SUP?

So my trip to New York was awesome. But everything's fine now, I'm fully recovered. Take a good look at the picture below and remember one thing: don't ever travel without a health insurance.

SUPER STORM.

Howdedoo, I'm in New York City. We are having great weather tonight, a super storm they named Sandy. You propably all heard about it by now. We went for a walk a few hours ago, the wind is insane. Trees have fallen down on every street on Upper East Side, and we even saw some traffic lights and street signs blown down by the gusts. This must be one of the most exciting and scary things that happened to me. The situation seems quite serious now, so no more walks tonight. My trip has been quite eventful so far, I was in an accident a couple weeks ago and still have a bit of a black eye and have to wear a neck brace. But the doctors say I will be fine in a week or so. Let's hope this storm passes quick and doesn't do too much damage in the city. Stay safe if you're in New York or anywhere else affected by the storm!

ROSIE.

I've recently gone bonkers about lingerie. I've been waiting for my sub-consious to replace my very unpractical shoe addiction with a lust for things that weigh significantly less in the suitcase, maybe this is it! :D I love the vintage inspired collection Rosie Huntington-Whiteley designed for Marks&Spencer. The machine washable silk blend material feels so luxurious! Today I got the dark rose red and light taupe colored sets pictured above. After I got home and spent a while trying on my new underwear, I had to go online and order a high waisted knicker and a suspender. I just realized that the old ratty sweat pants and holey t-shirt I sleep in are not very attractive, so maybe I will also have to get some lovely sleep wear from Rosie's collection. It's all available online at www.marksandspencer.com, so shop away! :)

CLAY & LATEX.

Look at this insane and amazing beauty shoot we did for Wonderland magazine in London! I had clay in my hair and latex body paint on my skin, plus all possible colors painted or sprinkled on my face. I think with that dark bushy eye brow I look so much like my gorgeous brother! Photo by Bjarne Jonasson, make-up by Kelly Cornwell.

You can imagine how confused I was when I arrived to the studio and saw all those bottles of paint and spray cans and the latex paint. It was really funny to have the clay in my hair and in the end it took 3 hair dryers to set it in time for us to finish all the pictures. I have to say it was a weird sensation ripping the latex body paint off my skin, it was like waxing my whole neck and decolletage. People actually wear that stuff to parties and such! In the last picture you can see how glamorous I was looking after we finished the shoot :D I have to say that was one of the nicest photo shoots I've ever had, it was so much fun!

OM NOM NOM.

When ever I'm in London and need some special groceries that I use everyday, like cooking oil or spices, I shop at Planet Organic near Goodge Street tube station. My favorite treats are raw kale chips, raw dried rhubarb and Green & Black's Organic white chocolate, I munch on them almost every day! Usually I eat oatmeal for breakfast, but some mornings I'm not that hungry so I make a shake of hemp protein powder and coconut milk and grab a small box of blueberries to snack on before lunch. I'm absolutely crazy about coconut, I drink Vitacoco almost everyday and use coconut oil for everything from cooking to skin and hair care. I guess I've gone quite nuts about everything organic and all natural, yesterday I bought all natural cigarettes :D I don't really smoke anymore but we had a big night so I allowed myself to get a pack for the party. I really believe it makes a difference if you use organic products, especially us women get so much extra toxins in our bodies from make-up and hair products, and think about what a strain hormonal birth control is to our livers. I'm not that fuzzy about everything being organic when I eat out, but I hope next week I will have time to check out a new organic vegan restaurant in Soho, I've heard their lunch is amazing. If you know any good restaurants for organic food in London leave me a comment! :)

IT WON'T LET GO.

Year after year this gives me goose bumps. Love!

EARGASMIC.

I love The Black Keys. I saw them live at Flow festival in Helsinki. Pity they could only play for an hour, no time for their older stuff. But we had so much fun my sister carrying me piggy back for Tighten Up and Lonely Boy. I wish every week end could be so great.

FEELING FREE.

