THE Quintessential MAGAZINE: Flower Issue

Hello everyone, Today I would like to share a new discovery from Australia with you: THE Quintessential MAGAZINE.

It is a beautiful online Magazine and the 5th Issue: THE PORTRAIT OF A FLOWER went live today. It is a free, but you need to register to read the full publication. The E-mag is curated by the Australian vintage shop Quintessential DuckeggBLUE. The layout, the styling and the photographs are just beautiful with a lot of patina and charm and offers the readers a great online experience.

The flower issue opens with this words from Marc Chagall ‘Art is the unceasing effort to compete with the beauty of flowers - and never succeeding’ . The issue is all about dramatic displays and how flowers can transform a space.

The interview with London’s Wild at Heart florist Nikki Tibbles is very inspiring and beautifully illustrated.

Stephanie Somebody, the Instagram sensation with more than more 126.000 followers is also presenting her floral compositions in the issue.

I hope you will enjoy this new discovery as much as I did. I wish you  a great Thursday. xxx Elodie

You can follow THE Qintessential MAGAZINE on Pinterest Facebook Instagram

(Images: via THE Quintessential MAGAZINE)

Clafoutis - The French Cherry cake

Hello everyone, Today I have a very French recipe for you: Clafoutis. It is a French cake with cherries, which is very easy to bake, that is eaten a lot all over France in the summer. The recipe is very easy to make, and children love it. My husband Mr. Love  really doesn't like clafoutis, I must say, and I had to wait for my sister's visit to bake one with her. He says that Clafoutis tastes like an omelet with cherries... which is not completely wrong, but I still love this cake and its wonderful smell! Nowadays, you see a lot of clafoutis recipes with various fruits, but the real one is made with cherries - and they are really delicious at the moment. I hope you will enjoy it too! xxx Elodie

Preparation time: 10 minutes Cooking time: 30 minutes Ingredients (for 8 people):

• 600 g cherries
• 40 g salted butter  + 20 g for the baking tin
• 4 eggs
• 20 cl milk
• 100 g flour
• 60 g caster sugar
• 1 sachet of vanilla sugar
• 1 pinch of salt
• icing sugar

Preparation:

Pre-heat the oven to 210°C (thermostat 7). Wash the cherries, remove the stalks and dry them. You don't remove the stones, the traditional recipe states that you leave them in, and I think it tastes much better that way. Melt 40g of butter in a small saucepan with a thick base. In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, salt and the vanilla sugar. Add the eggs bit by bit and then the milk, also in stages whilst continuing to mix. Add the melted butter. Butter the baking tin, put the cherries in and then pour in the mixture. Place in the preheated oven for ten minutes at 210°C and then reduce the temperature to 180°C and bake for a further 20 minutes. Serve the clafoutis cold or luke warm, covered with icing sugar.

LOVEly flower blogs #4 - Tulipina

Good morning, Today I am delighted to introduce you to the wonderful Kiana - from the blog Tulipina. She has a very natural and creative style and uses a lot of unusual vessels for her bouquets. In this little interview,  you can discover a little more about Tulipina and about Kiana's story. You can read the other interviews from the LOVEly flower blogs series, here, here and here. I hope you will enjoy it. I don't want to spoil anything, but the pictures are just stunning! Have a nice Monday! Elodie

Who are you and what are you talking about in your blog?

Hi, I’m Kiana Underwood – floral designer at Tulipina. My blog is focused on beautiful floral design and DIY – using as much of the natural beauty that surrounds us. I love to design using unique vessels, and I love more eclectic rather than traditional floral design. In addition, I do a lot of event work, and really enjoy quirky and eclectic weddings.

Where does your passion for flowers come from?

My mother always had fresh flowers in the home growing up, and I was privileged to have access to some lovely gardens as a child. I think that these things certainly inspired a passion for flowers. I received a Master’s degree in International Relations, but didn’t get very far into a career before deciding to have children. While I had very regularly put together floral arrangements for family and friends, I decided to turn this passion into a business in 2011, and it’s been amazing for me creatively to explore my passion on an everyday basis.

