Travel fever, part 1: Biedenkopf, Germany

This is going to be quite short and I intend to post my next travel fever post right after this one. First I'll tell you a bit about my traveling history.

In 1997 we were in Paris, France with my family. I was seven at that time so everything was different with a young girl's eyes. Yes, we visited the usual landmarks: Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Louvre, Lafayette, Arc de Triomphe and... DISNEYLAND. Yes I want to go there again cause my inner kid has not died. It was quite awesome holiday. But there is one memory above other. 

Next to our hotel was a restaurant and an ice cream booth. The ice cream man shouted to people to come and buy ice cream everyday. He was really funny guy. So one night we were eating at the restaurant, near the booth when I started laughing at the man. Who actually started to be even more funny for me after noticing that. We left the restaurant after we ate and my stomach was hurting from laughing. It was the next day when we walked by the booth on our way back to the hotel and the ice cream man waved at me. I went to the booth and he gave me a rose. And I bought an ice cream. It was so sweet of him. 

Next summer, 1998, we went to Salou, Spain with my family and my godmother. It was fun, spending the days on the beach or by the hotel pool. We also took day trips to Barcelona and Andorra which were organized by our travel agent. At our hotel there was a restaurant too. We ate there and there was this sweet waiter. He was always nice to everyone and made people smile. Apparently my nordic charm worked on that trip too cause he put an extra cherry on the top of my ice cream goblet on the last night we were there. We also went to another restaurant where some boy (apparently the owner's son) gave me a lollipop. God I must've been one adorable kid :D

Now to the point. After ten years it was finally time for me to travel abroad. I was talking to my mom how I wanted to go to Paris before Christmas. But she didn't say yes. It was the year I graduated from high school and I had some savings (plus my mom helped me a bit in the end =D). I talked in MSN with my friend who was working as an au pair in [BIEDENKOPF], Germany. I just said that I should come visit you (as a joke) and she said that I really should! We weren't exactly the most closest in high school but the funny thing is that we became close after that trip :D! 

Two months later (in November) I was sitting on a plane to Frankfurt. I always swore that I would never go to Germany cause I hated the language in high school. It became really hard and ugh, I just didn't want anything to do with it. But well, things change. Kirsi was waiting for me in the airport and we took a train to Biedenkopf, which is about 3hrs away from Frankfurt. I have never cared about the big cities (if we don't count in UK, France and Italy) so this little town was so adorable after seeing a glimpse of the steel-covered Frankfurt. 

The first night we headed out to the town "centre" which was merely a medium-sized plaza. There was this adorable ice cream parlour [EIS CAFE VENEZIA] which came our regular place to hang out. The picture up there ^^ is me eating "Heidelbeer Becher" which cost 5,90 euros. I know right? It's really cheap compared to the amount of it. The other night I ate a humongous portion of ice cream which cost me 7,40€.

There was like 3 ice creams, 3 huge whipped cream towers, sauces and decorations. It was really good though it was a bit too much even for me. But if you are ever going to Germany, visit this little town. There's a castle too!

Another, memorable place was [MARBURG], where we visited. It took about an hour (?) by a train. This is really pretty place and everyone should visit there like... yesterday! There is a new town and the old town and the old town is definitely more pleasing to the eye. There are lots of uphills though but it's all worth it! There's a church and there was this lovely chocolate shop where I bought xmas presents for everyone. 

We spent the last day in Frankfurt. Well. Mostly we spent it in Starbucks (the first time for me, yay!) cause it was Sunday and most of the shops were closed. But I definitely want to go in Germany again, it was a short time to get to know the place :D!

And now I shall start on working my really long post from Ireland!

xoxo,

Miss K

Doggy days!

A new post at last! Well, this is mostly going to consider dogs and lots of dog pics but still. That up there is my pup Nanna on the right and my friends dog, Severi, on the left [he's actually giving her a kiss]. We actually call them "baby sister" and "big brother" cause they're so adorable together and he's really gentle with her but puts her in her place too. He's very kind and I love him too. They've met once before and now we went over for the second time - and this time I had my camera with me. 

They got along so well again. Nanna, the little rascal, was playing with him right away and jumped all over the place while we "adults" - as in me, my friend and her mother - talked. And I took photos too. Here's some for you to see...

