Hidden In France

these are a few of my favorite rooms...

Imitation is the biggest form of flattery, right? Browning from Smoke and Oche just posted about her favorite rooms from Living Etc. and I almost fell off my chair when i saw this:

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So here are a few of my favorite rooms from Living Etc. , beside the one above which is so beautiful to me it hurts to look at it.

Here is a fantastic use of letters on wall. Why didn't I think of that?

I luuuurve this purple wall covered with eclectic paintings:

and this little girl room which is so simple and sweet:

And finally the jordan almond colors of this vintage kitchen.

Scandinavian Christmas

You know how it goes. It begins innocently enough with a peek at one of your favorite blogs, this time Smoke and Ochre, (I truly adore this blog) which suggest a visit to this blog, which leads you tothis blog and before you know it you're somewhere in Scandinavia, salivating over pictures in a language you don't understand, and you get reconnected to the great magazine Bolig.

THESE are the colors I'm into right now! I know, they're a shock to the system. I needed a shock to the system to get me in gear for the holiday season.

reusable totes from La Marelle Editions

La Marelle Edition is a French company which has come up with a very distinct brand and sells bags, suitcases, and original cards and other paper goods created by French creators such as Nathalie Lété, or Mlle Héloïse . If, like me, are stubborn and refuse both paper and plastic in the grocery stores, then you might as well be stubborn in style.

Okay, so this is very unscientlific and misinformed but I am told that my favorite Trader Joe’s reusable totes are laced with lead or is it mercury? Sheesh... who can you trust? Apparently The totes don't contain anymore mercury (or is it lead) than a tuna salad sandwich (and tasted far worse, when I tried nibbling on it) but it’s enough to have my fellow Americans up in arms. The Mlle Héloise totessuch as the last one below are made out of polypropylene and I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing ––These days, what’s next to godliness one day is the work of the devil the next ––But I’m vain, I just go for the way things look.

The Marelle website l is experiencing some difficulties as I write this post, but you can find some of the products at the lovely Mes Habits Chéri

Who is Madame Mo?

Madame Mo is a French company with delicious Japanese undertones.

But who is the elusive Madame Mo exactly? It is the funny little lady in a Kimono, the one who has in her eyes a perpetually perplexed (hook, say that three times fast) expression?
You can find Madame Mo products, calendars, coloring books, decorative cardboard sheets and more in the Madame Mo boutique. I’m especially fond of the posters above which I found is the goldmine for French gifts that is Mes Habits Chéris which translates as "my beloved clothes" a word combo that sounds delightful in French for some reason.

and here are some gorgeous 'norens' or sheet of fabric to put over a door.

Domino magazine decorating contest winner

Okay, so you've all seen them everywhere else already. I hesitated to post those photographs. I hesitated because I'm jealous. Yes, I am green with envy.

Not because she won the Domino magazine decorating contest, but because ‘Catherine from Mill Valley’ has created the most beautiful, irresistible, soothing, awe inspiring, jaw popping, drool inducing room EVER.

Why oh why can't I live there? I actually did live in Mill Valley, 15 years ago in fact. Mill Valley is already a picture perfect town, not one false note, and this is a picture perfect room. This being said, are children and pets allowed in? I'd make mine wear little white mitts slippers and bibs (the pets and husband too) and it would be just dandy.

Pet holiday gifts

The always delightful fluffy flowers has come up with a line of gift for your pets. My absolute favorite, because it totally cracks me up and looks great, is the Organic Catnip Hairball.

I have to say these look SO much better than the one my cat has been coughing out lately. He's just a sloppy crafter, like his mama.

Here is what Fluffy Flower tells us about her creations:
"The perfect gift for your cat loving friends. One hand crocheted catnip Hairball toy. This approximately 1.5 inch hairball has a center that contains organic catnip wrapped in fiberfill."

Check out Fluffy Flowers's Etsy shop for more. And don't forget to buy handmade this holiday season.

Public Service Announcement: help the frog!

I'm usually my favorite victim, but this morning I happened to come across two typos on mine that I found terribly stupid.

It's 5 am, I'm looking at my stats. And you know you don't have a life when you're dissecting your stats at 5 in the morning to begin with, but this killed me:

Two days ago: What 'turkey basing?' It's basTing! I knew that. I was confused. I must have been free’basing’... on turkey.

A week ago: In this post I kept yapping on and on and ON about the Sundance catalogue. It's cataloG dummy. Catalogue was the French spelling.

