Thursday, September 27, 2012

serge in da house

so yes, i am still sorting through my paris photos from back in january.  i have been waiting for these for quite some time because i texted them to lorenzo just a little before i lost my red purse with my phone in it and it has taken him this long to find them.  i'm so happy to have them saved now.  my pilgrimage to serge's house was number one on my tourist agenda so i would have been soooo bummed if we did not have these.  but alas, here is my visit with the ghost of serge gainsbourg.





serge's house is still pretty much as he left it and is owned by his daughter charlotte.  there have been rumors that she wants to turn it into a museum but my google searches did not find anything as to whether this is true or not.  could you imagine visiting his home?  i would die!  hopefully, in the future, it will be open to the public.  it looks pretty unassuming from the street, but being as though it is a parisian home, i'm sure a lot lies behind the gated entry.  here are a few pics for your pleasure.
i love photos of he and his family together.  what a great kitchen.

bath time with family and puppy.

serge in his library.

i hope to get more posts up soon.  things have calmed down a bit now so stay posted.  and for sure i will get more paris photos up as i can.  merci beaucoup for always remaining patient with my random posts!

sources: artsy time
              she was a bird

Friday, June 29, 2012

exorcised the ghost of notre dame

(topshop sweater) oh my friends, i know it has been so long since i've checked in with you all. for those of you dedicated souls who still stop by once in a while, merci beaucoup! i have been so remiss in keeping up with my blogs since i returned from paris and i do apologize. you see, the thing is, so many things happened to me in paris that i still have a hard time talking about them in addition to so many other events that have happened since i have been home. i really don't know where to begin. i do feel, however, that at this point in my life, i must write a book. i'm just not ready to go there yet. so i will ask for your patience, and hopefully, get back in the swing of things toutes de suites! i do now have in my possession my beloved paris photos so i will get them on to the blog very soon. that is to be continued... so as you may know, i was in paris for work. one of the many parts of my job is to install the trade shows that we do for pendleton home. paris and the maison objet show is still relatively new for us and i was selected to work the show due to process of elimination (our designer was preggers so i lucked out and got to attend). this was THE most stressful thing i have ever done for my job. it was very last minute and i did not sleep for at least a month before i even arrived in paris. the day i saw my shipment leave portland for the show, was a huge day for me. i can't believe i was able to pull it all off so quickly. i convinced my best friend to go with me to help with the set up. i mean, why would you not want a free room in paris with very little work expected of you? ha! boy were we wrong. from the minute our feet hit parisian ground, we were off and running! we began by checking in to our super cute hotel directly across the street from notre dame. it was designed by christian lacroix and was absolutely adorable (said with a french accent). after check-in was a lunch of salad and croque monsieur at cafe de flore followed by a shopping trip to monoprix (i always have to stock up on lots of petit marseillais shampoo). the next day we met my shipment at the show and set up our booth. the following day we had a lazy start. we walked over to the right bank to run an errand, bought some things for the booth and then headed back out to the show to finish things up. we wrapped up the set-up and had a full day off ahead of us the following day. and this is when it all went wrong! on our day off, we walked all the way to the eiffel tower, which believe it or not, i had never seen...only from a distance. from there we took a taxi over to rue st. honoree and walked the shops. it began to rain on our way back to the hotel but we walked anyway. when we got back, we dressed quickly for dinner and then headed out to catch a cab to have dinner at au 35 in st. germain a few blocks a way. to say the least, the driver wasn't too keen on taking us for a drive a few blocks a way and tried to scam us by taking the long way (hey, i'm a good tipper, why so rude?). i think i was so flustered and exhausted at this point that i paid him at the restaurant, hopped out and left my purse in the cab. about two minutes later, i realized what i had done but at this point, he was long gone. let me reiterate how exhausted i was so i clearly wasn't thinking straight. because i had everything in my purse, and i mean EVERYTHING! my money, passport, credit cards, jewelry... i have never done anything like this in my life. so to say the least, it put a damper on the rest of my trip, and i still had not even begun my job at the show yet! i was so upset but my friend was such a savior and i can't even imagine what it would have been like had she not been there. i seriously would have lost my shit (figuratively AND literally). all in all, i can say i survived and it made me a stronger person. it just wasn't what i had imagined for myself on a trip to paris. after the weekend, i got my beloved credit cards back and could go on with my life for the last few days in town. i felt so much better! my coworkers and i found some really great parisian spots when we could finally sit down for dinner at about 10 o'clock every night. thank goodness all of the restaurants stay open late in paris. a few of these spots were, cafe de l'industrie, le fee verte, and le procope. not to mention all of the help from my fabulous staff at the hotel notre dame that were there for me every step of the way (even though i'm still convinced that hotel is haunted). the funny thing is, i'm going back in september, and i can't be more excited! i'm just putting everything in my safe this time and strapping my purse down for sure.
and while we were in paris, we heard firsthand the sad news that johnny and vanessa had split. it just took a while to make it to our shores. i must say, though, there definitely was something amiss in paris while we were there. rip johnny and vanessa, i really had hoped it would work out and i could come to visit you in your fabulous montmartre pad.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

