Some (Firsthand) Lessons from The French

The ultimate in French girl style...Charlotte Gainsbourge (via Who What Wear)

I’m currently in Chicago at a Global planning meeting for my day job and just finished eating lunch next to a French colleague. Two observations I felt compelled to share:

1. While most of the room was sporting some take on (the ambiguous and somewhat unfortunate) “business casual”, French colleague was wearing a pair of dark Levis rolled at the ankle with simple black wedges, a slouchy black knit top and a pair of Warby Parker-esque glasses…totally simple and basic and pretty much 100% chicer than every other person in the room (no offense to any of my other colleagues of course).


2. My lunch plate contained two small slices of thin-crust veggie pizza and a large green salad, which, given the the majestic array of “Americana” fare on offer (cobb salad and cheese steak sandwiches and hot dogs and three different types of pizza and chili...), was making me feel pretty virtuous. French colleague sat down next to me with a plate containing the following (all perfectly arranged): a small mound of romaine lettuce, a small mound of avocado, a couple of gherkins and a small mound of grilled onions and peppers. Oh and she had a glass of water with no ice too.

Duly noted super chic French colleague…duly noted.

Loving...

Oji Masanori's stunning work (via remodelista) ...especially the gorgeous, sculptural (seriously elevating) brass bottle openers above, available online here and in Dallas at we are 1976 (thanks ann.)

Flora's lovely "hiding" pictures...

Spool and Sparrow's adorable little girl frocks... (+ how fantastic and happy are those little "models")

Dream Collective's perfect bracelet (hubby if you're reading this, I wouldn't be disappointed at all if this somehow showed up at our house for mother's day... I'm just sayin.)

The genius French-inspired party Erika threw for her daughter. In fact, it's quite possibly the best. party. ever. non?

We'll be *borrowing* some of these ideas for Audrey's birthday in the Fall...

Stella McCartney's latest collection for GapKids. I love it all, but especially the little top above. (I want that one for myself...)

Dolan Geiman's butterflies on wood. We bought one of Dolan's pieces at the Bucktown Arts Fest in Chicago a few years ago for Audrey's room, and it's one of our all-time favorite things...

Just A Few Random Bits...

This is the sweetest video ever (thank you Lucia!) Audrey and I have watched it countless times... Speaking of Audrey's Paris obsession, I told her I was taking her someplace special this weekend (more on that later) and her immediate response was, "You're taking me to Paris?!"

You gotta give it to her, that girl dreams big.

One day Audrey, one day...I promise.

I can't stop listening to the new Vampire Weekend. Particulaly "Run", which reminds me a bit of all the best New Wave songs... (I swear there's a New Order sample tucked into that tune.)

How awesome is this pillow from SeeSaw vintage? Seriously those ladies have the best taste.

Case in point...the lovely image below (via SeeSaw) from the April Elle Decor. L.O.V.E

Loving...

This cozy (but still simple and minimal) book and game filled room in an upstate NY vacation home. Pretty much exactly how I'd want the living room to look in my fantasy vacation house. (image by tim street-porter via metropolitan home)

This thrifed dollhouse via fine little day. It's sort of like a giant multi-room diorama. I'm going to ask Bryan to build one for Audrey and me to trick out with little found treasures and wallpaper and fabric scraps as our summer project.


Green tea ice cream -- I have to have a bowl every single day. I'm officially addicted.

Duet Letterpress... I love her letterpress work + her equally excellent blog, especially the gorgeous pics of her recent Paris vacation.

Caris Reid's work (still!) If you're lucky enough to live near Columbus, Ohio be sure to check out her show.

Melissa's gorgeous pottery... especially this little egg vase.

Oh My...

How excellent are Lauren's ensembles? And those stripes, don't even get me started. So chic and lovely and... French.

Love.

+ loads of great shoes in her vintage shop... Just wish some of them were in my size.

all images via dear golden

More Please...

via refinery 29

I'm dying to see the rest of her house...and based on the interview I'm guessing her closet is pretty amazing too, certainly more "French" than mine.

