It hasn't been raining for weeks, it is rather windy, and the dry grass from last year would probably need water far more than fire, but that's how it is. Bonfires will be lit all over Sweden this evening (at least in the areas where it is allowed by the local fire departments), some people will enjoy barbequed sausages or something similar, some will drink far more alcohol than necessary, and choirs will sing the traditional "Valborg" songs — all of it (well, perhaps not the part about alcohol) in the honour of spring.

Our family will spend this evening at some friends' house, probably taking a short walk to the nearest bonfire (which we're not sure whether or not it will be lit) and have some sausages with the rest of the people present. Children will be running around and there will probably be some fireworks as dusk slowly emerges. Happy "Valborg" everyone!

We're planning our holiday in Berlin at the moment and we've decided on the apartment above. It is fairly centrally located within reach of most things we'd like to see, so I think it will suit us just fine. It will be really great to be able to show the boys Berlin and we're just hoping that the weather will be nice and that they will like it just as much as we do.

So... this is the yoga equipment I ended up buying (well, the black trousers I already had): very light cotton tops in various colours, a pair of green and a pair of grey cotton pants, all of it from H&M. Today I received my new Casall yoga mat from Stadium, and I really look forward to trying it out tomorrow morning. A extremely light white yoga travel mat and the cream white cotton yoga rug will hopefully arrive mid May from Yoga Matters, just in time for our upcoming travels.

We've just been offered the possibility to rent the house we have all fallen in love with. T. and I visited it last Friday and really liked it. The boys have seen a bunch of photos, showing for instance some rather large rooms which would be theirs, which they really liked. The house is definitely big enough for us, the area is really nice, and school is only 200 metres away. It feels great and we're just hoping that the contract negotiations will go well, too.

UPDATE: T. and I have now signed the contract and sent it to the owners of the house. They will hopefully sign it as well and then send one of the copies back to us. If this all goes through, we will have access to the new house on July 1st and move out of our current apartment on July 31st at the latest.

New or old, colourful or more subdued... I find all of these snippets of inspiration... well, inspiring.

A bowl, "Skyn", and small vases, "Lantställe", are new items from IKEA. The beautiful image bottom left is borrowed from Denise Grünstein's book 59 buketter från min trädgård — och lite till. Joseph Bentley's planting tools were found at Garden Home, Ingegerd Råman's light bulb at Shoppinggatan, the beautiful bowl and plates come from Mateus, the olive soap from L'Occitane, the sofa from Ilva, and, last but not least, the Ester necklace and the JellyBean cake-dish are both from Design Online. The photo of the cherry blossoms were taken by me last Wednesday. Spring is really here.

We're enjoying a wonderfully warm and sunny day, 24°C/75,2°F, and spending some time with the family feels great. Tomorrow we're heading back home to slightly cooler temperatures, but I'm sure that will seem tolerable at least for a while longer. Summer is indeed on its way.

Easter decorations from Indiska, Village, Jotex, and Sagaform at DesignOnline.

Friday. The sun is shining and it's warm outside. It feels great right now. I've tried to tie up a few loose ends today and I have also begun to invite people to the big dinner party at the end of May.

In the middle of it all I'm still rather enamoured by the white and blue colour combination I blogged about earlier and when H&M released their new Conscious Collection I was really happy to see a new, crisp white tunic exactly in the design I've been looking for. The blue and white scarf also comes from H&M. The blue jacket was found at Esprit, the brown Esprit clogs were found at Ellos, and the Bvlgari au thé Blanc perfume comes from Amazon.

The big project I've been working on for almost five years has been completed and I'm so happy! Now I believe it's time for a nice meal and some cake. I'm really happy to be able to share this moment with my family.

We went to look at the houses yesterday and I can't say that we were any closer to making a decision afterwards than we were before. The older one of the houses is really nice and it has all the space we want, but it is clearly not in the location where I would want us to live. The local school has a pretty bad reputation and we could see that the area is not that nice either. The newer house, on the other hand, is in a location that is really good with really good schools in the vicinity, but the house itself is unfinished, which really puts T. off the idea. The children like the older house far better than they like the new one, so that doesn't help much either. I guess it's simply chaos in my head right now. We need to make a decision soon, however, and I'm not sure what options we might otherwise have. Phew.

UPDATE: We decided not to take any of them. Keeping our fingers crossed for other options.

Friday evening. It has been another busy day at the end of yet another busy week, but it has been a good and productive one. Today's topic no doubt mirrors my feeling of having had a bit too much to do and my wish to take it easy for a while. I do think the whiteness and the organic shapes of sarapaloma's beautiful Nesting Bowls, which can be found on Etsy, have a calming and relaxing effect. Aren't they wonderful?

For some reason I feel like wearing summery blues and whites at the moment. The crisp white of the shirt and the clean lines of the blue dress appeal to me. Both the white shirt and blue dress can be found at Asos. I think the blue and white bag from Nelly looks really cute as do the slip in super highs from Swedish Hasbeens. To continue on the list of things I like at the moment I ought to mention the linen scarf and sunglasses from Esprit and the thin metal silver belt from La Redoute also looks great. Now I'm kind of looking forward to summer...

Paradisverkstan always make beautiful things and I went to their website to see whether they had any news this Spring. When we're on Öland in the summertime we never miss the opportunity to browse their shop just south of the bridge and I often find a thing or two to bring with us home. We might not be able to be there that often when we move away from where we now live, but perhaps we can continue to go there at least once a year. Öland is a beautiful island, and the "paradise workshop" and their shop is a wonderful place to visit.

I've been working really hard today, but I've managed to finish what I set out to do and it feels great. Now it's Friday evening and a nice, relaxing weekend lies ahead of us. To top it all off, Arkitektens fritidshus ("The Architect's summer house"), written by Kenneth Kauppi, was delivered by mail today and I really look forward to relaxing on the couch slowly leafing through this huge, beautiful book with its amazing photos.