Relaxing with your family at home has to be one of the best things in the whole world. My mum asked me yesterday if I was planning to make any new year's resolutions for 2013. I said that I probably won't make any this year, but now I feel I should definitely make one.

Chinese candle holder in the bathroom
(c)

A collection of candles in the bathroom
(c)

After Christmas sales, hello my friend

The time of the year when people are encouraged to crazy has arrived; after Christmas sales!
The sales arrive earlier and earlier year by year giving businesses a better opportunity to increase sales and reach their monthly and yearly budget targets. Retailers especially can recover from the damage quieter months do to them in terms of business, if they concentrate on online sales at Christmas time.

From the consumers' point of view, the sales can be amazing time too. If you are lucky you can find brilliant bargains and save a decent sum of money. I love a good bargain myself, but I have to be quite careful when the Christmas sales are on since I easily go on a shopping spree just for the sake of it. And that surely is not the purpose of sales, is it?

I haven't done any online Christmas sales shopping this year yet. I will see what's out there tomorrow though. This is mainly because I managed to find myself two pairs of boots whilst I was shopping Christmas presents with my mum last week. The first pair was beige suede leather ankle high boots with two golden zips on both sides of the boots and  golden details where the heel and back sole of each boot connects.

Beige ankle boots
(c)

Beige ankle boots
(c)

The other pair of boots I got were a black leather pair with approximately 8cm heel. They were pretty much perfect too, because they are very clean, sophisticated smooth leather pair of boots. Just the way I wanted them to be. You know how much I like my Ecco's normally, but this season I couldn't find a pairI I would have liked enough from the collection. Hence, I ventured off elsewhere. This pair is made by an old Finnish shoemaker brand Ara. I've never had their shoes before so I'm hoping that they surprise me. At least the fit is perfect and the heels seems to be in its right place, since they are really easy to walk in -even though the heel is relatively high and medium thin. I will include pictures later.

Christmas holiday!!! Oh the happiness indeed!

Christmas decorations in Liberty London

(c)

I visited one of London's best antiques market a weeks back. It was such a funny experience. Almost all the vendors were slightly loony  so you ended up having the strangest conversations with them -whether you wanted it yourself or not. Krystal, my partner in crime, and I came into a conclusion that antiques markets can be quite dangerous places to go on your own. Hence, make sure you will always go in pairs ;)

Silver cutlery at the antiques markets

I was not looking for anything particular until I saw these silver napkin rings. As soon as I saw these silver beauties is a big silver bowl, I remembered my French hand made linen napkins I bought from Nice a few years back. It was love at first sight.

Silver napkin rings from the antiques market

(c)

I walked past the boutique once, I walked past it second time, third time was 'accident'. Fourth time was because I had taken a wrong turn, and on the fifth time was destiny. These napkin rings were calling me! 

So when I finally made my mind about committing to buy these rings, I practically run to the silver bowl full of these must-haves.

Silver napkin rings from the antiques market

(c)

Krystal and I kept on turning the rings around and comparing them to others and then after a good solid CSI London type of detective inspection work, I had found myself four alike napkin rings from A to D. I was proudly over the moon!

Happy Saturday!

Two glasses of gin and tonic

(c)

Ellie Goulding - Jolene

One of my favourite female singers, Ellie Goulding, performing an old classic Jolene. What a great cover!

Pizza East, Shoreditch

I'm not a big fan of pizza. Never been really. Heh, in fact, I have two particular types of pizza I really like, one from supermarket frozen section that you can only buy from Finland and one made by my friend Kati. So you can really say I'm not generally that fussed about pizzas. I will eat it occasionally, maybe twice a year, but will hardly ever order it in a restaurant, if there is something else on the menu to choose from.

Waiting our food to arrive at Pizza East Shoreditch

 (c)

So there I am, quite happily mind my own business, not bothered if I could ever eat a single slice of pizza in my life again. This is the setting. Then I hear all these praises about this pizza place in Shoreditch called Pizza East.

(c)

Saturday comes in and I decided, Pizza East you will feed me tonight. Don't fancy pizza, but hey ho, let's give it a go anyway. I book a table online, which proved to be a good thing to do -surprise, surprise.

