La Maison D'Anna G.

It's time to polish up on your French as, Paris based, Scandinavian design lover, Anna, of the gorgeous blog 'La Maison D'Anna G', has opened an online shop with the same name. Stocked to the hilt with interior goodies from the likes of Hay, By Nord and Afroart, along with pieces by some awesome designers, the shop has a strong Scandinavian influence, as does Anna, having been born in Sweden. It's been difficult to choose but here are some of my favourite bits and pieces available....

Oh, AND she ships worldwide...so get your Euros out...!

clockwise from top left : fold unfold multicolour tablecloth | valentina multicolour cushion | 7 piece desktop boxes | black pipe wall lamp |  square oak tray | typography poster 'D' | dark oak bird | twinkle little bat box

Painted On Paris

The Guilded Suite, La Maison Champs Élysées, Paris. Designed by Martin Margiela. Nice, huh? (no, Paris...ha ha...hmmm...)

La Maison Champs Élysées

Paper Gifts

For our first wedding anniversary we got each other paper gifts.
As we were visiting Paris, my grand plan was to take my husband to the comic book artist, Moebius' shop where he could choose a limited edition print and hopefully have it signed. However, after an expensive taxi ride to the opposite side of the French capital, in a month when Parisiennes generally vacate the city...the shop was closed.
Fortunately, on our last day we took the Metro out to La Defense, home to La Grande Arche and many more futuristic, architectural phenomenons on the outskirts of the city where we happened upon an awesome art store called, Arteum. Needless to say we were there for quite some time exploring the shelves.
I eventually found my 36 year old husband in the 'Petits Artiste' section where he proclaimed, with much excitement, that he had found what he wanted, from me, for our anniversary....a large model cardboard robot by Calafant...
My husband got me 'Sundays Are For Lovers'; a lovely book curated by Maria Alexandra Vettese, by independant American publishers, Lines & Shapes, in which artists express what they like to get up to on a Sunday...I love it.
How do you spend your Sunday?

Book images courtesy of Lines & Shapes via Daily Candy
Robot available from here

À Bientôt

We're off to speak pigeon french with Scottish et Australian accents to angry Parisiens, drink café au lait and hopefully not buy anything that won't fit in our hand luggage (Ryanair)...

Many thanks for the suggestions on my previous Paris blog post and on twitter...much appreciated. Thanks to you and some famille, we have a (very) loose itinerary and even looser dinner reservations, other than that we're just going to soak it all up and in the immortal words of Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, 'fly by the seat of our pants'.
No doubt I'll take beaucoup de photos, tweet a lot and then post a little something upon our return...

...but for now, au revoir mes amis x

photography by Irene Suchoki

French country house

It can't just be me who presumes that every house in rural France is owned by a hippy artist? Hippy artists wearing beige linen, painting in their rustic, fully glazed studios with vines growing on the inside and cats lazing around soaking up the sunshine...taking short breaks for a cigarette and a strong, black, freshly brewed coffee or a lunch of crusty bread with tomatoes with basil picked from the garden... it's just geography...surely?

via home-designing.com

Like for Like?

I know I keep going on about holidays but I'd love to live in a European city, not as a tourist, just live there.
Well, It seems when you no longer have the freedom to go off and 'live' somewhere exotic for a year or so there is a 'grown up with business, partners, responsibilties' option. You can go on holiday and 'swap homes' for a couple of weeks.
The concept was made more popular by the film The Holiday a couple of years back, in which Kate Winslet swapped her stereotypical 'middle of nowhere' chintz English cottage:

for Cameron Diaz's stereotypical LA over-designed super gaff:

Great idea huh? Apart from the fact i'd have to move most of my junk out and get industrial cleaners in, it's supposed to save you the cost of accomodation and you get to live as a local.
I, however, can't help but feel my swapee would be extremely disappointed, to arrive in damp Edinburgh, with keys to a one and a half bedroom flat above a Mexican restaurant, while I lorded it up in their '18th Century Mansion just 15 minutes from Paris.'
Check this place out!







Available to swap at Luxe Home Swap

The Holiday set images found on Discover: Interior Design