So I've spent most of the summer in London, and it's been so amazing and so much fun. I got to go to Finland for two weeks at the beginning of the month and also was lucky enough to get booked for work trips to Nice and Venice earlier in the summer. I've been trying to focus on myself here and find out what I really like and want to do. That might sound weird, but I had sort of a crisis in the spring. I realized I have had a very low self esteem as long as I can remember, and I've always been afraid of what other people think of me. Also I've been trying to please other people to the point that for example I didn't know if I liked a genre of music because of myself or because a boyfriend or an old friend was really into it and I wanted to seem cool to them. Deep down I do know that it doesn't matter what other people think as long as I'm happy and feel free and can live with my decisions and deeds. So I've come to the conclusion that I am awesome. And anybody who thinks differently is wrong. As long as I have good intensions and positive energy towards others, I am allowed to be of the opinion that I am awesome.

I've found out some of my true passions here too. I really, really love bikram yoga. I'm dreaming of doing the bikram yoga teacher training, if I happen to have free time and extra money before I go to uni. I first started with bikram in 2006 but only recently I've begun to really enjoy it and not just do it because "I need to work out". And maybe the lack of proper Finnish saunas in the UK has been driving me to the heated studios too! Another thing I love is dancing. My favorite style is waacking, it sounds and even looks a bit funny but I just love it so much. My arms and shoulders hurt from practicing and I'm really no good at it, but the music makes me feel sooooo good. Sometimes I go to hip hop classes too, but the fun in that really depends on the personal style and taste of music of the teacher. Some hip hop dance teachers can play Chris Brown and others 90's rap, take a guess which one I prefer...

On top of the yoga and dancing I'm obsessed with nutrition. It all started last year in New York, I spent the summer there and realized how horrible and unnatural the basic food ingredients and groceries are there. One day I accidentally bought a bottle of organic milk and it said something along the lines of "no antibiotics, no steroids, no added sugar or sweetener". That really made me wonder what it was about and I started looking into the matter. I found out that basically the standard beef and dairy comes from cows raised by feeding them antibiotics and steroids and who knows what horrific substances to make them grow fast and bigger. And all that crap ends up in us humans when we consume beef and dairy products. And the same applied to basically everything sold at the big supermarkets. Eggs, vegetables, fruit, everything. I got so freaked out by it, it got to the point that when I was in New York for three months earlier this year I spent propably a few thousand dollars in groceries alone because I just couldn't eat anything that wasn't organic or all natural. I mainly shopped at Whole Foods at Union Square and dragged my groceries all the way to Greenpoint, Brooklyn from there. Now I eat fish or chicken maybe twice a week, red meat even less and keep opting for plant based organic food. I've learned a lot more about good nutrition from friends and books, and my only motivation to eat healthy is not anymore the fear or the toxicity of American food products. London is quite easy for my kind of diet, there's Pret and Pod and such for the take-away lunches, a good variety of organic products in most super markets, a few Whole Foods- stores and even some all organic grocery stores like Planet Organic.

I've also managed to make some goals and aims for myself. I want to study and go to university, so that will be the next thing I do after modeling. I can't wait to have a more settled down, regular life and be able to make plans and have a home. I really, really enjoy what I do now but I don't see myself doing it full-time at the age of 40, so I see no harm in planning ahead ;) I'm dreaming of studying at Christ Church College of the University of Oxford, now all I need to do is win the lottery to afford to study there (tuition £9 000 per year plus board and lodging etc... we are looking at about 30 000 euros a year)! Maybe a more realistic option would be a university in Helsinki or Stockholm, at least it would be fairly affordable to study there. I haven't really even decided the course or major I want to take but I'm investigating all possible options. If all else fails I can always return to the university in my home town of Jyväskylä and finish my chemistry degree, or just keep on working on my online courses for communications at the Open University of Helsinki.

Well, that's a lot of babble for a Friday evening. I'm not really in the mood for going out, so I will just read and sleep early. I haven't been sleeping enough the past week, I can't wait to crawl under my blankets and NOT have to turn on the alarm clock :)

OLD LOVE MADE NEW.

CRAVING.

NEED A CHANGE.

