Summer for midsommar!

As every Swede will know, it is usually a bit-of-everything kind of weather on midsommar.

  A bit of blue skies in view but look behind you and dark rain clouds will be looming. 

It's not a silly idea to bring hand warmers and quite a warm jacket too.

The day after is often more like what you'd hoped for the Friday to be...

This year was no exception, and it couldn't have been any better! 

I was lucky enough to be invited to a friend of a friend's parents house (small mansion) 

out on the coast - and a little bit south of Gothenburg to celebrate midsommar with them. 

I was pretty stoked to find they had a full sized New Zealand flag flying 

while everyone else in the neighborhood were flying their Swedish flags. 

We were 4 kiwis there in total, so it was a very nice touch! 

As most midsommars go, there was lots of food and wine, 

schnapps, singing and some dancing too. 

( Luckily we didn't have to dance like little frogs this time...)

There were team games too which are always fun, especially when we win!

 There were lots of potatoes, (this makes me very happy!) and pies of every variety. 

I'm not really a fan of the pickled herring, 

no matter how many different flavours of sauce it comes in.

Lots of strawberry pies for dessert...

but blimey the limey one was divine!

The main house has been recently fully redecorated, 

I mean really, well and truly fully redecorated! 

Each room is impeccably fitted out, 

flowers everywhere and always a cozy place to sit.

Even out on the deck it is cozier that my own living room! 

The overall feel of the house is very relaxing 

and you can tell that the hosts love to do just that, host!

Meanwhile back at the guest house, as I snuck inside to put something warmer on, 

I found this gorgeous light glimmering in one of the bedrooms, 

it was very tempting to have a little snooze... 

Well, night rolled in to morning and breakfast was totally yum!

What you can't see here is the small mountain of fried left over potatoes and little sausages... 

If there's anything that can beat fresh new potatoes, it's fried left over potatoes!

After all this and even my first swim of the year (since new years swimming in Wellington) 

we played some brännboll, sort of like baseball/cricket/rounders and then lay about enjoying the sun!

And it's continued to be sunny since last Saturday! 

I spent the day by the coast with a friend yesterday, 

and now I'm sunburnt and sitting inside out of the sun to write this...

But I can't stay inside for too long... it's time to get grilling again!

I hope you all had a good midsummer/midwinter too!

What's your favorite thing to grill on a stick?

Chicken, pineapple and haloumi is a pretty wicked combination I was recently introduced to.

oops drooling a little...

I'll doodle the dishes!

As we approach midsommar, 

it is only traditional at this time of year for the weather to be very ho hum.

Which leads to lots of sitting inside and twiddling of thumbs! 

I turned my twiddling in to doodling over the last couple of days... 

With the help of some fabric pens and some plain white dish cloths from Panduro hobby,

I made some more things to give to the people I'll be visiting over summer!

I got a wee bit carried away...

So, who wants to make a mess in the kitchen with me, just so we can tidy up?

Leggy Peg

I have a little thing for collecting old magazines from days gone by. 

Not like Woman's Weekly from 1993, but People magazine from 1953!

I was on the hunt the other day for old maps for a few projects I have in mind, 

so I went to an antique book store, 

and happened across a whole pile of Filmjournalen from the 40's.

My oh my, check out the beauty! 

I'm totally in love with this cover picture of Donna Reed, I might even have to frame it...

It looks like you don't want to mess with Ann Sheridan!

Apparently Lauren Bacall can make love to you, with only her eyes...

Meanwhile, Gudrun Brost looks like quite a saucy little lady, wearing a scarf as a top.

I think the back page ads are fantastic too!

On one of my recent (aimlessly wandering around the supermarket hoping for dinner inspiration to bite me on the bum) shopping trips, 

a packet of wooden pegs ended up in my trolley.

Not that we even have an outdoor clothes line, or even an indoor one for that matter.

I just love the simplicity of a good old wooden peg and I knew that it would be super easy to put them to better use, with the help of some of my old magazines! 

See what I did there? Fridge magnets!

I found a few words that fit just right on to the pegs too.

They even make up a new kind of (R16 in a certain order) fridge poetry, hehe...

When I no longer felt like cutting up the beautiful old magazines, 

I turned to my craft paper box, and now I've run out of pegs!

I think these will make awesome little gifts, and they're very easy and satisfying to make! 

I even got inspired from the pink and green pegs and dressed myself up a bit too...

Whoah, pink nails! 

Now if only I could do my make up like Ann Sheridan...

School's out, mini projects are in!

I felt that our little kitchen was still lacking a bit of cozy.

 If there's anything that can add instant charm to a kitchen, 

then it's got to be a little spice shelf! 

Here's a little before and after of my "I gotta paint something!" Sunday afternoon project...

For now, it's only a couple of shelves from IKEA 

until I find just the right little special something at a second hand store. 

It was quite a challenge for me to get the palest blue I could find. 

I had in mind more of a grey/blue to kind of relate to the tiles of the kitchen, but oh well. 

We still had some white spray paint left over so I used that on the front bar. 

I'm wondering about changing it already, having black instead of the blue! 

