A Day In Paris

I've been living in Paris for about a year and a half now. I don't really like it here. It's noisy, it's dirty, it's expensive, people are all stressed out... Don't get me wrong, I love Paris, I love working in Paris but I don't like living here much.
Today was nice though. My friend Estelle visited me and we spent the day talking, walking and shopping!
Paris is nice because you can walk everywhere. You don't need a car and you see so much stuff in such a small area. Basically we walked from Republique, where I live, to Saint Michel. And they are so many important monuments on the way from one of these spots to the other.
I decided I would bring my camera today, to document our adventures in the city. I was able to take a picture of my new found favorite flower shop on rue du Temple. It's a tiny shop but the selection is awrsome and it's not pricy. I got jasmine for my Mom from this place the other day.

Here it is!

This is a church right around the corner from the apartment I live in. I have no clue what it's called. :p

We went to Les Halles. It's full of shops there, it's a very busy spot in Paris. Lots of bars and restaurants, tattoo parlours, people! I used to go there all the time when I was in highschool.

This is a shop window of a library on rue du Temple that's called 'I Love My Blender'. They always have the best paper decors. They sell books in english. I love rue du Temple. It's a succession of wholesale jewelry and jewelry making shops and it leads to the BHV, my favorite store in Paris.

Here is the BHV! I worked there for a couple of years. I might work there this summer as well. I love it! It's a beautiful place! Nice working environement, great location in Paris, I love evrything about it! I used to go there with my Grand Ma when I was a little girl.

The BHV is accross the street from Paris city hall, the building on the right of the picture. We grabbed sandwiches and had lunch there.

City Hall.

Then we crossed the Seine and headed to Saint Michel. From the City Hall, Saint Michel is 15mn away walking.

And on the way, there is Notre Dame! So many gorgeous sights in such a short walk!

We crossed another arm of the Seine before getting to Saint Michel.

And there we were! The Saint Michel fountain! Saint Michel is one, if not the one place in Paris I love the most! I used to come there all the time when I was in college because you have all these book stores,and cd stores.

And there is also my favorite jewelry shop of all Paris! Every time we meet in Paris with Estelle we go there! It's the tiniest shop (what's up with me and tiny shops?). 

That's Estelle looking at the shop window.

She couldn't leave without this ring!!! :) Then we headed back to Republique.

So we crossed the Seine yet again.

Street Art I liked at Republique.

I always get a kick out of this shop. They sell miniature trains and toy soldiers. I love the old fashioned sign.

This is La Place de La Republique.

And that's all for today's adventures. :)

I did the kind of shopping I love, craft supplies!! Yarn, varnish spray, beads and pastels! 

I bought these beauties I had been eyeing for quite some time. :) That was an awesome day in Paris! :D

Flashback Monday - Remember When I Spent My Time On Flickr

Years ago I got into Blythe dolls and the whole Flickr community. I would take so many pictures. I cherish this time of my life. I was still living at my parents, I didn't have a care in the world! :)
The other day I went back on Flickr and found all these pictures of mine and they just felt like home. I thought I could pick a few and make a post with them.
I chose a bunch of pictures of my dolls, even though that's not all there is on my Flickr thread. I have 6 Blythe dolls. I don't take pictures of them anymore. I don't feel like it. But that's OK. I might do that again some day.

Here's my doll family. I had Strawberry Shortcakes as well. I used to shoot rolls all the time. I picked my favorite pictures from them.

Here's the first doll I got. her name is Kate. I ordered it when I was staying at my friends' in Los Angeles because at the time I couldn't figure out how to get it shipped to France. That's around the time I discovered ebay. *sigh*

The second doll I ordered I named her Gina. It was nice to live at my parents because they have a garden.

This is Monroe. My third girl. I made this dress, as well as Gina's hat on the picture above. I used to sell Blythe dolls clothes and hat on Etsy.

Here is Grace. She's the only one I have with me in Paris. I left all of my dolls at my apartment in Epernon. I'll get them back some day, along with all their clothes. :) Grace is special because she was a gift from my dad for my birthday.

Here is Dawn. The only one I customized that much. I've sewn the hair on her scalp, I changed her eyes chips as well and painted her lips.