Otherwise than my pup's adventures, nothing has really happened here. I'm actually wondering if I should do a post about my year as an exchange student (okay yeah, mostly photos) in Ireland and a post about my last trips to London and Edinburgh. I didn't have this lovely blog at that time and I just really want to post pretty pics of these pretty places <3 I have a huge traveling fever again. Here is my top 10 (in no particular order) of places I have to see before I die:

1. Ireland (Again, traveling all over it)

2. Paris, France
3. Monte Carlo, Monaco

4. Marburg, Germany
5. New Zealand

6. Japan
7. USA (Preferably a long roadtrip through the states... New York, Miami, Los angeles, Las vegas, Texas, Hawaii [yeah I know i have to fly there but anywhos] etc.)

8. Azores, Portugal (I've wanted to swim with dolphins for years now... such beautiful animals. This is the nearest place I found and it looks so pretty).

9. China
10. Venice, Rome, Milano & Firenze, Italy

Yeah, sooo... what would be you're top 10?

love,

Miss K

It's valentine!

(Strawberry Pie cupcake with chocolate frosting)

Alright, so I know it's not Valentine yet, but... I went ahead and did some cupcakes. Or actually I made the frosting and decorating today. I've been making cupcakes since 2007 and I love baking them, I love making sugarcraft (I kinda still suck at it cause I've been a bit too lazy to practice since I actually make cupcakes pretty rarely... maybe once a month or ten times per year?). So there it is. The lovely (?) special valentine's day cupcake for my very best friend HajaMiel [WRITTEN BEFORE DAWN] with strawberry pie flavor, chocolate frosting and a little shimmer. Apart from that she's going to get something else too cause I posted this pic a day too early. So let's keep that one a surprise, shall we ;)

I've always loved Valentine. Besides from St. Patrick's day (which I know now very well thanks to my exchange period in Ireland) it's my favorite. Oh and Halloween too! I've done many flavors actually - lemon/liquorice, raspberry/coconut, gingerbread/mulled wine, triple chocolate, double chocolate, caramel apple, cinnamon apple etc... you name it i probably got it. 

Then a time for a little ad - if you are having any parties (wedding, hen party, birthday, graduation, confirmation... etc.) and are interested in my cupcakes, please contact me via e-mail katniss.scarlett@gmail.com. I can do pretty much any flavors and with any theme. My cupcakes are automatically lactose-free but gluten-free cupcakes can be done with extra cost. Also delivery to Pirkanmaa region is possible for a little charge but further than that, we have to agree the terms or a pick up. Some pictures can be seen HERE.

(Please excuse my huuge calves)

I'm dying to wear my Minna Parikka shoes somewhere but I think the next time I have a chance to wear them (since there is loads of snow and i reeeally don't want to ruin them or slip and break my leg - literally) is probably in April when we are going to a cruise with Viking Grace (officially the alcohol stuff is just... stupid cause they still won't prevent the parties...). But ohmigosh I love them. I still want my Fuchsia Melts but these beautiful orange/red Jaquelines are just... so pretty I could die. I bought them on sale at Stockmann (in Helsinki) while I was visiting there.

It was actually a really nice day. I was there January 20th cause there was this huge travel fair going on and I wanted to check it out. So I went there with one of my friends who actually lives right next to the convention centre.

(Yup, that is Fifty Shades of Grey. I still haven't finished it though in my defense, I've only read it in the train)

The fair was lovely and very crowded. I was bit more interested in the stands which represented other countries - not so much domestic traveling though it would do good to travel somewhere else than to Helsinki in Finland. Cause that's been my only destination for a while. Last year I visited Lappeenranta when I went to my friend's housewarming party. And in the summer I visited shortly Jyväskylä to photograph a friend's wedding. Got some pretty pictures from there which can be seen HERE.

It's always been a tradition for me to go for a coffee in FAZER when I visit in Helsinki. I strongly recommend it to anyone who hasn't been there. They serve pastries, brunches, ice cream and loads of coffees and drinks. Last time I ordered Hot chocolate with Marianne crush in it. Mmm, so good. I also spotted a new chocolate bar in the fair earlier but they didn't actually sell it there. But fortunately they did sell it in the cafe. So I bought like six of them. Now it's on the market too. It's dark chocolate with blueberries and raspberries - which are two of my favorite flavors in this world. Coconut being the third. 

Unfortunately Minna Parikka's shop wasn't open on Sundays but I got to drool my future shoes from the window. I will buy Fuchsia Melts someday. I just love them. Adore them. It's funny how much love I have for certain shoes... :D

I also bought these BEAUTIFUL Disney Couture earrings from a Facebook group for luxury clothes, jewelry, shoes etc. I paid 28 euros for them but it's not actually since they cost about $40-$50 if you order them from somewhere else. It was also a bit hard model to find. It's called Tinkerbell and the Star. I loove them. 

