Wednesday, 29 September 2010
Grey bedrooms...love love love
Once your canvas (walls) is ready, then it is just a matter of adding a few decorative accessories and beautiful prints to give your room the final touches.
I think that if I had a bedroom like any of these gorgeous bedrooms in our home in London, I would probably spend my day writing posts from my bed for ever and ever (and incidentally becoming a huge frog...). No seriously, don't you love how the creased white linens look against the grey wall? And grey against grey?
For those in need of a more romantic feel, the two-tone wall will work wonder and will be a less daunting approach to introduce grey in the bedroom.
It's also interesting to see how linens and floorings can change the whole look of a room, how white floorboards soften the whole look while a dark grey wall appears more contemporary...something to remember for future projects.
Images Bella Note Linens via Heather
I like this...very calming

I fell asleep amongst the flowers...


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Tuesday, 28 September 2010
If I could I would frame it!
Pleaase forgive us...It may not mean a lot to you but for us this is HU-GE!
How to Spend It is part of the Financial Times and is a very high-profile luxury magazine and their review is just amazing...
A big thank you to Nicole Swengley for writing such a wonderful review!
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House Tour: Fredensborg Home
However, looking at this lovely kitchen or the room below from Jacqueline Morabito's home, I'm seriously tempted to forget about my big chandelier and go down a complete different road, using something like this simple pendant light with a twisted flex to create an airy feel in the room. What do you think? We often go for big, statement lighting but if less is more, a simple pendant light may just work its magic...I will aim to hang it this weekend and let you know if it works....
Do you go through magazines? Go for a walk? Walk away from your project until the inspiration comes back?
Personally I pin inspiring images around the room and I try to relax going through all my decoration mags hoping that something will trigger something clever in my busy head...

So until the inspiration kicks in, I'm just going to lose myself in this beautiful, soothing white Fredensborg Home designed by NORM Architects, a talented duo of Danish Architects I've previously mentioned there. I'm so in love with the long white Conrian table....
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Monday, 27 September 2010
My head in L.A clouds Part 1: Jeana Sohn
Jeana is a thirty-something Artist who lives in Los Angeles. You can see some of her work at Taylor De Cordoba (such a cool name by the way) but she is also a great photographer, a model for Poketo and she makes gorgeous videos. I've watched the one below several times when showing it to friends and I love everything about it...the music, the poetry of her images...
Same with her blog...I adore the little poetic path she seeds here, her little "tranches de vie" (slices of life), the lightness of her writing...
And today she wrote a fabulous post about Clare's closet....so not only Clare designs gorgeous bags we all love (her new messenger bag in black and gray totally rocks!) but she has amazing legs!!
La Tropezienne tote bag at home

Sunday, 26 September 2010
Last post for the day but I couldn't resist....
Ay Illuminate: www.ayilluminate.com
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Loving this kitchen....
Now if my hungover kiwi was getting out of bed at some point, maybe I could do some work in our bedroom and finish the moodboard in my wardrobe and see if this bone china pendant light is going to work....I may send Mila to jump on him...C'mon it's almost 11am!

Have a great sunday!
(C) Photos Marie-Claire Maison
Sunday morning yumminess: grilled pizza

1- envelope dry yeast
1- cup water – room temperature or warm
1 teaspoon honey
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup fine ground flax meal- corn mean can also be used- I even sometimes substitute semolina flour
3 1/2 tablespoons whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tablespoons good quality virgin olive oil
3 cups all purpose flour
1- in a large bowl add the water, yeast and honey
2- after all is dissolved slowly stir in the flax meal, whole wheat flour, salt and olive oil
3- slowly stir in the flour until a firm dough has formed
4- remove all contents from bowl and continue to knead on a floured surface until a smooth dough has formed adding additional flour to prevent the dough from sticking.
5- after you have achieved a smooth sough clean of any lumps transfer to a large bowl that has been lightly coated with olive oil. add oil to the top make sure a skin does not form while rising. cover the bowl and let rise for about 2 hours. remove dough and knead again.
6- let the dough rise again for about 30 minutes.
(C) Photography: Karen Mordechai
Friday, 24 September 2010
Happy thoughts for the weekend....
Tomorrow, we'll be having a yummy pizza there with friends from New-Zealand before heading to this book launch in Bricklane.
Sunday, Steve is off to France for a boys weekend so....
Mila and I will watch (again!) this uplifting French movie with Sophie Marceau
Take some photos with balloons
This week, I loved....
The new issue of this inspiring magazine
The blog and videos of Jeana Sohn
This lovely, personal account on Irene's blog
This which made me laugh but if you have one, you must get one of these
Heidi Klum's tips on how to look gorgeous on picture....er, who wouldn't want to look like her?!
Mila telling me she had something "unbelievably beautiful" to show me...the cutest paper cut I had ever seen
Seeing our kitchen on Emma's blog
And this photo taken by Christophe, my brother-in-law . Have a wonderful weekend!
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Thursday, 23 September 2010
Wish I had hair like this...
XXL Famille Summerbelle Paris map print

