Feel Good February: Go For A Walk

I'm not the most athletic person in this world. Seriously. I hate sports. I used to play soccer for a while when I was like 12, and also went to street dance classes for a while. But I've never been into physical activities.

But now I've decided to get more healthy and have started taking walks a few times a week. I actually think taking a walk is dead BORING, but there are ways to make them more interesting and fun!

*Listen to music while you walk

*Take a camera with you and take pictures :)

*Take someone with you and have a long, nice talk about whatever

*Make goals for yourself; if you see an interesting place on your way but don't have the time to go there right away, make a mental note to do it the next time, or make a decision to walk 5-10 minutes longer the next time around. 

*Simply take time for yourself and allow your thoughts flow free

Those things help; take it from someone who's very reluctant to taking walks in the first place. But I do it, because I know it's good for me and I know that afterwards I feel so much better. And you don't have to make it a marathon; I walk 20-30 minutes a day. Little time, but makes a lot of difference, I promise you. 

I hate snow, but it can be sooo pretty, don't you think? :)

So this marks the start of my Monthly Themes! Feel Good February is off to a promising start, and I am so excited to share my thoughts and tips with you all! Now, I know some of you are still in January, but here in Finland it's already past midnight, and it's officially February, so I decided to get started right away! 

Blog Transformation - Monthly Themes!

I have been thinking about new ways to improve this blog. I feel like it's about time I put more effort into this, because lately I've just been lacking motivation. What does it mean, when something you love isn't appealing? I hate that. I mean, I want to blog, but the amount of ideas: zero. So, I started brainstorming, and came up with something I think will bring more life to this little blog of mine, and hopefully will motivate me more, as well.

Monthly Themes!

I know, not exactly groundbreaking, and a lot of bloggers are doing this, BUT, I think it's an awesome idea, and will create a nice flow to a blog. I'm looking for continuity, and I think it will help me blog more regularly and hopefully more people will find my blog and subscribe! :)

I will announce the themes either in the beginning of each month or a few days before. I will focus roughly half of my posts around the theme of the month, because I don't wanna wear you guys out by writing only about one thing a month. 

Since it's the end of January, I want to announce the theme of next month! Ready?

*Feel Good February*

I hope you guys are as excited about this as I am!! Let me know in the comment section what you think, and pitch any ideas that pop into your head! :) Can't wait to get this thing started!

Have a great weekend everyone! :)

xxo,

iira

TAG: 15 Things You Don't Know About Me

Sometimes, no matter how much I want to blog and tell you guys stuff, it's just not coming out of me. I can't tell you how many posts I've started and then abandoned in the last couple of weeks. Well.. I don't know what happened :D writer's block? Laziness? Confusion about… everything? Life itself. Maybe.

But I want to blog about something. So, people, it's time for a TAG!

I love tags and have posted them, some much alike this one, but in this tag I'm not just going to be listing 15 random things about me. I'm going to try and find 15 things you don't know about me; things I'm not talking about in this blog. Ready? Let's go ;)

1. I broke my left wrist when I was seven.

2. I got glasses maybe… um.. four years ago? :D And I loved the fact that I had to get glasses. Mostly for reading, but I wore them all the time. And now I never do. I should, but I don't know. Maybe I'm feeling a little rebellious now. 

3. I have a bad habit of tearing my nails. I don't bite them, ever (ew, I don't get it!). Sometimes I let my nails grow and I actually love wearing nail polish, but can't that often (not allowed to wear it at work). And when my nails are long, I'm super aware of them all the time, and can't help but tear them short again at some point. 

4. I work at a hamburger restaurant and I'm a shift manager.

5. I watch Keeping Up With The Kardashians. I don't know why… I kinda like it!

6. When I drive alone, I sing a lot. But I never sing in the shower, I find it weird. 

7. I don't know how to make coffee. I really don't… It always turns out way too strong. I don't know how to make drinkable coffee!

8. I am crazy about jalapeños. 

9. I cry very easily.

10. I never played with actual dolls when I was a kid, I didn't like them. But Barbie dolls are different, and I played with them until I was eleven. 

11. I'm related to Pamela Andersson. 

12. I hate cherries in every form.

13. I would love to wear lipstick more often, but I don't like the shape of my lips. Hail vanity..

14. I've never seen the Godfather movies.

15. If I wasn't allergic to dogs, I would get a chihuahua. They are so damn cute!

It took me about two hours to do this… making lists is hard! You try. I dare ya ;)

New Look for the Blog!

Hi everyone!

What do you think of the new layout?? I am super excited about it; I wanted to create something girly, but not icky, something that would also be sophisticated and beautiful. Hopefully it'll compensate with the chaotic craziness that is my life :D

Anyways, let me know what you think, and don't forget to check out the new tabs I created!

xo
-i

Sudden Inspiration

Sometimes, pretty rarely, though, I get this rush of inspiration to write, and I do so immediately (or at my earliest convenience). These rushes have resulted to one short story, written in about 2 hours, a prologue for my novel that I'm currently working on, and most recently, I wrote 162 words for the same novel; a scene that's been troubling me. Now I finally knew how to write it.

