Impressions Christmas Market Älmhult

Good times on the Christmas Market in Älmhult this year. Nice handmade products, good music, very good organisation. About 50 stands and 3500 visitors on Sunday and 1750 on Sunday.

We made a lot of Christmas decorations for in and outside. A big assortiment of wreaths and other designs in a colorfull or in a natural way!

Julmarknad Älmhult 8 och 9 december 2018

Välkommen på en riktig Smålandsk julmarknad. Vi ska bli med...Saskia BloemArt and Antz Creations. Kommer du också?

Welcome on a real Smålands Christmas Market. And we will be there...Saskia BloemArt and Arntz Creations. Do you come and visit us?

Sneak preview Christmas decorations for Julmarknad Älmhult 2018

Looking for inspiration? For Christmas Decorations?

Last weeks we have been preparing for the Christmas Market in Älmhult on 8 and 9 december 2018. At first we looked for inspiration, later for good ideas and materials and at last the making off starts.... I'm very satisfied with the results, we made big modern things, and some small. On the market you can find some classic with a twist too. But after all it's all very natural. Like me. I hope you like it too :)

Maybe this is the first step to my dream, to create and sell creative handmade naturel products...

Vi ses på Julmarknad i Älmhult 2018!

vecklat krans or Wreath

Modern krans / Contemporarely wreath

Väggdekoration / walldecoration

What is Julskyttning?

Finally, it is the First Advents Day in Sweden. Every one has been longing for this day. But why?

It's a sort of starting upp Christmas time...Time to put on the lights in the Christmas tree on the Market place of every town in Sweden. It is very nice to have some light in this dark period, I can assure you...

All the people come together and drink some glögg (warm red wine with herbs) and nuts.You can have warm black current drinks too...
Of course there is Christmas music playing and a lot of market stalls where you can buy sweeties (warm sugared mandel) or Christmas presents and Santa Claus wil appear as well. Sometimes even Lucia will show up...It is  very cosy atmosphere, they call it Adventsmys.

DIY Förjulhygge? Sort of before Christmas Cosiness?

Do you need some inspiration for DIY natural Christmas decorations? I'm preparing for a Christmas Market in the beginning of december. You can already take a sneak preview of the making off...

In Norway and Sweden they call it førjulhygge or förjulhygge. Let's say a sort of before Christmas cosiness. Do you want to feel it yourself? Even the making of is fun. Just give it a try....

Big contemporary natural wreath

Contemporary natural heart

Natural Christmas Deco on table or door

Jultomte or Christmas Troll

Table deco

How to keep mouses outside of your house?

Excellent house mouse protection

When you are living on the country side it is very important to keep the mouses and rats outside of your house. We live on the countryside in Sweden and we have seen a lot of mouses outside. But we like to keep it that way. I'v seen a lot of metods, but this is the best one till now.
Just put an special power plug on every floor in the house, as you can see on the picture.You connect it on your electricity network. It gives a signal you cannot hear, but mouses and rats don not like it. In our house we have only two for about 100 m2. It works perfect!

Of course you still have to put away your food properly anyway....

Have you ever heard of Brittsommar?

Last week I read about Brittsommar in Sweden. I really didn't know what they are talking about. I thought it was a sort of celebration day for something of some one. They also have Kanelsbullens Dag on the 4th of October. So why not another special day?

I was really close. The Swedish Weather Forecast says there is Holy Birgitta who thought the climate in the North was so cold and hard that she prayed for the people living there. God answered he will give some extra summer days around Birgittas day on 7 October.

This name is only known in Sweden. There's not an exact definition but for the Swedish Weather Forecast it is necessary the warm and sunny period (over 20 degrees) follows a period of autumn like weather and lower temperatures around the 7th of October. Only this periode can you call Brittsommar. Like Indian Summer in the USA and Canada.

Well I can tell you, we had a real Brittsommar in South Sweden this year, it was very sunny with 20 degrees. What a wonderful week in Autumn. I like it!

Lake Flyxen on the 13th of October

Really warm 20 degrees, a real Brittsommar

Can you eat this chantarelle? Toptips!

Chantarelle? Wright or wrong?

One of the most asked questions when people start picking swamps. Is this one eatable? Or is it toxic? It's fun to go into the woods in Sweden, a lot of people do. Chantarelles are my favourites, they are really delicious to eat. Only bake it with some butter, peppar and salt.

Tips to recognize a chantarelle:
1. the colour is light yellow (not orange)
2. your can smell aprikos
3. the lamels don't stop on the stalk
4. it is not round like a pancake

So the left one is the wrong one (but it is not toxic), at the right the one you can eat!

Feeling autumn again...

What a Swedish quote... "Autumn learns us how beautiful it can be to let go". I found it on the Land website of land magasin. And it is so true. But it's not easy... You can feel the autumn approaching. It is getting fresher and more wet. But its difficult to imagine you soon will be inside a lot of time. After a very nice, very warm and long summer. It takes a little time to go with the flow.

