aMissInParis

Paris Sidewalk Poetry

2011-04-14T14:51:00.001-07:00

Valentine Red

2011-02-14T10:38:00.001-08:00

I'm so over people hating Valentine's Day,single, not single, just go with it enjoy the kitsch the chocolate the flowers, spread the love to friends or lover or husband.. even if admittedly I had a majorly shitty day at work , I just have to gaze at my new candy-apple red patent Louboutins ( that were technically a Christmas present) to make me swoon.

images from www.net-a-porter.com

Classic Weekend ..

2011-02-13T08:53:00.001-08:00

Some weekends just got that perfectly weekend-y feel to them . It happens when the balance of doing nothing / hanging out with friends / being out on the town and chores works out just so. It happened tis weekend.I finally mastered getting up early ( well at 9)Saturdays to get the gym out of the way by midday then had a little window-shopping / sale shopping excursion, where i finally scored those black pumps ( my wardrobe sorely need) on sale an mind-marked two or three blouses and a jacket to pick up with next months paycheck for spring outfits.Of course WHSmith was included for fresh Vogue and a skip over to Pierre Herme for white truffle macaroons then home for a movie and some magazine devouring and as a chore thrown in a home pedicure .
Then Sunday the American Church with friends and a quick coffee,dashing home sorting out my closet on a whim and a tasting menu dinner at another friends fabulous apartment tonight. And so it goes. of course perfection would have included a dinner à deux with the husband and maybe some Sunday cake baking but for now i'm content and dreaming of summer weekend perfection involving picnicking and Kirs on an open terasse.

Image by Atget

On Shoes and Home

2011-01-15T10:03:00.000-08:00

When husband announced last week that he would leave me for a week to go to London I was envious and sad but also happy to get a chance and make plans with friends, listen to my music whenever I wanted , write more on my blog ..Then the first day he is gone tragedy strikes in the form of a badly strained muscle in my back ,which left me for days in agonizing pain .Thus my the lovely plans were thwarted.Now he is back, I'm back to painless life and spent a lovely day researching the perfect black heel. ( Nr1 goes to Jimmy Choo's Gilbert, Second Prize to Declic by Luboutin)taking a restful hour reading Tatler, Vogue, Vanity Fair and my new favourite PG Woodehouse chez Angelina and cheating on WHSmiths with Galignani, where i found quite an inspiring selection of books.

Since blogs seem to be the preferred outlet for these:

On to my (new years)GENERAL resolution;After this last purchase of much needed perfect black heels I wow to look more into the future and redirect my sartorial attentions (and hopefully savings) from flimsy fashion buys to the more worthy home objects.

Maybe I'm inspired by our plan to buy an apartment in Budapest,maybe its just the shocking realisation that an armchair can be had for less then a pair of Jimmy Choos, either way I hope to aquire some pieces for our future dream apartment in the coming years .

And so here a list of worthy objects I found on : www.grahamandgreen.com ; sofaworkshop.com, jonathanadler.com, and of course jimmychoo.com

Winter Moodbook

2011-01-02T10:44:00.000-08:00

A few photos I took during the last weeks winter impressions from Paris to Budapest .

-6C and snowing...

2010-12-18T07:42:00.000-08:00

This is not meant to be a weather report but I thought the extreme of the winter here is worth sharing. And yeah after two days of running around town looking for last minute gifts and viewing apartments I caved in and bought some fake ugg boots. The high heel leopard print booties were just not cutting it anymore.I'm not sure whyapartment hunting at Christmas-time in Hungary seemed like a good idea from Paris , I shoud know better then plan any outdoors activity in freezing Budapest wintertime. Feeling better too. though reclaimedmyvoice albeit a few shadesdeeprthen before voiceloss .Feeling Back to myself which seems to be the case when ever I come back home and spend a few days away from work.I also discovered a disk with all myold photos so i'll be sharing thosehere even though some of them are ridiclously over-photoshopped ( like that too strong sepia-tint)still they remind me of tose years full of lofty creative aspirations before I started working.

Enforced silence ..

2010-12-11T04:34:00.000-08:00

Somehow everything has been in motion and I'm still grappling with decisions made. Apparently so is my body as I've literally lost my voice over the last few days nothing but painful whispering or shutting up left. The feeling of elation from giving in my resignation has subsided as my company then came back with an offer that driven by fear and resposible adult thinking I had to accept. I have stayed working at the same company in marginally better positioon with marginally better pay and feelin more then marginally trapped. Alas hope for a change in some not so distant future lives on . Only thing left to do is shake off this cold regain my voice and somehow manage to cram in christmas shopping and making meetings with realtors in the next four days before I head to Budapest.Then again i might just give myself a break and chill out and regain some sanity that hasnt been syphoned off yet from my work and collegues ...

à next time with a dash more positivity.. hopefully

Thanksgiving ...

2010-11-24T23:54:00.000-08:00

Wow Its Thanksgiving already , although I have no American bone in me , have never even been to the States , its still my favourite self-elected holiday . I'm of the belief that one should just go with the holidays that speak to one , and thus i love it when y American friends invite me for their Thanksgiving diner and the spirit of feasting without gilt on pumpkin pies and turkey and giving thanks for all the blessings.
Blessings lately include having finally quit my job that hasn't made me happy for a long time now,having the full support of my family in this decision, husband finding a new job that not only has a perspective but actually surprised himself by liking it and yeah I'm going home for Christmas and will look at possible apartments to buy in Budapest, oh yeah and friends, the one's that write E-mails, keep in touch , throw parties, support us ... So there quite a few pretty great blessings there. Now all I need is a piece of pumpkin pie to reach total bliss ..

Just so ..

2010-11-03T00:45:00.001-07:00

"Women wish to be loved without a why or a wherefore; not because they are pretty, or good, or well-bred, or graceful, or intelligent, but because they are themselves." -- Henri Frederic Amiel

photo from www.myvinagevogue.com

Windowshopping

2010-10-23T11:42:00.000-07:00

Had a lovely day window shopping in Bon Marche with my friend J. its such a blast the perfect place to spend cold rainy saturday afternoon compiling a wishlist with a girlfriend of perfect jimmy choo shoes and dyptique candles hats and furs .So much more relaxing and serene too than Galleries Lafayette. Though one thing I haven't found is the perfect leopard cloche to wear this winter. Poor hubby a bit horrified my my leopard obsession , it seems to translate to trailer - trash for him while for me its lovely vintage chic like on these photos from myvintagevogue.com.

Autumn cake

2010-10-16T09:04:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks between guests and work and brunches with friends dinners etc have just passed in a rush.Finally this weekend was a long and free one .I had a longed for silent alone morning then me and hubby did an afternoon / nite of new things ( read in the NYTimes that doing new things's what keeps couples happy&together) And today was that kind of relaxed housekeeping day that can be a nightmare when busy but lovely when nothing else is there to interrupt the flow of gym, shopping, quick clean of house , baking a cake , then an episode of mad men some magazine flicking and reading... having a piece of cake a cup of tea , and feeling sane again. Ah I'm in love with the sweet potato pound cake i've just made with a receipe from orangette perfect fall/ winter cake with its warm spiciness and a dollop of crème fraiche , and the golden plums i found today are not bad either .

Fall pretty

2010-10-06T23:57:00.000-07:00

I must admit this image is taken from http://dressdesigndecor.blogspot.com/ which I totally love for a dose of pretty in the morning but its so fall-y and inspiring that I just wanted to have it here as well.

Word Love

2010-10-03T23:56:00.000-07:00

Am reading the New York Stories of Edit Wharton which I find surprisingly better then her books ,very elegant writing the stories are finely drawn and psychological, proper rewarding reading but what I love even more is to come upon a word that surprises me that i've never heard before but is just perfect so here you are in the hope of reviving it : pusillanimous [pyoo-suh-lan-uh-muhs]= lacking courage or resolution

Mini breaks, Guests and Paris Fall ...

2010-10-02T14:02:00.000-07:00

So the epiphany came to me that mini breaks work for me, still love the idea of a three week holiday but going to London then Budapest then the South of France over the Summer into early fall was great , now getting used to the idea of yet another grey rainy Paris winter, for the moment though not worn down by it yet , its almost nice to think of cosy coats and baking Christmas cookies and it the fact that quite a few guests have come through town and are to come nicely diverts attention from the fact that its indeed October! Oh well first day I got my cat out , now just need to find a leopard cloche to go with it and finally have my winter boots delivered...

just some bits and pieces from the south .. oh and my amazing burnt btter brown sugar cupcakes that are worthy of even the worst self-praise oh and you haven't lived enough if you haven't yet seen a country circus with a goat as the exotic attraction.. highly recommend it !

