M is for meaningful words

I have seen this nice meme in many blogs and decided to give it a chance too. Villapeikko gave me an M, so here are some meaningful words that begin with it.

Mom

My mom is a very important person to me. We are alike in many things, and not in the bad sense. Even though I live far a way from her and my other relatives, they are an important part of my life, and always will be, wherever I am.

Mummi

Mummi is how we call our granny in Finnish. Mummi is 92 years old and still lives alone, knits socks, crochets curtains and cooks and bakes for everyone. And she so witty – she can probably invent something clever to say to someone more quickly than I do (I blame my birth place – in my region people are known to be slow, and where she comes from people are known to be very quick, witty and funny).

México

México (pronounce it as in Spanish!) is so many things to me. It’s my second home country, no doubt about it, and my actual home. México means the possibility to be with the man I love and do what I want right now: my research. I don’t know if I will stay here for the rest of my life – but I know that I’m very happy with my life here now. I have learnt to love the country, its rich culture, its nature, its smells and colourss and all its variety, and the people too, generally so friendly and nice. I have learnt lots of things and the country has changed me (I think for the good more than for the bad). Of course there are lots of problems too. The poverty, the corruption, the violence, the insecurity, the racism and other kinds of discrimination… Sometimes reading the newspapers seems more like reading a novel of Kafka rather than reading the news. There are many things I can’t understand and many things I wish were different and will hopefully change some day. I could rant about the Mexican politics for a loooong time (which I’m not supposed to do in public, though, thanks to the Constitution that states that foreigners can’t take part in politics).

Milky Way

I love astronomy and cosmology. The space has interested me since I was a little girl. If I was a little better in maths, I might be studying astronomy. Not that I couldn’t study it now – I could, and would probably be OK in it. But as astronomy is a passion, I don’t want to be just OK or good in it. I would have to be excellent. So I never even tried to study it, and prefer to have this interest as a hobby. I’m still always looking at the sky, and could spend hours watching the stars, moon and planets and Milky Way. By the way, I think the Finnish word for Milky Way, Linnunrata (Birds’ way or route) is much more beautiful than the English version.

Memory

My doctoral research is about social memory. My thesis is about how past human rights abuses are remembered and treated in Chile and in Mexico. I still love my theme after working with it in my Master's thesis too, so I guess it was a good choice. Sometimes it can be really hard to read about all those awful human rights violations (even when committed in the past), but it helps to remember how important the theme is.

Mother Nature

The nature has always been very important to me. I need to get in the forest every once in a while. I think that's one of the toughest things for me in living in one of the biggest cities in the world - I can't get to wander in the nature as much as I would love to. Luckily there are some forests even in the city, and besides Mexico City is greener than you would think. (The picture is from Finland.)

Making things

I could get crafts in this list after all, ha! I love making things: knitting, making jewelry, drawing, painting... but also cooking and baking. And I would love to learn to make more things with my own hands - wood and metal work are something I want to learn someday. Actually, if I just could, I would make almost everything myself. In my family handmade things have always been valued. Maybe that's why I was very impressed when boyfriend first time said that someday he would like to construct his own house.

Morning light

I love the soft light in the summer mornings in Finland, right after the sunrise (Not that I see it a lot, but anyway). The light in general is very important to me and I can get a bit blue or depressed if there’s not enough light in my home. I always have the curtains open during the day to be able to have daylight in the room and to watch the sky. I love to observe the different tones of light at different times of the day and in different places. I can still remember the light in Chilean Patagonia. It was as if the sky was closer to the Earth there, as if you could touch the sky if you reached a bit more, as if the light was raining down…

Miles

I love travelling. My parents always took us children with them to their trips to Europe, and I guess my travel bug is from them… Travelling and getting to know new places is fun. And you don’t even have to travel very far; sometimes a travel in your own city can be an adventure. I also like travelling in the bus or in the train. Watching the scenery that passes by can sometimes be even better than getting to the destiny. I like flying too, even though it’s not at all ecological. But at the moment it would be impossible to travel to months in a ship just to see my family once in a while.

