Traveling back in time, hard work and lots of love

Hi my lovelies. I traveled back in time, to another spring and early summer on another latitude, Sweden. Rapeseed fields in full bloom, lilacs just starting... What a privilege to see it all one more time.

I arrived to a garden with high growing grass, green and lush. My Dad took out my brothers' lawn mower and got to work. He is good like that. The goal for this trip was to arrange sleeping places for everyone as we will have visitors from the US this summer. But I managed to do so much more than that. I'm quite amazed and very proud of all I managed to do on my most recent Sweden trip:

• I fixed (well my brother did... not me) a water leak in the bathroom
• I got rid of my old sofa and my TV chair
• I bought a new bed sofa second hand
• Me and my brother picked up the new sofa and put it in my house
• I painted my living room white
• I bought blankets, pillows and bed sheets for our US guests
• I bought new curtains for the living room
• I made the living room pretty
• I cleaned the house from spider web and dust bunnies
• I sorted and organized all drawers in the kitchen
• I wrote a list of what I will be hunting on "loppis" this summer: a small table for laying puzzles, an old cabinet with glass doors to store our textiles, a neat little TV chair, puffs for the living room, breakfast bowls, pretty pitchers, Carl Larsson art, Swedish art motives for my collection, puzzles, board games and more.

On top of all this I also managed to "fika" a lot with my brothers, sister-in-law, dad and a bunch of nephews and a niece. The only thing I didn't do was sitting on my veranda and crochet. Because there was no time. I worked hard from early morning getting up before 7am and not going to bed until midnight... And it was soooo worth it.

When we bought this house in 2014 it came with EVERYTHING included. A fully equipped kitchen, fully furnished and with a machine park out of this world for the garden and any handyman work needed. We only bought some new bed sheets and that was it. We could step right in and just live. It was perfect. After that first summer I strongly felt a need to make it our own. Bring in our own style, color and feel to it. But there is just so much you can do when you are on vacation. Your time is limited between family fun and excursions, relaxation and just being... hardly no time left over for big projects. So whenever I can squeeze in a short trip like this, I stay focused and get things done.

Our first year I freshened up the guest cottage where the kids sleep. Last year I transformed the veranda and Jay cleared out the sheds from old tools, junk and stuff we just don't need. And now I have also made our living room all nice and fresh. I wonder what we will do next? A terrace at the back of the house? A hall make over? Pimp up the kitchen? Or maybe add another guest house for future guests? Well, we're not lacking projects, that's for sure. I love this place and the projects that comes with it, and then I love it even more... It is a true love affair our summer house in Sweden.


PS  1: My super bonus on this trips was to hang out with my cute nephews, watch the glitter in my brother Thomas' eyes when he caught a super big wild salmon out at sea. And lots of laughter, bear hugs and great conversation. My family rocks!

PS 2: My latest WiP grew quite a bit on my flight to and from Sweden. Crochet love on an airplane. :)

Kärlek
Annette

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