Happy New Year

The theme of 2014 was "selfie" so let's close the year with one. Happy New Year darlings! Let 2015 bring us beautiful memories, health, wealth, success, love, light and happiness! 

We wish you a Merry Christmas

St. Lucia

Isn't it odd that Catholics who believe in all kinds of saints don't celebrate St. Lucia's day? To me it is an essential part of the season leading up to Christmas, and has been a beautiful tradition since my childhood. St. Lucia's day is celebrated on the winter solstice, which is the shortest day of the year, and Lucia brings the light with her candle crown. The Finnish Church of New York organizes a St. Lucia procession at the Christmas Carols, which fell on the actual St. Lucia's day this year. My daughters love to participate, and last year my oldest had the honor to be the Lucia girl. This year my two smaller daughters were in the procession, proud to walk down the isle of the beautiful St. John's church in the West Village. I've seen this procession so many times, and still get teary-eyed every time. 

WILD

Yesterday I was feeling really down, stressed out and upset due to some work related issues and changes taking place. I was feeling really unappreciated, disappointed and angry.



But then I went to see a movie with a girlfriend. And boy was it the right movie for my frame of mind. It put my problems into a totally different perspective. It actually worked so well that I felt strangely happy and strong all day today, despite the issues at work.



So if you're feeling down and unappreciated, go see Wild. Heck, go see it anyway. And when you do, let me know if it had the same effect on you as it had on me.

My New Market Bag

My mom came to spend Christmas with us and brought with her many quintessentially Finnish things, one of them this "market basket" made out of old coffee packaging, hand made by an old friend. I felt very trashionista cool wearing this to the super market. 

Bookworm

I'm way behind sharing what I've been reading lately. This is the first installment: 

#GIRLBOSS
Sophia Amoruso is the founder of online clothing store Nasty Gal, which grew from a small Ebay shop where she sold vintage clothing, to a $100 million grossing online clothing megastore in less than 10 years. So since I had been toying with the idea of opening a re-sale high end clothing boutique (I even had a name for it - Second Act), I was interested in her story. And quite a story it is. From rags to riches, literally! The book is a very quick read, and it's obviously targeted to a much younger crowd, so it was a bit annoying at spots, but it has an important message: be yourself, develop a unique point of view, don't be afraid to work hard, grow, learn and tackle things you've never done before, but don't lose the uniqueness in the process. 

Metsästäjät 

This was a thriller. I picked it up last summer when I was visiting Finland because I wanted to read more in Finnish, and it was written by a Scandinavian author (with a Finnish first name!). Not sure if it was a poor translation from Danish to Finnish,but the language felt a bit off. Other than that, the story was interesting, about rich and evil boarding school students who got away with murder, became successful society figures and businessmen, but their past is finally catching up. Not perhaps one of the best books I've read, but entertaining enough.

The Red Coat

I've never been that much into red in my wardrobe. Most all the red things I've had went unworn. But there is always the exception to the rule. My exception is this red coat. It's ancient Burberry, but the classic style never goes out of fashion, and the quality has held up well. 

Lately I've been wearing it with my hat, blanket scarf and over-the-knee boots/rain boots, and Prada bag. 

The Gridlock Season

It's here for sure. The traffic is literally gridlocked in the NY region during the Holiday season. The demonstrations don't help, although I very much agree with demonstrating against police brutality, and neither does the visit of the royal couple, or the rain. Life gets figuratively gridlocked, evidenced by some mishaps that take place when there is just too much to do and remember. Overload! The sweet reward of the Christmas break will be here soon enough and in the meanwhile I just have to remember to breathe and enjoy the season, mishaps and all...

Here are some insta shots from last weekend.

Rain and traffic gridlock 

Saks Fifth Avenue winter wonderland. So pretty, and mostly empty on a Sunday night.

When there's too much traffic to be picky about restaurants you may end up in some interesting places. This pastrami sandwich at Katz's Deli was delish though! 

My Essence

Last week I participated in a very unusual leadership workshop. Unusual because the coach did not make us do the Myers-Briggs or any other of the usual leadership skill evaluation stuff, but asked a set of very different questions, designed to drill down to our "soul's essence", or your deepest personality traits. As part of the exercises we had to call people and ask two questions: "What shows up when I do?" and "What qualities do I bring to the room?". Based on these, and other questions we asked ourselves, my essence came down to these five items: 

Confidence

Positive Energy

Trustworthiness

Attentiveness

Loyalty

 

I was a bit surprised but I think these qualities describe me quite well. 

Have you ever done anything like this? And if so, what did you think of the results? 

