Midsummer Frenzy!

For all of you who've never celebrated a Swedish Midsummer - well, this is pretty much what it's like!

No Midsummer celebration is complete without some lovely old men playing instruments. The accordion (in the middle) is my favorite.

You definitely need music, because with no music, dancing around the maypole just ain't the same.

Typical Midsummer accessory: flowers in the hair. All the little ones always look like princes and princesses.

Another typical Midsummer accessory: a kid with flowers in the hair.

Apparently, the don't celebrate Midsummer in Colombia. My boyfriend's brother showed his girlfriend how to fit in perfectly. Step one: dancing! That, they do i Colombia.

Diana seemed to have a good time. Here, she's showing her boyfriend something on her phone. Why? I have no idea. I was busy taking photos.

My Midsummer crew!

When the whole maypole business got a little old, we went back to the house and had so much delicious food that I had to go upstairs and pass out for two hours afterwards before I was fit for another round. I know, I'm getting old. But hey! Then more people came by and we celebrated Midsummer for two more days, and I didn't fall asleep once! (...except at night. But come on, that doesn't count.)

A Midsummer Day's Dream.

Flower print dress and black belt, Gina Tricot. Black leather sandals, Nilson. Black bowler hat, Monki.

Midsummer calls for a flower print dress, and as you can see, I answered! Yesterday was great, a lot more relaxed and low-key than most years, but I think that's exactly what I needed. Photos will follow - I feel like it's my duty to give you a taste of what a traditional Swedish Midsummer can look like! :)

At the moment, I'm sort of freaking out, because I can't find one of my cats (my little girl, Biianka). Our guests went into Stockholm for the day to do some sightseeing, and when I came home from driving them to the train station, only Baryshnik was here to welcome me back. Guess I'll spend my precious work hours in the forest, trying to find what tree that bastard Sotis has forced her to hide in this time. Gaah, Sotis... I can not even begin to tell you how much I truly hate that cat. We had quite the cat debacle here yesterday, because of him, and I'm not looking forward to another one.

But before I go on another cat rescue mission, let me just say how glad I am to put this dress into good use! I bought it years ago but I've only worn it once before - it's a little bit too big and I never figured out how to make it live up to its potential. But with the semi-wide belt too hide the excess fabric, I think I finally succeeded! I love the fresh print and the flowy material, the ruffles and the crossed back straps. I will admit that the point of the hat was mostly to hide the fact that I just couldn't make my bangs look good, but I do think it tied the outfit together pretty neatly, with the black belt and sandals.

Today's to do-list:

1) Find my kitty.  EDIT: Yay, it started raining and Biianka came back by herself!
2) Get some work done.
3) Throw a fabulous shellfish party!

PS. Everyone who's on Facebook - please make the dreams of my lovely friend and super stylish fellow blogger Barbro Andersen come true! All you have to do is click "like" on her photo here. It will only take a second and it would mean the world to her! DS.

I never promised you a rose garden.

Rose print dress, H&M (really old!). Oh, and the heels are also from H&M. Pink lipstick by Rival de Loop Berlin.

It's 2:15 AM when I'm writing this. Everyone is sleeping, except for me and Biianka (my kitty) - no, wait, looks like she's fallen asleep, too.

I was in such a rush earlier today when I snuck out to take these photos, right before we got in the car to pick up Ronnie's brother Richard's girlfriend Diana from the airport (she's from Colombia but lives in Madrid, and this is the first time we've met her - turns out she's such a brilliant girl!). The lighting was terrible, but at least we got quite a bit of sun. I love it when the forecasts are wrong about the constant raining. As you might have guessed, the weird editing is the result of the photos being of way worse quality than they normally are. I didn't have the time to find a better camera angle to make the best of the poor lighting, and also, instead of spending half an hour on the shoot, I took the photos in five minutes. Sorry, I'll stop making excuses... right now!

This dress has been my "Midsummer go-to dress" for years and years now. There's just something about it that I think captures the essence of this Swedish holiday: it's simple, approachable, romantic and it positively screams "it's suuuummertiiiime!". To me, Midsummer is about exactly that: it's not fancy or ceremonius, with expensive food and rules to follow; it's all about being around the people you love, having fun, enjoying eachother's company and the fact that summer is finally here.

I've had this dress for ten years and it's become sort of a tradition in it's own to wear it on Midsummer, but this year, I decided to change it up a bit and wear it the day before the holiday instead. Yeah, being all wild and crazy, right?! I have yet to pick out a dress for tomorrow, but I wouldn't be surprised if I end up in another flower print dress... I mean, come on, why change a winning concept.

Time to get some sleep - I need to be well rested and full of energy tomorrow!

(Oh, and when I say "tomorrow", I'm talking about Friday. I'm scheduling this post to be published at 2 pm, local time. Which means that when you read this, I've already stuffed my face with herring, early potatoes, salmon, strawberries and vanilla icecream and am probably dancing around a maypole at this very moment!)