Laura Luna :: Carried by Lightning

I'll tell you a secret. There is this dazzling friend and lady in Finland who teaches tribal fusion bellydance, paints and makes jewelry and her name is Laura Luna. She also makes henna tattoos and gorgeous accessories. Here in the form of Photographs you can take a peek into her Creativelife. The first one is Laura's painting of herself and her son, Nesta.

The next is from a fashion show, the model's face painting and jewelry are by Salamankantama, which is Laura's heartfelt business, and means 'carried by lightning' (as far as I can interpret, it's a beautifully poetic word). Laura has a blog too (which is also in Finnish - but you can say hello to Google Translator if you wish, although it's tricky to get correct translation of Finnish). You can connect with her through Salamankantama Facebook page too, here.

The last, super adorable picture is Laura as a kid, posing with her prophetically boho tribal attire - complete with a headdress. Awwwww!!!

Bohemian Home Decoration Awesomeness

I've now lived in my Philly home for a week! A few days ago I came across these super beautiful, inspirational home decor photos from these two blogs I follow, Too Cute Things and Itkupilli Inspirations.

Of course it takes a long time and many lucky finds to create a space like in these photos... But I scored a couple of interesting things already and my fairy shelf is looking pretty crowded too. I'll take pics soon and let you all see :)

Emilia's Fairy Magic World Photography

Emilia Kallinen wrote me an email a little while ago and told me about her beautiful fairyish photography. It's just lovely. She is starting a blog here, and has a Facebook page here. She's Polish but has lived in Finland for over 6 years. Don't these photos take you to magical place? Love them. Maybe she can get together with me and my sisters and we can make some super elven session next time I'm in Finland?! :)

Will I Ever Have Kids? ::and:: Bohemian Baby Names

I had this dream of me holding a baby. It was my baby and I knew that he was going to die. I didn't mind -- I knew that's just the way it was. I was ok with it. I put the baby down and talked with some friends. Occasionally I checked if the baby had died already. This dream had a very real feeling to it, like those dreams that indicate future, have omens and are important some way. When I woke up I couldn't understand what it meant.

Later that day (yesterday) I went to a doctor and it came up on the side of a regular check: I can't have kids. Or at best, it would just be way too risky to even try. So all you friends and people asking me, suggesting to me, politely hinting, straight out saying I should already, or saying for sure your hormones will kick in and you'll want some soon, and naming me women who didn't want kids at first but towards their 30s had to have them -- nope there will be no little omwoodses running around. Just this one. (I mean, to be clear, me.)

Fairy Baby by Enaid

Perhaps this is TMI (too much information) but it's my diary after all so I felt like talking about it. Honestly, I never wanted kids nor have ever handled them very well longer than 10-15 minutes. I find children a bit scary, psychologically, how they demand you to play with them all the time and it's like, there's no other way. And they're just, I don't know, dominating creatures and I can't get into their head. Cute and precious as they are! :)

So still I actually cried a couple of times when I was alone, after hearing this news. I don't know why. It was like some female reflex and some emotions came up that I never knew I had. It was weird. It's all good now. It got me thinking, what else is there. What is inside of me that I have no idea or control of (as of yet). Or outside of me for that matter. Surprising things happen in life. Unexpectedness. I think it's beautiful. You can never know. You can always adapt. You can always learn new perspectives.

Anyway. I figured I might reveal my long cherished list of baby names to the world that I kept just in case I might need it - but more just for the fun of it. Heehee! So it's all yours to take. Something tells me my choices would be a bit ahem, avant garde?

GIRLS:

Pearl Amanda

Sandhya Rain (Sandhya means evening in Sanskrit)

Dawn Matilda

Moon Autumn

Beth Cinnamon

Ruby Angel

Lucy Millicent

Sulka (feather in Finnish)

BOYS:

Nanda (son in Sanskrit)

Madhu (sweet in Sanskrit)

Thunder Theodore

Casper

Charlie Mountain

Frankie River (I'm not kidding)

Lucas Jupiter

Ludwig (yes! totally!)

Well there are more, this was 'the best of' :D Oh tomorrow will be a nice day - I'll meet Ninni who contacted me after reading my blog and we'll get together and hoop! She actually hasn't hooped before. There is something happening in Arabianranta in Helsinki with lots of music, art, buskers, street theater, etc. all day and I think we'll head there. You have a sweet day too! ♥

Oona Elena :: Maker of Tribal Fairy Fashion

Oona Elena makes gorgeous, romantic, tribal elf princess clothes and accessories. Her partner Mo makes jewelry and together they travel and adventure around Europe and Asia. She is also visiting Finland now so we talked a little about her art.

