Good News! huhtikuu 27, 2007

Helsinki +13 degrees Celsius, Clear.
Sunrise 5:27 am, sunset 9:10 pm.

Today was a happy day! Now I can unveil my practical training place, because today I got it! I had a practical training interview at Design Forum Finland. The interview lasted a bit over hour and I was SO nervous that my stomach was making it own turns. The ladies who were interviewing me were really nice and after an hour excruciating talking they were ready to make their decision and take me on board! I was so happy that I was almost literally gliding home…

Our practical training is usually unpaid, but in this case we are able to get study grants from the government. Now, on top of all, they (DFF) offered me to pay me lunch money and a travelling card! That isn’t too bad, don’t you think!

I’m so excited about the work I’m going to do this summer. DFF is launching a new exhibition in June, which is called “New Arrivals – Starring Finnish Fashion”. Exhibition is introducing new great Finnish designers like Aki Choklat, Minna Parikka, Saint Vacant Footwear, Tiia Vanhatapio, Rinne Niinikoski and so on… I’m going to take a part of building and working with the exhibition. It’s really great opportunity to be part of something like this, especially when I’m really interested of promoting Finnish design and fashion. Happy, happy, happy. That’s how I feel today.

Ajattelin välillä laitta jotain juttua oikein suomeksikin… Ihan niitä ystäväisiä varten, jotka eivät jaksaisi lueskella englanninkielistä huttua.

Tänään oli ihana päivä! Olin työharjoittelu haastattelussa Erottajankadulla, Design Forum Finlandilla. Jännitin niin kovasti, että vatsaa väänti oikein kovasti. Vaikka etukäteen haastattelijat (kaksi naista, näyttelytuottaja ja talouspäällikkö) olivatkin vaikuttaneet positiivisilta, he (kuin varmuuden vuoksi) tenttasivat minua kokonaisen tunnin ajan. Yritin siinä sitten vastailla mahdollisimman hyvin kaikkiin kysymyksiin. Pelottavaa oli. Lopulta haastattelijat katsoivat toisiaan ja toinen kysyi, josko heidän pitäisi keskustella asiasta kahdestaa. Toinen vastasi tähän, että ei kai tässä mitään keskustelemista ole, otetaan tyttö töihin… Oi, että olin iloinen siinä vaiheessa! Iloisuus vaihtui iloiseksi epäuskoksi, kun talouspäällikkö puheli, että kai meidän pitää jotain sinulle maksaakin. Siis mitä! Työharjoittelusta maksaa! Käsittämätöntä! Minä kun olin aivan ajatellut, että en saisi työharjoittelun ajalta muuta kuin opintotuen. Niinpä sovimme, että he maksavat minulle lounasrahan ja matkakortin! Mieletöntä! Kun lähdin haastattelusta, suorastaan leijuin Helsingin katuja pitkin. Niin hyvä mieli minulle tuli.

Työ mitä tulen tekemään kesällä on aivan uudenlaista minulle. DFF:n näyttelytiloihin pistetään pystyyn näyttely nimeltä New arrivals -pääosissa muoti. Tätä näyttelyä pääsen siis rakentamaan ja muutenkin olemaan näyttelyn pyörteissä mukana. Siitä tulee todella mahtavaa. Näyttely esittelee lupaavia suomalaisia suunnittelijoita, kuten: Aki Choklat, Minna Parikka, Saint Vacant Footwear, Tiia Vanhatapio, Rinne Niinikoski ja niin edelleen. Tämä on kuin onnenpotku, noin ammatillisen osaamisen kehittämisen, kannalta. Olen siis tosi iloinen…

Time is flying huhtikuu 21, 2007

Helsinki +2 degrees Celsius, rain.
Sunrise 5:47 am, sunset 8:53 pm.

