Memories of one summer

So a bit more about my summer break, because I’m starting to get busy with third year and I’d like to remind myself about some of the cool/silly things that happened during the break...

Ropecon

Preeetty much the highlight of each year. One weekend of barely sleeping (and sleeping on hard floors), eating whatever, playing games, meeting new people, LARPing, hanging out... it’s just SO much fun and I love doing it.
This year I participated as a performer (for a second year in row)... well, only thing I did was some Bujinkan (Japanese martial art):
Once again we played games, swam, and ate a lot:

Granted, it was more of a... showy show than pure demonstration x)

Otherwise it was our little gang hanging, playing and enjoying the gala...:

Awesome costumes from a LARP at the gala~

And some other happenings. It was AWESOME.

Our same little group also spent a weekend at our friend Anna’s house in Mikkeli (the five of us have this nickname Rafiki).

This is not all the food we had...

We actually bought so much food that the four of us who had travelled to Mikkeli, ended up dragging some of the food back to Helsinki with us. But once again, it was one super awesome weekend~

I also went to meet my girls with Mari-liis at our friend Heini’s place. I missed them so, and it was really good to see them. They also enjoyed their presents:

Bella and Tara ♥

Don’t worry. Tara’s eyes are ALWAYS red. And Bella always looks like that. Shocked x)

They also got a cucumber from me, so I guess they were fat and content after my visit... I spoil them.

The day after I had been at Heini’s to see Bella and Tara, I went to get a tattoo:

The day after getting the tattoo done.

It’s from a photo my dad took YEARS ago. It was quite of an impromptu decision to take this tattoo, but I had been visiting my relatives earlier in the summer and had gotten a bunch of my dad’s photos he had taken when he was still alive, and for some reason this one just stuck with me:

This is not the full photo, but you see the bird and the clouds.

It was a family friend who did my tattoo, so I was in safe hands and felt relaxed and happy even though I was going through bad withdrawal symptoms from my depression/anxiety medication (NEVER again).

We also had a small photoshoot with Rafiki on that day, so I one of our pictures has all our legs, with my right ankle wrapped in cream and cling film :D

This is what the tattoo looks nowadays (healed):

Not as brutally red and bruised anymore :'D

Soon enough after that (and I had gotten emergency medication for my withdrawal) I had to leave Mari-liis’ comfortable couch behind me and head back to England to Danni’s spare room x)

And then it was just the matter of derping around and dressing like a wannabe-hipster-something:

Featuring Danni's living room.

Also, decorating my backpack for the coming university year:

Few inside jokes and then quotes from two TV shows. But which TV shows? ;D

And most importantly moving to our new flat and going out until Freshers’ Week started, and I was actually expected to do something...

So yeah, that’s my summer break in a nutshell... I guess it was more eventful than I remembered x)

Now, have another nail polish sample that I promised:

OPI Teal the Cows Come Home. 

Two layers of Teal the Cows Come Home alone. If I use only one layer, the colour's not deep enough for my liking.

Left hand.

With Silver Shatter. I accidentally used too much on my middle finger and pinkie and it didn't shatter as well as I would've liked :I

Right hand.

I managed to do this hand better... well, the two fingers x)

That’s it for this time, once again I ask you to stay human, and I’ll blog ya later! 

P.S.

If you are an American and CAN vote, I suggest you really vote for Obama. Just btw. Especially if you are an American woman. I could elaborate WHY, but that post would be too long.

SHOES.

Hello, once again! This time I’ll be telling you about some of my shoes... 

I don’t usually go buying shoes like crazy, since I rarely see anything that I like or want, but that DOES happen every now and then. During the summer break I actually managed to buy 2 new pairs, got one pair from Mari-liis and dug out few old favourites.

Let us start with the pair I got from Mari-liis (who bought them from Japan):

Bonita.

Surprisingly comfortable even though they may look a bit painful, I wore these for three nights in a row once and only my calves were complaining by the end of the third night.

Plus they make me so tall~

Now to the pairs I bought:

Jumex (not the juice)

I don’t know WHY, but these make me think of Lydia Martin/Holland Roden. Anyway, I will forever say that Mari-liis forced me to buy these. They are cute and adorable and I love them but she forced me to buy them. End of story.