We got to the restaurant in time. Table was there nicely set for us. Service was friendly and helpful. Restaurant had a lovely cosy, slightly dim lightning and a great overall feeling to it. By this point,  I was already sold. Food arrived super quickly and it was just gobsmacking tasty! The antipasti board was exceptionally good and there was a lot to go through on there. We actually didn't finish everything in purpose, because we wanted to save some room for the mains too. To be completely honest, I would have been completely happy just hitting the bar and concentrating on the tapas meats and cheese bites, which I probably will do very soon.  Mains, the two pizzas, were also yummy! Salami chili pizza was perfectly spicy and my veal meatball  pizza had lemon olive oil drizzled on it, which made it taste absolutely fantastic.

What did we eat?

*A board of 3 

(wild board speck, burrata and parmigiano reggiano)

*focciata bread

*carafe of red

*veal meatball pizza

*salami chili pizza

Cheese and meat board at Pizza East Shoreditch London

(c)

I have been pretty much pizza-converted.

Food *****
Atmosphere *****
Service *****
Final bill £70

This morning has been so lovely so far. I took my time in bed and didn't hurry my mind to travel from sleep to conciousness. I let my eyes stay closed as long as they wished and let them to decided when they were ready to wake up. I basically, gave my body a chance to have a good weekend lie in too.

After feeling like having had enough sleep, I slowly opened my eyes and was even more delighted to see the sun shining through the curtain into my bedroom. Ah, this is just perfectness, I thought to myself. I have probably mentioned my love affair with weekends and sunny mornings many times before, and I'm sorry if I seem to be repeating it over and over again, but I just get so much enjoyment from sunny (weekend) mornings. I suppose appreciating them so much is my way of living my life here and now. Not longing for something from the past or waiting for something else to happen in the future either.

I also went for a run straight after I had got up from bed. I just pulled tracksuit bottoms up, layered a top and a hoodie on and slipped my running shoes on and powered off. It was quite cold outside which made me really speed up my pace at the beginning, but after 15 minutes I was so hot I had to lose the hoodie and slow down a little. Then I just kept on jogging for the rest of my route. The route I usually do goes around a big pond. It normally takes me 25minutes to run around, but then I usually do an extra lap walking. It is a great way to cool down and stay outdoors a little bit longer. So all together my morning run+walk is often an hour's long me-time enjoyment. I also hardly ever have any music on (even thought that might help me to run longer sometimes) as I prefer letting my mind go empty. Then at some point during my walking lap, I usually realise that thoughts have entered my mind again. That's alright. I don't mind them popping in and out. If the thoughts relate to something that has worried me during that week, I usually think about them for a while and if I, for some reason, I don't seem to be able to draw a conclusion or find a solution, I usually have a few deep breaths and stop thinking about them for the time being. I rather concentrate on being outside, breathing the fresh air and watching the ducks and swans swimming by. Yup, those simple little things. 

A stone hear on a wooden plank on a beach.
(c)

Whilst walking back, I got quite cold so I had a warm bath once I got back home. Other much appreciated life loving me-time moments are naturally baths and showers. Very girly and not very surprising, I know. I quite blatantly even call them my 'spa' moments as I never tend to rush out as quickly as possible. Hells no. Also, as I normally don't have that much time to pamper myself during the week, I'll often try to make an effort and do a hair mask, face mask, proper moisturising, scrub or exfoliation session over the weekend. I know they say the more effort you put in to your skin care routines the more you get out of them. It is true, your skin does look better and healthier the more you look after it, but I don't want to make looking after myself a calendar appointment type of weekly chore either. I think it is, in fact, quite silly to get stressed over not having had a full pedi- and manicure sorted out every single week. I occasionally hear and read  about people who actually get angry or upset if something comes in the way of their weekly treatments and it never fails to make me laugh out loud and wonder if they are serious about it. I mean, if they are then please, get a grip, that is not normal :D

I need a new pair of boots. Preferably black ones as my old black pair has started to look really tired.

