AUTUMN'S ESSENTIALS // TRENDS

Hey guys! I'm back with a new post :)
It's that time of the year when the weather is getting colder and the trees are starting to paint themselves in yellow and orange shades.
To "celebrate" this changing of season I decided to write a post about the things I consider a "must" for this season, so let's take a look at what you can find in my closet! x

ps: many of you have asked me if all the pics I post here are taken by me, the answer's YES I take all the pics, edit them (If I need to) and post them here.

Sweaters. These are pretty much easy to style and wear in this season especially if you want to avoid wearing a jacket but still don't want to feel cold. I usually start buying some sweaters at the end of the summer when you can find them on sale almost everywhere, They're perfect for winter too just adding a coat.

One thing I recenlty got obsessed with are stripes. As you can see I'm showing in the picture two different versions of a striped shirt. The one on the left is just a basic t-shirt that I bought from Zara and to be honest I really like it because I can match it with everything (I usually wear it with my copper red bag that you'll see later). On the other side there's a more "elegant" version of the striped shirt. I usually match it with a blazer or just a coat if the weather's colder. 

I could not include the classic leather jacket! As I always say the leather jacket is known to be versatile because you can always use it in many ways and I had the same leather jacket for 5 years and it's still good enough! I totally fell in love with a leather jacket I saw at Zara, it comes in this gorgeous shade of red (cool for Autumn!!) and the model looks perfect. Here it is:

You can shop it HERE

This is one of my fave watches and I had a really good experience with this swedish brand, called "Regal", I'm not 100% sure if this brand sells only watches or other kind of jewelry but the only thing I can say is that they have a giant variety of watches, it was so hard to choose just one and that's why I decided to go for the simpler one because it's easier to style with every outfit.

What about the make up? I usually like to wear mainly nude/brown/gold shades for this season (and for summer as well) because these colors are not too striking. 

As you can see in the pic above there are some products (blush and powder) by Essence which I think it's pretty ok as a brand (and cheap).

I absolutely love these two matt lipsticks from Wycon that I bought in Italy last summer. They're pretty cool and they have a creamy texture.

'

Talking about face products I recently was thinking about buying myself some Tea Tree Oil which seems to be very effective on the skin if you have some breakouts like I do. I went to Body Shop and I found an aswer: this "Skin Clearing Facial Wash" made of natural ingredients and of course Tea Tree Oil (you can find it by clicking here)

Tea Tree Oil has a lot of benefits, here are some:

♥ Helps reducing Skin Acne
♥ It's a good nourishing product for your hair

♥ Relieves razor burns

♥ Treats infections and skin cuts

for more infos click here 

This is actually one of the best bags I've ever bought, I really like it because the size is perfect and also the color is amazing in summer or autumn. It has some golden details

I also decided I needed a more casual bag, just in case I want to carry some books or my notebook to the library for example and so I got this from a local store.

Last but not least... BOMBER JACKET!

this has probably been the most purchased item of this year. It has been a trend in the 90's but it was originally created for military pilots (that's why it's also called flight jacket). I pair it with my white Nikes and it looks pretty good on everything! 

I got this one from Zara, you can find it here.

HELSINKI DESIGN WEEK 2016 // ART IN MANY WAYS

Hi there!
Today I woke up with the intention of going around the city, because you know what?
This week is known as the "Helsinki's Design Week" and that means the city is covered by art and creativity everywhere! You can literally see it at every corner and even if I've been walking for hours today, I think I just saw a part of all the things. Let's see a bit of informations about this big yearly event.
Helsinki Design Week was founded in 2005 and it's actually considered the largest design festival among all the nordic countries, and it can include many sides like fashion, architecture and even urban culture!
If you want you can read more informations on the official website, Click Here.

This year's Design Week offered people the possibility to see 12 or more works made from individual designers and students, finnish and international, who had the chance to express theirselves only with the purpose of decorating the city with design. People can follow a map to see all the installations around the city, usually set in particular hidden places, quite fun huh?

