sweden

i am not sure that anyone anywhere calls the southern neighborhood/area in the beautiful capital of sweden, known as simply söder (meaning south in english), the “greenwich village of stockholm”. but, i am dubbing it…

when you think of sweden, i’ll bet you don’t really think of cruises. i didn’t, until i lived here. i did understand that swedes are sea people, forest people, nature-loving people. most people live in…

hi everyone! yesterday was friday the 10th, so that means that i took a bunch of photos to chronicle my day! i am taking part in a little photo challenge called ten on ten.…

happy monday, lovely friends. so, i’ve made it through two weeks in our little temporary apartment, and not that i’m not grateful, but i am counting the days until we move into a much…

for valentine’s day, my love and i took the 30 minute train ride from uppsala to stockholm. how amazing is it that we live so close to stockholm! it blows my mind, and i…

the other day i was headed downtown to the library so i could hook up to the free wifi and get some things done. it was early afternoon, so that means it was early…

seriously. last month when i did my ten on ten post (10 photos of my day on the 10th of every month), i was in asheville. in my apartment. hanging with some of the best people…

i’ve had a a few days now to start to find my way around uppsala. i knew some very basic things, like where the castle is and where the cathedral is, and where the…

with a new move, comes a lot of practical things to take care of. i mean, we have to deal with reality. not everything is dinners out + trips + meeting up with old friends.…

it’s sunday morning + i have no idea what i’ve gotten myself into! i’ve set up my own space on the internet for self hosting and i think my new web hosting company is…

well, my friends, my month long visit to sweden has now come to an end. it’s so hard to believe. it seems as if time has flown by, and yet, it seems like forever…

when the wedding was over last week, we went back into tourist-mode. and, boy did we do it full-speed ahead! after a couple of days of visiting friends in different places all over norrköping,…

now it’s time for some fun photos captured on my iPhone – a little bit silly and crazy, but also a little “behind the scenes” look at wedding preparations and the wedding day. in…

lina’s sister is getting married today! we’ve been up to our eyeballs in wedding preparations all week long, with, of course, a few breaks for drinks with friends and such. hehe. anyway, the day…

i’m not sure if this was my fourth year or my fifth year of having the joy of being part of the annual camp at skeppsgården in sweden, but it doesn’t really matter. every…

sunday night i watched a movie. you know, a cozy sunday night movie with popcorn and people you love. there’s no better way to end a weekend i think – nice and slow, and hopefully…

hello! well, it’s been a whole week – or more, actually! – and i’ve been totally off the grid. no telephone. no internet. no nothing. only the bright blue swedish sky, the hot yellow…

woo hoo! the fun has already begun! in fact, i was telling lina this morning that i’m gonna need a vacation from all of the excitement and fun that’s been going on since the…

it’s wednesday evening and we have landed safe and sound in sweden. we’re all settled in at lina’s parents’ home, ready for our vacation to begin – receiving so many greeting on Facebook and…

today i am hopping on a plane with my love and our amazing friend, paige, and heading home to sweden for a month-long vacation! woo hoooooo! after our first year back in asheville (and…

i think it’s been a few years since i’ve been as excited about summer as i am this summer. the past 2 summers have been crazy, strange, different, and somewhat difficult – well, not…

i was gonna do a whole post on failure and my worries about a potential job getting in the way of my flexible lifestyle. basically, blah blah blah. poor me, poor me, poor me.…

i have started a new project! a 40 day challenge like no other. i totally just made it up from my own little brain last week, with some inspiration from Instagram followers who make…

hi y’all. i want to blog. desperately. but, i don’t know what to blog about. yes, my life is all new again living here in asheville. yes, it’s extremely exciting and all that. yes,…

oh, how i’ve missed y’all! but, the time away was absolutely perfect. sweden delivered perfect summer weather the entire week that we were in the archipelago. we were surrounded by friends & family, which…

hi friends, near and far! it’s down to the wire now. there’s not that much time left before the big move, and the time that is left, i’m gonna be a little sporadic here…

i celebrated the fourth of july with a few fellow americans in sweden for the first time this year. fun! of course, i have celebrated every year one way or another… last year was…

have you voted yet?! have you entered yourself in belovelive’s first ever contest?! if you haven’t, you still have one day left to do it!  just click here to go to the blog post…

   what a weird time in my life right now. it’s friday already, and i don’t know what i’ve done this week. i can hardly remember what has happened each day. at the same time,…

“Bottom line here: the federal ban on recognizing same-sex marriages is dead. California’s ban on recognizing same-sex marriages is dead. There are 12 states in the country where this is now legal, and the…

well. that’s it. it’s empty. clean. and ready for it’s next tenants. it feels a bit weird, but it feels oh so good. there are a lot of memories in these walls from the…

hi dear readers! well, here i sit. in our stripped down, almost bare apartment with no tv. no living room furniture. and only a little bit of our stuff left over from the weekend,…

happening today in our apartment: it’s gonna be a crazy, epic weekend. but, it feels so amazing to be rid of so much stuff (think simplicity!) & to know that it’s going to friends…

yesterday i had a perfect expat moment that took my breath away. it was one of those moments where i stopped doing what i was doing and practically pinched myself. i was in my…

today is sweden’s national day – a national holiday that’s a bit like the 4th of july, but not quite so over-the-top/extreme. mother nature delivered a top notch day, perfect for doing what swedes…

well, by now, you all may know this…. but…. we’re moving to the states!!!! and now it is officially official. monday we were in stockholm because my love had her visa interview at the american…

hi friends! long time, no post… huh? geez, i have missed y’all. i’ve missed writing and posting, but i have been super busy the past 4ish days. and i do believe that the busy-ness…

guess what i did yesterday?! i saw beyoncé in concert! for real! i admit that i have never been a die hard crazy fan, but hey, everyone knows beyoncé. she’s a legend. and so, when my…

last night was the last friday night i worked with my teenagers. of course, my job continues until the middle of july, and i will keep working with my teenagers at 2 different camps…

so, i know i’ve said this before some time, but the weather is sweden is extreme. when it’s good, it’s amazing. and when it’s bad, it’s awful and depressing. and the weather tends to…

i took a little walk today after work because it was so amazing outside. it was just one of those days where i could not believe or comprehend the beauty that i saw around…

thanks to the swedes’ dedication to celebrating the coming of spring with wild abandon, i get a little road trip vacay just as the week is beginning. oh yeah, that’s right. it’s the annual…

  i love spontaneity. and the best is when you have people around you who are also spontaneous. on wednesday, i put spontaneity to the test. i had coffee in the afternoon with a…

two years ago today i launched & introduced belovelive.com. back then, i was a simple little american adjusting to her 7th month living in sweden. i was in the middle of my swedish studies,…

who’s doing it? who’s out there snapping some photos of your journey in march?! it’s been a tough week of photos. a little depressing, i’d say. but that was my intention. not to depress…

i’m gonna take a little break in the berlin posts now that i’m halfway through them. i have something even more important than travel to write about today. you may or may not know…

everything feels a little different now. i guess it’s because the secret is out. and everything is real. really real. we are so freaking excited about uprooting our life here in sweden, and moving…

last night my love and i did something new. something we had never even talked about doing before. i’m not sure what sparked the inspiration for this fun, new thing, but somehow my love…