August 1, 2016, posted by Michelle – Le Monsieur and I have been traveling around Europe for the past couple of weeks. We drove through Switzerland last week and stopped to have dinner in a small medieval town called Murten. After dinner we walked around the arcaded main street admiring all of the beautiful flowers and vines spilling out of window boxes and planters. I wanted to share some of the photos with you so you can see for yourself why I call it Flower Town!
July 31, 2016, posted by Gina – You may remember that in the Spring I was given some free Mojito mint and I wrote a post about it. As evidenced by the photo, it looked dead. I am happy to report that it is growing beautifully in my yard and is so fresh. If I brush up against it that heavenly minty fragrance fills the air. I was warned by many gardeners not to plant the mint in one of my flower beds as it would take over. After much thought, I decided that having mint growing everywhere would not be a bad thing. Judging from the photo it will apparently take years before that happens but I welcome it.
Around the same time, I purchased a few very healthy herbs and planted them in pots which they quickly outgrew. So, I planted them in the ground and while they do not look larger, they actually are. They have grown unruly and don’t look as nice as the freshly planted ones in my opinion. But, more importantly, they taste great and really liven up many dishes. I just need to cut them more often!
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July 26, 2016, posted by Gina – My friend over at Pink Peppermint Paper was asked to help put together a creative event for a company dinner at a local restaurant. The restaurant is casual and serves up some of the best catfish I have eaten anywhere.
The restaurant sits on the water, so she came up with a fishing theme. This is where I came in. They needed flowers for the tables to coordinate with the restaurant and theme. I was so thrilled to work on these arrangements because, outside of their request for colorful flowers, I had free reign.
My friend used burlap runners on the tables, fishing net, the cutest gingham place cards and bobbers for the napkin rings. I went with very natural looking arrangements with sunflowers as the star flower.
I enjoyed working on these and love how the event turned out. If you are in need of invitations or ideas for parties, visit Pink Peppermint Paper to see all the things my friend has to offer.
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July 25, 2016, posted by Gina – I am a planner, so soon as I receive an order for flowers, my mind races with all kinds of ideas for the arrangements. I take every detail into consideration from which flowers would make the most pleasing design to what containers would be best and, of course, I think through the mechanics involved in putting them together. While I give most of my attention to the largest arrangements, it is sometimes the smallest ones that I fall in love with. That was certainly the case with the trio pictured above that I created for a powder room. I found these cute iron containers on the hugely popular Magnolia Market website. Test tubes sitting inside iron forms are the vessels for the flowers. While I was very happy with the way the other arrangements turned out, this little trio gave me such a big smile. They really gave the powder room a fresh, cheerful touch.
All these flowers were designed for an engagement party at a beautiful home where they seemed to fit right into place. The large, round arrangement pictured above was created for the main dining table. The long rectangular arrangement pictured below went on a large island and it was stunning against the white marble counters.
This succulent arrangement nestled together nicely in a very pretty shell bowl and went on an outdoor table where the beverages were served.
We’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments or thoughts to share, click on the title of this post and the comment form will open at the bottom of the page.
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July 22, 2016, posted by Gina – It is a bit ironic that I love and try to emulate the French Country look at every turn in my home when Michelle is living right in the middle of France. I have loved this look for many years, so when we began looking for a new home over 6 years ago I would study anything that was deemed French Country. I have a book, Segreto: Secrets to Finishing Beautiful Interiors by Leslie Sinclair that I consider my décor bible as so much of it is what I imagine French Country really looks like. I poured over this book more times than I should admit but the clean, fresh style is just so appealing to me.
When we found our home my mind started churning with ideas and thinking about what items would or would not work in our new home. One of the things that I felt just had to go were the planters by our front door. When our landscape architect was helping me with the design of our yard, I told him I wanted large olive jars to go there instead. I even told him to just take away what we had until we could find the right planters. He urged me to keep the ones we had until he could find the right ones. Four years later, I finally have beautiful olive jar planters in front of my home. Now to decide what to plant in them…
July 21, 2016, posted by Gina – Last weekend a good friend of mine served as somewhat of a wedding coordinator. Her daughter was the Maid of Honor but apart from that she has a kind and generous nature so it came as no surprise to me that she would have found herself in this unlikely position.
The wedding was on Sunday afternoon and she met with the bride on Saturday to go over all the details. They went through all the usual checklists and it soon became apparent that somehow flowers had been left out of the plans.
I received a call at 3:00 pm on Saturday from my friend. She was telling me how pretty the location was and sharing how many props the venue had stocked in a very well organized store room. She also mentioned that flowers had not been taken into account, though the bride absolutely wanted them. She told the bride she’d figure something out. As my friend continued telling me about the venue, I could not get past the flower issue. My mind was racing with all kinds of ideas to help her make the best arrangements possible given the time constraint.
Here’s where this story gets interesting. My friend has never made a bouquet, boutonnière or done much flower arranging. So, we devised a last minute, extremely low budget plan. I told her that roses would be the best bet, and probably the only bet, at 3:00 pm on a Saturday. She rushed off to the grocery store and found that there was not enough of any one color except red. Luckily, red was the color for the wedding. She bought everything she could find and then flew off to the craft store for wire, ribbon and supplies.
I began sending her photos of bouquets and boutonnières that would be the easiest to put together. We talked about how to put these together quickly as she had to attend the rehearsal. So at about 8:45 pm the night before the wedding my friend who had never done flowers before with only roses at her disposal began the daunting task of preparing wedding flowers. We exchanged phone calls and photos back and forth for a while until she felt comfortable and was just plain getting tired. And that was the last I heard about the flowers.