But yeah, told you it doesn't happen that often. Three times so far. Of course I have an inspiration to write every day, but now I'm talking about something stronger. An urge to write now, right now, and knowing exactly what to write, without giving it that much thought. Does that ever happen to you? It's like the words were all there in your head, and then, click, all of a sudden they rearrange themselves and everything is clear. It's kind of frustrating… Once it happens, I want it to happen again and again. But I guess if it did, there would be no magic.

I have had a very loose week, but still very little time to write. I have read a lot, though, I had forgotten how much I enjoy it. I guess I'm still a bit confused after my vacation, even though I've been home for almost two weeks. I have made a firm decision to write more, and even cut my working hours. Not by much, because a girl's gotta eat, but I will have a couple more days off from now on. Yay!

I will try to do a post about everything I got from the US sooner than later. Also, I'm working on some changes for my blog, and one of them is the layout in Blogger. I'm in the process of changing it, so don't be surprised if it's different every time you check my blog :)

Have a great rest of the weekend!

Florida, vol 2

(If you haven't read the first part, make sure to check it out!) :)

From Georgia we drove to Jacksonville Beach and spent the night there. This was Christmas Eve, and the next day was supposed to be a relaxed day at the beach, since everything would be closed. But the weather wasn't exactly a beach weather, so we ended up driving all the way down to Cape Canaveral. I had really been looking forward to visiting the JFK Space Center, but we arrived too late for tickets. The area was open until 6pm, and we got there at 4.30pm. Needless to say, I was angry. 

Wish I could have explored! >:(

I still kinda feel that Christmas Day was just a waste of time on this trip, because we didn't accomplish anything. Except for mileage. I was feeling better about things the next day, and we continued on to Lake Worth and visited some friends who live there during winter time. That would be a dream… winters in Florida (or anywhere in the States for that matter) and summers in Finland. Or no Finland at all. That would work, too.

We did some shopping and had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Wish we had that restaurant here, their food and cheesecakes are so delicious!

On Friday we continued our Road Trip toward Key West! Definitely one of the most expected journeys on this trip, driving through the Keys. We made a stop in Islamorada, half way between Miami and Key West, because my brother and I had tickets to swim with the dolphins at Theater of the Sea. Swimming with dolphins has been a life-long dream of mine, but I've never had the chance to do it until now. It was an amazing experience! One of the reasons I chose to do it at Theater of the Sea, is that they take really good care of their animals and strive to give them as natural a habitat as possible. The animals aren't living in chlorinated pools indoors, they have great outdoors facilities with the water coming straight from the Ocean. 

Meet Skipper! He is 4 years old, one of the youngest dolphins at Theater of the Sea, and he was born there. Such a wonderful and playful creature!

Look at the pose he's giving! What a little show off ;)

We stopped for a bathroom break at a visitor center about 30 miles outside of Key West, and learned that every single hotel, motel and B&B had absolutely no vacancy. There were 3 rooms available, with rates $700 per night and up. It was also interesting to find out, that all the cheaper hotels/motels were disappearing from Key West, and it's been transformed into a more high-end destination. We saw an abandoned Days Inn when we got there. What kinda sucks, is that we had planned to spend the night, but had no idea that we got there on the busiest weekend of the year, of course right after Christmas. 50,000 people headed out there on the same day that we did (which explains the traffic) and another 50,000 were scheduled to arrive the next day on various cruise ships. So we drove to Key West, did a quick tour (the Southernmost point, Sloppy Joe's…) and headed back toward the main land. We tried a few hotels on the way, further away, but everything was booked full. Every single one. Let me tell you, driving to and from Key West the same day is no joy ride. Especially when you have to drive back at night time and can't see anything but tacky xmas lights. Ho Ho Ho!

It was 1am before we finally found a place that had two rooms available. Roughly 1000 feet from the Miami International Airport runway. AND.. the hotel was the kind that rents out rooms by the hour… But seriously, we were exhausted and there was no saying how long we would have had to look for another place with vacancy. On the plus side, this place was very clean and the location was perfect, since we were going to spend the last 3 nights there. And, a funny story to tell. 

In Miami, we explored the beach, the city, the shopping possibilities.. did a half day trip up to Sawgrass Mills and I'm telling you… I'm not that into shopping, but I could have spent the entire day there! 

I might do a separate post about stuff that I bought.. or even a Haul Video if I'm feeling up to it. Right now I'm sick and my voice sucks, so if I do make a video, it'll be a while x)

The last couple of days were more laid back and on Monday we flew back to Finland, via Spain. Only 2 flights, thank goodness. We flew Iberia, and the plane was freaking awesome, at least compared to the AA one we flew to Raleigh. 

I caught this stupid flu when we reached Madrid, but before I knew it, I was back home, dragging two suitcases + a full grocery bag up four flights of stairs (no elevator in my building, and I didn't want to do two trips). 

And that was my vacation. I left the bad stuff out, because what's the point in dwelling? 

Now I'm just waiting for my next vacation… ;)

Florida, vol 1.