What inspires you?

There is so much natural beauty that surrounds us, and I get an enormous amount of inspiration from my garden, as well as my neighborhood. I am very fortunate to live in California, which has a moderate climate that allows access to great floral varieties year-round.

What is your favorite flower?

There are many flowers that I love to work with, but as far as a personal favorite, mine is gardenia. The delicate nature of the flower and the aroma are to die for.

Which other flower blogs are you reading regularly?

With three children plus a dog, a DIY-focused blog, and a business, I don’t have a lot of time to read other blogs. When I do have a spare moment, my reading is usually not flower-related.

 

(c) All photography by N. Underwood

Nelly Castro - beautiful postcards from Hamburg

Dear all, Today I would like to introduce you to Nelly Castro. I met Nelly at the pop-up store event of 7 Avenue, and she invited me last week to the presentation of her new postcard collection.
Nelly is a designer and illustrator based in Hamburg, who started producing postcards some years ago - and I really like her fresh style and hand lettering. The cards are printed on a very nice thick paper.
The texts on the postcards are in Spanish (her mother tongue), English and German. Nelly also designs wedding invitations. You can find more information on her website.

Baby Love's little wardrobe

Hello everyone, My mum came to visit us at the beginning of the Month with a car full of presents and mini-clothes for the future Miss Love. What she made is so beautiful that I couldn't resist sharing it with you. Some of the stuff were even made 28 years ago for the birth of my sister Alexia, and kept since then! This is so amazing and my mother is so talented! The clothes are all displayed in Baby Love's little wardrobe, an antic wooden cabinet with a glass door we found in the great shop called Lieblingszimmer, that I featured on the blog there. I wish you all a great day. Speak to you soon Elodie

2 flower girls #6 - garden roses

Hello everyone!

I am so happy today: #2flowergirls has reached round number 6! and for the fourth time, Inga from glomerylane and I are inviting others to buy the given flowers, style them and post them on their blogs or send them by e-mail. We then collect the blogposts and post the pictures on Pinterest. Here are the pictures of the ranunculus, the hortensia and the peonies. We are going to collect the beautiful roses here.

If you want to participate, you can post a link to your blogpost in the comment field here or under Inga's blogpost. You can also send us the photos by e-mail or post them on Instagram or Twitter along with the #2flowergirls hashtag. The last edition was great and the blogosphere got very inspired by the peonies. I hope the free range/garden roses will inspire you as much.

Here is a sneek peak of Inga's roses - actually from her garden, not like mine which were from the market... You can see more on Inga's blog.

I wish you a great day with the amazing weather!

xxx

Elodie

Photos: (c) Elodie Love and Inga Lorig

LOVEly flower blogs #3 - Fleuropean

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Hello!

Today I am so happy to introduce Emily's blog. This the third blogpost of my new series about flower blogs after Floresie and Love n'fresh flowers. Emily is writing about her love for flowers in her beautiful blog Fleuropean - the power of flowers, but I met her online first through her great project called the Lonely Bouquet, in which I participated at the beginning of July.

Here comes the interview, with some photos from Emily. I really love her dreamy style. What do you think? xxx Elodie

Who are you and what are you talking about in your blog?

Hello Elodie (and all you other flower fans!)! My name is Emily, and I am an avid gardener, aspiring florist, flower philanthropist and dedicated blogger. As an American living abroad in Belgium, I first began to blog (Fleuropean) as a way to share my daily adventures and everyday life stories with friends and family back home. Soon I found myself in the midst of a small cyberspace community where I feel free to practice my three passions (photography, flowers, and writing). My love for flowers and gardening has also inspired a project dedicated to spreading the unique joy of flowers throughout the local community. It’s called The Lonely Bouquet, and everyone is welcome to become a part of the movement! I love nothing more than being outside, snapping pictures, and playing with flowers… so if you visit my blog, that’s probably what you will find.