I have a feeling that time is going too fast. It’s almost the end of April and I feel that the month has just begun. I have so many school works to finish by the end of May and I also should start packing my things. I mean my all things. I have given notice of my cell apartment in Jyväskylä and I’m going to move to Helsinki to Tuomo’s place for the summer. Problem is that I haven’t any place for my furniture and all the “stuff” I have, yet. And of course I don’t have a summer job either. Though on next week, I’m going to get answer from one place if I’m able to go for a practical training for them during the summer. I don’t want to tell about it too much before hand. I just hope I’m going to get it! It would be so great, because then I would get study grants form the government for the summer time and I wouldn’t have to worry about money.

We have a plan for my furniture and that’s really good. If Elina and Joel (they are moving to Helsinki for the summer too) are able to get a lodger for their Jyväskylä’s apartment, I can move all my stuff there. Sounds a bit weird, but is definitely possible. They have very loose furnishings at the moment, so couple of extra furniture won’t matter. Now I just have to keep my fingers crossed that everything will just clear up…

I wish that it would already be summer, I would have all my schoolwork in order, I would have the practical training place and I would have place for my things… Little do I ask…

Yesterday couple of my school mates started their journey to Norway. They are going to travel almost 1300 km the Ice Sea! Next 10 weeks they are going to work there in the fish factory, making bates for the fishermen. It sounds so surreal that I can only smile. Well, if you are reading this, Good luck Henna, Petri and Inka!

Our boys (Wiidakko) were performing on Thursday and Friday evening here in Helsinki. On Friday they performed in Kuudes linja, which is just opposite from where we live with Tuomo, and yesterday they were performing in Oranssi-klubi. They have had four months gap between their last appearances, so I would say that it most definitely were showing in their performance on Thursday. Yesterdays gig was superb! I liked it a lot! So I guess they haven’t entirely lost their touch.

Now I start to listening boys snoring… Tuomo and Markus are still sleeping, like they usually are at this time of morning. Have a lovely day where ever you are! Here the winter is trying to find its way back. It won’t succeed, but this means we will have couple of really cold and rainy days. Oh, I almost forgot to tell you! We have the first beautiful, tiny leafs on the trees already! I can’t wait to have real spring everywhere. It’s so wonderful and fresh looking!

Readymade project huhtikuu 11, 2007

Jyväskylä +2 degrees Celsius, mostly clear.
Sunrise 6:04 am, sunset 8:34 pm.

I finally finished it! The baby blanket is READY! It actually was completed surprisingly fast, considering that I haven’t had too much time to knit it. I have had so much school work, that I’ve been able to knit only occasionally. Now the blanket has already ended to its owner, whose Sanna’s and Jussi’s little girl. Sanna went to labour at 27th of May and gave birth to beautiful little girl (weight 3605g, height 50cm).

Here are some pictures of my creation. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of Sanna’s and Jussi’s creation…

So much to tell, so little time… huhtikuu 11, 2007

Jyväskylä +2 degrees Celsius, mostly clear.
Sunrise 6:04 am, sunset 8:34 pm.

Last Thursday I had my 26th birthday and I had a blast! On Wednesday I had some problems at school, such as: I lost my notebook that consisted information from all the courses I’m having right now. Somehow, on Thursday morning I woke up at 4:30, and I couldn’t get any sleep after that! I was so puzzled about all the schoolwork. I was really surprised when my cell was ringing at six a clock! When I saw that it was Linda, I wasn’t so amazed anymore. Linda wakes up very early every morning and she knows that I’m usually awake at six a clock as well. “Happy birthday!”, she said to me. Then she asked what I was doing. I told her I was eating morning porridge like every morning. “Okay”, she said. “Could you come and open the door for us?” I was so amazed! There they were behind the door with Hannu, at six a clock in the morning! Crazy, but lovely people! They brought me just baked French breads, ice cream cake and some beautiful yellow tulips. What a wonderful way to start a birthday morning.

The whole day was just wonderful. Only downside (and that was just a little, little part of the day) was that Tuomo didn’t remember my birthday! He felt really bad for it, but it’s true that all of us make some mistakes at some times. Or forget some things. That’s natural and only life.

