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.

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!

mon dieu!

oh my gosh! has it really been over two months since i checked in with you all? i can't believe that the time has flown by so quickly and now we are at the eve of christmas eve! things have been so busy in my life that i just have barely been getting everything done that i need to but it's also been really, really great.

well, i just want to let you know that we are all doing just fine in my household. lorenzo and the girl are fabulous as always and lucie, roy and the kitty cats are all doing great as well. work is going good, just keeping me very busy. in fact i have a little bit of news for you all...in eleven days i will be heading to paris for maison objet! yes, it's true, my work is sending me to paris and i couldn't be happier. however, between now and then, i have a lot of work to do. i will be setting up and working our booth at the show in paris and then fly directly to new york to do the same at the new york gift show. whew, i'm already tired!

so while preparing to go to paris, i was sure to get a hotel in my favorite neighborhood, the latin quarter, to be close to my beloved shakespeare and company. i was so sad to hear last week that george whitman passed away at the ripe old age of 98. i was hoping to see him one last time. perhaps i will light a candle in notre dame for the old codger.


i think the best thing about this whole situation is that he had a daughter he named sylvia beach who has taken over running the store for him so i can rest easy knowing that it is in good hands (and i'm sure he can too).


if you have never been to shakespeare and company in paris, the next time you are there, you must go. it is a magical little world all its own.


and i am so excited to be staying right around the corner from the bookshop at hotel le notre dame.


this cute 26 room hotel was designed by christian lacroix and it is going to be my home away from home for ten days while i'm there. oh my gosh, i DIE!

so i promise, promise, promise that i will be better about checking in with you all-- my wonderful devoted reader friends and i will take lots and lots of pictures for you.

happy christmas to everyone and i can't wait to talk to you again soon.
XO

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.

a little f. scott in paris

have you all gone to see midnight in paris yet? i was finally able to see it over the weekend and i'm pining to go see it again. it so reminded me of my time in paris 5 years ago. there really is something magical about that city, don't you think?

the scene with f. scott fitzgerald and zelda brought back such memories for me. you see, i was traveling through paris alone, on my way to visit a friend in brittany. someone had suggested i stay at the hotel st. andre des artes. so i got a room at this quaint little hotel in st. germain. the hotel is rumored to once have been a stable that the three muscateers had used as a hiding place. i don't know about the whole three muscateers thing but the hotel did resemble a stable, complete with exposed cross-beams in many of the rooms.

my room in the hotel was butter yellow and had two long french windows that opened up and looked out over rue st. andre des artes. across the hotel was a cute little alleyway that had been turned into shops all facing the cobblestone alley that was closed off to vehicles. after a long day of travel, i just wanted to relax in my hotel and get some rest. i headed over to monoprix and picked up some bread, wine and cheese and my favorite shampoo, le petit marsellaise.

when i was passing through nice, i stopped in a bookshop where they sold books in english and picked up a few for the latter part of my trip. one of the books was the great gatsby. believe it or not, i had never read it before!

i returned to my hotel and after dining on my wine and cheese, i opened up my window and sat looking out over st. germain reading the great gatsby. i guess, subconsciously, i was saving such a great book to read in a special setting. i almost read it cover to cover that night before dozing off...only to wake up in paris. no, this was not a dream.

i remember this time like it was yesterday. sometimes i can't believe i really took this trip by myself. and while paris is best to be shared with one you love, i'm happy that i took my first trip there all alone to discover it for myself. now i can go there with the one i love and show him all of the places that i visited and fell in love with. oh to be in paris...

le dream car

yes, i would like one in black please!

incroyable!

i'm at a loss...how incredible are these images from laduree?


a few months ago, i came across this poster of macarons from laduree on rdujour.


then last week on besotted, i came across this image of a laduree truffle box with a little frenchie on it.

oh laduree, you are killing me! first the macarons, then the cute dogs. oh what is a francophile girl to do right now when she is nowhere near paris? le sigh!

summer staples

we have now had a few nice days here in portland so i feel i can officially start planning my summer wardrobe staples now. i'm not going too crazy this year but i am stepping out a little (a very little) on my usual dress, especially since i don't really like shorts. i guess since we have had such an extremely wet winter, shorts may very well be in order this summer. and that brings me to staple number one...


yes, i will definitely be needing some bronzer, at least at the beginning of the summer. and while the lancome flash bronzer is not long lasting (i sweated it all off in bikram yoga last night), it does have a really natural look and is great if you need it for a special occasion. i swear by this one and have been using it for years.


while i am obsessed with vintage christian dior sunglasses, i have had a hard time finding just the right style for me so now i am considering some new chloe glasses. they have a retro look but are updated for today. i would take either one of these two pair.




lately i've really been wanting a pair of overalls but since they tend to be a little frumpy, i've decided overall shorts are the way to go, definitely a little more fitted than baggy, too.



