What makes me giddy ^^

People usually don't share my enthusiasm over news on developing therapies or procedures that seek to extend the human life span far beyond natural, and I don't particularly excel at explaining why I find the idea of (near) eternal life so intriguing. Mostly it comes down to the fact that there is so much to see and figure out that I find it appalling that my time to experience it might be cut short at any time.

Like this little creature for example. Just an hour ago I didn't even know anything like it existed on the planet. He's a glaucus atlanticus and look at him! Totally looks like a real life pokémon :). And it's called a blue dragon! Even if it only grows to about 3cm in length... There is so much for the world to show me and teach me, 80, even 90 years, of which I've already spent over a quarter, seem very, very, lamentably short.

Here's one of the quotes from The Doctor that's really stuck with me and kind of explains how I feel about life, except, I don't have a TARDIS to take me to all those places:

I'm not running away, but this is one corner, of one country, on one continent, on one planet that's a corner of a galaxy that's a corner of a universe, that is forever growing and shrinking, and creating and destroying and never remaining the same for a single millisecond. And there is so much, so much to see, Amy. Because it goes so fast. I'm not running away from things, I am running to them before they flare and fade forever. But it's alright our lives won't stay the same, they can't. One day, soon maybe, you'll stop. I've known for a while...

Anticipation

This summer I've been fortunate enough to receive invitations to two weddings and an awesome sounding birthday masquerade ball, and I couldn't be more excited! The past couple of weeks have been filled with anxious plans on how to make awe inspiring costumes for myself and for my prince for the birthday celebration that's coming up in just under three weeks. So far I've nearly finished a vest for him and a tulle skirt for myself to support a skirt that I already have. It's what I wore to the closest thing to prom that we had when I was still in high school: vanhojentanssit, where in the February of the second year the soon-to-be-seniors have a ball where they dance the old ball room dances to celebrate becoming the eldest students at the school. The tradition used to be more about historical costumes and having a "princess day" when I had mine 8 years ago, but nowadays the fashions have changed and people tend to dress more modern. But at least it's still a formal event and a reason to really dolly up!

Here's how I looked back then:

I made the dress with some help from my mom. The pattern had been drafted after a dress that Sissi, the empress of Austria and Hungary once wore in the 19th century. It's a shame the top no longer fits me, but it's a blessing in disguise: I get to make a new one!

Rock 'n' Roses

Okay, time to break the silence again! Here are some pictures from Rock 'n' Roses, the fashion show I was proud to be part of a couple weeks back, and the main reason for the communication breakdown. It was my first proper fashion show ever and although not perfect, it was really quite a nice experience and taught me heaps. But boy, was it a lot of work! And still I wish I'd dedicated more time to it. Live and learn, I guess. At the very least, learn :). For if one doesn't, what use is any of it?

Without further ado, the pictures:

Lovely Susanna took the stage first with a combination of a dress and a corset. The corset was made as part of our combined math and fashion history course at school. I wanted to have a go at fan lacing and using swing hooks instead of a regular busk: not as complicated as I'd anticipated, it turns out. The dress was made with a pattern I'd used previously to make myself a velvet dress which turned out to be the comfiest garment ever(!), and for this collection I wanted to make one that wouldn't be quite as overdressed for everyday wear.

My second outfit was donned by the gorgeous Katarina.

Mary had a little lamb. HAD. Like, 10 of them, as that's how many it took to make this piece, 60-70 square feet or so. The leather coat was also made for a school course, an optional leatherworking course. I wanted something fabulously over the board, and got it. The cutwork on the collar alone took 7 hours to complete. Not bad for a first item made of leather, although there are, of course, things I could improve on in the future.

My third attire as presented by the elegant Tiina, and the last piece that was part of mandatory school work: the pants. I found a gorgeous linen blend that draped like a dream to make these palazzo pants. Alas, they don't fit her quite as well as they fit me, but that's one of the things to take to heart from this show: don't use pieces made for anyone else but the models. The jacket was made of crimson bridal satin and trimmed with decorative stitching and a collar and pocket flaps made of silk chiffon and leather. The headdress was made by Maarit Nieminen, one of the other designers at the show, and left on due to time restraints and because it fit the outfit quite nicely :).