Friday morning walk - Belleville food market

2010-09-12T23:47:00.000-07:00

Budapest love

2010-09-02T12:21:00.000-07:00

Ahhh it took me a few days to get back in the Paris swing of things . My Budapest trip however was blissfull. exactly what I dreamt of heaps of time spent i the hammock relaxing , reading and enjoying our garden. Some quality time with my darling back-home girlfriends as well as some catching up with old aquaintances. Pampering at the all pervasive beauty parlors and exploring whats new in Budapest. Not that I should be surprised but it has been incredible how with all the economic and political upheaval Budapest next to Paris seems incredibly dynamic .

Tomorrow Budapest!

2010-08-11T14:29:00.000-07:00

Leaving tomorrow afternoon for Hungary for my Summer 'vacation' well it will be great to get away a bit and be with my friends hang out and see their new apartments, new boyfriends get facials and haircut and got to Sunday brunch at Gundel for my birthday and try the first Budapest restaurant to have a Michelin star and spend time with my mommy.

Meanwhile when I walked home to the metro today over pont des arts it reminded me of how beautiful Paris is. Obvious I know but its nice to be reminded once in a while when I sink into the whole metro, boulot dodo, thing. So here's a few photos I took lately of Paris sunsets from our apartment.( which apparently has now become french mouse infested-good thing i'm leaving)

Birthday Month!

2010-08-03T14:15:00.000-07:00

Find it quite shocking that its August already and a bit nostalgic for a very fleeting Summer, but I get to go on holiday next week go have a week in Budapest with friends, family, mommy, animals garden, home. AND get to celebrate my Birthday with them for the first time in two years. Looking forward to that.

As for London it was fantastic a whirlwind of family time with the in-laws , amazing foodie experiences at Alain Ducasse, changeable weather , museums, Hummingbird cupcakes, parks, high tea at Claridge’s ( so worth it we had seconds of almost everything and stretched it out over an hour and half) and barbecuing with buddies in their back garden. Had an awesome 5 days and paced up on loads of ginger fudge from Morrison’s and my favorite fruit and ginger teas from Twinning’s that I can't get here except for overpriced WHSmith mini shop.

Since shopping at Anthropologie didn’t turn out successful, ( found nothing to fall in love with ) hubby in a moment of weakness let me order a lovely pale yellow handbag from Kate Spade , that my friend D. will bring back from the states end of this month as a lil gift to myself for my Birthday ...

some London pics

Change Clothes!

2010-08-01T14:37:00.000-07:00

Summer, London etc.

2010-07-08T13:38:00.000-07:00

Its finally proper summertime in Paris and I'm still in that honeymoon phase where I'm welcoming the heat after that horrid dismal spring ,even though we are just a few days away from roasting in our 7th floor South facing apartment that has sun literally all day.

Quite chipper all in all though hubby and me back to a more manageable schedule, where we even get to see each other, but he still gives me the occasional night off so that I can meet friends for wifely support cocktails ( fantastic totally affordable cocktails at Experimental Cocktail Club and Curio Parlour) and watch The Age of Innocence without his sighs of boredom.

Other reasons for being chipper is this blog which is just adorable : http://mrslilien.squarespace.com/ and Parisian women finally got out their color and seeing their summer style is quite uplifting after the same old black all winter.

aaaaand our magnificently planned trip to London next week. (sorry this is going to be boastful) highlights include: Afternoon Tea at Claridges, lunch at Alain Ducasse Restaurant at the Dorchester ( 3 michelin stars , yeay), goin to dean street townhouse with hubby plus two of our lovely handsome friends, then museums, Anthropologie, the hummingbird bakery and of course the raison d'etre for the whole trip my sister in laws becoming a DR. graduation ceremony! ( so nice to have a DR. in the family ) Whew it will be another whirlwind London trip but this ime at least we get to 'profite' as the French say...

Yes that pic is of a plastic cup with champagne and a strawberry in front of the Seine.

1 Year...

2010-06-20T09:10:00.000-07:00

It seems unreal that a year ago today we had our wedding.And now marriage, happy and exhilarating frustrating at times and fulfilling The first year has been quite a ride but actually feels almost better then expected.Its nice to just focus on building life together.

And just to relive it a bit , our first dance song:

Mommy love

2010-06-13T12:15:00.000-07:00

In honour of my mami's birthday today I thought I'd post a photo just to illustrate how amazingly cool she is. (or in the case of the photo...was in the 70's)She is such a powerful intelligent thoughtful woman and I'm so lucky to have her in my life.As you can see on the photo she has amazing style too. Can't wait to go home in august and spend some time with her.

Tomatoes and Engagements on my mind...

2010-05-31T13:05:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling quite excited. This weekend I found a perfect little red summer dress, and bought it on the spot ( after trying it on of course) quite unusual for me. Usually I need to deliberate longer but this was perfection ( And I learned from past mistakes like the lovely navy Tara Jarmon dress I never got and still mourn) , the husband loves it for the décolleté it gives me I love the happy colour and it will look great with my turquoise necklace on dinner with friends this Thursday. The same day found the perfect retro-red ( more tomato then red wine red) lipstick at Sephora, Lancome's rouge absolu in 134 but I'm waiting if my insider connection at Lancome can get me one before I pony up 28 euro for a lipstick. Still love yellow but this red obsession seems to become a theme this Summer for me. (I'm also living in my red quilted ballerinas at the moment)

On another exciting note I get the feeling that one of my close friends is getting engaged soon. Its a feeling .. a sense ... and I'm hoping.Either way if or once it will happen I'll be over the top happy for her .. not to mention that it would be the perfect excuse to pour over all the girly wedding stuff with her ...;

News & Cupcakes

2010-05-29T14:55:00.000-07:00

Got a new found respect for all those corporate wives doctor's wives and all the others who never get to see their men. I'm not complaining, I've had some lovely times with friends lately and easing back into managing my time seeing friends and such ( and still planning to go back to the gym- hopefully next week) but its hard on the relationship to only have one day a week, not even. Currently hubby is working 11 am to 3am with only a 45 min break 6 days a week with only Thursdays off. I of course work Thursdays so its only the evening..I just miss spending time with my husband hanging out, cooking together , being silly, having friends over for dinner. Not to mention that occasionally get sick off keeping everything afloat at home (and that's without kids pets and a big house) Good news is that its for a limited time and financially totally worth it. Now of course I wish I wouldn't worry bout hubby getting keeling over from exhaustion.

On a happier note I got to take one of my lovely bridesmaids to her patisserie blow-out (came as a perk of the bridesmaids job). It was so great we had our StHonore with a side of macaroons for her and a side of cupcake for me. Its officialLaduree cupcakes take the cake ! Best ever, maybe not the traditional simple cupcake with butter cream, but so pretty and sumptuous 3 layered fruit / jelly/ butter cream filling inside. Worth every penny of the 7,50 Euro. Which et me tell you is the most I ever paid for a cupcake.

Books and Candy..

2010-05-17T13:10:00.001-07:00

I finally figured out my perfect book scheme. I keep going to WHSmiths,to browse and for magazines and tea. As for the books... I make notes of all the books I like then go home ad put them on my amazon. uk wishlist , and every few weeks I order a load of them. Works for me and its gives me lil mini (book) Christmas every few weeks, but at least I don't feel beaten down by crazy WHSmith Paris prices.

Am completely enthralled with Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert , its exactly the book i needed right now. Whenever in my life I need to figure out for myself something I like to read and study it . Problem is that marriage as such has either the boring survey/ study books , or the silly slf help books ( how to save a bad marriage etc) but marriage as such ... its hard to find something interesting and wortwhile. Weird really , there is sooo much about finding the guy ,planning the wedding,raising the kids, but marriage I guess as a topic is simply not sexy enough. Either way Committed is great ( even tho I wasn't crazy about Eat, Pray Love), part novel , part family biography , some history some philosophy some survey and biology mixed it . Its a bit indefinable as a book but then again so is the subject matter , really.

Oh and what's more heavenly then spending an afternoon reading books magazines with some good tea and candy .. ( just one of my private ideas of heaven) on one of my last ramblings around the city with my friend D. we found this charming old school candy shop in the 5th near Metro Cardinal Lemoine. ( of course neither remember the name nor the address but its really close to the Sugarplum Cake Shop ( in itself worth a trip to the 5th) , so enjoy the search for candy..

Comin Home Baby

2010-05-10T13:31:00.000-07:00

and the 'An Education' version:

Graceful inspiration..

2010-04-24T13:21:00.000-07:00

Haven't been around for a while, simply getting used to our new schedule with the hubby ... but we finally booked our summer trip tickets and cannot wait to go to London and see the big Grace Kelly exhibition at the V&A Museum, somehow from the Vanity Fair article to this ( obviously High Society influenced) dress she just seems to be in the air at the moment.

That dress alone makes me wis i could pull off a re-do wedding , this time in something floaty and ephemereal.. that is if I could pull that look off.

images , google, stylemepretty.com

The weekend in food photos...

