*To be fully transparent, I always want to let you know up front that I am an Amazon Associate and I earn from qualifying purchases. So if you click on a link and purchase something I earn a small commission, but at no extra cost to you. Just a way to help keep this blog going for you!

Anyone else read more during the summer? If you’re looking for some great reads about Hospitality, I’ve got some recommendations for you. Whether you want party ideas, yummy recipes or to learn more about the heart of hospitality, these books are of a great variety.

The Inviting Life: An Inspirational Guide to Homemaking, Hosting and Opening the Door to Happiness Far more than a guide to homemaking and being a fine host—although it is definitely all that too—The Inviting Life is about how to live each day with a desire and determination to turn the ordinary into something lovely. It’s also a book about why we should bother. Whether the subject is décor, ambience, shopping, feeding weary travellers, mixing cocktails, planning dinner parties, or getting yourself motivated for spring cleaning, Laura Calder affirms the value of our everyday activities and shows how beauty, creativity, and delight have the power to change the world. This one-of-a-kind book is both a page-turning narrative about Laura’s own hosting and home-making adventures and an invaluable work of reference. It’s a spur to ideas for everything from creating a welcoming living space and making a respectable salad, to putting guests at their ease and writing a thank-you note worth receiving. Written with candour and humour in Laura’s inimitable and engaging voice, The Inviting Life offers empowering guidance for anyone looking to take more pleasure in their life and home.

Simple Gatherings Welcoming friends and family into your home doesn’t have to be intimidating! These 50 affordable and inspired ideas from bestselling author Melissa Michaels will help you turn any get-together into a special memory.

• Simplify tasks and focus on what guests remember most: the atmosphere, feast, conversation, and special touches.
• Reduce stress when you embrace your authentic hosting style, easy DIYs, and the freedom of using what you have.
• Celebrate people as the centerpiece of any gathering with simple activities that spark conversation and connection.

With more than 300 tips for a variety of gatherings—from a casual outdoor barbeque to a creative guest-of-honor dessert–you’ll feel inspired to open your door with confidence!

The Turquise Table Are you consumed with a busy life but unsure how to slow down? Do you desire connection within your community and think, “Absolutely, but I don’t have time for that” or “I can’t create that”? What if there was another way through it all, a way to find those moments of peace and to create a time for honest, comfortable connection? What if meeting neighbors and connecting with friends was as simple as showing up and being available?

Desperate for a way to slow down and connect, Kristin Schell put an ordinary picnic table in her front yard, painted it turquoise, and began inviting friends and neighbors to join her. Life changed in her community and it can change in yours, too. Alongside personal and heartwarming stories, Kristin gives you:

Stress-free ideas for kick-starting your own Turquoise Table

Simple recipes to take outside and share with others

Stories from people using Turquoise Tables in their neighborhoods

Encouragement to overcome barriers that keep you from connecting

New ways to view hospitality

Today, Turquoise Tables are inviting individuals to connect with each other in nearly all fifty states and seven countries. Ordinary people like you wanting to make a difference right where they live.

Community and friendship are waiting just outside your front door.

Just Open the Door For many of us, inviting people into our lives and homes feels more like inviting judgment on our entertaining skills and stress on our already maxed-out schedules. But what if you knew that opening your front door had the power to radically change the world? To make an impact and leave a legacy with everyday invitations?

Jen Schmidt has set out to reframe how we think about hospitality and to equip us to walk a road of welcome in our daily lives. Jen knows that every time we choose open-door living—whether in our homes or by taking hospitality on the road just like Jesus—those we invite in get to experience the lived-out Gospel, our kids grow up in a life-lab of generosity, and we trade insecurity for connection.

Just Open the Door is a personal yes-you-can guide to offering the life-changing gift of invitation. Whether you’re a seasoned host looking for renewed inspiration or a nervous newbie not sure where to begin, these personal stories, practical ideas, and poignant insights will give you the confidence you need to see your home as the most likely location for changing the world around you, one open door at a time.

