November mood

I have tried to find something to write.

November is not exactly my favorite month of the year.

In the morning it's very dark, until it isn't. 

At three pm it starts feeling like it's nine in the evening.

I should really do some exercise or take a walk. I should.

Instead it's fun to eat chocolate.

I know this too shall pass. Now I'm focusing on doing the things I have to.

Like warming the house.

The island of Seili in October

We visited the Island of Seili in October. It looked so pretty that I had to take a few pictures. There is also a church on the island, now it was closed, so we didn't have a chance to see it. The café was open. 

The island has an interesting or actually terrifying history. There has been a leper hospital, that the Swedish King Gustaf Adolf II gave a order to build in 1619. The remote location of the island was the reason why it was built there. The leprosy began to disappear and in the 1700s a mental asylum was built on the main island. Mentally ill persons where treated there until 1962. The University of Turku has taken over the buildings after that.

There has been humans living on the island for a long time. Seili has most likely been almost treeless in 1600-1900s. Now you will find forest on the island.

The island has opened for tourists in 2017.

If not thinking about the history, the island is a very beautiful place.

More about the island:

Visit Seili

Working with widescreen monitor

I have been working for a while now with a widescreen monitor and can say, that it has increased my productivity. At the beginning I was a bit suspicious of how it would boost working. Now I can say that I wouldn´t change it for anything.

Reading and writing at the same time is possible, everything is easily within view.

My list of advantages

• More done in a shorter time!
• More text to be displayed
• Multitasking is easier
• The possibility to work with up to apps or websites side by side.
• Good for writing, perfect for working with pictures. 

The disadvantage is that it needs space. 

And of course it is a bit more expensive than smaller monitor.

What is resilience?

 We all are facing large and small everyday challenges. 

This Summer has not been so relaxing for me because we have a house renovation project going on and a lot of firewood to make. When the renovation project ready, we will have a new room and more space in the hallway. It has been a lot of work and aching muscles.

And it's not ready yet.

Even though I can imagine the result, it takes resilience to get there.

I have been thinking about resilience. Is it something you have, or is it possible to learn?

Some have more resilience than others, but it is something that can be learnt.

A resilient person stays calm under stress.

Resilience is much about self-awareness, empathy, self control and optimism. It´s capacity to recover from difficult life events.

To be able to stay calm and not be bothered by the incompleteness of life.

When everything is a bit messy.

Why is resilience important?

It helps to overcome hardship.

A resilient person overcomes challenges better and work through problems.

What makes people resilient is the ability to find humor and irony in situations that would otherwise overpower you. -Amy Tan

Resilience is the maintenance of high levels of positive affect and well-being in the face of adversity. It is not that resilient individuals never experience negative affect, but rather that the negative affect does not persist. -Richard Davidson 

 

Some thoughts on Airbnb hosting

 Last March I started Airbnb hosting. Now it's time to share a few thoughts about it.

I didn't know hardly anything about Airbnb hosting, so I read about it on the Airbnb pages, and started thinking about an advertisement.

Making the advertisement was interesting, because there were many things to think about.

1. What is a good price?
2. How does the customer get a realistic picture of the space I'm hiring?
3. What are my rules?
4. What do I offer the guests?
5. How about the communication, should I answer the messages as fast as possible?
6. How many guests can I host every month?

Somehow this is something, that is partly only learned by doing.

If you enjoy meeting new people, it will be interesting for sure.

And everyone has their specific needs. So customer service and communications are also needed.

Keeping the calendar up to date is important. When you know, that it's not possible to host, close the days from the calendar.

I've realized, that it's better to take less people (at the moment) and try to make their experience as good as possible, than to take all the reservations, that I couldn't handle.

These are just a few thoughts. 

Find the uniqueness of your space. 

It might be the closeness to nature, or something else.

Thoughts about entrepeneurship

Some years ago I would have never thought of being an entrepeneur, not even part-time. 

First I want to think about the reasons why I didn´t see entrepeneurship as an alternative.