Where does your passion for flowers come from?

To be honest, I don’t really know. I’ve always been attracted to the aesthetics of colorful displays… boxes of pastels, aisles of ribbons, eye shadows and nail polishes lined up on the make-up display counters. I suppose that rows of rainbow-colored flowers and color-coordinated bouquets appeal to that same enthusiasm for aesthetics. While growing up in Northern California provided pretty awesome exposure to the raw beauty of nature, I didn’t exactly grow up in the middle of a flower farm. In fact, due to their busy lifestyles as single, working parents, both my mom and my dad made use of professional gardeners. Despite a marked lack of interest in heavy labor, my mom would often tuck a small flower behind my ear, plop me down between the hydrangea bushes and ferns, and talk to me about the various names of the flowers in our garden. I suppose that the opportunity to constantly interact with the surrounding environment fostered a deep sense of respect for and interest in the miraculous ways of nature… which, naturally, led to a love for flowers.

 What inspires you?

Nature. Watching a tiny seed sprout its first leaves, grow into a small plant, and produce armfuls of flowers all summer long…. and to know that you played a small role in that process. That, to me, is one of the most inspirational experiences.

What is your favorite flower?

Oh dear! What’s a girl to do… being asked to choose between so many of my best friends. If push came to shove, I would have to say that sweet peas are my most favorite flower of all. Their fragrance combined with their tireless effort to produce flower after flower all summer long has led to a love affair that is bound to last a lifetime. Tied for second are garden roses and dahlias.

Which other flower blogs are you reading regularly?

I’ll admit it. I’m a bit of a lazy internet user. I love spotting fabulous photos on Facebook and clicking the links that my favorite sites share. I drool over the pictures posted by The Blue Carrot, Jo Flowers, and ForageFor (among many others)… and often click over to visit Studio Choo, Design Sponge, Botanical Brouhaha, Floresie, and (naturally) Madame Love.

The Lonely Bouquet on facebook: www.facebook.com/thelonelybouquet Fleuropean on facebook: www.facebook.com/fleuropean Website: www.fleuropean.com

© Photos Fleuropean

Soirée provençale in Hamburg

Dear all, I had a great start to the weekend. I went to a "soirée provençale" in Hamburg on Friday night. It was organised in the French café called Metropolitain that I already presented on the blog in December - you can read more here.  It was the French concept of "table d'hôtes". Our hostess was the French cook Eve based in Hamburg. Table d'hôte literally means "the host's table" in French. The term is used to denote a table set aside for residents of a guesthouse. Everyone sits down around a large table and makes small-talk. It is not like in a restaurant, there is only one sitting, the price is fixed and the menu set in advance. The theme of the evening was Mediterranean cuisine. We had taboulé to start with, an aioli -  a speciality from Marseilles with cold fish, vegetables and a garlic mayonnaise - perfect for the hot weather we are experiencing, and a lovely fruit salad with a madeleine to finish with.

We sat at a table with 15 people in front of the Café Metropolitain and the atmosphere was great, we met lovely people, shared a great meal, a mix of French and German conversations started around the table, mainly about food, as is traditional in France.  It was like being in the middle of a Kinfolk dinner.

We all had a great night and I was very happy to help the organisers Melody, Ulrike and Eve with the flower decoration. Here are a couple of pictures of the flowers and the food:

The next Mediterranean "table d'hôtes" in Metropolitain will take place on 27th September. You can book on Eve's Website. Have a great day!

Elodie

Sweet peas for my sweet readers

Hello everyone, Today I just wanted to send some little sweet peas to you dear readers, for all the lovely comments and encouragements. You make my blog a much nicer place! So - just a little thank you bouquet for you! I really love how their leaves twine around.

Speak to you soon, xxx

Elodie

LOVEly flower blogs #2 - Love'n Fresh Flowers

Hello everyone, After presenting you the wonderful French flower blog Floresie at the beginning of July, I would like to introduce you today to the American blog Love'n Fresh Flowers, run by the very talented florist Jennie Love. Jennie and I share more than our family names, we also share our love for dahlias and  ranunculus! I really like her fresh and natural flower style and her seasonal bouquet project.

