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Sometimes it's not necessarily the large objects that can transform a space in your home. I find that sometimes it's the small things that can make a big difference in a room. After all, it's those personally chosen little details that really make a home.
I found these fun home accessories on Pottery Barn's website:
An oversized rolling pin
A ferris wheel
A vintage camera
All images from www.potterybarn.com
Setting the table for several people every lunch and dinner (a few times indoors but mostly outdoors) requires some basic tricks to keep the table looking inspiring and pretty. Here are a couple of things I found on Martha Stewart's website that I really like (instructions can be found on the website):
Patterned napkin rings
Personalized votives
Images from www.marthastewart.com.
The weather during the past few weeks has been amazing in the Stockholm area! The evenings have been warm and the sun has been shining until late at night. Like I've written before, we've had many barbecues during the past weeks. I had to share these photos with you taken at a couple of last week's dinners.
Some Sweet Peas strewn on the dinner table by the water on my sister-in-law's birthday (the theme of the day was pink, her favourite colour).
Chicken in my husband's delicious sweet marinade on the barbecue.
Another beautiful sunset.
I'd like to introduce you to Alice. She is the sweetest, funniest, smartest puppy I've met and I'll probably be blogging about her quite a bit in the future. If you're thinking that she is my own dog, unfortunately you're wrong... But she's the next best thing - my Mom and her husband's newest addition to the family.
Alice turned 16 weeks yesterday and moved into their house on Friday evening. When my husband and I came out to their house for the weekend, we had no idea that they had gotten a puppy. As we were unloading the car, a small energetic bundle of cuteness ran up to us and started circling our feet. It was a great surprise!
The reason they wanted to surprise us was that we'd spent the previous weekend talking about how much we wished we had a bigger home so that we could get a black Labrador puppy. You can imagine how happy we were to be able to spend the weekend playing with Alice!
It seems to be a good berry year this year! I spent part of the weekend picking berries at my Mom's house in the countryside. They have so many berry bushes in their garden but the white, red and black currants and raspberries are ripe at the moment (and very tasty!):
We only picked a small amount and have to spend many more hours picking berries as they ripen. Fabulous! I also read that it's a good blueberry year so I'm going to have to head into the forest areas to try to find some soon. With these we made black currant jam and ate the raspberries just like that and popped the rest in the freezer for making pies or jam in a few weeks' time.
My Mom's delicious rhubarb syrap (to be diluted with water like lemonade).
This evening we had a nice boat ride into Stockholm from the island where we've been relaxing for a while now with my husband's family. On board the old steamboat Storskär we enjoyed a traditional archipelago meal of fried herring and mashed potatoes (yummy!). It was lovely going against the "traffic" of visitors heading the opposite direction (away from the city for the weekend) because the boat wasn't crowded at all which is unusual this time of year.
Here are some pics of the boat Storskär (an old steamboat built in 1908):
Images from www.waxholmsbolaget.se
Tomorrow we're heading out to my Mom's place in the countryside surrounded by wheat fields and pastures. Here's a pic from her place taken a few weeks ago:
Have a great weekend!
My sweet sister-in-law's boyfriend put his technical talent to work last night and installed wireless internet at my in-laws' country house in the Stockholm archipelago. This is me online from the island for the first time! We're having a wonderful vacation (thanks for your comments and well wishes for our time off!) and enjoying the nice weather and good company of friends and relatives. Days are spent outdoors as much as possible and evenings eating delicious food (and the occasional glass of wine...).
We've mostly been living on barbecued food for the past week and a half and before I post a full report with pics from my vacation, here's a pic from Martha Stewart's website showing barbecued chicken wings and baby back ribs (looks yummy!). If you want to try these two, you can find the recipes on her website.
'Til next time, keep enjoying your summer!
Image from www.marthastewart.com
I'm on a super short visit to the city to water our plants on the balcony and pick up some things. We've just spent a fantastic weekend in the Stockholm archipelago with amazing weather (HOT!). I've been doing all my favourite things: reading a book and magazines, sunbathing (interrupted by the occasional cooling swim) and eating good food accompanied by delicious wine! I don't see how life could get much better than that and I feel thoroughly spoiled at the moment!
After a few lazy days, I'm going to need a few smaller projects. This evening's project will be to make Elderflower syrup (or Fläderblomssaft as it's called in Swedish) that can be diluted with water to make a sort of Elderflower lemonade. It's one of my favourite summer drinks (to make the adult version simply substitute water with vodka or gin and lots of ice!).
As inspiration, I'm bringing with me this book (it's in Swedish but for you Swedish readers, I can recommend this book) which is all about making syrups, jams, jellies and other preserves.
I'll post another update in a few days! Until then, hope you're enjoying your summer!
My vacation begins today! I'm leaving you with a pic of where I'm heading in a few minutes. Yay! We're going out to the Stockholm archipelago for a few days of sun, swimming and laziness. I've stocked up on magazines and books I've been saving and I just bought myself a sun hat!
I'll check in after the weekend sometime (which is when I have to dart back into the city to give my poor heat suffering plants some water or they'll die). I wish you all a great weekend wherever you are!
Today was a really hot day in Stockholm (the hottest this year so far!) and a bad day to decide to go shopping in town amongst all the tourists and in super warm shops. However, it paid off since I made a great purchase! For a long time I've wanted to get plastic mats in a funky colour for our balcony and today I found just the right colour - blue (well, turquoise actually which is one of my favorite colours).
Here are my blue pics for today - my new mat and a gift I gave to my husband yesterday on his birthday, a waterpipe.
