FRIDAY I'M IN LOVE week 42 - a gratitude list

It was all about Tribal Fusion dancing:

Kaira Tribe: Smokey Taboo

Deb Rubin's workshops

Mr T and me at Finnish Burlesque Gala

FRIDAY I'M IN LOVE week 39 - a gratitude list

We attended four workshops by Manca Pavli (Slovenia) in Turku. Wow, she really did kick our asses, in a very positive and constructive way. So much new information, new revelations, and pretty sore muscles, just how I like it! We also performed at What the Fu****!? show there with my flapper sister Ane.

Manca Pavli instructing me with the right dance posture

Ane and me and "Booty Swing", choreography by our teacher Laura Luna

Me and Ane, wearing flapper-ish beaded headdresses and bead belts by me.

Me, Manca Pavli and Ane after the show

The clicking of zils, sparkling beads and sore muscles, 

Tiitta

FRIDAY I'M IN LOVE - week 37 a gratitude list

(these are SO late, I'm sorry for all who've been wondering where I am. I've been in the busy-land again)

This week was all about rehearsing for an upcoming Tribal Fusion show, making beadwork and arranging a happening with our Animal Welfare Association where about 20 cats were neutered and got microchips.

Dancing, dancing, dancing

I'm making headdresses for a Tribal Fusion show

Two kitties asleep, waiting to be neutered.
Cats sleep with their eyes open when they're sedated, it looks freaky

Dark chocolate kisses, 

Tiitta

FRIDAY I'M IN LOVE week 35 and 36 - a gratitude list

Friday I'm in love is my gratitude list.

I had a flu (AGAIN!) so this is a bit late.


I'm grateful for...

• My Love
• Our cats
• Dance
• Our Home
• Crocheting
• Birds
• Silver Moonstone Ring
• Beadwork
• My brothers
• My cousins
• Kaori shells
• Bronze nail polish
• Friends
• Licorice Tea
• Sewing
• Star Wars
• Spicy Noodles
• Henna hairdye
• Being healthy
• New shoes that are pretty AND practical
• My job
• Busy-ness of autumn
• Feeling important
• Making Things Happen

Beastie Boys, bananas and sunshine,

Tiitta

KAIRA TRIBE: Allure

Ane, Eeva, Laura Luna, me, Hanna
photo by Asko Rantanen

back: Hanna, Laura Luna, Ane
front: Eeva and me
photo by Asko Rantanen

FRIDAY I'M IN LOVE week 30 - a gratitude list

Friday I'm in Love is my weekly gratitude list


I'm grateful for...

• Real Life, you know, the one (gasp) outside the mighty Internet. As great as the World Wide Web is, it's the real things "out there" that are more important. LIFE, that's in pages of a book, deep conversations with friends, having lunch in that adorable thai place just around the corner, your godmother's 60th birthday, long bike rides with your loved one, your stabilo pens and your journal, cats' purring, dance classes.. 

my daily planner, notebook, stabilos and make-up

Our kitten-to-be, here 7 weeks old, in my arms. Photo by Tuukka Ahonen

Us as sailors, inspired by the Tall Ship Races Helsinki 2013. Photo by Tuukka Ahonen

Me as a tribal princess. Photo by Tuukka Ahonen

Us at my godmother's 60th birthday cruise. Photo by Petteri Pasanen.

The sound of a skateboard on the street, warm summer nights and the scent of coconut,

Tiitta

         

FRIDAY I'M IN LOVE weeks 24, 25 and 26 - a gratitude list

I've been on a vacation and thus I've neglected this blog. Sorry! I love you all the same!

I'm grateful for...

• Summer. A real, proper, hot, sunny summer. With mosquito bites, unintentional sunburns, sweaty dance practices, nightless nights, time off from work, just lazying around, eating watermelon all day.
  
  

  

  enjoying the sunshine at my family's cottage 

  
  
• Watermelon. I'm obsessed with it. Here in Finland you can get decent ones only in the summer. 
• Dance. I attended a wonderful Tribal Summer Camp two weeks ago, it organised by my teacher Laura Luna. 6 workshops with teachers from Estonia: Jaana Hansman (Yahna) and Sweden: Pernilla Sund and Gita Vinlander. Oh how much fun and hard work there was! Brainwork too! I'm glad my Yogi tea gave me a good advice beforehand: LET EVERYONE BE BETTER THAN YOU. There was also a show called Underground Cabaret, with a lot of performers, including the teachers and our very own Kaira Tribe. 

  

  Ane, me and Laura Luna
  photo by Mintti Raassina

  (I only have this photo yet, hopefully there'll be more!) I can't wait for the Tribal Fusion classes to begin after the summer break! Luckily my other teacher Alli Ruth has the American Cabaret Bellydance and Drill, Strech and Tone classes going during the summer. Yesterday at the AMCAB class we practiced balancing cups of water on our heads and in our hands. Fun! 
• Midsummer at my family's cottage. I love it there, but it's such a long way away and nearly impossible to go to without a car (which we don't have). This year we went with my cousin and my godmother. The weather was perfect, lots of great food was had and white wine was cold. We visited our grandma and grandpa's grave and just WERE. It was needed, though I'm not very good at it, you know, just being. I relax by doing, so my "just being" is reading, crocheting, drawing, practicing my zils, etc. 

