Posts Tagged ‘Finland’
Wednesday, March 28th, 2012
Perhaps this notebook looks familiar to you?
This is my beloved Marimekko grid notebook that I picked up in Finland a couple years ago. I talked a little about it in a recent Feedback Friday post. I mentioned that I was almost to the end of its pages and couldn’t find the same notebook anywhere online. I’ve been keeping my eyes open for alternative options. The pages are filled with notes and sketches – mostly related to running our business.
Product ideas, sketches for product design, website design and organization, and obviously many other things.
Imagine my surprise when I received this package in the mail this week. A dear reader/customer in Finland decided that she would send me a replenishment of the notebooks! Seriously, this is one of the most thoughtful gestures ever. Johanna told me that we actually met each other when David and I were visiting Finland. We stopped by a scrapbooking event (crop) that was going on while we were there, where I chatted a little with the scrapbook-loving Finns. Johanna is now in her second year of doing Project Life.
The last part of Johanna’s enclosed letter reads: If you don’t need these notebooks, feel free to share them with your readers or with your kids. I don’t mind.
Um. Are you serious? I’m so stoked to have these – and so grateful. Trust me, I’ll put these to very good use!
She continues: I just wanted to express my gratitude. Project Life has made my life a lot more stress free. Now I can preserve memories fast and scrapbook the ones I want, not all the ones I need to.
And then, with all the warm fuzzies flowing through my heart at this point – I knew that I would absolutely want to pass along the kindness … from Johanna to another dear reader. So I’m sending the blue version of this notebook to one of you. Someone will be randomly selected and announced tomorrow when I do another giveaway for something totally unrelated.
…..
1. Leave your first name, city, state/country in the comments for a chance to win this – my favorite grid paper Marimekko notebook that apparently we can’t find in the U.S.
2. Think of some way that you can share a random act of kindness with someone today.
3. Do that. And may the kindness come back around full circle – and bless you.
Tags: Finland, grid paper, kindness, marimekko, notebook
Posted in giving | 698 Comments »
Thursday, July 22nd, 2010
Yes, I am fully aware of my nerdy side. Titling blog posts isn’t my greatest strength.
Here’s another travel photography tip: Capture the WORDS where you go. This is another often-overlooked element of your experience visiting another place. Look at the signs. Notice names, titles, headlines, slang, lyrics or anything else in written form.
Taking pictures of these types of visuals will further capture your traveling experience. This applies whether you’re enjoying a staycation or traveling somewhere where the language is different than your own.
A handful of pictures from Finland … since that’s what’s fresh in our iPhoto library.
Remember looking for ANYthing with your name on it when you were a kid? So fun. Hey, if anyone needs a unique baby name idea …
Tags: Finland
Posted in photography, travel | 32 Comments »
Wednesday, July 21st, 2010
I don’t know what it is about photographing food, but I find myself staring at edible delights from behind the lens on a regular basis. Sometimes it’s to accompany a favorite recipe (for crying out-loud, I finally posted a new recipe!). Sometimes it’s to capture the essence of what our taste buds experience on special occasions.
For those of you doing Project Life, consider photographing what you eat. After all, food is part of your life story just as much as anything else. Think about it from all angles. The examples shown here are “special occasion” foods because they’re from our travels abroad this summer. But don’t overlook that bagel you have almost every morning for breakfast or Mom’s famous meatloaf that you enjoy monthly or the snack you reach for while working on the computer.
By the way, the last picture is my personal favorite. If that doesn’t tell the story of how delicious the dessert was, I don’t know what will.
Tags: Finland
Posted in food, photography, travel | 18 Comments »
Wednesday, July 7th, 2010
Tags: castle, dad, estonia, Finland, flowers, lake, sauna, trees
Posted in photography, travel | 30 Comments »
Saturday, July 3rd, 2010
Scrapbooking isn’t in every little corner of the world, of course, but it is very wide-spread and very much a passion for many, all over the world. I love that. I love that this desire to do something with our photos, record our memories, and express creativity through scrapbooking is shared with so many … in Finland, South Africa, New Zealand, Chile, Japan, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Australia …
These 3 women – Linda, Outi, and her daughter Heini – are a few of my parents’ many new friends there in Finland. They also happen to be scrapbookers. It was a pleasure to stop by their scrapbook gathering to say hi on one of the evenings while we were there.
I noticed Sanna’s comment in yesterday’s post and wanted to briefly address the concern she expressed about so many disappointed Finns not knowing that I was coming. First of all, I send big hugs. I know I would have loved meeting all of you.
You should know that I made a very thoughtful, intentional decision a few years ago to stop traveling for work. I haven’t been teaching classes, doing book signings, or making appearances since then.
That said, David and I went to Finland to experience Finland, to spend time with my parents, and to enjoy a getaway together. My reason for the brief visit to this scrapbook gathering was 100% personal. It was not about who I am or what I do or promoting my brand or selling products or any of that. It was because a few of these women and their families have become so dear to my parents over the past year. We wanted to stop by and say hi, but they kept it on the down-low because they weren’t even 100% sure if I was going to come. They were very respectful of our vacation time. I love them for that.