Hmmm think I'll sleep on it for now. Well you know, not actually on the shelves... 

Here's a slightly wider angle view. 

Check it out, we're still going on Mikael's trattkantarell from last autumn. 

And, I saw today that some chantarelles are already starting to pop up, before midsommar!?

 

So, now that school's out for the summer,

I have quite a few little home projects that I'm itching to do...

There's fridge magnets to make, bedside tables to redecorate, 

as well as images to frame and hang. 

And Zebe to keep occupied...

Here she is, pretending not to be looking at the baby seagulls 

(who are currently owning our outdoor area thanks to their aggressively dive-bombing parents!) 

 

 There they are, the fluffy little pieces of preciousness... all hopeless and spotty!

Unfortunately one of them seems to have broken a leg after falling off the roof, so it may take even longer to learn how to fly... I have heard it can be anywhere between 4-8 weeks! 

The swooping, dive-bombing adult gulls are on full alert 24/7 making any attempt to leave or return from our building a mad frantic dash for cover! 

They're always ready to aim for your head/eyeballs and as soon as you hear the *squark* you better make sure you have an umbrella up, or a bag to swing around. 

Yes, so, I can see now why there are horror films based on birds... 

This is another reason for lots of indoor crafty times this summer!

Keep posted for more spruced up corners of our little home very soon!

I-phoney

Am I the only person in the whole world without an I-phone, I think so...

It seems every single photo posted on facebook these days is "taken with my i-phone".

Don't get me wrong, I'm not jealous in any way.
I like that my phone is a phone and my camera is a camera.

I won't go in to the whole debate over film versus digital right now, that's a whole other rant.

But, if you take a close look at the photos making up my headboard you'll see that apart from the swinging teddybears taken from an old magazine, the polaroids are the real deal and any vignetting was made in camera.

Cross processing used to be my "thing" but as you can't have too much of a good thing, Agfa no longer make that particular film and nothing is quite the same since...

So, my Panasonic Lumix LX-3 travels everywhere with me these days.
As much as I love photoshop, it can be a bit overwhelming sometimes when all you want is something simple such as curved corners or to easily place some text over your image.

And then came Picnik!

It's free to use. Simple and kind of like i-photo in functionality, but actually does stuff.
You can upgrade for more features but I don't see the need just now.

Sometimes, I'm too busy smelling the buttercups to worry about silly things like upgrading...

When I'm not smelling the buttercups, you might find me playing with the neighbor's chihuahua puppy. There were 3 of them, this was the only one they kept in the end, and he was the biggest!

Hypnotizingly adorable...

You never know what you might find in the forest in Sweden. 

If you're super lucky you might befriend a little red squirrel. 

Or, if you're really unlucky, you might befriend a few ticks. 

The other day I met this brilliant blue dragonfly!

The thing I like the most lately is discovering new treasures

in an area which you may have been past a million times but never thought to look in... 

Today we stopped for lunch at the bar inside Slottskogen, looking over the lake 

(where until recently a flock of flamingos used to reside).

It was lovely.

A taste of lately

Warning, this post will involve lots of food photos... 

Firstly, it has come to my attention after a few conversations with a various Swedes about my blog, "infatuation" is not really a word that is taught to Swedes in the English language. 

So, for those of you who may be new to my blog and have stumbled across this particularly foody episode, I would like to point out that being infatuated is not about eating lots of food and getting fat! 

That said, I think it is totally reasonable to be infatuated with food... 

I think you'll see what I mean. 

A couple of weekends a go now, (sheesh I'm behind on the blog again!) we went along to check out the Cuba St Carnival Andra Långgatan street party!

It really does have the vibe of the good old days of Cuba street, 

before it got ripped in half by a motorway!

It has a fair share of funky second hand stores with all sorts of retro delights, bars and cafes, and of course a few sex shops to scare away the posh people who prefer to stroll up and down Avenyn with their prams and grandparents on a Saturday afternoon...

This street party has been going for the past 4 years, and when it happens, the street is full of music, lots of beautiful people, (and some rather interesting looking people). 

To top it all off, there was a Batucada group drumming away, amping up the crowd and getting a few bottoms wiggling! Jose Gonzalez was dj'ing and, well there was plenty of excuses to get dancing except Polly does not do too well in a crowd on an empty stomach...

So, we stopped in to a totally groovy little place called A Bite. 

I'm not sure if I can quite describe the deliciousness of the soft bread wraped with oooh I don't even know how they did it, but wow it was perfect!

 

       My one was called the "Norrland" with the yummiest combination of deer, cheese and chanterelle, Mikael chose "Japan" kind of a sushi inspired sandwich cake.

This is new culinary experience to me, and the Swedes really seem to get in to the sandwhich cake thing. You can get giant ones perfect for feeding everyone at your next office party, but have a look at some of the other yummies they make at A Bite... 

I thought the Trocadero drink looked like the most fun.

Apparently it's a bit of a classic too, kind of like L&P.

Another awesome thing that the Swedes really go for, is the marvelous little one time bbq! 

The abundance of smooth round rocks make perfect platforms and, well they're very handy! 

