Hidden In France

La Porte Rouge

Now how talented can a single person be?

There are artists whose work you look at and say “I recognize this person.”
I love the deliciously poetic world Nadia, a.k.a. One Silent Winter lives in. Her pictures which you can also find on her blog La Porte Rouge have such an eerie, nearly magical feel to them that I almost expect a unicorn or a fairy to appear. Her sensibility is unique and new, but the most surprising is that she is somehow capable of reinventing colors. Tell me of I’m making this up. Have you ever seen pinks look like this:

and reds or blues look like this:

(I would give a limb for this necklace by the way.)

She can also make yellows and greens look like this:

And blacks, look like this:

I am baffled. How does she do it?

But it's not just about the colors of course. Its about Nadia's eye, her vision, how each picture is its own small world, a more hopeful, happier world.

Spring feevah

It must be spring because i am finding renewed inspirations in blogs all around. First thank you to Liberty Post for her lovely post about Hidden In France. Her theme this week was cherry blossoms and I love her new banner so much I borrowed the picture for my desktop.

The words she used to describe my post should bring both of us interesting folks via google search:

... and then there is this picture Liberty Post used as an illustration of what I'm capable of: Pia, I hate to bother you while your in Paris, but could the following be considered for Wandering Hearts?

Then Felicity of All Things Bright and Beautiful (who could be my long lost siamese twin, she knows what will make me drool so well) hit me over the head with pictures of this house she found on PurePublic:

And finally Creature Comforts featured the charming and colorful world of Linda Solovic, which reminds me of my husband's favorite poem: "Spring has sprung, the grass is greeze, I wonder where the birdies is." It's got a nice ring to it but e.e. cummings it ain't.

isn't this adorable?
Here is the etsy shop of Linda Solovic

Moron about Mormons

Sorry. Could not resist.

I have been reading the blog Dooce religiously lately, going into the archives for any nugget of information on Utah and the Mormon community. The novel I am working on is not set in France this time, but in Southern California, Italy and Utah. I’ll gladly take a trip to do my research personally in Italy and properly describe the feelings, scents, the gelato and the pancetta. But I’m not planning on doing any time as a Mormon. Since I’m not trying to make fun of the Mormon community here, only trying to understand it, Dooce might not be the source. I am also reading books on the subject but they are AWfully tedious. I’m wondering if any of you know of a Mormon blog or blogger whose brain I could pick.

Before my iMac self destructed, then rose like the phoenix I had mentioned writing posts on women I admired, this is a propitious time to mention Heather.

Heather of Dooce in my kinda girl. I admire her for her obvious honesty, her excellent, fluid, writing, her amazing ability to express love and her concerted effort to take nothing seriously except maybe free speech. And because I’m shallow and she is beautiful.

If you want sudden immersion in Heather Armstrong’s world, (love it or hated, there will be no turning back) I recommend her periodic exclamation point posts where she responds to selected hate mail. Also I found this very interesting interview in the blog rebecca’s pocket.

Pictures snatched from Dooce's flickr stream and rebecca's pocket.

She is also a stylish woman. Here's a photo of Heather's Armstrong brand new hat:

I love technology

Life is good. My computer is alive and well. It was the power supply watchamacalit, and it was under warantee. Yeahhh!

I had to laugh because of all the supportive comments I received from you guys. I really felt the love! But seriously, it takes a blogger to give such heartfelt words of sympathy over a frigging machine! You knew my pain because you too have come to depend on computer technology for so much. In my case, the dependence is emotional. What have I become?

The Mac store being inside a gigantic mall the size of a small airport, Apple graciously offered to have someone carry the computer back to my car. The young lad was a self proclaimed 'part time Genius'. I asked him if that meant he got to relax and be really stupid the rest of the time. (I simply can't resist these kinds of things.) His answer was that he hoped to be upgraded to full time genius soon. Which I took as a yes.

Because I am capable of learning from my mistakes, I now own a back up drive named Lacie. (real name.) Not much bigger than a pile of five CD cases, that hungry little bugger can gobble up all of my precious files, including all my photos, like it's a small snack and keep is safe for me.