On December 19th I was finally on vacation, and in serious need of it. We headed to the airport around 4.30am, and our flight to London departed at 8am. It was actually really nice to make a stop in London; I haven't been there in six years! Even though I couldn't leave the airport, it was nice. We flew right over Westminster and I saw London Eye, Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, Buckingham Palace and the Tower Bridge. Nice!

We stayed in London for a couple of hours until our connection flight to Raleigh, NC, took off. We flew American Airlines, and b to the w, I am totally boycotting that airline. I will never ever fly AA again, and it's not because the plane was, like, 20 years old with crappy seats, but because their service sucks. Mark my word. I won't even go into all the details on this, because it's a looooooooong story (seriously, it's long), but from now on, I'd rather fly Delta or something…

And I'll never fly three times a day from now on, either. Helsinki-London-Raleigh-Miami. We were all like zombies when we finally got to Florida around 10pm local time. We got our rental car and drove to the hotel, and slept like babies. 

The first day we drove to Everglades and visited an Alligator Farm, where we saw tons of baby gators and went to an airboat ride. That was so awesome! The thing was loud, but went 40 miles/h and did a full 360°, causing everyone in the front row, the tsunami zone, to get soaking wet. And the views in the swamp were straight from the movies, just perfect. We had so much fun that day :) 

From Everglades we proceeded to Fort Myers, a city in the west coast of Florida, and spent the night there. That was just a stop on our way to Tampa. The next day we drove the rest of the way and met my friend, Rachel, who had flown in from Washington, D.C to see us. We decided to spend the next night in Clearwater, and found a great motel right by the beach. 

Oh, and how gorgeous is Clearwater?! We LOVED it!

That same night my brother and I headed back to Tampa, because we had tickets to a hockey game. Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Carolina Hurricanes. I'd never seen a hockey game in my life, I'd never even been that into it, but this game… the atmosphere was unbelievable, and we had such a great time. It was just my brother and me, and this was the highlight of his trip, the true hockey fan in our family. And I had a pretty damn good time myself!

On Sunday, we visited the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, that's a home to the world-famous dolphin, Winter. If you haven't seen the movie Dolphin Tale, I truly recommend you watch it! Such an inspirational story. And Winter was adorable<3 

Rachel flew back to D.C on Sunday evening, and our gang drove to Orlando. My brother and I teamed up again on Monday, and visited The Universal Resort, with tickets both to Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios. I could have spent the entire time at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, because Harry Potter was my childhood, and stepping into Hogsmeade was like stepping inside the movies. I also really liked Jurassic Park and went to the water ride. Yes, I got wet. 

We ended the night at world's largest Hard Rock Cafe, and set out to leave the next morning. Only, we had some trouble opening our car doors; the remote didn't work. Eventually I opened the door old fashioned way with the key, and the next thing I knew, the car started making a honking noise. My brother jumped in and put the key in the ignition, stopping the honking, and got the car running. After that he got out of the car, slamming the door shut behind him, leaving us locked outside. When I had opened the door, it had only unlocked the driver's door, and afterwards I had jiggled with the lock-button that was inside the car, making all the doors lock again, so when my brother shut the door, there was no way back in. I called the rental company and they sent a guy who basically broke into the car and got the locks open. An hour later we were already on our way up north! 

We made a quick spin up to Georgia, just to say we've been to Georgia, and after that headed to the shore and back south again. I will continue in another post from here, since this has already turned out to be a very long post… Thanks, if you stuck with me for this long :)

Out with the old, in with the new!

Hiiiiiiiiii!

Peeps, it's January 1st, 2014. For an hour and a half more at least, here in Finland. I feel sort of disoriented and confused at the moment; I returned from my vacation yesterday, and am jet lagged + I caught a flu on our way back. It's surreal to think that two days ago I was in Miami, and now I'm here. Two days ago I was in warm and humid Florida, and now I'm in cold and dark Finland. Well, at least there's zero snow here, which was a pleasant welcoming gift :)

I will do a separate post about my vacation in the near future, once I get my head straight and pics uploaded. Now, since every other blogger in the world is doing so, I want to talk about 2013. I won't make an extensive post about every single detail of the past year, but will share some highlights with you! With that being said, let's get started!

2013:

*My dear friend from Germany visited me in Finland
*I visited her in Germany

*After promoting my blog on Instagram, I was invited to join Glipho and blog there, too. This was a major turning point and gave me a whole new perspective! Thank you, Glipho Team!

*I worked through the entire summer, which wasn't exactly ideal, but for a good cause ;)

*Despite working a lot, I got to spend a lot of time with friends

*I became more and more passionate about writing and working on my novel

*I made some new friends

*Some of my best friends moved abroad; again, not a highlight, but they're happy and that's what matters!

*I traveled to Florida. Here's a little sneak peek:

I managed to snap this awesome photo while in downtown Tampa. The lighting was just perfect!

Now I'm starting a new year. I never make any resolutions. I just hope things will look up and something exciting will happen. I'm fortunate to have experienced a lot in my life, but it has left me thirsting for more. So, I hope 2014 will bring something amazing to me, and to all of you. Make it your year<3

Here's an inspirational song I wanted to share before signing off. I will get back to you guys later! :)