Sini Puu

Blog Move!

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:42:17 GMT

I've created a new blog like I mentioned earlier

Click here to read it!

I won't be writing in this journal anymore, but I will be using it to keep track of you guys and commenting and such :)

I'm also closing down my etsy store and have opened up a new one. There's nothing in the new store yet but if you read my blog I'll update you on when I do list new items :D

China photos!

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 13:57:58 GMT

So finally I got around to upping my photos! But I don't really have time to sit down and write a lengthy post detailing what I did so hopefully you'll get an idea by viewing my photos on my flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/7124925@N02/ I've also got some pics from Hong Kong, not many though and mostly just from Disneyland. I only had one full day and an evening in HK so my friend and I just hit Disneyland and then shopped til we dropped (quite literally, our feet were so sore by the end of the day we could hardly walk back to the hotel!).

A shoutout to Jamie: HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!!! I was so ready to congratulate you for the day but then it went by and I realised I had forgotten D:

So what am I doing?
- Uni work to my ears. As most of you know (I think) it's my last semester of uni so I'm working extra hard to create really great pieces to put into my portfolio. I'm so proud I actually do homework every single day, before it used to be maybe a couple of days a week quickly finishing something in one day! So it would yield some pretty terrible work...but now I'm producing stuff I'm actually proud of and hopefully will land me a job at the end of the semester! I'll post my stuff soon, I'm thinking of moving my journal to blogspot so it looks a little more professional and only have illustration related stuff there. So I may still post here or I might not, but I will let you know what happens :)

- Researching about setting up a business! I applied for a business number today yay :D It's hard trying to get my head around all the technical things, I feel so stupid sometimes not understanding. I'll be applying to do a craft market in November so I must get moving and start sewing up some cushions. I also plan to do some screen printed cards, must order the screen printer stuff soon! And there's another market I'm thinking about applying for in December so I will be busy for the rest of the year. Hopefully I'll make enough money so I can get myself an awesome printer to do art prints :D I've mentioned before that I made stuff for an anime convention, I was thinking of doing it again but I've finally decided not to do it. I'm not really interested in anime anymore and it just would be a waste of my time to make fan related stuff rather than focusing on my own business with original goods.

- Met up with fellow etsy people in Perth on Saturday! See photos in Amanda's blog http://blogs.oddsocks.net/ahunt/2008/08/24/etsy-wa-meetup/
We went to see Liza's work at the exhibition called Art in Bloom at the art gallery. All the pieces incorporated flowers (real or created), they were quite interesting to look at. It was really great chatting to a bunch of like minded people :) I'll be seeing the girls again Wednesday night for an opening of a new store selling things like blank matroishkas (sp?), Qee dolls and they also provide printing onto fabric services!!!! I'm quite excited about that and will enquire if they would do large lengths of fabric :D

Wardrobe remix

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 10:50:48 GMT

Sweater: vintage 80's
Shirt: Cotton On
Necklace/Watch: from Finland
Shorts: Dotti
Leggings: Sportsgirl
Socks: Myer
Boots: K-Kenka

Details

My wrist watch broke down a couple months ago so I've been using this, it's actually my mom's but she doesn't like it (was a present from her family). The jumper is actually my mom's too lol it even has a matching long skirt! The skirt is really nice but it's a bit tight on me at the moment :P Maybe one day I'll be skinny enough to wear it again!

I looooooooove these boots. I got them when I went to Finland it was love at first sight *swoons*. Seriously you can't buy boots like this here in Perth.

Wardrobe remix

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 12:52:48 GMT

Shirt: Cotton On
Scarf: H&M
Skirt: some random cheap store
Leggings: Sportsgirl
Boots: Born
Bag: from China

Hehe haven't done one these for a while :P

RE previous post: thanks for the comments and advice, I found creative suite on ebay for cheap so hopefully I can buy that fingers crossed!

Oh my God

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:07:51 GMT

Well I'm back from China and I have tons of photos to show but one problem...my computer died just before I left and I have a new one now but I can't get any of my software to work on it cos I need serial numbers. I tried finding cracks/keygens but they don't work, instead filling my poor new computer with trojans and viruses I am such a stupid stupid girl. I've done it before and never had problems but this time nothing will work so I don't have any photoshop etc!

