I've just found the blog Höpöhöpö whose main purpose is to encourage foreign learners of Finnish to read and write in Finnish, and communicate with others. I guess I qualify as complete newbie:)
I did some exercises from a textbook and found that my vocabulary lags behind my grammar.
I still love Finnish though, and will work to reach Higher Intermediate level, if not advanced.
Some day I will write in Finnish forums. Suomeksi!