• Financial risk. There is no guarantee of the monthly income. Especially in the beginning of starting a business.
• A lot of work. This is the second thought about entrepeneurship, it requires a lot of work. And how do you find free time? Do you have to work all the time?
• Stress. How to handle stress?
• And last but not least. All the paperwork!

How did my thoughts about entrepeneurship change? I think the change happened after remote work started due to Covid-19, and I understood that I had to find a different way to work. And a routine. After all it wasn´t that hard. 

Another thing was that I started studies, which were very independent. In a short time a lot of programs and some coding had to be learnt beside daytime work. It required hard work. 

Some evenings I just wished that some one could have told me how to code. Now afterwards I am happy that no one did! I had to search and try, which helped me to learn. This is a process, to learn how to find and understand information.

After all, I realized, that I am capable of a lot more than I could ever have thought of. Stepping out of the comfort zone has been great. Hey, I can do some technical things too! A lot of things can be learnt by searching information and using it for learning.

Now my thoughts of entrepeneurship is:

• Freedom. The possibility to learn and invent. To do your own decisions. Decide how to use your time.
• Inspiration. Can it be possible to do things, that you enjoy doing? As an entrepeneur you can build a business of your hobbies for example.
• Paperwork. Yes, I can do it. It´s not that bad, and if needed some one else can do it.
• Financial risk. Yes, you never know if your business will be successful.

Now I can only write about experiences as a part-time entrepeneur. 

What do you think about entrepeneurship?

What is your favourite place near you?

There are a lot of places worth visiting, and they might not even be that far away.

I took my camera to the Beach Park in Järvenpää (Lakes End) to take some pictures for the Lakes End -blog.

In the blog you can read about places worth visiting in Järvenpää, a city in Finland.

I recently joined the blog as a writer.

Have a great Summer! 

I will write also during summertime, at least something short monthly.

My old harmonium

I saw the picture in a Facebook fleemarket group. A white coloured harmonium, with the text "Simplify" painted in the front it. The original colour is of the instrument is dark brown. 

People give away a lot of things they don´t need. And you can find things you need from these groups for free.

Did I need a harmonium? Not as far as I know. 

For some unknown reason I told, that I will come and pick it up. The harmonium was pretty heavy, so it was a little project to get it home. 

I love stories. And every old item has a story. The owner of the harmonium had passed away, and the house where it was had new owners. It looks like nobody has been playing it for a long time.

Well, here it is now. In the corner next to my electric piano.

I had to find out where it comes from. The label says "Halonen ja kumpp, Jyväskylä".

Some history

The harmonium has been made in Brother´s Halonen reed organ (harmonium) factory in Jyväskylä. The factory was built in 1910. The building is designed by the other founder of the factory, Antti Halonen. His brother, Aapeli Halonen was the harmonium builder. Aapeli Halonen lived upstairs in the building with his family, leading the factory until his death 1928. His son, Seppo continued with the work. Harmonium production ended in 1960s.

Aapeli Halonen also made picture frames for his brother, painter Pekka Halonen

The musicians (for example Oskar Merikanto and P.J. Hannikainen) liked the sound of the harmoniums from Brother´s Halonen. 

There is nowadays a restaurant in the old building, Restaurant Harmooni

Maybe a place to visit next time in Jyväskylä.

What the past year has taught me

Looking back, there are things that have changed. The pandemic has challenged all of us in many ways.

Over a year ago I started working from home. No travelling to work, or very much not anywhere. It wasn´t that hard first, I guess. When one week followed the other it became a bit harder. 

Any lessons learned?

• Routines are very important to keep going and get anything done. To keep on doing the same things in the morning. Waking up nearly the same time every morning. In our family it means before 6 am on weekdays.
• Setting small goals every day.
  I need to do this. Even if it's only 2 or 3 things. This helps me get things done. 
  Otherwise they would pile up very quickly and make me stressed.
  The little things take you forward step by step, towards bigger things.
• Finding the right time every day to do certain things, take breaks and to stay focused when needed.
• Learning something new all the time is important to keep me going. The past year has taught me to try new things and find information, to keep trying and searching.
• Leading myself better.
• Finding happiness in simple things. 
• Reminding myself to stay hopeful.
• To not stress. I had to keep on telling me this for example when my dad was in hospital, and due to Covid there was no chance to visit him. There are certainly things we can´t control, and just do the things we can.