Nike Lunar Forever

Got my first proper running shoes! They feel heavenly~

Now I just need to find the time, and energy, to actually go for runs... I’m just too lazy x)

Couple old favourites:

Dea Dia. Cute shoe shop I accidentally bumped into while visiting Shibuya.

Bought these in February 2008 when I was visiting Japan. They were WAY cool not to buy, and so I awkwardly asked for a bigger size than what was on display (Japanese people have smaller feet), and the store assistant even put the shoe on for me and tightened the straps. It love at first sight. I mean with the shoe and I.

Friis&Co.

I had been drooling at these for a while some years ago, but they were always a bit too expensive for me. Until that one day when I stepped to the same store once again and noticed that they had a discount on these shoes... which also happened to be my size. Needless to say I left the store with a smile on my face.

Not the comfiest shoes to wear for hours, but they look damn good.

I also may have bought some new shoes in England... after the summer break.

My defence is, that I had the best excuse to buy the first pair, and- DAMN. I don’t have a good excuse for the other pair.

Converse! with cute squirrels and reindeer (?)!

These babies I bought because I had been rather upset the night before and hence wanted something to cheer me up. So cute AND I got them with a nice discount~

Schutz. A brand I've never heard of, but the original price had been R$320...

Now these... I basically just bought because they went well with my new jacket and made my legs look amazing. I have no other excuse.

All in all, I now have WAY too many shoes, and don’t know what to do with all of them! I don’t know how some people can live happily with 15+ pair of shoes, when I’m already going crazy with less than that!

Oh, btw, this (what you see above) is my new awesome jacket that I got from London (Forever 21~) on my hunt for Victoria’s Secret (from where I bought a new bra and underwear ♥)
And you can't deny that my legs look really good in those shoes, despite the bruises on my knees (which are from DANCING, just FYI)!

Before I go, I remember I promised samples from the nail polishes I posted pictures of, so here we go with the first one~

Pearl Fashion UK - Pomegranate

Stay human and blog ya later!

A nail for a hair. Or however the saying goes...

I've now moved into the new place, have survived Freshers' week (during which I did quite a lot of volunteering work), and will try to get into regular blogging now whilst attending my lectures.
I will be updating stuff from my preview with something new. Basically my next *insert amount here* posts will have something "older" and something new in them every time.

Today's topics: my new nail polishes and my much newer hair (which neither were in my preview... OOPS)!

Let's start with the "older" stuff...

That is nail polishes.

As most of my readers know, I spent my summer in Finland pretty much doing nothing although I did get all these nail polishes.

I have tried all of them on already, but lazy as I was, forgot to take pictures, so you'll get swatches later :)

OPI Silver Shatter and OPI Teal the Cows Come Home

Okay, I cheated a bit and got these from the airport, since they were so much cheaper in tax free than they usually are in normal shops.

They're my first OPI polishes, and so far I don't have much to complain. They're quite "runny" which makes the application easier for some, but messier for me (though I'm always messy with polishes).

Teal the Cows Come Home needs more than one layer if you want the colour to be close to what it looks like in the bottle (but that didn't surprise me), and as with most shatter/crackle polishes, you want to be quite fast with Silver Shatter. 

Gina Tricot Base coat and Pearl Fashion UK Pomegranate

The Gina Tricot one I bought myself whereas I got the Pearl Fashion UK one from my friend Meri, who instead got it from a surprise bag at a convention. 

Don't have much to say about these except that the base coat is very easy to apply, and dries fast which is ALWAYS a plus with me, since I'm incredibly impatient with waiting for nail polishes to dry. Pomegranate shows up very vibrant even after one layer, is easy to apply and dries evenly. 

Flormar Supershine Miracle U09 and Flormar Matifying Top-Coat

I am kinda in love with these two. I got them both for 5€ from Seppälä in Finland and only regret not getting more. I was actually surprised to see Flormar polishes in Finland.
It takes two layers for the U09 to cover the nail, but the result is beautiful. It is this deep purple with shiny, tiny bits of glitter, and it's gorgeous. Downside is you have to wait for it to dry quite a while...
The matifying top-coat is so smooth. Honestly, it dries surprisingly quickly and leaves this smooth, matte coat and from under that you can still see the colours really well.
I love using these two together.

Aaand that's about it with the nail polishes. Like I said, swatches will be coming soon! But later x)

Now, to my new awesome hair that I got cut today at Toni&Guy Worcester!