2010-04-13T11:42:00.000-07:00

We had a truly glorious weekend , it was uor little good by party to spending time together .Hubby is now back to working 14 hour days and i will only see him one evening a week. So we did a lot of our favourite things, we went out for a divine souffle dinner at Le Recamier complete with french bourgois 'diner theatre'complete with grumpy french waiter vs grumpy old french men standoff and some truly drunk older laidies almost falling off their heels and caressing young waiter's face. (as you can see i went all out on the souffle front, starter fois gras souffle, then Henry IV followed bypistachio with burnt almond ice cream) . I got to bake too, made some chocolate cupcakes and even managed to get the frosting just so. Hubby made a huge roast lamb dinner on Sunday , oh yeah and in between that we managed to go to church , have brunch with friends and an afternoon birthday picknick at champ de marswith others. The second cupcakes are from the picknick and not made by me i just liked the color.So yeah there you have it we aren't food centered at all , then again at least with W. gone most nights I can revert back to single grazing behaviour and loose some weight. Here's to hoping ...

Presenting guido Taroni : Sogni Sospesi

2010-04-11T08:18:00.000-07:00

Great nephew of Luchino Visconti, model, photographer with a great grandmother who was one of the leading beauties of Milanese society. He one day finds all her couture dresses from the turn of the century, in a big trunk in the attick.He takes them out starts photographing them on house walls around Italy and that's how this video, and now an exhibition in Italy came to be .

Have a pretty weekend !

2010-04-10T02:13:00.001-07:00

Some inpiration after a long-short week. My humble homage to the genious of beauty Sir Cecil Beaton. Whenever I see his images in Vanity Fair or Vogue they charm me, so perfectly composed and beautiful. I wish there was a proper exhibition/ retrospective sometime in Paris . The good news is though that you can buy proper framed prints from the Conde Nast online store, once we have that proper final apartment/ house, that will come in useful.

http://www.condenaststore.com/

Dreaming of Suburbia...

2010-04-06T13:29:00.000-07:00

I guess we are pretty lucky living in and enjoying Paris.Seeing that our plans are to move to an even more sprawling city in the future and hubby definitely detests any idea of suburbs, nothing too quaint is in the cards.

But some days I still dream of life in a pretty Easter egg coloured house with a lawn and a dog and space enough for decorating it properly. So here; my dream house, living room, and bed.
Oh yeah I found this bed in an old Domino magazine and house or apartment its amazing, now only if I'd figure out a way to ship it from the states.

House from Desperate Housewives set by way of oprah.com,living room from domino.com, bed designed by Martha Stewart for Turkey Hill from marthastewart.com

Easter Weekend aka Contemplating Sculptures and Ducks at the Rodin Museum

2010-04-04T10:05:00.000-07:00

The title really says it all.

Every first Sunday of the month all Paris museums have free entrance and we used that and a long Easter weekend to finally go to the Rodin museum, I've never visited it before despite having lived in Paris for the last 5 years. Honestly it was worth going,am usually more of a B&W photography and turn of the century painters person, but the marble sculptures, the set-up, the bronze character studies all pretty amazing. Not to mention the museum garden with its two forlorn ducks on the lawn.

Spring

2010-03-31T12:16:00.000-07:00

Ah its April tomorrow, the weather is changing about 10 times a day but I'm enjoying it.
Just bought a humongous bouquet of white ranunculus , there are tulips and trees flowering in the park where I have my lunches and tomorrow we have friends coming for apero. I have a long Easter weekend to look forward to and hubby is making Nigella's fragrant muscat milk rice.So really feeling quite contended with the world.

images from the park by me

Sexy Weekend Sound

2010-03-28T10:27:00.001-07:00

The original edgier artsy-er version and the "shall we dance" movie version with Jennifer Lopez , you decide which you prefer and let me know ... love the song either way. oh and if you need a naughty tip it lends itself perfectly for some private stripping.

Just because... Philippines encore

2010-03-24T12:46:00.000-07:00

Craving Green

2010-03-23T11:33:00.001-07:00

To get us in a more spring-like disposition and shape we decided to do a green-week. Meaning we will eat green foods for dinner all weeks . Peas, broccoli, beans,etc. Not as a diet more as a cheap idea to feel a bit healthier.

One of the things I miss most (foodie wise) about the Philippines , is the amazing tropical fruits and fresh juices everywhere. Fresh mango-papaya, watermelon, or the cucumber-pineapple one in the photo (at Antonio's in Tagaytay) Nothing to do but get a juicer and wait for cherry season in May and buy the pretty ones for 8eur a kg.

Airy thoughts needed

2010-03-19T11:08:00.000-07:00

Without going into the particulars me and hubby both are having some hard weeks lately, life is a bit unbearable at the moment and will continue to be so, for the next 2 weeks.Haven't been in the mood for happy frothy posts,( and really what's the point of depressing ones) but when I came across these images on www.marthastewart.com being so pretty with their airy ballet style they almost made me forget our daily drudgery.

Oh and yes I'm trying to post more own photos but sometimes can't pass up on the pretty.

Monday!

2010-03-15T00:41:00.000-07:00

The sun is shining in Paris &I'm wishing you all a sweet week!

image from wwww.stylemepretty.com

Les Mille Feuilles

2010-03-13T10:01:00.001-08:00

Oh yeah if you love pretty objects a must stop by in Paris is Les Mille Feuilles they have the loveliest gift items, porcelain flowers,etc. I really really covet that kitschy porcelain parrot candle holder.

Marais Walk

2010-03-13T09:36:00.000-08:00

I haven't been in the Marais for ages so decided to have a walk there today,and though it was awfully grey, after a week of sunshine it felt good to get out and experience the city. Started at Hotel de Ville up to Place de Vosges and then came down on the rue Francs Bourgeois then rue Rambuteau which has great window-shopping until Berko, stopped for a cupcake and took the metro home from Rambuteau. Here's what I loved along the way.

So photos of the popcorn machine i saw at 13 a table on rue rivoli,some cute pedro garcia shoes, cafe au lait bowls, funny wood figures , umbrellas, pillows and underwear sacks at fragonard and cupcakes at berko and flowershop.

Sexy Weekend Sound

2010-03-12T10:40:00.001-08:00

Dancing into the weekend!

2010-03-12T10:20:00.000-08:00

One of those happy songs that instantly cheer me up !- and love this version by nouvelle vague.

Spring cupcakes and a midget

2010-03-11T10:56:00.000-08:00

Cute cupcake display at Berko, Paris to sweeten your day!

Wednesday blues...

2010-03-10T10:38:00.000-08:00

What can I write but its Wednesday , my least favourite day of the week . It seemed interminable and hard since I just got a new post within the same company , and days go from oooh this isn't so bad to shit I have to look for another job NOW cause I can't take this.In the end I guess not to my credit laziness wins.So there, I'll stop wenting now and look forward to better days, weeks.

Oh yeah and its sunny in Paris which I'd love if it wasn't sooo freakin freezing still. I wish it would hurry up and get spring already and I'd at least could have my lunch breaks in my favourite park. Since nothing there's green yet , here are some photos from the park around the same time last year.

Wishing you a colorful week!

2010-03-06T10:30:00.000-08:00

With a new week about to begin I thought why not post something uplifting.I love color ,love quirky 50's prep chic and from that follows I love Kate Spade. Of course there is no boutique in Paris but the good news is she has published three cute books (Occasions,Manners,Style)full of quirky colorful illustrations and they are on amazon.uk.

images from katespade.com and google

Happy Fat Lady ...

2010-03-06T10:13:00.000-08:00

Me and P. managed to get our asses out and over to the Jeu de Paume for the Lisette Model exhibition and after that some people watching across and in Colette .Feel very good about myself, ok so I missed about 4 great exhibitions this winter but Lisette Model was worth a look , just good solid old school B&W Photography, very enjoyable. Love the look of total fun and abandonment on the fat lady's face.

Images found on Google.

Introducing: Eairth !

2010-03-06T04:41:00.000-08:00

Check out our friend Ed's wife's ( Melissa Dizon) brand, its equal parts ethnic/cool and a bit avant-garde and hand died in their studio in Manila with organic dies.I'm not sure I could pull it off and yes in the spirit of full disclosure it does not match with my preppy 50's easthetic but i still love the feel of her clothes and her creativity so check out their website

Philippines Nr.3

2010-03-05T10:24:00.000-08:00

This weekend the plan is to rediscover my love for Paris a bit with my friend Pia, maybe even go to the Musée de la Mode ( haven't been in ages) and if we are being good get our asses to the English catholic church on Sunday. (hey if we are doing spring cleaning on our finances we might as well do it on our conscience.) But back to the title , yes I'm still posting more photos of the Philippines, I want to keep remembering it as long as possible.

