Red or White?

I recently realized I haven't had a chance to really rest since I moved. Every day I've either been at school or at work, or running errands, or cleaning up and unpacking my stuff. 

My muscles hurt so bad!

Last week was crazy in particular, and after work last night I went to my dad's and said I needed some wine asap. He gave me the whole bottle. So my plan for tonight is to sit at my desk, light a few candles, have a glass (or two) of wine and work on my writing. Sound good? Me thinks it sounds like heaven. <3

In the midst of all this madness, I wanted to share a few tips on how to keep your mind positive and stay happy though your life may not make a lot of sense. 

*Keep your friends close. Just because you're busy, you shouldn't ditch your friends. 

*Get out every once in a while! Don't bury yourself in homework or in my case, cleaning and unpacking. Make sure you get a breather and take care of yourself. 

*Subscribe to Notes from the Universe. Find out more HERE

My schedule eases up a little for the next couple of weeks, so I'm hoping I'll have more time to blog and do more fun things :) I wanna go see movies and hang out with friends, and just relax! Is that too much to ask? Sometimes it is, and that's ok. As long as I can have time for myself every day. Not all day every day, but even a little. 

And that glass of wine doesn't hurt, either. 

Mun elämä on ollut nyt sellasta hullunmyllyä tässä viime aikoina, etten ole saanut levättyä ollenkaan.  Lihakset kipeinä ja väsyneenä painelen menemään, mutta koitan pysyä positiivisena. Ja kun elämä potkii päähän ja persuksillekin vielä, niin haen iskältä lisää viiniä. 

I moved!

Guuuuyyss, it has been a crazy week! Sorry for being so quiet on the blog, but let me tell ya... moving sucks. Even if you're moving to a brand new, renovated apartment, it sucks. It really takes everything out of you, and it's known to be one of the most stressful things in a person's life. 

My moving process wasn't the easiest; at first I heard I wasn't going to have running water until October 6th (my moving day was October 1st). Well, my dad lives in the same building, so I can shower at his place and all. Fine. Then, the workers didn't finish my apartment on time, because someone forgot to tell them I was moving in despite the water issue. So after leaving my old apartment I spent the first night at my mom's, and the second at my brother's. Yesterday I finally moved in, even though there's no water and I can't really use my kitchen. But sleeping in my own bed is the best thing<3 And Monday is already so close, I'll have water and then my apartment is completely finished. And I can start unpacking. 

I hope you all have had a better week, a less stressful one at least. Today wasn't too bad, I got to go to IKEA with my mom ;) got a lot of nice (and necessary) things and I still have to order a home delivery for a couch and possibly a burrow. 

Any interest in seeing a home tour once it's finished? :)

Kaiken saakelinmoisen sekoilun jälkeen pääsin vihdoin muuttamaan. Juoksevaa vettä ei ole, mutta onneksi iskä asuu samassa rakennuksessa ja pääsen sen luo suihkuun ym. Muutto on kyllä yksi stressaavimmista asioista ikinä, ja on ollut rehellisesti sanottuna aika kamalaa :D vaikka onkin uusi ja vastaremontoitu asunto. 

Nojaa.. kyllä tää tästä. Kiinnostaako nähdä asunto kuvina kun on valmista? :)

Sometimes Life Sucks

Well, hello there! 

Above you see the main reason for my absence. That's right. My moving day is getting closer! I am excited and terrified at the same time. I''m stressed and a little tense, and my muscles hurt. But in a week this will all be over. And hopefully so worth everything. 

Besides moving I'm busy with school, so for the next few weeks I will be super busy. 

Right now I'm laying on my bed with a steaming hot cup of tea, watching Friends and just... hanging out. My couch was picked up today and I'm happy about that; I have all this extra space now to start piling up stuff that I've already packed. I'm being rebellious and skipping school tomorrow so that I can continue the packing, because I just love it so much. And I would only have 2 hours of math tomorrow.. so I'm forgiven, right?

No heipä hei!

Tuossa ylhäällä näette syyn poissaolooni.. Jep, muuttopäivä lähenee! Olen innoissani ja kauhuissani. Stressaantunut ja pinna kireällä, lihakset kipeenä. Mutta viikon päästä tämäkin on ohi, ja toivottavasti kaiken arvoista. 

