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

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.

plus charlotte

well mes amis, i am off to nyc for the next 10 days. there are so many exciting things going on and i can't wait to get back to share them with you.

in the meantime, i would like to leave you with more of the beautiful charlotte.




images from rdujour

beautiful charlotte

i just can't get enough of the beautiful charlotte with child as seen on the film shot by todd cole.


thank you renee over at montmartre's sketchbook for sharing these beautiful images!

it's all my mother's fault

i blame it all on my mother... that is the fact that i long for exotic places, interesting people and romantic yet creaky old interiors.


it all started the day that she gave me a copy of the secret garden. up to this point, i was still reading winnie the pooh and madeleine. which were very fine books indeed but once my eyes fell on the secret garden, i was ready for more grown up books. books that maybe everything didn't always turn out perfect and that sometimes people died and maybe not all children had a mother and father. those kinds of books.

after the secret garden, i would lock myself in my room reading books from page to page and longing for an attic bedroom and my own secret garden. which was a big dream because i lived in arizona and we didn't have english gardens there. to this day, i still dream of my secret garden and attic room. and i'm getting closer now because i have a yard and a house with more than one story after many, many years of apartment dwelling.


then there was the house in paris. oh what would it have been like travel alone by train to paris to stay with a spinster and her mother? to wonder what secrets they were hiding up those narrow stairs. and to meet a boy who had no mother and to learn at a young age the complicated dynamics of a girl and boy.


last year i read sophie dahl's, playing with the grown ups and it took me back to these stories that i read as a young girl.

oh if only my family had been a little more bohemian like hers and if my grand father had written the greatest children's story of all time. and what if i traveled to london and was discovered by a vogue stylist who loved the fact that i ate what i wanted and wore high heels at too young an age. oh what a life that would have been!


so today i just made my first summer reading purchase of sophie's first book, the man with the dancing eyes. i long for summer days sitting in the grass and reading frivolous things. this one will be perfect with it's naturalized illustrations. i have a feeling it may have it's own secret garden, too.

so yes mom, thank you. thank you for turning me into a hopeless romantic. and for showing me that even if we didn't have an old victorian house with my own attic bedroom i could one day live in a city with beautiful old houses and one day even have one of my own if i wanted.

well, i guess it's not so bad after all.

blanc de blanc

how about a little sofia coppola blanc de blanc?


i love her simple classic style with a masculine touch. she is understated, glowing and beautiful.

courtesy of rdujour

diane's new do

the last time diane birch was in the store, she was sporting a chic new shorter haircut. i thought it looked so cute on her and then a few days later, she changed her facebook pic with her long locks to this one.

i would be lying if i said she wasn't an inspiration to my new haircut!

what do you think of her new shorter cut?

iris season

oh iris, where have you been all my life? if i had discovered the likes of you at say 14 or 15, i truly believe things could have been so much different for me!

that's right, i have recently discovered the person that is iris apfel. a 90 something year old former interior designer and business woman from queens, new york.

remember a few weeks ago when i said that i know what i want to dress like when i am older? well this is pretty much it. i just didn't know someone was already doing it. but that's ok, i'm not disappointed, now i just have my own muse.


you know how i have also mentioned my weird frenchie/southwestern design mix? well now i see that i'm not so off the wall after all.


many days when i get dressed for work, i have a really hard time deciding whether i want to channel coco chanel or frida kahlo. usually i pick a safe version of one or the other. but now, i almost feel that i can do both. oh how freeing it is!


here is my outfit today. with my new hair, i feel like a mix of iris and anna wintour. this is my turquoise collection with my favorite tasha polizzi tijuana jacket.




and check out her house. i love it. and while i do like things a little darker and less flowery, i really like a lot of the individual items she has. i would just style them differently.


i even have a similar setee to this one. unfortunately, our big dog ripped the fabric on it and i have been completely undecided about how to recover it. but i'm loving this ikat she has used on her setee. it would work perfect in my house.

photos of iris by the boston phoenix and architectural digest

nina

oh man, i am just dying to listen to some nina right now. don't you just love her? i really wish i had seen her while she was still alive. definitely one of the people i would have at my dead or living dream dinner!

hurry up 5 o'clock!

style file

have you heard that elle magazine has a book out called the ellements of style? i'm dying to get my hands on a copy! i imagine it is going to be a celebrity version of one of my favorite books the selby. we'll get to voyeurize the homes of our favorite fashionable celebs such as my girl charlotte.


here is charlotte's spread from the book that was featured on rdujour a few weeks ago.

i wonder who else's homes we will get to see?

paradis theatre

there is a beautiful article today on rdujour about mrs. johnny depp, the photographs are incredible.

i first fell in love with vanessa when she was hanging out with lenny kravitz. oh how my friend raney and i were so jealous! but after seeing her around a bit, i grew to love her simple french beauty. she really won me over in the film, girl on the bridge. that gap between her teeth and short wavy haircut should go down in the fashion files for sure.








i remember hanging out in an irish pub in montmartre one afternoon and the bartender told me that vanessa and johnny lived right across the street. can you imagine? what if they had popped in? no such luck!

if you love fashion as much as i do, be sure to check out rdujour. it's my daily fashion news, but i suppose i shouldn't give away all of my secrets!

and as to my hair affair question, i am still undecided about cutting it. as soon as you make a big complaint about your hair, it miraculously starts behaving itself knowing it's days are numbered. i have recently received so many compliments on how great it looks that i may wait it out a while :)

and to my friends in japan, you are in my thoughts and prayers right now. xoxoxo

hair affair

i was given a lot of pretty great qualities in life, my hazel eyes, fabulous fingernails, charming sense of humor... when it comes to feeling good about myself, i really do think i do ok in the self-esteem department.

