Paris
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Paris trip --- art, views and totally random
I never normally go abroad so please indulge me sharing our recent trip to Paris! If you don't like seeing holiday photos then feel free to skip this one, though it could well inspire you.
It is a bit of a diary version, so I can look at this post whenever I want to remember what we did. Despite trying to keep it as brief as possible, it's still a long one so you might want to pour yourself a brew...
For my husband's birthday I booked a surprise long weekend in Paris (it wasn't the big 4-0, that is a couple of years off but I thought it's more surprising this way!). We haven't had a trip alone since having children and I called upon my sister and brother-in-law to mind the kiddos while we escaped. We are very grateful to them! I managed to keep the secret until his birthday (three days before we went) and he was pretty shocked.
Late on Thursday night after a fairly easy journey, we arrived and got a bit lost. We stayed in the Les Halles area and there is currently lots of work going on, particularly with the Forum shopping center - which proved very tricky to find our way out of!
On Friday morning we just wanted to wander the streets and take in the beautiful atmosphere of being in Paris.
We found a lovely quirky cafe, serving delicious, largely organic food. I recommend Twinkie Breakfasts if you find yourself in that area! Really nice staff and a great atmosphere too.
After a stroll around we went to The Centre Pompidou, an incredible building and wonderful museum. At this point I was bombarding my Instagram account and couldn't stop taking pictures!
Here are some of my favourites from the museum...
I was really taken with the work of Sonia Delaunay. Such beautiful colours and geometric shapes. Bottom left is detail of a painting by her husband Robert Delaunay.
bottom row: Jose Falbers and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy
There was so much colour and inspiration. I couldn't help but see quilts!
There was an exhibition of Gérard Fromanger - on until 16th May 2016. I loved the colours and shapes in this work:
This tree of books was outside:
The second picture is the view from the gardens around the Sacré-Coeur. We walked there, having visited before we really wanted to go back. I enjoy walking around cities I visit, you get to know them much better than if you hop from place to place using public transport or driving. A crepe was definitely in order after such a long walk!
On the walk home we also picked up these yummy treats:
Saturday morning we started with more walking around. There is a lot of street art in Paris, nearly all the corners of the buildings have some art on them - so if you go make sure you look up! I especially like Invader's retro game mosaics. There was also a lot of octopuses by GZUP, I liked this mickey one.
We met up for a brew with our friend Dave Haslam and he took us to the perfect cafe, since my husband is a Celtic football club supporter!
Then it was time for another epic walk, this time along the River Seine and what a picturesque walk it was! Past lots of bridges and the Eiffel Tower came into view.
The 'love locks' on the Pont des Arts may have caused problems but I do like the romanticism! Despite some of the pictures looking grey it was a beautiful sunny day.
We walked to the Palais de Tokyo, which was full of wonderful exhibitions and well worth a visit.
bottom centre: Florain and Michael Quistrebert
Shadow of me and my husband
This wooden sculpture was amazing and so hard to resist jumping on it:
I really enjoyed the diversity of the large solo show of Jean-Michel Alberola's work. It was humorous and unique. I managed to capture the silhouette of an elderly gentleman, wearing a wonderful crochet hat and carrying a cane, admiring one of the works near to this one:
Since the Eiffel Tower was just the other side of the river we had to go and take a look. The first time we went to Paris we didn't go and it's one of those things you have to do! We didn't bother going up it though - neither of us love heights.
We also had to head over to the 4th arrondissement to meet up with friends, so we jumped on a bus since we'd be walking back the way we came.
It turned into a really brilliant night, there was definitely some rum involved for me! On the left is a picture of the couple we know, their lovely friends and a couple of staff from the bar. It was that kind of place. In fact we drank so much that they gave us free shots at the end of the night! Funny how that works?! On the right are the random people we met at the pizza restaurant across the road (it was good! I would tell you the name if I had any clue!!). The Irish guy taking the picture was really friendly and bought us a bottle of wine and the lovely girl he was with made me laugh! Random and hilarious.
The next morning called for coffee and then an easy stroll to the gardens of Le Palais Royal, I wish we could have sat there all day! It was beautiful and, I imagine, even more so in the summer.