If anyone can help me out and get me serial numbers for photoshop, indesign, illustrator CS2 I would be eternally grateful. I don't have the money to buy the real thing and I really need these programs (especially photoshop) to do my stuff at uni. Whoever can help me I'll do/make something for you in exchange!!! If I don't get these programs I'll have to stay at uni after hours all the time which would suck big time because I live over an hour away from uni D:

Yay!

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 05:19:53 GMT

I just got back from seeing the doctor and I can go to China!!! So I'll be leaving at 1am Thursday (geez so early) and will be back Tuesday 22nd July at 11:50pm :)

Now to get all my things together and figure out what to take with me D:

WIP

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 08:36:16 GMT

Some little paintings I'm doing to eventually put up into the shop :D I found these coasters at the art shop which are very fun to paint on, I was initially looking for little canvases but I couldn't find what I exactly wanted (plus they were more expensive :P).

Some assignment work

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 12:20:37 GMT

I haven't posted anything I've done for uni, so now that the semester is over (thank god!) Here are the good ones :P I did lots of other stuff which is either a)irrelevant or b)horrible

I had to create a double page spread illustration from a children's book. I chose "Amy at the Bakery", one of my favourite books as a child. In this scene they are all running down the street, took me ages trying to get the running right as well as the placement of Amy and the pram :P
Medium - ink
Now that I look at it more, parts of it is wonky and needs fixing :P

This one I had to create an illustration to accompany a poem about circus elephants - how they 'hold hands' by holding each other's tails.
The colours ended up darker than I wanted but since I had to do this in a day (I had so many assignments that this one ended up being shunted to the side too much!) I couldn't be bothered to fix it, I would have run out of time otherwise :P
Mediums - acrylics, colour pencil
I quite like this one :D unfortunately I only got 80% D: it's always my lack of research and development that let me down. Must try to do more of it next semester!!

This is for an ad for a fabric softener. The clouds are meant to be a metaphor for how soft it makes fabrics.
Man, this baby came out so darn cute :DDDD I just want to pinch it's cheeks XD

this made me laugh

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 08:42:35 GMT

'What will your obituary say?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Eurovision 2008

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 09:45:43 GMT

Ok so I'm real late on my reporting on Eurovision 2008. I taped the final and I only got around to watching it today since my mom wanted to watch it too and she's always busy. I was so annoyed that Russia won!!! They weren't horrible but they weren't all that good either D: And a lot of other crap came higher than not so crap ones....

So I made my own ranking for Eurovision 2008 :D (I've finished most of my assignments so I have free time haha)

The number in brackets is the actual ranking

1.(9) Israel - omg loved it so beautiful *3*
2.(7) Turkey - the way he sang reminded me a bit of L'arc en ciel
3.(17) Albania - really liked the way she sang
4.(8) Azerbaijan - I called this one the Gay Angel, he was so awesome I'd totally marry him
5.(14) Iceland - anyone else think this sounds like a Gay Anthem?
6.(15) Denmark - such a happy sounding song, also liked his suspenders :D
7.(10) Bosnia and Herzegovina - weird performance awesome song
8.(11) Georgia - I liked how they ripped her clothes off
9.(2) Ukraine - I have had this song stuck in my head for the past few days. Also the blonde dancer was SUPER short
10.(4) Armenia - QUELE QUELE!!!
11.(22) Finland - seriously not being biased cos it's one of my home countries, but they weren't that bad!
12.(25) UK - also weren't that bad, I think Europe just hates Britain
13.(16) Spain - lol funny song
14.(1) Russia - it was ok but definitely not number one
15.(19) France - another weird song but interesting
16.(5) Norway - I thought this was pretty average, nothing special
17.(6) Serbia - meh
18.(20) Romania - if that woman wasn't singing in the song, it would be so much better
19.(18) Sweden - the woman who sang this has had waaaaay too much plastic surgey she looks horrible!!!
20.(24) Poland - meh
21.(13) Portugal - didn't like her singing, not a very interesting song
22.(12) Latvia - wtf singing about pirates?? I have friends who I bet would like this but I'm just going to say BAD TASTE
23.(3) Greece - why the hell do people like this song??? Not very original and bland
24.(21) Croatia - stupid old men
25.(23) Germany - uninteresting song and they couldn't sing very well either :P

I bet no one cares about my opinion cos I don't think many people on my friends list even watch Eurovision! But oh well, it's here for my reference :D But I know you watched it Katie! Gimme your version if you can be bothered XD

