Changes(?)

All right. I've been thinking, guys... Sweet Mother of Chaos needs some changes. 

"Why?" you may ask.

Well... changing it into something new and better not only improves my motivation but also (hopefully) raises the amount of readers. Also, I want to make the blog more suiting to my current lifestyle and to everything that's going on. My summer vacation is on in just a few weeks, and after it's over, I only have two weeks until I go back to school. Not having studied in three years, it's going to be a big change for me :) a good one, I hope.

I also want to change the name of this blog. Any suggestions? 

Whatever it will be, I want my name to be in it (even if it's just something like sweet mother of chaos by iira). SMOC has been a a lot of fun, and this blog ain't going nowhere, it's just going to be updated. I wanted to give you guys a heads up. Obviously, changes in the appearance of this blog only concern Blogger, and not Glipho. My readers in the latter will only notice changes in the content of the blog. 

I hope you're having a slammin' week so far. I'm in the middle of a long stretch of work, but it's all good. Been in an exceptionally good mood lately. I wonder if my upcoming vacation has something to do with that ;) 

Today I went to see Maleficent at long last, and I have to say, it was awesome! Not what I expected, much better. 

Talk to you later, lovelies :)

Where I've Been

Sooo.. You may or may not have noticed I've stayed away from the blogging world for a while now. 19 days to be exact. 

In case you're wondering, I've done so intentionally. Not that I had too many brilliant ideas for upcoming posts, but my lack of motivation did strike at a good time for once. To be honest, I grew a little tired of blogging, because I felt like nothing was happening. Let's face it; where's the fun when no one reads your blog or writes their own? 

I hate to rant, so I'll just leave it at that, and tell you what I've been up to in the past few weeks. 

Nothing too significant has happened. I know, right? Kinda boring. While not wanting to blog, I didn't really have a reason to, either. I did book bus tickets and hotels with my friend Minna, for our upcoming trip to London! That's always exciting and fun :) Only a little over a month to go! We are super excited and happy about that. 

I've also been visiting friends, went to see an apartment I will be moving in in the fall, have made some plans as to how I will decorate it, I've done some reading and watched a lot of Orange Is The New Black, The Nanny, and Disappeared. I made a little trip to Staples with my mom, to check out what I would need when school starts. I swear, Staples is my heaven. I LOVE office supplies. 

I can't say I've enjoyed summer, because the weather is nothing like summer... it's been very cold and rainy so far, and I can only hope it'll get better by the time my vacation starts, which is July 21st. I'm having a friend over from Germany, and I would love for her to see how lovely Finland can be in the summer :)

This week I've been sick, and spent a few days at my mom's new house in the country side. Even though the weather sucks, she still found wild strawberries from her yard :) so yummy! 

So yeah, that's what's happening. I'm still a little ill, running a little temperature and coughing. I'll return to work this Saturday, though, and can't wait to get back to some kinda routine. Tomorrow I'm getting together with some old co-workers and that ought to be a lot of fun! 

And what comes to my blog's future; I honestly have no idea. I'm sure I won't stop, I just love this too much. I'm excited to share certain things with you, and would love to get back to regular blogging, but right now I can't make any promises. While I love blogging, I also loved not having to stress about it for 19 days. 

If you're reading this, and happen to have good tips on blogging (ideas, how to not give up, etc.), then please leave a comment below. Love you all for reading, and still remaining in my list of followers. It means a lot. 

Hope you're all having a good week so far!

What Is Happening To Blogging?!

Usually when I post something new, my page views go up almost instantly. They've never been crazy high, but there's always been a little peak when I publish stuff. I loved that, and still do, of course. 

But lately nothing has been happening. I got three (3) page views the other day. Three. Hurray. I've always been very conscious about when I publish my posts; I try to find a time that serves as many time zones as possible as my stats show that I get views from many different countries. Even that doesn't help anymore. I've also noticed that the bloggers I follow are not as active as they used to be. 

So what's wrong?

Is this just a phase? 

Does this have something to do with summer starting and people spending more time outside?

Or has blogging taken a serious hit with no chances for recovery?

What do you guys think?

You probably know I post stuff in both Blogger and Glipho, and I've definitely noticed the change in both platforms. No one is reading other people's stories, no one is commenting or liking anything. At best, my feed shows five new posts a week, and that's not a lot considering the amount of bloggers I follow. It seems only the already popular bloggers survive. It can be very tough to gain followers nowadays. Especially when people don't seem to be reading anything anymore. 

I gotta tell you, it takes the fun out of doing this. What's the point in writing a blog when there's no one to read it? If I want to write just for myself, I can do so privately. And I do. But my blog has always been for you guys, too. That's why it's so sad that blogging doesn't interest people anymore.

Should I just embrace this and move on to vlogging? I'm not so natural in front of the camera, so there's a chance you'd get a good laugh.
I will continue blogging for now, just for the heck of it. I don't think I could quit cold turkey.

