The past two summers, I've been fortunate to have the opportunity to photograph the most wonderful family who happen to live in Stockholm, Sweden. Just last month they were in Oregon again and I shot their family photos. Upon our mention that we'd be traveling to Sweden, Pauli invited us to stay with them. It was a generous offer and we happily accepted. We spent two very fun, giggle, silly, girly evenings with them.

One great thing about staying with a family in Stockholm was that we got wonderful recommendations for where to go and (more importantly) where to eat. When Pauli told us about Rosendals Kafé, we knew that was where we needed to go. It's the most incredible café tucked into the most extraordinary garden! They make food straight from their gardens, it's always in season, and it was spectacular! The menu changes daily depending on what's available. It was such an inspirational place. Without intending to we spent nearly our whole day there.




We ate our wonderful food in the garden where we made new friends and Gigi ran and played. Then we browsed through the shop, I wanted to buy the cookbook for the café but they didn't have it in English. We picked up a sweet treat for later and then walked the grounds, meandering along paths until we found our way to the ferry.




We took the ferry across to Gamla Stan, or the Old Town area of the city. It was pretty touristy but there was a lot of people watching to do. We wandered and walked until late afternoon when we decided to head back to Pauli's home to make dinner for her and the girls.




Stockholm is such a beautiful city. We only got to spend one amazing day there but it's on my list of places I hope to visit again and again.

Later this week I'll share some photos and stories from here in Edinburgh, Scotland and I have a new recipe and cooking video to share too!

Last weekend we made some major progress on the patio!  As you may recall, Kyle's folks helped us get the patio are prepped and I complied lots of inspiration (here).  Between the baby, the rain and the trips, it took us a bit to find the time to get to work.  But last weekend we busted out the reggaetón and the Pacifico and we made the patio!  We still have all the decorating work to do but here's a look at what we've done so far...

Kyle leveling and measuring.

While Kyle got the foundation ready, I stained all the pavers.

Gigi (and Sophie) watching from the sidelines.

We poured in the sand and leveled it.

Once the sand was perfectly level we started placing all the pavers.  This was fast and fun because we could really see the end in sight!  

We celebrated the completed patio with a mini barbecue!  I love the way it turned out.  We can't wait to dress it up a bit and complete the oasis.  Hopefully we can get the decorating done in the next couple of weeks.  We also started on our kitchen remodel.  September is gonna be crazy.  We are redoing our whole kitchen and tearing up the carpet to put in laminate flooring!  We spent five hours at Ikea yesterday and ordered the kitchen.  I'll post a kitchen remodel post soon.  It's so much fun working hard to make our house even more enjoyable.  

Right now, this is what our patio/backyard looks like.

It's hard to maintain the grass and it's not a very fun place to hang out and relax.  Along the side of the house is a bark pathway which I'd like to change to gravel.  We are very limited in funds right now so we are attempting to create a backyard oasis on a budget.  The goal is to have a low-maintenence patio area that is ideal for reading, working and playing during the day and relaxing, eating and sipping wine in the evening.

We borrowed this book...

 ...from our friends and Kyle and his parents spent Fourth of July weekend prepping the patio space.

While they were working outside, I was inside taking care of the baby and searching for inspiration. I found this image online via Sunset Magazine and found that it came with great instructions for staining inexpensive concrete pavers!  Perfect.

We decided to do a simple, classic black and white checkered pattern.  We ordered the pavers and got the paint and supplies.  We are now waiting on the pavers to arrive.  

I love these simple lights.  You get a country lantern/lightning bug effect and it's really inexpensive!

I also want to build a small staging area against the back of the house for setting food, wine and board games when we have friends over for dinner.  We will use inexpensive wood to do it... I couldn't find any photos to show what I mean so you'll just have to wait for the real deal.  I also have a few other aesthetic tricks up my sleeve that will really help transform this patio into a little oasis.

I will have the grand reveal for you in a couple of weeks!

Source: gravel pathway, checkered patio, kitchen floor, jar lights