Famille Summerbelle

How was your Easter week-end?

I hope you had a fun weekend and ate lots of chocolate!
We decided on saturday morning to go to the seaside for the day. It's about 1h30 to drive to the West coast of Normandy to the charming harbour of Honfleur.
We arrived for lunch to enjoy the famous local dish moule-frite Mussle and French fries. Then we drove on the pretty coastal road to arrive in Deauville for a walk on the beach. Not surprisingly we were only a few motivated people looking for seashells as it was so cold and windy. We ended up eating a large gauffre -pancake- and we drove back home while Lucien slept in the car.

Home

Ophelia's drawings. Last year calendar by Lollipop is still on the fridge. I like to keep it up just to remind me what we did a year ago.

I was very spoiled for my birthday. I received a beautiful card from Ophelia, a delicate necklace from Simon and this XXL woolen scarf from my mum.

Paris Deco Ideas for Kid's rooms

I was delighted to receive in the post the new Edition Paumes book: Paris Deco Ideas for Kid's Rooms. The book is full of design details and interior inspiration grouped in different themes such as Walls, Fashion & Textile, Colour, Toys, Little Ideas etc...Ophelia and Lucien's bedroom is featured amongs others beautiful and quircky bedrooms of creative families (Petit Pan, Agence Violette, The Collection, Charlotte Gastaut, Olivelse....)

Making Christmas

More on my latest ceramics.This weekend we made lovely biscuits with Ophelia, and we ate them all in in a day!

Christmas window display, Paris

Last saturday morning, the children and I went to see the Christmas window display at the Galeries Lafayettes and Printemps department stores in Paris. We got there early for them to have plenty of space to look at the puppet display. They loved it. The music, the bright colours, sparkles and of course the puppets dancing and ice-skating. It was such a pleasure to see their eyes wide open and amazed by it all. The gigantic Swarovski Christmas tree in the Galeries Lafayettes was for both of them the highlight of it all (Now they want the same at home!) It was all very enjoyable but I got a little annoyed that everything is now brand sponsored. Dior and Louis Vuitton were respectively in charge of Printemps and Galeries Lafayette window displays, as for the Christmas tree, well you could not miss the logo!

Have a wonderful weekend. We are going to Lille!

Happy birthday Lucien

Three is the magic number,
Yes it is, it's the magic number...

When it rains

Another very autumnal weekend in Paris with grey sky and rain. And yes, it rained all day non stop on saturday. I was quite happy reading magazines and browsing around Pinterest but Ophelia was sitting next to me very bored! She wanted to draw and paint mermaids (she is 6 years old). So I grabbed some paint and large paper from the studio and set her up on the kitchen table. Ophelia drew fishes, mermaids and some interesting sea creatures to make an underwater scene...and I went back on the sofa...

What do you like to do with your children when it's raining outside?

Holidays - lazy days

Jumping in the pool.
Eating ice Cream.
Building sand castles.
Playing with his Duplo.
My little Lucien is happy. So am I.

Time to switch off

That's it.
We're away on holidays!

We've worked really hard over the past few months to get our new collection ready for September. We are very excited to launch it as soon as we return from our Summer break. We've been so looking forward to these holidays to recharge our batteries before we return for a very busy September: Maison et Objet trade show in Paris, the launch of our new book and at the end of the month I am traveling to Japan to see our dear friends at Edition Paumes in Tokyo. I will be there for a Famille Summerbelle exhibition in their gallery!

For now we're off cycling back and forth to the beach in l'Ile de Ré. You can read our Best Of things we like to do on the island on Bozaround.
After a couple of weeks here we will be heading South West of France, to Cahors to spend time with our relatives.






Enjoy (the rest of) your Summer!

Play time

Lucien and his favourite toys...animals (grey horse comes first), garage (vintage from the Braderie de Lille) & Duplo.

Famille Summerbelle - The Book!

We are so pleased to announce the launch of the book "Be Creative with Famille Summerbelle", a collaboration with the fabulous Japanese publisher édition Paumes.

The book is a peak inside our home and family life. It includes tips and inspiration for handmade ideas and inspiring home decor. It, of course, includes plenty of paper cutting and fun activities to do with your children.

