The Great Finnish Road Trip - Oulanka National Park

I'm picking right back up where I left off the other week so if you're just joining in, you might want to catch up on the previous Great Finnish Road Trip posts first! 
So, when I last left you, we were heading way north to Oulanka National Park. We had already planned to head towards Kuusamo and pick up the road into the heart of the the park itself. Covering an enormous 270 square kilometres, we opted to walk a small piece of the well-known, 80km long, Karhunkierros trail. 
We travelled down a rocky, rubble road for what seemed like eternity. Anything that wasn't strapped down tightly in the back of the camper van was now bouncing off the walls and rolling around our feet. The east of Finland is brown bear territory and over the last few miles I had taken to the internet to brush up on my bear-encounter survival skills. It's safe to say, by the time we reached the end of the bumpy road and the trail entrance, my nerves were a little frazzled. 

Sucking at Blogging!

Hello strangers, remember me? I have two defences for my partial blog abandonment. Firstly, it's been a 'big' weekend in small town Kotka - Once again it was host to the annual maritime festival, loosely translated as a large piss up in a field, a football stadium and along many of the streets. Of course, it would be rude not to get on board. I won't bore you with the details as you can read all about last year's Meripaivat festival here, but it was a busy one. My second excuse is that I've been ill. Most likely in relation to the first point but either way, I have been stuck in this perma-hangover/sickness bug state since Friday and it really isn't ideal.
In news that I'm not entirely sure how I feel about, I fly back to the UK on Thursday morning. I know I should be excited, and I sort of am, but I know that it's going to be just over five weeks of non-stop, insufferable mayhem, plus I have to leave Scott and the pigs behind, which majorly sucks. 

Deliciously Simple Chocolate Cake Recipe

Warning: Read this blog post at your own risk! I'm serious guys, I will not be held responsible if in an hours time, you're sitting knee deep in chocolate buttercream frosting and cake crumbs. 
Are we good to go?
Okay, confession time! I was having one of these, 'life crisis' moments where my thought process went something along the lines of, 'what am I doing with my life? I need a new challenge. My blog is shit. I need a new direction. What are my long term goals? Fuck it, I'm going to make a cake!' In a nutshell, my new mantra is; when in doubt, cake it out... (although I may need to tidy this up at a later date)
Scouring my cupboards, and the interweb, I stumbled across a fool-proof chocolate cake recipe and armed with my mixing bowl and a spoon, I created this...

A New Favourite From Maybelline

Move over On and On Bronze, your time in the spotlight has officially come to an end. We had a good run you and I, but there's a new kid on the block, well, new to me anyway...
65 - Pink Gold
The only introduction this gorgeous cream eye shadow needs! Don't just take my word for it, here's the snaps to go all heart-eyed over:

Mini Body Shop Haul

Okay, confession time... I have only ever owned a handful of things from The Body Shop, and most of those purchases were SO long ago that I don't even remember what they were. I'm sure that knock at the door is the blogging police coming to revoke my title. *runs and hides*
I headed into store for a browse a few weeks ago and ending up walking away with this little lot...

The Great Finnish Road Trip - Day 2

Right, I have a Lonkero in hand and I'm ready to tackle the second installment of The Great Finnish Road Trip! (You can catch up on the first part here.) When I last left you, the sun had almost set on our first evening of travel, (it barely justifies the term 'setting' at this time of year) and we had called it a night ready for the long day ahead. 
The sleep was better than expected, considering we were in a glorified van. I woke up feeling refreshed and not in the least bit inclined to strangle Scott, (as is usually the case where early mornings are involved.) After smearing my face in totally lazy make up job fashion, we set off to cover the short distance into the centre of Kuopio. 
We arrived to a bustling market square and not much of an idea of what was going on. Stalls were scattered all over the main square and there was music being played over speakers. We made our way through the crowds and set about exploring.
The first thing we stumbled across was this:

Let's Get Real

My name is Kirsty, I'm 5ft 5, I have brown hair that I'm forever wanting to shave off entirely and my eyes are blue. I'm a healthy weight; although I've always wanted to lose that, extra couple of pounds. 
My life isn't perfect.
I don't own a cat, nor are my eye brows ever on 'fleek'. I don't want to be a mermaid, or ride around on a unicorn, shitting glitter. I have a freckle in between my ring and middle finger and my lips are slightly thinner at one side. 
I have never owned a car, a house, or pushed a tiny human out of my vaj. I don't have a perfect relationship, but I love my fiance more than I could ever realistically put into words, despite the fact that he infuriates me on a regular basis. We fight, we fall out, we kiss and make up, I'm pretty sure there's a song out there to that effect.

