Biscuit's House

Mini mannequins

Je ne sais pas pourquoi je suis toujours aussi fascinée par les mini mannequins. Certainement ils parlent à l'amatrice de poupées qui a toujours été en moi, sans doute ils ont un parfum d'enfance et de nostalgie - quand je suis dans un magasin comme les Tissus Reine j'ai l'impression d'être revenue aux années 70.
Hier il y avait plein d'étudiants (des Beaux Arts?) qui dessinaient devant chez Reine et à l'intérieur. J'aurais bien aimé voir le résultat.

I don't know why I'm still so fascinated by mini mannequins. Surely they appeal to the doll lover that has always been inside me, probably as well they remind me of my childhood. When I'm inside a fabric shop such as Reine, I feel like I've stepped into the seventies.
For some reason, yesterday there were lots of art students drawing away inside and outside the store. I would have loved to see the result of their work.

 

 
 
 
 

 
 

Cool stuff

On Friday I was feeling very tired (been feeling like this for weeks actually) so I left work early - 4:30 pm - and went to my favorite Parisian department store, Au Bon Marché, for tea and window-shopping. Of course I ended up doing some actual shopping - it's just too tempting.

First I spied this giant Wegdwood teacup - just the thing for me as I drink gallons every day. It comes in a very pretty box too.

Then I spied Cire Trudon candles and stopped in my tracks like those hunting dogs when they smell something. I had heard of the oldest candle maker in the word still in activity before, but had never seen their wares before. I had no intention to buy any since hubby cannot abide any smell and therefore I'm forbidden perfume, home fragrance, scented candles etc. However the English salesman was so funny and enthusiastic in making me try out  various flavours, that I ended up buying a set of 3 ^^;). After much pondering I settled on the "Royal Scents" set, including "Sun King" (smell of Versailles's wooden floors - the salesman told me their "nose" spent 5 hours like on the floor in Versailles to come up with this scent!), "Trianon" (white flowers) and "Mademoiselle de la Vallière"  (tubéreuse).

  

After photographing them I put the candles back in their box - I need to buy 3 glass domes so I can display them at least. That's how they were displayed in the shop and it's also a clever idea to test the scent - you just take the dome, turn it over, bring it close to your nose and inhale.

I was also drawn to their "Spiritus Sancti" candle - close your eyes and you're in a cathedral, and to a few others!

The catalog itself is quite a work of art. Who can resist buying a candle from the descendants of a chandler who reportedly began his career in 1643? And if some of it is only clever marketing, who cares?

Then I had to look over the crafting supplies section - Puni is into pom-pom making these days and I wanted to buy her Clover pom-pom makers. While I was enduring the endless wait at the La Droguerie counter where I wanted to buy some jewelry-making supplies, I thought that the sweet  suitcases I had seen in on my way in would be just the thing to put away her pom-pom supplies.

I also got her some yarn so she wouldn't always be scavenging in my yarn stash.

The inside of this suitcase just cries out for a pretty illustration to be glued there, doesn't it?

It must have been divine retribution for enjoying myself too much that my throat started to hurt that very evening, and that I've been spending the week-end in bed with tonsillitis.

Bonus pic : Sasha rediscovered this Swiss fabric doll which I made ages ago and christened her Sophie. I gave her the few doll clothes I had that could fit her and once dressed, she looked so sweet I had to take a photo.

 

Puni thought the composition would be better if the doll held a heart ornament and took this one :

 

Soft holiday

I had this week off and we spent 6 days in the Poitou-Charentes region. I didn't feel like going to a faraway place where you feel you have to march through an ambitious sightseeing program every day to make it worthwhile, I didn't want to battle crowds, so I had booked a room in a castle B&B near Poitiers and we had a "soft" holiday in the countryside.

Day 1 : after the drive we settled in our room and went for a walk in the castle grounds.

Day 2 was the most tiring : we went to the Futuroscope (an amusement park) where Puni had the time of her life. We saw a great many wonders, in 3D, in augmented reality, we watched a magic show and rode the new attraction "Arthur" (a flight simulation which made me quite sick and had Puni close her eyes a few times), but for me the best part of the day was the evening show, "The mystery of the blue note", with characters projected on water curtains : quite magical.

On Day 3 we went to a small medieval town called Chauvigny where we enjoyed the sights, the castle ruins, the majestic view from the dungeon top (photo courtesy of Wikipedia since none of ours turned out well). There were very few tourists, the weather was great, what more could you ask for...well a falconry show! If you had asked me a few days ago I'd have told you I was bored by the idea of a falconry show, but actually it was quite amazing and interesting. The falconeers made the birds fly above our heads and told us lots of interesting tidbits.

