Healing through art, nature & heritage - Life on the Northwest Coast of Sweden
Healing through art, nature & heritage - Life on the Northwest Coast of Sweden
Happy Sunday!
Yesterday, I went to IKEA to buy some more items for the guest house, and kitchen items for the main house so I can start cooking! I love to cook homemade meals, such as fresh summer salads with salmon, and healthy vegetable soups. I can't wait to start working on my garden so I can start growing my own vegetables. I am very new to gardening so I have a lot to learn!
Here come some memories from yesterday! Enjoy ♥︎
Today, I drove into town to work at the local cafe. I don’t have internet at home yet. I hope to get internet installed next week!
Tomorrow summer hours start for parking in town, so I only get an hour free parking. I will use this time to have a quick Swedish fika, buy some groceries, and upload my daily blog post. This is such an exciting time in my life, so I wish to keep you updated on every memorable moment, and share all the unique beauty this place has to offer.
I look forward to sharing this new chapter with you. Enjoy the rest of your day and speak to you tomorrow!
Lots of love,
Annika ꨄ
Today I closed on my dream home. I feel like I have been dreaming of living in a home like this for the past 10 years, and now my dream came true!!!
Now Summer is blossoming on the beautiful island of Särö where I'm currently visiting my Mum at her Sister's home. We have shared some beautiful days outside. My Mum is a talented knitter and I keep encouraging her to start a business but I think sometimes she also doubts her talents ♥︎
Hello friends!
It has been a few days since my last blog. These past few days I have been visiting the island where I grew up as a child before I moved to England in 1999. There is something special about reconnecting to the earth where my child feet ran across the grass, and swam in the sea pretending I was a mermaid. Most importantly, I have been bonding with my Mum. She is from Northumberland in England. My Mum also feels a deep connection to Sweden through her Nordic ancestry. We are both interested in our roots, and it's wonderful to share this with her.
We have both gone through a challenging relationship but now that I'm older, I realise we both share and can relate to our struggles. We spent many hours these past days sharing how we want to let go of putting the needs, thoughts and feelings over others before our own. Together, we realised how important it is to put our happiness first, and how much compassion for self and others is also a key ingredient to growing into your authentic self. Do you believe in generational trauma? We felt empowered talking about how something like codependency might not be ours to carry, because it was never ours to begin with. If you believe in generational trauma my last statement might make more sense.
Here is a little video of some special moments in Särö: swimming, feeling, connecting. Enjoy ♥︎
Hejsan!
It's only three weeks until I move into my new home! It's an old 19th Century farmhouse and I can't wait!!! It's located around 15 minutes from the island where I spent my summers as a child. I'm so happy I get the best of both worlds. The farm life and the coastal life.
Here are some pictures I took on Tuesday. I hope you are having a beautiful week!
Lots of Love,
Annika ꨄ
Good evening my suns. It's 10pm here and I'm in bed uploading my most recent YouTube video.
Today I had so much fun editing yesterday's footage. I only filmed and photographed for about 1.5 hours yesterday and still it took me all day today to edit and create little social media videos. I will definitely keep that in mind when I schedule my weeks ahead. I have so many other creative projects I want to start. I hope you enjoy this little afternoon walk to the water. It was a magical moment in the day. I felt I could breathe for the first time in weeks.
Lots of love to you, and speak soon.
Annika ꨄ
Hello my friend!
Today was dedicated to car care and tidying up. I enjoy my new routine where Monday's are now a day each week where I focus more on my personal admin and errands. Then I can relax the rest of the week by focusing on creating art to share and sell to others. I feel more and more focused on creating an art business now. I have a vision of what I want to create this year and will be gentle with myself to just focus on the next year. That keeps things pretty simple and less daunting than climbing a huge mountain. Let's start with a little 2024-2025 mountain. My process is asking myself where do I see myself next summer. Once I check the box whether or not it's realistic, I start to see how each season will be dedicated to certain high-level work phases. And then I trust each month that I can take it as it comes.
In the past I have had a habit of over-planning and then being too paralysed to overcome setbacks. But I was causing the setbacks by over-planning. In a way I think I was planning as a way to procrastinate. I never fully trusted my plan or myself so I just kept tweaking the plan, and then rushing to get everything done last minute.
I'm going to give myself a pat on the back that I'm not like that anymore. I probably still have that tendency in me, but being aware of it helps me not act on it. In every moment of my day I keep nurturing my relationship with myself by acknowledging everything I feel, want, need and then making a conscious healthy choice. I don't need to give in to every thought and feeling I have. I can't stress enough how vital self-awareness has been on my personal healing journey.
Anyway, perhaps someone out there needed to hear that 🥰
Here are some pictures from today. I also filmed a little video blog from my day. I hope you like it and enjoy my current awkward self as I learn to be more comfortable speaking to the camera.
Lots of love
Annika ꨄ
Good evening everyone!
It's 9:32pm here and the sun just set. What an amazing time of year to be here. Every day now is a lead up to the magical midnight sun. Tonight it is predicted to be a solar storm so I plan to be awake well into the night with the hope to capture the Aurora Borealis dancing above me. I pray for Northern Lights. My camera gear is ready to go and I eagerly await the darkness.
I hope you also get a chance to catch the Northern Lights. Apparently it can be seen around the world. Let this be a moment for a global awe. A new perspective and healing for humanity.