but there is one major quality that i detest, however, and that's my fine stringy hair. i've had an on-going battle with my hair my entire life.

the funniest thing is that i graduated in 1988, the age of big hair. i managed by keeping my hair shoulder length and permed to somewhat fit in with the other big-haired girls.

the problem started in college when i went to the salon to get my ever lovin' perm and the stylist refused to give me one. she felt i had done too much damage to my hair and that it was time to give it a rest and let it grow out for a while. well, needless to say, i was devastated but deep down inside, i knew she was right...i needed to give my poor hair a break.

so all through college i kept my hair straight which worked out ok with the whole hippy, college thing anyway.

later in life, though, i wanted my full hair back but after all of that time being perm free, i just couldn't go there again. i decided i would embrace my straight hair. so i grew it long and didn't think too much about it. not that i loved it, i just tried not to worry about it too much.

but now that i'm in my 40s, i want it to look neater and more styled. i cut my long hair off about 6 months ago and every time i go to the stylist, it gets a little bit shorter. unfortunately, now it's a boring in between length and i feel like i need something a little bit edgier.

which brings me to today's post. should i or should i not cut my hair shorter than i have ever had it in my life? it's just so crazy how some females hold on to their hair as being a huge part of their identity. i envy those girls who can take a risk and play with different hair colors and styles. i have never been one of those girls. i think since i have fine hair, i'm afraid that if i keep cutting it, one day it just won't grow back...which is completely ridiculous, i know.


i have always admired leigh lezark's straight black hair. and while i'm sure her's is considerably thicker than mine, i think i could actually carry this one off. what do you think?


i like this cut a lot, too, i think it's just a little shorter than the one up above.

which one do you like best?

the only problem is that my stylist has corrected my hair color from it being too dark to a more natural auburn color. do you think this cut would look ok if it wasn't so extremely dark? of course i love black hair, i just don't think my stylist (whom i love and has save me from bad hair)will let me go there again.

i have a few weeks until my next cut so i will ponder this and let you all know.

it's a rough job...

one of my favorite musicians, diane birch stopped in the store again today. i just love her music and listen to it non-stop while commuting to work.

she is an absolute sweetheart and gorgeous to boot. she has a cute new bob too!

i can't wait to check out her new album.

somewhere when?

and speaking of sofia coppola, when is her new movie somewhere coming out? i see that they just had the premier in new york, so hopefully soon.

i just love sofia's movies for their dreamy, ethereal quality. i mean the virgin suicides, lost in translation and marie antoinette are some of the most visually stunning movies i have ever seen. weren't the interiors in marie antoinette just amazing? i really, really want to see lost in translation again, too. it's been a while. i think that may be one i need to add to my collection.

what movies are you looking forward to seeing this holiday season?

sofia's style

there is a great style file on rdujour right now of another one af my favorites, sofia coppola.

don't you love this great navy and red frenchie boatneck? i recently tried to buy one like this at free people but they didn't have it in my size.

if i didn't have a job to go to, i seriously could wear striped shirts everyday. i love them that much!

p.s. i'm getting very excited for sofia's new movie "somewhere" that is currently in the works and is promoting in the picture.

style sisters

yesterday on rdujour, there was a style file on my girl charlotte. there were tons of great photos of charlotte in her trademark jeans and boots and also a lot of great red carpet looks.

go to rdujour to see the complete article on charlotte.


and a few weeks ago, there were more beautiful photos of her sister, lou on rdujour. this time at the chanel runway show.

what do i love about these sisters the most? i think it's just their understated way of being fabulous. they always looks great, but not like they're trying too hard. they must have definitely inherited this quality from their mother. maybe some things are just ingrained, i don't know.

i do believe that sometimes when it comes to fashion, less is more!

and still more...

lou has been out on the town in paris. here she is at the h&m champs elysees opening as reported by rdujour.

here in portland, we are anxiously awaiting the opening of our own h&m!

more lou...

here's my girl lou making an appearance at paris fashion week as reported by rdujour.







isn't she fabulous? i just love her!

the cutest thing EVER!

today over at one of my favorite blogs, erin ever after, she posted one of the cutest things i have ever seen.

it's about the adventures of a little girl and her doll in paris called kiki and coco. the photos are just so sweet as you travel around paris with kiki and coco.

oh what it would be like to do this as a little girl. i must admit i'm a little jealous my doll dorothy and i never got to do this when we were little.

oh well, at least there is kiki and coco to do it for us!

go here for a slide show of stephanie rausser's beautiful photos.

maybe lulu and i can do this one day.

design your life

at my desk, i have written a quote that i must have found somewhere on a design blog. it goes like this, "your life is your biggest design project. get off the couch and start designing your life exactly how you want it."

sometimes i sit here and ponder this quote. most of the time, i have a pretty clear idea as to how i want my life to be but from time to time, my mind wanders and i think what if it could be so completely different than it is now?

today i'm thinking about things like this.


lorenzo and i would somewhat resemble margot and richie tanenbaum and coordinate our outfits accordingly.


except that i would look more french like diane birch here. not to mention looking fab in a big floppy hat like this one, i just can't carry off a hat like this!


we'd live in a beautiful falling down old brownstone, a la holly golightly.


and drive a great big black vintage mercedes station wagon.


we'd have wonderful friends like harold and maude.


i'd spend my afternoons watching french films like the 400 blows with the crushy jean pierre leaud.


in the evenings i'd sit with coffee and cigarettes and ponder.


and late into the evening i'd write dark novels like the bell jar, making a terrific salary in which i could support this lifestyle.

what would your life be like if you could do whatever you want? let's start designing it that way.