Muuttamisen lisäksi koulun kanssa pitää kiirettä, joten muutaman seuraavan viikon aikana tulen olemaan todella kiireinen. Nyt makailen sängylläni kuuman teekupin kanssa katsellen Frendejä ja.. olen vain. Mun sohva haettiin tänään ja olen tyytyväinen siitä, koska nyt mulla on tuota ekstra tilaa mihin pinota pakattuja laatikoita. Huomenna oon kapinallinen ja lintsaan koulusta, että voin jatkaa pakkaamista, koska sehän nyt on niin ihanaa. Sitä paitsi huomenna olisi vaan pari tuntia matikkaa, joten lintsaaminen annettakoon anteeksi.

The Creative Process

It's been a while since I've talked about my favorite subject: writing. Sometimes I feel like my blog is the only place where I can really talk about it; unfortunately I have failed so far in surrounding myself with other people who write. Some of my friends ask about it every once in a while, but I tend to stop myself from talking after a while. Otherwise I will not shut up. Ever. 

The creative process is an interesting thing, and different for every person. What works for one writer, might not work for another, that's a given. Some like listening to music while they write, and speaking of that, make sure to check out this post by Kami McArthur. And listen to that playlist. Uh-mazing! 

Some write and write and write, and then rewrite everything. Nothing is ever good enough.

Some let their friends read their work as soon as one chapter is ready, and some never show their work to anyone. 

Most of us have a wide range of emotions and feelings when it comes to our work. I am loving, hating, liking, and resenting my writing. Sometimes all at once. It can be frustrating, but in the end, when I write something I don't want to erase, it's worth all of it. 

Tästä onkin aikaa, kun olen viimeksi puhunut lempiaiheestani: kirjoittamisesta. Joskus tuntuu, että tämä blogi on ainoa paikka missä voin puhua siitä; valitettavasti olen epäonnistunut haalimaan ympärilleni ihmisiä, jotka myös kirjoittavat. Jotkut ystävistäni kysyvät aiheesta silloin tällöin, mutta yleensä estän itseäni puhumasta liikaa. Muuten suutani ei saisi tukkoon. Ikinä. 

Luomisen prosessi on mielenkiintoinen asia, ja erilainen jokaisella. On selvää, että yhden kirjailijan keinot eivät välttämättä toimi toisella. Jotkut haluavat kuunnella musiikkia kirjoittaessaan, ja kun nyt siitä puhutaan, niin lukaiskaapa tämä postaus, jonka on kirjoittanut Kami McArthur. Ja kuunnelkaa se soittolista. Aivan mahtava!

Jotkut kirjoittavat ja kirjoittavat, ja sitten kirjoittavat saman uudestaan. Mikään ei ikinä riitä. 

Jotkut antavat ystäviensä lukea tekeleitään heti, kun yksi kappale on valmis, toiset taas eivät koskaan näytä töitään muille. 

Useimmat meistä kokevat laajan skaalan tunteita kirjoittamisesta. Minä rakastan, vihaan, pidän ja halveksun omia raapustuksiani. Joskus tunnen tätä kaikkea samaan aikaan. Se voi olla hyvin turhauttavaa, mutta loppujen lopuksi, kun saan aikaiseksi jotain, mitä en halua pyyhkiä, se on kaiken arvoista. 

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!

Nothing Is Happening

So far April has been kinda slow on the blog front, sorry about that. I've been studying, hanging out, and unfortunately I've also been suffering from some sort of a writer's block. Both with the blog and with my novel. It sucks, but who said life was perfect?

I finally got to put in a request for my summer vacation dates. I have a full 4-week vacation ahead of me this summer, and if all goes as planned, I get to have all those weeks together in a binge and start sometime in July. And naturally, I have some traveling planned ;) Can't wait to share with you guys, but it'll have to wait until the end of May/the beginning of June. At the moment even I don't know for sure what my destination will be. 

