April 25, 2015

Yet another earring stand

For some reason spring always gets my blogging inspiration to lift its head. It must be the sun and natural light. The fact that I might actually get home in time to shoot some pictures of things that I do. It is a fact that the best way for me to relax is by doing-it-myslef (DIM, no wait, is it DIY insted?).

Anyways. I know I should be reading and doing math 24/7 for the next three weeks (only three weeks!!), but I just cannot function like that. I need to do things with my hands, and fix things that bother me and seem to be needing it. This time I found a problem with my earrings. Again.

I own quite many stud earrings, and when in hurry in morning, it is a pain in my butt to go through the little bowl filled with them. All nice and disorganised. So one fine evening after long day of reading about statistical testing and correlations (yei), I decided to do something with them.

I found this pretty easy and lovely looking DIY in Pinterest (where else). And decided to give it my little touch. Since we don't have dollar stores in Finland I marched into a Tiger, IKEA and DIY store called Sinooperi (thank you Scandinavian entrepreneurship)

All I needed was:

About 5 sheets of crafting felt (Sinooperi)
Deep photo frame (Tiger)
Some nice fabric (IKEA)
Needle and thread or a hot clue gun
(I'll later use some clue for stick)

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What to do:

1. roll the felt into rolls to fit into the photo frame.
2. sew some fabric around the rolls.
3. fill the frame with the rolls and clue them while at it
4. push down the fabric sticking out (look instructions from here)

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Tada! Mine is not perfect yet, since I'm still waiting for a hot clue gun. But as long as you keep the frame horizontal, it does to job very well.

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April 20, 2015

Spring dinner

About a year ago I was pretty sure I wouldn't be seeing my friends from IB next year. 
We even had our winner dinner, which was supposed to be the end.
This is one of those things I'm happy to be wrong about; 
They have been around the whole year. 
And it was time to eat dinner again last Saturday. 
This time is was called Spring dinner.


IMG_1719 IMG_1703 IMG_1734 IMG_1737 IMG_1741 IMG_1709 IMG_1749 And hallelujah! Finally I gave up and started using Flickr, and I love what it did to my pics *insert hearteye-emoji here*. Please inform me if having big pictures like this is a lot of trouble to you. Even though I love having my pictures large like this it is no fun if you readers cannot see them.

April 18, 2015

Interrail: Riva del Garda

 photo IMG_9628_zps9b4761d2.jpg Riva del Garda. Never heard of the place, never would have imagined it to be so beautiful. But then again, what do you expect in Italy. Anyways, we stopped there to meet H's Godmother, who had been super helpful planning our trip and everything. The stop couldn't have come in better time, since H had just been sick in Firenze and was in desperate need of relaxing. And just as we though, we had left the stomach bug to Firenze.... I got sick. So I spend a lovely day from the bottom of our hosts bed, as they went sightseeing. At least it was a really nice bed.

As far as I understood, there is really no trains coming to Riva del Garda, but to our fortune trains do stop in town called Roverto not too far away and we got a ride from there. That was actually the first time in almost four weeks that we sat in an actual car instead of public transport. And the first time in four weeks that we got a homemade meal. Yummy Frutti di Mare pasta ala real Italian man.

We were told that towns of Garda are especially loved by windsurfers, skuba divers and mountain bikers. I can definitely confirm that, they were everywhere. Otherwise the town was very calm and there wasn't too much people. Definitely a place of relaxation. Unfortunately, we had no time (or the money) to try anything new and exiting. Especially as I got sick right after our stroll around the city.

Next day I was feeling little bit better (at least till we got to Venice later). So H's Godmother took us to her favorite place for some real Italian trout. Without even looking at the menu she ordered us portions of trout, fried potatos and salad. Tiramisu for dessert. After that lunch climbing to see Cascata del Varone was especially hard, so full. But very much worth it.

I have not seen many natural waterfalls in my life, so I cannot say much, but in my opinion it was beautiful. And somewhat interesting to see what nature can do. It would have been a great place for anyone loving plants, since the garden around the falls was very rich. Unfortunately the light inside the cave was so bad that taking pictures was super hard. And made even harder since I did not take my camera with me to lunch, which meant a lot of iPhone pictures. My apologies.

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Riva del Garda. En olisi ikinä arvannut kuinka kaunis kaupunki voisi olla. Toisaalta, mitä muutakaan Italialta voi odottaa. Jokatapauksessa, pysähdyttiin Rivaan vierailemaan H:n kummitädin luona, joka oli auttanut meitä suunnittelemaan reissua, erityisesti tarjoamalla hyviä Italian vinkkejä. Paussi ei olisi voinut tulla parempaan aikaan sillä H oli juuri ollut kipeä Firenzessä ja molemmat kaivattiin hiukan hapen vetoa. Ja juuri kun ehdittiin jo luulla että mahapöpö oli jäänyt Firenzeen... Minä tulin kipeeksi. Joten vietin koko ihanan päivän sängyn pohjalla, kun muut lähtivät katselemaan paikallisia nähtävyyksiä. Ainakin sänky oli super mukava.