The fourth outfit as presented by the wonderful Sara: a chain-trimmed dress and a ribbon corset. The dress is of the same fabric as the pants were and trimmed with a heavy weight chain that was hand-stiched on the hem, neckline and sleeves. Chanel customarily uses chain to weigh down the hems of their trademark jackets and skirts, but I thought the detail was too pretty to be hidden on the inside of the garment.
The corset took inspiration from the slightly less heavy weight corsets that were worn as night attire in the victorian era. I wanted to bring some edge to the collection and used a rougher material than the satin ribbon that would have been the norm.

The eerily beautiful Hannamari in my tricot top, belt and skirt. The top reflects the cut of  the previous dresses in a delicate stretch lace and an interlock knit. The belt showcases some of this gorgeous coque tail feather trim I managed to source at the recent craft expo and the skirt is trimmed with the same guipure lace as the first corset was. It's not obvious from the pictures, but the skirt has quite a bit of volume gathered in the back - also inspired by the victorian era- using hand-sewn cartridge pleating, a technique from the renaissance.

Mesmerizing Krista donned my penultimate dress, accentuated with a wearable shibari tie. The dress itself had clean lines, a mermaid silhouette and a small train. I wish I'd had a little more time to get the tie to fit her perfectly, but one has to make it work within the allotted time... This was one of my own favourites out of the collection but unfortunately it came a bit short in the show. Hopefully I'll have some better pictures to show of it soon, with enough time to dress it properly on the model.

I got the honour of presenting the final dress of the show and here it is: the Stormborn dress on the star of the show, Ida-Emilia. The cotton satin dress was hand dyed by yours truly to achieve the tie-dye effect at the hem. The bodice and the waist are over-laid with chiffon and the top is finished with asymmetric satin ribbon straps. Regretfully, I didn't have the time to instruct the lighting guy to dim the lights on this part, so one of the details on this one doesn't translate well into pictures: under the chiffon there are white LEDs the twinkle like stars in the night sky. I may have bitten off a bit more than I can chew with those, but hey, better late than never. We got the lights working only 30 minutes to go before the show...

All photos are courtesy of Tiina Salminen/Photogothic, who gracieously  managed to fit our show between shooting the gigs of some of the greatest bands in the world and the prettiest faces in Finland. Be sure to check her site!

Thanks for reading!

Back to the Drawing Board

It's been a couple of months since the last post, but I've actually got the urge to write again now, yay! So on to the topic at hand:

This term at school, we've had quite a lot of lessons on sketching and design. So much so that I think I've spent more time with a pen or a brush in hand than actually sewing this year. Although I love sewing and getting to work on things in practice, I enjoy the design process as well and certainly haven't minded the emphasis on design. I used to draw a lot more but somehow other things took precedence and nowadays it's mostly to illustrate my designs, not art.

I also had the chance to take part in a pretty exciting project this spring and have been working mostly on that for the last couple of weeks: I'm getting to show my first mini collection at a real fashion show! Here's a small sneak peek to my sketches:

Nothing too impressive, but serves its purpose. And intentionally not showing much since I wouldn't wish to spoil the surprise.

Someone once wrote that every one of us has a stack of a thousand bad drawings that we just need to get through before we can start creating art. I think I'm closing in on number 500 by now. I may not be an artist (yet), but I love good quality art supplies. Nothing is more frustrating than trying to produce a drawing with limited skill AND poor quality tools. Although they don't replace skill, quality products can aid quite a bit.

Nowadays I carry with me three cases of pencils whenever there's drawing to do at school: sketching pencils, coloured pencils and another set of coloured pencils that I'll get back to in a bit. My sketching pencils are these:

Academy pencils from Derwent. Derwent is a quality manufacturer based in the UK, but these are an economy product. I use pencils only for sketching, not for producing finished art, so I haven't found the need to invest more money in them. They have a range from 6B to 5H and suit me just fine.

