"I have never had so many good ideas day after day as when I worked in the garden." ~John Erskine

I had such a wonderful evening with Erja! ❤ I simply love living so close by to a dear friend - my backyard is just a stonethrow (quite literally, actually) from Erja's frontyard - and today we did some gardening together! :) First at Erja's and then at my backyard.

See, Erja is my collegue from cemetery, and unlike me, she actually is a gardener (studied to be one, I just learnt by working). So now that I'm for the first time enjoying the luxury of having both back- and frontyard, Erja is a great help with picking suitable plants and all. For example, today she helped me to put up a fence to my backyard (my backyard was a little too... open for my taste) and she also suggested some suitable vines for me etc. ❤ I'd love to have a HUGE (half wild) parthenocissus climbing all over the walls at the backyard! I have always loved them...

PARTHENOCISSUS (photo from Google)

Maybe soon I can start posting photos from my own garden. Haha, I'm clearly looking forward to get back to work next week - my greenthumb (I didn't even know I had one) is ITCHY! Sad news by the way - my good friend and beloved boss Abby won't be working at the cemetery anymore ),: It will be a weird summer at work, not to have her around anymore... but guess what it means - I'LL BE THE BOSS! Whohoo, am I excited or what?! ;-) Anyway, I'm not even trying to update everything that has happened, it has been months since I just blogged, so back to this Sunday evening - the plan here was just to tell you how much I suddenly love gardening & decorating my lovely little home.

Yeah... I don't know. Living in this wonderful apartment has really chanced me - for better! Suddenly I'm all about flowers, baking cakes, gardening and all that. WHAT TO HELL? I can hear my closest friends saying "Who the hell are you and what have you done to Sanna we know?!" I mean... For example, eventhough I have worked as a gardener at the cemetery for 5 years, it has always been nothing more than that - work. But now I'm suddenly reading gardening books, making plans for my own garden... who knows how long my enthusiasm will last, but hopefully at least for this first summer.

Gosh I'd have so many photos to share... from my sister's wedding (!!! ❤ !!!!), stuff I've knitted recently, damn and I haven't even shown photos from this new apartment of mine, and now from the garden... ohh well, I promise to show you some day. This was just a short and badly written update about my garden dreams.

sincerely,
Sanna

the pros of living alone

A.K.A SANNA ON STAGE

Okay, let's make one thing clear first: I've been living on my own for almost a decade now, but I've only lived alone for a month now - before I always lived with flat mates. After this first month (I'm obviously still on a honeymoon with this whole thing!) all I can say is, I LOVE LIVING ALONE!

The last time I was reminded about the pros of living alone, was merely a few hours ago. Fine, I had decided that on Monday (today) I will clean up propelly - do all the dishes (they we're kiii-iiind of piling up), wash the floors and the whole set, you know. The only problem with this awesome plan was that around 6 PM I realized I still hadn't done anything to start cleaning up, and the worst of all - I had absolutely zero interested in doing so. All I wanted to do was to knit & watch The Big Bang Theory!

Well, if there's something I learnt last year, it was this: you must keep the promises you make to yourself. Sure, it's important to keep the promises you make to others as well, but the most important thing is not to let yourself down, never! Because: if you can't trust your own word, how could you ever be confident and in good terms with yourself? You wouldn't like a person who keeps on breaking his/her promises - not even if that person was you, right? ...and this philosophy applies even to the smallest promises, like the one I made to myself last night, that I would clean up on Monday. [ohh, this is turning into one of my philosophy lessons, it wasn't my meaning!] So, I had zero interest in cleaning up, but I was entitled to keep my promise. Here's what I did: (And here comes the it's-so-great-to-live-alone part)

 I put on my finest dress, my favorite high heels, I did my hair, I put make-up on, I put on some Lady Gaga and P!nk on my mp3 player and... had a CLEAN UP PARTY! It was seriously Sanna on Stage, big time! xD Before I knew I was singing my lungs out, literally dancing with the mop and using a soap bottle as a microphone - I got the cleaning up done in record time AND honestly had a great time, too! ;-) So, all you need to have a good time cleaning up, is the right attidute and imagination - I'm not lacking any of those, obviously.

Here's a few more things I've learnt to love while living alone -- of course here someone would say you could do any of these things even if you weren't living alone, but let's face it, I personally wouldn't have guts to do these things if I was living, let's say, with flat mates. But being all on my own... there's nothing to stop me!

