I am writing a second post with this topic. The first one didn’t really answer the question, as it was from the point of view of a migrant proving that the relationship between the native spouse was genuine. Now I thought I should take an attempt to answer the question people are looking for - this is my #1 most read topic.

I have to start by saying that if you are asking that question you have a big problem. (more…)

How many times have you gotten a message of a total stranger, asking you to be their friend? The type that don’t give you any reason why you should be friends, why they want to be friends with you, or what you could build your friendship on? I get them every now and then, and they always leave me a bit baffled. I hold friendship in a very high regard. I don’t go around saying that this person and this person are my friends, just because I shook hands with them. (I am a bit more easy in English, as there isn’t a good word for a person that you like hanging out with but you don’t really really consider a real true friend. In Finnish we have a word that defines the level of friendship better.) Anyway, on the rare occasion that I have sent out these “add a friend” things (more…)

The more I look for wedding dresses and bridal gowns that would be in my alley of things, the more I realise what a huge gap there is in the wedding dress industry. For such a loved item, a dress that most girls dream about most of their young life, a piece of clothing that can be such a source of inspirational for a designer, it is unbelievably hard to find a dress that would absolutely blow your mind. I don’t want to sound like I was just one more arrogant newcomer in the area trying to bash every other designer out there, but I can’t help but be a little disappointed with a lot of the big designers out there. Even Vera Wang doesn’t cook my crumpet. I have been thinking about starting a blog just about wedding gowns, but I can’t find much to be inspired to write about - or to post a photo and say “look at this”. BUT I have found something. Let me share them with you. (more…)

I am surprised every time I get a forwarded email that is so clearly a hoax that it could have been written on it: “This is a hoax, but read the story, it’s so heart wrenching that you just HAVE TO forward.” Do you remember Bonzai-kittens? Did you know they were a hoax played by a bunch of students? Did you forward it? Did you get outraged? Chances are you did. Oh boy you are not alone. The amount of children waiting to die of cancer in your email is staggering. African presidents transferring their money out of the country and somehow they trust you to help, a random email reader. Of course, you wouldn’t want to turn your back on anyone in need, whether they walk on 4 feet or two. So how do you know it is a hoax? (more…)

Some people get attention. Some people don’t. It is the truth both online and offline. The difference between the ways we get attention online and offline is very different though. Theresa of Bumpy Path put anonymity in a whole new perspective for me, and I need to try to shed some light into what it made me think about.

Online you are fighting for links, page ranks, stumbles and what not, to get ahead, to get attention, to be seen. You need to become somebody to be noticed, to make a splash or to make some money. You are competing with everyone writing the same language as you do. It would be fairly easy to become the most successful blogger (more…)

I have made a rather late discovery in the modern Internet world. RSS feeds. I have been using them for quite a while in feeding my own content back to my site from several sources, but I haven’t really subscribed to other people’s feeds. Nowadays more or less all blogs have them though, and I finally realised and it is pretty easy way to keep track of blogs! (It shouldn’t come as a surprise really.) Nowadays I subscribe easily if I’m for example surfing through EntreCard blogs and see something I like but am not exactly up to getting deeply into it, I simply subscribe and rest assured that I won’t forget to check back later on.

In some browsers you don’t even have to look for the subscription icon from obscure places on the blog website. If you are using Firefox, you can see the subscription icon (more…)

When I was around 16 and 17, I had my first boyfriends. I know I was a bit late to the game, but I was simply too shy to attract anyone before that. I had my odd admirer, but it was never mutual, or by the time it became mutual, the other party had moved on. :p Anyway, after the two first gos, I had every right to believe that all men are pigs, but a good sport as I am, I only thought these two were pigs.

The first one was an odd looking fellow called Mika. I can share his name, because about 2 out of 10 men of his age in Finland are called Mika. Like Mika Häkkinen for example. To the life of me I could not tell you his last name, either I have forgot it or I was never told what it was. Anyway, he was an odd looking fellow. (more…)

I recently had a conversation with a good friend, who’s website is written in Comic Sans Ms. We are working on her new site, and I told her that I absolutely forbid her from using Comic Sans Ms ever again as long as she lives. She promised, but added “I don’t know what’s wrong with it though.” I’m sure she is not alone with this conundrum, seeing how often the font is used in places it has no business being used. So I’ll try to give you a few reasons.
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Last night I slept restlessly as I was having a bad migraines attack once again, and I was sweating cold sweat and had to get up for a spew once… Nights like this produce the weirdest dreams. I was for example dyeing the bed sheets in my sleep, because earlier that day I was dyeing a piece of fabric for the wedding dress I was working on. But not only was I dyeing the sheets, I was also “protecting the Finnish colors” in my own way, as the Olympics have gotten my head messed up as well. (more…)

I was watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympics for the first time in a decade probably. Something about Australia has made me slightly more interested in sports. When the little girl sang, I told my Brettels, that she’s lip syncing. To myself I wondered that how she didn’t seem to have a clue about how to produce sound, but I thought they must have told her to sing silently and young as she is, would not know how to make it look real. I haven’t done lip syncing myself, so I don’t know the procedure, but I have been singing at all sorts of functions, but certainly not the opening ceremony of Olympics, all my life… Or as long as I was still cute enough to sing. (more…)