Here are a couple of pictures along with a little interview with Jennie.

Who are you and what are you talking about in your blog?

Jennie Love, owner of Love 'n Fresh Flowers, a petite, sustainably-managed flower farm and full-service floral design studio in Philadelphia, USA. The Love 'n Fresh Flowers blog focuses on topics about growing and designing with highly-unique, seasonal flowers.   Posts are categorized into farming or designing and there are often pictures from my flower farm and from weddings I've been working on.  The Seasonal Bouquet Project is another blog I collaborate on with Erin at Floret Flower Farm.  It is a simple weekly blog where we each post beautiful photos of one floral arrangement we made that week with materials harvested from our farms and/or foraged very nearby so readers can really get a sense of what is in season each and every week.  We get many people telling us we use materials they've never even seen or heard of before.  Readers can contribute links to photos of their own seasonal, locally-sourced bouquets too.  It's such a fun and inspirational project.

Where does your passion for flowers come from?

Like many florists, I grew up with a grandmother and mother who loved to garden and helped me appreciate nature's beauty.  I also took lots of long walks as a kid on my family farm to gather wildflowers for our dinner table.  That habit seems to have stuck. 

What inspires you?

 The buckets of flowers that I harvest from my fields inspire me every day.  Nature creates such breath-taking color combinations without any fuss, and I'm constantly blown away by how spectacular they are.  I sometimes find myself stopped still in the middle of the field, staring at one singularly beautiful bloom, dreaming about how to place it perfectly in a bouquet.  I'm a lucky florist.  Taking a walk around the field always gives me all the inspiration I need.

 What is your favorite flower?

I grow so many and each new crop is my favorite in the moment, but the two that make me cry when they are gone for the season each year are dahlias and ranunculus.

Which other flower blogs are you reading regularly?

Floret Flower Farm The Seasonal Bouquet Project (I'm biased) Botanical Brouhaha

Thank you so much Mrs. Love for answering all my questions and being my second guest. You can find Jennie's blog here. I really like the section about her design philosophy. It is very inspiring. You might also want to follow Love n'fresh flowers on Facebook to get the latest updates.

I wish you all a brilliant week. Talk to you soon xxx

Elodie

© Photos Love'n fresh flowers

The Nursery project #5 - Lovely Doudou

Hello everyone, Today I would like to talk about "doudou". A "doudou" in French is an object than a baby/young child sees as its favorite one - The babies/young children sleep with it. A good translation would probably be cuddly toys. Here is a selection of my favorite doudous for the nursery in the nursery colours. One of them (N°2) has already found its place in the nursery.

1. Cat Girl by Kathryn Davey via Kathryn Davey 2. Bear by Makie via smallable 3. Zakka Crocodile via Babyssimo 4. Badger by Maleig via Room6 5. Mr. Bell by Lucky Boy Sunday via Millimètres 6. Tobi little Berry by Dimpel via smallable 7. Doll Chiara from Jess Brown via smallable 8. Mono Cat from Donna Wilson via Donna Wilson 9. Fox with scarf by Maleig via Room6 10. Rabbit via smallable 11. Mama Mouse with baby via Milchmädchen

Baby Love already received a beautiful present from ma sister. It will probably be a bit big to start with, but I am sure that she will love it as much as I do. He is called Auguste from the French company Moulin Roty.

I hope you could find a little Doudou inspiration today. Have a lovely day! Talk to you soon, Elodie

summer flowers

Hello everyone, I don't know on which side of the planet you live, but on my side the weather has been great for more than a week, and even if the warmth is a bit tough when you are pregnant, I wanted to celebrate with you today with some summer flowers on the blog.

