Wherever I went, different shades and hues of the colour pink were popping out at me, usually alongside grey. It is no wonder that the paint maker Annie Sloan has a colour in her range called Scandinavian Pink, whilst Annies colour is darker than seen on some of these images, I can see why she associates pink with Scandinavia.
One of our first outings was into Stockholm for a trip to buy Swedish clogs, en route we passed this building, all shuttered up, with beautiful detail.
The area is called Soder, we found a lovely cafe which is featured in Rachels blog this week with my photos. It was called cafe Tjarlek on Tjarhovsgatan.
| Swedish style wooden shoes seem to be hot right now. Even in Sweden the brand "swedish hasbeens" has a big following. They are an online store with pop up shops around the world. |
From there we walked to where we could take a boat over to the area where the museums and amusement parks are, (Djurgardsvagen). As the boat was docking I spied this pretty ride, decorated with a lovely colour combination where the pinks are sitting with yellow. We were heading to the Nordic Museum for research into folk art and Swedish traditions.
Day three and Rachel had arranged to go to a hotel called Gorvalns Slott, just outside Stockholm in Jarfalla. The castle hotel is decorated throughout with Van Asch cushions, ornate furniture, feather lamps, interesting wall treatments and colour themes. We were taking photos for the next catalogue and were allowed free run of the place.
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| bathroom tiles |
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| this wall is a mixture of old plaster, paints and stone, rough and textured, hints of pink and grey show through the layers. |
Day four and we all packed our stuff into the car and headed off to the family home in the countryside. Tjulsta here we come for the Midsummer Festival. In Sweden the eve of Midsummer is as important and Christmas Eve. My hosts informed me that most of the country is intoxicated on this day, the weather was perfect, we picked wild flowers, made our head garlands and headed off to the nearby village of Veckholm. Here the large village hall was hosting the event, a maypole had been erected and on our arrival it was in full flow, with the traditional dance in progress.
The nearby church had this annexe ....
Back at the 200 year old house in Tjulsta, I spied yet more of this wonderful colour on this little cupboard.
Heres a shot of all the girls with myself, and a special thanks to Gunilla for giving me the full Midsummer feast later that day.
Special mentions and links this week go to Swedish Hasbeens, Cafe Tjarlek,Nordic Museum Stockholm,Gorvalns Slott hotel, Rachel Van Asch