My choice of coloured pencils was based heavily on the fact that these, Polychromos Colour Pencils by Faber-Castell, are sold both in tins as well as separately, so when I run out of some colours, I can just replace those. I always tend to use black, dark red and dark blue the most, for example. Also, if I find my package of 24 to be lacking a shade I wish to use often, I can just buy that to supplement my set instead of having to invest in a 36- or 72-piece set with countless redundant shades.

I personally prefer bold, vibrant colours and prefer to have good control of where it's going on the paper. This is why I never liked watercolours: the brush seems to have a mind of its own, and the colours end up looking diluted more often than not. Mixing colours proves difficult as well if you need to paint any area larger than can be done without picking up more colour. Coloured pencils, on the other hand, have good control, mixing colours is easy and you don't need additional equipment like water or brushes. However, coloured pencils aren't very good with dark shades either. Or so I thought until I bought this set. Cheap ones tend to have hard lead with very little pigment, so to make anything other than pastel shades, you need to press pretty hard on the paper, often damaging it. The lead on these is much softer, thus easier to apply to paper, and nicely pigmented. Quality products make it easier to achieve the results you're aiming for.

These are my new favourite medium: the Inktense pencils from Derwent. They're a lot like watercolour pencils, but instead of watercolour, they turn into ink when you apply water to them. The main difference is that once these dry, they're permanent and going over them with more water won't smear them any further. You can layer different colours or the same colour again to draw transparent materials and it also makes it near impossible to smear the lines between different colours accidentally. The colours you get are, as the name says, very intense and take little trouble to produce. In my experience the colour also dissolves easier into water than with watercolour pencils and doesn't leave pencil strokes on the paper.

When I got the Inktense pencils, I also got this handy little thing:

The waterbrush is a paintbrush with a small container for water in its handle. Using this, I don't need a separate cup for water and it's perfect to use with the Inktenses. The brush is plastic and tapers into a fine tip, and even though this one's Derwent's medium brush, I find no need for a smaller brush even for detailed work. The container doesn't hold very much water, but it lasts for surprisingly long. I'd say I could finish about 3 or 4 A4 sized sketches without a refill. I find the flow to be quite suitable for me, maybe a tad too strong when the container is close to empty and softer to squeeze accidentally. Because the water flows through the brush and not up and down like normally, it's incredibly easy to clean: just stroke a piece of scrap paper once or twice and you're done. For 7 to 9 euros, the waterbrush is a bargain for how useful it is. I'm inclined to buy another to try using it for applying eye shadow. I often use a wet brush to apply it anyway to get a good cover so this could ease my morning routine as well.


I think anyone working in fashion design should know how to draw at least reasonably well. There will most certainly be times when one must be able to convey their designs to someone, be it a client, a coworker, the boss or for example a supplier of materials. Illustration makes it so much easier to get on the same page, and not being able to depict your designs so that other people can get a peek at your thoughts can cause much unnecessary trouble through miss-communication. It's perfectly ok to take a critical look at your work and consider yourself bad at it, but to come to that conclusion and to be satisfied with it, without even an attempt to better oneself... that, in my view, is quite an unfortunate solution. Finding media that I like, reading tutorials in books and online, taking courses and, most importantly, practice, has helped me out on my journey towards art. It takes effort, but it's surely worth it!

A film of the day and a song of the old(ish)

I first heard about Moth Diaries in Maven of the Eventide's review and was instantly drawn to it. It was a vampire movie, going back to the more classic vampire, it had an all-girl boarding school and it had Sarah Bolger in it who I'd really liked in the Tudors. (Well, I liked everyone in the Tudors. I hated quite a few of the characters, with a passion. Cardinal Wolsey, Thomas Cromwell and Catherine Howard, to name a few, but I thought the actors were doing a great job bringing these figures to life.) So I had high hopes for the movie. Here's the trailer:

