See Beauty in Every Day

I am sitting on the floor, eating mini marshmallows and drinking milk. 

I'm listening to Taylor Swift. 

I'm browsing We Heart It. 

I'm scratching my head, because my ponytail is too tight.

I'm thinking I really love blogging.

I'm thinking I really love being creative.

I'm dreaming of buying something I've wanted ever since I was a little girl.

I'm dreaming of traveling this summer. 

I'm dreaming of writing.

I'm reading instructions on how to register for an entrance exam at a school I applied to.

I'm reading news, and wondering if they'll ever find that plane.

I'm reading e-mails and blogs I follow.

You can fit a lot in just a few minutes. 

You can fit a lifetime in just a few minutes. 

Sometimes it's hard to grasp everything that comes in our way. Sometimes everything is just too much. 

Every once in a while it's good to stop for a second and take a deep breath. 

Tell yourself: I am OK. 

Then smile. 

Have a beautiful week, everyone <3

Pictures from We Heart It. 

To Write.

I just realized I haven't talked to you guys about writing in a loo-ooong time! Boo! On the other hand, it's impressive how long I've been able to keep my mouth shut about my favorite subject. 

Usually, when I'm not writing, I'm thinking about writing. If I'm not consumed by my own issues, I'm trying to solve my characters issues. The worlds and people I've created in my head take up a lot of room in my life, and I think that's how it should be for anyone who wants to be a serious writer and make a living out of writing. 

I also think sometimes it's good to know how to let go for a while.

Within the past month or so I've been stressing about work a lot, and let me tell you, my work isn't exactly the kind that's worth stressing about. It's not something I have to take home with me, which is great. Yet, certain changes at work have really gotten under my skin and I hate the feeling. Going to work didn't used to bother me so much, now on certain days it bothers me a lot. I can't go into details on this one, so I'm sorry for the vague description of my situation. Just know that I am planning on switching jobs after summer. Why not now? Because I have a full vacation of four weeks ahead of me, and if I quit now, I won't have any vacation at all (unless I'd be completely unemployed, lol).

Man, I wish I had a pink typewriter.

Anyway, my point in telling you all that is that due to stress and all my writing has suffered. My constant thinking of writing has suffered and I need to get back on track. I'm glad to notice that I have gradually started to ponder about my novel on a daily basis again, and now I just need to get back into the writing mode. Any tips? 

Well, motivation isn't the issue anymore. I'm thrilled to get back in business! :)

Have a jolly weekend, everyone!

Seriously, that typewriter, though...

Make It Happen March: An Exciting Announcement!

Hey, guys! 

So, in the spirit of making things happen and setting things in motion I've been dying to tell you about this exciting opportunity that has presented itself to me recently!

I was contacted by the lovely Ariadna, a.k.a The Always Believer, and she asked me to share my story on her page. 

Here's some information about the #GoDoFly -movement:

#GoDoFly is all about encouraging yourself, getting on track, making changes in your life to fulfill your dreams. It is also about helping others, telling the people you love and kind strangers to #GoDoFly.

This movement is to help people who need to hear the message loud and proud. #GoDoFly! To stand up for yourself, to be your own hero, to work hard for your goals,to be yourself and much more things people need to hear. We participate with true stories around the world, telling tales of overcoming obstacles and lending a helping hand to a friend too.

I was so flattered and excited to have Ariadna contact me, and my story will be out some time in April. I will definitely let you know when it happens! <3

Make sure to check out http://thealwaysbeliever.com! 

Also, if you want to participate, you will find all the necessary information on that site. 

Hope you are all having a great week so far! I think I'm coming down on something, a flu maybe, but won't let it crush my spirit! I'm soooooooo thrilled about all of this! 

February Favorites

A little late with the favorites, but better late than never, right? :) 

Let's get started!

MAKE UP & BEAUTY

Haha, don't mind my reddish eyes. This picture was taken soon after waking up. My absolute favorites for February are my eye lash extensions, which I already talked about on this post, and the Garnier BB-cream that I bought on sale. It smooths the skin and corrects little faults; I don't think it's as efficient as a foundation would be, but I feel it's more gentle and light as it also serves as a moisturizer. 

MOVIES & TV

Besides my regular shows, I also started watching 30 Rock on Netflix. I watched the show when it first aired years ago, but then stopped, who knows why… Anyway, brilliant cast, brilliant writing. Such great entertainment! 

My mom told me Under the Dome the TV-show is nothing like the book, and now I'm just compelled to read the book, even though it's a freaking brick (do you guys use that expression on big, heavy books? We do lol!)

Anyways, I still loved the show and ended up watching the entire first season within a few days. Can't wait for the second season! If you guys have been watching this, too, what do you think??

MUSIC

Lucy Hale - You Sound Good To Me

Taylor Swift -  Our Song

It was all about country music last month! My fav genre :)

TRAVELING

I went to Germany for a few days! Read more about my trip here. <3

SOCIAL MEDIA

I hit 200 followers on Instagram! Yaaaaayyy! Go follow me :) Instagram is becoming my favorite social media site; I love the simplicity of it. Link me your Instagram-site and I will go check them out!

Somewhat shorter favorites-list this time, but oh well, hope you enjoyed it anyway!

I will get back to y'all later! Thanks for reading! 