Wednesday – What I Bought (And What I’d Like To…)

First up the wish list because it’s so much more exciting…. I'm jonesin for everything above -- all from Urban Outfitters (necklace, book, pillow, rug, stapler), which I have to say has some pretty rockin stuff of late.

Now for what I actually bought this week -- Two dresses. One of the dresses I feel pretty good about. It's a simple Mexican style white frock that I found at a local shop. I've been looking for a casual white summer dress, in fact I found the perfect one on ebay, but with all the recital hoopla this week-end, I lost the auction by a $1. (curse you ebay auctions that end on Saturdays!) But the one I ended up with was an acceptable substitute... + it wasn't an impulse buy, I bought local and the price was right, so all is good.

The second dress is just a little black tunic from Target. I'm really, really trying to stop buying clothes from Target altogether*, so this feels a little like a failure to me. The tags are still on it, so it might be a candidate for return...we'll see.

* --in case you're wondering why... I also posted this in my comments:
my main motivation for not buying clothes from Target is my desire to move away from "disposable clothes." My ultimate goal is to have a "French" closet -- far fewer clothes, but nicer, better made, longer lasting, more special.

That said, it's HARD...Target has cute clothes, they're cheap, a quick fix. And if it's something "trendy", I don't want to spend a lot on it. So there's a middle ground I'm sure...I just have to find it.

I Know I Said I Wasn't Blogging Today...

But, I'm so excited about Pia Jane's new book that I just had to...

So lovely!

Happy weekend.

And Speaking of Dressing Like a French Woman

image via this excellent blog... and notice how it's the same uber chic gal that I was gushing over here...

This is pretty much perfection... in my humble opinion.

Marching to the Beat of Their Own Drums

My apologies for the blurry pics, but I stumbled onto this scene of Audrey "waltzing" with her Hello Kitty yesterday, and in an effort to capture the moment I totally disregarded my camera settings

I am constantly trying to balance my desire for Audrey and Millie to do all the things I wished I had done (i.e. learned an instrument, studied photography, learned to speak French fluently*, gone to RISD, actually possessed a talent that would have gained me admission into RISD) and not pushing them so hard to follow a creative path that they both end up accountants (nothing against accountants of course -- we have a very dear friend who's an accountant -- love him.)

*Audrey and I were reading Madeline before bed last night, which lead to recounting stories of Bryan's and my trip to Paris before she was born, which in turn lead to her requesting to learn some French words. And despite four years of high school French and four more years of college French, I could come up with exactly 20 words of actual French to teach her. So given my regret over not learning and her desire to learn, I'm thinking it might be fun to take a conversational French class together...Stay tuned.

I Can Dream of Looking This Hip

Images via Punky B's fashion diary

I am newly addicted to this blog found via the always excellent A Cup of Joe (although despite taking seven years or French, I can successfully read only about five words in each post.)

Not only does it majorly fuel my love of all thing French, but as I’m sadly pulling on the same outfit for the third day in a row (you know the one with a little baby puke on the shoulder), I can live vicariously through this girl’s massively chic outfits. Come to think of it the French are big on repeating clothes to great effect (Punky’s wide leg jeans, camel books and grey sweater make multiple appearances in the photos…love that), so maybe I’m ok after all.

Cool Kids Stuff...

All photos via Bianca y Fam

I am completely swooning over this French (of course) shop Bianca y Fam spotted over at Ali Loves Curtis.

I can’t even imagine what it would cost to ship something to the US, but the vintage children’s desks and chairs are amazing. The decorative objects are excellent as well, especially the little rabbit lamp.

For now I’ll just be content with the inspiration…

Babette #2

Image via le train fantôme

I always end up on the greatest sites via Hoping for Happy Accidents. A recent visit turned up a link to Fanja’s blog, le train fantôme, which in turn lead me her really exquisite little shop.

My favorite is Babette #2 -- especially her description:

Babette is a busy librarian
She treks the woods in search
of the books read and lost by
the Eddy rabbits
She is one-of-a-kind

I think she'd be just perfect for a book obsessed little girl...

Oh My…

All images via Little Fashion Gallery

This Little Fashion Gallery site is quite cute. It appeals to my love of all things French and has lots of great frocks to sufficiently quell Audrey’s dress obsession.

These coloring books are great too…