cute. The blue one reminds me of my very first budgie and very first pet ever, Topi.

 

I don't even have my own dog yet, but this Bibi & Bim dog toy, designed by Ivana Helsinki, was too cute to be left behind. I will keep it safe for my own puppy and hopefully this will be her favorite toy. ♥

In the end, some bunnies. Yes, bunnies. This here looks awful lot like my very own darling Odessa, but this, my lords and ladies, was Odessa's sister, Kieran Ihana Oriana ("Kiera's Lovely Oriana"). In the pictures she looks very much like Odessa, but in the real life she was a little bit more petite. Sadly this was the first and the last time me and my fiancé were able to see Oriana; soon after this photo was taken she had to be put to sleep because of cancer. It made me feel quite shaken and sad because somehow I had never really thought that Odessa was a mortal, too. It's pure chance that it was Oriana who died now, not Odessa. I feel really bad for Oriana's owner, too, but luckily he has two new baby bunnies to comfort him (and I'm looking forward to meeting them too!).

And here's one recent picture of my Odessa - or maybe I should start saying "our Odessa", as my fiancé has kind of adopted Odessa to be his, too. :D But yep, Odessa is this relaxed around dogs - she often wants to lie next to them. It's actually Chico who is afraid of Odessa, not the other way around. We are lucky to have so nice doggies to take care of, all of them but one have a very good attitude towards Odessa. ♥

So, that was all for now. I'm going to attend two pre-Christmas parties this weekend, and I'll try to take & post some outfit pictures from them, too. If my camera refuses to co-operate, you'll have some phone quality again, I'm afraid.

Have a nice week end, everyone! ♥

Inspiration: It's Abandoned

Hello, lords and ladies!

First; my apologies for being so inactive lately. My camera is starting to break - sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. This makes keeping a style related blog rather hard, as I don't have a reliable way to get decent pictures. The other thing is that even if my camera worked properly, it's so dark in Finland right now, that it's hard to get good pictures anyway. The darkness always makes me uninspired to dress up. Some people cheer the Winter up by dressing in pastels, and how I envy them! I have my share of pastels in my closets, but I don't feel like wearing them during Winter (even though it might cheer me up, too).

But, speaking of uninspired, I just found this most amazing Instagram account itsabandoned. It hosts lots of heart breakingly beautiful pictures from abandoned places around the world. Here are some of my favorites. Some of the pictures are incredibly calm, serene and even enviting...

...while others are sorrowful and haunting. 

Some of the places should never have been abandoned in the first place, like this pretty little chateau in France. It makes me so sad that this kind of place is left to ruin, and yet, it still is so beautiful even now.

There was even one picture from Finland!

These pictures are just a few of my favorites. It was really hard to leave anything out, because almost every picture there is so beautiful. *-*

These pictures are truly inspiring to me. They make me want to travel even more. I'd love to go to at least some of these places!

What do you, my dear readers, think of abandoned places? Are there any near you? Do you think you want to visit them, or just avoid them at all costs? 

All of the pictures are from itsabandoned.

If I Were A Goddess

Hello, my lords and ladies! I don't usually do challenges, but this one I got from Kaino is so epic that I'll make an exception. Dear lords and ladies, may I present you...

"If I Were A God..." -challenge!

Rules are as follows:

1. Tag back to the person who tagged you.

2. Answer the questions.

3. Add a question if you come up with a good one.

4. Challenge five other bloggers

So, first of all let me begin by telling you whad kind of goddess I would be. I would most certainly be The Almighty Unicorn Goddess of Fire and Ice. This is because even though my horoscope states that my element is water, I have always, ever since I was a little girl, thought that this must be some kind of terrible cosmic mistake and my element is really, truly fire. (Later I have learned that this is apparently so because Mars was rising when I was born.) I hate cold, but I would also be a Goddess of Ice, since coldness is the first impression many people seem to get from me. As a Goddess I would also hate cold and ice, but I could not escape my destiny as a goddess for both hot and cold, and this would lead to me being a very angry, pissed off and hard-to-please goddes indeed! Any tiny error from my worshipers, and I would cast the world into a glorius chaos! I would of course have two unicorns as my heavenly mounts - I mean, really, you could not expect me to settle for only one unicorn! One would have red, blazing eyes and fiery mane and tale, and his hooves would make embers flying around whenever they touched the groung. The other would have bright blue, freezing gaze, and his mane and tail would be made of snow, whirling aroung him like a storm even when he stands still. Both would be able to fly, of course. When I would be in a particularly ugly mood, I would ride a carriage with both of my unicorns pulling it.  

Yes, here they are, my babies! They don't always get along, though. (Picture credit: Foolishsunsets) And might I just add - if my mounts are like this, wait 'till you see me as a goddess. Juuust wait. 

So, on to the questions. 

1. The global warming thingy will kill lots of stuff. You get to save one species and have to kill another. Which ones and why?

