How to Find Cool Furniture :: SEE MY ROOM!!

About a week ago I moved to Philadelphia, right. When I carried all my stuff in the room I'm renting I realized I didn't have any shelves to put any of my stuff in. There's one closet but it filled up quickly. Considering my budget, I decided to head to the nearby Ikea to buy one or two cheap, sterile and boring looking flimsy excuses of a shelf.

Philip was still here helping me move in and we got into the van. He remembered seeing something by the side of the road earlier. It was pouring rain but after just driving two or three blocks, he spotted it. Three perfectly awesome, antique and beautiful pieces of furniture, left there for the garbage truck to pick up. We got out in the rain, got soaked, and scored all the furniture I needed for my room. So. Thank you to Whomever is in charge of this arrangement. Thank you Philip and Lex for carrying it all upstairs to my room.

In short, here is how to find cool furniture:

1. Keep your eyes open.

2. Get lucky.

3. Have someone help you carry it.

4. Say 'thank you'.

5. :)

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Here are some, ahem, stylishly grainy pictures of my nest.

Fairy Dolls

Check out these adorable fairy dolls I found at Fairy Studio Kallies! Ok guys I don't know about you but the next thing I'm going to do is google 'polymer clay'. What is that stuff. I want to make fairies too!! 
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Aren't they cool?! The Avatar one is so cute. I'm just sitting here fairying away, having a cold and fever, went to a hooping picnic today at Suomenlinna Island in Helsinki with Noora, Riika, Nelli, Kaisu, Salla, Daisy and whoever else came by, it was super nice and the weather was warm. Tomorrow I'll be in Helsinki again, at the Valtteri Flee Market, selling millions of used clothes, jewelry, hoops and such. Hopefully I'll completely recover overnight. Much love everyone ❤

Fairylicious Paintings by Josephine Wall

I just found the most beautiful, fairylicious paintings ever. Josephine Wall was born in the UK in 1947 and has painted since her childhood. Along with an extensive online gallery with tons of pics, she has some really good things to say on her website too:
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"Artists have been given a fabulous gift, but with it come great responsibilities. We have the chance to change the world by portraying images of how life could be and how it should be. No message is more powerful or has more impact than an image created by an artist driven by a desire to preserve all that is good in our world, and to vanquish all that is against nature. Yet another theme dear to my heart is to include a message encouraging conservation, as I wish that mankind would do everything possible to protect our precious and beautiful planet, and heal the damage we have already inflicted."
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"My main concerns are pollution and de-forestation. I wish that man would no longer be ruled by greed, but just enjoy the simple things of life – most of which are free. We seem to be living in a throwaway world where skill and craftsmanship are undervalued."
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"Why do artists nearly all have a great passion for, and appreciation of, Nature? I believe it is due to their sensitivity and ability to observe more closely and be open to act as a channel for the energy of Mother Earth."
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You can also get her paintings as wallpapers! Just go here. As I've been putting this post together and drinking my morning tea, going through all Josephine's pictures, I must say I'm pretty fairied out at this point -- which is excellent considering my plan for this Friday night! Kaisu and me are going to downtown Helsinki to create a fun little dimension of hooping and poi, with music blasting from a speaker, and basically do some serious hilarious street performing. I'll let you know how it goes!
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Which painting is your favorite of all these? Two that strike me the most are the sixth one, The Spirit of Flight, and the second to last one Aurora (painting the dawn). Yesterday we just talked about this with Kaisu while looking at the sunset sky -- how the Creator is the greatest artist with perfectly beautiful and eccentric eye for colors :) I like what that says about Him.

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!

The Fairiest Nature Art You'll Ever See

Sally J. Smith makes most magical nature art. I first saw photos of her fairy houses in a calendar on my friend's kitchen wall. In her blog Sally describes how one day she had 45 minutes free time after running her errands. She decided to go out in the freezing upstate NY evening and make some art with ice,

"Sometimes you only have a few free moments... the important thing is, what are we going to do with those moments?"

Here are more pictures of her creations. 

Jupiter, Venus and the New Moon in a stem planetcatcher :) 

After looking at these I feel super inspired to go out to a forest or park and DO SOMETHING! Something pretty and heartfelt! And play like a kid! Don't you feel it too?!

Fairies in the Sunset ::: Fairy Quotes

Beautiful natuRe MaGik faeries from Finland, Ella and Jonsu, in the sunset!

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"I think that people who can't believe in fairies 

aren't worth knowing." Tori Amos

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"Nothing can be truer than fairy wisdom. 

It is as true as sunbeams." Douglas Jerrold

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"Fairies are invisible and inaudible like angels.

But their magic sparkles in nature." Lynn Holland

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"Hand in hand, with fairy grace, will we sing, 

and bless this place." William Shakespeare

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"So I believe in everything until it's disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it's in your mind. Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now?" John Lennon

"If you want your children to be brilliant, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be geniuses, read them more fairy tales." Albert Einstein

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"Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale." Hans Christian Andersen

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.