Bless them, they have been repaired, reheeled and zipper fixed so many times and after six years they are still wearable -but I don't know for how long. And I don't want the old ladies to give up on me at a wrong moment.

I took my other pair of black riding boots to a shoe repair shop a few weeks back because the zip was broken in the other one. Unfortunately, the cobbler told me repairing was not worth it this time as the sole of the shoes were in a bad condition too. He said that it is a shame as the leather of the boots was in a superb condition and on the outside he would have never guessed that the shoes needed repairing. So one new zipper, new sole (in the outside bottom of the shoe) and  new heels would have ended up costing me at least as much as a new pair boots. Annoying. So I just asked him to bin the pair.

A pair of black leather boots

(c)

Burger and Lobster, Mayfair.

Waiting for food at Burger and Lobster in Mayfair London

(c)

I had heard so many good reviews about this restaurant that I decided I would go there as soon as the opportunity to do it would come around. Last Friday, it finally did.

Only a short walking distance away from Green Park tube station, made it easier for me who has massive difficulties with directions and finding my way to places for the first time. We got to the restaurant 6.30pm and by the time we reached the receptionists the queue was three hours long. Great. Thankfully, the head receptionist suggested us to have a drink at the bar and wait until someone else leaves and then quickly grab ourselves empty chairs. We were slightly sceptic about ever succeeding in that, but we thought to at least go in a had a drink at the bar.

Ordering drinks was easy and we in fact got ourselves pretty good place right behind people eating at the bar. The atmosphere inside the restaurant was great. You felt relaxed, invited and for some strange way wanted even thought you had to stand in the middle of waiters' way all the time. Everyone has happy and people were laughing and enjoying their meals. After seeing the food, I decided there was nothing that could stop me from eating here tonight. I mean I was on a mission. I tell you, I was like a hawk watching those seats. I even got into a mini verbal bitch-slap flight with a woman who tried to steal our seats. The woman had it coming.

So after the misunderstanding, we were sitting on our arses at the bar! Wheheeyy! Our waiter was the loveliest girl on planet. She was so funny and easy-going. I loved her! So, basically, they didn't have menus, but you could have a burger (with or without bacon) or lobster (a whole one or one in a brioche). Apart from the whole lobster, the food was £20. One of us had a burger (with chips and salad) and the other one the brioche lobster (also with chips and salad).

Now then. How could I explain this? The food was absolutely beyond everything I've ever eaten in the UK. It was better than great. It made both of us smile throughout the whole meal. It was tasty, it looked fantastic and it was just absolutely superb. Yup.

Go there! You will like it - I promise.


Duck and Waffle, the City.

A night view over the city of London from the Duck and waffle restaurant

(c)

The location itself was amazing. The restaurant was on the 40th floor of Heron Tower. They seated us away from the windows originally, but thankfully with a bit of luck, the waiter managed to relocate us next to the windows. This would be the best place on earth to drop the question :)

We had two waiters. One mixing us drinks and one taking our orders and looking after us throughout the whole meal. The drink mixer fixed us drinks according to our taste preferences, you just had to basically say what you liked. I ask a G&T -as long as it didn't have cucumber in it. After I while, the waiter came back with a Duck & Waffle speciality G&T which had blood orange, jasmine foam and something else in, and I do have to admit that it was the best G&T I've ever had. Good start I thought.

Food-wise, we decided to share their small dishes. Basically, they had five or six categories (such as raw, cold, snacks, sides, mains etc.) to choose from. Dishes were between £7 to £32, depending on what you ordered. We had bacon wrapped dates, house bread, jerusalem artichoke ravioli, beetroot and goat cheese (with real chucks of honey!), oysters and of course their signature duck and waffle.

The food was beautiful. It was in fact phenomenal. I didn't expect it to be that good, but it was just lovely. I would highly recommend this place, and will definitely go back there again myself at some point.

Also, what I found great was the fact that they are open 24-7! Oh yes I should probably mention this too; we had made our table reservation two months ago. Yeah, it is quite popular, so to be on a safe side. Make sure you book a table in advanced. I don't know if our reservation was a little over the top, but that got us a 7pm Friday night dinner sorted.