I would definitely save humans, because a goddess without worshipers is nothing! And it's handy to have them around, if I should ever want to take a human lover - isn't that what gods and goddesses do in all the interesting legends (Christianity, not talking about you now). I would also save the unicorns - what are you saying, I can't save two species, who are you to tell me what I sould do, I am The Goddess of Chaos! And I would destroy whichever species has pissed me off most during the last 24 hours. Oh wait, that might very well be the humans... certainly I could never be mad at a unicorn, or anything cute and fluffy, like bunnies. 

2. Ok, since you are playing god, make a prayer your worshipers would have to prey every evening.

I think Katy Perry had it right:

"You're hot and you're cold

You're yes and you're no

You're in, then you're out

You're up, and you're down

You're wrong when it's right

It's black, and it's white"

But let's forget about that part about kissing and making up, 'cause there's no making up with me. Maybe instead something along the lines

"But it's all okay

There's no other way

We know you'd kill us anyway

If we disobeyd."

You may sing it with the Katy Perry's song's tune, if that makes you feel better, my insignificant humans.

3. Nice and poetic that one. Now, any sacraments you would want to have?

My sacraments would be as follows: 

Being Heavenly Pissed Off and Throwing Things Around

Being Heavenly Happy And Petting The Heavenly Unicorns

Being Heavenly Pleased With A Good Cuppa Tea

Marriage (Why, of course, I am such a romantic person!)

The Tea Time of The Goddesses (also known as The End Of The World)

4. I like this theme. Three annual ceremonies that would be held to celebrate you?

I would let my miserable humas have their Christmases and such as long as it is stricly about being with their loved ones, over eating, buying useless gifts to each other and putting out silly little Christmas lights. If there's anything about baby Jesus or any other god, though, I would be heavenly pissed off. My seremonies would be:

The Feast of Fire, that would be held during Midsummer's Eve - so I'm taking over Midsummer anyway, it seems - when my worshipers are required to stay up all night, watch my beutiful sunset and sunrise and truly appreciate it or else, light huge bonfires in my honour and sacrifice white roses for me by throwing them into the fires.

The Petting of The Heavenly Unicorns, held 10th of November each year, because that is the day that I was born and Mars was rising and it pleases me to spend the day with my unicorn darlings. My followers would all have a fluffy unicorn toy which to pet during this celebration, and while petting it they would think about my cute little - nay, my enormous, scary, bad tempered mounts and be thankful that they would never have to try and pet them (as if they would ever dare to dream about such a thing). I would also require all sorts of offerings - food, tea, flowers and designer shoes - to be sacrifised for me during this feast, as it is my birthday after all.

The Celebration of Ice, held during the darkest day of the year. My followers would have to light thousands of candles in my honour and drink lots of high quality tea and truly appreciate the tea, or else. They would also sacrifice the best of teas for me by throwing them into the icy waters of the thousands of lakes in Finland. Flowing candles in the lakes would also please me greatly. I would not require them to appreciate the cold, the darkness and the ice, though, because even I could not be that heartless.

5. Just in case you become a god, what sacrifices we mortals should offer for you for a good weather and such benefits?

Well, as already said above: white roses, good tea, delicious foods (especially macarons!) and designer shoes. I don't do any benefits, though; the sacrifices will only keep me from destroying this World of yours.

6. Since there are the five of you playing gods, check each others blogs and tell us what kind of gods you think the others would be like according to their blogs.

Rinna would be The Goddess of Saving The World, Spending Moderately and Not Byuing Things We Do Not Need. Naturally, as such, she would be my mortal enemy.

Mimi would be The Epic Vampire Goddess of Night, Moon And Starry Skies, and we would get along just fine, as night suits my chaotic tastes. We could even enjoy some blood of the virgins together sometime!

Asio Otus would be The Goddess of Turtles, Tortoises and All Dolls Ever Made, and I would like her, too, because dolls are creepy to many people. The turtles might confuse me, however.

Elfie would be The Goddess of Ballet, Colourful Pointe Shoes and Fluffy Tutus. She would be too kind for my tastes, so I might dislike her.

7. With which god of the other four would you most likely ally yourself with if needed?

Why, with  Mimi, of course! Together we would wrap the world into eternal night and chaos just because we were bored and felt like doing so. But hey, it would be so much fun - for us two.

8. Since there are five to choose from to worship, why would your supporters choose you?

Because if they won't, I will cast the World into the chaos mentioned a few times before. 

