Wild Stripes

Que pasa everyone? Hope you've been productive during this amazingly beautiful autumn. I sure have! While doing this and that, I've managed to decorate my home a bit. New vintage bookshelf from 50's and a white flat LED tv makes this teeny tiny place a bit more adult and less child's room. When you love colours as much as I do, it can be bit difficult to decorate a small space without the fear of it looking too childish. After all, I'm close to the dreaded thirties.

Besides bright blinding colors, I'm a huge fan on very minimalistic and graphic black and white look. Combining these two obsessions are easy peasy and so much fun. For my luck, I found out that Weekday Carnival had a -20% sale. I couldn't resist myself from getting the Wild Stripes -print I had been wanting for a while now.
And here it is now! Arrived in a sturdy carboard tube, but softly wrapped in a mint green paper inside for protection. Together with a thank you note from Weekday Carnival's Riikka, it really gave a nice kick-start to my Wednesday.

Pic: Weekday Carnival

Massive colour splash

Single day 1.

As much as everything sucks right now and getting rid of all the negative feelings that have taken over my body and mind seems impossible, there's still some bright moments in my day.

These were waiting for me when I came home from work today. An old friend of mine had remembered me with some awesomeness. A dishcloth with MJ on it and an air freshener that smells like a chocolate cupcake.

Thank you! ♥

Marimekko

I love Marimekko as you might already know and lately I've bought some new stuff to brighten up my spring. First, the Marimekko ♥ Converse collaboration Kirppu sneakers.

Mixing

About a month ago I did a survey in some random website about what type of interior designer am I. The result was that my style is classic and I favor quality brands with a long design history. I felt bit weird with the result, because I've always seen myself more like a quirky decorator than a classic one. But then I started to look around me. Marimekko, Eames, IvanaHelsinki, Iittala,.. all internationally well known design brands, hmm.

Drops

 

DIY drops for the rainy weather and mood. Very easy to do. Just cut the wanted shape from DC-fix plastic wrap and tadaa... Even Gekko could do that.

Sweet dreams

Eeek! Look at these bed sheets from Sueños, how freaking adorable they are! I have a soft spot for crazy bed sheets. I'm not a girl that fancies to get her beauty sleep under a red/purple/choose-any-fatal-or-"sexy"-color silky blanket, head placed on a frilly heart-shaped pillow, oh no. I want them funky and funny with nice designs plz.

Check the Sueños website. Not all as cool as these, some way too tacky and boring for my taste, but still, some of them are fabulous!

My home is my castle

Finally! You're warmly welcome to my 22,5 square meter wonder. The "before" pics I posted in April, you can see them there. I did the renovation with low budget, but I like it. Still need art on my walls but don't have afford to nice art and have been too busy to paint anything myself.
Hope you like it, now lets jump to the pictures.
Hope you liked it!

Renovating

During the first parts of this year, I've mentioned some upcoming changes in my life. I don't know if someone has noticed but I have removed the part "girlfriend" from the About me -section on the upper right corner.
On April Fool's day I got the keys to my new apartment, located in Kallio, Helsinki. It's a compact little home in a peaceful part on the quite colourful Kallio. 22,5 square meters for me, Gekko and Proper. Iines will be staying with J, she will be much happier as an only dog so there's no point for me to take her with me and keep her stressed about the youngsters and vice versa.

It wasn't an easy thing to find an apartment in Southern parts of Helsinki with my budget and demands. I don't need lots of space, but I want to live in nice surroundings and well.. it seems that even a shower is something you need to pay extra! One girl was amazed by the rent I pay and told that in North-Finland where she lives you could get three rooms + kitchen with that amount!
My little home isn't in very good shape, but I was convinced that I wanted this apartment because it had painted white wooden floors, big window and simple and very basic white bathroom (and not some freak-ish 70's brown patterns or something..). With a little renovation (in kitchen, hello! Awful!), I can make it a lovely place to live in.

Time for the piccies then, here's what my apartment looked before I did anything in there.

Livingroom/only room of the apartment. The big window is my favorite part now. Lots of room to pile colour-organized books and some small and cute decore thingies.
Other end of the same room. You can see the "hall" from the doorway. Bathroom is on the left, behind the kitchen. Table, chair and boxes belong to the landlord, I'll dump them to the attic as soon as I get the key.
My small kitchen. My god how terrible! It won't be staying like that, that's for sure.
Bathroom. Cheaply done, but at least it's white. Not going to renovate there much/at all.
Here's some pics about the middle phase where I'd already brought some stuff in there, but hadn't renovated anything yet.
I try to move during Easter. There is still lots to do in the apartment, but nothing that big that I couldn't live in there already. Maybe I'll take some pics before the final "after" pictures.

London calling

I've always loved London, but lately there has been bit more severe Britain fever sneaking up on me. It all started, when I was shopping some office supplies for my work from book store and while being there just quickly checked if there was anything intresting in the interior book shelves.
And there was, New London Style.

That strange Union Jack wall rug or what ever it's called appealed to me for some unknown reason. Since buying that book, I have been very into all kinds of Union Jack themed things. It's actually very strange, as I a) don't like flags b) don't like blue c) don't like red and d) dislike most of wall rugs I've ever seen.

I'd love to get these Converse All Stars sneakers with Union Jack on them, but sadly the store I have one unused gift certificate left, don't have them in my size.

In reality, I think this has to have something to do with my unbearable desire to travel. I've been in London for few times and love the city. But I would also be very happy to travel anywhere else too.

HEY! Almost forgot!! There's a competition in the Cool Cupcake blog (sorry, it's in finnish)! Go check it out and try if you are one of the lucky ones winning the cute prices!