Illustration Friday "Electricity"

Wed, 14 May 2008 21:17:41 GMT

This is what love should be like :)

House Warming

Wed, 14 May 2008 21:15:39 GMT

I made this for someone's house warming...which I didn't end up going to! I can't drive and I didn't have anyone to get a lift from so I wasn't able to get there :P Oh well maybe one day she'll get the drawing DX

Illustration Friday "Seed"

Fri, 09 May 2008 01:06:11 GMT

Illustration Friday "Seed"

Teen meme

Thu, 08 May 2008 06:55:34 GMT

I've seen this meme a few times and thought to do it....except I haven't really changed since I was a teen! I'm so boring I never went through phases of goth or punk or slut etc. At the start of highschool I had no style and it took me a while to learn (my highschool had no uniform so I had to learn quick!). I remember no one wore kids clothes, they wore more 'grown up' stuff and looked trendy...and there I was in my farmer girl shirt lol I wasn't even one of those arty students who wore cool outfits! I just wore jeans and a tshirt in my later years. Although now that I think about it I went through a phase of doing crazy hairstyles every day when I was about 14 I think. But that's about as different as I got :P I bet you once I'm 33 I'll STILL look the same :D

Ergh

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 22:31:36 GMT

Bad pains equal vomity feeling....I'd stay at home but I have to hand in an assignment today D: I want to go back to sleep please

Happy Easter

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 11:56:48 GMT

I hope you guys are having/had a nice Easter, I ate lots of chocolate and now my stomach hates me DX

This picture was originally going to be an egg air balloon but I kept screwing up the basket and the bunny to go in the basket so it's just an egg :P My Photoshop skills are so nonexistant.

My new kitty Nöpö

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 03:06:49 GMT

A couple weeks back I got a new kitten! Since my previous cat died last year it's been lonely without a cat around. Sure we have another cat Ruskea, but he's not very affectionate and is always outside somewhere or if he is inside he is in my dad's teaching room (it's horrible, ever since me and my mom went to Finland, Ruskea has become my dad's cat DX). And we figured Ruskea might need some kitty company so we got a kitten from the cat haven! She was initially named "Poopsie" can you believe it...she's not even the colour of poop so why would they call her that?? She had diarrhea a day after she came ;_; so we took her back and they gave her more worming and we are feeding her low residue food and some antibiotics and now she is making awesome pitch black ginormous poos :DDD She only poos about once a day or every second day lol.

Nöpö is one crazy kitty though...since I don't remember having my cat as a kitten (I was only 6 at the time) I don't really have a good idea of what to expect from kittens. Well I can tell you that they are MENTAL! They get into everything and climb everything. Nöpö has taken to running at the door and then climbing the fly screen. Also wedging herself between the sliding glass door and the fly screen. I have so many scratches from her leaping at me and hanging onto my skin with her claws. But despite her being really annoying, she is very cute especially when she is asleep lol. She's a real lap kitty and is always touchy feely. She likes to kneed you like dough, I have a polar bear stuffed toy from Finland and she loves to kneed it, I think cos the bear is really soft.

Oh and another annoying thing, she is obsessed with food. She will tip over the rubbish bin (we will have to get one of those heavy ones with a lid!) and climb onto the dining table and try to eat your food. I hope she'll grow out of this...

Sorry I have been so postless lately DX My scanner has been acting up and won't work on my computer, only on the other one and I can't be stuffed to use the other computer it is so damn slow! But I haven't done anything interesting art-wise and nothing craft-wise D: I have a week off from uni so maybe I'll get something done during that time...I have lots of uni work to do as well so we will see :D