MEATliquor, Mayfair.

Waiting for food at Meatliquor 

(c)

Bring a balloon and get -50% from your food bill. Five balloons and five of us squeezed ourselves in at lunch time today. After a slight hoo-haa the staff managed to seat us at the same long table.

Food-wise, we were divided into two teams. The cheese burger eaters and the burger-chili chips-onion rings-cheese chips-chocolate peanut ice-cream eaters. Elli and I belonged to the first group and even thought we had the lest food, I became so full I still haven't eaten anything.. You will not have to leave hungry.

The beef was good. It was slightly raw in the middle (I like it like that) and the whole burger was really juice. The burger had enough tabasco hotness to it and it had gherkins too! Yummy! Yes I do love gherkins and no I am not pregnant. Very good burgers and good thin chips. If you like good tasty burgers, MEATliquor is your place.

Also, the food is really cheap. Burgers £6-7, chips starting from £3 and soft drinks £2,5 per can. The place was quite manly, so no fancy pants at all. I was in fact quite surprised that so many families with young children were showing up too. Thumps up! I love it when people bring their children with them to restaurants, cafés, art galleries, etc. I think that is the right way, indeed.

I was hoping to attend a booiaka dance class today after work, but then a last minute report writing task flew on my way right an hour before I was due to finish work. Hence, had to skip the dance and come straight home and start producing content as soon as possible. Slightly gutted, I do have to admit. Now, as you could imagine, I'm so ready for bed. 11 hours of writing a day should be more than enough.

 Big sleepy yawn, good night!

Kitten sleeping on a keyboard

Happy Bonfire Night!

Fireworks (c)

Fireworks (c)

Fireworks (c)

Listening (read replaying) Maroon 5's One More Night and liking it!

Whilst I was in Finland a few week's back, we had coffee at Kappeli. I looove that place. The prices are obviously silly high, but that is given when you go to places like this.

I suppose for me, it is the aesthetic beauty in art, places, taste and music that often pleases my eye more than anything else. I don't know if I necessarily attach  values to them, but I definitely link emotions and a state of mind with beautiful objects, tastes, music and smells.

Ravintola Kappeli restaurant kappeli helsinki finland

Old building helsinki finland

(c)

My best friend is pregnant with her first child, she and her husband have just bought a beautiful home and are now renovating it so that everything is ready for the new born. They have even a sauna! I love them so much <3

Hence, I thought, some contributions towards adulthood had to be done on my part too. As you can see below, at this moment, this was the best I could do :D Estee Lauder lipsticks.

Estee lauder lipstic

(c)

I thought this was pretty cool. Loved how the grey vespa matched so well with the snowy ground.

Light blue vespa on the street

(c)

The girls and I had a wonderful 4 hour dinner in Govent Garden yesterday. The food was good and the girls were great. You know that you are in a good company when you feel completely refreshed and filled up with positive energy after you say goodbyes.

Food at Blanc restaurant in Covent Garden London

(c)

Autumn accessories

I visited Windsor last Sunday and thought to show you what I brought back from the Royal spot. I saw these gloves with leather straps and this pretty cognac envelope leather bag whilst strolling around the city centre. Gloves I needed, but the bag was a spur of a moment purchase. What I still need is a big beige chunky scarf and a new mid-season coat - well, the coat is more of a nice to have than a must have. I saw a woman wearing a perfect one on a tube the other morning and would have asked her where she got hers from, but she got off the next stop. I would guess Zara. However, as I said, the coat is not a must have by any means, but, if I manage to find them two, I think I'm pretty much sorted for this Autumn. Also, I got myself L'occitane's new hand cream, Limited edition Date Bouquet, as it matched so well with the others :) Hah, thankfully, the hand cream did smell lovely and  made your hand feel beautifully soft too as otherwise my last purchase would not have been so successful. Heh,I do think that sometimes buying infused hand creams and body lotions can be a bit of a hit and miss -especially when you don't have the opportunity to smell or try them out first :)

Cloves, Osprey London brown leather clutch and L'ccitane hand cream

(c)

I wish mornings would still be as bright as they are in this picture. This picture was taken maybe a month ago just before leaving the house for work around 8 am. A month later, it is still pitch black outside at the same hour! It is definitely that time of the year when you have to make sure you go to bed early enough the night before so that you don't fee too tired to wake up in the following morning :)

Brown leather bag and two scarves on the bed

(c)

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. 
 ~Confucius

Emeli Sandé - My Kind of Love
Love Her voice!