The last one is Poppy.

How cute are they? The white round things are mushrooms. :)

 Grace in my Grand Pa's garden.

 Customizing Dawn.

 Two Ladies hanging out.

 Gina.

 Hydrengia from my Grand Pa on the same birthday I got Grace.

 Raffaelo the teddy bear. :)

Always on the go!

Those were fun times :)

When everything goes wrong... :)

This week end most of the things I attempted miserably failed! :) Even if those are things I do on regular basis and everything goes fine, this time I messed up! :)
On friday I was invited to a birthday party and I wanted to make some 'cannelés', french cookies with rhum and vanilla. Those are delicious! When I discovered the recipe a couple of years ago I would make them all the time and I gained about 6 pounds in 2 months, but that was totally worth it! ;)
So Friday I decided to make pink cannelés since the theme of the party was flamingos! Black and pink.

They were a total disaster. I don't have pictures of them, because I was in a hurry. I was so ashamed that I didn't take them out of my bag at the said party! :s I wanted to share the recipe in the blog post but I need to make them right and take decent pictures to do so :) So I'll have to try again. But the oven here is so whimiscal, that's why I had so much trouble! The cannelés are very delicate to bake. Anyways! That was the first fail of the week end... I ate them anyway :p They were not bad to the taste...Burned in places but not bad... Just very very ugly and not in the least pink!!! Grrr!

Then today I wanted to make a bag to sell it at my online shop. I screwed up big time! :) The purse was crooked, it was too long, the portrait was not centered, I just hate it!

I asked my boyfriend to help me take the pictures anyway and it started raining! :) We couldn't finish! :)
Well, I'll just sell the bag at an on-sale price. I almost lost my temper and throw the damn thing away while I was doing it. It's so full of flaws I can't stand it! :)

And then I wanted to paint my nails.... What could possibly go wrong in such a harmless and easy process as this one? :)

I've seen all these manicures over the different blogs I'm reading using tape to make decors. I was very excited to get back my shears( I'm not sure that's the right word, what I mean is the pair of scissors you see in the pictuire, they're supposed to do zig zags as you cut). I brought them back from my place the other day.
And well, the manicure turned terrible! :)

So freaking ugly! ^^
I'm not mad nor frustrated, everything else went pretty smootly this week end. We booked an appartment for september in Chicago, I saw my friend Nina and was able to overcome social awkwardness going to her friend's birthday party, I did a few sales on my online shop... I just thought all these mishaps were funny :)

Oh yeah, and every morning I wake up with this adorable creature in my arms, so how could anything be that bad?

Re-use Recycle Nail Polish Dissolving Dip

I've been wondering for a while if I could put new nail polish remover in my bottle of nail polish dissolving dip... You never know what companies have in mind, most of the time 'it's throw away the old and BUY a new one'.
My dip was disgusting, it had all this glitter floating around and stuck on the sponge, and the liquid was black and was staining my fingers every time I would use it.
It is super easy to clean and make a new dip with the element of the old one!

First you want to clean the bottle and the sponge that's inside thoroughly.

See how much I needed to change the nail polish remover? And wash the whole thing -_-'

You shouldn't do your nails before doing this, because you are going to ruin you're manicure. :)

And the polish remover smell is quite overwhelming at this stage, nothing too bad, but still. It might be a bother for some people I guess.

All clean and the sponge is dry.

Fill up the bottle with 1/5 polish remover and insert the sponge back. Close the bottle and shake it, and voila! My lovely assistant, thank God, was here to help!

I decorated my bottle with duck tape, the original label was so gross, all stained. I couldn't leave the bottle all white.
So I tried it and it works just fine! I love this product, nail polish dissolving dip is easy to use, you don't have to use cotton pads that you'll throw away in the end and now I love it more since I know it's reusable! Yay!

In other news I signed up today for a sale where I'll be selling my jewelry line in a month! I'm very excited. I'll do it with my friend Estelle, it's going to be so much fun. We'll get to spend the whole week end together plus we're going to sell our stuff! Estelle makes jewelry too.

Here's the flyer of the event:

I'll leave you with pictures of my sweet little kitty. :) Yep, he had to nap after assisting me...