Photos all by me, from bottom to top: Pretty Philippina friends nd me at the Polo game, Greenbelt mall , street in intramuros-taken from hose buggy, white beach in Boracay,trycicles on the island, funny orangey fruits,palms , kid with toy,

Cucumber Love

2010-03-05T10:16:00.000-08:00

Survived the week! Yeay to me.
Have gotten so many compliments on the Marc Jacobs Cucumber Splash perfume I wore today that I wanted to share. Its mostly women who love it but hey , I'll take what I can get as far as compliments, and yes I'm pretty obsessed with anything cucumber smelling , but read somewhere that women for some reason are attuned to it. In any case if you can find it get it cause its yummy and will make you happy when you smell it . At least has that effect on me.

Boring Post aka sunset in Philippines

2010-03-02T14:02:00.000-08:00

I just needed to get these out of my system. I know sunset photos are beautiful, but they also sadly are incredibly boring. Yet since most of our evenings on the island were spent taking photos of sunsets while sipping cocktails on the beach I needed to do something with them at least. So there you are , feast your eyes!

all images by me or W.

Pretty!

2010-03-01T23:28:00.000-08:00

Having a hard week so decided on some prettiness to cheer me up before diving back into more Philippines photos to show...

Image from stylemepretty.com

Philippines..

2010-02-27T05:14:00.001-08:00

We are back from three weeks amazing holiday in the Philippines. Stayed two weeks in Manila with friends and a week in Boracay the amazing paradise island you see in the photo taken from the plane. We had such a great time got so spoiled by the lifestyle and our friends there it was hard to come back.This week we had some difficult decisions to make and some lifestyle changes ahead of us so life is definitely going to change a bit here, but I promised myself to try and enjoy our time in Paris as much as possible and take advantage of this beautiful city and all it has to offer as long as we are still here. More on all that soon but for this week I want to post photos of our trip and celebrate the tropical beauty of that place that maybe one day could be our home.

Off to buy some baguette now , we are starting our month of frugality by feasting on escargots in herb butter and fresh baguette left over in our freezer from bygone Christmas feasts.

all photos by me

Vacay ...goin... goin...gone.

2010-01-28T10:42:00.000-08:00

The Louboutins are in the carry on, the flip-flops,crazy Lacroix dress, and about two more tons of shoes and clothes packed and off we go today to the Philippines for three weeks of Manila, beach, friends.Will be back in a while with lots of shots and some about our adventures!

Till then I'll leave you with this fabulous summery image made by 'The Sartorialist' in Rio.

Vogue

2010-01-28T08:52:00.000-08:00

http://fora.tv/2009/06/02/Why_Fashion_Still_Matters_with_Vogues_Sally_Singer

For anyone who loves fashion an intelligent , informative interview with Sally Singer of Vogue US. ( its about an hour but there are shorter clips)

Ol-fashioned prettiness...

2010-01-27T23:55:00.000-08:00

Just some proper old fashioned prettiness for today ... amazing set-up amazing colours, amazing dress... what else do you need? (ok maybe an occasion to wear it would be great!)

photo from Martha Stewart Brides.

Thimister Fashion Show

2010-01-24T23:55:00.000-08:00

Wow had a fun if not extremely relaxing weekend. Saturday spent all day in the Grande Epicerie looking for foodie gifts for our trip . In the evening we were invited to a dinner party with friends ..
Sunday getting ready for the trip and then in the evening my fabulous friend Pia asked me to be her wing man at the Thimister fashion show.
It’s been a while since my last time . When I first arrived in Paris being part of all that and invited to fashion shows was my main goal . I got to work for Fashion File and for about 2 years did all the fashion weeks either from the press pit or (when my boss was nice) with seated invites. It was fun and insane at the same time and I got to make friends with some of the camera/photo guys and see some incredible shows, Lacroix Haute Couture ( my personal favorite ) Chanel YSL etc.. But then I got a bit tired of the circus , changed jobs and so yesterday was my first show after a long time.
Thimister was the opening show of the couture week , with a Russian / military theme and though I’m not usually into the Dutch design sensibility ( Ann Demeulemeester etc) it was cool and a bit wacky and had some lovely dresses, and it was fun running into old acquaintances being seated in the front row across from L’Oreal heiress Mme. Liliane Bettencourt ( you can see her in the corner gaping at the models in some of the photos I took ) . Not to mention how nice it was to be there with my friend Pia, have somebody to chat about it and enjoy it for the fun it is, without it being my job to be there.

All photos by me with my tiny Canon

Word.

2010-01-23T06:52:00.000-08:00

Photo:me.

Oh Joan!

2010-01-22T09:01:00.001-08:00

I think girl-crush on Christina Hendricks has increased even more when I read that she changed her hair color to red as a teenager, cause she got inspired by reading Anne of Green Gables! Something about that is very endearing. ( Ok so I loved Anne of Green Gables too.)

Not just is she a great actress ( Joan!) and insanely gorgeous she also seems to be the only actress out there with non-enhanced curves, that I can actually identify with.

Now I just wish that some of these days I’ll have the guts to color my hair red too . I’ve been wanting red hair for years. The maintenance, money and possibly damaging my healthy hair scares me. Not to mention my horror of showing roots, one of the most off-putting things out there.

Bright Star.

2010-01-21T13:22:00.000-08:00

Just saw it. Slow, dreamy, moving. Beautiful.

Image by me

Anthropologie

2010-01-19T23:56:00.001-08:00

Anthropologie is my web window- shopping candy . I love to browse it as well as JCrew and Banana Republic but since they don’t have stores in Paris and shipping from the states is exorbitant it stays window shopping . Sometimes I order a piece with friends going back to the States, but mostly it's platonic fashion love from afar. Either way when I saw their lovely Spring/ Summer images on Joanna’s Cup Of Jo blog,I was close to booking a trip to London just to shop ( the closest Anthro store). I love their style mix and the colors, and ah the feather blouse! So refreshing after seeing all the French girls in variations of black and grey all winter. Really I never got the American admiration for French girl style .

It’s easy, you start with an emaciated, skinny-from-too-many-cigarettes body, add some skinny grey jeans+slouchy boots + a grey tunic. Top that with a furry vest or an old leather motorcycle jacket and some messy bed head hair, smudge some black eyeliner around your eye , and voila French girl ‘chic’. It does look good to on many of them but a, gets boring pretty fast b, It really doesn't work on curvy bodies c, doesn't require any creativity at all. I think it takes much more style to be colorful and chic (without looking ridiculous) a la Kate Spade & Anthropologie, a bit like Michelle Obama. Not that manage looking lovely and colorful every day but my sensibility is definitely more Anthropologie then French girl chic and yeah some girls pull off the I-just-fell-out-of-Pete-Doherty's-Bed look , but I prefer going for 50's pretty.

Images from Jezebel- Anthropologie.com

Kids

2010-01-19T08:29:00.000-08:00

Read a very interesting article on nytimes.com today about German traditions around childcare their reform and working mothers VS stay at home ones. Not really a problem for us at the moment but it made me think. We often discuss the options with W. and friends once we actually decide to have a child in a few years. Personally I would love to stay at home for the first three years if at all possible and then go back to work ideally part–time or try to find a way to work from home. I don’t think kids as such are a “get out of work free card“ but the first three years are important for bonding and if I finally decide to have kids I want to be there to experience them. I just hope it will be financially possible. Oh yeah and I live in France where most women come back to work after maybe 12 weeks and I don’t see that as being so great for families and parent kid relations. So there. that’s my two cents but then again everybody should do what they feel is right for them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/18/world/europe/18iht-women.html

image martha stewart weddings

Guesting...

2010-01-19T03:23:00.001-08:00

Got so excited this morning, found frozen Blueberries on sale at Picart ( blueberries in Paris are usually impossible to find and impossibly expensive and I love them !)

Only two weeks to go until we fly off to our 3 week holiday in the Philippines !

Can’t wait. In fact am so excited that even the 24 hour flight with 3 airport changes seem like heaven, not having any phone calls to take, time to read...Leave dirty grey February Paris behind. Not to mention finally leaving Europe again to see something completely new . Our honeymoon in June was lovely and relaxing on the ship but staying in Europe always feels like you are in a familiar place , no matter where you go within it . The Philippines should give us a bit of a shaking up and it will be lovely to see and spend time with our friends there.

I love getting and giving host gifts you can use all those random gift ideas piling up and also buying some stuff I wish I could buy myself but just won’t because we don’t really need them . So I finally ordered the last of our host gifts from an amazing bakery in Normandy famous for their butter biscuits ( ) And received some others from the UK .Only thing to do is go buy Dyptique candles – I prefer TOCCA myself but Dyptique is more French so will work in this case.

So just as a note to anyone out there if in worry about presents just get (me) anything TOCCA ( especially candles & solid perfumes) cause their stuff is amazing quality plus scents! -not an ad or anything just love their stuff.

Some Keats to start the week ..

2010-01-17T23:50:00.000-08:00

Photo by me.

The Blog

2010-01-17T06:28:00.000-08:00

I feel like I need to write a bit about where I want to go with this blog , if indeed I manage to continue . It used to be a wedding blog all about our wedding in the year leading up to it which was fun for me, but of then I used it to unload all the frustrations of wedding planning and it got this place to vent, which really isn't the most positive way to use the blog. Now that the big wedding business is over, we are married and continue our daily lies in Paris working, travelling, meeting friends, I want to use it less as a public diary and more as a place for musings about books restaurants and the pretty things to be found around me...

