Back to life

So I've landed back to my real life with a bit of a thud. I had a truly spectacular 3 weeks in Finland. The weather was amazing and most of our time was spent relaxing with family and friends under green trees and blue skies and either along-side or, even better swimming in the lovely lakes. I can't help but smile just thinking about it and will be hanging on to these memories for a long time.
For now though it is back to work and a wintry Sydney (though I hear we missed the worst of the cold) and back to my daily search for something creative and fun for me to wrap my arms around.
I've decided to celebrate my return to blogging with a Finland theme through some of my up-coming posts. Today it is all about a great online poster shop I have found - Come To Finland. We are going to be buying a poster from this shop any day now to bring a little piece of my husbands homeland into our home.

I actually spotted this Finland tourism poster from 1948 on the Poster Team website, fell in love with it, then noticed the price was $800 USD (ouch!). Obviously an original. Luckily for me I didn't have to despair for too long as within a few minutes I found the Come To Finland poster shop where I can purchase a great reproduction for a bargain price - 19euro (plus some postage and handling).
There is a also a great story behind the website and coffee table book of the same name. The guys behind it all, Magnus Londen, Joakim Energen, Ant Simmons, call themselves Poster Hunters and they have put together a celebration of  Finnish Travel Posters from 1851 - 1965. After hunting through archives they have dusted off old posters that had been hidden away in archives and put together a book. You can view it here online (free) - it's truly a labour of love.
As I mentioned we wanted something very 'Finnish' for our walls and this piece of classic graphic design is perfect. Here are some other gems they have available:

 

This poster is especially close to my heart as I have spent some amazing time on Lake Saimaa - it truly is the loveliest in Finland!