Oona and Mo recently started an Etsy store, Moonalia, and they have another website with some of their creations on it too, Elftreasurebox. Also you can friend Oona on Facebook - she often posts new clothes and jewelry there.

Goodness Gracious the skirts above and below are to dye for :) Oona actually dyes fabrics herself!

Kyanite Tiara, made by Mo. All their creations are unique. And so pretty. We made some trading and Oona will make a couple things for me that I'm going to love love love forever!

Fairy Street Fashion from Finland

Let me introduce you to various Finnish manifestations of the universal Fairy Gang who dance the streets and keep them interesting. Most of these ladies I have the privilege to know in person although we get to hang out rarely as I live on the other side of the planet. But I connect to them, if nothing else, via imaginative ways of dressing :) [And Facebook, which is where I snatched most of these pics from.]

My sister knows this girl and said her name is Saara. I love her warm elven look and the handy pockets and bags. I found this pic actually on hel-looks.com a while back which is a website that showcases Helsinki street styles. I just copied and saved the pic because, look at it, why wouldn't you?!

Every summer the Finnish pixie people have parties at Alppipuisto (or 'The Alp Park') near the center of Helsinki. I remember raving here as an energetic teenager, and hooping here a year ago or so. They bring speakers and all necessary equipment to that yellow gazebo and the DJ's mostly play psytrance. ♥

Laura and rad jewelry. (Check out her shop - 'nouveau vintage meets modern tribal'!) Love those purple felt dreadie things. Marianne gave me some of those when I was in Finland last time and I love wearing them! You can see some of them here where I wrote about her.

Here's Marianne's feather foot. What a sweet idea.

Above is Oona who makes magnificently beauuutiful clothing, accessories and such. I'll make a post of her stuff in the future I think.

This is Mani who also sang on our quite recent spontaneous recording. Photo by Olli Aurinko Ylinen.

This one is from hel-looks.com as well. Super colorful and fun. I miss seeing people dress in these ways. You don't see it too often in the USA - things look quite monotonous here. I even started writing this whiny poem about it but never got too far with it:

As you rise from the bed

and get ready to get dressed,

please activate the imagination

area inside of your head...

Here's Kaisu and doggie, both in warm and casual home-elfish attires.

And yes, here's yours truly, with a flower crown my hubby made me. He taped the branches together. The next crown he made me some time later he used little pieces of grass to tie the flowers together. I think he may have a very fairy future.

Oh and by the way, you can wear fairies too. Sometimes I put them in my pockets or hang them from something or other that I'm wearing. One day I had Mantra in my pocket. I don't have a good picture of her but you can kind of see her hood, magic wand and left hand in the close up. The dress is from Sandwich. 

Ok everybody, let me see you dress like a fairy-tale-princess-romantic-ballerina-lace-queen-magic-colorful-natural-layer-warrior-whatever! If you do, post a link to your pic in comments or email me your pics (omyourself@gmail.com). It's so much fun and come on, doesn't everybody (at least everyone girly I guess) want to do it?! Or maybe it's just us Finnish chicks. Prove us wrong, rest of the world. Please. I'm bored. Go more fairy. Even once. If you feel like it.

And it doesn't have to always be layered. It can be very simple too. Let me leave you with evidence from my sisters, Kaisu caught and photographed in the forest by our official fairypaparazzi, Minna.

How to Find Unusual Bohemian Wallpapers?

It's easy! Just come to Omwoods. LOL! These are my recent favorites:

Couldn't help but add those fairyish ladies although the last one looks creepy especially the breast area. Anyhow, hope you can utilize some of this!

I'm off to Indiana and back to North Carolina the next day (about 13 hours there and 13 hours back). We're picking up a roof for our van to replace the one we have on it now. The new roof will give us SPACE and I'll be able to STAND UP in my van-house :D Philip is still going to be too tall to stand up all the way but this will make our lives a bit more...hedonistic? Haha! So I'll see you all when our intense trip is done.

Please take a few seconds to send out some good vibes and prayers so our engine doesn't break on the way, it broke like three times past 5 days. Ok, I gotta go to sleep to get ready to drive all rest of the day/night. Remember folks, we drive on waste vegetable oil so it's practically zero harmful emissions! :)