Unikissa's blog

Chocolate cake (with dark thick creamy chocolate icing & apricot jam) and some vanilla ice cream. Happy Valentine’s everyone, a week early, but still!

I’m a broken record – I just wanted to remind you of our beautiful second hand shop! Cmon everyone! Come and visit – Harakan Taivas is just lovely, and very dear to me :)

..with a project. I’m suddenly so involved with this fun thing called Harakan Taivas, which would translate into Magpie’s Heaven beautifully. It’s a retro / second hand clothing store my friend decided to start, and wanted me to join the project…

So, for the last week or more, I’ve been painting the walls, planning the interior & doing all kinds of things related to the store itself and of course, the promotion of it. We have a blog too [click!], but it’s in Finnish – I’ll translate some of it to English at some point, but at least there are a lot of pictures of what we’re doing. In case you’re interested :)

Also, some nice news about my photography. I took part in this fun competition put up by an awesome nature photographer called Chris Weston, and ended up in the top three! But the best part of the whole thing was his commentary on my swan photo. Here’s a quote:

“In this image by Tiia Ohman, the photographer has made great use of the elements of design in order to capture a striking, graphic image of a relatively common subject. A perfect exposure has brought out in vivid detail the varying textures of the swan’s feathers, creating an almost 3-dimensional appearance to the photograph.”

“Seeing the detail, as in the Swan, is a perfect example of learning to see. A brilliant effort.”

-Chris Weston [see his website here.]

Imagine that! I think these comments are something I’ll cherish for the next few months – that is, if National Geography doesn’t call me up and ask if they can publish my photos. Ha ha ha. Maybe in a few more years… (what a dream!)

So, that’s that, all is well here, inspiration & long days..  Hope you’re all happy & well! Leave a comment before you leave!

Sometimes you just find these gems among all the crappy basic websites around. 1000 Awesome Things is an inspiring site that instantly gave me a lot of inspiration to love the small things in my life. And since they list so many (can you guess how many?), I am pretty sure everyone will find at least one they also consider awe… WAIT FOR IT! .. some.

So, check the site out over here. I only had a few minutes for it now, but I’ll be returning very soon, just to pick a few of my own favourites. But here’s the first one:

#615 When your friend makes sure you got into the house safe after dropping you off at the end of the night

My good friend Satu always does this and it never occured to me to thank her for it. So, here goes Satu: thank you, you are one of the sweetest people I know. Partially for doing small things like this for your friends.

Winter photos. Some of you might know how I feel about this time of the year, so you can imagine how much courage it took to spend 30minutes outside just to get these pictures.

The Gannet. She’s protecting to girl on her back, but the rest of the story.. you’ll just have to figure it out. This one’s for sale, too.

Me and a friend of mine are working on this big project, that will actually give me some more REAL work to do. We’re gonna start a blog about that later on, and you’ve been warned: I will promote that thing a LOT in the upcoming months! So excited!!! Wish us luck, we really need it.

Hello reader! Just a quick update – a couple of paintings I’ve been working on. They’re all for sale! If you’re interested, send me an e-mail or leave your e-address in the comments!

“Hugger Tree” & “My Voice” – Acrylic on deep edge canvas, 20cm x 20cm.

“The Crocodile Ride”: Width 90cm, height 32cm (with frame). Original china ink drawing with wooden frame, passepartout and glass.

I created a so called business page on Facebook. Now you can all show your support and become fans! The group can be found HERE.

Also, I added some items that are for sale, I’ll list them here since unikissa.com is – yes, you know the words – under construction for a while. I’m trying to come up with a new layout and translate everything to English at some point. But, here’s a few pictures of the items. If you like them and want to own them, or have someone special in mind who’d like to receive such things as christmas presents, contact me via e-mail!

So there we go. The painting’s measures and info: width 90cm, height 32cm (with frame). Original china ink drawing with wooden frame, passepartout and glass. Here’s a couple of details from it:

This winter and darkness is really making me tired. I slept for 9 hours last night, but I’m just about to fall asleep on the keyboard and get a random collection of letters pressed on my forehead. I don’t get it. I’ve tried coffee, a bit of moving around every once in a while, kept all the lights on, music loud, all that.. and still.

I think I’m a bear. I should hibernate all winter.

Or just simply fly over to California for a couple of months every winter, which I’m dreaming about every day and wondering how to do it.

