We stayed.

Guess what?

We decided to stay here with the bunnies and all the happiness. It's far from some places, but sometimes far away is good. We have our own things that are close to us. There's a river, a 24-hour supermarket, fantastic foresty jogging route and a little park with a Pictish standing stone. This is our home.

It's been quite a busy week moving back and forth. I really recommend to everyone to move away or to pretend to move away if you ever feel unhappy. It really makes you appreciate your life at your current place more. Unless you actually feel happy about moving  – then you should probably just move.

But I've never been this happy before in the Bunnyland. I mean, I've been really happy living here, but I feel that I've never appreciated this place quite this much. We had some friends over for dinner on Friday, and we showed them around our house, our surroundings and even took them for a magical shopping trip to our local supermarket. It was lovely to see that they were as excited about this place as we are. They even said that they understand why we want to live this far from the university.

I'm also really excited about summer! I even managed to dry some laundry outside at the weekend. I've also been looking at garden furniture recently. It would be nice to sit and eat outside.

Laundry and dinner party weren't the only things that happened this weekend. We also went to a Moulin Rouge themed ball on Saturday. It was kind of a one-year-together celebration for us. And also a good excuse to dress up.

My home ♥

Hello!

I hope you're all doing amazing and enjoying the summer weather I've heard so much about. Apparently it's been about 30°C in Finland. It's about 9°C here and raining. That corresponds to my mood perfectly.

I've been sad recently.

We moved. I don't really feel at home at the new place. It smells funny and just doesn't feel right. It's bad. It was supposed to be everything we wanted. It's right next to university so it's perfect for Laura. And it's not even at the beach side that I dislike so much because I hate the monster seagulls and the stupid street where all the lorries drive like crazy. It's close to my bus stop so that I can get to work easily. It has a bath and our room is big enough to fit most of our stuff and our desks.

But I just don't like it and I don't know why. I miss my home. The old place. I'm there now. We still have it for a couple of weeks. This was my home. The best home I've ever had. All the bunnies and happiness are here. I'm not sure if there's anything at the new place.

But I guess while I'm weeping over the old place, I'd show you what it looks like.

Welcome to my home tour! This is the corridor. Front door on the left and the cupboard door on the right. It was a good place to hang jackets. The corridor also had the best mirror so that's where I put my make up on.

Laura wanted to have a bus ticker on the corridor wall. Instead of stealing one from our bus stop, she made one herself. She updates it sometimes with new features, the newest one being the weather. Check out a typical Scottish weather. First it's sunny, and soon it's pouring. You always have to be prepared for everything. But now I can actually know whether I need an umbrella immediately when I leave the house without needing to open the door. Or the curtains. 

I'll skip the bathroom this time, because I already showed it to you in candlelight.

This is our bedroom. You might think that you can't see all of it in this picture, but actually, this is pretty much all of it. There is a small wardrobe facing the bed, but you can see the other one on the left of the bed and the chest of drawers that you can almost open on the right. That's it, no more room for anything else but the bed. You can also see that I was feeling very interior designerish one day, and bought this bedsheets, and the matching cushion. I'm also starting to like London. One day I will tell you about all the things I have discovered I like about London.

This is our living room. It's where we do our living. It never looks this clean. Normally it's covered in laptops, sweetie wrappers and unopened letters.

This is where we watch TV. Except it's not a real TV. It's a computer screen, but we like to pretend that it's a TV. Sometimes we play Play Station games too. Also, we can never find those coasters underneath all the stuff we normally keep on the coffee table.

I also really like that shelf-thingie. I burn candles there although my safety causous mother told me not to. It's also a perfect place to keep my wine and champagne glasses. It makes me feel like a fancy sophisticated person.

Oh, and look at the kitchen!

We had a guest around once who said it was small. I never invited him over again. I don't find it small. And if I'm awake at day-time the window lets a lot of sunlight in, and it's fantastic. the cooker is very good and efficient and the washing machine works well, and there's even space for a small coffee maker. And you can fit three people in as long as all the people in there are happy to be in there. There's also a microwave and a bunny, but I already showed you them in my "decoration tips" post.

I'm really going to miss this place.

Bye bye, bunnies.  ♥

Trees and homes

Hi.

