// Five guilty pleasures

Posted on | November 1, 2009 | 9 Comments

Lovely Lily from UnoCosa’s Scrapbook sent me the Divine Award couple of days ago… …and although I have thought that I’ll keep this blog pretty free of personal stuff I could not resist to answer to this. It might be that I’m bit blinded by the fancy name of the award!

Ok, I should list five guilty pleasures of mine. This is not the easiest task, because I try to live relatively guilt free life — I mean what’s the point of pleasure if you spend a lot of time afterward regretting. But because I’m not perfect =)…

5) Beer, cookies and really good fresh bread. I have some problems with grains and really can’t eat them in large amounts. But an occasional cold beer, warm chocolate chip cookie from my local coffee shop, or a small loaf of oven fresh bread with butter melting on top just… …gets me sometimes.

4) Computer games — oh yes I have used hours and hours with these, starting with Aquarius computer in 1985, moving to Amiga, PC, we also had Xbox for a while. My genres are light strategy (Civilization, anyone?) and single player adventure/role playing games (from System Shock to Fallout trilogy). Just don’t even dare to try multiplayer RPG:s, well, maybe when I retire (if I ever do) I will let go… I enjoy playing and feel that it is a great way to get rid of for example work related issues that stick to my head sometimes too tight, but on the other hand I feel that it is total waste of time — plus I easily mess my circadian rhythm when playing…

3) Good coffee. We have a capricious but good Italian espresso machine at home — and my husband is quite seasoned barista these days, he makes great coffee. The coffee shop on the ground floor of our house is also very good. I enjoy the sense waking aromas of fresh ground espresso beans and a good hot cup of coffee is absolutely on top of my everyday pleasures list. But I really have some sleeping disorder thing going on — and can’t help but think that the daily dose of potent stimulant might not be that good for me.

coffee

2) I really can steal a bullet point from Lily here: a cigarette, a drink and good conversation over the random reflections in life .… I am just a very simply being who gets pleased easily with very small things!!! Except that I don’t smoke. If there is any guilt involved to this it has something to do with the amount of wine I’m able to consume… …well, I’m relatively responsible with this but a bottle of wine is common sight in our dinner table and I sure enjoy it as a part of the social activity, too.

1) Mmm-hmm… …the clothes. I have lots of them and I know that they will keep coming. Dressing up is quite a pleasure for me but I can’t deny that there is also a certain amount of guilt involved. I like my life to be relatively clutter free, so I just can’t justify excessive amount of shopping — plus living here is quite expensive so every square meter used to clothes storage really counts. I don’t want to convert our apartment to a giant wardrobe, and I’m afraid that we already are on a verge of that.

I also see that I’m coming more and more critic about consuming. I think that the right price for an item is such that it can be produced ethically in humanitarian and ecological measurements. But there is no way for a consumer really know the backgrounds of these issues in most cases. Oh yes, those single aspects of ethical production are eagerly used as marketing slogans these days, but I have strong doubts if those “organic cotton” or “environmentally friendly” labels tell the whole truth about mass produced items.

So I try to choose more and more from small producers and artisans, products those lifeline can be traced entirely (really difficult and rarely applicable), buy second hand stuff and do things by myself. Plus I really need to wean myself from too cheap stuff. I have enough basics, enough everyday stuff and if I use my spare money for cheap clothes we are going to drown to them sooner or later. The right justification for a new garment to enter my wardrobe is that I absolutely, deeply love it — and that it is really special enough. And I’m afraid that these conditions are not fulfilled with cheap mass produced stuff.

I think that i might pass this award for some fellow Finnish bloggers, I really haven’t seen it circulating around here too much. So it goes to stellagee, sugar kane, Jalouse, Maria and Julia — don’t feel any pressure about this, just wanted to mention you lovely ladies!

Posted on | November 1, 2009 | 9 Comments

// Seven things you don’t know about me (yet)

Posted on | October 15, 2009 | 2 Comments

Ok, I got a sweet little blog award from Jalouse, thank you! …let’s see, the badge goes here…

kreativblogger

And the instructions here:
When you receive this award you should do the following seven things:

You should thank the person from who you received this award
Copy the image and publish it in your blog post
Link to the person from who you received this award
Tell seven previously untold things about you
Give the award to seven new persons
Link to them in your blog
And tell them about the award

So to those seven things…

1) As a child I wanted to become a gardener or an astronaut. Obviously it did not happen. I don’t know a thing about gardening but I’m still fascinated by space and stars.

2) Learning things is important to me. I don’t care about the formalities of education or degrees, but I’m always eager to practice a new skill, read about new theories — thinking about and implementing the practical applications. Gardening… …who knows…

3) Oh yes, I’m a pragmatist — although a lazy one. Don’t see too much value in thinking and theorizing, solely — and I also think that people are defined by their actual actions, not by their thoughts. My laziness is thus very painful for me.

4) I’m a computer geek, sort of…

5) I spent my childhood in the countryside — but I have known from relatively young age that I will like it better to live in a city. Like it was built in to me or something…

6) I have never been a believer — nor good at suspecting. I try to take things as they are. That does not mean that I’m all rational — I have a strong intuitive side, too. Is that clear? No, I really did not think so…

7) The creative side of me is somehow complex, and it is very painful to explore it. I still want to do that — although I feel very selfish and being somehow useless member of this society as an aspiring artist.

After this self exploration I feel so weak (read lazy) that I’m not passing this forward — and it has circulated quite a lot in Finnish blogs already (plus I get that feeble patronizing feel when I give awards like this… …and that makes me feel really awkward… …just a personal problem of mine) . But feel free to pick it up!

Posted on | October 15, 2009 | 2 Comments

About

Location: Helsinki, Finland

Contact: kamicha (a) gmail dot com

I'm especially interested in young designers creations, non-established labels and indie fashion. So if you have something interesting to show, feel free to contact!

You can find Finnish design from both specific and some outfit posts - but both are tagged.

You might be also interested in my DIY posts, How-to posts, DIY ideas - or my adventures in Etsy =).

More about me and this blog.