Today we travel to Sweden to meet mum-of-three Josefine Lindström. About 10 years ago, after her first son Theo was born, she developed an interest in photography and now her Instagram feed where she posts pictures of her 3 little ones is just dreaming!
From long walks in the woods not far from Stockholm to nordic style decor inspiration, she tells us a little bit of her life and family of 5, not forgetting Swedish Christmas traditions in a very different year.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and how do you describe yourself as a mum.
I'm 30 years old and I live a few miles south of Stockholm, Sweden, with my partner Johan and our three kids, Theodore, Filippa and Isabella. We have a lot of woods and nature near us, we love that. I’ve always been creative, loved to paint and doing crafts when I was younger. My biggest passion now is photography. I bought my first camera when Theo was a baby, documented every little thing. Now I love to capture special little moments in special ways.
As a mum I’m caring, supportive, also kinda goofy! I’m the one the kids always want to play games with, e.g. crawl after them as a monster! I like to see myself as their friend, a mum they can talk about everything with.
And how are your 3 little ones?
Theodore, we call him Theo, is 11 years old. He is our little clown. He loves to goof around just like his mum! He is brave, witty and has such a big heart. Very caring with his little sisters. He is very good at teasing his sisters too! He’s a big Lego fan, as the rest of our family. We often build Lego together. His room is full of Lego on every shelf. And full of video games which he also loves.
Filippa is 6 years old and started school this year, she loves it! She is very chatty and social; she can make friends with anyone. She is active and goes to gymnastics and plays floor boll. During summer you always find her on our trampoline! She loves to play with her dolls and organize her doll house, paint and doing crafts and write in her notebooks. She’s very stubborn too! Gives me a lot of grey hair in advance.
Isabella is 3 years old and she's our little happy pill. She gives us a lot of hugs and kisses every day, she loves to sleep long in the mornings and after that cuddle in the bed with mum or dad.
Isabella is very thoughtful, caring and loving. She is a little mini mama and often plays with her dolls, gently taking care of them. I can really see her being a midwife or nurse when she grows up. She loves pretty things: glitter, nail polish, princess dresses and hair accessories etc. But this little lady has a big temper. Tantrums is her new thing when she doesn’t get what she wants. But all that mixed with a lot of love, which makes me forget about her tantrums very quickly.
My kids are very different, but I can see similarities between them. Most of all I see the thoughtful and caring side they all have, always supportive to each other.
We love your posts on Instagram and we can see that you love to spend a lot of time with them in the middle of the nature picking up berries or doing picnics. How do you describe your days with them?
We love being outdoors. It could be walking in the woods picking small little treasures like pinecones, berries or leaves. Playing games, always. Hide and seek is their favorite! Isabella is actually an expert on this game, she could hide in the best hiding place you could ever think of. Making her big siblings look for her a long while. This means I need to keep my eyes on Isabella, always. Otherwise, she almost can’t be found. Hahah.
Sometimes we make trips to garden markets around Stockholm and bringing picnic with us. Picking flowers, berries or vegetables. They love it! Vegetables always taste the best when you have picked them yourself, according to my kids.
You also have a very special taste for decor where we can see a lot of Nordic influence, is that right?
My children’s room is what I enjoy the most to decorate. Yes, we do have Nordic influence. Simple, clean lines, wooden items and neutral colours. Yet very playful. The nature inspires me the most when I decorate my children’s room. You see a lot of animal toys & prints and flower prints in their rooms. Big pillows and blankets to give it a cozy feeling. It’s also the rooms which are the most fun to clean, I often find myself redecorate their rooms when I clean their rooms. That’s a good way to renew a room instead of buying new things.
What are your plans for Christmas this year? Hope you can keep the Sweden traditions during Covid-19!
We always visit my family and my partner’s family during Christmas, they live in a small town north of Sweden (where both my partner and I grew up).
We have a big family. We all get together on Christmas eve, starting with our Christmas breakfast, a very sweet one. Hot cocoa, porridge with cinnamon and sugar, saffron buns, freshly baked bread and Christmas ham with mustard.
After lunch we watch Kalle Anka, a very Swedish tradition including cartoons and a Christmas host lighting a candle, drinking mulled wine and eating gingerbread cookies. After Kalle Anka every kid knows Santa is coming soon. They stand closely to the windows and after a while they can see the Santa coming walking outside in the snow with the Christmas gifts! The happiness in their eyes is just amazing.
Due to Covid-19 this year might be different, we are actually not sure if we are able to celebrate Christmas as we usual do and we might end up celebrating Christmas at home only the five of us.
From Beatrice & Bee AW20 what would you love to see your children wearing this Christmas?
Definitely the dusty red Victoria Pinafore for Isabella and Philippa for a perfect twinning! And I also love the Greenwich Blouse with fox print.