Celebrate From lifestyle and fashion icon Lauren Conrad—#1 New York Times bestselling author of Lauren Conrad Style and Lauren Conrad Beauty—comes her dazzling and essential guide to entertaining, filled with an inspiring array of lifestyle tips and personal stories and lavishly illustrated with dozens of color photographs throughout.

Now that Lauren Conrad has gotten everyone all dressed up and looking their most beautiful, she gives them somewhere to go in this must-have guide to entertaining. Showcasing the same approachable attitude and insight that have made her books smash bestsellers, Lauren Conrad Celebrate shows how easy it is to throw a fantastic party.

Filled with lush and inspiring original four-color photos and budget friendly tips, Lauren Conrad Celebrateoffers advice about the basics to make planning any type of event a breeze, including suggestions for the perfect invitations, food, drinks, decorations, and gifts. Lauren shows how to put it all together for a diverse range of events that span the calendar, from a charming Baby shower to a festive holiday party. And she packs the book with creative full-color photos and stories from her own life, including her housewarming party, and her recent bridal shower and wedding.

Just as her trusted advice has inspired women to look and feel their best, now Lauren Conrad brings out the fabulous party-giver in all of us in this elegant, must-have guide.

Pull Up A Chair Tiffani Thiessen is beloved for her roles in Saved by the Bell and Beverly Hills 90210, but for the past few years she’s been known as the host of the Cooking Channel series Dinner at Tiffani’s. Each episode showcased her classic-with-a-twist recipes and knack for hosting a good time. For three seasons, Tiffani’s fans were able to fall in love with her all over again. Now, in Pull Up a Chair, readers can bring home Tiffani’s delicious food and warm hospitality. The 125 recipes in this debut cookbook are the kind that bring people together. Whether it’s Stuffed French Toast or her husband, Brady’s Favorite Short Rib Enchiladas for family-friendly meals, Curried Deviled Eggs or Boozy Date Milkshakes for special-occasion treats, or Mom’s Cream Cheese Pie–because you can’t forget dessert! With recipes and tips for pleasing the pickiest of eaters, feeding a crowd or pulling off a party in your PJs, plus gorgeous photography, Pull Up a Chair will be the book that fans and avid home cooks alike will want to include in their collection.

Host Host is a contemporary guide to eating, drinking and entertaining from W&P Design co-founders Eric Prum and Josh Williams. From intimate weeknight dinners to festive large-scale gatherings, Eric and Josh show how to be a better host with inspired-yet-approachable recipes and advice for creating delicious meals and unforgettable experiences all with an eye towards how people eat and drink in today’s urban centers.

*To be fully transparent, I always want to let you know up front that I am an Amazon Associate and I earn from qualifying purchases. So basically, if you click on a link and purchase something I earn a small commission, but at no extra cost to you. Just a way to help keep this blog going for you!

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2014 summer BBQ from Linnea Bergstrom on Vimeo.

The lights hang overhead, strung from one side of the deck to the other and back again. As the sun goes down late into the evening the flames flicker on the table trying to keep the pesky bugs away.  The back door is either left wide open or constantly slamming depending on which kid is running in and out. The men are standing in the corner as smoke billows from the Big Green Egg cooking something my husband has a hankering for. The women are carrying out dishes, napkins, silverware, trays of grilled corn, plates of roasted veggies, and bowls of salad. We are in rhythm at our home. Familiar rhythm.  Our tight knit group, the guys having been friends since junior high with the wives they married that only God could have brought together. This gathering outside is not much different than the cold and rainy days when we gather in the winter. The difference is the lightness we all feel from no schedule, the sun shining well past our kids bedtimes, colorful popsicle juice dripping down chins, staining cheeks, the grass we feel between our toes and the wide open space of being outside. While this gathering is familiar to the six of us, it is not kept just between us. When we invite others in, whether it be for Pickleball tournaments, birthday parties, showers, fancy dinner parties or crappy ones, our rhythm is welcoming. We’ve learned over the years what works and what doesn’t.  We’ve tried ideas from Pinterest and from magazines. We’ve adopted family traditions and started our own. This rhythm has come from opening our door again and again. Even after marker was drawn on a marble side table, grandma’s heirloom glass was broken, bee stings, splinters cutting through the feet of many five year old girls, lego creations being destroyed and more, we continue to open our door. We continue to work on our rhythm. We know now to not have a birthday party under the tree that gives hundreds of little splinters. We know that kids will always finish eating first, so we let them have the full table and eat first. The adults then eat while the kids play. We’ve learned that not all people love our gentle giant of a German Shepherd. My kids have learned to put their most precious toys up high and to share the rest. We have learned that when one of the boys names is called out loud, we all drop what we are doing and search for the curious little wanderer. It is an ever evolving and learning process. It is one we love working on. Perfection is not something we strive for, welcoming and comfortable is. If you do not feel welcome or comfortable in our home we are doing gatherings wrong.

