a happy little life: July 2011

happy little places

don't you just love it when you discover a happy little place that you can connect to
the kind

that makes you feel like you could just stay there
the kind
that you can't wait to go back to

I have a couple of those places that make my heart

GLOW

I'm going to share one of my happy places with you

are you ready for all this!

Fiskars...
yeah like the scissors

those
orange handled scissors!!!

did you know they came all the way from

Finland!

HONEST

Fiskars, Finland

go ahead...
go look at your orange scissors...

I'll wait
(tehehehehehe)

I will spare you a lengthy history lesson on scissors

(I heard you go whewwww, it's okay, my feelings are not hurt)

I'll let you just browse around

at Fiskars (here) if you are curious

so the place has scissors

why would that make this a happy place for me?

welllllll....

they have some other stuff going on

the village is just really so very very quaint with their

cobble stones, beautiful old buildings

the river that was the heart of it's history

makes the village just so picturesque

and then there is the thing that makes me smile and do a happy dance

there is the
LITTLE SHOPS

VERY VERY VERY

favorite kind of shopping

is in the

little artsy shops

ohhhhhhhhhhhh

how I just LOVE those little shops!!!

it's

inside the little shops

I find those special little things that are made from someone's heart
you know what I'm saying

it's

those things that speak to me

that tell me to pick them up and press it to my heart

and
forget where I am at or who is looking

yes

I do that

I have always done that

it's just what I do when something
realllllllly
touches me

some day a shop owner is going to ask that I please remove their art work from my breast

maybe that will break my art to boob habit

hahahahaha

yeah, probably not!

back to my happy place...

there are

working studios of local artisans

creating

beautiful ceramics, blowing glass, forging iron, making paper

you can shop for

fine jewelry, hand made clothing
traditional handy crafts
furniture, fine art

oh
and
scissors

of course there are scissors in lots of colors not just orange and paper punches and garden tools and flatware and a whole lot of other things in the Fiskar store

although when we go to Fiskars I am not so much all about the scissor store

I think you might have picked that up

there really is a lot to see

and

cafes to lunch at along the river
and
sweet benches to rest on and hold hands

rain rain go away we are going to go on a picnic soon! can you see the rain in the water :-(

my favorite building made of slag (black) bricks
(this is our secret picnic spot)

we had our romantic picnic here under the trees next to the river
we held hands and kissed

it was

a happy little day

XOX

simple inspiration

there is just something

dreamy

about laundry blowing in the breeze

downtown helsinki 7/17/11

you never know when

inspiration

will pop up

and

you never know in what form

in the studio sneek peek friday

I was so flattered

when

Jennifer @

http://studiojru.com/blog/

took the time to peek at my post

'creating with a passionate heart' (here)

she sent me an invitation to link up to

'In The Studio'

'Sneek Peek Friday'

http://amkreations.blogspot.com/

I am

SOOOOOOOOOO

EXCITED

this is my very first link up

so thank you

Jennifer

and

thank you

to those who take the time

to take a peek

into

Happy Little Studio!

my inspiration to create

is gathered from

my travels

my life

my impression of a time

an experience

my work

comes from inside me

comes from my heart

when I spotted this Scandinavia produced fabric

MY HEART KNEW

it perfectly captured

that

easy breeze happy little

FEELING

of a

Nordic Summer

our days are incredibly

LONG

and

LUSH

the days

BURST

with

brilliant

COLOR

and

LIFE

the Baltic Sea is

GIVING

the soil is

KIND

the flowers remind us to savor every delight of the

SEASON

it's the

simple little things

that make a

happy little life

from my

happy little studio

wish

you

happy little friday

xox

I have been working on my commitment to my health
and
all it's many complicated layers

I started blogging about this journey
7 months ago
but really
it's been a life time in search of a healthy me
inside and out

behind the scenes of our
'Happy Little Life'
I've been working on taking my struggles
and
victories
even the small ones count you know
and putting them into words
and launched

'A Healthy Little Life'
I hope you will stop over and say hi, follow along and we can get to know each other a little better
encourage and learn from each other
from motivational tips to eating healthy
Have a healthy day!

creating with a passionate heart

I've been pouring my heart into something for awhile

there was some little hints in my posts about

sewing and painting and creating and a business

as I've been settling into

our new home and new life

I have also been designing a line

that has been inspired by some of our travels

I have been

CREATING

with

A PASSIONATE HEART

I've let go of how I used to do things

how I used to see things

I've let

hard defined lines became

wonky and free

clean geometric shapes dance with organic shapes

textiles of nubby and smooth textures mingle

high sheen and matte coexist

here's a little peek

at JUST the pocket

of the

'City Market Tote'

I don't want to give too much away all at once...

the color combinations were inspired from our trip to

Spain

have you ever gone somewhere new and

had

THAT

FEELING

that

I FEEL ALIVE

IN MY HEART

FEELING

I had that feeling the second we arrived in Spain

she was wild with color and romance

and

I knew

in a instant I would NEVER EVER be afraid of working with color again

AND

I MUST GO BACK AGAIN

this design was such a magical process to see come full circle

from inspiration to

the end product

it feels

fresh casual funky modern comfortable

and

(built to take on the city)

so what's going on here?