Since that is my foremost passion, beauty in all its forms . Be it a poem, a quote , photo, a perfect pair of shoes or just a particularly beautiful meal!

Cat Style!

2010-01-13T08:27:00.001-08:00

I was really excited the other day I found ‘The Catorialist’ blog and love it ! I like to occasionally peruse The Sartorialist blog ( though find the stylish gentlemen more inspiring then the girls) and really miss having a cat (but hate the cheesy cutesy animal blogs out there) and this blog is perfect mix of style+ cat .

On the photo : Prettykitty my boss’s cat whom we cat-sat last summer and would fit right into any Cat-Fashion spread.

Cake!

2010-01-12T06:12:00.000-08:00

Oh the sweet irony or rather bitter , I finally received ‘Orangette’ blogger Molly Wizenberg’s book “A Homemade Life” . I’ve been coveting that book for months and was so happy when I held it in my hands . It’s by my favorite food blogger , lovely poetic writing with great recipes… and now when I could finally gobble up her book , I’m on a diet .A no sugar no carbs South Beach inspired pre-beach-holiday diet and it’s hard. I love to bake and I miss it.
In my family it was always a ritual to bake on Sundays, both my grandmothers were/are superb bakers as is my mother and I first started making cakes along them/ with them when I was barely out of toddler age . Amazing German cake confections , Christmas cookies , linzer cookies , Hungarian beigli and Strudel (rétes). And now American inspired cup cakes and French yoghurt cakes.

I’ve never liked cooking, the cutting up of foods and having to stay by and stir and constantly adjust things. That is W.’s joy . But baking to me is relaxing, nostalgic and inherently magical . Mixing the simplest of things , then leaning back , reading, relaxing for 40 minutes and a beautiful fragrant golden cake appears .Not to mention eating it .

I have been dreaming of opening a bakery for a while, with all those cupcake places opening around Paris and the Hummingbird bakery in London it’s hard not to daydream. But all the realities of it , the financial side, having to break even , make profit , taxes etc. just scares me away. So for now I will just lustingly (ok so that’s not an existing word but who cares , it’s my blog) read my book, dream of all the cakes in my future , and keep eating my veggies.

Wedding VII

2010-01-11T11:29:00.000-08:00

Soon enough , I promise , I'll post again , but for the moment its still photos...

Wedding VI

2010-01-09T05:13:00.000-08:00

I like these photos of the hands , all the little gestures, W. playing with his wedding band ,us holding hands under the golden scarf to get the blessing, W's sister holding the reading from the scripture all the cheering at the dinner.

Wedding V

2010-01-07T10:26:00.000-08:00

Finally more than six months after the wedding I get around to sharing some of my favourite photos , details that came of all those months of obsessing and planning and venting on this blog , I don't feel like I could move on and open a new chapter of the blog without sharing all the the photos that I so love.

So here are W. and his groomsmen, their prop hats , stuff from the girls room including my two wedding shoes and me putting on veil , all by naszriporter.hu

Weding IV

2010-01-07T00:00:00.000-08:00

Girls and mami buttoning me in.

Wedding III

2010-01-06T23:58:00.000-08:00

W. witing his speech, so nice to have this one ...

Wedding II

2010-01-05T11:38:00.000-08:00

Just one of the amazing shots ...more to come

Wedding I

2010-01-03T13:48:00.000-08:00

For more than the last year this blog has been about every detail of our wedding.Before going on with it and maybe even getting myself to continue blogging, as the last wedding related blogging posts i wanted to post some photos of our favourite details and moments.

2009...

2010-01-02T09:51:00.001-08:00

Thinking back on the past year feels incredibly overwhelming . Our two weddings, the Parisan 'mairie'- picknick wedding, and then the proper affair and the planning that all went into it , the paperwork the financial efforts and coordinating across countries , then honeymoon, a dry hot Parisian summer slipping into our marriage , job changes for both of us , me working in French now and hubby's complete change of 'metier' . It just feels a very full year for both of us. But no wishes for a calm 2010 I hope it will be even more exciting maybe in different ways( though not sure how we'll top the last one). Hoping it might be our last in Paris , that we finally know what direction to go on, what country and maybe a bit of enlightenment on possible new career ideas for myself.

The slideshow ...

2009-07-28T10:22:00.000-07:00

The aftermath ...

2009-07-18T13:46:00.000-07:00

This Monday its going to be four weeks since the wedding,and its quite hard to put into words that amazing , crazy stressful , beautiful day. I wouldn't say it was the best day of my life ( too much stress and rain to qualify ) but then the wedding started in the evening, the ceremony at 6pm and fro then on the stress fell off and it was all about celebrating hugs and champagne amazing food and speeches ,it definitely was THE BEST EVENING of my life. Seriously no ifs or buts all around best.

I still wish a little I could redo the day , the whole bit where I woke up at 5am and didn't take my eyes off the sky, praying it would change and not look like it was going to rain any minute for four long hours.

Then got in a cab to go pick up the girls get ready it starts raining and I'm there sad because the entire thing we've been planning for 18 months meticulously is not going to happen as envisaged. No dancing outside under the stars in the beautifully lit courtyard. So yes for most of the day I felt disappointed . I wish I would have just gotten over it and not cared, i also wish that stupid custom of not seeing the groom wouldn't exist cause 1, he could have cheered me up in a minute flat and 2, all our attendants were mingling and sipping champagne outside our getting ready rooms and I couldn't leave for fear of bumping into the groom.

Also there were moments where i should have been MORE of a bridezilla , like when the room got full of people who had no business seeing the bride before ceremony , or no business being there in the first place.

Then again this is not meant to be a rant just my thoughts on the day. And there was so many great moments... Just upon arrival being smothered with a Creme de La Mer mask looked like some weird lets rob a bank mask ( and scared our photographer Csaba). The girls aka bridesmaids! Having all those amazing girls around me was great and really they were amazing and so sweet and just the whole excitement of getting ready together and getting into the swing of things .I loved the hair and loved the make-up as well as the people who administered it , the look that came together just as I thought and it was great to see all the girls dresses I loved the different styles coming together. And seeing Jas. made up so georgeaous , and for J. to like her gift , for M. to be so happy with her dress and Sz. so caring and into the wedding drama and just to know that KC friggin flew from New York for 48 hours then back to Manila to be there . I was amazing and very very emotional.

I guess this is goig to be in installlments as it will get too long for one post . And I was going to wait till we officially get the photos from the amazing Csaba @ naszriporter.hu but i'll post a little teaser now and lots and lots more in a bit ...

Image by naszriporter.hu

2009-06-09T12:56:00.000-07:00

I've got a love/hate relationship with travelling. I'm so happy about leaving Paris (and work!) behind for four weeks , absolutely ecstatic to go home, get married, have our honeymoon, Barcelona , Santorini, Cote d'Azur all of that BUT I hate packing the airports , waiting, being uncomfortable, flight turbulences, waiting for luggage at arrival , crossing fingers that nothing is lost /stolen /broken ... Well all of that. And DF is always making fun of how much i hate living out of a suitcase that whatever hotel we go (even for a night) I need an hour to unpack arrange my things and nest otherwise i won't be comfortable . Oh well one of those lovely things my 'husband' will just have to live with.

Now packing my suitcase I am at 10 evening dresses, 6 day dresses 5 skirts 2 jeans about 10 shoes and it goes on ..; as usual not sure how it will all work , but having grown up with about 4 back and forth trips between Hungary - Germany every year I'm quite masterful at packing . At least DF is taking me to the airport.

But yeay tomorrow afternoon I will be home looking at our garden surrounded by cats and dog and chillin in 30C, shouldn't be too bad.

2009-06-06T09:44:00.000-07:00

We were legally married yesterday afternoon at the Mairie de 19eme in Paris. It was the most wonderful day, I'm still glowing!

I got to wear my pretty pink Dior dress and DF got me a pink peeony/rose bouquet to match, the room in the mairie was stunning , which I really didn't expect all high ceilings and and grand paintings and red welwet upholstered chairs , and after 15 minutes we signed everything and it was over , we were married.

We took the 15 or so friends that were there and walked over the street to the sunny Parc de Buttes Chaumont for champagne picknick with lots of strawberries cherries and raspberries and special macaroons our friend Pia brought and celebrated the afternoon away. Even though it wasn't that many people it felt a little overwhelming just being there and having them around was so lovely.
I still have a huge grin on my face ( which is saying something i'm at work and hungover) then we had dinner with the remainder of the group at our fun thai in Belleville , and after dinner went to the Hemingway bar for lots of champagne and cocktails and the best ever bartenders ( Pierre & Romain ) who completely spoiled us and pretty much let us take over the Bar till 3 am!