9. Tempting! What rules should the followers of your cult follow?

1. Thou Shalt Not Worship Any Other Goddesses And Certainly Not Any Other Gods

2. Thou Shalt Not Hurt The Unicorns Or Any Other Animals

3. Thou Shalt Not Hurt Each Other

4. Thou Shalt Always Remember My Celebrations

5. Thou Shalt Sacrifice In My Honour The Way I Tell You To (See Page 789)

6. Thou Shalt Not Wear Bad Lace

7. Thou Shalt Not Drink Tea Bag Tea

8. Thou Shalt Not Have Nicer Shoes Than I Do

10. Thou Shalt Do Whatever I Tell You To Do

11. Thou Shalt Not Do Whatever I Tell You Not To Do

12. Thou Shalt Never Play With Fire Or Say My Name In Vain

13. Thou Shalt Not Speak Ill Of My Heavenly Unicorns Even If They Should Kick Your Ass In The Afterlife And Not Even If You Think They Are Hellish And Not Heavenly At All

10. How would you end the World when the time comes? Your take on the apocalypse?

The Tea Time of The Goddesses is the end of the World. When all five of us goddesses would gather together to enjoy some tea (or in the case of Mimi, blood of the beautiful virgins), it means that the World is about to end. I would get mad at Elfie for having a cuter outfit than I do, and I would rally around in my carriage throwing things around and screaming. Then I would set the world on fire so hot it would turn everything into ashes. (The positive side to this would be that no one would be able to feel anything as the fire would be so intense.) After that, I would freeze the ashes. After that I would burn the ashes again for good measure. After that I would turn the ashes of the World into a splendid diamond, set it on white gold and wear it as a ring.

 

11. Ok, the World is ending, what will you offer as the after life?

Oh, it will be so sweet! I promise to always be in a good mood! There will be fluffy, pink bunnies and unicorns for everyone to pet and to ride around with. There will be an eternal tea party with all the treats you can possible imagine, and the tea would be from another world (well, literally) and it would never run out. Everyone will get cute outfits (though not as cute as me, of course) and designer shoes (though not as many as me, of course). Everyone will get a castle of their own (though not as fabulous as me, of course) and there will always be either Spring, Summer or Autumn but never Winter. The Autumn colours would last all the way to another gentle Spring. In the after life, I won't have to really work anymore and I will be much more nicer when I can just relax and chill. ♥

---

So, I will challenge Kata, Hanna, Tiia, Sanni and Hanna-Katariina. I won't add any questions because 1) it took me forever to even answer these and 2) this challenge is perfect as it is. It has even the end of the World covered, what else could you ever ask for? ;D

I DO!

Hello, my lords and ladies!

I don't usually talk about very dramatic topics here - I try to keep this blog light and cheerful. Today, however, I had the honour of being a part of something so great, so important, so historical that I wanted to share this with you.

Today the Finnish Parliament approved the equal marriage bill. I don't usually go to demonstrations, but I think this matter is so important that I simply had to go. And I'm glad I did, because the athmosphere and the energy were incredible! I can't even describe the feeling when we heard that they had approved it by 105-92! But I might say that I did have some tears in my eyes and I managed to shout and sing my throat sore. :')

I didn't take my camera with me, so I don't have any pictures of the demonstration. But here are the banners we did yesterday. (The ones in Finnish say "Human rights are not a matter of opinion" and "Freedom, gayness and equality".)

♥

Edit: I forgot that Tiia took this photo of me at the demonstration! Thank you, dear. :3

 

Mallihaku vuoden 2015 Helloconiin

Mallihaku vuoden 2015 Helloconin The Carnival of Decadence -muotinäytökseen on avattu. Jos olet kiinnostunut tulemaan malliksi,  niin ohjeet hakemuksen lähettämiseen löytyvät täältä! Linkki hakuohjeeseen löytyy myös blogini sivupalkista.

Kipin kapin hakemuksia näpyttämään! Odotamme niitä innolla. ♥

~ Mari & Mimi, näytöksen järjestäjät

Halloween Masquerade Party

Hello, everyone!

It's been ages since I last posted, because I forgot my camera to this very masquarade party that I'm only now posting about, and didn't get it back until yesterday. But better now than never, so here comes the belated picture spam from Halloween!

The pictures are pretty bad, because it's so darn dark here - all the time, really. There just isn't a good moment to take pictures anymore because even the so called daylight is pale, grey and washed out. :'D

But anyway, let's start with the outfit pictures. The theme for the Halloween party was masquerade, and everyone was free to interpret it as they wished. I decided to take inspiration from the masquerade balls of the Rococo era.

 {OP - Baby, the Stars Shine Bright / shoes - Minna Parikka / mask - souvenir from Venice / hair accessories - H&M, second hand, Ninja} 

Me, Lauren and Tiia matched each others outfits, as the source of inspiration was the same.

Sanni was just being gorgeous, as usual. 

Food. I arrived early to the party, so later on there was even more of it (each guest brought something yummy with them).

Here's everyone.

Okay, the proper pictures end here. From now on, it's phone quality and general sillyness. But may I just add that the party was so much fun, I can't remember when I last time laughed so much! Thank you, all you lovely ladies, for the wonderful evening. ♥