C.J.: Ross Sveback's love for domesticity goes swayback

There was no shortage of temper tantrums during my startribune.com/video shoot with lifestyle guru Ross Sveback.

I thought we should sew something or re-root a doll's hair. Sveback wanted to bake a pumpkin pie.

I hate pumpkin!, I informed Sveback in a rant at Fox 9 as we made our respective appearances. Morning news anchor Dawn Stevens witnessed my meltdown and seconded my disdain for this gourd.

It was April when I left lunch at Red Cow with Sveback [pronounced Sway-back] without a firm handle on our Q & A project, so I doubted this interview would ever occur. He kept putting me off for what seemed like constant wheeling and dealing as he works to elevate his brand in the crowded lifestyle world.

Sveback has made some inroads. His "Shades of Love Cake" was one of Oprah's favorite things in 2012. In August 2013 Sveback's line of Faux Bois was featured in Architectural Digest, he said, prompted an e-mail from another fake wood dinnerware fan, of all people, Martha Stewart, he said.

He's also feeling vindicated about his signature look, a pair of women's glasses by Tom Ford.

Sveback is not perfect, but he is doing OK for a former mortgage broker whose entertaining chatter and talent for jazzing up every aspect of his life led to a daily activities blog seven years ago. He says he went from 1,000 to 60,000 blog followers in just six months.

We covered a lot of territory, including the touchy subject of his nether-region photos. He claims he's just showing off what he's wearing. I told him on Twitter that he should knock it off but — without going into a full-on tantrum — Sveback told me he has no plans to change.

Q: What's the first thing you did as child that indicated you wanted to be a Diva of Domesticity?

A: You know I always spent time with my grandmother. The town [Le Center] I grew up in had 40 people in my graduating class. I would always spend time with my grandma. I just was fascinated by everything she would do crafting and cooking. … Those are things I was naturally able to do. It was not like I had to work at gardening or work at crocheting or work at cooking. All these things just came to me. The thought of shooting a film would be overwhelming to me. Or the thought of playing sports. Those aren't things that are natural for me. I watch them and they completely confuse me.

Q: What don't you do well in the crafting area?

A: I don't knit.

Q: How many hours do you work a week?

A: Probably 90. I start work at 4 in the morning and I work until [late] at night.

Q: How've you managed to attract so much recognition from truly high-profile brands?

A: I am fortunate for the opportunities that have come my way. I also know the things that come my way aren't things that happen for everybody. It's very rare that people get to this point. I remember when I got my agent she said to me, "You've weeded out 80 percent of the population but the thing to know is that for you to get to the next point you're going to have to deal with all those other people who have made it." That's even harder.

Q: Is this easy for you?

A: I'd say I love what I do but it's constant work. There's no letting up. And as you have seen on social media there's no separation between the life that I live and the life I'm sharing with people because I want people to be able to see this is how it's done. You just don't go, "Oh, hey, I want to cook and craft and be on TV." It doesn't just happen. These are things that take lots of work and lots of self-promotion, which I think is a hard thing for Minnesotans. That looks to us as bragging.

Q: Has promoting yourself ever been difficult for you?

A: Yes. But only from the vantage point of how much it needs to be done. To me self-promoting is, "I'm really grateful to be featured in Vogue. I'm so honored to be on FOX 9." It's not like, "Look at me. I'm the greatest thing, I'm featured in Vogue." I was just seeing someone tweet last night that brands are like attention whores. I can see how that can be perceived but the reality is you have to promote yourself because in this age of social media people forget and things turn so quickly.

Q: How many pairs of your signature eyeglasses do you have?

A: Two. These glasses are my trademark and everybody told me to not get them. I bought them online. … Then come to find out they're women's glasses, which I had no idea until I had shown them on FOX 9. Somebody told me they went out to buy them but then it said they were women's glasses. I was like, "I don't care." Now I'm known for these. Actually I heard from Tom Ford last week, literally. They're going to send me a couple more pair. [Big laugh.] So, thank you, Tom Ford.

Q: What does your heart do when you get an e-mail from Martha Stewart?

A: My heart starts racing. I wonder, "Am I in trouble? What have I done wrong?" [Laughter]

Q: What did she say to you in that e-mail?

A: She was asking me about my dinnerware. It's called Faux Bois [false wood]. She is obsessed with it like I am. That dinnerware is actually made in England for me. It takes 12 people to make each piece.

Q: So it's [joking] inexpensive?

A: I think that butter dish is about $70. It's not something you're going to find at Ikea, that's for sure.

Q: How many sets of dinnerware do you own?

A: Will this be used against me?

Q: Not by me. I don't care.

A: I probably have, I'm going to say, 40 to 50 sets of dinnerware. Yeah, it's a little crazy.

Q: What color is that pie dish?

A: Gray. I know that because I was told that.

Q: That's because the lifestyle guru is color blind?

A: Yep.

Q: Why are people afraid to invite you over for dinner?

A: I think because I cook and entertain and because I consider myself to be an authority on those aspects of life, people think they're never going to be good enough. Frankly, they can have me over and we can have frozen pizza and I'm totally fine with that. Entertaining is about getting together and spending time with people you love or care about; it's not about the food. I love doing fancy things and kind of going overboard when I'm entertaining but for the most part, it's just about spending time together. That's what matters to me.

Q: Is crotch photography compatible with needlepoint, canning, Martha Stewart?

A: I think the thing about the photographs that people get so upset about is that, um, I think initially when I starting taking them it was like this [he raised his hands above his head to show the camera's perspective]. I was in the car and like, "Oh, I really like my outfit today" and I took a picture and then people started commenting about my crotch in the picture. And that was never my intention.

Q: But you haven't stopped it!

A: And the reason that I haven't stopped it is because, if that's where people are going to choose to look, that just where people are going to choose to look. It obviously gauges a reaction out of people. I'm not doing it because I want people to look at my crotch. I'm doing it because I'm trying to show my outfit for the day, like, what I'm wearing. [As you know] I'm color blind. So I'm just trying to share what I'm doing in the age of social media. And I'm of the mind-set, C.J., I'm not going to stop doing something because someone views it in a different way. If they want to come pay my bills, that's perfectly fine, I'll start doing things the way they want me to do them. But I'm not taking those pictures with those intentions. If people want to go in that direction they can either stop following me or just be quiet.

Q: Do you think it's ultimately going to hurt your brand?

A: I know that it's not hurting my brand because I'm getting … I've got two things that literally happened last week that I can't talk about yet. They're fully aware of what I do and don't have a problem with it. And are like, We love how you live carefree and authentically. You live in the spotlight, C.J., you work in the media. Everybody's got an opinion. I can't tell my mortgage company: This person has got this opinion, can I pay you with that?

Q: My bosses would not let me post pictures of cleavage, if I had some.

A: I think women kind of deal with the same thing. This is what I hear from ladies: I can't take a picture of myself with my shirt because someone will get it wrong.

Q: Is there any tension between you and Fox 9 contributor Todd Walker as a result of him kind of poking fun at your segments?

A: Not on my part.

Interviews are edited. To contact C.J. try cj@startribune.com and to see her watch Fox 9's "Buzz."