I found those beauties yesterday on the Isemarkt in Hamburg, one of the largest markets in Europe with a fantastic flowers selection. The flowers come from the region around Hamburg, from a cut flowers garden called Kolbe's Bio-Blumen. I love this mix of poppies, corn flowers and daisies. It reminds me of the bouquets I used to make at home in France. Here are a couple of more pictures:

I wish you all a very nice and sunny day! xxx Elodie

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LOVEly flower blogs # 1 - Florésie

Good morning everyone, Today, I want to share a bit of blogosphere love with you. When I visited my first blogging conference and said to my fellow bloggers, that I was writing about interior design and flowers, people looked back at me very surprised: a flower blog? But in the meantime, I met a lot of flower bloggers I admire and can really relate to, online or in real life from all over Europe and the US. I have decided to introduce them to you through a little interview in my new column: LOVEly flower blogs. The first one is a French one called Florésie - poésie means poetry in French - and Laetitia is really creating poetry with flowers. I love her work and I am so grateful I get to meet such lovely and talented people through my blog!

Who are you and what do you talk about in your blog?

Hello, i’m Laetitia from Florésie, a Swiss floral designer based in France. Florésie was created in 2010 to relate my adventures at the School of Florists in Paris. It has evolved as in the meantime I decided to quit my techie job to live off my passion... flowers! By reading my blog, you’ll find floral DIY for your home, inspiration for wedding flowers, and my own work starting from the flower cutting garden (which i just started this year), going through personal (sometimes very experimental) projects, and to projects realised for my customers.

Where does your passion for flowers come from?

Honestly, i don’t know. I have the feeling it was always in me, just hiding somewhere in my unconscious mind and waiting for the right time to pop out! Flowers are so beautiful and so fragile at the same time. I love this paradox and the challenge set by the ephemeralness when one wants to design with them...

What inspires you?

Nature first: gardens, wild flower fields, woods... I spend a lot of time observing flowers in the wild, gathering and also growing them in my garden. This makes my work really influenced by the season. And then great floral designers as well, such as Moniek Vanden Berghe, Gregor Lersch or Ariella Chezar... just to name a few.

What is your favourite flower?

Joker! I’d rather not answer, as i change my mind every day. In general, however, i do prefer garden style and locally grown flowers. I tend not to work with exotic flowers for environmental reasons...

 Which other flower blogs do you read regularly?

Floret Flower Farm, Saipua, and Sarah Winward for the inspiration. Botanical Brouhaha, and Flowerona for technical aspects, and a general view of what’s going on in the flower world...

Thank you so much Laetitia for being my first "victim"! I hope I made curious about Laetitia's blog. You can also like her Facebook page or follow Florésie on Bloglovin, in order to be regularly updated with her new bouquets.

I wish you all a great week-end, and don't forget to buy some flowers! xoxo Elodie

© Photos Florésie 2013. Tout droit réservé.

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The nursery project #4 - Playing with fabric

Dear readers, as a lot of you already know, I am a little bit of a Liberty addict. I just finished a baby blanket with Liberty fabric on one side and a very pretty Japanese fabric on the other side. I will show it to you later. Yesterday, I have been playing with three different Liberty of London patterns to decorate the walls of the nursery. I used embroidery hoops to frame them. It is a very easy way to display your favorite fabric on the walls. I bought them at the German DIY shop Idee. Here are the three fabrics I picked from my collection - I chose fabrics that fit in the colour concept of the nursery.

Becci Tana Lawn from the spring/ summer 2012 Glencot House collection was inspired whilst a member of the Liberty Art Fabrics team was reclining on an old patterned chair in the drawing room at Glencot House in Somerset. A layered design of leaves and flowers creates three dimensions drawn from the gardens at Glencot. Becci A is shades of blue, jade and grey.

Poppy and Daisy is on the Classic Tana list since 1979, Liberty Poppy and Daisy was designed in 1974 by the Jack Prince Studio. Version K has brown, blue and purple flowers.

Wiltshire is a leaf and berry pattern which was designed for Liberty in 1933 and redesigned for Tana in 1968. Wiltshire has been on the Classic Tana list since 1979. Colourway L has blue, lilac and olive berries on a dark background.