On Sunday I was anxiously waiting to hear about the wedding. I received a text from my friend telling me the wedding was over. All I could think was ‘where are the photos’? How did the flowers look? Did they hold up in the 100-degree outdoor wedding? She was busy wrapping things up so it was late in the day before photos started coming my way.
Take a look for yourself! She did an amazing job! Think about the challenge of having to do 6 bouquets, 1 corsage and 6 boutonnières using only roses and having 2 hours to get them done. So the end to this story is that the couple was married, the wedding was beautiful and no one had any idea that the flowers had not been planned from the beginning. My friend is a Rockstar!
July 14, 2016, posted by Michelle – It’s Bastille Day here in France so it seems appropriate to write about my latest French shopping excursion for GDFC. I ventured down to the South of France and visited brocantes and shops in Antibes, Valbonne, Juan-les-Pins, St. Tropez and Aix-en-Provence.
The beauty of this part of France is breathtaking. The rocky coastline where the foothills of the Alps meet the deep blue Mediterranean sea is dotted with majestic parasol pines. And in what the French call the “arrière-pays” (the countryside) fields of lavender and sunflowers stretch on forever across the dry, hilly landscape and the steady chirping sound of the cicadas complete the Provençal mood.
Antibes is on the coast and is, so far, my favorite place in France not only because of the beautiful seaside but also for the interesting sights and things to do: the Provençal farmers market, the art market, Port Vauban (the largest marina on the Mediterranean), Fort Carré (a 16th century fortress), the Picasso Museum (in a former castle of the Royal Family of Monaco), the lovely architecture of the old city and shops and markets of all kinds. What’s not to love?
On Saturdays there are a couple of brocantes (flea markets) in Antibes’ old city where you can browse to your heart’s content. I came across lots of vintage tableware and artwork there.
I also tracked down some signed original watercolors (below left) and unusual prints in a shop on a little hidden side street.
And, of course, I picked up several packages of lavender for myself including some edible lavender which, the package said, can be used in ice cream and other desserts.
The shopping in the other cities was just as much fun and each place seemed to be more beautiful than the last. I can’t wait for the next trip!
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July 3, 2016, posted by Michelle – I made a trip to the flea market (Les Puces) here in Lyon this morning. Sunday is the big day to go because all of the vendors have their booths open. It was a gorgeous day to browse through piles of linens and tableware, rows of furniture and tangled stacks of bric-a-brac.
I can always find interesting and beautiful things here and came away with, among other things, a set of quintessential red stripe vintage kitchen towels and an early 20th century mint condition majolica oyster server.
Next week I’m heading to the South of France in search of more linens and tableware to ship back to the U.S. Please check back with us as we plan on having our online shop up and running soon!
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May 24, 2016, posted by Michelle – Things are blooming in Lyon’s Parc de la Tête d’Or near our neighborhood. Since this is the time of year that the park looks its most gorgeous, I couldn’t help but assemble some photos to post. This park has a wide variety of plants and trees, a beautiful lake, a few greenhouses and several rose gardens. I also took photos of some of the beautiful homes that overlook the park.
May 23, 2016, posted by Gina – About two years ago a Sam’s Wholesale closed one of its stores in Jackson, leaving the neighborhood with a huge empty building and a deserted parking lot. Never a good look. Finally, At Home, a home decor superstore, moved into the space and opened last week. Garden Ridge re-branded and converted all their stores to At Home; this is their third store to open in Mississippi.
Driving up to this store, I knew it was going to be an adventure, and potentially tiring, since it’s 128,000 square feet. I have never been in a store that big dedicated to home décor, so I thought I would share a few things that caught my eye.
The outdoor section was huge. I think there were 12 aisles dedicated to outdoor furniture cushions. I mean, really, this has been a struggle for me every year but not any longer. This blue and chartreuse cushion caught my eye as well as a metal medallion that would be happy somewhere in my outdoor area.
I have been on the lookout for outdoor urns for the front of our home for quite some time now. There were several choices and I honestly could not make up my mind. Maybe you can help me decide:
Next, I moved on to the furniture section. I have to say that with a big store like this I was not expecting the furniture to be so sturdy nor for there to be such a wide variety of styles and colors.
I was becoming a bit tired at this point because there was just so much to look at but I soldiered on to the kitchen area where I saw these cute carafes. I don’t know why I did not bring these home with me but I plan on returning in hopes they will still be there.
This utensil holder with galvanized tray and mason jars with chalkboard tags would work well for an outdoor function.
And these cupcake holders were so cute. After all, there are cupcakes that are pretty enough to be put on pedestals.
The next few items made their way into my cart. I have been wanting a casserole carrier as I am always toting food somewhere. This one was very reasonably priced and attractive. The sea grass rug with its hints of blue had to come home with me as I have a bit of blue in every single room in our home. A while back I purchased new linens for one of our bedrooms. I’ve been looking for a few coordinating pillows with a pop of blue and these linen ones filled the bill. We are always in need of citronella candles and they had ones below in every color imaginable.
In the decor section I found a silver vase shaped like a purse. There were some frosted vases that I could imagine grouped together with the same type of flower in each. They had this candle holder in several colors and I think it would be great on a dining table with an unscented candle in it.
The last area I visited was wall art. Since Son 1 has a new apartment and Son 2 is moving at the end of the summer, I thought some of these would be great for them. Selfishly, I like the lab picture and while I did not get it today, I think I will have to return. It reminds me of our sweet Emma lab and would be perfect in her room.
There was a lot I did not see even though I spent close to two hours looking around. It was a lot of fun experiencing a new store and getting to know their brand. I’m also looking forward to seeing seasonal items as well.
We’d like to hear from you. Which urn did you like? Maybe none or all of them? If you’d like to leave a comment, just click on the title of this post and the comment form will appear at the bottom of the page.