Good news

I don't know whether I'm weirdly late with discovering this, but since the blogosphere seems to have been mum about this development, I might as well share the information with you. Last night, while browsing online shops, I found myself rubbing my eyes in disbelief upon seeing this:

So, not only is J.Crew suddenly shipping to Finland (and Europe in general), but they are offering flat-rate shipping! I realize this might not be as terribly exciting for some of you as it is for me, but just think about it this way (and imagine me giving you a pointed look) : maybe Madewell will be next.

Regardless, I think this is pretty awesome. Especially considering I've recently taken a strong liking to silk shirts. And, you know, pretty shirts in general. In fact, I wouldn't mind giving any of these beauties (the shirts, not the models, though I suspect the boyfriend wouldn't mind that either) a home:

Teatime

I got plenty of Christmas presents this year (and I'll get back to those later), but the best present I could have possibly asked for was the one I least expected. One of my best friends suddenly returned home after four years of studies in Australia, and it's been great to have her back.

The last few weeks have been filled with girl's nights and girl talk – and man, how I've missed this! It's great to have our little posse back together again, and fun to have someone I can talk to about clothes and fashion (at least without having them roll their eyes at me).

Much time has been spent giggling in cafes, and hopefully the rest of this spring will be spent in much the same manner.

During one of our visits to Café Art last weekend I tried to combat my soy latte obsession with japanese tea, but ugh – too sweet! Staying away from amacha from now on. Regular green tea is clearly the way to go.

Aubin & Wills, Spring 2012

Aubin & Wills is one of those slightly obscure British brands whose name I recognize, but know little beyond that. I ordered a nice, basic grey cardigan from their webshop last fall, but dismissed the rest of their collection as too boring, too preppy and too A.P.C.

So imagine my surprise when I came across this spring shoot for Aubin & Wills, which (while still admittedly a bit preppy) epitomizes pretty much exactly how I want to look this spring. Clean-cut, soft and relaxed. And I guess it doesn't hurt that the model for this photoshoot is the lovely Irina Lăzăreanu.

Enjoy! I'm off to vote at the presidential elections.

Compulsory holiday update

Christmas passed really quickly this year, which is part of the reason I haven't gotten around to posting these pictures earlier.

I spent most of the holidays with my family, and because I was so busy helping out in the kitchen I even managed to avoid the customary weight gain. Most of that can probably be chalked up to me not being a huge fan of traditional Christmas food, but keeping busy also definitely helped prevent me from stuffing my face with chocolate. My hat goes off to my mother though: just helping with menial tasks resulted in me being completely exhausted, so I can only imagine the effort that goes into banging out dinner for eight people.

I received a surprise present from my mother in the form of a pretty bouquet of tulips, and now I've developed an obsession with keeping cut flowers at home. This winter has been so dark and grey that I've found myself wishing for spring earlier than ever, and fresh flowers seem to alleviate my lethargy a bit. (But only a bit. Not enough to actually get me started on my thesis.)

I've also tried to combat my laziness by drinking lots of green tea, but during the last few weeks I seem to have switched to soy lattes. The green tea was probably a better idea, as drinking coffee makes me so hyperactive it's difficult to focus (especially on thesis writing. Do you sense a pattern here?). But there's nothing like waking up to the smell of coffee in the morning, especially if you can shamelessly take advantage of your boyfriend by sleeping in while he makes you a fresh cup.

Back and forth

As you've probably noticed, the blog is going through some changes. During the last few months I've found myself very uninspired when it comes to blogging, and after some contemplation I realized that my reluctance was mostly due to the language I was posting in. While I've spent almost four years blogging in Finnish, my history of writing journal entries online reaches far beyond that time. I originally started off writing on Livejournal in English, as a way of keeping in touch with my online friends. When I went off to Japan for a year, it felt more important to keep my Finnish alive, and so I started this blog and gave up writing in English.

Now I feel like I'm back to square one, and as my M.A. thesis in English is the only thing standing in the way of graduation, I find that I am using English less and less. As I still have a lot of friends internationally, it seems only natural to start writing in a lingua franca that the majority can understand. So, while the switch from Finnish to English may seem sudden to my readers, for me it's been a long time coming.

I do realize that this is going to be a bit of an adjustment for you readers, so try to bear with me. Hopefully this change will also pay off for you guys in the form of more frequent posts.

Ilmoitusluontoista

Uuden vuoden kunniaksi ajattelin aloittaa bloginkin kanssa alusta, lähinnä siten että blogin kieli vaihtuu suomesta englanniksi. Kielen muutoksen myötä tuntuu järkevältä vaihtaa myös blogin osoite, joten jatkossa blogin sisältö löytyy osoitteesta http://thisisfrivolity.blogspot.com. Blogin osoite siis vaihtuu, mutta sisältö pysyy samassa paikassa.

Blogiani pitäisi pystyä seuraamaan bloglovinin ja googlen kautta entiseen tapaan, mutta palaan asiaan jos osoitteenmuutoksen yhteydessä ilmeneekin ongelmia.