For the last four summers, I have spent the last weekend of my summer holiday at this festival. It’s the only fesival in Finland that every year offers a line-up to make me swoon! This year the festival was held at a new location that was simply perfect for an urban, musical gathering. The old Suvilahti power plant, the buildings of which date back almost a hundred years is located close to the center of Helsinki and as I said, the surroundings couldn’t have been more fitting!

The weather was mostly fantastic, although on Friday evening the unexpected wind almost froze me to death before I managed to get some extra clothes. On Saturday my boyfriend and I found ourselves on a picture of the online version of the biggest national newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat! Luckily our backs were turned because at that moment I was so cold that my facial expression would have revealed some serious suffering although Terry Callier’s gig was extremely heart-warming. A few minutes after this picture was taken my best friend arrived with a lovely, warm shawl that saved the rest of the evening. !

There we are, me in the yellow skirt!

Other musical highlights of the weekend included Friday evening’s nice and long set from the Five Corners gang and Op:l Bastards and !!! (which was completely new for me and I liked it surprisingly much!) on Saturday. Sunday was very entertaining throughout the whole evening but the cherry on top was definetly Bebel Gilberto. Yes, now I’ve seen her live, something that I had been dreaming about for years as I really, really love her music! She was so sweet and her voice is something that totally melts my heart. And she was adorably tiny, probably no more that 155 cm tall, just like Madonna, tee-hee! I myself am also short (160 cm) and had made the mistake of wearing high-heeled wedges on Sunday, in order to see my favourite artists a little better in that huge crowd. After stading around in those shoes all day my toes were utterly crushed by he time it was Bebel’s turn. I had to take the shoes off and stay barefoot for a while, but the wedges did help because I stood on the shoes!

The buildings of the area looked particularly good in the darkenind August evening.

After three intense days of music this week has started off a little lame. Luckily I won’t be returning to work after almost 5 weeks’ absence until Thursday. (Ugh, how will that go??!) Yesterday I headed for the record shop and bought 3 records to “ease the pain” a little, the latest albums by Bebel, Air and Gotan Project. It did help, I must say!

More pictures from the Flow Festival, especially the people, here and an interesting mixtape featuring some of the artists’ music here. I’ll return soon with some jewellery and a long lost tag…

Here’s another peek at what I was up to in the country. “Washed ashore” earrings and bracelet. Personally, I must say I really like these…

Freshwater pearls, chalk turquoise, amazonite, jasper, goldstone and silver combo…

Vintage sheet music at the background, as usual. This blue beauty is from 1929.

After two weeks in the country I have now been back in Helsinki for a week. The peaceful country living was such an energy boost that I’ve decided to go back soon for one more week as my summer holiday is now continuing. During our time in Joensuu we had no internet access and maybe looked at our phones once a day. It felt so good to be disconnected for a longer period of time!

Pink clovers on the veranda.

The weather was so great that on many occasions I just rolled out my beads on the garden table and sat in the sun, making whatever came to my mind, which was extremely relaxing! I made several bracelets, necklaces and earrings that I’ve now been trying to photograph here at home. I’ll upload them on Flickr one by one during today and tomorrow before I get out of town again.

I’ve rarely used pink in my jewellery because I personally never wear it and consider it a difficult colour. No matter how romantic I am, pink has just felt too sweet and cute. But teamed up with green, yellow and orange the pinks seem to lose their “Miss Piggyness” and become much more wearable, especially on a slightly tanned summer skin. So I made two bracelets to start with…

“Morning rose” with silver foil and pressed glass, second hand Swarovski crystals,rose quartz, green aventurine,green chalk turquoise and silver flower & clasp.

“Cesar’s pink explosion” with silver foil and pressed glass, strawberry “quartz” glass, yellow jade and a silver clasp. The metal coin charm is from Barcelona.

I apologise to everyone who likes and wears pink for saying that thing about Miss Piggy. Pink is a lovely colour, it’s just not for me! In the process of making jewellery I’ve also grown to like it myself. Also, I might add that The Muppet Show is one of my huge all time favourites!