Princesses And Summer Nights

There is a reason for my silence these past few weeks. It's not merely because I've been on vacation and thus become suddenly unimaginably busy, but on Saturday last week was my friend Venla's bachelorette party and the previous week was naturally spent organizing and this week equally naturally recovering.






















We were here. I rather think the picture is perfect. What do you think? It is the bliss of the Finnish summer night by the lake after sauna. But it was even better in reality. The air was so full of soft light and scents and silence. The place is Kattila Sauna in Nuuksio.

Before the sauna we had lunch at Herttoniemi Manor. That's the place where the old Finnish movie Kulkurin Valssi was shot. And that's the theme of their wedding. So we dressed Venla up as Helena, the heroine of the movie, starred by Ansa Ikonen. I made her costume. The lace is from my grandmother's old stashes as is the fabric for the shirt. The skirt fabric is from my mothers cupboard.






















We also went indoor climbing. It was a lot of fun. I've never done it before. There was always a moment when I'd almost reached the top when it suddenly seemed like I'd never be able to get higher from there and that I'd fall. For some reason the very last bit wasn't at all frightening after that. Maybe it was the excitement of reaching the top?

In the morning we had city orienteering or that's at least what you call it in Finnish. Those who orienteer get clues to different places where you need to perform some tasks or solve some problems to get the clue to the next place. It's rather popular with university students and usually involves large amounts of alcohol. But Venla solved everything we'd planned rather quickly.

All in all, it was quite the perfect day. Thanks for everybody!

And for more beautiful pictures of Ansa-Venla and the evening at the lake go to my Picasa account this time. Frankly because my Flickr account is full and I want to explore all the free options before bying more account space or deleting old pictures.