Hi ya'll. I went to get a body composition measuring. You know the thing where they check how much of your body mass is muscle, fat, liquids etc. Well, I think I've had a very disturbed image of my own body for years. My body type was "underweight strong body", which means that my body fat content was extremely low but the muscle content normal. My weight was a bit lower than recommended. All the measurements are compared to WHO recommendations for healthy women of the same age and height. The results suggest that I've been basically underfed for years and that the fat mass around my intestines would be very low and it could cause health problems in the future if I don't change my diet. I'm kind of confused. Looking in the mirror I always thought that I should exercize more, get more toned and skinnier and burn fat. But to my surprise, my body fat percent was so low that the measuring programme suggested adding about 7 kilos of fat mass to my body to achieve healthy body composition. I totally believe all that, I haven't been feeling very good or healthy in a long time...

I'm going to ask my good friend Essi to help me out and make me a meal plan that has some sense and helps me eat healthier. She was my room mate in New York for almost 3 months and I've already learned a lot about good nutrition from her. Now she started actually studying the subject and writes a nice blog. Check it out here, maybe you guys will learn something valuable and start eating healthier and taking better care of your bodies. I really need to make a change, and I'm going to start today. Oh and by the way, I'm going to quit smoking. Right now, for good.

SPRING MOODS.

I had a nice shooting last week for Finnish Elle magazine. Our photographer was the multi-talented Sanna Saastamoinen, who totally charmed me with her down-to-earth eccentricism and enthusiasm. It was really nice to work with emotions and a story instead of the fierce attitude and strong poses that have been "in vogue" lately. I'd known most of the crew for some years already, I love working in Finland because it never really feels like work. More like hanging out with friends doing some fun art project or something.

We had a cloudy, windy day and of course the location was a beach. We went to Vuosaari, I can't get over how romantic the scene was. I'm definitely going back there when it's warm enough to hang out in a bikini. We heard some crazy gun firing from the near by army base, it was a bit scary at first since the earth was really shaking and it took us a while to figure out what was going on.

I was supposed to be in London right now, but I had to cancel my trip... So I'm just enjoying the Finnish summer beginning and hanging out with friends. The weather has been amazing. My sister is coming back from Latvia tomorrow, I've missed her so much. I hope the sun and warmth is making you all as happy and refreshed and relaxed as me. The winter was so horrible, even in Tokyo and New York where I spent the most of if. Sorry for being such a bad blogger lately. Just feels like I been having more important things to do ;) Maybe I'm getting a little bit happy again.

MADRID.

We had a crazy photo shoot in a beautiful hotel in Madrid. The styling was mostly lingerie and I had some pictures together with a guy model. At first the mood was kind of awkward, but luckily the photographer was the funniest and smartest guy I met in a long time, he got us some red wine and after a couple glasses and his hilarious jokes the whole crew relaxed and we ended up having such a good time and great pictures. Madrid is a nice city but I have to say I prefer Barcelona as place to work, I think Barca is much more international. But Madrid got me in the right mood for my next destination, Paris. More about that later...

TIME TO SWEAT.

I'm going to do some excercise soon with my fitness instructor ;) He introduced me to this kettle bell training, it's fun and he got me a pink bell :) I'm in Finland, been here for a week now and i'm really enjoying being home again. Although Paris and Madrid were nice too. Gonna write about that soon. Now it's time to sweat!

HOME SWEET HOME.

 Me and my sister enjoying our favorite past time together: making faces and taking pictures of our selves. Love!

 Okay the title of this post might be a bit distracting, since I don't really have an actual place I call home. I consider home to be where ever the most important people in my life are living, and most of them are residing in Finland at the moment. Currently my official address is at my dad's in Vantaa, he lives outside the city of Helsinki and very close to the airport which is convenient for my current life style. Despite not having a physical place to call home, it is sweet to be home, with the people I love most. I've spent the last week with my family and some of my best friends, in Helsinki, in my home town Jyväskylä and up north in the country side at my grandma's. It feels really good to be in Finland. I'm kinda tired of traveling right now, after a long trip I always need some time to get grounded again and enjoy the familiarity and order of Finland.

