Brief in English

Thanks to the flag counter I installed to this site six weeks ago I've noticed that not all my visitors are from Finland. That's why I decided to introduce myself briefly in English as well. Hopefully at least some of my posts will also include English translations in the future.

I'm a thirty-something freelancer living in an old dairy in South-Eastern Finland. Until last November I worked as a store manager and buyer in Helsinki. I got to choose everything we sold in the store -books, music, films, toys, stationery, postcards etc.- and in the beginning I enjoyed it so much, that I think I was on the verge of becoming a workaholic.

Eventually I started to feel that there was more to life than buying and selling stuff, even if that stuff was interesting and ecologically sustainable. I was so busy ordering, arranging and selling books that I didn't have time to read them anymore. There was also a major problem with the air-conditioning at my workplace, and the temperature was permanently so high that I began to have dizzy spells after work. So I decided to quit my job, figure out what I really wanted to do with my life and finish my master's thesis at the university.

This decision meant that my lifestyle had to change quite a bit, but that was something I looked forward to. I wanted to simplify and downshift my life, spend more time on things that really matter to me and spend less money. I was also a little tired of living in the city: I'm originally a small town girl and had moved to Helsinki at the age of 20. While growing up, living in a big city used to be my dream, but something has happened to this dream in the past few years.

The house was built in the late 1920's and extended in the early 50's. The dairy was operating in the building until 1989.

A few years ago I bought a small flat in this old dairy, 130 km from Helsinki. It was love at first sight and I didn't really stop to think what I was going to do with the apartment. I worked and lived in the capital region and only came here once or twice a month. When I decided to quit my job last year, the fact that I had this place played a huge role. Living in Helsinki is very expensive but in the countryside the situation is quite different. You don't need that much money to lead a good life here.

My boyfriend A-P is doing his Ph.D. thesis in mathematics and he has to spend quite a lot of time in Helsinki, so we still rent a tiny apartment there as well. I enjoy the time spent in the city, meeting friends, going to movies etc. but at the moment I wouldn't want to live there full-time.

This blog is called Dairy Life (Meijerielämää). It's about simple pleasures in life, living on a low budget and enjoying what you already have. And whatever comes to mind, really. I love cozy interiors, fabrics, prints, patterns, crockery and glassware, mugs, tins, cans and jars -hence the pictures!

Thank you for coming and I hope you'll be back soon. Feel free to comment anytime!