Morning morning rise and shine.

I have a new fabulous morning routine. I'm trying to enjoy it as long as I possibly can. It basically goes like this during the week. Wake up at 6am. Straight out of the bed,no snooze aloud. Shower, make up, choose clothes for work (check weather forecast before hand), phaff around. Then around 7am, breakfast and coffee. After breakfast, get everything together and leave the house around 7.20am. Take the tube and ride until 2/3 of your total work journey. I hop off a few stops before so that I am approximately 45-30mins walking distance away from my work. Then, I enjoy the loveliest morning walk in a peaceful South Kensington. Finally, I arrive to work in time, however, with refreshed mind and full of positive morning energy.

prettystuff

I love my new black suede shoes that are decorated with golden spikes. They are little controversial when you wear them with a skirt, but I like that they make you look and feel super cool as soon as you slip these bad boys on. The spikes are not too much in your face, but you can definitely see that they are not just golden spots attached to the top material. They stand out just enough to give your OOTD an unexpected edge.

As people are always interested to see what others are wearing (either in the hope of getting ideas what to and what not to wear themselves), I have intentionally been following people's expressions since this morning. I do have to admit that it has been funny to watch how some have taken double takes because they are not 100 per cent sure why my shoes look slighly different than your average pair of black slip ons with golden studs on, others have completemented on them whilst others have clearly not agreed with my the day's shoe choice at all. It is interesting to see people's reactions.

I have also nick named this pair as 'the tourist killers'. I said to Matt this morning that if anyone purpously gets too close, on a way or does not give enough room I just walk really close to them with my spiked shoes until they realise to move :) Hahha, an amazing game plan we thought.

Look at these pretty tea sets! I think they are breathtakingly beautiful. So delicate, so perfect. I'm in love.

Both of the sets here are by Vera Wang. The first one is called Lace Gold collection made from fine bone china with delicate gold banded lace trim.

The second collection goes by the name Gilded Weave Range. The collection is also made from fine bone china and inspired by the Greek and neoclassical styles. The set is decorated with a broad boarder of woven platinum and gold and edged with a thin golden line.

ah <3 so so beautiful

Good morning my lovelies.

It is me writing from the other side of the screen. Let's have our customary Saturday morning chat, shall we? Breakfast has been eaten but there is still some coffee left next to me on a mug. In fact, this mug is a special one. I got it from my grand mum the last time I visited my her and grand dad in Finland. She had bought the mug for me so that every time I long back home I can take that mug out, make myself a nice cup of coffee or tea and let the drawings painted on the mug make me smile. I thought that was such a nice thing to do. I will snap a picture of the mug at some point and post it here so you will see it too.

I have been on a summer holiday in Finland and Åhland for the past two weeks. I was really lucky to have my hols now since the weather was amazing and there were no rainy days at all. Another great thing was that there was one particular sentence I kept on repeating throughout my two week stay "I feel so relaxed, I'm so happy". It actually still makes me content to recall how that good feeling took over me every single day. I reckon that shows that my holiday was a successful one indeed.

I hope you all have had at least some time to enjoy the summer this year too. I mean even a few days can be good. I don't necessarily believe that you have to have a six week holiday in order to feel relaxed. Of course, it is nicer the longer you can take off from work and concentrate on other areas of life. You have a possibility to travel a little bit further away and see more things and still spend some time home too. On the other hand, short holidays can be quite tricky too. If you have, let's say only  four days to spare, your holiday may indeed become more stressful than not having one at all.  The key is to work out a balanced between taking it easy and being active and doing something nice. I reckon that one of the biggest dangers on short holidays is not necessarily the limited number of days that we have, but instead is the mindset that people often adopt. You see, quite often when you only have a few odd days off you can easily think that 'ok I'm on mission now, I must relax quickly and do everything in a rush since I need to be back to work/school very soon'. Then you start stressing about how quickly your holiday will fly by without you realising it, how you don't have enough time to do all the things you were planning to do when you finally were on a holiday or you might worry how you probably end up feeling you didn't have any time off at all. This is often because most of the things you do can easily become forced actions as you try to get the most out of everything you possibly can. Hehh not exactly very tempting holiday mood setter, is it? :) But think about it, if you desperately try to cram your two week holiday in those four days, it is no wonder that you might feel more exhausted even by the thought of going on a holiday. Hence, I recommend that you take things as they come. Don't plan too much. Just go with the flow.