I'm seeing life through rose tainted glasses since my good news, so here are a few pink rooms from Marie Claire Maison via A Beautiful Living a magnificent scandinavian blog.

Have a lovely week-end. I hope your weather is as gorgeous as it is here in Southern California.

Maurice Renoma is hot stuff

The latest design from Maurice Renoma via the ever cool French blog J'ai Flâné pour Vous. Maurice Renoma was already an old man when I was growing up, and it is amazing to me to find him at the heart of some of the hippest French designs. I love the classic bourgeois shapes combined with irreverent pictures.

All pictures borrowed from J'ai Flâné pour Vous.

Maurice Renoma's photographic work and his designs can me enjoyed at the trendy café and gallery on the uber chic Avenue George V in the 8th arrondissement of Paris as well as in a boutique in my own quartier, rue de la Pompe in the sixteenth arrondissement.

How jet-settish is this?

Claim your dues

There are so many blogs that brighten my day. Here are two pictures I loved today:

Here is one from Urban Grace Interior

And who posted this photograph today, I can't remember?

The point it, today is blogroll extravaganza and I'm trying to add all of you guys. I've spent the day adding and adding to my blogroll and did pretty much nothing else. If I read you, and if you read me, then I want to add you. If I have forgotten you, please send me an e-mail while I'm on a (blog) roll.

jackpot

My husband spent the day in Vegas (for work I'm told) but today guess who's the big winner!

First I was picked out of 54 comments to receive a beautiful print from Ez at Creature Comforts and today it came in the mail. It is so lovely. The packaging alone is worth framing. I tried to take a picture but the photo does not do the print justice so here is a looksy of Ez's original artwork:

Isn't it dreamy?

And whn it rains it pours. All I had to do was beat the clock and be one of the first to comment on the blog Miscellany of mein order to maybe win something made by Muralimanohar, and that's pretty exciting because she is extremely gifted with colors, not to mention the sewing machine. Well guess what, early birds get the worm! He, He!

Here is some of her work. So fresh and adorable don't you think?

Whatever I won better be tiny, because it will be coming all the way from Australia.

Goosebumps

It's all in the brain she says.

Everything about this woman's speech made the hair on my spine rise. In a good way. She is Jill Bolte Taylor and a neuroanatomist. She tells the story on TED Talks of what could be described as her own personal encounter with ... enlightenment? It's The Power of Now meets the Matrix.

Thank you for the link Lenora, you enlightened soul you!

My mind wanders

If you are like me you have been following with excitement the progress of Pia Jane's new project she named My Heart Wanders.

The idea is to become part of a collective art project focused on handmade or found hearts. You really should participate.

Murphys's law being what it is, I still haven't located my fabulous heart-shaped rock collection, let alone taken picture of it. Instead I'm finding hearts absolutely everywhere, in the most mundane places or wrong places. Like on Isabelle's cheek. I pursued her with my camera in macro mode but the picture came out all blurry in the struggle. Or Dayna's husband perfect heart-shaped birthmark (And how would I know it's there in the first place? Well Dayna told me of course.)

And you know, I'd like to be lucky enough to find pictures of the Virgin Marie in my dinner, which would make me RICH! Instead I find this in my chicken stew:

The deadline for submission is June 15th. Learn all about My Heart Wanders here.

Breathless in L.A.

Here are beautiful photographs found in Apartment Therapy L.A. (The best A.P. if you ask me) What a wonderful place. I love the nostalgia and the colors, I love how the Australian house is filled with light and playfulness. I love also that the owners were able to spend the time it takes to hunt for these treasures because, to be frank, time is becoming a rarefied commodity around here.

And for those of you who can spare the extra three minutes of reading time, (and have patience for my whining) here is more:

I’m finding myself with 30 hours worth of work to fit in a 12-hour day. I can be at my desk by 9:00 on most days after carpool, after a quick run to the market followed with a flurry of bed making, dishwasher filling, pet feeding and sink tidying. Then follow five hours before school ends and I must change hat and morph back into the mother (and driver) of them all.