If you’re wanting to invite people in and don’t know where to start or what to do, Summer gatherings are a great place to start. There is an ease and simplicity that comes with summer. You don’t need a big house or large backyard. String lights are just as beautiful on your 3 foot x 5 foot concrete back patio that sits less than inches from your neighbors. If you do have any bit of a yard I recommend yard games. Cornhole and Ladder Golf are great games that are easy to explain, don’t take up much space and entertaining enough for others to watch. Have something for people to do. Put a drink in their hand soon after they arrive. There’s something about holding onto something that makes people feel more comfortable. Chalk on the sidewalk for kids, bikes and helmets to share, or a frisbee to toss is something kids always gravitate towards.  If you’re not a yard game person and more of a dig down deep and talk person, try printing off conversation cards or a have a few interesting questions stored away in your head to keep the conversation going. Start light with your questions and build to more complex ones as your get to know your guests. No need to scare them away with “What is the meaning of life?” from the get-go.

People don’t want to show up empty handed. When I’ve told people not to bring anything, I’ve learned they don’t listen and bring something anyway. For a while it stressed me out because it threw off my meal plan. People want to contribute and most likely they have food in their fridge that needs to be eaten up. If people ask what they can bring, I ask what they have to share (especially families of little kids) so they don’t have to go to the store.  You’d be surprised how quickly a meal comes together from salad greens, day old pasta salad, a few sweet potatoes that didn’t get used and blueberries that are still good but just need to be eaten.  We, as hosts, usually always provide the meat and fill in any gaps there might be. My husband loves to either cook a pork shoulder in the crock pot if he doesn’t feel like standing by the grill. If we want to step it up a notch, Salmon with pesto will almost always be on the menu. Salmon or Chicken is always great for “what do you have to share?” meals. They tend to go with anything. If we are providing the main and the sides we most likely will do some sort of Mexican meal. Carne Asada with grilled street corn, my homemade guacamole, taco salad and chips and salsa is a low key, stress free meal that almost anyone will enjoy.

For a while when I was cooking a lot of new meals for my family I would ask if we should “Toss, Keep or Tweak” the meal. Most of the time it was tweak. There were definitely some “tosses.” My son won’t even look at Spaghetti Squash anymore. I had to learn what worked in the meal, what didn’t and make adjustments. The same can be said for gatherings. If you’re new to inviting people in, it can feel clunky at first. Start simple. Keep what works, toss what doesn’t and tweak what you can. The best part, your guests probably won’t even notice. And if they do, have a good laugh about it and then serve brownies. Everyone loves brownies.

If you haven’t guessed by my name, I am Scandinavian through and through. My grandfather was born in Norway and came to the states with his siblings when he was in elementary school. Someday I’ll have to tell you about his sisters, my great aunts, who lived together their entire lives until my one great aunt passed away at the age of 104! Their mix of East Coast and Norwegian accents is one that can’t be forgotten.