Well I loved the visuals of it. Sarah Bolger was ok, but not quite as good as she was as Bloody Mary. Like Maven had said, a LOT of the dialogue just sounded stupid, unnatural and explainy (It is too a word!). The movie is riddled with hooks that could've made it a great movie. I kept thinking, if only they'd gone this way with the plot instead of this, and if only they'd done this more, it could've been a much better movie. I didn't hate it. No, Thor forbid. I thought it was entertaining, pleasant to look at, and it stayed true to it's pursuit of being a classic, gothic vampire story. It's just very explainy. It underestimates the capacity of the viewer to pick up things without having to be quite so literal in telling us. Even with all its faults, it left me very much wanting more of this kind of movies. So, if you're at all into vampires or gothic horror, I'd say watch it. I loved the movie it could've been, and I'm sure it has much potential for you to like it.

I welcome any suggestions you might have for other movies that do the gothic horror vampire thing better, I would love to see some good vampire movies that I may have missed!


Ok, I can't think of a good transition to this, but I just really wanted to share a song that's been bugging me the last couple of days, in a good way, Do the evolution by Pearl Jam:

I love the... um... I'm terrible with anything related to music so bear with me :)... guitar riff? There was a song on the Finnish Radio Rock this past summer that had something very similar and every time I heard that I kept thinking of this song. I love the lyrics, they go well with what I think is wrong with the world. Which, to make it short, is people thinking humans are some pinnacle of creation, and money, and charging interest, and greed in general. The images in the video should be disturbing or unpleasant, but to me they're mostly just sad. We should be above these things. We could be above these things. We've created so many great things and technologies, I don't think there is a limit for what we could do if only we could overcome the things restricting us: possessiveness and separating people to "us" and "them", mostly.


I could've added "... and a wine of 2011" to the title. I think I found a new favourite red today. It's an Australian one I picked out pretty much at random, but hey, can't go wrong with shiraz :). (I don't know too much about wine either, but) Lindeman's Bin 50 is just rich enough for me, a little bit sweet and not too light. And it goes amazingly well with salmiac/salt liquorice, which is a huge plus and a nice discovery for me as I love salmiac and most wines don't. Its alcohol content is already on the lower end at 13%, but I wouldn't mind it being 5% or even 0, so I could have the whole bottle in a night.

I'm still alive

It's been quite a while since I wrote anything, I know. My previous post hints quite strongly towards what's been keeping me so busy. Mists of Pandaria, and school work, too. I've also been thinking about the future of this blog, and so far, it hasn't been working too well for me. I don't think I want to  give up on it completely just yet, so I'm going to make a few changes to try and find a way to blog that might be better suited for me.

Firstly, I'm going to drop Finnish. Writing in two languages was an additional load of work that I don't feel pays off. Although translating my own text wasn't hard, it took time and a little bit of effort, that I feel would be better spent elsewhere.

Secondly, I'll try to limit the scope of my posts so they won't be quite as huge walls of texts and maybe try to divide them into smaller but more numerous posts so they're easier to read and quicker to write. I need to lower my threshold to press publish. Writing a blog isn't exactly rocket science or brain surgery, I should be able to take it more lightly.

As the third and, for the moment, final point on my list, I'd like to change the layout and overall visuals of my blog to be classier and to look more polished. At the moment it looks just what it was: an amateur's first attempt.

I'm still unsure on the schedule of these changes since I will be very busy for the next three weeks. I'm sharing a table with a friend at a hand made design sales event and most of my merchandise is still to be made. It's exciting as hell and I'm happy I got the chance to go, but I wish our series production course at school had begun much much earlier.

Pandoja, pandoja joka puolella

Hupsista, sitä tuli taas mentyä 3 viikkoa viimeisestä päivityksestä. Lopettanut en ole, mutta kieltämättä blogin kirjoittaminen ei ole ollut ihan ensimmäisenä mielessä. Ei mitään hulppeita elämänmullistuksia menossa, kunhan vaan hiukan koulukiireitä ja WoWin lisäosan Mists of Pandarian julkaisuun valmistautumista uudessa killassa.

17 tuntia enää. Vielä.