But here is the question: I’m confused. What is noble, worthwhile and important work and what is indulgence?

Is focusing on what is directly income producing more valuable than those long shot tasks that do not bring in a dime? (writing and blogging come to mind.)

Really, tell me, what is work and what is indulgence? Is working on my new novel an indulgence? Is blogging an indulgence? Is creating a post less of an indulgence than reading other people’s blog? And what to make of the fifteen full minutes just spend on Flikr looking for speeding puppies?

And really, am I sane to subscribe to so many Rss Feeds? There are the art blogs, the design blogs, the money, self-help, advertising and marketing blogs. There are the agent blogs, the writers’ blogs. The trend blogs, the funny blogs. And lately the 'getting into college' blogs and the political blogs. And that’s only the English speaking blogs, because of course I have to read al the equivalent in French. I am the fastest reader ever, but no kidding I turned on my google reader this morning to find no less than 1460 blog posts waiting for my immediate attention. I had cleaned the box on Friday!

And comments, what about comments? Should I leave comments on my favorite blogs this afternoon or should I haul my arse away from the computer and attend to my 15-year-old's first high school tennis match. Surely it must be more important to give my attention to my own children than to all of you creative, intelligent, passionate women out there.

How do you prioritize? How do you define work versus indulgence? Have I exhausted you yet?

Prepare to be dazzled...

But not by me. No time to write today. (But there is always plenty of time to plagiarize. )

Here are the day’s blog posts that gave me that delicious shiver.

All Things Bright and Beautiful nearly killed me with this:

Purple Area who can read my mind posted this:

and Desire to Inspire posted images with that awesome blue (green?) that is so hard to define but has me weak in the knees.

Now I have done such a sloppy job, especially with photo credits, that you must run to the blogs above for the full story.

And the award goes to...

Work WORK is holding me by the throat and not letting go. That’s good right? My new business is taking shape in new and wonderful ways but shhh… I’m not telling yet. In the mean time my solution has been to grow a couple of extra hands so that I can write twice as fast (albeit half as well). Now I need an entirely new wardrobe.

First, as an award preshow, here are fantastic pictures, found via Smoke and Ochre, from MissKittykata Flickr photOstream.

If this doesn't feel like summer in Frebruary, I don't know what does.

But I have things to share. An award! Given to me by Liberty Post. I "make her day" she says. I’m stoked. Or should I say gobsmacked?

So now I get to award it to bloggers that make MY day.
Here are the rules:

1. Write a post with the links to 5 blogs that "make your day".
2. Acknowledge the post of the award giver.
3. Tell the award winners they won by commenting on their blogs

Right back at you Liberty Post. Hers is a smart blog where I get to post comments about politics, something I’m hesitant to do on Hidden In France because mine is a pretty blog and politic is anything but.

Then there is mackin ink. The woman is the new Dooce I’m telling ya. She is hilarious in a fierce way. She’s a great writer who doesn’t use capital letters. Break the mold whydontcha. She lives in Jordan with her three lovely daughters and she is wonderfully human. And did I mention FUNNY?

I love LOVE. Need, in fact, Smoke and Ochre for inspiration. This is the first blog I run to in the morning lately. That’s the magic of blogging. She in South Africa and me in L.A are often wooed by the same colors. The pictures above are one her find, MissKitikatFlikr world

And the next award goes to Di Overton from Designer’s Block. Because she is funny and full of life, because she is better than I am at discovering French designers, and because she is unconcerned with trends, only her own inimitable voice. Here she posted about a cardboard art from British artist Chris Gilmour.

Last and not least Leah at More Ways to Waste Time makes my day all the time. (If anything else the name of the blog is genius.) Also Leah has been very generous in helping me out with a blogging issue of mine. Thank you Leah. Today you can visit one of her house voyeur tours, where the British Columbia owners have painted entire walls and doors with chalk paint to awesome result. Look:

Voilà mes amis. Have a great week-end!

before and after.. the photographer

If your house or appartment doesn't look like in the magazines, it might be because you're missing a crucial element.