• You can go to bed 5AM and sleep till 4PM - and no one gives a rat's ass!
• You can postpone doing dishes as long as you want - and no one gives a rat's ass!
• You can smoke out of kitchen window while having morning coffee - and no one gives a rat's ass!
• If you don't feel like taking rubbish out, you can just leave the bag at the backyard until you feel like actually taking it away - and no one gives a rat's ass!
• You don't have to cook for a week if you don't feel like, just live on ice cream and sandwiches as long as you like - and no one gives a rat's ass!
• You can watch TV with as much volume as you like as late as you like - and no one gives a rat's ass!
• You can stay in your pajamas all day long if you feel like (or clean up in high heels!) or stay inside three days in a row if you don't feel like going out - and no one gives a rat's ass!
• You can make pancakes at 3AM if you get hungry - and no one gives a rat's ass!
• You never need to tiptoe, no matter what time of the day or night it is! 
• You can take a shover whenever you like, even at 2AM - and no one gives a rat's ass!
• You can sing and dance all you like and no one will ever laugh at you and your stupid moves!

...and so on. Long list short: when you live alone, you can practically do whatever you want, and there will never be anyone criticizing you. What a wonderful freedom it is!<3 I understand living alone isn't for everyone, but still I'd hope everyone would get at least a short chance to try it. It IS liberating, after all. Maybe not for a lifetime, but for some time, at least.

And now... since I managed to keep my promise and cleaned up, now it's time to enjoy the night. I made a smoothie out of blueberries I picked up myself, I'm going to continue knitting a sock (I love the yarn!) and watch a few more episodes of The Big Bang Theory... va bene, sounds like a plan, right?

yours truly-

itsepäisyyspäivä

Happy Indepence Day, good ol' Finland! The title is one of my favorite Finnish word puns: itseNäisyyspäivä means indepence day, itsePäisyyspäivä means stubborness day - and let's face it, Finns can be pretty stubborn ;-)

I just want to take this chance to tell you that I really like this country, and at times I might be thought as patriotic, even. I've seen quite many countries, and it feels the more I travel, the more I learn to appreciate Finland. I have my chronic wanderlust, I always want to see new places and experience new adventures, but I also enjoy coming back to Finland, each and every time. After all, Finland is where I come from, where my roots are. Sure, Finland has its faults, no doubt about it, but there's still plenty of nice things here, too - and that's something I've learnt to appreciate after travelling as much as I have. In a nutshell, Finland is not any better or worse than any other country, but it's mine. It's a place I will always return, eventually. It's a place... it's a place I call home. Like Rodney Atkins puts it while thinking about his own country:

...These are my people
This is where I come from
We're givin' this life everything we've got and then some
It ain't always pretty
But it's real
That's the way we were made
Wouldn't have it any other way
We fall down and we get up
We walk proud and we talk tough
We got heart and we got nerve
Even if we are a bit disturbed...

Yeah... today is the day for all us Finns to feel proud of our isolated little country. Light up those two candles to your windowsill and listen to some Jean Sibelius, right? (hey, here's a comic relief for this quite deep blog entry: I haven't really listened to Finlandia hymn that many times; now I did, and came to conclusion it's actually pretty scary! xD Just try it... LOL, and the beginning reminds me of Star Wars theme)

Yours Truly

just an announcement..

Just to let you know, I've finally put together that craft blog I've been talking about for the last 3 months. So, if you're interested in stuff like 2nd hand shopping, knitting, crocheting, recycling, home decor, and other random crafts I've done, you may want to check out HOME IS WHERE YOU'RE HAPPY. So far there's only one post, but I've got a feeling I'll be updating it pretty frequently, given this huge crocheting/knitting addiction of mine etc.

I will keep Closed Cases & New Leads as my "official" day-to-day life blog, and Where You're Happy is intended to be more like a virtual photo album - I'll be trying to let the pictures tell the story instead of endlessly explaining myself like I do here. It will also be a place where I allow myself to collect inspirational pictures I find flying around in the Net, and... ohh well, I think it will simply become my virtual Home Sweet Home scrapbook. We'll see.

That's all, now I'm off to enjoy the last week of freedom before going to back to work. Take care & remember to enjoy these beautiful autumn days<3

yours truly-

photo: Google

Luumäki state of mind

Here I am - back in my summer life. Back in South Karelia, back in Luumäki, back living with my parents for the next four months, and back working at the cemetery, too. Life is easy, slow and overall predictable.

So, Luumäki is a small agricultural town in South Karelia, and the place where I lived the first 18 years of my life. The name means Bonehill, by the way. It's the greatest joke ever, like "Hey, my name is Sanna, I live at Worm Bay Drive in Bonehill, and I work at the cemetery" - like I'm from some frigging Tim Burton movie! Erm, anyway... with around 5,000 people living in Luumäki, all scattered around in their farm houses and separated by forests and fields, life is exactly like it is in any other place like this all over the globe. There's one grocery store and a small library which is open three days a week. Pretty much everyone knows everyone by name, and it comes with its pros and cons. Some serious apple pie life, I tell you! As a teenager I hated all this and couldn't wait to move away ASAP, but after years living elsewhere, I've learnt Luumäki isn't that bad. Or more likely, it not any better or worse than any other place.

