Famille Summerbelle

Hello New York

Simon and I will be there for 5 days to celebrate our friend's wedding on 31st. Big party, no children (we can lay in the morning, yeah!), lots of friends to see, no plans (apart from shopping!), just relax...

Photo by Joey Evans.

Home made mobile

I've wanted to make a mobile for a long time, but beating me to it, Ophelia decided that she wanted to create her first mobile for her little brother - to hang above his cot.
So here's how we did it..

1. First we painted the flat colours (of Ophelia's choice!) onto sheets of 270gms paper

2. Then we glued two different colours together

3. Ophelia drew her favourite shapes over one side which I then cut.

4. I used very thin wires to build the mobile shape - which you can buy in any model shop (and some art shops). Some people use a coat-hanger but I find it very difficult to manipulate into shape.

5. After attaching the strings, we used lots of different objects (buttons, jewels, cut-designs) to balance the mobile. This is the most difficult bit, getting the weight right on each side.

Happy Christmas!

This is Lucien as Santa little helper/little bear!

Party time

Installations by Confetti System. Perfect for the end of year festivity.

Papier Maché issue 5

Beautiful. I love it. You can view it here and order a printed copy here but be quick as it's a limited edition.

Still snowing very hard here in Paris. Haven't been out of the house for 3 days, the children have both got a big cold. Lucien doesn't sleep during the night. We haven't done the Christmas shopping yet...aaaahh...

Interview FS sur Etsy (en Francais!)

Pour découvrir l'univers de Famille Summerbelle. Merci Etsy FR!

Models

By Bjorn Giesenbauer via Flickr. As seen on Krisatomic.

Lace Fence

I wish our urban fences looked more like delicate laces. Lace Fence by Dutch Design House Demakersvan shows how something which was meant purely functional can also be decorative. It looks stunning in an interior as a space divider.

Thanks Coco for sharing.

What are you up to this weekend? I'm going to London this afternoon and back tomorrow morning!

Paris bag on Design Sponge

Yeah! it made my day. The Paris bag is part of the 2010 Gift Guides: for the francophile. Thanks Anne & Grace!

Enormous Champion

Wife and husband Brooklyn based designers (Jordan Provost & Jason Wong) aka Enormous Champion make these wooden loveable creatures here and cards here.

Find out more about them on the Grain Edit interview.

Cosy inside

I've never seen so much snow here. I was lucky to be at home yesterday as a lot of people got caught in the snow and couldn't get home. It was actually total chaos on the roads in and around Paris.
This morning blue sky, sunshine... so beautiful outside.

The Illusionist

By Sylvain Chomet (Les Triplettes de Belleville). Have you see his latest film? It was out in my local cinema a couple of months ago, but sadly I missed it...I'd love to see it.

Origami brown paper bags

From Dutch designer Ilvy Jacobs who's a young graduate from the ArtEZ Institute of the Arts. She designs bags in a very clever and beautiful way. I love her Graduation collection foldbags presented here.
You can buy the bags here.
Seen on Linea-Studio.

Have a nice weekend

and enjoy the snow. We'll be decorating the Christmas tree this weekend. I bought it last night, it's lovely and big and it will be standing in the alcove between our kitchen and the living room.


I love this photo seen on Milk blog. It's from the house of Imps & Elfs owner Fons Cohen. I really like the massive shelf and the idea that you can just leave the Playmobil on display.