How many more ARE there?!

Please do tell me when I'm embarrassing myself. For one I'm way impulsive as a person. But also, I'm a frog. I need help. You guys are way too kind. Don't be. Please feel free to send me a (very discreet) e-mail when you find one of my pearls.

This has been a Public Service Announcement.

Daring to be bold

On my last visit to Ikea I resisted the urge to buy this simple $390 oval table for my kitchen:

I didn’t dare buy it, because in my mind I should be aiming above Ikea when it comes to the larger furniture inside my house. But then I fell hard for this series of photographs borrowed from the ever so inspiring Marie Claire Maison.

Isn't this gorgeous? You can hardly recognize the table. And the two-toned green wall? Brilliant!

Finally the light bulb went on. My hesitation had little to do with money, (or in this case not spending enough of it on a table) and a lot to do with not trusting my instincts: there is no need to compensate a lack of imagination with an influx of money, as these pictures show. A dresser painted silver, a green wall adorned with simple drawings, or a daring color cost pennies. And look at the result:

Ikenik

I'm not sure I want to subscribe to the notion that once children have outgrown the infant stage (in my case they are 8 and 15) one must give up on decorating with baby stuff. Au contraire! It keeps me young to surround myself with immature décor. And no, I don't care what the rest of the family is saying. Here is Ikenik, a fun online store located in the Netherlands, found via the must read French blog Petit Bistro.

I’m baa-ack…

Well almost.

An Internet Connection Expert told me today that the reason my Internet connection is not functioning properly is that a squirrel had his way with MY wires.
Ha!
When I called a week ago and explained (with my very French accent, granted, which some people equate to a sign of idiocy) that my internet connection felt precisely like someone or something was nibbling on the cable, the operator’s contempt was almost palpable.

But now! He, he.. the internet is still not working but at least I feel vindicated. They even have to send a special unit. Squirrels experts I presume.

The reason I can post today is that apparently I am able to receive some type of phantom floating signal emanating from somewhere in the neighborhood, like manna from heaven.

Speaking of manna, Thanksgiving in Palm Spring was great. Considering that I spend the last six days with a crick in my neck, a terrible raging period (the hormone treatment did not work one bit) a turkey basting induced burn and the ensuing blister--and, remember, no internet connection—It truly was a lovely Thanksgiving, with plenty of food, family and did I mention a lot of food. As you've already guessed, the whine was flowing freely, but I have to describe the food. Vats of it. A 28 lbs turkey, a pillow size mound of stuffing, tubs of sweet potato and marshmallow, rivers of gravy, pumpkin pies, pecan pies, pumpkin mousse and chocolate mousse. Ice cream by the truck load...

...and one half of a celery stick.

Tomorrow’s diet time. Why not start today, you might ask?
What kind of person are YOU to suggest dieting on a Sunday evening?

Talk about dieting, here is some lovely ceramic dishware hand made by the Irish born Caitrona Platts-Manouri
who has made Provence her home. I just love the colors. This is a very happy ceramist we have here.

** another correction at 5:30 am: What turkey basing? It's basTing! I knew that. I was confused. I must have been freebasing... on turkey.

a disconnected feeling

Remember the not so good old days, when all we had were snail mail and brick and mortar stores. When you took your little rolls of film to a shop and marveled that they could be developed in less than an hour. Remember when you waited impatiently for a months for the decoration magazines to land in your mailboxes.

Might as well be the stone age, but that's exactly where I'm at. Not a happy camper. My internet connection is messed up and so am I. I have to wait until Sunday. SUNDAY! for someone to come and look at it.

I am trying to use this time to do all my accounting–– Mr. tax man, I am ready for you, a full month and a half before I need to be. All my papers have been filed. My nails have been filed. I have combed my hair in a bun, then in pigtails, then in a ponytail, then back to normal. (what am I saying, my hair is never normal.) I did go to Ikea finally and could not resist these cool Ikea poppies stickers.

They are made in France, where all the good stickers are born. The three only cost $15 (and a paint job when I'm tired of them.) Voila. I'm going to be posting this now. It will take a good half an hour for it to go through.

I miss reading all my favorite blogs. Sorry I can't leave comments or admire all the good stuff you guys are posting.

We're off to Palm Spring for Thanksgiving, that should keep me occupied. My mother in law just celebrated her 80th birthday and but she has one of the youngest, hippest, sense of design and color. I hope to take pictures of her cool house while I’m there.