Things That Inspire has a post that is not to be missed. She was clever enough to notice that one house for sale in Atlanta was actually the same one that has been circulated around design blogs. There is such a stark difference between the professionally styled and photographed house and the photographs taken with a regular camera by a regular person.

Read the entire post, it's quite illuminating.

Now you see the entrance stairwell photographed by a pro:

Now you don't.

With a pro:

Without:

With:

Without:

It doesn't even look like the same room.

The house was decorated by Suzanne Kasler. Now I find no info on the name of the photographer. He or she is the one who made the magic happen if you ask me.

Creature comforts beautiful links

Look at what Ez at Creature Comforts has created: instead of the regular blog roll she has put together a montage of images that she feels represent best the blogs she likes. Of course I am delighted with the montage she created for yours truly.

But I can’t get over the amount of work this must have represented. All in all a brilliant idea, cause… ya know, a picture is worth a thousand words. Rush over to Creature Comforts to admire what she'd done with your blog, or discover a few new ones. On Ez's blog, clicking on the picture will lead you to the actual website. I don't know how to do that yet.

Here are some pretty one

Blogging tips galore

Felicity of All Things Bright and Beautiful spent weeks gathering and sharing blogging tips. learn, as I did here.

I never knew how to create a mosaic of smaller pictures without using html, which takes so long, brings so much frustration and is to be avoided, in my mind,by all means necessary. So I was overjoyed to discover a trick around it. First the result:

Here is how I did it on my mac:
Open a picture.
Press apple, shift and 4 at the same time. It allows you to highlight that photo.
Release and the photo drops on our desktop as photo1
repeat with photo 2, 3, 4 etc,
Open a word document
drag picure 1, 2, 3 onto the word document.
At this point you can add words, legends, or prices if you wish. (or in my case those cute little paragraph symbols, which I forgot to put on "hide".)
Once you like the collage you've created, repeat the first move, (apple, shift and 4) to highlight the final collage.
When it appears on your desktop it is ready to use as a regular photo.

I am so excited by this new skill of mine. I still need to smooth out a couple of glitches in my system (I think you've noticed them too.) but I'm learning every day a little more.

Thank you Felicity. Seriously, you made my month!

pictures courtesy of Anthropologie online.

more later (rainy days help catching up on high level technology: look at this now:

Ooohhh.. I'm quite excited about this. It was done through this link, called big huge labs. I got this from a All Things Bright and Beautiful reader but I can't find which one. (I think it was in one of the comments.) Whoever you are, I worship the ground you walk on.

Pia Jane Bijkerk

Sometimes blogs just write themselves: all you have to do is steal copiously from creative people who have something interesting to say. Now I don’t know why in the world Pia Jane Bijkerk was hiding from me until a month ago but suddenly here she, absolutely everywhere, with a strong voice, a keen eye, lots of talent and really beautiful pictures to offer us: I’m hooked! Found in her blog today were photographs of a home exactly how I like’em.

It is an exclusive peek at the London home of South African photographer Debbie Treolar

I absolutely love this house: Lots of white, vibrant touches of color, playfulness and ease, and the one design element that I lust after the most these days: Painted white plank floors.

To see more pictures of the house read Pia's entire post, it’s informative and bursting with many more gorgeous photographs. Then read the rest of the blog and finds recipes. en/ or visit the artist studio and participate in Pia’s heart contest. All pictures borrowed from Pia Jane Bijerk's blog.

Ode to Marie Claire Idées.

Is this what I think this is? Will it be what I think it is going to be? Is the French Marie Claire Idées really launching an online magazine?

I can barely contain my joy.

Marie Claire Idées and I go way back. The magazine has been on the forefront of the Etsy epidemic, I think, for our generation. By creating a craft magazine that was cool and hip, they empowered creative women and redefined the notion of crafty.

