Inspired By Sweden!

Thank you Sweden, for being so pleasant and welcoming. I loved smelling your grassy fields out in the country side and viewing your old building in Stockholm’s old town.  Not a year goes by that I don’t itch on June 21st, to celebrate with you from where ever in the world that I happen to be.

Handmade earring

Sweden, was my first experience with the beauty of Scandinavian summertime. It is warm, but very rarely excessively so. Over 20 degrees Celsius but typically under 27 degrees Celsius, in fact, the people begin getting a bit upset due to the unholy heat when the temperature hits over 23 degrees Celsius. Should the temperature rise to 30 degrees, they tend to form local political parties called “The heat is too damn high” parties. 30 degrees Celsius is about 85ish degrees loosely speaking for those of us that operate in Fahrenheit.

Sweden, has one of the most perfect summers in the world. The grass is lush and green. The sky is large and blue and the flowers are blooming everywhere. It is a really beautiful. The summers in Scandinavia however in all their beauty are short lived events which have soon passed leaving the people once again in the cold darkness of their incredibly cold dark extreme winters.

Swedes, have a massive holiday on June 21st. They call it mid summer. It is loads of fun and everyone gets drunk and makes wreaths from the flowers. They sit outside and have picnics in the sun and often there is music and dancing and other activity just celebrating the summertime that they miss through the long winter. I have been so lucky to take part in their wonderful festivities.

Beautiful earrings inspired by the sun and the lush green fields

Drunken Swedes, have a very fun sense of humor. They do not mind at all making fun of themselves a bit. They have a folk tradition where you gather up some of every kind of wildflower on Midsummer Night, and you place it under your pillow so you will see your one true love in your dreams. Or, you drop all the wildflowers in the nearest lake and you look into it and you see your one true love. These are perhaps the 2 most popular folk traditions for Midsummer, in both Sweden as well as Finland and likely Norway also. However, when drunk, they say you must drop the flowers into the lake and stand at the very edge of the dock and look into the water in order to see your widow. This custom of laughing at themselves is, something rather unique to Scandinavia. No one has a laugh at their own expense quite so well as the folks way up north. They are great fun to be around. And their laughter and their beautiful soft sun, the warmth of their summer and their lush green fields are the inspiration for this item.

White background!