 

Day 4 : we went to the "green Venice", the Poitevin marshland, where we rented a rowing boat in the small town of Coulon for a few hours and picknicked in a clearing along a canal. Puni helped her father row the whole time and discovered a love for rowing, it was very relaxing for me as I only had to look at the scenery!

Day 5 : an excursion to Rochefort where we had lunch in a cafe on the mythical Colbert square and tried to recognize the windows of the apartment where Delphine and Solange lived in the Young Girls of Rochefort (which Puni and I must have seen dozens of times).

 We visited the building site of La Fayette's frigate Hermione and the bizarre house of the extravagant Pierre Loti, where unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos.

Day 6 : the best day of the week for me - we visited the castle of Villandry. While the castle itself is OK and the inside visit is not uninteresting...

...the gardens are totally mind-blowing. There are 4 parts in the terraced gardens : the vegetable garden or kitchen garden, the ornemental gardens (including my favorite : the love garden, the cross garden, and the music garden), the herb garden, and the water garden.

The love garden has 4 parts :

- tender love including hearts, masked ball dominoes and the little flames of love beginning to grow

- passionate love where the hearts have begun to disintegrate and swirl in a dance pattern

- fickle love with betrayal's horns or fickle butterflies' wings (you choose), love letters and fans behind which you can flirt

- tragic love with blood-colored blades

 

Normally when I visit a castle I'm much more interested in the castle itself, its architecture, its interior decoration, its furniture, and only give the garden a cursory glance, but I was completely "scotched" by the Villandry gardens, could have spent hours there, and could not tear myself away. I've become quite fascinated by the story of the Carvallo - Coleman family (Spanish-American), which restored the castle and its gardens a 100 years ago, and am reading everything I can find on the subject. How the castle and gardens had been disfigured by a previous owner in the XVIIIth century, how the family found hints of the previous gardens but no precise plans, how they mixed historical research with contemporary creation to re-invent them...One day I want to embroider the Villandry gardens...

  
 
  

Easter week-end

Nothing special, just a lazy week-end at home.

I got myself a new laptop :

My old desktop in Puni's room is now completely her own and I'm getting used to typing on my lap in my armchair in the living-room.

Puni stuffed herself and the chocolate seal is only a shadow of its former self :

She enjoyed the talking eggs leading her to her hidden presents, but has no appetite left for the Easter cake.

And a lovely surprise today, a drawing of my Enchanted Dolls by the talented Monika Viktoria :

See her blog at :

http://www.thelonglostwoods.blogspot.com/

 
 
 

Home

Last Sunday, I took advantage of the fact that Puni is not here (on holiday with my parents) and the apartment relatively well-ordered to take a few photos of our new home. Of course, one hour after I had finished, the sun came out and a beautiful golden light filled the living-room, but I didn't retake the photos.

For now I'm only showing the living-room as both bedrooms still have a bit of work to be done to them. I have given up on the kitchen (I spend very little time in there anyway, ha!) and am not having it redone so I won't show it. All of the furniture in the living-room is new - I took advantage of the move to sell our old furniture and buy stuff I really like.

This is my favorite corner of the apartment :

I love Puni's little armchair and will miss it when she outgrows it.  I love the mannequin drawing on the wall and the little objects on the small cupboard, and of course, my beautiful floor-to-ceiling curtains.

I sit in my armchair opposite and admire this little display, whose star is the Sybille Agrippa statue from the Brou monastery. At first this display was monochrome, all the splashes of color were added as Christmas decorations, and stayed.

On the opposite side is my striped armchair and little side table to hold any work I'm doing, but more often than not, a cup of tea and a book (and too often a pâtisserie as well I must confess). Faithful readers will have recognized in the basket next to the cupboard the "ripple" crochet throw that was all the rage, when, 3 years ago? It will take me at least another 3 years to finish. The carton standing next to the entrance door and which I forgot to hide holds a piece of furniture meant for Puni's room.
 

I love objects made of mercurized glass.

 

Along the wall on the opposite side to the entrance, the shelves where my books and current doll "collection" reside, and the little desk where I'm supposed to do my crafting. It's really too small though and disappears under a mountain of materials. The humongous TV was bought from the previous tenants. At first I thought it was hideous and decided not to buy it but changed my mind later on, and I'm glad I did, as watching my beloved documentaries on architecture and history on a big screen like this, comfortably ensconced in my armchair, is pure bliss.

On the opposite wall to the shelves is a big cupboard with mirrored sliding doors, and a convertible couch. I thought I was hiding behind the humongous TV to take this photo but obviously I wasn't (^^;).

