Famille Summerbelle

Donna Wilson

Donna Wilson had a lovely stand at Maison & Objet. This is my favorite from her new collection:
Wolfie and Mog cushions with their tails on the back (100% cotton). The Kate and Wills engagement gloves made me smile!

Have a nice weekend

I'm off to London today for the day (leaving the house at 6am to get an early Eurostar!) so I will leave you with Livette La Suissette, very cute home accessories for the children seen at Maison & Objet.
I wish you all a nice weekend.
I can't wait to relax on saturday and I'm hoping to go to Playtime on Sunday!

Happy Birthday Pom!

That's my big brother (Pom - real name Aurélien). Turning 35 today, living a happy life in California with his beautiful wife and children (Apolline, Hector, Auguste and number 4 is on the way!). If me and my 3 sisters are on the creative side, then he is the clever and intelligent one spending his days with mice in Stanford University trying to find a cure for cancer.
I do admire him.
For working with mice.

Happy time on holidays in the south of France with the cousins (on top of the Renault 4L). That's my bro in the middle of the table, saying something very clever. As always.
No, we were not drinking wine.

Maison & Objet continue...

I loved the colours used in the Ferm Living collection.
From the top left:
Wine bottle candleholders, Remix Yellow cushion, Molecule Building Set, Copenhagen tea towel.

Danish designs from Hay.
from the top left:
Plopp stool by Oskar Zieta, Display Me Box, Nobody chairs for adult and child by Komplot Design, Fold Unfold table cloth by Margrete Odgaard.

Maison & Objet 2011

Over the next few days I will post about things I liked at Maison & Objet. I went last Friday for few hours so I didn't manage to see it all (the show is massive!).

Funny glass collection from Fabrica (the communication research centre finance by Benetton) for Secondome (a design gallery in the heart of Rome).

Chocolats à Paris

We had the pleasure to be invited yesterday evening to the bookstore La Cocotte (Paris 11th arrondissement) for the launch of Chocolats à Paris by Edition Paume. Fumie Shimoji and Aya Ito were there from Japan with their team who worked on the book. There was a large table full of delicious chocolate delicacies. Lucien and Ophelia had a great time as you can imagine! I love La Cocotte bookstore, they specialize in very creative cookery books and they have also a good selection of design books. We left the party with 3 books: The Genius of French Poster Art by Hervé Morvan, London Kitchens and London Family Style books by Paumes (to add to my growing collection!).

Paris map in Elle Deco

So nice to have our Paris map part of the Elle Deco Hot List 2011!

The poo poo hut

La Cacabane sounds much nicer in French! A funny short cut name (caca=poo, cabane= hut) for a place to play and be private. Check this little cartoon video to see where the idea came from. Designed by French company Pirouette Cacahouète.
Maybe I should get one to start potty training Lucien, but I think he would only be interested to open and close the door over and over again (that's his big thing at the moment).

Seen on Luvaville.

Deyrolle, Paris

Deyrolle House rue du Bac in Paris 7th Arrondissement is a very unique place with a one of a kind collection.

It was founded in 1831 by Jean-Baptiste Deyrolle and his son. Both lovers of Entomology they developed a thriving business based on the sale of insects and hunting equipment for natural history collections while developing a parallel activity of taxidermy. Anything that is collected in Deyrolle in the atmosphere of a huge private collection of curiosities, is for learning and knowledge of natural things.
By 1870's the Deyrolle House was also well known for providing schools and universities with scientific equipment and educational charts.

In 2008 a devastating fire destroyed the first floor of the shop. Almost all of the collection was destroyed. It has now reopened and it has been beautifully restored. We went this weekend with the children as we were in the area. Ophelia was so amazed to see so many wild animals (tiger, elephant, polar bear...) in an apartment!

Taxidermy is definitely not normally my cup of tea, but a truly unique experience. It's worth a visit if you're in Paris.

Mae shop

Not only the 3 girls behind the online shop Mae make beautiful fabric wall stickers, they also have an adorable brick and mortar shop in Australia.

Very cute owl lamp.

Anthropologie

I wanted to visit the Anthropologie stores in London (Regents Street and King's Road) for a while but never got the chance (and time) to go. I was so pleased to visit the Anthropologie store next to where we stayed in the Meatpacking District in NYC. The Christmas decorations were still up and so beautiful (loved the mini xmas trees and fake snow in the vintage jars, the xmas tree made out of strings of wool...). Lots and lots of things I wanted to buy (plates with bugs and reptiles) but finally decided that I should wait to come back to London as we had no suitcase to bring everything back! (see previous post).

Happy New Year!

We're just back from a wonderful wedding in New York. Only one small hiccup of a missing suitcase (which is still somewhere between New York and Paris), but I can think of many worse places to be without clothes..

So we're already off and running into the New Year, but maybe you could indulge me just a moment to look back on 2010.

In about 6 or so weeks from now Famille Summerbelle will be 3yrs old, so I guess 2010 was the year we/it stopped being a baby - it became an independent little thing, and I can say with absolute certainty, we struggle to remember life before Famille Summerbelle!

What did we learn this past year? Plenty, but here are a few highlights:

1. Running a business and having a family is all about juggling. 2010 was mostly a story of survival for us - a year dominated by the arrival of Lucien. Having another baby, we now know, is a little more than 1+1 - and particularly when you have a small business.
As I write this (on the train back to Paris) it serves as another reminder of how much juggling goes on with little children: snapping up the only free 30 mins whilst Lucien sleeps and Ophelia is plugged into her headphones.
When you're working on a meter, it certainly makes you efficient, but it can also be really exhausting. So no more children for a while(!) and with a bit more time in 2011 we hope to have plenty of new products coming along!

2. We became really well known for maps! Our city maps were definitely our highlight of 2010, with the new World Map, lots of new colours and the Tote Bags joining the range. The reaction has been fantastic, with truly lovely blog posts, comments and extensive press coverage.

3. We could survive on maps alone..! We had so many requests for different cities, towns, villages - even adding districts, buildings and people to existing maps. And from all across the world. Very flattering for Julie and lots of fun. We'll definitely do a few more maps, but I think we'd like to try and few more things first.

4. Living in France proved a great decision. Between us, we've changed our mind many times about whether we continue living in France, make a move back to London or even do something a little more wild and crazy.
So much of our working life is still based in London - and we are still very much in love with the place. But in Spring, we decided Paris was the best place for us right now.
We've had a fantastic year of mini breaks, local discovery (stunning walks and views) and nice summer evenings sat in our garden appreciating the weather (a dim and distant memory right now!).

5. Commuting between Paris and London is fun, but the jury is still out. So despite loving our family life in France, we still spend a lot of our working time in London. We're regulars on Eurostar, and by and large, it's a painless service. But it eats up your life - especially because my commute in London was a 10 minute cycle ride...

6. Family and friends matter more than everything. Not a real insight, but this last year we lost someone very very close. Through all the terribly sad stuff it becomes awfully clear who matters most - and just how much they matter. So thank you (I'll be terribly English here…clear my throat and just say….you know who you are…! x)

We wish you all the happiest of years. Thanks so much for supporting us - we really appreciate it!

Julie + Simon