100 happy days :: day 57

when you live in a falling down farmhouse in the countryside that was probably never that nice, even in its prime, it is a pleasure to go somewhere where the house is finished and not only livable, but wonderful and perfect, but still comfortable and inviting in its perfection.

it's a reminder that these things are possible and somehow offers a glimmer of hope that we will get there someday. what we wanted was a project and we definitely have that. and at times, it's not that much fun living in the middle of the project. but we will get there. we too have wegner chairs and lots of candleholders and books. this too will be a wonderful home someday and in the meantime, we can always go for a visit. and that is definitely a happy thought.

ahh perfection

this weekend we attended our annual family kräftskiva. it's a swedish tradition - where you wash down massive amounts of crayfish with loads of snaps, sing drinking songs and generally make merry. it's the one time every year where that whole side of the family gets together - danes and swedes.

the food was beautiful and so were the surroundings. it's always wonderful to gather in the house my father-in-law designed and built when husband was a little boy. it's a special place and i always feel that time slows down and stretches into precisely how much is needed when i'm there.

i should perhaps have dialed down that vibrancy a notch for the bowl of crayfish - that's awfully red - but somehow it captures just how over-the-top and perhaps slightly excessive the giant bowl of crayfish really is.

my sister-in-law always excels at setting a simple, beautiful table. she went out and picked the vines of hops and arranged them artfully just before everyone arrived. and from this shot, you can see that the no boring lamps and no boring chairs scandinavian norm holds true.

it would be easy to be envious of this perfect home (because it is perfect in every detail), but really i'm not. i just truly enjoy it. tho' it did, a couple of times, give me a sinking feeling of how far our own home is from that point and a flash of just how much work remains before we get there - to our own version of what's perfect for us. which will be very different anyway.