Parisian Plans

[letterpress print by sycamorestreetpress]

I'm packing for a trip to Paris, my 1st one ever.  I've been wanting to go since I started taking French when I was 11, too bad I haven't kept it up since then.  Still, I'm looking forward to fitting in as much sightseeing and EATING as humanly possible.  Here's my wish-list, we'll see how it goes...

- Arc de Triomphe
- Avenue Montaigne
- Batignolles Market
- Boulevard Haussmann
- Champs-Élysées
- Chartres Cathedral
- Chateaubriand Restaurant
- Chez Josephine Dumonet Restaurant
- Fauchon
- Galeries Lafayette
- Gérard Mulot
- île de la Cité Marché aux Fleurs
- Jardin des Tuileries
- Jardin du Luxembourg
- Jean-Paul Hevin Chocolatier
- L'os a Moelle Restaurant
- La Regalade Restaurant
- La Seine 
- La Tour Eiffel
- La Vallee Village
- Ladurée
- Le Comptoir Restaurant
- Le Pont des Arts
- Le Porc Noir de Bigorre
- Lenôtre
- Les Deux Magots
- Les Fables de la Fontaine Restaurant
- Les Halles
- Maison Berthillon
- Montmarte
- Musée d'Orsay
- Notre Dame
- Palais de Tokyo
- Palais Royal
- Parc des Buttes Chaumont
- Passage Vivienne
- Poilâne Boulangerie
- Raspail Market
- Richard Lenoir Market
- Rodin Museum
- Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore
- Rue du Four
- Sacre Coeur
- Saint Germain des Pres
- Shakespeare and Company Bookshop
- Spring Restaurant
- Stohrer
- Versailles

Amaryllis Arrangements: Prep Day

Although I was planning on using mistletoe for my next project, another opportunity came up to make table arrangements for a client's event.  So, I visited the space to get some inspiration and then it was back to the flower market for more research...

I wanted to find just the right greens.

And some kind of texture, maybe berries or something, hmmm...what are these...?

Some branches would also be good

and the room has a lot of gold in it too.

I really didn't know what these were!

But was told these were wild cucumber.  Not quite right for this, but amusing nonetheless.

I had to resist the phalaenopsis orchids I usually get

even though the pink hues were amazing but I needed a holiday theme instead.

And no flowering kale for me that day

no poppies either

and I had to tear my eyes away from the peonies and roses 

because I was here for the deep red amaryillis

and chose some sturdier evergreen branches and these leaves (mental note: need floral i.d. guide for sure)

and some beautiful pepperberry.  I got enough for 9 arrangements and hauled it all back to the office...more to come in Part 2!

Crazy Catch-Up Post

This is a shot I took in Soho after seeing Exit Through the Gift Shop, the awesome documentary about street artists Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Space Invader, Mr. Brainwash and others and how far they would go for their art, very funny, very cool.

May I say that May has been a crazy month so far: 11 days and it's been 4 holidays (Fete du Muguet, Cinco de Mayo, Korean Children's Day, Mother's Day), 3 marketplaces (Hester Street Fair, Limelight, Brooklyn Lyceum Spring Food and Craft Market), 2 movies (Exit Through the Gift Shop, Kick-Ass), 2 store openings (Nordstrom Rack, David Yurman), 2 nights of celebrities and 1 museum gala.  So, here's how some of it went.

First up on May 1st was The Brooklyn Lyceum's Spring Food and Craft Market

There's my boyfriend on his way in.  I fell hard for the adorable drawings by Kristiana Parn, we had Korean kimchi hotdogs from Mama O's Kimchee and then he bought me...

a beautiful necklace by Lauren Haupt, which I wore the next day when we....

went to the Hester Street Fair

which was lovely, but it was around 90 degrees that day so we went to see the street art movie.  Fast forward to the next weekend and we went to check out Limelight Marketplace:

and the site that was once a church and became a club has been reborn as an amazing marketplace of beautiful and unique shops, a gourmet food gallery and outdoor green market.  Restaurants and wine bars are also moving in soon!

I love the cakes at Butterfly Bakeshop, tiered cake chocolates at The Little Candy Cake Company, adorable kitchenwares at Whisk, decadent, fascinating flavors of brownies at Mari's, truly tasty oils and vinegars from Carter & Cavero (we bought fig balsamic), wonderful soaps from Soapology (in lily of the valley and almond!) and the beautiful home designs at Brocade Home.

So, it was a great place to shop for Mother's Day.

I also made my Mom a little tissue paper carnation corsage with this tutorial from Folding Trees

and now there are only 20 more days of May and so much more to do...!