I also played yesterday with Muslin squares and Liberty bias tape. I gave it then yesterday night to my friend Sabrina for her 6 weeks old baby - but I will definitely also make some for baby love!

My next project is a nursing pillow with Marimekko fabric. I can't wait to show it to you!

Speak to you soon!

Elodie

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my lonely bouquet

Hello everyone, Here are some pictures of the lonely bouquet I made yesterday for the first International lonely bouquet day. As I don't have a garden myself, and didn't have access to one during the week end, I had to improvise a bit. I created a bouquet with flowers I already had at home from three different bouquets and decorated my recycled jar with washi-tape When the bouquet was finished and the "take me tag" attached, I left it at the tube station Eppendorfer Baum in Hamburg. I hope I will receive some news from the new owner.

I wish you a great start in the new week!

Elodie

The International Lonely Bouquet Day

Hello everyone,

Today I want to share a great project with you. Do you know "the Lonely Bouquet". This a project by Emily Avenson, an American girl living in the Belgian Countryside. That's how she define her idea:

A movement dedicated to spreading happiness and smiles, one flower at a time!

The ultimate goal of this initiative is to dedicate one day a year to making strangers happy. The method chosen is… flowers! and this Sunday (30th of June) is the first International Lonely Bouquet Day.

How to participate in the first International ?

All you have to do is:

1. pick flowers fresh from the garden or forage straight from nature. If you don't have a garden, like myself, you can of course go to the market or to the flower shop.
2. arrange the flowers in a small, recycled jar
3. add a signature “take me!” tag (you can download my template in English, French and German here: Lonely Bouquet - Tags), and
4. leave the arrangement behind for a lucky local to take home. Voila! You have just delivered a handful of flowers that will surely put a smile on a stranger’s face.

To sign up for the event, please pop on over The Lonely Bouquet facebook page! If you want more information, please visit Emily's website.

So I hope you are now motivated to help us spreading happiness and smiles, one flower at a time. I will definitely take part as a flower girl!

You can also follow the Lonely Bouquet on Twitter and on Instagram and use the Hashtag #thelonelybouquet.

FREE DOWNLOAD - The Lonely Bouquet "Take me" Tag in 3 languages: Lonely Bouquet - Tags

Take care and speak to you soon, Elodie

Photos: Emily Avenson

The nursery project #3 - mood board - the colours

Hello everyone, As promised there, I will share the evolution of my "nursery project" with you on the blog. Today I want to show you a little mood board I created in order to illustrate the overall look I want to give to the room and decide on the main colours in want to use in the decoration of the nursery. As you can see the two main colours are blue and grey/silver.

1. Pompoms to add some lightness and fluffiness to the decoration 2. Print Everyone's friend from seventy tree - looks perfect for a future multilingual child 3.Wall hooks in different shades of blue 4. A unicorn - this one has already moved in... 5. A lovely star carpet. 6- The Egmont bunny lamp - In fact I have had this lamp for ages in my living room. Now, it lives where it belongs: in the nursery! 7. Lovely fabric: from left to right: Liberty art fabric - Capel blue Liberty art fabrics- Eloise blue Liberty art fabrics - Betsy grey France Duval-Stalla - Grey with white cloud of stars cambric 8- soft toy - dog - in Japanese Zakka style

1. Why blue? I decided to pick blue as the main colour, even if I am expecting a baby girl. The baby's bedroom is going to be set in our former bedroom in which we painted one of the walls in midnight blue last year. I still love this colour so much and find it so peaceful, that I decided not to change it and build the decoration around it. To make it a little more girly, I am adding some flowery Liberty fabric. I am a big fan of british stylist, shop owner and book author Abigael Ahern and her choices of dark colours in decoration, and decided to apply that to the nursery. I also decided to mix different shades of blue.