I had the appointment really early (9.00!!!) so you can guess how happy I was when I found out the washing chair had a massage setting going from shoulders to lower back~ 

And my hairdresser, Connie, gave me a quick head massage while washing my hair! I love being pampered like that ♥

Got myself a fringe!

First I only wanted to get rid of my split ends, but the night before decided to go for a full fringe as well. I got to keep my hair long, which was the main thing. I was scared that she needed to cut way more off in order to get rid of the worst splits...

Never mind the bags under my eyes... couldn't be bothered to put any make-up on!

The fringe will be in my eyes in a week or two, but I don't care because I'm loving it right now!

That's about it for today, I'm afraid. More coming soon!

Stay human, and blog ya later!

Whoops.

Seriously. I have been TOO lazy to update my blog. And to be honest, not much has happened.
I spent two months in Finland, doing basically nothing but just nesting, watching TV and hanging out with people.

Now I have a small amount of things to show and tell, but for now, you just need to be happy with a little (though ultimately serious) preview:

So that, and way more (?) stuff coming up as soon as possible, so stay tuned, stay human and blog ya later~!

I guess this is one of those "I'm still alive, just don't have anything to say so have my face instead" posts...

It's summer... and everyone's been busy OR lazy. I've been more of the latter, and I honestly haven't done anything interesting. Ooops.
Well, I did go to Kuopio for Animecon to dance and teach parapara a bit, but that's about it.

Oh, I have some new stuff, most of that given to me! But I don't have pictures so you'll have to wait for a while so I can get my ass up and actually take some photos of them.
Also, I'll be gone for the weekend, so no updating OR taking pictures of stuff.

I did go see one of my long-time friends the other day, and actually managed to do something to myself. Look-wise.

 My outfit for the day. I WAS BOILING.

Natural-ish make-up. Also, I love this hat~

My aunt (one of them) bought this hat for me. First she put in on my head while joking "Well, here's a hat for you", but then she realised that it actually suited me so she agreed to pay it for me :D

I was trying to go for a bit of bohemian gyaru-look, but it's incredibly hard when your hair is RED. So I just put on my own twist like zat, and got told by people that I looked cute. AWESOME. 

Anyway, I really don't know what to write or tell, so have a picture of me looking... intellectual:

Don't worry, I took the sunglasses off when I went on stage.

Stay human, and blog ya later~

And I say heeeyyyyeyyyyeyyyyeyey~

I haven't been up to much lately. Except packing and trying to come up with something to do... I haven't really been out in a while either, so I haven't bothered with make-up. I've been spending time trying some different, basic, colourful nails so I guess I'll share some of those with you x)

Barry M. Lemon Ice Cream and purple crackle.

I had these for about a week before I got bored and decided to change.

17 Catwalk Couture and Barry M. silver foil.

I actually had these for a few days, but because I was cleaning they got a bit chipped and I decided to do something else. I did like these.

I hadn't buffered my nails between this and the Barry M. manicure, so I decided to buffer them after getting rid off of the polish.

Before buffering.

After buffering.

My nails were in a surprisingly good condition even before buffering so I just it was a quick buffering.

GOSH Orange Drops and Wet 'n' Wild Kaleidoscope.

Same in the sun.

I hope this one is going to last me till I fly to Finland because I'm not bothered to do new nails on this week... as I'm moving and cleaning. But we'll see.

I'm gonna go back to stalk- watching my friends on webcam, so stay human and blog ya later~!

Body image.

First of all: THANK YOU. So much. Everyone who commented on my previous post, cheering me up and sharing their support. I really appreciate it and you don't know just HOW much.

But now... I thought I'd share something about female bodies and the body image that I've been thinking about lately...

They say that a woman is beautiful when she accepts herself, when she's okay with her body and mind. And I don't disagree, really.
But I also can't get over the fact that media keeps pushing out these skinny models, actors, singers etc. Because no matter how beautiful they are (and they really obviously are), I can't accept the fact that the media sets up the way women are "supposed" to look.

I don't know if any of you have watched Disney Channel lately, but even Disney has jumped into the fashion train. It was this last winter (I believe) when I was visiting my oldest cousin and her kids, and her 10-year-old daughter was watching Shake It Up, or something like that, and suddenly looked at her thighs and said: "My legs are too fat."
Needless to say that I laughed my ass off, because a TEN YEAR OLD girl was saying this. Her mother laughed as well and we confirmed the daughter that no, her legs are not fat, and no, she shouldn't even think about those at that age.