Blue and Green

Here's an outfit I recycled from a Thanksgiving weekend dinner at my sister-in-law's to an office outfit for a long day at the office followed with a work dinner and an evening event. I'm wearing my Black Friday purchases: a Tory Burch skirt and a Giorgio Brato shearling bag. Sorry about the terrible lighting quality of these pictures! 

Black Friday

I don't know if it was a food hangover from the Thansgiving dinner or what but I woke up feeling miserable today. Thank god for medication, because I had promised to take my daughter out for Black Friday shopping, and my sister-in-law had invited us for dinner. I put together an outfit to carry me through both activities, combining some old and new favorites, and the over-the-knee boots that officially broke my shopping strike... 

Kirna Zabete tunic top, Lulu Bravo cashmere cardigan, Costco tights, and Target boots. 

The outer layer was my new Aerie scarf and my old fur west, with Fendi bag. 

Happy Thanksgiving

I have so much to be thankful for, and I do count my blessings every day, not just on Thanksgiving. I love the Thanksgiving holiday, and it's a big deal in our house.  Here's our menu (not including a few chef's specials!) Happy Thanksgiving! 

 

The Night Before Thanksgiving

The house is clean, groceries purchased, and the turkey is brining in the fridge. We are ready for the marathon cooking session, the long dinner and the resulting food coma tomorrow. 

My self imposed shopping strike was breached today. I had to go to the mall for some jazz dance shoes for my daughter, but then one thing led to another, and I came back with a scarf and a couple of other little things. I've seen these plaid scarves on some blogs and on Pinterest and have been salivating after one. So when I found this one at Aerie today, I had to buy it... 

It was the perfect thing to keep me warm this cold and rainy night on our movie outing. (We saw the Hunger Games: Mockingjay movie.) I paired my plaid scarf with my Barbour jacket, BR jeans, and melissa rain booties. This scarf is like a security blanket. A new favorite, most likely. 

The Right Focus

I love the Holiday season, but it can get a bit stressful. So in this holiday season I will try to slow down and remember that the right focus is everything. It is the key to happiness and peace of mind. Here's my memory aid: 

Focus less on what you've acquired and more on what you've accomplished. 

Focus less on what you own, and more on those you love. 

Focus less on how to impress, and more on how to be kind. 

Focus less on what you know, and more on what you can learn. 

Focus less on what you have to do, and more on what you want to do. 

There's still a lot of wood to be chopped before year end, but I'm hoping with the right focus I'll stay sane. 

The Tween Birthday

My tween wanted to celebrate her 12th birthday by taking friends out for dinner. Choosing the restaurant was not an easy task, but she finally settled on Bar Frites, which is one of our favorite restaurants close to home. It was a good choice - the staff was very nice with the tween customers and  they enjoyed dining out on their own (even though we sat with the little girls on a table near by). As we were leaving, another group arrived, a dozen girls, around 15 or 16 year old, in their high heels and little dresses, to celebrate another birthday. So I guess that is the thing to do from here on end... It is interesting to be a mother of a tween. My daughter is literally teetering between the childhood and teenage years. Sometimes anxious about peer pressure, and curious about adult things, and sometimes happy playing tag on the playground. I hope she never loses the child in her totally... 

Favorite Outfit

The fall 2014 favorite outfit was this one consisting of the BR sweater, worn with a Missoni scarf, Alexis Bittar necklace, H&M jeans and Ecote boots.

The Black Mask

It's delightful and a little terrifying to be a mother of a tween.. You get little glimpses of how it's going to be when she turns teen, but it's not fully there yet. I've forgotten to post the birthday pictures. Maybe I'll get around to it now that I realized they're missing. Anyway, I spent one night last week with these two serious super heroes who couldn't smile because the mask would have come off. Luckily the rest of the sleepover was not this serious. Just serious girl stuff with Project Runway All Stars and Master Chef Jr. on the telly...

Omega Block

Last year it was the polar vortex, this year is the Omega Block, but whatever you call it, the result is the same. It's getting cold. Since I don't feel like breaking out my heavy guns yet, I'm trying to come up with ideas for layering. I copied a great layering idea yesterday from the "Beverly Like Hills" blog (I found her blog somewhere where she was labeled as "Fashion over Forty" and even though I'm not crazy about these types of labels, I love her style and have been following her blog for a little while. I guess in the blogosphere where most fashion blogs are published by twenty-somethings, these labels come handy). Anyway, she combined a leather jacket with a cape. So I decided to layer my leather jacket with a poncho and it was a super warm and comfy combination.

Michael Kors Jacket and Poncho, Banana Republic jeans, Fendi bag and Madden Girl shoes. All old from my closet. 

Better Late than Never

Oops, life happened and I never had a chance to post these Halloween pictures. It's almost too late now, but since this blog serves partly as my photo diary, here goes...