As so many of you asked why I don’t write my blog in English, I want to write an introduction post to you in English. As it turned out, I got a bit carried away, and I hope you like my post. It felt great to write a post with another language after such a long time.

Since I was a child taking pictures was my way to express my feelings and my life. I had my first camera when I was 11. It was my grandfather’s camera. It took me on this lovely journey to learn how to use an ‘old school’ camera in our digital world and how to develop pictures in a darkroom. I simply fell in love.

During the years, I learned how to use a digital camera. At the time I was at university, I felt I needed a space to tell my stories with my pictures and also somewhere other than a home photo album. That led me to start my blog in 2010. I fell in love again.

In the past 8 years I have written my blog inside the biggest media houses in Finland, with an Influencer Agency, and now I’m sharing my life under a Blog Agentur, Asennemedia.

My blog has always been a big part of my life. Especially the past 4 years it has become my lifestyle and a place to share and learn. The influencer business has taken large steps in Finland (and overall Nordics) during these years, and I have been fortunate to be part of the creation of this new way of making a living. I’ve learned a ton about digital and social media marketing.

I’m originally from Finland, but I have lived in France, and Luxembourg.  Currently I’m in Amsterdam with my American husband. Naturally, I share my multicultural way of living, expat-life, and the differences I see in lifestyles between the countries and people.

Besides the expat-life, cooking, and travels, I share my passion towards design and fashion on my blog. I aim to stay away from political topics. As I feel the world is currently going upside down sometimes I do share my opinions on politics and my view of the world.

How would I describe my style? Simple with sparkles. I like shiny things combined with a casual look. In that sense the French way of looking chic has always been a great match with my personal style. I have my white shirts lined up in my closet, my iconic YSL clutch (naturellement), and my pair of jeans which I combine with my ballerinas, heels, and sneakers – according to the occasion. I do have a weakness though, and that is my sunglasses and eyeglasses. I do love statement sunglasses, and in that sense, I would probably need to hop the another side of the border to Italy. Ciao Italia!

I never want to look too perfect, l rather look natural. You don’t see perfect curls or the Instagram eyebrows on me.  You see less exertion and a natural look. ­The Parisienne probably never dies in me, and I tend to put my ballerinas on even if the most practical shoes in Amsterdam would be wellies or sneakers. D’ accord – I write that down.

It’s fascinating how the place where we live changes our style. France had a strong influence on how I dressed up, and I started to use feminine dresses and heels again when I was in France. Also, the colors somehow kept on coming to my wardrobe when I was more in South of France. Now when I have lived in Amsterdam, my looks have been much more casual, and I have worn heels once in the past 2 months.

My home is VERY Scandinavian. I like my cutlery, glasses, and pans. In that sense living in Paris was a tough period for me as the living standards don’t meet easily the Scandinavian standards. I love proper kitchen, shower, and I don’t like to wake up because of my never-sleeping neighbor or the sound of a metro every morning at 5 am. Capiche?

I love to travel and experience new cultures. When I was a student, as a girl with a Jewish background, I wanted to experience a Muslim culture, and that is why I went to Malaysia to learn more about new ways of living and about myself. During my 8 months in South East Asia I lived in Kuala Lumpur, and I travelled all around the continent with a bus, trains, cars, and scooters. I was fearless at that time, and I’m glad I have done all that and made friends all around Asia. Also, some of the things I did gladly never reached my mom or grandmother.

If there is something I dislike, it is living in a bubble and not learning new things. That is why I feel so lucky I have a person with a similar mindset next to me. I could not see myself being in a one place rest of my life, but now I feel extremely happy that we live in Amsterdam.

As I have an adventurous heart, I’m constantly dreaming of new places to go. This winter, I would like to go somewhere where I could see the sun. Tulum is my dream destination. A boho-chic modern hippie destination I can’t forget – go there! The thing I liked the most about Tulum was that it’s such a unique destination with its colors, ambience, and atmosphere. I have never been in a place like it. You can always go to a 5-star hotel to feel happy, but I have never before started to cry for immediate happiness when I’ve reached my destination. You can get easily lost on how beautiful and unique everything is in Tulum and during my stay I met couple of people who just decided to leave their corporate jobs and stay in paradise. Could I do that? No, but I admire people who live their own lives and find their joie de vivre.

To me, food is an easy and cheap way to travel. I love that now when we live in Amsterdam, I have basically all the world’s kitchens outside my house. If I want Surinam, Israeli, Japanese, Vietnamese, Italian or Spanish food, all those kitchens are just a 10 min walk away from my doorstep.

So how I did I get here? My grandma wanted me to go to law school (oh thank god  I did not get in when I tried), my grandpa wanted me to have my own business (our phone conversations always ended like this: it’s not very smart to work the whole of your life to someone else), my godfather wanted me to do sales-oriented role in a multinational company (which I did), my friends wanted me to go to art school, but I wanted to do my Master’s in International Business.  I’m so glad I listened only myself. I would either be a very bored lawyer in my grey suit or a very unsuccessful artist now in Finland. This is an example how I have learned always to listen to myself and not to anyone else’s wishes when they are totally opposite my own. People tend to put labels and boxes on us because somehow through those it would be easier to manage us and see the world. Saying you are either an artist or analyst, is just something I can’t understand. Saying also that introverts are unpolite does not make any sense. Most polite people I have probably met are the introverts. They listen and when they open their mouths, the sentence what comes out is thought through more than once.

This labeling and putting people into boxes was one of the reasons why I wanted to live in a Muslim country even though I have a Jewish heritage. Luckily, I have a Finnish passport, so I could do so. With Israeli passport it would have been a no go (and sorry if I had to lie couple of times in Malaysia that I’m partly French as I don’t look Finnish at all). I don’t want to put people in a box even they would have a whatever passport, belief, or heritage. I take people as they are and I’m fortunate that I have friends whose native languages varies from Urdu to Chinese.

I could go on and on with my post, but I think I need to stop somewhere. What I have learned to this day is to be happy what I have and what I have accomplished. I have lived my own kind of life and yes, it would have been million times easier to stay in my own Finnish bubble, but I only like bubbles in my glass, not around me. The most important thing is to do something you love and surround yourself with a people who lifts you and the sprits up. In the end, it’s ourselves who are living our life not anyone else.