Too quickly it was time to return home and I managed to bring these delicious macarons (not to be confused with macaroons) back with us from Ladurée - if you fancy it you can have them delivered in the UK, I assume they use the same recipe in London. Thank you Catherine for the recommendation! I have never had a macaron before this so am probably spoilt but these really were delicious! I can recommend the pistachio and chocolate :)
I am keeping the adorable box designed by Higuchi Yuko.
I hope Paris is a place my husband and I can run away to again ♡
gifts to give and memories to keep - Cheerz discount code!
If you are anything like me then you take loads of photos and do nothing with them. All those memories in phones, cameras and computers waiting to 'one day' be printed out or turned into something. With all the best intentions for holding on to these memories I have very little time and sorting through pictures is not a priority.
I do share photos though, nearly every day in fact, on Facebook and Instagram. That's why it's so easy to finally make some tangible and beautiful keepsakes using my favourite pictures...
Cheerz is 'a photo printing app and website that lets you print your memories in a fun, creative way. The idea is simple: you can create unique photo products like retro-style prints, magnets or photo books in just minutes, using photos from your phone, Instagram and Facebook'. They are a French company, the photos are printed in Paris and hand checked by the team. You can really see the quality and care that goes into them.
I had seen similar ideas before but there's something different about Cheerz, it's not the standard kind of photo gifts. The design and packaging of the products, as well as the ethos of the company is fun, stylish and approachable.
And it is simple. Honestly. It took more time for me to pick the pictures I wanted printing than it did to log in, upload, crop and play with colourful frames! Cheerz have created a very user friendly site that makes choosing your products and photos a simple and genuinely fun experience.
I personalised my Cheerz box for our three kids. My husband and I wrote a message to the kids that was the first picture in the box. I uploaded pictures of the three of them at all different ages, since they are growing so fast. It's fun having so many good memories in one place and to see the bond of my little clan.
They were so excited to sit down and look through all the pictures, they love asking about when they were babies and there were a lot of giggles at more recent good memories. They have since asked to look through it a few times, it's a nice way for me to reflect and they love listening to stories about themselves!! Of course the pictures you print could be anything you like - holidays, friends, family, artwork, crafts or celebrations.
If you are looking for something special to give as a holiday gift then this is perfect! Gifts that look great, are personal, thoughtful and don't cost a fortune.
How gorgeous is the geometric Christmas packaging? Such beautiful gifts to give! To check out the whole range of products click here. Prints start from just 29p each, magnet boxes are £7.95, Cheerz boxes are £12.95 and there's much more. You could easily create your own gifts using the prints or the adorable retro strips, which start from only £6.45.
You can get £4 off your order when you spend over £8, just use the code LUCBRA at checkout - they deliver to most European countries and currently they show you the date your order will be delivered (usually about a week) so go order now in time for Christmas!
My Cheerz box was kindly sent to me by Cheerz in exchange for my honest review and honestly I love it!
can't resist a sale
I try to resist a good sale... for about 3 seconds before checking out if there's any gorgeous fabric that I have to have! This week I received some real lovelies.
There was an extra 30% off these Japanese fabrics from Pink Castle Fabrics:
Forest Creatures in Navy by Cosmo Textile; Paris in White by Cosmo Textile; Yummy Lunchtime in Blue, Pop N Kids by Lecien
Summer Plaid in Red, Summerhome by Hemma Design; Petit Point in Navy, Petit Points by Michael Miller; Graph Check in Orange, Citrus by Another Point of View and some Wonder Clips
This is the first time I've tried the Wonder Clips and now I know what the fuss is about. I have used the hairclip style clips for binding before but they were kind of annoying and tended to leave dent marks so I gave up using them. The wonder clips are so easy to use and I've found that as I'm hand binding they really keep the binding in place so well that even when I take them off the fabric behaves and stays neatly folded over. Also I have a lot less tension in my left hand - usually I have to stop because my hand hurts so much from holding the binding in place. They are also available in the UK here.
I receive a few email newsletters from different online shops, it's a fun way to see what new fabrics are available and also to find out about special offers and sales. Tikki had 20% off for May Day and I needed some neutrals solids so that was my excuse:
I'm hoping to have some time today or tomorrow (a wonderful Bank holiday here in the UK) to actually get some things made and do some craved for sewing!
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