And last but not least. I hate to brag but I'm still going to cause I'm so excited I can't take it!

TICKETS TO IIHF USA vs. FIN GAME IN MAY! Last year the ice hockey world championship started when I was in London visiting my friend and we watched two games in a pub. It was an awesome experience, since the year before I watched the games on TV at home. I'm not overly excited about "regular" hockey (with all due respect) but I've watched the world championships for some years now and had a small break until I started to watch them again. Last year me and my mom were talking that we'd go to see one game live this year. And she remembered it - a bit late but still. FIN - RUS game was sold out (surprise...) and there was no FIN - CAN game (which would've been my 1st pick along the FIN-RUS) so I wanted to go see USA vs. FIN. We were a tad bit late but we managed to get quite good places. Now I'm just waiting for the May 8th. YAY.

love,
Miss K.

Having that Monday feeling?

I can honestly say that to this day my week has been all-Monday. Let's start with the actual Monday. I went to work to 11-16 shift. At the morning I noticed that I hadn't put my iPhone in charger and there was 17% of battery left. Monday 1 - Miss K 0.

Well, I managed to get a nasty paper cut in my thumb just on another paper cut that had just healed. Monday 2 - Miss K 0.

Otherwise than that, my day was going fine until about 3:30PM. I was filling our dishwasher and was looking to get home at 4PM. Apparently I was so eager to get home, I slammed the dishwasher's open door straight to my fingers (middle finger and ring finger to be exact). And yes, I slammed it quite hard. Monday 3 - Miss K 0. At least it didn't break and my nail didn't get loose like I feared, but there a nasty bruise beneath my finger.

Now you might think that this was my Monday... Nope, guess again. That's not all folks! At 4PM when I was supposed to get home our one employee didn't show up. I called her and she wasn't aware that she even had a shift. She wasn't home plus she didn't have a ride. I called pretty much everyone that had a day off but none could come. Eventually I gave up and stayed till the closing time. Luckily I had the best company in the middle-evening shift =) Monday 4 - Miss K 0.

And while I was driving home, my iPod's battery died. (yeah, my music is VERY important to me, I listen to my iPod when I drive). Luckily I had a charger in my car but it took a while since it's old and bit slow... Monday 5 - Miss K 0.

And then I went and proclaimed in Facebook that since it's already 10:30PM, I'm gonna call it the worst Monday ever. Then my mother told me that there was a collection letter for me at home. Apparently I didn't verify my payment for my mother's Christmas present when I went to pay it online... So now on top of the actual bill, I have to pay 5€ more for that letter... Monday 6 - Miss K 0.

That was my actual Monday. 

I have this course with my puppy at Tuesdays and I had received a message on Monday that it was canceled. But for what I understood the message said "today" which was Monday at that time. Plus it had another trainer's name on it. I drove to the shop with my puppy as did two others. The text was eventually right: there was no course that day. Also I noticed that my gas was pretty low but luckily it didn't run out and I got to refill it before the warning light turned on. Monday 67- Miss K 0.

Today has been alright but I have been extremely tired all day long and my back and shoulders are all jammed. Plus my puppy actually kept me up last night (and in the evening) by digging her bed and being all restless. Now she's - fortunately -asleep and after watching a couple episodes of Arrow, I'm off to the dreamland too. Next week I swear I'm going to skip over Monday. And for the rest of my life.

love,

Miss K.

Customer said it so it must be true

I don't know where you're working at or if you even have a job yet but I've got to share a story from today. I work as a Sandwich Artist and I basically have heard ALL the jokes a million times before and they pretty much stop being funny after the first time. But that's not really it.

I haven't seen a-hole (sorry for my language guys) customers in a while and I almost thought they were extinct. But then in comes Mr. Center-Of-The-Universe and his girlfriend/wife/didn't ask their relationship status. Anywho, she takes club and he takes veggie sub. I do what I always do - I ask if I can make the sandwiches with the same gloves since the other one has meat and other one doesn't. It's alright. They want the breads toasted and with cheese. BOTH of them.

Everything goes well until I start to put the vegetables on the bread. He didn't want olives. Then I put onions on and he says "wait a minute, it went wrong". I apologize and the onions off but it's not enough - he can't stand onions. Alright, so I'll throw the bread away and make a new one to him. My colleague's customer's breads are in the speed oven so I wait and I'm pretty sure he notices I'm going to toast the bread. Then I ask the sauces again to be sure that I remembered them right. Here's another chance for him to see that the bread is in the oven. Now after I take it out from the oven, he says "I didn't want the bread toasted."

