Sinitaivas - Blue Sky

Photograph by Itkupilli

Olavi Virta Sinitaivas

tHanKs rOb 4 sHariNg tHis anD evErytHing!

Digital Collage by Itkupilli

Midsummer

Digita Collage by Itkupilli


Midsummer is the most popular festival in Scandinavia together with Christmas. It is a celebration of the Summer solstice, the longest day of the year. Midsummer is celebrated as a public holiday during the third weekend of June, when everybody escapes to the country to spend a relaxing time in nature.

Midsummer's Day was later Christianized as the day of Saint John the Baptist, an important Christian saint. Yet, many of the ancient pre-Christian customs that marked the Summer solstice have survived to this day and are still being celebrated in Scandinavia as they were many hundreds of years ago.

Like in every major Scandinavian celebration, meeting friends and family is as important as having plenty to eat on the table. Midsummer traditional delicacies are fresh potatoes with pickled herring or smoked fish from the nearby lake, the first strawberries of the season for desert, and some schnapps and beer to wash down the herring. Though many people prefer less refined traditions…then the main thing is to get very drunk.

Ville Valo & Natalia Avelon: Summer Wine

Bittersweet

Digital Collage by Itkupilli


Learn finnish:

Vihdoin vihdoin vihdoin. = At least I slapped myself with a birch-switch.

Apocalyptica: Bittersweet featuring Ville Valo and Lauri Ylönen:

"The Three Graces"

Digital Collage by Itkupilli

Oh here is a nice pic...my southern sisters during their first visit in Finland...they are not sure who dares to jump first to cold water...

…and well not so cold… the climate in southern Finland is similar to…let’s take a random example…similar to Wisconsin...

Although the time zone is curious…physically it is GMT +3(Eastern Europe Daylight/Summer Time), but my mind goes 8 hour behind…it causes strange symptoms, like intense heart beatings, awakenings in the middle of the night, warm waves and exciting vibrations…;))

And here is the best site if you want to know more about Finland: Your window to Finland - http://virtual.finland.fi/

The video for to day has wrong season, but it is the right choice for to day: HIM's Funeral of hearts...and here you could see also a glimpse of Finnish men

I continue with Finnish theme...

....in this video Nighwish gives a little view to Finland, to the land of lakes, swamps and forests. To the land where still lives elves and fairies. Even each one of them has cell phone, internet and digital TV, they whip them self with birch branches and swim naked at the moonlight…

And one trivia of Finnish language:

The linguist and author J.R.R. Tolkien considered Finnish to be a particularly beautiful language, and described his youthful discovery of Finnish as inspiring him to pursue a linguistic career. Several of Tolkien's invented languages, notably Quenya, are stylistically related to Finnish.

Finnish.....Morning TV

Digital Collage and Mixed Media by Itkupilli

Perfect day

Just a perfect day
Drink sangria in the park
And then later, when it gets dark, we'll go home
Just a perfect day
Feed animals in the zoo
Then later a movie too, and then home


Oh it's such a perfect day
I'm glad I spent it with you
Oh such a perfect day
You just keep me hanging x2

Just a perfect day
Problems all left alone
Weekenders on our own
It's such fun

Just a perfect day
You make me forget myself
I thought I was someone else
Someone good


You're going to reap just what you sow
You're going to reap just what you sow
You're going to reap just what you sow
You're going to reap just what you sow

Illustration Friday- Suit

Digital Collage by Itkupilli
Illustration Friday topic: Suit

The suit makes the man.

Love Today

Digital Collage by Itkupilli

Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music.
Angela Monet

What on earth is Love?

Digital Collage by Itkupilli

I think I just had a post about love...or something like that...but anyway here are once more some quotes....I don't understand...beats me....you tell me...

To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.

Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970)

We are all born for love. . . . It is the principle of existence, and its only end.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881)

Life without love is like a tree without blossom and fruit.

Khalil Gibran

Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.

Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970)

Doubt that the stars are fire Doubt that the sun doth shine Doubt that truth be a liar But never doubt that I love.

William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)

Source: Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Act 2, Scene 2

About me, myself and I

Digital Collages by Itkupilli

Ok, I’m not the preacher, not at all. I don’t like to declare my doctrines, just here a little bit among you my friends. Even my picture of the world has changed a lot in past two years, more it has changed my self and my personal life.

I love eating. I could say I go even to pedantry easily if there is a question of culinary pleasures. I could write a poem always I had excellent dish. Unfortunately I’m a very miserable cook. I have two children of my own and my daughter’s boy friend is living with us and I have also a foster son occasionally. We all love exotic and variable eating, but I must admit that too often our kitchen is based on an American fast food cuisine. What I desire is to eat simple and delicious food, with excellent and natural pure incredience.

And drinking, I have drunk too much, bottle of red wine was my sleeping pill, and a couple of beers made me very social and increased my self-confident. Too many beers made me an idiot. But I have cured those problems otherwise, so I prefer to drink just for pleasure of the wonderful taste. In past two years I have had just 2 glass of champagne, 2 glass of Italian red wine and two jar of beer…I don’t like to drink for sorrows.

Material enjoyments has lost their appeal to me. I was crazy about clothes and interior designing. I loved designers clothes, well I still do, but now I mostly buy my clothes from flea markets, and only if I really need something. I was dreaming of big house and fancy cars (I still love 70s European cars and old houses) but now I’ve realized that I don’t need them at all. Happiness doesn’t come by owning material things.

