La Minette Anglaise

AWOL

My apologies! I went AWOL for a bit. A trip to Lisbon, new freelance job, a trip to Switzerland, more new job, all conspiring against my blogging time..
By the way... thank you Nanette for the very sweet message!

But let me share a few pictures from Switzerland - or rather Bale and Zurich to be exact, where I passed a wonderful long weekend with my friend Daniel.

A little mouse making Christmas cakes

In the window of a clothing shop in Bale, a beautiful paper dress

A wonderful carved door

The beautiful painted courtyard of the Hotel de Ville

A wonderful sculpture of fruits and flowers

Giant fabric toadstools in the Dadaist theatre in Zurich

The worlds biggest cookie cutter!

Christmas lights on the street of Zurich

And I promise ...more soon...!

Oh..the flattery..!

When I moved to Paris, I left behind a beautiful apartment.  An apartment with roof top views, huge rooms and all day sunshine.

A few months after I got  here I realised that, it's not quite like all those dreamy apartments you see in cool French films. Not everyone lives in huge Hausmann-style apartments with beautiful plaster mouldings and carved marble fireplaces. Well, it burst my bubble just a little!

Two years later and we are living in a modest, small but not too small, light filled apartment in the 11th arrondisment. It's what is known as a "quartier populaire" and I love that I have everything I need right on my doorstep.

So, surprised and flattered I was when I got an email via flickr from Victoria over at sfgirlbybay asking if she could write a little something about my apartment on her lovely blog.

It is now on-line, so check it out on her great blog here.

The lovely Abigail Percy

Earlier this year I was blog-hopping, when I came across one which would turn out to be a real favourite.

Written by a very talented and creative Scot and illustrated with the most beautiful photos, I was soon popping by every few days to see if there were any new posts.

It's written by the lovely Abigail Percy, who not only writes fantastically, takes wonderful photos but makes some of the most gorgeous jewellery I've seen in ages.  You can read her blog here and buy her jewellery here.

The two photos are of her work;

Above ~ A set of beautiful, sensitive prints from her sketchbook

Below ~ My favourite new earrings (below) tiny smoky quartz briolettes on 18ct gold plates earhooks.

All available to buy in her little etsy shop.

And this summer a few days after I got home I was lucky enough to meet her whilst she was in Paris.

We met up in the Bar à thé on the Square Trousseau near Bastille and got chatting straight away over a cup of Honeybush tea. After that we wandered over to the brochante at the Place Aligre where we stocked up on old postcards and rummaged through the treasures.We spent a really lovely afternoon together wandering around the 11th and 12th arrondissements and the Canal Saint Martin before a last early evening drink in Le Marais.

I can honestly say that I had a really wonderful time getting to know Abigail and hopefully we will meet up again next time she is in Paris.

Thirty Voices

For the last week I have been lost in Flickr. I am totally fascinated by what people choose to photograph and the virtual community that surrounds it.

So I hold my hand up – I am already an addict and I have already spent hours looking at photos, uploading photos, tagging, reading profiles and surfing though the groups.

Which is how I came across a call for participants in a new blog – Thirty Voices.

It’s a group journal for women aged 30-39 around the world to share their experiences and write about their lives. Since I fit the bill, I joined up! I’ve just written my first post “My Big Fat Jewish Wedding”  - I hope you enjoy reading it. I’m really excited to see how the project will evolve.

New Blog

OK, it's 4pm and I'm still not dressed...this blogging thing is scarily addictive. I am only just starting to appreciate how much time and hard work goes into all the beautiful looking blogs out there.

Well, from little acorns grow big oaks..