(I love them even more for so many other reasons. We ended up spending more time with Outi and Heini and their lovely family at their summer cottage and it was just remarkable. David and I will always be grateful for their generosity and examples of being completely lovely and inviting and genuine.)
It’s also worth noting that these ladies wanted to have a smaller, more intimate gathering. They didn’t want it to be any bigger than it was and they didn’t make any money doing this. I was so touched that they put this together purely to share their love of scrapbooking with others in the area and to create an opportunity for these women to connect on this level.
Tags: Finland, scrapbookers
Posted in scrapbooking, travel | 16 Comments »
Friday, July 2nd, 2010
You don’t know how badly I want to ship out 1500+ of that fun bag so you can each have one. But the randomly selected winner is none other than … Chrystine on Minneapolis, Minnesota! Chrystine, we are now BFFs because we have matching bags. Shoot an email to customerservice@beckyhiggins.com and we’ll ship that out to you.
These are my fantabulous parents, who of course are the reason we made our way to Finland. I love, love, love my parents. Love them.
This photo was taken in Estonia. We crossed the Gulf of Finland on one of the days and visited the beautiful city of Tallinn. I have some fun pictures from there I’ll be sharing. Here is a quick geographical overview of where these places are, in case you don’t know.
In this corner of the world, I caught on quickly to the fact that needle crafts are very, very big. Yarn is everywhere. And when I say everywhere, I mean even at the little gas station markets. Seriously … everywhere. All the color was so inspiring.
These hands belong our new friend, Outi, who was working on a new piece that she may already be wearing by now. You know that hammock/trees/lake photo below? That’s at Outi’s family’s summer cottage where we spent some time. Outi is a scrapbooker, like so many of you. We actually got to meet half of Finland’s scrapbookers. : )
More on that tomorrow.
Tags: color, crochet, estonia, Finland, map, needle craft, parents
Posted in photography, travel | 15 Comments »
Thursday, July 1st, 2010
Not every picture I want to share warrants its own blog post. But I’m sharing some random photos of a few things that inspired me on our recent trip, on facebook and twitter. You don’t have to sign up or sign in to view.
Of course I will be blogging some pictures too. Oh, and it’s not too late to leave a comment in the last post if you want to be in the drawing for that purse. I’ll announce the winner tomorrow – Friday.
Tags: amber, Finland, hammock, inspiration, necklace
Posted in photography, style & design, travel | 6 Comments »
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
I’ve always had a little piece of my heart in Finland. I didn’t know too much about the country or its residents. I could locate it on a map and spot the Finnish flag in a heartbeat. I heard the language is one of the most difficult to learn. The Winters are quite cold and long and dark. Lots of blonde hair and blue eyes. Stuff like that.
Even with little knowledge, I’ve been fond of Finland all my life and this is because my dad spent 2.5 years of his young adult life living there. I always knew he loved Finland. And because he loved it, I wanted to love it too.
And now I can confirm: I love Finland.
David and I just returned from an incredible experience there. (My blog posts from the past couple weeks were scheduled to post so I didn’t completely disappear.) We visited my parents who are currently there serving a church mission. We experienced Finland in so many ways. I have thoughts, ideas, tips, and of course photos to share. But first — I have lots of other important things to do: mainly love on my kiddos and catch up on laundry.
In the meantime, check out this bag.
So cute, right? It had me at hello. And I thought maybe one of you would like it too. So I bought two in Lahti, Finland. One for me and one for … could it be you? There’s only one way to find out. Leave your first name, city, and state in the comments. It’s a homecoming giveaway! Woo-hoo for cute bags and just-because giveaways. : )
U.S. shipping address only. I will choose someone at random and announce the winner on Friday.
Tags: bag, Finland, finnish flag, purse
Posted in style & design, travel | 1,593 Comments »
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
First of all, WOW. You guys rock. Thank you so much for sharing all the things you do to be healthy (yesterday’s post). None of us can claim to be perfectly healthy, but I love that we all focused on what we are doing right.
My Monday success: I resisted all peanut M&M temptations. (Thanks for your support.)
My Monday failure: I had a mint Oreo. And it was so good. So I had 3 more.
My Tuesday goal: Defeat the mint Oreos. I will win today. I will not focus on how yummy they are with a glass of cold milk. I won’t.
Moving on.
My parents, who some of you may remember are serving a mission in Finland, sent this picture yesterday.
Oh. My. Cold. This this was not a stand-out-in-the-snow-and-pose kind of picture. Oh no. My parents seem to walk everywhere (wonderful for their hearts!) and my dad is actually outside manually shoveling sidewalks and steps nearly every day. Love that man.
And my brother Steven sent this picture from the home front (our childhood home in Maryland). This is what my parents’ driveway looks like at the moment. Awesome.
So anyway, I am just thinking about all of you who are in the depths of “real” Winter right now. For those of you who wish you weren’t, I’m sending you a little virtual sunshine today. Some blue skies and puffy clouds, albeit pre-stormish when I took this on Sunday.
Tags: Finland, health, parents, snow, will power
Posted in holidays & seasons | 5 Comments »
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