Helsinki maksaa freteille 10 euron tuntipalkkaa

Freteistä eli kesyhillereistä on tullut Helsingin kaupungin työntekijöitä. Kaupunki ottaa frettejä citykanijahtiin ja maksaakin työstä. Suomen Frettiliitto pohtii paraikaa, millaisia työehtosopimuksia näätäeläimille pitäisi tehdä. Kaniongelman levitessä lemmikeille riittää kohta työtä eri puolilla Suomea.

Koko uutinen Taloussanomien sivuilla.

Guess this will only open up to my Finnish readers…

Basicly, we’ve been having this “city rabbit” problem in Helsinki. These small-ish rabbits, originated from pet rabbits (escaped or worse, freed on purpose) have been taken over the city, breeding quickly). The city of Helsinki is now considering using ferrets to sort out the problem. These tame, trained hunting ferrets would chase the rabbits out of their holes and they could then be catched and sold on to the local zoo for carnivores. The ferrets (their owners) would be paid for their work 10 euros per hour.

In this drawing the ferret is queueing to pay for new harness he’s been wanting for a long time. Hmm, explaining the joke kinda takes the fun out of it, huh?

I found a dead cat today. A big, beautiful, young, orange cat. I think he got hit by a car and somehow managed to drag himself a few meters away from the road, through some bushes and in the middle of the orange autumn leaves. Well, can’t be sure, but by the looks of it his death wasn’t peaceful. Far from it.

As I was just taking my dog to a vet to get his shots, I called them and asked what to do. They told me to bring the cat over so they could check if it had an id chip. And to get him cremated. So me and Einari, we ran back to the house to get plastic bags. As we got back, I hesitated a bit, but then tried to lift the poor dead thing very carefully. I won’t go into any nasty details, but in the end I couldn’t fit him in the bag. And since we were on foot and in a hurry to the vet, and taking the bus, I just had to leave the cat behind.

I had my camera with me, so I took a few photos just in case they’d turn out to be useful in case the owner would show up and wanted to make sure it really was their cat. But, as I uploaded the photos on my computer, I actually found them very beautiful in all their dreadfulness. They made me think about a lot of things. They made me angry and sad, and made me want to show them to this cat’s owner in case they abandoned him or just let him out in the middle of all these busy roads.

The last two options aren’t that far fetched. A couple of months ago we actually saw this same cat with C hiding near our house. I really tried to make him trust me and approach me to see if he had a collar on, but he stayed far back. I tried to convince myself he was someone’s pet from nearby and would find his way home very soon.

I was wrong. And now I’m having the worst consience ever, thinking I could’ve saved him.

So, here’s picture number one, and here’s number two. Please don’t look at them in case you get easily upset by animal cruelty.

My sister took me out and about on Sunday.. we had a few ciders and ended up at Molly’s again – no surprises there. Was fun, it was good to spend time with her after all my trips and absent weeks. I did a few silly things too and feel a bit embarrased about them now, but what am I gonna do? I’ll just have to lift my chin up high and stop worrying about what all the people in the world think about me, right?

Ugh, I wish it was that easy. Anyway.

My escaping-the-winter fever hasn’t gone away still. It’s just growing bigger and stronger, slowly taking over all my thoughts. I watch tv and see California/Miami and think about leaving. I look out the window and see the black wet streets, take the dog out and feel the cold wind on my cheeks, I think about the fact there’s still so many winter months to come, etc. etc. and all this makes me just think about leaving.

I keep wondering how to deal with this, how to stay AND go, stay home with my boys AND leave them behind at the same time. I can’t make them come with me, they’ve got lives here (as do I, but not a job so important I couldn’t leave). I’m so torn between these two things that I feel I can’t breathe. It’s just not normal anymore. I don’t want a holiday in the sun, I want a LIFE in the sun.

And for some reason I have this feeling something big is going to happen very soon. A decision, or some event that’s gonna pin me down in Finland or send me flying away to wherever I can go out without wearing three layers of clothing. I’m afraid of it, yet I can’t wait.

Oh how I hate the winter and dark. Maybe if I keep repeating these words long enough, destiny will come along and make it all better somehow.

Maybe I’ll try to get some sleep now. I slept for 3,5 hours last night and I’m still up, wondering what I could do to get myself tired. (Maybe I’m turning into a vampire. Maybe I’ll really spend the rest of my days in darkness without seeing the sun at all.)

Yeah.

– Things I have to do this week: Update a couple of sites (will do that the MINUTE I wake up!), sketch & paint a big painting for N, sleep better, spend the weekend in the countryside with my girls. Cottage tradition! Wine, sauna, autumn walks in the forest, card games & quality time. Happiness.