2. Why grey/silver? First of all, grey is my favorite colour in decoration. I painted the main wall in my living room in grey and I really love it. Grey/silver is more going to be used as accents in the nursery, as a contrasting colour to blue and in fabric. We will leave the other walls in the nursery plain white. For me silver as something magical in it and I hope it will inspire my little princess.

3. The Patterns I am going to use a lot of stars in the decoration of the room, as well as animals, as I think they both fit perfectly in a baby's room.

So! I hope you got inspired. I think we are also going to add some neon yellow to the room.

It's all for today. I will be back tomorrow on the blog with a great flower project - so stay tuned.

xxx Elodie

Etsy Labs Hamburg with Frau Sieben

Hello everyone, On Monday Evening, I attended my first Etsy Labs in Hamburg which was organised by my friend Trixi (alias Frau Sieben), a jewelry designer . I am sure you all know about Etsy - for those would don't know, it's an american online platform that sells handmade and vintage goods all over the world. They regularly organise craft parties in European cities called Etsy Labs - It's a free DIY event, on a special topic. The ones in Hamburg are organised in a brilliant location called LOKAL e.v.. The concept is simple but really enjoyable - you sit around a table with other people (okay, mainly girls...) and do something with your hands, while drinking a lemonade.  Yesterday's Etsy Labs was about creating summery bracelets - and that's what we did! I had a lot of fun with my friends Maria, Christin and Anne. Here are a couple of photos for you:

Talk to you soon! and see you at the next Etsy Labs.

Elodie

The nursery project #2 - online inspiration

Hello everyone,The birth of baby love is approaching (the end of August) and I can already tell you that you will see less flowers and more decoration and DIY on the blog in the coming weeks, as I am decorating the nursery and planing to make some stuff for the baby. I will show you some pictures of the room slowly transforming into a nursery and some great resources to buy furnitures and decoration items online. Today I will start with my online inspiration and first where I store my inspiration when I am surfing the web. I created a Pinterest board, that I names LOVEly nurseries. You can have a look here

A great website, when decoration the nursery and waiting for the baby to come is the French blog called The Socialite Family - A SAMPLE OF SMART AND COOL FAMILIES .

The blog is written by Constance Gennari who used to be a children’s fashion journalist. The purpose of Socialite Family is to observe interior design through the eyes of a family and I find her blog very inspiring. The interviewed families so far live in Paris, New York, London, Milan and Nantes, Los Angeles and Barcelona. (the interviews are available in French and English). It is a very visual blog, and I find extremely inspiring.

Speak to you soon, xoxo

Elodie

Dala horse - A Swedish tradition

Hello everyone, Last week-end was midsommar in Sweden, so I decided to write a blogpost about a pretty souvenir I brought with my from Stockholm last February, when I attended the Meet the Blogger Conference. You can read my other blogpost about Stockholm here, here and there. The little souvenir is called dalahästen in Swedish and Dala horse or Dalecarlian horse in English. I was in the small log-cabins deep in the forests during the long winter nights in front of the fire, that the ancestor of the Dala horse was born. Using simple tools, generally a knife, toys were carved for the children. The fact, that many horses were made was only natural, because the horse to them was invaluable. In the older days, the Dala horse was mostly a toy for children, but nowadays, it is a symbol for the kingdom of Sweden. The earliest reference of wooden horses for sale is from 1624. The pattern of today is about 150 years old and it reflects a style of painting known as "Kurbits". In 19th century, Sticka-Erik Hansson introduced the technique of painting with two colours in the same brush. Even today the Dala horses are painted this traditional way. Today's Dala horse is still a handicraft article, made out of pine, and at least nine different persons have contributed with their skills to create the horse. At the beginning, I wanted to buy a black horse or maybe a blue one from the flea-market:

But then, I had to choose a traditional red one, as it much better stands for the swedish style - So I found this one at Grannas:

And now it lives on my bookshelf in my living room, in front of my red books:

Granna A. Olsson Hemslöjd AB (were I found my horse) was founded in 1922 and is today the oldest company making Dalecarlian horses. Website: www.grannas.com

Speak to you soon. xxx Elodie