this neck of the woods

Archive for July, 2009

la case de cousin paul

boutique

While we were in wandering around Sacre Coeur in Paris, we found this beautiful store selling all different coloured ‘ball’ fairy lights. It’s called ‘la case de cousin paul‘. While they do sell ready-made sets in certain colours, you can also browse the store with a basket in hand, and pick out the colours you would like to have on your string of fairy lights! All the different colours make for such eye-candy.. I literally had to be dragged out of the store. Luckily for those of us that don’t actually live in France, they have a website in which you can drag and drop your favourite colours onto a string of lights, and they’ll ship it to you. Brilliant!

Sweet Paris

man and metro postersold metro postersold metro poster

I just thought I’d share a couple of photos of some old posters that were exposed in one of the metros in Paris. We had specifically planned the trip last weekend just to catch up with some family who were there over the weekend, but managed to extend our stay to 3 nights which was perfect!

On Thursday night we got ourselves caught in one of the most incredible storms I’ve ever seen.. it came up so suddenly that all we could do was just stop in the middle of the footpath while we were pelted with rain and bits of debris and hope the wind didn’t just sweep us off our feet . We were also hoping it wouldn’t pick up any stray coffee tables or chairs and throw them our way. We eventually managed to run into a restaurant (with staff desperately trying to hold down their awnings and tables) completely saturated and freezing.. far too much excitement if you ask me!

The rest of the holiday was much less dramatic I’m please to say!

Introducing Pie and Gravy…

hm.. seems to have been a while between posts! I do have an excuse though..

Last week Dave and I headed to Paris for a few days to do a spot of sightseeing/shopping and to catch up with some family. I’ll post some photos from that trip tomorrow though because right now I want to introduce you to two new members of our German household.. Meet Pie (left) and Gravy (right)

On the way homeGravyPie

Pie is a female Mini Lop and Gravy is a male ‘Farbenzwerge’. Despite their adorable faces, these two have been a little bit of a hand-full  since we got them home last night, when Pie decided to defend her spot under the coffee table. Suddenly we had tufts of fur flying out from under the table and Gravy scampering off to find a corner, looking rather sorry for himself. Poor little guy.

They’re both fine when they’re on their own with us, but now neither of them will have a bar of each other. Clearly making bunny friends takes a little bit of time! Head here for some more photos.

garland goodness

gypsygypsygypsy

Beeren

fünfschilling berriesraspberries and strawberries

We went out to dinner last night to one of our favorite restaurants in the area, Fünfschilling. They have a store connected with the restaurant that sells fresh produce and wine from their farm. As you can see, its berry season!

teary me

close uptearsfull mobile

So I’m finally getting some images up of something I’ve been working on lately. It turned out to be very difficult to photograph! I’m hoping to eventually sell my work in an etsy shop.. but want to get a few more together first.

Oh Dahlia…

Dahliasomeone's amazing drivewayDahlias in pink and redwild flowers

This is the first summer we’ve spent here in Europe, and so far it’s been fantastic! We moved here just in time for winter last year, so are only just (finally!) starting to experience the outdoor culture that comes with Spring and Summer. At the moment there are ‘Stadtfests’ (town celebrations) happening in all the villages around this area, as well as ‘beach’ parties, outdoor movies, and even a big music festival here in Lörrach called Stimmen in a couple of weeks.

In an attempt to be outdoorsy today, Dave and I headed just across the boarder into Switzerland to get some flowers from a self-service flower field. I’d never seen anything like it before coming here, but think it’s a wonderful idea and should be adopted in Australia too. The field we went to had about 30 different varietites (the biggest I’ve seen so far), payable per flower. If you would like to see more photos, just head to my flickr page!