What else.. Did any of you lose Instagram followers due to the new update? I lost 91... and flipped until I realized it was for the best of course :D but still.. 209 looked a lot better than 118. 

Aaaaand... yeah, I told you April has been slow. There hasn't really been any significant changes or events in my life within the past couple of weeks, and that has drained my urge to blog a little. I do want to let you know that until next Wednesday I will be busier than usual, because I have to study for the entrance exams, but after the 23rd my life will get back to being pretty care-free and I can focus more on you guys :) 

Sorry for the boring post, but I had to write something. I hope your week will be smashing and I will get back to you asap! Love you! 

Technologically Challenged. Help Wanted.

One of the most frustrating things in my life right now is that my laptop is still not connecting to my wifi. Every time I try to connect, it says: connection timeout.

HELP ME!

I have rebooted my laptop, my internet modem; I have pulled all the plugs and put them back in, I have deleted the wifi from my computer and installed it again, and it still doesn't work. 

This is how I feel now :(

I hate to complain, because there are so much bigger problems in this world than my stupid wifi (which by the way works just fine on my phone and iPad!).

The biggest problem here is, that this problem is making my blogging very inconvenient. I have to connect the chord from the modem to my laptop in order for the internet to work, and my modem is located on the floor level right by my front door. There's no other possible place for it :(

Yes, I am sitting on the floor writing this. I hope you appreciate my posts even more now. 

So basically, this is why I'm not blogging every day. I really don't feel like sitting on the floor each night :( It sucks, I know, and I wish I could be more active, because I want to be. I just have to find a way to fix this problem, because it's driving me insane. 

If you happen to live in Finland and would like to come over and help me fix this, I will bake you a freakin' cake. 

Sorry I'm not more positive now. 

Other than this, I'm feeling good though :) yay!

Internet Down!

Hey guys!

I am so sorry for the lack of posts within the last week or so; now the reason is not my motivation (or the lack of it) but my stupid internet!! Or my laptop.. the thing is, my wifi works on my ipad and phone just well, but not on my laptop, and I don't know what's wrong with it. Sometimes I get a connection and then it gets cut off again. I don't like blogging with my ipad, so now I'm at my brother's and taking advantage of his wifi. I was supposed to bring my own laptop along, but forgot about it... so I can't even add any cool pics for this post now. Sorry!! :( 

I don't remember if I've told you guys, but I'm leaving for Germany on Friday and staying there until Monday. I'm staying with a close friend of mine and I can't wait to go; my life has been pretty stressful lately and I really need a few days to just calm down. Work has caused some anxiety along with other stuff, I feel like when one thing goes wrong, everything goes wrong. Damn snowball-effect. 

But I don't want to complain, I just wanted to let you guys know that I haven't forgotten about you and that I will get back to regular blogging asap! :) I will try to squeeze in at least one more post before I head out to Germany. So I will get back to you soon, hope you are all having a good week so far! :) 

<3

Sick Days and Cupcakes

Hey y'all :)

So I'll be off from work for another week because of my back, which I hurt again past weekend. Sucks royally. The pain, not the extra free time. In general I'm feeling good, but can't bend at all, and walking 300 feet takes about five minutes. I hope I'll be in good enough a condition next week, so I can return to work.

I hope to spend the following days doing something productive, like writing. Also, when I get back home (I'm taking advantage of my current state and crashing at my mom's) I'm planning on filming a video for you guys (again, since the first one turned out to be an epic fail).

Today, after visiting a doctor, I shopped for some goodies and later made some cupcakes!

They taste sooo good! I messed up the frosting in a couple of them, but all in all I'm happy I can make presentable looking cupcakes ;) kudos to me!

I hope y'all are having a good week so far, I'll get back to you soon!

<3

update

I am currently laying on my bed, resting my back, which still hasn't healed. It's a whole lot better, but I've still got some recovering to do. I'm back at work, but at home I try to take it easy. Sorry for not writing :/

Lately I've been consumed by a lot of other negative stuff, too. Nothing too serious, but sometimes I guess we just face trials that test our ability to stay positive. Positive thinking has been my way of surviving for a while now, but it's not always as easy as it sounds. But in the end, the good stuff outweighs the bad stuff :)

I guess you can tell I'm really in need of a vacation, huh? Two more months to go..!