Btw, I noticed this weird display at the railway station of my home town today. It's propably been there forever but I've never really paid attention to it before. It has a stuffed magpie, squirrel and rabbit and it says "Welcome to Jyväskylä". Jyväskylä means "grain village", I think all this gives you an idea of what kind of a place is in question!

ROOF TOP TERRACE.

Sun shine for my last days in New York. How about that view from our terrace? You really get into that NY state of mind looking at the Manhattan sky line every morning. I bought those Ray-Ban Wayfarers from LA, I missed the ones I left home so much I thought another pair never hurts haha. 

LEAVING THE CITY AGAIN.

 Flatiron Building, NYC.

 Bel Air, LA.

 Hermosa Beach, LA.

 Universal Studios, LA.

Tracy Reese showroom, NYC.

 Williamsburgh Bridge, NYC.

 Carnegie Hall, NYC. 

 Julia & Essi @ Madison Square Garden, NYC.

How wonderful it's been to spend the last few months in New York and LA! For the first time in my life I got to share an apartment with a good friend, which was a billion times nicer than just having to live with random girls i've never met before in a crowded models' apartment. Thank you Essi for being the best room mate! This time I was also lucky enough to get to hang out with people who do different things than I normally do in NY. For example I got to see a Knicks game at Madison Square Garden and attend the wonderful Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra performing Sibelius' symphonies concert in Carnegie Hall.  I'm returning to Finland for a couple of weeks to celebrate my dad's 50th birthday, and after that next stop will propably be London. I'm flying out tomorrow, can't wait to get home and meet all my family at my father's birthday party :)

THAT'S WHY WE WANT NEO SOUL, NO ROCK 'N' ROLL.

Tämä video sisältää alastomuutta. / This video contains nudity.

BYE MATSURI.

Kurjuuksien kurjuus, kuulin että japanilainen ravintola Matsuri suljetaan pian! Tällä lafkalla on minulle erityinen merkitys, kävin Matsurissa ihka ensimmäisellä Nycin reissullani vuonna 2005, ja maistoin siellä elämäni ensimmäisen kerran sushia. Siihen aikaan japanilainen ruoka ei ollut vielä iso juttu Jyväskylässä. Illallistimme siellä ystävieni kanssa keskiviikkona ja Matsuri on mielestäni vieläkin yksi New Yorkin parhaimpia sushi-mestoja. Joten kiiren vilkkaa murkinalle jos olette kaupungissa! Huhun mukaan Tao Group osti Matsurin, se ei välttämättä ole pahin mahdollinen asia, sillä kaikkien aikojen lempiravintolani on 58th Streetin Tao. Odotan mielenkiinnolla, mitä Matsurin paikalle tulee.


Ahhhh I just heard Matsuri is closing down in a couple weeks! How tragic, I went there already on my very first trip to NY in 2005, and it's the place where I first tried sushi since at that time Japanese food wasn't yet a big thing in Finland. I had dinner there with some friends last Wednesday and I think it's still the best sushi place in New York. So if you're in town this is your last chance to try it! Apparently the Tao group is taking over, which might not be too bad since the 58th Street Tao is actually my favourite restaurant ever. We'll see what they turn Matsuri into, let's hope it's good.

TIMBS.

Kyllä, ostin jo 7 paria uusia kenkiä vajaan kahden kuukauden aikana ja lupasin itselleni etten hanki yksiäkään lisää. Mutta nämä ovat korkeakorkoiset Timberlandit. Muita selityksiä ei kaivata.

Yes I did already buy 7 new pairs of shoes in two months and I promised myself not to get more. But these are Timberlands with a high heel. 'Nuff said.

STUDY GROUP BK STYLE.

Kun koulutehtävät tuntuvat ylivoimaisen tylsiltä ja motivaatio on hukassa, juustotarjotin ja
 punaviini muuntavat kuivan opiskelusession hieman hienommaksi tapahtumaksi. This is how we do it!