My life here during the summers is simple as hell, and it goes like this:

• Get up 6AM
• Go to work 7AM - 3PM
• On your way home, go to the grocery store (and library if you feel like)
• Come home, cook, take a shower (or sauna, if it has been a chilly day)
• Be online or watch TV series for the rest of the evening
• Go to sleep 9 PM
• (REPEAT)

Honestly, my weekdays are this predictable, and I'm okay with it. It's hard to explain, but it feels like... like when you don't need to concentrate on what to do each day, you get time to think everything else. Random thoughts you usually push away thinking "I'll get back to this as soon as I've sorted out all this daily stuff". It feels like my head is full of ideas 24/7, everything from little internet projects to bigger future plans and everything in-between, you know. It's a wonderful feeling! For example, recently I've started updating my mp3 collection, returned to my Modern American Classics reading project, and started a new scrapbook - not to mention I've got some pretty neat ideas of what I want to do next fall as well! :-)

I have my own room in my parents' apartment (not the same house I grew up in, btw), and I actually love it. It's quite different than my own apartment in Joensuu, but I still feel equally "home" here. I've got my books and DVDs, and an internet connection - I'm happy.

Home sweet Home - everything I brought with me for the summer!

my Luumäki room

I've also been "living" Supernatural pretty much 24/7 recently. You know how it is when I get a new obsession... I've been reading a lot of fanfiction, and I'm especially in love with Hoodie_Time - there will never be enough awesome whump!Dean for me. I've also found the world of audiofics recently. At first it was a little awkward - listening to fics instead of reading them - but now that I've got used to it, it's great! Especially since I've started getting headaches from reading too long (damn I need new glasses!), with audiofics I can just close my eyes and let go... yeah, sweet. Of course I've also been watching SPN, recently started with the 7th season. Aaaaand since I'm also a collector by nature, I started collecting those Official Supernatural Magazines. I recently subscribed to OSM, but now I'm searching the net to buy the issues I've missed - haha, I've always loved the feeling you get when you're hunting for the pieces you're missing from your collection! So far I have issues #24, #25, #27, #28, #29, #31 and #32 (which is the newest issue, btw). I made a deal with myself - everytime I have a bad day, I'm allowed to order another issue ;-)

my SPN collection so far

lovely box I found for my SPN treasures! :-)

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Well, that was a surprisingly long entry since I didn't have anything special to write about! Now I'm off to read The Sunflower Forest by Torey Hayden, and then early to bed again. Abby just called and said she won't be coming to work because of a flu, and frankly, I'm not too sad about it. Why does it feel I need to take some distance to her, eventhough all there has been for the whole winter, is distance? I confuse myself sometimes, dammit!

Yours Truly-

welcome to my silly life

I'm in such a good mood that I decided to write just a little something-something. I had a wonderful (and lazy!) Wednesday at home, I even had time for five o'clock tea! It is a well-known fact that I'm a coffee person to the bone, but a few years ago when I had a crush on Patrick Jane, I finally learnt to like tea too. So, today I enjoyed a cup of Prince of Wales and spent some time remembering summer -04 which I spent in South England. Back then I hated tea, and those daily (host) family meetings with tea were practically torture to me! Funny how things change.

I also dyed my hair today :-) I didn't really like the previous (red-based) colour eventhough my hairdresser said it brought up the colour of my eyes. Meh, no one sees my eyes anyway because I'm always wearing glasses, so I'm more than happy to be back  in dark brown.

That's it, that's pretty much all I've done today! =D Oh well, and listened to P!nk. Honestly, I had always thought I don't like female singers, and most of all, I had always thought P!nk is something... different than I learnt it actually is. I have a feeling she will be my soundtrack artist this spring. Like all the best music discoveries, this one happened to me accidentally. I was killing time in Youtube last night, and came across some Supernatural fanvids, and... well, I heard this one song, and I immetedly fell in love with its attidute. Another funny thing/confession which has to do with the following video: at first, I didn't like Castiel in Supernatural, not at all, but now I suddenly think... that maybe I'll learn to like him too (I'm halfway through season 5 at the moment). Funny little things. Like the title says, welcome to my silly life. The song is Fucking Perfect by P!nk

 

Now it's around 9pm, and I'll enjoy my lazy Wednesday till the end by watching something and reading. I finished reading Geisha's Memoirs last night, and started Steinbeck's Travels with Charley. I've only read the first 20 pages so far, but already I dare to say I love it! From the first page, when Steinbeck started to explain his wanderlust, I was like "that's exactly how I feel!" Too bad my current (library) copy is in Finnish, if it was in English I would have quoted some of my favorite parts for you. But fear not, the next time I'm shopping in Amazon, I will definitely order a copy of this great travel journal and then you'll see what I'm talking about :-)

This was one random Wednesday in my life. I hope you had a nice day too xxo

Yours truly-