Swede

Easter Table Setting

With the house a mess with floor construction, I was only able to do a simple tablescape for Easter.  When we moved the china cabinets to fix the floor, I had to pack up all my china which is still in boxes.  I found a few things but didn't want to dig deeper. 

I am using these huge green bunnies for my centerpiece since we are not having a large crowd. They are about 24 inches wide and 23 inches tall.  They originally came from Pottery Barn years ago and I wish they would bring this type of product back. They are made out of a kind of twiggy material covered with the green moss looking stuff.  They look like they are whispering about something. 

I decided on Anna Weatherley Seascape Waterlily plates and Anna Weatherley Green Leaf bread and butter plates with the red Lady Bug.  Charger is Pillivuyt and some simple stemware. 

I have used these glass bunny boxes from Smith Glass for many years on the plates to be opened at the beginning of the meal.  I put gifts for guests inside not candy.  Women may get lipstick, nail polish, cooking spices, sewing notions, etc.  I try to find items each guest would enjoy. 

Another photo of how the bunny looks on the plate. 

 I did just a simple arrangement on the buffet as well.  

Big white vases with white Dogwood branches along with Mr. and Mrs.  She carries the eggs [of course].  I bought these huge eggs this year from Target.  There is a lot more space to hold bigger items.  I found my Easter wreath for the door but could not find what box my other Easter items were in. 

With the freeze, we were afraid this Dogwood would not bloom, but it surprised us with these glorious flowers. 

The white stem is French Portieux Vallerysthal and the other green ones are from a department store. 

Ours will be another low key holiday.  I am looking forward to working in my flowerbeds and planting annuals soon.  

Wishing all of you a lovely Easter day. 

Colleen 

 

 

 

 

Love To All This Valentine's Day

Photo from a floral centerpiece I did a few years ago for Valentine's Day.

Colleen 

It Is A New Year

 

Holiday Lookbook 2020 Decor From My Home

Happy Holidays, Everyone!

I am sharing my personal home lookbook of holiday decorating.  

You can see it on Issuu via this link:

holiday decorating

It may be slow to load since it is 194 pages.

Sometimes the link doesn't work. If so, cut and paste this in your browser:

https://issuu.com/swedecollection/docs/holiday_lookbook_2020-compressed__1_?fr=sZTdkYjY0MjU1OA

Colleen 

Happy Thanksgiving 2020!

Big metal turkey is from a catalog called At West End.  Purple English ironstone collection via eBay. Console table by Swede Collection.

This has been such a strange situation we find ourselves in this Thanksgiving.  Hope all of you are well. We, of course, don't have family or friends in or we would be arrested.  Cooked the bird anyway and keeping our Thanksgiving meal traditions as normal as possible.  

All the best,

Colleen

Roundtop Texas Antiques Week and Marburger Farm

I love going to Roundtop, Texas for the antiques show.  The fall show was moved to the end of October which was much cooler. I thought I would share some of my favorite things. I came back with about 200 photos so this is a small sampling.  Most of these have also been shown on my Instagram feed which is Swede Collection.  I was surprised to see since last year [April show was cancelled] how many new permanent buildings were along Highway 237.  Looked to me like it was moving towards being a year-round antiques market in the future.  Although the Roundtop show is open for a couple weeks in some venues before Marburger Farm opens, we time our trip to be there for Marburger's opening day.  That is our favorite place so we start there first and then go to other places such as Blue Hills, Market Hill, Red Barn, The Compound and Excess II.  Some of the new buildings I don't know what their name is.  We did take Ascot in the car -- 10 hour drive-- and he did incredibly well in the hotel.  We use a pet friendly hotel so we don't take him to the fields anymore.  I think Roundtop is the largest antique show in the US but it could be a toss up with Brimfield, MA. In a week you still cannot see every venue at Roundtop.  In all the years we have been going we have not seen a fraction of the fields and tents.  The Spring 2021 show is the end of March.  Sure hope Covid is over by then. 

 

The dealer was Art and Antique Hunter at Marburger Farm. 

Dealer is BellaVita by Crystal Nichols of Houston.