It's easy to make lists. The very much harder thing is to keep on doing something you have planned. It takes a lot of self-discipline.

It sounds so easy to make a list and follow it.

Well, it might be some days. 

What have you learned in the past year?

Have a great week!

"Happiness is where we find it, but very rarely where we seek it." - J. Petit Senn

 

Recording a podcast

To be honest, I haven't listened very much to podcasts. They are very popular and easy to listen to while jogging, driving or cooking. And it's quite easy to make your own. All you need is a microphone, computer, editing program and a platform. Plus a calm place where the recordings are made.

In February and March I set up a table and a microphone for four days in our home studio to record a podcast-series with four episodes. After that I did used Pro Tools for editing the podcasts and did a jingle on my keyboard.

It was quite fun, and something I could do also in the future. Also it would be fun to come up with an own podcast.

My studio setup for recording podcasts

Many times a lot of things are best learned by starting to do something. What worked and what didn't? Every episode needs a plan: what to talk about, what are the questions you are asking and how are you keeping it all together. In the beginning it's good to have music, and maybe the same music in the end, that brings it all together. It would be good to decide the length of the episodes. 

I used my Motif 6 -keyboard for making the jingle

The microphone I used for recording was audio-technica AT4047/SV 
The microphone

Coffee and ProTools

Is it important to avoid mistakes while speaking? Or is it better that the person sounds real? I think the talk should be real, not trying to be too perfect. If a word is said two times, who cares? It's good to speak like you would speak to another person and remember that a podcast can become better all the time.

What do you need for making a podcast?   

• a good idea and a concept
• equipment

Questions to think about:

• What topic is so interesting than you can make a lot of episodes of it?
• What could the listeners want to hear?
• What is your target group?

Tips:

• Ask people you know what they would like to hear about?
• Be real

Equipment needed: microphone, computer, editing program, platform

A calm place where you can record

Don't forget marketing the podcast.

What do you think is important to remember while recording a podcast?

Spring is here

What is your favorite season?

Mine is absolutely Spring.

The increasing amount of light, melting snow and sound of birds and new life.

It brings new energy and hope.

Hang on there. New things are coming.

In my next posts I will tell how my part time entrepeneurship has started.

For now, enjoy the light!

Hello March!

It´s been a while since writing here. Now I´m starting to update this blog again monthly. For a while I have been writing about travelling, and now the theme is changing a bit. There are new things and ideas, that I want to share with you.

Studies

I have been doing studies at Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences, learning to make webpages and e-commerce. There are still some courses going on, and it has been interesting to learn new things. Sometimes it´s really good to move out from the comfort zone. So, I have been learning about coding with HTML, CSS and Javascript and using Wordpress.

Amkoodari studies

Part-time entrepeneurship

I also started as a part-time entrepeneur. First I wasn´t quite sure what I actually would be doing. One idea was to write content. 

Airbnb hosting

Another idea, that came up was to start airbnb hosting, since we have an "extra house" in our yard where friends have stayed overnight. So, why not?

Villa Garage Tuusula

Podcasts and recording

We have a home studio in the basement. And nearly two weeks ago, I found myself recording and editing a podcast for the first time and also doing a jingle for it. The podcast was for Järvenpää Plus 

Last week my husband recorded a song for a local band in the same studio. Very interesting, we ended up thinking about a name for our studio (Kallberg studio). There is no webpage yet. 

Since we have the equipment, I also started about thinking about an own podcast. What could it be about, do you have any ideas?

YouTube channel

My husband is building something all the time, and there came the idea of a YouTube channel about diy-things. The whole family (except our youngest not yet) is doing some diy, so it will be our family project. This is also something new, so ideas are welcome. In the beginning the videos will be far from perfect.

Kallberg DIY

Is this all? I´m not sure. There are some own music projects waiting too.

I feel very excited.