Finland Part Two

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 07:05:23 GMT

So we were on our long (about 9 hours I think) train ride down south to our destination Mantyharju where my cousin Heidi and her family lives. The train ride was sooo long and boring cos after a couple hours it became dark and I couldn't see anything outside. BUT we had bought some food - dark rye bread (OMG the best food to come out of Finland truly! I wish we could get ruisleipa here in Australia ;_;), lactose free cheese and some chocolate :D. I think we changed trains once which was a bit of an ordeal, what with getting our suitcases down (we managed quite well) and dragging them to the next train. We were met at the Mantyharju train station by my cousin's (very handsome :D) husband Janne. It was a bit of a drive back to their place - they live in quite a rural area, very pretty lots of trees everywhere! There was very very little snow in this area, only a light dusting in some areas but most had melted away from the rain :(. Janne had brought their son Valtteri along but he was asleep. He's 5 years old and so cute! He always looked so huge and photos but in reality he's not that ginormous :D. When we arrived at their house (which is really big and beautiful!) their almost 2 year old daughter Vilya was still awake! Mine you it was about 11pm lol She had been excited to see us and was full of energy! It was so nice to finally meet my cousin Heidi XD I had written letters with her younger sister Tiina for a long time and now finally being able to meet them was just surreal! Heidi is so nice and natural and also soooo pretty! We had dinner and then Janne took us to their summer cottage where we would sleep at night.

Isn't it just gorgeous! I love how it's blue :D

This is their other summer cottage. The above cottage they rent out to holiday people and this one is the one that they use during the summer. It's ridiculoulsy cute, like something from Moomin!

Lake next to cottages :D

The cottage was really hot because they had put the heaters on full blast so my mom decided she would open the window. These windows don't have fly screens so we had a little visitor during the night. I heard rustling around my open suitcase during the night but I was so tired I just went back to sleep. In the morning my mom told me that a mouse had gotten in through the window! She had even seen it at one point. We looked through our stuff to see if anything was damaged and I discovered that it had gone into a little plastic bag in my suitcase and eaten 2 whole small chocolate bars! These chocolates were for my other cousin's kids. It had also chewed a hole into a bag of potato chips we had bought in Rovaniemi. I wonder if that mouse died somewhere lol But during our whole stay there we heard all these scurrying sounds in the roof and between the walls! Either it was the same mouse or another one! Towards the end of the stay the rustlings became slower and more drawn out and sounded really creepy. I know it's only a mouse but it sounded awful and made me freak out. The mouse was probably dying or something!

During our stay my other uncle, Paavo came with his wife Arja (the parents of Heidi) and at Christmas Janne's parents came as well. Christmas was so wonderful! In Australia Christmas is always hot and never feels real because ever since I was little I've always associated Xmas with cold and snow like in picture books. Also in Australia it's just me, my mom and my sister (my dad doesn't participate) so it's kinda lonely and crap. But finally I was able to have a real Xmas although there was no snow :P The feast was huge and delicious and it was so lovely to have family around (even though I couldn't understand what they were saying! Only Heidi, Janne, Tiina and her bf Petteri could speak English). Even Santa came and gave the kids presents XD Oh and in case no one knows (except kittyvane :P) in Finland you celebrate Xmas on Xmas Eve rather than Xmas Day. Back home we also celebrate the same way.

Christmas dinner! In the top left corner are Karjalanpiirakka, it's a little pie thing with rice filling, extremely yummy, back home we make them with mashed potato as the filling. To the right is salmon.

Uh...more salmon I think lol The Finns love their salmon!

Ham, potatoes, meatballs, casserole things which I can't remember...I think one was carrot....the others I don't remember! But they were yummy :D

Salads and then a beetroot dish which is soooooooooo yummy XDDDD

Heidi's place is a farm which has pigs (they sell ham), 3 sheep, 2 ponies, 400 chickens (selling eggs), 4 emus (it used to be an emu place but then they couldn't source any new ones to breed), 2 bunnies, a dog and 2 cats. We helped cleaning the poop off the eggs which was fun XD I like mindless work :P The pigs smelled so bad though! I felt like vomiting when I went inside the piggery. It also makes you stink like pigs. But the pigs were very cute! They were also really inquisitive something I had never seen before in pigs. They kept looking at us and coming over and their snouts felt all rubbery! I got to feed them too, lots of bread :D

This is Yeri, their Bernese Mountain Dog. Such a sweet dog!!! But he loved to stuff his nose in your crotch lol

This is Ville, she wasn't a particularly social cat so I didn't see her very much.

Sulo is the cutest cat!!!! He's so furry and loved to play with you. When he was playing he would huff and puff and wheeze cos he couldn't breathe properly and I love it when cats and dogs can't breathe!! It sounds so cute lol

We spent about a week at Heidi's and then it was time to go to Pieksamaki where my mom grew up. We stayed at my uncle Paavo's place. He took us to see my other uncle Pekka and his partner.

My mommy's childhood house! It's so cute and very small, I marvel at how they managed to fit in 2 adults and 7 children O_O We saw a squirrel scurry around the side of the house!