Dealer is The Side Door.

Dealer is Sheffield Antiques.

Rick bought me four of these white jugs.

Renouve Antiques at Market Hill. 

Absolutely loved this.  From Tres Bien Antiques. 

Tres Bien Antiques again. 

Renouve at Market Square. 

Dealer is Two Maisons at Marburger Farm Tent F.

Art and Antique Hunter at Marburger Farm. 

Tres Bien Antiques again at Marburger Farm, Tent F.

Art and Antique Hunter, Marburger Farm, Tent F.

Renouve Antiques at Market Hill. 

Bone inlaid chest by Adam Babicz Antiques in Tent F of Marburger Farms. 

There is so much eye candy.  I have a sweet tooth for this type of thing.

And this!  You certainly can fill a complete house with fabulous things.  Need a big fat wallet as well. 

Enjoy,

Colleen Martin, Founder

Swede Collection

swedefurniture.com 

 

Ten Year Blog Anniversary

I chose to start my blog on July 4, 2010.  A date I could remember in addition to my strong patriotism. 

Today I mark ten years.  Amazing.  However, I have slacked off and sometimes stopped posting for long spells since publishing more on Instagram and Facebook.  I keep telling myself I need to get back to doing more tablescapes. This blog shares my personal life as well as my professional life in showing the furniture pieces I design for Swede Collection.  Some real surprises coming in the next few months on what I am making next. I have had a beautiful run these past few years of showing my furniture line in Milieu magazine. So the blog topics jump all over the place like life itself.  

Back in 1969 I was the editor of my high school newspaper. My yearbook photo caption says what the graduate wants to become in life. Mine said I wanted to be the editor of a shelter magazine like House Beautiful.  Well, that never happened but at that time nobody could have ever imagined that we each could have our own magazine on the Internet. Technology is amazing.  So this is my little House Beautiful platform!  I sort of got it in the end run.

My original goal when I started in 2010 is the same now ten years later.  I want to share everything beautiful I find in life. There is so much ugliness in the world that I need the comfort of focusing on enjoying the beautiful things that are everywhere if you just look. 

But my real message today is to thank the followers that have stayed with me, many of whom for all ten years.  I celebrate you today. I am so grateful for your loyalty and kind words about my photographs. My tribe is small in comparison to others but are the most caring and genuine people.  I don't need a large audience. I need the best hearts and minds and I have that.  THANK YOU!  Let's stay together another 10 years.

Since this is the Fourth of July, I want to share some photos I took of the Statue of Liberty.  I tried to capture unusual angles. I hope during my lifetime I never see her destroyed.

Regarding this last photo of Ellis Island, I remember some years ago when I was working on my family tree a conversation with a young woman about Ellis Island.  She thought all immigrants were processed through Ellis Island. But not mine.  Ancestors on one side of my tree arrived in 1640 and the other side came in 1660.  Those were brave people.  Ellis Island wasn't around until 1892.  I found records that by 1705 one family had already had 15 kids born in Pennsylvania.  By 1776 recognized as the birth date of America, my people had been here 130+ years. So grateful for those risk takers to give me this country to live in. 

Today is a day of thankfulness to you reading this and Happy Birthday America.

Colleen Martin

Founder, Swede Collection

Fourth of July Celebration

 

Happy Fourth everyone!

Expressing my gratitude to be American on this day each year.

Two containers on my porch. 

Wishing you a nice weekend. 

Colleen

King Gustav Has Been Hung!

 

I finally have my two Swedish portrait medallions hung in my own dining room!  I purchased them in Sweden many years ago yet they never got on the wall until two days ago my sweet husband [without too much fuss] hung them.  I have two more that have been in a wood crate for about 8+ years. They are for sale if anyone has an interest. 

 

 

Sofie Hagman, famous Swedish ballet dancer and a king's mistress, is on the left.  King Gustav is on the right. 

Items I created for Swede Collection in this photo are the buffet, mirror, chairs, floor candelabras and pillows.  I didn't realize how symmetrical everything was until I saw this photo. 