20 guests and I’m told that I get to cook. It will be fun.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Sundance catalog rings

I want-I want-I want! The Sundance catalog offers one of the most appealing selection of rings I have found so far. (That is beside my favorite ring maker of them all, Angela Scirpo.) I can't say I'm into the rest of the Sundance Catalogue. Too... woodsy or som'ting, but the jewelry, and in particular the rings are so gorgeous I'm considering growing a couple extra fingers because ten just won't do. And just look at the range of prices. I this selection between $2800 and $40! Four leaf clover $68 Diamond sparkle $2,800 Equivalence $40 Monshadow $40 (on sale) Pearl and Aqua $110 Queen of the Nile $740 Four-Four Time $290 Wreath of Garnets $148 Wish Upon the Stars $1099 Pyramid amid the Sands $260 ** Correction at 5:30 am, and a week later: In this post I kept yapping on and on about the Sundance catalogue. It's cataloG dummy. Catalogue was the French spelling. Please do tell me when I'm embarassing myself.

Coming B line of kid's décor

In the mood for something tart, tangy and sweet, such as tangerine and lime together?

I found so many kids products I liked on the Coming B website, but there is also plenty for grown ups. This is a French manufacturer who offers very affordable and whimsical options to update the look of a room or change its ambiance.

This is a lot of pictures, and I hope it doesn’t take too long to open. If it does, could you let me know?

valley of the dolls

Half the month I have to take progesterone pills, a hormone made I am told, from an extract of the urine of nuns, bless their generous hearts. Yes I have to swallow them (the pills, not the nuns.) And no, I rather not look into it. I suffer from menorrhagia. You can google it should you absolutely must.

My problem is that the pill make me feel lethargic and frantic simultaneously. So now instead of my usual ranting and badgering, I rant and badger unwashed, uncombed and from the couch.

On the bright side the pills fit my sense of style-- adorable looking, perfectly round, and salmon color—pretties pills I've ever taken.

Decorate with Japanese Jeu de Paume

Here are pictures I grabbed hungrily from Love Forever, which has to be my absolute favorite blog at the moment.

Love Forever just posted about the latest from Jeu de Paume, not the Parisian museum, but the fabulous home and décor Japanese site? I know I did, right here. But here is more, so much more. This is Scandinavian design as filtered through Japanese sensibility. This is the palette that is the most seductive to me these days. White, lots of beautiful white, punctuated with splashes of pastel everywhere. There is something unassuming and fresh about this. Nothing pretentious, nothing luxurious, only prettiness. We need more prettiness in this world.

Here are pages from a Japanese book called Stokholm's love appartments

From Stockholm's kitchen...

From Children's room Stockholm

what the skøøjvüxr?

I can kind of decipher websites and blogs written in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and even German, but today I’m at a loss. I so much want to post about sköna hem, because there simply is nothing quite as jotitøriv than a good åtgjuüuøø, don’t you think? The problem with falling in love with a website in written in a language you know nothing about is that it’s hard to jvxøïuu or even †jmorgø. All you can do is look at the images and dream. Nice üøøåååjvxz, no?
Okay, enough of that. Have a great week-end. I recommend seing the movie Dan In real life. I loved it.
All pictures borrowed from Skona hem, which I found via Isabelle Hailling's site via Oh Joy!'s blog on swedish delight.

Zenza's festival of lights

I was raised with Christmas, and my husband with Hanukkah and we have no compunction about celebrating both. The challenge to me is a decorative one. I’ve never been a big fan of the red and green combo, (or silver and blue for that matter) and somehow, Christmas trees depress me. A good solution is to make use of lights and make sure that the holiday season glitters and sparkles, but that too can be a bit tacky. The Zenza company swept me off my feet with their beautiful collection of ceiling lamps, pendant lamps and table lamps straight from the Mille et Une Nuits. Those are lovely Middle Eastern inspired lighting revisited to appeal to the modern eye. Perfect mood lighting for the holidays or year round Enjoy!

Oh, and this is how I found Zenza: via This is Glamorous, via All Things Bright and Beautiful.

Zenza is based in the Netherlands and was born when a visiting Dutch woman fell in love with an Egyptian man thirteen years ago. Those delicate lamps, mostly made out of hand carved aluminum are like jewels and are as romantic as the story behind them.

Handmade gifts--but not with my hands.