I could write about other M words too, like moral, mediocrity, and meanignful job, but I think my list is long enough as it is. Who knows if anyone gets even this far...

Aaaaand the winner is...

Thanks for the comments, everyone! I found many new blogs I'll be visiting again. The winner of the contest was drawn with a traditional method (sorry for the blurry pics, it was a bit dark already when I took them):

Rachel O, send me an e-mail to colibridreams[at]gmail.com and leave me your address so I can send the painting for you when it's ready. Tell me also if you want your turtle to be natural coloured or if I make it with your favorite colours.

Just because it's a good day and I got an idea for a polar bear yarn painting, purple-power is going to get hers too! So, send me your address and a small painting might appear (no wishes for this one though, I have the idea very clear already - but it will include your favorite colour too).

I can't tell yet when you will get the paintings, as I still have some (ok, quite a lot) Christmas knitting to do. But I'll try to make and send them soon.

And Perttu (my dear brother), if you really want a yarn painting, I'll make you one... some day. But probably not with Eero in it.

For all those who didn't win this time, you can always check other contests... Alpaca Farmgirl is having many give-aways, including giving away this beautiful yarn. You can win other things too.

One year and one day - a blog contest!

I have been writing this blog for one year and one day now. (Yes, I did notice my blog birthday already yesterday, but was just too busy to even think about writing!) It's a quite long time, and has passed so quickly. That's why want to have a little contest to celebrate the ocasion. Just leave a comment in this post and tell me your favorite animal and colour. I'll make a little yarn painting (about 12 cm x 12 cm) for the winner of his/her favorite animal. You'll have until next Monday to participate! (You can leave a comment in English, Spanish or Finnish.)

These last weeks have been very busy with the studies. I have made various presentations and the University, written essays and tried to advance in my researh too. Of one presentation I'm particularly proud of: a short afro dance show my dance group made. Yes, you read correctly. I have been taking an afro dance class this semester and I love it. But when the teacher told us we had the chance to make a public presentation, I had my doubts. I'm not really that good at sports, so my first thought was: "Me, dancing afro in public??? No way!" Especially because our group is very small, so every one really would stand out.

But then I thought again. It was a great challenge. I don't feel shy speaking in public about my research, but even the idea of dancing in public made me nervous. So I decided I had to do it, just to overcome my fears. It wouldn't really matter if I would look stupid or if I couldn't keep up the correct rythm. I would do it or myself.

And so I was one of the six persons of my group dancing in public. I'm so happy I did it! We weren't perfect, but I think no one noticed our little mistakes, because we were so happy and had lots of energy. At least we got lots of aplauses. I felt really good afrterwards, even though I think those were the quickest 4:30 minutes of my life (the presentation seemed to pass so quickly that I was almost disapointed when we had to stop dancing).

Featured!

I have been featured in Etsy Blog en Español! Emma makes interesting interviews of Etsy artists in her blog. I'm very happy that I got the chance to be featured! Emma has also her own Etsy shop with some very nice things, be sure to check it.

A while ago, I got this recognition from Juanita, but I just haven't had time to blog about it earlier.

The rules are these:

1. Choose 5 blogs that you estimate because of their creativeness, images and/or interesting content.

2. Every prize is personal and when you give it, you have to mention the name of the blog and put a link to it.
3. The receiver puts the logo of the prize in his/her blog.

4. The logo should be linked to the direction of the blog where you received the prize.

5. The receiver puts the rules in his/her blog.

There are lots of creative blogs-I read, so this isn't easy... But well, here are my choices this time:

-Liivia
- Savilintu

- Paperiaarre

- Kesäkumpu

- Hitaat kiireet

Finally, here's a picture of some jewelry I send to Finland. If you're interested, my Mom is selling these (and many others) in Tampere.

Well, back to study now. We have a long weekend here in Mexico, but no fiesta for me, I'm spending some quality time with my thesis.

Shocked

I wanted to write about the Day of the Dead Celebrations here in Mexico, but I'm too shocked and it really doesn't seem apropiate right now.

