Wishful thinking....

Dear reader,

 I had a wonderful, quiet Christmas-evening with my family this year....I finally had some time to spend some time in the kitchen to prepare Christmas dinner. I prepared a nice pumpkin soup, a great stew of venison with homemade potato croquettes and cranberry sauce and ended with my home made chocolate cake....

Everyone enjoyed it ! 

It has been a strange year with lots of ups and downs...looking back on 2013 I must say that I also learned a great deal about a lot of things, but also about people...Overall it was a good year ....We also got a lot of new, interesting & lovely clients who found us through my blog,  for which I am very grateful. 

I also want to thank all my other clients for the confidence they had in us. It always makes me very humble...

As tomorrow is the last day of this year I would like to make some wishes...:

* I wish you all a safe and healthy year

* I wish you an interior filled with the things you love the most

* I wish to find the time to post more on my blog...

* I wish people would  talk less and listen more

* I wish  you all  more quality time

* I wish you all the love you can get ! Given or taken: it's for free !

See you again next year !

Lots of love

Sabine

XXX

To end, I would like to share some impressions of our Christmas....

Oh so lovely blog - free printable calender 2014

How cute is this mint morrocan tile calender? And it´s totally free to print.

 I choose this one for my office.

Go to Oh So lovely blog and choose your designs.

Swedish Christmas Market

I'm sure we all have a pretty good idea about what a German Christmas Market has to offer now that they also seem to pop up around the UK. So, whilst it's probably not radically different, I thought some of you might like to see a traditional Swedish Christmas market.

This one was held in the Medieval town of Sigtuna. This lovely town is on the shores of a big lake and is the oldest town in Sweden. Narrow shopping streets are filled with welcoming cafes and shops and the main street leading up to the town square is where the market was held. A very popular event, the town was rammed full of people. On the whole the market was predominantly hand made goodies mixed with food stalls, the cake stall drew our attention and I do believe we 'had' to buy one of each type of cake, just to sample them all.

a huge variety of different types of wreaths

The little gnome figure can be seen a lot. He is called Tomte and is a mythological figure from Scandinavian folklore associated with the winter solstice. He is three foot tall and is a gift bearer, rather like Father Christmas.

yes, we will have one of each please.

Apologies to this handsome chap for an unflattering photo, he became known as "my future husband" for the times when I dream of marrying a Swedish Viking and run off to live in the mountains. 

these hand felted boots are very similar to the Russian Valenki boot.

Knitwear aplenty, and so lovingly made.

straw ornaments are a very popular feature, either these hanging ones or a horse figure. 

hot nuts anyone?

And then to round off the bright cold day, a sunset to be proud of.

So as they say in Sweden, God Jul to you all, lots of love to everyone who found my blog which I started this year, hope to see you again soon. 

A purchase that Kelly Wearstler would approve of

Dearest all, I am almost due to deliver the baby, and my hormones are going nuts.

I have to organize the whole house and I also went to an antique market yesterday and purchased this marble roman foot. I am so so happy with it. I think this is a purchase that Kelly Wearstler (my decor godess) would approve of.

It is now on my coffee table and it matches my roman painting behind the sofa.

an image of Kelly Wearstlers book Hue, a stone foot on a table.

I am soooo happy to have found a moment to post again. Oh my I missed it.

love xxx

Swedish Windows

This could be rather a long blog, photo-wise, as I saw so many beautiful things in Sweden. As I mentioned before, everyone, and I mean everyone, puts lights in their windows at Christmas. Even shops, offices, you name it, if there's a window they put either a star or an advent light in it. Sometimes one or the other and sometimes both. If this sounds a bit uniform, then I hope these photos will show how individual they can be. I also wanted to show the lovely colour combinations of traditional houses and they way the old houses are painted, I hope this inspires you to do a Swedish window in your house, it cheers up a rather dull and grey time of year, if only everyone in the UK would do it too, lets start the fashion eh?

My first outing was to the cute little town of Sigtuna, there was a Christmas market in the town centre, a separate post will have to cover that so I can go into more details. This little city is the oldest in Sweden, founded in 980, and a prettier place you could not imagine. It has a Medieval town centre with a gorgeous shopping street full of cosy cafes and also a place where you can get big knitted pants !

So onto the lights, here are some pics taken around the area where I was staying just outside of Stockholm. 

apologies to this lady who was watching tv but here windows were fabulous

We had a photo shoot at our favourite backdrop, the hotel called Gorvalns Slott near Stockholm. If you want to treat yourself it is superb, every room decorated in different styles. They had opted for just the star decoration for their windows, very classy.

And yes, it snowed, the first snow of winter for Sweden, so with their winter tyres fitted, their cars plugged into a heater and their snow boots purchased (from Canada funnily enough), the Swedes are set for the white blanket to follow. Yes, that will also have to be a separate post. 

I found and always do, many wonderful things in the charity shops, so I brought back some crochet snowflakes, a cute crochet window valence and some vintage candle lights. Most houses not only put the lights in the windows but drape the inside frame with Christmas curtains and a little valence along the top. Here is my Swedish window. 

In the meantime, off you go and get your windows lit up, you know it makes sense.