Ymmärtääkseni mikään juna ei tule suoraan Riva del Gardaan, mutta onneksemme saimme kyydin lähimmältä asemalta Rovertosta. Oikeastaan automatka oli erittäin rentouttava ja ensimmäinen neljään viikkoon, sillä koko reissun ajan oltiin lähinnä käytetty vain julkista liikennettä. Rivassa meitä odotti myös ensimmäinen kotitekoinen illallinen neljään viikkoon: Frutti di Mare pasta ala italialainen isäntämme. 

Meille kerrottiin myös että Garda-järvi on erityisesti purjelautailijoiden, laitesukeltajien ja maastopyöräilijöiden rakastama. Voin ehdottomasti vahvistaa, urheilijoita oli kaikkialla. Muuten kaupunki oli todella rauhallinen ja hiljainen. Ehdottomasti paikka rentoutumiseen. Valitettavasti meillä ei ollut aikaa (eikä rahaa) kokeilla mitään uutta ja jännittävää. Varsinkin koska tulin kipeäksi heti kaupunkikierroksen jälkeen. 

Seuraavana päivänä, hiukan paremmassa hapessa (ainakin Venetsiaan asti kestävässä), päätettiin lähteä H:n kummitädin lempiravintolaan syömään aitoa italialaista taimenta. Ilman vilkaisuakaan meille tilattiin annokset taimenta, paistettuja perunoita ja salaattia. Tiramisua jälkiruuaksi. Cascata del Varonelle kiipeäminen sen annoksen jälkeen oli todella vaikeaa, mutta ehdottomasti sen arvoista. 

En ole ikinä elämässäni nähnyt niin kauniita ja lumoavia vesiputouksia. Ei sillä että olisin monia nähnyt. Kasvirakastajille tämä paikka olisi ollut erittäin kiinnostava, sillä puutarha vesiputouksen ympärillä oli todella runsas. Valitettavasti luolassa oli niin pimeä että oli aivan mahdotonta ottaa kuvia, varsinkin kun olin jättänyt kamerani lähtiessäni. 

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April 11, 2015

Tiirikkala

Euroopan nuorten parlamentista, tuttavallisesti EYP:stä, en ole oikeastaan koskaan kirjoitellut sen enempiä blogiini, vaikka se rakkain "harrastukseni" onkin. Tai no voiko tuota oikeastaan edes vain harrastukseksi sanoa, kun suurimmaksi osaksi tuntuu että EYP on enemmänkin elämäntapa.

Itse hullaannuin EYP:hen heti ensimmäisen istunnon jälkeen ja sen jälkeen olenkin kokonaiset kaksi (ja risat) vuotta ollut EYP Turun hallituksessa mukana. Nyt järjestelen omaa istuntoa hiukan reippaalle sadalle ihmiselle. 

Koska ollaan pieni paikallisjärjestö, ei meillä ole hienoja toimistoja, joissa pitää kokouksia. Tämän takia on aivan pakko koluta Turun kahviloita. Tällä kertaa taidettiin löytää vihdoin se täydellinen. Vielä kun tämä ihana vanha Artekin myymälä olisi yhtä rauhallinen joka päivä kuin se oli pitkäperjantain aamuna (kyllä klo 11-14 lasketaan aamuksi pyhäpäivänä).

Voisin muuttaa Tiirikkalaan asumaan vaikka heti. Mikään ei lämmitä mun sydäntä niin paljon kun valkoiseksi maalattu puu ja tumma puinen pöytä johon mahtui helposti koko porukka istumaan.

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April 7, 2015

My mom's favorite chocolate muffins

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Spring must be the most busiest time for me. Last spring I was basically living in the town's library when I was reading for my final exams. And as it happens, it is my home this spring too, because basically until I'll out of university, my life will probably be reading for exams and studying. But for now, I just need to get in to an university.

How does my study habits relate to the subject of muffins?
I will tell you; they are the easiest and fastest bakes I can make. And they still look aborable. I needed something easy and quick for my birthday as I only had one evening to bake for my birthday guests.

In my opinion this muffin could use some frosting or berries, but my mom love-love-looooooves them. So if you like chocolate and feel like doing something quick and easy, definitely give these muffins a go. I cannot take all the credit from this recipe, since Roosa gave it to me few years back as a christmas present. 

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