It was just perfect, we are happy , no regrets , no nervousness , we are all good and releived after all the paperwork that went into it. Invited to another little soiree tomorrow nite not to mention brunch in the morning.

Update ...

2009-05-23T08:29:00.000-07:00

Back here writing again , and since this blog will soon come to an END .... I have a confession to make. About two weeks to our mairie wedding and 4 to our proper big proper wedding in Budapest and I am getting scared. Mind you not about marrying DF , that's all good no worries there.

Its just that while I enjoy organizing the event and making decisions about details I somehow forgot that this whole big hoopla will happen around me!I will the the bride this time , quite hard to fathom. Brides are meant to be blushing and delicate and ladylike , whilst I well i can be quite cynical and i cuss and well not so delicate even with spanx and south beach diet. Hmmm.

I guess I got caught up in the organization aspects of it ... and doing the ultimate event for us is great, but this time the show pony is us. The thought is scary though I'm trying to calm myself by focusing on the fact that all/ most of the people there will be close friends and I will be happy to see them.

Speaking of organizational aspects I managed to have the first big fight with my mom, which is quite traumatic(though now we are ok... till round 2) Obviously she is paying for the whole thing, and has been great about it, I mean we got the band we got the place, the catering , really we are spoilt.( Though we did compromise on things) But now when we were speaking of adding some personal touches, ( naming the tables after our special restaurants in Paris with photos ...etc ) she was completely against it and found about a million reasons. One side of me wants to let it go , but on the other hand it would be sweet and for us meaningful, and I'm worried that I would regret not adding those touches, and giving in.Not to mention that DF would really love to have it. I just feel like in weddings its so often the little things people notice . But maybe I'm misguided...

Image by ellen von unwerth..

2009-04-25T04:08:00.000-07:00

Can it be ? Can it be that after all the planning and prepping and money spent and my unwavering enthusiasm for all things images, magazines and details wedding , we finally hit the point of wedding fatigue. Yes me and DF both of us , literally just want to get it over with .Enough of spending money, worrying about details, stressing about guests and bridesmaids and family and catholic and French bureaucracy. We are still excited , but with only 8 weeks to go we want the time to pass already , the day to come to know who is coming and to celebrate!

We got our date for the town hall wedding yesterday, its June 5th in the afternoon which neatly places all of it in one month and we have May to chill out and prepare.
It’s true that if we haven’t had waited this long we wouldn’t have that wedding we imagined the whole lovely fairytale , but if it could have been helped I think a shorter engagement( if only by half a year) would have been better.

We are looking forward to just get on with life , travelling, maybe looking for an apartment in Paris ( now that’s a new project!), maybe find a new job around autumn, or look into mowing abroad.

So there, until then I’m trying to enjoy my last weeks as a fiancée I have a feeling I’ll miss it a lot once its over.

peony bouquet from googleimages.

2009-04-20T12:06:00.000-07:00

Somehow today was a really hardcore monday ... not only did I have a short weekend (was workin on saturday as well as the coming two saturdays) and 1 day weekends just don't do it for me, I also got in a fight with one of my bridesmaids and am slightly annoyed with another . I guess it makes sense that the friends who've been the biggest help and kind of moral support in this whole planning crazyness are the ones that recently-or semi-recently got married , they are just angels and I really appreciate them. Not to completely bust on all my single friends or get into bridezilla territory , but the wedding's coming up and its getting intense and well they've all seem to've got their lives filled with their own drama.

Nevermind ,i got home smooched DF, ate some grapefruits and listened to DF's best man, J.'s song,( ) i love it when friends make songs, it helps that I actually like the music , but something wth recognizing the voice as well.... it just makes me happy , same with my friend Kc's album 'Melt with you ' .

Another thig that cheered me up this weekend was the fact that me and >DF tried dancing. He's a great dancer but me ....another story.Despite all my years of toddler and child ballet classes, its sad . But we put on Sinatra ( We're thinking ''Fly me to the moon..) and actually managed to dance even though some of DF's more ambitious twirls bumped me into the tables in our small living room it was hilarious . It gave me some hope though we might manage to look OK dancing together.

PS,For cheering up, waching High Society helps too.

Happy Easter!

2009-04-13T06:28:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter to you all! Mind you I'm in the office working ( not too much of it though as it is blessedly calm)

Brought wedding work with me too as I'm planning to start writing the place cards this afternoon and answering letters from those family members who can't come. We are just at the stage where we try to hunt down our invitees who haven't sent their RSVP's trying to figure out who we can still invite last minute and starting to work out how the tables will work. Which goes something like this " So if I invite uncle S. then I can't not invite aunt E. but with her we still have 2 free seats and I don’t want to punish people by sitting them there so let’s invite the two horrid cousins and just make it a table." Yeah family is fun! That’s the worst of it though the seating rest is way more pleasant.

Also lots of things made me happy this weekend , it started with the blooming Park in Levallois ( tulips, magnolia trees, pansies...) then I bought a bunch of new books in WHSmith’s , and Vanity Fair arrived in the office which always means days of reading . I got two cute hair bands both with bows ( cause, "Who doesn't like bows?!" )
Went to the Marché in rue Cler ,on the 69 bus my favorite line in Paris, bought flowers and a pot of daisies and D. showed me where to get cupcakes, aaaand they are amazing ,not to mention the 3 cute guys who work in the shop are serious eye candy.
And DF made the yummiest healthy dinner on Saturday and got me some noix st jaques ( which I managed to overcook AND over salt my pea puree soup, (I'm SO not a cook!)

both images taken by me.

2009-04-09T14:25:00.000-07:00

The day is approaching and things are nicely rolling along… The big good news this week was that I’m keeping my job ( our company is downsizing and letting go about 10 people) so when back from our honeymoon in beginning of July and will be moved to work on Dior perfumes & cosmetics instead of the leather goods stuff. Oh well love beauty stuff and extremely grateful for the French labor laws and my CDI contract right now. somehow didn’t feel like going off on my honeymoon with unemployment looming.

Our dossier is given to the mairie and in 10 days we get our appointment , and flights etc booked.

Oh yeah and last Sunday just after our big we are starting to diet so good bye fabulous food lunch ( fois gras & sauternes , duck leg with honey marinade and ile flottantes) I was walking through the Marais and enjoying all the open shops and decided to drop in to les petites where I ended up buying the dress , the dress I fell in love with weeks ago and DF despised ( he’s coming around now)

We are still on the search for the flower girl dresses , and my adorable bridesmaid J. led me in the right direction with US websites having these amazing offers ( forget Paris , nothing proper under 100Eur) except that somehow the sizing doesn’t work, it might just be that we have no idea about kids sizing.

Oh and a few photos of the controversial dress for the civil ceremony..

Here we go again!

2009-04-04T02:34:00.000-07:00

Writing about diets can be boring , but the blog is about the whole process to get to the wedding , and right now that involves hardcore not eating starting this Sunday ,so I need to put it in writing to strengthen my resolve in the matter. The goal is at least 10pounds in 4 weeks.

So the plan is :

-carbs ( brown rice , vasa crackers, brown pasta) only until 12am – not that I will feel like eating much of those in the morning.

- vegetables , fish, meat, fruit allowed as much as I like.

- When possible , no eating after 6-7 pm

and NO SUGAR ! NO BREAD , NO PASTA ! –God the sugar thing is going to make me suffer , but hey for vanity’s sake and only until June 20th aka our wedding day.

This actually works when I hold to it ,last time I did the same thing I lost 5kg in 4 weeks , in time for my dress fitting so I’m hopeful it’s going to work this time around.

The thought of our fabulous wedding feast sustains me , just thinking of our menu , the wedding cake , our honeymoon , tapas in Barcelona etc … makes those two and a half months of fasting not seem so bad . I’m almost looking forward to eating all healthy stuff except for my sugar addiction I love fish and vegetables , so no problems with that .

Images by me , the last carrot cake ...

And I promise next time , I’ll find some other silly topic to write about then my food intake .

Just spring!

2009-04-01T01:26:00.000-07:00

We got the papers , finished the preparation course, ( actually quite sad , it was great ! ) So now its off to the mairie and hopefully we'll get our appointment in about 4 weeks or so ! yeay !

2009-03-26T10:52:00.000-07:00

Happening last few days , work then …. friends over for impromptu dinner… going for marriage prep course , and last nite was spent on my friend kc’s film set , they were on their last day of shooting and we had fun going from location to location eating sushi in the van , her rehearsing her lines? very enlightening seeing my friend at work like that . When I worked for fashion file before, we were shooting fashion shows for TV , so not completely unfamiliar with the effort it takes to get the cameras up and in place , the right light , angle etc , but still surprised how much work goes into a scene of a few minutes. Love the feel of film sets though, the team , and how it comes together for a scene. I guess it’s what I used to enjoy about the fashion shows. When you know the work that it takes those few minutes of perfection are so much more precious. I guess I should go into production…

We got our rings , mine’s so delicate , very tiny eternity set diamonds and things in Budapest seem to be on track even if largely over budget , oh and we finally booked our honeymoon, not Cali , the Maldives or a sailing trip , but nevertheless I think the med in June is pretty foolproof and fun and a boat (albeit of slightly larger proportions) is involved which alone makes me happy . So we are going to Barcelona staying for a few days then 12 days on sea. C A N T. W A I T.

