In my mother in laws vacation home up in the north of Sweden
(yes, Dalarna where I have been blogging from these past weeks) nothing and I mean nothing has
been done since the 70′.
This could be a great thing or it could be plain ugly.
In this case I must go for the latter.

Now our goal is to redo part of the house and make it warmer for the cold winters
but we havn’t decided on when this is going to happen.

We havn’t made up our minds for the past years.

This year I simply couldn’t stand the brown, dirty- feeling of a kitchen
so I put in 2 days of work and about 800 kronor (100 dollares) worth of material.

The result you can see below.

I painted the cabinets in one of my favourite colors. Alcro Ad Isglass.
It has this 50′ feel about it. Not blue, not green, not grey but like beautiful eyes -all of them together.

The other walls got my favourite shade of pink. A dirty kind of pink.
Matchable with every color I like. A true beauty!
NCS: S2010-r10b

On top of the old vinyl flooring which was used as protection from the water (stänkskydd), I simply
attached dotted oil cloth (oh chocking - oil cloth an dots!  Very inventive Isabelle).
I just used some white small nails to attach it which blended with the dots.

Then I ran around the house for some odd paintings and a beautiful mirror.
I still have to find a good carpet to cover up the ugly vinyl flooring.

One of the paintings my kids cousin made.
A stencil from this photo. He is 13 and was testing stuff out. I love it.
Beppes T-shirt comes from Jennys store - you can buy it here. (click, click).

Ciao, ciao from the Swedish woods!

Remember - just a little bit of color and effort can change a lot!

So what happens at a Swedish midsummer?
Well, we celebrate the summer, we put flowers in our hair.
We eat sill (herring) and we dance around a big pole which is decorated with leaves and flowers.
Very pretty!
And a lot of the swedes get pissed out of their senses.
Not so pretty.

Beppe enjoys his first summer.

Typical for midsummer is strange weather. Still june. Hot and cold. And always rain and sun.
The big midsummer issue is always - if to set the table outside or inside?
Mostly we run in and out. With the food, tables, chairs, decoration and everything else.
Quite a funny picture. Swedish people carrying things inside outside then inside again.
And looking up to the sky praying to the weather God to behave.
We celebrate summer who not always care to show up.

These are some of the things we carried outside… Enjoying a couple of hours chill time in the sun.
Before the rain.

In the afternoon we went to the festivities of the village next to ours.
It starts with loads of strong men raising the decorated pole.

We are celebrating in
Leksand. Leksand has a slogan - The capital of midsummer.
It is very traditional and beautiful.
Just look at these dresses.

Next year I have to try it!

When the pole is in position it is dancing time.

Here I am doing the dance:
The small frogs are funny to watch. (It is true - this is what we sing).
Another one is called three little ladys are going to the market.
(Strange enough this is before everyone gets pissed)

Sun and rain it is.
At midnight the day had a perfect endning with pink and a rainbow!

Now all the sweedes can talk about is that we are heading towards darker times again…

Tomorrow it is midsummer here in Sweden.
I am up north in Dalarna -  a truly beautiful part of Sweden.
I can show more photo’s late of our midsummer celebration but par of it started as a celebration of the summer solstice.

This morning I woke up of the sun flooding trough my window.
I thought that maybe not all of you know that swedish summertime equals sun aorund the clock!

At 04.45 this morning this is what it looked like.

That’s summer night time in Sweden for you foks’!

Well nother moring maybe I cn get my ass out of the house and take even nicer snaps for you all!
xxx

I got this letter from a reader, and thought it was such a fun idea that I really wanted to help her out.

In short: she and her family want to swap houses with a Swedish family for about 3 weeks this summer, and they are offering their own in Singapore for The Swedish family to vacation in.

“Hello!

We’re a family of Australians living in Singapore. We’re embarking on a trip to Sweden this summer, and had an idea. Perhaps instead of booking a hotel, we might find a Swedish family who want to visit the tropics while we visit their place - a house swap is what we had in mind! I am wondering if you might know any Swedes who would be interested, either amongst your friends or through the web site?

Here is some info and photos of us and our home.”

“We are Karen and Richard, and our kids are Finn (2yo) and Anika (4mo).

We live in a “black and white” house in Singapore, which refers to colonial-style bungalows built in the first half of the 20thC.

We have a large back yard and a swimming pool, and since there are kids in the house, there are loads of toys, plus cots, high chairs and other kid-friendly stuff.

One of the biggest advantages of borrowing our house would be that we have a lovely live-in maid and nanny, Jean, who will be at the service of our houseguests (provided she is treated with respect, of course). Here’s Jean with Finn and some wild chickens that sometimes roam through our yard:

We love our little home, and think it would make a great pad for a family holiday. It’s just west of the city, near Alexandra Rd, if you want to look it up on Google Maps. You can make quick trips to the Singapore Zoo, Sentosa and other such

There are three bedrooms currently set up with beds, but there are an additional two rooms that could be set up. The house is split across two small buildings, the second of which has two spare rooms + Jean’s room. Both buildings have a bathroom, with a tub in the main house.

We are hoping to stay in Sweden for two to three weeks, and are open to different locations. A home that is reasonably child-friendly, and could sleep the four of us is what we seek.

Anyhow, it’s a long shot, but worth a try :-)!

All the best to you,
Karen and Richard”

Contact: karenlgould

@gmail.com

In our village there is really just one place to go for the opportunity to meet new people while getting a cup of coffee.
And that is the village church, twice a week you can take your kids there to play while you can enjoy a cup of coffee.
And that is where I first met Sophie and Patric. The couple that people around here knew as “Stockholmarna” (=people from Sweden´s capitol city Stockholm).
We started talking and instead of being just neighbors we became friends.

With an apartment in Stockholm they started looking for a summer house in the south part of Sweden. And ended up buying a 300 year old run -down house with dirt floor that was far from livable. For the following years they worked on it during vacations and in-between jobs.
And when they had baby Iris they decided to skip the city for a while and live in the summerhouse full time.

Click the image below to start the slideshow with text or click the small thumbnails for single photos.