We've been huge fans of édition Paumes for quite sometime, amassing a rather large collection of their wonderful books on European interior style, family homes and culture.
They came to live with us over a couple of weeks and we had a ball creating all number of decorative ideas. They have a wonderful style and interest in the smallest of details which we hope comes across well in the book.

The book is available for pre-sale NOW on our site. Just click here.

The book is mostly written in Japanese but all of the titles are in English and there is plenty of translation throughout. To be honest all of édition Paumes' books are incredibly visual, so you can rely on the images to give you all the detail that you need!

Have a nice weekend & happy Bastille day!

Sadly we're back in rainy Paris....We just had 4 amazing days in the sunny French Alps enjoying picnics at the top of the mountain...and cleaning the stroller!

Bravo papa!

Simon completed the Etape du Tour on Sunday. We are all so proud of him as it was a hell of a race: more than 10 hours on the saddle, climbing a total of 5000 metres over 150km. Over 7000 people started, only 4500 finished. Bravo à notre champion!

Our weekend so far

On saturday, we went for a walk across the river Seine from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France to the Parc de Bercy and the Cité de la Mode et Du Design. On the top photo you can see the Joséphine Baker swimming pool on a barge. I'd love to go one day with the children. When the weather is nice the roof opens up so you swim over looking the river Seine.

On Sunday morning, we were all awake at 6am, thanks to Ophelia who was so excited to show us the few coins left under the pillow from the tooth fairy. She is now proudly showing her big top front teeth gap.
Our morning was spent at le Grand Palais to see the Buren exhibition Monumenta.

Easter break in l'Ile de Ré

We are spending the week with our relatives from New Zealand on l'Ile de Ré. So far we have managed a little cycling while the sun was out and avoid the heavy rain showers...You can read a bit more about what we like to do on the island on the interview I did for Bozaround blog.

Good times

Yesterday was officially the end of the holidays. Ophelia has gone back to school, Lucien to his nanny and us to our studio.
It's always a little slow to start working again after such a nice Christmas break (I didn't open my computer once for a whole week, yeah!) but I am very excited to begin the year with lots of new exciting projects. The months leading to Christmas have been so hectic that I desperately needed a good break and to spend quality time with the children.

We were in the French Alps near Chamonix and our days were spent eating amazing food, going down the slopes snowboarding and on the sledge afterwards with the children.

Ophelia loved throwing herself backwards in the snow making angel shapes. Lucien was not so sure..

Happy birthday Lucien!

Our little boy turned 2 today and learnt a new word "deux!". His vocabulary list doesn't exceed 10 words so we were pleased to add a new one to it!
He was so happy to receive so many cars (oh! he loves cars and wheels so much), a bike and a garage. We bought this vintage garage during the Braderie de Lille back in September. I customised it a little...
Ophelia his sister (who's 5) helped me to bake his train cake this morning while eating half of the Smarties box...tonight her tummy was aching "mummy my tummy hurts, I must have a baby in my tummy. I need to go to the hospital!". That was rather dramatic just before bedtime.

I love looking back at these portraits. It's so impressive how much he's changed in 2 years and has now such a strong character. I am really looking forward to the next year. 2 is such a great age...challenging but fun!

Terrible twos next...?!

Felt letters from MiChiMaLand.

C'est les vacances!

We're enjoying a lovely time with the family in the South West of France. The cousins are happy playing together and I'm delighted to switch off from my computer!
I'll be back soon with lots of exciting new product images: wallpaper, tea towels and the new map of San Francisco...

It makes me happy

to see my designs featured in such a beautiful room. This is the bedroom of Ivy, the daughter of Courtney from Babyccino. I love the white room with all the added touches of colours. Now I want to paint our floor board!

London map in red.

Family Tree in turquoise.

Happy holidays

We just had a brilliant week with friends and family in l'Ile de Ré on the French west coast. To resume the week in few words: fresh croissants every mornings, long cycle rides with the children on the trailers, afternoons at the beach chasing the waves and looking at the kites, long evenings chatting around a lovely meal, and a big birthday party for Talia who turned 6! We all had such an amazing time. I hope you are enjoying a nice break as well.