The 1st of January is one of my favorite days every year. I love love love it. Dark, tired things always pile up towards the end of the year – it happens every year, it seems to be like my personal cycle – so the beginning of January is the perfect moment to clear the table and do all those little changes I know I need to do to feel happy, healthy and light again. I could do changes any time but this is the moment I feel inspired enough to make some serious effort and I often prepare myself…
October was a busy month for me, too busy to focus on writing about minimalism but I will do that again as soon as things have settled down. I spent a lot of time in Milan last month. I’m not that excited about the city itself but some important things were happening there and I tried to do small things to become familiar with the place while I was there as well, mostly just walked around and had a goal to visit a couple of different cafes and restaurants during my every visit. Whenever I had a couple of extra…
Meet our new family member Kielo. She was born in Romania where she was unwanted in her family and even treated badly until she was lucky to be rescued by a kind lady who helps dogs like her and gives them a temporary home while finding them new suitable homes. We saw Kielo’s picture on our local rescue dog association page and knew immediately she should live with us and went through the adoption process and finally met Kielo last Saturday and brought her home. She is beautiful and playful and has a lot of personality and she fits in…
I have a love-hate relationship with planners, journals and diaries. I love the thought of notebooks, both empty and fully filled and have a real need to write down things to understand and to remember them and simply to have my thoughts in order. Also, I enjoy using photos and images as visual reminders and find them motivating and inspiring. On the other hand, it’s hard to find a journaling system or method I genuinely want to stick with and I have a history of abandoning most planners and systems I’ve ever tried. Writing anything truly personal is out of…
I found these flowery cards in Taormina, Sicily two years ago. I visited Sicily twice that summer, first with my family for two weeks and later to see a concert in Taormina for two days. I had planned buying a tarot deck to use as a writing tool (by picking a card, thinking about the symbol or theme in the card and doing a small writing exercise around it) so I visited a small card shop. I knew nothing about tarot and chose these flower cards just for their pretty botanical illustrations. Even the box says “flower tarot” these are not…
I don’t believe in having only sunny, happy days. I think it’s natural to have also melancholic feelings and it’s natural to let those feelings show. For me it feels fake to pretend they don’t exist. Maybe I see it this way because I live in a Nordic country so I’m used to seeing how darkness and nature during long winters can affect human mind. However, for things to go smoothly it’s important we work for our moods and maintain a good, positive energy level in our everyday life. The state where things happen like we had hoped for and…
I was reading this blog post by Austin Kleon and it made me think of my notebook/journaling habits. I love writing notes, I’ve always been interested in note-making and journaling techniques and enjoy reading about the issue. I don’t keep a traditional personal journal or diary though. The biggest reason for that is my high need for privacy and maybe an irrational fear of someone reading my personal thoughts without my permission. I do agree with Kleon about a notebook being a good place to have bad ideas and I try to write small notes and ideas in my notebooks all the…
My favorite way to experience music goes well together with my minimalist life style. Music is best experienced live. Nothing, absolutely nothing beats a good live gig. The pic above was taken a couple of weeks ago at a new music club in Helsinki. This is something I do together with my husband. Our favorite local artist, a small special venue, good time spent together. I store very little music in any form. I’m a huge, huge fan of one particular international artist and travel to see gigs and different music events all around the world. Going to concerts (I…