17 piiiiitkää tuntia, joihin pitäisi sisällyttää vielä ”yöunet”. Aloitin unirytmin siirtämisen oikeastaan jo perjantai-iltana, mutta vähän huonosti se lähti liikkeelle. Nyt olen valvonut äkkiseltään laskettuna 21 tuntia, ja muutama pitäisi vielä jaksaa, jotta pääsisi heräilemään suht optimaalisesti kymmenkunnan tunnin unien päälle yhdentoista kahdentoista paikkeilla. Virallisesti lisäosa julkaistaan aamuyhdeltä.

Hiukan taidan itsekin pitää itseäni hulluna peliaddiktina. Mutta minulle tämä on hauskaa! Näitä tilaisuuksia kun pääsee oikeasti yksilönä kisaamaan levuutuksessa tulee kuitenkin vain sen parin vuoden välein ja muina aikoina mielestäni suhtaudun pelaamiseen vakavasti mutten neuroottisesti, eikä se vie aikaa ihmissuhteilta tai koululta näitä harvoja poikkeuksia lukuun ottamatta. Viime kerralla jäin serverin nopeimmin levuuttaneesta parilla tunnilla nettikatkoksen vuoksi. Toivottavasti tällä kertaa ylioppilaskyläsäätiön datayhteydet pitävät. Kännykässä on sentään nyt hätävaranetti, jos pahin tapahtuu taas.

16 tuntia 55 minuuttia.

Jääkaapissa on ruokaa valmiina, hedelmiä, sitruunavettä, muutama suklaapatukka. Kauheasti en kuitenkaan tykkää hamstrata energiajuomia, roskaruokaa, alkoholia tai sokeria. Auttaahan se toki hetkellisesti pysymään virkeämpänä, mutta sitten tulee romahdus. Betassa levuutukseeni meni muutamien hidastavien tekijöiden kuten killan antaman exp-bonuksen puuttumisen myötä 22 tuntia, nyt tosipaikan tullen odottaisin pystyväni hiukan parempaan, vaikka ruuhkat ja pvp-serverin vaarat varmasti nekin hidastavat menoa. Ei tuon pitäisi olla mitenkään yli-inhimillistä venymistä vaativa suoritus pelata putkeen.

16 tuntia 50 minuuttia. Tik tak, tik tak...

Pitäisiköhän keittää vielä kupillinen teetä ja katsoa vaikka pitkään to do -listalla ollut Karhuveljeni Koda. Toisaalta sillä saisi tapettua kätevästi tunti 20 minuuttia, mutta niin passiivinen istuskelu väsyttää varmasti. Kaunottaren ja hirviön katselin aiemmin aamulla ja yllätyin positiivisesti. Se oli parempi kuin muistinkaan ja löytyi sieltä muutama sellainenkin juttu mitä viimeksi muksuna katsellessa ei ollut tajunnut lainkaan. Sitä paitsi, tämä oli ensimmäinen kerta kun katsoin sen englanninkielisillä äänillä. ”And, as I always say, if it's not baroque, don't fix it”, lohkaisi Könni esitellessään linnaa Bellelle. Mitäköhän tuo repliikki oli suomenkielisessä versiossa...

Nyt on ollut muutenkin joku Disney-nostalgiakausi meneillään. Aiemmin katsoin Robin Hoodin ja yllätyin siitä miten vanha sekin leffa jo on. Pienenä luulin sen olleen suht uusi silloin kun sen ensimmäistä kertaa näin. Sen julkaisuvuosi oli 1973. Seuraavaksi tuon Karhuveljeni Kodan jälkeen olisi vuorossa Leijonakuningas ja sitten ehkä Prinsessa Ruusunen ja Prinsessa ja sammakko, joista kumpaakaan en ole edes nähnyt aiemmin.

16 tuntia 33 minuuttia. Tuskallisen hitaasti tuo aika kuluu.

