Plans, plans... And Valentine's day!

For starters, I would really like to thank everyone who voted our photo on Desucon’s Välähdys- posing competition! And again big thanks to AG, who is responsible of all the photos from Lumiere and Cogsworth. I hope we bump into you at the convention photo booth in future cons!

"--You pompous parrafin-headed pea-brain!" "En garde, you overgrown pocket watch!"

Even if we finally got a proper winter here in Finland, our thoughts are already wandering towards summer. Our convention plans are still wide open, but we hope we are able to attend as many as we can. We have planned to roll pretty much with our old costumes, like Yoshimitsu and Ivy. Wearing them again also would give us a boost to polish and work on the details, with which we had to take short cuts last year. Desucon’s quest of honor might finally force us to re-do Sasori and Deidara. Also we could finally do a proper construction post starring Sasori’s body, because we have had questions about it through the years.

Old costumes aren’t the only ones swirling in our heads. We have sketched a pair cosplay from Star Wars, lolita-Transformers mash-up (to satisfy Yoki and her little Transformers addiction) and what else. In my closet there is still some costumes waiting to be finished, yet I dream of doing more, like Sophie from Howl's Moving Castle.

Next to sewing costumes that I wasn't meant to, I also might do something very different; compete alone. Lately I’ve been thinking about attending to the EuroCosplay preliminaries in June. The idea is a bit weird, performing on my own and all, but Yoki promised to be my best supporter. We'll see what happens! Cosplayer's plans are... well, cosplayer's plans. You can't really write them in stone.

Oh yeah, Finnish people! Lappeenrannan ja Kouvolan Eurokankaissa on muuttomyynti, kankaista -20% ja rullan loput -50%. Valikoimaa on jonkin verran rajattu; esimerkiksi suurin osa peruspuuvilloista ja -trikoista on siirretty syrjään muuttoa odottamaan. Lappeenrannassa osa puuvilla- ja satiinikanteista on myös alennuksessa, sekä kasa riemunkirjavia vetoketjuja.

Last but not least:

Happy Valentine's day for all the humans~

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

My Teenage Poetry Project with a Hooping Omen

I was going through my old stuff here in Finland and found an old high school poetry project, along with some photos and drawings. This is the cover of my poem collection, it just says "Poems", and a few nostalgic pics I came across:

I made the poems in the following pic by circling out cool words and phrases in our math book, to form a poem when you read only the circled words of one page. Needless to say my math grades were incredibly low, if I happened to pass the courses at all. But my Finnish class was consistently A+, LOL!

Do you see that cosmic love hooper in the middle?!?! Now this was very early 2000's, I was 17 or something here, and had never even heard of hoopdance, what to speak of seeing it. What an omen! Maybe I should make this my hooping logo or something? :)

A more recent funny little thing I wrote:

"Hoop like no one's watching,

Hoop right from the heart.

Twirl and spin! Without, within!

Hoop from star to star!"

Jouhikko Chanting

I arrived in Finland this morning. I haven't slept in 32 hours now, it's 10pm and I'm wide awake... Jetlag issues... Anyhow, we were just hanging out and singing with my sister Kaisu. She's a self-taught jouhikko player and she made the kantele below at the Rainbow Gathering this summer. (Jouhikko and kantele are both ancient Finnish string instruments.) She just took a piece of wood and carved that beautiful, functioning piece of art out of it.

Also she painted the painting on the wall. She's pretty handy wouldn't you say? Enjoy the video, we had a lot of fun chanting, I just recorded a part of it.

Suddenly I Found Myself at a Rave in Utah

I was driving in downtown Salt Lake City, heading to the next day’s Warped Tour venue. It was 11pm, P. was fast asleep in the back of the van, and I was a bit drowsy. I was supposed to stay awake until early morning, just to keep up with my schedule of nightly driving despite our day (night) off. Then I heard the loud bass of electric music coming from a building and saw tens of kids dressed in total raver gear in front of this place called Club Sound. Fluffy legwarmers, neon clothes, fishnet stockings, super high heels, corsets, blinking light jewelry, golden bikinis, crazy make up and all that. 

I parked the van nearby, ran over and asked some guys what’s happening. They said it’s a rave, Darude and some others are playing, 30 bucks to get in. I started talking with these guys, who turned out to be the staff there, told them we’re in the city on the Warped Tour, we do non-profit work and distribute eastern philosophy & spirituality books during the daily shows. I told them I would love to come in since I have to stay awake anyhow, and, low and behold, Darude is from Finland like me and this is an utter funny coincidence that he’s playing here tonight!

They then proceeded to totally hook me up and (ssshh, don’t tell anyone) let me in for free. Before I went in, however, I ran back to the van and put on my butterfly shirt and super colorful pair of hair falls, these ones:

Needless to say, I danced my brains out, which I like to do every now and then. I really don’t know what it is that attracts me so much about trance, and psytrance specifically, but I just love dancing to it and falling to a total blissful state of expression. I didn’t bring my hoop to the party - I probably could have hooped on stage. They had many little dressed butt wiggler chicks on the stage, doing their thang.

I got a chance to talk with Darude as well, in the fairy language of Finnish, which I don’t get to speak too often here in the US at all. He was very kind in person and put on a really good show - he had written signs that he showed from behind the DJ desk during his set. I’ve never seen this type of connecting with the audience at an electronic music event before. He had signs saying “Hello again!”, asking “OK?”, referring to the tracks he was playing (and of course the crowd went nuts screaming “Yeahhh..”), and a bunch more, including one with a big heart he drew on it. Loved the set of the gentleman who played after him, didn't catch his name though.

Hey, if you like to read my ramblings, please do become a follower on that thingy on the right, and you won’t miss out on any of my posts. Take care, Hare Krishna, much love!