The Holy Grail Gel Liner

I'm hitting you with a bold statement today - a holy grail product, they're not often come by but when they do find their way into your lives, all you want to do is scream from the rooftops and tell everyone to go buy it!
Today's post is probably going to be quite shouty, FYI.
So, what are we looking at? Behold the really rather boring-looking pot of Bobbi Brown's Long-Wear Gel Eyeliner in shade Black Ink. 

The Great Finnish Road Trip - Day 1

Hey guys, well here we are with part one of our EPIC Finnish road trip. There will be four installments in total, covering 2281 kilometers of prime, Finnish soil, and featuring all manner of wildlife, strange sights and an accident - oo-er! Buckle your seatbelts, (yep, I went there) and let's get this show on the road!
I'm not much of an organiser. I'm just going to put that out there. My patience levels are, at best, minimal and maps just aren't my thing. I'm female, and as stereotypical as that is, I've always found it best to leave any navigational situations to Scott. I'm not even allowed to read directions out loud as my inability to differentiate between my left and right has caused many near, 'bumps and scrapes' in our travelling history together.
But... and it's a huge, enormous, pride-bursting, but...
I took to Google maps, the world wide interwebz and alcohol, and with hardly any major breakdowns, I planned us a route:

I'm Back!

Moikka, (check out my Finnish skills) guess who's back!? My goodness, I have SO much to fill you guys in on, I'm actually quite daunted by the mammoth blogging task that lies ahead. Send tea, scratch that, send wine! 
In case you're wondering what I'm harking on about, Scott and I decided to plan a last minute, whistle-stop tour of Finland, armed with my best attempts at a route plan, a fridge full of beers and a camper van. It should have been a recipe for disaster but it was so much more than that, it was absolutely incredible!
I'm trying to contain myself and resist spilling all of the juicy details for now. There are a mountain of photographs to sift through and edit, plus I really want to take some time to make sure I do this wonderful trip justice. To keep things simple, (and to avoid a 10,000 word essay of a post *shudder*) I'm going to break things down into days. With a bit of luck and cheese on my side, I'll get the first post out tomorrow. Cross your fingers and toes.

A Day In The Life

10:00am - Wake up in the morning feeling like P.Diddy. Time an important phone call perfectly with a circling helicopter. 
10:30am - FEED ME! *rummages in cupboards* Jammy toast it is. 
10:35am - Makes cup of tea.
10:36am - Forgets about cup of tea.
10:50am - Heats cup of tea up in the microwave - classy!
11:15am - Contemplates getting dressed for 10 seconds and then opens up laptop to commence, Important Blogger Shit!
12:30pm - It's time to get dressed and enter the real world. First stop, dropping off all of my clothes at the charity shop. The woman doesn't speak any English so I just dump my clothes and leave. I may have just accidentally fly tipped.
1:00pm - Return home after the shortest, unsuccessful shopping trip. Attempt #1 to refill my wardrobe is a fail.
1:30pm - WHY HAVE I NOT EATEN LUNCH YET? Considers making something, 'proper' but settles on five pieces of wafer-thin ham, straight out of the packet. Ceeebs. 
1:45pm - RIGHT, focus! I need to get these blog posts written, but maybe just a small peek on ASOS first, ya know, to get me in, the mood. 
2:45pm - So, that was an hour wasted. Time to do some ACTUAL stuff. 
2:46pm - But first, more food!
3:00pm - Okay, I'm fed and focused. Time to be productive!
3:07pm - A note has just been posted through the door. It's in Finnish. *eye roll* Time to crack out Google Translate.
3:15pm - THIS MAKES NO SENSE!
3:17pm - Photograph the entire thing and send it over to Scott to find someone at work to translate.
4:45pm - Against all odds, I've scheduled a blog post - hooray me! 
5:15pm - Right, I need to sort something out for dinner. MUST BE HEALTHY.
5:16pm - Ooo, look, a chocolate bar!
5:17pm - Fuck it, I'm having a Galaxy Caramel for my dinner. I'm a grown up, I can do what I want!
5:50pm - Scott's home, Yay! The translated note was for a parcel. Shove him out the door to go and pick it up before the office closes at 6pm. 
6:10pm - Explain to Scott that he has to have chocolate for dinner. He suggests bagels. Yep, I'll have one of those. *Casually sneak the empty chocolate wrapper into the bin*
6:30pm - THAT'S IT, I'm going to do an apartment exercise!
6:31pm - But first I need to make soup with this forest of broccoli I decided to buy yesterday. Maybe I should have done this earlier and had this instead of chocolate and a bagel?
7:20pm - The world's largest pot of broccoli and Parmesan soup is now boxed up into individual servings and is ready to take with us on our campervan adventure tomorrow...
7:21pm -  ...which I still haven't packed for.
7:30pm - How many pairs of shoes is an acceptable number for a three day road trip? Three? Ok, cool. 
7:31pm - Packing a bikini, yano.. just in case.
8:00pm - Still packing...
8:25pm - Ralph is going ape shit with all of these rustling carrier bags. Maybe I'll just give them some cucumber... and a bit of leftover broccoli... and some of this romaine lettuce... 
8:45pm - YAY! Play time with the guinea pigs. Packing can wait.
9:30pm - URGHHHH, how do I still have so much to do. Drag Scott away from working and force him to help me pack.
10:17pm - Woah, how is it this time already? Okay, I'm going to type up our itinerary and then I'm OFF TO BED!
10:19pm - but first imma post this pic on Instagram!
10:23pm - How did I end up on Pinterest?
10:30pm - All. The. Wedding. Hair. Inspiration. 
10:35pm - Gets sidetracked by ridiculously huge wedding hairpieces. #LOLZ
10:50pm -  Okay, I NEED to type up this itinerary and then I'm definitely off to bed. 
11:30pm - This is so boring...
11:45pm - RIGHT. I'm done. Laptop is officially going away and I'm hitting the hay.
11:50pm - Just a quick scroll through Twitter...
11:56pm - Wait, wasn't I supposed to exercise tonight?
11:57pm - Fuck it, I'll do it tomorrow.
11:59pm - Officially singing out! Goodnight world!
1:00am - Why am I still awake... and on Pinterest? I hate myself!  