I had quite busy social life before, could say too busy. I loved my own voice. I was talking too much and I surely had my opinion of everything. Now I have had very lonely and silent life (read no life). This blogging thing fits perfectly to me. It gives a possibility to conversation. And I want to be sincerely and say only what I really mean. Could be that sometimes I’m quite childish with my honesty, but I don’t want to play cool anymore. I don’t want to build any picture of me. I just want to be who I am.

What I’m dreaming is a simple life, with simple pleasures. I just wanted to be artists and maybe have a little house and garden somewhere in warmer country. Finland is fine country to live, but living is very expensive, too much things to take care off. I could do my work in a cheaper place and still get my incomings from here. That would be clever. Or even better to live day by day, without any troubles. If I just could spend a whole day painting one rose…

My daughter is 15 so I have still some year’s responsibility to take care of her, but as she is already very independent I think I could live my dream one day….

Illustration Friday- Signs

FuCk ThE wOrLD!

Hey hippies! Dreaming is not enough! If a prisoner dreams about escaping, is he free?

Anarchy against tyranny and despotism of fear and distrust!

Free your mind! Love and peace!

I'm a real dreamer

Digital Collage by Itkupilli

I don’t care about hit counters and I don’t count the amount of comments. I speak with real people. I desire communication with loving, caring real people. And I must tell you how much your delightful and loving comments gladden me. You give me faith to the kindness of mankind!

I don’t write about injustice, wickedness and disgusting defects. I don’t want to give my vote to devil (read fear). I don’t want to announce that devil (read fear) has succeeded in conquering this world. We can see what ever horror around us. But we have a choice.

I found this from Lady Luxies blog, and I quote it without her permission:

“Yesterday, I was reading a book (something about Quantum Physics) that explained how I should always be alive to everything that is going on around me. And that whatever is happening in my meat space reality is somehow caused by me....and that even a slight change in the way I think or the way I do something will affect not just my life but the whole matrix of the universe. Wow!”

Thank you science! You give us desperate dreamers hope!

I insist to believe in love, justice and kindness. I give my vote to God (read Love). What ever my eyes and ears tell me, I believe my heart instead.

You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one…..

Has anybody seen?

Digital Collage by Itkupilli

Has anybody seen my intelligence today? Where did I put it? I just turned my back, and it’s gone. Could you please help me to find it!

Mind Games

Digital Collage by Itkupilli

The battle of mind is not between good and evil. It’s between your intuitive consciousness and unconscious mind. Logical reasoning tries to get a triumph over the internal knowledge.

When your actions, speeches and thoughts are in harmony with inner truth; mind is peaceful. The confusion arises from contradiction. Yours or the others action awakes disagreeable unpleasant emotion, and your reasonable mind tries to analyze the situation. Instead of listening your intuition, there is taking place a continuous dialogue in your mind, which disturbs your inner voice.

This battle is between sincere and vanity. Between truth and lie. Between love and fear. Between God and devil. It is a battle between true you and your ego.

And once more, some great quotes:

“He who rules his spirit has won a greater victory than the taking of a city.”
Jesus Christ

When you realize the nature of mind, layers of confusion peel away. You don't actually "become" a buddha, you simply cease, slowly, to be deluded. And being a buddha is not being some omnipotent spiritual superman, but becoming at last a true human being.

Sogyal Rinpoche

If you know that everything comes from the mind, don't become attached. Once attached,
you're unaware. But once you see your own nature, the entire Canon becomes so much prose. It's thousands of sutras and shastras only amount to a clear mind. Understanding comes in midsentence. What good are doctrines? The ultimate Truth is beyond words. Doctrines are words. They're not the Way. The Way is wordless. Words are illusions. . . . Don't cling to appearances, and you'll break through all barriers. . . .

Bodhidharma (c. 440 AD - 528 AD)

Source: The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma, p. 31

Confused

Digital Collage by Itkupilli

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.

Albert Einstein

Confusion is the welcome mat at the door of creativity.

Michael J. Gelb

Distortion upon distortion: . . . the more one uses the mind, the more confused one becomes.

Lao Tzu

The ultimate metaphysical secret, if we dare state it so simply, is that there are no boundaries in the universe. Boundaries are illusions, products not of reality but of the way we map and edit reality. And while it is fine to map out the territory, it is fatal to confuse the two.

Ken Wilber

I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion.

Jack Kerouac

To know another human being in their essence, you don’t really need to know anything about them — their past, their history, their story. We confuse knowing about with a deeper knowing that is non-conceptual. Knowing about and knowing are totally different modalities. One is concerned with form, the other with the formless. One operates through thought, the other through stillness.

Knowing about is helpful for practical purposes. On that level, we cannot do without it. When it is the predominant modality in relationships, however, it becomes very limiting, even destructive. Thoughts and concepts create an artificial barrier, a separation between human beings. Your interactions are then not rooted in Being, but become mind-based. Without the conceptual barriers, love is naturally present in all human interactions.

Eckhart Tolle

Source: Stillness Speaks

I wanted to put here Tangerine Dreams Zen Garden for Daniel, put I couldn't find, so here is Melrose instead....funny video...:)

I wonder

Digital Collage by Itkupilli

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.

Albert Einstein

If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.

Buddha

La Luna

Digital Collage by Itkupilli

...from somewhere far....back to Finland...

Who remembers?

Digital Collage by Itkupilli

I dig archives files, this one I found, one of my first totally digitally made. Before I used more mixed media to make collages.. And even before that I draw...I haven't drawn for long times...

Then I dig even deeper... Who remembers the 70s? I do.