Yesterday, while I was waiting for the first results on the presidential elections of the U.S., suddenly there were thes extra news on an airplane accident. The small plane that carried the Mexican Secretary of the Interior and some other civil cervants had crashed in the street in the center of the Mexico City. The people in the plane died immediately and the were other victims - at least 5 - that had been on the street. And at least 40 persons got injured, as there was a huge fire. Luckily the plane didn't crash into any of the high buildings there are near, the damages could have been even worse.

The accident happened only about 30 metres from the Finnish Embassy. Yesterday I still thought "Well, at least no one should have been in the Embassy that late". But I just heard that a a Finnish friend was just leaving the building when the plane crashed and she's now in hospital. I really hope she gets well soon.

Day of the Dead Treasure hunt!!!

The Mexico street team in Etsy is back! To celebrate the Day of the Dead, we decided to organize a Treasure Hunt tomorrow, 1st of November. Here's how it works:

The shops that participate in the hunt will hide the following image in one of their listings:

You task is to find the image in these shops:

http://www.alexca.etsy.com/

http://www.caracarmina.etsy.com/

http://www.colibridreams.etsy.com/

http://www.justinejustine.etsy.com/

http://www.kismetcreations.etsy.com/

http://www.nahuatlv.etsy.com/

http://www.panoptica.etsy.com/

The image will hidden in the shops on Saturday, November 1st and you have until November 2nd to find it in all the shops. To win, you have to submit either the listing IDs of the items or the item links where you found the picture. You should send this information to mexicoteam on Etsy.

The winner is the one who finds all of the images in the stores. If more than one person finds all the images, we will make a draw to determine the winner.

Why bother? This is your chance to win something nice and handmade! Each team member will mark one of her listings as "Reserved for the winner of the Day of the Dead Treasure Hunt". When the winner is announced, he/she can pick any of those listings by any team member, but just one. The winner will shop for the item on etsy, but does not pay since the prize will be delivered to his/her home all free of charge.

So here's the thing in nutshell:

1. On Saturday 1st of November, check all the stores mentioned in the list and find the listings with the skull image.

2. Send the information to Mexicoteam and wait until we tell who the winner is.

3. If you are the winner, pick your prize and shop for it!!

You have to be registered in Etsy in order to participate. Joining is free and easy! Check this link, if you want to participate but aren't Etsy member yet.

And finally, here are some yarn paintings I made for the Day of the Dead.

A lovely birthday surprise

Last Friday was my 27th birthday, and my dear boyfriend decided to surprise me with a trip. On Friday we went to a restaurant and he told me we would stay the weekend in his house, so I would have to take some clothes with me. I had imagined that we would do something on Saturday, as boyfriend had insisted on that it wasn't a good day for a birthday party. Still I was happily surprised when he woke me up early in the morning for a weekend trip.

Whole trip he managed to keep it secret where we were going. It was excited to sit in the car and watch the beautiful scenes without having a slightest idea where we would end up. After three and half hours we arrived to our destination, Chignahuapan. Actually we didn't stay in the town itself, but in Aguas Termales de Chignahuapan, a hotel and spa with hot springs, which is outside of the town, in the mountains.

The place was lovely! The hotel lies in a small canyon, between the green mountains and beside a foaming river. It's quite isolated, which is only nice for a relaxing stay. And relaxing it was - the swimming in the thermal waters is just lovely. The best thing is that in the hotel rooms you have your own hot spring bath. Perfect for couples!

There are also some activities there. On Sunday we went to a nature walk in the mountains. The scenery is just spectacular!

On Sunday we also visited the town of Chignahuapan. It's nice and colourfull little place.

You can find lots of pottery there - and Christmas decorations. It was kind of funny to see the whole town full of Christmas spheres, some of them about 40 cm. Even though they were really beautiful, I only bought this clay pot. It's handmade, but it cost almost nothing. I love cooking, so it will be something useful!

I'm so happy after this weekend I'm still kind of floating in the air. This a was perfect birthday! Beautiful place, tranquility, walking in the woods, good food, relaxing in the hot springs, a romantic weekend... and all this with my loved one. What else can you ask for? I really really love that man!