Cecil Carlstedt a Swedish drawing and painting artist from Stockholm is someone whose works I'd like to introduce to you. Cecil has done her BA in Graphic Design and Illustration in London and an exchange year in NY.

Her most well known customers have been H&M, Swarovski, Esprit, Martini Gold, J Lindeberg , Paul Smith, Victoria's Secret, Elle, Vogue, W Magazine, London Fashion Week, New York Time and the Sunday Telegraph. So she is definitely someone to know.

Personally, I like her artistic style. It is unique and she has wonderful drawing skills. The colours she uses are also pleasant and in a perfect harmony.

Yesterday turned out to quite an eventful day. I think the theme word was extempore. Many things happened on the spur of a moment without or only some forethought. For instance, after having written that little happy note I put my gym stuff together and headed to my nearest fitness centre for a double class. First one was a bikram yoga class and the second class was advanced pilates. Liked both of the classes a lot since they were very demanding. Bikram was very fast phased and we switched from one position to another without pauses letting our in and outward breaths dictate the speed of movements. Pilates, on the other hand, was a mixture of fun and hard work. The instructor was an older Italian lady how pushed us hard and corrected everyone's position in every single moment. This clearly took time which meant that we did not end up doing more than ten to thirteen different exercises but because she took her time correcting everyone's position we had to do more repetitions than usually. I liked it though. There is a real potential for these classes becoming my early Saturday afternoon signatures.

After coming home and having had lunch, we decided to go for a bit of browse and coffee. It was nice since Ken had just came back from Taiwan so we had Starbucks and watched people playing table tennis at the shopping centre square. Hah, there were a few Chinese ladies who were impressively good at it and Ken, bless him, really wanted to go practice his table tennis skills too. However, Reiss and summer sales got the best of him so he settled  with only sitting in Starbucks' sofas sipping his coffee and watching the others. 

By the time coffees were drank I wanted to quickly pop into a phone shop to ask if my they have international phone call deals I could bundle up with my current contract. I have been receiving ridiculous phone bills lately which is why something had to be done and quickly, since in my mind, putting £70 on calls is just a stupid waste of money. Thus, I go into the shop and the assistant and I start talking and he shows me different options I could consider. Then one thing leads to another, I mention that my BB has been crashing a lot lately and has not been working as it should, we start looking at phones, we talk about a little bit of upgrades and then half an hour later, I leave the shop with a really good international  phone calls deal added to my contract and new Sony Xperia in a carrier bag! :D

Towards the evening I started to feel a little tired and uncomfortable.  I was cold and felt really heavy, so yes, by the time we started watching the sex and the city film around 8ish in the evening, I had started to feel really feverish. So for the rest of the evening, I staid under the covers on the sofa, munching paracetamol and occasionally falling asleep and then waking up and laughing at Samantha's comments. And now, I am full-on ill. 

Peaceful Saturday morning, just right amount of warm breakfast filling my stomach, sitting in the lounge in silence whilst the other ones are still sleeping and gazing at the continuous movements of the Thames river water. I am so happy I almost want to cry. I have finally had my peaceful weekend mornings back and that just makes me mentally so satisfied and content.  It gives me energy and recharges my batteries. There have been months when I have gone beyond the point of missing these moments, I have forgotten these moments exists. I have forgotten how important these moments are for me and most importantly how they made me feel. Now, when I am again connected to the feeling I remember what I have been missing and it makes me appreciate them even more. Happiness is little things.