My husband is also very Scandinavian. I overheard a conversation between my husbands grandfather and my sister-in-law: “Fika?” He said with a question mark. “There is a name to something I do everyday?” My husband’s grandfather expressed his confusion and excitement when he learned there was a name to something he had done everyday of his life. It was so ingrained in his day-to-day, his life, his traditions he didn’t even think to call it anything.  Fika (pronounced Fee-Kah) is a Swedish term for a coffee break. But it is more than just a break.

According to Sweden.se:

“Swedes prefer not to translate the word fika. They don’t want it to lose significance and become a mere coffee break. It is one of the first words you will learn when visiting Sweden, right after tack (thank you) and hej (hello).

Fika is much more than having a coffee. It is a social phenomenon, a legitimate reason to set aside a moment for quality time. Fika can happen at any time, morning as well as evening. It can be savoured at home, at work or in a café. It can be with colleagues, family, friends, or someone you are trying to get to know. It is a tradition observed frequently, preferably several times a day.

Accompanying sweets are crucial. Cinnamon buns, cakes, cookies, even open-faced sandwiches pass as acceptable fika fare. It comes as no surprise that Swedes are among the top consumers of coffee and sweets in the world – or that Swedes appreciate the good things in life.

It is a time to rest, to savor or to be social. And of course we wouldn’t want to disobey the rules, “accompanying sweets are crucial.”  Inviting others in, being together, slowing down, and eating yummy food is a deep part of my heritage. No one wonder my heart beats for this pace of life. It is one that has been lost on the American way of life. One I want to learn to be more disciplined with, teach others and pass down to my children. I mean, who wouldn’t want to pause their day for a cup of coffee or tea and a sweet treat? You don’t have to be Swedish to enjoy a proper Fika. Grab your phone and invite a friend over or out to a local coffee shop. Here are some great treats to make ahead and have on hand for any Fika.

Cardamom Bread

Swedish Visiting Cake Bars

Almond Bars

Swedish Chocolate Cookies (CHOKLADSNITTAR)

Swedish Gingersnap Cookies (pepparkakor)

If you’re not a fan of almond or cardamom. Make (or buy) any treat you like to have with coffee or tea. Chocolate Chip cookies, Madeleines, pound cake,the possibilities are endless.  

I often hear that people don’t invite others into their homes because they are embarrassed by the clutter or messes around their home. They would be mortified if someone just stopped by. For a long time I was SO nervous that any guests would go into our bedroom and see the mounds of stuff I had thrown on the bed just minutes prior to their arrival. The thought of having anyone in our home thrilled me and terrified me all at the same time. I loved having people over, but I hated all that when into it beforehand. I would be so tired from cleaning all day that I had little to give when the guests finally arrived. I was distracted by coming up with excuses and apologies for all of the stuff I hadn’t picked up in time. I was embarrassed. I knew better. I felt as though the piles of stuff reflected that I wasn’t a good wife, daughter-in-law or mother. While no one told me that, it was an expectation I had put on myself in which I had failed. I was reminded of that failure any time guests were in our home.

I was over it. I was done with the mini panic attacks. I was done with the frantic cleaning sessions. My husband and I would joke that if we wanted the house clean we should invite people over. So I began trying to see my home through the lens of other people. I would ask myself “If someone stopped by today what area would I want picked up?” And I would care for that area. The better I cared for our home when no one was around, the more likely I was to invite people in. I had more energy to give my guests. I found myself apologzing less for our home.

Our home is nowhere near perfect. But I’m not aiming for perfection. There is a fine line between a home that is lived in and one that is not cared for. I don’t mind people seeing that we actually live in our home.

If you are done with living in a way that keeps you from inviting others in, I encourage you to follow with the cleaning routine this week. Instagram is the best place for that. You can find us at @dwellandmade. This week I am introducing you to Clean Mama. She really knows what she is talking about. There you can find routines, daily cleaning tasks, free printables, recipes for homemade cleaners and a community of others working on keeping their homes clean as well.