Marie Claire Idée was a godsend when I was young, loved pretty things but was way to poor to buy anything but my daily baguette and paté. Marie Claire gave me the means (and the right) to furnish and decorate my minuscule maid’s room near Passy with my own ten fingers by making things out of nothing.

Marie Claire Idée online isn’t launching with big bucks, big fanfare or anything, but already there is a really cool tutorial to make votives. (they call it luminions, or photophores) It is as if Marie Claire Idées knew that something had to be done about the dozen empty Trader Joe’s salsa glass containers clogging up the Feng shui (spelling?) in my kitchen drawers.

For those of you in need of practicing your French: here is a chance de joindre l’utile a l’agreable. You can download the lovely design, print in on transfer paper and follow the video’s explications to make these:

everything you wanted to know but were afraid to ask

Look what i can do now:

Here is the link to All Things Bright and Beautiful: she is giving us all kinds of tips on blogging. LOve! Her!

The adiposivity project

I hesitated to post these images. I don’t want to be labeled a hypocrite because when my scale reached120 lbs the other day I essentially freaked out. But this? This I love.

Found via the great French Blog J’ai flané pour vous, these images both shock and titillate. They are sexy to me. They are from the Adiposivity Project. (Adipose, of, or relating to fat, and positive: characterized by or displaying acceptance or affirmation.) It is an English language website which deserves to be known. There is so much struggle with body image for us women. And Okay maybe I’m being irresponsible here because obesity might not be the best things for the health, yet let's tell the truth here, so many men prefer curves, and lots of' em, and so many women should be able to celebrate who they are instead of feeling shameful and less than. Big and proud is possible in so many cultures. Why not in ours?

I, for one, find these pictures beautiful, and the entire concept heartwarming. Read more about the photographer, Substancia Jones (now this can’t be her real first name!) here.

Now go have another slice of that pie you know damn well to be in the fridge. It's on me.

Hotel Everland

I have an itch to get out of here. It has something to do with the facts that fires are raging all around, in Malibu, San Diego, Lake Arrorwhead …. So much so that the skies have a doomsday look to them and getting out of the house means inhaling the fumes of burned chaparral (and 1700 or so homes) But I’m not big on hotels, they are so impersonal, and you don’t get to decorate your room.
Maybe the solution is to be on wheels, a roulotte maybe, or even something larger in scope such as this moveable pod or traveling module from the Swiss company Everland.

This I discovered in a French blog full of discoveries and whimsy J’ai flané pour vous. (Which means, essentially, ‘I took a stroll for you,’) The blogger says she doesn’t understand English; so don’t feel bad if you don’t understand French. Just look at the great pictures.

Part traveling, part cocooning and part art statement (Dadaism I think). I was attracted by the colors of hotel Everland, but the view(s) isn’t bad either. Check out Hotel Everland’s photos here and even the Everland Webcam with, for a little while, breathtaking views of the Eiffel tower.
My favorite was the virtual tour. Enjoy!

Oh Joy! I'm in luck.

Blogging is a sport, a hunt, a daily gamble. A bit like hunting, minus the plucking and gutting. It’s like going to Vegas without having to step over puke while trying to run away from cigarette smoke. And today I feel lucky!
I discovered a blog, a great website, and two creators at one fell swoop. (unsure how to spell it I googled that expression and guess what, it’s a hunting term! Lucky I tell ya.) It is via the blog Oh Joy! that I found out about the paper company treeo design and their cool box sets. I love that treoo design is trying, I quote, “to create high quality products that don’t make them feel like eco-criminals.”

as for Oh Joy!, well everyone but me seemed to already know this blog. I checked out the link to Oh Joy Studio and recognized some of the great designs that make my local Target store absolutely irresistible. (but is Target an eco-criminal?)

Designer cookies boys and girls?

BTW, I added a little typepag widget that allows you to see what the link looks like. Is this terribly annyoing or is it helpful? Does it look terribly crass and agressive or is it just me? I'm not making a penny out of it, I swear.