We spent the New Year at Paavo's place. I wanted to do fireworks cos in AUstralia they are illegal but he said it was a waste of money :( But we walked around the neighbourhood to watch other people do it :P We saw a lot of dogs! It seems like in Finland everyone has a fancy purebred dog! I did not see a mongrel even once, while in Australia most people have a mutt. It's weird cos in Finland, purebred dogs are about twice if not more expensive than in Australia. But it was nice, I even got to see an Afghan Hound, I had never seen one of those before in real life!

After Pieksamaki we headed towards Jyvaskyla where my mother's half cousin Paivi, her husband and their daughter Pilvi came to pick us up and take us to their home which was about an hour's drive away. They also have a really beautiful house (seems like everyone there does!).

Isn't it pretty!

They took us to meet her brother's family and they had 3 really cute cats!

This one is really old and had a (non-threatening) growth on her head.

Outside Paivi's house (and pretty much every house there) they had a bird feeder, everyday birds would come for a feed, it was lovely watching them!

We did a bit of shopping and I scored the best looking boots I've ever seen from a place called K-Kenka (thanks so much kittyvane for your shoe shop suggestions!). I'll take a picture one day when it gets colder, but they are black and it looks like a cross between a mary-jane and a regular short boot. They also resemble Mary Poppins boots :D. On the day that we left we browsed through Jyvaskyla city and shopped a bit. Although Finnish cities aren't really busy and overly huge I've realised I'm not a city girl. I much rather be in the country side or a more suburban area where it's quiet and you don't feel fenced in by other people.

Next stop was Isokyro where my cousin Petra lives with her partner Juha. They also live in a pretty rural area but it was very pretty. It was all flat and it was nice to just see endlessly into the distance with a few cute houses here and there. They took us around the place to see the sites and told us about their history. At their place Petra cooked us reindeer! I was expecting it to have a strong smell and taste but it smelled normal and tasted like beef lol. Petra also took us to see my mom's old friend who also had a cute kitty!

In th evening Juha's younger brother Jussi came over and we all had dinner and played an awesome game called Carcassonne. I ended up buying it in Helsinki cos it was so fun. The next day I went skiing! It was on created snow though cos the snowfall hadn't come yet :P But it was good enough! I had never skiied before and omg I was bad at it! I could stand up and was fine being along a flat stretch. But I couldn't get up hills the normal way I had to go sideways and inch myself up lol Then the downhill areas...they weren't very steep...not steep at all actually but I fell down twice, the second time I fell so hard on my bottom I thought I was going to cry but I made myself suck it up cos it would have been too embarrassing to cry in front of everyone. So because I am so unco Juha had Jussi stay behind me so that if I fell he would just catch me and everything would be ok. And I fell every time I went downhill! I feel so sorry for him, I wish I wasn't so bad at it! But going downhill is so scary, you have to bend your knees a lot and it feels like you're falling forward and I hate that feeling so I wouldn't bend my knees far enough which causes you to fall backwards and you know what happens next :P I was sad to leave, I really liked my cousin Petra ;_;

Then we went to Porvoo which is where I was born to another uncle's place (the father of Petra) Pertti. Porvoo is so damn pretty!!!! And there was quite a bit of snow, maybe 20cm (well actually that's not a lot but for me it's a lot :P). He took us into the main city area (he lives on the outskirts) and the Old Porvoo area is so beautiful *3*

Uh...this post will get too picture heavy if I include more Porvoo pics so go look at my Flickr account for the rest!

I was able to make a couple of demented snowmen! The snow was too fresh to stick so they came out all squishy looking :D

Then we headed to Helsinki to stay with Pentti. He took us around the city a bit, I didn't like it very much, it's too busy! The shopping was nice though :D We had a little party on the 12th where their daughters and their husbands came over we had a nice lunch. One of them has a 1 year old son and he was sooooooooo cute! He had a really wise looking face and looked so much older! The next day we had to go to church (my uncle is a reverend), it was so boring because it was all in Finnish. After church we went to the National Museum which was also a bit boring, I expected something a little different :P Then later that night we went to see my mom's aunt. This aunt smokes so her apartment reeked! It was only meant to be a short visit so I figured we would be there for about 20mins. It turned out to be 2 hours! I was so shitty at the end because early on I had told my uncle that I was starting to feel sick from the smell and could we go. He said soon soon....lier!!! I also couldn't eat anything there (chocolate and cake) cos my stomach was starting to get a bit bad towards this time. So I felt sick and hungry and had no clue what they were talking about. Blah!

