Haven

I've been completely obsessed with my planters lately. This and reading, and I said said previously the two go hand in hand. I'm reading by the window almost everyday and I watch the flowers grow. Flowers and fourleaf clovers.

I decorated the wires tying the planters to the window bars so they don't fall down and hit someone on the head. I wrapped them in multicolored yearn.

It's a prettier this way. Funkier too. :)

Verbena from last year.

A Walk In Beaubourg (Shot With Zenit 12xp)

A gardening frenzy took over me and I had to get planters and seeds to adorn our window sill. So we took a walk to Beaubourg to find what I wanted.

I love this part of Paris. It's close-by from our place and it has a lot of shops. That's where I find my tea, cheap dvds and second hand electronic devices for a very good price.

There is also this restaurant called Happy Noodles and the food is delicious and very cheap (6€ for a huge bowl of fresh and handmade noodles).

Not my planters. 

'Go read a book', well, that's all I've been doing lately.

Those are mine. My joy and pride. All I can think about is getting more of them, planters and seeds.

I installed a nook to read by the open window. 

And to make the window area even more appealing, wine!

Random

A bunch of random pictures from the last few weeks.

Jack Kerouac, my first litterary love.

Balloons in my street.

Last visit to my Grand Ma

Same as above

Painting

Blue skies, finally!

Popcorn and PJ's

Visitor

Empty home

Creepy chocolate ape

Police and youth

Read Read Read

I've been reading A LOT lately. And some very good books too.

A few weeks ago I learnt that my Grand Mother was bound to die shortly. I found refuge in Desolation by Stephen King and since I finished it, I haven't been able not to read every day. It feels good. I also went on a couple of book hauls. That felt good too.

My Grand Ma passed away three weeks ago. I'm still not sure I processed the news.

Ok, so I read a few Garfields too. :p I'm not that much of an intellectual. 

I also bought planters and seeds to have a little hanging garden on the windowsill. It's my new favorite place to read(or just be) and believe me, you'll see tons of pictures of this haven of mine in the posts to come.

I'd like to talk about the books I read, but I'm saving that for the New Year. I'll do a recap. My favorite post of the year. 

Dream House

I love this house. It was my great grand mother's. It stands right behind my grand Pa's house. I wish I could live there. But it's too old and too 'dangerous'. The wires and pipes are way too old.

Besides it gets very cold in the winter and the windows are too shabby to hold the heat in. But I keep daydreaming that one day I'll live there. I'll plant tons of flowers and vegetables in the yard. I'll have my art room downstairs. And I'll take my showers in the basement in the lemon colored bathroom.

I had so many parties in this house in my early twenties. And a couple of years before that my parents, brother and I lived there for a few months while workmen were laying tiles in our regular house. I remember this time so vividly. 

It was the time I wrote a 300page story, I used to drink apple-cinamon herbal tea all the time, I discovered Billie Holiday in the very room pictured below...

I might not be able to live there, but a lot of my stuff now is. That's where we stored all of the boxes from my apartment that my brother is now going to live in.

Hallway mirror.

Planning our next trip together. Couple of weeks to go.

Laurence de la Casa

A friend of mine, Laurence, makes these gorgeous leather bags. She opened an online shop (find it here) and needed pictures for her listings. My friend Estelle and I thought it could be fun to organize a shooting. It was good practice and a good excuse for these two to finally meet.

It was a very cold day. We were frozen to the core by the end of the day. Nothing that a hot cup of tea couldn't soothe though.

shop

shop

I never thought it would be that hard to take pictures of these babies. First because, except for these pictures here on the blog, I shot with my digital camera, and I quite lost the hold of taking digital pictures. Plus my camera is broken and doesn't work properly so I was close to losing my mind from time to time. I had such a hard time capturing the true colors of the bags, that was quite frustrating.

This is Laurence, aka the Crazy Bird Lady. ;)

I modeled for the first five bags and Estelle was taking the pictures. For the last five ones, we did it the other way around.

shop

Of course these beauties are completely handmade. It takes a couple of days to make one. The pompoms alone take a few hours. I don't know where Laurence finds the patience.

I hope will do that again soon. maybe next time we won't almost freeze to death...