When school stuff is dead boring and motivation completely lost, a nice cheese tray and red wine will help transform your dry study session into a more glamorous event. This is how we do it!

HOLLYWOOD BLD.

Losissa tuntui, että näin rantakauden ulkopuolella täytyi oikein keksimällä keksiä vapaapäiviksi näkemistä ja tekemistä. Koska minulla ei ollut käytössäni autoa, olin lähinnä metroliikenteen ulottuvuuden varassa enkä siis päässyt esimerkiksi kivoimpiin ostoskeskuksiin The Groveen ja Beverly Centeriin kuin kerran. Onneksi juna kulki kuitenkin Hollywood Boulevardille, jolta löytyy Walk Of Famen lisäksi esimerkiksi Kodak Theater, jossa Orcar -gaala järjestettiin.

Osuin paikalle sopivasti juuri kun juhlallisuuksia oli alettu järjestellä, ja kuuluisa Academy Awardsien punainen mattokin oli aseteltu osittain paikoilleen. Olisi ollut hauskaa olla kaupungissa gaalan aikaan, mutta sain kuitenkin luvan lentää takaisin Nyciin jo viime viikon torstaina, joten en voinut vastustaa kiusausta palata takaisin Isoon Omenaan. Kuulin, että yksi Losin kämppiksistäni pääsi saattamaan Boratia gaalassa, aikamoinen mallikeikka :D



What is a girl to do in city like LA without a car when it's not even beach season? I had to take the subway everywhere i could, which means I couldn't really see that many places since the public transport in LA sucks. Luckily Hollywood Boulevard and the Walk Of Fame and Kodak theater were reachable by train and on the day I went there I caught a glimpse of the preparations for the Oscars. They'd even put some of THE red carpet in place already. I got permission to fly back to NY last week thursday so unfortunately I missed the academy Awards buzz in LA, but I just couldn't resist the urge to return to the Big Apple. Hee hee I heard one of my room mates got booked for Borat's escort for the gala, what an awesome modeling gig :D

EXCUSE ME MR. NORTHMAN, CAN I PLAY SOOKIE FOR A NIGHT?

Stalkkeri ja uhrinsa.  / Stalker and her prey.

Valkosuklaasuihkulähde ja dippailtavat mansikat. / White chocolate fountain and strawberries.

Olin Losissa Chateau Marmontin pre-Oscar bileissä viime viikolla. Kaikki Sookie Stackhouse -kirjat lukeneena ja True Blood -sarjan fanina stalkkasin Alexander Skargårdia niin kauan, että pääsin herran kanssa yhteiskuvaan. Taisin ilmaisen shampanjan rohkaisemana stalkata vähän myös Josh Hartnettia ja Owen Wilsonia :D Yhdestä huoneesta oli loihdittu "jälkiruokakamari", joka oli täynnä uskomattomia herkkuja. En ollut koskaan ennen nähnyt suklaasuihkulähdettä, siitä riitti iloa moneksi toviksi. Sellaiset juhlat...

I was at the Chateau Marmont pre-Oscar party last week in L.A. Being the ultimate Sookie Stackhouse novel and True Blood tv-series fan, I was stalking Alexander Skargård until I got a picture with him. And fueled by free champagne maybe I was stalking also Josh Hartnett and Owen Wilson a bit :D One room had been transformed into a "dessert chamber" that was full of amazing sweet stuff. I'd never seen a chocolate fountain before, it kept me quite occupied for a while. One of those parties...

SNEAKY.

Melody Ehsani lyö hynttyyt yhteen Reebokin kanssa, ja Vibe-lehden verkkohaastattelun mukaan luvassa olisi neitosen suunnittelemaa sneakeria. En malta odottaa, kenkien pitäisi tulla myyntiin alkukesästä. Tätä odotellessa voimme shoppailla osoitteessa http://www.melodyehsani.com/.


Miss Friggin' Awesome, that's Melody Ehsani of course, is doing a sneaker collab with Reebok. Can't wait to see what they come up with! It's planned to drop some time mid year. Mean while shop at http://www.melodyehsani.com/.