Pressure is mounting at work , our contract is finishing in June ( great timing ) and when I’m back who knows if I’ll even have a job or where . Applied for a position in New York , but who knows yet , papers for DF would be complicated , and well working without papers , not ideal. As usual que sera , sera, ..

image of capra from googleimages/capra

2009-03-21T00:48:00.000-07:00

I know not everybody might share this passion , but I simply looove pretty wallpapers, so much so that yesterday when we went out to le magnifique on rue richelieu ( a great cocktail club by the way) i found myself tipsily effusing about their amazing wallpaper, ( bronze base with pink waterlilies if i remember right) So i decided to share some of my favourites from de gournay in the hope that one day when i'm a proper grown up i will be able to afford just a little tiny room with their chinoiserie papers...

all images from www.degournay.com

2009-03-19T05:12:00.001-07:00

For a while now I haven’t written here. Lately I have been feeling ambivalent about blogging , and preferred to start writing my private diary again. There is something about the public nature of a blog that has stopped me from airing opinions here. I find it hard to balance writing without constricting myself for reasons of certain people might read it etc . ..

But if I think of the people who might read it , it just turns into a dull public newsletter .

Never mind I will still try. There has been some major wedding drama going on, to the point of us almost having to cancel our wedding. The Hungarian ministry of culture tried to put nuit blanche on the night of our wedding , and as it is held in a museum, they would have had to cancel us ( 3 months before the wedding!!!!) but thanks to my mom who fought like a lion, contacted Df’s dad , ambassadors and almost the press, whilst on the brink of a nervous breakdown ,it’s still on.
I was left blissfully unaware of this as DF and mom conspired not to tell me of it for fear of my nervous breakdown.

All is good now , and I spent Saturday looking for flower girl dresses and a mairie dress in Galleries Lafayette. ( the dress I will wear for my civil ceremony) The experience left me swearing to myself to never again go shopping with DF and friend in tow, not to mention to avoid Saturday at Lafayette at all costs .
I found the perfect dress and now as DF doesn’t like it I’m left pondering whether it’s worth buying a dress and wearing it to your civil ceremony that your beloved doesn’t like , and says it makes you look bigger , yikes! I still love the dress though and know I would regret not buying it. Its grecian style knee length vanilla colored chiffon pleats , absolutely gorgeous , like something out of a patisserie. What to do?

As for the flower girls , no luck yet.
I also went to the opening night of the European Independent Film Festival , Partying with my friend KC , who is here doing a soap opera, to catholic marriage preparation class with DF, and to the Swedish Club for brunch ( my new favorite place in town) so it’s no wonder that now I’m left to nurse a spring cold and have no energy left whatsoever.

photo by penn

And it was.....March !!!

2009-03-04T13:51:00.000-08:00

OK so maybe not the most impressive photos ever, but little signs of spring in the park where I have my lunch on sunny days.

And yet in the face of it all...

2009-02-22T04:32:00.000-08:00

Lets see what my oracle Oscar Wilde had to say about marriage or related issues :

"I have always been of the opinion that consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative..."

"Lord Henry: ...the one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely neccesary for both parties.

...every experience is of value,and,whatever one may say against marriage it is certainly an experience.

...Women try their luck; men risk theirs."

"Lord Illingworth: Twenty years of romance make a woman look like a ruin; but twenty years of marriage make her something like a public building ...

....Men marry because they are tired;women because they are curious.Both are disappointed. "

"Mrs Cheveley:Ah! the strength of women comes from the fact that psychology cannot explain us. Men can be analysed, women...merely adored. An Ideal Husband

"Lord Goring: It is the growth of the moral sense in women that makes marriage such a hopeles, one sided institution."

"Mrs Cheveley : Oh there is only one real tragedy in a woman's life.The fact that her past is always her lover, and her future invariably her husband.

Take all that , the fact that I'm reading Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates (wanted to read it before going to see the movie) that two peple who are quite close to me just announced the separation from their husbands.It makes us think, and yet in the face of it all we are getting married...

Quotes:Oscar Wilde:Nothing...except my genius; image : wedding 1933 , condenast.com, image of Oscar Wilde: www.wilsonsalmanac.com

"Pleasure is the only thing one should live for.Nothing ages like happiness."O.W.

2009-02-19T13:30:00.000-08:00

Somehow last night Paris magic struck and the evening turned into one of decadent delights.

It even started well when I met P. DF's best friend who lives in the Congo currently and works for an NGO, at WHSmith's (they had a sale on all Penguin books and I found some great one's including one on Oscar Wilde)then we went to a lovely tiny Thai / Vietnmese that I didnt know in the same street as Maria Luisa and the Souffle restaurant.

When we finished we hadn't talked nearly enough and were debating going to one of our usual places like Juveniles or the Caveau (de Montpensier) but somehow P. mentioned the Bar Hemingway and we got very fired up (except I told her that DF would kill me if I lots) but P. in her endless generosity ivited me.I guess she needed a partner in crime and well there isn't anything more fun then sharing a guilty decadent evening and about 6-7 cocktails with a friend who shares the same expensive habits. We cosied up in the bar, struck up frienships with Pierre and Romain the barmen who still remembered my friend from previous visits(Colin was off) got served pretty drinks with roses and orchids and cucumber water and warm almonds and ... oh well the whole place just enveloped us in its golden shine until closing time , when reality had us back.

And this morning a raging headache / hungover , lovely. But if any bar is worth the morning after then that one is. Next time will be after our mairie wedding if ever we get it done.

Tomorrow DF will take me out for our proper, belated Valentine's dinner,we had an unplanned impromptu one on valentine day , but that doesn't cancel out the need to go to Le Recamier once every winter for a souffle feast, before it gets warm again an d souffle feels too heavy . Life can be quite pleasurable sometimes, sure old papa and colin would agree.

Dominos falling

2009-02-17T14:09:00.000-08:00

I'm back in Paris , back to work back in our cosy little apartment back to evenings alone watching Godfather till too late eating Ben & Jerry's taking a break from my break. No wedding planning no diets ... for the moment at least and there is much more to write.

But for the past half hour I was going through dominomag.com I'm sooo sad to see my facourite interior design mag go that I downloaded every image I liked for future inspiration, when one day I will own a home I can remodel to my hearts desire and without limitations given by DF's guidelines on colour etc... ah one can dream.

Really Conde Nast broke that little piece of my heart that beats for pretty pretty apartments , wall colours , mirrored beds ... pretty lamps, wallpaper etc..;

Seriously each image is like perfect real estate escpism...

all images from dominomag.com

Honeymoon time is over...

2009-02-11T14:32:00.000-08:00

Wow this wedding planning business is getting a bit overwhelming especially having my mom and DF's oppinions raining down on me from two different countries while I alone (ok there is our planner) am left with figuring out budget etc... So as much as I love being engaged and the process and all the pretty things involved . Today it happened : I finally got sick of it all and just wish it was all done alrady and we could move on.

(Of course I still look forward to it, just slightly less enthusiastic about the process,it starts giving me headaches)

Thank God, after my morning dress fitting I was booked for an entire afternoon at the beauty parlor , literally two hour facial, massage , pedicure all of it. Gotta love Hungary for that though it only cost 25$ for all and my skin feels heavenly. Yup takes work to stay pretty, well in this case the work of 5 lovely talented ladies , not mine , but work nevertheless. I feel like Dita looks on that image . Soooo pretty

(image from google images/ www.ahlanlive.com)

2009-02-09T14:47:00.000-08:00

Somehow even after all this time the beauty of this city takes my breath away every time I cross a bridge over the Danube , I had one crossing today on tram 6 over Margaret bridge at dusk , with the whole city , parliament and castle hill in pink candy coton light and later from the other side crosssing at nite everything aglow in golden night lighting.Breathtaking.

I guess I should stop gushing and there is plenty places tht are a bit shabby , dodgy or just plain ugly , but it just makes me love it more.With all that I like about Paris and all its architectural beauty there is rarely that I get the same feeling I have every single time I cross the Danube. Its home i guess.

Could have something to do too with the fact that I got contact lenses today and for the first time in a long while aactually had some spatial sight , well and could actually see.

As for wedding stuff , we got lots done while DF was here fun stuff like cake tasting, choosing first nite suite, tasting the menus , meeting the priests (slightly less fun more nervwracking) and thanks to our lovely wedding planner things seem to go smoothly.