GOSH Xtreme Liquid Gel Eye Liner

Okay, I'm gonna 'fess up here... I'm all over the place with my blog posts at the moment. I have a backlog of posts that need writing and yet I'm spending most of my time being a total Pinterest whore and getting diddly squat done. I need a life coach, or basically a more responsible adult to come in and get my shizz organised. 
A couple of weeks ago I had a coffee date with a couple of friends and, (much to the despair of my other half) walked through the shopping centre on my way home and ended up with these beauties from GOSH:

So I'm Going To Let You In On A Bit Of A Secret

I have a genuine thing about toilets. As in, I can't actually go anywhere that I'm not 100% convinced has fully-functioning toilet facilities. Yep, officially a weirdo!
I don't really remember when it became an issue, although I'm certain being stuck in the slums of Sri Lanka, standing over a hut-covered hole in the ground, naked, with scale 10 food poisoning has something to do with it. Not my finest hour... Since then, I've had a, 'fear' of long road trips, treks in the wilderness and generally going anywhere that isn't within a set, 'safety zone!' 
The lack of sense that it makes isn't lost on me. I know it borders on being positively ridiculous, especially when I have to mentally prepare myself days in advance for trips into the unknown. Worst part is, I love to travel. I love to explore new places and without getting too carried away, I'm starting to appreciate nature walks a little more. I'm totally fine once I'm there, but sometimes getting there is half the battle. You know, when I'm making up a fuck load of unrealistic scenarios of me shitting my pants in my head. I told you... not normal over here. 
So, why am I telling you this?

Shit My Fiance Says #2

Jumping on the success of my previous Shit My Fiance Says post, I'm back again with another totes hilarious roundup of the weird and wonderful, innermost workings of the male mind... 
Why?

Because men are funny!

When your fiance's love for blue clothing goes too far...

10 Free Fonts For Bloggers

I'm kicking off the week with a freebie post - because who doesn't love a freebie, right? I know there's a whole tonne of blogging tips and tools posts out there, but fonts are pretty and so that totally justifies me throwing another one out there to add to the mix.

Without further ado... 

DIY 3-Ingredient Peppermint Tea Scrub

I've been at the old, DIY again, rustling up another super quick and easy body scrub. Last time it was a Vanilla/Cinnamon scrub. This time I opted for something a little different. I didn't have many 'scrub ingredients' in my kitchen cupboards so I kept it simple with sugar, coconut oil and peppermint tea bags. 
I was SO pleased with the results... especially as it took me only five minutes to throw together!

Life Through A Lens #7

Holy poo balls. How is it the second of July already!? My head has been firmly in the clouds this week and so unsurprisingly, I forgot to post June's Life Through A Lens post. Many apologies and slaps on the wrist... mine, not yours. Are we cool?
The sun seems to have reared its head in Finland and as a result, all I want to do is sit outside in clothes that reveal too much skin and guzzle Pimms. Now, if only there was I way I could blog about this every day... Whilst I ponder that thought, I shall leave you with June's snaps. Here's to hoping it was a good month for you all!

On Wednesdays We Wear Fur

It's Hump Day and what better way to cheer yourself up than with pictures of cute, furry animals. Don't ever say I'm not good to you! 
Hamish behaved considerably better than she did on her last photo shoot - she even played up to the camera a little but I did have to bribe her with cucumber. Ralph was his usual, carefree self... I think the photo of him sticking his little tongue out is my most favourite, ever! 
Enjoy!