I'm quite surprised that coming from NZ where we seem to cook on a bbq year round, in the wind or even rain, I've never really come across these before... The only down side is the warm up wait time, and there is no real off switch apart from a bucket of water.

 Sometimes a whole artichoke will be our dinner... 

Moving on to breakfast now, I can't get over how gorgeous the packaging is for the Saltå Kvarn range! Each packet has such a wonderful colour scheme.
I particually love the flours and oats and things that come in the paper bags.

 Recently I was lucky enough to be given these wonderful egg cups from a friend as a birthday gift. 

They have the same kind of wonderful carnival feeling as the Trocadero drink, 

and when you look inside...

 You'll find a delicate little nest of eggs painted in there! So sweet!!

These little lovelies are by Pip Studio, where she apparently goes about her work with a little bird perched atop her head, now that sounds like fun!

Speaking of eggs...

Do you notice anything different about these ones?
They are all brown!

I remember it used to be exciting to see what colour egg shell you got, 

and the only thing you could  choose between was normal size 6 or 7... in a pack of 6 or 12.

I was slightly overwhelmed when choosing eggs at the store the other day.

Not only did they have a few different brands of organic, free running but inside, chickens fed on this that or the other, and still a shocking amount of caged hen eggs...

But, then the choices also include extra large eggs, extra yellow yolks, brown eggs only. Packets of 4, 6, 8, 10 or 12 eggs (and of course the trays of eggs)

Of course, I have to admit I always secretly preferred the brown eggs, do they taste better? 

I don't know... but I have noticed that the eggs are always all white in Sweden, and it seems to be a novelty thing to get only brown ones.

Well, I thought all this was rather silly, I would prefer to have a more multi-cultural selection of eggs in the carton, no more discrimination!! 

What do you think?

Hunting, but in a nice way.

It seems like a very small blip in time between easter when the very first daffodils and blossoms appeared, and now at the beginning of June the trees are all fluffed up and the grass up to your knees!

The days continue to be streeeeetched longer and longer, we still get 20 minutes more daylight than the previous week!

With the sundown time of around 10pm at the moment, the only complaint that I have is that dinners end up being closer and closer to midnight.
Then, the sun is up again by 4am and you really are grateful for the blackout blinds...

This dramatic change in the seasons is such a fascination to me, though I'll most likely have a bit of a moan about it half way through December.


I have to say that when stuff gets going, it's all on in Gothenburg!

The past few weeks have involved some pretty major events, such as the Megaloppis last Sunday. "Loppis" may very well be one of my favourite words in Swedish! (flea market also brings some pretty fun images to mind)

I did take my camera, but well, it was such a drizzly day... so I didn't take even a single photo! Plus all the stall holders where rushing to cover up their things from the rain making it very difficult to see what was on offer.

I knew it was going to be all over Majorna, but nothing could have prepared me for just how many people there were! On our way home, we discovered that the rest of town was eerily quiet...

I really enjoyed all the home baked cookies the most! (Well maybe not quite all of them...)
I did manage to find a sweet little lamp shade for our awkward little hallway/entrance, once I get the re-wiring sorted out I'll be sure to put up a photo!


I've also been somewhat distracted from blog land, due to job hunting! Yes, finally!

My Swedish lessons are continuing to give me more and more confidence with actually putting it to use, making it come out of my mouth and not just resorting back to English all the time...

I do believe that it's both a blessing and a curse that the Swedes speak such perfect English!

I know that I probably sound a bit funny, but acutally, I'm getting better every day. I have no doubt that being in a working environment, not just learning from books and roleplays in the classroom will improve my Swedish tenfold!

It seems like the best time to start handing out your CV is always yesterday, so out it goes!

My absolute dream job is with homestyling / homestaging.
Basically, dressing a house or apartment with tasteful furnishings to help potential buyers better envisage how large the spaces really are and imagine living there.

You may think that a completely empty room may seem larger, but it really is  the opposite! No one likes to live in a shoe box... A few well placed items makes all the difference.

If I get to work with a job that not only makes me excited, but also inspires others to put a little more thought in to the decor of their new home... *contented sigh* that would just be a dream come true!

What could be better than loving what you do and sharing what you love!?

So, all in the name of research (and spending far too much time online) clicking through hemnet.se I noticed a few houses in particular which didn't just speak to me, they really sang out to me!

Then I realized that the ones I really loved were all from one particular real estate company called Stadshem.

I love how their stylists work perfectly with the mood and age of the apartment, while keeping the furnishings bright, fresh and fun but also neutral enough to appeal to all ages. The bursts of colour are perfect and give each apartment a very unique feel.

Most of all I really adore the mix of retro and the latest home trends. They make me want to buy the apartments with all the furniture and everything in it just as they are!

I really must find out who their interior designers are... maybe they need an apprentice ;)

Here's just one of my favourite apartments:

 

*image from www.hemnet.se

You can see lots more seriously drool-worthy interiors here at Stadshem

I've done enough writing for now!

I'll let you go and dream of living in a perfectly (not too) minimalist, funky apartment! 

Well, I know what I will anyway...

Tell me, what does your ideal home include?