This was just a quick update; I will write something worth reading later ;) Oh, and guess what the ef happened.. I filmed a video for you guys, and while I was editing it, it turned out that the voice isn't matching the video; they're not in sync and apparently there's nothing I can do to fix that.. so I'll just have to start all over again! And that I will do asap. Please, be patient with me :)

I'll talk to you later! xoxo

Inspiration!!!

Hi guys!!

Ah, I've been on constant blogging- and vlogging -mode for the last couple of days! You are yet to see the fruits of my labor, but I promise, I've been so active lately, yay! I have a whole list of ideas for videos (and I'm already working on the first one) and I've also been glued to my laptop and have been watching and following various YouTube Channels.

I hurt my back on Wednesday and am now just hanging out at home alone, at least until Sunday, and hopefully I'm able to return to work on Monday. Back pain is a b**ch, and it just sucks when you can't even drive a car because sitting up hurts soooo much. I am hoping to be in better shape soon, but this forced bed rest has given me a lot of time to think about stuff, so yay for productivity even when I'm sick!

I was perscriped two types of medicine, and my friend who was driving me around the other day, said that maybe when I'm all high with my pain meds I will get some inspiration and write my book. Hahaha, he was right, inspiration did strike!

This whole thing has taken away my appetite completely. Maybe it's just that all of my energy goes to getting better, so I'm not really consumed by regular things, like eating... haha, so weird, I don't know. But today I ate three pieces of bread in the morning and wasn't even hungry when I forced myself to eat a little more at 10pm. I'm just really not in the mood to eat right now. Maybe I'll end up losing a couple of pounds during this ordeal... oh well, there's always hope ;)

I truly hope you guys are doing better health wise, and I wish you a happy weekend :) Stay tuned!

-iira

Sometimes I feel like the Universe is messing with me.

Sometimes most of the time life just baffles me. The unpredictability of it. You never know what's going to happen tomorrow, you never know where you'll be a year from now. I didn't expect to be the way I am at 24, I didn't expect to be here at 24, I didn't expect... I don't really know what I expected. Something more, something less... Oh yeah, I expected to have a freakin' clue. 

The truth is, I don't think anyone's got it all figured out. Being content is one thing, but when you think about it, how many people are there who are totally and completely happy with the way their lives have turned out? I'm not unhappy, but could be doing better. Knowing I'll be stuck here this way for at least another year is both relaxing and tormenting. But seriously.. I need a way out. Rather sooner than later :) Don't think of me as a depressing person.. think of me as an adventurer who's resources to see the world are very limited right now. 

Writing gives me a great escape, which is one of the main reasons I want to blog. And I want to blog more regularly, but I'm going to need your help with that. I was thinking of topics the other night and here's what I came out:

The reason there's a "HAHA!" after hairdos, is that I suck big time when it comes to doing my hair. I can use a flat iron and a curling iron, but that's about it. I just wrote that down because it popped into my mind, and didn't really think it through. But I actually have a really nice hair! 

This is where you come in. What do you want to read about? (Or hear about? 'Cause the video is happening! Maybe even videos, as in plural!)  :)

What now

The fall is my favorite time of the year. It's when the weather cools down; it's not too hot and not too cold. It's perfect. Trees turn yellow, orange and red. It's a time for change, for new and exciting things. Or at least it used to be.

 

This fall I have nothing to look forward to, except for my pay day so that I can go and have my hair done. Last fall I traveled to Portland for three months. Two years ago I quit school and faced the exciting reality of a working girl. This fall I'm staying put. Same job, same everything. I think the fact that there's really nothing going on has killed my creativity. 

I feel powerless. What used to be my passion isn't natural to me now. Writing. Creating. Art. My life is too boring now. Some say it's a good thing, but I really do wish there was more action in my life. I would have more to tell you. But I guess writing about not being able to write like I used to is better than nothing? At least I'm writing. 

I wish it was December already. In December I get to step on a plane and visit my other home. 

Until then... I think I'll book that hair appointment first thing on Monday. 

Later, lovelies :)