Mikä teidät saa käyttäytymään hullusti ja tavoin, joilla kunnon kansalainen ei koskaan käyttäytyisi? Minkä vuoksi olette valmiit muuttamaan unirytmiänne tai muita hyvin pinttyneitä tapojanne? Mihin uppoudutte niin, että suljette kaiken muun ulkopuolelle? Mielestäni jokaisella pitäisi olla vähintään yksi asia, mistä tuntea niin intohimoisesti, että se menee kaiken muun edelle. Itselleni WoW ei ole ainoa sellainen asia, mutta ehkä helpoimmin nimettävissä. Muut tärkeimmät juttuni eivät ehkä vaadi tai tarjoakaan vastaavia keskittyneitä ajanjaksoja. Ehkä pitäisikin varata tämän jälkeen joku viikonloppu yhtä intensiivisesti parisuhteen hoidolle, perheelle tai vaikka uusien vaatemallien suunnittelullekin.

To ask why we fight, is to ask why the leaves fall - it is in their nature.

Perhaps there's a better question...

Why do we fight? To protect home, and family, to preserve balance and bring harmony.

For my kind, the true question is:

What is worth fighting for?

Pandas, pandas everywhere

Oops, it's been three weeks again since my last post. I haven't quit, but I admit, writing the blog hasn't been at the top of mind much lately. No massive changes going on in my life, just a little busy with school and with preparing for the launch of WoW's new expansion, Mists of Pandaria, with my new guild.

16 hours 11 minutes to go. Still.

16 loooong hours which should include a good "night's" sleep. I started shifting my sleep cycle Friday night, but weren't very successful to begin with. Now I've been up for about 22 hours and I should still stay that way for a few more, so I could wake up after around 10 hours of sleep at eleven, maybe even twelve. The expansion will be released at 1am.

I think even I consider myself a bit crazy and an mmo addict. But for me, this is fun! Opportunities to compete solo, in leveling, don't come around more than once every two years or so and otherwise I'm not letting my gaming take time away from IRL social activities or school work, except for on these special occasions. I usually take my playing seriously but neurotically so. Last time I lost by a couple of hours to the person who leveled the fastest on the server due to an internet outage. I hope this time the student village foundation has their connections in a better shape. At least this time I have emergency back-up internet on my cell phone if things go south.

16 hours 4 minutes.

I've got food ready and waiting in the fridge, alongside with some fruit, water with lemon slices and a couple chocolate bars. I don't really like to stock up on energy drinks, fast food, alcohol and sugar like some. Sure, it helps you stay awake temporarily, but then comes the crash. In the beta, I leveled for about 22 hours with a few factors slowing me down like my lack of the guild perk for extra exp. I think I should be able to improve that a bit on live. It shouldn't be a super human deed to play that long in one session.

16 hours. Tic... toc... tic... toc...

I wonder if I should brew a cup of tea and watch Brother bear that's been on my to do -list for a while. It would be a great way to kill off an hour and 20 minutes, but something that passive is sure to make me drowsier. I watched Beauty and the Beast earlier this morning and was pleasantly surprised. It was better than I'd remembered and even included some things that I hadn't got when I last watched it as a kid. Besides, this was the first time I watched it in English. "And, as I always say, if it's not baroque, don't fix it”, said Cogsworth while giving Belle a tour of the castle. I really wonder how that translated into Finnish...

I'm going through a Disney nostalgia phase right now. I watched Robin Hood earlier and was surprised at how old the movie was. I'd thought it was somewhat new when I first saw it, but it was made in 1973 already. Next items on my list after Brother bear are the Lion King and after that maybe Sleeping Beauty and the Princess and the Frog, never having even seen the latter two.

15 hours 55 minutes. Time goes by painfully slow.

What has the power to make you act all crazy or in ways that a good citizen never would? For what are you ready to change your sleep cycle or other very strict habits? What makes you indulge yourselves in it so deeply, that you shut everything else out? I think everyone should have something to feel so passionately about, that it goes before everything else. For me, WoW isn't the only such thing, but it's probably the easiest to name. My other important things don't demand or offer such intense periods of concentration. Maybe I should reserve a weeked some time in the near future to focus so deeply on my relationship with my boyfriend and my family, or on designing some new clothes.