But I couldn't stop thinking about it, and realised that even kids under 10 years watch the Disney shows and THINK that they should look like this:

The main characters of Disney's Shake It Up. Actresses' ages are 14 and 15.

Forgetting the fact that the show is just terrible (I had to watch it all summer and winter because of my cousin's daughter), all the characters in the show are as... fit and fashionable as these two.

And since kids watch shows like these all day long, OF COURSE they think that they need to look like that. It's imprinted in their minds at a young age already.

I was lucky enough to watch "boys' shows" (and I don't like that either, categorising shows, toys etc. into boys' and girls') when I was a kid, and back then the Disney stars used to look like this for example:

Raven <3

Of course there were the Disney Princesses of the animations who frankly enough have ridiculous body ratios, BUT I admired them for their personalities. Think about it, even though their waists are skinnier than their necks and heads, at least they show over and over again that they can be heroes too. Strong, independent women who can choose what they want by themselves.

Can't really say that for the shows on Disney Channel nowadays, since most of the characters I've seen are silly kids, who have big dreams and stupid jokes...

ANYHOW. Let's get on with it and move onto other topics than Disney and other media's set-up of the ideal female body.

As I said before, I agree that beauty is when someone accepts themselves and are confident and happy in their bodies. That doesn't mean you have to be skinny or chubby or fat or normal or have to train your ass off daily or whatever. It means if you get up in the morning and think "Man, I feel GOOD. I could go to gym and then have a pizza" and put on whatever clothes feeling good and beautiful, then you are most probably happy with yourself, and that's beautiful to me. Beauty is not just what you look like, it's what you feel like and how you are. Your nature. In my opinion.

But since I already mentioned that media sets us the ideal image, I should probably continue with the outer image of beauty, and introduce you some of my girl crushes:

Scarlett Johansson

As long as I remember I've admired this woman for her beauty. She has curves and even stretch marks. She is beautiful and she is sexy. She is talented and confident and one of those Hollywood actors who keeps getting ranked as one of the sexiest women EVEN though she is so-called normal size.

Jennifer Lawrence

She is gorgeous. And every Jennifer fan knows that she doesn't mind being lazy and normal-sized. She loves it. She is happy with how she looks and yes, she goes to gym (which actor DOESN'T?), but she's also said publicly that she loves eating. She's not ashamed of how she looks even if she's surrounded by skinnier or chubbier actors.

Missy Peregrym

This girl has muscles, arms and boobs. You know those actresses with spaghetti arms and legs? Yep, not Missy. Just like Johansson and Lawrence, she has curves, although she can easily look boyish with the right clothes and bra:

Missy Peregrym on the left, just FYI.

Amanda Righetti

Once again, a woman with wide-ish shoulders, muscles and just an absolutely gorgeous body.

Yes, these four women are what I would consider normal size, but I believe they all been considered one of the most beautiful women in the world in different charts. And I don't wonder at all why.
They are all beautiful outside and seem to be confident and happy with they look.
I can't say that ALL media is about the skinny ones, since these four women have also modelled for different magazines and brands, so there's hope. But it just seems that women, especially the younger ones, seem to pick up the examples from the skinnier part of the fashion and pop culture.
And let me tell you one thing a lecturer of mine, who's worked in films and TV told me: the camera actually ADDS kilos on you. And

Now I'm gonna show you... ME!
This is as close to naked you'll see me on internet:

 Love handles!

Stretch marks!

I would be lying if I said that I am completely happy with my body, since I'm not. I'm okay with my upper body, but I do find my bum and thighs just a big too big for my taste.
I've been trying to tone them, but the only place I seem to lose weight is my ribs and waist xD
So if I get them juuust a bit skinnier and just more toned, I'll be happy.
I'm not too confident with myself and after my eating disorder I've been constantly conscious of how I look and whenever a male coursemate has to lift me I tell them "I hope I'm not too heavy".
I don't want to be skinny. I don't want to be fat. I don't want to be chubby. I don't want to be normal. I want to be happy with myself and how I look.

And that's what I think everyone should aim to.
I hope everyone understood my ramblings...

Now let, me leave you with Ashley Graham, a gorgeous plus size model, and I'll blog ya later~