I’ve never been patriotic and I can’t say that I ever really felt my country to be my own. I grew up with different kinds of people, with various cultural backgrounds, using a different language compared to others around me. Still I always felt that I was accepted. The last couple of years there has been a change, a change

A show of hands. Who loves treasure hunts? Who loves good deals? Most people know about the obvious flea market rules such as bring cash, come early and do your research. These are things that will raise the odds of you finding something, but they’re not guarantees. The game has changed over the past ten years and thrifting is now

“Images have no value” Those are my words that sparked a heated discussion between my colleagues and I in a LA hotel lobby at 11pm a month ago. I said it to provoke the others to prove me wrong. In a world where digital content is sharable and free for the taking, with minor risk of getting caught, you will

Oh Anna, what a sad puppy I would be without you. A year has past since we married and what a grand year it has been. In my speech to you on our wedding day, I named three things that I value most in you – that you make me believe, that you broaden my horizon and that you make

I and my wife bought our first home together in Helsinki last year in August. I had previously been part of buying two other apartments but it was in my hometown of Vaasa where the situation is quite different from the overheated market of Helsinki. We had planned to move for close to a year and we were prepared with

Some people have been asking us about how we planned our 2009 cross America roadtrip and what to think about when driving from coast to coast, so here´s a few tips from us based on our experience. We got the idea for our roadtrip when planning a vacation to the US. Neither of us had ever been in America so

We cancelled our 69 euro / 3 months subscription to the printed edition of Helsingin Sanomat a few weeks ago and we’ve been testing the iPad version since then. It is less expensive (54 euros) and the weekend breakfast table is certainly less crowded. I have however found some drawbacks. The navigation works well and the app is reliable, but

During the first half of 2011, I will be presenting the decades 1950-2010 and its design on the Finnish morning show Min Morgon. I love these sessions and I hope people will get something out of it. The images and videos embedded here are of course the property of Cityportal and YLE but I hope that they understand the reason

Me and my wife live on about 43 sqm or 460 sqf so we have to make the most of it. When we moved to Helsinki in the autumn last year we knew we’d have only half of our original living space and so we could only bring less than half of our stuff. The space is a classic 1920′s

And so the year draws to an end. But an end is also the beginning of something new, providing a fresh start and a new perspective. For me it has always been about doing what I feel is right – right for me and right for something bigger than me. It’s as simple as this – if we strive to