Happy birthday! maaliskuu 25, 2007

Jyväskylä +1 degrees Celsius, sunny.
Sunrise 6:03, sunset 6:45.

I almost forgot, but not quite!

Happy Birthday on 23rd of March to Joy and Poppe!
And Happy Birthday on 25th of March to Mom!
I love you all!

Addicted to knitting… maaliskuu 22, 2007

Jyväskylä +2 degrees Celsius, mostly cloudy.
Sunrise 6:10 am, sunset 6:37 pm.

My absolutely dearest hobby is knitting. I learned to knit from my mom when I was about nine years old. I had to go to hospital once a month when I was little, and because we visited there so often, we knew that there’s lots of spare time while waiting of getting to the doctor, to the laboratory or getting some results. Being a wise woman that my mom is she was always repaired to the situation. We always had something to do. She brought books and her knitting works with her. When I saw her knitting (and I didn’t have anything to do) I asked her to teach me. The first thing I ever knit was socks for my granddad. He thanked me for them, but he was a man of rapid circulation of blood, so he never actually did use them. Since I learned the skill of knitting I have been doing it a lot. I usually knit small products like socks, mittens, woolly hats and so on. Bigger things bore me, even though I’m quite fast knitter.

Because all the babies that have born lately or are on their way, I have now been very excited of all kind of items I could make for babies. I have tried little baby socks and mittens, but the thing I’m absolutely addicted to right now is baby blanket. At the moment I’m making baby blanket from small squares. I haven’t had too much time to knit lately, since I have loads of school work that is just waiting for me to do them. Here’s something I’ve done so far:

Update maaliskuu 18, 2007

Helsinki +2 degrees Celsius, partly sunny.
Sunrise 6:29 am, sunset 6:29 pm.

It’s time to update the blog… Nothing really special has happened since I wrote. Except one of my dearest friends, Elina told me she’s pregnant! That was really big news. I was driving car when she told me, and I was shouting her afterwards, that doesn’t she have any sense of self defence. Dangerous thing to do when someone is driving, I think.

The future mom…

Mom and Dad came back from Mauritius and I think they had a wonderful time. Mom got a ring with seven diamonds on it! And dad got really cool watch. I was surprised that they did something that drastic, but it’s only god thing.

At school my third period ended last Friday and fourth and last one is starting tomorrow. I have so many homework that I need to return during few next weeks. It feels horrible sometimes, but I know that in the end I’m going to make it. On fourth period I’m going to study subjects like, Jurisprudence of Clothing Industry, Entrepreneur and Business, Communication of Clothing and Spanish. How does it sound like? A bit dry? Well couple of those courses are compulsory and Spanish and Jurisprudence are something I think I’m going to really take advance some day (dry or not).

Obligatory coverage of Finland’s weather: We have had really warm weather lately. They say that the beginning of March have been warmest than in 45 years. (And people still think there’s nothing true about global warmthning!) I feels already like spring although yesterday we got some light snow.

Visiting Sanna and Jussi helmikuu 28, 2007

Helsinki -2 degrees Celsius, light snow.
Sunrise 7:20 am, sunset 5:44 pm.

Yeah! I finally got my ”new” digital camera working. It is really my parents’ old camera, but now that they have the new one, the old one needed a home. I actually got it a while ago, but I really didn’t know how to use it… Now I’ve learned how to use it and especially how to transport photos from the camera to the computer! Clever bunny!

Today I visited my friend Sanna and her bloke Jussi. It was really great to see them. Sanna is now eight months pregnant and her due day is 20th of March. From the pictures you can see that she really have a baby in her belly! Despite all the trouble she has had during her pregnancy she is doing fine at the moment. At least if you don’t count swollen feet and weight gaining of whopping 22 kilos (although you can’t see it from her)! But they really seem to be very happy about the baby, and about of each other. I’m feeling also happy for them.