On our second last day my mom and I went to Tampere to visit the Moomin Museum! It was sooo good, there were illustrations everywhere and little scenes created from the stories. There was also a Moomin shop :D

A cute statue outside the museum!

Oh yeah and we also went to the zoo, but it was a cold and miserable day lol most of the animals were in their warm houses so we didn't see much but I still got to see seals!

It was a bit of a relief when our day to leave came, not so much cos I wanted to leave Finland, I just wanted to leave Helsinki :P I would have been fine in the other areas. Our flight from Amsterdam was delayed about an hour because some people didn't have their correct VISAs...what the hell!! Don't people do their homework before embarking on a trip? So it made us quite late in getting back home. We arrived in the early morning, I think about 2am or something. It was hot D: And then it felt odd being back on the right side of the road (lol I had to think about writing that.."are we on the left or the right??"), I got used to being on the left! I will also miss my sauna's in the evening, although I don't want a sauna in this heat! But when it's cold it is very nice :D Also the food I will miss terribly ;_; And my family!!! OMG I want to go back so much DXX

Overall it was an excellent trip and well worth the horrible amounts of money I had to spend :D

The End

Finland Part One

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 09:28:11 GMT

Right I've uploaded a bunch of pictures on Flickr and now I can start to tell you about my trip to Finland with my mom :D

I had just completed Wai-Con (a Japanese comic and animation convention) over the weekend and I was so tired from it because I hardly slept at all. Not a good idea since I was about to embark on a really long flight. Because I was so tired I hadn't accomplished much for the trip (such as packing) on the Monday and Tuesday. By the time the leaving day arrived I was really stressed out - I hadn't packed and my notes on where to go etc were all over the place. I was so stressed that I just cried lol and my mom had to help me pack my suitcase, I was incapable of doing anything but just sit there and watch. Then I got a hold of myself and organised my notes into a book and got other things ready. Luckily the day wasn't hot so I was able to wear warmish clothing to the airport. Once we got to the airport we had to wait awhile until we could check in and then we found out that one of our hand luggage was obese as well as one of the suitcases. We had to go to the side and shuffle everything around and finally our suitcases were allowed to be checked in and our hand luggage was a couple hundred grams overweight but they let that pass. As we went through the X-ray screening thing one of the people took my toothpaste - I had forgotten that it was over 100ml DX She was really horrible as well. We were juggling a backpack, a giant ragdoll for my cousin's daughter, 2 heavy coats, a shoulderbag each and a small rolling suitcase and we had our passports etc in our hands and she was hurrying us along to the x-ray machines like crazy and yelling at us and just throwing our stuff everywhere. At one point my mom didn't even know where her passport had dissapeared and it was a huge panic. But we finally got through with everything and started to bitch about what a hellish woman she was and wishing we could throw a chair at her head.

Then finally on Malaysian Airlines to go to Kuala Lumpur! We had seats riiiight at the back so we couldn't even recline and the little tv screen was so close it gave me a headache. But I really wanted to watch Hairspray so I had to ignore it. I had requested lactose free food for all the flights. The dinner they gave me was some spicy asian crap. I should have requested non-spicy food too cos I can't eat it. So we had to swap meals :P Then once we reached Kuala Lumpur, we got on KLM to go to Amsterdam. OMG it was like 12 hours long. The seats were super cramped. There was even less space for your legs than usual. The food they gave me was gross. But we finally arrived at Amsterdam after what seemed like forever and we had a good browse around the shops :D Very nice stuff! Then we had a shorter flight, about 2.5 hours to Helsinki, Finland.