maison objet


so i was going through my photos yesterday looking for one in particular when i came across this photo that i had saved at some point a while back. i looked and looked wondering why it looked so familiar to me when it hit me that my coworkers and i dined here my last night in paris. it is just so weird how things like this happen!

i know i haven't posted about my trip yet and there are two reasons for that. one, i am still recovering from the events that took place while i was there and two, my friend that travelled with me has all of the photos and she hasn't given me a disc yet, so all in due time.

oh yeah, back to le procope. so it was the last day of maison objet. the show closes at 6 and then everyone stays and packs up their booths. my wonderful coworkers from sweden and norway and i were there until about 10 packing up and then headed back towards my hotel to get some dinner. it took 45 minutes to get back to the hotel from the show so we were tired and hungry. thank goodness most of the restaurants in paris stay open late. it was dreary and rainy that night and we were wondering down rue st andre des artes when we saw this restaurant and went in. let me tell you, we were not in good shape and drenched on top of it. we walked into the restaurant and immediately realized we may not be welcome there because our attire was seriously disheveled. well that was not the case. the people there were so welcoming and gracious (although they did put us in the back-probably a good idea) and took very good care of us. we started out with a celebratory glass of champagne then i had the foie gras and roast chicken. sofia had fish and gustaf had a delicious pot roast with mounds of pommes frites. dinner was delicious and we stumbled out at midnight drunken with great french food and wine.

so, while the trip was somewhat of a challenge, it was so nice to end our stay here in this wonderful quintessential parisian establishment. if you are ever in paris and cold, tired and hungry, stop in le procope and i promise they will take good care of you. and the restaurant has been there for like a hundred years so i'm sure it will still be there.


and here is just a sneak peek of my photos. this is our booth at maison objet. my job is to install our trade show booths and then i generally stay and work the shows and then make my rounds for buying for the store. i took this photo after we finished setting up but before the show started so everything wasn't quite done yet. what do you think? crazy right!

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

a doggie do

i realize i have been missing in action since my last post announcing that i would be going to paris for work. and as much as i would love to have stayed there, i didn't. i've been back home for a while now and i need to get a paris recap post up but i haven't gotten all of my pictures back yet so i am waiting until then to tell you all about my trip. let me tell you, it was quite the adventure!

but in the meantime, i just had to share this with you because it's just too awesome not to. i have been trying to figure out a way to incorporate my little lu into my brand and a possible product line and i must admit, i was a little jealous when i saw this line of paint over on decor8.


this is a paint line called murobond paints. i know, i know i die for their logo.


look at this handsome man with a bow tie. don't judge me if i sorta steal their logo idea. i've been wanting to do this for so long and this just made me more clear on my idea. and my little lucie is such an inspiration to me on a daily basis. i will do my best to keep it original, though.

i started thinking about my idea over the holidays when i went to a craft bazarre. while it was a great sale, they needed more vendors and i started thinking that i needed to come up with an idea to contribute to the fair next year. so that's what i am going to do, mark my words!


oh yeah, and back to the murobond paints. i am in love with shades of grey lately and plan on incorporating some into my house paint soon. this line appropriately named "gray scale garden" would be perfect, no?