I've been doing nothing but looking for a new place to live closer to my bus route, so that I'll get more freetime and a shorter commuting time to work. Makes sense to spend my freetime worrying about that, right?

To keep myself away from the websites with flat ads, I decided to finally answer the 11 questions I was challenged to answer in Meriannen blog. I've done the full challenge before, so this time I will just answer the new questions. They were very good questions.

1. What book has meant a lot to you, and why?

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. It changed my life. I got it as a 10-year birthday present from my godmother, and it was the first Harry Potter book I ever read. It was the longest book I had ever read. I read the two previous books as well, and then waited for the next ones to get written and published. I grew up with Harry Potter, and I really do believe that my life would be completely different if I hadn't read those books. I might write a whole post about that one day when I'm brave enough to tell you the full story.

My bookself.

2. What makes a home home for you?

A home is a space where I can be myself. At home I don't have to be alone. There needs to be a sofa where I can sit down and watch Gilmore Girls and a kitchen where I can cook. At my current home, we have bunnies in the backyard and I will miss them if I end up moving somewhere where there aren't bunnies. They might not be necessary, as long as I still feel that I'm at home when I'm at home.

3. If you won in the lottery, how do you think the money would change your life?

I would probably worry less about affording things. I would be able to travel more and I would eat fancier food. My life would be more luxurious! And then I would buy houses and rent them out, so that I wouldn't have to work ever, and I could just do what I wanted to do without worrying about not having a job. It would be fantastic.

4. When you started blogging, what did you wish to achieve with your blog? Have your objectives changed since then?

When I moved to Scotland, I had a blog where I talked about my adventures here. That blog was directed to my friends in Finland. But then times changed and that blog got forgotten. 

In 2011, my flatmate moved into a caravan to look after baby ducks and started writing a blog how her water barrel is trying to grow a pet Rowan tree. I thought that it sounded cool, and wished I had something to blog about too. At the time though, I thought that nothing interesting was happening in my life. Moving to Scotland was old news and all I did was to hang around planning on my next backpacking holiday. But I thought that I'd start a blog anyway — maybe I could write about travelling sometimes. And offer valuable opinions on life. And so began my blog.

But things have changed. Of course they have. I've learned more about life and myself since 2011. Since the awful November 2012 I have tried to get back on my feet and to be happy again. During that time I've tried to use my blog as a therapy resource for myself. I had become really scared of the world and avoided speaking to people and telling them my thoughts. Raindeer Pants was a place where I could talk about things and express myself. It still is.

From Growingarowantree.blogspot.co.uk,

5. What is the best meal you can cook?

That's what Raindeer Fodder is for. Apparently so far only Spinach Pancakes. That'll do.

6. What's your dream holiday destination?

I'd love to go to Micronesia, Hawaii and New Zealand. I like my holidays far, far away.

7. Are you tidy or messy? Has it changed when you've got older?

I appear messy, but let me I assure you: I know where everything is.

8. Does your soul belong to a city or countryside?

I'm from Finland, and I miss the trees. I think as long as there are trees, it doesn't matter whether I'm in a city or in the countryside. I'll feel just as lost in treeless countryside as in a concrete, parkless city. But apart from the tree aspect I enjoy both. At the moment I prefer living in a city, but I have a feeling that when I start a family I'd like to live in a smaller town.

9. Who is your favourite actor? Why?

I really like Monni. She's awesome and inspiring. And I know a bunch of other inspiring actors too, but obviously if they don't have a blog I can't mention them here. I'm not sure if the aim of this question was to mention a Hollywood actor like Johnny Depp, but Johnny Depp doesn't really inspire me, even though I think that Jack Sparrow was the only reason Pirates of the Caribbean was so popular. He did a brilliant job with it.

But okay, if you're looking for film tips with this question, Laura and I have been watching films with Bill Nighy recently. He is a good actor.

I also really love the whole story line with Tess in Lip Service. Tess as a character is the kind of actor I can relate with. And Fiona Button is a good actor too. And very good looking. I really enjoyed watching Lip Service. They better do another season soon.

Lip Service (via Insidemediatrack.com).

10. What is the most important thing you've learned from your parents?

My dad taught me to always hold on with three sets of phalanges when climbing. I never fell down a tree.