Make It Happen March: Let's Talk About Goals

Spring is here! :) I am so thrilled about it. The thing is, weather's been acting super weird this year, and usually around this time of the year we still have a ton of snow and it's cold, but there's hardly any snow, the temperature's above zero and… yeah, we even have sunny days every now and then ;)

Today was the first day that I put on this pair of Converse, the first day this year that I left my winter shoes inside and decided to wear something lighter! Little things make me happy :) Oh, what do you think of the bag? I just got it from Germany and love how it matches with my shoes. Looooove pink!

Anyways, I wanted to talk about goals today. I feel like sometimes it's really hard to set firm goals, whether they're short or long term goals. And achieving them can be even harder. This is why I rarely announce my goals out loud. The less people know, the less humiliating it is if I don't make it. Others find telling people motivating - the more people know, the more they want to be true to their word. 

However, I have a few goals I would like to share with y'all. These aren't something I can achieve within a month, but am definitely setting things in motion asap.

*Switching jobs this year (most likely not before the fall; I will have a full four-week summer vacation this year, which is kind of a big motivator right now, and I don't want to switch until I've had the chance to enjoy that.)

*Finish the first draft of my book (I'm not setting a time limit here, because lately I've noticed how irregular my life is, work schedule and all. All I can do is my best, and hope that it gets me somewhere.)

*Travel some (just waiting to get my official vacation dates so I can book the flights)

It's good to have goals; having something to work for, something to look forward to, is vital. What are your goals? Short or long term? :) Let me know!

One more thing: I now have 91 followers on Glipho and 10 on Blogger. One of them follows me on both platforms, so that means that I have

100 followers.

This might not be a big thing to many of you, but to me it is huge. To have 100+ people reading my blog is something I value more than you'll ever know. 

Thank you so much!

<3

Extended Weekend in Germany

After our trip to the States in December I didn't really feel relaxed at all, and was in desperate need of another vacation. ASAP. Do I sound vain or something? Oh well… I needed to reset and have fun and so I started making plans with my friend S, whom I met in Portland in the fall of 2012. She and I had such a great time there, and after Portland I visited S in Germany and she visited me in Finland. 

I was so excited to have the chance to visit her again this year :) 

I flew to Bremen on Friday the 28th and S picked me up from the airport. After not seeing each other for… 10 months, it was a very happy reunion. We do actually see each other almost every week through Skype, but of course it's not the same. 

We had a pretty relaxed day, and had a great dinner at an American restaurant with a bunch of friends. I can't remember the last time I spent three or four hours at a restaurant, it was so nice and relaxed; just what I needed. 

A friend of mine, with whom I'd grown up together, surprisingly moved to Germany in December, and only an hour away from S, so on Saturday we headed to his place and ended up exploring Osnabrück. 

It was a rainy day and the carnival was in town, so it was busy and a lot of commotion pretty much everywhere. After walking around downtown for a while we headed to IKEA to get some stuff for M's new apartment, and afterwards had a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant. All in all we had a very good day and it was great seeing my friend after two months. 

On Sunday S took me to a lovely town called Bad Zwischenahn. The day was sunny and the shops were open, so the place was buzzing with people. The town is located by a lake and looked like a postcard, so pretty :) 

These aren't sold in Finland, which, come to think of it, is probably a good thing. 

We went to a grocery store to pick up some goodies for the night, because we planned on staying up all night and watch the Oscars! And that we did :) Only, we didn't eat anything we bought. Seriously, I had like three pieces of chocolate throughout the entire night. Just didn't feel like eating, which is weiiiird.

After the Oscars (by the way, how awesome was Ellen DeGeneres??? She deserves an Oscar for best host!) S took me to the airport. My visit was short but wonderful, and even though I was half dead having not slept at all, I was happy I'd gotten to spend time with my friends. Even short vacations can make you feel so much better and this one certainly did. Yay :) I'm so lucky to have such great friends!

<3

And now I'll just wait until I can put in a request for my summer vacation. Then I'll start looking into flights a little further away. 

It's always nice to have something to look forward to!

Thanks for reading!

Make It Happen March: Say Yes!

I themed this month Make It Happen March, which I already stated in my previous post and how you can see from the title. I am trying to get more inspired about everything in my life and want to be able to inspire others, too :) I hope you guys will enjoy these posts!

So. Make what happen?

Anything. 

I am a huge procrastinator and that's a quality I would very much like to get rid of. This month, and in the future too, of course, I would like to make myself more active and do things when I have the chance, and not two days later, two months later or never. I'm not trying to change my personality here, because to be honest, I'm a total scatter brain and somewhat of an artistic character. Doing things when I feel like has always been kind of a thing of mine, but I really want to establish a line between being a procrastinator and being lazy. Does that make any sense to you? I guess I'm more lazy than a procrastinator. I don't think the two of them are the same thing, because sometimes you just don't have time for something and you have to do it later, and laziness is just unwillingness to do something you really could do right now. Right? :D 

So pick up those clothes from the floor. Paint that wall. Clean that garage. Take initiative. Participate. Be awesome :)

And for me: BLOG! This week I will be posting the following:

*February Favorites

*My trip to Germany

*Another Make It Happen March thaang. 

Let's make things happen, people! :)