But ok, it's time to go inside again. I will try to be outside at much as possible, to pick some swamps, get some autumnal leaves and prepare my garden for winter. And stay inside to think about next steps in my life in Sweden. Make new plans, think about a lot of things. When the leafs are falling, it is time to slow down, to take a step back again. To prepare for the next spring again.

I will try to make it as comfortable as possible inside. Maybe there are nice autumn recipes we can have a taste of. I'm more in the mood for tasty cheeses and nuts now. Or to cook a nice pasta with ham, swamps and cream. I can already taste the apple pie with cinnamon and a warm ginger tea. I also left a lot of things inside unfinished because of the nice summer....I have some books to read, some furniture to renovate, and oh yes we we're renovating the old Swedish winter windows.
I think it is ok it wil be autumn soon....I will have some candles on 😄

#autumn #feeling #letitgo #timetoslowdown

Loppis Rally Vittaryd Sweden

Today there is a loppis rally in our village and around. It is a loppis (second hand selling which is very popular in Sweden) from your own property. I like this idea very much so I decided to join. There are about 20 people sellers in and around Vittaryd Småland Sweden. We had about 60 visitors and even sold some things in a great atmosphere. Let's see it as a start..

Do you want to see some pictures? Do you like it? Hope to see you next year 👀

So I put some vintage laundry outside...

Made a shelter, in cse of some rain...

Put my vintage stuff on some tables

And tried to sell old tools (which I found in my barn when moving in)

Nice picture or? A typical Smalands view...  

Wild flower bouquet

I just picked it in the garden. What a nice colors, just growing naturally beside of my garden in the middel of Småland. What a luxury!

DIY Very tasteful black current syrup

You have to try this one...black current syrup in 20 minutes!

In our garden we have 5 black current bushes. We think they are all ready very old but they still give a lot of berries. This year even more as last year, about 8 liters. Last year we pruned them a little, we took they old branches out, to make them some younger. You really could see that because the berries were some bigger, despite of the very dry summer.

We make black current syrup of them. You can find the recipe below. Really tasty as a drink with some cold water or as a syrup in a yogurt. Last year we put some berries on brandy, but the taste was a little to strong for us. But we added some syrup and then you get really nice black current liquor. You need to drink it soon, otherwise the sugar will be converted to alcohol again. Skål!

Making of...

Black Currant Syrup

Black Currant Liquor

Recipe Black Current Syrup
1 liter black current berries
2 dl sugar
4 dl water

Just cook the berries with water and sugar for 15 min maximum. Take them out through a siev, throw the pulp away en put the syrup in a bottle as hot as possible. Close the bottle, turn it upside down and you can save it for at least some months.

Summer heat in Sweden

It's really very very very warm in Sweden. It has been over 30 degrees for a lot of days.
We started to have siesta some days ago because it is too warm to do anything. Only in early morning or evening time you can do some things...



But also a lot of people had no water left in their waterwell. They had to take a bad in the lake, get some water from the lake to flush the toilet and buy water to drink and cook.
The level of the water dropped down about a meter below normal level.

Most severe were the fires in the forests all over Sweden. Some days it were 80 at the same time. That's quit serious when you know that most of the people are living in wooden houses. Sweden was very happy we got much help from other countries in Europe.
It was not longer allowed to make open fires anywhere r have a grill in your own garden, not even electric or on gas. You would get a big penalty! We were very happy nothing serious happened in our neighborhood.

DIY My first selve made Greenery in Sweden

This is the first year I started sawing seeds inside early March. Maybe a little too early because the snow left late, beginning of April. But despite of that, with some help of me, a lot of them managed to get outside. Some carrots, rocketsalat, basil, onions and some flowers. Now they have to grow in the kitchen garden. We started to make one in the back of the garden. Because of the deer we need to fence it. I really hope they will succeed. Keep my fingers crossed.

DIY Elderflowersyrup

Yes, we made it ourselves... and it is very easy going. It is very nice when you are thirsty on a hot summer day.

You need:

• 10-20 elderflower blossom (pick them in June on a dry day)
• 1 lemon
• 600 gr sugar
• vanille essence
• 6 dl water

Even more flowers wil make it more tasty. You need the sugar to keep it over longer, you can use less when you drink it soon (in 1-3 days).

How to fix:

• Clean the lemon, make slices. Put it with the flowers in a big pan or small but clean hink.
• Cook the water with the sugar till the sugar has disappeared. Put in just a little vanilla essence.
• Put all together with the flowers and cover it.
• Leave it for 3-4 days in normal room temperature.
• Take of all the flowers with a sief and put the syrup in clean cooked bottles.

You can even make summerpunch out of it, just put in some white wine and soda just before drinking. Cheers!

A queen page in my garden

I have never seen this butterfly before, a Queen page. I heard about it, it's not often seen. Today it landed on a flower in my garden. What a natural beauty! I found out you can see it in Sweden when you are lucky....

My Lovely Garden life

What a nice weather, what a nice spring, what an energy. A lot of things to do, but what a fun. Everything is growing, flowering and celebrating live. Like me, this is what I dreamed about 😍
Even I had to kil a mole because it was destroying my lawn...

mole