This is:

I've just moved back to the states from living in Paris for a year and a half. I finally go around to cleaning out my bag. this is what I found therein.

I should be blogging.

SO much is happening right now.

and i WILL blog about it.

just not yet.

later.

Probably tonight.

but here's a snippit, from the photo shoot we did yesterday.

Summer

If I thought that winter was hard away from California, I had no clue how much I'd be missing it come summer. Thankfully i'm planning a trip up to the north of France to go to the beach. I know it won't be the same but...better than nothing!

Photo Credit

Café: Chez Prune

Yesterday I went to the cutest café by canal St. Martin, a really cute and fun area of Paris that not too many people know about.

Waiting for the food!

Here it is! It was brunch still and I ordered the "Menu Jambon". It was delicious!

The menu was handwritten all over the walls

What would a French café be without plenty of baguette?

"Chez Prune" = Plum's house

A little bit of pretty

Some pretty things i've come across the last few days.

I love that i see the eiffel tower pretty much every day. my life = amazing

LOVE!

those EYES! I don't know who she is, but she certainly is pretty!

I'm helping a friend decorate her new apartment next week, She's British, and I love this union jack pillow from urban outfitters for her!

mmm Birdies and Bunting two of my favorite things!

How to See Paris in a Day.

It all started on Tuesday night when I met a couple of friends of a friend who were visiting paris. But, the friend who they were staying with had to work all day yesterday, and so, since I absolutely adore showing off my city to anyone interested I offered to take them around the next day. I didn't realize that they were leaving the next day!! We squeezed in SO much but it was super fun.

Here's what we did.

We started the day off by scaling the Eiffel Tower.

Then we headed over to my favorite little crêperie at St. Michel and had chicken cheese and egg crêpes. deeeelish.

Then, we took a little tour of Notre Dame, and ooh and awed at the beautiful architecture.

(my personal favorite was the lovely roses currently growing in the garden in back.)

Then, I can't very well show anyone Paris without taking them to Shakespeare and Co. my favorite place in the whole wide world! we spent some time there playing on the piano, typing notes to each other on the typewriter, and perusing the shelves.

Then It was off to visit miss Mona Lisa. Navigating the Louvre is not my strongest suit so we ended up wondering about for a while before we found her.

Already a bit exhausted at this point I took the boys over to the Marais for a mini picnic, of coke, juice, chips and danette (we try to keep it healthy) we sat and ate it on the steps of a random church and caught our breath.

One of the boys had some shopping to do so we moved it over to Hotel de Ville and hit up Zara.

then took in a coffee at Starbucks ( i know, you can't be french all the time, it's far too expensive!) while we waited for the other boy who was off work by this time to meet us.

we decided to go meet him en route, but went to the Monop' to grab some wine and toilet paper (par the request of boy #3 whose household had become depleted of this item). Then we hopped on the Metro to me #3 at Châtelet ( you can't really see Paris without experiencing this station. it's madness)

we found Boy #3 and also discovered that the Toilet paper we'd bought was actually Paper towels...oops..

zip zam zam

Rode over to Sacre Cœur, went inside and watch a mass that was taking place for a bit (I was surprised how I actually understood the sermon, my French is getting better methinks)

then went out to watch the sunset over paris (which doesn't happen until like 11pm) on the steps of Sacre Cœur while watching Fire dancers and sipping our cheap wine.

and THAT my friends and followers is how you see Paris in a day.

Eye Food

Brett Manning  is absolutely one of my favorite illustrators, her attention to detail, texture and geometry just blows my mind! 

A little Inspiration

I love flowers. End of story.

Trés Jolie!

Bits of Prettiness:

Pretty Pearls

It's all you need.

1 euro spent very well. everyone should own a tower.

what I hope to be wearing this summer.

I need to find a reason to make these

Moving day

Tomorrow is moving day again, that went fast! This time I have two days to move, so that's nice, plus, this new place I get to stay at for TWO weeks...score!! 

P.S. So excited my friend Lauren in coming in only a week! I haven't seen anyone from home in SO long. it will be very nice to see a face from back in California! 