... I look at him with a face that says "Dude, SERIOUSLY?" but instead I throw the bread away - AGAIN - and make a new one. He says to me with very rude, pampering voice "Aww, it seems you're having a bad day". I, a stone-hard customer servant, just smile and try not to burst to laugh or say something really obnoxious back (cause usually I just say something nosy that actually leaves them speechless). I probably would've said something like "Well, you are standing in front of me, right?" but nope. I just wrap up the sell. My colleague stares at him with a look that could kill. She also said that the customer DID say only no olives and did say yes to toasting. So I have proof of that too. I don't know about the customer but my day got a lot chipper after that incident.

Nope, I wasn't offended. I wasn't mad. I was just amused to know that there are still people who look down to others and are just big babies who don't know what they want and cannot admit they were wrong. Nothing was good for him. And his girlfriend/wife/whatever just stood next to him and giggled... They were somewhere in their middle to late twenties perhaps. Really mature. 

I'm a customer servant. So basically I'm not a therapist, not a baby, not your actual servant and I'm a human. We make mistakes but you don't have to put YOUR mistakes on us or be rude about it. Just sayin'. I don't take it personally but some might. Because we're not any lower than you are. That's a fact.

But thank you for making my day. Luckily I had some really amazing customers who smiled back and were polite.

Cosy Winter photoshoot

I almost forgot - we did some nice winter photoshooting with HajaMiel from WRITTEN BEFORE DAWN. I've always wanted to do a winter photoshoot with some cosy theme so therefore... COSY WINTER (really original, I know :D). We had agreed with HajaMiel that we'd meet and go to have some noodles and coffee somewhere but I got the idea of this photoshoot in the previous evening. So I asked if she'd be up for it and she was. She's also my best friend and my regular model when I get my crazy photoshooting ideas.

This time I got to be behind the camera as well as in the front of it - yup, HajaMiel hijacked my innocent camera and took a few photos of me too. Photos that I actually really, really like. I worked only a little magic with Adobe Lightroom afterwards. So here's a few:

And then a little bit of me... :D

If anyone would be interested in modeling for me or need models, please comment below or send me an email (valokuvaus@lumililja.net). I'd be happy if I got some new models to use for my ideas :D Preferably in Pirkanmaa area though.... 

love,

Miss K

Childhood memories

I think it was last Thursday when we kind of ended up talking about our childhood toys and TV-series while there was some quiet hours at work. Sometimes it's really refreshing to think about your childhood and see how easy things were back then, isn't it? Well, there are actually a few things I played with when I was a kid...

Teeny Weeny Families. Oh I loved these. There were many different animal families. There was also a school in a shoe, a hotel in a tall-case clock, a bakery in a windmill, a mall in a vanity case, a nursery in a rocking horse, cafe in a teapot... There was so much of them. I had pretty much all of them too. I think there was only a couple of the houses and families I didn't have. More of them HERE.

Barbies. I had the Spice Girls, I had Esmeralda and Megara, I had the Millennium Barbie. But my favorite was always Lara. A brown-haired barbie. And I usually dressed her in the Millennium dress if they were going to a party or something. I also had a house and a car and well... I had loads of Barbie's, clothes, accessories and housewares for the house. I also was very girlish and kind of possessive over certain accessories... such as high heeled platform shoes and one certain flower necklace. My friends usually played Ken... oh my poor friends :S

Of course there were Polly Pockets, My Little Ponies and many other toys I played with in my childhood. As for the TV-series...

Pokemon/Digimon. I used to have a HUGE crush on a cartoon character when I was 6-7. And I'm actually talking about Ash... Or well, nowadays I'm just laughing to the memory. But I loved both the "old" Pokemon and Digimon. I can't actually define where goes the limit to old and new but pretty much when there was 101 Pokemon. Or a bit over but who counts... I'm still in progress in catching them all. But I will always count on Pikachu ;)

Bamboo Bears. This was also one of my faves. I loved the girl bear. I also remember some specifics about one episode. It was actually how I managed to search out the show. I often start to think of something that happened and try to ask from my Facebook friends if they know what I'm talking about. But I basically loved this because of the animals.

Blinky Bill (or as we know him in Finland, Vili Vilperi). I kind of relate to him in some level. I think I was also bit mischievous as a kid and liked to play some pranks on people so... And I loved his laugh. It was so funny :D

Others than those... hmm. I remember watching New Adventures of Robin Hood and Xena the Warrior Princess when I was pretty young too. There was also Phileas Fogg, Tabaluga, Flipper and bunch of other animated series I watched from the telly.

What did you watch in your childhood and what was your favorite toys?

love,

Miss K