and i really have turned my signature weekend look into wearing striped shirts, i love them and can dress them up or down. i would like both of these by petit bateau please!




these cute little cleo denim shorts are perfect too. i definitely will be needing some of these.


and i love the hasbeens for h&m clogs. i don't know if there are any left but i will for sure find some cute red clogs like these for the summer.


my converse sneakers are getting a little worn out so they may need replaced as well. i just can't decide on black or white. what do you think?

what are you all planning on wearing this summer?

new york style

speaking of personal style. have you seen the bill cunningham documentary yet? i haven't seen it come through town yet but i really want to see it.


and believe it or not, yours truly has been featured in his street style article. i will forever be indebted to him because now anytime lorenzo doesn't like what i'm wearing (including the coat i was wearing in the article), i instantly have "street cred". thanks bill!

more bomo...

one of my new readers kirsten m. asked me to feature a few photos from the book bohemian modern that i talked about a few months ago. i absolutely love this book and still can't wait to make a trip down to silver lake. i found this book in a great little, now defunt shop in portland but i'm sure you could find it on amazon or powell's if you are having a hard time finding it.

here are just a few photos that i found on-line and when i get home, i will scan some from the book.

and a big hello to kirsten! thank you so much for stopping by.




wouldn't a back yard like this be amazing? i would love to hang out here on nice evenings.


in the book, this first home was absolutely stripped to the bones and re-built. i really like the creative way of locating the windows. what a nice porch on the second home.


the book features art by the author and it is so cute. this is my favorite type of drawing. it reminds me of the velvet posters we would get as kids that we could color in with magic markers.

i'm on vacation for the next few days so i'll try get get more pics up soon. i'm taking a little staycation and i hope to get some more work done on our house. i have managed to get the entry painted and next are the stairs and bathroom so hopefully i'll get some of that accomplished.

happy spring! i just wish someone would let mother nature know that we are still waiting for it in portland!

images found on sb garden design and captain kk

chelsea girl

after college, when i was still living in albuquerque and doing social work, i had a really great group of friends. there were artists, architects, bar and shop owners and of course, my little collective of fellow social workers.

there wasn't much going on in albuquerque at the time but occasionally, we would get great bands coming through town (i have since learned that many bands hate playing albuquerque as it is some sort of weird vortex). one such band that i fell in love with was pavement. remember them? oh how dreamy and broody stephen malkmus was! i went to their show every time they came through town.

when i began planning my escape from new mexico, one of the things that drew me to portland was the fact that stephen malkmus had taken up residence here. what more convincing did i need? after moving here, i did find myself in a little circle that was "friends" with stephen and i even waited on him once when still working in the bar business. i think i still have his grocery receipt that he left on the table. he was very sweet and gracious no matter what his reputation may be.

i harbored my love for pavement for many years until i saw a movie that used the velvet underground for its soundtrack and i immediately went out to buy their album. on the one hand, i was so excited to discover an amazing band (i'm a bit of a late bloomer), and on the other, i was a little bummed that pavement sounded sooo much like them. i don't know if it was intentional but it certainly sounded so to me. sadly, i rarely pull out my pavement cds anymore.

i am still loving the velvet underground's greatest hits, though. namely chelsea girl with nico. if ever there was a song that my past life relates to, this is it. and wasn't nico just so cool? i love her fashion sense, hair and dark voice. seems to fit our rainy days here in portland.

i remember you well at the chelsea hotel

i have long since been fascinated by the chelsea hotel. i don't remember why, exactly, except that all of the artists i love seem to have a chelsea connection.

it must have started with leonard cohen and from there joni mitchell, janis joplin, and jimi hendrix. although, i really don't know who came first. but the chelsea has always been on my mind.

several years ago, i was in new york for work and as i was going to finish my job with a few days left over. i thought i would extend my stay and get a room in the historical hotel. my good friend was going to join me in the city so this would be the perfect opportunity to check it out...i don't think i would have ever had the nerve to stay there on my own.

well, needless to say, it was eerie, very eerie. other than the tenant on the other side of the wall who seemed to be on a coke binge, the hotel was uncomfortably quiet. in a city of honking horns, sirens and screams, the chelsea seemed to reside in it's own little universe.

i had my friend snap a few photos of me outside of the hotel but as it was one of the coldest nights of my life, they did not turn out well. there was a blur of me in front of a blur of a lit up neon sign that frankly could have been anyplace. i'm ok with that, though. i've always wanted to stay there and now i have and it was an experience that i will never forget. unfortunately, i haven't been able to go back to get some better shots.


so, my whole point of this rambling post is that i was given for my birthday the new patti smith book, just kids, that documents her life with the photographer robert mapplethorpe, much of which took place at this famous residence of the weary artist.

reading this book took me to so many places that, although i have never seen them on my own, they are very real to me...as if i have read about them so many times, that i may have actually been there.