Although after almost a whole week of it and another full day to come tomorrow, I have a sudden urge to take a nap from all things wedding and just wake up after all of it is done . Then again I'm way too perfectionist about details and all matters easthetic to just lean back and let other people deal with it.I never thought i could get sick of it all but , though i still look forward to it , im starting to get sick of the planning , the worrying about documents and shedules and family and budget and all of that. Maybe I just need a holiday from my holiday or something like that...

Sailing...

2009-02-01T14:27:00.000-08:00

I just desperately fell in love...though DF doesnt have to worry just yet, I fell in love with a ship, Its called Sea Cloud, and I guess DF would still be worried as its far out of our budget. In fact their website www.seacloud.com doesn't even mention prices .It does however mention butler service, gilded faucets only 60 guest per ship etc. But the ships are heavenly and I love being on ships where you get gusts of saltwater into your face , that are closer to the water with lovely wood plank flooring and oil paintings hanging in the dining room. I guess we'll just have to save it for our 10th wedding anniversary (another good reason to stay together) until then i'll just be hopelessly in love...

(images from www.sevenstarsandstripes.com-view of the cabin, www.jhcbh.com for image of the ship)

2009-01-27T00:40:00.000-08:00

Hah feel pretty damn smug these days, its been almost a month since I started with the whole lets loose weight thing and so far am down by 6 kg( 12pounds), turns out my friend kc was right , I just had to stop whyning about it, stop packing away the amounts of beloved junk food and it would work just fine. Vanity is great motivation, whats the point after all of a great photographer if I wont like myself in the photos anyway.

We are still fighting germann / french buroucracy, who knew there are that many documents we need to get together, looks like the easiest country to get married in Europe is England , of all places. All you need is birth certificate, passport and seven days stay in the country. If only we'd have known about a year ago. Now there is no way we can get another week holiday off, so we'll have to just get a notary and all the docs together for the mairie here.

Can't wait for Saturday , am off to Budapest, have already a completely full schedule , but oh how blissfull it will be two full weeks without work even if its busy, though i can't really complain, we'll have about two trial dinners with DF , chose the cake (cake!) pick up wine from Austria, meet up with priests , dress trials etc... cant wait!Plus hankg out with my girls, yeay!

2009-01-17T11:15:00.000-08:00

I guess its a bit boring to complain about January , but honestly , is there a less inspiring month???

Am working two full weeks plus saturdays in a row which is sucking away my energy especially paired with the diet, and having some issues getting papers for our city hall wedding in France all together. One would think that the European Union being the EUROPEAN UNION we would not need special documents as an EU citizen to get married in France , but of course the French bein French and German buroucracy being what it is, which is quite frankly a pain in the ass, I've got one more thing to worry about.

If anyone out there has thought about getting married in France (I mean the official marie/city hall mariage) let me just tell you certificat de coutume, and certificat de celibat, oh well in good old Hungarian fashion I still think everything will work itself out in the end.

The good news is when I went dress shopping for the town hall wedding this week things FIT me, I was quite proud of my dieting efforts. Even if I didn't find anything , though we did buy DF's tux.
Its very lovely and made from the same fabric that E. Zegna uses (apparently from the same roll, whatever that means) but we bought itin this small shop and for half the price of a Zegna suit. Its called Arthur & Fox and had a women's section too, completely nodescript store but apparently where all the ladies'n gents from the 16th buy their suits and cashmere coats. Lovely shop.
Another Paris tip is la maison du whisky which is on rue d'anjou in the 8th and pretty much a whisky lovers paradise. Speaking of whisky and tuxes our shop assistant let us in on Cary Grants secret for his shiny / almost laquered shoes apparently he rubbed his shoes with a slightly wet cottonball.So thats my gift to you , for today: shiny shoes! ;-)

of course my real old movie star crush is Bogie but in those pictures i must say Grant looks pretty damn well. ( images from google.com/images)

2009-01-14T10:32:00.000-08:00

My mom did the sweetest thing yesterday , she sent me a care-package. Yup I'm 26 and got a care package from my mom yesterday , funny , but it made me very very happy. Wasn't anything special just my favourite lip balm that i'm out of and cant get in France and an Audrey Hepburn postcard and Volker Schlondorffs a Love of Swann dvd. One of her gifts for Christmas was Prousts A love of Swann( might have translated that wrong as the book is in German) and I've been complaining to her how very pretentious and cynical I find Proust , so she sent me the movie to sweeten it , I guess.

Either way it was lovely. Epecially since I'm sightly stressed out work is very very busy, though even when it gets stressful its still fun essentially its a very girly office. All of us tell each other about our relationships and exchane all kinds of info from what to do against UTI to sugar-olive oil scrub( my secret soft skin weapon) to what we bought on lunchbreak etc etc... it just goes on we bought our boss slippers so she can take of her sky high boots in the office and still look inconspicous when the big boss comes in ( they are audrey hepburn style with a ferragamo bow)and feted her birthhday today with rose champagne and 3 kinds of cake.

As for all things wedding , am slightly getting pissed off at our planner. She promised to send over trial menu before christmas and nothing yet , we are going back to Budapest in 2 weeks and need to have acaterer set, so we can try the foods) ahhh exactly why I hired a planner was that i didnt wanna sit in paris and worry bout things not getting organized and its happening!Just crossing my fingers...

At least our invites go out this weekend, so we can tick off another thing from our list. Oh yeah nd I'm on a radical sugar rehab , aka diet, which as far as healthy foods go is fine by me , but im in near desperation without sweets, thus the rehab.which is making me think of how i'd love cupcakes which made me think of Nigella (adore her) so there you have it Nigella with cupcakes curtesy of the dailymail.co.uk.

The year!

2009-01-02T13:40:00.000-08:00

Ah a new year , new beginnings and all that.

2009 did start pretty well. Had a very grown up new year celerating at Juveniles (wine bar near Palais Royal) with friends amazing food and well lots of wine and champs.
The tiny restaurant was filled with lovely people kind of like one big dinner party, then we moved on to the Caveau de Montpensier (bar where DF used to work) and had a few more drinks ,then crawled back home by 5am, though I must say those last few did me in and I had a massive hungover on the first. Not helped by the fact that DF decided to make himself a lovely english fry up with bacon eggs and the like while I was officially on my first day of diet.He did bring me a bouquet of roses in the afternoon, to start the year right, so all was forgiven.

Today it was back to work , but for once we get to spend a whole weekend together which is very exciting. I have surprise date for DF planned tomorrow and we're going to the Fumoir for brunch with a bunch of friends on Sunday. Am very excited as its been a while that we could plan weekend things together like normal people , and taking over the big table at the Fumoir with friends is always fun, even if I'll have to take a little break in my diet for their eggs benedict.

2009 makes it official. We are getting married in 6 months , its insane , really, just the thought, and so soon. No cold feet though just a bit increulous at how grown up that sounds.

Oh and our invitations arrived from the States along with my earrings . Both are beautiful, the earring are perfect, a bit bling but not too big and will work nicely with a half-updo.

The invitations are elegant but..... well..... HUGE!!As in twice the size I imagined. Almost a bit embarrased. They have the perfect colour and everything , only the size does make it feel a bit like we are inviting to a state dinner. Oh well I just hope they wont raise expectations too high.

Back to it all...

2008-12-29T12:30:00.000-08:00

It was back to work today as if Christmas has never happened, my mom's visit was way to short and am a bit bugged by the fact that I didn't get to spend any time at all alone with her. I dont mind my stepdad, he's a good chap, but I've lived 7 years only with my mom and miss hving time on our own to chat without the guys being there judging it all. Oh well I guess now that they're married it will be even harder to get her to myself once in a while.

Had a lovely short Christmas all in all. DF made stuffed turkey (ok so the base was from Picart) with all kinds of side dishes and I did a fig tart and we all drank too much wine and claret. It was slightly weird as the weather was so sunny that we got the impression that it was June and Christmas all make believe. I guess I shouldn't complain about it being sunny thogh ,as they forecasted icy rain for tomorrow . Oh joy!

I'm working on my New Years resolutions as well as eating anythng not healthy and all leftowers from the holiday feast from our fridge. Which means eating toasts heaping with fois gras , cause if its around on the first of January it will be thrown away. I'm gonna have to be strict, I've only got a month till dressfitting and its winter which makes things harder.

We finally have the dates for our next trip to Budapest and can start planning the meetings with all kinds of wedding related peoples.
Can't wait to leave Paris behind for a few days. Its depressing that at work and and in the TV and so on people can't stop complaining about economy and such like. My stepdad may say that i'm naive and living in a dreamwold, but I'm thinking , if you can't change matters then why complain about them. Lets just take things as they come and be happy with what we got.Then again; I love to complain too, but hearing it 24/7 at work makes me sick of it. So I'll just try to stay positive and keep daydreaming of us moving to the Philippines for a while and takig daytrips to Luzon , oh so beautiful...

Ok what is happening now is that for the past 15 minutes I have been trying to find the cable that lets me upload photos from the camera. Can't find it.So you'll get a post wthout pictures.