Let's see what I discovered today

Starting from one of the most frequented places in Helsinki, the square in front of Stockmann (a big store), we can see this giant transparent "bubble" made of plastic.

This is where it all starts. This plastic installation is called "Super Kolmemen" by Plastique Fantastique and is set around "The Three Smiths" statue, one of the most popular statues of the city, standing since 1932. People can simply enter and relax, talk about the event or ask informations. Sometimes there are presentations or debates regarding a certain subject, you can follow the programme online. 

Let's see how it looks from the inside

Another installation which is pretty near the big "bubble"it's called "Helsinki Timepost" by Joanna Rajkowska and it concernes the theme of the light. In fact the light is one of the most used themes this year. We can see it in many installations. This one was nice to look at because it's formed by actual sentences, regarding Helsinki or Finland in general.

This cluster of neons actually points to different planets, stars and galaxies observable from Helsinki and marking the distance between this installation and them.

Did you know that "the oldest stone in Finland is 3 500 000 000 years old"?

On the same street, we can find another work, this one is called "Local light - Light close to you" by Anna var der Lei, Kristos Mavrostomos and LähiTapiola.

This installation constists of hundreds of bicycle lights reminding us the importance of light traffic when moving in the dark. These lights go on and off in turns.

The next installation was one of my favourites. It was set inside a room where led lights were changing reproducing a big variety of colors. 

The two main themes were lights and different materials. That's why as we step in the room we can see this writing on a wall.

I find this very interesting, like all the objects showed in the room.

These creations are called the "Super synthetic stones" by Valentina Lachner.

The idea behind these works is to combine two of the world's worst matierials, plastic and concrete, in order to create a new material that gives life to unrecycled waste plastics.

The material used can vary from tiles and floors to pieces of furniture.

The room was filled with more creations, like the leather ones, made of pieces of actual leather that was about to go wasted in the trash.

The main wall of the room was formed by a giant variety of pieces made of different materials like glass or plastic which somehow changed their appearance once the color of the light changed.

Let's move now to another of my favourites work, called "Odd birds" by Oiva Toikka for iittala, a famous finnish brand that produces objects in glass.

The glass birds are very famous in Finland, they represent different species of birds made of glass which can have particular colors and shapes. They're a nice object to collect at home, on a library. In honor of the Design Week we can assist at this new collection or birds.

There were too much of them I could write a post only about it!

Movin to the backyard of the Finnish National Museum, we can assist at complete transformation of trees. The work is called "Sense" by Hanna Niskanen, Kiia Kataja and Wenjun Li.

The purpose of the work is to make people feel different textures and surfaces hanging from the trees, they can be hard or soft, warm or cold and have many odd shapes and colors. The pressure made by touch creates an impulse which sends signals along a chain of nerve cells to the brain for further processing.

This was so relaxing to see and touch! I actually pretty enjoyed it.

Last but not least, moving to the National Finnish Library, we can find this weird looking pink cube.

It's called "The Cabinet of Wonders" by the young creative director Laura Väinölä, winner of the Young Designer prize of 2016.

A sign outside the cabinet showed the writing "Please feel free to open the doors". That's why people are supposed to do. Moving around the cabinet opening the many doors checking what's inside.

These are some strange things I found:

clothes made by uncommon materials

some plants growing under a green led light

a miniature of an apartment

Some insect-shaped kites

Well, that's what I discovered today wandering in the city. There were more installations and things that I photographed but decided to not include because the post would have been infinite. If you're in Helsinki during this week I deeply suggest you to take a day off to see these amazing works, it can be a nice idea to make a tour of the city as well :)

LIVING ABROAD // AU PAIRING // BACK AGAIN

Hey guys!
I know I've been quite lazy with blogging but so many things have changed in my life in these past 6/7 months you can never imagine. As you might already know I moved to Finland from Italy, and I'm actually working as an au pair but planning the next year to continue my studies here. Life here is so different, I can really feel the change from the first day I moved because every day I have something to do, I hardly get bored here and that's amazing. In these past months I've been visiting all the most hidden corners of Helsinki and I realized how many beautiful places you can find in it. You can literally move from the city centre to the nearest islands in 10 min by ferry boat or even by car! so if you're planning a trip here, let me know, I'd be glad to help you out :)