Once we arrived in Helsinki I was in awe of how handsome all the guys working there were! They were all quite young unlike in Australia they are mostly old men or bitchy looking women. I thought we would have to open out suitcases etc in customs cos we had chocolate and candy and I had medication but they just waved us through and said it was alright :D My uncle Pentti was supposed to be picking us up at the airport but at first we couldn't find him. My mom had to go to the service counter for them to put out an announcement to find him. Then he found us and took us to the Helsinki main train station to have us pick up our FinnRail passes and seat reservations. Then we went to his apartment where his wife Hannele was waiting to feed us :D This was awesome cos then we didn't have to spend money for food! She even gave us more food for our journey up north to Rovaniemi. Pentti then took us back to the train station so we could catch our train. It was a real job getting on the train with all our crap, but we managed. Once the train got going my mom was looking at our money thinking to divide it between the two of us. But as she was counting she only counted about 500 euros. I started to go ballistic cos we were meant to have heaps more and we started to panic about where it was. Turns out she had tucked the rest into a slightly hidden pocket of her purse...I was so stressed out by this point that I started to cry (again, gosh I cry at everything). Then we went to bed as the train ride was about 12hours long and it was night time.

We reached Rovaniemi on the morning of the 21st and it was still very dark. I had a map of where our guesthouse was but it was still hard to distinguish which direction we had to go and because we had so much luggage we just got a taxi there. Once we had dumped our stuff it wasn't long before the people from Erasetti Safari came by to pick us up for our Reindeer ride to the husky farm :DD There was a family already in the van and after a while I realised their son was talking with an Australian accent! Later on we found out they were from Sydney...so random XD Once we got to the office we all (there was a bunch of other people too) got changed into proper ski jumpsuits and boots. Then we all piled onto the bus to take us to the reindeer's. It wasn't very cold. Rovaniemi is supposed to be about minus 25 to 30C at the time but because of global warming it was only about 0 to minus 5C with a small amount of snow. But that was good for us otherwise it would have been too cold! Once we got to the place we were all paired to go into the sleds. The reindeer's were so cute! They were quite small, I expected them to be a bit bigger.

They also pood a lot....and their poo looked like rabbit droppings! I tried to get a picture of it pooing but this was the closest thing I could get...

You can kinda see it coming out...lol
The ride was really nice, we had reindeer hides to warm us up (this is not a good ride if you are vegan!) and it was nice to take in the beautiful scenery.

The reindeer's took us to the husky farm. You could hear them before you saw them! It also smelled kinda doggy :P They were all so cute and excited to see us! We then went for a very short but exhilarating ride. I have a very short video of it, for some reason I couldn't get my video function on my camera to work properly so that's why it's only a few seconds long :P

After the ride we went into a little cottage and had some gingerbread cookies and warm berry juice. The guide then talked about the huskies and people asked questions. We had a look around the farm and patted some huskies :D

Then they took us back to the office and on the way there they gave us all Reindeer driving licenses! And then back to the guesthouse. We went to the supermarket to get some food then. Finnish supermarkets are so awesome! For many things they had a way better or larger selection of goods. Like in ice-cream they had all these wonderful flavours, even licorice taste! And another wonderful thing, Finland has anything lactose free or low in lactose. It was like a paradise for me! I could eat ice-cream, cheese, milk, whipped cream....so fabulous :DDD Australia seems like they are in the dark ages compared to Finland! All we have here is lactose free milk and thickened cream. The milk tastes really sweet cos of something to do with the lactose sugars being extracted. The lactose free milk in Finland tasted normal! It was a truly wonderful thing XD

Then we headed over to the Santa Village at the Arctic Circle :D I didn't go see Santa (people dressed up kinda scare me :P) but we looked around at the souvenir stores :D Later in the evening we went into the city to go eat at Lordi's Rocktaurant (NOTE: In case you don't know Lordi was the winner of Eurovision - a singing contest - in 2006, they are very popular cos it's the first time Finland has won the competition). We ordered a steak and a burger to share. It was delicious!

The interior was all decorated Lordi style :D

The next day we went into the city again to have a look around and do a bit of shopping :) On the way there, there was some cool looking graffiti around a construction area.

The sun never rose completely in the sky, it nearly always looked like the above photo.
After some shopping we headed back to guesthouse and checked out. The train station was just beyond the road (albeit downhill first) so we decided to walk there instead of wasting more money on a taxi. It was pretty difficult! My mom took the two suitcases and they were so heavy it took us about half an hour to get to the station. Normally it would be about a 5 minute walk! At the train station I saw a bird killing a mouse and then start to eat it :D I've never seen something like that before! When our train came we piled on and a nice man helped us put our suitcases (he must have been super strong!) on the overhead compartment :O We were left wondering how we would get them down once we reached our destination...

Ok I'm stopping here for the moment, I'm tired of typing I've been at the computer for about 4 hours uploading pics and doing this. I will continue another day, in the mean time you can go over to my Flickr by clicking any of the above photos and browsing the rest of the pictures :)

I'm back from Finland!