Here is some pictures from my visit.

This is me wondering the size of Sanna’s belly.

Here Linda, Jussi and Sanna are posing for me.

And here are the sweethearts!

Winter holiday is coming! helmikuu 21, 2007

Jyväskylä -18 degrees Celsius, mostly cloudy.
Sunrise 7:45 am, sunset 5:16 pm.

Oh, no! I just realized that I haven’t written here for a while. Lot has happen since the last time, but nothing really, really big. If I don’t count the fact that my friend Emma left to Kenya. It’s really hard to understand that she’s so far away! But like I told her, the main thing is that she will enjoy herself and come back safely.

My parents also flied to Mauritius today! This is their advanced 30 years anniversary trip and at the same time the honeymoon they never had. I hope they will enjoy the warm and are able to relax in the paradise… Good news for me is that I can use their car meanwhile they are away. I just have to go and pick it up from the airport. I was planning to drive up north to Oulu, to visit my friend Mari on next week (next week is our winter holiday week). Unfortunately Mari just called me and told that they have so many people on sick leave at the moment that she is forced to have 12-hour days next week. And besides this they have inventory in their store! All her time is going to in working, so there’s no point of me going there and not even have any time with her…

Now I have to figure out something else for my holiday. I just don’t know yet, what that something else could be.

During last weekend I had an intensive course on “how to drive daddy’s car”! Of course I have driven a car before, but definitely NOW my dad’s car! The car is my dad’s treasure and he really isn’t happy that anyone else is using it. He has all kind of rules for how to behave with the car. It was really hard for me to stay serious at times during the training… But then again it really is my mom’s and dad’s car so they decide and I just try to fulfil their wishes.

Lately we have had really nice and freezing winter weather over here. I have been surprisingly happy about it. I would’ve thought that I hate the cold weather, but it’s so nice to pack yourself with all the clothes you could ever imagine! I love winter!

An Evil Child! ;) helmikuu 5, 2007

Helsinki -10 degrees Celsius, mostly cloudy.
Sunrise 8:27 am, sunset 4:43 pm.

I got a splendid idea to enrol my parents (or to be strict about it, their apartment) to decorating TV-show! Show is called Inno (comes from the word innovation) and the actual format goes as followed: Some kind of space has a decorating problem, the decorator comes to see how the space looks like and at the same time interviews the home owner of his/hers preference in style. When the decorator has all the information he needs he gets back to his designing table. Now he’s designing the space and all the alteration work is done without the customer. In the end of the show they are surprising the customer and seeing how he/she likes the new decoration. And that’s it! Pretty simple, don’t you think?

My conversations about the topic with my parents went little bit like this:

Eija: “Hi mom! Now you are going to enrol yourself to the Inno!”
Mom: “We don’t want to be in TV!”
Eija: “Yes, but it would be a great idea. Which room do you want to enrol?”
Mom: “I don’t know.”
Eija: “Okay, it’s the small room then.”
Mom: “But I and dad don’t want to be in TV! If you go instead of us, it’s okay.”
Eija: “Okay, I’ll call dad and tell him that you thought it was a good idea!”

Eija: “Hi dad! You are going to enrol to the Inno!”
Dad: “No, we don’t want to be in TV.”
Eija: “Which one of the rooms is the problematic one?”
Dad: “None of them, they are all alright.”
Eija: “No, I don’t think so. What about the small room?”
Dad: “There’s no problem with that one, because it’s so small that nothing fits in to it.”
Eija: “Okay, so that’s the problem room then! I’m going to enrol you for you!”
Dad: “Do as you wish, but your mom and I don’t want to be in TV.”

That went well! I actually already wrote the base of the application, but I’m going to finish it on next weekend when I visit their new apartment and get some photos of it. And of course it’s not sure that they get into the show even if I enrol them. If they get in, we’ll work with that situation.

I’m an evil child! I’m sure they think like that…