Thanks to Etsy, homemade holiday gifts are no longer synonymous with contrived thank yous and poorly concealed cringes. The reason is that now you don’t have to make those handmade holiday yourself! Just hide the glue gun and the sewing machine already and leave it to the pros. Personally, this is terrific news for my friends, because, though technically it is preferable to give what people rather receive, I can’t help but have a color wheel of my own, and it involves the color pink, pink and some more pink. Pink is definitely my favorite crayon. Also, I am a sloppy crafter, two words that don’t mix well.

Here are two irresistible artists who sell their lines of delightful textile creations on Etsy. The Etsy seller Lupin discovered today via the French blog YoupiTouch is from the UK, Gloucestershire to be exact. (How do you spell that? And, being French, how in the world do you pronounce it?) Her colors are thrilling and so is her use of felt. Adorable. I’d want those on my walls, my ceiling, my lapel, my purses, my scarfs... Wouldn’t anyone?

The other is a great discovery. She's a designer who has appeared on the Martha's Stewart show and works for Pottery barn kids but also has her own line of terrific designs on Etsy. She is has a great blog named Pretty Little Things and is the Etsy seller Lorimarie. Her owls have the best personality. They say, "i'm cool" and "don't you mess with me." Go to her Etsy store for a brand new line of goodies.

Betsey Johnson

It’s always a matter of great excitement to me when I discover a blogging soul-sister. Actually, All Things Bright And Beautiful found me. Here is a gal who lives in Hong Kong and likes my blog. Well, I love hers, which should come as no surprises when you consider that we share a certain fascination for chinese paper lanterns, Kaffe Fassett, and Betsey Johnson.

I am suddenly burning to write a post about Betsey Johnson, Betsey Johnson whom the blog love forever calls 'her first design icon'. She was mine too, you bet she was. Still is. I love Betsey Johnson's wild spirit. I love that she is entirely unapologetic about her choice of color, I love her smile and I absolutely adore her refusal to act her age. When I grow up, I want to be more like Betsey.

These two pictures I found via the blog love forever and are taken inside Betsey Johnson's house and were featured in Elle Décor UK.

These photograhs were borrowed from bizbash via all things bright and beautiful. around the launch of Betsey Johnson's new perfume line.

And these pictures are from various stores and were designed by the Otto Design Group, also responsible for Urban Outfitter stores design among others.

Betsey Johnson: Martha Stewart she is not!

Karine Jollet

With the holidays fast approaching, I have begun my quest for uniquely French gifts. The fantastic site Favorite Choses features (as well as sells) the textile artist Karine Jollet's lovely pillows. Look at them. They're so simple, so zen, yet so original. This, to me would be the perfect French gift: unique, eclectic and gorgeous. And ––ahem.. is it wrong to say this?––I can see myself copying the heck out of this lovely idea and making my own homemade gifts this holiday season. My trusty sewing machine and myself absolutely excell at straight lines. (That is, in fact, our one and only specialty.)

----oh no! last minute: those are modèles deposés! Trademarked! Do not copy. That would be stealing and very wrong.

But there is so much more to Karine Jollet work. Her art is a marvel of craftsmanship and falls under the category the french would call unclassable, or impossible to classify. It’s definitely art, the medium is mostly textile, and the result a hybrid of sculpture, modeling and sewing. I find her work eerily beautiful and sometimes a bit disturbing. Take a look. You can find karine Jollet's work in a group exhibition entitled Anatomanie in Paris this November. Check it out. Lots of weird stuff there. Good weird.

Lars Contzen laminates from outer space

The wind and fire have stopped and we’re finally enjoying cooler gorgeous autumn days. Leaves are even beginning to change color and last night was ideal for trick or treating. Our fifteen year old was throwing his own party and we were not invited, so my hubby and I took our 8 year old headless son and his Techno-Amish friend (don’t ask) around for an hour, ending at a friend’s house for a cookie-cake thick with venomous looking icing. It was a lovely evening.

I love color but it seems to me that the rest of the world still likes it better drab. Here is the remedy, discovered in the fantastic site Decor8, where all the good stuff can usually be found, the cool German designer with the hat Lars Contzen. (Isn’t he cute? Totally my type.)
Germany is a forward country when it comes to design innovation in general, but I just love how Lars Contzen doesn’t go for what is predictably sellable. I’m not sure how some of these laminates and furniture, flooring or wall papers can be used, unless you're me or Austin Powers, but I love it all. Here is a sample of what can be found on the Lars Contzen website. It’s wild and free, and it’s happy. (And I might have mentioned that the designer is a cutie.)

Look: he can do sober too: