My office is where my van home is
Puska Creative was born out of love for creating websites and the desire to live life on the road. So I built myself a home and office in a van. My favorite hobbies are blowing in horses’ nostrils and adventuring in nature with my dogs Chaos and Kaino and my cat Kipinä.
I am a happy social hermit and an adventurer. I like to hug when meeting and I am often moved by the beauty of nature. I love silence, dancing, sauna, mountains, forest, solitude, building campfires, Bob Dylan, chopping firewood, and how the light hits a certain spot. Usually you can find me far away in the bush as possible, but I’m always excited to talk to people, especially to strangers, and many people recognize me from afar because of my laugh.
I was born in 1987 in the sign of aries
I lived my whole childhood in an old red wooden house in a small town called Pornainen, in Southern Finland. Upstairs was haunted (A FACT) and in the backyard there was 50 black currant bushes and the world’s best wooden sauna.
I’m the (un)famous middle sister, who was always on the go. Favourite hobbies included climbing trees, organizing dance shows to our parents in the living room and secretly cutting my hair. (From which first and last still belongs to the repertoire.)
5 year old me dancing in the living room
My first sentence was “fast, fast, fast” and a more advanced childhood wisdom: “One two but not anothers” (when I wanted candy from the candy stash). And lets not forget: “More elephant piece”, which meant more ham in the Christmas table. Eventually I got enough of all kinds of elephant pieces and have been a vegetarian since my teenage years. (Okay, I do eat fish sometimes).
A Finnish Easter tradition is a trick and treat where you dress up as a witch. Me and my sisters did a pretty solid job in it. (Me on the left).
Fastforward a few years
Because being “forced” to play the piano and turning into a horse girl 4-ever and playing floorball has somewhat disappeared from my hasty memory, lets jump to the things worth remembering. I went to high school for one year but was anguished by it’s institutionalism, so I applied into an art school and got in. After three years (ok make it four because I liked it so much and didn’t want it to end) of studies I graduated as a photographer from Pekka Halonen Academy of Arts in 2008. My favorite thing was spending hours in the color darkroom, and meeting artistic souls alike, because coming from a small town of just 5000 people I often felt like an outsider.
Grass is always greener in someone else’s mouth, thought my old friend Maestro <3
During my studies I also volunteered for many animal welfare organizations and fostered countless of homeless dogs and cats until they found their loving forever homes. It was then when I met the love of my life, the silky eared philosopher dog called Rebel. My first dog, my muse, my spirit guide. The dog who was by my side for 14 years and sat beside me watching the sunset in 16 different countries.
Rebel and my little sister were modeling in my final thesis for Pekka Halonen Academy of Arts.
The leap from backpacking to vanlife
After studies I was hitch-hiking and backpacking across Europe for a few months. I was always missing my dear companion Rebel though, so then the idea the get a van was born. I could easily travel together with my best friend, and would be free to go wherever I wished. My big sister lived and traveled around in a van in the US that time aswell, so it must have been an inspiration too. In 2012-2017 I traveled around Europe with my first van called Jagannath, the first journey lasted one year. But I always had to return to Finland to work and save money so I could live on the road again.
Having breakfast with Rebel and Jagannath, Montenegro 2012.
On the island of horses
In 2014 and 2015, I camped for a total of six months on the island of Rovaniemi with a herd of Finnhorses. The horses lived freely in the area of the two islands and swam a short distance from one island to the other every day. In the mornings, when I crawled out of my tent, I was often joined by curious horses for coffee, and during the day we enjoyed relaxing moments together around the mosquito fire (a smoky campfire that kept the bugs away). When the campfire died down, one of the horses kindly nudged me with it’s muzzle, asking me to add more wood! In the evenings I admired the sun which never set, and in autumn I bathed in the glow of the northern lights.
The two summers and autumns spent on the island with soul-stroking horses have been one of the most magical and memorable experiences of my life, which will remain in my heart forever. I made an Island of Horses photo calendar from my time on the island, which I used to buy my current van. Read more about the island of horses.
Napping with the herd.
Living my dream life on the road fulltime since 2019
My new and improved self built van home Kiito has offered us memorable adventures. I’ve traveled from the northernmost point in Europe to the southernmost point in Europe, and I’m currently in Spain. Six long years I spent living on/off vanlife until I finally found a job that would enable living on the road fulltime. My big sister taught me the the art of web design and rest is history. At last I was FULLY FREE to live the life I always dreamed of, and I get to do the work I love ♥
My five million star hotel.
Meet “My Girls” the rescue dogs Kaino and Chaos and Kipinä the cat
Chaos is “that pinscher-looking” ball-crazy Spanish fireball. She lived in a builder’s yard with its mother, and my first encounter with it was memorable. I was sitting in the car in the yard of the hardware store when I saw a little puppy (Chaos) running happily to greet the employee of the hardware store. However, the worker just kicked Chaos and so I angrily jumped out of my car, only to have a happy puppy in my arms kissing me all over. The next day I went back and asked if I could have the puppy and so Chaos joined the pack.
Kaino, formerly shy and now a terror of mud ponds, was rescued from the streets of Russia as a puppy. It took 6 months that someone else but me was allowed to pet her, that’s how scared of people she was. However, Kaino is the kindest creature in the world, and despite her fears, she has never shown any aggression towards anyone, even though she is a very good guard dog.
In the fall of 2021, I walked into a pet store in Spain to buy dog food and saw a kitten sitting in a cage who was looking for a home through a local animal protection association. So the most brave little Kipinä joined the group.
You can follow our adventures on Instagram!