Anyways, if there are people reading this, leave me a comment telling me what you think is the future of blogging. Tell me I'm wrong, tell me I'm right, curse, write in capital letters, express yourself in whatever words you choose. At this point any feedback is more than appreciated.

Talk to you peeps later!

March Favorites

I am very happy to leave March behind, not because it was a bad month (it was a good month!), but because April just feels so much more like spring and I am just getting more and more excited about summer and everything that comes with it!

But before we move on, it's time to look back to some of my favorites from last month!

Fashion, Make-up & Beauty

1. The bag I bought... It's just unreal that I own it, and I love it so much. I even did something I swore I would never do; I named her. OMG, right?! Please, don't judge me, I'm a very rational person. Who has a purse named Bessie. 

2. My friends brought me this moisturizer from the Canary Islands and I just love it! It leaves the skin soft and smells really good, too!

3. I have used Maybelline's Dream Matte Mousse for years and I still do! I ran out of it in the beginning of this year and since I had just gotten a BB-cream from Garnier, I used that for a while, but when I got to Germany, I bought myself a new Matte Mousse. It's half the price in Germany! I don't really mind paying more for it in Finland, because that one jar lasts me for a year. Love the stuff!

Food

1. A delicious lunch at Vapiano in Helsinki; tagliatelle pasta with creamy chicken sauce. 

2. Awesome bruschetta at an Italian restaurant called Controvento in Tallinn, Estonia.

3. My new love: roasted sunflower seeds. I emptied the bag into this air tight container and keep it in my purse, so that I'll have these to snack whenever I feel like it! They're so yummy :)

Music

Ellie Goulding - Figure 8

                                          

Christina Perri - I Don't Wanna Break

Movies & TV

1. How I Met Your Mother. SPOILER ALERT! DO NOT READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS IN THE LAST EPISODE! I cried throughout the entire last episode, I'm not even kidding. When they said goodbye at the wedding, when Robin and Lily talked at the empty apartment at Halloween, when Barney met his daughter, when Ted married Tracy, when it turned out she was dead all along, and when Ted showed up at Robin's with the french horn. I cried. It was a beautiful ending to this show, and even though I'm not completely happy with the Mother dying, I'm happy the show's ending was realistic. Sometimes life just doesn't go the way we plan.

2. Revolution. This show just keeps on getting better by the episode! I really hope we get a 3rd season. And I'm all about Miles and Rachel! 

3. Pretty Little Liars. AGAIN, SPOILER ALERT! Ezra being A was too obvious, I'm happy he wasn't. Although it was not nice what he did. But the season finale was soooooo thrilling! I admit, I teared up when Ezra got shot, and I nearly screamed when A got away yet again. I don't think I've ever been this addicted to a TV show! Who do you think A is??? Jason is probably my no.1 suspect at the moment. 

Traveling

Went to Estonia for a day with my friend! Read more about our trip here.

Social Media

I import my posts from Blogger to Glipho, and I just love it! Find my profile on glipho here. Join! 

I hope you liked this edition of the Monthly Favorites; I had the hardest time ever to make those collages. I'm just not good with this stuff! :D Haha, but yeah, it does safe space and looks better, so from now on I will be collaging these pictures. 

What are your March Favorites?

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! :)

Glipho

Ok, let's take a moment to talk about an awesome website, that's become very important to me in a very short period of time. I am sorry, Blogger, but I'm kinda cheating on you... with Glipho. 

For those of you, who don't know, Glipho, "the social publishing engine", is a blogging website that makes blogging very simple, and helps you reach more readers. Here's what they say:

Thanks to the internet, everyone has the potential to be a writer publishing their thoughts. Glipho pushes that potential even further.

We are a publishing engine where the content is ranked and highlighted by our users. Come and read what you care about, from other writers just like yourself. Choose the topics and writers that appeal to you and then follow them.

We want to be the network where you publish your words and express your views. The place which helps you take advantage of all the other networks to create better content, and where you can reach and interact with an even bigger audience.

Glipho’s concept is really easy, sign up and start writing straight away. Import your old content so it can be read for the first time again. Discover and be discovered by other users and the best thing of all, interact. Interact with the content, with your readers, with other writers, on Glipho, on Twitter …. everywhere.

Pretty great, huh? :) 

I got a comment from the Glipho team on Instagram, asking me to join, after promoting this blog. I checked out the site, liked and joined. Glipho really makes things easy; with a few clicks I could import my blog texts from Blogger to Glipho, and it's what I still keep doing. And in Glipho you don't have to worry about what theme to choose for your page. There's only one. It's what I love about Glipho; it's just about the writing. No distractions. And let me tell you, it's a lot easier to gain followers than on Blogger. A freaking bestselling author is following ME on Glipho! How cool is that?! 

Now, this isn't me badmouthing Blogger. I'm still here, aren't I? Blogger is where I started in the first place, and that alone gives it sentimental value. For now, I am writing on Blogger and importing my writing to Glipho. In the future, it's very possible that I will switch completely to Glipho, especially if things won't pick up here. 

You can check out my Glipho -profile at

http://glipho.com/iira-maria

Hope you like it :)

-i