  

  my family's cottage

  
  

  

  lake Huuhtjärvi at our family's cottage

• Reading. I'm used to being a real bookworm but for the past few years my reading has been really slow, just a few books per year. (Though I listen to tens and tens of audio books per year, but it's different than reading). I haven't been able to concentrate at all. It's been troubling me a lot. But now it seems I'm getting my reading zest back. I couldn't be happier about it! Books <3

Watermelon, red bling and the letters of the alphabet, 

Tiitta

FRIDAY I'M IN LOVE week 22 - a gratitude list

Friday I'm in love is my weekly gratitude list.

I'm grateful for..

receiving woolly socks from my ballet teacher as an award for having good extension in my foot :) 

nice things said to me this week: that I'm cute today -and everyday, that I have a really nice way of dancing, the accents are so visible and that my idea was good. It's sometimes a bit difficult to receive compliments but I try to say thank you instead of putting myself down (you know "oh this, it's nothing really").

getting things done at Home, we've been so busy that our Home is maybe 60% "done", things finding their places, putting pictures on the wall etc. 

summer holiday being just around the corner!

Seurasaari, Helsinki

FRIDAY I'M IN LOVE week 11- a gratitude list

Friday I'm in love is my weekly gratitude list

I'm grateful for...

• Most of all, this week, I'm grateful for not being ill anymore. I caught a nasty bug and was ill from Saturday to Thursday, missing six dance classes, four days of work and my appetite. 
• Nevertheless, dance! Last weekend I attended four bellydance workshops in Tallinn, by the amazing dancer April Rose (USA) and tried my best to absorb all I could despite being ill already. And on Saturday night we went to Infusion Show to watch bellydancers, tribalistas, ATS dancers etc perform, oh my how beautiful shows! I was quite dizzy and probably had fever so I wasn't very sociable but I enjoyed it tremendously. 
• Things working out so greatly for my Love as well.
• Having such amazing work projects.

Bunny tracks in snow, hot ginger tea and belly-rolls,

Tiitta

FRIDAY I'M IN LOVE week 10 - a gratitude list

Friday I'm in love is my weekly gratitude list.

I'm grateful for...

• Dance, dance, dance. This week there's a lot of it.
• Things going smoothly, even the ones that felt like they might not go too smoothly.
• Believing in Good Things.
• New (used) furniture for the new Home.
• NYX's "Slide on, glide on, stay on & definitely a turn on waterproof, extreme shine eye liner (this eye liner is so good the name had to be this long!)" eye liners. Cruelty free and superb! I'm in love! I already have four different shades.
• All the good things yet to manifest.

Exotic turquoise drink, winks and the sound of a kitty snoring,

Tiitta

SAVAGE GIRLS by Asko Rantanen

Asko Rantanen made a great poster of us (I'm the one in the middle in case you don't know)

FRIDAY I'M IN LOVE week 7 - a gratitude list

Friday I'm in Love is my weekly gratitude list


I'm grateful for:

• My weight-loss efforts starting to show (other people are noticing).
• Sore muscles from dancing.
• Making plans and sticking with them.
• My brothers.
• Quotes, I'm very much motivated by good quotes.
• Green tea.
• My black parka coat.
• Trying to see the beauty in each and every one, even those who annoy you to bits; they are the most valuable teachers

Green tea, fake eyelashes and the sound of a sewing machine, 

Tiitta

FRIDAY I'M IN LOVE week 6 - a gratitude list

Friday I'm in love is my weekly gratitude list


I'm grateful for...

• Getting Things Done.
• Spending time with Friends (happens too rarely in this busy, busy world).
• Being so very much in Love.
• Living quite an exciting life.
• Having healthy teeth (annual dentist check-up done).
• Seeing my Thoughts becoming Things.
• Urban Decay's Cannonball waterproof mascara.
• Abundance. What a great word. It even has Dance in it, how can it not be an awesome thing!

 Day 37 of my Project 365; me in my dear Friend Tinker Bell's leotard and shoes, for a television shoot.


red lips, warm woolly caps and the sound of furious scribbling,

Tiitta

FRIDAY I'M IN LOVE week 5 - a gratitude list

Friday I'm in love is my weekly gratitude list

photo from the almighty world wide web.

I'm grateful for...

• Blueberries. True superfood.
• Having so much DANCE in my life.
• Being healthy enough to dance.
• My kitties.
• My Love for constant support.
• Old-fashioned letter-writing.
• Lady Gaga; her music makes me want to sing out loud, everywhere. And dance.
• Nuts. I'm nuts about nuts. Pecan, macadamia, almonds <3
• My new tattoo, made by Jenni @ Bound Tattoo, Helsinki. (she's made pretty much all my tattoos)
• For all the great things yet to happen.

the biggest spirals on the chest are new and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them.

Green glass, purple velvet and the sound of a great soup bubbling,

Tiitta

JUST DANCE

photo by me