patti's recollection of their years together was such an honest, heartfelt memoir that i found myself in tears, even though i was reading it in an airplane, a restaurant or a hotel lobby much of the time. it took me to a different time and place entirely. one that i wish i could have been a part of, had i not been born a few years too late on the opposite side of the country.

and not that this time was entirely romantic, we can't forget the incredible people we lost in the 80's due to a tragic misunderstood disease. however, would we have given these artists the respect they so deserved if they were still walking among the living? i really don't know. but for now, there is still the memory of the chelsea hotel...

still shopping after all this time

hi everyone. i'm soooo sorry it's taken me so long to get back to my favorite little blog.

the holidays were crazy and january was filled with a month full of work travel. i am now happily back at home with my family and critters!

i was most recently in new york for work where i had to make a pilgrimmage to the no. 6 store and bring these beauties home with me (only mine are cuter because the heels are stained dark). and what a cute little shop it was. it's always so much fun to see the flagship stores of the brands that i love.

as i've promised many times before, i hope to keep the posts coming more frequently now that life is back to normal. and for more on my new york trip, go to my portland blog to see me in the ny times!

oh wellie!

i'm pretty bummed out that my favorite toile rainboots are on their last leg. i pulled them out last week and my once cute boots are now discolored and sad looking.

so obviously this means one thing--i've got to get those hunter wellies that i've been wanting forever.

one cool thing about living in portland is that you can actually wear wellies on a regular basis and not look bizarre in the least bit. well, once i was wearing them at work and the president of my company didn't quite get why i was actually wearing them inside, at work. oh well, we all know they are in fashion.


i think the hardest part of getting some new boots is deciding on the color. i love the classic black.


but the red is sooo cute too.

which color would you go for? oh how i hate these decisions!

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.

happy birthday hem

since i've been MIA from bloglandia the past few weeks, i've missed out on some very important events...like hemingway's birthday on july 21st.

hemingway is my all time favorite author. i could read a moveable feast over and over and i usually find myself reading it in the summer. but there are so many others like his notorious book the sun also rises which upset all of his friends because he discussed their bad behavior while in spain for the bullfights.

i really hope to go visit his homes in key west, ketchum and cuba one day. i hear his house in key west is over run by feral kitties that he insisted be allowed to remain at the house. how cool and grey gardens of him.

happy belated birthday hem!

noooo reservations

a few years back, when i was still single and no longer working my crazy multiple job restaurant/retail schedule that i had done for so many years, i was at a bit of a loss as to how to occupy my time on the weekends. most of my friends either lived out of town, still worked nights so weren't up for early morning brunches, or were spending their weekends shuffling the family around.

during this time, i developed the habit of getting up early sunday mornings, making a pot of coffee and settling in to watch rick steves travel the world. i guess if i wasn't going anywhere exotic, at least he could transport me there.

this little routine served me well until i found a box set of no reservations at the video store and holed myself up in my apartment for one solid weekend watching every episode. sadly, rick steves was elementary school compared to the college aged debauchery of anthony bourdain.


oh watching the adventures of rick gallivant through austria yodeling up a storm was a far cry from the adventures anthony would take us on--drinking absinthe in paris and having hallucinations of oscar wilde--this was more my kind of trip.


i mean look at the way he opens a bottle. that is exactly the same way i do. kindred spirits? i think so!


and i'm so excited to be going to see him read from his latest book medium raw, tonight at the bagdad theater here in portland. beer and bourdain, you can't beat it.

p.s. i do still love rick, just in a different way.

i'm distracted today and all i can think about is...

oh la la

even though i can't be in paris right now, i can at least dress like paris thanks to naomi over at the rock star diaries who pointed out the fabulous on line shop shabby apple. shabby apples features only dresses (love it)and particularly dresses that require nothing else. no cardigan, no tank top, just a good old fashioned dress.

i have this secret personal goal of acquiring 365 dresses and i'm well on my way. that way i have a new dress to wear everyday of the year and i would only have to do minimal loads of laundry which i detest doing (thank you lorenzo for always helping me with mine). here are three that i would absolutely love to add to my collection.


the oh la la is my favorite.


but the tour eiffel is pretty darn cute too.


and i might as well take the artiste to complete the collection.

go check out the shabby apple sight and pick out your favorites from the paris collection and then go to naomi's blog and let her know which one you want and you might just win the give away. oh darn, now i just decreased my chances!

summer reads

so i've been compiling my summer reading list and thanks to tina over at the english muse, i have two great books to look forward to. she suggested reading a time in rome by bloomsbury writer elizabeth bowen. when i got on line to order the book, i found the house in paris which sounds just perfect as well.


it's now been five years since my trip to italy and france so it's fitting that i should celebrate my time there by re-immersing myself in the way i felt when i returned home from that trip. it was such a wonderful accomplishment for me to take a trip like that on my own, one that i will never forget.


most of this summer i will be at home in still rainy portland getting situated in my new home but i can't wait for lazy weekends outside with a cool drink and one of these reads.