Eye Food

A little something yummy for your eyeballs

Artist: Julie Morestad

Lesson of the day:

French doors lock automatically when you leave, they are also IMPOSSIBLE to break into, and, if you've for some idiotic reason left your key on the INSIDE of said fortress, you're going to have one HECK of a day. 

will not be forgetting to check for keys before I leave ever again. 

Dream House

Not having a place of your own tends to make one dream. 

These are a few of my favorite things to dream about:

exposed beams AND circular windows...are you kidding me?!

Random stuff on walls. 

Fireplace bookshelves

I'd settle for an awesome tee-pee

this is just perfect. Everything in this photo. 

Moving Day! (plus a little bit of background)

So, If you don't know me, here's the deal. I'm basically homeless at the moment. yup. for the last 5 months I've been moving around from friends house to friends house while I "sort things out" 

This whole process was meant to take no more than two months, but, life doesn't like to go along with your schedule, so here's the progression so far:

1. a little over a year ago I moved to France, basically because I had nothing better to do...well, also, it had been in my heart for a LONG time. 

2 I Realized that I wanted to stay much longer than the alloted 3 months with a tourist visa, so I went home to California to figure out how to get a real visa de long séjour! (long stay visa) 

3. decided to become an Au Pair and worked my tail off for three months getting everything set up in order to do that. 

4. came back to france and realized that my Au pair family thought that "au pair" was french for "slave girl", and if you know me you know that I don't take peoples crap. so after 3 months I quit. 

(now comes the fun part) 

5. I was "hired" at a restaurant called Breakfast in America and did my trial shift and all the necessary things to start my new life in Paris. 

6. After my trial shift I went in to get my schedule and the manager told me they wouldn't need me until a month from that time! FAIL! it's not like I needed to pay rent on the closet I had just managed to rent. 

7. I got kicked out of the apartment I was living in (I couldn't pay..so it was fair, I think) and was desperately searching for a different job, applying, going to interviews, and getting NOWHERE! 

8. a month actually does go by and a call up old BIA to see about my job they'd promised me. turns out the guy I was supposed to replace decided not to leave. which left me with no job (sad face) 

9. Looking for a job...looking for a job...looking...looking...looking...NOTHING

10. out of desperation and a serious need for...well everything (I had literally less than a Euro left to my name.)  I looked around I saw that I still had yarn, needles, and hands. and so I decided to open up an Etsy shop and sell knitted bows, something I had already knitted in the past and knew i could come up with lots of different ones. 

11. now we are back in the present. 

All this to say, from the time I left the Au Pair job I haven't unpacked my suitcase! I've not stayed anywhere for more than a month, so "moving day" happens often. 

I'm actually getting quite talented at lugging all my crap onto the metro and across town. (I've realized that that's why you call it "luggage") 

And, Yes, today is one of those days, when I get to exert super human strength. at least this is a relatively short move (only one change...yess, but also a lot of stairs...bahh) 

all of this moving really creates a longing to be settled, I think later I'll post a "dream house" article, maybe that should become regular. I'm still figuring out what exactly is going into this blog so let me know what you'd like to see more of! 

Rainy day black and whites

Photo Shoot Deux

Today marks about three weeks into opening up my little Etsy boutique. So far it's been a crazy adventure with 7 sales in the shop and 6 sales outside. 13 sales for the first month isn't so bad i don't think. 

I'd love to be double that for the next month! one can have high hope can't they! 

Anyway, I've been working my tail off to try and get a bunch of new items ready for this month, and wouldn't you know it I finished even more than my goal! 

Today I took my amazingly beautiful friend Angela over to the St. Michel area to do a quick and easy photo shoot. 

unfortunately as it is Paris in April it started raining half way in, and of course my camera was running out of batteries, but, somehow we manages to get some great photos!! 

I love how easy photo shoots are here. you really don't have to look very hard to find a great location! 

This blog is now open!

I hereby christen this blog in the name of all things pretty, silly, adventurous and true. 

it is to be a catalogue of my galavanting about Paris whilst trying to run a small business out of a suitcase. 

I guarantee that there will be many laughs, disasters and awkwardness, but I cannot guarantee that there won't be spelling errors. 

Looking forward to sharing my life with you all!