Bonus photo : the doorway between Puni's room and our bedroom. Puni has the most luxurious curtains in the house, made of embroidered silk. She chose them herself, I tried to steer her towards cheaper kiddy stuff, but she would have none of it. I think they look fabulous with her pink walls and blue furniture.

To be continued! 

Good news and bad news

  Good news : we found an apartment. We spent 3 days in Paris between Christmas and New year and I wasn't very hopeful, but we found it on the second day. I gave up Paris, apartments we could afford to rent there were not only very small but shabby. I suppose people who are good at making and renovating things, who can redo walls and floors and kitchens and bathrooms could make something nice out of them, but that's not our case.

Our new home will be in Enghien les bains, 15 minuted from Paris by train. It's a small spa town which came into fashion in the mid 19th century. We will be 5 minutes on foot from the train station and from Puni's school. We will leave in the main street with all the shops and there will be a lake nearby. I was pleasantly suprised as I was considering Northern Parisian suburbs to be at best drab and at worst dangerous. But Enghien retains a special aura from its days as a place of villegiature for rich Parisians and its inhabitants are above the local average in revenue and professional status. Here's the map :

Bad news : as we came home from our holiday last Saturday, I heard a "drip..drip..." in the living room : a radiator had leaked in my bedroom upstairs and the water was flowing through the floor and dripping in the living room below. I won't be sorry to leave this house. Fortunately there weren't any big damages, the carpet and curtains are stained and fit to throw away, and the low wooden table is discolored in places, but none of our important possessions has been damaged. If Marina's dolls had been ruined I'd have been livid. The ceiling is cracked and stained but the insurance company will see to that.

Our third day in Paris, we had brunch at Ladurée on Bonaparte street. I had never been there before, only to Royale street and the Champs-Elysées. I bought the charms, pictured here next to an empty macaron box :

 

The opened box :

  

In order to be able to wear the charms I bought a bracelet from Thomas Sabo.

 

In other news, it's king cake season, here's our crop of fèves this year :

  

The eggs are from king cakes bought in my hometown, Nancy, the capital city of Lorraine, and are miniature reproductions of Longwy porcelain eggs.

I gave Puni my collection of tea-time Colas fèves :

 

Here's Puni's fève box :

  

I still have a chance to add to her collection. Yesterday at work, we had king cake during a management meeting, and though I tried to get the fève (it's supposed to be where the cake is at its lowest), I failed. But next Wednesday the site manager is giving away king cakes to all departments so I have another chance! 

Shopping and cookies

Yesterday, we went to the nearby town of Avallon. We have passed through it numerous times in our travels but I had never visited it and wanted to spend a little time there before we leave the region.

We had tea at a lovely tea shop, Dame Jeanne, and I indulged in some shopping. I found a cute home deco shop where I got a set of 4 "Desserts Gourmands" plates from Gien, and white plaster macarons and meringues from Mathilde M. which I had been lusting after for a while. The round box, the plaster cookies inside, and the candle holder are from Mathilde M. as well, I had found them in the town where I live a few weeks ago. Finally I splurged for a scrumptious sweater and muffler from one of my favorite brands, Terre & Mer - perfect to fight away the doldrums. I have had the macarons candles from Point à la ligne for a while but  hadn't taken a photo before.

 1. Iced sablés, 2. Iced sablés, 3. Iced sablés, 4. Mathilde M. scented meringues and macarons, 5. Mathilde M. box and scented cookies, 6. Point à la ligne macaron candles, 7. Gien dessert plates, 8. Terre & Mer sweater, T-shirt and muffler, 9. Mathilde M. candle holder

Puni and I made the iced sablé cookies, I'm not much in a Christmas decoration mood this year as we have to move house, but at least we have some Christmas cookies...I've also been reading home deco magazines and found a new "need" : this lovely biscuit box from the Dutch porcelain factory Makkum.

 

This photo is from the current issue of "Campagne Décoration" magazine :

 

Exactly the kind of look I would have in my home if I could.

And in current news, Ladurée has uploaded their Christmas colletcion - go see it! They have lovely charms and king cake "fèves" which can be worn as pendants.

Castle hassle

As in Japan, May is a good month for national holidays in France. Earlier this month, by taking just one day off we could enjoy a 5 day holiday. Months in advance, I had booked 2 nights in the suite at the castle of La Ferté Saint Aubin.

The evening before we were going to leave home, at 9:30 pm, the owner called to say that there was a grave illness in the family and he had to cancel all reservations. He gave me a couple of phone numbers of people he knew where there were still vacancies (otherwise I'd never have found another place at such short notice, everywhere was full). I didn't find anywhere with the 2 nights we wanted available, so we stayed in 2 different places.

