World through Sunflower Eyes

One can never have too many birthday cakes... nor too many guests in the house. The best way to spend your birthday is to be surrounded with your friends and loved ones. For a Leo woman that is the best birthday present one can give - your time! <3 This year, I ended up baking myself delicious gluten-free tiramisu in layer cake form to accompany a ready-made sacher cake. I made two different versions, one based on the traditional Italian tiramisu. But since some do not like the mix of Amaretto liquor and coffee so much, I used Italian chocolate liquor spiced up with peperoncino for the other one - tasted amazing with such rich flavors! Truly worth trying. To make it look like a cake, I made a normal fluffy cake layer with cocoa powder as the bottom layer. For the following layers I used the gluten-free ladyfingers, aka Savoiardi. All the layers are soaked with the rich liquor-coffee syrup. To the filling, I added some extra flavor by adding dulce de lech...

First of all, finally on holiday mode and it feels awesome! <3 It has not all been roses though, you know that feeling when someone gives you a kick in the butt and wants to teach you a lesson? Wow, I just experienced that. If you ever run across such people, I strongly advice you to hold on to these people in your life, they are the ones that make you grow and are worth gold.  For once, I have no ready made plans for my holiday, it will be four weeks of totally impulsive decisions this time and it feels liberating. Living in the moment. Breathing. :) The world is made of systemic relationships so what better way to understand them than through traveling, meeting new people and cultures. It also allows you to strengthen your existing relationships if you travel with a friend, family member or a loved one. Trust me - traveling is a good way to test your relationship! I have been blessed with so many travels already in my life. So if you ask me, there ...

Nature and sport activities are a good combination to clear your mind and notice how you are just a small part of the ecosystem. You must always try to look at things on a slightly larger scale - realize that everything you are feeling or is happening right now is not necessarily the truth, and things are constantly changing. This long Easter weekend has been a perfect occasion for that. Another great source of energy is time spent with your friends and family. Instead of heading to a restaurant, cooking together can be so much fun. Have you ever tried to enjoy Fazer's Mignon eggs melted? And if you are not familiar with this Finnish Easter delight, you have certainly missed something. It is not an ordinary chocolate egg but a real eggshell filled with delicious almond-hazelnut nougat. For melting the egg, place it in the oven of 80 degrees of Celsius for about 15 minutes. Once the eggshell starts literally sweating, the filling has ...

My goddaughter Melissa usually calls me the coolest and wildest godmother. :D There may be many reasons for it but I think it is for the many (crazy?) ideas and interests that we share. We share same kind of views on many issues and we are also both passionate about dancing and traveling - so it has created a special bond between us. It is not all roses though; we have also had our differences, but it has just grown us closer. My goddaughter Melissa is a great source of energy and happiness for me - whenever I feel a bit down, just hanging around with her or talking to her brightens up my day enormously. We both have a same kind of sense of humor, so usually we end up laughing until our stomach hurts. This happens quite often, like when our names get spelled Sirta and Felisa in Athens. For me, being a godmother means making time for being together. Being the fun and cool godmother. Experiencing things together, traveling if possible. If you ask me, there is no better gift...

On Wednesday I spent some quality time with my dear friend. We did not have anything planned, we decided spontaneously to hook up after work and enjoy some Nepalese cuisine. Since we both like to eat Nepalese food from time to time, it has become in a way a tradition to enjoy it once we meet. Since we both love to spice up our outfits with vintage and second hand items, we also headed to check out a local second hand store Relove in Helsinki. I ended up finding two pairs of shoes, both Spanish design. My friend found really cool gradient dyed grey jeans. To finish off our evening, we had a refreshing walk in the chilly winter weather of Helsinki enjoying the brilliant light installations of Lux Helsinki . The streets, buildings and squares were illuminated with the festival lights. Especially the installation of Helsinki Cathedral looked spectacular. The mixture of real lights and projections was simply a magical experience. Yet, the best t...