The portrait medallions are made of plaster and even though they don't look big here are 27 inches in diameter.  The originals were done by Sergel in bronze I believe for the outside of Swedish buildings and casts were made of those.  He did them of famous dignitaries of the day.

This is Sophie. 

This is King Gustav. I also printed his medallion on the pillow on the chair.  It is in my new pillow collection. 

That's all for today.  Hope all of you have stayed virus free. 

Thanks for your help, Rick.

Colleen 

Swede Collection's Paris Pillow Project

I have some interesting news today.  I launched my pillow collection.  Remember all those thousands of photos I walked the streets of Paris to take 8 to 10 hours a day?  I did that with the intention that someday I would use them either in a book or product.  While making other pillows I came up with the idea of putting my photos on fabric to make my own very unique pillow line.  It is now reality. I looked through thousands of those photos and came up with some I thought would look good as a pillow.  I printed those photos on linen canvas and hired a lady in California to make the covers.  I can sew but my machine doesn't have an overlock feature since it was made around 1956 [bought for $60 in 1969 to take to college] and I do not want to buy another sewing machine, even though my husband offered and found one.  I would rather give her the business for her college tuition than spend those hours upstairs sewing.  Win-win for both of us, I think. She does excellent work and does 50 at a time. 

So let's take a look.  I made them in two sizes.  The larger is 22" x 27" and the square smaller ones are 22" x 22". All have luxury down inserts [overfilled].  Velvet or chenille backs. 

Here are the Paris architecture ones:  

If you have been to Versailles you will recognize this as one of the rear entryways in that back door courtyard. 

This is one of my favorite buildings in Paris. It was built as a private mansion [hotel particular] and is now an office building.  It is called Hotel de Sully. 

Love Paris doors as they almost always have beautiful overdoors.  Here is one with cupids holding hands carved in white marble. 

Here are some paintings I photoed at The Louvre. 

Do you recognize Juliette Recamier the socialite that gave the name to the chaise called a recamier. 

This painting I photoed one year and when I got home I realized I did not capture who the artist was nor the name of the painting.  So the next year I went to the Louvre information desk showed them my photo and they told me which wing and section it was in.  The Louvre is so huge I would never have found it again.  The title is "Femme Prenant des Fruits". Absolutely love her.  

That was a sampling of the bigger ones.  I will show you more later.  In the meantime, here are some of the 22x22 Paris architecture pillows. 

This one I climbed to the top of Notre Dame to get. It is the exterior roofline with a gargoyle water downspout. I hope it was not damaged in the fire and can't wait to go back to see Notre Dame after it opens to the public again. 

Next is a photo of a wall section at Musee Hotel de Soubise of a romantic couple done in plaster and gold leaf.  I was surprised at how well the gold leaf turned out in the photo.  As the mother this is one of my favorite children and I will keep one of these for my living room. 

This blue/gray and gold one is another plaster and gold leaf wall but it is at Versailles. 

And last for today is a photo of a white Tree Peony I took in the garden at the Rodin Museum.  I printed it on low nap velvet. You can actually hand wash this one.  Neutral white velvet back.

This is a fragment from a cathedral altar in France. 

After I took about 100 photos I noticed the sunburst mirror above the sofa did not line up on the center.  The sofa somehow got moved a couple of inches to the left from vacuuming or something.  Wish I had noticed that earlier but I can just crop the photo if need be. I promptly moved the sofa to the right 3" so that doesn't happen again. 

I wholesale the 22x27 pillows for $240 and the 22x22 size for $184.  Free shipping via Paypal invoice to your email if you would like any of these.  Just tell me you saw it on my blog to get that rate.  Remember they come with the luxury 10/90 down overfill insert. Designers are selling them to their clients for $380 - 420 for the big ones and $320 to 368 for the smaller 22x22 size.  

I will show you more designs in the next posts. 

This has been a very fun project.  I can't wait to see the rooms where they find their new homes. 

Gustavian sofa and oval-back chair from Swede Collection at swedefurniture.com. You can also see more of my furniture at Chairish.com. I will put some of these pillows on Chairish in a few weeks.  Also available at La Maison Antiques in Memphis. 

Colleen