Sunflower, Flamingo and Gnome
I have to say, I’m pretty proud of all the costumes this year. More photos to come:)
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Video: Pumpkin fun: carving + roasting seeds
Pumpkin carving
Yesterday my hubby and I carved pumpkins. So much fun! We both decided to carve out more classic Halloween faces. We have a third pumpkin, and that one will be a Thor carving, if I can figure out a good way to do it:)
I wanted to use the whole pumpkin. We roasted seeds the last time and I actually followed my own suggestion from this blog post from 2013. They didn’t turn out the same way, I think I used a bit too much oil, but they taste awesome, almost tastes like popcorn. And then we googled what to do with the pumpkin guts. Lots of suggestions on making face masks or do pumpkin juice, and neither sounds fun. I saved the guts and stored it in the fridge for now cause I don’t want to waste food, but I really don’t know what to do with it. Do you have any suggestions?
I filmed all of it, so hopefully I can create a video for you guys and if so, it will be up on Wednesday evening. Now it’s time to take little stinky butt out for a walk. Have an awesome day!
Pumpkins
We drove to Edens Farm & Nursery Garden, about 7 minutes away from our apartment. We expected a lot of cute pumpkin stuff, but we had no idea that this place went all in. There were sheep, a hay maze, a haunted house thing, a hot dog stand, a hay ride and lots of pumpkins. A fun thing for families for sure. And the lady who I guess owns it actually remembered us:)
We didn’t find any good big pumpkins, but they had great medium size ones, so we got three plus two small ones. One of the small ones I bought a few weeks ago is kinda dead, so it was nice to find two new ones for decorations in the apartment (I do that every year). After the farm visit, we drove to the shopping area near our home and bought pumpkin carving tools and some stuff for our Halloween costumes. I’m exited for pumpkin caving. I have done it once before, like two-three years ago, and it’s really fun. Maybe we’ll do it tomorrow.
Today is Midsummer
Photo from 2013, Midsummer on Manhattan.
I think this failed photo shows exactly what Midsummer is:)
I’ve heard that there is a lot of Scandinavians in Connecticut, so I wanted to check if there is a Midsummer celebration around here. My husband is working all day, so my plan was to prepare food and make a flower wreath headband during the day and when J comes home we could either go to a possible Midsummer celebration somewhere or just celebrate at home on our terrace with good Swedish food and listen to old Swedish music.
The yoga studio I go to offered me a free workshop because of the whole “no morning yoga” thing (on May 17th). I saw a few days ago that the class is 7:15 PM, not AM like I thought. An early morning yoga workshop seemed like a nice way to start the celebration of light, but apparently it’s in the evening. So, that will be my celebration this year.
At first I got sad and I considered to skip the workshop. But, I really want to do the workshop plus celebrating here doesn’t feel the same as in celebrating in Sweden. A celebration with Swedish people I don’t know in a Swe-US way or a celebration with my husband who has never experienced it in Sweden, won’t actually give me much. It’s not the same. The sun goes down at 9pm here. The whole point of Midsummer is to honor the light and the best thing about it is that the sun doesn’t really go down.
This is my 7th Midsummer away from Sweden. Some years I have been busy with other stuff and not celebrated. Midsummer is a tradition I really love, it’s special, but I live in the US now and celebrating it here would never be the same. It’s ok. Although, it’s the only day of the year that I can feel really Swedish, but whatever.
Glad Midsommar!