Sat, 19 Jan 2008 06:39:39 GMT

I'm back! I came back on Friday in the wee hours of the morning. Finland was wonderful I really want to go back there! I'll have a proper post about my trip soon, I need to resize photos and have a long chunk of time to just sit at my comp and type it all out :D

I hope everyone's Christmas and New Year was fun! I've looked at some people's LJ's but haven't moved onto non-LJ blogs yet...I have a lot of catching up to do. I've seen a few people review the past year and have some new years resolutions so I'll do the same :)

2007:
The Good Things
- I got to go to Finland my birth country for the first time and meet my family
- I got a Dean's Commendation from uni about my excellent marks in Semester 2
- Wai-Con was a huge success and helped me to pay all my debts
- I made a wonderful new friend Elizna <3

The Bad Things
- Being diagnosed with Crohn's and having a real hard time trying to get it under control...it was under control but then it started to come back at the end of December DX It's making me feel so shitty and ugly (I have a massive puffy face and can't fit into most of my clothes ;_;).
- Not being able to socialise much because of illness. I was too scared to go out in case there wasn't a toilet near by or I was in too much pain.
- Getting myself into huge debt
- My baby, my cat died while I was in Finland. I never got to say a proper goodbye, I really thought she would be ok until I got back. It's like a lost a best friend.

Well that's all I can remember :P It's been mostly a crappy year and I hope it won't continue too much into this year. The year has started well with being in Finland but now my stupid stomach is acting up again, hopefully it will be ok by the time I go back to Uni at the end of Feb.

2008 Resolutions:
- Try to get Crohn's under control through diet. So try not to eat junk food, eat healthy!
- Get more regular exercise if illness permits. I need to lose about 5 kilos.
- Draw more! I say this every year, but this year I really need to take my illustrating seriously so that my exhibition at the end of the year for uni looks fabulous and hopefully someone will give me a job!
- Try to learn Finnish and get my Finnish citizenship back. A lady in Finland told us about being able to have dual citizenship now!!! It's a bit costly but if I get it, it means I can easily go study or work there any time I want :DDDDD

I think that's it :)

Bye Bye!

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 03:09:05 GMT

I'm leaving today for Finland so I won't be here until the 18th of January. You guys all have fun over Christmas and New Year!

See you next year :D

Nii

New Cushions!

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 04:45:29 GMT

Just added to the SHOP!

A little piece of the 70's...

Sat, 03 Nov 2007 13:05:15 GMT

Bolero - Tempt
Blouse - Tempt
Jeans - Target
Shoes - Sportsgirl
Necklace - Vintage

I felt like bringing back the 70's today :D I love 70's fashion, although a lot of people hate it :P I forgot to include the bag I used today in the picture, it's a simple messenger style bag made from thick burgandy corduroy that my mum made back in the 70's! Will have to take a photo of it one day, it's such a versatile and comfortable bag. The shoes I'm wearing are gorgeous but such a killer x_x I put bandaids on but still by the end of the day the sides of my toes were red raw. I guess I can only wear them when I wear socks ;_; Shoes are such a pain but they are so beautiful *3*

I have one more assignment to finish and then I'm done with uni for the year!! I'm about half way through writing it (an essay - I am terrible at writing essays :P I hope I pass!), I will finish it tomorrow to hand in on Tuesday. On Monday I'm going for my last Infliximab transfusion, Wednesday - re-enrolling at uni for next year, Thursday - ? I am either going to go thrifting (although I shouldn't be shopping....should be saving money!) or lazing at home and watching some DVD's :D

Illustration Friday "Trick or Treat"

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 00:37:35 GMT

I did this when I should have been doing my assignments x_x I couldn't find my grey pencil so that is why they are lavender bunnies :D

Today's Outfit

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 07:08:24 GMT

Dress: Witchery
T-shirt: Sportsgirl
Slip: Thrifted
Leggings: Sportsgirl
Shoes: Big-W
Beaded Necklace: Handmade
Bird Necklace: Market stall
Bracelet: Market stall

Putting the slip on underneath was a total accident :D I remembered how if I wear this type of dress with leggings, once you start moving around the dress will ride up and bunch into your crotch lol so I hunted around for a slip and then realised it looked cute peeking out :D