Advent

Today is the first day of Advent.  There are four Sunday's before Christmas.  In the Swedish tradition along with  many European cultures they light one of four candles every Sunday before Christmas.


I made my four Advent candle holders today with white glasses.  I  filled them with greenery of moss and pine. 

I'm continuing the tradition with my own little family.  Today I lit the first candle and to celebrate I made Swedish meatballs for dinner.



I also bought a small Christmas tree that sits on our kitchen table.  It is nice having such a small tree.  It smells great and adds a touch of Christmas, not too much.

My grandmother always made Swedish ginger cookies (pepparkakor).  Try saying pepparkakor fast five times, or even one time!  They are a lot of work to make.  Rolling the hard dough into paper thin waffers is time consuming and you need some muscle, but they come out delicious.  I'm going to make the dough tonight.
It needs to chill tonight and so do I.

I don't know why they call them ginger cookies because there is only 2 teaspoons in the whole recipe.  The key ingredient I think is the Molasses.

Here is one of many Swedish ginger cookie recipes out there. 

Title: Swedish Ginger Cookies (Pepparkakor)
 Categories: Cookies, Christmas
      Yield: 10 servings
 
    1/2 c  Molasses
    1/2 c  Sugar
    1/2 c  Butter
      1    Egg, well beaten
  2 1/2 c  Sifted all-purpose flour
    1/4 ts Salt
    1/4 ts Baking soda
    1/2 ts Ginger
    1/2 ts Cinnamon
 
  Heat molasses in small saucepan to boiling point.  The boil 1 minute.
  Add sugar and butter and stir until butter is melted. Cool. Beat in
  egg. Sift together flour, salt, soda and spices. Add to first mixture
  and mix thoroughly. Cover bowl tightly and chill overnight. Roll out
  a portion of the dough at a time on lightly floured pastry cloth.
  Roll out thin. Cut into desired shapes. Bake in a moderate oven (350)
  6 to 8 minutes. Yield: 10 dozen cookies Note: The dough may be shaped
  into a roll and wrapped in waxed paper. Chill thoroughly overnight or
  longer. Slice thin and bake in moderate oven (350). These should be
  stored in an air-tight container - allow flavor to "ripen".

Hope you enjoyed your holiday weekend!

 

A visit to Sweden

My homeland

Only kidding, really it was my grandparents homeland.

Do these colors remind you of anything?...Yes, yes IKEA!



photo's 1,2,3 are google images

My grandmother had these Dala horses in her home.  (Not this big of course)

                  
 I love all things Swedish, except the darkness and cold.


Now, wouldn't you like a little sugar?  Some of these photos are from France but the theme is Scandinavian anyway...




Living Agency




Kjerstis Lyyke Photography (She's Norwiegen but, hey, it's so close) 




Eleish van Breems

I would love one of these mirrors, especially this one with the blue around it.





Home Shabby Home blog
Notice the little faux fur, they have them at IKEA

How about a little Swedish fashion to wear in the beautiful white rooms of Scandinavia...

All fashion from Biskopsgarden

This lovely lady is having a giveaway today d. reyne's


BTW, If you like photography and art subscribe to get my blog in your email and you can have my posts come to you.  It's just at the top of this post on the right.  Thank you for reading!


Now, I'm off to Ikea to buy some Christmas lights and such...Enjoy your day!


 

November days

 The days seem to be speeding by lately.

I feel like Autumn just started and now it feels like we've come so quickly to nearing it's end.

 Yesterday afternoon, my family and I went for a walk at the state park in our town.

 It's a huge park and took us about two hours to walk around it's lake and back.

 We're so lucky to live right in the middle of two state parks, an arboretum and the beach.

This is the manor house.

 Most of the trees have let their leaves fall here.

There was still  a bit of color left to see. 

 We had a lot of fun taking photos.

I'm trying to step out of my box and let others take photos of me too.  I'm really being brave trying to put

some pictures of myself on my blog.

I realize now that I enjoy seeing the people who are narrating their blogs.  I don't just want to look at their living rooms I want to see them and what they are doing at the moment.

It makes a blog so much more personal when people put themselves into their own scenes.  It makes them a part of their own story not just the observer.

So I'm putting myself out there too.  That way you can get to know me, like I would like to know all of you.

 We only brought my little camera and we were taking turns using it .  I was laughing at myself trying to take so many artsy pictures.

But, I have my blog to think about now and a reason to take so many.

 Lucas, he is such a good egg.  He reminds me everyday to be happy because he is the happiest person I know.  He just has such a sunny spirit and a funny personality too.  He cracks us up all the time, but he doesn't realize what he says is funny he just is.

Aidan, he was pouting here.  He is very sensitive.  He loves to talk and questions everything.  He likes to know what makes people tick.  I think he would make a good psychologist.  His downfall, he would like everything to be fair.  This kind of thinking gets him into trouble.   Hopefully he'll soon learn that  NOTHING in life is FAIR!

 He is my baby though and I said when I had my second child that I wanted him to stay a baby longer than Lucas ever did.

  Lucas was always ahead of his time.  He was born huge, a ten pounder!  He was crawling and pulling himself up and walking along the couch at six months old.  He just grew up too darn fast.

I got my wish with Aidan, because he is a mamas boy and likes to be babied.  He also has a little baby voice still, I just love how he sounds. 

 My husband, Frank.  I won't let him get away with escaping the camera anymore.  He has always been the resident photographer in our family.  He always takes tons of photos and there are none of him.

 The light was making everything look so gorgeous I couldn't stop snapping shots.  I'm afraid it's time for me to get a real camera, though,  this little rinky dink one I have is not quite capturing all the beauty that I was seeing.  I think I know what my husband is buying me for Christmas though! :D

I can't even begin to try and express to you how much I love my two boys.  They are so sweet and nice and precious.  They have totally made my life joyful.

 This sign I thought was so cute and funny.

  It gets so dark so early now.  But the sky was an amazing blue.  It was only about four o'clock when I took this shot of the moon.

Time to head home.  Hope you enjoyed the Autumn show for today.

 Embrace the fall before it flies away with the leaves.