Midsummer in Helsinki

This year I spent Midsummer fest in Helsinki. It has been a special weekend in many sense; nightless nights, summer sun, good food, drinks and most importantly the pleasure of good company. The icing on the cake was my friend's Midsummer wedding, which I will write a post a bit latter. 

The traditional Finnish Midsummer is usually spent in summer cottage, mökki. The place can be a basic summer cottage without a running water or electricity or a modern holiday home with three bedrooms and the latest gadgets. Regardless which option you choose, there is also two additional requirements most Finns have for their summer mökki. These are sauna and some type of water element for swimming (read skinny dipping). 

Since I wasn't able to escape the city this Midsummer, which is the ideal option to most of the Finns around this time of the year, I was lucky to stay in Scandic Paasi hotel in Helsinki. 

Scandic Paasi Superior Plus room (c)

Scandic Paasi hotel Superior Plus room (c)

Scandic Paasi hotel Face Stockholm bath vitalisizing soap and moisturizer (c)

Scandic Hotel Paasi Superior Plus room (c)

As you can see yourself, the room was fantastic. We stayed here for two nights and we were upgraded to a 6th floor superior plus room straight away (nice). Our room was spacious and bright with an interesting yet clam decor, polished with a mixture of blue, turquoise, black and white colours. 

Hotel itself located in a great place, very close to the city centre in Hakaniemi. Breakfast was phenomenal; there was a lot to choose from and everything was nicely placed and freshly made. The staff was super friendly and they were offering fun extras such as city bikes, roller blades, Nordic walking sticks and umbrellas for anyone wanting to experience the Finnish way of going out and about - I thought that was brilliant :D

summer sales 2013

Hello hello hello, summer sales 2013.

Summer sales have been very good this year. Maybe it is due to the fact that spring has been rather cold and wet, and that has encouraged people to leave the summariest pieces of clothes at the shop shelves and rails. This is clearly good news for all the summer sales shoppers who, like myself, have been able to find a lot of nice items with -50% discount tag attached.

Massimo Dutti logo

This year I have dedicated almost my entire summer sale shopping to one particular fashion retailer; Massimo Dutti. Massimo Dutti was founded in 1985 and became acquired by Inditex, the fashion distributor group known for owning brands such as Zara, Bershka and Pull & Bear in 1991. Interestingly enough, originally Massimo Dutti started off as a men's wear brand, until in 1992, the fashion brand launched it's first ladies collection and again in 2003 children's collection under the trade name Massimo Dutti boys & girls.

Massimo Dutti grey jumper

Massimo Dutti beige trousers

Massimo Dutti black trousers

Massimo Dutti striped top

Massimo Dutti Basic white t-shirt

Massimo Dutti light pink top

I absolutely love Massimo Dutti's clothes. They are so well designed, very classical and just beautiful. A better quality than Zara in my opinion, but at the same time, I do find the zippers in some MD clothes sewn too close to the fabric, which does make me to avoid buying certain items from MD. But all in all, Massimo Dutti is great. I would say that it is slightly more sophisticated and grown up version of Zara.

So as you can see my summer sale buys are, as always, quite classic and easy to mix.

Great Gatsby: Florence + The Machine - Over The Love

The Great Gatsby - glamorous and exciting.

I have read the F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel and seen the Baz Luhrmann's film. Loved the film a lot more than the book itself, which was quite surprising and quite a controversial thing to say about one of America's most beloved and read piece of work.

In general I love books and I often prefer reading over watching films. There is just something about books that I cannot resists. It might be the fact that you are allowed to use your own imagination and if a novel is written exceptionally well, you can't put the book down. It sucks you in right away and holds you tight up until the end.

The Great Gatsby film 2013

The Great Gatsby cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton

 As many of you know I love Florence + The Machine. Hence, I was very pleasantly surprised when I heard they were contributing to the Great Gatsby music. Bliss.