I decided to re-start to write here because I wanted someone to share my experiences with and because I almost forgot how it feels to have a blog, taking pictures, editing them and posting them. Not only I'd like to start again with lookbook.nu but also write something more here and not only outfits and that kind of stuff. So, returning to my au pair thing:

How did I do it? how did I move abroad and why did I choose to become an au pair?

This is what people ask me sometimes. Well, it's not so hard to answer. I always had the dream to move in Finland since I was a kid as my mother is finnish and I spent a big part of my childhood here. Good memories, nice people and beautiful almost surreal places in the middle of the nature, that is what Finland means to me. So, my plan was to finish the high school (which I did in June 2015) and then try to find a work here instead of starting the University in Italy as the majority of my friends did. That actually meant I had to move alone, in a big city without my family or friends. I think this was one of the most important decisions I ever took in my life and actually one of the BEST too. Living alone has its positive sides: you automatically become indipendend and responsible, because you have to do all by yourself and build yourself a second "home"since your real one is miles away from you. But also its negative sides which, in my opinion, regard only the first period you moved. For example the fact that everything you were used to, changes, and it will be new. Some things will never be the same as before. And it's hard to say goodbye to all the people you were used to have around.
I had to find a job, a place to stay and as everyone knows it's not that simple. That's why I first chose to become an au pair. Being an au pair means that you're gonna stay in a family you don't know, so you have food and an accomodation for free as if you were a real member but in exchange you need to help them with their kids and normal house chores, like a sort of a nanny. You have a monthly salary (or pocket money) that you can spend however you want. It's like having a second family. So I thought this was the best way to familiarize with the city and everything without being entirely alone in the first period, and it is. I'm currently staying in a sooooo nice family and they treat me in a lovely way and I feel so blessed and lucky to have had my first experience abroad with them and that's why I'm very thankful. Six or more months have passed and I'm still here, full of dreams, plans for the next year, like continue my studies here. It wont be easy but I have to do it and I will do it. Sometimes I think how it would be now if I never decided to leave Italy. Probably still thinking about what to do with my life.
Who knows? you'll never know what to expect from life because once you make a big decision, this might completely change your life.

If you're still thinking about moving abroad alone, take under consideration these few things:

• You'll be exposed to a different culture/language from yours but don't worry, you´ll get used to it
• You'll have to meet new people and make new friends but that's easy if you're working or studying
• Be prepared to change your routine, you'll have new schedules, duties etc.
• Even if you hate your hometown so bad, you´ll still miss it, like you'll miss your family/friends and even speaking your native language. But that's normal, you can deal with it and the more time passes, the more you'll get used to the changement.

But remember...whatever you decide to do with your life, think about it by yourself and don't let the others influence your plans. Just find your happiness :)

ps: Do you have any questions or doubts regarding au pairing? you can freely contact me on my socials or simply by e-mail at: helenadewitt@gmail.com and I'll be glat to answer you :) x

Töölönlahti, May 2016

LACED KIMONO

Hey guys, how are you?
I've been so busy this month and my laptop broke, again.
Today I am finally able to post a new look and I feel so releived,
Today's look is formed by this beautiful laced kimono which I really love and would use forever, I got it from Lightinthebox.com and you can find it by clicking HERE . I matched it with a simple minimalist necklace formed by a bar and a circle, it's from the same shop and I suggest it to you so much, so if you need new jewerly be sure you'll find some great stuff HERE .
Well, I don't usually wear dresses but this black one is perfect with a kimono and a gold metal belt.
Hope you will like it! x

KIMONO: LIGHTINTHEBOX

NECKLACE. LIGHTINTHEBOX

DRESS: H&M

BELT: DRESSLINK