it looks like vinyl

but it's

NOT

the art pocket is entirely hand painted

on a base of

natural flax canvas or pellava kankaalle

with multi layers of

a super high gloss licorice

the pop of color is

ultra matte

kiwi green, cherry tangerine and matte licorice

then freely top stitched in details

fun to look at

but also really cool to touch

I'm working on my

happy little

Look Book

I cannot wait to show you the full line and all the color combinations!

feeling authentic

I'm in the final week of my alone time here in the city

the fishermen will soon come back to civilization

gifting me with

stories of their great adventure

and

dirty clothes

The last few weeks I've had my very own

GREAT ADVENTURE

it's been a balance of

reflection, prayer, healing, reconnection, pampering, quiet time

mixed with

sewing, emailing, blogging, picture taking, site seeing, running, friend making
and
organizing

I had this bright idea to pull everything out of the bedroom closet and reorganize

you know
the scene of the crime

where everything is scattered all over the bed and floor

you know that point

when it looks

the worst before it starts getting better

the point when you think

WHAT POSSESSED ME TO DO THIS

I sat on the edge of the bed with my mess

to regroup
and
spotted

2 very distinct
stories

if our simple possesions tell our life story
then my story was in 2 easily read piles

when you make a BIG move like I did
and at my age
you have

a whole lot'a life to sift through
(in many ways)
and
details to tend to

every Saturday morning for 6 months

my time was
dedicated to

space saver bags, suitcases, give-a-way boxes, storage boxes

my life was organized in piles
from
kitchen gadgets to pantyhose

limited to only a few suitcases
I packed up the belongings that seemed to be important to me

what was relative to my life in that current chapter

the rest of my things went into storage

on my bed 13 months later

2 piles

2 stories

'the authentic real me'
~of then~
apparently
was at one
with
Nine West
heels
and
Coach
silk scarves!

and

'the authentic real me'
~of right now~

is at one
wearing
yoga pants, soft GAP t-shirts
and
aprons

the 'then-me' pile
went to the back of the closet

the 'now-me' pile
all the way to the front

I'm digging this me of right now
it feels real
it feels authentic
it feels peaceful
it feels like the me I've always longed to be

4th of July

This is my second 4th of July away from

The United States of America

today

here
all the time stamps on

my store receipt, train ticket, the corner of my laptop
tells me it's
4.07.2011
it's still a funny thing to see a date written like that

today

here

it's

JUST
a Monday

that happens to be on
the 4th day

of the

7th month
of the
year 2011

I had a wonderful invitation to be a guest at a picnic yesterday
it was a great day in so many ways

it was mentioned that there are 2,500 Americans living all over Finland

I just have to believe in my heart that those fellow Americans
at some point today

no matter

how deeply rooted they are in this adopted country

when they see

4.07.2011

they will think
4th of July

Independence Day

and smile

What do I miss today on our 4th of July?

naturally I miss my family and I miss my friends

you already know that

but

if I had to only pick 5 things on this holiday
my American heart is wishing for

streets lined with Old Glory waving in the wind

gigantic watermelons

fireworks

driving in farm country

and

saying

'look, that corn IS knee high by the 4th of July!'

I don't know if that's just a Michigan thing or not but that's what we say where I come from
it's a form of measurement that determines if there will be a good harvest in the Fall

I wish you all
no matter where you are
a
healthy
safe
4th of July

july 1 commitment update

I wrote a blog 6 months ago about committing to a healthier me.
( 'commitment list' found in Feb. archive )
I started on February 1st.
Today is July 1st.
I can't believe that 6 months has gone by.

that being said
Warning
I will occasionally
YELL
on here today

6 little months later
it's time to check in
I hit a new personal goal.

Actually a couple personal goals.
I feel

REALLY
REALLY
REALLY
GREAT!

and that was the whole plan
just wanted to feel better
I got more than
'JUST'
feeling better
I have to say
(in the words of Kristin at Bringing Back Pretty )

I'M FEELING ALL SASSY WITH MYSELF!
(I just yelled that out loud)
(hahahahah)
(really I did!)

I started moving and I kept moving.

What used to take me 45 minutes
in a
kick butt
power walking speed

as of this morning the same distance takes me

(yelling here)

29 minutes and 20 seconds
in
running speed!

but wait

there's more

I LOST

4.5359 KILOGRAMS
that's
10 POUNDS

I'm not talking about 10 lbs
of water weight here
I'm talking about
taking
flabby
fat-fat-fat
and
turning it
into
strong muscle
I cannot do that in 1 week
I couldn't do it in 1 month
this was a commitment thing
I did it for
ME
and
to that I will say
to myself
GO ME!

and guess what else happened

I have lost

.5 inches from each upper arm
2 inches from each thigh

3.5 inches from my tummy

3.5 inches from my behind

GO ME!

(cartwheel annnnnd into the splits!)
(not really)
(not the splits part)

so what did I do?
I
MOVED MY BUTT!
and
I cut WAY back
on
bread, dairy, cheese, oils, egg, sugar
I increased my fiber big time
I eat 1 apple every single day
I started taking control of
why and when and how
I was eating
I started to take control of me
inside
and
out
so to that
I say

GO ME!