By the way, if you are looking for the the Paris map print in hot pink...sorry guys it is no longer available. Julie makes each colour available for a limited time to keep the collection fresh and the hot pink has been replaced by this lovely coral pink which you will agree is looking very very nice!
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Wednesday, 22 September 2010
Lucas' Fuora dog house
The Fuora doghouse comes flat pack and I have to admit that for me 'flat-packed' meant 'flat-packed a la Ikea'...i.e. stressful but it wasn't! It is created from a clever slot system in which 6 wooden panels slide together and Steve and Mila put it together in less than 8 min (including unpacking and disposing of the cardboard boxes).



The final result is a super stylish, yet practical dog house which requires no maintenance at all and it is easy to clean....Now having this super cool, modern white doghouse made our outdoor space looking like...well it needed some serious TLC but that Steve's job. He has already started taking off the ugly 70's looking concrete slates and by next Spring, we should have a neat, contemporary kiwi deck with a bit of grass.
Tuesday, 21 September 2010
House Tour: Solenne de La Fourchardiere
I suggested Julia to go there where she could get 10% OFF which may help towards her saving plan and it did. Then Julia told me that her boss (also French) read our profile and said she could have written it herself... Now the funny thing is that Julia's boss is Solenne de La Fouchardiere, one of the three talented designers behind Ochre (the other two being Joanna Bibby and Harriet Maxwell Macdonald), a UK Interior Design company which I have long admired. So thanks to Julia, here are some nice images of the gorgeous loft Solange de Fouchardière owns in East London (Shoreditch).






What about you? Did you ever dream to live in a special place when you were single and had to let go of the dream when you started a family (for the best of course!)?
PS: Special thanks to Julia for sending me these beautiful images..
PS2: and may I add too (because I'm super excited about it!) that we are also going to work with Andrew Corrie, Harriet Maxwell Macdonald's husband and this will involve their NY venture...oh oui!
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Sunday, 19 September 2010
Sunday morning yumminess: chilled corn soup
This Chilled Corn Soup spotted on one of my favourite foodies site would also be great for lunch time today.


3 1/2 cups whole milk
8 ears of fresh corn, kernels cut from cobs, cobs broken in half and reserved
1 pound piece of smoked ham shanks or ham hocks
4 1/2 cups water
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large onion, chopped
1 large carrot, peeled, thinly sliced
1 celery stalk, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 large fresh thyme sprigs
4 bay leafs
1/2 cup smoked ham, diced
fried corn and ham for garnish
ice
salt / pepper to taste
Bring milk, corncob halves and ham shank just to boil in large stock pot. Remove from heat, cover, and let steep while sautéing vegetables.
Melt butter in large stockpot over medium heat. Add onion; sprinkle with salt and sauté until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add corn kernels, carrot, celery, and garlic; cook until vegetables are soft, stirring frequently, about 10 minutes. Add water, thyme, bay leaf, and milk mixture with corncobs and ham shank. Increase heat and bring to boil. Cover partially, reduce heat to low, and simmer 20 minutes to blend flavors.
Cool soup slightly. Discard corncobs, herb sprigs, bay leaf and ham shank. Working in batches, puree soup in blender until very smooth. Using a fine mesh strainer, strain soup into large bowl, pressing on solids. Season soup to taste with salt and pepper. Cool over ice water bath. Cover and chill.
(C) Photography: Karen Mordechai





























