Famille Summerbelle

Paris bag seen in London

It was a good surprise to see someone walking in the street of London carrying the Paris bag!

paper wonders

Stunning paper installations by French designer Maud Vantours. This is a proper labour of love to lay and cut so many sheets of paper. I am very impressed.

The espresso lamp

South African designer Piers Mansfiled-Scaddan of Fly-Pitcher designed these lamps based on the faceted shape of a stove-top coffee pot. The folded and riveted metal Espresso Lamp is available in a wide range of colours and in three sizes, referred to as single, double and mini espressos!

Seen in Dezeen design magazine.

Enjoy the sun

I hope it will be sunny over the weekend wherever you are.
I'm going to London today as we're moving to a new studio. I'm rather exited, not so much about the removal bit, but to move to a larger space. It has large brick walls painted white, a mezzanine to put a desk and/or a sofa and a large skylight so it's very bright. All the orders will be dispatched from there with the help of Priscilla. Saturday, trip to Ikea (not looking forward to that bit either) and back home on Sunday. I don't think I'll be enjoying the weather much...:(

My vintage box full of old buttons.

Beautiful day in Paris

I wish I did this more often: yesterday I went to Paris to meet my friend Helena for a morning coffee in Merci (it's only 25mn on the train from my home so no excuse!). They had a wonderful selection of mix products in indigo colour: suitcases, bed linen, note books, cushions and more. Then I was off to Bonton (10m away from Merci) and for a nice walk in rue de Bretagne, Rue Vieille du Temple, rue des Archives (stopped on the way to have a hair cut) and then back home to pick up the children from school. The sun was out, the coffee terraces were full of people enjoying the lovely day. I love Paris in Spring time.

Merci shop, Boulevard Beaumarchais.

Bonton shop, boulevard des Filles du Calvaire.

Vintage finds

I wish I had more time to search for beautiful things on Etsy. Tonight I got trapped for at least an hour jumping from one designer to the next and I landed on AMradio. Every item in the shop is nicely selected and presented. This is my selection:

Antique 1955 match boxes designed with a sweet primitive folk scenes.

Desktop rotary telephone, porcelain glove molds, toddler size rocking wood horse, and bouncy swirl ball set. All on AMradio on Etsy.

Flora inspiration

I highly recommend Flora by photographer Nick Knight. The photos and colours are stunning. They are pressed flowers selected from the herbarium of the Museum of Natural History in London by Knight (he spent 3 and a half years choosing from among the six million specimens contained in the herbarium). Impressive!

Sorry for the quality of the photos that I took, not the best i'm afraid...

Olivier Kugler

Olivier Kruger illustrations are very spontaneous, he often sketches on location with a thin pen and adds colours later on. His work can be seen on the Guardian, Harper's, Time Out.

Tea please!

A large cup in the afternoon in a Mariage Frere tea pot with Earl Grey French Blue, brioche and Tea Jelly Marco Polo.Nice.
This is my selection:

Wave Baroque teapot, hand blown glass.
Rainbow tea cup.
Marco Polo Jelly Tea
Turquoise Imperial Flower tea pot.

Thoughts

All my thoughts go to the people of Japan.

Photograph of the ceiling of Sensoji Temple taken in September 2008 in Tokyo.

Travel the World with Children

Vanessa Boz, her husband and their 2 young children decided to leave behind their comfortable life in London to travel the World for 5 months.
They started in Brazil at the end of last year, followed by South East Asia (Singapore, Burma, North Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam).
Now they are enjoying the sun and beach life in Australia before heading off to South America.
I love following Vanessa's blog Bozaround as it make me travel a little bit and reminds me of our own World trip back in 2008.
One day I hope that we'll be like them on the road again.

For now I'm off to London tomorrow.

Our home

featured in Elle Deco Thailand in the March issue.