11. Where do you hope to be in 20 years time?

At home! Where ever that will be. I hope I will be happy.

Lip Service (via Insidemediatrack.com).

Here, have another picture just to show you what I've been obsessed with recently. Also, the picture summarises actors, trees, flowers and homes. Everything I just wrote about! Perfect.

Feel free to answer the same questions in your blog if you want.

Even the fish keep swimming.

Hi!

Did you notice how silent it has been on my blog recently? There has of course been a good reason for it. 

I've started a new job. It has been very exciting. I'm so happy that I have a job now! But it has also been hard, and I've cried and I've been tired. During my work days, it's pretty much the only thing I do. I wake up, get ready, go to work, come home, eat and sleep.

I know, that for most of the living population it's normal to go to work and live a demanding life and never to have any freetime. But for a lot of people it's harder. I really hope that I will be successful in my new job, and don't end up quitting it because of stress or unhappiness or fatigue. So far in life I've learned that some things are just not worth it. Life is short, and if something is constantly making me unhappy, I'm not going to stick with it for any longer than necessary. I could always move to Thailand and start a beach cafe for tourists instead. Or to try something else.

No really, I am being serious! Once upon a time, I was going through a break-down thanks to uni stress and went travelling for a week. I then posted pictures of my trip on Facebook and got comments from an almost-stranger saying that I need to stop being so lazy and going travelling using my parents money, and instead I just need to get a job like everyone else. That person had no idea what I was going through. He didn't know that I didn't spend a penny of my parents money on my breathing break. He didn't know that I had sent hundreds of applications and not landed a job. And he didn't know how to be happy.

I want to learn how to be happy. I want to work somewhere where I enjoy working. I want to earn money and spend it on things that make me happy. I want to travel and see the world.  And I really hope that the job I have now will be one that I will enjoy.

We're also looking for a new flat closer to my work, and hopefully also closer to university, where Laura studies. At the moment it takes me 1½ hours to get to work, and I have to take two buses, which don't have a great on-time record. They've also occasionally just broken down, when I'm trying to go somewhere. So if we would find a good flat somewhere where I can just take one bus to work, I think I could live a lot more stress-free life.

I'm also dreaming of having a bath. That's probably the only thing I miss in our current flat. I love all the bunnies, central heating, living room, kitchen big enough to cook in, backyard, patio and shed... Maybe I'll do a post showing our current flat before we move out. And if we don't find a good flat at a good location, we will probably have to get a car.

How has your life been recently? Feeling the spring yet?

Eggs for Everyone!

Happy Palm Sunday Everyone!

One more week to wait before it's time to eat those chocolate eggs. I've now spent quite sometime wondering which egg I want. But it's a big decision so I thought I'd share my ponderings with you guys.

Also, if you're really into good photo quality, this post is not for you. There's no way I'd take my big camera on a shopping trip. We don't have a car, we carry all of our groceries home. With our little hands. We eat a lot. There's no space to carry a big camera. Phone is ok.

Asda has been the best place for chocolate eggs so far. They have a whole aisle full of them.

Small eggs, medium eggs, large eggs, giant eggs — they have it all!

It makes me happy when chocolate eggs make me smile. In fact, this whole aisle made me very happy!

These Thorntons eggs look pretty tasty. And definitely weird enough.

Baileys and Guinness eggs are of course also available. I'm intrigued.

Kinder Eggs have their own large versions too.

And of course the giant egg section had some serious chocolate eggs. I was so excited that I just couldn't hold my phone still.

But Lindt was the best one! Look at all the bunnies!

And they have carrots too!

And soft toys!

I can't believe Laura didn't let me have that one. I'm so gutted.

Then I went to Tesco, and they actually have giant Lindt carrots!!

Thorntorns bunnies and chicks are pretty awesome too. Can you understand why choosing the best egg is so difficult?

And, because this egg thing is probably completely... well,  foreign to Finnish people, I thought I might show you that all the chocolates have their own version.

There's Galaxy and Mars. Amusingly next to each other.

Then there's Malteasers' MaltEasters and Cadbury's Caramel and Minieggs giant eggs.

And Mars' friend collection egg with Snickers and Twix. And Wispa and Twirl eggs.

So many to choose from.

What are your chocolate thoughs this Easter?