We spent the first night at the Beaujeu castle near Sancerre, a place very famous for its wines. We had a suite including a salon with a "princess bed" (with curtains hanging around it) for Puni.  At this occasion I gave Puni the Marie-Antoinette dress I had bought for her at the exhibition in Paris in March and kept hidden until the trip. The next day, we visited Amboise ; a beautiful castle, with many familiar historical associations.

We spent the second night at Le Mousseau in what I had assumed was a castle, but was in fact a luxurious 19th century "gentilhommière". We had a very comfortable suite, with the most luxurious bathroom I've ever set foot in ; and we were able to tour the house and its grounds, including a wonderful veranda kitchen straight out of MSL, elegant furniture everywhere, a swimming-pool with its bar...The kind of home we'd never have have seen in person were it not for this accident!

The last day was spent in visiting La Ferté Saint Aubin where we were supposed to have stayed in the first place, then Sully castle, a castle straight out of fairy tales, just like one imagines a castle should be. We finished with a poney ride for Puni, a horse carriage ride for all, and ice-creams. A good time was had by all!

Staying at Bonnemare castle...

...is like visiting a museum and staying there to spend the night.

a. The entrance.

b. Reading about Bonnemare castle in the drawing-room.

c. First view of our room.

d. Puni's room.

e. A big fireplace in the kitchen.

f. Mmmmmmhhhhhh

g. The front of the castle.

h. What Puni liked best of all? The dogs.

i. The back of the castle.

I could get used to this...

I didn't want to come back home. To console myself, today I booked another stay in another castle, in an other region, for the month of May.

PS : the MCI winner is Nuria, please e-mail your address!

What I've been up to

Well, not much ( in case anyone wondered). For the past few weeks I've spent several days away from home on business trips each week, and I haven't been exactly full of energy.

I worked a bit on Chandrakala's dress, but it's not finished yet. I haven't felt much like sewing. I started a knitted doll, but my favorite part is done - the actual knitting - and now I have to find some courage for the nitty gritty stuff - making up, stuffing, embroidering a face.

During my travels, I of course went to Ladurée and was able to grab the Valentine boxes.

The box with the hearts inside actually says "I love you" when you remove the lid. I jumped out of my skin when I opened the box the first time.

I also bought stuff, ribbons, trims, materials for hats, dresses and jewelry (all doll scale of course). I managed a visit to Mokuba, where I can rarely shop because they close at six pm and are closed on week-ends.

Pink and blue, I know, I'm very predictable...

And La Droguerie, I went just before closing time, and for once didn't have to wait for hours until I was served.

I also taught Puni how to do needlepoint, and she's very good at it. I thought that for weeks if not months she would come to me each time she had to start a new row, but at the end of the first evening, she was already doing everything by herself, including threading in the wool tails on the back of the canvas.

This week Puni is on holiday and attending the leasure center every day. Yesterday she learned there would be a masked ball today and was as excited as a flea. Last night she decided to make a mask on a stick. She made a drawing of the shape she wanted, I googled "mardi gras mask", made her choose an image, printed it to size, let her trace it on card stock and cut it. She painted it herself, glued sequins on it and taped it to a stick (I sacrificed one of the sticks from the fabric turning tube set on my craft table, which I never use anyway, as I always turn fabric with a hemostat). Then I glued a few pink craft feathers which I had ordered long ago with the idea to use them for hats but which I had never touched, and glued an identical mask shape on the other side to make the mask look neat from both sides. It would have been a nice touch to wrap the stick in ribbon, but it was already bedtime by then.

I'm surprised at how crafty Puni is. She got the idea to make the mask herself and knew exactly what she wanted all along. She's 100 times handier than I was at her age, who knows, maybe she'll be a great crafter when she's grown up? I also congratulated myself on having all the materials available at home, the sequins and the feathers, and told myself it is not every home that would be able to make a mask at a moment's notice in the evening, when the shops are closed. On the other hand, maybe it is, maybe whatever you have in your house, you can always use your imagination and  turn what's at hand to use.

These photos were taken after the ball, so the mask is a bit the worse for wear, just like Puni's Donkey Skin costume complete with sun-colored dress, the effect being somewhat spoiled with chocolate stains...

February was also the month the spring issue of MCI hit the newsstands, which I had completely forgotten, until I spotted it in a train station in Paris.

Nice mag, but there isn't anything in it I intend to make, so if you want it, please leave a comment and I'll draw a name (if any) next Monday.

I've started replying to the comments left since my last post, very late I know, sorry!